Monday, July 30, 2012

Lukan Pneumatology: How St. Luke Saw the Holy Spirit in Missions


In order to express the active role of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, Luke employed some very specific active verbs. These verbs entailed both actions that were seen as supernatural intervention and natural effects of the Spirit’s involvement. Regardless of the nature of the work, Luke’s choice of several Greek verbs of action indicates an understanding of the Holy Spirit’s active role. His portrayal of the Spirit identified God’s Spirit as the direct cause of certain actions and attitudes. While some might argue that “it is not necessary for us to make constant references to the work of the Holy Spirit [since] it is taken for granted,”[1] Luke saw such a need for his writing to reflect this pneumatological stance. “The intimate linking of pneumatology and mission is Luke’s distinctive contribution to the early church’s missionary paradigm.”[2]
Active Verbs
There are four major categories of active pneumatological behavior in the Book of Acts. The Holy Spirit acts as sender, facilitator, director, and inspirer. Of course these categories can be subdivided and even sometimes blend, but these four categories allow for the interaction and intervention of God’s Spirit as a clearly separate entity. While others may add other New Testament categories of conversion, regeneration, empowerment, illumination, teaching, intercession, sanctification and gifting to the list[3], our current discussion is restricted to the actions identifiable in Luke’s second volume. His instigation of direction, inspiration, facilitation and sending exhibit the main active qualities involved in mission because “mission is the direct consequence of the outpouring of the Spirit.”[4]

Holy Spirit as Sender
“The first and foremost of all the endowments of the Spirit is that of apostleship.”[5] The Bible describes the Holy Spirit’s sending role in active terms. Specific active verbs are used to describe the act of being sent. In Acts 11:12, Luke describes how the Spirit directly tells Peter to go with those who come to him. Acts 13:4 describes Paul and Barnabas being specifically sent by the Holy Spirit on their first missionary journey with a seemingly direct dialogue between the Holy Spirit and the church. In Acts 20:22, the Holy Spirit compelled Paul to go to Jerusalem, and very Luke’s direct language expresses this action.
            Even though this act of sending is repeated throughout early church history with a chain of apostleship and a recognition of apostolic authority, the initial act of making apostles out of Jesus’ disciples can be attributed to the Holy Spirit of God. As the group awaited the promise from the Father in the upper room, the day of Pentecost brought about a sending aspect that was validated by visible signs and tangible evangelism results. Later, the church recognized the active role of the Holy Spirit as he designated Paul and Barnabas for the work for which he had called them. True apostolic authority came as a direct result of the Holy Spirit’s active commission.
           Have you been sent by the Holy Spirit? Are you a missionary (sent one)?

Holy Spirit as Facilitator
Luke recognized the Holy Spirit as a helper or facilitator. There are instances in Scripture where the Holy Spirit is documented as having allowed or having forbidden particular attempts of church planting through direct intervention. Acts 16:6 displays the forbidding aspect to the Holy Spirit’s work. The following verse also employs the active verb in the negative to show how the Holy Spirit would not allow Paul and his companions to enter a certain region. In Acts 19:6, the Holy Spirit entered Ephesian disciples of John and enabled them to speak in other languages and to give prophetic utterances. This enabling or facilitating aspect of the Holy Spirit’s direct actions is sometimes expressed by means of the instrumental case, but Luke employs direct active verbs to describe the Holy Spirit’s work here.
            Roland Allen goes so far to say that Paul’s missionary activities were without “premeditation of deliberate design”[6] but were instead totally dependent upon however the Holy Spirit chose to facilitate his attempts. It was not trial and error, as some might suppose, but Luke’s portrayal of the Holy Spirit’s active role in opening and closing doors reveals a facilitation of attempt. This enablement helped to define the early church’s understanding of and dependence upon the Holy Spirit as active facilitator.
            How has the Holy Spirit helped you in your mission for God?

Holy Spirit as Director
From a textual perspective, the largest role the Holy Spirit played in the early church is that of directing or guiding the church. “The Spirit not only initiates mission, he also guides the missionaries about where they should go and how they should proceed.”[7] Acts 8:26–39 describes how the Holy Spirit instructed Philip to go to south toward Jerusalem and then how He supernaturally transported him to another location. Acts 10:19 describes the Spirit’s instruction to Peter to get up from the bed and go with men He had sent. Peter relates his understanding of the Holy Spirit’s active role again in Acts 11:12. The Holy Spirit’s voice directed Paul’s missionary commission in Acts 13:2. Acts 15:28 indicates that the Holy Spirit made the decision at the council in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Luke’s portrayal of the Holy Spirit’s direction in Acts 20:22 is one of a captor directing the movements of his subjects.
            Does He direct your strategies, your decisions, your actions?

Holy Spirit as Inspirer
Although Johannine literature is usually most associated with the Holy Spirit’s role as parakletos, Acts 9:31 also plainly states Luke's understanding of His active comforting role. In Acts 20:28, the Holy Spirit is credited with the active role of appointing the Ephesian church elders perhaps by illuminating revelation and inspiring a word of wisdom. Walvoord cites Acts 1:16 as evidence that “Scriptures are said to be the work of the Holy Spirit.”[8] It can be argued that inspiration is not a visible action, but Luke did use direct action verbs to portray this work.
            Some might argue that inspiration cannot qualify as an active role, because it can neither be externally measured nor objectively observed. However, Luke uses active language to describe the Holy Spirit’s direct activity in inspiration that results in visible change. These changes can be measured; therefore, the active work, albeit by attribution, is valid.
            How has the Holy Spirit illumined your path today? Has He inspired you to move into ways that you would not have otherwise gone? Do you hear the still, small voice saying, "This is the way; walk ye in it"?


[1] Viggo Sogaard, Media in Church and Mission: Communicating the Gospel (Pasadena, Calif.: Carey Library, 1993), 26, in Eckhard J. Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2008), 402. 

[2] David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission ( Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 2007), 114.

[3] Millard J. Erickson has a thorough discussion of other New Testament qualities of the Holy Spirit in his Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 872–877. 

[4] David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission, 114. 

[5] W. A. Criswell, The Holy Spirit in Today’s World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966), 162.

[6] Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962),  11.
 
[7] David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission, 114. 

[8] John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit: A Comprehensive Study of the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 50.  

No comments:


4 C's of the Cooperative Program - by Buck Burch

(Reprinted from The Christian Index: https://christianindex.org/stories/commentary-four-cs-of-the-cooperative-program,63306) T o put mysel...