Understanding Our Means
II. Understanding Our Means
A. Enablement for Accomplishing Christ’s Plan
The early church, as it is recorded for us in Acts, grew by leaps and bounds with great power. In one place we read that the Lord added 3000 to His church, and shortly after that about 5000 (Acts 2:41; 4:4). But the important question is simply how do we account for such a phenomenon?
The book of Acts is often called the Acts of the Apostles because in it we see the work and ministry of the Apostles of our Lord continuing that which He began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). But it is much more accurate to call this book the Acts of the Holy Spirit for the ministry and power of the Spirit is everywhere present and seen as the cause and source of the spread of the Gospel through the proclamation of Jesus Christ. Behind the work of the Apostles the executive activity of the Spirit of God was seen everywhere. The book of Acts is the story of men who both established the church and led the missionary enterprise. As Oswald Sanders remarks,
It is of more than passing significance that the central qualification of those who were to occupy even subordinate positions of responsibility in the early church was that they be men “full of the Holy Spirit.” They must be known by their integrity and sagacity, but preeminently for their spirituality. However brilliant a man may be intellectually, however capable an administrator, without that essential equipment he is incapable of giving truly spiritual leadership
In view of our Lord’s teaching and promise to the Apostles in Acts 1:4-8, we should not be surprised at this. There He declared to them and to us that the means for our ministry and effectiveness lies totally in the ministry and power of the Spirit of God. Our success, our boldness, our courage, our ability is dependent on the Spirit of God. It is to be as it was in the days of Zechariah when the Word of the Lord came to Zerubbabel, “Not by strength and not by power, but by my Spirit, says the sovereign Lord" (Zech. 4:6).
Why is the ministry of the Spirit of God so important? Because of our insufficiency and because reaching others for Christ requires the miraculous work of the Spirit of God to convict and break through the hardness of the human heart, to illuminate the darkness of the human mind, and to regenerate the spiritual deadness of the human spirit. Nothing short of the power of the Spirit of God is sufficient. Making disciples, reaching, educating and empowering men and women in Christ can be effectively accomplished only by spirit-filled people. Other qualifications are of course desirable, but to be Spirit-filled (controlled by the Holy Spirit) is indispensable.
The Age of the Spirit
From the standpoint of the believer’s walk with the Lord, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is one of the most important doctrines and promises of the Word for the church age. This age, the church age, is the age of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s special administrator, gift, and means of power to glorify and reveal Jesus Christ and to experience the Christian life.
The Promise of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the object of many marvelous promises in both the Old and New Testaments (Ezek. 36:24-27; 37:14; Isa. 44:3; 59:21; John 7:37-39; 14:16, 17; Acts 1:4-8).
The Fact of the Spirit’s Coming
The following passages describe the fact of the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised by the prophets and by the Lord Jesus (Acts 2:1-33; 10:43-44; 11:15-18; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; Gal. 5:5-25).
The Age of the Spirit Illustrated
The following diagram illustrates the distinctive ministry of the Spirit for church age believers in contrast to Old Testament saints.
The Ministry of the Spirit in Acts
The importance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit for this age is quickly obvious from a consideration of the following facts: (a) The words “Holy Spirit” are used 40 times in Acts, (b) “the Spirit,” referring to the Spirit of God, 14 times, (c) “by the Spirit” emphasizing agency, 4 times, (d) “filled” or “full” emphasizing His control is used in connection with the Spirit 8 times, and (e) in the majority of these passages, the Spirit of God is seen as the agent of action enabling and directing the church primarily in its missionary enterprise on earth. Also, compare the following: Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:10; 8:29, 39; 10:19; 11:12, 28; 13:4, 9, 52; 16:6, 7; 21:4.
Ministries and Purposes of the Spirit
Some see the purpose of the Spirit in our lives as power, some as performance, some as unity, some as the administration of the gifts of the Spirit, some as teaching, some as His miraculous workings and so on. All of these either are or have been ministries of the Spirit and are important to the body of Christ. However, to emphasize any one of these to the exclusion of the others, and especially to the exclusion of the chief emphasis of the Word, is to go off into error.
Jesus Christ is our life, the hope of glory. Therefore, the chief focus given to us in the Word is that the Holy Spirit in all His ministries is given to us to mediate the presence of Christ. He is given to manifest the person and work of Jesus Christ, to make Him known, and to make us aware of all He is to us (cf. Heb. 2:1-4; 6:4; 10:29 and the theme of the book).
The ministry of the Spirit is Christ-centered. It is neither man-centered, with an emphasis on our gifts, personalities, and experiences, nor is it Holy Spirit centered with an emphasis on His miraculous activities. Please note the following Scriptures: John 7:37-39; 14:26; 16:8-14.
The Holy Spirit, therefore, calls attention to neither Himself nor to man, but focuses all attention on Jesus Christ and what God has done in and through His Son. His purpose via all His ministries is to develop our faith, hope, love, adoration, obedience, fellowship, and commitment to Christ.
