“Be Filled With The Holy Spirit”
A Sermon by Dwight A. Pryor
Delivered at Church of the Messiah
On 7 January 2006.
© 2006. All Rights Reserved.
This morning I want to share with you what, hopefully, will be fresh insights into familiar passages of Scripture. But before I do, I want to pray. I invite you to join with me, directing your hearts and your minds toward our Father in Heaven.
“Abba, we come to you b’shem Yeshua, in the name of Jesus. We come with grateful hearts, with praise and thanksgiving upon our lips. Indeed it is Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection that secure for us eternal life and the gift – the very promise of the Father – of the Holy Spirit. So we ask, Father, that in our time today, as we look into the Scripture inspired by your Spirit, that your Spirit indeed would give the illumination – for the lifting up of the name of Jesus and for the building up of the congregation, including this congregation, Church of the Messiah. May all that we do here be done in a way that truly honors You and that truly sanctifies us by the presence of your Spirit. We shall give You praise in all things, at all times, now and forever more. Amen.”
I hope you have your Bibles this morning, this Shabbat day of such beauty. We want to remember the Lord and His Spirit, and to do so through the words of Jesus found in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28.
This very familiar passage of Scripture, typically called the Great Commission, unfortunately for most of the Church is the Great Omission – because we fail to follow, to heed, to fulfill this final commandment of Jesus to his followers.
Notice that Yeshua says in verse 18: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This is a shocking statement for any devout Jew to make – since all authority is God’s. But Jesus says that all authority has now been given to him. We know from Philippians chapter two that the very name of God, the “name above every name,” has been bestowed upon Yeshua, that at the name of Jesus, “every knee will bow and tongue confess” that there is but one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus the Messiah.
Then Jesus says (as least in most translation, and probably in yours): “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The first point I want to make is that to understand the impact and the import of this famous text you must be very clear about the following: there is but one commandment here, one imperative in the Greek. There are not several imperatives: “go,” “make disciples,” “baptize,” “teach.” There is only one, and that is: make disciples.
The word “go,” the word “baptize,” the word “teach” – all these are participles. Literally the text says, “In your going … make disciples … baptizing them … and teaching them …”
So we must be clear what the imperative verb is here. We must understand what the command is that everything else relates to and flows from. There are not multiple commands; there is one essential command: make students, make learners, make disciples (talmidim in Hebrew) of all the Gentiles or the nations.
That disciple-making process was initiated of course with the Jewish people, through the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. Then his apostle, Paul, went to synagogues to present this “gospel of God concerning His Son” to the Jews first, as well as to the Gentiles.
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The second point I want you to think about in this regard is that the process of fulfilling this commandment is possible only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Think about how the apostles and disciples of Yeshua would have heard these words of the Lord some 40 days after his resurrection and just before he was to ascend to the place of power from which he would outpour the promised Holy Spirit. They are about to receive that promise of the Father. Jesus already has spoken to them about this, so they are anticipating the coming reality of the fullness of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Jesus says, “I want you to make disciples as you go; in the process of baptizing and teaching them, I want you to do so in the fullness of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Undoubtedly when they heard this tri-fold formulation (it’s not a formula, it’s a formulation) of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, their attention was peaked by the inclusion of the person of the Holy Spirit.
“In your going make disciples!” We can fulfill this commandment of our Lord – we can make disciples of Jesus in the full New Testament context – only when we have in view the full revelation of God as Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
This three-fold designation often is taken as a formula to be used at baptism. But it is not really prescriptive, as a formula; it is descriptive of the reality that the disciples are entering into.
The idiom behind baptizing “in/into the name of” is the Hebrew concept of l’shem, which means “with reference to” or “for the sake of.” “Father and Son and Holy Spirit” is not a formula that one must recite upon the occasion of immersion. It is a description of the reality that through Jesus, the Son, and his atoning death, burial and resurrection, we are brought into a relationship with the One True Living God, the Father. And from the Father proceeds the gift, the promise, of the Holy Spirit who now indwells us.
