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The Holy Spirit and the Church
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The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force but the third person of the Trinity. Today, R.C. Sproul teaches on the role of the Spirit in our individual lives and in the corporate life of the church. Request R.C. Sproul’s Basic Training video teaching...
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In John chapter 14, Jesus promised that a comforter would come in his name.
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A comforter is someone who comes with strength. And so Jesus promises the Holy Ghost as our ally to stand with us and I might add, to encourage us.
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I'm Nathan W. Bingham and welcome to the Monday edition of Renewing youg Mind. The Apostles Creed has been the standard of Christian orthodoxy since the middle of the second century. It asserts belief in God the Father, in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, and in the Holy Spirit. In his series Basic Training, RC Sproul uses the Apostles Creed to help ground our understanding of the historic Christian faith. And until tomorrow, we'll send you this six part series on DVD along with A Thin Line Bible as our way of saying thank you for your donation before midnight tomorrow@renewingyourmind.org to give you a taste of this series, here's Dr. Sproul on the role of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
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We're going to look at the confession of the Church to the Holy Spirit and to the Church, that segment of the Creed that says I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of the saints. Now we noticed earlier on that the Apostles Creed and even before that the Roman symbol very earliest time was self consciously Trinitarian. I say that simply because some people sort of think that the full orb concept of the Trinity didn't develop until the 4th century to the Council of Nicaea. But in fact the Council of Nicaea was called to reaffirm and assert that which was from the beginning a clear confession of Trinitarian faith. And so the Creed simply gives us a brief statement, I believe in the Holy Ghost. Nothing more is said about the Holy Ghost. We don't have delineations, such as we find later in Church history, of the role of the Holy Ghost and the function of the Holy Ghost. But in passing, let's remember that in biblical categories, one of the most important things to understand is which is particularly important for new Christians is to understand that the Holy Ghost is a person, not merely an impersonal force or a power. The Holy Ghost is a he, not an it. And for some reason the language that we use in the Church often betrays an understanding of the Holy Spirit as if he were in fact an impersonal force. And the role of the Spirit is vital. The Spirit is not the author of confusion. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth. We are told in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is trustworthy. We can depend on Him. We know that he is the Author of truth. And so we're concerned about his role in anointing prophets. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon the prophet, and the prophet then speaks the truth of God. It's by the Holy Spirit that the Scriptures themselves are inspired and superintended. The Christian life begins with the quickening of God, the Holy Spirit, where it is the function of the Spirit to change the disposition of our hearts, to cause us to come alive to the things of God, so that the very beginning of the Christian life, what we call regeneration, is affected by the power of the Holy Ghost. But yet that's only the beginning. Our birth into the fellowship of God, the whole process of our Christian experience, our growth in grace, our growth in the spiritual maturity, what we call the process of sanctification, comes under the province of God, the Holy Spirit. The New Testament ethic calls for us to manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love and gentleness and kindness and meekness and patience and longsuffering and so on. That that is an effect that is brought about in our lives by the influence of a supernatural person, the third person of the Trinity. That the power that dwells within us is not simply an impersonal force, but it is the Spirit dwelling in us, working in us, helping us to live out our Christian life. Well, in the New Testament, when Jesus talks to his disciples in the upper room and we have that lengthy discourse of the sending of the Spirit In John 14, 15, 16, 17, Jesus calls the Spirit by his supreme title in the New Testament, the Paraclete. And if I ask my theological students, I'll say, who is the Paraclete in the New Testament, that title, a hundred students out of 100 will answer the same, why the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit. And I say, well, you're right, partially. But when the New Testament introduces the Paraclete, it introduces it by a strange designation. He's not simply called the Paraclete. Jesus doesn't say, I will send you the Paraclete, but he says, I will send you another Paraclete. Now, we have different translations of that in the English language. The old traditional translation for paraclete was the word comforter. Now, the more recent translations tend to render the Greek parakletos by the English word counselor. Paraclete comes from two Greek words, a prefix para, and the