P.M. Sermon
Spring Hill, TN
2/18/07 p.m.
Series: “Discovering the Holy Spirit” (Pt. 5)
Text: Various texts
Summary: In PART 5, we discover the first two main categories of the Holy Spirit’s work: (1) giving knowledge (2) giving power. (a helpful resource from which I gained considerable insight in this sermon was Jack Cottrell’s book The Faith Once for All on pages 287-290).
“The Holy Spirit Gives Us Knowledge”
Introduction:
A. The Work of the Holy Spirit
1. So far in this series, we have explored the person of the Holy Spirit. We have introduced the Spirit as a divine Person of the Godhead and how Christians must be born of the Spirit.
2. This brings us to the work that the Holy Spirit does.
3. Through a survey of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, one comes to discover two main categories of the Spirit’s work (1) he gives us knowledge (2) and he gives us power.
4. In this lesson, we are going to explore how the Spirit gives us knowledge, and we will look at the power the Spirit provides in the next.
B. Agreement and Disagreement in Christendom
1. The relationship between the Bible (the written word) and the work of the Holy Spirit is a matter of both strong agreement and strong disagreement in Christendom (Cottrell 287).
2. Among conservative believers there is great agreement that the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of the Bible.
3. However, there is great disagreement among conservatives about whether or not the Spirit directly helps us understand the Bible.
4. What does the Biblical evidence indicate about the work of the Holy Spirit in giving us knowledge?
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE
A. The Spirit Transmits God’s Word
1. God has made himself known to mankind in two ways (1) general revelation (nature, design, etc.-cf. Rom. 1:20), (2) special revelation.
2. General revelation is limited; there are many things about God that we are totally dependant upon God to tell us in some direct message.
3. God had given special revelation about himself in “various forms and ways” (Heb. 1:1-3); for example (1) God’s mighty deeds in history (2) his spoken word to mankind (3) and in his personal visible presence.
4. Of all the forms of God’s special revelation, it is his word revelation that is most crucial for our knowledge of Him (Cottrell 48).
5. The fact that God has revealed himself in human words is one of the plainest teachings in the entire Bible.
6. In fact, the very word “Scripture” (graphe) means “writing” and this term is used by the Spirit to describe divine communication (2 Tim. 3:16).
7. This verbal message of God was transmitted by the Holy Spirit, was we discover in the next points.
B. The Spirit and the Old Testament Prophets
1. God made use of human spokesmen (prophets) to deliver his message to other people.
2. This process occurred in two steps (1) God places the message in the prophet’s mind in some way (“revelation”) (2) the prophet delivers the message (without mistakes) to others either orally or in writing
3. How could the prophet communicate the message keeping everything straight so that no mistakes were made in delivering the message to others?
4. This is the process of inspiration—“the supernatural influence exerted by the Holy Spirit upon prophets and apostles which enabled them to communicate without error or omission those truths, received through revelation or otherwise, which God deemed necessary for our salvation and service” (Cottrell 50).
5. This is the very concept proclaimed by Peter, “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” (2 Pt. 1:19-20).
6. Because of the mysterious process of inspiration by the Holy Spirit, every word of the original writings (autographs) of the Bible are of divine origin and therefore have God’s “stamp of approval” (Cottrell 51).
C. The Spirit and Jesus
1. The work of Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit are closely related.
2. Jesus was born into the flesh of Mary by the power and work of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18).
3. The Holy Spirit was actively at work at Jesus’ baptism (Matt. 3:16) where the power of the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus “without measure” (John 3:34).
4. When Jesus would be glorified, he promised to send the Holy Spirit with further messages for the apostles “guiding them into all truth” (John 16:13), and helping them to have a remembrance of the things they had learned while Jesus was with them (John 14:26).
5. Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to the apostles providing them with new messages and providing them with infallible memories of what Jesus had already taught them (Cottrell 54).
6. The context of these promises demonstrates that they were made specifically to the apostles and not to all Christians generally.
D. The Spirit and the Apostles
1. Jesus did, in fact, send the Holy Spirit to the Apostles as he promised some 10 days following his ascension into heaven (Acts 1:8; 2:4).
2. As a result, the Apostles were “filled with the Spirit” and spoke messages directly from God (cf. Acts 4:8).
3. The Apostle Paul affirms that the origin of the Christian message was divine given through God’s “holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” (Eph. 3:5).
4. Paul, for instance, was aware of the fact that as he wrote his New Testament letters that it was a message from God, “The things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment” (1 Cor. 14:37).
5. The New Testament apostolic writings are placed on the same level with known Old Testament inspired Scriptures; in fact, Peter says that the letters of Paul are compared to “the rest of the Scriptures” implying that Paul’s writings are Scripture from God (2 Pt. 3:15-16).
6. The messages that the Spirit transmitted to the apostles were communicated by them both “by word of mouth” and “by our epistle” (2 Thes. 2:15) as well as by apostolic example (2 Thes. 3:9).
E. The Spirit and the New Testament Prophets
1. Miraculous abilities were given to the Apostles through the power of the Spirit; including abilities that would help in communicating God’s revelation such as speaking in tongue and prophecy (cf. Acts 2:4-6).
