The kingdom in the old testament

Within the old testament God is seen as a reigning king in Psalm 24:10 Yahweh is seen to be “the king of glory”. His kingship is defined and is to be understood in terms of his reign or exercising his kingly authority. Psalm 103:19 shows the link between Yahweh as king and that kingship being understood in exercising his authority. “The lord has established his throne in heaven” that is God is established as King, the outcome of this establishment is that “his kingdom rules over all”. His kingship is exercised in ruling. Having exalted my “God the king” in verse one of psalm 145 he then goes on to describe how the king will be celebrated “they will tell of the of your kingdom and speak of your might”. Gods kingdom or kingship here is described through the use of Hebrew parallelism to be the same as his “might” the exerting of his power. So we can conclude that the kingship and kingdom of God is to be understood as God exercising his power and authority.

Though what is important to note is that this kingship must have a sphere or area to operate in as George Eldon Ladd wrote “a reign without a realm in which it is experienced is meaningless. Thus we find that the kingdom of God is also the realm in which Gods reign is experienced”. Thus we see that the kingship and so the kingdom of God is understood primarily as God exercises his power and authority in a realm. It is not a realm in which God exercises his power and authority as if God could only operate in a certain area as the bible makes clear that God is Lord/King of the heavens and earth (e.g. psalm 29:10, 2 kings 19:15, Isaiah 6:5). God does/can exercise power and authority any where just because his power and authority are exercised in a more apparently demonstrable form in one place does not mean his power and authority to act in another place has been diminished.

But within the old testament God is seen as having a special realm of power and authority namely his people. 1 Samuel 12 shows how Gods kingly rule over Israel was understood in his ability to act on their behalf through his power and authority. In this chapter we see that Samuel is refuting the Israelites decision to have an earthly king this is because he believes God to be a sufficient King for them. He proves that God is a sufficient King for them by alluding back to their history showing them what God there old king had done for them. Gods kingly activity can therefore be defined as all his activity, as his activity can is kingly activity, his rescuing of the Israelites from Egypt and settling them in the promised land (verse 8) as well as there deliverance from their enemies (verse 9-11) all demonstrations of his kingdom I.e. his power and authority dynamically active.

“But when you saw that Nahash king of the ammonites was moving against you, you said to me “no we want a king to rule over us” even though the Lord your God was your king”. What is being implied here is that because of the impending threat of attack the Israelites believed they needed a human king to be able to act for them, to demonstrate his power by nullifying the threat of Nahash. The Kings “rule” over them was therefore understood as action not as realm Samuel had faith that God was sufficient (“the lord your God was your king”) for this but they wanted a human king.

Again we see in Numbers 23 where Balaam tries to curse the Israelites but instead blesses them Balaam says theses words. “No misfortune is seen in Jacob no misery observed in Israel” here we see Balaam using parallelism to express the fact that in the wilderness the Israelites are perfectly sustained with nothing bad happening to them . The reason being is that “the lord their God is with them” that is God is blessing them and again to say the same thing he says “the shout of the king is among them”. In other words the Israelites are being blessed sustained with nothing bad is happening to them because God is with them exercising his power and authority as king.

So then we can see that from theses two examples that Gods kingly authority and power were understood to have a special place of exercise when it concerned his people. His activity within their midst was understood as being a result of his kingdom at work among them, that his power and authority being demonstrated on behalf of them. So the great salvation event of the exodus as well as the continuing provision of the judges and defence against/rescue from their enemies was all understood to be God exercising his power and authority as King, it can all be seen as Gods kingdom work. God activity among the Israelites was the activity of a king.

As the nation deteriorated the people were taken over and placed into captivity by other nations and the warning of Deuteronomy 4:25-28 came to fruition:

After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27 The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. 28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

But within this context the promise of verses 30-31 still stood “when you are in distress and all these things have happened to you then in later days you will return to the lord your God and obey him. For the lord your God is a merciful God he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers which he confirmed to them by oath.” And it was this promised “later days” returning to the lord that the prophets prophesied about, where the “merciful God” would act again with kingdom power to restore his people.

But what the prophets prophesied about was much more then just exile and return it “entirely eclipsed that context. It burst the confines of what they were prophesying into. It became very clear that this coming of the kingdom that they were hearing about from the Spirit of God would be the final intervention of God. It would be not just be another event like the Exodus and the Davidic Monarchy” (Derek Morphew). Gods kingdom work would be far greater then anything He had done before.

The new hope was apocalyptic hope “defined as Gods powerful manifesting itself as an “in breaking” from outside into normal history. Apocalyptic hope entails cosmic change” (Darrell Bock). The prophets would now adopt the terms like “last days”, “day of the lord” to talk about what God was going to do. These phrases are important to understand in order to examine this apocalyptic hope. The Hebrew understanding of time was not as linear as ours but rather time was associated with activities so we can read in Ecclesiastes 3 that there “is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven” here the link is between time and activities so he goes on to say “a time to be born and a time to die a time to die a time to plant and a time to uproot” etc. Here we see time is identified with activities “Israel was not capable of thinking of time in the abstract, time divorced from specific events. She found the idea of time without a particular even quite inconceivable” (Von Rad). So we see that the day of the lord or the last days would be times of very specific and focused activity.

In order to understand this apocalyptic hoped for last day kingdom activity (God exercising his power and authority); I will examine 6 characteristics of the old testament concerning the return from exile and the last day/s activity of God.


1. The expectation of the coming redeemer

The idea of a coming redeemer was already pointed to within the law. Talking to the devil concerning Eves offspring God says “he will crush your head”. Here was a promise that one day one of Eves offspring would destroy the devil and his work. Next we have Abraham’s offspring through whom “all the nations of the earth would be blessed”. Here was a promise that one would come who would bless all nations. The promise to Judah is even more pointed as it describes the fact that one will come “and the obedience of the nations will be his”. Here we see a coming king who all will obey. Within 2 Samuel there is also a promise made to David that one from his own body will come “and I will establish his throne and kingdom…and I will establish his kingdom forever”. Here we see one who will have an eternal kingdom established by God. So that God had already promised and the people looked forward to a coming redeemer king who would exercise kingdom power that is established by God.

We see this coming King in Zechariah 9:9 “rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion! Shout daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you righteous and having salvation”. Here we see the prophesied king and saviour the promised redeemer king. We again see the prophesied coming king in the book of Daniel 7 “in my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days. And was led into his presence. He was given authority glory and sovereign power all peoples nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Here we see one who is prophesied to come as a coming king who will receive power and authority and an eternal kingdom. But this coming king would also be a suffering servant as we see throughout Isaiah (chapters 42, 49, 52 and 53).

2. Their was also an anticipation of Gods rule being throughout the earth

We see in Daniel 2:44 “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end. But itself will endure forever.” Here we see that God will establish a kingdom that will last forever and all other kingdoms will bow to its supremacy it will be there only kingdom on the earth as all other would have been brought to an end. Miller identifies three characteristics of this coming kingdom that will be of help to our understanding here; firstly the will be of divine origin (“the god of heaven will set up a kingdom“). Second the kingdom will be eternal (“nor will it be left to another people”) “no one will ever conquer the coming kingdom of God”. Thirdly the kingdom “is best understood as an earthly reign of Christ inaugurated at his second advent.”

3. The making of a new covenant and ethical transformation

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “the time is coming declares the lord” here we see a future period of time in which “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel it will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers…I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts…I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more”. Here we see God promising to transform the Israelites internally and morally as well as to forgive their sins.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 this is another vital verse for understanding the ethical transformation brought about by the coming kingdom. In these verses we see that God will do three things for his people. He will firstly cleanse them “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols”. Here God is making the Israelites holy in his sight removing from them all that would defile. Next and secondly God will give the people a new will to obey him “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” the people will no longer be unresponsive to God as they will have a new heart. Thirdly God promises to empower them to obey all his commands “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

4. The outpouring of Gods Spirit

This is an important aspect for this Study as we try to see the link between the kingdom and The Spirit. “As old testament believers looked forward through the hopes of their worship songs, they longed for a new era of the unhindered unchallenged reign of Yahweh, the lord God of Israel. That is they wanted to see a reality what the affirmed by faith the kingdom of God (as the new testament calls it). And a very significant part of that expectation was that when God fully established his reign over his people and over the earth there would be a fresh outpouring of Gods spirit. This they believed would be on of the clearest signs of the arrival of the new age of salvation and blessing: it would be the era of Gods salvation” (Wright)

Joel 2:28-29 God promises to restore the people from exile after their repentance he then promise “and afterwards I will pour out my Spirit on all people your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men will dream dreams your young men see visions. Even on my servants both men and women I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” Here we see the promise that God will pour out his Spirit in the last days. The Spirit will be the sign that the last days activity of God has arrived. This verse is firmly rooted in the eschatological framework of the following verses so as to say that with the coming of the Spirit the end has already come that the last days are happening. The Spirit comes in a universal way to empower people in a way that He has not done up to that point.

Isaiah 44:3 “For I will pour water out on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will poor out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendents”. The key idea of this passage is that of transformation from the outpouring of the Spirit. We notice three things from this verse. Firstly that the pouring out of the Spirit will have the same effect as water being poured out on dry ground and thirsty land. The metaphorical language here is of a season of rain fertilising the dry and arid land in order that it can be farmed and become productive it speaks therefore of a change in the conditions due to the outpouring of Gods Spirit. The point being made is that when God pours out his Spirit that their will be a transformation in the conditions in which the Spirit is outpoured. Secondly we note that the Spirits outpouring is crucial for receiving the blessings of God the two our synonymous. Gods pouring out of his Spirit is the same as pouring out his blessings. So we see the blessings of God come as the Spirit is poured out. Thirdly we see this is something for the descendents of those who are hearing the message. Gods Spirit coming is to be something very much for the future.

Ezekiel 39:29 what we see here is that God promises to bless his people again a time has passed where God will ingather his people from exile “I will no longer hide my face from them”. The reason why they can be certain that God is no longer hiding his face from them and he will bless them is because “I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel”. Gods people will know that the time of blessing has arrived because God is pouring out his Spirit upon them.

Isaiah 32:14-15 what we see in this verses is that the people of God are experiencing terrible problems as a result of the rebellion “the fortress will be abandoned the noisy city will be deserted citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever the delight of donkeys a pasture for flocks”. This torrid condition will continue “till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high and the desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field seems like a forest”. The outpouring of Gods Spirit is what changes and transforms a cursed situation until a time of blessing. It is when the Spirit is poured out that the people experience the blessings of God.

So we see that crucial for the realisation of the coming kingdom was the outpouring of Gods Spirit. Without the outpouring of Gods Spirit there would be no kingdom as He enables the blessings of the Kingdom to come to reality. So we can understand that the outpouring of Gods Spirit is a sign that the kingdom has arrived.

5. Judgement

Obadiah 15 “the day of the lord is near for all nations as you have done it will be done to you your deeds will return upon your head”. What we see here is that a time will come when every nation and therefore every person will experience the consequences for what they “have done” their return will be based upon their “deeds”. So we see part of the eschatological expectation of the prophets was the judgement of God.

Amos 5:18-19 what we see in these verse is that a day of judgement is coming and people are unaware of the precarious situation it will leave them in as Niehaus explains. “this woe oracle begins in an unexpected way addressing those who have desired the day of the lord. With a false confidence they assumed that the lord was on their side and would establish them at his coming…evidently the people of Amos’s day viewed the day of the lord only as a time when he vindicates his people and punishes evildoers. Since many of the people in Amos’s day believed themselves exempt from Gods wrath they apparently saw this time of divine intervention as a time of hope and deliverance”.

What Amos is therefore doing is correcting this misguided hope. He tells them in verse 19 that it will be “as though a man fled from a lion to meet a bear”. The point here is that these deluded people will find that when the day of Judgement comes that it will not mean blessings for them but rather will result in worse judgement it will be an escape but only to something worse Gods judgement.

Isaiah 9:9 also describes this time of coming judgement it is viewed as a “cruel day with wrath and fierce anger- to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it”. This time depicted here is a time of great response to sin both emotionally from God (“wrath and fierce anger”) and outworked in the destruction of sinners (“destroy the sinners within it”).

6 The transformation of the created order

Isaiah 11:7 “the cow will feed with the bear their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox.” What we see here is that the nature has undergone radical change the enmity that would have between certain creatures has now changed., with a change in the biological makeup of each of the animals for example the lion is now eating straw like the ox rather then being carnivorous as he is today.

Isaiah 35:6-7 “the burning sand will become a pool the thirsty ground bubbling springs in the haunts where jackals once lay grass and reeds and papyrus will grow” the nature of the landscape will be completely changed being made fruitful in the coming day of the lord. But not only the landscape but also when the kingdom comes “then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy”. With the coming kingdom there is a change also in the human natural condition with the mute shouting and the lame leaping like a deer. Both metaphors portray more then just getting better but demonstrate a complete reversal in their natural conditions.

Conclusion

What we see in the old testament is that the kingdom of God is seen as Gods activity exercising power and authority. What God had done throughout Israel’s history was the outworking of the kingdom of God. But during exile (because of there rebellion) the Spirit was leading the people to understand that there was a coming day of Gods kingdom activity where he would demonstrate his power and authority in a way they had not seen before. It would be a time of Gods activity. This activity would include the establishment of a kingly redeemer and his reign over all the earth, the ethical transformation of the people the, the Holy Spirit being poured out as sign that the lords blessing had come. As well as judgement for sin and the renewal and regeneration/transformation of the created order.

But the most important point to draw out is that is that it is the coming Spirit who demonstrates and guarantees these future blessings he is the one that enables them to be realised.

What we will now examine how this was fulfilled with the coming son of man the messiah.

The kingdom as already here but not yet fully here

Within the gospels and the new testament as a whole we see this premise being outworked that the prophesied kingdom of God as depicted in the old testament had arrived and was present, but it was not fully present.

The kingdom as future. What is important as we look to understand the kingdom is to examine the idea that there are two ages depicted in the bible; the current age as well as the age to come in Ephesians 1:21 we see that Jesus has been exalted “far above all rule and authority power and dominion and every title that can be given” but the important bit is “not only in the present age but also in the one to come”. Here we see that there is a present age as well as an age to come. Matthew 12:32 makes this clear as well when it says “anyone who speaks a word against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come”. Again we see this idea of two ages the present and the future. What then has to be asked is what separates these two ages? The teaching of the gospels is that the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection from the dead are the events that separate the two ages.

In Matthew 24:3 we see that the disciples ask the question “what will be the sign of your coming” here they are asking when the Jesus is going to return, but they also go on to say “and of the end of the age” thus therefore the end of the current age is depicted as being when Christ returns. In Luke 20:34-35 we see Jesus say “the people of this age are given in marriage” that is within this current age there is marriage. “But those considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead.” Here we see that the “that age” is seen as equivalent to participating in the “resurrection from the dead”. The that age is then differentiated from the current age because people “will never marry not be given in marriage” the characteristic of marriage that dominated this age is no longer applicable and so therefore shows that the age spoken of is different from the present age. Therefore we can conclude that the resurrection enables people to enter the new age and brings an end to the old age. So “not only the second coming of Christ but also the resurrection from the dead will terminate this age and inaugurate the age to come” (Ladd)

Ladd also importantly says “when we ask what scripture teaches about the character of these two ages we find a sharp contrast. This age is dominated by evil, wickedness, and rebellion against the will of God, while the age to come is the age of the kingdom of God.” We see here two major points firstly that the two ages are completely different and secondly one age is dominated by sin the other by Gods rule and authority.

We see the idea that this world is dominated by sin and evil in a number of passages within the new testament. We see in Galatians 4:1 that Jesus “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age”. The point here is that the present age is and “evil age”. This age also has a “god” namely the devil as such he has (according to 2 Corinthians 4:4) “blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel”. Also Matthew in 13:22 we see the man who hears the word of God but “the worries of this life…choke it making it unfruitful”. That is the man has the word robbed from his life because it is choked by this world (“life”) and its associated worries. So we can conclude that this world is evil and even in fact hinders the work of God.

