Distinctives (3): Holy Spirit

Jason Procopio

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People have all kinds of pictures in their head about what God is like.

People see an angry old grandpa when they read parts of the Old Testament, a benevolent moral teacher when they read the gospels, and maybe a wild-eyed uncle when they read the book of Acts.

When they read the gospels, they can have a picture of a young man with a beard, who is either hyper-stoic or saccharin-sweet; they imagine that this God is a God of peace and morality and tolerance.

When we read the Bible, we almost instinctively push onto God certain pictures of what we are like. We know what we’re like, so we imagine that God must be the same, only more powerful. And we do that because we don’t do well with mystery. We don’t do well with concepts we can’t wrap our minds around.

When they get to the book of Acts, they can have this picture which more or less looks like the weird uncle we all have: the one who is always doing silly voices, who knows how to close-up magic, who runs around with sparklers in his hands, yelling, “Look at me! Look at me!” (I actually hope none of us have an uncle who is exactly like that.)

But God is not like us. He is altogether different. He is totally apart. He created us in his image, so he has shared with us some of his communicable attributes—reason, love, justice, and so on—but ontologically, God is NOTHING like us.

The problem with all of these pictures is that they unconsciously assume that God is like us—that his way of doing things will be similar to our way of doing things, that he can be plopped down into human categories that we can understand.

You may think that in the Old Testament, you have just “God”. He’s big, he’s loud, he’s strict, he’s angry.

But if we read the Bible faithfully and completely, we see that the real God is nothing like us—or anything else, for that matter. He defies comparison. He is entirely other. His glory is all-encompassing, and it is mysterious.

And then in the New Testament, in the gospels, you have Jesus, who calls himself “the Son of God”. Jesus is kind, he’s gentle, and he’s loving. We like Jesus.

And that God—the true God, the God who actually is—is a little harder for us to grasp, because we don’t do well with mystery.

But then after the gospels, in the book of Acts, you have this new guy who comes on the scene, called “the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the weird one; he’s the life of the party. He makes fire dance around people’s heads, he makes them speak in other languages, he gives people miraculous powers (like superheroes).

I said that because today, we’re going to have to get a little better acquainted with God, not as we imagine him, but God as he is—the God of the Bible, as he describes himself.

If you’re not paying attention, you may be tempted to see each of these three as entirely differet

Today we’re in the third week of our series on our theological distinctives: those points of doctrine which are secondary in nature, but which have an impact on the life of our church.

The first week we looked at the sovereignty of God; last week we looked at complementary roles of men and women. Today, we’ll be looking at the work of the Holy Spirit.

Now, put like that, it may not seem like this is a subject which would be questioned by any Christian: all Christians believe the Holy Spirit is at work, and that we need him.

The question is, What needs does the Holy Spirit fill, and how does he fill them?

And our answer to that question can vary wildly, depending on the context in which you grew up.

In order to explain why this is a difficult question to answer in our context, you need to know a little bit about the makeup of our church.

Our church is in a slightly strange situation in his regard, because people here come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

At one extreme we have those people who grew up in what’s called “cessationist” churches: those churches which believe that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit that we see in the New Testament ceased after the time of the apostles. In other words, they believe that what we see in the Bible about the spiritual gifts is not prescriptive, but descriptive—the New Testament doesn’t tell us how the spiritual gifts should always work, but how they worked at that point in time.

At the other extreme we have those who grew up in so-called “continuationist” (or “charismatic”) churches. These churches believe that what we see in the book of Acts is what we should be seeing today: that the gifts of the Spirit are alive and well, and most of them would agree that the primary evidence of the Spirit’s presence in a Christian’s life (of “baptism in the Spirit”) is the gift of speaking in tongues. (These are the kinds of churches I grew up in.)

Then you have all those churches which live in between those two extremes, and people who didn’t grow up in church at all, for whom most of this may be totally new.

I’m going to put all my cards on the table here. I land somewhere between the two positions—I agree with the cessationists that the New Testament is not prescriptive, but descriptive. I don’t believe that what happened in Acts is the way it happens today, and I don’t believe that the evidence of baptism in the Spirit is speaking in tongues.

But on the other hand, I don’t believe that the gifts of the Spirit ceased after the time of the apostles either. I believe that prophecy still exists, that the gift of tongues still exists, and that the Bible gives us very clear rules on how to exercise those gifts.

Now, some of you may be sitting there, thinking, WHAT is he talking about?! Some of you may have understood nothing of what I just said. If that’s you, don’t worry; we’ll talk about them a bit a little later. But if you’re still confused at the end, it’s okay, because the meaning of these so-called “sign gifts” is not the point of this sermon.

(If you want to know more, I’m teaching an entire class on this subject this Saturday for Transmettre, so you can come to that.)

