The Gift of the Holy Spirit--William S. Banowshky
THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
By WILLIAM S. BANOWSKY
OUTLINE
I. INTRODUCTION: The "gift of the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2 : was promised by Christ and given first on the day of Pentecost to the thousands who "gladly received the word."
I. Two Promises, Two Commands.
1. Repent and be baptized.
II. Every baptized believer should have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
1. The second promise has been frequently neglected in our preaching.
III. "Unto them that obey him" (Acts 5:32).
1. Obedience is prerequisite to a reception of the Spirit.
2. Every baptized believer should receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
IV. The Indwelling Spirit.
1. The "gift of the Holy Spirit" is not equivalent to miracu-lous "gifts of the Spirit."
2. The heart of every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
V. Jesus sent the "Comforter" to dwell within the believer.
1. The Spirit Dwells Through Faith.
2. Relation of the Spirit to the Word.
3. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:17).
VI. The Seal of Pardon.
1. The Spirit is the certificate of redemption.
2. The Spirit is an earnest of our inheritance.
VII. Led by the Spirit.
1. Put to death the deeds of the body.
2. Produce the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5).
VIII. Conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
"For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:39). There is no more thrilling message in all the Bible than these words of a promise. With this prom-ise the Apostle Peter concluded his epoch-making address atPentecost. And with this promise the Christian religion ceased to be mere theory and became reality in the lives of several thousand who "gladly received the word."
What was this crucial promise to which Peter's sermon so movingly pointed? Ten days prior to Pentecost, when the Lord met for the last time with his little band of believers, he had instructed them to wait in Jerusalem "for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me" (Acts 1:4).
Whatever the promise was, Jesus had apparently talked of it often. And lest there be any confusion, as to the nature of the promise and the reason for their waiting, the Lord clearly explained with his next breath: "For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1:5). Yes, the promise concerned the Holy Spirit!
TWO PROMISES, TWO COMMANDS When the day of Pentecost was "fully come," Peter finally revealed the glorious promise of the ages with the familiar words: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children . . ." (Acts 2:38-39). Peter's answer to the multitude's query, "Brethren, what shall we do," contained two specific commands and two promised blessings. For years we have reorganized and adequately stressed the vital relationship between the two commands, repentance and baptism. Scores of public debates have been staged in de-fense of the premise that both repentance and baptism are essential in order to receive the first blessing remission of sins. This emphasis has been justified. But what of the second blessing?
The two blessings promised by Peter are also vitally related to the two commands and to one another! We have urged men to accept Christ through repentance and baptism that they might receive remission of sins. We have not always, however, caused them to desire nor prepared them to receive God's second gift the Holy Spirit. While we have stressed the relationship between the two commands, we have neglect-ed the relationship between the two promises.
UNTO THEM THAT OBEY HIM The Holy Spirit, as well as the remission of sins, is given by God to all those who become His children through obedience. By means of the first blessing, remission of sins, God demonstrates His concern for us as sinners. But with the second blessing, the gift of the Holy Spirit, He demonstrates His love to us as sons. Our Father has not remitted our sins only to leave us to our own resources following baptism. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the sacred promise of God's continuing presence in the lives of the obedient.
The Spirit of God can only make its abode in the heart of a believer cleansed by the blood of Christ. Repentance and baptism are just as essential in the reception of the Spirit as in the remission of sins. Peter, speaking after Pentecost before the Jewish council, declared: "We are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given unto them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32). John described the "Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him" (I John 14:17). In addition, Jude wrote of those who were sensual, "having not the Spirit" (Jude 1:19).
The Holy Spirit is intended for God's sons. In fact, the apostle Paul clearly stated that "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). The same Peter of Pentecost, perhaps realizing more fully the power of the Spirit, wrote years later of the promise about which he had preached: "According as his divine power bath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that bath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:3-4). The gift of the Holy Spirit is for those, who through repentance and baptism, have escaped the corruption that is in the world.
THE INDWELLING "COMFORTER"
What then, is the gift of the Holy Spirit which every Christian receives? J. W. McGarvey wrote of it:
The second blessing promised on condition of repent-ance and baptism, is the "gift of the Holy Spirit." By this is not meant that miraculous gift which had just been be-stowed upon the apostles; for we know from the subsequent history that this gift was not bestowed on all who re-pented and were baptized, but on a few brethren of prom-inence in the several congregations. The expression means the Holy Spirit as a gift; and the reference is to that in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit by which we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and without which we are not of Christ.
The "gift of the Holy Spirit" is not to be confused with the special and miraculous "gifts" of the Spirit which were granted to members of the first century church. Although the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit were to pass away, the gift of the Holy Spirit was to be for all Christians for all time to come. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you," asked Paul (1 Corinthians 3:16). "Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God" (1 Corinthians 6:19).
The gift of the Holy Spirit is therefore the help which comes from the Spirit of God dwelling within the heart of the believer. The heart of every Christian is God's temple, in which He dwells through His Spirit. Shortly before his as-cension, Christ promised his disillusioned followers: "And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Mat-thew 28:20). Earlier he had been even more specific: "Never-theless, I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John 14:16-17). The very word Jesus used to describe the indwelling gift of God's Spirit sheds light upon the nature of the gift. The Greek term parakletos, translated here as "Comforter," comes from twowords the thought of which means, "one called to the side of another." It can equally as well be translated, "Advocate," or "Helper." George Knepper wrote concerning this term:
That, unfortunately, is a hard word to translate into English . . . there is only one word in English equivalent to the Greek word Paraclete and that is our semi-slang word, "buddy." What Christ said was, "I will send you another Buddy, one who understands, one who cooperates, one who backs; one who is our other self.
