Sunday School | The Giving of the Spirit

Okay, you guys, we took a break last week because I was gone, and then the week before that it was a holiday or something. So we're out of practice. What are we doing here? Do you guys remember? April 13th—was it that long? Yeah, that was your last one. Okay, so what are we doing? Anybody remember what in the world are we talking about in this room? Gary? Yes! Excellent, very, very good.

Okay, so you might recall, we're doing the big doctrines. First we did theology proper—the doctrine of the first person of God, doctrine of the Father. Now we're about 70% of the way through the doctrine of the Son, Christology. We've been breaking down the ministry of Christ. Do you remember these big ten things about Jesus that we're looking at? Anybody, without looking at notes, can you remember any of the ten?

Incarnation. Yes. His teaching, his miracles, right? His obedient life. His death. We get to that eventually. What do we miss, Rebecca? Yes, okay. So here's where we're at: after he dies—and you'd think that's the end of most people's story—he raises from the dead. That's a big deal. When he rises, he's king, right? And we spent several weeks me trying to persuade you that Jesus became king. And the next thing in that lineup is the giving of the Spirit. Okay, and this is a big, big deal.

Mike, the giving of the Spirit—what do you give it on a scale of one to ten? Twelve? Okay, it's a big deal. So much so that I'm not sure that we even understand it in the Old Testament. We might have some awareness that in the Old Testament there's an anticipation that someday the Messiah is going to come. The way that we tend to think of it, we might say someday the crucifixion is going to happen, or someday sin will be atoned for, or maybe we say that someday the righteous king will arrive. And those things are all true. But the primary way—and this is startling and surprising until you understand what's really going on here—the primary way that the new covenant is anticipated, the someday, is this: someday God will live inside of us. Someday he will give us his Spirit. That was the marker that the new covenant has come.

All right, I'm going to show you some things. We're going to spend a bunch of time in Scripture. Go to John 16. John 16 is in this beautiful, really important movement of the Gospel of John that we call—do you know what this is called? Like John 15 to—what would it be, John 17? John 15 through 17. Do you know what this thing is called?

The upper room discourse, right? This whole thing. That's John 15. That's all what's happening there. But this whole broader—you guys know that, Kelly? That's it. You guys know that Kelly knew the answer. She's sleeping with the teacher, so she's got an inside track. But no, the upper room discourse. This whole thing. That's not how she knows—she knows stuff all by herself. Although that has been a source of enormous blessing in her life, I'll be honest with you.

Okay, so the upper room discourse. This is the final days. Jesus's last night. He's with his disciples. The crucifixion is coming, and he's talking about all this incredibly important stuff. And if you read through the upper room discourse, the recurring theme is the Holy Spirit. We're going to take a look at John 16.

Now I am going to him who sent me. Yet none of you asks me, "Where are you going?" Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. — John 16:5-7

And then if you skip down just a couple of verses, in verse 12, Jesus says:

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. — John 16:12-15

For my money, that's the whole thing right there.

This is one of the strangest things, one of the least obvious things that Jesus said. He's like, "Listen, they're all freaking out like you're leaving. What do you mean? You're leaving? Why? We thought you were—why would you leave?" He's like, "Listen, it's for your good that I go away because if I don't go away, the Spirit won't come."

I think for most of my life I would have been like, "Yeah, but I would rather you stayed." Like, the idea of having the physical, corporal, touchable, auditory Jesus in the room versus the formless, invisible Holy Spirit—given these two options, I think having Jesus physically with us seems more obviously, more immediately to be preferred. And Jesus says, "Yeah, and if you think that, you're wrong. It is for your good that I go away so that he could come."

The Promise of the New Covenant

Now when he says this, he is alluding back to the promise—the primary promise of the new covenant—that one day God would put his Spirit in us.

Do you know where we would find that? There are, depending on your count, two or three, but we usually go to the same two primary texts about the new covenant in the Old Testament. Do you know where they are?

Jeremiah. Yes, you're right—Jeremiah is one of them. Does anybody know the Jeremiah one? We're gonna look at both. It's Jeremiah 31:31 and following.

How about the other one? Genesis 3 is gonna have what we call the proto-evangelium—probably what you're thinking of is where God will crush the snake's head and he'll bruise your heel. Yeah, that's Genesis 3. But this is something later than that. It's actually Ezekiel. Ezekiel 36.

Go to Ezekiel 36, you guys. I'm telling you, if you had a list of the ten most important passages in the Old Testament, Ezekiel 36 should be on it. Or Jeremiah—you could pick both. If Jeremy only got ten, I might only pick one of them, but Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36—these are the ones you want to be familiar with.