But we’re not going to go into great detail there, and my goal in this sermon isn’t to change anyone’s mind. If you’re cessationist, that’s fine. If you’re a continuationist, that’s fine—they’re both biblically faithful options. And if you have no clue what you are, that’s fine too. You’re under no obligation to land in one place or the other, because this is a secondary issue.

The only reason I mention all this is because if you’ve grown up in church and have an opinion on this subject, chances are good that if you look around you this morning, you’ll see people who disagree with you on this topic. And I’ll be honest in saying I haven’t done a great job being clear on this, which means over the last few years a kind of awkwardness has settled over our church concerning the subject of how the Spirit works in the church.

It can be surprising for new Christians, or people who are just curious about the church, to find out that there are so many different types of churches, and that many of these differences come at least in part from our understand of the Holy Spirit.

Our church is in a slightly strange situation in this regard, because people in our church come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

At one extreme, we have people who grew up in what would be called “cessationist” churches: these are churches which teach that the way we see the Spirit working in the book of Acts simply doesn’t happen anymore. They’d say that the so-called “gifts of the Spirit” appeared at that point in history for a very specific reason, but that they ended once that historical period came to a close. These churches tend to be a little more serious, a little more studious, but they also tend to have a strong grasp of the Bible. (As the joke goes, many of these Christians are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Bible.)

At the other extreme, we have people, like me, who grew up in what are called “continuationist”, or charismatic, churches—these are the “fun” ones, the “party churches”. They believe that the spectacular gifts of the Spirit we see in Acts are still essential for the church today. These churches tend to be very exuberant and very happy: they sing, they dance, they clap their hands, they yell out. You may see some strange things—people saying unpronouncable words over and over, and things like that—but they’ll say those strange things are actually markers of a church in which the Spirit is at work.

And then we have people from all the different ranges of churches that fit in between those two extremes.

That’s not even taking into consideration those people who have no church background, who have no idea what the so-called “gifts of the Spirit” are. (If that’s you, don’t worry; we’ll go into it a bit later on.)

Now of course I’m caricaturing somewhat—those generalizations are rarely true across the board.

My point is that if you look around the room at the people around you, you’re likely to find someone who has a different conviction than you around this subject of how the Holy Spirit works.

We, as a church, have to know what to do with that fact. How do we live as a church when we are in disagreement with half (or more) of our brothers and sisters on such an important subject as the Holy Spirit?

That’s the question we want to try to answer today.

I want to let you know ahead of time: my goal in this message isn’t to change anyone’s mind. If you believe that the gifts of the Spirit ended with the apostles, that’s fine. If you believe the gifts of the Spirit continue today (and all cards on the table: that’s where I personally land, though I’d have some differences with a lot of my charismatic brothers and sisters), that’s fine. If you’re somewhere in the middle, that’s fine too. And if you are totally lost, then that’s great—you don’t have the bad habits the rest of us carry around!

But like it or not, the fact that our church has so many different people from so many different backgrounds—has given us a blind spot in this regard.

Here’s one really easy example: we’ll be singing a song in church, and we’ll get to a line like, “I lift up my hands in the name of the Lord/I dance for joy in the name of the Lord...”

And then suddenly there will be this kind of awkward silence, because the charismatic thinks, Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said that, and the non-charismatic…just has no idea how to respond to a word like “anointing.”

Or another, really easy example: we’ll be singing a song in church, and we’ll get to a line like, “I lift up my hands in the name of the Lord/I dance for joy in the name of the Lord...”

When that happens, there’s a really awkward moment. Half the church sings that second line really quietly, because no way they’re going to start dancing. And the other half wants to move around, wants to clap their hands, wants to actually show the joy they feel…but they don’t dare, because they don’t know if they’re “allowed” to do that here.

We, as a church, have to know what to do with our differences on this subject.

How do we live as a body, in unity with one another?

How do we create a church culture in Eglise Connexion that actually reflects what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit’s work?

So how do we live as a body, in unity with one another, when we are in disagreement with half (or more) of our brothers and sisters on such an important subject as the Holy Spirit?

Does the Bible teach us things about the Holy Spirit that we can all agree on, and which will actually serve to create a healthy church culture—a culture which doesn’t need to be labled “cessationist” or “charismatic”, but which is simply Christian?

These are not easy questions, particularly because, as J. T. English said, “All theology is autobiography.” Every time we sit down to talk about God (“theology” literally means, “words about God”), we come to the table with the experiences, good and bad, which have formed us.

That’s our goal, so to get there, we need to try to get a larger view from the Bible of why we need the Holy Spirit, and then look at how this can play out in the life of our church despite the differences we may have here.

But we’re going to do it in a particular way. I’m not going to give a doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit. (That will be part of what we’ll see at Transmettre on Saturday, where I’m teaching on this subject; so if you want to know more, come to that.)

What we’re going to do today is try to get a larger view from the Bible of why we need the Holy Spirit, and then look at how this can play out in the life of our church despite the differences we may have here.

