By Mary Fairchild
The following is a phonetic reading of an expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry; “The Faithful Word.” Village Church of Bartlett; 10/19/97
The charismatic influence in evangelicalism is staggering. It’s influenced… it’s seeped into the whole fabric of evangelicalism today and so many of the things we do today we don’t even realize the theology behind them or where they came from. It’s important for us to keep abreast of this and to understand what is there and what God’s Word says about it.
I know it’s a contentious area and I know some of you have relatives that are involved in it and so all of my comments tonight are meant to bring out the truth and not cause you any more pain than you already have because this situation can be very difficult in families.
Turn to Acts 5:12-16, we are going to read this as a base. When one studies the book of Acts, if you are like me as a Christian, you begin sometimes to measure your own spiritual life against what you read in these pages. We see men and women in these pages who live dynamic lives for Christ: they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they prayed over things and saw some mighty answers, they boldly witnessed their faith, they courageously faced opposition, persecution they impacted their society. The reality is that our lives don’t often seem to measure up to this at least in our own estimation of what’s going on than what God may have his own estimation in what is happening through us.
You might conclude one or two things, either the people that this book writes about, the book of Acts, were abnormal and are somehow superhuman, different than you and I, and that leads to this whole special title and halo syndrome I call it where you see paintings of the apostles and they have the little brilliant things around their heads and we call them “Saint” James and “Saint” Paul. That in essence is a way of recognizing that they were “something different”… “something special.” So, then you look at this and say in application, “well, this is fascinating reading but what does it have to do with me I’m not expected to experience the same kind of life am I?” Or, we can look at it and say, “well, it seems I lack something in my Christian life that they had and I don’t seem to have it.” In that conclusion their life is in danger because what exactly would it be that we lack? I suppose there is one answer that would be right and that would be the same faith and commitment in the faith and commitment in the promises of God. Ephesians 1:3, Paul says every Christian has every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That doesn’t leave anything out—“every Christian has every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.”
Peter says in 2 Peter 1:3, “God has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Jesus Christ.” So, I’m left to conclude that if you read the Bible, the New Testament, that if you know Christ as your Saviour, you have everything God wants or plans on giving you for the Christian walk. Now, think about that statement because what is happening today challenges that statement. But if we look at just two verses, Eph 1:3 and 2 Peter 1:3, you would conclude from the Bible that we have everything God wants or plans on giving us for the Christian life. We have it when we have Christ. Don’t we? So, the secret to the dynamic Christian life is to believe this and to appropriate it by faith… whether we see that our lives don’t measure up as fathers and mothers or husbands and wives or young or old the answer then simply appropriate by faith what we have in Christ. Now, I can see how that is a possible answer to the quadrant of “why doesn’t my life look like these lives?”
There is another answer that is being provided by Christians today and that is that we need some “additional” spiritual experience. A second transforming experience from God that would instantaneously elevate my spiritual life to what I think I see here…. I think that’s a misunderstanding of what many are saying they see here. So, that’s the other answer. I believe that’s a wrong answer. I believe that’s an answer that has led us into the rise a worldwide theological movement involving millions and millions of people which is called today probably the “signs and wonders movement” or at least the “charismatic movement.” It began as Pentecostalism in our country then it moved into the charismatic and spread throughout the world and now today its third manifestation or evolution of it is called signs and wonders.
What does the book of Acts tell us about the validity of such a conclusion; that we need a second experience; that that’s what these people had; that we should be seeing miracles occurring in all times like these people had in their life. What does this say about your life as a Christian? First let’s look at charismatic church of the apostolic age. Verses 12-16(Acts 5) we read: “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.” KJV
As we look into this, a couple of things we need to say in preface… First of all, the context of this is what God has just done in the church through Ananias and Sapphira. He has just performed spiritual surgery in the body of Christ. Ananias and Sapphira, if you remember, came before the church and lied to the church trying to appear to be more generous and sacrificing than in fact they really were. They sold a piece of land and they gave a portion of it to the church but they claimed they gave it all. So, God used them as an example. He made an example out of them and because they lied to the church and to the Holy Spirit he took them physically in death right on the spot. So, there has been a cleansing of the church that has occurred. The church must always deal with sin because a pure church can be the only a church that God uses powerfully. … used to say, “Not great plans, not great ideas, not great minds, but great Christ likeness God uses”… So, he has cleansed His church, so the second thing we need to understand as we look at these passages is what do you mean by the charismatic church of the Apostolic age… Charismatic comes from the Greek word “charismata”(?) which is the word we get “gift” from. A gifted church is a charismata church. Spiritually gifted… and that’s were we get the word today for the charismatic movement.
