Show Notes
In this episode of Peaceable and Kind, Derek Vreeland explores the important relationship between the gospel and the Holy Spirit—a continuation of his recent conversation with theologian Matthew Bates on the definition of the gospel in the New Testament.
As summer rolls on, Derek reflects on the creative highs and lows of writing and shares a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his process (including an early morning spent fine-tuning a footnote on John Wesley!). He shares how writing and podcasting are extensions of his pastoral calling.
This week’s episode focuses on one essential insight: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is part of the gospel message. Drawing from Acts 2, 3, and 5, Derek unpacks how the Spirit is present in the earliest gospel sermons preached by Peter. He shows how this insight, often overlooked, reaffirms the inseparable operations of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit working together in the work of salvation.
You’ll also hear three striking patterns in the gospel sermons in Acts:
No mention of heaven or hell
A clear emphasis that humanity killed Jesus and God raised him
A consistent declaration that Jesus is Lord, Messiah, and King
The outpouring of the Spirit isn’t just a one-time event—it’s part of the good news. The Spirit isn’t an optional afterthought but integral to how Jesus continues his rule in and through his people.
Whether you’ve questioned how the Holy Spirit fits into the gospel or are simply seeking to see the gospel with fresh eyes, this episode will help you make that connection.
Key Takeaways
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not just a result of the gospel—it is part of the gospel.
The gospel proclaimed in Acts includes the resurrection, kingship of Jesus, and the giving of the Spirit.
The doctrine of inseparable operations teaches that the Trinity works in unity; the Spirit’s work is not separate from the work of Christ.
“The content of the gospel you preach informs the kind of disciples you make.”
🎧 Listen now and rediscover how the Spirit animates the full gospel message.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Beyond the Salvation Wars by Matthew Bates
Scriptures mentioned in this episode:
Acts 2:33, 2:36
Acts 3:15, 3:20
Acts 5:30, 5:32, 5:42
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Transcript
Welcome back to
another episode of Peaceable and Kind.
I am your host, as always, Derek Vreeland, and we are in the dog days of summer.
And hopefully it has been a good summer for you.
I’ve done a little traveling and honestly this summer I’ve done a lot of writing and I’m feeling real satisfied in that.
In addition to hosting this podcast, I am a pastor and an author.
And writing for me is an extension of my calling as a pastor.
I feel my primary calling is to teach.
And so I do that in Bible studies, small groups.
Preaching in our church on Sunday morning, recording podcast episodes for you, and also writing
And writing is an interesting craft in a lot of ways.
One of the ways I find writing interesting is that ideas come and go.
There are times when I sit down to write and I stare at a blank screen.
And those are the worst writing days.
I hate that.
Uh the last book that I wrote, Centering Jesus, came out a couple years ago, and when I was writing the final chapter.
I think I was experiencing a little bit of burnout.
I just had this discipline of writing primarily on Fridays, which is my day off.
And every Friday I’ll just sit down to write whatever is in front of me to write, whatever chapter I’m on.
And I remember getting to that last chapter.
And the other chapters I had great ideas on, but this last chapter was supposed to sum things up.
It was going to talk about the lamb.
at the center of the throne.
This is an image of Jesus in the book of Revelation.
And it was to reach this crescendo and I just felt nothing.
And I remember sitting in my home office
Staring at a blank screen, because of course when I say writing, I mean typing, I’m writing on the laptop.
And I was watching the blinking cursor, and I had nothing
Now for me when I’m writing, I typically pray first.
I do morning prayer, which has Bible reading.
I really want to uh get into God’s presence and sense God is close and near and then start writing
And I did that on this particular morning, but I had no ideas.
Uh just watching that blinking
cursor.
It was like that cursor was cursing at me.
Like, why don’t you have good ideas?
I eventually did come up with something.
I was very happy with how that chapter turned out.
But this summer, I’ve just been blowing with ideas.
Maybe you can relate, but as a a leader and a pastor and a teacher and a writer, I live in the world of ideas and my brain is
normally always churning with ideas, but I’ll have these moments where it’s just blank, like I got nothing.
