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"Spirit-led
and Spirit-filled" August
10, 2003 The Rev. Dr. John Ward [first part missing
from tape] about the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit's focus is not on itself,
but on who Jesus Christ is as the risen Lord.
So we're going to continue to learn about being Spirit-led and
Spirit-filled the way the Spirit intends by being led by the truth of who Christ
is for us and what that means for us, and to receive the fresh filling of the
Holy Spirit as often as God intends to give it to us.
And I'd like for us to start by looking at our Scripture passages.
I've picked out four in particular out of the book of Acts.
We'll start on page 118 in your pew Bibles. That's in the New Testament section. We're going to kind of sift through the opening chapters of
Acts to see the stories of what is occurring with the disciples after Jesus once
again--the resurrected Jesus now--promises the Spirit to the disciples, then
ascends into heaven, and then comes Pentecost, with which we're very familiar.
But what did that filling of the Spirit mean then and does it mean
that once you're filled, that's all you get?
Now, the Scripture seems to tell us something different--that there is
not only being Spirit-led, but being Spirit-filled, something that happens to us
again, and again, and again. The
Spirit never leaves us. When we
receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, we do that by the Spirit Himself because
only the Spirit can tell us the truth, can make sense of that cross-experience
being the glorification of Christ and the redemption of the world from suffering
and sin for eternity. Only the Holy
Spirit can make sense of that cross-experience for us. In fact, it was the apostle Paul who wrote for us in 1
Corinthians chapter 12 as he began to describe the gifts of the Spirit.
We're very familiar with that passage.
He says no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy
Spirit. And, as we were learning
the last couple weeks, the Holy Spirit was given, asked by Jesus to be sent from
the Father to the disciples, then to all believers, to be witnesses to the truth
of who Christ is. That's what we
learned last week. Now we're going to pick up here in Acts chapter 1, starting at
verse 8. We'll be in the right-hand
column there. You see the second
section, subtitled "The Ascension of Jesus" at verse 6.
I'd like you to go down to verse 8 because this is what Jesus says to the
disciples just before His ascension into heaven. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Now, once again, the Holy Spirit will come and will empower the
disciples to be whose witnesses? The
Holy Spirit's witness? No.
That would be inconsistent with what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit as
He described Him as we studied last week in John's gospel--the Paraclete, the
One who comes alongside of us, the One who is the Spirit of truth who testifies
to the truth of Christ. So the disciples will be filled with the Spirit and will be
witnesses on behalf of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in Jerusalem (in the home
town of the Jews), but not only that. In
all of Judea--in all the country. Not
only that, then, even in enemy lands such as Samaria.
And even to the ends of the earth. And
for everyday disciples today, we have to ask ourselves, "What is our
Jerusalem?" Our Jerusalem would be, in a sense, the Twin Cities area for
us. What would be our Judea?
It would be our Minnesota or our United States.
What would be our Samaria? Any
country that we find to be an enemy to us.
We're called to be brave, and to be bold, and to preach the gospel,
even to those who consider us their enemies, even to the ends of the earth.
That's how we would say that today.
That's what Jesus is telling the disciples.
This Word was not just to be contained in Jerusalem.
Not just to sit around in the temple and be proclaimed there, but it was
to be sent. These people, filled
with the Spirit, were not going to be drawn to one place, but instead they were
going to be sent out to the entire world proclaiming this gospel and this good
news. The proof of that came, of
course, at the Pentecost. And we'll
turn now to Acts chapter 2, right on the next page there where it says,
"The coming of the Holy Spirit" in chapter 2.
We're going to get to verse 4, but I'd like to start with verse 1 because
we remember the story of the Pentecost. When
the day of Pentecost had come, they [the believers] were all together in one
place. And suddenly from heaven
there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire
house where they were sitting. Divided
tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
[And here's our verse 4] All
of them were filled with the Holy Spirit [every
person up in that room. There were
about 125 to 150 people. Not just
the 11 disciples, but all of those who were believers were gathered at that
point, 150 or so] and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them
ability. Now, if you remember the rest of the story here, and you can read
along as I explain it to you if you like, or come back to it later at home if
you'd like to read this wonderful story. But
you remember that what happens next is these believers, filled with the Spirit,
enter out into the area and they're speaking languages of every person who has
gathered there for the Pentecost. Now, as you know, this is a Jewish celebration, and these
Jews do not live just in Jerusalem, but they're scattered all over the Western
world, and so they speak the languages of the countries where they live.