The Spirit in the Trinity

The first thing we need to see is quite simple: we need to see who the Holy Spirit is.

It seems simple, but there’s actually a good deal of confusion over this topic. And part of that confusion comes from one simple fact that many people often forget: you cannot talk about one person of God without speaking of the others.

Now usually when people want to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit, they go straight to . We will get there eventually, but before we can make any sense of what we see there, we need to establish one key truth very clearly.

And even in the text which is kind of the reference text for many people on the gifts of the Spirit, we see very well that the Spirit is not alone in what he does.

And that truth is this: you cannot talk about one person of God without speaking of the others.

Take a look at (one of the reference texts for the gifts of the Spirit):

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

So here we have all three persons of the Trinity there working together for the good of the church. We have the Spirit, who inhabits those to whom he gives gifts; we have the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who works in the church through the service of his people; and we have the Father, empowering these gifts in everyone (when the biblical authors are distinguishing between the persons of the Trinity and they simply say “God,” they’re talking about the Father).

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

We have the Father (when the biblical authors are distinguishing between the persons of the Trinity and they simply say “God,” they’re talking about the Father). We have the Father empowering the gifts in everyone.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

It can sound a bit like a throwaway greeting, but it is anything but.

Peter links the identity of the people he’s writing to—the “elect” Christians in the north of what is now Turkey—to the work of the three persons of the Trinity. He says that the elect were chosen and saved by according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. God the Father foreknew and placed his affections on these men and women.

They were saved in the sanctification of the Spirit—the Holy Spirit brought them from death to life, and was continuing to renew them, to be conformed to the image of Christ.

And they were saved for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. He expects this combined work of the Father and the Spirit to result in obedience and a continual recognition of the saving work of the Son, who is their Lord and King.

These three persons of God are usually referred to as “the Trinity”. The doctrine of the Trinity states that there is one true God, and that this one true God exists for all eternity in three distinct persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now this is a profoundly complicated idea, and people use all kinds of crazy illustrations to try to explain it. But the Bible never even tries. The Bible’s not interested in telling us how God can be three and at the same time one; the Bible just wants us to know that the Father isn’t the Son, the Son isn’t the Spirit, and the Spirit isn’t the Father; but that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Spirit is God.

Basically, in the Bible’s logic, 1 + 1 + 1 = 1.

We need to know this right away, because today’s doctrine is literally the doctrine of one of these three persons of God—the Holy Spirit.

But we need to be careful when we talk about it, because we could easily give the impression that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit can somehow be separated from the doctrine of the Father and the Son, as if it were an entirely different subject.

But you can’t talk about the Holy Spirit without talking about the Father and the Son. In theology we talk about the “inseparable operations” of the Trinity—the truth that in everything the three persons of God are doing, they are always doing it together. The Son does nothing without the Father and the Spirit; the Father does nothing without the Son and the Spirit; and the Spirit never does anything without the Father and the Son.

When we see the Spirit doing anything in the Bible, he is doing it in perfect unity with the Father and the Son.

And the surprising thing is that you can see this all throughout the Bible.

And you can see that in Paul’s final salutation to the Corinthians. The church in Corinth was often plagued by division and discord; and so Paul gives them a wonderful reminder of the unity they share, by showing them the unity of the three persons of God—all three persons of the Trinity are all working together to give life and unity to the church in Corinth.

In this greeting, we can see Paul’s reminder to the church in Corinth (a church often plagued by division and discord) that the three persons of the Trinity are all working to give life and unity to the church in Corinth.

We see a good example on this in the creation of the world. We see all three members of the Trinity present in : the Father speaks creation into existence—he is the one who says, “Let there be light” ().

gives an image for the Son, calling him “the Word” (), and says that this Word, the Son, created all things ().

In v. 2 we see the Spirit of God, hovering over the face of the waters—an animating presence in an as-yet lifeless expanse.

gives an image for the Son, calling him “the Word” (), and says that this Word created all things (v. 3).

And in we see the Spirit of God, hovering over the face of the waters—an animating presence in an as-yet lifeless expanse.

What’s interesting is the relationship between the three. The Hebrew word for “Spirit” sounds a little like someone clearing their throat: ruah, literally meaning “breath” or “wind.” The Spirit is the life-giving “breath of God” (when we see God giving “the breath of life” to creatures in the Bible, it’s the same word that’s used, cf. ).

So Michael Reeves summarized the Trinity’s work in this way: “The Father speaks, and on his Breath the Word is heard.”

the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature,

it’s the exact same word which is

Michael Reeves summarized the Trinity’s work

Everything they do, they do together.

What Does the Spirit Do?

So now that we’ve established that, what specifically does the Holy Spirit do, in partnership with the Father and the Son?

The Spirit’s Work in the Old and New Testaments

CREATION: The Son = the Word.

People make the mistaken assumption that the Holy Spirit, although he is visible in the Old Testament, is doing something completely different than he does in the New Testament—that his job description somehow changed once Jesus had come.