But actually today was one of the days that I woke up and the ideas were just flowing.
I got out of bed at 4 a.
m.
, which is a little early for me.
I’m usually up between 5 and 6, usually 5:30, but I was awake at 4 a.
because I had all of these thoughts going and I’m currently working on a writing project and so I had my time of coffee and prayer.
And then I’m opening up my laptop at 6 a.
m.
and I had all these ideas going.
I I actually had too many ideas.
I spent way too long.
I I I spent like
30 minutes in a footnote trying to explain why John Wesley did not include the descent of Jesus in his articles of religion.
And when my wife woke up this morning, I was trying to explain to her why I spent so much time on this footnote.
It’s like five sentences.
And I was thinking as I was talking to my wife
Is anybody gonna read this footnote?
But it was just the kind of morning where all sorts of ideas were flowing.
And so that’s what’s been happening with me this summer, a lot of writing, a lot of pool time
And so it’s really been a good summer for me.
I hope it has been for you as well.
And thank you for joining me for this episode.
If you haven’t already, please leave a rating and a review
We like five-star reviews and subscribe to Peaceable and Kind wherever you’re listening to this podcast episode.
Today, I want to talk about the gospel and the Holy Spirit.
This is a continuation of the conversation I had with Matthew Bates.
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the previous episode, my interview of Professor Matthew Bates, go back and listen to that one.
We talk about his new book Beyond the Salvation Wars, but we also get into some of the major concepts that appear in a number of his books.
He’s written a number of books about
The gospel.
What is the gospel?
The gospel precisely.
Why the gospel?
What is the content of the gospel?
And then what’s our response to the gospel?
And what are the benefits we receive?
by responding in faith and allegiance to the gospel.
So go back and listen to that conversation, but in that interview we had a brief little conversation about
My appreciation for Matthew’s work in that he is helping me to see that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
belongs in the content of the gospel.
And I said in my interview, I’m beginning to see that in the sermons preached in the book of Acts.
My daily Bible reading, which includes readings from the Old Testament, readings from the New Testament, and the Gospels, have me in the book of Acts.
And I just over the last couple of weeks had been reading the book of Acts
And I was noticing uh a pattern.
And I really believe that it is important for us to understand
What the gospel is, and what are the key components to the gospel message?
That’s why I love Matthew Bates and his work on the gospel.
It’s important because the content of the gospel you preach informs the kind of disciples you make.
This is important to me as a pastor because I know that the content of the gospel I preach informs the kind of disciples I’m making.
In the United States, we in the last few decades have seen the emergence of the prosperity gospel.
Which is no gospel at all.
It’s an Americanized uh perversion of the biblical and historical gospel
But this is a gospel that includes financial benefits to following Jesus
The worst forms of the prosperity gospel say, indeed, Jesus died so that you can be financially wealthy.
And it’s awful.
And so in congregations that preach a prosperity gospel, which again is not the true gospel, they are forming disciples who are formed in consumerism and greed
Those who are not disciples of Jesus Christ.
Because the ways of Jesus is not the way of accumulating more, but giving away
So, Matthew Bates has done a great job, and in his new book, as well as in other books, he has given us 10 key components to the gospel.
And so let me share those with you.
This is taken from his book, Beyond the Salvation Wars.
This is in uh chapter three entitled Right and Wrong About the Gospel.
And Bates writes, the gospel is that Jesus the King, and then pause.
There are then ten things that flow from that.
The gospel is that Jesus the King, one
pre-existed as God the Son, two, was sent by the Father as promised.
Three took on human flesh in fulfillment of God’s promises to David
four Died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, five was buried, six was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures seven appeared to many witnesses.
eight is enthroned at the right hand of God as the ruling Christ.
Nine has sent the Holy Spirit to his people to effect his rule.
and ten will come again as final judge to rule.
Now this is an expanded view of the gospel.
I mean a shortened way
Is just that opening line.
