Be Filled with the Spirit – part 1
Ephesians 5:18-20 (18)
September 1, 2013
Well, as you know we have been studying the Holy Spirit.
We have spent several weeks now trying to determine exactly who He is,
And what exactly He came to do.
We know that He was promised throughout the Old Testament and the gospels, and that the promise of His coming was fulfilled at Pentecost.
Acts 2:39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
And we know that in every regard He is fully God.
• The Old Testament saw God the Father as “God to Us”
• The gospels saw Jesus as “God with Us”
• Pentecost sees the Holy Spirit as “God in Us”
We know His fingerprints.
• To Convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
• To Guide us into all the truth.
• To Glorify Jesus.
And we know His purposes through those emblems that reveal Him throughout Scripture.
• He is WATER – the One who gives us spiritual life
• He is FIRE – the One who is sanctifying us from the world and to God
• He is OIL – our anointing, giving us the right to serve God
• He is WIND – our power, giving us the ability to serve God
• He is a SEAL – the One who gives us assurance of our salvation
• He is a DOVE – the One who gently guides us and leads us in life
That is what He does,
And if you have missed any of those, I encourage you to go back and get the CD from those services and learn exactly how the Holy Spirit benefits the life of a Christian.
But beyond all those emblems, and all the fingerprints,
The greatest reality we see of the Holy Spirit
Is the absolute difference He has continued to make
In the lives of believers ever since the day of Pentecost.
And this really isn’t hard to see.
If we look at the apostles in the gospels we find
Some of the most fickle human beings of all history.
One minute they are boldly proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, healing the sick, and casting out demons.
The next minute they are arguing over who is the greatest, sleeping in the garden, and trying to talk Jesus out of the cross.
Perhaps none epitomized that more than Peter.
• Next to Jesus, Peter could walk on water, but when Peter took His eyes of
Jesus, he sunk.
• Next to Jesus, Peter would fight an entire Roman cohort, but apart from
Jesus, a servant girl could intimidate him.
We find throughout the gospels that being near to Jesus
Gave the disciples great confidence, boldness, and power;
But when they were on their own, they were weak and failing men.
We learned then that men, apart from God, can accomplish nothing.
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
We know that apart from Jesus, not to expect too much
From these self-centered, cowardly disciples.
And that is a problem because in the first chapter of Acts, Jesus left.
That, in reality, opened the door for us to see the real difference
That the Holy Spirit made in the life of these men.
• We have Peter, a man who three times denied Jesus, speaking boldly at Pentecost and again in Acts 4 in the very city, and to the very men, who crucified Jesus.
• We have Philip, who once fled from the arrest of Jesus, boldly taking the gospel into foreign lands and confronting sinners with the truth.
• We have James, at one time so concerned with his own glory that he actually had his mother approach Jesus to secure his spot at Jesus side, actually laying down his life for the church.
WHAT GIVES?
Well you know – it was the presence of the Holy Spirit.
These were not great men.
These were Spirit-filled men.
You cannot miss that fact when you study the book of Acts.
In recent years the church has done a tremendous amount of research, and put forth tremendous amounts of effort and resources
Focusing on what they call, “METHODOLOGY”
They are searching for the most successful methods
For doing the work of the church.
Some have even gone back to search out the methods of the early church
Thinking there must have been some sort of genius to their methods.
But the brilliance of the early church
Was not that they were men with brilliant ideas or methods.
The brilliance of the early church is that they placed
The highest priority on being filled with the Spirit.
• It wasn’t about METHODS.
• It wasn’t about EDUCATION.
• It wasn’t about EXPERIENCE.
IT WAS ABOUT BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
• When they looked for PREACHERS, it wasn’t about seminary degrees.
• When they looked for LEADERS, it wasn’t about those with worldly success and experience.
• When they looked for GUIDANCE, they weren’t concerned about who had the most innovative ways of thinking, or who had the best grasp on his culture.
They only wanted men full of the Spirit.
Because the Spirit made the difference in their churches.
Acts 4:8-12 “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 6:2-5 “So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.”
Acts 11:22-24 “The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.”
Acts 13:9-10 “But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?”
ONE THING MATTERED
To live a life of personal victory, and to be successful in ministry,
They knew they must be filled with the Spirit of God.
That is the secret to the boldness, power, and success of the early church
That is the secret to victory in your own personal Christian life.
That is the secret to success in your ministry for God.
