“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
Two weeks ago we began a journey to see how God can take our church from good to great. In Acts Chapter 1, we saw that Jesus commanded his followers to wait for the power that would come upon them when they received the Holy Spirit. But while they waited, they didn’t just sitting around doing nothing.
• They persisted in prayer
• They studied the Scriptures
• They proceeded with preparations
Last week, we began to look at Chapter 2 where the followers of Jesus Christ plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s read that passage again just to refresh our memories.
Read Acts 2:1-21
Last week you’ll remember that we focused on four aspects of the Holy Spirit’s relationship with the followers of Jesus Christ:
HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT RELATES TO US
The first three aspects of that relationship all occur at the moment we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior:
1. We are baptized with Him
2. He seals us
3. He indwells us
All three of those actions are initiated and carried out by God. God never commands us to ask for Him to do any of these three actions, because He has already done that in our lives if we have made a decision to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our lives.
But as you’ll recall, the fourth aspect of our relationship with the Holy Spirit does require our participation in the process:
4. He fills us
As we saw last week, we have a command related to the filling of the Holy
Spirit:
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18 (NIV)
So it seems that since we’ve been given a command, there are some things God expects us to do as part of that process. And that’s where I’d like us to focus this week, because I’m convinced that the way we plug into God’s power, both as a church and as individuals is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
This week I spent some time looking through all the passages that refer to people being filled with the Holy Spirit. Although I’m not sure that I was able to find every such passage, here are the instances I found in the New Testament where people were filled by the Holy Spirit.
• An angel told Zechariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15)
• John’s parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were both filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41, 67)
• Jesus was described as being full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1)
• We saw last week that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). There are later accounts of their filling in Acts 4:31 and Acts 13:52.
• When Peter and John are arrested, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8)
• When the apostles picked the first deacons, they picked men who were full of the Spirit (Acts 6:3, 5)
• When Steven was martyred, he was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55)
• When Barnabas was sent to Antioch, he is described as being filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:24)
• Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit after his Damascus Road conversion (Acts 9:17, 13:9)
Although every one of these experiences is quite different in many ways, there are some common characteristics among these encounters:
ATTRIBUTES OF THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
• It is all God’s work
Every time the New Testament describes a filling of the Holy Spirit, a passive verb is used. That means that the person being filled is not doing the filling him or herself. It is God who does the filling as He chooses. So in that sense, the filling of the Spirit is similar to the baptism, sealing and indwelling of the Spirit – it is not something we can do on our own.
Even when Paul gives the commandment in Ephesians 5, you’ll notice that he uses a passive verb, too:
…be filled
Even though we have a part in the process, the work of filling is still all God’s and we are completely dependent on Him to do that in our lives.
• It is temporary
In the New Testament, the filling of the Spirit seems to be similar to the way the Holy Spirit operated in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit fills an individual or a group of individuals for a specific period of time in order to accomplish a specific purpose. That’s why I take the position that the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was more of a filling than an indwelling.
Perhaps this can best be seen in how the filling of the Spirit operated in the lives of the disciples. In Acts there are three different times that Luke records all the disciples were filled by the Holy Spirit – Acts 2:4, 4:31 and 13:52. If the filling of the Spirit was a one-time occurrence there would have been no need for them to be filled on several different occasions.
Even Paul’s command in Ephesians 5 indicates that the filling of the Spirit is not a one time event. In his command Paul uses the present tense, which in Greek indicates a continuing action. So when Paul writes “be filled with the Spirit”, a better translation would actually be “keep on being filled with the Spirit.”
This is the most significant distinction from the baptism, sealing and indwelling of the Holy Spirit since they are all a permanent, one-time occurrence at the moment of our salvation. In the case of the disciples, all four aspects of our relationship with Holy Spirit, including the filling, all happened very close together, possibly even simultaneously. But even for them, there were at least two additional recorded occurrences of the filling of the Spirit, so it is obvious that this is not a one-time, permanent event.
• The purpose is always for the Word of God to go out as a witness to unbelievers
If you go back and look at each of the instances of the filling of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, you will find that the filling is immediately followed by the Word of God being preached in power to unbelievers in a way that they responded to the message.
That’s exactly what Jesus said would happen:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
Although I can’t be dogmatic about it, it seems to me that when Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit “coming on” the disciples, he was specifically referring to the filling of the Holy Spirit. I say that based on the evidence in the rest of the New Testament. Every time a person or group of people was filled with the Holy Spirit, power came upon them to allow them to be effective witnesses of Jesus Christ.