Having seen this we can conclude that this current evil age is not where Gods perfect reign of power and authority is demonstrated and only when this age passes away will the old testament hope be fully realised with the coming of the new age. We see the new age and the completion of all the old testament hope fulfilled most clearly in Revelation 21. What has preceded this event has been the coming of Christ and the judgement of God also their has been the resurrection from the dead this then shows us that the current age has ended and the new age has therefore begun. What we see then next in revelation 21 is this new age being depicted. What we then see next is: 1. A new heaven and an new earth with the old passing away 2. The church made complete and perfect 3. A perfect intimate relationship with God 4. No more sorrow pain or sickness. Within all this happening we see the phrase “the old order of things has passed away” what this phrase is saying is that the new age has come and the old has passed away. The future kingdom has finally fully come but only after the old age has passed away and the new age has been brought in.

George Eldon Ladd’s conclusion is fitting “people who fix their hopes upon a kingdom which is to be consummated in this age are certain to be disillusioned. The perfected kingdom of God belongs to the age to come. We shall never no the fullness of this blessing as long as this age lasts. …and when God’s people are called to pass through severe sufferings they should remember that God has not abandoned them, but that their sufferings are due to the fact that they no longer belong to this age and therefore are subject to its hostility.”

But though the kingdom will never be consummated in this age it still has invaded this age. The old testament hope has become inaugurated in this age already it has broken into the here and now. So we are tasting already “the powers of the age to come”. We see throughout the new testament that we no longer belong to this age the, we are described as “strangers in the world” (1 Peter 1:1) as well as “having our citizenship in heaven” (Philippians 3:20) we are also told not “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2) not only that but Christ has “rescued us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). What we see therefore is that their has already been a break away from this current evil age which can only lead to the conclusion that the coming age has already broken into the present age to rescue those belonging to the present age.

The key verse in understanding what has happened is 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has gone and the new has come”. What we see here is that Christ has inaugurated the new creation causing the old age to go and the new age to come. Ralph Martin’s comments are invaluable here “Paul is talking about a new act of creation not an individual renovation…there is even an ontological dimension to Paul’s thought suggesting with Christ coming a new chapter in the cosmic relations to God opened and reversed the catastrophic effects of Adams all which began the old creation”. He then goes onto describe the fact that new creation “in this context relates to the new eschatological situation which has emerged with Christ’s advent”. What we see therefore is that the Christ event has brought in a new eschatological reality bringing in the new age into the present with the old age passing away.

This is why Jesus can say having been asked by the Pharisees “when the kingdom of God would come” Jesus would be able to say “the kingdom of God is with you”. What Jesus is saying is that the Pharisees need not look for the future coming kingdom to come as it had already come it was a present reality in their midst they had just missed it.

So we can see that the coming kingdom has invaded the present age the future age is now present the old testament hope has been realised in part. But yet there still remains a lot more to come as the evil age still exists with us and the future age will not be complete until the coming of Christ and the resurrection from the dead.

Again I quote Ladd “the kingdom of god belongs to the age to come. Yet the age to come has overlapped with this present age. We mat taste its powers and thereby be delivered from this age and longer live in conformity to it. This new transforming power is the power of the age to come; it is indeed the power of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is future, but it is not only future. Like the powers of the age to come the kingdom of God has invaded this present evil age that men may know something of its blessing even while the evil age goes on”.

The question is then how do we experience this reality of the tension of experiencing the future kingdom of God but not yet enjoying it fully.

The kingdom and the Spirit in the Gospels

My premise therefore now is to show that the coming Spirit who demonstrates and guarantees these future blessings of Gods kingdom (as portrayed in the old testament) and that he is one who enables them to realised now. This has already been shown whilst looking at the old testaments teaching on the Kingdom that the promised kingdom would be accompanied by the outpouring of the Spirit which would serve to realise the blessings of the kingdom. What I will now will attempt to do is clarify this and show how this has been fulfilled in the new testament. I will first start with looking at the gospels.

We see in Matthew 3:2 that John taught that “the kingdom of heaven is near“, the point John was making must have been understood by all those as on looking to be that eschatological fulfilment of what was prophesied within the old testament about to be fulfilled. The key to understand what John meant when he was saying that the kingdom of heaven is near is found in verse 3. “This is what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah “prepare the way of the lord make straight paths for him”. What this verses is saying is that by preaching that the kingdom of God was near John was fulfilling his role as the one who would prepare the way for the coming Messiah. Therefore the old testament hoped for kingdom was near precisely because Jesus was coming.

The point therefore can be made that when the messiah comes the old testament hoped for kingdom would come with him. John was therefore identifying that the coming king would bring in the coming kingdom. The question then had to be why did John believe that the coming one would bring in the coming kingdom? The answer is found in Johns understanding of the messiah as portrayed in verse 11. “I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come one more powerful then I who sandals I am unfit to untie” here we see John preparing to explain his understanding of the coming messiah/kingdom and how the two concepts are linked “he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. Jesus is then identified as bringing the coming kingdom precisely because he baptises with the Holy Spirit. Is was the fact that Jesus would be the one who would give the Spirit that enabled John to see that the coming messiah also brought with him the coming kingdom.

From this we can that the Spirit was present in the Christ event to inaugurate with the King the kingdom. “The coming Messiah will bring his followers into vital contact with the Holy Spirit an thus inject a new force into their lives” (Morris). It is this bringing into contact with the Holy Spirits power and influence that John identifies as the coming kingdom. The Christ event will release a new power the power of the Spirit who will invade the present age with the age to coming age.

In the baptism of Jesus we see the Spirit descend upon Jesus as a dove. Craig Keener sees the descent of the Spirit like a dove being linked to the dove role in Genesis 8:8-12 he writes the “dove appears as the harbinger of the new world. This renewed creation of the Genesis narrative structurally parallel to the first creation appears as a common prototype in other early Christian literature”. Keeners view here is convincing that the Spirit descending on Jesus was an indication that the new age had arrived. Indeed when we examiner verse 11 of Genesis 8 we see that “Noah knew the water had receded from earth” because of the dove returning with a “freshly plucked olive leaf”. The dove was a sign that the new world had come it gave this “second Adam” a sense that a new earth was ready and with the fresh olive branch enabled him to experience part of this new world.

So we see that Jesus had the kingdom Spirit fall and rest upon him to identify that the kingdom had. With Jesus and the Spirit the kingdom had arrived the Spirit was testimony to this. This descent of the Spirit has been shown before (Jesus and the Spirit) to be the time of empowering Jesus for his role as Gods empowered servant. So as we link the two ideas that the descent of the Spirit was testimony that the kingdom had arrived in the Christ event and that this moment was a time of empowering then we can conclude that: at his baptism Jesus was empowered to become Gods empowered servant with the powers of the age to come be imparted to him by the Spirit. Jesus’ power is therefore in this moment being attributed to the power of coming age as mediated and realised by the Spirit.

Even the tearing apart of the heavens carries with it eschatological kingdom overtones we see Isaiah 64:1 “oh that you would rend the heavens and come down that the mountains would tremble before you”. Here we see this is similar language as that used in the gospels here we see a crying out for “direct divine intervention” this plea comes as response to the peoples lack of blessing (Young). So what we see here then is Father moving to release a new measure and season of power kingdom power to anoint his son work the work he has sent him to do. James Edwards comments on the opening of the heavens that “the opening of the heavens at the baptism thus inaugurates the long awaited return of Gods Spirit. A period of grace begins in Jesus in whom God reveals himself in the world in an unparallel manner”. A new age had dawned

Jesus is therefore the one empowered by the Spirit and experiencing the power of the new age. As the power of the new age is the power of the Spirit. We see this most clearly in Matthew chapter 12 in this chapter we see the Pharisees puzzling over how Jesus is doing his miracles especially the exorcism of the demon possessed boy. They believe he is doing this work through the power of demons (verse 24). Jesus is then able to explain how is driving out demons verse 28 “if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Here we see as Dunn puts it Jesus’ “consciousness of eschatological power, of Gods Spirit upon him and working through him”. Jesus attributes the ability to drive out demons to be a result of the Spirit “I drive out demons by the Spirit”. The Spirit was what enabled him to do this work. But Jesus’ primary reason to explain these things was not to explain how he did the miracle, (that appears to be made secondary by the use of the word if), but was to show the significance of the fact that: The Spirit empowering him to drive out demons was a sign that “kingdom of God has come upon you“. Jesus is saying here the demonstration of the Spirits power is a demonstration the Kingdom has arrived. The old testament hope was being worked out by the work of the Spirit the new age was present as the power of the Spirit was active.

The Spirit can therefore be seen as the means for bringing the kingdom into the present. This moment was therefore a demonstration of the eschatological anointing that Jesus received at his baptism. The Spirit brought the presence of the future into the present.

The healings occurring by the Spirits power where also testimonies that the kingdom had come that the natural sphere was being impacted by the coming age. Turner writes of these healings that “they were concrete, expressions of Gods in breaking reign. This is to be seen against the background of Jewish belief that saw most if not all illness deformity insanity demonism and death as expressions of the work of satan and his powers. Whether direct expressions or indirect ones they were aspects of Satan’s dominion in the world (along with alienation from God and alienation from each other). The longing for the kingdom of God - Gods reign - was precisely that the rule of Satan in all its manifestations be broken and evil destroyed. It was the hope for a transformed creation free from death disease and demonic interference”.

The point that turner is showing is that the healings that where occurring in the gospels in the context of Judaism would have evidence that the kingdom of God was in-breaking into the present. This is what we clearly see in Luke 9:1-5. Jesus asks the disciples to go out and preach the kingdom crucial to this preaching the kingdom is that they are to heal the sick. This shows that to “preach the kingdom of God” is connected with healing the sick (v2). We see the fulfilment of this in verse 6: “so they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” The point is that healing is crucially linked with the kingdom as it demonstrates that the kingdom that is being talked about has come. As Green comments “the kingdom Jesus preached in word and deed and so the kingdom communicated by his ambassadors is the in breaking presence of the reign and realm of Gods saving activity to effect liberty in all its forms”. The kingdom preaching involved the demonstration of that self same kingdom.

The key now is to see that such kingdom activity occurred because of the Holy Spirits empowering activity. As Stein points out “Luke understood the authority to drive out demons and heal as due to the Spirits empowering. This clearly foreshadows that future empowerment the father and the Son promised which would come at Pentecost and equip the twelve and the entire church to be Jesus’ witnesses.” So the point is that the holy Spirit had come in power and so this meant that Gods coming kingdom was being manifest in the present. But more then showing this it demonstrates that the Holy Spirits empowering activity is a demonstration/same as that the coming kingdom has invaded the present.

A bridge between Paul and the Gospels the Spirit is now seen to be the kingdom the work of Youngmo Cho.

In his excellent monograph Spirit and kingdom in the writings of Luke and Paul an attempt to reconcile these concepts Youngmo Cho shows that whereas the kingdom appears to be the central message in the gospels it appears to have less significance in Paul. He then explains that for Paul the Spirit is seen to be the same as the kingdom so the message of the kingdom is redefined as the message of the Spirit. Cho’s argument is that “Paul reformulates the Christian message, which centres on the kingdom of God in new terms primarily by speaking of the Spirit in a new and more comprehensive way. In other words Paul communicates the essence of Jesus’ about the kingdom in a different way, focusing on the work of the Spirit; consequently what Jesus sees as the blessings brought about when Gods kingdom is inaugurated, Paul describes as the workings of the Spirit.”

Cho sees that what characterises the kingdom in the Gospel now characterises the Spirit in Paul. So Cho concludes: “The similarity between both the emphasis upon the Spirit in Paul in the Spirit in the Synoptics in their mutual eschatological tension indicates that Paul has used his Spirit language when speaking of the kingdom concepts.” The point is that in Paul the in-breaking kingdom is understood as being the same as the Spirit in the writings of Paul. As Cho writes “for Paul the Spirit manifests himself by breaking into the present as an eschatological instrument of eternal inheritance. This presentness of the Spirit represented in Paul is similar to the portrayal of the kingdom in the Synoptics which is also manifested as a present reality in believers through Jesus and his ministry. Thus there are common features in the eschatological tension of the breaking of the future into the present in the Synoptics and the Spirit in Paul.”

This is what I will show in the next section demonstrating that for Paul the Spirit is the presence of the future kingdom of God in-breaking into the present.

The Spirit as the invasion of the coming kingdom into the present

As has been indicated above the Spirit in Paul is to be understood as eschatological reality that is the Spirit enables the kingdom of God to be realised in the present. I will demonstrate this is the case by examining the key passages where Paul directly describes the Spirit to be the in-breaking of the reality of the future/coming kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

Now it is God who makes us both us and you stand firm in Christ he has anointed us set his seal of ownership on us and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come.

The key to understanding this verse and Paul’s entire argument is understanding the situation that Paul is writing into and how he uses these verses as part of his argument . Paul had changed his plans about travelling to Corinth and his critics were using this as an argument against him and his apostleship. Hafemann alludes further on the critics when he writes:

“They also seem to have argued that Paul’s first change in Plans, in which he decided to come to Corinth twice instead of making one extended visit was part of an elaborate scheme to use the collection in for the believer in Jerusalem as a front to defraud the Corinthians. After all if Paul was a true spirit filled apostle and not merely after their money he should be able to rely on the guidance of God rather then changing his mind concerning his itinerary not once but even two or three times!”

At stake in is Paul’s integrity as an apostle especially his word. Paul’s response to this attack is best summarised and introduced in verse 18 where he writes “But as surely as our God is faithful or message to you is not “yes” and “no”. What Paul is saying here is that the integrity of the words he preaches are based upon the faithfulness of God. So long as God is faithful his word is faith because the words he says are linked with the gospel he preaches which demonstrates the very faithfulness of God which he goes on to show in the following verses.

It is into this context of Paul demonstrating the faithfulness of God through the preaching of Paul that these verses and show how faithful God is and so how trustworthy Paul is. So the verses show how the faithfulness of God is understood through the gift of His Spirit.

Paul first point is that “it is God who makes both us and you stand firm” God establishes and confirms the Corinthians in there faith but not only the Corinthians but also Paul as well. Garland comments “we do not stand firm by dint of our own courage strength or faith. God who is faithful calls us and establishes us firmly in the faith and gives us whatever constancy we have” . It is only through God that we can remain Christians and so the preaching of Paul was of a faithful God who is now causes them to remain faithful including Paul to their calling as saints.

Paul then talks about how God has given us the Spirit as demonstration of his faithfulness and that this should vindicate the integrity of Paul.

The first way God has given us his Spirit is “in Christ he has anointed us”. The anointing of Christ was to set him apart and empower him for his mission so “Christians being in Christ share in his vocation and mission and as themselves anointed are assured of this not by the steadfastness of there own faith or by the warmth of its emotional accompaniments but by God himself” (Barrett). The point Paul is making here is that the Corinthians can be assured that the faithful God is keeping them secure because thy are in Christ and share his anointing.

The question is then how would they know they were anointed and therefore could believe the faithfulness of God and so Paul’ message? Ralph Martins comments on what this anointing might mean and results in hold the key to this question. He writes of “anointed us” as being something that “conjures up OT associations of Gods servants who were set apart and commissioned for their office by the pouring out of oil on their heads. If that is the background here the anointing would refer to the bestowal of charismatic gifts intended to equip men and women for Gods work by the coming of the Holy Spirit.”

The point that can be made is that the Corinthians would recognise that they were in Christ and sharing of his anointing because the Spirit would be at work demonstrating this empowering charismatic presence in there midst. So the charismatic work of God Spirit among them was testimony to the faithfulness of God and vindication of Paul message as the true gospel and so authorisation of his apostleship and subsequent words.

The other thing God has done for them is he has “set his seal of ownership on us” . That is God has declared his ownership of the Corinthian Christians that they are his. Barrett comments “the Christian sealed (as the next verse suggests) with Spirit was visibly marked out as Gods property and secured ready to meet examination at the day of judgement.” The Christian has received a distinguishing mark that they belong to God. The fact that the Christian has been marked as belonging to God implies that it “marks the beginning of Gods work in believers” (Garland) If this work of sealing refers to beginning of salvation it must therefore refer to the ethical reorientation of believers to follow God their moral distinguishing transformation that took place at conversion. Thus the transformed lives of the Corinthians attest to the faithfulness of God and the integrity of the words of Paul.