So Ezekiel 36:24. We're gonna start there and then we'll see where it goes.

For I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. — Ezekiel 36:24-25

He's talking to Israel, who's been getting destroyed by all these nations because of their sinful rebellion. And he's giving them a picture of a desirable future. "Here's how it's not gonna end like this. Here's what's gonna happen."

I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. — Ezekiel 36:25-28

That is the new covenant promise. That is the day that is coming. God's saying, "I'm gonna forgive you. I'm gonna cleanse you." And you might ask, "How does the cleansing take place?" That was on Jesus. Yes, he's the cross—the atoning work is wrapped up in that. But the punchline is this:

We—all human history—have been a people that just can't do it. We're not good at being obedient when we rely on ourselves, when we live in our own basic nature. It goes off the rails over and over and over again. And so finally, what God is saying is, "Okay, alright. We've been doing this for hundreds of years. It didn't work. It's never gonna work. Here's the only hope. The only possible way we can get through this is if I take out your heart of stone, give you a new heart, and if I don't also move you—basically saying, you guys are sock puppets, and you're disobedient sock puppets. And the only possible way that your lips are gonna start saying what you're supposed to say is if I inhabit the sock puppet. If it's not me living in you, if it's you living in you—we know how that story ends. The only hope is that I embody you."

This is why he says, look at verse 27:

I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. — Ezekiel 36:27

What he's saying is, the only way this is ever gonna work is if I'm doing it, living through you. The Spirit will come to live in you.

If you go to Jeremiah, we'll see the same thing. In Jeremiah 31, though, the Holy Spirit is described but not named—it's the same thing.

The time is coming... — Jeremiah 31:31

It was future tense then. When I'm gonna make a new covenant—new set of rules, new engagement, new ways that we relate—a new covenant with the house of Israel, the house of Judah. It won't be like the covenant that I made with her forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant. It's like any kind of engagement between God and his people in which they're supposed to keep the rules is doomed to failure. It won't be like that.

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time: I'll put my law in their minds and I'll write it on their hearts.

It was written on stone tablets and that didn't work. Instead we're gonna write it on their hearts. It's the same exact thing that Ezekiel is describing: take out a heart of stone, place it with a heart of flesh, putting a spirit inside of us. We don't do the external thing at all. Our only hope is that it becomes internal.

I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying "Know the Lord," because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I'll forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.

Okay, now Robin and then Gil—as Gentiles and as people that have received Christ—have got this promise. But he's making this pledge to Israel. Yes. Okay, so this is still to come for when they're going to become a people that are indwelt by his spirit.

The Distinction Between Israel and the Church

So let me look at this. We'll go a little bit on a side trail here—that's why I love this class. These prophets that Robin is pointing out—Ezekiel is written to Israel, Jeremiah is written to Israel—and that's absolutely right. There is a program that God is running with a particular group of people related by blood. This is a guy named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and twelve kids and a bunch of kids. This is God's people. And all these promises of the new covenant are made to a group of people known as Israel.

So essentially what Robin is saying is, well, hang on a second. Why are we prescribing this to the church if this is to Israel? If all those things are going to happen to Israel, is it proper to say that what's happening in our lives, or what can happen in our lives—what has happened in our lives—is an even a fulfillment of that? Or is this talking about something yet to happen in the more distant future, right?

We'll probably address this more thoroughly, but just for the sake of making this land, let's go briefly to Ephesians. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. And I'll give you a very quick primer on what I think is the right way to understand the relationship between Israel and the church.

Go to Ephesians chapter 2. Same thing—perfect. Go—are you guys on point? So I want you to see Ephesians. He's writing to a Gentile audience specifically.

They're not Jews, and as he writes to them, he's going to say some very fascinating things about how they relate to Israel. So pick it up in Ephesians 2:11.

Paul says:

Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision that down in the body by the hands of men — Ephesians 2:11

He's saying you Gentiles—you dogs, you non-Jews. Jews are going to look down at these Gentiles because they're not circumcised and are part of this covenant community. They're not particularly of the old covenant, and they have no right to the new covenant because, you're absolutely correct, the new covenant is a covenant with Israel.

So he's talking to these Gentiles that have no right to any of this, and this is what he says:

Remember that you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised... Remember that at that time you were past tense separate from Christ. Notice the second one: Excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world — Ephesians 2:11-12

He lists five things that used to be true of Gentiles. You're running around and you have the descendants of Abraham over here who've been given the law and all of these things, and then you got all these pagans running around in the woods. He says none of this is yours.

