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.
[2] David
J. Bosch, Transforming Mission :
Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission ( Maryknoll , New
York
[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
[5] W. A.
Criswell, The Holy Spirit in Today’s
World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966), 162.
[6]
Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul
[8] John
F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit: A
Comprehensive Study of the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 50.
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