“The
Spirit-Filled Life, part 2”
Ephesians 5:18-21
November 13, 2011
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Last week I began a short sermon series to look
closely at what it means to be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
I
was motivated to study this because of my mission trip to India last month.
The pastors I taught had many questions
about the Holy Spirit—
and it seemed that many of their questions
had to do with this matter of filling.
What
doest it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
What does it look like in a person? How do you get it?
What is a Spirit-filled person or a
Spirit-filled church?
So
we’re looking at an important passage on this subject—
Ephesians 5:18-21.
This
matter of being filled with the Spirit was important to Paul pastorally.
He gave the Ephesians this command at a very
significant place in his letter.
He’s
just about to give them some of the most practical and difficult
instructions about the Christians life.
Being
filled with the Spirit absolutely necessary to accomplish them.
INTRO:
Back
in the summer of 2004 we went on a family vacation to South Dakota—
the Badlands, the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore.
We
were driving through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is in SD—
and at one point we were just a couple miles
from the Nebraska state line.
We
had been making a list of all the states we had passed through on the trip
and Nebraska wasn’t on our list. So I said:
Look, it will take us 10 minutes.
Let’s drive down this road, cross the line,
and we can add Nebraska.
So
we headed down a county road.
But
the minute we crossed the state line, I knew I had made a mistake.
It was a tiny Nebraska town with one main
street and no stoplights.
And it was lined with bars and liquor
stores.
Everywhere,
collapsed on sidewalks, staggering through the streets, were drunks.
Men and women. Dozens of them. In the middle of the day.
The
Pine Ridge Reservation is dry and this town, just over the line and outside the
reservation, was wet. It was probably the only place to get a drink
in 100 miles.
I’ve
never seen such a sad display of drunkenness in my life.
It was a town full of wasted people. A town making money on misery.
I told the kids to shut their eyes, and made
a u-turn and got out of there.
Paul
introduces the command to be filled with the Spirit
by giving a command not to get drunk.
“Do
not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
It’s a carefully chosen contrast.
He’s
pointing out that there are certain aspects of drunkenness,
that, in contrast, enable us to understand
the filling of the Spirit.
What
are those contrasts? We looked at them
last Sunday.
Being
filled with the Holy Spirit is a life of balance and self-control.
It’s the opposite of debauchery. Which means recklessness, excess, being
wasted.
When
a person is drunk he loses control. He’s
not aware of his limitations.
He makes promises he can’t keep. He tries to do things he can’t do.
He loses control of his tongue, his
passions, his body, his money.
It leads to a life of exhaustion.
Being
filled with the Holy Spirit gives you a life of greater balance and control.
The Holy Spirit enables you to see what is
really important in your life.
Where the Lord wants you to spend your time
and energy.
Being
filled with the Holy Spirit is also a life of stimulation.
Alcohol
is a depressant.
When
you get drunk it depresses your ability to take in the truth.
That’s why drunks get happy.
Alcohol blocks out the parts of the truth
that are making them unhappy.
It
gives them courage and meaning and vulnerability by
numbing them to the big problems looming
over their lives.
The
Holy Spirit is not a depressant. As
Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, he’s a stimulant.
He doesn’t limit your vision, he raises
it. He doesn’t block out your problems.
When you are filled with the Spirit you see
your problems in all their ugly reality.
But
you also see something bigger.
You see the sovereign Lord of history who
loves you and cares for you.
And that gives you courage and meaning and
openness with people.
And
being filled with the spirit is also a life of joy, steady joy.
You can’t stay drunk. Some people try. But reality eventually comes crashing in.
Paul
is talking about a condition of being filled that can be continuous.
It can characterize your life.
It’s not a continuous mountaintop. Not continuous spiritual ecstasy.
It’s
a deep undercurrent that keeps you up when things are bad
and keeps you
grounded when things are good.
Why? Because
you know that God is your Savior.
Because you
know you are in Christ.
That sounds wonderful—balance, stimulation, joy. How do you get this life?
How are you
filled with the Holy Spirit? That’s the
question we’ll consider now.
Look at Paul’s words again. “Be filled with the Spirit.”
It’s a
command. It’s something you must
do. It doesn’t just happen.
God expects
you to obey him. Obey his command to be
filled.
But at the same time, it’s a passive command.
It’s not:
Fill yourself with the Spirit. It is: Be
filled.
The Holy
Spirit himself has to come and fill you.
So what’s being commanded? Two things, one positive, one negative.
