1 Cor. 2:6-14, The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Today’s post provides an outline study of the Holy Spirit with a brief application at the conclusion.

1)    Who is the Holy Spirit?

a)    A person (John 14:26; 15:26; 1 Cor. 2:10; 12:11).

b)    God (compare Ez. 17:2-7 with Heb. 3:-9; Acts 5:3 with 5:4; John 3:6 with 1 John 5:4; 1 Cor. 3:16 with 2 Cor. 6:19).

c)    The third member of the Trinity (Matt.28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

2)    What was the Holy Spirit’s relation to Old Testament (pre-Calvary) believers?

a)    It was different than after the cross (Jn. 7:39; 14:17).

b)    He came on certain men for service but not upon all believers (Judges 3:10).

c)    He could come upon a man for a time and then leave him (1 Cor.10:10; 16:14; Ps. 51:11).

3)    How does the Holy Spirit draw a person to salvation in Christ?

John 16:7-11: He convinces men of their sin, of the truth that Christ alone can make them righteous, and that apart from Christ they will be judged along with Satan, the Ruler of this world.

4)    What is the Holy Spirit’s work when a person is saved?

a)    He does the work of “regeneration” (the new birth) within the person (John 3:5-8; Titus 3:5; in Romans 6:3-4 this work is described by baptism).

b)    He immediately indwells the person (1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:9; Jn. 7:39).

c)    The believer is immediately baptized in the Spirit (that is, immersed or placed in the Church, 1 Cor. 12:13).

d)    He gives gifts to the believer to be used in service for Christ (1 Cor. 12:7,11).

e)    He is God’s pledge (earnest, guarantee) within the believer that his salvation is eternal and that God will complete the work He has begun (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30).

5)    What is the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work for the believer?

a)    In general, He is our Helper/Advocate (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7).

b)    More specifically, He fills (controls) the believer as he yields to Christ (Eph. 6:18).

6)    What are the results of the Spirit-filled life?

a)    Gal. 5:22-23: dynamic, life-changing Christian character.

b)    Ac. 1:8: power for witness and service.

c)    Eph. 5:19-20: a life of praise and thanksgiving.

d)    Eph. 5:21: a life of good relationships.

e)    Rom. 8:26: power in prayer.

Here are two application questions based on John 7:37-39.

7)    How does a person receive the Holy Spirit?  In response to the spiritual thirst in his life, he follows the Spirit’s lead by coming to Christ for satisfaction and believing in Christ.  If a person does not have the Holy Spirit it is because he does not have Christ.  (Rom. 8:9)

8)    How is a Christian filled with the Holy Spirit?  The Christian continues to believe in Christ from day to day. In other words, he walks by faith.  He who believes in Me … out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.  (Isa. 44:3; 55:1; Eph. 5:18)

Ex. 32:1-6; 1 Ki. 12:25-33, Transition Between Covenants (2)

We did a survey in short order of worship in the world before Mt. Sinai.  I want to add one thought, concerning a priest named Melchizedek.  He was “the priest of God Most High” (Gen. 14:18).  In other words, he/He (some think Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) only worshiped and offered sacrifices to the true God.  This is what Jethro came to see and believe in Ex. 18.  YAHWEH, the God of Israel, is also known in the Bible as “God Most High.”  Jethro said, “Now I know that YAHWEH is greater than all gods” (18:11).  Therefore, on the spot, he did what he did as an occupation: he conducted a worship service attended by “Aaron … with all the elders of Israel” (18:12).

After Exodus 28:1, what Jethro did would have been false worship.  “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest.”  The old way was: every man was a priest for his own household.  The new way was: the only priests in the worship of YAHWEH were Aaron and his descendants.  Furthermore, the old way was: when you want to worship YAHWEH, build an altar somewhere.  But effective Exodus 40, when the tabernacle was put together, the new way was: YAHWEH will dwell over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle; so the only altar for sacrifice is the one just outside the door of the tabernacle.

All this makes sense out of the first two of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Ex. 20:3-4).  Every nation had their gods.  But God, the Creator and the God who promised to provide an adequate atonement for sin, had determined to attach Himself to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac AND Jacob.  Worship was now exclusive.  All other gods and altars and religions were idolatrous.

