Welcome, Holy Spirit

A Theological and Experiential Introduction

Gordon T. Smith

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780830853885
• eBook ISBN: 9780830853892
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

World Guild Award Winner

As the renowned scholar Thomas Oden noted, "No subject of Christian teaching is more prone to fanaticism and novelty and subjectivism than that of the Holy Spirit." The Bible's own metaphors for the Spirit are as elusive as they are evocative—wind, oil, flame, water, dove—making pneumatology a mysterious study. But shying away from the topic is no solution.

Gordon Smith encourages us to seek both fresh understanding and fresh experience of the Spirit through openness to learning more, no matter what our theological tradition. In this way, as we hold biblical convictions firmly but gracefully, the guiding principles of discernment and humility will help us intentionally live Spirit-responsive lives day by day.

Welcome, Holy Spirit is a much-needed master class with a trustworthy and encouraging teacher. How can we cultivate an understanding of the Holy Spirit that helps us experience the presence of the Spirit in worship, in witness, in joy and sorrow, in seasons of blessing and times of difficulty alike, all the while honoring the fullness of the Trinity? An attentiveness to the Spirit need not replace Christ as the focus of our lives and worship but can rather bring us truly into the presence of the living and ascended Lord.

It is to this end that we pray, "Welcome, Holy Spirit."

CHAPTER ONE

The Spirit in the Gospel of Luke and Acts

The Ascension and Pentecost

ONE OF THE MOST HELPFUL WAYS to enter into reflections on the ministry of the Holy Spirit is through considering the counterpoint between the ascension of the risen Christ and the gift of the Spirit on Pentecost, ten days later. It is clear from Scripture that these two events need to be understood in the light of the other. Neither stands alone.

Of course, all the great christological events matter: incarnation, cross, resurrection, and then, following the ascension and Pentecost, the consummation of the reign of Christ at the fulfillment of history. Thus Pentecost can only be understood in light of the incarnation and the cross, and it only makes sense when we view it as the inauguration of a new dispensation of the Spirit that anticipates what is witnessed to in the book of Revelation.

Yet it is helpful to give particular attention to the interplay between the ascension and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, to see these events as pivotal to the experience and witness of the church—and more, as central and pivotal together. They are distinct but inseparable in our understanding of redemptive history and what it means for the church to be the church.

In particular, we must consider this interconnection between the ascension and Pentecost through the two New Testament books penned by Luke: the witness to Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, and then the book of Acts where we have the story of the early church. In Luke, the Spirit and Jesus. In Acts, the Spirit and the church. Part I of this narrative is the story of Jesus and the Spirit, leading to the ascension as the grand finale with Jesus’ words that anticipate Pentecost. Part II is the story of the church and the Spirit, beginning with the ascension and Pentecost. In the Jesus story, we recognize that we can only appreciate Jesus in light of the presence and anointing power of the Spirit. Then we see that, in like fashion, the early church only makes sense when we see it in light of the presence and power of the Spirit. The inflection point between them, at the end of the Gospel of Luke and the opening of the book of Acts, is the ascension and Pentecost.

JESUS AND THE SPIRIT

The Gospel of Luke is a powerful depiction of how, from the incarnation, to Jesus’ life and ministry, to the cross and the resurrection, leading up to the ascension, the Spirit is empowering, guiding, and witnessing to the inner life of Jesus. The Jesus story makes no sense apart from the remarkable work of the Spirit.

Before Jesus, the story begins with a group of fascinating characters: Zechariah and Elizabeth and their son, John, and Mary the mother of Jesus. Luke speaks of all four of them in the light of the Spirit’s presence and power in their lives and their words.

First, Zechariah is told by the angel Gabriel that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son to be named John—whom we would come to know as John the Baptist—and that his son “will be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:15). Then Gabriel comes to Mary and announces that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” and that the one to be born of her womb will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Mary accepts this word and then heads to the hill country to the house of Elizabeth, her cousin. When they meet, Luke makes it a point to record that Elizabeth “was filled with the Holy Spirit” and proclaimed to the young Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:41-42). Mary’s response is the extraordinary words that we know as the “Magnificat”—her testimony to her Son, whom she magnifies, and who will fulfill the promise of God to Abraham (Luke 1:55). The Magnificat is followed by the prophecy of Zechariah, who “was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:67), and spoke of the role of his son, John, who would prepare the way for the son of Mary.