First, put
yourself in the place, the position where the Holy Spirit can fill you.
Second, do
not erect any barriers to his filling.
Let’s look at each.
MP#1 Seek the place of his filling.
What is that place?
Where do you need to be for the Holy Spirit to fill you?
This becomes
more clear when you understand that the Bible uses the phrase
“filled with
the Spirit” in three different ways.
1. Sometimes Bible uses “filled with Spirit” to
refer to conversion.
When
you are saved, you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Remember Paul’s conversion. He was struck blind on the Damascus
Road.
Then God sent a man named Ananias to pray
for him.
Ananias went to Paul, who
was called Saul then, and said:
“Brother
Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—
has sent me
so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Ananias
prayed, immediately something like scales fell from eyes, was baptized.
Paul’s salvation is described as receiving
his sight and being filled with Spirit.
To be a saved person is by
definition to be filled with the Spirit.
When you are saved, your body becomes a
temple of the Holy Spirit.
The opposite is to be lost and unfilled. But this filling is a one-time event.
That’s not what Paul is
talking about here in Ephesians. He’s
talking to people
who are already Christians. And about something that is to be done
continually.
2. Sometimes Bible uses “filled with Holy Spirit”
to refer to special occasions.
There
are special occasions when God empowers particular Christians to do great
things—meet a great challenge, endure great
suffering, witness in a great way.
And
in to do that, the Holy Spirit fills them with peculiar boldness and
assurance.
He gives them words and eloquence don’t
normally have.
He sometimes even gives them physical
manifestations of various kinds.
These
are rare, mountaintop experiences.
These are the spiritual experiences that
people write books about.
In
Acts 4 the believers were facing opposition.
New church in precarious position.
They were praying together and when they
said Amen, the place was shaken.
And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and spoke the word boldly.
Remember—already
filled, after Pentecost—but here filled again in power for a
particular challenge. The challenge of facing persecution with
courage.
Acts
7 is a record of the trial and martyrdom of Stephen.
He
was given supernatural speaking ability.
The hostile court was spellbound.
All those sitting there looked intently at
him. His face like the face of an
angel.
And Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up
to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus
standing at
the right hand of God. “Look,” he said,
“I see heaven open and the Son of Man
standing at
the right hand of God.”
A
special filling that brought a supernatural vision and eloquence and boldness,
even an altered appearance. It was a special filling for martyrdom.
That
reminds me of the story in Harlan Popov’s autobiography.
Popov
was a Bulgarian pastor who was tortured by the Communists.
Once
they brought him into the interrogation room and kept him awake and
standing for an entire week. Two interrogators working in shifts to
torment him.
At
the end of week, his will to resist was gone.
Physically his face was shrunken.
His ankles and lower legs grossly swollen
from standing for so long.
His
interrogators were preparing for their final push. Sign a denunciation.
They ordered him to face the corner, behind
him were assembling documents.
In
that moment he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
He knew Jesus Christ was there.
He felt circulation return to his legs. Felt blood and fullness return to face.
He
had a burst of physical and mental energy.
When he turned and faced his
interrogators, they were stunned and
frightened by his appearance.
This
was not the same broken man. Their
interrogation ended in confusion.
His experience didn’t last. When taken back to his cell he
collapsed.
But was filled with the Holy Spirit for that
moment of crisis.
And
he remembered it often during his years in prison.
Jonathan
Edwards tells of a time he rode his horse into the woods to pray—
While riding, had a special filling of Holy
Spirit—for several hours overwhelmed
with a vivid sense of the love and presence
of God. That feeling left him.
But
the remembrance of it stayed with him for life.
There
are rare mountaintop experiences of filling.
To prepare a believer for a great work ahead
or carry through a crisis.
It’s
when the truth you know blazes in your heart.
When you have a palpable sense of the
presence of God, even physical signs.
This
is not the filling that Paul is talking about in Ephesians.
Because you can’t live on the mountain
top. You eventually have to come
down.
3. Sometimes the Bible uses “filled with the
Spirit” to refer to the ordinary
experience of an obedient Christian
life. That’s what Paul is talking about
here.
In Greek, a command in the present tense
refers to continuous action.
“Be
filled” does not mean once. But be
continually filled. Keep on being
filled.
It’s a condition a Christian continues in,
but it must be maintained.
Acts
6 is a record of the choosing of the first deacons.
It
says these men were “full of the Spirit and wisdom.”
And in another place that they were “full
of faith and the Holy Spirit.”