These five things—you were without. We'll look at them again in verse 12:

You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God — Ephesians 2:12

And then he says this:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ — Ephesians 2:13

What he is saying is those five things have all been reversed in Christ. And one of those five things is that you are excluded from citizenship in Israel. None of us have any right to any of the blessings or promises made to Israel until, in Christ, it all becomes yours.

So all of the promises made to Israel—it is not the case that the church has replaced Israel, and it is the case that the church has joined Israel. Do you feel this? I do not believe what is sometimes called replacement theology. We didn't kick them out and take in; we have joined with what was available to them, even as many of them have been excluded through unbelief.

But yes, to finally get to your ultimate point, Robin, the time is coming. This is pretty clear in Romans 9, 10, and 11 where there will be a revival among Jews, among the people of blood descent of Abraham, that they too will become partakers of the Spirit. We are partakers of the Spirit that was promised to Israel. Now it's available to all of us who are in Christ, even though we're not—we had no right to it. But Jesus purchased the right to it, and someday he will draw from all the unbelieving Israel. He's doing it presently, but in a larger way, he will draw from unbelieving Israel, blood descendants of Abraham, who too will receive the Spirit. That's satisfying.

How we doing? Good. Tell us you like Robin said, as like the promise of the Spirit unto salvation for those who believe. But I think of it in terms of restoration too because there are promises in there about the Spirit moving us to obey him in a way that I feel like—and maybe I need you to correct me if I'm wrong—but I feel like that seems more powerful than the obedience I offer him now. Come a day when he will move me to obey, and the restoration, when I won't even be able to sin. Yes. We will all, you know, proclaim Christ, but we won't need to proclaim Christ to anyone in Jeremiah because everyone will know him. And so I do see echoes.

No, I totally agree with you. So what Kelly is saying is that the language of Ezekiel 36 and the language of Jeremiah 31 is so grand, is so magnificent, that maybe what we're experiencing now is really just a foretaste of it, but it's not the fullness of it. And that's exactly right. We are enabled to obey. We do have the Spirit living in us, but all of our lives, the reality is that we leak.

We used to do this experiment all the time—or not experiment, this illustration with crew, but we'll get to this again in a couple weeks. If you take a glass of milk and you take a sip of it, what does it taste like? Milk. You take Hershey's syrup and you squeeze it into it, okay, and then you take a sip of it. What does it taste like? Milk. Why? You haven't stirred it up.

Okay, so we are somewhat like that where we can have the Holy Spirit in us, but it doesn't really make any difference if he's not filling us. Then it doesn't really make any difference at all.

Or you get another illustration: if you got a sailboat out on the water and the wind is blowing, the boat is not going to catch the power of the wind if the sails aren't yielded—if the sails are furled, rolled up or whatever you say. Then the wind can blow all it wants, but it's not going to move the boat. If we're not yielding to the Spirit, if he's not filling us, then it doesn't make that much of a difference in our lives.

We're marked by this: sin and repentance, sin and repentance, sin and repentance. But the day is coming when that will no longer be true. The day is coming that we will no longer be living in this flesh suit that is corrupted. We will have a new body. He's going to transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. So the Holy Spirit is both right now a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, but it's in a limited way for what is ultimately going to come.

Peter quotes this early in Acts and says it's happening right now at Pentecost. He's like, "You know what explains this freak show of Pentecost? The promise of Joel is coming to pass." And I would also say the promise of John 16 is coming to pass, right? It is absolutely all happening.

Ezekiel 36 and 37

The point of Ezekiel 36 is that God is going to give us the Spirit. It's a big deal. It's coming. This was written around 700 BC or something—it's going to be a long time. But when he finally comes, it's going to happen.

It's possible that you could read Ezekiel 36 and not realize that the bright, flashing insight is that the Spirit of God is going to live in us. And if you miss it, do you know what comes after Ezekiel 36? Ezekiel 37—the valley of dry bones.

What's the point of the story of the valley of dry bones? The Spirit of God being able to reanimate them. Listen to Ezekiel 37. We tend to hear this story as a metaphor for resurrection, so you could be forgiven if you think that's what it's about. But it's not. Listen to the way that he tells the story:

The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and he set me in the middle of a valley. It's full of bones. He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. And he asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I said, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know." — Ezekiel 37:1-3

At this point you'd be like, "What's it about? It's about a bunch of dead things that maybe will come to life. That's cool, but stay with me."

Then he said to me, "Prophesy of these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life." — Ezekiel 37:4-6

The word for breath—ruach—that's one of the Hebrew words I know. Ruach also means Spirit. So he's saying, "I will make Spirit enter you and you will come to life."

So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. And I looked in—tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. — Ezekiel 37:7-8

What you want this to be is a super letdown because what's the difference between a bunch of dry bones and a bunch of dead bodies? We got bones—great. They start rattling. That's weird. Okay, now those ligaments and skin. Okay, that's cool. And they're dead.

