Mentoring the New Believer - Lesson 10

We’re going to go on to number nine. It’s such an uncontroversial chapter that maybe we can just skip it? Chapter nine: learning more about the Holy Spirit. And again, I don’t want to get into…again, this is not a systematic class, so I don’t want to get into too much new ontology. But let’s think through the kinds of issues that our new believers might have. Basically, what I do in the talk, I use the John 16 passage, which gives more information about the Holy Spirit than any other passage. And I talk about that he actually is the God who regenerates; that when we’re made into a new person, that’s actually the function of the Holy Spirit. And I’ve already introduced the Trinity by now. (I forget what chapter it was in, but we’ve already been talking about the Trinity.) You may need to kind of ask the new believer, “Now does this make any sense to you at all?” The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity, fully God. He is God who does the regenerating work. And then the second thing that he does is that he’s the indwelling Holy Spirit. Then we talk about inviting Jesus into our heart. What we’re really doing is inviting the Spirit into our heart. 

Jesus doesn’t live in our hearts. Jesus is at the right hand of the Lord God Almighty interceding for his brothers and sisters. He’s not in your heart. That’s the Holy Spirit that’s in your heart—I mean, if you want to divide up the Trinity real firmly. So the Holy Spirit is God. You don’t say “the” God, but the Holy Spirit is God who regenerates and then God who indwells, who empowers, who works with us, and sanctification helps our lives; show the fruits of the work of the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit is God who guides us along the path. That’s the main thing that I’m doing in it. There is no way in a sermon to new believers… I was going to get into all the other issues. And the question is, what kind of stuff is going to be out there that a new believer’s going to have to think through, at least the mentor’s going to have to be aware of. Certainly one of the things that we need to be very careful of: who is the third member of the Godhead. Tongues is the issue that you’re going to have to walk with your mentors and help them know what to do with it. Because there are traditions that say, “If you have not spoken in tongues, you’re not a believer.” Right?

And it’s been interesting now that I’m in a Foursquare church. (I think I told you the story.) We had basically decided to go there. We told Hayden we were going to go there, and about two or three days later I said, “You know, maybe I should read their Statement of Faith.” And it was terrible, it said that at conversion you receive a portion of the Holy Spirit and only—

Student: [Inaudible] 

Dr. Mounce: (Laughing) What’s wrong with that? Is that what you said?

Good. And it is only when you speak in tongues, when you see the baptism of the Spirit… (What do they say, “baptism or filled with the Spirit”?) 

Student: Filled. 

Dr. Mounce: Filled with the Spirit, that you receive all of the Spirit. This is what was taught at the beginning of the most recent Charismatic Movement. I can still remember my sister telling me about… My sister was on a crusade, Campus Crusade for Christ, for a long time. I got a great sister, one of those people that learns her lessons from the Lord quickly and doesn’t generally have to be taken through a lot of pain to learn lessons. She’s a real model to me. Anyway, she’s telling me about this friend of hers, that they were growing apart. And finally Terry got her and said, “What is the problem?” Said, “Well, we’re both Christians Terry, but I’m closer to God than you will ever be. I have an avenue to God that you don’t have. And so I’m just more of a Christian than you are.” And by which, of course, she meant she spoke in tongues. 

Student: [Inaudible] 

Dr. Mounce: Yeah, I was crazy, but there was a lot of that. You got to understand, back in the seventies, in the eighties, there was a lot of that kind of stuff. It’s been interesting to watch the effects of Calvary Chapel on the Charismatic Movement, which has softened a lot of that kind of stuff. Calvary Chapel movement is a…you know, they claim not to be a denomination, but it’s the third largest denomination in the world. And there’s a lot of variety in it. But I haven’t heard anyone in Calvary Chapel for years say anything like that. What was interesting—I went on the Foursquare website about two weeks ago and the Statement of Faith was changed. And I wrote my pastor; I said, “Are you aware of this?” He goes, “No.” This is what the Foursquare Statement now says, “We believe that those who experience Holy Spirit baptism today will experience it in the same manner that believers experienced it in the early church. In other words, we believe that they will speak in tongues, languages that are not known to them.” So it’s interesting that even in the Foursquare movement, I mean, which is not a wildly charismatic movement but, they’ve stopped talking about this portion business, which is really, really, really wrong. And it’s really dangerous because it introduced multi-tiers of Christians based on criteria that are not in the Bible. 

So, Dave, whatever Foursquare means by Holy Spirit baptism, they’re not equating it with salvation. So I think one of the things that we need to help the mentors kind of get ready for is that there will be people possibly coming who have been told that if sometime in the past, if they don’t speak in tongues, they’re not really Christians, or if they want to be a real Christian, they have to speak in tongues. And that’s the work of the Spirit. That’s the biggest issue that I can think of that we would need to make sure our mentors are clear on. That’s not covered in the sermon. I mean, I really steered away from spiritual gifts in the lesson itself. 

Are there any other issues in your context related to the Holy Spirit that a new believer would need to understand? I do talk about empowerment, that the Holy Spirit does give us at least one supernatural. I have to talk about that. If not, I have to redo the sermon. I mean, there has to be an understanding that they have received a gifting that they didn’t have before. The gifting may parallel a natural ability, or it may be in spite of your lack of natural abilities. But everyone does have one specific—at least one specific empowerment. Any other issues that are going to come up? Any other issues that are going to come up? Victor?

Victor: The Day of Pentecost, what actually happens? Some say that’s the actual regeneration. That’s when Apostles came forward again. I know, I’m from a charismatic…

Bill Mounce: You’re Russian Pentecostal, not Russian Baptist, right?

Victor: I’m from charismatic. I believe that was an empowering of the Spirit. So what position you take and is there a biblical actually?

Bill Mounce: Well, yeah, the biblical position is my position. Whatever that is, whatever that is. Right? Right. Until you get your grade. My position is the biblical position. It is difficult in terms of when did the disciples actually become regenerated is hard. It’s a difficult decision because can you be a Christian without the Spirit?

Victor: Well, Jesus said, “my Spirit I give to you,” and he breathed in them.

Bill Mounce: That’s the hard part, the passage in John. I mean, Paul says in Romans that whoever is led by the Spirit is…I forget the exact words, but I mean, a Christian is one who’s possessed by the Spirit. Because the Spirit is the agent of regeneration, there is no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. Right? Okay, we all know that.

Student: He didn’t speak in tongues. Or at least he said that he doesn’t forbid it, but he says it’s not a big deal.

Bill Mounce: That’s something different. That’s a gift or a private prayer language. It’s not this initial sign because, again, as we know, there are people…I guess those are the three things, aren’t they? There’s the initial giving of the Spirit that is a sign of regeneration. And there is the gift of tongues to be able to communicate the gospel in languages you don’t know. And then there’s a whole private prayer language business. So you actually, I mean, to talk about this, you’ve got to divide up into three categories. I think technically the disciples were not regenerated until Pentecost, because that’s when the Spirit came. The troublesome passage is the passage that Victor referenced at the end of John, where Jesus breathes on them and says, “receive the Spirit.” And the question is what is going on in that passage? And a lot of it depends upon your basic hermeneutical approach to John. 

For example, my friend who teaches at Wheaton will say that is John’s way of expressing what Pentecost was. Is it possible the disciples received the Spirit at that point and were regenerated? Possibly. And then the sign that they had actually received the Spirit didn’t happen until Pentecost. Or is what you have in John some kind of foreshadowing of what’s going to happen at Pentecost? You can’t have regeneration without work of the Spirit. The Spirit was obviously given before Pentecost, right? John the Baptist had the Spirit before he was born, right? Jeremiah had the Spirit. John the Baptist had the Spirit before Pentecost. And so it’s certainly possible that the disciples were regenerated at the end of the Gospel of John, or it could have been some kind of foreshadowing. But certainly in large scale, you don’t have Christians until Acts 2.

Student: But the context which is there, Jesus did not really introduce the whole concept of Holy Spirit until that last week.

Bill Mounce: No, no, he didn’t.

Student: And he started talking about 14, 15, 16, all that, just before crucifixion.

Bill Mounce: Yeah, yeah. Is there any mention of the Holy Spirit in any of Jesus’ teachings before the upper room discourse?

Victor: He’s not talking about coming of the Holy Spirit. He’s talking about work of the Spirit.

Bill Mounce: Yeah, I know. Where would that be?

Victor: When he said that the Pharisees have blasphemed…

Bill Mounce: Blasting the Spirit.

Victor: The Spirit?

Bill Mounce: That’s right. So you do have a mention of the Holy Spirit closer to the beginning of his ministry with the blasphemy passage.

Student: And the Nicodemus conversation.