Yet another noteworthy player in the arrival of the Christ-child is a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, about whom Luke writes that “the Holy Spirit rested on him” (Luke 2:25). He was guided by the Spirit to the temple on the day that Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus there for the customary dedication rites. Simeon is a classic example of what we mean when we say that the Spirit’s role is to lead us to Christ.

What is impressive in this account is the constant reference to the witness and filling of the Spirit. The Spirit makes it all happen. The human players matter; Mary, for example, must say the words “let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). But it is all in response to the anointing and empowerment of the Spirit. These references help us to see that the Spirit is not merely a by-product of the coming of the Messiah. As we will see in a coming chapter, the Spirit is active in creation and history from the beginning. And here, the Gospel writer highlights how the Spirit is present and active in the life and ministry of Jesus from the beginning.

Jesus emerges on the scene when John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing. Jesus was also baptized, and we read that while he was praying, “the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:21-22). This coincided with the voice that also came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved” (Luke 3:22). Father, Son, and Holy Spirit came together, with the Spirit coming upon Jesus and thereby launching his earthly ministry.

As noted in the prelude, the image of the dove is compelling and evocative. In this context, it likely speaks to the idea of a personal presence—a hovering and guiding presence—that superintends and guides Jesus. In his ministry, Jesus is dependent on the Spirit and teaches in the fullness of the Spirit. Specifically, the Spirit is “upon him.” The Spirit who came upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism was present at his conception and superintended the events around Jesus’ birth. Then, as Jesus moves into his ministry, Jesus is led by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit. In all of this, Jesus knows the joy that is the fruit of the Spirit’s presence and power in his life and ministry. Indeed, we read that Jesus rejoices “in the Spirit” (Luke 10:21).

Then, Jesus anticipates that this same Spirit will be present to his disciples in like manner. Before Jesus arrives and is baptized by John the Baptist, John speaks of how Jesus “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). Later in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is speaking and assures his hearers that “the heavenly Father [will] give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). The suggestion would seem to be—and we will come back to this—that the gift is given but that it requires intentionality and receptiveness on the part of the disciples.

At the end of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples that they are to wait in Jerusalem until they receive the gift, which he speaks of as “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The same Spirit that was with him will now, in like fashion, be with them.

THE SPIRIT AND THE EARLY CHURCH

Part II takes us to the book of Acts, where Luke describes the relationship between the Spirit and the church. Here we have what almost seems like an echo of what we have just witnessed regarding the Spirit and Jesus. There is no reason to force this into a one-to-one parallel—Jesus and the Spirit, and then the church and the Spirit—yet the themes that emerge in the book of Acts certainly reflect what seems to be a counterpart to the experience of Jesus witnessed to in the Gospel of Luke.

The first thing to note is the reference to the reception of the Spirit, at Pentecost and then throughout the book of Acts. On Pentecost, Peter’s response to those who heard his proclamation was that they should repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins and thereby would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). It is no surprise, then, that Paul’s conversion includes Ananias coming to Paul with a definite intent: that his sight would be restored, but also that he would “be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17). This is a theme in Acts: that those who come to faith in Christ know the gift of the Spirit and are able to witness to it. Sometimes, the gift is given without intentionality, such as when Cornelius and his household experience their own Pentecost. But more common is what we see when Peter and John went to Samaria and “prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:15).

From the expectation that the Spirit would be given at Christian initiation in Acts 2:38 to the practice of the laying on of hands with the explicit request for the Spirit, we can conclude two things. First, the gift of the Spirit is a birthright—an integral dimension of what it means to come to faith in Christ. And second, it would seem appropriate to formalize the laying on of hands with the invitation, “Come, Holy Spirit, come.” I will speak more to this when we come to chapter 4. The point here is that, just as the initiation of both the life and ministry of Jesus must be attributed to the Spirit, the inception of the church is a Spirit-infused event.

Second, the book of Acts is the story the Spirit creating the church; the church was the fruit of divine empowerment. The beginning of the church could not be explained other than by saying that God had chosen to act in Christ and by the Spirit to bring about a community of faith, learning, and witness that was marked by an awareness of the transforming grace of God in both word and deed.