But that is simply not true.

We have to remember that the Bible is telling a story. It’s a true story, but it is a story; and as you would expect from a good story, God doesn’t drop spoilers. He reveals himself to his people progressively, telling them more and more about himself as human history progresses.

The work of the Spirit in the Bible is the same—he works in the Old Testament, and as the story of the Bible progresses we begin to see better and better what it is he’s doing.

So in the Old Testament, the most common thing we see the Spirit doing is filling his people, in order to give them strength and skill to accomplish a specific task.

We can see this in Joseph, who is filled with the Spirit and is thus effective in his work and increases in power, in order to save Egypt from famine (cf. ).

We see it in the artists in the tabernacle (), whom the Spirit fills to be skilled and creative to build the house of God.

God creates by speaking: the Father speaks, and on his breath (ruha, the Spirit) the Word goes forth and creates.

We see it in the seventy elders appointed to help Moses judge the people of Israel (): the Spirit fills them to judge the people fairly, as he had Moses.

And we keep on seeing this pattern all throughout the Old Testament: the Spirit fills people in order to give them strength and skill to accomplish a specific task.

Which is exactly what he does in the New Testament as well.

In , after the Spirit comes down and fills the apostles at Pentecost, Peter gets on the roof and preaches to the crowd. His sermon was probably the least “seeker-sensitive” sermon of all time (he flat-out tells the crowds, “YOU killed the Son of God!”); and yet, after that sermon three thousand people came to know Christ.

The Spirit filled the first Christians, not so that they might draw attention to themselves, but that they might effectively fulfill the mission Christ had given them.

You see, the Old Testament gives us categories to think about the way the Spirit works, and in the New Testament we see him doing that work more fully. We do see a difference in the Spirit’s work in the Old and New Testaments, but it’s a difference in scope, not in type or quality. He keeps doing the same thing he always had, but in the New Testament we see him doing it more fully, because the context is very different: now, Christ has come.

You see, while we do see a difference in the Spirit’s work in the Old and New Testaments, it’s a difference in scope, not in type or quality. He keeps doing the same thing he always had, but in the New Testament we see him doing it more fully, because Christ had accomplished the work of uniting his people to the Father.

And once we arrive in the New Testament, we finally find out the goal behind his work—the goal hinted at in the Old Testament, and finally made clear in the New.

[Jesus says:] But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

[Jesus says:] But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

In other words, if someone says they’ve received a word from God, and that word doesn’t point you to Christ, then you can be sure it’s not a word from the Spirit. The Spirit’s goal in all that he does is to point us to the work and words of the Son.

When he fills the apostles at Pentecost and causes them to speak in other tongues, he does it so that the apostles might proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people around them, in their native languages, so that they might believe.

He takes what Jesus has said and teaches it to us, helps us remember.

When he saves us and causes us to be born again, he “bears witness” to our hearts that Jesus is who he says he is.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

He takes what Jesus has said and teaches it to us, helps us remember.

When he inspired the biblical authors (of the Old and New Testament), he made sure that there was one unified story the Bible was telling: the story of Jesus Christ.

When he gives us faith and opens our eyes to the truth of the Word of God, he allows us to see Jesus in the Word he inspired, and opens our hearts to trust in him.

When he sanctifies us, he does it by conforming us to the image of the Son.

And when he unites us to one another in the church as brothers and sisters, he does it in order that the church may function as, and truly be, the body of Christ.

Everything the Spirit

Which is exactly what we see in .

The Spirit’s work continues in the OT.

The HS fills and/or indwells people on the OT to give them strength and skill to accomplish a specific task.

HE DOES EXACTLY THIS IN THE NT IN US AS WELL.

SUMMARIZE, NOT EXHAUSTIVE

Joseph: The Spirit is in him, and thus he is effective.

The artists in the tabernacle

Cf. Moses with the 60 elders: « I wish everyone had the Spirit in this way! »

We do see a difference in his work between OT & NT, but it’s a difference in SCOPE, not in type or quality.

The OT gives us categories to think about these things, and in the NT they’re actually happening.

We do see a difference in his work between OT & NT, but it’s a difference in SCOPE, not in type or quality.

ActionFatherSonSpiritGive life5:21, 26; (6:33); 17:35:21, 25–26, 40; 6:33; 17:33:6, 8; 6:63Proclaim future1:3313:19, 26, 36–38; 14:3, 29; 16:1–4, 16–28, 32; 20:1816:13Indwell believers14:2314:20, 23; (15:4–7); 17:23, 2614:17Teach6:45; 7:16, 17; 8:287:14; (8:2); 8:20; 13:13–1414:26Testify to Jesus5:32, 37; 6:27; 8:188:12–14, 1815:26Glorify Jesus5:22–23; 8:50, 54; 13:31–32; 17:1, 22(1:14); 2:11; 13:31–32; 17:5, 2416:14

INSEPARABLE OPERATIONS.......