2. These abilities were endowed upon individuals for the purpose of communicating and confirming the message from God (Heb. 2:2-4; cf. Mark 16:20). [There will be more on this in a specific lesson in this series].
3. The miraculous abilities were transmitted, by the apostles, to other people within the early church by means of the “laying on of the apostles’ hands” (Acts 8:17-19; 2 Tim. 1:6).
4. Therefore, within local congregations there were Christians who had the “gift of prophecy” (cf. 1 Cor. 14:1), and these individuals would communicate God’s will to the local churches. These were the New Testament prophets of the early church (cf. Eph. 3:5).
II. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
A. The Doctrine of Illumination
1. Many people believe that the Holy Spirit not only gave us the Bible, but that He helps give us definitive help in understanding it.
2. This is the doctrine of illumination which teaches tat the Spirit speaks directly to our minds, directly stimulating our intellects to perceive the true meaning of Scripture.
3. There are many passages that people appeal to for this belief including Matt. 10:19-20; John 14:26; 1 Cor. 2:10-13; et al.
4. Many people seem to believe that this is the main purpose of the Spirit’s indwelling within the Christian, to help open his eyes and illuminate his understanding of Scripture.
B. Illumination is an Unbiblical Doctrine (Cottrell 288)
1. This concept of Spirit illumination is not a biblical doctrine; this is true for several reasons:
2. First, if it were true then why do different Christians who claim to be illuminated by the Spirit have different and opposing understandings of the same passage of Scripture? (i.e. gender roles, millennium, etc).
3. Second, it is a useless concept because everyone realizes that Christians grow in their understanding and sometimes change their interpretations of Scripture.
4. Third, the doctrine is a bi-product of the Calvinistic doctrine of universal total depravity. It is believed that illumination from the Spirit is necessary because totally depraved people cannot understand the Bible without the Spirit’s help.
5. Forth, the idea has no real basis in the teaching of Scripture. The passages that are appealed to for proof-texts are, ironically, misinterpreted and misapplied. Most speak only to the apostles and not to all Christians (in context). To apply these passage to all Christians is to mishandle the text and is serious error.
C. Yet, we do receive help from God
1. Even though the concept of Spirit illumination is an unbiblical concept, that is not to say that God does not help us in our efforts to understand his Word.
2. Never does Scripture describe this as a distinctive work of the Spirit for Christians, but rather God promises to help us as a part of his special providence in answer to prayer.
3. God promises to give us “wisdom” if we ask for such without doubting (James 1:5-6; Eph. 1:17-18).
4. The question is not what God can do, but rather the question is what has God revealed to us in his word that he is doing.
5. The Bible presents to us that God does not answer our prayers to help us understand his word by directly feeding knowledge into our minds, but rather he provides us with the means to achieve that knowledge through personal study and meditation of his written message.
6. God will sharpen our mental processes, clear our preoccupied minds, prevent distractions, help us concentrate, and help us process the material and put ideas together.
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SPECIAL GIFTS OF KNOWLEDGE
A. Additional Knowledge Outside Scripture?
1. Does the Holy Spirit give Christians knowledge today besides the pages of Scripture?
2. Many Christians assume that this is what the “gift of the Holy Spirit” that the Christian receives at baptism (Acts 2:38) does—supplies knowledge and subjective guidance that helps us know God’s will for our lives.
3. I will affirm that this is a mistaken view of the purpose of the Spirit’s indwelling.
4. The Holy Spirit himself affirms in the written message that “Scripture” will fully equip the Christian with everything he needs (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Spirit itself affirms that there is no need for additional messages outside of Scripture.
5. The context of being “led by the Spirit” in Romans 8:14 demonstrates that this concept is not receiving subjective intellectual enlightenment from the Spirit, but rather receiving the inward empowerment to overcome moral weakness, resist temptation, and put sin to death in our bodies (8:13) (Cottrell 289).
B. Special Gifts of Knowledge in First Century
1. It is true that the Spirit gave special gifts of knowledge to early Christians including supernatural knowledge, prophecy, word of wisdom, gifts of tongues, and gifts of interpretation (1 Cor. 12:8-10).
2. The Holy Spirit gave these messages to local churches providing them with authoritative teaching between Pentecost and the writing of the New Testament (Cottrell 289-290).
3. Some believe that the Spirit is still giving such supernatural knowledge to the church today.
4. Others believe that these gifts ceased when the New Testament writings were complete.
5. I take this latter view—that the Holy Spirit does not give knowledge in these ways today.
6. In further lessons in this series we will explore the Biblical evidence that affirms this.
Conclusion:
A. As we conclude, I affirm that the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit’s gift of knowledge is given to Christians today through the Bible and in no other way.
B. That is not to say, however, that the Holy Spirit does not do other things for the Christian today outside of the Word; but that the Spirit does not provide additional revelation, knowledge, or information outside of His message in the Scriptures.
C. In the next lesson, we will explore the second major category of the Holy Spirit’s work: He Gives Us Power.
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