In this lesson, Pastor Dave Capoccia continues overviewing the Bible’s fundamental teaching on the Holy Spirit. In part 2, Pastor Dave investigates the work of the Holy Spirit, especially in salvation.
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all right well good morning good morning welcome back to Sunday school we are continuing again in our fundamentals of the faith series we are exploring 13 of the Bible’s most foundational truths for right belief and right practice now last week we began looking at the person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit and we saw quite clearly from all over the scriptures that the holy spirit is a person he is an independent person from or he’s separate from the father and the son and yet we also saw that he is the one true God the fullness of deity dwells in the spirit these apparently contradictory truths that a separate person from the father and son and yet he is the one true God it can only be explained as we saw via the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity that God is that there there is only one God and that God exists in three distinct persons Father Son and Holy Spirit just a reminder of the application of that the Holy Spirit deserves our full honor and worship that he is no less God than the father or the son nor is he a mere Force sent by the father or son the holy spirit is a person and he is pleased by our obedience and he is grieved by our disobedience so if we say that we love God we must love and Obey God’s holy spirit now we’ve completed our discussion of the holy spirit’s person but what about his ministry what does he do that’s what we’re going to look at today so before we go on let’s pray great God we love to study your truth that it really is the instruction that we need it grounds us it helps us understand how we look at the world and how we look at the Christian life so God as we look more at the work of the spirit today I pray that it would clarify the things that we don’t understand or that we wrongly believe and bring us into right beliefs so that our practice then can conform to that help me to explain this well and accurately and I pray God that we would be more reverence of the spirit and more reliant on the spirit more Walking In step with the spirit as a result of what we talk about today in Jesus name amen you ever felt like your Christian Life lacks something it lacks oomph that lacks pizzazz it lacks energy it lacks life you’ve come to understand and believe in the incredible Gospel of Jesus you are a Christian but your life seems to lack the power and excitement that should go along with those impressive gospel realities if God is my God and if I am in Christ and if I now have God’s spirit why does life seem so ordinary and worse why do I struggle so much with sin why am I prone to fear and anxiety why do I easily slip into lust and anger why do I frequently feel hopeless joyless why don’t I see the glory of God in some obvious regular and spectacular way in my life in such a state you may look curiously or even longingly at some of our charismatic brethren who claim to hear from and talk to God audibly on a regular basis they testify of regular miracles from God they act boldly in accordance to what they claim is the discernible promptings of the Holy Spirit holy spirit let me to do this let me do this let me to talk to that person they may even assert that the reason that Christians like you are so lacking in spiritual strength and life is because you never received the second baptism or the Second Blessing of the Holy Spirit oh poor Christian you need to pray you need to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit not only then will you see victory over sin and hopelessness in your life but you will also speak in tongues you will hear from God you will see God’s Miracles spectacularly maybe you’ve heard this maybe you’ve heard about this in other sectors of what’s called Christianity Today but you know the Bible or at least you think you do and you don’t believe that the charismatic Pentecostal that type of position on the spirit’s Ministry is accurate yet why do some of their spiritual lives seem so vibrant compared to your own does an accurate understanding of the spirit’s work according to the Bible really yield a dull struggling joyless life of following Christ or is there indeed something that you as a Christian might be lacking from the spirit that you need to seek you need to pray for before you can really unlock the blessings and victory of the Christian Life no such questions are why we need to go over the fundamentals of our faith even what is the work of the ministry of the Holy Spirit because God’s spirit is not so impotent as to leave you an adult and defeated walk as a Christian but neither does the spirit work in a regular showy and spectacular way as asserted by some now we’re going to have a whole lesson later on the spiritual gifts even the miraculous gifts I’m not going to get into that topic today but we do want to talk generally about the spirit’s work both what he has done and what he’s doing so that we can rightly respond to and cooperate with God’s holy spirit if you haven’t already take your fundamentals of the faith workbook and turn to lesson seven lesson seven and we’re picking up at Roman numeral three the work of the Holy Spirit you don’t have a workbook just see Dwayne in the back one of the greeters they can hook you up just a five dollar requested donation and where we use the workbooks a lot in class so you want to make sure you have it and you bring it also do the homework in advance now in the mysterious wisdom of God in the profound order of the trinity the Holy Spirit does a lot the holy spirit is constantly at work and if you look at what’s under Roman numeral three there are three main categories of the spirits Ministry according to the Bible and that we can identify these aren’t the only ones but they’re the first three that we’re going to identify these are major Ministries Major Works the Holy Spirit you see it under letter a letter b and then in the table that follows letter B so let’s see what these three are if you look at letter A if you did the homework you’ve already filled in the answer Psalm 104 verses 29 to 30.
