Rodman Williams: The Gift of the Holy Spirit Today: Purpose, Part 1
7. The extraordinary words of Jesus affirm this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). In this astounding declaration Jesus is pointing to the fact that His going to the Father will make possible “greater works” by His disciples. The reason would seem to be that they will receive the total impact of the Spirit coming from Father and Son. They will do the works of Jesus— and more.
8. See Michael Harper, Power for the Body of Christ (London: Fountain Trust, 1964) wherein Harper stresses that the same power of the Spirit is available in our time: “Our knowledge of Him [the Holy Spirit] may be correct. But what of our experience of His power? The power is still available for the Body of Christ and for each of its members. The Baptizer [Jesus] stands ready on the banks of the Holy Spirit to do again for the Church what He did on the day of Pentecost” (p. 56).
9. In this connection the name of Apollos, teacher in Ephesus, comes to mind. Luke describes him as “an eloquent man, well versed [literally: “mighty”—dunatos] in the scriptures …instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately [or “carefully”—akribōs] the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:24-25). Hence the fervor of Apollos was not the fervor brought about by the Holy Spirit: it could lead none to salvation, no matter how eloquent, how well versed in Scriptures he was. So it is that Priscilla and Aquila “took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately (Acts 18:26). Nothing is said by Luke directly about their leading Apollos into baptism in the name of Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit; however, looking ahead to Acts 19 where Paul does exactly these things for the Ephesian disciples (probably earlier instructed by Apollos), who likewise knew only the baptism of John, it is quite conceivable that Priscilla and Aquila have ministered to Apollos, he goes on from Ephesus to Achaia where “he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully confuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus” (Acts 18:27-28). Greatly helping true Christian believers, powerfully confuting Jews—surely a different Apollos is at work now!
10. In Acts 26:16, where Paul is recounting this event, the words to Saul from the risen Lord are similar: “I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you …” The note of bearing witness is quite pronounced here.
11. According to R.R. Williams, “throughout Acts, the Holy Spirit is thought of as the means whereby Christians receive power to witness [to] Christ and His resurrection” (The Acts of the Apostles, Torch Bible Commentaries, p. 36). Quotation found in The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles by J.H.E. Hull (Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Co., 1968), p. 46.
12. It is sometimes suggested that the Samaritans needed the ministry of the Jerusalem church (represented by Peter and John), so that long-standing separation and antagonism between Jew and Samaritan might be overcome. While this may have been a valuable byproduct of Peter and John’s ministry, it would hardly seem to be the primary purpose.
13. I know of no more forceful presentation of this theme than that found in Roland Allen’s The Ministry of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960). See especially Chapter I, Section II, “The Spirit Revealed as the Inspirer of Missionary Work.” Also see Michael Green, I Believe in the Holy Spirit, Chapter 5. “The Spirit in Mission.”
14. Recall the earlier discussion of how the Holy Spirit is said to “proceed” from the Father. This eternal procession becomes temporal in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and He continues to proceed from the lives of all those to whom He is given. Editor’s note: See “filioque” in the Increase Your Theological Vocabulary department in this issue for more about this theological concept.
15. See, for example, the chapter entitled “Power to Witness” in As the Spirit Leads Us (New York: Paulist Press, 1971) by Kevin and Dorothy Ranaghan. In this chapter two spiritually renewed Roman Catholics, Leon and Virginia Kortenkamp, describe how “it seems to be universally true that those who have come into this experience [i.e. baptism in the Holy Spirit] are taught not so much by one another but by the direct power of God, that every tongue (including theirs) is meant to proclaim that Jesus is Lord” (p. 103). Thus there is power for witness they never knew before.
16. Dwight L. Moody, nineteenth-century evangelist, after many years of preaching, related how two women would say to him regularly, “You need the power of the Holy Spirit.” Moody reflected thereafter: “I need the power! Why I thought I had power”—because—”I had the largest congregation in Chicago and there were many conversions. I was in a sense satisfied.” Soon though, the two godly women were praying with Moody, and “they poured out their hearts in prayer that I might receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. There came a great hunger into my soul …I began to cry out as I never did before. I really felt that I did not want to live if I could not have this power for service.” Some time later Moody related this: “One day, in the city of New York—oh, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand. I went preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world …” (W.R. Moody, The Life of D.L. Moody [New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1900], pp. 146-46, 149.) Moody had witnessed to the gospel for many years and with some obvious effectiveness, but after his being filled with the Spirit there was an anointing never before experienced in his life. Moody, while of course not a participant in the current spiritual renewal, is surely a precursor of those who likewise in our time are being filled with the Spirit and thereby finding a fresh power for witness.
17. In accordance with what has been said about the “missionary spirit” and “anointing”—that the Holy Spirit is given for power to witness—it is important not to confuse this gift with becoming a Christian, salvation, regeneration, etc. James Dunn makes this mistake in his book, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Naperville, IL: Allenson, 1970); for example, where he writes: “The gift of the Spirit …is the gift of saving grace by which one enters into Christian experience and life, into the new covenant, into the Church. It is, in the last analysis, that which makes a man a Christian … (p. 226). Rather, it is by the gift of the Spirit that one can help others enter into Christian life and experience. It is not the gift of saving grace, but, presupposing this, it is the gift of power for witness.
18. The Greek word is apephthenxato, the same verb as in Acts 2:4 in connection with speaking in tongues: “They began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (literally, “to speak out”). See footnote in previous chapter where it was commented that this Greek word is frequently used for “the oracle-giver, diviner, prophet, exorcist, and other ‘inspired’ persons.” Hence, even as they “spoke out” in tongues to God by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so now do they (the eleven standing with Peter) “speak out” to people in prophetic utterance under the anointing of the same Holy Spirit. Meyer in his Acts Commentary (Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles, by H.A.W. Meyer [New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1883], p. 57) writes that the prophēteusousin (they shall prophesy) of Joel 2 “is by Peter specially recognized as a prediction of that apocalyptically inspired speaking, which had just commenced with the heterais glōssais [other tongues].” That is to say, the word in Joel concerning universal prophesying is recognized as covering both the speaking in tongues and the “inspired speaking” that follows.
19. Of Peter and John it is said in Acts 4:13: “they [the Jewish council] …perceived that they [Peter and John] were uneducated, common men [or “unlettered laymen”—agrammatoi idiōtai].”
20. Acts 4:23: ” …they went to their friends …” The term for “friends” is tous idious, literally, “their own.”
Category: Spirit, Winter 2003
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