Knowing the Holy Spirit: Spiritual gifts- Why I am an (open) cessationist

On Wednesdays we “walk in the Word” through study & application of Biblical doctrine. Rightly understanding Biblical doctrine fuels doxology, delight in Jesus, & gospel centered discipleship. Today we continue our short survey of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology): Knowing the Holy Spirit and His gifts of grace. Previous posts include:
Know the Holy Spirit: Week 1
Know the Holy Spirit’s Story (2)
Know the Holy Spirit: Covenant (3)
Know the Holy Spirit: Union with Christ (4)
 
                 Key Verses: 1 Peter 4:10 & 1 Kings 17:23-24
 
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
 
“And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
 
                                                  Meditation
Daily I pray with expectancy of God’s Spirit to work extra-ordinarily, and He does through ordinary means! God reveals His eternal power in various ways, not least of which is through answering prayers for conversions, healing, gospel movement, reconciliation, renewal, revival...   This stated,  the Holy Spirit's miraculous gifts designated to authenticate His messengers and His message have ceased. The cannon of Scripture is complete. God has spoken, and God's Spirit's primarily works through God's Word (Ephesians 6:17). The extra-ordinary gifts of the Spirit, those designated to  authenticate the Apostles as Christ’s messengers and their word as the very word of God during the foundational period of the church, have ceased. Yet  God's extra-ordinary work continues today through His ordinary means of grace.

Every Christian has been gifted by grace with a spiritual gift, but only one person has had every spiritual gift (Jesus!). Jesus’ apostles had unique sign-gifts for their period of redemptive history, but those gifts were apart of the foundational period of the church and they have ceased (Hebrews 2:3-4) as false teachers mimic miraculous gifts (Mark 13:22, as did Pharaoh’s magicians to counter Moses). Church officers have gifts for the offices to which they are called (Pastor, Teacher, Elder, Deacon) and every Christian is gifted by God’s Spirit and called to serve one another to build of Christ’s Church (1 Corinthians 12-13). Every Christian must steward our spiritual gifts (Romans 12:6) for the common good and unity of Christ's Body (1 Corinthians 12:7) that the Church may mature, growing up into love (Ephesians 4:16). 

Christian stewardship includes discovering, developing, and deploying the gifts given by God’s Spirit. Christian love necessitates we communicate disagreements in love. 

John Calvin’s response to Catholic attacks on the Reformers is worthy of note. The Catholic leaders sought to discredit the reformers because no miracles accompanied their message for authentication. In a letter to Francis I, Calvin defends against the attack saying, 
 
“The new covenant was attested by the outpourings of the miraculous. That is adequate testimony. We have no novel message so we need no novel outpouring of the miraculous.” 
 
Reformed teaching and preaching are bound to the revelation of Scripture, and the Canon is closed. There is nothing new in our teaching outside of Scripture so there need not be any confirming miracles for supposed new revelation.

                                   Eras of Redemptive History
Throughout Scripture there are different eras when the “sign-gifts” authenticated the messengers of God and the message of God's word through them. See especially the ministries of Moses, Elijah/ Elisha, Jesus, and the Apostles: Exodus 4-12; 1 Kings 17:17-24; Mark 2:1-12; Acts 2:22; and Hebrews 2:3-4. As for these gifts existing after the foundational period of the church, there is absolutely no Biblical support for the normalization of apostolic miraculous gifts for the Church. With this, there is no support or explanation for the majority of redemptive history not having these signs, and when they are revealed in redemptive history their specific function is explicitly to authenticate God’s messenger and God’s message: see the key verse 1 Kings 17:17-24. Finally, it is an incorrect reasoning to conclude the New Testament does not explicitly teach cessationism.
 
Sinclair Ferguson helpfully says, “The New Testament itself divides the last days into apostolic and post-apostolic dimensions or periods. There is a foundation-laying period, marked by the ministry of the apostles and prophets, and there is a post-foundational, post -apostolic period in view (as Ephesians 2:20 implies).” The sign gifts were apart of the foundational period of the church.
 
                                   Illumination & Inspiration
All of God’s word is sufficient for all we need in life and godliness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The WCF 1.6 helpfully articulates this, solidifying why there must be zero tolerance for the:

• Roman Catholic position of elevating Church tradition to divine revelation, the
• Mormon position of elevating Joseph Smith’s golden tablets & the Mormon testament to Divine revelation, the
• Muslim position of an angel speaking to Muhammad as divine revelation (see Galatians 1:8), or any other false religion claiming God’s revelation in the writings, and
• The continuationist position of God  revealing His word outside of Scripture.

Revelation of God’s word is complete so there is no need for further inspiration of Divine revelation. Scripture is sufficient , but we need the illumination of God’s Spirit to faithfully understand and interpret Scripture.

God’s people must have God’s Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:17-18), to explain spiritual truths (1 Corinthians 2:10-14), and remind us of everything Jesus taught (John 14:26).
 
How does celebrating the sufficiency of scripture and welcoming the illumination of the Spirit help us interpret people’s experiences? Here is a brief summary:

• “Tongues” are a real language or (at best) a sense of psychological well-being associated with a Christ-centered interpretation of an experience. The clear teaching of Scripture is that the use of tongues is understood as languages. This paradigm is established at Pentecost in Acts 2 and carried into the only other place in the NT outside of Acts where the use of tongues is discussed- 1 Corinthians 12-14. The “broader silence” of the New Testament speaks volumes, specifically there was no need for regulating the exercise of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues.
  
  It should also be noted, the Apostle Peter treated the translation of tongues as fulfillment of prophecy (Acts 2:14-18) and Paul includes interpretation of tongues as the functional equivalent of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:6, “… revelation or knowledge or prophecy…”). Seeing tongues as prophecy helps us understand the argument for them ceasing with the foundational period of the Church.


• “Prophecy” is (at best) illumination, fallible insight & contemporary application of Biblical truth. Some gifts of discernment shared boldly can mask as prophecy.


• “Healing,” while commanded for Christians to seek (James 5:14-15), is no longer authentication of new messages or divine messengers (I am open to new kingdom movements including elements mirroring this paradigm). No healings today resemble the “gifts of healing” in the New Testament. Consider this: No one in the New Testament had apostles pray for their healing and it not happen. What does that say about folks who claim to have the gift of healing today but pray but nothing happens, or those who prey on the poor with their alleged gifts of healing? God is pleased to heal, but not through the gift of healing aimed at authenticating messengers of revelation.


• “Baptism of the Holy spirit” is not a unique Pentecost for every believer to experience and it should not be understood as normal for all Christians who have tasted the Spirit in regeneration. Ephesians 4:7-16 rebukes recent distortions of the Spirit's work and redirects us to the primary work of spiritual gifting, namely growing the Body of Christ towards maturity and building itself up in love. 

 
                                              Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from this discussion of gifts of the Spirit? Do you know your spiritual gifts? How have you stewarded them by developing and deploying them for the building of the Church?
 
-Is God’s word sufficient for you or do you look for “words of knowledge” or “prophecy” or “tongues” to supplement God’s word? Take a minute to ask God’s Spirit to illuminate His revealed word so that it is enough for you.
 
-How can you pray and live expectantly, knowing God will act in extra-ordinary ways through His ordinary means, while living in dependency on God's Spirit to use God's word to make you more like Jesus?  Be specific.
 
              Key Verses: 1 Peter 4:10 & 1 Kings 17:23-24
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
 
“And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”