The Role of the Holy Spirit in Acts of Apostles - Essay Example

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Acts of Apostles Introduction The role of the Holy Spirit in the establishment of the early church is perhaps one of the strongest indications that Christianity was religion destined to thrive under manifest wonders of God’s work. The Holy Spirit manifests clear roles in Acts of Apostles by initiation through baptism, inspiring evangelism, inspiring prophecy, revelation of sin and most of all provision of guidance in the management of the young church. Baptism In order for the Apostles to convince the opposition faced from the beginning that the works of the risen Christ were active and sufficient for a religion worth a God’s Chosen People, deliberate manifestations of active presence of God had to take place1. In view of the role of the Holy Spirit in this active participation, this discourse highlights the Book of Acts as a classical record of how Christianity had its work cut out by the Holy Spirit. The initial role of the Holy Spirit in the preparation of the Apostles is perhaps orientation into the realm of Christ as spelt out in the Great Commissioning that He gave regarding spreading of the Good News to all parts of the world. As contained in Acts 1:4-5, Paul reminds Theophilus that the role of the Holy Spirit as promised by Christ to the Apostles would mark the beginning of the commissioning2. In this description, the Apostles were not allowed to start work until they had received “the promise from the Father” that would effectively baptize them for the initiation. Acts 1:8 shows the significance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit by restating that the baptism would bestow power upon the Apostles to carry out the Great Commission that would kick off from Jerusalem, through Judea, Samaria and across the world. As recorded in Acts 5:32, the accomplishment of the witness assignment is only possible when the Holy Spirit makes the appropriate transformation3. Apparently, the work of the baptism carried out by the Holy Spirit was to open the spiritual eyes and ears of the believers to internalize the deeds of God in the salvation story. In Acts 2:33, the impact of receiving the power of the Holy Spirit through Baptism is recorded in the sense that the senses of reception and interpretation of the Word of God would be enhanced. Equally, in Acts 2:38, baptism through the Holy Spirit accounts for the washing away of the sins of the believers as enabled by the same Spirit. This implies that the impact of initiation into the new way of life as needed by the early church required a total transformation whose accomplishment required intervention of the Holy Spirit4. Throughout the works of the Apostles, converts were introduced into the church through baptism, where the Holy Spirit worked miracles in weathering tough stances from non-believers. As recorded in Acts 8:14-19, Samaria’s acceptance of the Word of God was only authenticated with the baptism that John and Peter conducted, where the Holy Spirit descended on the converts. In Acts 9:17, Saul’s dramatic conversion took the intervention of Ananias as a baptizer whereupon the Holy Spirit completed the unimaginable. Equally, the inclusion of the gentiles and uncircumcised through baptism broke the barriers of salvation as recorded in Acts 10:45-47. Similar accounts of baptism and active initiation through conversion appear in Acts 11:15-16 and 19:2-6 where the Apostles’ work introduced many into Christianity through baptism by the Holy Spirit5. Prophecy Prophetic works seen in the Acts of Apostles back the observation that the motivation of preaching the Gospel had to have an account of future events to shape up the strategy to adopt. Recounting the foretold role of the Holy Spirit as prophesied by Prophet Joel, Acts 17-18 states that the children of believers would prophesy dream and experience visions. In terms of this role as prophesied even before the birth of Christ, the Holy Spirit would in effect make believers prophets and account for things to happen in the future. This augurs well with the task allocated to the believers in terms of interpreting God’s will within the specifics of time. As witnessed in the Old Testament, to which the New Testament is a continuation but at higher standards of faith, people relied on guidance from prophets to accomplish what God wanted in the future. This gift of prophesy facilitated the growth of the church as God would guide people to avoid pending disaster if they followed the will of God6. As recorded in Acts 11:28, a believer from Jerusalem known as Agabus prophesied as enabled by the Holy Spirit that a huge drought was pending across the world and it was manifest during the reign of Claudius Caesar. Agabus also prophesied on the pending arrest of Paul by people of a gentile origin, when Paul’s girdle was tied around his legs and arms as recorded in Acts 21:11. The unique gift of prophesy would also descend on some believers immediately after conversion, which underscores the observation that there are different gifts under the same Spirit. As recorded in Acts 21:9, all the four virgin daughters of Philip the evangelist were able to prophesy, while their father could only evangelize. Acts 11:27 identifies some other Apostles with the gift of prophesy included Barnabas, Niger, Lucas of Cyrene and Manaem and they contribute to the spread of the Gospel. In the event recorded in Acts 19:6, new believers acquired the gift of prophesy and began prophesying immediately after Paul had prayed for them. This could have facilitated conviction of more people to embrace Christianity, having witnessed such wonders from persons they had known before. Other believers in Tyre saved Paul’s life by prophesying to him that it would be dangerous for him to leave for Jerusalem as seen in Acts 21:4. It therefore shows that the Holy Spirit enabled the Apostles to evade danger in risky persecution times, making them change course and start with spreading the Gospel where it was relatively safer first. At other times, the prophesying abilities enabled the disciples to prepare for disastrous accosting by ruthless regimes around the world. As seen in Acts 20:24 and 21:12, Paul was not moved by the pending danger of being arrested, but found strength to hold on to faith even in the prison. In addition, Christ’s suffering that was known by all prophets did not challenge Him but acted as a unique motivation to face death. Evangelism Perhaps the most definitive role that the Holy Spirit played among the Apostles in terms of spreading the Good News was Evangelism. In order for the Apostles to speak to various peoples about the Gospel with authority and without fear, the Holy Spirit inspired them and controlled their movement. Having had no training that ordinary teachers would