GospelDrivenLife

Thoughts on the gifts

It has been months and months since I posted in the continuation of spiritual gifts in the life of the church.  This afternoon I had a few minutes to reflect again on why I do not think any of the gifts have ceased.  These are just a few random thoughts:

The Holy Spirit

What us your understanding of the Holy Spirit?

My preaching on Sunday took us to the first section of John 14-16 where there is dense teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  Here is God the Son telling us about God the Holy Spirit. The focus on John 14 is the Holy Spirit and the believer.

What the text says:

1. It is about redemptive history.  Jesus is to be glorified, to head to the cross in obedience to the Father, and when he ascends in glory to God's right hand -- Psalm 110 -- he will continue his work on earth, and will do greater works in answer to prayer . . . . until he comes back for his own.  That is all of John 13:21-14:31.
2. It moves the work of the God the Spirit to center-stage in this time.  Acts 2 says we have come to the last days (end of the cursed age) and God has poured out the Spirit upon all flesh -- his work and gifting are universal in the body of Christ.
3. He is sent with a focus -- the application of the achievements of the cross and empty tomb in forming a new people -- to make real to them the manifest presence of the exalted Christ with all the fruit that comes from that.

Couple of implications:

1. The church is a work worthy of God and not humanly achievable.  The temptation is for it to degenerate into a sociological institution.
2. The Holy Spirit may be "modest" but Jesus does not say, "I will ascend to heaven and "something is going to happen."  He honors and points to the Spirit and so does the rest of the NT.
3. We are to honor the Holy Spirit by knowing His Person and work and by pursuing His work in us.  The text is unquestionably doctrinal AND experiential (you will KNOW . . . make our home with him . . .  peace).  Borrowing from Jonathan Edwards I told our people on Sunday that there is a difference between being fully informed about the ingredients and the chemistry in making a chocolate chip cookie -- and savoring the fragrance of the cookies as they bake in the oven.  The work of the Holy Spirit is BOTH for us.  Let us not be content with mere information.
4. We are to honor him by pursuing him DAILY.  We did not press our people to a one-time "get it all" experience but to a life of seeking the fullness of the Spirit.
5. The fruit of that seeking is clear in the text -- it is not willy nilly goosebumps -- it is awe before Christ, obedience, tender-hearted love to the Savior, obedience, knowing the truth.
6. There is NO basis from this text for any form of cessationism.  There is no hint of an apostolic era work of the Spirit to be followed by lesser outpouring.  v. 26 may speak of the place of Scripture but not solely that.  The hinge of redemptive history is the cross and empty tomb NOT the death of the last of the 12.

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is at work to bring about the new creation. Let us worship Him.

Interview with Mark Dever

Interview
I link the attached so you can see Mark Dever's perspective on cessationism.  This is an excellent interview.

cessationism -- one time thoughts

I have become aware that there is considerable internet blogging about the cessation of spiritual gifts -- especially with regard to the idea that everyone is really a cessationist in some form.  I do not wish to get pulled into this debate (it is endless) but I want to offer a few thoughts.

Most of all, as I read what is out there I find a remarkable lack of definition -- what do we mean by gift?  office?  the beginning of the church age?  apostolic?  So we are not really discussing the same subjects.  Until we define, a skill C S Lewis showed repeatedly, we will not clarify anything.

1. I believe there was a unique band of men who were the 12 apostles.  I use the term office for them.  yes, there were ceratin makrs of their ministry.  Their number is a given throughout the NT and even the book of revelation honors them in the new Jerusalem.  Their qualifications (See Acts 1) mean they cannot be replicated and no one ever again holds their position.  They were "sent ones" of Jesus Christ and called apostles.  To say that believing in their cessation means the apostolic gift no longer exists is like saying that because I believe Moses was unique and no one took his place  means then there is no such thing as a prophet afterwards.  Nor do I think being a non-cessationist means that there would be a continuation of the cloud on the top of Sinai. 

2. The term "apostolos" is not a technical term for one of the twelve -- it has wider usage.  There are technical terms in the NT -- graphe, gegraptai, hilasterion, etc.  When you look up a technical term in the dictionary it has one meaning underneath it.  When you look up non-tecnical terms, they have two or more meanings.  "apostolos" has two or more meanings and the term is used for someone other than the 12.  The fact that the 12 were so gifted does not mean the gift has ceased.  Paul was also a preacher and a teacher and I tdo not hink those gifts ceased. The term "prophet" in the OT has much wider usage than we like too -- when Saul prophesied why wasn't someone writing it down to put it into the Canon of Scripture?  How can we have schools of the prophets?  what was that all about?

3. Theologically, cessationism is asking me to redefine the very nature of the body of Christ after the apostolic era.  That the Spirit of God gifts members of the body to minister to each other is clear in the NT.  If he does not, then the analogy is turned on its head.

4. That certain people abuse gifts does not argue for anything -- I have heard far more abuse of teaching gift than I have seen anything else.  Everything is abused in the hands of sinners. Out of 100 churches today, how many are experiencing an abuse of the office of pastor?  what does that prove?  How many Christian books are an abuse of an office or gift?

5. To argue that, if we believe in the gifts still existing, then we will end up with new revelation competing with Scripture is equally illogical.  The domino theory does not work anywhere.  I have been told over the years that if we have senior pastors, they will inevitably become dictators; that if we have plural elders we will inevitably become unable to lead.

6. I have been most struck by this reality -- having been part of 8 churches as a member or pastor, most of which were cessationist -- I saw the workings of the Spirit in all of them even when people would not use certain terms to describe it.  And I saw gifts in operation that many of the members would say had ceased.  This was part of my movement away from cessationism.

Yes, it must all go back to Scripture and there is no place for certain pronouncements apart from the text -- anything else is at best humble speculation. If someone cannot give me a text or the best they can give me is a possible implication or inference of the text then I must assume that God did not see fit to be clear on this and that he is wiser than I. 

But there are some things the Scriptures seem to repeat endlessly and those are where my focus is to rest.  God determines both what he says and the empahsis given to it.  It is for such a reason that I have ceased speculation about eschatology.  There are only so many hours of the day and I am called to steward them wisely.  Let us fight error only as necessary.  Error wars are fascinating and I have rarely seen anyone get off on fighting a particular error where his soul was not warped in the process.  We can spend so much time chasing crows that we never plant the corn.

After thirty years of studying the Bible I agree with Charles Simeon -- let's quit forcing the text into our theology.  God oversaw the writing of the Scriptures and the words were selected under his direction -- the fact that Paul sometimes writes like an Arminian and at others like a Calvinist probably says more about my stupidity than anything else.  No system of soteriology, ecclesiology, spiritual gifts and pneumatology, or eschatology explains everything.  They all have texts that are difficult for them to explain and they all resort to the adage "let the unclear be interpreted by the clear". 

John Newton wrote these words:

Men are born, educated, and called under a variety of circumstances. Habits of life, local customs, and even bodily constitution, have more or less influence in forming their characters, and in giving a turn to their manner of thinking. The result is this: in whatever is essential to their peace and holiness, they are led by the same Spirit and think the same things. But in matters of a secondary nature their sentiments may, and often do, differ, as much as the features on their faces. A uniformity of judgment among them is not to be expected while the wisest are defective in knowledge, the best are defiled with sin, and while the weaknesses of human nature are common to them all. They might maintain a unity of spirit, and live in mutual love, were it not that everyone believes that they are bound in conscience to prescribe their own line of conduct as the standard to which all others must conform. Their little differences form them into so many separate interests. They defend their own plans and oppose all who cannot agree with them in a small matter. This makes them forget they are children in the same family and servants of the same master.

Tim Challies thoughtful Review

Tim Challies has a thoughtful review of Sam waldron's new book on Cessationism.  His argument, as summarized there (and I have not read it yet) is that if one goft has passed, then we can see more gifts ceasing as well.  The gift we think has passed in apostle.

It can be found here.Challies

My comments are posted there as well.

As a non-cessationist I do not find it difficult to think that there were 12 unique men in the history of the church who held the office of apostle. The qualifications of such -- eye-witnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of the Christ -- cannot be repeated in history.

The use of apostolos in the NT is broader than that -- it is not a technical term used only for the twelve, and that, in itself, opens the door for a continuation of the gift but not the unique role of the 12. Strange that when translated into Latin we find the verb "missio" and from that we get "missionary." It was George Peters of Dallas Seminary who suggested apostolic role to catalytic church planters we call missionaries.

This means that the role of the 12 and the gift of apostle are two separate categories. Let's call it gifting and office. Paul was also a gifted teacher -- but no one say that such a gift has ended with the 12.

I think the gift still exists, whether called that or not. My observation of recent history, let alone all of history, is that there are men who are gifted as leaders of movements and not just local churches -- they are catalysts for church planting by the dozens. I know of one man who was responsible for planting over 300 churches in

Guatemala

. I would call that an apostolic gift. I would put John MacArthur, Tim Keller, and C J Mahaney in the category of apostolic gifting. That would shock all three of them to be put together. Their influence simply exceeds one local church. Mark Driscoll would be another.

If It can be proven that certain gifts were uniquely tied to the 12, then we may say those gifts have ceased -- but no such proof exists. Neither prophesy, nor tongues, nor healing seem to be tied solely to the 12.

The Gospel Age and Continuationism

Just now God brought to mind another reason why I ceased to be a cessationist.

Place this one in the esoteric category of Realized Eschatology.  That clarifies it doesn't it?!  Let me explain.

It all has to do with God's time-line of history. 

There is Creation -- the beginning of time and space.

There is the Fall of man and the resulting disorder of the cosmos -- all is subject to death, corruption and vanity.  The whole creation groans in the pains of childbirth.  See Romans 8:18-25.

In the midst of these, God gives a promise of the reversal of the curse of sin -- of a new creation -- of the earth being filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  Few sections of Scripture speak more clearly of this than Isaiah 61-66.  This reversal will take place through his anointed -- the Messiah.

For years I was taught that the focus of all these promises was in a future millennium.  But I think the focus is in the cross and the empty tomb.  By man came death, by man comes the resurrection of the dead.  Jesus triumphant sacrifice and resurrection begins the new age.  He is exalted to God's right hand in fulfillment of Psalm 110.  The latter portion of Scripture is the most frequently quoted from the OT.

Where does that leave us today?  It places us in the last chapter of the old order of sin.  No one knows how long that chapter is -- but the next event will be its completion.  It also places us in the first chapter of the new age.  We are tasting of the powers of the age to come.  We have already stood before the final judgment and been declared righteous.  We died with Christ and we are risen.  The old order is dying off and the new order is dawning (Romans 13:11-14).  This is called "realized eschatology." 

Realized eschatology is the conclusion scholars have reached when they string together the many NT texts that speak of a present enjoyment of a future reality. Essentially, the conclusion is simple: when Jesus died and rose again he brought an end to the old order, and began the new.  We live between the ages -- with one foot in both kingdoms. 

Here is how this ties into cessation-ism.  The new age, according to Joel and Peter's quoting of him at Pentecost, is the age of the pouring out of the Spirit.  Paul speaks to this in 2 Corinthians 3 and in multiple other places -- the earnest of the Spirit, the sealing of the Spirit, the mark of the Spirit on the believer.  The end of the former age and the beginning of the new took place at the resurrection.  Christ is risen, the first-fruits of those who sleep. 

Classical cessation-ism theorizes that there is an apostolic era, a transitional time in the beginning of the age, after which certain gifts fade.  But this is to place the transition at the wrong point in time.  It is not the apostles presence that marks the age.  It is the empty tomb. 

I cannot find one NT passage that gives any sense of any other transition -- we live in the new age, the new covenant, the age of the Spirit.  This is because Christ is risen.  The pouring forth of the Spirit is the mark of this age -- thus Peter explains in Acts 2 and Paul assumes in 1 Cor 12:13 and Gal 3:1-14. The use of 1 Corinthians 13 is unfortunate for it actually underscores this point -- the perfect that will come and cause the gifts to cease is the consummation at the coming of Jesus.

