Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

How the Holy Spirit Works (Part 3)

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“Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”
(I Corinthians 12:3 ESV)

In previous installments I have written about How the Holy Spirit Works, usually in reaction to the claims that people make saying that the Spirit has led them to this or that decision.  A recent conversation has prompted me to write today about the work of the Holy Spirit, describing the work of the Spirit.  As this is a weekly post and not a doctrinal tome, this will be far from exhaustive, but I pray it helps you to grow in your understanding.

I remember reading in an overview of theology that in Reformed circles the Holy Spirit is often considered the “Cinderella” of the Trinity.  The Father and Son have been taken to the theological ball, while the Holy Spirit is left behind.  While it is true that other churches may place more emphasis on the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit, it isn’t fair to say that the Reformed tradition is any less “Spirit” centered than others.

As Kevin DeYoung comments in The Good News We Almost Forgot (a great study on the Heidelberg Catechism), “we must never forget that the work of the Holy Spirit is first of all to glorify Christ… We are very intimately connected with the work of the Spirit, because wherever we are drawn to Christ as Savior, led to worship Christ as Lord, made to behold Christ as glorious, we are being operated on by the Holy Spirit.”

Without going into too much detail, here are some bullet points of the ways in which the Holy Spirit works:

  • The Holy Spirit regenerates the dead in sin who have been called by God
  • The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin
  • The Holy Spirit reveals to our hearts and minds the truth of the Gospel
  • The Holy Spirit corrects us and restores us to paths of righteousness
  • The Holy Spirit applies the saving work of Christ to our lives
  • The Holy Spirit comforts our hearts with the assurance of salvation
  • The Holy Spirit illumines and renews our minds through the word of God
  • The Holy Spirit empowers us to follow Christ
  • The Holy Spirit animates our personality
  • The Holy Spirit equips us for ministry
  • The Holy Spirit unites us with Christ and with all believers
  • The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray, and often intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words
  • The Holy Spirit enlivens our worship
  • The Holy Spirit seals us with our promised inheritance in God

As a Pastor, everything I do depends upon the work of the Spirit.  Were it up to me to ensure the conversion of hearts and minds through my preaching, I would have to walk away from the pulpit an empty failure.  That task is beyond my ability.  But God’s gracious Holy Spirit can and does work through me, speaking the word of God to the hearts and minds of those who have ears to hear, so that they may be renewed by the transforming of their minds in the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is not up to me to generate a certain emotion, to create an atmosphere, to subtly craft just the right words so as to lead a sinner to salvation.  I must only be faithful, to do my best to present the word of God simply, humbly, and honestly, and the Holy Spirit will use my broken and stumbling lips to make Christ known.

To quote DeYoung again, “The focus of most of our churches is on Christ and not the Spirit, because that’s the focus of the apostolic gospel, the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit Himself!  Spirit-led worship has at its heart not an emotive experience (though emotions are good), nor a spontaneous feel (through spontaneity isn’t bad), but rather a Christ-exalting, cross-focused, Word-centered event where the name of Jesus is praised in the power of the Spirit to the glory of God the Father.”

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!

SDG

At Greater Risk of Death…?

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“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
(Psalm 90:12 ESV)

As I was watching the local news last week, an interesting segment caught my eye.  A recent medical study has shown that if you sit at work you have an increased chance of dying.  I know what they meant was that you have an increased risk of dying at a younger age or from heart related issues – but my mind couldn’t get past the absurdity of the way the study was presented.  If you have a job that requires you to sit for long periods of time, you have a greater risk of death.  Greater than what?  Does an office job pose a greater risk of death than, let’s say, an active duty soldier, an electrician working on high tension lines, a miner working deep underground?  If so, then I think that to be an acceptable risk.

Still, how can a job that requires one to sit increase the chance of dying?  I was under the assumption that each of us faced a 100% chance of death.  Is there a job that lowers that chance?  Would someone please tell me what it is, so that I may apply?  To highlight the universality of death, here are some of my favorite quotes on the topic:

“The end of birth is death, the end of death is birth: this is ordained!”  Sir Edwin Arnold

“Death is as necessary to the constitution as sleep: we shall rise refreshed in the morning.”  Benjamin Franklin

“Pale Death, in impartial step, knocks as the poor man’s cottage and at the palaces of kings.”  Horace: Odes

“When death comes, he respects neither age nor merit.  He sweeps from this earthly existence the sick and the strong, the rich and the poor, and should teach us to live to be prepared for death.”  Andrew Jackson

“A man can die but once: we owe God a death.”  Shakespeare: Henry IV

“Every man dies, but not every man really lives.”  William Wallace, Braveheart

My personal favorite – “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  The Apostle Paul, Philippians 1:21

The Bible also reminds us that each of us must face death.  Genesis 3:19 reminds us that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.  Death is a fact of life.  Yes, death is painful, for in death we lose the presence of those whom we love.  Death is the end of life, and for those who love well and are well loved, death is an agonizing separation.  But for the Christian, death is the end of the struggle against sin, the laying aside of this perishable body to take up that which is imperishable and unfading.  Death is the entry into everlasting life in the glorious company of the saints in light.  Here’s another great quote:

“Death is not, to the Christian, what it has often been called, “Paying the debt of nature.”  No, it is not paying a debt; it is rather like bringing a note to a bank to obtain solid gold in exchange for it.  You bring a cumbrous body which is nothing worth, and which you could not wish to retain long; you lay it down, and receive for it, from the eternal treasures, liberty, victory, knowledge, and rapture.”  John Foster

There is wisdom to be had in remembering the inevitability of our own mortality.  Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  Studies have shown that 100 people out of 100 will eventually die; nothing you do will increase or decrease your chances of dying.  I know that I will not live forever, that one day I will die and leave this life behind.  The question each of us must ask is this, “Will death be the end of my life, or just the beginning?”

At the conclusion of The Chronicles of Narnia, as Narnia is coming to an end, C. S. Lewis writes:

And so for us it is the end of all stories, and we can most truly say they lived happily ever after.  But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  And all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: and now they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has ever read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.  -C.S. Lewis The Last Battle.