HE IS THE KEY
We can’t just know who the Holy Spirit is,
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
AND THAT IS WHAT WE BEGIN TO LOOK AT THIS MORNING.
And for that study we look to the 5th chapter of the book of Ephesians.
Now Ephesians 5 is a wonderful chapter.
It is easily recognized by 4 very distinct commands as to what a Christian should be.
Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;”
Ephesians 5:15 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,”
Ephesians 5:18 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,”
Ephesians 5:21 “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
That is pretty clear, and there is much then to say about
What it means to be godly and not worldly in this life.
This chapter is filled with practical statements and commands
That deal with living the Christian life in the right way.
And in this chapter, verses 18-20 really give us the key to it all.
These 3 verses unlock for us THE ABILITY TO OBEY the commands.
We already learned who gives us the ability to serve God didn’t we?
(the Holy Spirit is wind)
We already learned who sanctifies us and makes us holy didn’t we?
(the Holy Spirit is fire)
If you approach these commands from a human effort mentality
I don’t mind telling you that you will fail and fail miserably.
I mean just look at verse 3 of this chapter.
Ephesians 5:3 “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;”
I don’t have to tell you that human effort will never achieve that.
In fact, that is why we are studying the Holy Spirit to begin with,
Because so many of us have become frustrated
With our inability to live like we feel we should.
• We hate our continual failures…
• We hate our constant return to sin…
• We hate that we aren’t past issues we thought we should be long past…
And one of the reasons it is so frustrating
Is because we have tried so hard.
If Baptists get an “A” for anything, it’s effort.
We try hard to be the people we are supposed to be.
But effort, determination, commitment, knowledge, focus, education, ingenuity, and things like that
Can NEVER make you succeed.
We have to learn we can’t win spiritual battles with human means.
I’m always amazed by the world’s attempts at deliverance.
Today the magic cure is EDUCATION
• We’ve seen it with AIDS
• A few years ago I was asked to be involved at the school with a program that reenacted a car wreck with a drunken teenager…
• We see drug use among our young people and so we have “red ribbon week”…
• I heard Dick Butkus the other day on TV, and how he is traveling to school after school speaking about the dangers of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs…
And it doesn’t seem to matter if it is AIDS or alcohol or drugs or steroids,
The world always goes after the same solution – EDUCATION
“We just have to educate people”
And I’m not opposed to education, I think the truth about anything should be known.
The problem is that people don’t sin because of lack of education,
People sin because of their fallen sinful flesh that loves sin.
The truth about AIDS has not stopped promiscuous sex
The truth about car wrecks has not stopped drunkenness
The truth about drugs has not stopped it’s use
Because education can’t fix the problem, and it can’t fix the church either.
Neither can effort or desire or commitment
And all of those fail for the same reasons – THE FLESH
The flesh is weak
The flesh is fallen
The flesh craves sin
We need something to battle the flesh.
And we know what that is.
Galatians 5:16-18 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”
Only the Spirit can overcome the flesh.
And that is why here in Ephesians 5,
All of those commands are good,
But apart from obedience to the command found in verse 18,
You cannot fully obey them.
We need to understand that the Holy Spirit is not just a good ally
He is absolutely essential to living the Christian life the right way.
AND THIS MORNING we are just going to begin talking about what it means to be filled with the Spirit and what it means to walk by the Spirit, and even how to practically do that.
Now we zone in on verse 18.
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”
Now, we aren’t going to spend a ton of time on the first part of that verse,
But a little discussion is crucial to understanding where Paul is going.
Obviously in Christianity we have learned the dangers of drunkenness.
And for some strange reason alcohol
Has always been a hotly debated topic in the church.
Can a Christian drink alcohol?
Look, most of the alcohol they drank was to purify the water,
And in that regard you had to drink it.
The problem was those who lingered long at the jug and turned the alcohol into a means of euphoria. (i.e. drunkenness)
I don’t know any Christian
Who is under the delusion that drunkenness is ever ok.
In fact Paul says “that is dissipation”
“dissipation” translates ASOTIA
It literally means, “that which is unable to be saved”
• It is a word that is used of people who are hopelessly sick.
• It is a word used of people in such vile living that they appear beyond
redemption.
I hope that gives your mind some insight
As to what Scripture thinks of drunkenness.
The reason Paul brings it up here is because
He is using drunkenness to contrast what it means
To be filled with the Spirit.
The pagan religions of Paul’s day focused tremendously on things like drunkenness in their worship of pagan deities.
The idea was that through various forms of euphoria you actually encountered and communed and were even filled with the spirit of the deity.