clit comes from the Greek kleitos, which is the noun form of the verb kaleo. Now, you maybe don't know Greek, but you've certainly heard this word come across in the English language, kolao. It's not a hard Greek word to remember. That's one of the easy ones because it means to call. To call. That's easy. The New Testament Greek word for church is ekklesia, which we will be looking at in a moment. And that is a prefix of ek with this same verb, kaleo. The ekklesia are those called out by God, out of the world and into fellowship with Him. So you have the same basic root for the word church as you have in the title for the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, but with a different prefix, the church. Are those called out? A paraclete is someone who is called para alongside of. We distinguish between the ministry of the church and para ministries. What are para ministries? They work alongside the church. They stand with the church. They're considered to be sort of an adjunct arm of the church. Paratroopers, paramedics, you know, that's what the word para means. So that the paraclete is somebody who's called to stand alongside of somebody to stand beside him. In the ancient world, a paraclete was the title that was given to a defense attorney, and usually the kind of defense attorney that a family was involved with on a permanent retainer basis, so that anytime a person got in trouble, they could call upon their paraclete to stand with them in the midst of the crisis. Now, the reason I'm emphasizing this point is that when Jesus said, I'm going to go away and I'm going to send you a comforter or a paraclete, he was not saying that after I send you out in the world like lambs in the midst of wolves, and you get your brains beat in and you suffer humiliation and tragedy and persecution, all of which you will suffer. He said, but don't worry. After you go through all of this hassle and you come home and you're weeping in frustration, then I'm going to send the Spirit along to make you feel better. That's not what he's saying here. He's saying that I am going to send another paraclete to stand beside you when in the midst of the battle, in the midst of the struggle, in the midst of the crisis. In fact, the reason why the King James used the term comforter was that when the King James Version was written, the language of English at that time was much more closely tied to its Latin roots than it is today. And a comforter was not thought of in the way we're describing it today, but rather, here we have it coming from the Latin. This is from the Greek Parakletos, from the Greek, from the Latin, cum with. So a comforter is somebody who comes with. And so those of you that play the piano forte, it's strength. If I say something is somebody's forte, that's their strong point. And so that a comforter is someone who comes with strength. And so Jesus promises the Holy Ghost as our ally to stand with us and, I might add, to encourage us in the New Testament. I see. I read, at least in there, an emphasis, almost a preoccupation at times, on the importance of encouragement within the Christian community. I say to my students, what's the number one negative prohibition that Jesus gives to his people in the New Testament? And they'll tell me, well, don't steal, don't kill, don't do that. I say, no, far and away number one is don't be afraid. Fear not. In fact, he says it so often we miss it. It sounds like hello and goodbye. I mean, every time he shows up, fear not. He leaves. Fear not. Why did our Lord say that so many times? I'm speculating here, but I'm assuming that Jesus understood something about human nature, number one. And number two, that he understood that there was anything that was going to frustrate the ministry and the mission that he gives his church. It would be the paralysis that comes from being frightened. And again, the exhortations of the epistles to encourage one another. What is the one indispensable prerequisite, the one ingredient that is absolutely necessary for courage to be present? Absence of fear. The absence of fear. I would say it's just the opposite of that. It is the presence of fear. Because it doesn't take courage to do what you're not afraid to do. Okay, in other words, only the fearful can be courageous. But what courage does is give us the capacity to act in spite of our fear. That's what heroic courage is all about. And what Jesus is saying is, yeah, I don't want you to be afraid. But on the other hand, I know you're going to be afraid. You guys are always afraid. Intimidation is what holds the Church back more than anything else. It's not the lack of orthodoxy so much as that. It's the lack of courage that keeps us from being the people of God. And so Jesus said, first of all, I am going to send you the Holy Ghost who will come to stand with you to encourage you, to give you strength. And in addition to that, I want you to encourage one another. Now this leads us naturally to the next point of the Creed that as soon as we talk about the Holy Spirit, who converts, sanctifies, convicts, bestows gifts, and so on. Individuals. When the Spirit works in the individual's life, he always puts him and guides him to a community, to a group. The Spirit is a holy Spirit. And the root meaning of holy is to be set apart and consecrated. In the New Testament, the principal word for holy is the word hagios. The adjective hagios. Believers in a group are called what Paul writes to the saints at Corinth, or to the saints here or to the saints there. What's the