Bill Mounce: Nicodemus is born of water and spirit. But I think the John 3 passage is a reflection of the promise in Ezekiel. But Ezekiel is about the Holy Spirit, about the water and the spirit and stuff. So I know it’s a hard passage, Victor. It’s a hard—

Student: Not for me. 

Bill Mounce: When do you think the disciples became Christians? 

Victor: I think it’s very important…it’s either, it could be before the end of John or at the passage at end of John. But I think the Bible clearly teaches that there is a second experience of empowering of the Holy Spirit. But that’s what happened with the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, and that’s what we see later on…

Bill Mounce: So you see Pentecost as the second filling.

Student: Yeah. 

Bill Mounce: If it’s clear, there wouldn’t be a debate on it.

Victor: Well, I mean, I think a lot of the debate is on experience. A lot of time when we read the Bible really through the prism of our own experience, and if we don’t experience healings, we tend to explain them from the Bible, why they’re not there, and we don’t believe in the second filling, and so on. We’ve explained 1:1 out.

Bill Mounce: Yeah, the Spirit is in the Bible from Genesis 1:1 I know I was taught that there was no Trinity in the Old Testament and from working with the guys in the ESV, I mean, if there’s anything I learned is that the Holy Spirit is all the way through the Old Testament, starting with the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters, you have the Holy Spirit active from day one.

Student: I think the persuasions and the traditions that we come from, but people really basing that on the Scripture when Peter is speaking about repent and baptize, and filling with the Holy Spirit, and later on when they go to the group, Paul goes to the group and they say about baptism and baptism, the Holy Spirit and what not. He said, “What baptism did you take?” And then he says that they were baptized and he laid a hand upon them and they were filled with the Spirit.

Bill Mounce: And I think that’s when they became Christians. I don’t think you can be a Christian if all you know is the baptism of John. I don’t take the Ephesians as a second work, a second experience, because there’s just no way to call someone a Christian if all they know is the message of John.

Student: When Paul talks about Ephesians, he’s speaking in a way of continually filled…

Student: I came out of the same kind of church, Pentecostal church when I was living in Georgia, and then kind of came to a more reformed understanding of my own experience. My question would be when I was struggling with that and making that tension break, if Paul is saying “continue to be filled,” I’d have people in the Pentecostal camp and say, “Well, I’m filled with the Spirit,” but at the same time filled with the Spirit is what? Walking by Christ…so when you talk about the fullness of God or welcoming the fullness of the Spirit, that’s a continual thing. And you can fall right out of it by saying no. When someone says, “I’m filled with the Spirit,” what are they really saying? They say they had an experience that got them filled?

Victor: I’m not saying that’s the only—we should be constantly filled with the Spirit.

Student: I understand where you’re coming from then. That’s a rough tension that I had—

Bill Mounce: For me, I came from the other side, that I was raised in a complete cessationist tradition. And it never set well with me because I could read the Bible. And as I read, you know, Jack Deere—do you know that name? A phenomenal book: Surprised by the Power of the Spirit is one of the top five books in my life. I really encourage you all to read it. Jack was an Old Testament prof at Dallas Theological Seminary. He came to see the working of the Spirit in some pretty amazing ways. He tells the story that when it all started is that a student came in (one of the first experiences). A student came in to talk to him and he saw the word “pornography” over the kid’s head. And so he started talking to him. And this guy was a leader in the community, and pushed and pushed and found out that he was heavily addicted to porn. Just got a word from the Lord, you just got to visual it. And what happened was that that was a long time ago. Dallas has changed their position since then. This is how big the charismatic conflict was. They passed a law that no faculty member could believe in the gifts of the Spirit.

Student: Yeah, the book’s called Surprised by the…

Bill Mounce: Surprised by the Power of the Spirit. And Jack was faced with what he knew to be true versus wanting a job. And so he quit. The book is the story of his journey, and about the first hundred or so pages deals with all the cessationist arguments against the Spirit, and why he figured out that they were all wrong. What the book was for me is that it did something totally different in my life. There’s something about this book that it freed me to love God in a way I’d never loved before. I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t the purpose of the book, but there was something that was a little wild about, you know, being charismatic or being Christian. There’s something that’s wild about the work of the Spirit. There’s something that’s kind of freeing and releasing, right? It just flipped on the passion switch for me. So that wasn’t the purpose. See, what happened, I identified with Jack so much. Every argument he gave was an argument that I had used, and it got to the point where he would say, “Now some people believe this…” And I go, “Oh shoot he’s going to ruin that argument too.” He wrote another book called Surprised by the Voice of the Spirit, which is how to deal with prophetic voices and stuff. I’ve not read it yet, but my friends tell me I have to. It’s a very, very good book that talks about these issues.

Student: Another good book is done by Gordon Fee.

Bill Mounce: Yeah, The Empowering Presence.

Student: Empowering…

Bill Mounce: Gordon Fee is one of the top scholars in the world today. He has Alzheimer’s. It’s onset Alzheimer’s, and he’s one of the NIV translators. So I’ve known Gordon for years, but it’s been fun to translate with him. He’s an amazing person, but he is a phenomenal scholar, and he is a raving Pentecostal. I mean, just out of control Pentecostal.

Student: He deals with that very scholarly.

Bill Mounce: But that’s what’s so unusual that…the book’s about this thick. I mean, it’s a gargantuan thing. If you compare an old NIV to the newer NIV’s, you’re going to find about 2 to 300 more ‘Spirits’ are capitalized. The word ‘Spirit’ is capitalized; that’s Gordon. That’s his effect on the NIV. What he has done, he’s brought…is called Empowering Presence. Empowering Presence, it’s his major work on the Spirit, and it’s very academic; it’s very exegetical, at times quite dry, very good.

Student: He’s written some commentaries too.

Bill Mounce: He’s written the top commentary on Philippians. The top commentary on 1st Corinthians is Gordon’s. You know, one of the other things is…speaking of India, one of the things that I learned when I got over there is, just about every single convert experienced a miracle. It was like every single one had seen a hand be rebuilt or dead rise or I mean, just unbelievable stuff. We went to an orphanage and we asked, Robin actually asked, you know, “What’s been the impact on the neighborhood?” And he went through, and in every house touched the orphanage that people had become Christians. And he went through the miracles for each person and how they responded. So only in America would we be saying the Spirit can’t be active because it doesn’t fit our theology. This is the only place that’s going to happen. Well, Western Europe too.

Student: Three quick comments just on the basis of some of the conversation. First would have been the secondary experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit; for example, the Foursquare thing, the position that you read there. I guess the question that could come from a new believer is, is it a secondary, but is it a subsequent, a secondary subsequent experience, or are you waiting…for example, like a Pentecostal is waiting to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and a true Pentecostal? I think the difference between a Pentecostal and a charismatic – at least the way I have understood it – was a charismatic just believes in the gifts, they’re not cessationists; they’re charismatic. A Pentecostal or a classical Pentecostal believes that the initial physical evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. And so if you haven’t spoken in tongues, you haven’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit. What gets a little bit confusing, and you were to say a minute ago, is now there’s reformed charismatics. So then you don’t have, you know, there’s a little bit of, some blurring of some of the different pieces there. 

Bill Mounce: Let me respond to that and we’ll come back, because I was going to say it when Victor was talking, I just forgot to say it. You know, this is your call, okay? This is, you know, it’s Christ Church, but you’re over the flock and this is your decision. If you believe in a second work of grace, or if you believe in the necessity of speaking in tongues, that has to be part of your new believer’s curriculum. I’ve a really good friend, husband and wife, back in Spokane, and she was an aggressive Pentecostal, and they had left their church for various reasons. And her number one concern was: how can I find a church that will help my children look forward with expectancy to be filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues? So for her, that was critical. She had no intention of just kind of waiting and hoping it would happen. She wanted her kids taught that, and pushed towards it. So if that’s part of your theology, then I would say that has to be part of this. I don’t believe in a second work like that, so that’s why it’s not in here.

Student: Speaking in tongues is a gift.

Bill Mounce: I think it’s a gift, but some people will say it’s a gift plus it’s a private prayer language, and/or it’s the sign of being a Christian. And correct me if I’m wrong, but the people who said it – speaking in tongues is a sign you’ve actually become a Christian –don’t call that the gift of tongues, right?

Student: The Pentecostal would say there’s three different kinds of tongues, at least as I understand it: the evidential tongues that’s in Acts 2, when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, then you speak in tongues. There’s devotional tongues that you, like the private prayer language, and then there’s the gift of tongues that needs an interpreter. And so they will worship, praying in tongues. And that’s like worship. And some people say, “Whoa, that needs an interpretation.” They’re like, “No, it doesn’t; that’s just their devotion. That’s just to edify them.” And they have, you know, some Scriptures to back up all of those positions. 