require to teach something new to the people, evangelism needed a rare form of knowledge that only the Holy Spirit would have provided7. Perhaps the reason behind the instructions given by Christ that all the disciples were not to move out to preach until they had received the Holy Spirit was to enlighten them. In the tough theological questions that they were to counter among learned men of religion and law such as Gamaliel and Saul, knowledge and understanding must have been needed to break all obstacles and resistance from other religions. Apparently, the achievements of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of seasoned persecutors such as Saul underscore the demands of such inspiration among the evangelists. Therefore, every disciple and apostle had to evangelize to accomplish the Great Commission as explained in Acts 1:8. As Acts 4:1-4 records, the standoff between the conservative religions emerged and created differences with the authorities, but the number of converts kept on increasing in thousands8. Throughout Chapter 4, the book of Acts demonstrates the effectiveness that the word of the Apostles achieved, even before the learned authorities. Evangelism through preaching and performance of miracles enabled different apostles to have tremendous results in the duty as commissioners of Christ. In Acts 6:8, Stephen managed to convert many people through his strong faith that converted people through miracles. End of Chapter 6 reckons that every person who saw Stephen working saw a glorified individual as an angle, which continues in Chapter 7, which records his rise to martyrdom after an epic presentation of the story of salvation from Abraham. The Holy Spirit as seen in Acts 7:55 inspired such accuracy in theological rhetoric that tickled the hypocrisy of Sadducees and Pharisees without fear. Acts 13:4 shows that the Holy Spirit led the disciples in their evangelization journeys around the world, saving them from dangers in the journey and from hostile crowds9. Revelation of Sin The Holy Spirit was the active influence that brought souls to Christ, by enabling the believers to see their sinful past. Conversion involves the disowning of old ways of life and embracing the new and better kind of life, which is not always easy to choose. The Holy Spirit works in the conviction of souls by highlighting the ugliness of sinful past and glorification of the life in Christ as preached by the Apostles. On one hand, the Holy Spirit punishes sins committed in contempt of the will of God and on the other hand, forgiveness and restoration in glory dominate the acts of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 5:3, the Holy Spirit had revealed to Peter that Ananias and Sapphira were concealing crucial information to the church. Peter asked Ananias from an informed position, the reason for cheating which landed him into trouble. This is perhaps one of the most dramatic revelations of sin and the consequences of lying to the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts10. In Chapter 9, the conversion of Saul after the encounter with the risen Christ and subsequent restoration by the merciful Holy Spirit restates the working of the Holy Spirit to identify and correct sin. In Acts 7:51, Stephen speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit correctly diagnosed and cursed the gentile nature of the Jews who claimed to know God, yet they lived a different life of defiance and resistance of the Holy Spirit. Painful operation on the hearts of the hypocritical Jews landed Stephen in trouble as the sins of rejection of the Holy Spirit overwhelmed the crowd that eventually stoned him to death. Paul’s interpretation of the disagreements in the teachings of the Apostles relied on the prophesy of Esaias to the effect that the people had been cursed not to understand yet they listened neither see yet they had eyes in Acts 28:2511. The Holy Spirit has been manifested as the guidance that directed the Apostles in their work of preaching the good news as illustrated in Acts 13:4. As observed above, many instances of danger were evaded and overcome due to guidance of the Holy Spirit including Acts 16:6. As Acts 1:2 records, the Great Commission only kicked off after the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:16 reasons that the events leading to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was guided and directed by the Holy Spirit to accomplish salvation of mankind. Similar historical considerations in Acts 4:25 show the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding great men chosen by God in discharge of their duties12. The Holy Spirit as seen in the story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch by Philip in Acts 8:29 guided the Apostles salvation journeys. Alternatively, direction of the Apostles through visions and signs as seen in Peter’s meeting with Cornelius in Acts 10:19-23, 11:12 and 20:22 show the Holy Spirit’s guidance role in uncertainties. The directions given to Peter regarding eating of previously unclean animals in his vision must have worked in preparation of making tough decisions regarding gentiles13. Internal decision-making among the Apostles had inspiration of the Holy Spirit as reported in Acts 15:28 and 28:25. Conclusion The role of the Holy Spirit in initiation, prophesy, teaching knowledge, shaming of sin and direction held the early church on its course to success. The difficulties of the political and religious times could have killed the seed of any other religion but Christianity survived as directed by the Holy Spirit. Bibliography Barrett, Charles. The New Testament Background: Writings from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire that Illuminate Christian Origins. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 1995. Bell, Albert. Exploring the New Testament World. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc., 1998. Bruce, Fredrick. The Book of Acts. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988. Jaroslav, Pelikan. Acts: Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2007. Longenecker, Bruce and Witherington, Ben. The Lost Letters of Pergamum: A Story from the New Testament World. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002. Marshall, Howard. “Dialogue with Non-Christians in the New Testament”. ERT 16 (1992)19-38. Stott, John. The Message of Acts. Leicester: IVP, 1990. Turner, Max. “Spiritual Gifts: Then and Now”. Vox Evangelica 15 (1985): 7-63. Warrington, Keith. Discovering the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. New York, Hendrickson Publishers, 2005. Warrington, Keith. The message of the Holy Spirit. Nottingham, UK: Inter Varsity Press, 2009. Webster, John. “What is the Gospel?” in Bradshaw, T. Grace and Truth in the Secular Age. Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1998. Read More