Let’s look, first of all, at it’s peculiarity in verse 12, one thing about it is that we see that it was unified. All with one accord is the only way that the church is truly going to be effective for Jesus Christ. The local church is what I am talking about—is if we are unified in heart, intent on the same purpose, Paul speaks about that in Philippians 2. Satan would always try to create disunity in our midst. He will try to do it through personalities, through doctrine, anyway and every way he can if he can get us split, fighting between ourselves, disunified and it will cripple us.
Its reputation was in verse 13, none of the rest there dared to associate with them, however the people held them in high esteem. The populace knew what being a Christian meant. Ananias and Sapphira had left a strong message, “do not join that church if you are going to be disingenuous, if you are going to lie because otherwise you might be gone. There was a strong message about what it meant to be a part of the church—to be a Christian. So, normally people want to jump on the bandwagon don’t they? This was what was happening. There was a lot of excitement in Jerusalem and the church was greatly admired but they got only the committed. People knew what it meant if you were to say you were a Christian. Now, that really has an impact for today because evangelicalism today perhaps need to do some purifying and some cleansing in our churches because we do have a bandwagon mentality in our society and I wonder sometimes when persecution comes along how many churches would be emptied out. How many Christians would still be there when it got tough… and that is of course in God’s hands.
What is the Village Church of Bartlett’s reputation?…. I don’t know for sure. I’m sure we have a reputation that some people have twisted, perhaps others think of us as a place where people are sincere in their belief in God and they want to help others in that same belief. We have to leave that with the Lord…
Then we see something about their growth in verse 14, “…. all the more believers and the Lord constantly added to their number.” This to me, if there is such a thing as revival, this is what it is. The word revival doesn’t occur in the Bible. We hear today everyone talking about what we need in the church today is “revival.” We have come to believe, because we have been told this over and over again, that revival means that Christians are awakened out of their lethargy. If you look in the Scriptures to find something that comes close to what is being talked about today, you really don’t find it. You may find something that looks very similar to what happened in our first great awakening in our country and that is revival, if there is such a thing and we want to use that word, is when God sovereignly moves in His grace and causes an intensification of conversions and at a certain point, in a certain place, at a certain time many people come to know Christ. That’s what I believe was happening in the early days of the church. There was a revival. People were coming to hear the Word of God, they were listening, they were believing, many people were added to the church. But to believe that a revival was a second blessing of some sort that the church needs sounds to me a lot like a holiness doctrine or a charismatic doctrine that “we need something more.” What we need and what we pray for is that God will move in our lives to cause us to appropriate by faith what we already have.
Its power is demonstrated in verse 12, 15, 16 and this is where we get to our topic. Verse 12 says, “by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. Verses 15 and 16, “Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.” We don’t have time tonight for other important things about this but … first,
- By whom were the signs and wonders being performed? At the hands of the apostles. You will see this repeated over and over again in the book of Acts—not generally, not everybody just because they are believers. That’s significant.
- (in vs 16 when they brought all these people to them) How many of them were healed? All of them. That’s the other thing you will see over and over again in the book of acts. They are all healed—no one goes home in the wheel chair; no one goes home because they don’t have enough faith or because the healing is an atonement because of the sin in their life that we are told today… they are all healed. There’s a remarkable and a clear difference between what happened then and between what’s happening today.
Let’s look at it. Signs and wonders, those are two of the three words used of the work of Christ’s miracles and those of the apostles. The three words that are commonly used are signs, wonders, and miracles. Signs is a miracle that has a significance to it—it’s called a sign or a sign post. There’s a significant meaning to it or theological meaning. Wonder is a word that attests to the affect of something—it creates wonder, astonishment. The third word is miracles and that speaks of its power—the Greek word “dunimus” or power—the power of God. So, those three words are used quite often together concerning the miracles of Christ and the apostles. In John 4:48 they are called attesting miracles—they attest to something. These were the “credentials” of Jesus Christ and His apostles…. To the Jew with these men who brought this new message supposedly from God, they wanted to see credentials and the credentials were signs, wonders and miracles.
Acts 14:3, “Long time therefore abode they (apostles) speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” KJV
We see in that verse that the signs and wonders were bearing witness to their word, or their credentials, or validating what they were saying and they were granted to do signs and wonders through the hands of the apostles. So, it is the “works of the apostles” that we are talking about when we talk about the power of this first century church.
Specifically, what kind of signs and wonders where being done? There are two that are very common and that is in verse 16 the last half—the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all being healed. Two of the most common are healing and the casting out of demons. Those are the two that you see over and over again in the ministry of the apostles.
Turn to Mark 16:15-18 and you will see five examples of typical signs of the apostolic ministry…. Two of them are much more common then others… As he was just beginning to prepare to depart he said to them:
Mark 16: 15-18, “And he said unto them, God ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” KJV
He says that these are the signs that will accompany the apostolic ministry. There are three or four categories there: casting out demons, speaking in new languages, immunity to death in certain circumstances—snakes and poisons, and the healing of illnesses. In Acts 28:3,4 we have an example of the snakes one when Paul was bit by a serpent and didn’t die and these probably relate to our deals by persecution. So, these are credentials. Now, these two—demon expulsion and healing are the most common. Go back to Acts 8:7 –there again, when Philip was in Samaria signs were being performed and it says, “For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.” Notice, in verse 6, the multitude was giving attention to what Philip was they saw the signs which he (Philip was part of the apostolic group) was performing. So, Mark 16 gives us an example of a church inauguration type of signs and wonders.
This is the same pattern in the gospels during Christ’s ministry. Look in Matthew 10—the same pattern is followed. The disciples are commissioned in Mark 16 to go to all the world, in Matthew 10 you will see they are commissioned to go into the house of Israel. It’s a smaller commissioning. The Lord sends them out and they are given an endowment of power, a delegation of power just as they are in Mark 16 as the church begins, Matt 10:1, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”… you see those two again: casting out demons and healing the sick.
Then verses 7 and 8 it says, “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”
So, he commissions them to go out into the house of Israel on a short mission for him and he gives them delegation of authority as credentials.
In Luke 10 he sends them out this time to the seventy—not just the twelve, but a larger group he sends out for a short mission: Luke 10:1, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Now in verses 9 and 19 we find out something about what the ministry was that they were given, “And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”; “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Again, he delegated authority and power to them to heal and cast out demons as part of their mission and this was their credentials, the one that they were heralding was coming was indeed from God—to prove that they healed and they cast out demons. Get the picture? This is a consistent pattern in the Word of God.
You will notice if you look through the Gospels and the Book of Acts, no where is it ever promised that this authority is given to all believers throughout the Church Age. It is always give to Christ’s emissaries. Whether the disciples, the seventy, or the apostles it is given to those who bring the message from heaven, the revelation of God as their credentials. Now, that doesn’t mean that God can’t or hasn’t healed people since the Apostolic Age, or freed others from demons in answer to prayer—I am certain He has. But it does mean, and I believe, that if you search the Scriptures, healers and exorcists are not around anymore.
One comment we should make, though, in John 14:12 Jesus talks about the fact that we would do greater works than he did…what does that mean? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
What is the greater work? Well, it can’t be more stupendous, … then what Jesus Christ did as far as the miracles. It must mean that they are in some way more excellent or more superior in nature to the types of miracles he was performing there. What is it that is more excellent or more superior in nature then the physical miracles Jesus Christ was doing? I believe that the answer is clear throughout the rest of the New Testament, it is the spiritual miracle of regeneration and we being used as an instrument of spiritual transformation in the dispensing of God’s Spirit to others. When you share the Gospel with someone and God is pleased to open their eyes so they believe you have been used as an instrument for their regeneration and their rebirth by the Spirit of God coming into their life—you are involved in a greater work than simply changing water to wine. The “greater miracles” done throughout this age, well I’m one standing here right in the pulpit. If you knew me before I came to know Christ, I’m sure if you really knew me, most of you’d probably be saying “it’s hopeless… he’ll never believe..” …yet I am here today a changed person, born again by the grace of God.
There was a gentleman who was used in my life that preached the Gospel and I believed in Christ’s Word and he performed a greater work than simply physical miracles because he was an instrument of spiritual transformation. I truly believe that this is what Jesus is saying. He cannot mean that we do something more spectacular than He did in the physical realm. He did creative miracles and none of the apostles or anyone else ever did creative miracles—that was limited to Him as the Creator. Changing water to wine is a creative miracle. None of the apostles ever did anything like that. They did healing and casting out of demons—some of these other things were true of them, but there are certain miracles that only the Son of God could do.
It’s power, first of all, is centered in the works of the apostles and then secondly we see something about the effect of these things on the multitude in verses 15 and 16,…it says that to such an extent they even carried the sick out into the street, laid them on the cots and couches so that at the least shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them—it’s obvious, they came from all over—they were like a magnet to the apostolic testimony. Today we have the apostles words in the Bible that we can take to the four corners of the earth. Let me just say a brief note here about this shadow of Peter—I believe that what it is referring to is in the Oriental world they believed that a person’s shadow carried his influence, it was a superstition. Parents would run and put their children in the shadow of some great man and they would pull them away from the shadow of someone that they despised, but it doesn’t actually say that Peter’s shadow healed anyone it just says that it was an illustration of his fame and the renown about his power that they ran to try to get their children to be under his shadow. So, it’s not saying that that is a method of healing. It’s simply a statement concerning the renown of these apostles.
Let’s turn now from the charismatic church of the apostles and let’s look at the charismatic church of our day briefly… Let me preface it by saying that I want to make an appeal for understanding and consideration when I express and opinion of this movement… There’s a double standard today. To criticize or critique charismatic doctrine and practice is commonly viewed as divisive or unkind. That’s what you’ll hear a lot and yet charismatic can promote almost any idea they fancy on Christian radio, TV, or books but those who attempt to examine those teachings in the light of Scripture are muzzled. So, the bottom line is, charismatics have the freedom to propound fantastic views while imposing sort of a code of silence on those who object so those who speak out are branded often as divisive, harsh, and unloving and that’s not my motivation at all—that’s just the nature of the situation today. The second thing, though, we need to remember that the truth is at stake here. It’s not unkind to analyze doctrine in the light of Scripture. It’s not necessarily divisive to voice disagreement with someone else’s teaching and we do have a imperative from God to examine what is proclaimed in Jesus name and to expose false teaching and unbiblical behavior. So, my bottom line is that I thank God for many charismatics who love the Lord and want to obey him. I rejoice that many charismatic ministries preach Christ to people, but the Scripture also admonishes me to examine everything carefully and to hold fast to that which is good and to reject that which is evil. So, we have to do this if we are going to stay true to the Scripture.
Let’s take a moment to look at the origin of the present charismatic movement. The birth of the modern Pentecostal movement and this has happened in three stages:
Pentecostal movement
Charismatic
Signs and Wonders
The birth of the modern Pentecostal movement is traced in our country to New Years Day 1909 in Topeka, KS. It began when a woman named Agnes Osmond spoke in and ecstatic utterance as a supposedly evidence of her spirit baptism. It occurred at the Bethel Bible and Missionary Training School in Topeka, KS which was founded by Charles Parnim. He was a holiness movement preacher. He’s been called the patriarch of modern Pentecostalism. He became convinced that there were three works of grace available to the Christian. The first work of grace was the salvation experience, the second work of grace was a sanctification experience—that came from his holiness background like Wesley and others that somehow we can become mature in an instance become perfect, and third was something called the baptism of fire and it is the precursor of the modern Pentecostal experience. It was supposedly marked by shouting and screaming and ecstatic utterance and trances and automatic writing and falling down—and though he taught this, none of the group had ever experience it neither had he but he became convinced that there were three works of grace that were available to the Christian: salvation, sanctification which is a holiness doctrine of a second blessing, and baptism of fire.
