All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit... Acts 2:4
... be filled with the Spirit... Ephesians 5:18
So... Whit Sunday is over - Pentecost Sunday, the day when Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the new-born church.
Do we treat it rather as we treat Christmas? - no more of the familiar stories, the old carols, until next year? - the Christmas decorations packed away in boxes and stuck on a shelf in the loft? Likewise, now that Whit Sunday is gone, is that the Holy Spirit finished and done with for another year?
The answer is a very loud No!
The Spirit who came at Pentecost now lives day by day in the heart of every believer - so how can he possibly be for just one weekend a year? He is for us, with us and in us. Paul puts it bluntly in Romans 8:9: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ...”, implying that if anyone does have the Spirit of Christ, well, they most certainly do.
If you are reading this as a Christian, are you really aware that God himself lives within you by his Holy Spirit? Do you not know that your very body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God (to slightly misquote 1 Corinthians 6:19)?
It’s helpful to focus on the two little snippets of the New Testament that I picked out at the beginning...
(1) “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit...” (Acts 2:4).
As we saw last time, Luke here is describing the essence of what happened to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost: this is “the baptism of the Holy Spirit”. It is a one-off event - as Simon Peter said, it is the long-awaited fulfilment of Joel 2:28-32.
You might think: If this was a one-off event two thousand years ago, can I say that I too have been baptised in the Holy Spirit?
The answer is clear. By faith in Jesus you have become part of him - part of what Paul calls “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27). So when he baptised his church in the Spirit, that act included every member of the church, past, present and future - to quote Paul again: “For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body...” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
That doesn’t mean that you can’t also, as an individual, experience the kind of dramatic events or receive the kind of very obvious gifts, such as speaking in tongues, that we often associate with the Spirit. But it does mean that you are, so to speak, incorporated into Christ - just as we have “died with him” (Colossians 2:20) and “been raised with him” (Colossians 3:1), so we have shared in the one-off baptism he poured out on his church.
(2) “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
The same word - filled - but with a different focus. Whereas Acts was describing an event, here Paul is issuing a command. If grammar is your thing, the point is that it’s the present tense that is used, the tense of the here and now. Which means that we are to be always, constantly, day by day, filled with the Spirit. This isn’t a one-off experience, but a permanent state, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
But how can I be permanently filled with the Spirit? What must I do?
One thing is certain: there’s no formula to work through. Some Christians will tell you that you need to be on the receiving end of a special experience - tongues, or something mystical and trance-like, perhaps. Well, such things can and do happen; we mustn’t dismiss them out of hand.
But never forget that if God gives us a command, then the onus is on us to obey it - which is another way of saying that whether or not you and I are Spirit-filled is fairly and squarely up to us. And there is no short cut to it.
The secret is simple to say but demanding to do: live, every day, a holy, Christlike, prayerful, pure and humble life. If you seek to do that, why would God not fill you with his Holy Spirit! Didn’t Jesus promise that just as human parents know how to give good gifts to their children, “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13)?
The essence of the Spirit’s work can be summed up in two words: purity and power. The Holy Spirit is the holy Spirit, and he enables us to live pure lives. And he imparts power - power to overcome sin and temptation, power to do and to bear God’s holy will.
You can’t have enough of the Holy Spirit! So don’t let him recede into the background just because Whit Sunday 2019 is fading into the memory!
Lord Jesus, you promised your disciples the divine gift of the Holy Spirit. And you encourage us to seek more of the Spirit. As I empty myself of self and sin, and as I open myself up to the Spirit’s influence, may that purity and power be mine - all for your great glory. Amen.
... be filled with the Spirit... Ephesians 5:18
So... Whit Sunday is over - Pentecost Sunday, the day when Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the new-born church.
Do we treat it rather as we treat Christmas? - no more of the familiar stories, the old carols, until next year? - the Christmas decorations packed away in boxes and stuck on a shelf in the loft? Likewise, now that Whit Sunday is gone, is that the Holy Spirit finished and done with for another year?
The answer is a very loud No!
The Spirit who came at Pentecost now lives day by day in the heart of every believer - so how can he possibly be for just one weekend a year? He is for us, with us and in us. Paul puts it bluntly in Romans 8:9: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ...”, implying that if anyone does have the Spirit of Christ, well, they most certainly do.
If you are reading this as a Christian, are you really aware that God himself lives within you by his Holy Spirit? Do you not know that your very body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God (to slightly misquote 1 Corinthians 6:19)?
It’s helpful to focus on the two little snippets of the New Testament that I picked out at the beginning...
(1) “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit...” (Acts 2:4).
As we saw last time, Luke here is describing the essence of what happened to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost: this is “the baptism of the Holy Spirit”. It is a one-off event - as Simon Peter said, it is the long-awaited fulfilment of Joel 2:28-32.
You might think: If this was a one-off event two thousand years ago, can I say that I too have been baptised in the Holy Spirit?
The answer is clear. By faith in Jesus you have become part of him - part of what Paul calls “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27). So when he baptised his church in the Spirit, that act included every member of the church, past, present and future - to quote Paul again: “For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body...” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
That doesn’t mean that you can’t also, as an individual, experience the kind of dramatic events or receive the kind of very obvious gifts, such as speaking in tongues, that we often associate with the Spirit. But it does mean that you are, so to speak, incorporated into Christ - just as we have “died with him” (Colossians 2:20) and “been raised with him” (Colossians 3:1), so we have shared in the one-off baptism he poured out on his church.
(2) “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
The same word - filled - but with a different focus. Whereas Acts was describing an event, here Paul is issuing a command. If grammar is your thing, the point is that it’s the present tense that is used, the tense of the here and now. Which means that we are to be always, constantly, day by day, filled with the Spirit. This isn’t a one-off experience, but a permanent state, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
But how can I be permanently filled with the Spirit? What must I do?
One thing is certain: there’s no formula to work through. Some Christians will tell you that you need to be on the receiving end of a special experience - tongues, or something mystical and trance-like, perhaps. Well, such things can and do happen; we mustn’t dismiss them out of hand.
But never forget that if God gives us a command, then the onus is on us to obey it - which is another way of saying that whether or not you and I are Spirit-filled is fairly and squarely up to us. And there is no short cut to it.
The secret is simple to say but demanding to do: live, every day, a holy, Christlike, prayerful, pure and humble life. If you seek to do that, why would God not fill you with his Holy Spirit! Didn’t Jesus promise that just as human parents know how to give good gifts to their children, “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13)?
The essence of the Spirit’s work can be summed up in two words: purity and power. The Holy Spirit is the holy Spirit, and he enables us to live pure lives. And he imparts power - power to overcome sin and temptation, power to do and to bear God’s holy will.
You can’t have enough of the Holy Spirit! So don’t let him recede into the background just because Whit Sunday 2019 is fading into the memory!
Lord Jesus, you promised your disciples the divine gift of the Holy Spirit. And you encourage us to seek more of the Spirit. As I empty myself of self and sin, and as I open myself up to the Spirit’s influence, may that purity and power be mine - all for your great glory. Amen.
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