This age is NOT like the month of March -- coming in like a lion but going out like a Lamb. It has no transitions to lesser activity of the Spirit within it.   It is entirely characterized by the abundant work of the Spirit in bringing to reality what the Savior died to accomplish -- the church.  He does so through the members of the body.  He uses them to build up each other and gives them gifts to do so.

Please note -- all this is under the ruling purpose of the cross.  There is no place for the free-lance expression of the gifts for whatever purpose we dream up.  They are given by the Spirit and He is poured forth by the Risen Christ for his purposes in this age.

PS on Reformed Continuationist

One more set of thoughts:

1. In practice this means we are not "in charge" of our gatherings -- we plan but we believe that the Holy Spirit withholds enough so that we look to him to direct in that moment.  I am learning this and find it takes cultivation.  So, while we have the songs and structure set -- the liturgy -- we find that there are surprises.  We do not quench the Spirit by laziness in failing to plan and we do not quench the Spirit by dismissing his active presence as we gather.  The same applies to home groups.

2. We do not allow abuse to stifle all expression of the Spirit's work.  We do not react to the bizarre use of gifts to put an end to all expressions of gifts.  That is clearly what Paul is admonishing in 1 Corinthians 14 (forbid not!) and 1 Thessalonians 5 (test, do not put out the Spirit's fire).

3. We evaluate all public utternace before it is given and allow only that which builds faith.

The bottom line is simple -- I want to be hungry for God's work in my life.  I want to live in the fullness of Christ for his glory.  I do not want to move into a quiet and mechanical life or church experience.  We live in the Age of the Spirit and I want to enter into that as much as possible.  lack of hunger is one of the most insidious evidences of iundwelling sin.  I want to kill my apathy and self-sufficiency. I want to thirst for Christ.

Reformed Continuationist Part 3

Jacob Hantla has asked -- so what does it look like to be a Reformed Continuationist in real life?  Since I used to be his pastor in a previous place, I owe him an answer!

First, when I was forming my convictions on this,  I was studying Scripture and no "experience" led me to my conclusions.  I have never been "baptized in the Spirit" as per the classical pentecostal definition, but I have known "fillings" many times.  I did not have a tongues experience at an altar call!  No one ever pressed me on any of these points.  I have sought to test things by the Word, and while someone like Lloyd-Jones opened me to re-consider the work of the Spirit, I ended up not agreeing with his view of the baptism of the Spirit or the sealing of the Spirit.

Second, while I re-thinking my position and I was a pastor leading churches which were cessationist, I saw many evidences of the Spirit's work in people -- they were not unspiritual at all.  Some folks, like an elderly lady named Lorene, once pressed me with whether I honored the Holy Spirit in my preaching -- quite a question for a Baptist! She was one of many who had known the witness and assurance of the Spirit in her life and had tasted the goodness of the Lord.

Third, I saw in both charismatic and non-charismatic friends examples of people who were grieving the Spirit.  One church I knew was regularly divided by folks who had prophetic gifts and were proud.  I saw many folks whose hearts were filled with shadows, afraid of being known for their real sinful selves, and angry at anyone who sought to probe their hearts. They lived lives of quenching the Spirit and would have been the first in line to squelch anything like a fresh work of the Spirit in awakening.  I saw a church so filled with deep division and bitterness that there was no activity of the Spirit in corporate worship.

I say all this because this range of experience and pastoral involvement with people forced me to look in the right places.  What I began to pursue and seek was "abounding fruit" in godliness, fellowship that was driven by the Gospel and was real, and deep, moving beyond polite and superficial talk, ministry of members to members that was rooted in the work of the Spirit through their gifts and graces, and a deep delight in Jesus the Savior. 

Pursuing the present active work of the Spirit has been, in my experience, as much about receiving a word of correction, or seeing my sin and Savior more clearly, as it has been about something like the gift of tongues. Indeed, I would say from 1 Corinthians 12-14 -- that humility, depth of fellowship, boldness in witness are more a certain work of the Spirit than tongues. And I have seen those qualities more pervasively in people who are biblically pursuing the filling of the Spirit in their lives than I have among certain cessationists.