Overarching all this and the main demonstration of the faithfulness of God is that God has “put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come”. The Spirit has been given as an arrabon into the hearts of believers this Greek word “comes from the world of legal documents and may also be rendered first instalment. It was a down payment that created obligations and guaranteed that more would be forthcoming. Kerr notes that the word was used of contracts of sale and argues that the contract for services is the best source for the metaphor. In such a contract the person who gives the arrabon is engaging another to do the work. The person who receives the arrabon obligates himself to fulfil the work. The arrabon is a portion of the payment the worker will receive in full when he fulfils the task”.

Paul’s is therefore pointing to the Holy Spirit work as a partial payment of the glory that will follow the Christian life at the resurrection. Paul’s is therefore assuring the Corinthian Christians that all the work of the Spirit now is a demonstration to them that God will be faithful to give them all of their salvation that what they have in part now will be consummated in full then.

Fee makes also makes an important point about this phrase that “this metaphor also suggests that what is given in part is also part of the whole”. The Spirit not only guarantees the whole of salvation but is the same as the whole of salvation but only a partial measure. So Fee goes onto write that “the presence of the Spirit as God’s seal and down payment is the unmistakable mark evidence of salvation as “already but not yet”. The future is already in evidence through the down payment the present guarantee but he is present only as down payment the final inheritance which he guarantees is yet to be realised.” Or as Garland puts it “the Spirit makes present Gods future blessing”.

The Spirits work in Corinthian is a sign therefore of the in breaking of Gods kingdom and is in fact Gods in breaking kingdom itself. This in breaking kingdom was evidenced through the anointing of the Spirit and so the charismatic empowering presence of the Spirit as well as the moral reorientation that is a result of the sealing of Gods Spirit where all evidence that God coming kingdom was at work “in Christ” (which is the link that joins all metaphors together) in Corinth. This work of God Spirit proved to them that God would be faithful in providing full salvation as he had given this partial measure here and now.

2 Corinthians 5:5

Now it is God who has made us for this purpose and has given us the Spirit as deposit guaranteeing what is to come.

The key to understanding what Paul is saying here is again to understand the argument of the previous verses. Paul has been talking about his confidence of the resurrection from the dead “that the one who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us up with Jesus” (4:14). It is because of this confidence that Paul can say “our light and momentary troubles our achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Paul has a certain hope that he will be raised to life to experience the glory that God has for him in the new heavens and the new earth and so trouble and hardship are nothing to him as he looks to the future of what God has for him.

He therefore sees this life as being a temporary dwelling an “earthly tent” compared to what he was saved for a more permanent “eternal house in heaven” (5:1). Because of all of this Paul views himself as groaning and longing for the eternal life that God has for him (5:1-4).

He now makes the statement that “now it is God who has made us for this purpose” God has created his people to be “clothed with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” and so to be a longing and groaning people for the salvation that is to be revealed to them when Christ returns.

In the midst of this heavenly longing God “has given us the Spirit as deposit guaranteeing what is to come”. That is we have the Spirit to assure us of our heavenly inheritance now by giving us a sense now of what will come then. As Garland writes “the Spirits presence in the lives of believers betokens that some of the splendour of the world to come has already broken into this present evil age”. The Spirit provides a way for us to enjoy and experience the future of the heavenly life here and now.

So Hafemann writes on the purpose of this deposit; “God prepares his people by giving them a foretaste of the glory to come, in order that the sufferings of this presence age might be put into perspective….Both his confident longing for the future and his burden to put off sin and suffering in the present are derived from the presence and power of the Spirit”. The activity of the Spirit is what is able to give Paul such confidence that what he is experiencing now will soon end and he will enjoy a new state of life, because the holy Spirit enables him to enjoy that state of life now. So Paul can write “therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home with the body we are away from the Lord”.

So the Spirit has not provided the full consummated salvation as Paul still longs for that but what he has done is provide the means for experiencing some of that full salvation here and now.

Ephesians 1:13b-14

“Having believed you were marked in him with a seal the Promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are Gods possession to the praise of his glory.”

The Holy Spirit is again pictured as a seal (see comments above). This sealing Holy Spirit also acts again as a “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” the point again here is that the Spirit assures us of what is to be ours. The important point to is to consider that the coming salvation has broken into the present. Lincoln comments “The Spirit is seen as the power of the age to come given ahead of time in history, but as still only the beginning and guarantee of the full salvation of that age which is yet to come.”

What is interesting to note is that this is the promised Holy Spirit. That is this is the same Spirit as promised in the scriptures. In other words Paul is pointing out to them that they are experiencing the promised end time out pouring of the Spirit as prophesied in scripture. The Spirit was testimony that they were living in the end times as the Spirits outpouring was linked with the arrival of the last days kingdom of God.

This activity though has a time limit upon it is only until the redemption of those who are Gods possession. Peter T O’Brien points out “redemption which is a present Spiritual blessing at 1:7, here signifies the final deliverance (cf 4:30) when God takes full and complete possession of those who are already his.” There is still more to come but we can enjoy the present reality of that future blessing here and now through the Holy Spirit activity.

Romans 8: 18-25

18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[i] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Paul is reflecting on the anticipation of the coming transformation of nature which will take place with the coming of Gods kingdom. His first thought is that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. All the suffering Paul is experiencing will be easily outweighed with the glory that is to follow. He recognizes that in this time we are going to experience suffering these sufferings are present sufferings “which means the sufferings characteristic of this present age rather than the present moment. There is no reason to think that the circumstances in which he wrote were especially significant, but this age is in marked contrast to the age to come. Paul holds that the believer must expect sufferings in this present age.” (Morris) So strong is Paul hope in future glory that such suffering is not a concern for him it does not compare, this glory is still to be revealed.

It is not just Paul who is longing for the future glory rather the whole of creation is waiting with eager expectation as it will be liberated from its present bondage. Creation is subjected to futilely Schriener writes this “means that creation has not fulfilled the purpose for which it was made”. This frustrated creation will one day be released from its bondage to futility and will be all that it was meant to be.

Paul now shows that creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Creation is in a state of pain longing to become what it should be “but Paul sees not only an expression of pain, but of meaningful pain like the pain of Childbirth”. Creation pain is because it is leading to transformation much like a mother given birth, the pain leads to new life.

Paul is now showing that it is not just creation that has this hope but Christians too have this hope. Paul says not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Those who have the first fruits of the Spirit join in the longing of creation for the transformation of the body and entering into the full inheritance of God. Moo offers an understanding of how we are to understand the idea of first fruits. “The word alludes to both the beginning of a process and the unbreakable connection between its beginning and the end. As applied to the Spirit then the word connotes both that Gods eschatological redemptive work has begun and that this redemptive work will surely brought to its intended culmination.”

The point is that those who are longing for full redemption are experiencing this redemptive work now. This enjoyment though is in part as Paul questions, who hopes for what he already has? Here Paul is arguing that they are not experiencing everything now but rather there experience of the future is only in part, in other words the Spirit gives us a partial understanding of the future, we are still longing for the full package but we do enjoy some of it now.

Summarising thoughts on the Spirit as in breaking eschatological reality in Paul

Fee writes on Paul that “from his Jewish heritage he well understood that the Spirit was part of the promise for the future. The promises of the new covenant had been put into an eschatological frame by Jeremiah and Ezekiel and has become thoroughgoing in later expectations on the basis of Joel 2:28-30. This is why the Spirit is so crucial to Paul’s understanding of Christian existence. The gift of the outpoured Spirit meant that the messianic age had already arrived. The Spirit is thus the central element in this altered perspective the key to which is Paul’s firm conviction that the Spirit was both the certain evidence that the future had dawned and the absolute guarantee of its final consummation.”

Paul is in line with the OT prophetic understanding of the end times that the Spirit would be the signal that the end had arrived. For Paul the Spirit was demonstration that the end had arrived but he knew and was keen to stress that the consummation had not arrived. Paul recognized that the Spirit was a guarantee of what was to come, there was a lot more left what they experienced of the end was only in part. Therefore the work of the spirit could be described as being imperfect as he was not the perfect completion.

This is evidenced by the fact that when Paul talks about the first fruits or guarantee of the Spirit it is always within the context of future hope. This serves to show that the Spirit is not understood in over realized eschatological terms, i.e. people do not think of the Spirit as bringing the full kingdom experience into the present but rather that it only brings part with the rest still come.

This idea that the future has permeated the present has a wide range of implications for Paul. Which space would not allow a thorough treatment here.

Hebrews 6:4-6

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift who have shared in the Holy Spirit who have tasted of the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age if they fall away to be brought back to repentance”

My aim here is not to study whether people can lose their salvation but my aim is rather to examine what it means to have:

“tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit”, Lane sees the words here for taste to mean “an experience that is real and personal” so the believer has a real and personal experience of the heavenly gift. This heavenly gift is the redemption that has been wrought by Christ where Christ has rescued us from the present aeon through his death. This redemption involves also sharing in the Holy Spirit with other believers and this is what enables the believers to experience the heavenly nature of the gift. Lane comments “the holy Spirit had not only formed the community but was also bringing it to eschatological fulfilment The present period was already pervaded by the power of the coming age which through Christ had made a profound impact upon the community”.

The Holy Spirit is viewed here by the writer as the means to be able to experience the heavenly gift, the Spirit provides the means to enjoy heaven here and now.

The believer has also tasted of “the powers of the coming age” that is the power that will be in the age to come when Christ returns are experienced by believers here and now. Swete sees the believer as here experiencing a consciousness of possessing a share in the life and power of the spirit of Christ”. The believer is able to know power that is not of this age the very power of the new age itself.

Conclusion

We can see that it is the Spirit who provides the foretaste of the future reality that is to come. This should effect and pervade our entire understanding of the Spirit. So as such rather then drawing out all the implications here and now I will rather explore these implications throughout all the further studies on the Spirit. The key idea is that God is active as King through the Spirit who is the deposist of the future kingdom the forestaste of the full OT hope.

The history of Charismatic thought and experience: Part 1 - The Charismatic Spirit in the early church

H.B Swete wrote that; “No Christian doctrine as it is now expressed can be rightly understood without some knowledge of the history of Christian thought”. If we are to understand therefore the charismatic doctrine of the Spirit then we must understand the history of the thought and experience of that doctrine. The aim will be to look at the last two thousand years of charismatic thought on and experience of the Spirit, in order to ascertain a better understanding of the Spirit today.

Another motive for looking at this history is in order to provide a context for understanding the Spirit and current trends and thinking on the Spirit. But not only that but to answer the misconception and criticism often thought about the Charismatic/Pentecostal traditions. That they have no heritage that church has been around for two thousand years but charismatic/Pentecostal thought and experience has been around for just over a hundred years. This leads people to believe that Charismatic/Pentecostal traditions are distant from and new two the history of the Church. But as Eddie Hyatt argues “the Pentecostal/Charismatic revival is confirmed not only by the New Testament itself, but also by the existence of two thousand years of charismatic Christianity itself”.

The purpose then is to show a continuity between the historic faith of the last two thousand years and the beliefs and experiences of the modern day charismatic movement. To do this I will first examine the experience and thought of the early church.

Robert Wright wrote that; “The history of the Holy Spirit in the early church can best be understood as a development from experience to doctrine: from experience in prayer, worship and charismatic gifts as seen especially in Origen, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Montanus, to a development of doctrine as written in St Basil of Caesarea and formulated in the third paragraph of the Nicene creed”. This study will examine what the early churches experience of the Spirit consisted of. It will look especially at the gifts of the Spirit: healing, tongues and prophesy how these were experienced. It will also examine additional subsequent experiences of the Spirit. This study will also examine the highly charismatic movement known as Montanism. Then finally it will attempt to present the reasons why the charismatic experience and expectation of the early church diminished.

Gifts of the Spirit in general

The leaders of the early church after the apostles had died out clearly still experienced and expected and abundance of the gifts of the Spirit. They did not think that these gifts had died out, rather they viewed them as a normal part of the Christian life until the return of Christ.

Irenaeus bishop of Lyons, against heresies argued for the continuing of the gifts of the Spirit he wrote: “For some do certainly drive out devils, so that those who have been thus cleansed form evil spirits frequently both believe, and join themselves to the Church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions and utter prophetic expressions. Others still heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole”. We see here that Irenaeus experienced a diversity of gifts, and these were present and currently active among them.

Ÿ People driving out demons. (it is interesting that this results in people being saved and added. We see then that Irenaeus recognised the evangelistic nature of the gifts).
Ÿ Others know what is going to happen in the future seeing visions and speaking out prophetic words.
Ÿ Others heal the sick bringing wholeness to them.

Irenaeus did not see this as being isolated to a limited few (note the plurality, others, some). He also saw that different people experienced different gifts as the use of others suggests. He understood that their was an abundance of the Spirits working; he goes on to say “it is not possible to name the number of gifts which the Church throughout the world has received from God in the name of Jesus”. He understood their to be numerous gifts being operative in the universal Church.

Tertullian in his treatise on the soul says, “for seeing we acknowledge the Spiritual charismata, or gifts, we to have merited the attainment of the prophetic gift”. What we see here from Tertullian is that because the Spiritual gift existed, they too could prophesy. The availability of the gifts to people was on the sole basis of their existence. If they exist they can be enjoyed.

Indeed Tertullian wrote on his delight of being a Christian, he asked what greater joy could their be “than to find yourself trampling underfoot the gods of the gentiles. Expelling demons, effecting cures seeking revelations, living to God? These are the pleasures, the spectacles of Christians, holy, eternal and free”. Tertullian saw moving in the power and gifts of the Spirit to be a part of the normal Christian life. He saw that the great pleasure compared to other religions was the fact that Christians could know and experience the power of the Spirit.

Novatian in his treatise on the trinity wrote of the Holy Spirit “this is he who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever gifts there are of charismata; and thus making the Lords church everywhere and in all perfected and completed”.

Novatian provides here a very profound theology of the Spirit. He sees the Spirit as being the one who provides the offices in the church e.g. he places prophets in the church. It is the Spirit who gives and establishes prophets in the church. He also understood that it was the Spirit who equipped those in office to be able to do what they are called to do e.g. He instructs teachers. But the Spirit is also active and present in a number of other ways arranging whatever gifts there are e.g. giving powers and healings, directing tongues and discerning between spirits.

Polycarp wrote to the church in Smyrna “pray that the invisible things might be revealed to you, that you may lack nothing and abound in every charisma”. Polycarp saw the gifts as something that people needed to pray for. He believed that people needed revelation into these things of the Spirit and as a result of that they would abound in the gifts. He did not expect them to have a few gifts but rather an abundance.

Millitades in an attempt to discredit Montanism argues that “the apostle grants the prophetic charisma shall be in all the church until the final coming”. Millitades view here is that the apostle Paul saw that the prophecy would be in the church and available to the church right up to the return of Christ. Cessation of the gift with the cannon was not in his thinking but rather he viewed that the gifts would cease with the return of Christ.

Didymus the Blind said of the Spirit that he was a “fountain of exhaustless charismata”. Didymus makes a very interesting statement in effect he is saying that the very being of the Spirit produces and limitless gifts. The gifts of the Spirit will not one day run out or be exhausted because the Spirit supplies gifts without them being ever being exhausted, like a fountain whose water never runs dry.

Justin Martyr wrote that “It is accordingly said “he ascended on high, he led captivity captive he gave gifts unto men”. And again in another passage it is said; “and it shall come to pass after this, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and on my servants and on my handmaids and they shall prophesy.” Now it is possible to see amongst us women and men who posses gifts of the Spirit”. Justin was using the visible evident gifts of the Spirit to witness to the validity of the Christian faith; by showing that it lay in continuation with prophesy in the old testament.

Justin saw that the current church was living in the times prophesied and written about in the scripture he did not believe that what the bible talked about was only for the apostolic times. What the bible promised and talked about was as relevant for the church in his day as it was for the time of the apostles.

Healing

Ronald Kydd argues that the early church “were convinced that the healing power that was so obvious in Jesus’ ministry had flowed over into the life of their church”

In the second apology of Justin Martyr he talks about people casting out demons and seeing healings. “For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men”.

