John Owen: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Church

John Owen argues for the essential ministry of the Holy Spirit in the building of Christ's Church from Acts 1:4-8.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8, ESV)

On this promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit, John Owen argues that without the ministrations of the Holy Spirit there would be no church:

In this promise then the Lord Christ founded the church itself, and by it he builded it up. And this is the hinge whereon the whole weight of it doth turn and depend unto this day. Take it away, suppose it to cease as to actual accomplishment, and there will be an absolute end of the Church of Christ in this world. No dispensation of the Spirit, no Church. He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the word had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more ingenerate faith and obedience in the souls of men, than the letter of the Old Testament does among the Jews (2 Cor. 3:6, 8). But blessed be God, who hath knit these things together towards his elect in the bond of an everlasting covenant (Isa 59:21). The kingdom of Christ is spiritual, and in the animating principles of it, invisible. If we fix our minds only on outward order, we lose the rise and power of the whole. It is not an outward visible ordination by men (though that be necessary by rule and precept), but Christ’s communication of his Spirit, that gives being, life, usefulness, and success to the ministry; and if any are so foolish as to expect strength and assistance in the work without him, or such success in their labours as shall find acceptance with God, they do but deceive their own souls and others. Let men therefore cast themselves into what order they please; institute what forms of government and religious worship they think proper; if the work of the Spirit be disowned or disclaimed, there is no church-state among them.(p. 135, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power) by John Owen