Exegesis on Luke 9 (The Apostolic Gifts)

Luke 9:1-2
1. And He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2. and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

I have been doing an exegetical study of Luke this year and last week I came across these verses. As I translated on my Logos Bible software using Strongs Enhanced Lexicon, I was excited and moved in my spirit to see words like Power (Dunamis) and Authority (Exousia) as well as Send (Apostello) and Proclaim (Kerusso).

This text just gives affirmation to the call to the church to go and be proclaimers of the Gospel and the kingdom of God.
...Then I am given pause. He sent the twelve out to heal as well. And this then gives the need to explore the gifting given to the church by Jesus to proclaim and to heal and cast out demons. My mind now needs to explore the context of this power and authority given to the apostles and how any of this relates to the contemporary church.

I look forward to the conversation on this and hope to gain insight through the discussion. Please help me work this through.

This was the post I placed on my favorite message board off of reformed evangelist. I received a host of wonderful commentaries from my brothers and sisters on that post and want to share some of our conclusions. I feel this to be a necessary expose' of scripture to help us see the will of God for the church of Christ.

It seems in a large part to be ditches on both sides of the road on this issue. On one hand you have the cessationists who claim all apostolic gifts have ceased to exist after the first apostles. They will use scripture to support this and seem to have very strong arguments, however, the black and white nature of their arguments tend to leave no room for Gods supernatural gifts to be applied in this day and age and when they are the argument on that side suggest Gods providence.

On the flip side of the road, you have what we will call the sensationalists. These believe that the apostolic gifts are freely given today in the church and that many exist in the church with gifts of tongues, prophecy and healing to name a few. Many of us are aware of the fringe celebrities if you will in this camp. The Benny Hinns and Pat Robertsons to name a few. There are however those as well in the Sovereign Grace church (CJ Maheney) who are reformed charismatics who practice these gifts. It has been my intent to come to an accurate biblical understanding.

Some of our conclusions were as such:
http://www.cicministry.org/commentary/issue103.htm
This is the new issue of Bob Dewaay's Critical Issues Commentary and is about the New Apostolic Reformation. This would fall on one side of the issue being more cessationist. The claim that stands out is that in 97 AD Clement of Rome in his letter tol the Corinthians, made no claim to apostleship as had the Catholic Church assigned him but rather gave charge to bishops and elders. This is significant in that "the authorities in the church were not apostles and prophets, but elders who had been appointed according to the standards lain down by the apostles.

Another author, Charles Leiter had this to say concerning the ditches:
"Illustrations abound, both throughout church history and in our own day. For
every charismatic who teaches that tongues are “the one true evidence of the baptism in
the Holy Spirit,” there is someone from an opposing camp who adamantly maintains that
baptism in the Holy Spirit is “always nonexperiential.” On the one side are those who
gullibly accept every wild claim to the miraculous as a “great work of God”, on the other
are those who deny present-day miracles entirely. Some see demons in everything; others
see them nowhere. Some say that all the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit were
intended to be operative in every local church at every period of time since the apostles;
others contend that no supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit was intended to be operative in
any local church at any period of time since the apostles." And again he went on to say:
"In this scenario, Satan wins both ways. In the one group, the most grotesque and
fanatical events are passed off as the work of the Holy Spirit; in the other, men recoil in
horror and deny the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit altogether. Either way, the work
of the Holy Spirit is in some way discredited, and men are tricked into formulating their
doctrinal positions in response to errors introduced by the devil, not in the terms that the
Bible itself sets forth." Find the whole article here:
http://www.grantedministries.org/articles/cessation_vs_continuance_c_l.pdf

I will pick up this study at my next opportunity. Continued...