OK, OK, -- so what about the gifts?  Isn't that what the question?  First, I have become more aware of the work of the Spirit through people and how he gifts the,  It is as though I see now in technicolor.  I know brothers who are anointed administrators!  I know one man who is the most Spirit-filled servant I have ever known.  I see the Spirit's work through men whose influence is larger than a local church.  I know people who have the Grudem-defined prophetic gift and have served others with it -- myself included. I have been brought to tears many times by people whose well-developed prophetic gift spoke into the depths of my heart with remarkable power. 

Second, I have heard people tell their story about receiving a gift of tongues -- and like my experience, I hear people talk about a time when they were alone, with no external manipulation, and the Holy Spirit met them with this gift of a prayer language.  I do think the gift exists today.

Third, my own gifting is clearly as a pastor-teacher -- and people who think of the gifts of the Spirit as the active work of the Spirit in the moment tell me that this is where the work of the Spirit is most evident in me. I embrace this and pray for the work of the Spirit through me.

What it looks like is simple:
1. a stirring of my heart often and daily to pursue the fullness of the Spirit in my life -- and I feel I am just a novice in this.
2. A conscious turning of my inward eye and ear to the Holy Spirit as I move through the day and especially as I lead Sunday.
3. A praying for and cultivation of all the gifts of the Spirit -- I do not exclude any.  I think the point is NOT that I get a gift, but that I SERVE with my gift.
4. An exercise in discernment when someone claims to have a new "word" from God and wants it to displace Scripture.
5. An encouragement of others and the church I lead to pursue the filling of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit for the church -- and to be responsive to the inner direction of the Spirit.  A good part of that is putting sin to death vigorously and putting on Christ. 
6. I pursue Gospel centered fellowship - I find the Holy Spirit works through others in relationship (SURPRISE) and much more so than when have programs that gather people in a room for an activity or to watch someone else work.  The work of the Spirit is powerful to me in a Gospel-centered dinner conversation followed by prayer. Much more so than attending events!

I find that I am still a "deist" at heart -- I think that ministry and life is all about what I know and what formulas I follow in doing things.  I have to make myself meditate on these things and pursue them.  I am entirely too self-sufficient and live within my own resources.  And I expect so little at times.  I want so much to see the abounding fruit of the active presence of God in my own heart and among the people I serve

PS reply -- the issue is the active pursuit of the active presence and work of the Spirit in the church.  The goal is the application of Jesus death and resurrection to the church in godliness.  Everything serves Christ.  Paul commands us to earnestly desire the gifts -- all so that the church may be edified. 

Reformed Continuationist part 2

Reformed and Continuationist -- how can this be? 

I have had more comments on the post of a few days ago than on many others combined . . .  so I wanted to do a part 2.

Let me give a few hurdles for me that were overcome by Scripture.  First, I had to come to see that there was a heavy experiential nature to the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer and the church.  This will be a quick list. 

• Starting with Acts, the work of the Spirit had effect!  Boldness, conviction of sin, joy, faith were all marks of the Spirit.
• Romans 8.26-27 spoke of a conscious assistance of the Spirit in prayer that was new to me -- combined with passages like Eph 6 (Praying in the Spirit). 
• Take 1 Cor 12.13 -- we were immersed in the Spirit and made to drink of one Spirit.  What else is that by experience that effects life? 
• Galatians 3 threw me -- Paul interrogates the errant Galatians by asking about their receiving of the Spirit and speaks of the continuous supply of the Spirit to them -- all in response to their eye of faith upon Christ. I would never have asked the question!
• Eph 5.18 seems to describe a work of the Spirit that was fruitful in a life of joy. 
• Phil 3:1-3 the true circumcision worship by the Spirit.  I could go on to note that assurance the Spirit of God gives both in John 14 and Romans 8:14-17 plus Galatians 4:4-7. 
• And Paul says his preaching was not in word only but in the Holy Spirit and power (1 Thess 1:2-5).

From these and other texts I began to see that the work of the Spirit was experiential in the New Testament and that he was not the "quiet member" of the Trinity. Indeed, none of my favorites of history believed that.