It's like the point of that. It's like reading Frankenstein where Dr. Frankenstein says, "Yeah, so we dug up a bunch of bodies and we sewed on some arms and we sewed on a head and we laid it out on the table. Awesome." If there's no lightning bolt, if nothing comes to life, who gives a crap? It doesn't matter.

Okay, so verse nine. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophecy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says.' He's designed the story in such a way that you're like on the edge of your seat, and then it fails you're like, 'What's the point?' So that you'll see the point. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe into these slain that they may live.'"

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them and they came to life and stood on their feet—a vast army. — Ezekiel 37:9-10

Every time you see the word "breath," it's the word ruach. It is the word "spirit." The whole point of this thing is not that bones turn into dead bodies. The point is that the spirit comes and dwells. And then he explains himself—finally we get to the point. The metaphor is resurrection, but the point is the giving of the spirit. This is all a double-click on chapter 36.

Verse 11: Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are cut off.'" — Ezekiel 36:11

Which is to say, it's not literally about dead bodies. It's about a nation that feels dead. It's about a nation that cannot perform its most essential functions. They're not literally dead—they're just lifeless. Can you feel that? "Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, we are cut off."

"Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Here's the promise. Oh my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. And here it is, verse 14: I will put my spirit in you, and you will live. And I will settle you in your own land. And then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and that I have done it.'" — Ezekiel 36:12-14

This is what Jesus was talking about in John 16. This promise has finally been kept. Now, that's not the only reason he came. He came seeking to say—there's a lot of stuff going on. He came to be crowned as king. He came to atone for sin. But he came to give us his spirit. And more to the point, he left so that this ancient promise would be fulfilled—that we would no longer be empty suck puppets, but the Spirit of God would live in us, that he would move us to do what we will not, cannot, have not done on our own. To live obedient lives before him. It is a big, big deal.

How you doing? Gil, did you—did I miss you? You're good? Okay, go to John 14.

This is all part of that upper room discourse.

Jesus says, "All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—here it is—whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." — John 14:25-27

If you read through that upper room discourse (chapters 14 to 17), you can see over and over the Holy Spirit comes up. The Holy Spirit comes up because Jesus is getting ready to leave. Which is to say, Jesus is getting ready—first, people will receive this long-ago promised gift that you received when you first believed, when you became a follower of Christ. The chocolate was added to the milk. It doesn't follow that it's so that you're living in a state of being perpetually stirred up. We'll unpack that a little bit more in coming weeks. But let me say this: go to Romans 8.

The Promise

Here's the promise, and then we're going to unpack this over the next month or so.

Paul says in Romans 8, verse 9: "You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature, like we all used to be, but by the Spirit. If the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. If you are in Christ, the spirit dwells in you." — Romans 8:9

He's going to say a lot more in Romans 8 that we'll unpack as we go.

How do we describe the relationship of the Holy Spirit before that time to God's people? Great question. Intermittent is what I would say—and inconsistent. You do see it. Different characters in the Old Testament story have the Holy Spirit come upon them. Saul famously—the spirit comes on Saul, and the spirit leaves Saul. You see the spirit come on him and he moves into prophecy, but what Saul experienced intermittently and inconsistently is not like what we experience. It's why it's funny when we sometimes sing this song.

Go to Psalm 51. At the time that it was written, David says—this is his song about committing adultery with Bathsheba, and it begins:

"Have mercy on me..." — Psalm 51

Oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.

These are all new covenant promises that David wants. But then he says later on in verse 10:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Listen to this: do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

At the time that David wrote that song, that was a live option. That is what happened to Saul. It is not a live option for you, because we live post-Pentecost and the Spirit has been given. It's a totally different relationship.

So there are some things that in a lesser way anticipate what we presently enjoy. We would be in error if we take all of it and assume that it has the same fragility that it had then. The Spirit was acting on his people then, but now he lives in us. And that indwelling Spirit—that is the game changer.

The Bible as a Study Reward

You know, there's a game show called Jeopardy. It gives you the answers and the contestants have to find the question. To me the Bible's like that—all the answers are there, but we have to find the question. You have to study it so much and go through it and try to go back, find the answers. The Bible is something like the Jeopardy game where we've been given the answers but we have to figure out the question.

The way that I would phrase it is just that it rewards diligent study. You could just read through this and let it pass through you like water through a pipe, or you can ask: What are you asking? Why are you using this phrase here? How does verse 37 relate to verse 36? When we do those kinds of things, my goodness, there's so much insight that explains what's wrong with me and gives me some comfort and reassurance.