In every other instance in the New Testament when we hear about baptism, it is done “into the name of” Jesus. There is not a contradiction here, because the issue is not which formula do you use. The issue is: what is the reality you are entering? Our immersion is done Adon Yeshua L’shem, “with reference to” or “in the name of” Jesus the Lord – because it is Jesus who by his death, burial and resurrection secures for us eternal life and brings us into relationship with the Father, who then gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. The emphasis in Matthew 28:19 then is upon a descriptive reality, not upon a prescriptive formula.
The point is this: to fulfill the command to make disciples – who will become like their Rabbi, their Master, Yeshua – it requires the fullness of the Godhead. It requires relationship with the Father and the power of His presence in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Said another way, New Testament discipleship is distinctively trinitarian, if you will. It is accomplished in relation to the fullness of the One God as Father and Son and Holy Spirit. And that is made possible because Yeshua became our Passover Lamb, and his sacrifice brings us into an intimate relationship with the Father. Through the Son we draw nigh to the presence of the Father from whom we have been separated by our sins, and He bestows upon us the precious promise of the Holy Spirit, a promise going all the way back to the covenant with Abraham.
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There is an ancient Jewish-Christian document (found in a Syriac version, dating to the 5th or 6th century) that has an interesting parallel to the Great Commission. Listen to it; it is fascinating.
“Jesus said to his companions, ‘Act as you have seen me act, instruct people in
accordance with the instructions I have given you, and be for them what I have
been for you.’”
Interesting, isn’t it? This version of Yeshua commissioning his disciples highlights an important point. He commands us to “be for others what I have been for you.” Now my question to you is: How is that possible? How is it possible for us to be to others what Jesus has been to us?
Go with me to Ephesians chapter one – to a text that has long intrigued me and that I often have cited as pointing to the fullness of Jesus’ understanding of what the Church is to be. Today I can but draw your attention to it, beginning at verse 19. Paul is speaking of …
“the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to
the working of his great might that he worked in the Messiah when he raised him
from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he [God] put all
things under his [Jesus’] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Notice that last phrase. The Church as the body of Messiah is to be “the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Colossians tells us that the fullness of God, of Deity, indwelt the man Jesus of Nazareth. Even so, now, the fullness of Jesus is to indwell his body in the earth today – i.e., the Church.
The word fullness here is that wonderful Greek word pleiroma. If we are to be the fullness, the pleiroma of Jesus, who is the fullness, the pleiroma of the Godhead, we must ask: How is this possible? When Jesus says to us, “Be for others what I have been for you,” again we must ask: How is this possible? I would suggest that the answer is this: We can be the fullness of Jesus only if we are filled with the Spirit of Jesus. Said another way, we can be the fullness of Him who fills all in all only if we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
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This same word, pleiroma, in a verb form, is found in Ephesians 5:18. Paul states the classic imperative for Christians – those who are to be Christ-like – when he commands, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit!,” We must be filled with and operate in the fullness of the Holy Spirit to have any hope of becoming the fullness of Yeshua.
Let’s remember that everything the man, Jesus, did he did in the power of the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Spirit in the virgin Mary’s womb. He was anointed of the Spirit at his baptism. He was empowered of the Spirit in the wilderness. He conducted his ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, casting out demons, for example, by “the finger of God” – i.e., “the Spirit of God.” Jesus was raised from the dead by the Spirit of holiness, as we read in Romans chapter one. He then ascended to the place of power at the right hand of God, and now pours out the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon his followers.
The mission of the man Jesus was to raise up many disciples; this now is our co-mission with him. And the only way we can come into the fullness of that Great Comission is in the fullness of the Spirit, which has been given to us by the Father, which has been made possible by the Son’s faithfulness unto an atoning death on the cross.
