Earnestly Desire the Spiritual Gifts
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, those checking out the podcast are aware that in Sovereign Grace we have seven shared values that we hold in common; theological convictions that call for regular and careful study and growing in our understanding of these theological convictions. One of those being that we are continuation in our pneumatology and you wanted to talk about that.
Mark Prater:
I did. That's one of our shared values. Continuation is pneumatology, and I want to talk about it because we don't want to just be in name continuation, we want to be it in name and in practice as well. And just really want to remind pastors or members of our churches that are listening to this of the language in the New Testament that speaks about our pursuit of the gifts in particular. So in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, "Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy". And then in second Timothy chapter one, Paul is writing to Timothy. And in chapter one verse five, he's reminding Timothy of his sincere faith. And then he says to Timothy in the next verse, verse six, "For this reason (or because of your sincere faith), for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God..."
So that language of earnestly desiring and fanning into flame, that is active language that exhorts us to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. In other words, they need our intentional pursuit and we need to be reminded of that. That's what Paul is doing in 2 Timothy 1, he's reminding him of his sincere faith and then he's reminding him to fan into flame the gifts that God has given him. And that's so important to us because we need the work and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the members of our churches and the pastors of our churches because it's the spirit that empowers our gospel ministry and gospel mission. And we will do that best when all of the gifts that God has given every member of a Sovereign Grace church are being used for the common good as it says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, to serve others. And it is an expression of loving others because we are pursuing love. So it's just something that I want to remind our pastors of, that you would be intentional to remind the members of your church to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. I think many pastors can sometimes, if examining life and practice in the church, find themselves in position of affirming being continuatiionist, but practically as cessationist, because the gifts aren't functioning in all their breadth. And so this is a much needed and helpful encouragement. Mark, you wanted to recommend some resources for us because like I said, this calls for our diligent cultivation and study and it includes not a narrow view of the work of the spirit in the gifts, but also a broad view of the spirit's work. And so you had some recommendations for us.
Mark Prater:
I do. I do. And I have these recommendations because I just want to encourage our pastors to make reading on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, just a regular part of your reading diet. I try to do that myself. I need to be reminded of what I'm reminding you of in this podcast. And I think our continuationist pneumatology is best understood within our broader pneumatology, as you just said, Ben. So my first recommendations are really in that broader pneumatology category.
First, would be Jeff Purswell's Systematic Class on Pneumatology that he's taught for I believe two or three years now. And it is outstanding. I just haven't been exposed to anything better. Hopefully that'll be in print form someday as Jeff writes all of that. But if you haven't been to that class, it is worth the money. It is worth the time. It is worth the disruption of your schedule. So that would be Jeff's pneumatology class. That's already happened this year. So you can attend it in the PC class next year.
The next recommendation is one that we've known for years, Wayne Gruden's chapters on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, including his chapters on the gifts of the Spirit. They're outstanding. Another book that was published just about three years ago, if I remember right, I read it a couple years ago, just entitled The Holy Spirit by Gregg Allison and Andreas Köstenberger and they give a favorable treatment for the gifts. So it was an encouraging book to read in that regard. This is a classic most guys have on their shelf: Keep in Step with the Spirit by J.I. Packer. He just looks at the broad work of the spirit, obviously there.
And then one that's a little bit more academic in some sense: He Who Gives Life by Graham Cole. It's a good overall theology of the Holy Spirit or Pneumatology. And reading him, I don't know whether he's a cessationist or continuation, I would guess he's a cessationist, but he doesn't completely dismiss the gifts for today. I thought he expounded that fairly well. So those are some resources on the broad category.
Let me give you some resources that may aim a little bit more at the spiritual gifts. And as I say that one of the things we have to do when we teach on this as pastors is make sure that we keep the gifts connected to the gospel and the work of Christ in our lives. That's really, really important. In fact, just the way that 1 Corinthians is structured is a little bit of evidence of that. So Paul begins in 1 Corinthians 2:2, and he says, "I decided to know nothing among you except (the answer) Jesus Christ and him crucified." So he goes on and he talks about divisions in the church, sexual immorality, lawsuits among believers, food offereings, he talks about the spiritual gifts in each of those topics. What is the one thing that he knows? It is Christ and him crucified. And then he begins to wrap up the letter in chapter 15 saying, "I delivered to you that of which is of first importance". He says that in 1 Corinthians 15:3. And is it the gifts that are at first importance? No. He writes that Christ died for our sins. And he goes on and talks about his resurrection, his appearing, his ascension as everyone knows.
So, keep the gifts connected to the gospel and to the work of Christ among his people. And one of the things that J.I. Packer says in Keeping in Step With the Spirit is that he says that the Holy Spirit shines a spotlight upon Christ in that regard. And that's biblical. Jesus says in John 16:14, "he will glorify me". "He" meaning the Holy Spirit, by revealing to his people what Jesus has taught, which is found in His word. So that's just real important that we keep that connected because that can be a sort of Pentecostal charismatic error to put too much emphasis on the gifts and, I think unintentionally, functionally separate the gifts from the gospel. So when teaching it or talking to your folks about it, be purposeful to do that. So just some recommendations on the gifts. I mentioned Gruden's chapters on the gifts, those are outstanding.
Showing the Spirit by DA Carson, as you well know, is an exposition of 1 Corinthians 12 through 14. It's a very good book. And The Holy Spirit and the Spiritual Gifts by Max Turner. A little more academic but accessible and really good. Gruden has a book that he published a long time ago just on The Gift of Prophecy, another recommendation. So just some recommendations regarding pneumatology in general, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts. And just reminder to guys to pick one of those up or order if you don't have it. And make that a regular part of your reading diet, not just to prepare for a sermon series, but to have it influence you as you lead your church to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's excellent, helpful. Mark. One of the things I love about that, we have our seven shared values, but we also have our seven shaping virtues which is exactly what you were talking about. The fruit of a gospel culture, which is found in our shaping virtues. It informs, regulates, the way that we go about this. So I want to serve because I've been served by Christ and God has given me gifts to serve and so I eagerly serve but with humility, with discernment, gratefulness, not haughty or arrogant as some. If you can imagine an arrogant continuation, I think there might be one or two. But it's wonderful that these things are in place to help to apply the gospel to our theology and live out our theological convictions in a way that glorifies God and expresses love for others.
So Mark, thanks for your encouragement and recommendations. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.