Well, in a shortened way, the gospel is that Jesus is our saving King.
But he includes these ten parts for this expanded view so that we can see that Jesus
Is God’s only Son coequal, co-eternal with God, that he was sent by the promised of the Father to fulfill promises to David?
So that includes the story of Israel.
So we can’t take the gospel in the New Testament and just rip it out of its Old Testament context.
It goes together
And so Jesus came as the Son of God in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, God showing his faithfulness.
to the promises he made to David, and then Jesus dies for our sins, was buried and raised.
The death
burial and resurrection of Jesus, which I would say is the heart, but not the climax of the gospel.
Then Jesus appears to many witnesses to show that he really was raised from the dead.
and is now enthroned at the right hand of God as the ruling king, the ruling Christ.
And Bates would say that
This is the climax.
So I would still argue that the cross is the heart of the gospel, but the climax of the gospel story is the enthronement of King Jesus.
But the gospel doesn’t end there.
And this is where Matthew has been helping me so much
That the next part, after we consider Christ in his promotion, his ascension to the right hand of the Father, we recognize that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
The spirit of Jesus upon the people of Jesus is a part of the gospel.
Now I love these ten historical events, these ten
Aspects of the gospel because it’s what all Christians believe.
Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and all of its variation, we all believe these ten things.
I like the unity that can happen around these 10 things.
But that number nine, the part about the Holy Spirit being sent.
Is what I’ve been reflecting on these days because it is a part of the gospel.
I have tended in the past to divide in my thinking the gospel
from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
So the gospel is the announcement that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is King, that He’s come to rescue us from sin and death.
That’s the gospel.
Oh yeah, and by the way, there’s also this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
But I’m reconsidering that now, just in the way I think about the content of the gospel.
No, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a part of the gospel message
That’s why Pentecost appears on the Christian calendar or the liturgical calendar.
Maybe you didn’t grow up with the Christian calendar, or maybe you’re in a church today that doesn’t
speak of the seasons of Advent or Lent.
But in the liturgical calendar
Half of it, six months or so, we’re telling the story of Jesus.
And on the Christian calendar, the last part of that is Pentecost.
See, ancient Christians knew this.
They knew that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a part.
A necessary part of the story of Jesus.
The Spirit belongs in the gospel announcement, which is why it’s on the church calendar.
Because God is a holy trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and these members of the Trinity are unified.
In the history of Trinitarian studies and discussions and books and thoughts, there is this concept of the inseparable operations of God
In other words, all of the work of God in salvation history, in and through God’s people, is accomplished with the Father, Son, and Spirit working all together.
The Holy Trinity, and by the way, the Trinity is not a mathematical problem to be solved.
The Holy Trinity is more of a mystery to be explored
And this idea of one God, one divine essence and being that’s been revealed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is unity in diversity.
And I’ve wanted to parse out the work of the Spirit way too much from the work of Jesus
But if the gospel is the announcement of what God is doing in and through Jesus, then the gospel must include the Father who sent the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Who was poured out by Jesus, who is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit
Hey friends, I wanted to pause for just a second to let you know that my next book, Incarnation, 8 Lessons on How God Meets Us, is available for pre-order.
Bible study is for individual devotional use or for small group discussion.
Link to pre-order is in the show notes.
So let me take you to three places in Acts where references to the Holy Spirit appear in the preaching of the gospel.
Now, in a previous episode, we were walking through the Nicene Creed.
And in that little bit about the church, there are these four distinguishing marks
We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Catholic means universal, not just Roman Catholic, but it means
All those who believe in the historic Christian faith, who believe and pledge allegiance to King Jesus, who
who receive and are shaped by Holy Scripture, who are bound together by the Holy Spirit, who observe the sacraments, right?
All of these
Bodies of believers share a Catholicity.
They share a unity.
But that’s mark number three.
The fourth mark
in the Nicene Creed of the Church is that it is apostolic.
By apostolic we mean that we belong to the same church as Peter, James, and John and all the rest.
That we believe in the witness of the apostles and their writings which formed the New Testament.