And so there are Jews that speak a certain language here and another
group that speaks a certain language here, and their native tongue is different.
So God so empowered the Holy Spirit upon these believers to
embolden them to speak a language they have never even spoken before.
Beyond their own Galilean dialect, they were speaking different
languages. It was the power of God
to proclaim to the entire earth the reality of who Christ is.
It's the first ecumenical preaching of the Word of God.
And these followers, these believers, filled with the Spirit, speak
boldly about who Christ is. Now, as
you remember the rest of the story goes, those who were wondering were pretty
confused. In fact, they were even
accusing people of being drunk and belligerent because they were babbling in
languages that perhaps you would understand, but you wouldn't because it wasn't
yours. And perhaps the person who
spoke yours was just on the way to begin to speak.
But everyone was confused and was wondering what was going on.
And then Peter--remember, the first to deny Christ before he was filled
with the Spirit--now, filled with the Spirit, became the first to preach Him.
And that's what he does. And
that's what follows in the rest of that passage. Now, let's go over to Acts chapter 4 and go to another story as
well. Now Peter finishes up this
wonderful sermon at the end of that chapter and then in chapter 3, I'm going to
highlight chapter 4 by allowing us first to look at the beginning of chapter 3,
just to get the story. Here's
another story that happens right in the beginning of the ministry here.
This is on page 120. You'll
see chapter 3 there, "Peter heals a crippled beggar."
One day Peter and John were going up to the
temple at the hour to pray, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
And a man lame from birth was being carried in.
People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple and he would beg for
alms. So he also begged Peter and
John for alms. Peter looked intently at him and said, "You know, silver
and gold have I none, but what I have I will give to you now.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I bid you to stand up and to walk." Many of you know that as a wonderful song that you've sung.
And you also remember the refrain of that.
And this man got up and was walking, and leaping, and praising God.
And that's exactly what you sing about quite often, and that's right here
in Scripture. This person, we can
pick it up in verse 8. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he
entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him
as the one who used to sit and ask for alms and they were filled with wonder and
amazement. Now this caused quite a stir with regard to the religious elite who
had about enough of this rabble-rousing stuff going on.
Again, who allows us to understand the truth that Jesus is Lord?
It is the Holy Spirit. The
disciples and believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, are able to do incredible
things, things they couldn't do before on their own.
Peter, who tried to follow Christ on his own always tripped up.
But now, filled with the Spirit, Peter is the one who is preaching
Christ. He is healing in Christ's
name. And when the officials gather
Peter and John together to put them on trial for what they just did--because to
them, they didn't like what was going on. Being
devoid of the Spirit at the time, they were not convinced that this was true.
And we can pick up on that in chapter 4, and I'd like you to look at that
now, page 121, starting right at verse 4 there, "Peter and John before the
council." While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the
captain of the temple, and the Saducees came to them, much annoyed because they
were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection
of the dead. [Now if you remember,
the Saducees in particular did not believe in a resurrection.
This group of Jewish thought believed that once you died, that was it.
There was no afterlife. And
Jesus Himself talked about a resurrection--His own resurrection, as well as
everyone else's who believed in Him. And
here the disciples, especially Peter and John, were also proclaiming that.]
So [in verse 3] they arrested them and put them in custody until the next
day, for it was already evening. But
many of those who heard the Word believed; and they numbered about 5,000. About 5,000 people at that time began to become the Christian
Church because of the proclaiming of the Spirit by these Spirit-filled people.
Let's go to verse 5 here. The next day, the rulers, elders, and scribes
assembled in Jerusalem with Annas the High Priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and
Alexander, and all who were the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they
inquired, "By what power or in what name do you do this?"
[Again, here is an example of the filling of the Holy Spirit by Peter.
He is filled more than one time. He
receives the Holy Spirit as all the believers do at the Pentecost, and then
again we see in Scripture, and Peter is our first example of that, as one who is
filled again. In God's time] Peter,
then filled with the Holy Spirit [as it says in verse 8], said to them [and
again, the boldness and courage to preach the Word in a place where it could
cost him imprisonment at least, and perhaps even death, which as we know
eventually led to his death later on as he continued to be bold. It empowered him--the Holy Spirit--to do these things.
He told by what power he did it.] "Rulers
of the people and elders [Peter says], if we're questioned today because of a
good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been
healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that
this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Christ of
Nazareth. We continue to see the consistency of those who are filled with the
Spirit and what they do with that power. They
point, not to themselves. The don't
even point to the Spirit. They
point to the reality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
That's the confirmation of the Holy Spirit in them.
[Now this man has been healed.]
"Let it be known to all of you, and all the people in Israel, that
this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ, whom
you crucified, whom God has raised from the dead.
This Jesus is 'the stone that was rejected by you the builders; it
has become the cornerstone.' [And
then Peter says this, which is consistent with what we've been teaching for the
past two Sundays:] There is
salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among
mortals by which we must be saved." As Peter receives such boldness as he receives the Holy Spirit, he
doesn't even say that he's filled with the Spirit. He points with courage to the cross and says, "This is
true. And Jesus is who He says He
is. And the Heavenly Father is
indeed well-pleased with what God has done in Him." And now I'd like us to move to the final passage I've picked out,
and that's also in chapter 4. You'll
find it in verse 31. Again, I'm
going to lead you up to it a little bit. What
happened after Peter proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus, the leaders who wanted to
do something with him couldn't for two reasons. For one thing, he did nothing illegal. And the second thing--the crowd believed in what the
disciples were preaching and as you saw, there were 5,000 believers at that
time. That frightened those
leaders, and so they let them go. What
they told them to do was to speak no more about Jesus Christ.
And Peter says, "No way!"
He says, "I can't. What
else can I do? This is reality.
This is the truth. Christ is Lord." So after their release (you can read about it if you'd like to
again, starting at verse 33 you'll see the subheading "The believers pray
for boldness"). And they do.
And they praise, and they pray, and they sing together.
Then at verse 31, towards the end there, you'll see the last verse I
wanted to highlight: When they had prayed, the place in which they had
gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
spoke the Word of God with boldness. What does it mean to be Spirit-led and to be Spirit-filled?
Well, our best example comes from Scripture itself, and from the very
stories at the beginning of Scripture. Jesus
promised the Paraclete. We studied
that, especially with regard to the farewell discourse in John chapter 14 and
also 15 where Jesus talks about the Paraclete, the one who comes alongside, the
one who would not leave the believers alone.
For it was God's intention to send the Son not to stay forever, but to
redeem the world in His death, that there would be life and eternal life.
And so Jesus' fulfillment of His purpose as the second Person of the
trinity, as the Son of God, as the Redeemer, was to die that death and to be
victorious over death once and for all in the resurrection, and to ascend, and
to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty (which we just proclaimed as
we proclaimed the Apostles Creed during Olivia's baptism.
Isn't that wonderful?). We
do that by the Holy Spirit. It
becomes true to us by the Spirit who Jesus said He would give to the believers
as He left, and He did. And we see
that in the Pentecost. And it's true as the apostle Paul writes no one can say 'Jesus is
Lord' unless that's been revealed to him or her by the Holy Spirit."
So each one of us who claims Christ as Lord does so because the Spirit
has revealed that to us. That means every one of us who believe in Christ has the
Spirit. We are Spirit-led.
There's also a filling of the Spirit.
And the filling of the Spirit is something God does in a mighty way, on
His behalf, for His glory, to point to the truth of the cross and to empower
people at certain times to do things that will continue to be witness of whom?
The people who do it? No.
The Holy Spirit? No. Jesus
Christ, as God's Son who gives us access to the Father in heaven and allows us
to have a relationship with God, which is what God's greatest desire is--to be a
God who is indeed with us and for us, and is so through Jesus Christ's
redemption of us and through the Spirit's power to teach us this. And then God uses us and fills us with the Spirit as God
intends to do to not only help us, as was the promise of the Paraclete, but also
to be witnesses, right? Witnesses
to others who dearly need to know the love of God which is available to all
people through Christ Jesus. And so
we become witnesses today in our own Jerusalem, and our own Judea, and our own
Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. And, friends, how are we going to do that? Do
we do that on our own power? Well,
no. The promise is we have the
ability to do that by the power of the Spirit as the Spirit leads us, allowing
us to do bold things. And what is
that boldness in the filling of the Spirit?
The boldness is for us to be able to say what is true when ears are most
likely not wanting to hear it. That's
truly the boldness of the filling of the Spirit.
Sometimes we can get away with the experiential nature of the Spirit, and
we can focus on being filled, and we can focus on a personal experience of
feeling better now than we did a few moments ago because we're now filled with
the Spirit. But that has never been
what the Scripture has told us the filling of the Spirit is for.
It's not to give us a new experience.
The experience of the Word is the experience of the Spirit itself.
It is enough. But what it does is it allows us to share that experience, to give
the experience of the love of God by the power of the Spirit who proves what we
say to be true in the hearts of the people who are now hearing us as we give
witness and as we give talk about who Jesus is. That's important for us to remember. All of the Spirit-filled gifts that we give--and we've heard
about that before as the apostle Paul has focused on the giving of the spiritual
gifts. I know I've preached on
that, and if you'd like to hear more about that, I invite you to take our next
Life Keys course that invites us to talk about spiritual gifts and even has a
survey you can take to help you understand what your spiritual gifts are.
Even in the giving of those gifts, as I said before, the apostle
Paul--before he even begins to write about the gifts of the Spirit--says no one
can say "Jesus is Lord" but by the Holy Spirit. Then the apostle Paul says that every believer receives the gift of
the Spirit for the common good. Not
just for him or herself. It's a
gift of the Spirit and it allows us to be witnesses to one another in our
Jerusalem, but also way outside of that. It
causes us to be united together to be witnesses of the truth of who God is
outside of our own Jerusalem, in our Judea, in our Samaria as well, and to the
ends of the earth. And these are
the gifts that God gives to us, but they're not things we can do on our own.
Even if you remember another reminder of the fruit of the Spirit back in
Galatians chapter 5--I can never remember them all, so I wrote them down.
Galatians 5:22. I always
forget one, so I wrote them down: Love,
[if you know them, you can say them with me.
And if you forget one, somebody else will fill it in.
It works pretty well that way, doesn't it?
So that's the unity of the body of Christ. Let's say it together if you you remember it.]
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. How did you do with that?
Does that remind you of the wonderful fruit of the Spirit?
The fruit of the Spirit is what we're called to be taking part of. I love what one particular author--her name is Susan Ickaida--once
said about it. She said it this
way: "Love, joy, and all the
other good stuff are the fruit of the Spirit, but not the fruit of our efforts.
We can't produce them on our own, period."
Isn't that a wonderful reminder? The
fruit comes only as we submit our lives and let the Spirit control us. You see, the key to being filled with the Spirit is to make
sure you're ready to be filled with the Spirit.
And that causes us, then to empty ourselves, to empty ourselves of our
own efforts, of our own desires for success and greatness, but only seek to be
submissive to the greatness of God in Jesus Christ. By that, then, we can have room to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. And then the Holy Spirit
will work in us, producing the good fruit of the Spirit, allowing us to be free
from our own needs and wants, to have our spiritual gifts able to be exercised
for the glory of God and for the sake of the body of Christ. We have to empty ourselves in order to be filled, and that's what
we're called to do. We're called to
do it because it's important for us. Now
I reminded you last week of a writing by professor Dale Brunner.
Actually, he's a biblical scholar and retired professor at Whitworth
College. He wrote the book The
Holy Spirit: Shy Member of the
Trinity. And we talked a little
about that last week and used that "shy member" piece to explain the
whole role of the Holy Spirit who never brings attention to Himself, but always
points to Christ. And I love what
Dale Brunner says. He says,
"To believe in Christ is the filling of the Holy Spirit.
