"The Spririt-Filled Life"

The Spirit-Filled Life

Acts 1:1-9

A few years ago in the magazine Fortune, there was an editorial in which these words appeared: “In days like these, what we of the world need is to hear a word from the Lord. We look to the church for that word, and all we hear is the echo of our own voice.”

What a tragedy! The world is looking to hear a word from God, but all they’re hearing is us playing back the same philosophy, the same orders of life, the same kind of thing that has become a part of our society. The challenge for you and me in being prophetic in our world is to bring something that calls people again and again to the awareness there’s a higher level of life. That is a level lived in response to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

We talk about the dualism in the world. We talk about the separation of the church and the world. But one thing we often fail to emphasize is that the difference is primarily a difference of response. Some people respond by choosing to live at the level under the mandate of Jesus. Others respond by choosing to live at another level. And so, it is this morning I’m talking about what it means to live under the mandate of Jesus Christ.

Now the question is, “Where does one get the power to do this?” And the answer from Jesus is, “The Holy Spirit.” In John 16 he says, “It’s necessary for you that I go away. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you.” That is to say, as long as Jesus was here, people saw God as localized in Jesus of Nazareth. Then Jesus ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is everywhere present, filling the lives of all who open themselves to Jesus Christ honestly and accept his lordship. When one takes Jesus as Lord, Jesus confirms that lordship by becoming resident in that life in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The presence of Jesus is made real by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

I read that these disciples waited and prayed. In chapter 2 we have these words: “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all of the house where they were seated. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and sat upon the head of each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

In that great occasion on the day of Pentecost, you have this gift of the Holy Spirit to be God present in people’s lives who name Jesus as Lord. The rushing mighty wind is the sound that identified the Spirit as the ruach, the breath of God, the movement of God. It’s that of inspiration.

The “cloven tongues, like as of fire” were the symbol of God’s presence. They understood this, for in the Old Testament the people of God were led by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

Fire was a symbol of God’s presence. When the tabernacle was dedicated, the shekinah cloud filled it. God was present, and the fire came out. When the temple was dedicated, the shekinah cloud filled it. It is the symbol of God’s presence. Now here in the Upper Room, the Greek language makes clear there was one shekinah cloud that came into that room. But the Greek also makes clear, it was distributed into little tongues of flame. Now over the head of each disciple there is a glory cloud of flame. Paul picks this up in his letter to the Corinthians and says that your very body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit.

That was the second symbol. There was a third one. The gospel had been known among a very closed, if not parochial, group. And yet God said through Isaiah, “With other languages, with other tongues, I will speak to this people that the ethna, the nations, the Gentiles, may know that I am the Lord.” So, the gift of speaking in other languages was the third symbol.

The first one inspiration, the second purification, the third one communication. The gospel is now for all people, not just for this Jewish community, but for all people. The disciples understood that, because Jesus had taught them. During that seminary he said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you,” and as a result, “you will be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, but also Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

You remember in Matthew, chapter 28, just before the Ascension, Jesus came to the disciples and said, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” All nations. God is no longer doing his work in the world through a little nation called Israel. He’s doing his work in the world through a people of God that is international, interracial. It is global. That people we know as the church. This is the channel through which God is doing his work.

The interesting thing is that for 40 days Jesus had been talking to them about the kingdom of God. Now they ask him a question about this little kingdom of Israel: “Are you about to restore the kingdom to Israel?” If I’d been their professor I’d have flunked them right there, because he’d been talking about the kingdom of God and now, they wanted to talk about just this little part. He said, “I’m going to give you the Holy Spirit, and you’re going to be witnesses to all nations. The program that I have is so global, so large, so total.”

The amazing thing is that’s exactly what happened in the New Testament church. The Bible tells us the story of how the gospel moved up and across the northern part of the Mediterranean. Church history tells us how it moved down and across the southern part. It is quite evident there may have been far more Christians in North Africa than there were up around the northern part of the Mediterranean. Saint Augustine came from down there, and one could go on and on with those stories. We simply have in the Book of Acts one part of the picture. But the apostle Paul recognized this when he says, “The gospel has now gone into the known world.” All the world.

Now I want to come back to this passage and talk about what it means for you and me 20 centuries later to worship the same Jesus, to be a part of this same church in its global mission, but above all, to share in the reality of the presence of this same Spirit.

In Acts, chapter 19, the apostle Paul came to Ephesus and found some professed disciples there, and he asked them the question, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed, or since you believed?” The time element isn’t important. The issue that is important is the reality: have you received the Holy Spirit?

They said, “We didn’t even know the Holy Spirit was being given to individuals.”

“What kind of baptism have you got?”

“Well,” they said, “John’s baptism, the baptism of repentance.”

He said, “John said that they were to believe on him who should come after him.” So, he baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, an authentic experience with Christ, Jesus did exactly what he promised. He gave them the Holy Spirit.
Listen to those words from John the Baptist. He said, “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming after me. He is mightier than I. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” He who? Jesus. Who does the baptizing? Jesus. John baptized. Jesus baptizes. John baptized with water. Jesus baptizes with the Spirit.

Today we talk a lot about baptism of the Holy Spirit in our society. That is not New Testament language. You can talk about the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the anointing of the Spirit, the illumination of the Spirit, and so on, but when you talk about baptism, the Holy Spirit isn’t doing that. He is the baptism. Jesus does the baptizing. You must talk about baptism with or in the Spirit to be true to the New Testament context. So, the baptism with the Spirit is the occasion when Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to dwell in the life of one who takes him as Lord. From there on you talk about the infilling, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the things that he does to enrich us. But the baptism is something Jesus does.

The power of Jesus is made real by laying your life open to the Holy Spirit.

And so, this morning when you accept Jesus holistically, in the total meaning of what Jesus provides for you, he doesn’t just have forgiving grace; he also has transforming grace, enabling grace, the grace of his presence. You don’t live your Christian life alone, by your own power; you live it under the presence and power of the Spirit of God.

Now while that experience of receiving the Holy Spirit from Jesus happens once, he has come to dwell here “the infilling of the Spirit” is something that can happen again and again because you are not talking about an “it” but a relationship. And the best way to think about it is the covenant relationship.

When a man and woman get married and are pronounced husband and wife. The husband doesn’t say, “Okay, honey, you go your way and I’ll go mine. All I care is I don’t die a bachelor.” No, that is the beginning of a relationship that is to become richer and more meaningful through the years. So, it ought to be in your relationship with the Holy Spirit. So many people are presumptuous and act as though, “I got saved. What are you talking about, Preacher? What more is there for me? I received the Holy Spirit.”

That’s like a story I heard about an elderly couple whose family had grown and flown. Now they didn’t need all of the house, so they decided they’d remodel part of it and rent it as an apartment to have a little extra income. The house was in sort of an L, so they just remodeled this part and advertised it for rent. The young couple came and looked it over and said, “We’re getting married next week. This is just fine. We’d like to rent it and we’ll move in when we get back from the honeymoon.” So, they rented it. A few months later the elderly couple were sitting in their living room. She had her favorite magazine. He was over there with the newspaper. She looked up from her magazine right through the picture window into the living room of that apartment. There was that young couple snuggling on the couch whispering expressions of their love. She looked over at her husband and said, “Looks mighty nice, doesn’t it?”

He grunted a little bit.

After a moment she said, “Maybe we ought to try that again.”

He looked up from his paper long enough to say, “I told you once I loved you, and if I ever change my mind, I’ll let you know.”

A lot of people act that way toward God. “I told God once I wanted him in my life, and if I ever change my mind, I’ll let him know.” But the relationship with the Holy Spirit is something that is just strange language to them. This morning when I talk about this infilling with the Holy Spirit, I’m talking about something for which you are responsible to lay your life open to him. You are just as filled with the Spirit as you are emptied of self. And you are just as emptied as you choose to be. So, you are just as filled with the Spirit as you want to be.

I know the difference. It happened in my life when I was in high school. I was at a friend’s house and his mother began to pray over our lives as we started back to school. We had been on our knees praying and searching God’s face, suddenly it became real to me what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That became one of the major transforming points in my life. The lordship of Jesus Christ now became an actuality, not a thought. I testify to you today that he’s more real to me than you are in front of me. I wouldn’t want to live without the consciousness of his presence. I’ve discovered that the power to live the new life is a power that comes from him.

Today, I would call you to the honesty before God that says, “I’m willing to submit myself to the Holy Spirit for his infilling, and to the obedience of the Spirit that will enhance this relationship.”