This thus becomes a criterion by which we may judge any spiritual movement and its biblical authenticity.
Summaries of the Spirit’s Ministries:
(1) Who the Spirit is:
He is not simply a force or an influence or simply a power.
He is a person and He is God the third person of the trinity, who as a person, can be
grieved (Eph. 4:30),
lied to (Acts 5:3-4),
obeyed (Acts 10:19-21),
resisted (Acts 7:51), and
blasphemed (Matt. 12:31).
(2) What the Spirit is to believers:
A seal (2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:13)
An anointing (2 Cor. 1:21-22; 1 John 2:20, 27)
A pledge (2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:14)
A helper (John 14:16, 26)
(3) What the Holy Spirit does for believers:
Convicts and reveals Jesus Christ to men (John 16:8-11)
Regenerates believers to new life (Tit. 3:5)
Baptizes believers into Christ (1 Cor. 12:13)
Reproduces the character of Jesus Christ in those who submit to Him (Gal. 4:19; 5:5, 16-23)
Promotes spiritual maturity (Gal. 3:1-3; 5:1-5; Heb. 5:11-6:6)
Teaches, gives understanding in the Word (1 Cor. 2:9-16; Jn. 14:26; 16:11f; Eph. 3:16-18)
Applies truth to our experience (Rom. 8:16; John 14:26; Eph. 6:18)
Gives power to our prayer life (Eph. 6:18; Jude 20; Jn. 15:7; cf. Ps. 66:18)
Gives meaningful worship (Jn. 4:23, 24; Eph. 5:18f; cf. Isa. 1:11f; 59:1f; Ps. 50:16f)
Gives capacity, direction, ability, and burden for witnessing (Acts 1:8; 13:4; 16:6; 1 Thess. 1:5)
Gives ability in service (1 Cor. 12-14; 1 Pet. 4:10—Refers to gifts of the Spirit to be exercised in the power of the Spirit from the motive of love, a work of the Spirit)
All these ministries demonstrate the importance of the ministry of the Spirit to our daily walk and particularly to our witness. Our responsibility and need, then, is to walk and minister by means of the Spirit (Acts 1:8; Gal. 5:16-26; Eph. 5:18). (For a more in-depth study on how to be controlled by the Spirit, see Part 2, Lesson 5.)
Conclusion
To be sure, we must understand that our means for fulfilling our calling or commission as believers in Christ is the filling of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of God in control of our lives. We must not think of this only in term of witnessing as though when we get ready to witness, we must get filled with the Spirit like plugging a cord into an electric socket. It doesn’t work that way.
It should be noted, however, that nearly every intervention of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts had as its objective the spread of the Gospel to men and women. His great preoccupation, then as now, was to make the church a missionary church. Should His preoccupation not be ours too?
Since the Holy Spirit is so vital to the experience and character of Christ in our lives and to our witness, shouldn’t our walk by the Spirit of God become a priority in our lives, not that we might experience the ecstatic for selfish reasons, but that we might fulfill God’s calling? Without the filling of the Spirit, we fail. One tendency we face is to lean on our own abilities—our training, personality, looks, persuasiveness, or whatever. But we must remember God’s word to Zerubbabel, our effectiveness is “not by strength (human resources) and not by power (human strength, ability, or efficiency), but by my Spirit, says the sovereign LORD” (Zech. 4:6). Another tendency is that of fear, but God’s word to Zerubbabel is just as pertinent against fear as with self-confidence for the word to Zerubbabel was actually to give him courage in the face of hostility (see 2 Tim. 1:6-7).
Then exactly what is the filling of the Spirit and how do I get it?
Reduced to it simplest terms, to be filled with the Spirit means that, through voluntary surrender and in response to appropriating faith, the human personality is filled, mastered, controlled by the Holy Spirit. The very word filled supports that meaning. The idea is not that of something being poured into a passive empty receptacle. “That which takes possession of the mind is said to fill it,” says Thayer, … That usage of the word is found in Luke 5:26 (KJV): “They were filled with fear,” and John 16:6: “nstead your hearts are filled with sadness because I have said these things to you.” Their fear and sorrow possessed them to the exclusion of other emotions; they mastered and controlled them. That is what the Holy Spirit does when we invite Him to fill us.
To be filled with the Spirit, then, is to be controlled by the Spirit. Intellect and emotions and volition as well as physical powers all become available to Him for achieving the purposes of God … The now ungrieved and unhindered Spirit is able to produce the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the leader, with added winsomeness and attractiveness in his service and with power in his witness to Christ. All real service is but the effluence of the Holy Spirit through yielded and filled lives.
The mission the Lord has called us to in the Great Commission is to become an integral part of His program of making disciples. We will have neither the motivation nor the ability to do so with success without the means He has supplied - the indwelling Spirit whom He has given to each believer to take charge and enable us for Christ’s life in ours, a life motivated by His love and enabled by His power.