The Spirit's Extraordinary Work

Today we’re diving into one of the most heated debates in the Christian world today.

How should we think about the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit?

Should Christians speak in tongues? Are faith healers really empowered by the Holy Spirit? How does the Spirit speak to us today?

But before we dive in, I want to begin with two crucial clarifications...

This is not a DEBATE about what God can or cannot do.

Those who deny the sign gifts today don’t do so because we doubt or deny God’s power.

The question is not can God do these things, but does He.

These are second or third-level DISAGREEMENTS.

EXPLAIN THEOLOGICAL TRIAGE

Explain when the disagreement moves from 3rd to 2nd level

1) The Gift of APOSTLESHIP

See 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11

A) What is it?

Word literally means “sent one,” but it’s clear the Apostles were not sent in the way that every Christian is sent.

Definition: An Apostle is a man personally commissioned by the risen Christ with unique AUTHORITY to establish the church.

The apostles had the highest level of authority in the church. They had authority over all the churches, not just like an elder having authority over a single church.

John MacArthur lists three qualifications to be considered an apostle:

1) Physical eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus (Acts 1:22, 10:39-41)

2) Personally appointed by Jesus Himself (Mark 3:14; Luke 6:13; Acts 1:2, 24, 10:41; Gal. 1:1)

3) Able to authenticate his apostleship with miraculous signs (Matt 10:1-2; Acts 1:5-8, 2:43, 4:33, 5:12, 8:14; 2 Cor 12:12; Heb 2:3-4) [1]

B) Why has this gift ceased?

Wayne Grudem— “Since no one today can meet the qualification of having seen the risen Christ with his own eyes, there are no apostles today.” [2]

Ephesians 2:19–20—So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone

Foundations are laid once, and the church’s was laid 2000 years ago.

1 Corinthians 15:8–9—Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Paul clearly believes that he is the last (and least!) of the apostles.

If he is the last apostle, there can’t be apostles today!

Practical application: because we believe this gift has ceased, we do not believe any man (other than Jesus) has authority above the local church level.

That said, our churches can be considered faithfully apostolic as we submit to the Apostles’ teaching given in the NT.

2) The Gift of PROPHECY

See Romans 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:10, 28; Eph. 4:11

A) What is it?

I grew up hearing prophecy was a bold person who was willing to speak their mind when others were more fearful.

Rebuttal: that’s not what prophesying meant in the OT, so it seems strange that the meaning would change.

Rebuttal: absolutely zero biblical basis for this understanding. It’s simply a psychologizing of a biblical term.

Others argue that prophecy is just another term for preaching.

William Perkins’ book The Art of Prophesying

Rebuttal: that’s not what prophesying meant in the OT, so it seems strange that the meaning would change.

Also, there already is a spiritual gift of teaching so we don’t need to place preaching under this heading

Still others claim this is the ability to proclaim spontaneous revelation.

Does this fit with what prophets did in the OT? [Yes!]

It also fits with the few prophets we encounter in the NT...

Acts 11:27–28—Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius).

Agabus wasn’t just “speaking his mind.” Nor was he expositing some text in Scripture to predict this famine (e.g., “preaching). He was spontaneously revealing what God had told him.

Definition: The gift of prophecy is the Spirit-given ability to spontaneously communicate INFALLIBLE truth.

It’s important to insist that this gift is speaking infallible truth. The way to test a prophet in the OT was by the truthfulness of his prophecies. And there’s no reason to think that the definition has changed in the NT.

B) Why has this gift ceased?

Go back to Ephesians 2:19-20. The church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And we don’t keep laying a foundation 2000 years later.

So when do you think this gift ceased? [When the Scriptures were completed]

Hebrews 1:1–2—Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.

Once the New Testament’s teaching about Jesus was completed, the need for prophets ceased!

Practical application: don’t say “God told me...”!