I’ll give you verse 29 as well it says Psalm of 4 30 but Psalm 24 verses 29 to 30 says speaking about God you hide your face they that is living creatures are dismayed you take away their spirit they expire and return to the Dust or return to their dust you send forth your spirit they are created and you renew the face of the ground I think keeping the back of mind what work of the spirit is that pointing to but let’s add a couple other verses Genesis 1 Genesis 1 1-2 listen to this in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth the Earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters and then we’ll add one more verse Luke 1 35 Luke 1 35 Gabriel speaks to Mary and he says or the verse says the angel answered and said to her the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you and for that reason the holy child shall be called the son of God now just a question about that last verse what is Gabriel explaining to Mary in Luke 1 35 he says the power and the most high will overshadow you Denny okay yeah he’s definitely talking about the Holy Spirit but she just had a question that he says oh the holy spirit’s the explanation for what’s about to happen what was her question and what’s the explanation say that again Danny yeah how will what come about that’s right she just said I’ve never known a man he just told me I’m gonna have a son and he’s going to be the Messiah how can that be and he says the holy spirit is going to conceive this life in you the holy spirit is going to put this the power of the holy spirit is going to put this child inside your womb so from these three verses we can definitely see the holy spirit is definitely active in what say that Eric creation Creation in the giving of Life the Holy Spirit is the creator now wait a second maybe that statement just caught you off guard I thought the father was the creator I mean doesn’t acts 17 24 say that well then again maybe it was the Sun and John 1 3 says that all things were created through him the word how do we reconcile the Bible saying that different persons in the godhead are the Creator that’s right they’re one God this goes back to the doctrine of the Trinity this is what we talked about last week God is Trinity whatever God does he does together each person played a role plays a role in whatever God does and that was true of creation as well the father commanded creation the son executed it and the spirit did something it says he was hovering over the waters in the beginning he presided he was the one who gave life in some way he was an important means he did that in the beginning and he’s still doing that when any child is born today that is the spirit giving life so one main category of the spirit’s work is certainly creation now look at letter B we see another category this is based on second Peter 1 verses 20 to 21. I’ll read those verses to you second Peter 1 20-21 but know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God okay according to these verses the holy spirit is also involved in what prophecy he is the spirit of Prophecy he’s where prophecy comes from but we can also say something else what else is he involved in that’s right the inspiration of the scripture the creation of the scripture that comes from the spirit and this is another main work and then we I won’t go more into this one though because we’ve already talked about it in our first couple lessons where we’re talking about the Bible we talked about how the spirit was involved in that how this is coming from the spirit and this is even why we call the Bible God breathe and the sword of the spirit spirit is the one who wrote the Bible through the human authors and if anybody prophesied as recorded in the Bible or or not in ancient times that was from the spirit now look at the table underneath B so we’ve seen two main categories of the spirit’s work there’s a third one here we’re given the answer straight away and that is the holy spirit Bears witness of Christ the Holy Spirit Bears witness of Christ and we’ve got three verses to illustrate this and let me get three readers for these verses we got John 15 26 John 16 13 and John 16 14. so who can do the first one get these assigned right away mark would you be able to do that who can read John 16 13.
Danny can you do that and then John 16 14. yeah Eric you can do that so we’ll go in that order I know 14 appears first there but let’s start with John 15 26.
go ahead Mark when you’re ready when The Advocate 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 oh you can read verse 27 also very good so notice what Jesus says this is Jesus speaking in John 15. what he says the spirit’s role will be it will be to testify about Jesus bear witness of Jesus fundamentally the spirit attests that Jesus is the Christ Jesus is who he says he is let’s go John 16 13. Daniel I think you’ve got that one now this is very interesting now Jesus says here the spirit will guide you now who’s the you yeah disciples original disciples and there is a there’s an extension of that to in some ways to uh the whole church but particularly the original discipline says the spirit’s going to guide you it’s going to guide you into all truth even what is to come but from where does the spirit get this truth the verse we’re about to read verse 14 will clarify but here we see the negative asserted for us from where does the spirit not speak himself it does not speak of himself he does not speak on his own initiative he does not seek to speak or pass on his own word so whose word does the spirit speak now we learn in verse 14. so Eric go ahead and read that that’s right whose word does the spirit speak the words of Jesus the truth of the son it’s the son’s word that the spirit is intent on proclaiming the holy spirit is intent on disclosing or revealing Jesus Christ and in so doing what greater goal will the spirit accomplish according to John 16 14.
we’ll glorify the son Jesus says he will glorify me for we know that’s true because he’s going to take what’s mine and disclose it to you he’s going to give me he’s going to give you my word and therefore the holy spirit will glorify me you know I suspect one reason that we may be tempted to downplay or forget about the Holy Spirit is that according to the Bible the holy spirit is not worry about drawing attention to or glorifying himself the holy spirit is determined to show us and to glorify the son and interestingly the sun is determined to show us and glorify the father and we also learned before from John 5 the father wants to see the sun glorified what about the Holy Spirit though see left out in this whole arrangement well it’s not as if the holy spirit is just the Third Wheel that the god the godhead doesn’t really care about you remember what Jesus said about blaspheming him versus blaspheming the Holy Spirit Jesus says whatever man may say against me he’ll be forgiven them but if they blaspheme the Holy Spirit what did he say they will never be forgiven or think about first oh that’s Luke 12 10 by the way or if you can think about First Corinthians 3 16 First Corinthians 3 16 says if anyone seeks to harm or destroy the dwelling place of God’s spirit which in that context is the church what does God promise will happen to that person if you seek to destroy the dwelling place of God’s spirit what will God do to you he will destroy you I think even from just those two verses we can understand that just as the father loves the Son and the son loves the father so both father and the son love the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit loves the father and the son they are zealous for each other so let’s not ever think that we can dishonor the Holy Spirit and get away with it no the holy spirit is just as much worthy of honor and Glory as the other persons of the godhead nevertheless we can see that a third main work of the spirit is to disclose and bring honor to the Sun bear witness of Christ now each of these three main works of the spirit that we’ve just looked at are important probably the most discussed area of the spirits Ministry in the Bible is the spirit’s work in Salvation that’s what we’re going to look at next under Roman numeral 4 in your workbooks the ministry of the holy spirit in Salvation letter A has us looking at John 16 verses 7 to 8 so as we seek to fill in that blank let’s recall those verses John 16 verses 7 to 8 I’ll read this to you but I tell you the truth this is Jesus speaking it is to your advantage that I go away before if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you and he when he comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment now we should understand the term helper here even as we read from John 15 where helper or Advocate is used this is another reference to the spirit so according to these two verses John 16 7-8 what work of Salvation what work in Salvation is the special work of the spirit I think I heard somebody say it conviction of sin it says the spirit will convict the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment in other words when you give the gospel and we sought to do that recently at the mall these last two days we cannot we could not bring people to conviction on our own we can proclaim the truth but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be convicted that has to be the spirit’s work he must convict them of sin righteousness and judgment and that’s what he does for those that God has chosen question B gives us another work of the spirit in Salvation this comes from John 3 5-8 John 3 5-8 I’ll read Jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God now which is born of the flesh’s Flesh and now which is born in the spirit is Spirit do not be amazed that I said to you you must be born again or born from above the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but do not know where it comes from and where it is going so is everyone who is born of the spirit well this should be somewhat straightforward question then by whom our sinner is born into God’s Kingdom the spirit spirit is the one who gives New Birth who gives New Life new spiritual life who regenerates there is no working or willing your way into God’s Kingdom this is the thing we always have to tell people at the mall usually talking to people of Catholic background at least that’s the that’s what I’m always talking to and they think they can work their way or will their way into God’s kingdom but that’s not how it works you must be begotten from above you must have new life given to you by the Holy Spirit and notice that this is actually just like the sun as proclaimed in John 1. the son is the creator who’s able to give both physical life and spiritual life and the spirit is the same the spirit gives physical life as we’ve already seen and yet it is the special role of the spirit in Salvation to give spiritual life spiritual begotteness to Sinners to save sinners spirit’s the one that gives New Birth and regeneration first part of letter C actually repeats that concept with something slightly new look at letter C with Titus 3 5-6 Titus 3 5-6 this is part of what does what work does the spirit do when a person is saved Titus 3 5-6 it says he that’s God saved us not on the basis of Deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his Mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ Our Savior so you can note some similarity in the verses in Titus to what we just read in John 3. what work does the spirit do when a person is saved right so we see regeneration and renewing but then there’s another concept attached to that regeneration renewing with calls it washing there what’s washing they literally putting us in water yeah it’s cleansing remember what we heard in John 3 is speaking of just object but it certainly is elsewhere in John 3.
