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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey, everyone. And welcome to Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. I'm the preaching minister here at our church. And you have stumbled upon a new series.
John Gunter:We are talking about the Holy Spirit. And let me encourage you to go if you haven't already, go listen to the class. There'll be some overlap, but it's really setting up a good baseline for this study, really with churches of Christ that we're going to explore a little bit of, why we have come to think the way we have about the Holy Spirit and why I think some of that is misdirected. Of course, nobody agrees with everybody, do they? So anyway, we're glad that you're, on board with us for this study.
John Gunter:I think it's gonna be fantastic And, just come see us anytime. If we can help you in any way, let us know. Thanks for listening. Before we get started, I wanna recognize a few people. We have just finished up our small group year.
John Gunter:So if you were a leader of one of those small groups, would you stand right now? We have no leaders in here. Can we thank these people for opening their homes? Thank you all. Thank you so much.
John Gunter:They, they opened their homes, they gave their times, and and quite frankly, some Wednesday nights, they just hoped that you would show up. Some of you guys are like trying to catch the wind. So we're so thankful for people who give up their time like this to open their homes. So we've got a little dinner tonight at my house. That was part of my to do list for this week is to smoke some ribs and chicken.
John Gunter:And so we're gonna honor them tonight at my house. Y'all don't all show up. I I don't know. I don't wanna be confusing on that. It's just for the leaders.
John Gunter:But but we are we are thankful for all those who who have gifted their time. I just want to thank you for showing up today. We've so many here and I'm just glad that you're here and you want to hear about the Holy Spirit. I think this is going to be a great study. And this morning, we we started a class with kind of a an overview and also some kind of backstory, some that we're gonna repeat here in the sermon so that we all kinda have the sound, the same foundation as we talk about the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:Because I think for us, a lot of us How many of you were raised in churches of Christ? Okay. The majority. Okay. This will be helpful for you and also helpful for people who were not, I believe.
John Gunter:Because I think a lot of times we have different views of the Holy Spirit. If you're raised differently than churches of Christ, you probably do. And so that's why I asked that question this morning. But for a lot of us we probably have this idea, some of you when you hear the Holy Spirit you think, oh, comforter and that's my help and all of these things. And for some of you we say Holy Spirit and you're thinking about people running up and down aisles and speaking in tongues and stuff.
John Gunter:Right? And so sometimes, the Holy Spirit can be comforting and sometimes mentioning the Holy Spirit can kinda be what do I do with that? And I think for a lot of us, that's been our experience. God the Father, we love and and thank you for being our Father Jesus. Thank you for sacrificing yourself on the cross for all of us.
John Gunter:Holy Spirit, next verse. Not sure what to do with that, right? Thank you. Yeah. For a lot of us, that that has been the case and so, this study, what we're planning to do is is just kind of go through the text of scripture and talk about all the things the Holy Spirit is is said to be doing within scripture.
John Gunter:But what we need to start with this morning is kind of a a baseline of how in churches of Christ, we have been influenced and you may not know this but we all come with biases when we study scripture. We're all influenced in some way. You're influenced by your parents. We're talking about church. You can be influenced by your parents, your Bible teacher, your favorite preacher that you remember from a long ago and what he said and we all bring that with us when we study scripture, don't we?
John Gunter:And and so that's that's kinda where where influence whether we know it or not. Kinda like the the story of the the granddaughter who was was cooking the the favorite family dish. You know, you prepare it and then you cut the end off every time. Then finally, one day, she said, wait, why aren't we cutting the end off? She called grandma and said, hey, you know, I'm cooking this.
John Gunter:It's always great but why are we cutting the end off of it? She said, I don't know why you are but my pan wasn't long enough. So you're influenced without asking the question, we don't know why we're doing what we're doing, right? And so that's the thought behind today as we begin before we get into the the main lesson. But I want to remind you that every week, so today we'll have a lesson about the Holy Spirit in creation and next week for Bible class, we're gonna go back over this and we're gonna ask questions.
John Gunter:That's gonna be our time to deep dive and bring your questions. I'll I'll have some prepared but what I want is is your questions and how you wanna dive into all these things. So, to to make this the best it can be, show up. Show up and let's study the Bible together. So, this morning, we begin with a couple of names that you may or may not know.
John Gunter:Robert Richardson and Tolbert Fanning. Both of these men are influential and when we talk about the Holy Spirit in churches of Christ. Both of these men knew and were very good friends with Campbell, okay? So, you had you had Campbell and Stone who really started our movement that's known as the restoration movement of this idea that things have gotten a little weird and and maybe we need to to relook at this and go go back to scripture. That was the intent.
John Gunter:That's what they tried to do and so, that became our movement. Both of both of Campbell and Stone were Scotch Irish and they came out of Presbyterian church but they really started all of this and and this this group, Tolbert Fanning and Robert Richardson, they began kind of a back and in the mid eighteen hundreds, about 1856. And what you did in in this time to kind of influence people and to kind of work out all of these things was to have debates. And some of these things happened in person. Some of these things happened via papers, newsletters, all these things.
John Gunter:Campbell had the Millennial Harbinger which Richardson wrote for. Fanning created a couple of different ones including the Gospel Advocate. And so, basically at this time, we had been working to restore what we thought we were going back to the Bible and fixing things. But as Robert Richardson looked around, he said, you know what? We've done a really good job of saying we need to do these things in these ways and have the form right.
John Gunter:He said, but what I don't see is the spirit. He said, we've created this thing and we've we've we've made sure we've gotten all the dimensions correct, but we've forgotten who we were building it for and really the why. And so, his question and his really concern is, what have we done with the Holy Spirit? Fanning on the other hand looked looked at Richardson and said, you're just trying to bring in like mysticism and philosophy into this. You're not going to scripture, you've got a philosophy behind this, which is ironic because Richardson then looked at Fanning and said, you are following word for word the philosophy of John Locke.
John Gunter:Lockean philosophy is this. This is John Locke. He was kind of an enlightenment, British thinker, and Christian by the way. But he says, our senses are the source of knowledge. So, I need to be able to see, hear, feel, taste.
John Gunter:I said feel, so that's touch. Which one do leave out? That smell. Thank you. Paul Paul covered me in class as well today.
John Gunter:Okay. Thank you. And I forgot different ones at different time. Okay. That's great.
John Gunter:Great start, John. But our senses are the source of knowledge. Since god and spiritual things cannot be experienced by the five senses, we are entirely dependent upon the Bible for any knowledge of or contact with god. You might also have heard this this preached or taught as word only. Like the only way we we we learn from God or we are influenced from God is through the word of God, through scripture, and through things we can, again, experience with the senses and that is what Fanning taught and Richardson again came came back at it.
John Gunter:So, in short, the Bible and human senses provide the only pathway to the human soul and this system had been termed dirt philosophy because it depended on material things. Did you hear that? Nothing in the way fanning or lock talk had anything to do with spiritual things which was Richardson's concern. We've built all these things. We said we believe the the right things in the right way but we've left out the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:And so, what do we do with that? Richardson's biggest, I think, jab at Fanning, and by the way, Campbell, again, great friends with both men, Richardson actually ended up writing Campbell's biography, which is the standard for for Campbell and knowing his family but they actually broke apart at this time. Their friendship broke apart because of this discussion. What to do with the Holy Spirit? Richardson got both men because both Fanning and Campbell were devout men of prayer.
John Gunter:And Richardson looked at them and he said, if you're gonna tell me that everything is either reading the Bible and becoming smarter or experiencing god in ways that you can experience with all five senses, then, why in the world are you praying? Do you pray? Do you pray and believe god has the power to heal or to do that you what you have asked? That's the biggest question that Richardson had for Campbell and Fanning is why pray if you don't believe god can interact with the world anymore. And I'm sure that stung a little bit because they had to think about it but as you know with debates often, well, I don't even know if often is the right word.
John Gunter:Almost 100% of the time, you go into a debate and you go out of the debate and how many people have changed their mind? Have you ever witnessed a political debate where people came out scratching their head, they made some great points. Believe I'll flip sides. We go into a debate with our minds already made up, right? Because changing our minds, it hurts, right?
John Gunter:It impacts me and then I've got a how do I save face with with you out here because now I've I've said all this and now I've changed my mind and that's painful. I don't wanna do it. And so the the back and just kept going. Side do you think Southern Churches of Christ followed in this? Fanning or Richardson?
John Gunter:Fanning. Fanning. And so whether or not you know this, we have been influenced by Locke and people like Fanning who debated and won these debates. Actually, Richardson lost. He he taught at the college, the Bethany College.
John Gunter:He also wrote for the millennial harbinger. He lost both of those jobs because of this debate. Because he was the outlier. You see, we had already kind of accepted. We've been going through this enlightenment.
John Gunter:Now we can explain everything and now we're smarter and kinda pushing god out. And and so Richardson was was the he was the the liberal of the two. You know, he was the weird one. He was a different one. Everybody else is conservative and everybody believes the same thing but he got pushed out because of his views of thinking we ought to talk more about the spirit of god and what the spirit of god does in our life.
John Gunter:There are a few things I wanna talk about as we go through this series but one of the most recognizable verses for us at churches of Christ is this, is it not? Acts two thirty eight, Peter said to them, repent, be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven and then he said, nothing else after that, right? No, he did not. He said, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, what Fanning would would go on to say and and believe is that everything like this that was said at this time period was said only for the disciples of Jesus.
