1368. The Mission of the Enduing Spirit
The Mission of the Enduing Spirit
"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me" (Act_1:8).
In this passage we have plainly set before us two things.
1. The fact of the Spirit's enduement–"Ye shall receive power."
The Lord Jesus Christ, in His earth life, was circumscribed, He said: "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (Luk_12:50).
Our Lord was anticipating the time when His death would be accomplished and the gift of the Spirit might be poured forth upon His people.
Just before Christ ascended, He commanded His disciples that they should not depart from Jerusalem: "But wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Act_1:4-5).
Just as the Lord was about to leave the earth from the Mount of Olives, He told the disciples once more of the descending Spirit, and He said unto them: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Act_1:8).
The coming of the Holy Spirit is recorded in Acts 2. That the disciples did receive power, is set forth all through the Acts.
"And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people" (Act_6:8).
This Stephen was a man "full of the Holy Spirit" (Act_6:5, \1911 Bible).
The ministry of Peter and of Paul, of John and of Barnabas, was a ministry of mighty power. Whole cities were turned upside down, thousands were baptized, and multitudes both of men and of women were added unto the Lord.
The Apostle Paul distinctly said that when he preached, he came not with wisdom's words, but with weakness and fear and trembling, and then he added: "In demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1Co_2:4).
This is the ministry that is needed to day.
2. The facts of the Spirit's Mission. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Act_1:8).
The story of the Holy Ghost directing the saints in their work of evangelism, is most marvelously set forth in the Book of Acts.
Peter was commissioned to go to Joppa.
Phillip was sent unto the road that went from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which was a desert.
Saul was refused permission by the Holy Ghost to go to Bithynia, and Asia, and was sent to Macedonia.
Paul was sent finally, as one bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, and then to Rome.
The thing that chiefly concerns us just now is this: Does the Spirit still direct in the great work of preaching the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth?
We believe that He does:
Those who are led by the Spirit will never be content with another man's line of things made ready to their hands, they will always seek to preach the Gospel in the regions that are beyond them (see 2Co_10:16).
Those who are led of the Spirit will not give themselves to sitting idly around, while the Holy Ghost is saying to them as He said to others: "Separate Me Paul and Barnabas to the work to the which I have called them" (Act_13:2).
The mission of the Holy Spirit is to carry Christ to every creature under Heaven. We must fellowship Him in this work.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR