THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH Part 2
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH Part 2
Contemporaneous with convicting sinners of their need for salvation, baptising them into Christ and into His body, the church, the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church also encompasses teaching the church, testifying of Christ, guiding believers in all truths, glorifying Christ, imparting God's love to believers, empowering them to overcome sin, bearing witness to their adoption as sons of God, making known the things God has prepared for them, distributing gifts to the church, enduing believers with power to be Christ's witness in the world, helping them to pray, interceding for them with the Father, inviting all who are willing, to be saved.
These works are not conclusive but will suffice for the purpose of this study. Also, they are not in any official order but are listed like this simply to show the extent of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church (CP Jn 14:26).
This work of the Holy Spirit is to enable believers to understand clearly and to recall the teachings of Christ in scripture (CP 1Jn 2:20). Unction here (KJV), is the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon believers which enables them to distinguish between good and bad teaching in the church (CP V 27). This does not mean that human teachers are not needed in the church, but that believers, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, already known the truth and have no need of any instruction from false teachers who try to seduce them from the truth (CP V 20-27) the Holy Spirit testifies of Christ.
He bears witness to believers, then through them, to the world. He glorifies Christ in the outworking in believers of all the Spiritual gifts and graces He distributes to the church (CP Ro 12:5-18; 1Cor 12:4-11, 28; Eph 4:7-16). The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ in everything He has done and is doing in believers. It is only in and through the Holy Spirit that Christ is made known (CP Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:12-15: 1Cor 12:3; 1Jn 5:5-6).
The Holy Spirit will also raise up dead believers (CP Ro 8:11). Quicken here (KJV), means give life to. The Holy Spirit will raise up dead believers to life at the first resurrection, when Christ comes again to take all the saints of God back to heaven with Him (CP Jn 5:25, 28-29; 14:1-3; 1Cor 15:51-58; 1Th 4:13-18; Rev 20:4-6). The presence of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church is God's assurance to believers of their future resurrection and eternal inheritance in Christ (CP Ro 8:23; 1Cor 6:14; 2Cor 1:21-22; 4:13-14; 5:1-5; Eph 1:3-14; 4:30; 1Th 4:14).
The word earnest in 2Cor 1:22, 5:5 and Eph 1:14 (KJV), is used figuratively of the Holy Spirit which God has given to believers in this present life to assure them of their final redemption. Further proof of this is the love God has for believers which the Holy Spirit has poured out into their hearts (CP Jn 5:1-11). Eph 1:3-14 teaches that through their union with Christ, believers have already been made beneficiaries of every spiritual blessing from heaven in accordance with God's redemptive plan in Christ. Whether redemption, forgiveness, bodily healing, gifts of the Spirit, the assurance of immortality, the promise of the resurrection, the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven, the privileges of adoption, etc. The Holy Spirit is the source of them all.
The Holy Spirit bears witness to believers' adoption as sons of God when they receive Christ as their Saviour (CP Jn 1:12; Ga 3:26 with Ro 8:14-16; Ga 4:4-7). The Holy Spirit leads believers in the way of righteousness. He empowers them to follow after righteousness and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (CP Ro 6:6-7; Ga 2:20-21; 5:24-25). The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who diligently study God's word, and through anointed preachers and teachers God has set in the church (CP 2Ti 3:16-17 with Eph 4:11-16).
The Holy Spirit sanctifies believers for their salvation (CP 2Th 2:13). Sanctification in this context defines the work of the Holy Spirit in believers, separating them from sin to serve God; enabling them to live holy lives unto salvation (CP Ro 6:17-18, 22; 1Cor 1:30; 6:9-11; Col 3:5-7; Tit 3:3-7). The Holy Spirit produces Christlike graces in believers that glorifies Christ and ensures their salvation (CP Ga 5:22-25). The Holy Spirit transforms believers into Christ's image. His is a ministry of constant transformation, progressively moulding and refining believers as the reflection of God's standard they behold in Christ (CP 2Cor 3:18 with Ro 8:29; 2Cor 4:6). This is part of the process of believers' sanctification.
Another work of the Holy Spirit attributed to Him in scripture is generally misconstrued by most Christians (CP 1Cor 2:9-10). The things that God has prepared for them that love Him in V 9 is generally construed by contemporary Christians as referring to the wonders of heaven awaiting believers in eternity. But a careful study of the context in which the words in V 9 were spoken, clearly shows that is not correct (CP V 1-10). When kept in context it is plainly evident that what Paul said in V 9 does not refer to the wonders of heaven awaiting believers in eternity, but rather to the knowledge of God's purpose for fallen man, which the Holy Spirit imparts to believers in this life, which is what V 10 clearly teaches.
The Wisdom of God in a mystery in V 7 is the gospel - God's plan of Redemption for fallen man through the propitiatory death of His Son, Jesus Christ (CP Ro 16:25-26). It was God's plan of redemption for fallen man through the propitiatory death of Jesus Christ, His Son, that Paul was referring to in 1Cor 2:9 which was revealed by the Holy Spirit in V 10. It was not the wonders of heaven awaiting believers in eternity, as so many think (CP 1Cor 2:11-16 with Psa 31:19-24 and Ro 11:33-36). Had the religious leaders of Israel been open to receiving the knowledge of God, they would never have crucified Jesus (CP 1Cor 2:8).
Because believers sometimes do not know what they should pray for as they ought, the Holy Spirit helps them to pray. He intercedes for them with God for that which He knows accords with God's will (CP Ro 8:26-27; 1Cor 2:11). Groanings which cannot be uttered in Ro 8:26 refers to prayers to God expressed inarticulately. This points to the intercessory prayer of the Holy Spirit being uttered by believers praying in tongues. The expression of believers' hearts and spirits are taken by the Holy Spirit and made into effectual prayer (CP Ac 2:4; 1Cor 14:14; Eph 6:18; Jude 20).
This is not an exhaustive study, but shows something of the vast sphere of operation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church. It is apt then to close the study on His empowering of believers for their witness to Christ in the world (CP Lu 24:46-49 with Ac 1:4-5, 8). Being endued with power from on high, means being baptised in the Holy Spirit. The sure evidence that this has occurred is the recipient's ability to talk in tongues (CP Ac 2:1-4; 10:44-46; 19:1-6).
When they are baptised in the Holy Spirit, believers are empowered to cast out demons; take up serpents; not be harmed if they drink any deadly poison; heal the sick; raise the dead; make the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, etc. In fact, they can do everything and more, that Jesus himself did in His earthly ministry (CP Mk 16:17-20; Jn 14:12-14). This empowering by the Holy Spirit is the inherent right of every believer in Christ throughout the church age, from the day of Pentecost onward (CP Ac 2:37-39).
All that are afar off in V 39, includes believers today. (For a more detailed study on the baptism in the Holy Spirit see Lesson 4, Baptism in the Spirit, in author's book Foundational Truths of the Christian Faith, Signs and wonders in God's redemptive plan, in Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith, (Volume 1), and comments on Mt 3:11, Mk 16:17-18, Lu 12:49, Jn 3:3, Jn 3:5, Jn 3:8, Jn 7:37-39, Jn 14:12-14, Jn 20:22, Ac 1:8, Ac 2:1-4(a), Ac 2:1-4(B), Ac 19:11-12, Ro 8:26-27, 1Cor 12:1-11(A), 1Cor 12:1-11(B), 1Cor 13:8-12 in A Question and Answer Study of the New Testament).
These Studies by Br Val Boyle may be downloaded and freely distributed but not sold for profit.