What does it mean to be filled with joy? How can you tell when someone’s full of joy or happiness? It usually comes out in some way, right? It makes a difference to pretty much everything. Even phlegmatic personalities like me will express it when we’re really happy.
The question I want to explore this morning is, ’What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?’ A few weeks ago we saw that we’re baptised into Christ’s body with the Spirit - so we all have the Spirit. But does that mean we are automatically filled with the Spirit?
Ephesians 5.18 urges us, "Be filled with the Spirit". The Greek means to go on being filled with the Spirit. It’s not just a one time event but a way of living. But, if every believer has the Holy Spirit, why are we commanded to go on being filled? Is it possible for a believer to live a life that isn’t Spirit filled?
Likewise, Gal 5.16 says, "Walk by the Spirit," and talks about the battle between the Spirit and the sinful nature. Is it possible for a Christian to not walk by the Spirit? Yes!
And just as it’s possible to not walk with the Spirit, it’s possible to not be filled with the Spirit, even though we may have the Spirit and be saved.
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
AN EXPERIENCE
Some Christians ask, ’Have you been filled with the Spirit?’ That’s a good question, but it’s not necessarily the best question. See, sometimes that question assumes that ’being filled’ is an event sometimes which involves speaking in tongues or falling down or some sort of visible manifestation.
And of course, very often being filled with the Spirit does start as an experience. That experience doesn’t always look the same. But ideally it happens when we’re saved. Whenever Acts gives us a detailed description of people turning to Christ it involves a manifestation of the Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost the Spirit’s arrival was spectacular enough for the onlookers to think that the disciples were drunk!
In Acts 8 when the Samaritans received Christ the apostles came and laid hands on them to receive the Spirit there was enough happening to pique the interest of Simon the Sorcerer so that he was willing to pay for this ability.
The household of Cornelius, the first gentile convert, and the Ephesian disciples all experience the manifestation of the Spirit when they believed.
And as you read through the New Testament you get the picture that the early churches were charismatic communities. Apart from the obvious church at Corinth, Paul writes to the Galatians about their experience of miracles, the Thessalonians are experiencing prophecy and Timothy received a gift when the elders lay hands on him.
Of course, with the passage of time this radical infilling of the Holy Spirit has become relatively rare in many traditions. We don’t expect it so we simply don’t see it. But I think that, biblically, we can’t deny it.
A WAY OF LIFE
Never-the-less, although being filled with the Spirit may start with an event, it goes much, much further than that. We’re not commanded to have a one off experience. The command is to live a Spirit-filled life. It’s altogether possible, and all too common, to have an experience of the Holy Spirit and then not continue in it.
Living the Spirit-filled life is about living in submission to the Spirit. It’s about walking in repentance - continually rejecting sin and in obedience to God. So Galatians 5.16-17 says, "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature."
And Romans 8.5-8 says, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind controlled by the sinful nature is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
And being filled with the Spirit means living in dependence upon the Spirit. So Romans 8.26 says, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."
In Ephesians Paul prays that we’ll have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God better. He prays that our hearts will be strengthened by the Spirit so we can know Christ’s love.
In fact, in Acts 1.8 Jesus told his disciples to do nothing until they had received power from on high - the promised Holy Spirit.
Do you know we can resist the Spirit? We can quench the Spirit. 1Thess 5.19 warns us not to treat prophecies with contempt - we quench the Spirit by resisting his ministry!
One way we can quench the Spirit is to say ’no’ to the gifts and ministry he wants to pour out on us. And when we approach some of those gifts that are outside of our experience with scepticism or fear or outright stubbornness - well, how would you feel if you wanted to give a gift to someone that you knew would change their life and the lives of people around them and they rejected it?
We quench the Spirit when we walk in disobedience, unforgiveness and sin. We quench the Spirit when we rely on our own resources rather than seeking his power by faith. We quench the Spirit when we say ’no’ to him.
If we want to be Spirit-filled people and a Spirit-filled community we’ve got to be saying ’yes’ to him, continually.
WHY DO I NEED TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?
Why? Why is it so important? What difference does it make? It makes a lot of difference, of course!
[Project image of yacht under sale]
Ever seen a yacht in full sail? The wind just catches that spinnaker and it’s off. Do you know what happens if you set the sail wrong? You’ll still have exactly the same amount of wind, but it won’t fill your sails! And it’s like that for the Christian. We can have the Spirit, but if he’s not filling our sales, not a whole lot is going to happen.
