The Holy Spirit in the Life of Our Lord
Notes
Transcript
Chapter 61
Chapter 61
The Holy Spirit in the Life of Our Lord
The Holy Spirit in the Life of Our Lord
I. The Birth of Christ
I. The Birth of Christ
The Holy Spirit was involved in the conception of our Lord in the womb of the virgin Mary. The result was His Incarnation ().
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
II. The Life of Christ
II. The Life of Christ
A. The Aspects of the Ministry of the Spirit
A. The Aspects of the Ministry of the Spirit
1. Christ was filled with the Spirit (). The word here indicates that this was the characteristic of His life (as in , ). It was not a momentary thing, but a relationship He had all of His life.
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
2. Christ was anointed with the Spirit (; ; ; ). This signified that He is the Messiah (Anointed One) and empowered Him for His prophetic ministry.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
3. Christ rejoiced in the Spirit (). This was perhaps an evidence of His being full of the Spirit.
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
4. Christ was empowered by the Spirit throughout His life. This was predicted by Isaiah (; ) and experienced by Jesus of Nazareth in His ministries of preaching () and doing miracles ().
1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
B. The Areas of the Ministry of the Spirit
B. The Areas of the Ministry of the Spirit
1. The Spirit’s ministry in the life of our Lord was related to Christ’s office as a Prophet. At the beginning of His public ministry, He declared that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord ().
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
2. The Spirit’s ministry also enabled Him to perform some of His miracles. Some of the Lord’s miracles were undebatably done in the power of the Spirit. This claim was what evoked the incident concerning the unpardonable sin (, ). He also gave sight to the blind because the Spirit was upon Him (). In the Old Testament giving sight to the blind was a prerogative of God (; ) and something Messiah would do (; ; ). Thus when the Lord restored sight to blind people He was making a clear claim to be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. One would expect the ministry of the Spirit (anointing and empowering) to be connected with this kind of miracle, which demonstrated that Jesus was the anointed Messiah.
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
In all the Old Testament there is no account of any blind person receiving sight. None of the Lord’s disciples was involved in restoring sight to any blind person. Only Ananias’s involvement in Paul’s regaining his sight is somewhat relevant, though this was different from what our Lord did when He gave sight to those who had never seen. Thus when Christ came on the scene of history and gave sight to so many blind people, this was a strong claim to His messiahship.
More miracles of Christ in this category are recorded than in any other. Matthew records the healing of two particular blind people (), the general healing of the blind (), the healing of blind people that provoked the unpardonable sin (), additional unspecified numbers of blind cured (), and the healing of blind people in the temple on Palm Sunday (21:14). Mark records the opening of a blind man’s eyes at Bethsaida () and the restoration of sight to Bartimaeus and his friend at Jericho (, also recorded in Matthew and Luke). John records the healing of the man who was born blind (). And all of these were done in the power of the Spirit.
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied.
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”;
30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”
31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see.
30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.
22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging.
47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”
50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
But some of our Lord’s miracles were evidently done in His own inherent God-man power. The woman with the continual hemorrhage was healed through His own power (). The healing of the paralytic who was let down through the roof by his friends is attributed to the power of the Lord (). The mass healing of the multitude after the choosing of the disciples was the result of His own power (). Those who came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane were thrown back for the moment by a display of the power of His own deity when He said, “I am” ().
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.
19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
Some would say that these miracles were attributed to Christ but actually empowered by the Spirit within Him. Although that could be true, it does not seem to be the normal way to read the texts. So it is better to acknowledge that He did some of His miracles in the power of the Spirit (particularly those that gave evidence of His claim to be Messiah by restoring sight to the blind) and some in His own power.
C. The Conflict Over the Ministry of the Spirit
C. The Conflict Over the Ministry of the Spirit
and record the conflict over the power of the Spirit that occurred in Galilee, while Luke records a similar incident in Judea about a year later ().
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see.
23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?
27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.
37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?
24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.
27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.
28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter,
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.
15 But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”
16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.
18 If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.
19 Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.
22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.
23 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
The conflict recorded in Matthew and Mark arose because the Lord healed a man who was blind and mute (which probably meant that he was also deaf). However, the real cause of his problems was demon possession. Although Jewish exorcists could cast out demons, they would have a very difficult time with this case, because how do you communicate with a person who is blind and mute and likely also deaf? When the Lord healed all the maladies at once, the people were astonished and began to suggest that Jesus was really their Messiah. This provoked the Pharisees’ blasphemous accusation that Satan was obliging his friend Jesus by withdrawing demons from people to make it look like Christ Himself had that power. So, they said, who would want to follow a person who was a friend of Satan as Jesus obviously was?
The Lord’s reply consisted of three statements:
(1) A kingdom or house that is divided against itself cannot stand. In other words, Satan would not destroy his own kingdom by aligning himself with Jesus’ kingdom. True, Satan might allow Jewish exorcists to cast out demons, but that would not create the kind of basic rift in Satan’s kingdom that Jesus’ doing it would, if indeed He were doing it by Satan’s power.
(2) The Lord then pointed out that the charge was absurd since the Pharisees recognized that the Jewish exorcists did not cast out demons by the power of Satan. So why should they accuse Him of doing it that way?
