Distant Past: The Spirit of the Old Testament part 2
The Holy Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Were Old Testament believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit?
Were Old Testament believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit?
John 3:5
John 7:39
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Questions that arise
If the Spirit is not received until after the cross and resurrection, could Nicodemus have experienced the new birth?
Did Old Testament saints experience regeneration?
Four Positions
Four Positions
Summarized by James Hamilton Jr. - “Were Old Covenant Believers Indwelt by the Holy Spirit?” (article)
Covenant Continuity: Old Testament saints were both regenerate and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Regenerate but not Indwelt: Old Testament saints were regenerate by the Holy Spirit but not indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Operated Upon but not Indwelt: Old Testament saints were operated upon, that is, experienced the power of the Holy Spirit but not indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Covenant Discontinuity: The Holy Spirit had nothing to do with the faithfulness of the Old Testament saints.
Regenerate but not Indwelt
Regenerate but not Indwelt
What might help us think through this issue is to consider what is new about the New Covenant. In the last days, which, I suggest, began at the cross, some significant transition took place. These things are prophesied about in the OT. What are these things?
The end of the sacrificial system
The forgiveness of all sins once and for all by one sacrifice
And also, the gift of the Holy Spirit. While the Holy Spirit is active in the OT, like we considered today already, part of what’s new in the New Covenant is the intensity of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will indwell the people of God in a way that He had not before. This idea shoot us back to John 7:39.
but, let’s consider three things:
God’s dwelling in the OT
The exclusive and extraordinary ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
The promise of the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit the people did not experience in the Old Testament
God’s dwelling in the Old Testament
God’s dwelling in the Old Testament
Throughout the OT, Yahweh affirms He will be with His people
Ex 3:12; Josh 1:5,8; Deut. 2:7; Ruth 2:4; Zech 8:23
12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”
And people either express a desire that God be with His people or declare that God will be with His people.
7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.” ’
4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.”
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ”
The Tabernacle & the Temple
Ex. 25:8; 1 Ki 8:27, 57-58
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
After the exodus from Egypt, God’s presence with His people is realized as He dwells in the tabernacle.
This gives a localized quality to God’s dwelling with His people.
Solomon was aware that God was not contained by the temple
27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
But he (Solomon) fully expected that God would be present in the temple.
13 I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”
So to recognize a localized quality about the dwelling of God in the Old Testament is not suggest that God was limited in some way or that He was unable to dwell with His people beyond the tabernacle or temple. It is however clear that this is how God related to His people in the OT.
I want to clarify that the OT does not indicate that God dwelt with His people by His Spirit, but it does indicate that God remained with His people by dwelling in the temple. It seems the expectation was that His dwelling in the temple would incline the hearts of God’s people to Him.
57 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, 58 that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.
keep the context of 1 Kings 8 in mind here. Solomon built the temple for the Lord to dwell in (v. 13)
So when the Psalmist says, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere (Ps. 84:10), we know that is true because His courts were where He dwelled.
The exclusive and extraordinary ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
The exclusive and extraordinary ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
When the OT describes an individual’s experience of the Spirit, it is precisely the presence of the Spirit which marks that person out as exceptional.
The Spirit is shown to come on certain individuals with the result that those persons are extraordinary. Not all of God’s people experienced this in the OT.
Acted Upon
(discussed this earlier)
Gen 41:38; Num 11:17,25-26
38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”
Joseph’s ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams was enabled by the Spirit.
17 And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.
25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.
26 Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.
Moses is unique as Israel’s leader, and the Spirit is upon Him (we see that in verse 17).
The seventy elders who are appointed to help Moses lead Israel received the Spirit, but note that the Spirit marks them out from the rest of the people.
So the point here is that the Holy Spirit did not appear to indwell everyone as He does all believers today. Rather He acted upon His people to enable them to do what Yahweh wanted them to do.
He did not indwell them but dwelled among them.
The promise of the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit the people did not experience in the Old Testament
The promise of the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit the people did not experience in the Old Testament
There are prophetic proclamations of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which suggests that the Spirit was not present in the way the prophecies were describing.
Isaiah 32:14-15; Ezek. 36:27
14 For the palace is forsaken,
the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
will become dens forever,
a joy of wild donkeys,
a pasture of flocks;
15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
When will the place not be forsaken anymore? When the Spirit is poured out upon God’s people.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
These prophesies would not inspire hope if they merely promised what was already being experienced.
The Spirit was not yet given - John 7:39
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The first thing to note is that this text indicates that those who have believed in Jesus are about to receive the Spirit.
Something else to note is what John says earlier in his gospel:
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
This seems to indicate that those who believe in Jesus have been born of God.
When we consider these two ideas, we could conclude that there is a distinction between the new birth by the Spirit AND the reception of the Spirit.
Those who have believed in Jesus are about to receive the Spirit, but this will not happen until after Jesus has been glorified.
The idea of receiving the Spirit is also seen in
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
The Spirit will be in the disciples, whereas the world will not receive Him.
John 7:39 does not say that the Spirit was not yet active in the world, nor does it say that the Spirit was not yet making people alive (see John 6:63). It says that the Spirit was not yet received, and in view of John 14:17, this seems to mean that believers were not yet indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Regeneration & Indwelling
So if OT believers were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and John 7:39 represents the NT’s confirmation of this assertion, then we must consider how OT believers became and remained faithful to Yahweh.
To summarize this up front, I suggest that OT believers experienced the new birth by the Spirit though they did not experience the indwelling of the Spirit.
Regeneration
John 1:12-13; 3:1-12
Again, John 1:12-13
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Verse 13 speaks to those who have be born of God. We’ll get more into this idea in a moment, but notice that being born of God is not equal to (at least in words) indwelt by the Spirit.
John 3:1-12 is the account of the discussion between Nicodemus and Jesus. The word for I am able occurs five times in some form in verses 2-5:
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Now, something that Jesus makes clear here is that the new birth results in the ability to enter the kingdom of God (3,5).
This new ability to enter the Kingdom of God is provided by the Spirit. Verse 6:
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
I suggest that John is describing the Spirit acting upon people to cause them to be born again, but to conclude that he is teaching the indwelling of the Spirit here is assuming too much.
Regeneration happens when the Spirit makes a person alive. And remember, John 7:39 seems to speak of those who have believed but have not yet received the Spirit.
Indwelling
Indwelling is not equivalent to regeneration.
Paul explicitly sates that indwelling constitutes believers as God’s temple:
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
But back to John
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Notice that a love for Jesus is expressed through obedience to Him. (15)
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit from the Father who will be with the disciples forever. (16)
The end of verse 17 says, you know Him (the Holy Spirit), for he dwells with you and will be in you. The word translated dwells here really means remain. The Spirit remains with you and is in you.
So it is understandable that some conclude that Jesus is teaching the the Sprit is spoken of as indwelling the disciples. But keep in mind:
1 Cor 3:16 is more clear about the indwelling of the Spirit, and the word for dwell in that verse literally means to take up residence in or reside in. It’s the word oikew which comes from the word for house. Believers are the house or temple of the Holy Spirit.
Also keep in mind that Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come after He (Jesus) leaves. So, it seems to me that Jesus is referring to something new. Something yet to happen. This is part of what makes the New Covenant new.