Now what’s the point?

> HS’s work in salvation and in the church.

The Spirit in the Church ()

Now we don’t have time to read all three chapters; we’re going to read just a small portion. But I want to be clear on why we’re going to read here. Contrary to popular opinion, this text is not the key text to understand the Holy Spirit. It’s not a user’s manual for the gifts of the Spirit.

This text is addressing a very specific problem in a specific church: the church in Corinth.

The church in Corinth had a lot of problems which Paul addresses in this letter. And one of those problems was the inflated value they attached to the gift of speaking in tongues. The word for “tongues” simple means “languages”—in the book of Acts we see the Spirit giving Christians the ability to speak in languages they didn’t previously know, to communicate the gospel to those who don’t speak your language, and to validate the continuing work of Christ.

But the Corinthians had apparently begun seeing certain gifts (namely, the so-called “sign gifts,” of tongues and prophecy) as more significant than others, although they apparently didn’t understand the reason behind the gifts.

So in these chapters, Paul is not saying, “You’ve got the spiritual gifts—so go nuts!” No—he’s giving a corrective to a misunderstanding and misuse of spiritual gifts.

He does it with love—he never calls into question the sincerity of the people doing this, and he doesn’t outright tell them to stop—but he calls them to respect a high standard of order in the church.

Now let’s just take a moment to look at a part of what he says ():

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Okay, so that’s the first correction.

want to be clear on why we’re going to read a

The Corinthians were using what looked like gifts of the Spirit—namely, prophecy and tongues—in order to set themselves apart as “next-level” Christians. Which is, sadly, exactly what we see in many charismatic churches today. They’ll say, “I’m so glad you met Jesus… But are you baptized in the Spirit? Do you speak in tongues?”

Now I don’t believe most of these Christians are intentionally trying to create a schism between Christians (their intentions are good), but in reality, that is what happens. You have the “born-again Christians” over here, and the “Spirit-filled Christians” over here.

And Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to see that that is not how it works in the church. There is a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. Every gift is given to the church for one reason only (v. 7): for the common good of the body of Christ, for building up the church.

So what are those gifts?

I’m going to explain tongues and prophecy very briefly first, because those are the gifts that stress people out.

The Corinthians were using legitimate gifts of the Spirit in illegitimate ways, in order to set themselves apart as “next-level” Christians.

The gift of prophecy was never meant to be a kind of appendix to the prophetic books of the Bible. The period of “Thus saith the Lord” is over, even in the New Testament.

Which is, sadly, exactly what we see in many charismatic churches today. They’ll say, “I’m so glad you met Jesus… But are you baptized in the Spirit? Do you speak in tongues?” Now I don’t believe most of these Christians are intentionally trying to create a schism between Christians (their intentions are good), but in reality, that is what happens. You have the “born-again Christians” over here, and the “Spirit-filled Christians” over here.

I once heard a guy say aloud in church, “One of you is struggling with a sin. If you don’t kill that sin in the next week, you or a member of your family will be dead.” (Of course, a week later when no one in the church had died, everyone knew it was bogus.) So that is not the gift of prophecy Paul is talking about here.

8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

The gift of prophecy Paul’s talking about here is something else.

And Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to see that that is not how it should work in the church. There is a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit (12.4). Every gift is given to the church for one reason only (12.7):

Here’s a definition from Kyle Worley and J.T. English, and it’s an excellent definition: “Prophecy consists of Spirit-prompted, spontaneous, intelligible messages orally delivered to a person or community intended for edification or encouragement.”

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

So in these chapters, Paul is not saying, “You’ve got the spiritual gifts—so go nuts!” No—he’s giving a corrective to a misunderstanding and misuse of spiritual gifts.

Here’s Matt Chandler’s way of explaining that definition a bit further: "Someone receives from the Lord a word that doesn’t contradict the Scriptures...but [which] personalizes the Scriptures.”

In other words, someone receives from the Lord a word that doesn’t contradict the Scriptures, doesn’t stand in contrast to the sufficiency of the Scriptures, but it personalizes the Scriptures.

Okay, so let’s say someone in the church in Corinth used that gift in the right way. That person would get the feeling they’ve heard something from the Lord, they would go to the person in question, and say, “You know, I could be wrong, but I get the feeling that the Lord wants to encourage you to remember your love for your wife as Christ loved us. I could be wrong, but I feel like that’s what he’s saying.”

What that person didn’t know was that this brother was about to have an extramarital affair, and hadn’t even thought about Christ in a good while. But after hearing this prophetic word, he remembers what he knows about Jesus—that Christ gave himself up for his church, and did what she couldn’t do. And he remembers a time when he used to love his wife that way. So he drops his affair, returns to his wife, and loves her and Jesus well.

