Pentecost

The Spirit of God had been active in the world since the beginning of creation. In the second verse of the Bible we read: 'The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters' (Genesis 1:2). Throughout the Old Testament and the Gospels, the Holy Spirit is mentioned numerous times. So, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the believers on the day of Pentecost was not the coming of someone who had never before been active on earth.

What was different about the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was not so much the fact that the Holy Spirit came to people, not so much the fact of his coming, but the permanence of his coming. At other times, the Holy Spirit came upon believers at significant times in their spiritual life. Indeed the Holy Spirit was seen to alight on the Lord Jesus at his baptism (Mark 1:9-11) when Jesus began his public ministry. What was different about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was that the Spirit now came upon all believers—'they were all filled with the Holy Spirit' (Acts 2:4) and that the Holy Spirit now came to make his home inside believers, coming alongside them and residing in them as the helper, guide, comforter and advocate (the 'paraclete' that Jesus promised his people—John 16:7).

The Holy Spirit does not only work in the hearts of some who believe in Christ. He is with and in everyone, including you, if you trust and follow the Lord Jesus.

This is not something to make us worried or afraid. It is something to rejoice in. In the coming of Christ, he is Emmanuel, 'God with us'. In the coming of the Holy Spirit, he is 'God in us.' And so we can know we are never far from God because God is never far from us. Indeed, he is as close to us as the minds in our heads and the hearts in our chests. And he is in us to work God's love and holiness in us, to make us more and more like the Lord Jesus. So, let us welcome him afresh today and seek to follow his guiding light in us as he helps us better understand the Word of God and the Saviour to whom the Scriptures testify.

Pentecost

Today the Christian church celebrated Pentecost (also known as Whitsunday). The day celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Christian believers in power as recorded in Acts 2. Jesus promised that when he went away he would then send another "helper" (John 14:16).

The word used by Jesus was "paraclete" which is a rich word, difficult to translate by one English word. It means a helper, a comforter, a counsellor, a guide, an advocate, an encourager, an interceder, an uplifter. The meaning of the Greek word parakletos implies that the one helping and so forth gets right alongside the person being helped or comforted. It implies an intimate, close relationship. In the case of the Holy Spirit's relationship with the Christian believer, he could not be closer to us, for the Holy Spirit dwells inside every Christian (1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Timothy 1:14).

As I sat in church this morning, seeing a wide variety of nationalities present in the service, I couldn't help but imagine the impact of the apostles speaking in foreign languages and being understood by various nations, undoing the events of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and signalling that God's Spirit and God's Word were now about to go out into all the earth to draw people to the Saviour.

And I gave thanks to God the Holy Spirit for coming like a rushing wind to Scotland over a thousand years ago. May the Holy Spirit come in power upon the Church of Scotland General Assembly this week for what will be a difficult and costly debate no matter what the Assembly decides. We all need his help, guidance and encouragement as much today as ever.

Discipleship - Part 3

Introduction

Jesus said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)
 
This is the third in a series of posts on Christian discipleship, using David Watson's great book Discipleship as our guide. Today we look at chapters 4 and 5 of the book on "Making Disciples" and "Life in the Spirit".

Making Disciples

Watson says near the beginning of this chapter: "A disciple is a follower of Jesus. He has committed himself to Christ, to walking Christ's way, to living Christ's life and to sharing Christ's love and truth with others." To make a disciple or rather to disciple as a verb means to encourage another follower of Jesus in this commitment, walk, life and sharing.

Of course this is what the church is commanded to do by Christ in the Great Commission: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'" (Matthew 28:18-20)

Unfortunately, as Watson then points out, the church has often failed in this task. So many churches are lax about the kind of behaviour tolerated in its ranks and there is little thought for personal holiness. Other churches share and propogate heresy instead of truth without anyone turning a hair. Others pursue members but don't seem too concerned with whether they have a living faith, while yet others pursue converts without much concern for nurturing them into mature disciples. The blame for these faults, Watson directs towards church leaders.

Yet, in typically balanced fashion, Watson then points out the dangers of lurching in another direction, where the church leaders "shepherd" their flock so closely, so intensely, that Christian liberty is stifled, and church leaders become church police officers prying into everyone's life and introducing a code of behaviour that is more moralistic than truly about holiness.

So if there is a danger when there is no leadership and a danger when the voice of the leadership becomes blurred with hearing the voice of God himself, where does the correct balance lie? Well surely it lies in the submission of all to the Holy Spirit speaking through the Bible to God's people. But for Watson there is something else that is more-or-less essential to fostering discipleship within a fellowship and that is small groups.