oh yes and John 3 5 unless one is born of water and the spirit and then there’s a big question of what does he mean born of one or is that baptism no it’s not baptism what are you talking about he’s talking about cleansing that actually that concept was already proclaimed in the Old Testament your heart must be cleansed as well as given life and that’s what the spirit does the spirit not only regenerates you but it provides fundamental cleansing when you’re saved your heart is cleansed it’s made new that’s what the spirit does he cleanses and makes us alive in Jesus Christ now let’s look at the other versus other verse under C First Corinthians 12 13 what else does the spirit do when a person is saved actually I’ll give you verse 12 for context here you know what this is one I want you to turn to take your Bibles and go to First Corinthians 12. verses 12 to 13.
let’s read that First Corinthians 12 12-13 for even as the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body though they are many are one body so also is Christ for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks whether slaves are free and we were all made to drink of one spirit now First Corinthians 12 is a chapter talking about the diversity of spiritual gifts that exist in the church but notice how verse 12 of chapter 12 in this verse Paul stresses the fundamental Unity the essential Oneness of the church how the church should appreciate Unity within diversity they are the church is one body in Christ but why why is the church one body in Christ Paul explains the reason in verse verse 13 notice verse 13 starts with the word four so he’s explaining four by one spirit we were all baptized into one body what body does Paul mean in verse 13.
the body of Believers the church because the church is the what of Christ he’s the body the church is the body of Christ so we could say it this way or actually I’ll ask you this question what work does the spirit do when a person is saved he’s spiritually baptizes that person into Christ and into the body of Christ that is to say the spirit brings into fundamental Union fundamental Oneness the believer with Jesus with the son and with all those who are in the sun with all his brothers and sisters in the true church the spirit baptizes a new believer into Christ and into Christ’s body salvation notice verse 13 again not only does Paul describe the work of the spirit as a past work for believers it says we were all baptized but then notice we were all baptized no matter our background he even just says right afterwards Jew Greek slave free we were all baptized into Christ and then there’s the repetition at the end of the verse and we were all made to drink of one spirit Paul stresses this is the reality for all believers all had been baptized into Christ all have been made to drink of the one spirit and of course this must be the case if the church is ever to be Unified how will Christians find Oneness or Unity without this because let’s face it we’re all different a lot of different backgrounds we all have different giftings and if most are baptized by the spirit into Christ but not everyone well the have-nots will never be United with the haves they’re fundamentally different Unity is sunk the Paul says no we can have our unity in diversity because and we can serve as one Church as one in the church because all have already been baptized into Christ and all have already drunk of the one spirit and what’s an important implication from these verses hang on I see some hands I’ll come to you in just a second you see the note in your notebooks the baptism of the spirit occurs only once at the time of salvation if you’re a Christian looking for Spirit baptism to jumpstart your spiritual life you are barking up the wrong tree Paul says the Bible says you already have the spirit baptism the spirit baptized you into Christ once and for all when you were saved you don’t need to look for that now and this isn’t the only verse that says that I won’t read these to you but you can drop these down if you want to look at it later Romans 6 4 talks about our being baptized into Christ Galatians 3 27 talks about as being baptized into Christ Colossians 2 12 talks about us being baptized into Christ always in the past tense this is the reality for all believers the spirit if you believe in Christ this morning the spirit has already immersed you in Christ you are now one with Christ and you are one with his people in the church now I saw some hands Danny was there something you wanted to say or ask yes we’re going to say more about that in just a second but we have these verses in the Epistles talking about how the spirit baptizes us into Christ but interestingly I never really gospels say that Christ baptizes us with the spirit Dwayne what you’re going to say okay yes we’re gonna talk about that in just a second but get this right here the spirit baptizes us into Christ now there’s one more work of the spirit that we’ll identify right now as what the spirit accomplishes in Salvation and that’s in question D this time this has to do with Ephesians 1 13-14 and like you turn over to there as well Ephesians 1 13-14 so at the beginning of Ephesians first part of the chapter is talking about everything that Believers have in Christ even Gentile Believers because the Ephesians they were primarily a gentile Church and then this is what we hear in verses 13 and 14.