So one of the things that I find helpful is that if we want to understand the content of the gospel,
We need to look at how the apostles were preaching the gospel in the book of Acts.
And so we see Peter preaching in Acts 2, Acts 3, and Acts 5.
And in that there’s a pattern that emerges.
Now, again, this was not a Bible study I was doing.
I was not
Planning on writing this up or preaching on it.
I never intended to record a podcast episode about it.
I was just doing my daily Bible reading and I just noticed a little pattern.
Now, before we get to the Holy Spirit part, let me share quickly three other observations that I had in reading Peter’s sermons in Acts 2, Acts 3, and Acts 5.
First, there are no references to heaven or hell.
And I invite you to go back and and read these three chapters in Acts.
Read all of it.
I’m going to share a few verses in a moment
But read the whole thing, read it in context.
But one of the things you won’t see are references to either heaven or hell
Now my background is in American evangelicalism, in the Pentecostal Charismatic tradition, and in whatever I’m in today.
It’s hard to define this.
sort of neo-sacramental movement that I’m in.
It’s it’s I I need a label, I don’t have one because I’ve been influenced by
so many different traditions.
I’m like part Anglican, I’m part Anabaptist, I’m I’m part Roman Catholic, I’m part Wesleyan, I’m part charismatic, I got all these different
influences.
So it’s hard for me to pin it down.
But my background is in evangelicalism broadly.
I consider Pentecostalism a separate movement, but we can wrap it all together.
And in evangelicalism, there has been such an emphasis on preaching the gospel in order
To help people receive the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, so that they can go to heaven when they die and not go to hell.
The funny thing about that, that’s not how the apostles preach the gospel.
When we read Peter’s sermons, no references to going to heaven when we die.
Actually I would challenge you to search the scriptures.
And where does it talk about how to go to heaven when you die?
Or that the primary benefit of responding to the gospel is going to heaven when you die?
Uh if you search the scriptures, you’re gonna find a hard time coming up with a whole lot of stuff.
You get Jesus in John fourteen, who says that in my father’s house there are many rooms.
Um if I go away, I’m going to prepare a place for you.
Again, he’s not talking about the gospel.
He’s not preaching the gospel, making a gospel announcement at that point.
And he doesn’t use the word heaven.
He’s using this metaphor of first-century Jewish people, like a first-century Jewish man, when he would get married, he would add on to his father’s house.
Jesus is speaking about our relationship to God the Father, not a place called heaven, but I digress.
But you can search the scriptures and you won’t find a lot about going to heaven.
When you die, of course, people will bring up the thief on the cross
who doesn’t revile Jesus but is compassionate towards Jesus.
And Jesus says, today, well, the criminal says, Remember me when you come in your kingdom.
Notice it’s kingdom language, and Jesus says, today you’ll be with me in paradise.
Again, doesn’t mention heaven, but paradise.
There’s another parable that Jesus tells about
about a rich man who dies and goes to hell.
And then there’s Lazarus who was poor and he goes to Abraham’s bosom.
Again, the word heaven’s not used there.
Anyway, in Acts 2, 3, and 5, there are no references to heaven or hell.
Second observation I made is that it is repeated in all three sermons in all three of these chapters.
that it was humanity who killed Jesus, but God raised him from the dead.
There are certain Christians who say that it was God sacrificing his son.
on the cross for his own glory, that God had to punish Jesus through scourging and death in order for God to forgive
But in the preaching of the gospel in Acts 2, 3, and 5, it is not God who is killing Jesus or sacrificing Jesus, it’s humanity
God is the one raising Jesus from the dead.
Just a couple of verses so you can see this.
Acts 2, 36.
So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah.
whom you crucified.
You guys were killing Jesus.
And notice here that we don’t make Jesus the Lord of our life.
God made Jesus Lord and Messiah.
The implication is through his resurrection.
Then Acts 3, verse 15.
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses of this fact.
God didn’t kill his son, God raised his son from the dead.
The same thought is then repeated in Acts 5, verse 30.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on the cross.