Charles Spurgeon—“Take care never to impute the vain imaginings of your fancy to [the Holy Spirit]. I have seen the Spirit of God shamefully dishonored by persons—I hope they were insane—who have said that they have had this and that revealed to them. There has not, for some years, passed over my head a single week in which I have not been pestered with the revelations of hypocrites or maniacs. Semi-lunatics are very fond of coming with messages from the Lord to me and it may save them some trouble if I tell them once and for all that I will have none of their stupid messages. . . . Never dream that events are revealed to you by Heaven, or you may come to be like those idiots who dare impute their blatant follies to the Holy Spirit. If you feel your tongue itch to talk nonsense, trace it to the devil, not to the Spirit of God! Whatever is to be revealed by the Spirit to any of us is in the Word of God already—He adds nothing to the Bible, and never will. Let persons who have revelations of this, that, and the other, go to bed and wake up in their senses. I only wish they would follow the advice and no longer insult the Holy Spirit by laying their nonsense at His door.” [3]

3) The Gift of MIRACLES

See 1 Cor. 12:10, 28

A) What is it?

Not simply an extraordinary event.

Sometimes people use the word “miracle” to refer to extraordinary events.

A tiny school defeats the #1 seed in the basketball tournament.

A POW survives horrific treatment behind enemy lines.

A cancer patient makes an unlikely recovery.

The president of my seminary told a story every year called “the Miracle of Mid-America.” He told amazing stories about how God provided for the school in wonderful ways. But my theology professor said as amazing as those stories were, it would be better to title the story: “Mid-America: A Child of Providence.”

Just because something is unlikely doesn’t mean it’s a miracle.

Definition: The gift of miracles is the Spirit-given ability to perform SUPERNATURAL signs and wonders to authenticate the gospel message and its messengers.

Jesus walking on water, feeding the 5000, casting out demons, raising people from the dead.

Apostles casting out demons; Peter raising Tabitha from the dead in Acts 9; Paul blinding Elymas in Acts 13.

And yet, Apostles weren’t the only ones with this spiritual gift...

Acts 6:8—And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

Acts 8:13—Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

B) Has this gift ceased?

Before I explain why I think this gift has ceased, please hear what I am NOT saying.

I am NOT saying that God cannot do miracles today. God can do whatever He wants! His power is not limited in any way!

I am NOT saying that miracles don’t happen today. Although I would prefer we reserve the word miracle only for those things with no possible natural explanation.

But I do think that God no longer gives individuals the spiritual gift to perform miracles.

Why not? Because now the the Scriptures are completed, we no longer need God’s message and messengers to be authenticated in the same way.

Hebrews 2:3–4—How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Hebrews is among the final NT books written, and notice that the miracles are described in the past tense. About 10 years after Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, it seems as if perhaps the gift of miracles is already dying out.

John Calvin—”Though Christ does not say exactly whether He wished [miracle-working] to be an occasional gift, or one to abide in His church for ever, yet it is more likely that miracles were only promised for the time, to add light to the new and as yet unknown Gospel. . . . We certainly see that their use ceased not long after [the apostolic age], or at least, instances of them were so rare that we may gather they were not equally common to all ages."

4) The Gifts of HEALING

See 1 Cor. 12:9, 28

Calling them “gifts” of healing, because that’s how the NT labels them.

A) What is it?

It is not simply praying for God to heal the sick.

All of us should do that!

Scripture even encourages the sick to go to their elders and ask them to anoint them with oil and pray over them (James 5:14).

It is not God healing over time or through medicine or surgical intervention.

It is not wrong to talk about God healing us through physicians.

I have no problem saying God used Dr. Schaffner to heal my vocal cords!

But we just need to understand that isn’t what the Bible is talking about when it talks about the gift of healing.

It is NOT a gift that exists to benefit the healer.

Over the last hundred years we have seen the rise of the so-called “faith healer” who promise healing after you give a “seed-faith” gift.

These healers make millions, flying around the world in personal jets to arenas packed with massive crowds of desperate people who will (and do!) give anything so that they or their loved ones will be healed.

There is only one time in the Bible when someone tries to buy a miracle. Look at how Peter responds...

Acts 8:20—But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!”

It is NOT a gift that only works if the sick have “enough faith.”

One of the tricks faith healers use is they tell people the healing only works if they have “enough faith.” This accomplishes two twisted things:

It gives them an excuse when someone isn’t “healed.” — “It’s there fault, not mine!”

It urges the sick to give more and more to the faith healer, in hopes that they’ll demonstrate they have enough faith.

But there are plenty of examples in the NT when people are healed without faith...