in him you also after listening to the message of Truth The Gospel of your salvation having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the Redemption of God’s Own possession the praise of his glory all right according to the context of this these two verses who is the hymn that starts the beginning of verse 13.
in Christ that’s right A lot of the times you see in him or in whom it’s Jesus it’s the son how do all the Salvation blessings come to us it’s through the sun it’s in him by Christ by Union with Christ verses 13 to 14 here in Ephesians tell us that God does something for us and what is it that God does he guarantees our salvation how by sealing us with the spirit by stealing us of the Holy Spirit or we could state it this way the Holy Spirit seals us if we’re talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit and salvation the Holy Spirit seals us and by the way Paul says the same thing in second Corinthians second Corinthians 1 21-22 I’ll just read this one too second Corinthians 1 21-22 now he who establishes with he who establishes us with you in Christ there it is again and anointed us is God who also sealed us and gave us the spirit in our hearts as a pledge there you go again sealed pledge sealed guaranteed now what is a seal well you see a little handy explainer in your workbooks right after question D but I’ll say a little bit more in ancient times a steel could be something that you put on an object to prevent someone from opening that object that’s kind of like we have today right you can buy a thing of strawberry jam and it’s sealed because you want to make sure that it’s not contaminated they might in ancient times have sealed a letter with a wax seal to close the letter make sure it’s not opened in an unauthorized way or even when the Bible speaks about Jesus tomb being sealed that likely included making the entrance Stone immovable but there’s another meaning of Steel and that other meaning is the one that fits better in this context and the two verses in Ephesians and even that in second Corinthians another way that a seal you could seal something or that a seal could be used was as a mark of authenticity or identification today if you need to get an official document of some kind usually from the government an important part of that document is a seal there needs to be a physical mark on the document from the government that shows that it has that this document is authorized it this seal marks the document as authentic true valid and the same thing happened in ancient times a seal on a letter it not only would close the letter but it would Mark that letter as authentically coming from a certain person belonging to that person maybe that person would even take a seal that he had on his ring or maybe he had a little cylinder that he would just use but he could take the ring and that hot wax he presses the ring into it and now the mark of identification is on it this is authentically a letter from whoever sent it C was used as a mark of authenticity now the Bible says Christians have been sealed Christians have been marked as authentic and belonging to God how by the Holy Spirit they might say okay that’s a nice metaphor but what does that mean what did the spirit do or what did God do that counted as a seal a mark of authenticity of belonging to God what’s the answer Jody well we’ll talk more about the idea of guaranteed in just a second but in what sense does the spirit function as a seal for us what actually happened Eric that’s right God gave us the spirit and now the spirit belongs to us and even dwells inside us did you notice that actually in the verses that we read it doesn’t just say that God sealed us and God guaranteed us verse 13.
I’m sorry verse 14 the spirit is given as the pledge second Corinthians also use the word give what this is describing is the profound mystery of indwelling the Holy Spirit comes inside a believer and permanently indwells that believer as a gift from God as a mark of authenticity of belonging to God this is why the Bible can speak of the church as the Temple of the Holy Spirit First Corinthians 3 and even individual Believers in their bodies their physical bodies as being temples of the Holy Spirit temples of God first Corinthians 6. God set his seal on what belonged to him by giving them the Holy Spirit seals us which means the spirit functions as something else which is something else we read in both Ephesians 1 13-14 and second Corinthians 1 21-22 that is the spirit is a pledge or some translation say a guarantee now when you hear pledge don’t think mere promise and does say promise in Ephesians But Not Mere promise you know when we think of pledge probably the first context that I can think of is the Pledge of Allegiance right I pledge allegiance to the flag on the United States of America what you’re saying is I promise to honor the flag I promise to honors stand up for my country but how many people say that and they don’t really mean it they don’t really care to do things that dishonor their country or dishonor the flag a mere promise can be easily falsified because there’s no substance there’s nothing to show the promises real Beyond those words that’s not the idea of pledge here actually what’s translated pledge in a more literal sense has the meaning of deposit down payment first installment of a fuller payment to come this is a financial term it’s like someone is saying with this term translated pledge I promise to give you the rest and you know that I’m some I’m sincere because here’s the first payment up front that’s a definitely a more substantive Province more substantive promise and God says his spirit is such a promise and pledge to us now help me tease out the implication here how is the spirit a promise and pledge to us even like a down payment Jody you actually saying something like this before exactly is the promise of the Eternal inheritance coming to us in full