Be Filled With The Spirit

Introduction

Just a few more weeks of online services and then we can once again get together.

I’ll send out our policy for all to view to know what we have to do in order to follow the guidelines for Phase 2.

In addition, we will be needing your help the week before to help sanitize the church building.

So keep praying for all of this to come together.

So we’re in week 3 on the Holy Spirit.

Thus far we seen that the Holy Spirit is fully God who illuminates us as we read the Bible, manifest God’s love to us, is our counselor, point us to Jesus, and empowers us for ministry.

Last week, we looked at how Jesus and the early church were empowered by the Holy Spirit for ministry through miracles, preaching, enacting justice, filling them with joy all as an answer to prayer.

We have then seen how the Holy Spirit works in our life empowering us to follow Jesus and His commands and carrying out his mission for our lives.

Today, I’d like to talk about the fullness of the Spirit.

This may be somewhat controversial; I hope it is not, but that we see what it means to be filled with the spirit from a biblical perspective.

When we understand this makes the difference between a ordinary, run of the mill spiritual life to one that bursts with joy.

And we all need joy, don’t we?

So, let’s look at our passage of scripture from Ephesians 5:18-21.

I want to answer three questions this morning

What is it?

When does it happen?

How does it happen?

What Is The “Filling” Of The Spirit?

The word “filled” that Paul uses in the Greek literally means permeated, saturated, to fill completely.

Filling up until every bit of space in the container is filled. Gas tank, Shopping cart

It’s when every part of you is consumed with something.

So sick every part of you hurt. Full of rage

In verse 18, Paul compares being drunk with wine with being filled with the Spirit.

When someone is filled with alcohol, every part of the them - their thinking; their emotions; their speech; their reflexes - is affected by the alcohol

That’s what he’s talking about - allowing the Spirit to fully control your whole life.

To be filled by the Spirit is when takes up full residence in your heart and saturates you so that every art of you is affected by, and alive with, Him.

Let’s look at that comparison again.

I’ve never been drunk, but I have observed a number of people who have been drunk.

Fun to watch

When you are filled with alcohol, everything is affected by the presence of alcohol: how you think; how you react; what you feel - it’s all affected

Certain things that used to bother you don’t and certain things that normally don’t bother you start to.

Being filled with alcohol removes your inhibitions.

Being filled with the Spirit removes some of your inhibitions.

Throughout Acts, when someone is filled by the Spirit they get an uncanny boldness and courage.

In Acts 2 Peter boldly testifies to Jesus before hostile audience in Acts 2. This is the same Peter who a month before this had denied Jesus 3 times in the space of one hour.

In Acts 4:31 it says the whole church was filled with the Spirit, and they went everywhere in the city proclaiming the gospel.

Stephen in Acts 7 is filled with the Spirit and preaches the gospel boldly before he’s executed.

Acts 4:13 says people who observed all of this were “astonished” at how bold these people were.

These weren’t all type-A loudmouths. They were people that God’s Spirit filled for His mission.

Has that ever happened with you?

Has anyone ever been astonished by your boldness?

You’re so alive with God’s heart and emotions and so aware of His glory in a situation that you forget about your reputation; sometimes even danger.

Because your eyes are so opened to God and the mission

Mike Rhoades

Now let’s see how being drunk and being filled with the Spirit are different.

In the Spirit, you’re not deadened to reality; you’re awakened to reality.

Alcohol dulls your pain. That’s why people like it.

It can reduce your sensitivity to things that hurt you emotionally and physically.

But there’s the tragedy in that: alcohol can’t selectively dull one part of your brain.

It has to do it all. So, when you’re drunk, you can’t feel pain, but you also lose sight, intelligence, awareness, reflexes.

By contrast, the Spirit makes you more alive.

Look at the verses leading up to our text, Ephesians 5:18, “ Pay careful attention, then, to how you live—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time,,e because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit”

See that? Be careful. Be wise. Understanding.

We’re not talking about a dulled consciousness, but an expanded one.

Being filled with the Spirit is about being under the control of, and absolutely alive to, the realities of God in the world.

Fullness with the Spirit is a felt sense of His attributes.

Paul says in Eph 3:19, “and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

To know the love of Christ is to be filled up with the fullness.

The Holy Spirit is more than a doctrine.

When Are We Filled With The Spirit?

In the Greek this word “be filled” is a PRESENT PASSIVE IMPERATIVE meaning “you must continue to be filled with the Spirit.”

This is a command, not an option!

It is the normal state for all believers, not the exception.

This phrase implies that believers are to be available, sensitive and obedient to the Spirit’s forming of Christ in their daily lives.

Believers cannot fill themselves, but must allow the Spirit to have freedom and influence.

Human performance is not the key to effective living but the Spirit (cf. Gal. 3:1–3).

However, believers must volitionally open themselves to the Spirit’s leadership and control on a recurrent basis.

Now, there are two different experiences with the Holy Spirit in the Bible that people get confused a lot of times when it comes to when we are filled with the Spirit

The first is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, listen … this happens at salvation.

People say, “I was saved on this date, but baptized in the Holy Spirit later.” Impossible.

