This nine-part series was originally developed for a class environment, and later adapted for use in a prison ministry conducted via correspondence. Because of that background, questions were developed for each lesson for participants to use in a setting conducive to discussion, or as handouts for private use if the lessons are presented as sermons. At the beginning of each part of the series, I will include the outline of the series.
OUTLINE OF THIS SERIES OF STUDIES
Part 1
Introduction, Holy Spirit as deity
Names of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Part 2
Holy Spirit in the NT (apostles to receive power)
Gabriel’s message to Mary
Foreseen by NT characters—Jesus, John
What we learn from Jesus in John 14,16
The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost
Baptism in, or by, the Holy Spirit
Baptism of believers
Part 3
If I do not go away the Holy Spirit will not come
Men received and were dependent on the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a Guarantee
Grieving the Holy Spirit
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Being Filled With the Spirit
Part 4
The Holy Spirit in the Functioning of the church (first installment)
(1 Cor 12; Rom 12; Eph 4)
Gifts of the Spirit
The Head
Grace as Gifts (did not delve into each of the gifts, or special aptitudes, given by the Holy Spirit)
Functions “God Has Appointed”
Tongues/prophesying
Part 5
The empowering gifts of the Holy Spirit
Bestowing honor upon less “presentable” members
Order of functions (First apostles, second prophets, third teachers) Teachers discussed in Part 6
Part 6
Teachers
First apostles, second prophets, third teachers.
Part 7
Ministries of the Holy Spirit
Are the Bible and the Holy Spirit the same?
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
Part 8
Fruit of the Spirit
The Spirit vs the Flesh
Attributes of the Holy Spirit
Part 9
Acting in opposition to the Holy Spirit
• Lying to the Holy Spirit
• Resisting the Holy Spirit
• Quenching the Holy Spirit
• Grieving the Holy Spirit
• Defiling the Temple of the Holy Spirit
• Insulting the Spirit of Grace (doing despite)
Intercessor (though mentioned previously)
How Can I Know if I Have the Holy Spirit?
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THE HOLY SPIRIT
Part 5
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE CHURCH (CONTINUED)
In preparation for the previous lesson, I recommended reading the following passages of scripture:
1 Corinthians 12 in its entirety, Romans 12:3-8 and Eph 4:11-16. Those passages are foundational to the functioning of the Holy Spirit in the church, both in the first century and today, and are the chief basis for this lesson as we continue on that subject.
The Empowering of the Church Through the Holy Spirit’s Gifts
As mentioned in Part 4, one of the Holy Spirit’s ministries is bestowing gifts upon Christians. In this lesson we will examine further the place of those gifts in the functioning of the church.
In conjunction with the work capacities, the New Testament mentions gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit that enabled persons to perform in those capacities. The gifts--and the functions they empower--are so closely coupled that a gift and the function it empowers sometimes sounds the same, as in miracles, helps, and serving. The various gifts are differentiated from one another, and the scriptures make it clear that all members do not receive the full complement of the gifts, although certainly some have more than one gift.
In addition to these three passages, directions were given by Paul to Timothy and Titus with regard to establishing persons in functioning capacities of overseers and deacons in the churches they were helping to start. Those instructions, in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, describe the qualities of men who are to serve as deacons, or servants. Instructions pertaining to deacons appear to be linked to an earlier occasion (Acts 6:1-6) in which a problem of neglect in providing food to the Hellenistic widows was corrected by selection of seven men to oversee that particular matter. A plausible possibility is that the seven men served in a capacity somewhat like that of the deacons about which Paul gave instructions to Timothy. Correspondingly, Paul gave Timothy and Titus the qualifying characteristics for overseers, which are variously called elders, pastors, bishops, and presbyters.
As you reading the passages cited, it is immediately apparent that functions are often overlapping. Not only in the first century, but all through the church’s history, some individuals have received more than a single gift, and thus empowered, performed multiple functions. But although some members received more than one gift, 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 also makes it clear by the differentiation of functions that every member did not receive every gift. Accordingly, each member was not expected to perform every function. They were to perform functions as they were empowered by their specific gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12:29-30, he asks, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” Obviously not every person is gifted in every way.