JESUS
Did you know that even Jesus relied on the Spirit in his ministry? Even though the Spirit was with him from birth, it wasn’t until he was filled with the Spirit at his baptism that he started to move in the power or the Spirit.
Let me string some verses together from Luke 3 and 4 to give you an idea.
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (3.21-22).
’Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted’ (4.1-2).
’Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside’ (4.14).
If Jesus, who was God’s son, needed to be filled with the Spirit, how much more do we?
LOVE, JOY, PEACE
From a purely personal point of view, the Spirit filled life is one that’s filled with a bunch of other good stuff as well. The Spirit brings love and joy and peace. In fact, rather than being a one of experience, the Spirit-filled life is meant to be an ongoing experience! That’s not to say our lives will never be marked by sorrow or tragedy, but the general disposition of the Spirit-filled Christian is one of joy and overcoming these things through the Spirit within us.
And that’s got to be attractive, doesn’t it?
GODLINESS
The Spirit filled life is also a life of godliness. When we keep in step with the Spirit we’re living the way God wants us to. When we’re relying on the Spirit we’re finding the power we need to overcome sin and temptation. When we’re seeking to know Christ the Spirit leads us to him.
OUTREACH
And the world needs Spirit-filled people in it. I mean, who do you think’s going to be more effective in reaching the lost? The life submitted to the Holy Spirit, filled with his love and power? Or the person who is pretty much trying to do it by their own efforts - or just doesn’t care? Jesus said that the disciples, and by extension the church, would receive power when the Spirit came on us and we’d be his witnesses. It’s a natural part of the Spirit-filled life. In fact, the Spirit seems to only release certain gifts and signs and wonders in a highly evangelistic setting. I believe that’s s why we hear more about miracles in third world contexts where the gospel is being preached often in the face of stiff opposition.
HEARING FROM GOD
Do you know what God’s vision for the church is?
Acts 2.17-18 says, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."
Do you think maybe God wants his people to be a prophetic community? We’ll prophesy, have dreams, see visions. Friends, we believe that the Bible is God’s authoritative word, but he’s also given us his Spirit and the Scriptures come alive when the Spirit starts to speak to us! But he wants to speak to us through dreams and visions and the prophetic as well. God wants us to hear from him! That’s what the early church looked like, it’s what the church in many places today looks like, it’s what a Spirit-filled community looks like. And it can be what Ellenbrook Baptist Church looks like as well.
But will we receive it?
HOW CAN I BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?
So how do we be filled with the Spirit?
First we need to admit that we’re not there. I mean, how full are we?
[Cup illustration].
If I fill this cup half way up, is that full? Maybe if you’re a cup-half-full kind of person!
How about this, up to the rim? That’s more like it isn’t it?
Do you know what Jesus said?
John 7.38, "Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."
Jesus was describing something more like the cup overflowing, and overflowing, and overflowing…
How full are you? Is your love and joy and passion for Christ leaking on to those around you? Are you hearing God’s voice? Are your sails filled with the wind of God?
The second thing we need to do is to repent of the things that keep the Spirit out. The attitudes and fears that stop us from seeking and receiving his fullness.
Then we need to earnestly seek him.
No revival has ever started without earnest, sacrificial and persistent prayer. Jesus told many parables about the need to pray and not give up. He talked about a widow who kept pestering an uncaring judge until she got justice. He talked about a man who pounded on his friend’s door in the middle of the night until, because of the man’s shameless audacity, he answered and gave him some bread. He talked about asking, seeking and knocking. And he said, "If you then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts to you r children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (Luke 11.13).
God doesn’t want to give us the Spirit, he wants to pour the Spirit out until we overflow. But we have to want him and wanting him means seeking him until he comes!
Here’s the thing, friends. If we’re going to be a Spirit filled community. An effective community that’s winning people to Christ, we’re going to have to get hungry!
Finding a once a month hour long prayer meeting to much bother isn’t going to cut it. Rolling up to church maybe every other Sunday doesn’t say that we’re hungry for God. Hiding behind superficial relationships isn’t going to spur us on.
What gets God’s attention is people who express a genuine hunger for him. The Spirit has freedom to move where there is a desire for him, a submission to him, and expectation of him.
God wants to pour his Spirit out. Do we want to receive him?
