Our Pneumatology: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ben 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, we in Sovereign Grace enjoy shared theological convictions that we've leaned into for decades now. One of them is our continuationist pneumatology. I know you have a heart for our churches to press into this theological conviction, isn't that right?
Mark Prater:
I do, because the spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, really is a gift from the risen Christ, to every church, to every believer, and to every church. So a gift individually and a gift corporately to every church. And I just desire for our churches to live in the good of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the person and work of Holy Spirit among us. That shared theological conviction: continuationist pneumatology, is a good description. We've actually talked a little bit as a Leadership Team about renaming that so it's a bit broader, just "pneumatology" for example, because we don't want to talk only about continuation of the gifts and how we want to use the gifts and celebrate the use of the gifts, because our pneumatology is not limited to the gifts. So we've talked about changing that a bit. I don't know if we will or not, but the heart of wanting to devote this podcast to this topic is that our churches would just live in the good of the gift of the person and work of the spirit among us.
I think of a quote I actually got from Jeff Purswell's pneumatology class last year from A.M. Stibbs and J.I. Packer. It's taken from their book, the Spirit Within You. And this is what they say. Imagine an enquire attending an ordinary parish church or visiting a whole number of them for that matter, for an entire year. Would he, by the end of that time, do you think, have become fully convinced that the gift of the spirit to indwell God's people corporately and individually is the supreme and crowning blessing held forth by the gospel? We need, frankly, to recognize that explicit teaching concerning the Holy Spirit leading Christians to appreciate the real significance of his indwelling and to experience the fullness of his power. It's sadly a rare thing in the present time; that that experience. Yet, the Bible sets forth the bestowal and ministry of the Spirit as the true climax of God's generosity and the supreme glory of this gospel age.
And that last sentence, God's climax of the gospel is supreme glory. And the gospel is actually a reference to Acts chapter 2 verse 38, where Peter is preaching that Pentecost sermon, and he's saying that the supreme blessing held forth in the gospel is the forgiveness of sins and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. And so that quote, when I heard it, it challenged me, and it continues to challenge me. If someone walks into Covenant Fellowship Church, are they aware of the fact that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God, individually? Are they aware corporately of the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit? And it's just something I think every pastor should occasionally ask themselves about; the work of the Spirit and people being aware of the work of the Spirit in their church, so that when a new person comes, they walk away thinking those are God's people because they are in God's presence.
I think it's a good thing to evaluate. And in evaluating it, I wouldn't be limiting your evaluation to the use of the gifts, although it would include the use of the gifts. But is your preaching marked by the power of the Spirit? That's what's so unique about the live preaching event, for my estimation, is God's word being preached as the Spirit is at work in the preacher and in the hearer, in a powerful way? That would be a way that people are aware, people at times can, in singing, just be aware of God's presence. That's subjective, obviously, but it's real. It's real. And it could be an evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Obviously if you're growing individually as a Christian or you're noticing that the church is growing in an area that isn't in your own strength, that is through the work of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God in our lives.
So there's just a number of ways, I think, to evaluate the presence and the power of the Spirit. And are people aware of that when they walk into your church and then obviously, the use of the gifts is another way that people can be aware of the presence and the, and the power of the Spirit.
Ben Kreps:
Yes. I think there are few more things encouraging than from time to time when I'm doing a new member interview, when I ask them what their experience at Living Hope is like, and they'll say, well, when I walked into the church, I could feel the presence of God. That just always makes my day and it makes me so grateful for God's generosity toward my church and the churches and Sovereign Grace. We celebrate and live in the good of the broad work of the Spirit, but we do care about, the spiritual gifts being used, like you just said as well. I know you carry a burden for us to continue to use the gifts in our corporate meetings.
Mark Prater:
I do. And it's a desire I have for all of our churches. So, be mindful of every so often if you're listening to this podcast or reading it as a pastor, just be mindful of periodically teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit and on the gifts of the Spirit. And it's not just teaching. Look for opportunities to celebrate all of the gifts. Not just those public gifts like the gift of prophesy, for example, but all the gifts, the gift of administration, the gift of service. There are examples you see each and every Sunday of the gifts being used and occasionally take time to celebrate them, that's another way to teach your church about the gifts.
This Saturday, we're recording this on a Thursday, I'll be teaching on the gifts at our youth meeting at Covenant Fellowship Church. And that's very intentional on our part because we want young people; middle school and high schoolers in our youth ministry, to be aware of the person and work of the Spirit in their lives and should they be Christians to begin to use their gifts, as well. And so we're going to teach on that. I'll do a Q and A after I teach with some of the members from our team at Covenant Fellowship who have the gift of prophecy. And then we’ll take some time to minister to the kids. We don't just want to teach. We want them to experience and receive and be edified by that gift in particular. It's important because we don't want our continuationist pneumatology to just be a one or two generation thing. Should God allow Sovereign Grace to be multi-generational, we want those in our churches and for generations to come, not only embrace the gifts, but use them for the common good of the church as 1 Corinthians 12:7 says. And for themselves to experience the person and work of the Spirit in their own lives. So, all that to encourage you guys to be teaching on the gifts every so often. And by the way, when you teach, make sure that you tell your church about those sections in our Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith that address the person and work of the Holy Spirit. They are so well written. They are so well done.
In fact, in my sermon on Saturday, I'm going to end with a quote from our Statement of Faith. And I'm doing that intentionally because I want our youth to be aware of the Statement of Faith, and I want our youth to be aware of what we say about our continuationist pneumatology. And it's just so well done. So make sure that when you teach on it, you reference the Statement of Faith as well.
Ben Kreps:
Absolutely. It's so encouraging to see the next generation stepping into God's plans and purposes in the local church. We just had a guy who came to us a couple years ago out of college, and he was prompted by the Spirit on Sunday to go up and share from the Psalms and some encouragement, and it was effective. I rushed to him at the break and thanked him for being willing to be obedient to the prompting of the Spirit. So, I love your idea of equipping the youth in that way. I'll be thinking about that here as well. I'm actually getting ready to go to the pneumatology class next week. So, when this drops on Monday I'll be on my way to Louisville. I took the class you went to.
Mark Prater:
You're going for the second year in a row, right? Why are you going for a second year?
Ben Kreps:
Yeah, I am, for a number of reasons. From what I saw, there are 40 pastors going so it's a great opportunity to build relationally with other pastors in Sovereign Grace. But I was so affected by that class last year, and now a year later, I've probably forgotten most of it. But the experience of Jeff's teaching on this important topic was deeply edifying. There were just moments; I remember in the afternoon, just taking notes and, guys, you just had to pause in worship. No more notes. Just revel in the glories of God's grace in giving us this most precious gift of himself in the Spirit. So, looking forward to growing more and learning more, next week at the Pastors College. And guys, next year, if you're not coming this year, I'd encourage you to check out this class. This is an important class. I don't think he even gets to the spiritual gifts till the end of the week because there's so much to say about the whole of the Christian life being life in the Spirit. Can't wait for that. Alright, thank you Mark, for your encouragement. Thank you all for reading or watching. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.