No Crisis Experience Commanded 10

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Frederick Dale Brunner's analysis of six Greek conversions in Acts 16-18, using Lydia and the Corinthians as examples to show a consistent pattern of gospel…

Martin introduces Brunner's book as a classic work on the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit, particularly in relation to Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement, using it to frame the discussion of Greek conversions in Acts.

Some of you perhaps have been wondering, when in the world I was going to take this, uh, red-covered book off the desk, it's been sitting there for weeks. Well, this is perhaps the classic work, if we can speak at this early point in time, of something being a classic, on the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit, particularly in conjunction with the whole matter of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, the subtitle, The Pentecostal Experience, and the New Testament Witness, by Frederick Dale Brunner. And Dr. Brunner points out that, beginning in Acts chapt...

11:45 - 13:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Be prepared to discuss the 'ordinary pattern' of Spirit reception in Acts with charismatic or Pentecostal friends, challenging their selective use of Scripture.

Martin recounts an experience from 30 years prior where an Assembly of God pastor selectively used Acts 2, 8, 10, and 19 to argue for a crisis experience, illustrating the common practice he is refuting.

Do you feel something of the weight of the overarching emphasis then of Luke's account of the ordinary pattern of the reception of the Holy Spirit? Do you feel something of the weight of that? Do you think you could sit down now with a charismatic or Pentecostal friend for whom for the most part there are only four parts or four chapters in the book of Acts of any significance? You see, the average charismatic or Pentecostal that I have talked with and this goes back for over 30 years so I'm not speaking out of a vacuum of ignorance, but I was only a babe hardly out of my swaddling clothes spi...

22:49 - 24:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Think intelligently about how to explain genuine crisis experiences people have had that resulted in transformed lives, without dismissing them as liars.

Martin critiques the common 'deeper life' sermon analogy of 'crossing over Jordan' from the wilderness of defeat into the Promised Land of victory, showing how it misinterprets Old Testament types and creates theological problems when applied to Christian experience.

And yet, alas, this is so often the way it's handled, and it's very interesting. And on this note, we'll have to close, because our time is gone. We won't take up today the question, how do we explain, then, the crisis experiences that people do have? We'll take that up, God willing, next week. But often, often, some of the most, shall I say, forceful teachings about this business of a crisis experience is not based upon explicit passages in which the Christian life is being expounded, particularly in the New Testament, but from so-called types taken out of the Old Testament by crossing over J...

55:51 - 56:44 Read in full sermon