That is a word from the Lord which goes in the same direction as the Scriptures, and which personalizes them for the listener.

What about tongues, and the interpretation of tongues? We see the gift of tongues at work in —the Spirit comes on the Christians at Pentecost, and they begin speaking in other languages. It turns out that at that time, people had come from all over—multiple languages present—for the Passover. And what the apostles were proclaiming when they spoke in tonghes was the gospel, in the languages of the people that surrounded that house.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

For example: a big point Paul’s going to make in these chapters is that if you (the Christians in Corinth) speak in other languages in church, most people aren’t going to understand it (because it’s in another language). Maybe one or two will, but most won’t.

So if you’re going to speak in tongues, he says, you should pray for someone to be able to interpret what you’re saying (14.13). And if you’re not sure that’s going to happen, don’t do it. Keep it to yourself.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

And he explains why in 14.9-12:

12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

If no one understands what’s being said, it’s of no use to anyone but you—it’s not building up the church, just you.

And he does this for two reasons. Firstly, because (12.7) the Spirit gives gifts for the common good; and (14.26) everything we do in the church—every word, every song, every gift—should be used for building up the church.

The second reason he calls them to respect this standard of order is because one of the Spirit’s main roles is to bring clarity to the church, that everyone might understand the gospel and its implications. 14.33: For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

Anything that keeps people from seeing Christ clearly should be avoided when the church comes together.

So rather than simply celebrating the gifts, Paul puts them on guard. Anything that serves to distract from the church’s mission—the transmission of the gospel—should be avoided when the church comes together. Anything that keeps people from seeing Christ clearly should be avoided when the church comes together. And anything that gives the impression that some Christians—those who speak in tongues, for example—are more important than others should be avoided when the church comes together.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

And anything that gives the impression that some Christians are more important than others should be avoided when the church comes together.

That is why, given the wide variety of convictions represented in our church, we have decided to ask our members who believe the sign gifts continue today to enjoy them in private or when in the company of people who understand them, rather than in our public gatherings.

Because when we do anything to distract our brothers and sisters from the message of the gospel (the good news of Jesus’s life, death, resurrection and ascension for us); anything which causes us to look to ourselves instead of Christ; anything which suggests that any of us are more important than any others—when we do any of these things, we are not acting in love for one another.

Why do we ask that you do it this way? Because our brothers and sisters who don’t agree with this won’t be built up by our using these sign gifts just because we can, and our priorities are clear: we are called to strive to excel in building up the church, not to run after an experience.

14.12:

So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

That is why Paul constructs his letter the way he does—chapter 12 speaks about the importance of unity in the body, and chapter 14 gives details on how to use the gifts in the church and how not to use them. In those chapters he gives us the WHAT—what to do and what not to do when we gather.

And in the middle—in chapter 13—Paul gives us the WHY.

Chapter 13.1-7:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Because Christ loves us, and gave himself up for us, and united us to the Father, we are called to love one another.

It shouldn’t surprise us that love is the gauge Paul gives us to keep our unhelpful impulses with the spiritual gifts in check.

The Spirit, as we’ve seen, is the third person of the Trinity, and has from all eternity enjoyed perfect love for the Father and the Son, and received love from them both. That’s why God created the world in the first place, and everything he does is motivated by his love. It’s the essence of who he is; as John says in :

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

If love is not the motivation behind even the right things we do, then the Spirit is not in them, because the Spirit IS love.

Because Christ loves us, and gave himself up for us, and united us to the Father, we are called to love one another.

Any gift which distracts from Christ’s love for us is not a gift of the Spirit.

Any gift which doesn’t build the church up in love in a comprehensible, orderly, encouraging way, is not a gift of the Spirit.

Any gift which does not proclaim loud and strong that “Jesus is Lord” (12.3) is not a gift of the Spirit.

Any gift which is not birthed in and motivated by the love of Christ for us, and the love we have for one another, is not a gift of the Spirit.

Paul’s goal here is to show that the motor for every act in the church—spiritual or “ordinary”—the motivation behind every word we speak, every act of generosity, everything we learn, is love: the love of God manifested in Christ Jesus and given to us by the Spirit; and our love for one another, which is the simple and natural overflow of the love we’ve received from him.

No matter what you believe about the sign gifts—tongues, prophecy, miraculous healing, etc.—Paul is abundantly clear that undeniable manifestations of supernatural power are not what should characterize the church; and neither should even subtle disdain for theological positions we disagree with.

We should above all be characterized by love—a love for God, founded on what he has told us about himself in his Word, and a love for others, overflowing of the love we have received from him.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And if we love one another, we will not be motivated by a personal desire for a supernatural or an emotional experience. We won’t come to church to “ride the wave” or

We will not seek to validate our own identity by exercising spiritual gifts (like the Corinthians). If we love God and love one another, our goal in everything we do together will be to build one another up (and not ourselves).