Second, I had to see that I had no exegetical basis for cessationisn.  That came by going back to the key texts and seeing that I had read something into them that was not there.  At the same time I studied the passages on the gifts and saw no distinction made in Paul or Peter between sign gifts or other gifts -- they are all in a muddle of Spirit activity.  I began to see I was reading certain things into the text.  I also sat with 1 Corinthians 14 and read a variety of ideas into the passage where the word "tongues" occured -- what made the most sense of the text was "a language intended for personal prayer."

The last step for me was moving from an open but cautious position to a pursuit of a place and ministry where the ministry of the Spirit was pursued with pastoral oversight and biblical rigor.  That step came through a brother, who suggested that "open but cautious" sounded non-commital!  And he wondered how I would respond to church members who were open but cautious about godliness.  I was caught!

The challenge was finding a place where all of this came together -- Gospel centrality and the controlling purpose of Jesus mission, plus the active work of the Spirit, solid theology, and biblical integrity.  I wanted to be where this was pursued and done with humility and where I could learn.  I did not want to go into a place that was crazy about these things, but put them in their proper place before the Lord of glory.

I am a novice in all this -- but convinced that my exegetical conclusions must control me and I do not need to react to abuse by becoming so cautious I quench the Spirit of God.  My greatest desire has been to see the Lord of the Church, which he purchased with his blood, build up his people by the Spirit whom he has sent and the gifts he gives.  That is why I am Gospel Driven. 

How did I become a Reformed Continuationist?

Two streams of history are merging in groups like Sovereign Grace MInistries and The Association of Charismatic Reformed Churches.  On the one hand there are those deeply committed to theological reflection and biblical supremacy.  On the other, there are folks who find a robust doctrine of the Spirit in pre-20th century Reformed writers.

My own journey was sparked by Lloyd-Jones on the Spirit of God in his sermons in Romans 8.  His historical survey made me see that my anti-Spirit-experience prejudice was the minority position of the Protestant era. J I Packer's excellent work, Keep in Step with the Spirit, moved me to appreciate the marks of the Spirit in the charismatic world.  This was informed by Edwards defense of the Great Awakening and his Relgious Affections.  From these I gleaned the clear markers of the Spirit's activity and found as much evidence of the Spirit's work among charismatic friends as I ever did among cessationists.  When I was honest I also found as much flesh generated weirdness in the cessationist world as I saw in the charismatics.

John Piper played a big role in his sermons on the Kingdom and Power.  Then Gordon Fee's exegesis of key texts in the work of the Spirit drove home by tendency to selective exegesis.  I well remember the night at Regent College's Pastors Conference in 1990 where I scoured my NT for all the references to the Holy Spirit and realzed how I dishonored his work.  He is certainly not the quiet member of the Trinity!

Add to all that a steady preaching through Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, the prison epistles -- plus studying John Owen's 3rd volume on the Holy Spirit.  All this brought me to see that the Holy Spirit had not changed his work from the first century -- but I had no idea where this was being lived out with doctrinal and pastoral control.  So I prayed and shut up and waited.  Over many years God brought me into the family of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

During the waiting I was being moved toward seeing the Gospel as the center of all things.  That has become the core of my biblical theology.  It also furthered by commitment to the work of the Spirit.  More than that, the death, burial, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus told me of the purpose for the pouring out of the Spirit in this age.  The Spirit of God is the marker of the rule of Messiah and the beginning of the age in which he rules.  He is a down payment on our future inheritance.   My understanding of the work of the Spirit's is Gospel Driven.  He is sent into the world by the exalted Christ to apply the Redeemer's work to his own -- to call the church into being -- to perfect her -- to purify the saints -- and to gift the members of the church for the purpose of edification.  He emboldens for witness and convicts of sin. 

This guards my seeking of his active work from the extremes discussed recently on other websites.  There is no room for sensationalism here -- all that he does is to further the achievement of the Savior in the life of His people. That is primarily seen in sanctification. 

He is active in the lives of God's people and to be active in the church. We are to desire his filling in our lives each day. I believe we are to honor Him as part of honoring our Great Redeemer.