So as we consider the death of Jesus, where do we identify God the Father?
Is God the Father in Pilate?
Uh who is ordering his execution?
Is God found in the executioners that scourged the back of Jesus?
run nails through his hands and feet?
No, Paul says God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.
God is not the one killing Jesus.
God’s the one raising him from the dead.
Anyway, that’s a bit of a side note.
The other thing I saw
In these three sermons is exactly what Matthew Bates has been trying to tell us, and that is the gospel is Jesus is Lord, Messiah, and King.
Again, look at Acts 2.
36, one more time, so let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be Lord and Messiah.
These verses are from the New Living Translation.
Other translations will say Christ.
God has made him Lord and Christ.
And remember Christ?
Messiah is the Jewish word for king.
You could translate it that way.
It was God who made Jesus to be both Lord and King.
And it’s referenced again in Acts 3, verse 20.
Then times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.
your appointed king.
And then in Acts 5, and every day in the temple, and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus is the king, the saving king.
And so if we’re going to preach the gospel like the apostles preach the gospel, the kingship of Jesus has to be a predominant feature
Then we come to the Holy Spirit part.
And I think in my conversation with Matthew Bates, I was telling him, hey, I was doing my daily Bible reading.
And I noticed that in these three sermons in Acts 2, 3, and 5, there is a reference to the Holy Spirit.
Let me share those verses with you, and then I’ll sum things up here
So in the first sermon, Acts chapter 2, this is Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:33.
Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven at God’s right hand.
And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.
See, notice it goes right from the ascension of Jesus, which is a part of the gospel, promoted, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and then right after that is, and the Father has poured out the Holy Spirit.
the spirit that proceeds from the Father and the Son.
And then Acts 3, this is Peter preaching in the temple.
It’s Acts 3 verse 20
Then times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.
There’s that word Messiah, which means king again.
And then finally, Acts 5.
This is actually Peter preaching when he was, he and the apostles were standing before the high priest and the temple police.
And in Acts 5, verse 32, it says, We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey Him.
Peter is defending their preaching of a resurrected Jesus by again preaching the gospel, which includes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Now, Pentecostal Christians often use the phrase full gospel, and they will use that phrase to incorporate
The reception of the Holy Spirit with the preaching of the gospel.
So as I heard it over the years when I was in Pentecostal and charismatic circles,
They would say the gospel of Jesus’ death is only part of the gospel.
You both need to accept Christ and be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
So the full gospel includes the reception of the Holy Spirit, which most Pentecostal charismatic Christians would identify as a second experience.
a at least logically distinct experience of the spirit.
And they would say there’s harmony.
They would say
When you accept Christ, it’s the Holy Spirit that baptizes you into Jesus.
And then when you receive the Spirit, or when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, it is Jesus who’s baptizing you in the Spirit.
Now, I’m not here to debate Pentecostal theology.
I’m here to help people, one, understand the content of the gospel, which includes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
So if you believe that a person receives the Holy Spirit when they believe, I say yes and amen.
If you believe a person receives the Holy Spirit when they’re baptized in water, I say yes and amen.
If you’re a Christian who says,
I believe people receive the Holy Spirit when they’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, distinctly from their conversion or born-again experience
I say yes and amen.
Again, I’m not here to debate this theological point.
I just want people to be in a position of receiving the Holy Spirit.
And indeed, all of us need to live every day filled with God the Holy Spirit
We need the Spirit every day for transformation and empowerment.
We need the Spirit every day to be at work transforming our hearts
Transforming and forming our character to look like Jesus.
And we also need the Holy Spirit to empower the way that we live.
Jesus never intended for us to follow in his footsteps by willpower alone.
We need the Spirit’s power
The gospel includes the announcement that Jesus is king, but if we are to live as kingdom citizens, we need the Holy Spirit in the gospel that we preach.
Because each of us, every day, we need to be filled to overflowing with God the Holy Spirit
Well, that’s all that I have for this episode.
Thank you for joining me today.
Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.