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Go with me, please, to John’s Gospel, chapter 14. Let’s begin with verse 15. Yeshua says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper …” Now your translation may have alternate terms, such as Advocate or Counselor. Some translations use the word Paraclete because the Greek word here is parakletos.
“I will give you another Helper, Comforter, Companion, Advocate – this Paraclete – and He will be with you forever.” Notice it says, “I will give you another…” Jesus has been the Advocate, the Comforter of the disciples; he has been their Helper. Now he says, “I’m going to give you another Comforter.”
Even though there is distinction here, there is unity of identity as well – because Jesus adds, “I will come to you” (15:18) Somehow in the coming of this Paraclete, this Counselor, this one who will be our Advocate, who comes along side to assist, to help, to comfort us – somehow this is Jesus himself! Paul makes this revelation explicit when he says that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Messiah, the Lord, within us (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
“I will give you another Comforter to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” (This terminology, “Spirit of truth,” was often used among the sectarians at Qumran. It was one of their favorite descriptions of the Holy Spirit – a Spirit of truth that would purify the repentant and expose the wicked.) “…the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
Verse 25: “These things I have spoke to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, [the Paraclete, the Counselor, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit], whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
You may recall Jesus saying to his disciples, whom he sends out in his authority to announce the in-breaking Kingdom, “When you come before counsels have no fear, for the Holy Spirit will reveal to you what to say.” He was referring to the fact that the Holy Spirit will be the one who will bring to their remembrance what the Rabbi Jesus taught. So their confidence will be that the Holy Spirit will come along side of them, will be an advocate for them, and will instruct them and comfort them, even in a stressful situation.
But the bigger point in John 14:17 is that Yeshua is promising to his disciples not only an intimate but literally an indwelling relationship of the Holy Spirit with them: “…for he dwells with you and will be in you.” Jesus says in effect, “Because I am going to depart, I am sending the Comforter, the Paraclete, to you; he will be for you what I have been for you. Not only will he be with you, he will be in you.”
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This revelation of the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit had to be utterly staggering to Yeshua’s disciples. As devout Jews, they knew the Jewish Scriptures, where we read of the Holy Spirit coming upon people only in unique circumstances or upon exceptional individuals. This was a relatively rare occurrence. Jesus, however, is pro-mising the Spirit to his disciples; they are not exceptional men but common people, such as fishermen and tax collectors.
Within the Hebrew Scriptures, we see the Holy Spirit coming upon exceptional people such as Moses. And Moses, in Numbers 11, imparts the Holy Spirit that is upon him to the 70 elders. The Holy Spirit came upon these 70 elders “and they prophesied” (the same language Luke uses in Acts chapter 2). The Holy Spirit came upon distinguished, powerful judges, such as Gideon, Jeptha, and Samson. The Spirit came upon them and empowered them for their divinely appointed tasks. The Spirit came upon King Saul (I Samuel 11:6) and upon David (I Samuel 16:13). The Holy Spirit came upon David “powerfully” or “mightily,” says the Scripture.
The Pharaoh of Egypt says of Joseph (in Genesis 41:38), “Joseph is he in whom it Spirit of God dwells.” The Holy Spirit anoints even the artist, Bez’alel. He was “filled with the Spirit of God” in his artistic abilities to make the Ark of the Covenant and cover it inside and out with gold, under the leading of the Spirit (Exodus 35:31).
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Jesus’ promise of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit is something his apostles would have understood from Scripture to be part of the fulfillment of end-time prophecy – that which God revealed by His Spirit to the prophets of old. Following Yeshua’s death, burial and resurrection that promise was fulfilled.
Go with me to Acts chapter two. The promised Paraclete comes even as tongues of fire resting upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and they prophesy. The Holy Spirit came upon the 70 elders in Numbers 11 and they prophesied. Now the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples of Jesus and they prophesy – they speak prophetically under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Notice carefully what the apostle Peter says in Acts 2:32. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit …” We see again the tri-personal character of God referenced: the risen Jesus comes to the right hand of the Father, the Father gives to him the promised Holy Spirit, whom Jesus now pours out.
“…he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” This language of “seeing and hearing” evokes the events of Exodus 19. When God came down on Mount Sinai to give the Torah to Israel, Scripture records that the people “saw and heard” the sounds. The rabbis ask how could they “see” the sounds? They answer: the Word of God turned into a holy fire – a fire that divided into 70 tongues of flame. The Spirit of God spoke the opening words of the Ten Commandments in 70 languages so that all the nations could hear the Lord God.
Let’s be clear about what Peter, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is preaching here: that Jesus is raised up by God; that he is exalted to the right hand of God, the place of power; that he receives from the Father the promised Holy Spirit; and that He now, from this exalted place at the right hand of God, pours out that Spirit upon his disciples.
The Apostle understands, as does the early church, that this event inaugurates the end times. He quotes the prophet Joel. Look at verse 16.
“This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. ‘In the last days it shall be,
God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old
men shall dream dreams; even on servants, in those days I will pour out my
Spirit, and they shall prophesy.’”
The first Jewish church understood that with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit the eschaton had broken into present time. In other words, that which was prophesied for the last days had now broken into the present days in the work, the power, the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is poured out because Jesus has been exalted.
A similar idea, that the Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified, is found in John chapter seven. Jesus says, “If any man thirsts let him come to me. Let him who believes in me drink. For out of me shall flow rivers of living water.” “This,” says John, “he spake of the Spirit which was not yet” (7:39).
Obviously the Holy Spirit existed already, but the Spirit had not yet been poured out as living waters issuing forth from Messiah. That is now happening, declares Peter, and it is a sure sign that the new covenant has begun and that the end of the ages has broken in upon present time.
Being filled with the Spirit is now a universally available experience, not just for exceptional individuals. Indeed it is the birthright of all who are “born again,” or “born from above.” Jesus says explicitly in John chapter three, “You must be born of the Spirit.” It is the Spirit that gives the new birth, and it is the Sprit that then becomes the breath of life in the new-born individual.
Just as in the natural, a child is born and then breath has to enter into that child for it to live and grow. Even so, when we are born again in a process of spiritual regeneration, the Holy Spirit is that regenerative power that gives us the breath of God that brings the life of God. Then we enabled to grow and mature in the grace and knowledge or our Lord and Savior Jesus.
In Yeshua, therefore, the Spirit of God has become universally available to all believers as an indwelling presence, as a dynamic power, as an anointing for prophetic mission. How radical this must have been to the apostles! It is no wonder that Paul, in his letters to various congregations, emphasizes over and over again the importance of the Holy Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit is fully present and yet there is a greater fullness yet to come. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as an arrabon, a “down payment” or “guarantee” – the first fruits of that which is to come. You can look up the Scriptures – 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, 2 Corinthians 5:5, Ephesians 1:14 – in which the Holy Spirit is spoken of as an “earnest”.
The Apostle Paul declares that we can be confident that the fullness of God’s promise and prophetic prediction will come to consummation because we already have the down payment on that final installment. And the down payment is the presence, the person, of the Holy Spirit indwelling us – who is none other than God Himself, none other than the life-giving Spirit of the risen Jesus, the last Adam.
We see this language used in Ephesians chapter one. Let’s begin with verse 11.
“In Messiah we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Messiah might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salivation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee…”
Do you see the word “guarantee”? Maybe your translation has “down payment” or “pledge” or “earnest.” Paul is saying that the reception of the Holy Spirit not only is the present indwelling of God, but it is earnest money for a final pay off. And when does the final pay off come? With the resurrection of the dead. And how are we raised from the dead? In the power of the Holy Spirit – so powerful that even the universe itself will be renewed after the image of its creator.
We have been “…sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” The life of the Spirit is always to the praise of the Father’s glory.