Small groups ministry is something I also feel very strongly about. In a church of anything over 40-50 members it is very difficult to be really close with everyone. A small group of 6-12 people is a good size for getting to know one another well, where there can be effective teaching, sharing, fellowship, prayer and growth in discipleship.

Watson finishes his chapter focusing on the importance of recognising potential leaders, encouraging leaders and training leaders. Rather than "one man from the front" Watson thinks churches do best with a team of leaders all able to share the burden of leadership - not least the pastoral needs of the flock.

Life in the Spirit

David Watson was moderately charismatic in his views and this is reflected in his chapter on "Life in the Spirit". But whether or not we share his perspective there are still many good things in this chapter.

He begins by pointing out that we need the Holy Spirit to live as Christian disciples. This is perhaps obvious, but we easily forget this, don't we? How many of us try by our own efforts, our own moral code, our own will power, to live as Christians, and forget to look to the Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide us.

He then goes through a number of different aspects of our Christian life and reminds us how important the Holy Spirit is to all of them.

First, we need the Holy Spirit to grow spiritually. We need the Holy Spirit to work inside us to enable us to become more Christlike in our lives.

Second, according to Watson, we need the Holy Spirit so the church can fulfil its healing ministry. Obviously this reflects Watson's charismatic views, but I think it is fair to say that in many of our more cessationist churches, there is a shocking underestimate of God's ability to heal us. We will pray for people to get well, but so often this is framed in terms of God guiding doctors and nurses as if we don't expect healing ever to come by supernatural means.

Third, we need to the Holy Spirit for there to be genuine fellowship between people. We need him to open up our hearts to each other and enable us to share our lives with other believers.

Fourth, we need the Holy Spirit to energise our worship.

Fifth, we need to look to the Holy Spirit for spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Again this reflects Watson's charismatic views in part, but the truth is that all Christians believe in spiritual gifts. We just don't all seem to think about them very much! That's a fault of cessationist churches I think.

Sixth, we need the Holy Spirit to give us the power to live as Christians and to be witnesses to others. In order to go and make disciples, we need the Holy Spirit to be our helper and guide, which brings us back full circle. In this respect our call to make disciples and our need of the Holy Spirit are so closely related that they are fused together.

Next time we turn from these more theortical chapters to some practical chapters on prayer and reading the Bible.

Keep in Step with the Spirit

Keep in Step with the Spirit
by James I. Packer
Inter-Varsity Press

Having just finished reading this book, I found out that there is a second edition that was published in 2005; however, this review is based on the original book written in 1984.

I have to say I think Keep in Step with the Spirit is one of the best books on the Holy Spirit and particularly the gifts of the Holy Spirit that I've read and I think it deserves to be as well-known as Packer's classic Knowing God.

Essentially, the book is an assessment of the charismatic movement from a Reformed perspective. But, unlike many treatments which are resolutely cessationist and scathing of charismatics, Packer is very fair about the movement's strengths as well as its weaknesses. Overall, I get the impression Packer thinks that charismatics are much more a force for good than ill in the churches and I certainly agree with this assessment, particularly as regards the more mainstream charismatic churches.

Packer mentions no less than 12 aspects of the charismatic movement for which the rest of the church should be grateful and should seek to learn. These include the charismatics' commitment to radical, all-person ministry, excitement and spontaneity in worship, their sense of joy, etc.

Packer also then mentions 10 aspects of the charismatic movement that might give us cause for concern including the tendency to focus on the Spirit's work sometimes to the extent that Christ and his work is overshadowed, the two-stage Christian life (conversion followed by subsequent baptism by the Holy Spirit), spiritual elitism, theological naivity, and approaches to the spiritual gifts that do not always tie in very well with what the New Testament actually says.

I found Packer's assessment of the charismatic gifts, both in the similarity and also it must be admitted in the important differences between what they are like now compared to what they were in New Testament times, to be very convincing while remaining balanced and most of all charitable, even to those who would disagree with him. So, to take one example, although Packer insists speaking in tongues as found in the New Testament is very different both in content and purpose to speaking in tongues as it is experienced today, he does not denounce those who speak in tongues today. He recognises the value of the gift in the spiritual life of many Christians and considers it as one way God can use to bring people into a very close fellowship of worship in love and joy. Of course it is not seen by Packer either as the only way or the best way, but he is much more open to the practice than many cessationists.

I would recommend Keeping in Step with the Spirit to all Christians, charismatic or non-charismatic alike. It may serve to curb some of the excesses of the former and cure some of the suspicion of the latter.