In
Acts 11 Barnabas is said to be “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and
faith.”
What’s being described here? Not a special filling, but something
constantly
present.
A condition, a characteristic that a Christian continues in.
Barnabas
and the first deacons were Spirit-filled men.
What did that mean?
It
means they were balanced and self-controlled—in words and behavior.
They
had courage and peace that came from clear vision, stimulated by Spirit.
They saw clearly the problems and challenges
of the church,
but they also saw that God is on his throne,
and Christ is ruling over all.
Now
all of this has been a round-about way of getting to the original point.
The
way you get this ordinary, continuous filling of the Holy Spirit is to put
yourself in the right place. And the right place is to simply to be
seeking God.
Remember
Colossians 3:16, the parallel passage looked at last week?
“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly”
is just another way of saying
“Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Filled through regular use of means of
grace.
And
here’s the other interesting connection.
This is also the way to the rare mountaintop
experiences.
When
people have true mountaintop experiences with the Holy Spirit they never
go looking for them. That’s been a problem with charismatic movement.
An
emphasis on trying to get the mountaintop experience. To feel a spiritual high.
But whenever it truly happens, it’s when you
are seeking God in ordinary ways.
When
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a boy, growing up in Wales, there were old people
in his church who remembered the days of the
famous Welsh revival.
Would
tell stories of the Holy Spirit falling in power. Villages coming to faith.
He wanted that all his life. Revival and filling of Holy Spirit often his
themes.
He probably wanted the mountaintop
experiences more than most people.
But
listen to these wise words of his:
Do not merely seek an experience, or
manifestations. Seek a knowledge of God,
and of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do not seek ‘balls of fire’ or any ‘sensation
of electricity’ going through
your body.
Seek Him! Say that you want to
know him and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings.
Seek the place of his
filling. Which is another way of saying,
seek the Lord.
Make use of all the means of grace. And then, second, the negative.
MP#2 Erect no
barriers to his filling
Ephesians 4:30 says: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
1 Thessalonians 5:19
says: “Do not quench the Spirit.”
Do not grieve the Spirit. Do not quench the Spirit.
Holy Spirit can be grieved. That means he is a person. You can’t grieve a force.
And even more significant, grief is an
offense against love.
You can’t grieve an enemy, you can only
grieve someone who loves you.
Proverbs
10:1: A wise son brings joy to his
father, a foolish son grief to his mother.
Why do parents sometimes grieve their
children? Because they love them.
From
the time they were little, their parents expressed love by giving
instructions.
Don’t touch the stove. Look both ways. Share your toys.
Clean your room. No more TV.
Do your homework.
Choose good friends. Guard your purity. Walk with the Lord.
Moms
and dads say those things because they want their children to live long,
blessed lives. Want them to fulfill their greatest
potential.
But
when a child, maybe as a teenager or young adult says:
I don’t want to do what you tell me. I reject your instruction. I want live my life.
When that happens, it brings grief to the
parents’ heart.
It
may feel like anger. It may be expressed
as anger, but it’s really grief.
Because the actions of the child are an
offense against your love.
So
this command, “Do not grieve the Spirit” contains a wonderful truth.
The
Holy Spirit is capable of grief because he loves you.
He loves you so much that your actions
affect him.
That’s
a great mystery itself: How the
unchanging Spirit of God can be grieved?
But he can be grieved and we know that it is
because of love.
The
Holy Spirit is like a parent. He is
called our comforter and guide.
He expresses his love by giving
instructions.
He tells you how to live in such a way that
you enjoy the greatest blessing.
He
gives you a great many instructions in the Word:
He
says: Speak the truth in love, put off
bitterness and forgive,
be generous and hospitable, don’t let
unwholesome talk come out of your mouth,
be generous, obey your parents, love your
wife, honor your husband.
And
on and on. So when you disobey, it is
not so much breaking God’s law,
as it is offending against God’s love. It’s saying to the Spirit—
you don’t know what’s best for me. I want to live my own life.
You
can’t be filled with the Holy Spirit if you are continually grieving him.
Unconfessed sin is a barrier to the filling
of the Spirit.
What about you? Is there anything in your life that is
grieving the Holy Spirit?
If
there is, you need to deal with it so you can be filled with the Spirit.
And
the way you do that, the only way, is to focus on what I’ve just mentioned—
the love of God for you. The love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It’s
only when you realize that your sin is a sin against love,
that it grieves the one who loves you, that
you cut the root of sin.
I
had a large shrub in my yard that I recently cut down.
Even though I cut it down, shoots kept
growing out of the stump.
For about a year I cut them off, but kept
growing back.
That’s
what happens when you try to get rid of sin in your life by just saying:
This is a bad thing I’ve done. I’ve got to quit. You can’t get rid of it just by
warning yourself about the
consequences. Will keep coming
back.
You
have to cut the root. That’s what I did
with this stump. I dug and chopped
until I could rock it. Then I tied a rope around it, and pulled it
out with the car.
The
way the root of sin is dug and chopped and loosened is by focusing on the love
of Christ.
When you tell yourself: I’m grieving
Lord who loves me.
That gives you the incentive and power for
real change.
Do
not grieve the Spirit. And do not quench the Spirit.
Have
you ever been at a party or a gathering and watched a shy person?
Maybe
this shy person gets the floor for a moment, he or she starts to speak.
And for a little while, everybody is
quiet. But then two people on the edges
of
room start to talk pretty soon other people
start talking.
And
the shy person stops talking—might not say anything else rest of party
Holy
Spirit is the shy member of the Trinity.
Not disrespectful. John 16.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
The
Spirit’s purpose is to glorify the Son, not himself.
And
one important way he glorifies Christ is by reproducing him in believers.
By leading you to victory over sin.
By praying for you and teaching to
pray.
By
showing you God’s will for your life and enabling you to walk in it.
He’s called the Counselor because he
impresses on you the teachings of
Christ.
What
does this mean practically?
Whenever
you feel a prompting to improve your life—that is the Holy Spirit.
That doesn’t come from you—it’s coming from
Him—listen to Him.
Martyn
Lloyd-Jones says:
“It is (the Holy Spirit) who prompts you, who leads us, who creates desires within us. You
suddenly find yourself desiring to read the Word: the Spirit is at work! He suddenly will
stimulate you perhaps to prayer, or to meditation. He will tell you to leave something, and to
do something; it is all the Spirit.
Any
urge or voice that says: Love this
person. Watch your tongue.
Be generous.
Humble yourself and listen to this person. Trust God.
That’s the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
You
know those promptings rarely come like a clap of thunder.
They are usually a still, small voice—like
Samuel heard on bed, Elijah in cave.
You have to listen.
How
do you quench Spirit? By ignoring his
promptings. MLJ again:
“Not to respond, or to postpone, or to say,
Well, I cannot do that now, I am doing something
else; or to fail to give yourself to be led
by Him—oh! these are the ways in which
we
(quench) Him.”
Just
to get too busy and say—not going to do that now
The
worst quenching of all is to say: I’m
such a failure God can’t use me.
I’m so bad that God can’t use me.
My
sins and failures and weaknesses are too big for Him.
This situation is ruined. I can’t be remedied.
That’s
a denial of the Gospel and the sovereignty of God.
It shows that you don’t really believe in
the power of your Redeemer Jesus Christ.
He has come to take sinful failures and turn
them into glorified children of God.
When
you quench the Spirit. When you say I’m
too busy. I don’t want to change.
This is too painful to my pride. I’m too bad.
It’s ruined. I can’t be used.
When
you say any of those things to ignore the promptings then you quench him.
The Spirit becomes silent and waits until
you are willing to listen.
CONC: Are you erecting barriers to the filling of the Holy
Spirit?
Are you grieving him? Look at the love of Jesus and repent.
Are you quenching him? Start today with something he’s told you to
do, do it.
And
are you putting yourself in that place where he can fill you?
Seeking to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship
of sharing in his sufferings. Making use of the means of grace.
There’s
a hymn, written in the 1800s by an Anglican minister named
George Croly. It’s called:
Spirit of God, Descend Upon My
Heart.
It’s
an amazing hymn, because it presents the filling of the Holy Spirit
in all it’s parts. I’m going to read you two stanzas.
First
one he basically says: I’m not going to
ask for the mountaintop experience.
I’m not going to ask for dreams and visions
of angels.
I’m going to ask that you take the dimness
of my soul away.
Ask that I know you better.
Second
stanza he says: Make my heart and altar.
Let the Holy Spirit be the kindling on that
altar.
Let your love, O God, be the fire that ignites
my love for you.
Listen
to these two stanzas, and make them your prayer as you come to Table.
I
ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No
sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No
angel visitant, no opening skies;
But
take the dimness of my soul away.
Teach
me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One
holy passion filling all my frame;
The
kindling of the heaven descended Dove,
My
heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.