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Since we have received this great promise, there is one overwhelming imperative in the Christian life. Paul states it emphatically in Galatians chapter five. The essence of the Christian halakhah, the Christian way of walking, is not that we love one another. There is something even more foundational than that – because we know that love itself is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
What would that be? It is found in Galatians 5:16: “I say, walk by the Spirit!”
If we walk by the Spirit, we love. We humble ourselves. We make every effort to build up the congregation, to do that which leads to shalom. We prefer one another. We sacrificially give of ourselves for the sake of others, like Messiah. But the only way we can be the fullness of him who fills all in all is to have the fullness of his Spirit indwelling, empowering, leading, and instructing us in the way of truth and the way of the Lord.
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Notice Paul’s comments in Galatians chapter three. They shows how foundational, how crucial, is the reality of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant context. Paul is in a dispute with some who are urging the believers in Galatia in effect to become proselytes to Judaism – i.e., to be circumcised. He says in essence, “Hey. Here’s the bottom line. Let me ask you just one thing.” In other words, when you burn off all the excess and the fluff and get down to the core reality, this for Paul is the defining moment of the Christian life. Galatians 3:2: “I ask you one thing: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Torah or by the hearing of your faith?”
The paramount issue for Paul is the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Please do not misunderstand, as the Church so often does. The Torah was written by the finger or the Spirit of God. It is meant for life, and where the Spirit is there is life. But the very Torah that pointed Israel toward God’s life did not bring Israel to the fullness of that life because of the struggle with the sarx, the “flesh” or sinful nature. It is not as if the Torah failed, Paul explains very explicitly in Romans; the failure was due to the sinful nature. The fullness of the Spirit had not yet come. Even though the Torah points us to life, because of the sarx we fall short of the mark; and thereby the Torah that is meant for life becomes the very instrument of our judgment. The Torah decrees for instance that you shall not murder; but if you do murder, then you are judged by the Torah and condemned in your sin.
The overriding issue for Paul then is: How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Said another way, How did you enter into the new covenant promised by Jeremiah and Ezekiel? Did you get there – did any of us get there – by the works of the Torah? No.
Paul is not opposed to the Torah, but in this polemical setting he is drawing attention to the centrality of the gift of the Holy Spirit. In a similar way the apostle Peter declares, “We also, like the Gentiles, were saved by faith in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 11:17). As a devout Israelite, he was absolutely astonished when he personally witnessed the Spirit of God being poured out upon the Gentiles at Cornelius’ house in Caesarea.
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So the new reality, the new age, that dawned with the risen Lord Jesus – the promised eschaton that entered into present time – is to be found in the person, the power, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This is the reality that defines and distinguishes the Christian life, the Christian walk of faith from all others: the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospels, in the book of Acts, and in Paul’s letters the witness is the same: the presence of the Spirit is the irreducible proof of our Christian faith and the indispensable power in our Christian life.
You must realize that at this point in the emerging Church the Holy Spirit was not an article of dogma nor a mere theological dictum. The Spirit was the personal, transforming presence of God that was encountered and received, accompanied by what the New Testament calls charismatic phenomena of a variety of sorts. But by the time of the Apostle’s Creed, some two, three, or four centuries later, the Holy Spirit was reduced to a one-sentence article of propositional truth: “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”
By what is not said we see already a diminishing occurring in the Holy Spirit’s reality. In the Church after the first century, the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit became a dogma of faith; and the gift of the Spirit was conveyed sacramentally rather than encountered experientially. The Spirit was conveyed independent of the individual’s faith, ex opere operato (in the doing of the thing), by a priest at the sacrament of baptism. Whether a person had any transforming encounter or experience of the Spirit, or was even born of the Spirit, was immaterial. If you were baptized by an authorized priest of the true Church (whether Roman Catholic or Orthodox), the gift of the Spirit was declared to be yours.
When the infilling of the Holy Spirit was reduced to a sacrament conferred ritually, apart from faith, repentance or conscious reception; and when, even beyond that, baptism began to be applied to infants, the reality of the Spirit’s indwelling presence and transforming power diminished in the Church. Unlike for the first Church, the Holy Spirit was no longer the personal, empowering presence of God, transforming lives, and manifesting Himself in a diversity of gifts and fruit.
For the apostles and disciples of Yeshua, the reception of the Holy Spirit was experienced as a dynamic power in their lives and was the irreducible core of what it meant to be a Christian. If you received the Spirit you were a Christian, if you had not received the Spirit you were not a Christian. How can anyone be like Christ – when Christ did everything he did by the Spirit – if they have not received the promised Spirit and are not walking by the power of the Spirit? “You must be born of the Spirit,” says Jesus, and you must walk by the Spirit if you are to be Christ-like, i.e., be a Christian.
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In both the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish tradition, the Anointed one, the Messiah, is seen to be the Spirit-bearer, or Spirit-baptizer. Consider Isaiah 11, Isaiah 42, and Isaiah 61: “This is my servant, my chosen one upon whom I have put my Spirit …” “The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news …”
The very word Messiah, Mashiach, comes from the word for anointing; and the anointing upon the Messiah refers to the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who can baptize in or pour out the Holy Spirit. (These are different metaphors for the same spiritual reality.)
John the Baptist said, “I baptize (immerse) you in water, but the Messiah when he comes will baptize (immerse) you in the Holy Spirit.” The Messiah will inaugurate the New Covenant, which will be accompanied by the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel explains that the new covenant will involve God putting His Spirit in us so that we might walk according to His instruction (36:26-27). Indeed, the Spirit of God now in us, declares Paul, enables us to walk in such a way as to fulfill the righteous requirements of the Torah (Romans 8:4).
Be very careful about putting the Spirit and the Law in opposition. There is no opposition. The Torah is given by the Spirit and we fulfill it by walking in the Spirit. The opposition always is between the Spirit and the sarx, the flesh, the inclination to selfishness, self-centeredness and sin.
Paul declares in I Corinthians 12:13 that to be in the Body of Messiah is to be immersed in and to drink of the one Spirit. Again, these are two linguistic metaphors for the same spiritual reality. The language we often use, that someone is a “Spirit-filled” Christian, would be odd and redundant to first-century believers. Is there any other kind? Everyone who is of Christ is filled with the Spirit!
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For our final text today, please return to Ephesians chapter five. “Be filled with the Spirit” (5:18) is the imperative given to each of us and to us all.
I have taught many times on this fabulous passage, rightly understood. The discussion about husbands and wives actually begins, not with verse 22, as indicated in many Bibles, but with verse 21: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Messiah.”
Only then are wives exhorted to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and husbands to love their wives as Messiah loves the Church. It is one of the most stunning passages in all the New Testament that counters false male dominance. The supreme irony is that much of the Church, in its male leadership and not walking by the Spirit, has used this very text to subjugate women. The text speaks to exactly the opposite. We are to love our wives as Messiah loves – as a servant, with a sacrificial kind of love. Our wives are voluntary to adapt themselves to us in love and to respect us – which they will do of course if we love like Messiah loves.
This text does not say, “Husbands subject your wives to yourselves in all things.” Any man who uses it in that way is flying in the face of the text and operating in direct contradiction to the spirit of the text.
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But, there is a point here that we must see before closing because it is vital. The truth of the matter is, this passage does not really begin with verse 21.
Again, we must know where the imperative verb is, where the actual command is in this text. In fact there is but one command in this passage, followed by four participles. “Submitting” to one another (verse 18) is a participle; it is not an imperative. Where then is the command?
It is found in verse 18: “Don’t get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”
We fail to appreciate just how common drunkenness was in pagan Roman society of the first century, leading to excess, to dissolution, to extravagance and dissipation. This kind of reminds us of our society today, doesn’t it? We spend money extravagantly; we want sensory experiences excessively.