And every new draft of faith in the Savior is a fresh filling of the
Spirit. We do not disagree with
repeated fillings of the Spirit." I want you to think of that "fresh draft of faith."
Every new draft of faith in the Savior is a fresh filling of the Spirit.
I want to harken back to my own last vacation that my family just took.
We were in Door County. When
I think of a fresh draft of the Spirit, what I think of is one of those really
wonderful, very warm and very humid summer days and I'm in a place where I don't
have to dress like this. I'm in
Door County and I'm in my shorts and in my sandals and it's a lot cooler, but
it's still hot. But you want it to
be hot. And one of the things I
look forward to when I was in Door County in the little town of Ephraim (if you
ever get a chance to go there--and you all have your Door Counties, and you all
have your little Ephraim towns, so you know exactly what I'm talking about).
When you think of your place when you're hot and you love it to be hot,
but you're looking for refreshment, and your lips are parched, and you head over
to the little ice cream store called Wilson's (perhaps you've been there
before). Wilson's has the coldest root beer! And you sit down outside and there's a little breeze blowing,
and it's a covered area, and it already begins to give you the sense of
freshness. And then you order your
lunch or whatever you want to have and you order a mug of their root beer.
It's home-made on the premises. I
sound like a commercial, don't I? I
don't get any endorsement for this! But
it reminds me of freshness because they bring this gigantic mug out--even when
the kids ask for root beer, they don't give you the kids' size.
They give you the same size the grownups get and the kids' eyes just get
big and they start licking their chops. I
tell you, it just makes you thirsty! And
that mug is iced-over. You know,
they serve it to you in cold mugs so the humidity, the dew point, and that mug
just freezes over and the top of the root beer actually gets a little iced-over
over because of that. Nothing feels
better than that first sip, my friends. That's
a filling and a draft that quenches your thirst and cools you, and you look
forward to that. Well, that's an illustration.
It's not a commercial, because what's even greater is the promise of the
fresh draft of the Spirit. So let
me read it to you one more time. Think
about the filling. Whatever it is
that quenches you most on a hot day, that you look forward to.
You almost look forward to getting hot so that you can have your thirst
quenched and met. When you think of that, think even more of what's possible in
the Spirit. "We do not
disagree with repeated fillings of the Spirit.
To believe in Christ is the filling of the Spirit and every new draft of
faith in the Savior is the fresh filling of the Spirit." Let us pray together. Heavenly
Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to read about the Spirit in your Word.
And as we remember last week, we must have the Word to properly
understand the experience of the Spirit, otherwise we'd be way out of whack.
And as we remember last week's quote:
"Word with no Spirit we dry up, Spirit without Word we'd blow up in
excitement and experience, but Word and Spirit together, we grow up."
And, Lord, we ask indeed that we do grow in your nature and grow
according to your Word so that we have a proper understanding of the Holy
Spirit. Lord, let us be assured
that each one of us who claims you as our Lord and Savior--we have the Spirit in
us right now. And, Lord God, as
well, we know that that is sufficient for our salvation.
There is no other requirement but to claim you as Lord and Savior.
And that's the proof that indeed we are in the Spirit.
And that, Lord God, you from time to time, by your graciousness, for your
glory, fill us with the Spirit to be bold in ways we must be bold and places
that may not wish us to be, but what else can we do, Lord God?
We promise, Lord, in those times to be open to your Spirit, to pray for
the filling of the Spirit. Lord
God, I pray that a freshness of the Spirit will come over us right now, to
quench us, Lord God, and to give us a fresh draft as anything else is done in
our lives, to fill us in such ways. Lord,
empty us of our own self-need, our own self-desires, our own thoughts for
success and fulfillment in any other way so that we may indeed be a vessel empty
and ready for your pouring as we submit to you, for that is our way to truly
honor you. It's not about us. It's about you. In
Christ's name we pray. And all
God's people said, "Amen." The Rev. Dr. John Ward Associate Pastor for Discipleship Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on August 10, 2003.] |
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