The early church was receptive, recognized the primacy of the Spirit, and was responsive to the immediate witness of the Spirit. What is described in the book of Acts is not so much a church doing strategic planning as a community that was discerning the intent of the Spirit. Peter went to Cornelius in response to the prompting of the Spirit (“the Spirit said to him” that there were three men that would take him to Cornelius in Acts 10:19), and it was when the leadership of the church in Antioch were in prayer and fasting that “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2), leading to their ministry in Asia Minor among Gentiles. The church was intentionally attentive to and responsive to the Spirit. What is noteworthy, of course, is that the Spirit called them to cross boundaries—cultural, ethnic, socioeconomic—that moved them beyond their immediate circle and propelled them to missional witness.

Finally, they received the Spirit, recognized the primacy of the Spirit, responded to the witness of the Spirit, and then, no surprise, they also rejoiced in the Spirit. The early church was a community of deep and palpable joy (Acts 2:46), and this joy is linked to the presence of the Spirit: “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). There is no avoiding the clear links that Luke makes between the presence of the Spirit and the resilient joy that marked the life of the church.

Thus we see that the Spirit who is clearly evident in the life and ministry of Jesus finds parallel expression in the life and ministry of the early church. The bridge between them is two defining events: the ascension of Christ Jesus and, ten days later, the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Let us consider, then, the dynamic between these two events and how to see them together so they can each inform the meaning of the other.

ASCENSION AND PENTECOST IN DYNAMIC COUNTERPOINT

The ascension represents the culmination of the earthly ministry of Jesus. In the moments before he ascends, he assures his disciples that he will return to his Father in triumphant expectation of the consummation of his kingdom. He blesses his disciples and calls them to the ministry of establishing the church and announcing the reign of God. The ascension confirms Christ Jesus as the benevolent Lord of the cosmos, the one in whom and through whom all things are reconciled to God. He has assumed flesh, encountered death, and triumphed over all that would destroy humanity and the created order. And now, in his full humanity, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and is the Lord of all creation and the head of the church. The church lives and breathes as the people of God insofar as she is sustained in a dynamic and life-giving fellowship with her ascended Lord. Thus, in one respect, the ascension establishes the church, for she is the body of Christ, with Christ as her head (Ephesians 4:15-16).

But as Jesus anticipates his ascension, he urges his disciples to wait. They cannot do the ministry to which he calls them except in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, the one for whom they are to wait. This means that Pentecost is an imperative. The purposes of God in Christ for the church and the world presume the outpouring of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. Pentecost is the essential consequence, one might say, of Christ’s work—from incarnation to the cross to the resurrection and the ascension. It is not that these events are less significant. It is, rather, that without Pentecost the effect, the saving benefit, of these events is not fulfilled. Jesus therefore impresses on the disciples that they need to wait.

Pentecost, then, is not merely a bonus experience. It is not that with Pentecost we have something good but not essential. To the contrary, the ascension must be complemented by Pentecost. Christ Jesus only functions as Lord of the church, the cosmos, and the individual believer through the gift that is given on the day of Pentecost.

We are only able to enter into the salvation of God mediated to us in Christ through the grace of the Spirit. The objective work of God in Christ—incarnation, cross, resurrection, and ascension—is made present to us, and thus experienced in our lives and in our world, through the gift given on the day of Pentecost. Thus, to know Christ and be united with Christ—to, in the language of John 15:4, remain in him as he remains in us—happens through the grace of the Spirit. The apostle Paul puts this bluntly when he writes, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). This seems hard and uncompromising until we realize that it is in the very economy of God’s salvation that the grace of God in Christ is known to us, in us, and in our world through the Spirit. Thus the risen Christ dwells in us, as Paul puts it, “through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). The...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Prelude: Images and Metaphors for the Holy Spirit
• 2 The Spirit in the Gospel of John: One with the Father and with the Son
• 3 The Spirit and Creation
• 4 The Spirit and Christian Initiation
• Interlude: Holy Spirit Experiences
• 5 The Spirit and Transformation: From Beginnings to Maturity in Christ
• 6 The Spirit and the Word
• 7 The Spirit and the Church Local
• 8 The Spirit and the Church Global
• Conclusion: A Call to Intentionality
• General Index
• Scripture Index
• Notes
• Praise for Welcome, Holy Spirit
• About the Author
• Also by Gordon T. Smith
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright