True Spirituality Series
Filled with the Spirit
Ephesians 5:15-21
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
It hasn’t happened in a while, but I’ve done it before. I’ve ran out of gas. Years ago, I can remember more than once coasting into a gas station just as I ran out of gas. A year or so before we moved here I ran out of gas on the East-West Toll Way just west of Chicago. I knew I was low on gas. I fully intended to fill up before I headed back from a meeting about a forty-five minute drive from home. But I forgot. Not until I was out on the six lane expressway in the middle of traffic and my car started to sputter, did I remember my gas. Too late! I managed to coast to the side of the road. No gas. No cell phone. I hadn’t a clue what I would do next.
No sooner had the car rolled to a stop than my guardian angel pulled in behind me. He was in the form of a big white toll way emergency truck. I didn’t even have to get out of my car. I explained my problem. The driver put five gallons of gas in my car, gave me a voucher and an envelope to mail in my payment for the gas and sent me on my way.
That’s a good picture to keep in the back of our minds as we explore this text. The human soul doesn’t work well on empty. Some of us have tried. The solution to an empty soul is to “be filled with the Spirit.” I want to ask and answer two questions that are bound up in this text: What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How does it happen? Both questions are important.
First, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? The short answer—to be filled with the Spirit means to be filled with God. That’s what Paul had prayed for a couple of chapters earlier. Remember that benediction we have used so often to close our services, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more ….” That’s the end of Ephesians 3. The prayer comes just before that, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (3:15-19).
Understanding this phrase “be filled with the Spirit” requires that we get a handle on two terms. First is the term SPIRIT. A lot of folk are confused by the Bible’s talk about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Make no mistake, we only worship one God. But this God has chosen to reveal himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three are God. All are the same God only viewed from slightly different perspectives. The Father emphasizes the power and authority of God. The Son reveals God in human form. The creator visited this planet in the person of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. The Spirit demonstrates the nearness of God. In the Spirit, God reaches into our lives invisibly, yet powerfully and personally. The Spirit of God is not new. But after Jesus came, the Spirit began a new kind of work.
In the Old Testament God promised that someday, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isa. 44:3). Or as Ezekiel put it, “ I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:26-27).
That’s what Jesus said he came to make happen. On the night before the cross, Jesus told his disciples that something new was about to take place. “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:5-7). Earlier Jesus made this startling statement, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” In the next verse, John adds this word of explanation, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:38-39).
God kept that promise. Fifty days after the cross, the Apostles announced, “God raised Jesus to life, made him Lord of all, and poured out the promised Holy Spirit.” “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:36-38). That long promised new day had begun. From that day on, the work of the Spirit of God would be from the inside out in every person who personally received Jesus Christ as the Savior and leader of life.
So the Spirit is the presence of God himself working inside the life of the believer. So what does that expression in our text “be filled with the Spirit” mean? The surrounding verses explain it.
Note the contrast. “Don’t be drunk with wine … but be filled with the Spirit.” Most of us know what drunkenness looks like even if we’ve never known what it feels like. It’s not a pretty picture. I personally know next to nothing about the topic of alcoholic drink as long as you don’t count cough syrup or cold medicine. Now Rose, that’s another story! Let me explain.
Years ago we had a dog given to us, a light brown poodle mix named Brandy. He was named before a friend gave him to us. About that same time, I was speaking out of town at a church convention. A preacher friend and his wife who lived in the town where the meeting was taking place offered to have us stay with them.
That evening Stuart and Linda escorted us to the guest room. They laid out towels, blankets, and asked if we needed anything else. Then Linda said in passing, “I hope you will be warm enough. If not, we can light the fire place.” Rose responded, “I’m sure this will be fine.” Then she added without thinking, “Although, I am used to having Brandy to keep my feet warm!” Referring of course, to our poodle that slept on the foot of our bed! Not knowing this, Linda’s face turned red and stammered a quick, “Oh, all we have is Diet Seven-Up!”
Here’s why this text contrasts being drunk and “being filled with the Spirit.” We all know what a DUI is, a citation for driving under the influence. Hopefully, everyone in this room knows better. Current law says that .08 blood alcohol will get you in a heap of trouble. Why is DUI bad? Because alcohol affects everything you do. Reaction time, behavior, perceptions—everything is altered to some degree when a person is “under the influence.”
