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

• wn; 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: 6TH 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

• f 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

Hebrews 2:3-4

• How shall we escape if we neglect so great a

salvation?

• This salvation that was first proclaimed by the

Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

• God testified to it by signs, wonders, and

various miracles and by gifts of the Spirit distributed according to his will.

Romans 15:18-19

• I will not venture to speak of anything except

what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by word and deed,

• By the power of signs and wonders through

the power of the Spirit of God

• So from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum, I

have fully proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 10:7-8

• V.7 –As you go preach this message: “The

Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.”

• V. 8- Heal the sick,
• Cleanse the leper,
• Raise the dead,
• Cast out demons
• Freely you have received
• Freely give.

Are Wesleyans today obeying and walking out Matthew 10:7-8? Why or Why not?

Metho-Amnesia

• Wesley’s Journals are filled with powerful

accounts of the work of the Holy Spirit in early Methodism – including repentance, forgiveness of sin, deliverance, salvations, dreams and visions, healing, those slain in the Spirit, prophecy, - See “The Supernatural Occurences of John Wesley” – Daniel Jennings

Healing through Prayer

• 9/28/1739 – I met with a fresh proof, that

“whatsoever ye ask, believing, ye ask, believing, ye shall receive.” A middle-aged woman desired me to return thanks for her to God, who, as many witnesses then present testified, was a day or two before really distracted, and as such tied down in her bed. But upon prayer made for her, she was instantly relieved, and restored to a sound mind – WJW 1:3.

Thunderstruck

• May 1, 1739 – While we were praying at a

society here, on Tuesday the first instant, the power of God (so I call it) came so mightily among us, that one, and another, and another, fell down as thunderstruck. In that hour many that were in deep anguish of spirit, were all filled with peace and joy. – WJW Letter to Samuel Wesley

Repentance and Release of the Spirit

• “We met at Fetter Lane, to humble ourselves

before God, and own he had justly withdrawn his Spirit from us for our manifold unfaithfulness…in that hour we found God with us as at the first. Some fell protrate upon the ground. Others burst out, as with one consent, into loud praise and thanksgiving. And many openly testified, there had been no such day as this…- WJW 1:3. 6-16-1739

Early Methodism was no stranger to experiential religion and to the work of the

• Spirit. A case could be made that one of the

greatest outpourings of the church age following the first century began with the Great Awakening and early

• Methodism. Revival fire lit up England

and spread across the ocean and helped give birth to what Kenneth Scott Latourette called the “Great Century,” referencing the vast influence of Christianity in the nineteenth century.

The Second Great Awakening, the 19th Century Healing movement, the Holiness movement, the Modern Mission movement, the Abolitionist movement, and a host of social and educational institutions all were significantly influenced by 19th century Methodism. Going into the 20th century, even the earth- shattering Azusa St. Revival from 1906-1912 was fueled by Methodist, former Methodist and holiness leadership

Holiness-Pentecostal Movements: Our Forgotten Heritage of Holiness and Power

• John Fletcher emphasized the Holy Spirit as the primary agent of sanctification.

He used Pentecostal language and themes for sanctification. His influence was great on the 19th century holiness movement.

• Timothy Merritt – Christian’s Manual: Treatise on Christian Perfection. 1832
• Phoebe Palmer – Mother of the Holiness movement. Ed. Guide to Holiness– 1864-

1874

• Palmer’s Tuesday Meetings, 1835-1871. Hamline, Simpson, Janes, & Peck
• National Camp Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness – Vineland, NJ 1867
• 19th Century Healing Movement –William Boardman, Charles Cullis, A.B Simpson.

The atonement brings holiness and wholeness of heart and body.

• Azusa St. Revival – 1906-1912. Global spread.