Justin describes two things firstly the casting out of demons. He sees this to be an abundant work with numberless demoniacs being freed, a universal work throughout the world and a local work and in your city. He did not seem to think that this was a work for leaders only as he describes the people doing the work as Christian men. The word our suggests he could be referring to men who where part of his congregation and care. The power to do this was in the name of Jesus Christ. In the many other instances of different early church fathers talking about healing this is a prominent idea.

Secondly he describes the healings of people. He suggests first that this has happened in the past people have healed, but also it is a present reality as well they do heal. He seems to suggest that such healing is a result of driving out demons and rendering them helpless. This would mean that he understood sickness to be as a result of the devil and so freedom from sickness meant freedom from the devil.

Irenaeus against heresies said that “the dead even have been raised up and remained among us for many years”. So glorious were the miracles among the early church were the fact that the dead were raised. Irenaeus then uses the evidence of them being among the Christians for many years to be evidence, of the miracles and testimony to the effectiveness of the miracle.

Tertullian in to scapula talks about healing and demonic deliverance, he then goes on to say; “and heaven knows how many distinguished men, to say nothing of the common people, have been cured either of devils or of their sickness”. Tertullian seems to differentiate between the devil and sickness when he refers to the idea of cured from either devils or sickness implying one is separate from the other. He seems to imply that there was numerous healings that were occurring, with only heaven knowing the amount. These healings were taken place among men of note and prominence as well as just normal people.

Origen argued for divine healing when he wrote “some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvellous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name over those who their help than that of the God of all things and of Jesus, along with the mention of his history. For by these means we have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities and from distractions of mind and madness and countless other ills, which could not be cured neither by men nor devils”.

Origen offers incredible insight into how the healings came about he argues that the healings were as a result of people receiving a marvellous power through faith. Peoples faith meant that they experienced and received the amazing power of the Spirit. It is this power by which they are able to perform the cures of the sick and the oppressed. But not only that they also invoke the name of Jesus. What is interesting is they mention Jesus’ history, this implies that they refer to the salvation event. What this means is that they saw the saving event to be crucial in their understanding of how people were to be healed. It is by these means that they have seen people cured who would have been otherwise incurable. People who could not have been cured ever by devils or men.

Tongues

There is evidence that the early church spoke in what can only be described as what the new testament talks about tongues. They understood that one speaking or praying in an unfamiliar tongue was what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians.

Irenaeus against heresies also identified the gift of tongues as being present among them. “In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church who possess prophetic gift and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God”.

Irenaeus is arguing that many people in the church can prophesy and such people also by the means of the Spirit, speak in a variety of languages. What must be identified here is that all kinds of languages is likely to refer to tongues. It can not be just a natural ability to be able to speak in a human language as it is through the Spirit that they speak in all these different languages. In Irenaeus mind speaking in different languages tongues is a result of the work of the Spirit, when the Spirit is at work people can speak in tongues.

A critic of the church Celsus is cited by Origen, Celsus writes of the church that there are “strange, fanatical and unintelligible words of which no rational person can find the meaning”. A critical outsider of the Church Celsus observes that people within the church speak in strange words, this implies words that do not sound normal to the human ear. People also speak untellable words, that is words that can not be understood. Celsus argues about what is said that a rational person that is someone who is in their right mind thinking straight would not find any meaning in these words.

What was being spoken was strange and foreign to Celsus it clearly refers to tongues which do not sound rational to the unbeliever rather he thinks people are mad. This is clearly what Paul spoke about in 1 Corinthians 14.

Basil answers the questions of what it means to pray with an unfruitful mind by arguing; “this was said concerning those who utter their prayers in a tongue unknown to the hearer”. In about questions that people might have this is Basils answer to what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians. Basil clearly understood tongues therefore to be something that is said that the hearer has no idea what is being said. Also suggested in this is that they do not know what the language could be ever.

Prophesy

Prophesy was a regular and expected thing among congregations of the early church. They fully expected God to speak to them and as such they prayed accordingly for God to speak to them. It was the filling of the Spirit that enabled them to prophesy he was the source of God humbly speaking to them what he wanted to say.

Justin Martyr in his dialogue with Trypho writes “for the prophetical gifts remain with us even to the present time”. Justin did not consider that the prophetic gift had died out with the apostles rather it was currently being exercised and experienced in the church during his lifetime.

Cyprian records how the Spirit helped and guided them during times of persecution he writes of young people maybe even children. “For beside the visions of the night, even in the daytime the innocent age of boys is among us filled with the Holy Spirit, seeing in an ecstasy with their eyes and hearing and speaking those things whereby the lord condescends to warn and instruct us”.

Cyprian paints a beautiful picture of the prophetic he sees it as coming both during the night and day. God is not limited in time or place regarding his revelation through the prophetic. People experienced visions, this came as a result of being filled with the Spirit. This filling then led to an ecstatic state, where people would see and hear things. What is wonderful is the people who are experiencing these things are children, people in the innocent age of childhood not yet even adults. The things that they see and hear are then spoken out.

Cyprian then wonderfully describes the things that are spoken as being those things God condescends to warn and instruct us. Cyprian did not see it as his divine right to hear from God but it was a beautiful act of a loving humility for God to speak to him. He saw prophesy as having a two part focus both firstly regarding the present God instructing us as well as the future God warning us.

The Didache a document on church order and moral instruction has a number of things to say on prophets and prophesy. It lays out tests to discern who was a true prophet and who was a false. One such test was “whoever shall say in the Spirit, give me silver or anything else, ye shall not listen to him; but if he tell you to give on behalf of others that are in want, let no man judge him”.

This test clearly shows that people claimed that they were speaking by the enabling of the Spirit that it was the Spirit who was causing them to speak the words they said. Note the test is not ignore such people as no one can speak by the Spirit, rather the test is to examine the content of what is being said. If someone is claiming money that is not the Spirit but if he wants people to give money to others it is the Spirit. Clearly the test consisted of looking at someone’s motives and heart. Indeed the other tests describe examining a prophet according to the life that they lead.

Ignatius of Antioch spoke of a time when he had prophetic revelation into a situation; “for when I was among you I cried, I spoke with a loud voice: give heed to the bishop and the presbytery and deacons. Now some suspected me of having spoken thus, as knowing beforehand the division caused by some among you. But he is my witness for whose sake I am in bonds that I got no intelligence from any man. But the Spirit proclaimed these words.”
What Ignatius is describing here is that he went to a church where their had clearly been someone problems likely a schism was forming. Ignatius was completely unaware of this situation but having been given prophetic insight into the situation he was able to talk about it even though he knew nothing about it. What he said was so accurate that people thought he must have known before bringing the prophetic revelation the situation. He then says that he had no idea of the situation no one had told him about it. Rather it was means of the Spirit that he was able to proclaim the words that he did.

Ignatius clearly therefore understood the gift of prophesy to be something that helps someone to be able to know information that they would not naturally know. This is indeed what he demonstrated that he had no understanding of the situation yet he talked about it by means of the Spirit like someone who already knew about it.

The Shepard of Hermas writes “whenever then a man who has the divine Spirit comes into an assembly of righteous men who have faith in a divine Spirit and intercession is made to God, then the angel of the Spirit of prophesy who is attached to him fills the man and being thus filled by the Spirit, he speaks to the concourse as the lord wills”.

The Shepard describes how prophesy seems to have occurred within the church. It consists of four things:

Ÿ A man who has Gods Spirit comes to Church. This church has faith that the Spirit is going to speak, they believe there is a Spirit.
Ÿ Intercession is made to God, the people are likely then praying that God will speak to them.
Ÿ The man is then filled with the prophetic Spirit. And he finds himself in a place of being full of the Spirit.
Ÿ The man then speaks to congregation as God wants him to. God is determining what the man is to say. He is communicating whatever God wants.

Subsequent experiences of the Spirit

Tertullian on baptism wrote on the rite of baptism that “not that in the water we obtain the Spirit; but in the water we are cleansed and prepared for the Spirit”. He then describes what happens after baptism, “the hand is laid on us, invoking and inviting the Spirit through benediction”.

Tertullian understood that baptism itself did not confer the Spirit on anyone rather it prepared people to receive the Spirit by cleansing them. After they have been baptised and sealed as being Christian the Spirit is then asked and invited to come upon the person, with the laying on of hands. Clearly what is being referred to here is a subsequent experience of the Spirit, after conversion. The person cleansed and reborn is now expected to receive the Spirit.

Tertullian goes on to say that “the church seals the faith of her converts with the water of baptism and clothes it with the Holy Spirit”. The idea is the person is already a believer but to mark that belief to recognise that belief two things happen. The person is baptised, this would have been a public seal sign that the person was saved. But not only that the person was also clothed with the Spirit. Could this also refer to something like baptism that would have been tangible and recognisable.

Cyprian also writes “those who are baptised in the Church are also brought forward to rulers of the Church that by our prayer and the imposition of our hands they may obtain the Holy Spirit and be perfected with the seal of our lord”. Cyprian also saw the same thing as Tertullian he saw that it was necessary that the believer having been baptised receive the Spirit obtain the Spirit. This was done by prayer and the laying on of hands.

Cyprian also said concerning this ritual; “it is not by imposition of hands that someone is born; he is first born and then receives the Spirit, just as Adam was first created and then God breathed into him the breath of life”. What Cyprian is hastening to point out here is that this laying on of hands to receive/obtain the Spirit is not what makes someone a Christian it is not the new birth. Rather the person is born again and then they receive the Spirit.

Cyprian uses Adam as an illustration of his point, he argues that Adam was first created. Once Adam had then been created God breathed his breath of life into him. His point being that we become Christians and then we receive the Spirit.

Cyprian also went on to argue, “the lord has taught us most explicitly that the Holy Spirit has freedom and power to go where He will. The Spirit accompanies baptism administered by men, or he goes before the act or after follows it; or if baptism by water can not be obtained He falls on those who believe”.

Cyprian point is that this obtaining/receiving of the Spirit does not necessarily happen straight after baptism. There is not a fixed time when someone receives the Spirit. Rather the Spirit has a sovereign timing and will. Because of this freedom of the Spirit he can come upon anyone at any time, it does not necessary mean that it has to occur straight after baptism.

Cyprian comments that this is something that has been most explicitly taught to them by God. What does he mean by this? Could he mean that people had visibly and evidently received the Spirit prior to baptism or much later after baptism? It is impossible to tell by I think this could be what he means here.

Cyprian offers great advice to anyone hungering for more of the Sprits activity in their life. He describes the Spirit as something that flows freely, he then goes on to say; “it flows in an unbroken course, it overflows in rich abundance; only let our heart thirst for it and lie open to it; in proportion to the capacity of the faith we bring to it is the inflow of grace that we draw into ourselves”.

Cyprian saw that the measure we are hungry and thirsty for the Spirits activity in our lives is the measure in which we will know and experience that activity in our lives. If we have little thirst or hunger for the Spirit then we will know little of his influence in our lives. We are then to let ourselves to become thirsty and hungry for the abundant overflow of the Spirits grace.

Cyprian clearly then believed that one receives the Spirit subsequently after new birth. It is a post conversion experience that happens only once. He does believe though that one can know the Spirits power and influence inflowing in ones life throughout the entire time of ones Christian life. For him their was more of the Spirit to experience after conversion and throughout the Christian life.

We can see that the early church knew a rich and abundant experience of the Spirit. They knew a diversity of the Spirits gifts at work among them as well as great demonstrations of His power. The early Christians fully believed that the gifts of the Spirit where available for their day and until the second coming of Christ. The early church always believed that there was more they could experience of the Spirits power, he was like and overflowing river an inexhaustible fountain this belief reflects in their experience.

No movement epitomised this abundance of the Spirit then Montanism, but no movement ever experienced such negative results as this movement. This study will now examine Montanism, which was a significant charismatic event. It could easily be equated with being the first revival or renewal in the Spirit. As such it is something important to study in understanding the history of thought and experience surrounding the Charismatic Spirit.

Montanism

Montanism as a movement arose in Phrygria in about ad 155 it spread from Asia minor to Rome and eventually Northern Africa it most notable adherent Tertullian embraced the movement in 205ad (Storms). The movement was not known as montonism until the 4th century the movement identified itself as the new prophecy whereas its opponents called it Cataphrygians (Powell). (For the purpose of this essay I will refer to it as montanism.). The movement originated from a man named Montanus “he was according to hostile accounts before his conversion a mutilated priest of Cybele with no special talents or culture but burning with fanatical zeal. He fell into somnambulistic ecstasies and considered himself the inspired organ of the Paraclete” (Schaff). Montanus was joined by two other female prophets who had left their husbands under the consent of Montanus Priscilla and Maximilla. The movement originated in an insignificant village located in Asia minor in the province of Phygria.

The difficulties with writing and researching on montanism is that the main sources of evidence for what the movement consisted of are either fragmented or carry an extremely negative bias. Even those who have searched the primary literature have come up with various views regarding the movement labelling it a heresy to being a genuine work of Gods Spirit. Even John Wesley had a view on the montanist movement having read about the movement he wrote; “I was fully convinced of what I once suspected 1) that the montanists were real scriptural Christians and 2) That the grand reason why the gifts were withdrawn was not only that faith and holiness were well nigh lost but that dry and formal orthodox men began to ridicule even then to ridicule the gifts they had not themselves and to decry them all as either madness or imposture”

Because of the difficulties mentioned above this essay will attempt to describe the agreed obvious characteristics or traits of montanism in order to gain a more holistic understanding of the movement. The essay will also propose how we can learn from the excesses and the successes of the montanist movements and ultimately what we can learn from the results of the montanist movement. This emphasis that we can learn from the montanist movement is based upon the premise that the same errors and excesses have been slipped into over the succeeding centuries after the rise of montanism both the errors of the opponents and also those who belonged to the movement. The aim of the essay therefore is that by examining montanism that “the movement that called attention afresh to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church” (Swete) would do so again.


Montanism a movement based around a distinctive prophetic experience

The fact that the montanists claimed prophetic utterance was not condemned by the early church but it was the nature of that prophetic utterance that was so controversial. The montanist claimed that what was crucial to the prophetic word was ecstatic experience the anonymous writer in their treatise against montanism wrote that; “I found these things in a certain treatise of theirs, in which they attack that treatise of our brother Miltiades in which he shows that a prophet ought not to speak in a state of ecstasy”. What is important to note from this quote is that the montanists viewed it as unorthodox to not be in a state of ecstasy whilst prophesying hence their attack on Miltiades.

Also Appolonius of Ephesus wrote that “common report has it about that marvellous man the so to speak first steward of their so called prophecy, Theodotus, that once on being lifted and raised heavenwards he fell into abnormal ecstasy and entrusting himself to the spirit of error was whirled to the ground and so met a miserable end”. Though the story is clearly fictitious what is important to realise is that a story would not be fabricated if their was not an element of truth in it that montanism was a movement that was characterised by the ecstatic. Therefore we can see that prophecy within montanism was something that consisted of ecstatic phenomenon accompanying the prophetic it was an experience.

Within the montanist movement prophesy was seen to be a passive letting go to the work of the Spirit. So Montanus could say “Behold man is as a lyre and I (that is the Holy Spirit) hover over him as a plectrum man sleeps but I watch”. Here Montanus is explaining that man has become like an instrument and it is the holy Spirit who generates the sound or in not metaphorical terms man is passive in prophesy he is mearly the instrument that the Holy Spirit speaks through. “Man sleeps” implies the ultimate passivity of the role of man in prophecy whereas the Spirit is said to “watch” i.e. the spirit is alert to what is going on and is active in mans passivity.

This lead to the third distinctive feature of the montanists prophetic experience that the words they spoke were the very words of God so much so that Montanus could claim “I am the father, the son and the Paraclete”. What he is saying here is that his words are so divine that it as if God had removed him and was speaking directly through him. Maximilla likewise implies that her words where the direct words of God “do not listen to me but listen to Christ” in other words it is not her human words that are important but rather the very words of Christ that mattered spoken through her. Because of the way Prophecy was viewed within the movement “the prophecies of Montanus Maximilla and Priscilla were committed to writing widely circulated and were regarded by friend and foes as authoritative statements of all that distinguished the Montanistic teaching from current Christianity. By the montanists themselves the prophetic oracles were placed at least on a level with the gospels and the apostolic scriptures” (Lawlor)

The prophetic experience was also a sought for and weighted upon experience so we see that someone called Prisca could say “they see visions and bowing their heads they also hear distinct voices saving and mysterious”. this bowing of their heads implies a distinct time of trying to become aware of what the Spirit might be saying to them.