John Gunter:I don't believe that one second and that's not to bash Fanning. I don't I don't agree with Richardson on some things he said but I just don't believe that for one second that when when Peter said this to the crowd that there was ever any kind of time limit or you'll have this spirit for a short time and then I'm gone, I just don't think that is the case. But we talk about the spirit of god, we really have to go back even further than this promise in Acts two as the church began. We go back to Genesis one verses one and two. In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth.
John Gunter:Now, the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters. The spirit of god shows up in the verse of our scriptures. And what I love is one commentator said, when when you when you go into the the word there that means spirit that we get spirit is either ruach in Hebrew or pneuma in Greek and what he says is, you know, that word can actually mean wind or breath or spirit. He said, but wind does not hover, does it?
John Gunter:You don't go out on the lake later today, and man, that wind was just hovering all around me. Listen. I think if you're doing that, you may be stuck in a tornado of some sort. Get out. But what we see is in the in the verse of our scriptures, the spirit of god is right there in the creation story because that is who god is.
John Gunter:God is creator and so his spirit helps bring to life all that is brought to life. We get several more verses that along those same lines in Genesis two seven, then the lord god formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Again, that's the same word there. The spirit of god is breath, wind, breath, spirit. That that god created something that he said was good, didn't he?
John Gunter:But it still took his spirit to bring that thing to life, to animate it, to make us walk around, and to live life because god is creator and sustainer, is he not? From Psalm one zero four, all creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified.
John Gunter:When you take away their breath, they die and return to dust. When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. Do you think about this when you see life come on to Earth? That that life comes from whether you're out in nature and you see this in with our wildlife or maybe just a baby being born. That the spirit of god is the spirit of creator god and so that spirit brings everything to life.
John Gunter:Do you think about that when you think of the Holy Spirit? Or does our mind go to other things? But here, god animates us and brings us to life that even the animals are brought to life and sustained because of your spirit. In Job 34, if it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all humanity would perish together and mankind would return to the dust. Because god not only creates us with his spirit but he sustains us with the same spirit.
John Gunter:In Timothy three sixteen, all scripture is, what's that word? God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness because we're not throwing out when we say word only. We're not saying scripture has no power, are we? The scripture has a lot of power because it is the breath of god. In the very words of god.
John Gunter:What sharper than any two edged sword, right? Active, alive. And so we see again this this creation being brought up in us through the spirit of god. What Tolbert Fanning in his argument, brought up was more of a a deism. You know that word?
John Gunter:Deism? Deism is the idea that God created all that He created and it's like winding Remember those old clocks that you had to wind up and they ran for so long? It drives me nuts now nowadays. You still you didn't think about it, right? I I got one for my I think it's for my grandmother after she passed and I thought, man, I want that.
John Gunter:And then I realized you had to wind it up every, you know, day or two days. I don't really want that. Okay? But deism is the idea that that God just wound us up and let us go. That He set the world.
John Gunter:He he created it. He said it was good. And then He said, Okay, that's it. Now, we have been through nineteen weeks of the story, so almost the entire Old Testament. I wanna ask you church, has that been what you've experienced in Scripture that God wound this up and He stepped back and said, Have at it.
John Gunter:Not at all. It never was in Scripture. And so the idea that God well, maybe God did this in the Old Testament, but once the Church was here, God said, Hands off. That is not the case either. There is no room for deism in my opinion.
John Gunter:God is still involved. I think as we think about the Holy Spirit, we think about God. I think oftentimes what we do is we take for granted, the gifts or the blessings, of creation being sustained and brought to life right before our eyes. That often what we're looking for is the the big, the grand, the awesome. That if I walk out of here today, lord, speaking in another language that that that somebody else can can translate for me.
John Gunter:Yeah, that's good. But I walk outside and I see all the things that God is doing and sustaining. You know, He's even sending bees to pollinate my cucumbers. Y'all know that? I've had to hand pollinate some things.
John Gunter:I'm thankful for the bees. Are you not Paul? But often we're looking for the grand and we overlook what God is doing right here before us. That when you walk out of this building, you experience the creation and the sustaining of God and his holy spirit. And we miss it because we're looking for the grand.
John Gunter:We're looking for the awesome in our eyes. And we've downplayed all of that. Now, if we got into a debate with someone today who said God had nothing to do with the creation of the world, we would argue till our face was red, wouldn't we? But how many times do we walk out of the door and think, thank you God for this creation? Or are we more thinking about God, why don't you do something spectacular in my life?
John Gunter:Experiencing the works of the spirit is not confined to speaking in tongues or prophesying. Nature and creation is a constant work of the spirit in our lives, and praise god for that. I want to remind you that no one in scripture who even experienced all of the the great and the grand, maybe some of the things that we think about when we think about the holy spirit. None of those people experience that twenty four seven. Paul in in one point of his life is able to do things that you cannot explain and then another part of his life is having to ask for the coat to be sent to him because he's cold.