And yet, there seem to be some gifts that are given to every Christian by virtue of the Spirit’s indwelling presence. Some of these are serving (Romans 12:7), encouraging and showing mercy (Romans 12:8).
Some of the functions refer to the day-by-day activities of every Christian's life; others pertain to a formally recognized, appointed capacity.
Bestowing honor on less “presentable” members
Notice the inter-working of the parts, and the care they have for one another. In 1 Corinthians 12:22-26 Paul goes into a discussion of the comparative honor of one part of the body to other parts, how they are of varying “presentableness.” Paul accepts as a premise that some parts of the body are “deemed to be weaker,” less “honorable,” or less “presentable” than others (verse 23).
Thinking of members of the church body being more presentable, or having either greater or less “honor” than others, doesn’t sit easily with us. How and on what basis, are we to deem them so?
What Paul says here is that in the church, there are those who have what are thought of as “greater gifts,” in human thinking (and for all I know, in God’s thinking). But we do not think less of those who have lesser gifts, but lift them up and honor the gifts they do have and use. Parents praise their children for each little accomplishment – learning to feed themselves, first words and steps, etc., but when they are grown up those same accomplishments are not praiseworthy any more.
1 Corinthians 13 describes honoring others through the power of love. It springs from a problem at Corinth. They thought too highly of the gift of speaking in tongues, and therefore regarded tongue-speaking members more highly than those possessing other gifts, such as prophesying. But Paul says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and do not have love, it is nothing...if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing”
Love is the great equalizer. It lifts up the lowly, and brings the mighty low. One does not elevate himself over others he loves, but seeks to lift them up. As 1 Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.” We cannot deny that there are greater and lesser gifts. But the possession of a “greater” gift must not be a reason for pride, for the lesser gifts are also important, and all gifts come from the same Spirit.
The Functions
With this in mind, let us begin to examine some of the functions.
When Paul began to recite various functions in the church in 1 Corinthians 12:28, he said “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers…” and then continued with other functions.
APOSTLES: An apostle is one sent with a mission, having the credentials and the authority to accomplish the mission. The New Testament shows the apostles of Christ to be men who were set apart and empowered with special gifts which they could impart to others, to perform their apostolic mission (Acts 8:18, 1 Timothy 4:14).
The apostles were the twelve disciples who accompanied Jesus in his ministry, minus Judas Iscariot, plus Matthias and Paul. The apostles appointed attaches', or hand-picked associates, and the Holy Spirit empowered them with gifts to carry on parts of the work assigned by the apostle. Two such aides are Timothy and Titus. These aides were given powers of healing, etc., like those the apostles possessed, (1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14) and were sometimes themselves called "apostles." Barnabas is one example (Acts 14:14). Andronicus and Junia (Romans 16:7) appear to be in this group. Apostles, in the usual New Testament usage of the word, do not exist today.
It was essential that the apostles be recognized as apostles of Christ. Paul defended his apostleship vigorously against skeptics, not because he craved prestige and glory, but because his authority, and the fact that it exceeded the authority of other first century Christians, had to be recognized for his work to succeed (2 Corinthians 11:1; 12:12).
PROPHETS: The Greek word for prophet is prophetes, which is derived from the Greek pro meaning before, or advance, and phemin, meaning say, or declare. Consistent with the literal meaning of the word, we associate a prophet with prediction of future events, or declaring revelations given to them by supernatural means; i.e., by inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Revelations did not always pertain to future events, but other information or instruction as the Holy Spirit revealed them. Prophets demonstrated that phenomenon to confirm that they were directly connected with God.
The word “prophesy” and its associated forms can also mean declaring the word of God in a non-miraculous way—simply expounding truth previously revealed by others. But our purpose here is to focus on the function that did involve miraculous divine revelations.