In Luke 17, only 1 out of 10 lepers had faith. But all were healed.

In John 5, the crippled man by the pool of Bethesda didn’t even know who Jesus was until after he was healed.

The same was true for the blind man in John 9.

None of the demon-possessed people in the Bible expressed faith until after they were healed!

And what about all the people raised from the dead by Jesus and the apostles. Can dead people have “enough faith”?!?

Definition: The gifts of healing are Spirit-given abilities to heal successfully, instantly, and undeniably—not in response to some measure of FAITH, but to authenticate the gospel message and its messengers.

Acts 5:14–16—And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Notice that this healing isn’t benefiting Peter. He’s not getting rich off of this. And there’s no mention of the healed having enough faith. The purpose of these healings is to authenticate the gospel so that people will believe and be added to the church.

B) Has this gift ceased?

Again, before I explain why I think this gift has ceased, you need to hear what I am NOT saying.

I am NOT saying that God cannot heal today. God can do whatever He wants! His power is not limited in any way!

I am NOT saying that healing doesn’t happen today. I believe God can and does still heal people through natural means and, yes, even in supernatural ways that cannot be explained by science.

But I do think that God no longer gives individuals the spiritual gift of healing.

Why not? Because now the the Scriptures are completed, we no longer need God’s message and messengers to be authenticated in the same way.

In Paul’s final letter, written a decade after 1 Corinthians and 15 years after the events recorded in Acts, even the great Apostle Paul seems unable to heal at will...

2 Timothy 4:20—Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus.

Come on Paul! Why did you leave poor Trophimus sick in Miletus?

Could it be that the gift of healing was already beginning to fade away?

5) The Gifts of TONGUES

See 1 Cor. 12:10, 28

Calling them “gifts” of tongues, because technically there are two gifts here: the ability to speak in tongues and the ability to interpret tongues. We’ll address them both together.

A) What is it?

It is NOT giftedness with languages.

I have a friend from college who is fluent in a dozen or so languages and is currently serving as a missionary to an unreached people group in Mexico that doesn’t have a Bible in their language.

While what he can do is incredible, it’s not what the Bible means by the gift of tongues.

It is NOT a private prayer language.

Some of you were here when we held a special joint service with Victory Church to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Probably against my better judgment, I agreed to have a joint service with a charismatic church because I knew I was going to be speaking and I usually agree with whatever I teach. Before we started some of the leaders at Victory gathered around to pray over me and they prayed in gibberish.

This idea of tongues being a private prayer language that nobody knows but God comes from Paul’s words in…

1 Corinthians 14:13–17—Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.

If you read carefully what Paul is saying, it’s pretty clear that this is incompatible with the idea that tongues is a private prayer language that nobody knows but God.

If we don’t know what we’re saying, our mind is unfruitful. And yet our minds SHOULD be engaged in prayer.

If we nobody else knows what we’re saying, nobody can say “Amen” after you pray because they have no idea what you said. Your prayer won’t build them up.

So you shouldn’t pray in another language unless someone can interpret it.

It is NOT ecstatic unintelligible utterances.

Somewhat related to the idea that tongues is a private prayer language

This is the view of Charismatics

Rebuttal: EVERY example of the gift of tongues in the Bible involves speaking in a real human language understood by the hearer.

Definition: The gift of speaking in tongues is the Spirit-given ability to SPEAK a genuine human language previously unknown by the speaker. The gift of interpretation is the Spirit-given ability to UNDERSTAND and communicate a genuine human language previously unknown by the hearer. The purpose of both gifts is to authenticate the gospel message and its messengers and to build up God’s church.

Acts 2:4–8—And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

The word “tongues” literally means “languages.” And it’s clear that what’s happening hear is that the Apostles are supernaturally able to communicate in languages they didn’t previously know.

There is no evidence that the gift of tongues ever means anything different than this.

B) Has this gift ceased?

To be honest, I think it is possible that this gift still exists today.

(Frankly, the same could be true for gifts of healing and miracles!)

What I am certain of is that the gift of tongues is NOT what the charismatic church teaches.

But could God empower missionaries working among unreached people groups to speak in languages they didn’t previously known? Absolutely!

But I am doubtful, because it seems as if this gift (like the others) was limited to the earliest days of the church.