Wow!  What a change.  But we started this discussion talking about “transition.”  So, in case you missed it, there was a transition from the old to the new at Mt. Sinai, even as there was after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  Did you know that Moses served as “priest” for the people of Israel after they left Egypt?  He chose some young men of Israel to do the hard work (what would become the work of the Levites), and then Moses sprinkled “the blood of the covenant” on the altar of sacrifice that would eventually be used by Aaron (Ex. 24:5-8).  And there’s more.  Moses also put his own tent at the outskirts of the camp of Israel and called it “the tabernacle of meeting” and that was where he met with God (Ex. 33:7-11).  These were “transitional” but were not permanent because God had another plan.

Now, think about the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-6).  What happened?  The people, and apparently even Aaron, began to question God, and reverted to the old way.  They designated a god and offered sacrifices.  And there’s no time to go into this, but if you read about Jeroboam establishing the religion of the Northern Kingdom, he did the same thing: he reverted to the gold calves and even established a feast to rival the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:25-33). 

There is a simple principle here having to do with interpretation of Scripture.  We learn doctrine from passages that teach doctrine, not from passages that tell stories.  It really is simple.  Just because something happened, and seemed to have God’s blessing (young men serving as priests and Moses meeting with God in his own tent; some, but not all believers, receiving the Spirit by the laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, etc.), does not make it the norm for God’s people.  The “norm” is laid out clearly by Moses who met with God on the Mountain in the Old Testament and the Apostles of Christ in the New Testament.  “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:2).

Exodus 18:1-12, Transition Between Covenants (1)

The “Acts of the Apostles” is a book of transition.  There are things in Acts not necessarily meant to be “normal” for the Church.  In my view, the miraculous signs (including speaking in tongues) are part of that transition.  Maybe that makes me a “cessationist,” although I’m not sure what that entails.  You can agree or disagree, but for now, I’m interested in the idea of “transition.” 

Did you know that there was a “transition” into the Old Covenant (the Mosaic Law) from the way God was worshiped prior to that time?  What we call “religion” began in Gen. 4 with Cain and Abel.  By “religion” we mean the way a person approaches God.  By “God” we mean: 1) the Creator of all, including people; and 2) the One who provides an adequate Savior to make atonement from our sins against the Creator.  That was “God” for Cain and Abel, who were seeking to atone for their sins.  They came to God, the Creator, because He had promised to provide an adequate Savior (Gen. 3:15).  And they were doing what made sense: when you come to God don’t come emptyhanded; come with gifts so as to give Him thanks.

It turned out that God required the worshiper to come with a blood sacrifice, something which Abel had done and Cain refused to do.  Thus, as we said, religion had it’s beginning.  From that time on, religion involved building altars, bringing live animals, killing the animals and thereby, worshiping God.  Not only did Abel do this.  Noah did it (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (12:7,8 and several other times), Jacob (Gen. 35:1) and Job (Job 1:5) did it.  And finally, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, also called “the priest of Midian” (Ex. 18:1), offered burnt offerings to the LORD (Ex. 18:11-12).  Be sure you note as well: in all these situations the men who built the altars also acted as priests.  A man was priest for his family and household.

Meanwhile, and the Bible doesn’t say much about this, people all over the earth were doing the same thing: building altars and offering blood sacrifices.  They were not necessarily worshiping YAHWEH.  Egypt had a religion, and it involved blood sacrifices.  But it also revolved around the Pharaoh.  And there was a class of priests who oversaw the religion (Gen. 47:22).  There was something similar in all religions because they all had their start in Gen. 4 (Cain and Abel) when both religion and religious persecution had its start.

Did you pay attention to Jethro’s words today?  “Now I know that the LORD (YAHWEH) is greater than all the gods” (18:11).  Each of the Ten Plagues in Egypt were an attack on gods of Egypt.  Moses had just told Jethro all that YAHWEH had done in delivering them, and Jethro, being a priest, sees the “theology” in it all.  Surely, Jethro had offered sacrifices to other gods, for himself and for others.  Remember: Abraham (at least while he was in his father’s house) had worshiped false gods before he came to know the true God (Josh 24:2).  What today’s passage reveals is the “coming to Christ” of Jethro.  More on this in the next post.