If you would like to know what a revelation was like, turn to the last book in your Bible. It is a revelation that was given by supernatural means to John. The first verse of that writing tells us that it was communicated from Christ “by his angel to his bond-servant John.” Being a “revelation,” it “revealed” things not previously known.
We don’t know if all revelations were similar in style and content to the revelation given to John, but we do know that revelations were a part of Christian assemblies in the first century, as Paul gave instructions for how they were to be handled in the assembled church (1 Corinthians 14:26-33).
Paul received the gospel by revelation, as he says in Galatians 1:11-12, “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” To the Ephesus church he wrote, “...the mystery was made known to me by revelation...” (Ephesians 3:3)
Because of a revelation, Paul went to Jerusalem, taking Barnabas and Titus, and presented to “those who were of reputation,” the gospel he was preaching to gentiles. (Galatians 2:2)
Paul once received a revelation so great that he said:
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! (2 Corinthians 12:7)
1 Corinthians 14 shows prophesying to have higher value than tongues, and gives insight to the way Paul, under the Spirit’s guidance, saw the function of prophets. Prophesying was directed to the church for building up the body and not for heralding the gospel to the lost. 1 Corinthians 14:4 says, "one who prophesies edifies the church." And 1 Corinthians. 14:22 shows that prophesying is to believers, not unbelievers.
Agabus was a prophet, and he prophesied that Paul would be bound at Jerusalem and handed over to the Gentiles (Acts 21:10 11). We watched it happen as we read the last 7 chapters of Acts.
Apostles and prophets are the foundation of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19-20).
Many commentaries say the “prophets” in this passage are the Old Testament prophets. I do not see it that way. The Old Testament prophets are not the foundation of the church. Rather, I believe Paul is referring here to apostles and New Testament prophets.
Consistent with the members having more than one gift, the apostles themselves, as far as we know about them, had the gift of prophecy, and so were both apostles and prophets. But there were some who were not apostles who had the prophetic gift.
Together the apostles and prophets constituted the avenue through which new truth was revealed:
• the recorded accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection,
• Jesus’ teachings,
• a history of the early church
• the full doctrinal interpretation of the gospel
• and instructions to the churches.
Before the New Testament was written, the apostles and prophets were the unwritten New Testament. Only they had the function of receiving and declaring divine revelations.
(Ephesians 3:1-7)
It was through the working of the Holy Spirit through the gifts he gave to apostles and prophets that the New Testament came to be written.
That New Testament, of which Christ is the cornerstone, is the work of apostles and prophets, and for every generation the New Testament is the foundation of the church Jesus built.
I am convinced the apostles and prophets were described as “the foundation” because they were the channel through which Jesus Christ spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit, making his plan and will known to man. What the prophets received by revelation came from Jesus Christ, the head, who called himself “the truth,” (Heb 1:1-2) and by Christ’s own arrangements, came to men through the Holy Spirit, the revealer of truth.
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 3:4-5)
We are assisted in understanding the work of New Testament prophets by Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, chapter 14, where he explained, rather elaborately, the superiority of prophecy over tongues. In Part 4 we examined that gift in comparison to the gift of tongues, and found prophecy to be a more highly valued gift.
The prophetic function had a sunset. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10)
Just as the Old Testament writing prophets fell silent when their work was done at some time after the return from Babylonian captivity, the work of New Testament prophets would one day be completed, and prophecy would cease.
In my view, when the New Testament was complete, the gift of prophecy by supernatural revelation ended.
PROPHETESSES: The word “prophetesses” as a function in the church is a little jarring. Why? Because we don’t have any prophetesses! Were there really prophetesses in the New Testament church?
Most would agree that the church had its beginning on the day of the Pentecost after Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 2:1-41). At the beginning of Peter’s address on the day of Pentecost, he explained that what was occurring had been foretold by the prophet Joel:
...and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy...even upon my bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit and they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18).