And this communion was achieved through various forms.
• There were forms of drugs that were used…
• Chants and frenzies were used…
• Orgies and prostitutes induced a sort of sexual euphoria…
• And alcohol was a widely popular method…
One could get drunk, and that drunkenness brought on
A supposed communion with the spirit world.
To sort of give you an idea of the benchmark in Paul’s day,
When the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost and they all began speaking in tongues what did the people say was occurring?
Acts 2:13 “But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”
Drunkenness was a highly popular method
Of supposedly walking in closer connection with deity.
THE PROBLEM?
People began to bring such practices even into their Christian worship.
I mean, if it works for pagan gods, why not use it in our religion.
Incidentally we actually hear of people today claiming to be “drunk in the Spirit”, and that is precisely the sort of thing Paul is rebuking here.
You will see later in the text that being filled with the Spirit does not produce drunkenness, nor does it produce falling down, nor does it produce flopping, or babbling, or any other sort of weird behavior.
It actually produces speaking in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, and total gratitude to God.
And that is Paul’s point.
People were seeking the effects of what they supposed
It should be like when they were full of the Spirit
Instead of seeking the Spirit Himself.
They knew what they should feel when they communed with God,
And in order to manipulate that feeling that actually used alcohol to help.
Remember the Corinthians?
What were they doing even in their Lord’s Supper to help the experience?
1 Corinthians 11:20-21 “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.”
They were so fleshly and in search of euphoria
That they helped with alcohol.
BUT WE AREN’T SEEKING THE EUPHORIC STATE
That is not what God has for you.
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”
To put it plainly don’t seek the experience, seek the Spirit.
And people do, don’t they?
• If they didn’t get some sort of emotional high, then they don’t think the Holy Spirit was there.
• In contrast, if they got the tinglies, then that must have been the Holy Spirit.
It’s all backward.
We are not seeking some euphoric state, we are seeking the Holy Spirit.
We must “be filled with the Spirit”
WELL, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
First, let me tell you what it doesn’t mean.
Obviously it is NOT some sort of ecstatic, euphoric experience.
• But it is also NOT the same as possessing the Spirit.
• It is NOT the same as being baptized with the Spirit.
• It is NOT the same as receiving the Spirit.
When Paul says to “be filled” he is NOT saying
For you to get the Holy Spirit as though you do not have all of Him
And you are in need of more.
Listen, the Holy Spirit is given at salvation.
Isn’t that what Peter told the Jews at Pentecost?
Acts 2:38 “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
And let me remind you that God
Does not parcel out the Holy Spirit in stages.
John 3:34 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.”
When God gives the Holy Spirit, He gives all of the Holy Spirit.
When Paul commands you to be filled,
He is not commanding you to in some way go out and get the Holy Spirit.
Take the Corinthians for example.
DID THEY POSSESS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
1 Corinthians 6:18-19 “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
The Corinthians had the Holy Spirit.
WHAT WAS THEIR PROBLEM?
They were not filled with the Holy Spirit,
Instead they were walking in the flesh.
1 Corinthians 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.”
And that was clearly seen in their conflict, their extortion,
Their tolerance if immorality, their drunkenness, their role swapping,
Their idolatry, their lack of brotherly love, their weak doctrine,
And their chaos in the corporate worship service.
They had the Holy Spirit, but they were not filled with Him.
So when you believe in Christ, and are truly saved
God gives you His Holy Spirit, it is the promise.
And you receive all of the Holy Spirit that you are ever going to get.
So why does Paul command us then to “be filled with the Holy Spirit”?
It’s not a matter of how much of Him you’ve got,
It’s a matter of how much of you, He’s got.
The word “filled” is an interesting word.
• It can symbolize a glass “filled” with water.
The idea is to be totally saturated with the Spirit of God.
• It can symbolize a sail “filled” with wind.
The idea is that the Holy Spirit is driving your life.
• It can symbolize a person’s emotion as in “being filled with
sorrow”
The idea being that the Holy Spirit drives the will of a person
The Holy Spirit doesn’t just want to dwell in you, He wants to fill you.
He wants to saturate all of you, guide your life, and direct your passions.
Furthermore the command “be filled with the Spirit” is in the Passive Tense.
That means it is not something we go do, but something we allow.
It pictures something God desires to do in your life,
If you will let Him do it.
THE HOLY SPIRIT DESIRES TO FILL YOU.
He wants to fill your life, He wants to fill your sails, He wants to fill your emotions.