Well, none of them experienced it until 7pm, January 1, 1909. There were 115 people gathered in the Bethel Bible Missionary and Training School. Parnim wrote, in his own words, “I laid my hands upon Agnes Osmond and prayed. I had scarcely repeated three dozen sentences when a glory fell upon her. A halo seemed to surround her head and face and she began speaking in the Chinese language and she was unable to speak English for three days. When she tried to write in English to tell us of her experience she wrote the Chinese”…. copies of which we still have in newspapers printed at this time. There are pictures of what she wrote supposedly in Chinese and it looks like doodling. In fact, they asked a someone who wrote Chinese to inspect its validity and they said “me no understand take this to Japanese..” .. and so, I don’t know what it is, but this is a copy of supposedly what she wrote in her automatic writing with the ministry of the spirit which I never heard of… I’ve heard of it in occult circles. Not all were convinced. Samuel Riggins, one of the 115, also supposedly received the gift of tongues speaking in the language of Zulu but shortly there after he left the school explaining in the Topeka State Journal in January 23, 1901, “I told them they were under the influence of the wicked one and that the best thing that they could do would be to leave the school and they all laughed at me and I left and do not intend to return.”
So, it was not by any means unanimous by any means that it was something from the Spirit of God. Later, Parnim fell in disrepute and was removed from the Pentecostal Church, but from this single event Pentecostalism arose. Assemblies of God, Pentecostal Church of God, United Pentecostal Church… it all began in the early 1900s. Their Azusa Street mission went out to California and there was supposedly a great revival there, but what was happening there was something like a modern Pensacola Laughing Revival, or the Toronto Vineyard there were things like that going on on Azusa Street in California.
Then, the birth of what is called the charismatic movement or as some call it the neo-Pentecostal movement—New Pentecostal movement, a second phase, was in 1960. Rev. Dennis Bennett announced to his stunned Episcopal congregation at St. Marks Church in Van Ives, CA, …he stood in front of his congregation and said he had received the “baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues.” It had occurred when he had intended to dissuade a couple from it and he had attended a Bible study with them and actually got it. … the Episcopal Church immediately asked him to leave, but this marked the beginning of the penetration of the Pentecostal doctrine of experience into the mainline denominations and so now Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, Baptists, and even the Catholic Church where getting this experience and they didn’t want to be called Pentecostals and so the movement was titled the charismatic movement—the gifting movement and so the doctrine of experience spilled over into the mainline denominations and it began to spread around the world.
The third phase has been the rise of what some have called the “Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the Signs and Wonders movement.” In the last 15 years or so the Pentecostal doctrine has seeped now into evangelicalism which up until 20 years ago would have resisted this type of thing—would have branded it as heretical teaching and now it is seeped in…. A lot of it has been through the ministry of C. Peter Wagner who is professor of missions at Fuller Seminary who taught a course on miracles and how to perform them and John Wimber, of course, the pastor who really is responsible for the Vineyard Fellowship churches in CA. As I understand it he was attending Calvary Chapel there where Chuck Smith was pasturing and I believe that his church was then called a Calvary Chapel Church, but he and Chuck Smith had a conversation, and Chuck Smith is a very mild and conservative charismatic and a very gifted teacher but he confronted John Wimber about whether he was going to follow the Word of God or follow his experiences and John Wimber said he’d follow his experiences and so he said please don’t use Calvary Chapel as the title of your church and he then changed his title of his church to Vineyard Fellowship.
In 90 years the charismatic movement has penetrated into almost every area of Christendom today. Most of the worship music that comes out today is out of charismatic backgrounds. Most of the agenda in evangelical church is really being driven by charismatic doctrines. I want to conclude by giving you two evaluations:
(1. An argument for the cessation of the sign gifts.
(2. A few things we can learn from the charismatic movement. There are reasons why people are attracted to this and some of it has to do with the failure of the church to live a life that is all that it can be in Christ.
First, why do I believe that the sign gifts have ceased? It is a theological decision made from Scripture that speaks on this issue… Some have said “show me one verse that says they have ceased and I’ll believe it” as though that locks everything up… well, the truth of the matter is, from the charismatic circles, you are not going to find one verse that is going to say exactly what they want it to say either. We have to take the verses of Scripture and put them together and come to a formed conclusion from that and this is why I think that they have ceased…
First, the purposes of miraculous signs: we need to look at three passages.