That is why, given the wide variety of convictions represented in our church, we have decided to ask our members who believe the sign gifs continue today to enjoy them in private or when in the company of people who understand them, rather than in our public gatherings.

And if you do use the sign gifts, do it as Paul says to do it—tongues with interpretation; prophecy tied to the Word of God; and all of this with the only. If you feel God is speaking to you through his Word and that it would be helpful for the whole church, come to the elders, and we will examine it according to Scripture.

Why do we ask that you do it this way? Because our brothers and sisters who don’t agree with this won’t be built up by our using these sign gifts just because we can, and Paul gives us clear priorities: our own personal experience of the Spirit, witnessing spectacular manifestations of God’s power, come in second place to the simple command to love one another as Christ loved us, and to build one another up as he has built us up.

And in the latter case, if you do use the sign gifts, do it as Paul says to do it—tongues with interpretation; prophecy tied to the Word. If you feel God is speaking to you through his Word and that it would be helpful for the whole church, come to us and we will examine it according to Scripture.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Our priorities are clear, if we’re listening to Paul: our own personal experience of the Spirit, witnessing spectacular manifestations of God’s power, come in second place to the simple command to love one another as Christ loved us, and to build one another up as he has built us up.

4.12:

14.12:

So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

(Explain tongues, interpretation and prophecy.)

Paul never calls into question the sincerity of the Christians misusing the gifts of the Spirit; he simply tells them that the way they are doing it runs counter to the reason why the gifts are there, and so gives them the orderly framework they must follow if they want to continue.

(Explain tongues, interpretation and prophecy.)

What’s the point? Unity and order for the effiency of the church’s mission.

The Spirit does nothing for a show. His goal is always to draw attention to and glorify Jesus Christ and his reign.

And that must be our goal as well—no matter what we believe about the sign gifts.

For cessationists: grace and humility (you may not be right)

For continuationists: keeping the main thing the main thing—it’s not about “freedom” in the Spirit, but about unity in the body, to the glory of God.

Now, taking all that into account, let me come back to the questions I asked at the beginning. How do we live as a body, in unity with one another, despite any differences we may have? How can we be a church which doesn’t feel the need to be “cessationist” or “charismatic”, but which is free to simply be Christian?

How do we create a church culture in Eglise Connexion that actually reflects what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit’s work?

If you tend more toward the cessationist camp, keep firmly in your mind as you interact with your brothers and sisters. Because Christ’s love for us is patient and kind, not envious or proud, there is no other love we should have for others than that love. (Paul could easily have said, “If I have perfect theology, and understand all doctrinal nuances, but have not love, I am nothing.”)

Love your charismatic brothers and sisters by not seeing them as “charismatic”, but simply as brothers and sisters. Love them well, as the Father loved you; serve them well, as the Son served you; encourage them in the Word, as the Spirit encourages you.

If you tend more toward the continuationist camp, same thing: keep firmly in your mind as you come to worship with your brothers and sisters. Remember that your brothers and sisters need you in ways which are far more important than our own personal experience in worship.

And one way you can help them is by bringing your background to the table, within the bounds that Paul gives us here.

Remember what we said before about the Spirit’s work. One thing he does over and over again in the Bible is that he fills his people to give them strength and ability for a specific task.

Don’t imagine you need any spectacular-looking event to do that.

Rejoice in the Lord! When you sing, sing with joy! “Make a joyful noise to the Lord,” David said. If you want to move, then move. If you want to raise your hands, raise your hands! This is something many of us need to learn: if we’re singing about such joyous truths with no visible joy on our faces and in our voices and in our bodies…then something’s off there.

For cessationists: grace and humility (you may not be right)

For continuationists: keeping the main thing the main thing—it’s not about “freedom” in the Spirit, but about unity in the body, to the glory of God.

You ARE free—but not to go beyond the bounds of what the Bible tells you to do.

Conclusion

Be who you are, and help your brothers and sisters love Jesus well; help them worship well; help them not just understand his Word, but live his Word.

Rejoice in the Lord

So what do we do with this? How do we deal with a church in which opinions vary so wildly on this topic?

Paul’s answer is simple, so simple it will be disappointing to some of us: love one another.

But everyone, remember all the while that the Spirit is not about experience; he is about pointing us to Jesus. And Jesus works to point us to the Father. And the Father works to point us back to the Spirit and the Son whom he sent. If we have incredible experiences, but don’t see and marvel at the Triune God of the Bible, our experience had nothing to do with him.

If you are a continuationist, and you believe the gifts of the Spirit are still active today, then use them rightly, because you love your brothers and sisters. Given the wide variety of convictions represented in our church, we have decided to ask our members who believe the sign gifts continue today to enjoy them in private or when in the company of people who understand them, rather than in our public gatherings.