So we see that prophecy was an important element of the montanist movement. This prophecy could also be said to be a distinct experience of Gods Spirit. Four things characterised this experience of prophecy firstly it was a distinct ecstatic experience. Secondly man was passive as the Holy Spirit took control. Thirdly what was said was the very words of God. Fourthly that the prophetic experience was sought for. This is how montanists viewed the prophetic event.

Montanistic prophecy was extreme and lacked theological direction as the prophecy itself may have been genuine but the theology behind it and in turn the practice outworked from the theology certainly were not right. Firstly too much emphasis appears to be placed upon experience the montanists placed an emphasis upon experience which the bible simply does not where the bible emphasises the effect of prophecy the montanists appear to emphasis the experience of prophesy as HB Swete put it “The old mistake was repeated and the ecstatic sensational element of prophecy was put before that which ministered to the spiritual good of the community”. We can learn that experience is not the validation of the Spirits work but rather fruit or results are what validate the work of the Spirit. What can not be denied though that the montanist movement carried with it a sensational experimental element to it that was clearly supernatural. This means we are left with a choice that if this work was a work of God Spirit (though with obvious excesses at times) then we should open to similar workings of the Spirit today but if the work was a work not of the Spirit then we should be cautious of such workings today.

The reader though must consider the words of Tertullian as they make this decision. “St Peter knew not what he said (on the mount of transfiguration). How was this? Was it an ordinary aberration or was he in a state of ecstasy the suspension of the mental faculties which is incidental to grace? Surely a man who is in the spirit especially when he sees the glory of God may be expected to lose consciousness in as much as he is overshadowed by the divine power”.

The authority with which the montanists gave prophecy was also clearly heretical the NT views prophecy as something that is done in part and should be tested never as the words of God himself. This meant that the supremacy of scripture was undermined as well as leaving people open to manipulation.

What is worth considering though was that the monists did view that God did speak to them other then through the bible though there understanding of this was wrong, this view that the charismatic activity was available to them lead to vibrant Christianity that was full of life a recovery to the earliest Christianity. Though the move could be seen to be a new movement (hence the name new prophecy) it was fundamentally a restoration movement looking to recover the power of the early church. The premise of montanism view of the Spirit is epitomised by Tertullian who I shall cite at length:

And so we who recognise the and honour alike the new prophecies and visions which were promised and regard the other powers of the Spirit as sent for the better equipment of the church…feel ourselves compelled to compile the facts and to provide to the glory of God; in order that a feeble or despondent faith may not suppose that the grace of God dwelt only with the men of old time…for God is working for a testimony for those that believe not.”

Tertullian saw the work of the spirit in the montanist movement to be a recovery of new testament power and a sign that such power was not just restricted to new testament times.

This life and emphasis on the sense of the nearness of God would attest for the movements popularity “Montanism commended itself as a timely witness to the immanence of the spirit in the living church” (Swete).

One interesting point to consider as Schaff points out is “the catholic church did not deny in theory the continuance of prophecy and other miraculous gifts but was disposed to derive the Montanistic revelations from satanic inspirations and mistrusted them all the more for their proceeding not from the regular clergy but in great part unauthorized laymen and fanatical women”. We can see that one of the most offensive parts of the prophecy to the opponents was that it was done by women as well as those who did not hold ordained positions in authority. This emphasis of the prophet-hood of all believers is one of the main areas that can be a point of learning today. Montanism was not an elite few but all could seek to hear the voice of the Spirit and in all seemed to seek the voice of God no matter what gender or status. So it could be fair to say that the montanist movement sought to live out their experience in the light of Joel 2 or to go ever further lived out a Joel 2 experience.

The fact that people believed Montanism to have genuine prophesy was because was prophesy was evident among the church at that time. Eusebius argues, with “numerous other manifestations of the Spirit occurring in various churches, led many to believe that these men too were prophets”.

So we can see the movement held both negative and the positive characteristics . Negatively it was characterised by poor understanding of prophecy which led to unbiblical extremes but positively it was characterised by an expectation of being able to experience the Holy Spirits power and a desire and emphasis upon the prophetic.

Montanism a movement driven by a zealous pursuit of Holiness

Stanley Burgess wrote of Montanism that it “demanded the sternest rigor in lifestyle surpassing that of the New testament. Second marriage was prohibited and even marriage itself. Strict fasting, unreserved preparation for martyrdom and separation from the world were all expected of the “Pneumatic” the spiritual”. The montanists reacting against a church it viewed as un spiritual sought to become separate through radical holiness that verged on fanaticism. They attempted to set up a distinction between themselves and other Christians as Schaff wrote “they called themselves spiritual Christians in distinction from the psychic or carnal Christians”.

This segregation between themselves and other Christians was a result of a passionate hatred of sin. Prisca is cited by Tertullian as commenting on the Montanists “They are flesh, yet they hate the flesh”. Anything to do with fleshly earthly Christianity was hated by the Montanists. This hatred of sin meant that they viewed a church that was more lax as being less spiritual then themselves thus establishing a two tier “them and us Christianity”

So it would be fair to conclude that Montanism as a movement separated itself from the church. They note so much were driven from the Church but isolated themselves from the larger body of believers. The inevitable results of this would be attack from others as well as no larger context in which to examine and test their thought and practice.

The Montanists though appear to understand and attribute their holiness to the outworking of the Spirits power in their lives. This is hinted at in the writings of the Anonymous author cited by Eusebius who wrote “So when they have been refuted in all their and are at a loss, they endeavour to take refuge in the martyrs, saying they have many martyrs and that this is a reliable proof of their power of that which is called amongst them the prophetic spirit”.

What the writer is saying here is when the movement experiences and prophecies are attacked they argue that they must have the genuine Holy Spirit working among them because of the way people have become martyrs. Therefore they are arguing that their ability to become martyrs is a result of the Spirit at work in them. So the Montanist understood their great zeal and holiness to be as a result of the Spirits work.

This leads to my proposal that one of the reasons that the Montanists enjoyed so much of the Spirit was the fact that they had a strong pursuit of holiness. The reason I propose this is because if the Montanists desired to be more holy and they understood this holiness as being a work of the Spirit, then they would have had an incredible hunger for the Holy Spirit as he would make them more holy. It is this desire for the Holy Spirit which would have then caused them to enjoy more of the Spirits presence and activity as before you have more of the Spirit you have got to want more; this the Montanists did. So we can conclude that the Spirit was viewed as the strength of their holiness as well as the result of their holiness.

We have a lot to learn from this pursuit of holiness that consumed the Montanists. The montanists passion for holiness was driven in part by a longing to be set apart from fleshly Christians, this is a dangerous motive as it easily leads to pride and legalism. As if others are viewed as being good or bad based on how holy they are then it is easy to overlook the saving work of God which alone makes us good or bad, indeed their seems to be little room for grace within the Montanist movement with even Tertullian taking an over harsh stance on sin after conversion.

Another failing of the Montanist movements pursuit of holiness was the fact that they seemed to go beyond what scripture demanded as Apollonius of Ephesus wrote of Montanus that he “taught dissolutions of marriages,” and “laid down laws on fasting”. There seems to have been a strong arm forceful approach towards peoples walk with God that is not healthy and not biblical.

But the Montanist pursuit of holiness is not all bad as who would not disagree that the church today could do with a small measure of that self same zeal for purity and dedication that passion that caused Montanus to say “Do not hope to die in bed nor inn abortion nor in languishing fevers but in martyrdom, that he who suffered for you may be glorified”. The zeal of the Montanists was not wrong it was like their prophetic experience it was the extremes which were wrong. Another thing that was good about the Montanist movements pursuit of holiness was the fact that this pursuit caused them to hunger for more of the Spirit. We too today could do with an equal measure of this hunger for more of this Spirit as we seek to live for God in a purer holier way.

Montanism a movement which held a distinct eschatological disposition

“Convinced of the imminent coming of the Lord, Montanus migrated with his followers across the Phrygian border to the two villages of Pepuza and Tymion which became the holy city movement. In this new Jerusalem he organised and consolidated his new and growing community and expected that the faithful would assemble here rather then in Jerusalem for the Parousia.” Whether this story is true it is hard to tell but what is true is that the story clearly points to two key aspects of the Montanist movement that are true: 1. The Montanists felt as if they were on the edge of the Lords return 2. This belief had an effect on the way that they lived.

It was Maximilla who prophesied “after me there will be no more prophesy, but the end.” What we see from this is that Montanists believed they were living close to the end of the world. But what is also interesting to note as we examine this incident is that this belief is seen to come from the Spirit. What this implies is that they thought that the work of the Spirit was pointing them towards the coming return of Christ. A classic error as where the kingdom is present through the Spirit in a large measure as in Montanism people feel as if the end must be in sight as they are experiencing so much of the future kingdom in the present through the Spirit.

Schaff indeed highlights two main thrusts in the leaders message he writes “all three went forth as prophets and reformers of the Christian life and proclaimed the near approach of the age of the Holy Spirit and of the millennial reign”. It was likely that these two thrusts worked together with the sense of imminence creating the motivating force behind their ascetic lifestyle. The fact that God was near was the reason to live a holy life. Indeed Schaff goes on later to say that “they lived under a vivid impression of the great final catastrophe, and looked with contempt at the present order of things, and directed all their desires to the second advent of Christ.”

Such an outlook is not necessarily bad as the new testament encourages such an outlook regarding the second coming of Christ. But the problem was Montanism believed it was about to happen soon where as scripture clearly teaches that no one knows when it will happen. So with there motivation for holiness being based around fallible prophetic expectation of the return of Christ, it would be inevitable that when that expectation is not fulfilled the basis and drive and in fact the whole drive of the movement itself would collapse.

We have a lot to learn though from the Montanist’s life of expectation if they where one extreme the western church is probably the other, with no sense or very little sense of expectation. We need an eagerly awaiting of the Parousia that impacts and effects our lives in the way that the Montanist’s expectation led to a radical pursuit of holiness.

The very extremities of the movement were, the very thing that destroyed the movement and what the movement stood for.

One writer described the demise of Montanism using the following words: “Montanism failed. The function of the prophet ceased partly because the logic of ecclesiastical development made it inevitable, but partly because the Phrygian prophecy defeated it own ends”. I believe that Montanism collapsed for a number of reasons here are some of the reasons I believe it collapsed and was self defeating:

Ÿ Its distancing itself from the main stream church meant that it lacked the direction and maturity of the traditional faith.
Ÿ Its exhaustive pursuit of holiness was inevitably going to lead to burn out among its members.
Ÿ A high dependence upon leaders who would eventually pass away would mean that the movement would lack the necessary vision and zeal that originally propelled it.
Ÿ The movements unfulfilled eschatological hopes is likely to have lead to crippling discouragement.
Ÿ And lastly its lack of biblical grounding is likely to lead to schism and a falling apart as members lack the concrete justification for its practice.

We can not be sure as to why Montanism did die out but we can understand the effects caused by its collapse. Its collapse lead to a number of effects, Gwatkin’s three results of the collapse of Montanism, are recognised to be the best and I will attempt to summarise them as follows:

1. Led to a greater view that God is distant and absent from the world and the only way people can experience God is through the church and the sacraments. In his words it created “that deist conception of God as a king departed to a far country.”
2. The church developed a great distrust for the charismatic and so all that was deemed to be charismatic was not given any authority or place within the practice of the local and catholic church.
3. A contrast was created between the times of the apostles and the current a dividing line was drawn.

So it is fair to summarise that the collapse of the charismatic movement known as Montanism lead to the birth of cessationist theology. The error here was that the Church adopted misuse rather then correct use of the charismata and so the gifts had less prominence. Sam Storms writes: “Ironically, one of the principle reasons why the church became suspect of the gifts of the Spirit and eventually excluded them from the church is because of their association with Montanism. The Montanist view of prophecy in which the prophet entered a state of ecstasy in order that God might speak directly was a threat to the church’s belief in the finality of the canon of scripture. Other unappealing aspects of the Montanist lifestyle as noted above provoked opposition to the movement and hence to the charismata. In sum it was largely the Montanist view of the prophetic gift in which a virtual “Thus saith the Lord” perspective was adopted that contributed to the increasing absence in the Church of the charismata.”

The diminishing of the Charismatic

Harold Hunter in his journal article Tongues-Speech: A Patristic Analysis outlines 5 reasons why tongues speech diminished over time. I summarise his arguments as follows:

1. Abuse; their was two types of abuse people faking the gift for their own personal ends. And secondly Churches who had high levels of tongues use also experienced large amount of internal division.
2. Fear; people were wary of anything that could usurp the authority of the closed canon of scripture. People who had anything that related to apostolic Christianity i.e. tongues would be deemed a risk to this.
3. Rigid structure; charismatic experience carried with it a spontaneity that could not survive in the changing church culture. This culture had three things about it that stopped the spontaneity of the charismatic. A) Spontaneity was replaced with controlled liturgy. B) Institutionalisation replaced the use of congregational gifts. C) Sacraments took the place of spontaneous gifts.
4. The churches relation to the state led to unwritten rules which would have effected such things as tongues speech.
5. The gifts became isolated from other parts of the Churches practice and this would lead to them being easily eliminated.

Gary Stevens Shogren records the diminishing of the charismatic in his journal article Christian prophecy and canon in the second century: A response to B.B. Warfield. He cites Origen who wrote “the holy Spirit gave signs of his presence at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and after his ascension, he gave still more; but since that time these signs have diminished, although there are traces of his presence in a few souls purified by the gospel and their actions regulated by him”. Here what is being argued is that only the elite few are enjoying the gifts of the Spirit now.

Shogren goes on to argue; “From Origen through the fourth century one may trace a gradual confinement of the prophetic gift to an elite with “souls purified”. What seems to have happened is that this gifts have become an exclusive commodity it is no longer expected that everyone is able to know the inflowing grace of the Spirit. His gifts and power and now seen to be only for those who are holy enough. And so as such the desire for the gifts and as a result the presence of the Spirit was diminished.

This attitude is epitomised by Cyril of Jerusalem who instructed “mayest thou be worthy of the gift of prophecy also! For thou shalt receive grace according to thy capacity”. In other words he is saying you have to be worthy to prophesy it is not something for all. Also you have to be in a certain state and condition to receive grace. No wonder it diminished if this is what people thought! Who could be worthy enough!

Other reasons for the diminution of the gifts of the Spirit are that the main area of debate and speculation concerning the Spirit was not his work but his personality and divinity. The emphasis was no longer on experience but it had know moved to doctrine. The church found itself having to defend itself against heresy that attacked the divinity and personality of the Spirit. This shift is likely to have led to the Church suffering from a loss of emphasis on the gifts and so it was no longer what one experienced that was important but rather what one believed.

Another reason may have been that emphasis was placed upon those who had official roles and responsibility in the Church. It was not longer the Spirit that conducted worship but was now rather the bishop. The Spirit was no longer scene to be at work through the charisma of the congregation but rather came through one or two ordained leaders. This meant that people no longer sought out the gifts as their was no platform for their use. It was not long before teaching began to arise that with the closing of the Canon the gifs had ceased. This was the argument of one of the premier theologians of the time Chrysostom who argued that the gifts had ceased. As such if people believed they had ceased why would they desire then and as such people began to experience them less and less.

The church began to become more and more secularised, it was now the church for the state and so its practice was more shaped by the world then the word. As such it began to move away from church life governed by the principles laid down in scripture and began to be governed by church councils who no doubt had ulterior motives due to the power that was available to them. This shift is likely to have led to a view that the gifts where something that the church could do without.

5 lessons for the Charismatic and Pentecostal movement today:

Ÿ The gifts and power of the Spirit did not suddenly die out with the apostles. Rather their was an abundance of the charismatic in the early church.
Ÿ The Spirit was at work in all from children to the normal congregation member. The gifts began to die down when they where limited to just a few. The important lesson is that we need to avoid making the gifts something that are for the spiritually elite few.
Ÿ The early church fully expected to walk out the Christianity of the bible that included the power of the Spirit. We need to emphasis the continuation of the biblical basis for the power of the Spirit today.
Ÿ Make sure that everything is rooted in scripture and that at the heart of everything is a biblical pnemuatology that shapes both our belief and practice so that the very thing we stand for, namely a biblical experience of the Spirit, is not lost.
Ÿ Formalism of offices and liturgy killed the spontaneity that provided a platform and format for the gifts of the Spirit to be exercised most profitably. The lesson is that we need to have an openness and sensitivity to the Spirit that enables us to be able to enjoy his presence and power working among us.

