The Holy Spirit and Methodism Rev. Peter Bellini Ph.D. Associate - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

HOLY SPIRIT SEMINAR The Holy Spirit and Methodism Rev. Peter Bellini Ph.D. Associate Professor of Evangelization in the Heisel Chair UNITED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Intro

John 14:15-18; 25-27 • 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever — 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. • 25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate , the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 16:12-15 • • 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth , comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Another Comforter • John 14:15-18; 25-27 – Help, Abide/Indwell, Teach, Remind, Give Peace. • John 16:7-15 – Convict, Guide, Reveal. • Allon Parakleton. Allos vs Heteros • Heteros = another of a different kind • Allon Parakleton = another of the same kind. Christ within us. A game changer. • Parakletos – legal advocate • Comforter, Counselor, Witness, Helper, Advocate, Companion. Christ within us. • HS = “Spirit of Truth.” Genitive of Attribution and/or description. Genitive of Apposition (Spirit who is Truth) • Need for awareness, reception, hearing/obeying

A Return to a Focus on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit – the Agent of Divine Experience If you don’t experience the Holy Spirit you do not experience God.

The Holy Spirit: Divine Agent • Primary Agent of Divine Experience • Primary Agent of Salvation • Primary Agent of Sanctification • Primary Agent of the Christian Life • Primary Agent of Mission and Evangelization

We do not clearly teach on the nature, roles, and work of the person of the Holy Spirit

WE WESTER ERN N vs vs. BI BIBL BLIC ICAL AL WO WORL RLDVI VIEW EW • REASON = logic based. RATIONALISM • SENSES = 5 sense based: EMPIRICISM • SCIENCE as the bar of reality & truth • BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: includes the invisible- spirit realm & the supernatural. Col 1:16 • SPIRITUAL SENSE: 6 TH sense of faith not from mind but the heart. • MYSTERY: the existence of mystery, transcendence, the excess of reality. There is more than meets the eye.

Top 5 Reasons why we neglect the Spirit • 1. Western Worldview – we struggle with spirit • 2. Biblical language of the Spirit speaks in metaphors and analogies about the Holy Spirit. • 3. We struggle with the truth (the Spirit of Truth), especially conviction. • 4. We love control. We fear losing control, especially to the unknown. • 5. We fear losing personal control and corporate control (in the church/services).

Feuerbachian Fallacy • Who Made Who? • Our image and projection • To have or make no other gods • Convenience • Domesticate • Culturally/Affirming

Wesley Out of Control • Morality –from his righteousness to God’s • Method – from the Church to gravestone to the fields • Mission – from Oxford Club and Georgia mission led by Wesley to being led by the Spirit where the world was his parish.

Losing Control: Morality – from his righteousness to God’s Journal - May 24, 1738 “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was gien to me He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Losing Control: Method – from the Church to gravestone to the fields • "I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he (Whitefield) set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life - till very lately - so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church," he wrote.

"At four in the afternoon," he wrote, "I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining the city, to about 3,000 people.

Losing Control: Mission – From Oxford to Georgia to the World “ I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. This is the work which I know God has called me to; and sure I am that His blessing attends it.”

If we want to be filled and used by the Holy Spirit, then we must release control.

Todd’s Story

Mariuccia’s Story

Methodism and Discipline

Wesley stats - Wesley travelled at least 250,000 miles in his lifetime and preached between 40,000 and 45,000 sermons. And the vast majority of these sermons were preached out of doors. Gave away over 30,000 pounds. Wrote, abridged, or edited over 400 publications. Left 135,000 members and 541 preachers.

Asbury stats – over 130,000 miles on horseback. Crossed Appalachians over 60 times. Over 10,000 sermons and raised over 2000 preachers and over 200,000 Methodists. Voluntary poverty – never more than $80/yr

Methodist Discipline 1. Theology of Grace and Small group system 2. Means of grace 3. Methodists took time to be holy

Spiritual Exercise • 1 Tim. 4:8 –”Physical training is of some value but godliness (spiritual training) has value for all things promising benefits in this life and the life to come.” • LBJ – $1.5 million – personal trainers, chefs, dieticians. Uses cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, NormaTec leg boots etc. Home gym better than most teams. • How much more?

Are we willing to give up control and pay the price to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and Fire?

Prophetic Guitar Story

Taking Time to be Holy • Drowned in the voices of the moment and listening to our Smart phones more than the Holy Spirit who is on silent mode with all notifications turned off, how can we hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church and be led by the Spirit?

Spirit-Led: Hearing God • Pneumatic Epistemology – led by one’s spiritual senses. • Wesleyan way of the Spirit – the inward witness of the Spirit. Still small voice. • Discernment Is it God, devil, or me? You know the tree by its fruit. Test • God is a communicator. The Word. Triune communication. • God speaks in creation. We are created for God ( imago Dei) . My sheep hear my voice. • We walk by faith and not by sight. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Hearing. Shema. She that has an ear. Heairn to obey The primacy of hearing. • Scripture • Conscience/Moral Law • Providence and circumstance • The church triumphant • Others; The Community (including leadership)

Activation - Exercises

Are we willing to give up control and pay the price to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and Fire?

Wesley – “Thoughts Upon Methodism” • “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out .” • A prophecy?

SIGN = Gk. Semeion; Semeia • Are Methodists a form without substance? • English Dictionary – an object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. • Signs point to the substance • Signs of the presence, power, and authority of the King and the Kingdom. • Even Methodism and the people called Methodists as a sign. Not a form without substance.

Preaching the gospel with signs and wonders following = POWER EVANGELISM Mark 16:20