The thing that's wrong with me—it's the same thing that's wrong with you, right? We need a savior. We need an enormous amount of help for these things.

The Spirit in Scripture

So can you guys think—I've given you John 16 and John 14 and we've looked at Ezekiel 36 and 37. Where else does the New Testament say the New Testament anticipates, promise, even reveal that God would put his Spirit in us? Where would you think?

Isaiah, okay. Let's stay in the New Testament for now and maybe we have time where we can see more Old Testament. Romans 6? Acts? They receive the Holy Spirit even though the prophets are—okay, good. The book of Acts is going to be a great place to mind for this because the giving of the Spirit, the coming of the Spirit, the reception of the Spirit is a major recurring theme right—we can see that over and over again in the book of Acts.

In fact, let's start with that. What's the first one? Where is the giving of the Spirit in the book of Acts? Acts 2 is Pentecost, but it even starts really good. We'll start at Acts 1 for the setup for it, and then we'll see it fulfilled in Acts 2.

If you go to Acts 1, this is such a strange thing. I don't know if it's ever struck you as just how unusual this is. John has this whole thing where Jesus breathes on him. That's very Lewis-like—Aslan does that.

Watch this. We'll pick it up in verse 4 of Acts 1:

You have been for three years under the personal tutelage of Jesus. You've got Jesus school for three years. Then he dies to atone for sin, he ascends as King. You might think, "All right, let's go." But Jesus says, "Sit down. You're not ready."

It's extraordinary. You would think, "What do you mean I'm not ready?" It's like you've graduated from med school. You've gotten all of this training, all this experience—trained by God himself.

In verse 4, on one occasion while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:

Do not leave Jerusalem. Wait for the gift that my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days in Acts 2 you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

It's incredible that he's like, "You'd think they'd be like, 'Well, we're ready.' He's like, 'No, you're not. Just sit down. Give it a few more days.'"

And then in verse 7:

It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth

It's like all the training, all the time, all the prayer, all the experience—worthless. Just wait until the spirit comes and then we'll get to work.

And then in chapter two, as you guys are saying, this is what finally happens. This is where you're gonna see the whole Joel quotation or the Joel gets cited. Where does Peter quote that?

In the last days God says I will pour out my spirit on all people your sons and daughters — Joel 2:28-32

That's all Joel, that's being fulfilled right there.

But not yet, right? And now it is coming. So the "all flesh"—it does not mean like every person, but it means it's not just the Jews. It's the Gentiles. It's the old people. It's the young people. It's just this breadth of generosity of the spirit that's being described there.

And it starts here in Acts. That's true. That's true. Okay, that's a good point. However, it's true because that's what the church was. But what these spirit-filled Jews do is now speak in the language of the Gentiles so that they might know and experience the gospel and become recipients of that spirit.

But when the Gentiles start believing and receiving the spirit, the Jews are all like, "Ha! Who saw that coming?" They had no idea. It would be to us as odd as if this church became populated with Muslims. That's the emotional feel of it. Muslims who believe in Jesus, let's be clear. But it's like there's a bunch of Muslims. We have Arabic Bible studies in this building and we're like, "Who saw that coming?" That's what it is—shock that all these non-Jews become not only partakers, but...

What would it be like for you if in ten years this church just didn't just have an Arabic ministry, but it was ninety-five percent Muslims by birth at this church? That's what happens in the book of Acts. It starts with a bunch of Jews and it ends with a bunch of Gentiles. The breadth and generosity of this is pretty stunning.

Robin, defend this. In the church in Jerusalem, the part that the scripture from the first of Acts talks about—that you won't baptize, why do you baptize in the Holy Spirit? He said, "Who are we to say when the spirit has already come down?" That's right.

Yeah, that's exactly right. So Robin's point is Peter uses the spirit's selection and generosity towards Gentiles to be like, "Who are we to say that we can't invite Gentiles to the party? He already did, right?" And this—I'm telling you—the giving of the spirit is the marker of the new covenant. We're gonna talk more about it in the next several weeks.

What does it mean if we have the spirit of God indwelling you? And he does. If you're in Christ, does he fill you? Not necessarily at all times. There is a great picture that just pervades the book of Acts of believers being filled by the spirit. We do not want to merely be indwelt. We want to be filled. We want that chocolate stirred up. We want the sales taught, right? And we'll get to that as we go.

But we got to stop. Gail, you get thirty seconds.

That's right. Peter would have been overwhelmed and replaced, right? Because the spirit of God meant all along to share it with people like us that have no right to the things promised to Israel, but that have been given to us in Christ.

Okay, good enough. All right, more next week.