The influence and power of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus and its significance for us today

Introduction

It was the controversial theologian Clark H Pinnock who said “Anointing by the spirit is central for understanding the person and work of Jesus more central than theology has normally made it. Christology must not lack for Pneumatology”. This study will address the extent of the influence of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus as well as look at how the power of the Holy Spirit was manifest in the life of Jesus. And so as such I will look to examine what Pinnock describes as “central for understanding the person and work of Jesus” the “anointing by the Spirit”.

My conviction is that understanding this “anointing” or the pervasive activity of the Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus is also crucial for understanding the role of the Holy Spirit among the people of God. Like Simon Ponsonby “I believe that a truly biblical theology must lead to a truly charismatic experience of intimacy with Christ and effective ministry for Christ”. So in order to have a truly biblical Christianity I will show how Jesus’ experience of the Spirit should determine our experience of the Spirit today.

Gods empowered servant

The aim of this section will be to outline the Old Testament teaching on Gods servants the judges and the kings who were empowered by the Holy Spirit and to look at how the Old Testament looked forward to a coming empowered servant of God. The study will then see how this understanding can give us better insight into understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus and how Jesus understood himself to be this empowered servant.

Gods empowered Judges

Old Testament theologian Paul House writes concerning the book of Judges “the book describes what occurs when a covenant people forsake that covenant and do whatever each individual or tribe sees fit rather than following the revealed word of the creator of the lands and peoples.” This is the exact situation we find in Judges Chapter three Verse 7

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

This verse gives us an insight into the rebellion of the people they had neglected their covenant making God and so the covenant itself and had also pursued other Gods. By pursuing other Gods the people had lost their distinction as they had become like the neighbouring peoples. The result of this was that (verse 8):

The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.

In Gods anger against his people he put them back into subjectivity again as in the days of Egypt the people of Israel were ruled by a foreign king. But God hearing the anguish of their cries “raised up for them a deliverer” verse 9. God in his grace provided for the people one who would be enabled to deliver them from their captivity. The one who God provided was “Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them”. This deliver was a saviour to the people.

Othniel was a man who was empowered by Gods Spirit “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge” verse 10. He was able to only become Israel’s judge because the spirit was upon him. The result of Gods action in empowering his servant was that:

The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

God had rescued his people through empowering a servant figure on this occasion Othniel. What we see on this occasion is repeated three other times within the book of Judges. People sin which leads to oppression God rises up and chooses a deliverer and the spirit empowers that deliverer. It happens with Gideon, Japheth and Samson.
Wilf Hildebrandt identifies 5 key characteristics of these narrative passages in Judges:

1. A crisis period of oppression
2. The raising up of an individual who is endowed and enabled to motivate people
3. The gift of the spirit which spontaneously empowers the individual at the appropriate time of need
4. The authority and effectiveness of the individual, not dependent on age, sex, ability, status wisdom or prowess and
5 Narrative indicating that victories are won by the intervention of Yahweh through the spirit that enables the Judges task

So clearly the spirit was the enabling force behind the deliverance narratives in Judges.

Gods empowered Kings

Within the book of Samuel we see the introduction of human kings to rule the nation of Israel. The king though is installed because the people of Israel want one who can “go out before us and fight our battles” (one Samuel eight verse twenty). The people want a delivering king who can win them victories over their enemies much like the Judges. Chapter nine verses fifteen to seventeen outline the selection of that king by Samuel.

15 Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed this to Samuel: 16 "About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me."
17 When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."


This narrative parallels what happens in judges with God selecting a deliverer for his backslidden people because “their cry has reached” him. This selection of the king has two predominant features firstly God reveals the man who is to be king and secondly that the man is to be the one who is to “deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines”.

After the selection of Saul two things happen:

Firstly he is anointed with oil “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head” (Chapter ten verse one). This anointing with oil was a highly symbolic “the act of pouring a flask of specially prepared olive oil symbolised the staking of a divine claim on him as well as the outpouring of the Lords enabling Spirit into the newly designated kings life” (Robert Bergen).

Secondly “the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in prophesying with” the group of prophets (verse nine). This act was to serve as a sign that Saul was Gods selected man to be king verse 6-7 and that God was with him. Hildebrandt notes that “the manifestation of the spirit of God at this important transition period to the monarchy is consistent with the emphasis that all leadership must be spirit endowed.”

We see the fulfilment of this Judges motif when the Spirit of God comes upon Saul in power chapter eleven Verse six and he slaughters the Ammonites Verse eleven.

Due to Saul’s disobedience God rejects “him as king over Israel” chapter 16 verse 1. Samuel is then instructed “Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king”. We next see that Samuel is told to select David to be king and:

“So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.”

What we see again in verse thirteen is that in order to be king, David needed the Holy Spirit or as Leon J Wood put it “both Saul and David… needed special empowerment. Neither was sufficient in himself for his God given task”.

Gods coming empowered servant

Next we shall examine the servant songs of Isaiah which speak of the coming empowered servant of God. Christopher Wright notices 3 things that are common to all these Songs;

1 They all speak of a coming one
2. They all speak of the role of the Spirit of God in relation to that person and the tasks he will carry out. He will manifestly be filled with spirit.
3. They all speak of Gods achieving his own mission or purpose through this coming servant – King

In this study will focus on three servant songs in particular in order to understand the role of the spirit in the coming empowered servant of God.

Firstly we will examine Isaiah eleven which looks at the restoration of the Davidic kingship, “David’s house reduced by its apostasy herein described is suddenly exalted” It looks to “one who will in himself embody all the ideals of the Davidic kingdom”. (E J Young) This one is “the stump of Jesse” verse one.

Verse two sets out that like David the “Spirit of the lord will rest on him”. The spirits activities can be characterised in a threefold manner

Intellectual (“the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding”) – the spirit will give the ability to assess properly the state of a person or situation and make correct decisions.
Practical (“the Spirit of counsel and of power”) – the ability to chose the right action and carry it through.
Relational (“the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD v3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD”) - a knowledge of God based from a loving relationship that leads to reverent obedience.
What we observe here is that the spirit has a diverse enabling affect upon all aspects of the messiah’s life enabling him for God task.

“To be endued for the messianic work an anointing of Yahweh was necessary and this anointing consisted in the impartation to the messiah of the Spirit”. E J Young

Secondly we will examine Isaiah forty two Motyer comments on this song “the first and the last of the servant songs to begin with a command to see the servant. Here it is in order to understand his relationship to the lord and the work committed to him”.

Verse one outlines three things concerning the servant’s relationship to Yahweh.
1 The lord promises to uphold and keep upright his servant
2 The lord has chosen his servant and he remains his chosen one
3 The lord has pleasure and delight in his servant

So we can see that the coming promised servant will have a unique relationship with the lord.
Not only that but the lord makes a promise that “I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations”. Motyer comments that the Spirit here is “the mode of the Lords personal presence and action and the special endowment of leaders.” The giving of the spirit here has a distinct purpose to “bring justice to the nations. God anoints the servant in order that he can carry out his mission of brining justice to the nations.

The third and final passage to be examined is Isaiah sixty one. In this passage the servant declares his own identity purpose and means for achieving it.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”

Young paraphrases this verse to say that “because the lord has anointed me the spirit of the lord is upon me.” What he is saying here is that the coming empowered servant would have the Holy Spirit preciously because the Lord had anointed him. So we see the servant fulfilling the pattern Samuel where the anointing would be followed by the empowering of the Spirit.

The coming servant had the spirit because he was chosen for a specific task “to preach good news to the poor”. This implies that the Spirit was crucial for the completion of the task.

Gods empowering of his servant Jesus

When we look at the empowering of Gods servant Jesus the question has to be asked at what point was the presence of the Holy Spirit active in the life of Jesus? The answer to this question is that the Holy Spirit was active in the birth of Jesus as well as his childhood development.
Firstly this study will examine the activity of the Holy Spirit in the birth of Jesus. Luke writes about the activity of the Holy Spirit in the birth of Jesus in Luke chapter one. Firstly an angel appears to Mary and says to her “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus” verse thirty one. This is a problem for Mary and she responds "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" verse thirty four. The key problem for Mary is how can she conceive without having sexual intercourse. “The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” verse thirty five.

The angel presents the answer to the problem of how she will be able to conceive to be that the Holy Spirit will enable the conception of Jesus. Peter Lewis writes “the Holy Spirit was personally and uniquely active at the conception of Jesus. It was by his creative activity that Mary conceived without any human participation in procreative act.” It was the Holy Spirits empowering presence that enabled the miraculous conception of the eternal word of God to a virgin.

Secondly we now examine the activity of the Holy Spirit in the childhood development of Jesus. It was the theologian George Smeaton who spoke of the development of the boy Jesus that “we must ascribe to the Spirit all the progress in Christ’s mental and spiritual development and all his advancement in knowledge and holiness…The Spirit was given to him, of the personal union in a measure which no mere man could posses constituting the link between the deity and humanity perpetually imparting the full consciousness of his personality and making Him inwardly aware of his divine son-ship at all times.” (Emphasis mine)

Firstly we see that as a child growing up Jesus had a unique awareness of his Son-ship. We see in Luke chapter two that Jesus having stayed behind in the temple causes his parents to lose him, they then return to find him, once they have found him they ask why he has chosen to stay in the temple. Jesus’ response is very insightful to our understanding of how he viewed his relationship to God, "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" verse forty nine. What we see in this phrase “I had to be” is that Jesus is in the temple “under divine compulsion …he must align himself with Gods purposes, even if it appears to compromise his relationship with his parents” (Joel B Green). What we can see from that is that Jesus had a sense of his son-ship that had a consuming controlling effect upon him “basic to Jesus’ experience of God, to his self-consciousness was his sense of son-ship and his consciousness of the spirit” (James Dunn). Or to rephrase Dunn Jesus’ consciousness of being Gods son came from the sense that the spirit gave him as Paul wrote in Romans eight verses fifteen and sixteen “by him (that is the spirit) we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children”
So we can conclude with Smeaton that the spirit was “perpetually imparting the full consciousness of his personality and making Him inwardly aware of his divine son-ship at all times.”

Secondly we see that the Spirit had a crucial role in the development of Jesus. Luke chapter two verse forty. “And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” What we see in this verse is Jesus’ physical development “the child grew and became strong”. Here is one who is growing and developing physically as any other human would. But what is important to note is that as Jesus grew two things happened.
“He was filled with wisdom” – Gerald Hawthorne identifies three considerable ideas behind this phrase: Firstly that there was a “steady continuous uninterrupted action” of Jesus being filled. Secondly that the participle filled “is in the passive voice – Jesus was being filled by someone. That is to say someone other then Jesus was doing the filling…this unnamed agent was none other then the Holy Spirit.” Thirdly the use of the word wisdom shows that (a) Jesus was not just becoming intelligent but also committed to the ways of God. (b) “The messianic hope was to be bound up in just such a person as this, a person endowed with wisdom by the spirit of God.”
“The grace of God was upon him” – Again Hawthorne offers important insights into this phrase he sees a link between Acts four verse thirty three and this phrase. “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.” Hawthorne sees Luke using rhetorical parallelism to create a link between “great power” and “much grace” that is “Power (of the spirit) and grace (of God) are in this Acts passage for all practical purposes made identical”. From this he concludes that “God was in effect equipping Jesus with the gifts of the Spirit even in his earliest years, preparing him for the ministry that he was eventually to fulfil”.

From this we can see that the Holy Spirit was the significant factor in the development of Jesus. It was the spirit who enabled “all the progress in Christ’s mental and spiritual development and all his advancement in knowledge and holiness”

Gods’ special empowering moment of his servant Jesus

The baptism of Jesus is seen within the gospels to be a defining moment in the life of Jesus. As Peter Lewis writes “Something so crucial occurred at Jesus’ baptism that after it according to Luke Jesus went up from the Jordon full of the spirit returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit and announced in his first synagogue sermon that the spirit of the lord is upon me”. So clearly the baptism event is crucial for understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus.

The baptism is recorded in three of the gospels though John does not mention the baptism he does refer to the event as will be seen.

Matthews account
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him”

Marks account:
“As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”

Lukes account:
“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.”

What we see in the three synoptic accounts is that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus after his baptism. Now what has been made clear so far is that the Holy Spirit was already active and evident in the life of Jesus so why did the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus here? Johns account is also interesting and we shall look at that before we answer the question.

Johns account:
Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.

John does not write about the baptism but rather writes of the Baptists testimony of the descent of the Spirit. Kostenberger explains that “in the fourth gospel the function of this event is said to be the identification of Jesus as Messiah for the Baptist” The descent of the Spirit testifies to the fact that Jesus is the coming promised empowered servant of Yahweh the Messiah “I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'”
Beasley Murray comments “the Spirit of the age to come descends from an open heaven and remains on Jesus, Just as the prophets of the OT anticipated the Spirit to rest on the messiah”. The baptismal descent of the Spirit on Jesus inaugurates the promised OT empowered servant of God into his mission testifying to his messianic nature.
HB Swete wrote of the descent of the Spirit that “It was the spiritual invisible but effectual anointing of the Christ with Holy Spirit and power for his unique work” As Peter would preached later to the House of Cornelius “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power”.

Jesus’ understanding of Gods empowering of his servant himself

We can see in Lukes Gospel that Jesus was experiencing “the power of the Spirit” chapter four verse fourteen after his baptism. So much so that “news about him spread through the whole countryside…and everyone praised him”. The Holy Spirit was active and present in the life and ministry of Jesus in a dynamic way.

What we see next in Luke is what James Dunn describes as:

“His consciousness of a spiritual power so real so effective so new so final was the well spring of both his proclamation of the presentness of the future kingdom and his authority in word and deed. This consciousness is summed up in the word spirit. His awareness of being uniquely possessed by the divine spirit was the mainspring of his mission and the key to it effectiveness”

In Luke four we see that Jesus fully understood that he was the promised empowered servant of God as depicted in the OT and that this understanding was the “mainspring of his mission and the key to it effectiveness”.

Jesus “went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.” Jesus goes to the synagogue as was his custom to teach as he had been having been given the scroll “Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written” Robert Stein notes the importance of this phrase “he found the place where it is written” by commenting that “Luke indicated that Jesus chose the following passage to read and this emphasized Jesus Messianic consciousness as he began his ministry.” Jesus had a distinct purpose in choosing the passage which stemmed from an awareness of the Spirit on his life. Jesus then goes onto read:

18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus chooses to read the passage in Isaiah sixty one that promises a coming empowered servant of God. Jesus did not just read the passage but identified himself as that coming servant of God by “saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. From this we can clearly see that Jesus is the promised empowered servant of God spoken of in the passages of Isaiah.

Conclusion

We have seen that within the Old Testament that God empowered all those he used to deliver and save his people with the Holy Spirit it was the Holy Spirit that enabled them to do the tasks that they would do. But these empowered saviours were not to be something that was a past event in the life of Israel as the prophet Isaiah looked forward to a coming empowered saviour/deliverer of the people. This promised Holy Spirit empowered Saviour was Jesus as had been made clear. Like the Kings of Israel he would need the Holy Spirit to empower him if he was to fulfil his role as Gods anointed. So we have seen that the Holy Spirit had a pervasive effect in the life of Jesus enabling him to be the Lords anointed. Over the next few studies we will look to see how exactly the power of the Holy Spirit was evident or manifest in the life and ministry of Jesus. But before we do this we will look to see how Gods Empowered Servant has become Gods Empowering Servant.

God empowering servant

The purpose of this next section is to demonstrate that those within the Old Testament experienced a transfer of the Spirit that was upon them onto others and to show how Jesus fulfils that pattern of Transfer within the NT as the ultimate empowering servant.

The Old Testament precedent of the transfer of the Spirit and its new testament fulfilment in Christ

Roger Stronstad wrote in his influential book The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke that “The most striking motif for the charismatic activity of the Spirit of God is the transfer of the spirit in association with the transfer of leadership.” It is this idea that will be examined now as we look to understand Gods empowering servant.

Numbers eleven has been described as the Old Testament Pentecost or “Numbers 11 is to the Old testament what Acts 2 is to the new” (Leeper). Roger Cotton put it “Numbers 11 should be considered as the foundational Charismatic/Pentecostal passage in the Old Testament”. The question is why is Numbers eleven seen to be so important for our understanding of pneumatology and how does it help in our understanding of Jesus as Gods empowering servant?

What we find in Numbers eleven is that Moses finds that the people are like a burden placed upon him verse eleven. So much so that he says to God “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me” verse fourteen. Unless God does something Moses will be unable to carry out the task given to him and the purpose of God will be thwarted.

So in response to this God tells Moses to get some help to assist him with his task “Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people”. God then promises that he will give the elders “the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them”. The lord is promising Moses that the same empowerment that Moses experiences from the Holy Spirit these elders will experience too. This is so that “they will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.” Moses will longer be alone in his task of having to lead the people as there will be others empowered as he is.

What we see next is a fulfilment of the word spoken to Moses:

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.

We see that the Spirit comes and rests upon them and like it would be with Saul a number of years later they begin to prophesy as testimony that they are now the Lords anointed. Leeper writes “The prophesying attributed to the elders is no doubt given as a sign for themselves, Moses and the entire community. The sign serves to substantiate outwardly what the Spirit accomplished inwardly by way of gifting them for the task”

The idea is this because the elders would have to carry out the same work as Moses they would require the same enabling and empowering of the Holy Spirit as him.

Joshua finds out that some of the elders unable to attend the meeting are prophesying as well his response to Moses is "Moses, my lord, stop them!" Moses’ response is “I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" Moses here is expressing a desire that all Gods people would have the empowering and enabling Spirit and would prophesy.

This desire of Moses is then fulfilled in Acts chapter two. What I want to propose is that in Acts chapter two the new and greater Moses Jesus has transferred the same empowering Spirit to the people of God, in the same way as it was taken from Moses and put on the elders. And that the same empowerment that was upon him has given to all the people of God in fulfilment of Moses’ desire. In short Numbers eleven is a paradigm for understanding Acts two

I will now set at four similarities between Acts two and Numbers eleven:

Jesus has ascended and so like Moses others are needed to fulfil Gods purposes here on earth. Acts one verse ten shows that Jesus has ascended into heaven so in order to fulfil and continue Jesus mission others are needed.

The activity of the Holy Spirit is promised “wait for the gift my Father promised” the gift here being the promised Holy Spirit as Polhill notes “the promise has already been introduced in Luke 24:49 (”clothed with power from on high”). So Jesus is telling them that they will be an empowering of Gods Spirit to come. This matches Numbers eleven where God tells Moses about the coming activity of the Spirit on the elders.

The Spirit as in Numbers is seen to be the prophetic enabling spirit. Peter interpreting the descent of the Spirit explains the activity of the Spirit through the use of Joel two. “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy”. The Spirit at Pentecost is the Spirit of prophecy empowering the people of God as the Spirit empowered the elders. “all of Gods people from the least to the greatest will have the spirit and be equipped for witness or service with various gifts in the eschatological age ushered in by Jesus” (Witherington) (N.B Also what happens at Pentecost i.e. the experience of the Spirit is a fulfilment of Moses’ desire that all people would have the Spirit and prophesy)

Jesus is seen as the one from whom the Spirit has come from onto the people in the same way that the Spirit came from Moses onto the elders. Jesus has become the focal point of origin for the Spirit in the same way that Moses was in Numbers. “he (Jesus) has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” FF Bruce Comments “he who had earlier received the Spirit for the public discharge of his own earthly ministry had no received that same spirit to impart to his representatives, in order that they might continue and indeed share in the ministry he had begun” (emphasis mine). In order for the disciples and so the people of God (as promised spirit is for all flesh and generations) to do what Jesus did Jesus gave them the same empowerment he had.

I will set out two differences between Numbers eleven and Acts two

The scope of the empowering blessing is larger in Acts two. The Spirit in acts two is for “All flesh” and the promised empowering Spirit is “for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." Rather then just the elders as in Numbers eleven.

Jesus is the only the one from whom the Spirit comes but is also the one who distributes the Spirit “he has poured out what you now see and hear.” Where as in Numbers eleven God “took the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders”

In the same way that the same power available to Moses was given to the elders so the same power that was available to Jesus has been given to all the people of God. The difference being in this new age the Spirit is available for all and Jesus is the one who gives the Spirit.

Numbers eleven is not the only incident where there is a transfer of the Spirit from one person to another we also see it in the case of Elijah and Elisha. The story is found in the narrative of two Kings Chapter two. Elijah is about depart and so asks Elisha "Tell me, what I can do for you before I am taken from you?" Elisha responds "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit". Paul House comments on Elisha’s request that “Perhaps then Elisha desires both Elijah’s spiritual strength and temporal responsibilities, or he may simply ask for the spiritual power to do the job he would someday assume”. The point seems to be that the receiving of the spirit that is on Elijah is crucial for being able to be able to do what Elijah had done and carry on his mission.

Elijah is then taken from Elisha and Elisha is left with a test as to whether he has the same empowering Spirit that Elijah had. He has to cross the same water that they crossed on the way the river Jordon where “Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.” Elisha is faced with the same test and so like Elijah “he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.” Stronstad observes “this transfer of the prophetic vocation and gift of the spirit is confirmed by Elisha’s ability to part the Jordan River just as Elijah had done earlier”.

So we see in this story a transfer of the same power from Elijah onto Elisha to enable him to carry out the role that the ascending Elijah could no longer do.

The fulfilment or New Testament replica for this is John chapter twenty verse twenty one and twenty two.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

Three things should be noted from this verse

Firstly “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." - Jesus identifies his mission with that of the disciples. The disciples are to be sent in the same way Jesus was sent. This identifies the mission of the disciples with that of Jesus. Kostenberger writes “the disciples are drawn into the unity and mission of the son”. This is paralleled with Elijah and Elisha as Elisha had to continue the very same mission of Elijah.

Secondly “And with that” – as Beasley Murray notes this “links the saying with the commission given in the previous verse: the accomplishment of the mission is the primary purpose for the giving of the spirit”. The mission of the disciples is linked with the Spirit they can not be sent without the Spirit. So Elisha realised that without the Spirit he would not be able to continue Elijah’s mission.

Thirdly “he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.” – The spirit came from Jesus to empower the disciples as he had been empowered. Leon Morris comments “Having commissioned them, Jesus bestows on them the equipment they would need for the discharge of their commission”. In like manner Elisha received from Elijah the same spirit that would enable him to be able to fulfil the work of Elijah.

What we see again is that the same empowering Spirit that Jesus had is needed in order to be able to accomplish the work he did. In the same way that Elisha needed the empowering Spirit that Elijah had.

Conclusion

The same empowering Spirit that Jesus had is now given to us by Jesus in order to carry out the work he did on earth. It is vitally important that we have the same Spirit he had if we are to accomplish his mission. What is also important to note is that the one who was empowered by the Spirit is now the one who empowers others with the giving of that same Spirit.

So overall we can see that in the words of HB Swete “the Chrism of the Spirit was received by our Lord not only with reference to his own needs but that he might bestow it on all believers. The whole fountainhead of the spirit is henceforth His to shower upon his future church.” In other words Jesus received the Spirit in his earthly life in order that we could share in that same power as John put it “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” We receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit precisely because he experienced the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirits empowerment: the suffering and the glory

The purpose of this section of the study is to understand what shape the empowerment of the Holy Spirit took in the life of Jesus as well as to understand what shape it should take in our lives. This section will look at the Holy Spirits place in the glorious powerful deeds of the Jesus and our lives today as well as the Holy Spirits role in the sufferings of Jesus and his role in our sufferings today. I have adopted this approach of looking at Jesus’ experience of the Spirit and using that as a paradigm through which to understand our experience of the Spirit based on the conviction proved above that we share the same empowering experience of Jesus or to put it another way what Jesus experienced of the Spirit we can experience too.

The Glory

In Luke’s gospel we see the disciples walking on the road to Emmaus and Jesus comes alongside them but they do not recognise him they then propose their definition to Jesus of who they thought he was "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people”.

The disciples understanding of Jesus shows us that what people would have thought of Jesus if they looked at his life. The disciples were not saying a statement based on faith but rather what they had experienced during their time with Jesus. The disciples designate Jesus to be powerful in word and deed. That is what Jesus did and said had a supernatural power to it. This very understanding of Jesus being a prophet Hawthorne believes is “one more implicit reference to the presence and power of the spirit in Jesus’ life. Prophets were people who spoke and acted as they were moved by divine impulse” (emphasis mine).

In order to examine the role of the Spirit in empowering Jesus ministry this study will examine the role of the Spirit in empowering Jesus in the deeds that he did as well as the words that he said.

One of the most explicit references to Jesus being empowered by the Holy Spirit to heal can be found in Acts 10:37-38

37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

Peter in describing the ministry of Jesus to Cornelius makes three points:

Firstly he offers a time for when Jesus began his ministry “after the baptism that John preached”. Peter introduces where Jesus ministry had its “beginning”. He orientates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to correlate with the Baptismal ministry of John in order to allude to when the Holy Spirit descended on him as a dove (see comments above)
Secondly he describes what God had done to Jesus “anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power”. God had anointed Jesus with the Spirit in order that he might become Gods empowered servant (as seen above)
Thirdly he describes the results of this action by God “he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil”. The result of Gods anointing and empowering of his servant meant that he was able to heal the sick and address the problems of the demonised.

The conclusion then has to be drawn that Jesus’ healings were a result of the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. Jesus was able to heal because he had the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 12:15-18 we see that Matthew attributes the ability of Jesus to heal (through quoting Isaiah) to the Holy Spirit.

15Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, 16warning them not to tell who he was. 17This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 18"Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

We see in these verses that Jesus “healed all their sick” of those who followed him. Matthew sees this to be a fulfilment of Isaiah that God had put his “Spirit on him”. In other words Matthew is saying that the very fact that Jesus is healing people is proof that he has the Holy Spirit. Therefore Matthew sees Jesus’ healing ministry to be as a result of him having the Holy Spirit. Hawthorne writes on Matthews’s use of this quotation that it was used “to direct attention to the source of Jesus’ wonder-working power – the Holy Spirit”

In Matthew 12:28 we see How Jesus understood where his power came from:

28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

This verse is a response to the Pharisees misunderstanding of how the Jesus was able to cast out demons. The Pharisees believed that “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons.". So Jesus’ response is perfectly placed to give us an understanding of where his power comes from. “Nobody disputes the fact of the exorcisms the only question is the source of the power” Leon Morris. Jesus attributes his ability to “drive out demons” to be “by the Spirit of God”. In other words it is the Holy Spirit that empowers him for this task.

In Luke 5:17 we see that Jesus could only heal because of the Holy Spirit in this verse the “power of the Lord” is said to be “present”. This use of the word present seems to suggest personality as so can easily be seen to be the Holy Spirit. Indeed Joel B Green sees that “the phrase power of the Lord is synonymous with the “Spirit of the Lord” is clear from Lukan usage elsewhere”. This power or the Holy Spirit was what enabled “him to heal the sick” as the word “for” seems to suggest.

So we can see that Jesus healed because the Holy Spirit enabled him to heal. Clark H Pinnock writes “the purpose of the miracles was to set people free and demonstrate that the kingdom was entering the present. The show that salvation is at work and the kingdom is inaugurated. They are no evidences of Christ’s deity but evidence of the spirit at work in him”. So as we look at the relevancy of this today we can see that we who are fully human can heal the sick; as the healings that Jesus saw were a result of the Holy Spirits power not a result of his deity. So Paul can write “to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit”. That is the Spirit can manifest his activity in healing today.

Though this view that we can heal like Jesus because we have the Spirit has been attacked by a number of scholars indeed Keith Warrington argues “the unique nature of Jesus’ person and ministry is seriously undermined by these attempts to define a parallel relationship between his life and the life of every believer”. Warrington views the miracles of Jesus to be unique to Jesus because of Jesus’ unique mission and nature. But if Pinnock is write that the miracles are more of a demonstration of the Spirits power then to do with Jesus, then in proposing the view that Jesus can form a Paradigm for healing does not undermine Jesus but rather exalts the work of the Spirit something that Warrington view does not.

The greatest case for the continuation of healing like Jesus is John 14:12 “I tell you the truth; anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father”. There are a number of things that need to be considered in this verse:

“Anyone who has faith in me” the promise of this verse is not just directed at the disciples but rather all Christians

“Will do what I have been doing” up unto this point what Jesus had been doing was preaching about the kingdom and healing the sick. Therefore this phrase includes the healing miracles.

“He will do greater things than these” the key to understanding this phrase is to understand that the miracles and works that Jesus did are recorded by John to act as signs that is “the main reality to which they point and which makes their testimony a set of variations on a single theme is the life eternal of the kingdom of God through Jesus its mediator” Beasley Murray. So when the disciples are said to do grater things it is because the things that they do are not signs looking forward but are rather the result of what Jesus has done and what all his works pointed too. So Beasley Murray writes “the greater works that the disciples are to do after Easter are the actualization of the realities to which the works of Jesus point the bestowal of the blessings and powers of the kingdom of God upon men and women which the death and resurrection of Jesus are to let loose in the world”

“Because I am going to the father” all these things are a result of Jesus’ return to his father Jesus work will not cease to be carried out because he is gone but rather because he is going the work will be carried out by all who believe instead. Morris sees the link between Jesus going to the father and doing the same things “to be explained in terms of the coming of the Holy Spirit”. So Jesus goes to the father so we can continue his mission through the power of the Spirit.

In conclusion we can see that the all believers can carry on with powerful deeds of Jesus as he has sent us the same Spirit that empowered him.

One of the most remarkable things that we see within the gospel of John is the remarkable insight that Jesus seems to have into the lives of those who come to see him. One of the most remarkable of these is John 4

Jesus is in conversation with a Samaritan woman when he asks her "Go, call your husband and come back." Her response is "I have no husband". Jesus then offers remarkable insight into the woman’s life "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” Jesus offers a very pointed and specific word into the life of the women which she confirms to be true when she says “What you have just said is quite true."

Mark Stibbe writes “Jesus received an insight into the woman’s secret history and as a result she knew that she was in the presence of one who could see her most hidden hurts and hang – ups.”

The women response to Jesus is to recognise him as a prophet "I can see that you are a prophet.” The revelation Jesus gives into her life indicates to her that Jesus is one who has the ability to prophesy. Being a Samaritan she would have been acquainted with the Old Testament and so would have understood that prophets were those who prophesied by the power of the Holy Spirit. So by designating Jesus a prophet she portrays Jesus to be one who has the Holy Spirit and is able to speak words of insight as he has just done. As Hawthorne writes “”this evaluation of Jesus ministry must then have led these people to a belief that the source of his power authority and insight his ability to speak and act for God was similar to if not identical with that of the old Testament prophets namely the Holy Spirit”.

We again see this prophetic ability in John 1:47-49
47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." 48"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
We see in this passage that Jesus had prophetic visionary understanding

This prophetic ability of Jesus therefore seems to be a continuation of the gifting that Old Testament prophets had. The question then arises should we expect the same prophetic insight? Mark Stibbe certainly thinks so “I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak through Christians to lost people waking them up to the reality that Jesus is alive and knows their every thought word and action.”

The certainty of such prophecy is based upon two premises that:

That God has given us the Spirit in order to fulfill the promise of Joel 2

I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions

The gift of prophecy is now available to all flesh no longer limited to a select few prophets. And secondly the Paul makes it clear that the gift of prophecy is to be eagerly desired “eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” What should be noted here is that Paul would not instruct people to desire something that they could not have.

So we see that Jesus was able to prophesy through the power of the Holy Spirit and we through the same Spirit can also prophesy.

Jesus was able to speak the very words of God because he had the Holy Spirit without limit as John 3:34 makes clear. “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.” The Spirit was crucial to Jesus’ preaching as his role was to reveal to Jesus the very words he needed to say. The Spirit was the source of revelation in Jesus’ teaching ministry he could only say the words of God because he had the Spirit.