John Gunter:No one ever being healed by Jesus ever just live forever, did they? Eventually, their life ran out. So, if we are seeking the great and the grand in our eyes, the healing all the time, the prophesying, the speaking in tongues, or whatever it is that that you're looking at, we're gonna miss what God is doing right before us. I think that can be, the point here in our church right now. We can be looking forward, we can be looking for the end goal and which may be in your opinion getting into a building of our own and we can miss all of the things that are going on right here and right now.
John Gunter:Someone brought up and, I believe so much in this that I have to tell you, someone said, We ought to be asking what God wants us to do right now while we're waiting. That we're so forward focused that maybe we're missing all of the good things God wants us to learn. I really believe there's gonna be a day in the in the future that we look back and we miss these days. Do you remember when we were flexible and we met all over Mont Belvieu? Like, we weren't really sure.
John Gunter:We had to check the calendar to make sure we were supposed to go where we're supposed to go that Sunday. And we visited around and saw different places. They had different spaces. And remember when we were small, you know, only about a 100 of us. We came together in in that small room.
John Gunter:Let's not miss the blessing that god has before us right now. Fanning, no doubt, had a good heart though he was he was one of those debaters. He I think he was like six five, two forty. Like, he was a big dude And he was often harsh. Campbell even had to come down on him because he was you know how debates get?
John Gunter:I'm gonna you know, if you don't see eye to eye with me, not only am I gonna attack you, I'm gonna attack your mama too, you know. Fanning was kind of that guy. He was a little harsh, a little rough around the edges and I have no doubt he he meant well as far as what, you know, trying to influence the church to to do what the Bible says. I just think he missed on some of it. And I think often our church can miss, the same thing.
John Gunter:We rely too much on ourselves and what we believe we can do. I'll be honest with you. I was shocked when I showed up at the work day yesterday and so much had been done. You guys need to walk through that house right now and just take a big breath of air, don't they? Those of you who were there.
John Gunter:Kenny? There's one room. We're not sure what's stuck to the floor. If you'd like to go check. But the time we get together, the time we're able to work together, the time that we're able to spend with one another, whether it's in Bible class or small groups in your house, the times that are special, the way that God wants to create right now.
John Gunter:I believe in the word of god. I believe it is powerful. That it does make us smarter but I don't think that's it. I think it empowers us. The holy spirit empowers us in ways that we haven't even thought to to ask.
John Gunter:I've confessed to you guys before that I I feel like I'm a fixer. thing, something comes up, I don't think to pray. I think about how can John fix it. And I want to get better at that. That's a that's a constant work within me.
John Gunter:I need to be reminded that the spirit of god, Acts two thirty eight, yeah, we want to be baptized. We want to repent. But by doing that, we are gifted with the holy spirit. We were just as Jesus was gifted to the holy spirit. Remember that at Jesus baptism?
John Gunter:Holy spirit descended on him like a dove. Jesus is our example in all these things and that's not the end of it. So, I pray we're a church that that that sees the creation of god as as a very awesome work of god. I I'll admit, I don't do that most of the time until I'm gardening or I'm sitting in a pier stand. The times where I actually take to kind of slow down and look around and see what all god is doing.
John Gunter:I, you know, I was I made a joke about the bees doing the cucumbers but to me that this year has just been an awesome realization of what I overlook. That God, you put all of this into action, trying to create this perfect place for for us to live and that, as you just said, we've been through nineteen weeks of the story, that God did not set this up and leave. God, every step of the way, has said, how can I make this relationship better? These people wanna run away from me, but I wanna be there with them. So, pray that we are a church that follows the Holy Spirit and I know that can be a scary thing.
John Gunter:Sometimes, that's really what Fanning attack attacked Richardson with is that you're just out here with the the mystical and you're just chasing these spiritual things that we can't grasp, and we can go too far in that way. We can pendulum swing in that way. But as we go through life, as you walk out these doors this morning, I pray that you see life in a new light. That God loves us so much that he created this world for us. We get to enjoy it.
John Gunter:Flares and all. Right? Again, let's not chase the above and beyond, the crazy, miraculous, and I think those things happen, and you're about to hear a story of one in just a minute as we read, the prayer request, But that we notice what God is doing in each and every one of our lives and that we see other people as spirit filled people. So I wanna encourage you if you have, any needs this morning that you have walked away from God or that relationship is strained, I'd love to pray with you. But as I've told you many times, you don't have to pray with me.
John Gunter:It's nothing special about me. If someone is sitting beside you that will hold you accountable, pray with them. But don't leave here without making that relationship right. If you'd like to put on put on Christ in baptism just like Kayla did this past week, we'd love to see it and start that walk with you today. Would you come as we stand and as we sing?