Study 56 "Prepared but powerless"
We start a new section on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit today. Wayne Grudem in his book on Systematic Theology helpfully categorizes the work of the Spirit: He purifies, unifies, reveals and empowers ("P-U-R-E"). He is the Person of the Trinity who leads us to holiness, assures us of our standing as children of God, helps us understand scripture, gives us spiritual gifts and unites us with brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world. As we looked at Acts 1 and 2 my comment was that the book of Acts makes it clear that the Spirit enabled bold witness of a previously cowardly band of disciples. He enabled workings of miracles that authenticated their witness and opened the way for the truth of the gospel. The difficulty with the book of Acts is that it can be difficult to see which parts are meant to be normative for all Christians, and which are only one-off accounts of events. In Acts, truth and power are not divorced. We see in John 20:22 an event where Je...