It is important to understand that Jesus was dependent upon the father for what he said as John makes clear “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me”. Jesus was taught by the father and so we can by joining the two points made by these verses together that the father taught Jesus through the Holy Spirit the words to preach the Spirit was crucial in the learning and teaching of Jesus.

Like Jesus we too are dependent upon the Spirit to understand the things of God 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” Thieslton comments “The logic of Paul’s thought here is that if by analogy one person cannot know the least accessible aspects another human being unless that person is willing to place them in the public domain even so we cannot expect that Gods own purposes, Gods own qualities or Gods own self could be open to scrutiny unless his spirit makes them accessible by an act of unveiling them” (Thieslton)

This view leads to Paul’s conclusion on mans ability to accept the gospel in verse 14 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” What Paul is saying here that without the Spirit people will not accept the gospel as it is foolish to them. As Garland comments “Paul’s point: natural reason and intuition are completely unable to receive the divine realities unaided”.

Paul also views the Spirit work as being crucial for our understanding of God and the gospel throughout our Christian growth as Ephesians 1:17:18 makes clear

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

What we see here is that the Spirit forms the role of providing wisdom and revelation in the believer’s life after conversion as Peter T O’Brien comments “The mystery had already been made known in Christ (vv9-10), but the readers needed to grasp its full significance, not least of all their own place within it. And as the Spirit worked in their midst, giving them insights and revealing God’s purposes in Christ, so they would grow in the knowledge of God”. The Ephesians knew and had accepted the gospel but Paul stills prays for more of the Spirits illuminating revealing activity giving them greater understanding of God and the gospel.

So like Jesus we too share the revealing illuminating activity of the Spirit dependent upon the Spirit for the teaching of the Father.

The Suffering

Clark H Pinnock said of Jesus “Spirit led him down the path of suffering and would no let him avoid it. Spirit does not let us avoid it either.” This is the basic summary of this next section that the Spirit is crucial in understanding the sufferings of Jesus and is vital for experience of suffering today.

The Spirit pointed towards the sufferings that Jesus would face 1 Peter 1:10-10.

Concerning this salvation the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

Peter having expounded the greatness of Salvation and the role of suffering adds another perspective of the greatness of salvation and the role of suffering. Firstly that the readers are at the pinnacle of the revelation of redemptive history as the prophets had to search intently into salvation whereas it has now been revealed. Secondly and most importantly Peter points out that the Spirit looked forward towards a suffering messiah. The function of the Spirit was to witness to Christ “as it is the spirits witness to Christ that is of interest” (Davids) the Christ he witnessed to was the suffering Christ. So we can see that the sufferings of the messiah are linked by the fact that the Spirit would point forward to those sufferings.

Also what is important to note is that it is the Christ who is being predicted to suffer. Christ or messiah means “anointed”, “in the old testament both the king of Israel and its high priest were formally anointed with oil when they were inaugurated into their offices and functions. Their anointing was the time in which God publicly appointed them and by his Spirit empowered them for their work” (Lewis). From this we can see that the Spirit was pointing towards one who would be empowered by Gods Spirit who would suffer or to put it another way a Spirit empowered sufferer.

The clearest example of this is the anointed messiah within Isaiah. Gods empowered servant as was examined earlier is also described in Isaiah as the suffering servant so in Isaiah 53 we read of one who will suffer and be punished for others.

In marks gospel this predicted messiah is described as having arrived. Marks Gospel has a special purpose to show this idea as mentioned above that the coming messiah would be Gods empowered sufferer that though he is empowered he also suffers. We see this most clearly in Marks baptism narrative Mark 1: 9-10.

At that time Jesus came from Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming out of the water he saw heaven being opened and the spirit descending on him like a dove

Crucial to understanding this narrative is to understand that baptism for Mark was synomonus with Jesus’ suffering. So Keener writes “Jesus’ baptism naturally prefigures his sufferings in Mark 10: 39-40, just as the cup, perhaps the reminiscent of the cup of divine wrath in the biblical prophets, refers to his death in the same passage”. The point that is important to draw from this is that the Spirit descended upon Jesus to empower him in the very place where he was identifying that he would have to suffer. The words of Mark Stibbe can not be improved upon:

“When the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism like a dove, Jesus was enabled and empowered not only to perform signs and preach with authority. He was also anointed to give his life as a ransom for many. He was endowed with the power for martyrdom as well as miracles.”

Jesus was empowered to suffer we see this immediately in Marks Gospel where “at once Jesus was sent out by the Spirit into the desert and he was tempted in the desert for forty days being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and angels attended him”. What we can see from this is that the effect of the Spirit descending on Jesus anointing him was to cause him to go out into a place of difficulty and hardship testing in the wilderness. In this place he would be empowered to suffer opposition as well as to overcome the devil.

Keener writes “the Jesus of Mark enters into conflict with Satan in the gospels introduction, passing his tests and so demonstrating his Spirit empowerment. The rest of marks gospel recapitulates and develops this theme: a spirit empowered Jesus assaults the devils kingdom by healing the Sick and driving out demons (3: 27-29) while the devil continues behind the scenes to strike at Jesus through the devils religious and political agents. Disciples are called to share Jesus’ mission hence both his sufferings (e.g. 8:34, 10:39-45; 13:9) and his power (4:40, 9:19, 29 11:21-24)”

James R Edwards comments on the use of “wild animals” are worth considering at this point. He sees the unique reference to be here a “specific point of contact with Marks roman readers” in that “given the ravaging of Christians by ferocious animals during Nero’s reign it is not difficult to imagine Mark including this unusual phrase “with the wild beasts” in order to remind his Roman readers that Christ too was thrown to the wild beasts”. If this is correct it forms an important point in understanding the empowerment of Jesus by the Spirit this empowerment served as a something that led to the suffering and was in order that he would undergo suffering just like Marks readers. Or to put it another way it is through the Spirit we are empowered to suffer.

We have established already then that the Spirit is to be crucially involved in Christ’s suffering. What is now left to look at is the direct role of the Spirit in Christ’s accomplished suffering on the Cross. Hebrews 9:13-14 offers the answer:

“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God!”

This verse seems to suggest that the Spirit was the enabling factor in the sacrificial death of Christ. FF Bruces comments are helpful “Behind our authors thinking lies the portrayal of the Isaianic Servant of the Lord who yields up his life to God as a guilt offering for many bearing there sins and procuring their Justification. When this servant is introduced for the first time God says: “I have put my Spirit upon him” (Isa 42:1). It is in the power of the divine Spirit accordingly that the Servant accomplishes every phase of his ministry including the crowning phase in which accepts death for the transgression of his people filling the twofold role of priest and victim.”

What Bruce is saying is that it was as the Spirit empowered power servant (as mentioned earlier) that Jesus was to act as an empowered mediator both sacrifice and priest. Just as Jesus was empowered to bind up the broken hearted and proclaim liberty for the captives through his empowered ministry he would also bind up the broken hearted and proclaim liberty for the captives through his empowered death. This idea that the Spirit played a crucial role at every stage of Jesus life from birth, childhood development and ministry; also adds backing to the idea that the Spirit would empower Jesus at his most crucial moment in his life his sacrificial death. So we can conclude with William Lane that “the fact that his offering was made through “the eternal Spirit” implies that he had been divinely empowered and sustained in his office.” The Spirit empowered sacrifice and suffering in Jesus.

What does this mean for us today? That what empowered Jesus to perform miracles also empowered him to sacrifice his life and suffer and likewise what empowered Jesus to perform miracles also empowers us but also what empowered Jesus to sacrifice also empowers us to sacrifice and suffer too. This last premise is what will examine now that the same Spirit empowers us to sacrifice and suffer like Jesus. We share in both the cross and the glory. The emphasis on both the cross and the power are necessary to counteract the unnecessary polarisation that has occurred within Christianity as Mark Stibbe explains:

“Today there are evangelicals who have a discipleship of the cross but who lack any real openness to the fire of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand there are other who are extremely open to the empowering presence of God but lack any radical commitment to taking up there cross daily. One group stresses holiness the other stresses healing. One group prays “more of the cross” the other “more power”.

So if it can be established that crucial to knowing the empowering presence of God is a life of sacrifice and suffering then we can begin to address this gap between the fire of the Spirit and the blood of cross.

The book of one Peter is written to Christians who are undergoing much suffering having rejected their former pagan lifestyle the society has rejected them. It is into this situation that Peter writes (in 4:1) “therefore just as Christ suffered in the body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude”. The point being made here is that Christ’s sufferings should cause us to be prepared to suffer as well. What is crucial to learn is that Christ’s sufferings are experienced by us as we are now Christ’s people are lives are identified with his so we should have the same attitude to suffering as he had as we suffer in the same way as he did.

For Peter this sharing in the sufferings of Christ was to be done through the power of the Holy Spirit “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you maybe overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ you are blessed for the Spirit of Glory and God rests on you”. Here we see a stronger link between Christ sufferings and ours we are said to “participate in the sufferings of Christ”. But the most interesting point is that it is in this place of suffering that “the Spirit of Glory and God rests on you“. We not only share the same sufferings as Jesus but we also share the same empowering presence of the Spirit as Jobes comments “God has not abandoned the Christian who suffers; in the contrary God is powerfully present in the experience of Suffering for Christ”.

This idea of power and persecution is also important for Paul who writes “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.” (Philippians 3:10) The idea here is that Paul does not just want to know the power of God nor does he just want to live a cruciform life but rather wants to know both the power of Christ and the sufferings of Christ together so that it is power in weakness and surrender. It is whilst Paul is suffering that he experiences the power of Christ. Fee comments are worth quoting at length:

“The power of Christ’s resurrection is neither only one way of knowing Christ in the present nor a way of knowing him independently form participation in his sufferings. In Paul’s sentence the two go hand in glove Thus there is not a moment of triumphilism in this first phase but neither does Paul emphasize suffering in such a way as to diminish the power of Christ’s resurrection as genuinely present for us.”

Pauls prayer for the Colossians also demonstrates that Paul wanted the Colossian Christians to experience the same experience of power in the midst of trial. He prays that they would be “strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you might have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). The prayer involves a two parts firstly it is a prayer for the believers to be “strengthened with all power” O’Brien makes three points regarding this power: 1. That it is nothing less then Gods indwelling power which is required 2. That his glorious might is more then adequate for the Colossians needs 3. That this strength will be provided as the various circumstances are confronted

Secondly the purpose of this power is for “great endurance and patience” this implies that the Colossians will have difficult circumstances to face or are in difficult circumstances but God’s power will be available to them in those circumstance so that they can endure and wait for the end. Fee is again worth quoting here:

“It is perhaps worthy of note that this text has nothing to do with “signs and wonders” but everything to do with patience and endurance in the present struggle. The power of the Spirit in Paul thus reflects a full orbed understanding of the Christian life as both already and not yet which includes both the miraculous on the one hand and patient endurance in the midst of hardship on the other. And he simply does not see these two kinds of empowering as being in opposition to one another.”

For Paul the charismatic experience like Peter involved empowered suffering and sacrifice. The experience that Jesus had of the Spirit in empowering him to sacrifice his life in suffering is available to us. As we explore and desire a deeper experience of the empowering presence of God Spirit then eventually we will find ourselves experiencing the cross of Christ finding fellowship with him in his sufferings through experiencing the same empowering he had in that place of suffering. James Dunn emphasises the need to experience the cross of Christ in order to experience the power of Christ; “In short once again Paul senses in a half semi conscious way that Christ stands on both sides of the death -life paradox of the believers experience he experiences Christ as the crucified as well as the exalted indeed it is only when he experiences Christ as the crucified that it is possible for him to experience Christ as exalted only when he experiences death as the dying of Christ that it is possible to experience the risen life of Christ”. Participation in the death (I.e. self sacrifice) of Christ is essential for experiencing the power of Christ.

Ill finish with two quotes from Andrew Murray “Some cling to the cross and no not the power they wait for there and some seek the power and know that at the cross it must be waited for” and “Let us ask God to teach us to live as men who know how the cross and spirit are linked”.

Conclusion

We can see that the Holy Spirit provided and enabled Jesus with all that he needed to live on earth before God, we have also seen that we too can know the Spirits enabling power in the way that Jesus did. We can therefore draw two conclusions too meet my twofold aim as outlined in the start of the essay:

That salvation was a beautiful work of all the members of the trinity is was a perfectly proportioned window of revelation into the splendour of the trinity as all members played out and executed there part and therefore should lead us to the place of worship

That Jesus knew a rich diversity of the Spirits power and influence and we too can enjoy such a wealth and depth of the Spirits activity in our lives. This should lead us to the place of hunger as we survey what a feast is on offer for us.

Appendix A: Reconciling Christ’s divinity with being Gods empowered servant

The problem people may find as they read this study (and has been mentioned in passing already) is that they are left with the question surely Christ was divine and did not need the Spirit? I have waited to answer this question last in order that the weight of evidence that Jesus was indeed empowered by the Holy Spirit may be put forward so that the activity of the Spirit in the life of Jesus can not possibly be denied. I will put forward two ideas as to why I believe that the divinity and empowerment of Christ can be reconciled never attempts to offer a comprehensive answer nor be infallible but my hope is that it will cause a least a pointing in the right direction.

Firstly when Christ became man he chose to become weak even though he did not lose any of his strength. Phillpians 2:6-7 says that Christ “who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness”. The key idea in this verse is how and what was involved in “becoming nothing” or “emptying himself.” The phrase empting himself does not mean that Christ rid himself of his divine attributes but rather as Fee explains “Christ did not empty himself of anything he simply emptied himself poured himself out. This is a metaphor pure and simple”. Nothing went from Christ’s glory or power but rather Christ became of no repute through the incarnation. Moises understands that the phrase “is meant to encapsulate for the readers the whole descent of Glory from highest glory to lowest depths”. So it is apparent that Christ lost none of his divinity by becoming man.

Christ became nothing through “taking the very nature of a servant” it was by becoming the servant that Christ humbled himself. Or in other words it was not by what Christ gave away that made him nothing and weak but what he took to himself, the nature of the Servant. It is possible to see this background to be the servant passages in Isaiah which were examined earlier if this is the case Christ’s emptying and humbling was by choosing to be empowered by the Spirit as Gods servant rather then to rely upon his own power.

The theologian Millard Erickson also sees it as important to understand that Christ did have limited abilities when he became human though he lost none of his divinity he explains “as an incarnate being limited in the exercise of that power by possession of a human body.” he then uses an example “he was still omniscient but he possessed and exercised knowledge as a human organism that grew gradually in terms of consciousness whether of the physical environment or eternal truths”. He then uses a helpful analogy “the worlds fastest sprinter is entered into a three legged race where he runs with one of his legs tied to the leg of a partner. Although his physical capacity is not diminished the conditions under which he exercises it are severely circumscribed.”

So we can see from all this that Jesus’ divinity did not change one iota but by becoming a servant human being (possibly specifically the servant in Isaiah) he become weak therefore he became weak even though he did not lose any of his strength. It was because of this weakness that Christ would have needed to operate and be assisted by the Spirit. So we can see how Jesus could be fully divine yet dependent on the Spirit.

The second important point to understand is that the Spirit was performing a distinct role as he empowered Jesus. It is important to understand the words of John Owen at this point:

“the persons of the trinity can not be separated from each other. What one person does all three do. So what the Holy Spirit does the father and the son do also. One person of the trinity cannot do anything as separated from the other two persons. Therefore in every divine work we must recognise the authority of the father the love and wisdom of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit not as separate acts of one person but of the whole Godhead acting through the particular person chosen to do the specific work”.

Owens point is crucial to grasp; essentially he is saying that the Spirit had to present in the work of Jesus in redemption because all three members of the Godhead work in harmony. The Son was therefore empowered by the Spirit because that was the role the Spirit was to play. So the fact that the Spirit empowered Jesus did not undermine the divinity of Jesus rather it showed the work of the Spirit.

Ontologically the Spirit did not affect anything of Christ but functionally he influenced all of his work. The work of Christ was not to demonstrate his power but rather the Spirits power Christ revealed the Spirits power rather then his own.