because have we received salvation in full and one sense yes and one sense no we have the eternal life of God we have Christ so in one sense we have everything and yet another sense it’s not fully realized we haven’t been brought into God’s kingdom we aren’t ruling and reigning with him we don’t have Resurrection bodies we’re not dwelling with the Lord forever you might say well how do I know I’m going to get that God says it’s guaranteed my spirit is the guarantee he’s the down payment you see God is not a god of takebacks God is not a God who says to us you’re saved you’re saved you’re saved at the last minute I’m just kidding you’re condemned no everyone’s saved in Jesus Christ is sealed by the spirit who is the personal pledge that the rest of Christ’s salvation inheritance is ours and will be ours it’s guaranteed to quote the statement in your workbook no last part under d the presence of the holy spirit in our lives is God’s promise of our inheritance in the future what a wonderful assurance I think I saw a hand Jody hmm yeah yeah that’s a good observation Jody just this one verse already throws into confusion the position that you can lose your salvation because the spirit is the guarantee the down payment how’s God gonna just pull that back that’s the opposite of what a down payment does that’s an opposite of what it represents and you say well what about the Christians who fall away well the Bible already has an explanation for that they they went out from us because they were never of us it’s not that oh they were saved and then they lost their salvation God’s spirit contradicts that idea when God gives salvation when Christ becomes the savior of a person that person can never be separated from Christ and that doesn’t mean become complacent and we just live sinfully but it does mean we can rest securely Jesus is not going to lose this the father’s not going to lose this the spirit is not going to lose this the spirit actually as the song says that we sometimes sing the spirit guarantees Our Hope until redemption’s done notice again though just to add another thought when these wonderful actions of the spirit occur verse 13 of Ephesians once again in him last part of the verse you were sealed past tense actually second Corinthians 1 22 is also given in the past tense so this is a reality that’s already happened for Christians and we can even be more specific what happened so that we Christians would be given the spirit in this way sealed guaranteed we listened not just listened and believed notice it’s right there in verse 13. you also after listening to the message of Truth The Gospel of your Seer the Salvation having also believed you were sealed in other words you were sealed with the spirit when you believed and were saved that’s when it happened this wasn’t something that just happened sometime after you were saved this happened when you were saved it’s right here in the text so how many true Christians then how many true Christians have the indwelling and sealing spirit 100 all of them there is no Christian who does not have the spirit there is no Christian who is not sealed with the spirit no Christian needs to pray to receive this spirit because he already has it but here’s where someone might say hold the phone there is another kind of receiving the spirit that Christians can have and should have after salvation a second baptism a second receiving a Second Blessing of the Holy Spirit goes by different terms but all the same idea and we can prove this from the Bible as some of you brought up what did John the Baptist and Jesus himself promise multiple times John baptized with water or John baptized in water Jesus baptizes with or baptizes in the Holy Spirit Jesus immerses his disciples at least some of them in God’s spirit we see this in Matthew 3 11 John 1 3 31-33 and most significantly in Acts 1 verses 4 and 5. acts 1 4 and 5 let me read that to you it says Gathering them together he that’s Jesus commanded them not to leave Jerusalem so he’s talking about his disciples but to wait for what the father had promised which he said you heard of from me for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now well what happened not many days later even just 10 days later according to Acts chapter 2.
well let’s read Acts 2 1-4 yeah why don’t you go over there Acts 2 1-4 Acts 2 1-4 when the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from Heaven A noise like a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and they appeared to them tongues as of fire Distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit was giving them utterance so what’s happening well the promise is being fulfilled the promised baptism of the spirit had come and with spectacular miraculous power they’re speaking in tongues they’ve got tongues of Fire hovering over them they’re filled with the spirit and notice was this baptism for those who had already believed or who had just believed in that moment there was an already believed these were Jesus disciples they’d already believed in him he said wait wait for the promised Holy Spirit and here it is and later on in this passage if you read down in Acts chapter 22 Peter preaches the sermon the listeners believe he promises they’ll receive the Holy Spirit but they don’t have the same spectacular experience so here’s so two things significantly In this passage you have people who already believed who are baptized with the Holy Spirit and then you have people who believe for the first time and they don’t have the same thing happen to them though they receive the spirit so clearly clearly there is a second baptism of the holy spirit that takes the life of someone who already believes in Jesus to another level even with the miraculous ability to speak in tongues other Miracles too perhaps and besides doesn’t the New Testament command Christians those who already believe to be filled with the Holy Spirit Ephesians 5 18.