That is why it is absolutely essential for us a church to be plugged into that power. That’s why it’s so important for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Because that is the only way we can possibly reach others with the Gospel message. We can have all the plans, programs and ministries we want, but without the power of the Holy Spirit that comes from His filling, we will be impotent.
So that raises the important question we need to address this morning:
HOW CAN WE BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
I had someone ask me an interesting question this week. This person asked, “If I’ve already been baptized with, or immersed with the Holy Spirit, why am I not also automatically filled with the Holy Spirit, too?”
That’s a great question, one I hope that I can do justice to this morning. Let me start with a visual illustration that helps me to understand the answer to that question.
[Have a clear pitcher of water (colored with food coloring would be even better)].
“I have here two different containers, or vessels. This pitcher represents the body of Christ, the church, and this glass represents the individual believer. The water in the pitcher represents the Holy Spirit. When a person becomes a believer, we saw last week that he or she is immediately baptized into the body of Christ with the Holy Spirit.
[Take the clear glass and submerge it in the pitcher upside down.]
“Would you all agree that this glass is baptized or immersed in this pitcher of water?” “Would you also agree that it is not filled with the water?” That’s because the glass is full of something else, air, which keeps the water from filling the glass. So what do I have to do in order for this glass to be filled with the water?”
[After people answer, tilt the glass upright so that it fills with water.]
“Did the glass fill itself up with water? No, the glass just allowed me to control it so that the air would be released and the water could then fill the glass.”
So the question we want to answer this morning is this: “how do I allow God to control my life so that the Holy Spirit can fill up my empty vessel?
A good place to start is with the lessons we learned from Acts 1 two weeks ago. I know we reviewed them briefly at the beginning of this message, but they are so important that it won’t hurt to repeat them again. If this is what the early church did to prepare for the filling of the Holy Spirit, then we need to continue to:
• Persist in prayer (Are you praying 10 minutes a week for God to guide our church to discover and obey His purposes, plans and ways for our church?)
• Study the Scriptures
• Proceed with preparations
But there are three other commands related to the Holy Spirit that set forth some conditions that must be present in our lives for us to be ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The first two are stated negatively and the third is a positive command.
1. Do not quench the Holy Spirit
Do not quench the Spirit
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NASB)
The word “quench” is a word that means to extinguish a flame, or to suppress or stifle something. So the translators of the NIV translated this verse like this:
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NIV)
The idea here is that we can keep God from filling us with His Holy Spirit by suppressing or stifling His work in our lives. The Holy Spirit is often pictured as fire. Here in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit is pictured as tongues of fire. We know that fire can be a powerful thing. We can use it to produce energy, give us warmth and cook our food. But if we choose to extinguish the fire, it loses all its power.
The same thing is true of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit brings power. But when we suppress or extinguish the Holy Spirit, we lose the power.
So how do I make sure I don’t quench the Spirit? By yielding to God’s will in my life. I like how Lewis Chafer described that process:
A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue; it is rather a matter of having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life…It is taking the normal and natural position of childlike trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed.
In other words, it is a lifestyle that says “God, I’m willing to be obedient to you, even before I know what you’ll call me to do.” It means that I’m willing to obey everything that God reveals to me in His Word. It means I’m willing to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life, even when it doesn’t make sense.
So how do I do that in practical terms?
• I spend time in God’s Word
• I pray
• I obey what God reveals to me
Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it – it’s exactly what I do while I wait on God. I allow God to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways to me through His Word and through prayer and then I just do whatever God calls me to do at that very moment. That’s how I make sure I don’t quench the Spirit in my life.
On the other hand, if I don’t take time to be in God’s Word on a daily basis, if I don’t take time to pray and seek God’s direction for my life or if I choose not to obey what God is revealing to me, then I quench God’s Spirit and God is not able to fill me with His Spirit.
Remember our illustration of the glass in the pitcher of water? When I quench the Spirit, I fail to empty out my vessel, my life, of that air and so there is no room for God’s Spirit. The air in that glass represents self. And until I put my life in God’s hands and allow Him to empty me of self, there is no room for God’s Spirit to fill my life. I think it would be fair to say that quenching the Spirit is simply a matter of hanging on to self, rather than yielding to what God wants for my life. When I don’t spend time in God’s word, when I don’t pray, when I don’t obey, what I’m really saying to God is “I know how to do it better.” So why would God want to fill a life like that with His Spirit?
2. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30 (NIV)
What a powerful verse this is. The first thing that it reveals to us is that the Holy Spirit is indeed a person and not an “it”. It’s just not possible to grieve an “it”. I know that all of us, being human beings have experienced grief in our lives. When we undergo a loss in our life, our house doesn’t grieve, our car doesn’t grieve, the money in our wallet doesn’t grieve. But we grieve. And the Holy Spirit, because He is a person can grieve.
The other thing that is evident is that the Holy Spirit loves us. J. Oswald Sanders, in his book The Holy Spirit and His Gifts writes:
Grief is a love word. One can anger an enemy, but not grieve him. The words are mutually exclusive. Only one who loves can be grieved, and the deeper the love the greater the grief.”
So the obvious question is, how can we grieve the Holy Spirit? If you look at Ephesians 4:30 in context, you’ll find that it’s in a section where Paul is writing about putting off the old life that is full of sin and putting on the new life of righteousness in Jesus Christ. So it seems pretty obvious that the way we grieve the Holy Spirit is by sinning.
I think parenthood is a pretty good illustration of how the Holy Spirit is grieved when we sin. For those of you here this morning who are parents, you know what I mean. Whenever our kids sin, we may initially react with anger or disappointment, but those emotions turn pretty quickly to grief. We grieve for our children when they do wrong because we know that their sin is going to have a negative impact on their lives. We don’t love them any less, but we certainly hurt deeply for them.
Obviously, all of us grieve the Holy Spirit from time to time. Just because we have accepted Jesus as our Forgive and our Master doesn’t make us immune to sin in our lives. Because we’re human, we will sin. And when we do, it grieves the Holy Spirit and God is unable to fill us with the Holy Spirit.
Let’s go back to the illustration of the pitcher of water and the glass one last time. When I sin, I fill my vessel, my life, up with sin, so there is no room for the Holy Spirit to fill me. Remember that we said that quenching the Holy Spirit is essentially hanging on to self? That’s a pretty good description of what sin is, too. When I sin, I place my own desires and plans ahead of God’s. After all, what’s in the middle of the word “sin” – it’s the letter ‘I’. So if I want to be able to be filled by the Holy Spirit, I have to be able to empty myself of that sin.
What do I do when I grieve the Holy Spirit?
• I confess the sin in my life
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
So if I want God to fill me with His Holy Spirit, I must constantly be evaluating my life. And how do I do that? Through God’s Word and through prayer. And when God reveals any sin in my life, I need to confess it to him so that it will not hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.
3. Live by the Holy Spirit
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Galatians 5:16 (NIV)
Many of you who are familiar with this verse may have learned it in other versions that translate the command here “walk by the Spirit” or “walk in the Spirit.” Although that is a good literal translation of the Greek, the verb “to walk” means more than just the physical act of taking steps. Whenever it is used in the New Testament it carries the idea of the way one lives one’s life. The command is also in the present tense, which we have already seen indicates a continuing action. So perhaps an even better translation would be “keep on living by the Spirit” or “live a life that is characterized by following after the Spirit”.
It’s easy to say “live by the Spirit”, but how do we do that in practical terms? Let’s turn to Paul’s words in Romans 8:
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.
Romans 8:5 (NIV)
So the key to living in the Spirit is to set our minds on what the Spirit desires. And how do we do that? By doing the things that we’ve already talked about several times this morning. By now, I’ll bet you can tell me what I’m going to say. What are the three things we need to do to set our minds on what the Spirit desires?
• Spend time in God’s Word
• Pray
• Obey what God has already revealed
“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
We’ve spent three weeks now in our journey from good to great. And in that time we’ve talked about how to wait on God and how to get plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ve listened to me preach on those topics for over an hour and a half. But here’s the good news! Out of all that material, there are really only four principles in total. Although I hope you’ll remember a little bit more of what we’ve talked about the last three weeks, there are only four things you need to remember and four things you need to do in your lives as a result of these messages:
• Spend time in God’s Word
• Pray
• Obey what God reveals
• Confess my sins
In know that all of us can remember all four of these principles, but I also know that it will be much harder for all of us to practice them faithfully on a daily basis. So let’s pray and commit these things to God and ask Him to help us to move from good to great.