(1. Acts 14:3, “Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” Here the Bible is teaching that these signs and wonders are credentials—they were attesting the message that was being brought.
(2. Romans 15:18, 19: Paul says, “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed.” What did he accomplish through Paul? “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” He linked the signs and wonders to his preaching ministry and these were his credentials.
(3. 2 Corinthians 12:12, In appealing to the Corinthians about his credentials and his apostolic ministry which was being called into question and criticized by his enemies at Corinth he says in verse 12, “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” The “sign of a true apostle” and so they are his credentials. If that is true, and we have seen it to be the consistent pattern, and if we accept that, then the second phase to this is where are those today? If they are gone, then the reason for the signs and wonders has ceased which is the case. So, the workers of these signs have gradually passed from the scenes in the first century after the New Testament was completed.
Let’s look at three more verses:
(1. Ephesians 2:20-21, Paul says of the church“And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. In whom all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” Now you have to understand there that Paul says there that there is a foundation and then there was growth upon that. The foundation ministry he ties to the apostles and prophets. Has the foundation been laid? Yes. They performed the foundation laying through their ministry and through their writings they left us called the teaching of the apostles. So, we do not have apostles today. We have no need for another foundation to be laid. It has been laid and Jesus Christ is the corner stone of it.
(2. Hebrews 2: 3-4, Here you will see evidence that the people in Hebrews in the writer of Hebrews already recognized that this was passing from the scene, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” Now, these certain gifts were attesting gifts and so we see here three groups, well, at least one person—they said that this salvation was first talked about by the Lord. Then it was spoken to this group of Hebrews, or this writer anyway and he’s including the Hebrews, and it was spoken to them through those who heard the Lord. Who is that? The apostles. And God confirmed the message that came through these people who heard the Lord by signs, and wonders and various gifts of the Holy Spirit, various miracles—you see the pattern is there. Those who heard the Lord took the message and delivered it to the Hebrews, through the people being addressed here, and God bore witness that the truth of what they were saying by signs and wonders that accompanied—it’s the same pattern.
(3. Mark 16: 19-20, After having talked about these signs and we’ll follow the ministry of the apostles and their preaching some might say, “well that commission is to the whole church” but the delegation of the authority is not and we can see that in verses 19 and 20 because the Holy Spirit is very specific about this, “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them(apostles), he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right had of God. And they(apostles) went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them(apostles), and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.” You see the completion of the idea there? He delegated this authority to them, in their preaching ministry, and after he was received into heaven he continued to work with them confirming what they were saying with the signs he promised to confirm it with. So, the pattern never varies.
These signs and wonders are always done in the apostolic ministry as a confirmation and credential of their ministry. The only way that they could still be around today is if we believe in apostolic succession and that there are still apostles here today. We would have to ask the question, “why would they be here?” Paul says it’s impossible because he says one of the things that qualifies you to be an apostle was that you’d have had to have seen the risen Lord personally and be commissioned by Him. Then, in 1 Corinthians 15:5- he says, “LAST of all, I was commissioned by Him.” He was the last apostle. Paul announces he is the last one. So, there are no apostles today—there are no miracle workers today. They were in the first century. They’ve ceased—they’ve passed the scene, the foundation has been laid and now we have the teaching of the apostles and so we are to be conformed to the teaching of the apostles not to the ACTS of the apostles. They are written for our instruction.
The third thing I would throw in, and this is not really a Biblical proof, but I still think that it is something to consider, and that is the testimony of history. The testimony of history is, the fact of history is, they did cease. Christendom in the fourth century, this is 300AD, said this, “Argue not because miracles do not happen now that they did not happen then.” He’s arguing against those who said miracles never happened. “In those times they were profitable and now they are not. Of miraculous powers not even a vestige is left.” One of the greatest church fathers Christendom wrote in the fourth century, “we don’t see those things anymore.” Now what you will see in history are these outbursts periodically of supernatural workings and miracles but if you would examine the doctrine that is associated with them it is always heretical. We will never see what happened in the first century ever again.
Now, this is what I believe that the Bible is saying, if we can leave what is happening in experience out there for a moment and then take a look at the Bible and then go out and look I think you will see that something different is going on today in the name of what the apostles did but it’s not the same. It’s not what the Bible teaches to expect. The age of miracle working is over. God is not bound—He still performs miracles at his discretion in different places perhaps, but the greatest miracle is a changed life and miracles workers are gone.
What can we learn from the charismatic movement? I have written down a few things… there are at least seven reasons why the charismatic movement strikes a chord with people and none of this is to suggest that the ends justifies the means. We must practice the truth.
(1. Cold orthodoxy will never replace a warm and vital relationship with Jesus Christ. Just because we have correct doctrine, that’s not the final goal of the Spirit in your life. The final goal is to take that correct doctrine and to believe it and in the process to develop a love for Jesus Christ your Saviour. How is yours? That’s one of the reasons people are attracted to this because of the testimonies of how this experience has made them love Jesus Christ more…
(2. The importance of brotherly love. We cannot even claim to be Christians—disciples of Christ if we don’t love one another. Yet there are many churches where this love of the brethren is not very evident and when we see the warm and loving attitude of many who are involved in the charismatic church it is something that pulls on us and draws us. Again, this is experience over doctrine, but the problem is not the wrong doctrine it’s appropriation of it—living it.
(3. Emotions are not all bad. I think we need to avoid extremes. The Scriptures don’t give us reason for going to the extremes. Personalities enter into the picture. I’m not an overly-emotional personality some other people may be more emotional. God’s wants us to worship him with all of our heart, and soul, and mind and so for some the emotional expression of their faith is something that comes more natural. But that’s different than saying that Christianity is emotionalism which is often what we see.
(4. The importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In some believers lives they never recognize the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They really don’t think about it and He is the one who sustains us and guides us and teaches us and comforts us. But remember, here, too, is a caution—His ministry is characterized by John 16:14. I believe the Spirit put these words in the Bible for us to take notice of, Jesus said when the Spirit comes in Jn 16:14, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” The ministry, the hallmark of the Spirit’s work is that He glorifies Christ—there’s something wrong when you are in a group when the Spirit is busy glorifying himself. That’s not his avowed purpose or mission according to Jesus. He is here to glorify Christ. He is behind the scenes. He points us to Christ not to himself. But the fact that many Christians are not even aware of the ministry of the Spirit in their lives has caused them to sit up and take notice when someone else comes to them and says “oh, yes we have a ministry in the spirit…”
(5. All Christians need to take seriously the need to proclaim the Gospel. Many charismatics take this very seriously. Do you? We need to proclaim the Gospel. The answer is not charismatic doctrine it’s to be obedient to truth.
(6. People need to participate in worship. Worship is an activity that we are to engage our hearts in.
(7. Commitment of convenience as a sham. The commitment of charismatics is often very impressive and we need to remember that we have been saved unto good works, Paul says and so our commitments, our priorities should be right. Often in churches they are not and so people are attracted to any movement where people take it seriously. That’s true of some of the cults, too and why we lose people who grew up in churches perhaps never accepted Christ and yet they are drawn into this commitment that is evidenced in these movements.
So, some thoughts for you to ponder… a perspective that I wanted to share with you that gives us a bases to start as we think about he signs and wonders movement of today. The important thing to remember is if you look at the Scriptures what we see today is not the same there. The pattern is clearly different. That there is Scriptural evidence that these gifts and these miracles where attached to the ministry of the apostles and the apostles have ceased; their ministry has ceased. They have left us with a legacy which is not their works but their Word and we need to be careful to look to the Scriptures for our experience and not experience to come to dictate to Scripture.