Greek word? To the hagioi, you have the hagios or the hagia pneuma. The Holy Spirit who brings forth his power and his fruit in people. And they are called the saints not because they are pure and righteous and altogether holy in that sense, but because the Holy Spirit is dwelling in them. And the Holy Spirit has set them apart. And he sets them apart by consecrating them and then drawing them together into a body. Those individuals who are individuals of faith are called to participate in a fellowship of faith which we call the Church. And the Creed declares to be the Holy Catholic Church, the Holy Catholic Church. Now, if there's any institution in our day and age that doesn't always appear to be holy, it's the Church. I've said many times that the Church is the most corrupt institution in the world, but that's an intentional statement designed to get people's attention. Because I have to qualify. I grant that there are other human institutions far more corrupt than the Church, the mafia, and so on. But if we measure the Church's performance in light of the biblical standard of to whom much is given, much is required. If we consider somebody's performance in light of the sanctity of their task and the special way in which it has been blessed and graced, then I think judging by that kind of relative standard, then the Church is the most corrupt. Because we fall so much we more short of the standard to which we are called than the Mafia does. This Mafia doesn't have high and virtuous and noble standards. It doesn't have the promise of Christ that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, and so on. But the Church does. But if it is true that the Church is the most corrupt institution, or if it's even one of the most corrupt institutions in the world, the next question, the important question is why? I think my answer to that question is because it's the most important institution in the world. The most important institution in the world is the Church of Jesus Christ and all of the forces of Hell understand that. So that the supreme target of the demonic and of the satanic is the Church of Jesus Christ. But it, of all human institutions, is the only one that has the guarantee of Christ. But why then does the Creed call it holy when in fact it isn't always holy? Well, it's not holy by virtue of the purity and the righteousness of each of the members. The Church is the only institution I know of that requires you to be sinful to get in. Okay? I mean, the Church is designed to be a special fellowship organized for the benefit of sinners, right? That's why the Church exists. It is a fellowship of sinners. And I always say facetiously, if you ever find a perfect Church, don't join it. You'll ruin it. It'll be the end of its perfection. Okay? The reason why the Church is holy is because of its institution and because of its head, who is Christ. And Christ is the one who said, I will build my church. So the Church exists because it is called out by Christ. It is instituted by Christ, it is ordained by Christ, it is gifted by Christ, it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And we receive the benefit of the holiness of the Church. In other words, whatever holiness we get, we get because of the same powers that are pulling the Church together in the first place by the Holy Spirit and by Jesus Christ. It's not that we are the ones who make the Church holy. Now, in addition to referring to this sacred institution, this special institution which Christ has ordained and called every Christian to participate in, telling us not to forsake the gathering together of the saints. No man is an island when it comes to Christian faith. And we all have a duty as well as a privilege to participate in a Church. Now, the Creed declares a conviction in the Holy Catholic Church, not the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy Catholic Church. Catholic simply means universal. The Church exists wherever the people of God are involved throughout the world. And then, of course, they began to try to formalize that and say, well, what is it that distinguishes the Church from something else? And they early on said, well, where the Lord's Supper is celebrated, there is the Church. And then later, in ecclesiastical terms, Rome took the position where the bishop is, there is the Church. If you don't have the sanction of Church government, there's no not the Church. Another said, no, where the Spirit is, there is the Church. And so that has become a matter of dispute between various denominations since there's more than one denomination as to where the church is. But Protestants still retain a confession of the Apostles Creed because they say, we may not embrace the Roman Catholic Church, but we certainly believe that there is such a thing as a universal body of Christ that is bigger and wider, deeper and broader than the denominations that we are members of. And now that provoked in church history, particularly with the Protestant Reformation, a concept of understanding this universal church of believers and an appeal went back to Augustine's work and discussed his distinction between the visible church and the invisible church, an important distinction, but also a dangerous one. When Augustine made the distinction between the visible and invisible church, he went back to the New Testament with the idea of the fact that the church Jesus describes with the figure of the garden where there will always be tares growing along with the wheat. To get into a Christian church, you have to