Global South Shift

• PHILIP JENKINS - prof. Religious Studies at Penn

State among others documents the shift. – In 1900 there were 380 million Christians in Europe and less than 10 million on the entire continent of Africa. Today there are over 600 million Christians in Africa nearly comprising 1/4 of the entire Christian church

Global South Renewal

• Supernaturally oriented churches.
• Laying on of hands and Spirit baptism
• Spiritual Worldview - Power Encounters, Signs

&Wonders, Divine Healing and Miracles

• Expressive Worship
• Contextual and Local Forms
• Orthodox Doctrine
• Apostolic Offices, Gifts of the Spirit, Power of God,
• Biblical Literalism
• Power mission and evangelism
• Spiritual warfare and deliverance

Wesleyan Theology of the Spirit

• Trinitarian Based
• Christologically Informed
• Soteriologically Driven – via salutis
• Holiness/Sanctification Oriented
• Therapeutically/Curatively Related
• Mission Purposed

Could one of the greatest outpourings

• f the Holy Spirit in church

history that began with Methodism come full circle back to Methodism?

Global Methodism on Fire

• Vietnam
• Philippines
• Korea
• Sierra Leone
• Congo
• Cuba
• In Africa alone the church is increasing by

220,000 annually while the United Methodist Church in the U.S. is losing around 90,000 annually.

The good news is that God longs to move in American Methodism in the same manner.

• Aldersgate Renewal Ministries
• Holy Spirit Seminar
• United Theological Seminary
• New Room Conference
• Change the World Conference
• Order of the Flame

“What can I do to have more of the Holy Spirit in my life?”

• 1. Be Christ-centered. Focus on Jesus. The Spirit

primarily bears witness to Christ.

• 2. Be immersed in the Scriptures. Have a

scriptural basis for all you are and do in your life and ministry. The Spirit speaks the language of

• Scripture. Be aware of exalting your experience
• ver Scripture.
• 3. Be presence-based over program-based in life

and ministry. Expect and cultivate the presence

• f God wherever you are.Let life and ministry

flow from there.

10 Exhortations – Cultivate Life of the Spirit

• 4. Make faith your primary epistemological
• instrument. Reason is essential but meant to be

subordinate to faith. We are justified by faith and not justified by reason.

• 5. Have a passion for holiness,
• Christlikeness. “Holy” is the Holy Spirit’s first

name.

• 6. Cultivate humility as a virtue. The Holy Spirit

does not speak of himself (John 14-16). The Spirit is humble and is attracted to humility. God resists the proud.

10 Exhortations – Cultivate Life of the Spirit

• 7. Learn to hear the voice of the Spirit and teach your

people likewise. Give the Spirit the solitude needed to speak to you and expect to hear specific guidance from God.

• 8. Have an open heart to serve others especially the poor,

the stranger, and the outcast. The Spirit loves to adopt.

• 9. Create opportunities and structures for all types of
• prayer. If we want the fellowship of the Spirit we must

communicate in the Spirit.Look for both worship and mission to flow from a life of prayer.

• 10. Create an expectancy for the gifts of the Spirit in
• rdinary and extraordinary ways and settings.

Resurrection Theology

• RESURRECTION - Build your healing ministry on a robust and

comprehensive theology of the resurrection. The resurrection is the

• rigin, source, power, authority, and goal of our healing. Thus, God

works from and too resurrection. Resurrection is the foundational evidence of the Kingdom of God, and the restoration of all things in heaven and earth, here and now. Restoration includes our health and wholeness. God desires to restore all things to their original purpose including our bodies and our minds. Healing is God’s gift to us both now and for the future. Our healing, and the healing of all things, begins now and culminate with the resurrection and redemption of our bodies, as well as a new heaven and a new earth (the new creation). All healing is a foreshadowing of this ultimate healing and prefigures it.

Resurrection

• GOD HEALS - Since the resurrection is the complete

picture of our healing, our faith and expectations should be based on the power of the resurrection and in the God of the resurrection. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Although repentance, faith, wisdom and proper medical treatment are essential to the process of healing, we rely ultimately on God who raises us from the dead. It does no service to the ministry of healing or the integrity of persons to judge, stigmatize, condemn or blame persons for sin or a lack

• f faith when we do not see or receive our expectation
• r our version of healing.

Prayer

• Deliverance
• Healing
• Recommitment to Christ
• Baptism in the Spirit/ ES