One brother who was with us a while back did this so beautifully. He never spoke in tongues in the middle of a service, but once while we were praying with a small group of men, I was next to him and heard him speaking in another language under his breath. He was very careful to not be disruptive, to not draw attention to himself; he used his gift according to his convictions, but did it in a way in which the church was built up, and his brothers didn’t feel lessened for not doing like he did.

If you feel like the Lord has spoken to you, and you need to share it, bring it to the elders and share it with us. We’ll help you weigh it against Scripture, as the Bible tells us to, and if we feel it will be helpful, we’ll encourage you to share it in the right context.

And never feel like Paul’s command for order in the church means you can’t express yourself. Some of your brothers and sisters need some encouragement here. If you feel God lay a passage of Scripture on your heart that you want to read aloud to the congregation, then read it LOUDLY—it’s the Word of God, and can only do us good.

If you want to raise your hands when you sing, raise your hands! If you want to clap your hands, clap your hands! (There’s a reason the Bible tells us to make a joyful NOISE to the Lord!, cf. ; , ; .) One of the things I love most about our church is the way you all sing when you are together; a little movement can only improve it.

If you lean more to the cessationist side, I’d encourage you to love your brothers and sisters simply by being very gracious and very humble.

If someone comes to you saying, “I have a word from God,” even if it’s clear that that person’s word is not pointing to the Christ as revealed in Scripture, don’t dismantle them. Be gracious. Humbly walk them to Scripture and show them Christ.

But If someone comes to you saying, “I have a word from God,” even if it’s clear that that person’s word is not pointing to the Christ as revealed in Scripture, don’t dismantle them. Be gracious.

But by the same token, if someone comes to you and says, “I think God told me something he wants you to hear,”...and then points you to Christ, you’d better listen. Because whether or not you agree with their terminology, they’re pointing you to Christ, which is precisely how Jesus said the Spirit would work.

We all agree God is sovereign, that he can use whatever he wants, however he wants, to bring us to his Son. Our theological categories are utterly useless if they cause us to ignore what God is using to get our eyes on him. Be humble, and accept the possibility that if someone says, “God wants you to hear this,” and their word is pointing you to Jesus, they’re probably right: God probably does want you to hear it.

Now let me just say one thing to anyone here who isn’t a Christian. I know all this may have been a bit complicated, so I appreciate you hanging in there. The big takeaway is this. The Holy Spirit of God works to direct our attention to Jesus and his work. Jesus came to be our replacement—to live in our place, suffer in our place, and be raised to unite us to the Father. The Spirit’s job is to help us see that, and believe.

So no matter how confused you may be about any number of things, if you feel yourself wanting to know more about this Jesus, if you feel yourself wanting to know more about the God we’ve been talking about this morning, don’t ignore him.

God uses things we don’t understand right away to help us see him and believe. So if that’s you, then come to him in faith, repent of your rebellion against him, and trust him that everything he promises his people is true of you, even if you don’t yet understand how that could be.

Sing to the Lord with joy

But when we see and marvel at our glorious God, even the most mundane experience we may have together is a cosmically enormous event, because in those ordinary moments—like sharing a meal or setting up chairs or playing a game—the Spirit is reminding us that he has united us to one another as a family, and giving us simple and ordinary opportunities to serve one another.

MAKE NOISE

APPLICATION FOR UNBELIEVERS…?

But at the same time:

Order in worship

BE CAREFUL TO NOTE—THE TRINITY IS NOT A SECONDARY ISSUE. There is no Christian faith outside of the Trinity. The secondary issue here is how the Spirit operates, not if there is a Spirit.

The question of the Spirit often brings with it an abuse of Trinitarianism. Inseparable operations: Jesus said the Spirit would come to do the will of the Father & Son (). We need to be careful about suggesting (even implicitly) that the Spirit is somehow doing his own will.

We « have » the HS. (We use this phrase differently than the Bible: we don’t possess him: he LIVES in us.)The HS is an IT.Exubérance = spiritual giftings

The HS fills and/or indwells people to give them strength and skill to accomplish a specific task.HE DOES EXACTLY THIS IN THE NT IN US AS WELL.Joseph: The Spirit is in him, and thus he is effective.The artists in the tabernacle We do see a difference in his work between OT & NT, but it’s a difference in SCOPE, not in type or quality.Cf. Moses with the 60 elders: « I wish everyone had the Spirit in this way! »

What about the inseparable operations of the Trinity...?

(God never does anything in only one of his persons: he always acts from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. EVERYTHING that happens in everything (and in our spiritual lives in particular) happens through the agency of all persons of the godhead.)

Valley of Dry Bones, Ezekiel: In order for God to bring his kingdom and presence back among the people, man has to be re-created, in a sense. And the way this will happen is...the Spirit? The incarnation (cf. Athanasius)? Or both?

The OT gives us categories to think about these things, and in the NT they’re actually happening.

: 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us [FROM the Father], not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit [BY the Spirit], 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior [THROUGH the Son], 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Thessalonians’ Faith and Example

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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Conclusion