it says right here that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and that’s why they were able to do these things this is what the feeling of the spirit looks like that’s how the Believers spoke in tongues so this is what we should seek and this is what we see right charismatics would say this is what we see happening in the church Spirit baptized Believers are speaking in tongues so yes there’s an initial baptism feeling uh ceiling feeling of the Holy Spirit when a person believes but then there’s also this second baptism the Second Blessing which Believers should seek for themselves at first glance such an argument for a second baptism of or by the Holy Spirit seems impressive but there’s some major problems with this argument major problems with the Bible interpretation on which this argument is based can anyone identify one of those main problems yeah Dwayne okay very good so Dwayne is pointing us to certain things that are important but just to bring his point more generally acts is a book of narrative describing a unique historical period so conclusions you draw from what is normal in the Christian Life just from the book of Acts may not be accurate if you’re interpreting something from narrative it has to be in connection with didactic books things that are more explicitly teaching because they’ll show you how to interpret the narratives because it’s possible that something unique is happening in the narrative that is not to be repeated so that’s one issue is there another problem yeah Steve [Music] um okay so again you’re going to the Epistles to help understand the narrative and the Epistles Corinthians included tells us about tongues why God first of all tongues and acts distinguish the tongues of the Bible compared to the tongues that is commonly asserted in practice today but also the purpose and the way those those gifts are to be used is described in the Epistles so if we’re going to make an interpretation about Spirit baptism or the gift of tongues we need to come from the Epistles first or we need to understand what we see in acts in light of the Epistles or else we might get off track Dwayne something else right right receive the Holy Spirit right so actually we’re going to say more about that in just a second but one thing that is very significant to point out is that the Holy Spirit had not been given to anybody who believed in Jesus before Acts chapter 2.
so there’s definitely something unique about this I would say there’s at least three problems with this argument it is an argument that’s influenced by present day experiences and the desire to justify them the tongue supposedly practice to stay or coloring people’s interpretation of the Bible proponents confuse Holy Spirit filling with Holy Spirit baptism and dwelling these are not the same as we’ll discuss later but the biggest problem is that this argument is based primarily on a section of narrative rather than a didactic text and the fundamental principle of good hermeneutics or Bible interpretation is that you must rely on the sections of the Bible that explicitly teach what you should do to inform you as to whether and in what way you should imitate what people do in the narratives because sometimes good people in narratives do bad things that should not be imitated or sometimes people in narrative takes actions that were good for them but that would not be good for us because those people in the narratives were facing unique circumstances now I could present to you a long detailed argument as to why the book of Acts does not in fact teach or support the idea the baptisms in the Holy Spirit but we don’t have that kind of time this morning if you want to find an argument like that there are books that do present it one of them is John McArthur’s and dick mayhew’s biblical Doctrine the section of the Holy Spirit it talks all about Spirit baptism in the book of Acts but let me give you the bullet point version bullet point version of response why acts doesn’t support a second baptism or blessing of the Holy Spirit number one this has already been pointed out by Dwayne The Believers of the book of Acts occupied a unique transition period of church history one in which God’s true believers went from not having the indwelling spirit to having it this was a unique change brought about by Jesus New Covenant work he talks about this in John 14 to 16.