After all, He is a guide, just as we saw two weeks ago.
HOWEVER, JUST LIKE JESUS, HE IS A GENTLE GUIDE.
Matthew 12:19 “HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS.”
He is not a squawker or a manipulator or one who will threaten you.
He wants to fill you, but He is not going to force His will upon you.
He wants you to let Him fill you.
I had a conversation with a fellow last week, who has struggled with a particular sin for quite some time in his life.
And he had reached a point where due to his constant failure and return to sin, he had deduced that God either wasn’t real, had no power, or just didn’t care.
Why would He let His children continue to return to sins that destroy them?
And the answer is that God doesn’t “let” you.
• I asked this man if the Bible spoke of this sin, and if it ever condoned it?
He said “no”
• I asked this man if when he is about to do it, if something inside of him warned him first?
He said “yes”
• I asked this man if other believers had been a voice of reason and help to him in this struggle?
He said “yes”
And all of those are indicators that God is not “letting” you sin.
He is warning you through His word, through His Spirit, and His church.
He is telling you at every turn not to do that, not to return.
And yet this man was upset because God didn’t physically stop him.
I reminded him that God most certainly could.
• I told him God could rip your arms off so that the action was impossible.
• God could rip your tongue out to prevent the iniquity.
• God could cause you to go blind to stop the sin.
Is that what you want?
Of course not.
See, the Holy Spirit is not a bully or a tyrant.
He does not force His will upon you.
But He sure offers it to you.
He wants you to let Him have FULL control of your life.
• He wants you to let Him guide your paths.
• He wants you to let Him blow your sails.
• He wants you to let Him fill your emotions and desires.
The problem is not that He is too passive,
The problem is that we are too stubborn.
We refuse to allow Him to have the control He desires.
I’ve told you many times that this year to prepare for Africa we went through a study by John MacArthur about the “Fundamental Christian Attitudes”
In his sermon OBEDIENCE MacArthur was commenting on Ephesians 3:17
It is actually part of a prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians.
In that prayer, Paul prays:
Ephesians 3:17 “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”
Now Paul is not praying that the Ephesians will get Christ in their heart,
They already have Christ in their heart.
He is praying that they will let Christ DWELL in their heart.
And this is precisely the same thing he is talking about
With the Holy Spirit in chapter 5.
He is not telling the Ephesians to get the Holy Spirit,
But for them to let the Holy Spirit fill them.
And commenting on that passage, MacArthur said this:
“Christ, if you’re a believer, is already in your heart but He may not be settled down, He may be up all the time fixing things. You remember that wonderful little book, “My Heart Christ’s Home.” I read it as a young man and it had a marvelous effect upon me, it’s a picture of a house, like the heart and Christ comes in and He goes into the living room which is the realm of fellowship and He goes into the dining room which is the realm of appetites and He goes into the library which is the realm of thought. And there’s work to do in all those places and all those places received His purging. And then, all of a sudden, when all of that is done there’s a terrible stench coming out of somewhere and Christ finds a closet and opens it up and there are all the hidden iniquities. And Christ can’t settle down and be at home until all that work is done. And that’s what the Apostle Paul is praying. He’s praying that the Spirit of God would strengthen your inner man so that sin would be dealt with and the response to the cleansing of Christ would be a complete response and Christ could settle down at be at rest because sin is being dealt with. That’s what Paul’s praying for. He’s praying for the Spirit to come, bring His strength to the inner man, do a cleansing work so that Christ is comfortable in your life.”
(Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Obedience, Selected Scriptures, September 22, 1996 90-115)
And that pertains precisely to what we are talking about here.
The Holy Spirit is in you, and He wants to fill you,
But you must let Him have complete control.
He’ll fill every aspect of your life, but you must let Him do it.
Now, I know we are out of time and we probably haven’t answered all your questions as to how to let Him do this.
We’ll get there, but this week I want to stress to you
That apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit
You will live a life of weakness and failure.
And it is essential that we both begin to allow Him
To fill us as He desires to do.
Only then are we like those people in the early church
Who had such boldness, such conviction, such power,
And such effectiveness for the kingdom.
• They didn’t want educated people…
• They didn’t want experienced people…
• They didn’t want influential people…
• They didn’t want famous people…
• They didn’t want innovative people…
They wanted Spirit-filled people.
Those were the people who lived the right kind of life
And had the right kind of ministry.
We want to be those kind of people.
And we’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks.
Ephesians 5:18 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,”
