Holy Spirit in 1 and 2 Thessalonians

References to the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian or in the church are rarely discussed in light of Old Testament revelation about the Holy Spirit. It seems that we take the words of the disciples of John in Acts 19 to mean that little to nothing about the Holy Spirit can be gleaned from the Old Testament, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit” (Acts 19:2).[2] However, their words do not accurately reflect what the Old Testament reveals about the Spirit.

The Bible’s doctrine about the work of the Holy Spirit with man begins in Genesis. It is described nearly one hundred times in the Old Testament. The Spirit’s work in the New Testament is built upon these sure, concrete, and easy to understand examples. The brightest and clearest of all of these examples is the “promise of the Holy Spirit” in Joel 2.

The apparent difficulty in holding that two baptisms were active in the Ephesian church despite Paul’s statement that there was “one baptism” is resolved by noting that in Paul’s list of seven one’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit has already been addressed before Paul mentions water baptism.

Acts 8 is the text that illustrates how the apostles went about carrying out the promise made in Acts 2. It is the passage to which we should appeal to explain the manner by which God ensured that “all flesh” in His kingdom would have the Holy Spirit “poured out” on them. It is the bridge that ties Acts 2 to the rest of the New Testament. Unfortunately, most teachings of the work of the Holy Spirit cannot cross it.