(3) The only logical conclusion to be reached from these facts is that the kingdom of God had come, since Christ was defeating Satan by taking his victims from him and doing so in the power of the Spirit of God.
Now, by accusing Jesus of being in league with Satan, the Pharisees were putting themselves on the side of Satan. Furthermore, they were accusing the Holy Spirit in whose power Christ cast out demons. What did the Lord mean when He said that a sin against the Son of man was forgivable but not against the Spirit? He meant that though they might misunderstand His claims, such ignorance, though deplorable, was forgivable. But to misunderstand the power of the Spirit was unforgivable since the Spirit’s power and ministry was well known from Old Testament times.
Speaking against the Spirit was not merely a sin of the tongue. The Pharisees had not sinned only with their words. It was a sin of the heart expressed in words. Furthermore, theirs was a sin committed to His face. To commit this particular sin required the personal and visible presence of Christ on earth; to commit it today, therefore, would be impossible. But to show wickedness of heart is unpardonable in any day if one dies persisting in his or her rejection of Christ. A person’s eternal destiny is determined in this life, but no sin is unpardonable as long as a person has breath. As a matter of fact, the Lord urged the Pharisees to side with Him rather than against Him (), to show repentance of heart (), and to speak words that would demonstrate a righteous heart and not those which would result in their condemnation (). Paul himself is evidence that blasphemy is forgivable ().
30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.
37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
D. The Significance of the Ministry of the Spirit
D. The Significance of the Ministry of the Spirit
1. Development of humanity. We may reasonably assume that the Spirit played a role in the development of the humanity of Christ (; ). His growth must have been related to the Spirit who filled and anointed Him.
52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered
2. Christ’s dependence. He did depend on the Spirit for leading and for power, in some of the miracles at least.
If the sinless Son of God used these ministries of the Holy Spirit, how can we expect to live independently of His power?
III. The Death of Christ
III. The Death of Christ
Usually is cited as evidence that our Lord offered Himself in His death through the Spirit. The evidence as to whether or not this is a reference to the Holy Spirit is fairly equally divided, making a definite conclusion difficult.
14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
The evidence that this is a reference to the Spirit is as follows. The lack of the article (literally, through eternal spirit) points to the Holy Spirit just as the lack of the article in points more clearly to Christ.
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
Theologically it is reasonable to expect that if the Spirit played a role in Christ’s birth and life He would also be involved in His death.
The evidence that this is not a reference to the Holy Spirit but to Christ’s own eternal spirit that His deity had is as follows. The lack of the article would more naturally refer to other than the Holy Spirit since the designation Holy Spirit usually includes the article.
If this refers to Christ’s eternal spirit, then it is not a reference to the divine nature offering up the human nature, but to the entire person offering up Himself by the action of the highest spirit-power within Him. His own divine spirit was involved in the offering of the God-man.
Another verse, , may refer to an action of the Spirit with respect to the death of Christ. Usually, however, it is thought that this verse relates the Spirit’s work to the resurrection of Christ. Two major problems emerge in the exegesis of it. One concerns the identification of “spirit” whether it refers to the Holy Spirit or to Christ’s own eternal spirit. If the former, then the form is instrumental, “by the [Holy] Spirit” (kjv); if the latter, then it is locative, “in the [Christ’s] spirit.” The parallel with “flesh” may give preference to the idea of Christ’s spirit. If so, then we have no record of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in relation to Christ’s death (unless applies) or to His resurrection.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
But even if the reference is to the Holy Spirit, another problem still exists. It concerns the use of an aorist participle, “quickened by the spirit” (kjv). Normally, the aorist participle indicates activity simultaneous or antecedent to that of the main verb, but not subsequent. ( [kjv] is not an exception since their “coming” may be a period of time in which the saluting was a part, or since greetings were often sent ahead of arrival.) If the main verb is “died,” then the action of quickening cannot refer to the Resurrection, which was subsequent to His death. It would refer to some quickening at the time of the Crucifixion (simultaneous action). However, if the main verb is “bring” in the clause, then conceivably the quickening could refer to the Resurrection, which was antecedent to our being brought to heaven. In this case, the reference is to the resurrection of Christ. In the first option it refers to some kind of quickening or empowering on the cross. But in either case it is not clear that the Holy Spirit was involved, rather than Christ’s spirit.
13 And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus.
Finally, some cite to show that the Holy Spirit had a part in the resurrection of Christ. Again two exegetical problems exist. One concerns the identification of “spirit of holiness.” The parallelism with “according to the flesh” (v. 3) argues that it refers to Christ’s own spirit, rather than the Holy Spirit. The second problem concerns identifying what resurrection(s) is in view. Literally, the text says “a resurrection of dead [pl.].” This could refer (a) to Christ’s resurrection from among dead persons, or (b) to the resurrections He did while on earth, or (c) to all of them, including His own. But in any case it is far from certain that the Spirit was directly involved.
4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
Actually no clear evidence exists for the Spirit’s direct working in the death or resurrection of our Lord. Of course, in the sense that these activities relate to the second person of the Godhead, all the persons are involved.
kjv King James Version
kjv King James Version
kjv King James Version
@book{Ryrie_1999,
place={Chicago, IL},
title={Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth},
publisher={Moody Press},
author={Ryrie, Charles Caldwell},
year={1999},
pages={404–408}}