1 Cor. 12:13,“For we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body … we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

Ephesians 1:13, “After that you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

The Holy Spirit was the instrument of your salvation. Titus 3:5, we were saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 12:13, our confession that “Jesus is Lord” is enabled by the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 8:9, Paul says plainly, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He is not His.”

So, it’s impossible to be saved and not be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

But what those times in Acts where someone was saved and the baptized in the Spirit.

For example, Acts 19 … Paul comes upon a group of disciples of John, “We haven’t even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.”

You have to understand what is happening in Acts.

The Great Commission was that God’s salvation was for all peoples of all nations, not just the Jews; and that the Spirit of God would no longer rest upon a temple in Israel but on every believer in Jesus, regardless of their nationality.

For a Jew, this was really hard to believe because for so long God’s presence had resided only in Israel.

So every time in Acts the Spirit breaks into a new group, it is signified by a ceremony: the laying on of hands by the Apostles (showing their endorsement of it) and the speaking of tongues previously unknown to them (which shows God’s endorsement.)

That same ceremony will not be repeated with each person in the new group; but is once for each group.

So, you see it for the Jews in Acts 2; the Samaritans in Acts 8; the Gentiles in Acts 10; and the disciples of John in Acts 19.

Throughout Paul’s epistles, you don’t see this ceremony of laying on of hands for the Spirit or the tongues being repeated.

Space X launch of Dragon capsule carrying American astronauts to space, big event, televised, millions watched

Did you know that on Wednesday Space X launched another rocket to space carrying satellites?

Big celebration for one launch, but not for others

So, the baptism of the Spirit happens one time, when you are saved.

But, while there is one baptism, there are many fillings.

These ought to occur frequently, and that’s what Paul is saying, “Be being filled (constantly, daily) with the Spirit,” with no power for mission and to deal with temptation.

Let me tell you why this is important.

A lot of people, in my experience, obsess about whether or not they have the Holy Spirit, when what they ought to be concentrating on is accessing the Spirit, in confidence, for power in ministry and over temptation.

You have Him!

The question now is, “Does He have you?”

We are to approach God with a sense of confidence, knowing that as we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, His power will flow in our lives.

A lot of people who are looking for the baptism of the Spirit are desiring a good thing.

They really are.

But they need to realize they already have Him and then yield, themselves, in faith and confidence, to His fullness and His presence and His power which is readily available!

How Are We Filled?

Look at our passage again. READ Ephesians 5:18-21

What do you see there? How are we filled with the Spirit:

Verse 18 makes everything clear.

How does a person get drunk with wine?

He drinks and drinks and drinks again, until what he has drunk takes control.

The same principle applies in the spiritual realm.

We must drink spiritual things until we are under the Spirit’s influence.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us the Spirit, and this is what he said in John 7:37–39, “On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and drink.  The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”  He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

Being constantly filled with the Spirit is a matter of constantly drinking.

We are to go to Christ and to drink of him.

We do this in prayer, listening to biblical preaching, studying God’s Word for ourselves, engaging in Christian fellowship, meeting around the Lord’s Table, and in every form of spiritual and devotional exercise.

You are drinking the gospel

The news about your sin

The news about His glorious beauty; but His glorious love

Forgiveness is yours as a gift; not because of what you have earned but because of what Jesus has accomplished for you and given to you as a gift!

As you dwell on that, you are filled.

A word of warning

“Do not quench the Spirit” 1 Thessalonians 5:19

By that I mean if the Holy Spirit is leading you to apologize to someone; to give something away; to do a certain action

You quench Him by saying, “No”.

It’s like throwing water on a fire or the flame of His presence

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” Ephesians 4:30

See the Holy Spirit is a person and he can be saddened or grieved

This happens when we entertain sin in our hearts and lives

J. Oswald Sanders says “grieve” is a term that bespeaks love. An enemy can frustrate you, but you can only be grieved in relation to something that you love. That’s how God’s Spirit feels about us. When you disobey Him, you grieve Him, which has the same effect of quenching Him.

It’s important to say “no” to sin, you’ve got to say “yes” to the gospel and abide in it so that you will be filled with the Spirit.

So?

So, what is the filling of the Spirit?

It is being absolutely saturated with and under the control of, the Holy Spirit; completely alive to God’s beauty and His reality.

When does filling of the Spirit happen?

Well, baptism in the Spirit happens at salvation.

But throughout your life—over and over, daily—you are continually re-filled with the Spirit for mission and to walk with God.

One baptism, many fillings.

Those fillings are no longer dependent on whether you have the Holy Spirit, but whether He has you.

How does filling of the Spirit happen?

By dwelling on the gospel and not quenching or grieving Him, and when you do, re-believing the gospel.

Saying yes to the gospel and no to sin.

I found this quote by Charles Ryrie in one of JD Greears sermons on the Spirit,

The leaders of the Asuza Street revival of 1904, which was a great awakening to the power of the Holy Spirit, and the birth of what is now known as the charismatic movement:

“The solution to the problems of the church today is to solve the individual Christian’s problems, and the solution to these problems is a Person—the Holy Spirit. He is the antidote for every error, the power for every weakness, the victory for every defeat, and the answer for every need. And He is available to every believer, for He lives in his heart and life. The answer and the power have already been given us in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

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