Questions from church: Promise Keepers Movement? …There are a numbers of problems we could talk about with the PKM—one is ecumenism and the other is the humanism that is in the movement and then the legalism. Most of those in the inner circle of Promise Keepers, and when you are talking about PK it’s difficult to deal with it because there are a lot of good men that have been involved in that movement, there are some good messages that come out of it, but what I look at is what about the central leadership of the movement…
What is their agenda and what is their theology? Most of their leadership comes out of the Vineyard movement—Bill McCartney does, James Ryle is pastor of the Vineyard Church in CO. I believe that the Vineyard Church is the backdrop of where they are headed it comes from what is known as the Latter Rain movement… I’ll get into that another time… But the LRM really began back in the 40s and 50s and it was an outgrowth of the Pentecostal movement. They took Joel 2 and said that where it talks there about the earlier and the latter rain and they took that and they said that at Pentecost there was the early rain and there would be like a second Pentecost before Christ returned and they called that the latter rain. They said that the age is building toward this second Pentecost and when it comes close to the return of Christ that Christ is going to be reforming the church just like it did in the first century. It’s going to be that same way in the second century so it’s a reformation-type movement—a movement that is looking forward to this great revival. Now, we really don’t see that predicted in the Scriptures as far as I’m concerned. The Joel passage is not talking about that, but much of what is going on today then, is meant to prepare us for this great revival. Many would say that its already beginning now and that is part of the underlying theology of the organizers of PK.
The reason it gets difficult to criticize is because there are some very good goals and we can’t just look at one event and say therefore everything in it is worthy. If you really examine what they are trying to do the problem will be the ecumenism because there is this desire to unify all Christians into one church. I listened to all 6 hours of the PK rally the other day on tape and there were some very touching moments in the tape and there were some very disturbing things that were said and I’ll close on this question with this, one of the most disturbing things that was said was during the unification segment they had several men come up and began to talk about the body of Christ being one.
They quoted John 17:20-21 where Jesus prayed to the Father that they may all be one—let me read that passage to you so you understand what it is:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” KJV
The interpretation given in this passage is that until the church of Jesus Christ is unified the world will never be one to Christ because Jesus said pray that we may be one that the world may believe thou did send me. That is really a misinterpretation of the passage. According to what Jesus prays for that was fulfilled on Pentecost because on Pentecost the Jew and the Gentile were made one every person who has believed in Christ since then has now been joined to that body. We are one in the Spirit. Now, we may have a diversity and we may have a break down in the local church level in denominations, but this verse is not talking about making all of us visibly one. It’s talking bout our inherited spiritual unity and it’s been fulfilled. So, there was this statement that was made as they began to trot men up of different diverse backgrounds—one man had an Indian headdress on and everything—talking about how we are all one, we should all be one in Christ. They had Mike Timus come up—he is one of the executive vice presidents of PK –he’s a practicing Catholic lawyer, he is the head of the Timus foundation, and he came up and said this unity, we are one in Christ and that is true of all of you Protestants, that is true of all of the Orthodox, and that is true of all of the Roman Catholics of which I am one. Now that statement is on tape and I believe that statement is the “coming out of the closet” of the real goal of PK in this whole area of breaking down of denominations. There is the desire to unify everyone under one banner.
I HAVE A REAL PROBLEM WITH THAT. When we are talking about he Roman Catholic Church and Protestants being joined together. There are so many other aspects about PK we could get into, but I believe at the base, the organizers come out of this mindset and that is part of their goal in what they are trying to accomplish.
…Let me close now with this… My wife Joyce was saved by the ministry of the Assemblies of God pastor’s wife. When I was saved, the very first week I was saved in Germany, I came under the influence of a group of Pentecostals in Germany who wanted to give me the baptism of the Spirit. They had me kneel down on a chair and they said say over and over “Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.” They put their hand on my head and my shoulders and it didn’t come and they said “say it faster.” I felt really weird—so, I have had first hand experience with this and all I can say is we can’t get experience justifying experience, but I look back and I believe that God and His grace kept me from getting involved in that and I trust that’s what has happened to you in your life and I thank God for that. There are many dear brothers and sisters that are involved in the charismatic movement but I do believe that they have adopted an error with regard to sanctification and what’s involved in the Spirit’s work in their life. None of us, as I’ve said many times, has the corner on the truth, we all have our blind spots, but that’s a very serious blind spot to have.
Let’s pray, Father in heaven we thank you for your Word again. It is a light unto our path. Thank you for the truth and we pray that we would conform our minds to it and that we would be obedient to it and live a life that would be glorifying to Jesus Christ. We ask this in His name. Amen.
Mooberry, Pastor James, “The Faithful Word” two decades of expository teaching tapes.