The Holy Spirit in the New Testament by Carroll John T.;

Author:Carroll, John T.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2018-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Summary

Even before Jesus steps onto the world stage, Luke prepares for his arrival with a burst of Spirit-inspired prophetic speech celebrating the fulfillment of ancient promises of salvation for God’s people (Spirit-prompted Zechariah and Simeon in Luke 1–2). Fast-forward to the thirty-year-old Jesus about to undertake his mission: in chapters 3 and 4 Luke could not paint in bolder colors the Spirit’s dynamic presence. Jesus receives baptism attended by a Spirit-dove, undergoes strenuous vocational testing accompanied by the Spirit, and then—full of Spirit-power—begins his prophetic ministry of teaching, healing, and liberating the oppressed. Although the Spirit scarcely figures in the rest of the Gospel narrative, Luke has scored the point memorably: Jesus speaks and acts as one empowered by the divine Spirit, one in whom God’s gracious and liberating presence is met.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus tasks his followers, led by the twelve apostle-witnesses, to continue his mission, but now to extend it to the farthest reaches of the world. Only when the Holy Spirit descends at Pentecost, however, are the disciples equipped for that daunting task (Acts 2). Power from on high, from God, Jesus imparts to them (2:33; Luke 24:49), and the result is swift and dramatic. Peter speaks boldly and persuasively, and a movement—a Way to the end of the earth—is launched. The Holy Spirit continues to play an active part as the drama unfolds, informing prophetic speech, directing the course of the mission, and especially pressing the apostles to transgress conventional boundaries of culture, ethnicity, and religion. If Samaritans (Acts 8) and then Gentiles (Acts 10) join the movement, it is not because of the innovativeness of followers like Philip or Peter but because of the initiative and prodding of the Holy Spirit. So God begins to fashion a multicultural, multiethnic, world-encompassing movement. With urgency born of the belief that history’s last chapter has dawned (in Peter’s recall of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:17-21), young and old, male and female, Jew and Gentile (Samaritan, too), slave and free will dare to imagine—and boldly proclaim—a world that conforms to the character not of the Roman Empire but of a new sovereign, the Messiah Jesus. On a stage that Rome dominates, it will take a generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit to equip the apostolic band for their mission. And that is exactly how Luke tells the story.

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