Student: But when they talk about the speaking in tongues to need an interpreter, it had to do a lot of worship work because if you come in church… We’re in church and we’re speaking American and you get to speaking in tongues, it’s interrupting the order of flow, then somebody needs to be there to let us know what you’re saying. Now, when you speak in your prayer language, that is something that God gives you when you speak it, when you’re at home, that you know this your prayer language is focused on that. That’s what you do when you and God get to talking and you’ve been praying about something and then you just begin to, there’s some people say “to moan,” or whatever it is. But I’m from the African-American experience, and I’m just saying to talk about [inaudible] and to talk about the filling of the Holy Spirit. 

See, one of the things that what I do when we talk about the gifts of the Spirit, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit is a continual thing. We ask God to fill us every day. Because there was an issue with this doctrine of eternal security, and so I became so secure that I was a Christian, that I would live any kind of way because I was going to be saved, go to Heaven anyway. And so I had to start teaching, “No, you need to pray to God to continue to fill you with the Holy Spirit.” [Inaudible]…that’s not for a new believer…that’s something that if they asked us a question of that and then we got the explanation. But what we teachers, you know, “Lord, you know, you make me the vessel that I need to be.” And you teach them that they need to be praying that they have the Holy Spirit. It comes at the moment of conversion when they are met, when they are regenerate. But what they have to do, what we teach them to do is to pray often, “Lord, continue to empower me with your Holy Spirit, that I will be able to walk and live and overcome and deal with the things that we have to deal with.”

Bill Mounce: I think we need a class exercise. I think we all need to go to Dwayne’s church. Should be fun to go.

Student: You’ve got to remember when they was in the upper room, you had different nationalities of people. 

Bill Mounce: In Acts 1, that Upper Room? Okay.

Student: And they all spoke in different tongues. That’s what it says.

Bill Mounce: The purpose of this class is not to get you to believe rightly like I do. The purpose is just, in your traditions, to get ready for this. We’ve got to come back to one because I said would come back.

Student: Real quick, [inaudible] Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, which is African-American tradition that is Pentecostal. So it wouldn’t be like the African-American churches that are Baptists, they wouldn’t believe they’re different. As far as I was…one was a really classical Pentecostal. The others are just like Foursquare, unless that’s the new one that they’re saying speaking in tongues is the initial physical evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit I thought that’s how that was defined.

Bill Mounce: I don’t know what they mean by Baptism of the Spirit.

Student: Gordon Fee is the only person that I know of that rejects that. And he has a position paper that says, “I don’t believe that tongues is the initial physical evidence.” If anybody else in the Assemblies of God would say that, they’d get their papers pulled…

Bill Mounce: Nobody’s messing with Gordon.

Student: Another person…the difference when you said about Foursquare is Jack Hafer.

Bill Mounce: Well, yeah, Jack – he is Foursquare; just a denomination, a charismatic denomination.

Student: He said that it’s not important for you to have as an initial evidence, and it created a lot of buzz for some reason for Foursquare.

Bill Mounce: So the change of the statement of faith is represented by Jack’s change in position. Okay.

Student: And then again, the Holy Ghost is a gift. Well, I believe each one of us have to ask for that gift. And that gift given to you by God, because I’m a church of God in Christ, and that’s how we believe. 

Student: So you could come talk to him because…I think he would disagree with you. 

Student: The Holy Ghost is a gift, and the only way you can get that gift is you have to ask God for that gift. 

Bill Mounce: Well, what happens in regeneration?

Students: [Inaudible] 

Bill Mounce: Doesn’t the Holy Spirit regenerate?

Student: Again, it is a gift. 

Student: What is a gift though? The Holy Spirit or the gift of tongues?

Student: Speaking in tongues.

Students: [Inaudible] 

Student: If everybody goes against Jack Deere book—I have a lot of concerns with Jack Deere, actually. I don’t know how much you’re aware of, like the Toronto Vineyard…Toronto Blessing.

Bill Mounce: Was he messed up in Toronto? Are you sure?

Student: Yeah, yeah, sorry…

Bill Mounce: Because one of my best friends was an elder in his church in Montana. And so, I mean there’s no way.

Student: There are some things you should Bingo or Google, I mean, and look into that because I know he’s said some pretty oddball things, and it was…that was the only concern that I always had with Wayne Grudem was… Wayne Grudem really supports Wimber, and Wimber was initially tied up in—

Bill Mounce: Yeah but Wimber separated.