Although we recoil a bit from the suggestion that the Holy Spirit is merely a divine "buddy," this idea does stress the closeness of the relationship between the new born Christian and the Comforter. Jesus promised: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:18). The word translated "comfortless" is orphauos, from which we get our ford, "orphans." Jesus is really saying, "I will not leave you as orphans."
Luke, in Acts 9:31, speaks of the earthly church as walking in the "comfort" of the Holy Spirit. What was true of the church of the first century should also be true of the church of the twentieth century. Many of us may be living like orphans because the only persons in the Godhead we know and understand are in Heaven. Fellowship with God and Christ, by eternal design, is made possible through a personal, intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit which dwells within us.
THROUGH FAITH The "how" of the indwelling Spirit is a great mystery of the faith which must be accepted by faith. There are those who have concluded that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the presence of the word of God in the mind and memory of the believer. It is obvious that the Holy Spirit works through the word in the process of conversion. In a sense, therefore, the Spirit comes to dwell in the heart and life of the believer through the guidance of the word.
John declared: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God abideth in him and he in God" (1 John 4:15). And again: "Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ hath not God: and he that abideth in the teaching hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 1:9). These passages teach that both God and Christ, through the representation of the Holy Spirit, may dwell within the Chris-tian who confesses Jesus and abides in his teaching. The gift of the Holy Spirit is made possible by the word of God. Jesus said: "The words that I have spoken unto you are Spirit, and are life" (John 6:63).
God's spirit is to dwell in the heart of the believer, however, in a measure beyond the mere 'reception' of the word. Individual Christians may possess the Spirit in varying intensities. Jesus taught that we must ask for the Spirit: "If ye then, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him" (Luke 11:13)? To the woman of Samaria the Lord said: "If thou knewest the gift of God . . . thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee of living water . . . the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life" (John 4:10; John 4:14). Later John explained: "But this he spake of the Holy Spirit" (John 7:39).
It is the word of God which brings the believer to the Spirit. But as faith is nurtured by the word, the believer experiences a relationship with the Spirit which transcends the printed page. Paul explained that such faith causes us to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:16-17). The gift of the Holy Spirit is received through faith.
THE SEAL OF PARDON The gift of the Holy Spirit is the certification before all men that God has granted salvation to the believer. "He that keepeth his commandments abideth in him and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he gave us" (1 John 3:24). The possession of the Holy Spirit is to be the badge of genuine discipleship. Paul wrote in the Ephesian letter: "In whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory" (Euhesians 1:14). To the Romans Paul declared: "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16). Paul so clearly announced that the Spirit gives complete assurance of pardon and a pledge of eternal life that he added: "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his" (.Romans 8:9).
The Spirit is thus God's mark of ownership and his pledge to us of future inheritance. Commenting on the word "seal," in 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 2 Corinthians 5:5, Thayer says that God "by the gift of the Holy Spirit indicates who are his." In addition to this certificate of pardon, the Spirit is the "earnest of our inheritance"--God's assurance to us that our future is sure! Moffatt translates the phrase: "The pledge of our common heritage"; and Goodspeed adds: "The advance installment of our inheritance."
Seal us, 0 Holy Spirit,
Grant us Thine impress, we pray;
We would be more like the Saviour,
Stamped with his image today.
Seal us, 0 Holy Spirit,
Help us Thy likeness to show;
Then from our lives unto others
Streams of rich blessings shall flow.
Seal us, 0 Holy Spirit,
Make us Thine own from this hours;
May we be useful, dear Master,
Seal us with witnessing power.
LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD By means of the indwelling Spirit, the child of God is given incentive and power to put to death the deeds of the body and bring forth the fruits of righteousness. "So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:12-14).
In the endless conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, it is the gift of the Holy Ghost which leads to victory. "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). The flesh is conquered by means of the indwelling Spirit. And while accomplishing this negative goal, the Spirit also produces the positive fruits of righteous-ness. "But," said Paul, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control . . . If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us walk" (Galatians 5:22-23; Galatians 5:25).
Holy Ghost with light divine, Shine upon this heart of mine;
Chase the shades of night away, Turn my darkness into day.
Holy Ghost, with power divine,
Cleanse this guilty heart of mine;
Long hath sin, without control,
Held dominion o'er my soul.
Holy Ghost, with joy divine,
Dwell within this heart of mine;
Bid my many woes depart,
Heal my wounded, bleeding heart.
Holy Spirit, all divine, Dwell within this heart of mine;
Cast down every idol throne,
Reign supreme and reign alone.
Andrew Reed
QUESTIONS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION 1. How does "the gift of the Holy Spirit" differ from miraculous "gifts of the Spirit"?
2. When is the gift of the Spirit to cease?
3. How does the Holy Spirit dwell within the Christian?
4. Can the "gift of the Holy Spirit" be received in differing measures by individual Christians?
5. Is the "gift of the Holy Spirit" synonymous with the working of the word of God?
6. What is meant by the Holy Spirit as a "seal" of salvation?
7. What is meant by the Holy Spirit as an "earnest of our inheritance?"
8. What does the "gift of the Holy Spirit" do in the Christian's life?
9. Discuss the "gift of the Holy Spirit" and the "fruit of the Spirit."
10. How can one know that he has received the "gift of the Holy Spirit?"