In saying their sons and daughters would prophesy, Joel had used the Hebrew word naba, of which Vines says, “Most frequently naba is used to describe the function of the true prophet as he speaks God's message to the people, under the influence of the divine spirit.” The word naba was used in reference to the prophetic work of Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets (1 Kings 22:8; Jer 29:27; Ezekiel 37:10). Therefore, Joel made no distinction in the work the prophesying daughters were to do, from the work of their male counterparts.
Women as prophets was not a new concept. Women were identified as prophets, or prophetesses, in the Old Testament.
• Miriam, Aaron’s sister (Exo 15:20)
• Deborah, a judge of Israel (Jdg 4:4)
• Huldah, in the time of king Josiah, was a prophetess (2 Kin 22:14)
Just before Paul concluded his third missionary tour at Jerusalem, he passed through Caesarea. There he stayed in the home of Philip the evangelist (one of the seven chosen in Acts 6 to take care of the Hellenistic widows in the serving of food). In Acts 21:9 the scripture says of Philip,
Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses.
The verb for propheteuo is used in the original language. Its meaning according to Vines Bible Dictionary is "to be a prophet, to prophesy," with the primary meaning of telling forth the divine counsels.
The writer of Acts (Luke) made no bones about it; no hemming and hawing—that’s what he called it because prophesying was what Philip’s daughters did.
Gender of the word “prophetess” is distinguishable from “prophet” in the Greek; the feminine form is prophetis. With the single exception of its being specific to the female gender, it’s meaning is exactly the same as the masculine form prophetes.
The feminine form was used to describe Anna, the elderly prophetess who served in the temple day and night with fasting and prayers at the time of Jesus’ circumcision (Luke 2:36).
For information on what a prophetess did early in the gospel age, we might look to 1 Corinthians. 11:4-5, where Paul tells the church at Corinth,
Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying, disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying, disgraces her head; for she is one and the same with her whose head is shaved."
Our purpose in this study is not to settle the sticky questions about hair length and head coverings, but to recognize that the function of prophesying plainly belonged to both men and women.
Notice that what the woman does in verse 5 is no different from what the man does in verse 4; the contrast Paul makes is in the effect of a man and a woman having their head covered or uncovered while they did what they were doing. So, right along with Joel, the New Testament leaves no room to doubt that women were praying and prophesying.
With this limited amount of knowledge, the challenge for us is to figure out how and where they were accomplishing it, and consider whether there is application in our time without running afoul of other New Testament guidance.
In my view, the most logical conclusion is that the prophetesses referred to in the foregoing passages were women who had the spiritual gift of receiving divine revelations and foretelling the future. To deny it is to dispute the scriptures.
It is equally plain, however, that the women’s use of their Spirit-given gifts, whether natural or supernatural, was for times and circumstances that did not run afoul of other guidance, notably 1 Corinthians. 14:34-35, about women keeping silence in the assembled church. Paul does not deny the existence or usefulness of such women’s gifts, but prohibits their use verbally in the assembly.
Many commentators insist that the prophetesses were prophesying to the assembled church, and therefore the instruction in vs34-35 means something other than it appears to. But the premise that they prophesied in the assembled church cannot be proved; and in fact would have run against the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
In the next lesson we will continue the study “first apostles, second prophets, and third teachers” enumerated by Paul in 1 Cor 12:28, and consider what he meant by grouping them together with numbers.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Part 5 Questions
1. What was the work of a prophet?
2. Do prophets receive divine revelations today? Why, or why not?
3. How did people know God’s plan of salvation before the New Testament was written?
4. Is there a function for apostles today? If so, what is that function?
5. Is there a function for prophetesses today? If so, what is that function?
Answer True or False by circling T or F:
1. T F Every Christian has all of the gifts the Holy Spirit bestows.
2. T F There are some functions every Christian is to perform.
3. T F Some gifts, and their corresponding functions, are more important than others.
4. T F Paul learned the gospel by divine revelation.
5. T F Every member of the first century church received divine revelations.
Discussion and Thought
1. Can you think of ways to bestow honor on “less honorable,” or “less presentable” members?
2. Are there Christians to whom the Holy Spirit has not distributed any gifts?
3. What does it mean that the household of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets?