Student: …disassociated, and that was a little bit weird, but even Wimber had some things that I wasn’t comfortable with, and I was just trying to reconcile that. Depending on who the new believer is, when they come to your church, no telling what their background is, and when you start getting into the Holy Spirit, you don’t know if it’s going to be [inaudible]. And the people at Vineyard…are trying to work. They were like, in the Spirit; it’s like, “Oh, well, I’m working in the Spirit,” and now doing all these different types of things. The Holy Spirit issue can be so controversial because so many people have different experiences and beliefs.

Victor: I think what’s crucial is, is to realize that God said, “You will receive power to be my witness.” And I think that evidence of the feeling of the Holy Spirit is not the songs, but that you have power to witness. And your witness is effective, that you bring people to church, you’re excited about God. You can’t stop talking about him to everybody around you. And that’s what happened to me when I was baptized in the Spirit. And I remember that’s before that I was a Christian, but I couldn’t even pray for five minutes. I couldn’t understand how people can pray for five minutes. I prayed for like, all that and that and all my needs and all my family, and I’m done. And I don’t know what else to say.

I’ve been filled with the Spirit. I could pray for hours in my own language, in tongues, and in tongues, too. I remember I was witnessing and bringing people to the church and everybody was saying, “Well, tell me, what’s your strategy?” Well, just, I don’t know why, I don’t have a strategy. I mean, that’s something that’s not not not tongues. But that’s your life, actually is a witness. You get power. Before I was “Welcome to our church. My pastor will explain you everything.” But now I saw that God was giving me wisdom, how to answer questions, how to see what the need is and how to give, right, like encouragement. I wouldn’t know what to say before, and so I think that really important. But speaking in tongues by itself, I don’t think that’s the only witness. People can be filled with the Spirit without speaking in tongues, I believe.

Bill Mounce: Then you can stay in class.

Victor: All right, Thank you.

Students: [Inaudible]

Student: He said that all of the people that—he said all of them that was in the Upper Room spoke in tongues. Is that so? Because when Jesus gave the Commission, who did he give it to? Who did he talk to when he said, “You received power from all…”? Did just tell all 120 [inaudible]…

Student: It said it was 120 in that room, and the Spirit fell upon all. We had a big discussion about that in class, and Dr. Garland said that he and Dr. House had decided over the years that the Holy Spirit had only fell on 12. And I said, “My Bible said it fell on all.”

Student: But what does the word ‘all’ entail? What does it mean? Who did Jesus speak to?

Victor: But the languages that were present on the Day of Pentecost is not 12. I believe it’s like 15 or so.

Student: [Inaudible] 

Bill Mounce: It’s hard in Acts because you got in chapter 2, you got Apostles; in verse 3 you’ve got God presenting himself to many people. But we know from Paul that was way more than 12. And then on one occasion while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “[inaudible]…wait for the gift [inaudible] which you’ve heard me speak about…get the Holy Spirit.” So he’s switching audiences a bit. Mathias replaces Judas. I’d have to look at it. I don’t know the answer. I think I’d always assume 120.

Student: When the Holy Spirit came the day of Pentecost and 120 in that room, when the Spirit came and it fell on ‘what’?

Student: All of them spoke in different…

Bill Mounce: I’m trying to look for context. You’ve got 11, you’ve got Mathias, but you also have Justis, who wasn’t chosen, was right there. They were all together in one place.

Students: [Inaudible] 

Bill Mounce: You know, if you only have 12 people, you’ve got people speaking in more than one tongue because you’ve got too many languages. I’ll have to count them up. I don’t know, I’ll look it up. That’d be interesting. I never thought of that. Okay, that was the question: how many people are…received the Spirit?

Student: [Inaudible] 

Bill Mounce: So does Dr. House say 12? So House says 12? So I say 120. Okay, we’re falling apart. Okay, here’s the deal, several of you have to go home early tomorrow, so we have three chapters left. Tell them 12. And I would really like to cover as much as we can tomorrow before people have to leave. Walking Together, chapter 11 is the Church. Chapter 12 is Evangelism: Inviting Others. Chapter 10 is the only one really hard. I don’t want to start 10 right now, it’s too hard to break in the middle. So let’s go home and then we will pick up at 10. But we’ll try to get as much as we can before the people who leave at 8 have to leave. Okay? All right.