God’s will is that we be so filled with his presence that we live under the influence. When we do, everything is affected. Being filled with the Spirit does not mean getting more of the Holy Spirit. It means the Spirit getting more of us.
The text says drunkenness leads to debauchery. That’s a rather odd term that we don’t use much. Some translations render it “excess.” It carries the idea of wasteful. We understand the concept. Our culture uses the term “wasted” to refer to some who is drunk. Note the contrast. Drunkenness leads to waste. Being filled with the Spirit leads to the opposite.
The text outlines three results of being filled with the Spirit. Some try to define “Spirit fullness” by emotion, ecstatic speaking, or other eccentric behavior. That’s not what this text describes. Here “being filled with the Spirit” has three observable effects. It affects words, attitudes, and relationships. “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” Negativity, criticism, and fear are replaced with joy, encouragement, and hope. “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Greed gives way to gratitude. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Servant-mindedness replaces self-will.
To be filled with the Spirit is to experience the fullness of God in our lives. It means to live under the influence of God in every area of our lives. How does that happen? That’s the other question. Our text offers several hints. I don’t want to get too technical here, but the grammar of this verse is important.
First, “be filled with the Spirit” is an imperative or command. True spirituality will only happen when you want it to happen. Experiencing the fullness of God in your life is not something that will sneak up on you when you least expect it. The Lord allows you to decide how close you want to be to him. The text says this is God’s will. Picture it like this. The Lord says, “I vote that your life be lived totally under my influence.” He then says, “How do you vote.” It takes two to make it happen.
Secondly, “be filled with the Spirit’ is a passive imperative. It is a command. We can ask for it, but we can’t make it happen. This is a work of God. We are not self-made people. No amount of religious effort, spiritual discipline, or self-help advice will develop the life God wants and we desire. Only He can do it when we ask.
Third, the phrase in our text is a second person plural imperative. That means that what is described in this passage is not some special relationship or experience reserved for super Christians, a special holy elite, or saints and holy men. This is a description of the normal Christian life. Remember that prayed in Ephesians 3. “I pray that you … may have power, together with all the saints… —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”
The Holy Spirit is at work in every believer’s life. In fact, if he isn’t, then you’re not a Christian, no matter how religious you are! Jesus said a person can’t enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the Spirit. The New Testament says we were born again when we heard, believed and obeyed the Word of God (1 Peter 1:22-25). Earlier in Ephesians, Paul says, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit…” (Eph 1:13). In Acts 2, Peter promises that forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit comes when a person comes to Christ (Acts 2:38). Romans 8:9 says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
The Christian life begins with the Holy Spirit. The Christian life grows and develops as the Holy Spirit works in our lives. It is the fruit of the Spirit growing from the inside out that makes our Christian life a joy for us and those who know us. The Lord wants to influence every area of your life. No one in this room is exempt from this plan of God.
A fourth grammatical note—this is a present tense command. In the language the New Testament was written in, this means “being filled with the Spirit” is an on-going, not a once and for all experience. It doesn’t happen once and then you forget about it. It has to happen over and over again. Why? As one old preacher explained, “We leak!”
None of us are perfect. We are still human beings who face temptation and sometimes stumble and fall. To “be filled with the Spirit” means to repeatedly come back for more. We must repeatedly turn parts of our lives over to the will of God to be lived under the influence of the Spirit.
This is the will of God for your life. “Be filled with the Spirit.” Anyone want that in your life today? I like the way the late Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, explained the process. He called it “spiritual breathing.” Bright outlined two steps to the Spirit-filled life.
The first is to breathe out. We can’t inhale fresh oxygen until we have exhaled the stale air that fills our lungs. The first act of “being filled with the Spirit” is to empty what’s already filling up our lives.
Breathing out is the act of confession. It requires letting go of what’s crowding out the Spirit’s influence in our lives. Let’s do that right now. Bow your head and close your eyes. Silently, in your own words, hand over to God those things in your life that are standing in the way of his influence. It may be sins, habits, relationships, attitudes. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Once we have exhaled, we are ready to inhale. We breathe in by asking the Lord to do what he has already said he wants to do. Jesus said, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13). Simply pray, “Lord, take control of my life. Make your influence and power felt in everything I do. I want to be filled with your Spirit. I want to live under your influence.”
Ask and you shall receive. That’s the promise of God.
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