I’m going to send the helper I’m going to do these things I’m going to go away but I’m going to send the helper this was a change only inaugurated a short time after Jesus ascended to Heaven it wasn’t like he died on the cross and boom here’s the spirit or he rose from the dead and boom here’s the spirit he says you’re gonna have to wait I’m gonna leave and the spirit is going to come to you sometime after thus not everything that happens with Believers in the with the Holy Spirit In the book of Acts should be expected of the entire church age this is a transition period and we’re hearing about it in a historical record number two the spectacular version of the baptism of the Holy Spirit actually only happened a few times in the book of Acts and in each instance where we have the spectacular baptism of the Holy Spirit recorded there is an obvious purpose in that spectacular display there is a signaling of different people’s inclusion in the New Covenant in Acts chapter 2 the spirit very obviously Came Upon Jesus Jewish disciples signaling that Jews are included in the New Covenant that makes sense because that’s exactly what the Old Testament promised but in Acts chapter 8 the spirit visibly Came Upon believing Samaritans signaling Samaritan inclusion in the New Covenant they didn’t have to become Jews first they were already included when they believed in Jesus and the spirit Came Upon them in a very obvious invisible way in Acts chapter 10 the spirit visibly Came Upon believing Gentiles much to the sock of the shock of the Jewish believers they hadn’t been baptized they hadn’t been circumcised they hadn’t had any of those things and yet the Holy Spirit came upon them and those people in that particular first instance they spoke in tongues this was a signaling of Gentile inclusion in the New Covenant and then in Acts 19 the spirit visibly Came Upon Disciples of John the Baptist which is a curious last group to be featured but for whatever reason God did that perhaps that signals Old Testament Saints inclusion in the New Covenant version of spirit and yet they had a purpose it was not to demonstrate what should be the regular experience of Christians in the church this was not even a regular experience of Believers in the book of Acts and instead it was a show once and for all that these groups Jews Samaritan Gentile maybe even Old Testament believers they are equal inheritors of all that God gives in Salvation through Christ all have received the same spirit in the same way with the same power via these four representative groups and this is just like we heard earlier from Paul we can be wholly unified in the church because even within our diversity we are fundamentally one fundamentally one in the spirit and then finally number three if we consider what the explicitly didactic or directly teaching portions of the New Testament have to say so we’re talking about the Epistles what they had to say about Spirit reception that is receiving the spirit Spirit indwelling Spirit baptism we see that these writings always speak of spirit reception as being a past event and a completed action or of something that happens immediately upon salvation upon repentance and faith never do the apostles command suggest or pray that Christians should seek a further reception of God’s spirit because Believers already have the spirit in full Brethren if you believe in Jesus as we’ve already seen you already have the hold down payment of God you’ve already been sealed baptized and dwelt by the Holy Spirit you are not missing out on any portion of him now are you actually are you actually using and appreciating what you already have that’s a separate question but make no mistake the Epistles clarify for us that acts is not teaching that you need or should seek a second baptism or blessing from the Holy Spirit if you have more questions about that come talk to me afterwards so in terms of what the spirit does in Salvation just to summarize what we’ve seen today we see that the spirit convicts the spirit gives New Birth the spirit cleanses the spirit baptizes and the spirit seals the spirit does this for all believers as part of their conversions these are powerful acts not repeated in a person’s life but which nevertheless have profound Everlasting effects when these things happen their effects never end but what does the spirit do for a Believer after that person is safe is it just one and done you’re converted okay I’m gonna go do something else now is that what the spirit does what does the spirit do in believer sanctification we’ve got a lot to say there but we’re gonna have to say that topic for next time and next time is going to be in a little bit by God’s Providence by God’s grace the next two Sundays we have Kingdom workers visiting us and they’re going to be doing presentations during the Sunday School hour so we will not be going through fof during those weeks but please come back for that I’m sure you’ll be encouraged and you’ll be encouraging to those workers but in three weeks time you will come back and finish talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit pretty much out of time today so I’m not going to try and take any questions as part of the lesson but if you have them come talk to me afterwards let me close this in prayer what wonderful truth God you’ve given us your spirit you are in US you’ve baptized us you’ve sealed us you’ve fundamentally come to it and dwell us you’ve made us alive caused us to believe how wonderful how beautiful how staggering and your spirit’s never going to leave it is the guarantee of what more is to come we are going to be there in your kingdom we’re going to dwell forever with our God and we will be free from these from the corruption from Death from sin from pain from grief all that is guaranteed because the spirit is ours and it’s present and it is out working in our lives and yet God how easy it is for us to live as if we didn’t have the spirit to not even think about the spirit not rely on the spirit and just rely on the flesh or to lose hope and say I can never do this because I don’t have the power of course we don’t have the power in ourselves but you have given us power in the spirit the spirit is our power for holy living for joyful living for courageous living so God I pray that we would believe that that we would actually believe what you’ve told us in your word because your word is reliable we have the spirit and we have the spirit in full we’re not lacking in some ways so that we can have a joyful overcoming Christian Life no you’ve given it all we don’t need a second baptism a Second Blessing but we need to actually appreciate and use the blessing we’ve already received so I pray that everyone here everyone who listens to this lesson that you would do that for them and that we would experience the joy of it in Jesus name amen all right thank you everyone