Paul says, do not be given to drunkenness, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the command. This is the imperative. Everything that follows, flows from this command.
Only when you are filled with the Spirit will you be “addressing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart; giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of Jesus the Messiah” (5:19-20). Only when you are filled with the Holy Spirit will you truly be “submitting to one another out of reverence for Messiah” (5:21).
All of these are participles – “addressing,” “singing,” “giving thanks,” and “submitting.” The only command here is “Be filled with the Spirit!”
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Three things you must understand this about this command – “Be filled with the Spirit.”
Number one: “Be filled” is a plural imperative. The command applies to all Christians.
Number two: “Be filled” is a present tense of continuing action. This does not speak of a one-time event in the past. It speaks of an ongoing reality in the now. It is a present verb of continuous action; not a once-for-all reception of the Spirit, but a continuous, dynamic process of being filled again and again with the Spirit of God.
Number three: “Be filled” is in the passive voice. This is not something that you do so much as something you receive. It is Divine action that fills you. Of course, you must receive the Divine infilling. You can reject the Holy Spirit, or you can repent and receive.
Paul is saying to all of us: Continue being filled with the Holy Spirit with which you began your Christian walk. Allow yourselves to be filled again and again. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit right now, in an ongoing way.
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Personally, I do not think the terminology prevalent among Pentecostals and Charismatics about a “second and subsequent work” of the Holy Spirit – first regeneration, then the baptism in the Holy Spirit – does justice to the witness of Scripture. Yes, we are to be immersed in the Spirit, not as a second act of God’s grace, but as an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. “Be being filled again, and again, and again, as you were meant to be at the beginning” is Paul’s exhortation.
It is true that many of us were not “baptized in” the Holy Spirit in the dynamic New Testament way at the beginning of our Christian walk – often because we are part of a church tradition that denies that ongoing reality. But for the first church, the reality was just that: believers were born again of the Spirit and baptized or immersed into the ongoing power of the indwelling Spirit. They were filled at the beginning, and now Paul encourages them to go on being filled, again and again.
There are many things in our Christian lives, including husbands loving wives like Christ, that cannot be accomplished in the fullness of Jesus just by will power. They can be accomplished only in the fullness and the ongoing in-filling process of the Holy Spirit. In truth, the most powerful work of the Spirit often comes not in ‘trying’ but in ‘crying’ – when we come to the end of ourselves and cry out in repentance and contriteness for God by His Spirit to fill us, to lead us, and to transform us.
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In Matthew 28 we saw how important it is to recognize the imperative, if we are to understand the focus of Jesus’ commission. The imperative is to “make disciples” – in our going, in our baptizing, in our teaching.
In Ephesians it is equally important that we understand what the imperative is. The imperative is not “to submit.” It is not “to sing.” It is not “to give thanks” It is not “to rejoice” in all things. These all are by-products of the imperative: Be being filled with the Holy Spirit, again and again. Only then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, can the Church come into the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
As Paul prayed for the Church, so I pray for you:
“May the God of shalom himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit,
soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who
calls you is faithful. He surely will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
We all have a call upon our lives, individually and corporately. I want to say to you that God is faithful. He surely will do it. But He can do it in you only in the same way He did it in His Son, Jesus — in the fullness of the Spirit. “Walk ye in the Spirit!” Be filled in the Holy Spirit, so that the God of peace Himself can sanctify you completely and your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
“Father, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord.
“Ruach Adonai, Spirit of God, Ruach ha-Kodesh, Holy Spirit, come. May we receive more. May the Holy Spirit permeate every dimension of our lives. May we yield more and more to the presence, the direction, and the power of Your Spirit. May we drink deeply of the living waters.
“You are the same yesterday, today and You will be tomorrow. That which was the experience of first-generation believers can also be the reality of a 21st-century congregation. Your Spirit is present. May we walk by the Spirit and may we be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit, which is our birthright through Jesus Christ our Lord, and which is to the praise of Your glory, Father. Amen.”