make some sort of verbal profession of faith. You have to say you believe. Well, does everybody who say they believe believe? No. Jesus himself acknowledged the fact that some people can honor him with their lips while their hearts were far from them. And so it is possible to make a profession of faith for all kinds of reasons, political, social, economic, whatever, without having genuine faith in your heart. So Augustine said, the church in this world will always be a corpus per mixtum, a mixed body of tares growing along with the wheat, of believers mixed together with unbeliever. Now, what he meant by the invisible church was not some underground church that exists substantially outside the visible church. But he made the statement that the invisible church exists substantially where, in the visible church, because Christ has called us to make our communion and our fellowship and our worship and all of that visible, bearing witness to him with a visible church. But what Augustine says is within the visible church there is the invisible church who are the true people of God. Now, they are called invisible, not because they're invisible to God, but because I can't read another man's heart that remains outside the scope of my sight. I can't see it. It's invisible to me. But it exists and God can see it. Now, the communion of saints is just another word to describe the universal Catholic Church. The Latin there is communio sanctorum. Now, I only want to just clear up one common misconception. So often when people say, I believe in the communion of saints, what they think they're saying is, I believe in the practice of and the liturgical rite of celebrating the Lord's Supper. Because in many Protestant fellowships, that's called communion, Holy Communion. But the communion of the saints means that there is A fellowship, a brotherhood, a binding together by the Holy Spirit of all Christians in the world. All Christians who are part of the invisible church share a common bond and share a common spirit and are linked together. If we are Christians, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. So that if you are in Christ and I am in Christ, we're both in Christ. We are experiencing a common union. There's a withness, a oneness that we participate in by virtue of our unification in Christ and by the Spirit. But not only was the church confessing belief in a fellowship or a unity that transcends denominational, geographic, ethnic and other boundaries, but it also transcends temporal boundaries. There's a mystical element here of the mystical body of Christ that not only am I in fellowship with you as a Christian, but right now, this moment, I am in fellowship with Martin Luther and with John Calvin and with St. Augustine and with every Christian who has ever lived. Because every Christian who has ever lived and who has been brought into unity of Christ, that unity that he enjoys with Christ cannot be destroyed. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? You know, death, famine, whatever peril, sword, nothing can separate us. And Luther, the moment Luther became in Christ, he entered into a union with his Lord. And by virtue of that union, mystically is joined to every other person who is in union with Christ. And when I enter into union with Christ, I enter union with the whole body of Christ, the past as well as the present, and will be, of course, united in the future. So that's what we mean when we say we believe in the communion of saints.
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That's an incredible thought, isn't it? As we stand in our churches to recite the Apostles Creed, we're standing there with the saints of the past. This is Renewing youg Mind, and I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. I hope that today's message has been helpful for you. And although you'll hear another message tomorrow from the series, I do encourage you to request the complete series Basic Training when you donate before midnight tomorrow at renewingyourmind.org or when you use the link in the podcast Show Notes. RC Sproul works his way, line by line through the Apostles Creed. We called the series Basic Training as it deals with the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as stated in the Apostles Creed. We'll send you the series on DVD as well as a copy of the Scriptures when you donate at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. Even though these truths are foundational. Our State of Theology survey reveals great confusion, so it is worth taking the time to explore and reaffirm these key doctrines. This offer ends tomorrow, so don't delay. And if you live outside of the US And Canada, you can request the entire series for listening in the ligonier app@renewingyourmind.org global. You've heard me mention Renewing youg Mind Live, where we take the studio on the road for an evening of teaching, fellowship giveaways, and an opportunity to meet fellow listeners. Well, I'll be in Anaheim, California on October 29th, San Jose, California on November 4th, and then Raleigh, North Carolina on November 12th. These are the final cities and dates for 2025, so stay tuned for dates in 2026, but register today while there's still space@renewingyourmind.org events. Tomorrow we'll wrap up this series as RC Sproul explains the last few lines of the Apostles Creed. It's a message titled Forgiveness, Resurrection, and Eternal Life. So I hope you'll join us Tuesday here on Renewing youg Mind.
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Sam.