Why Preach on the Holy Spirit?
July 13, 2008
God willing, on July 20th I will begin a 7-sermon series on the Holy Spirit. Though the motivations behind such a series are as broad ranging as the study itself, I thought I would share one of them through the story of a wiser, more mature student of the Bible.
Daniel Wallace is a New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary who is well known for his excellent textbook on Greek grammar. Dr. Wallace comes from a conservative tradition that we can appreciate in many regards: a high view of the Scriptures, a focus on exegetical preaching, and the placement of Biblical truth over personal experience. Along with these, Wallace is a cessationist. That is, he believes that some of the more miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased after the apostles died.
In the early 90’s, doctors diagnosed Wallace’s son with an extremely rare form of cancer that had an abysmal survival rate. The professor’s account of walking through his son’s treatment articulates one significant reason for us to focus on the Holy Spirit.
“I cannot adequately describe what the next six months were like–for Andy, for me and his mother, for his three brothers. But I can tell you that I was in an emotional wasteland. I was angry with God and I found him to be quite distant. Here was this precious little boy who was losing his hair, and losing weight. At one point he weighed only forty-five pounds. His twin brother at that time weighed eighty-five pounds. Andy was so weak that we had to carry him everywhere.
“Through this experience I found that the Bible was not adequate. I needed God in a personal way–not as an object of my study, but as friend, guide, comforter. I needed an existential experience of the Holy One. Quite frankly, I found that the Bible was not the answer. I found the scriptures to be helpful–even authoritatively helpful–as a guide. But without feeling God, the Bible gave little solace. In the midst of this ‘summer from hell,’ I began to examine what had become of my faith. I found a longing to get closer to God, but found myself unable to do so through my normal means: exegesis, scripture reading, more exegesis. I believe that I had depersonalized God so much that when I really needed him I didn’t know how to relate. I longed for him, but found many community-wide restrictions in my cessationist environment. I found a suffocation of the Spirit in my evangelical tradition as well as in my own heart.”
Whether or not we hold to Wallace’s cessationist theology (which he still holds), many of us live like he did, as practical binitarians. We believe in the strength and love of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son, but we do not experience the presence and power of the Spirit. One of my prayers in preaching on the Holy Spirit is that we would be brought into deeper communion with God through his indwelling Spirit, communion that will be our support when our Andy goes into chemo.
As we look to the Scriptures, our unquestioned authority, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to who he is that we might both know and experience God in his fullness.
Pastor Chris
To read the full text of Dan Wallace’s story, visit http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1548#P37_12000