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[0:00] Please take your copy of God's Word and turn to Acts chapter 2. Continue this morning our study of Luke's second volume of the work of Christ.

[0:13] The work of Christ. We see in the Gospel according to Luke, the account of Jesus' earthly ministry as told by Luke. And then here we find in the book of Acts, Luke's account of Jesus' heavenly ministry.

[0:29] The way in which He works now in His people. And we find ourselves woven into this redemptive story as the continuation of that very work.

[0:42] This morning we'll take our second look at Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Last week I expressed to you that in my study of it, there was just too much that is good to be said about these 12 verses to try to tackle it in a single week.

[1:03] I must admit I'm still feeling that way, although I will wrap our study of verses 1 through 12 up today and then look for further opportunity, and it abounds throughout the book of Acts, to talk more about what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God.

[1:20] Last week I stripped out the historical significance of the sending of the Spirit of God and the way in which God did so. I pointed out to you that God reigns sovereignly over redemptive history.

[1:36] That in Leviticus chapter 23, when He gives the prescription for the feasts of Israel, that He was outlining this time. The death of Christ.

[1:48] The resurrection of Christ. And now on the day of Pentecost, 50 days later, the sending of the Spirit of Christ.

[1:58] My hope in last week was that your heart would be moved to worship. What a God we serve, who way back in Leviticus 23 was already planning the redemption of His people.

[2:17] And we are part of that redemptive story, and the sending of the Holy Spirit has great significance for us today. Recall so far in the book of Acts chapter 1, there's a short account of Jesus' post-resurrection ministry.

[2:36] Verse 3 reads, He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

[2:46] And then verse 4 and 5, Jesus gives to them a command to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the promised Holy Spirit. Verse 4 reads, And while staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, You heard from Me, verse 5, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

[3:15] Verse 8, there's a promise of power for the fulfillment of their purpose. Jesus says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

[3:34] And then verse 9, He ascends. He goes up to the right hand of the Father, giving Him the ability now to send the Helper, the Spirit.

[3:45] And 10 days later, that promise of power is fulfilled. And that purpose that He set forth for them in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, and the restating of it here in chapter 1, verse 8, takes off.

[4:02] That's what we have before us today. What a blessing to have an account of this for our study. Beloved, this is God's Word to us.

[4:14] It was written for His glory and for our good. We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

[4:25] Chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

[4:42] And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[4:56] Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

[5:09] And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?

[5:21] Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytites, Cretans and Arabians.

[5:42] We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?

[5:57] And so we see this account of the disciples. It's probably right to presume that this is that approximately 120 people that we saw in chapter 1, likely gathered in this very same upper room.

[6:12] The particular details aren't given to us, but we know that they're all together and they're in a house. And the Spirit of God comes to them both audibly and visually.

[6:26] And they began to speak of the mighty works of God in various known languages. For this text, we're going to bring it down. Known languages.

[6:37] They speak the mighty works of God. And we have this list of people from all over, essentially the known world.

[6:47] Luke's trying to show us the broad nature in which the gospel went forth to these people. Both those who were Jews and those who were proselytites or converts to Judaism.

[7:01] And they're here in this place and they ask the question, what does this mean? And so as last week we pulled out much of that historical significance, this morning I want to frame the sermon with three questions.

[7:16] 1. Number one, what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises in chapter 1, verse 5?

[7:28] That's important. He makes a promise that's fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. So what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises in chapter 1, verse 5?

[7:39] 2. Secondly, what is meant by they were all filled with the Holy Spirit in chapter 2, verse 4? And thirdly, how are we filled with the Holy Spirit?

[7:55] So that's the framework for this morning. Right? I'm stepping a little bit outside of the text. Right? So we're not verse by verse this morning. A lot of that detail was given last week.

[8:06] But these three questions need to be answered. And I want to answer them in their entirety. I really want to give you the complete systematic presentation of life in and by the Spirit.

[8:20] I just can't. It's impossible to do it in the time frame we have this morning. So what I want to give to you is the answers to these questions. Not exhaustively, but I hope amply for you to begin going from here and considering this and to have a very clear understanding as we move forward in our study of the book of Acts.

[8:41] So first question. What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises in chapter 1, verse 5? And to answer that question, we need to look at how this phrase is used in the New Testament.

[8:57] Not just to see it here, but to see other places that it's used. And it's only used in the New Testament seven times. Four times as the prediction of John the Baptist concerning Jesus.

[9:11] So four of these times are the accounts of the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, of the same prediction that John the Baptist gave.

[9:22] I'll read it to you from Matthew 3, verse 11. I, this is John speaking, baptized you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, speaking of Christ, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

[9:45] This is also found in Mark 1.8, Luke 3.16, and John 1.33. So, those are the first four times that this phrasing is used.

[9:57] The next two passages refer directly to the day of Pentecost. We just read Acts 1.5. So that's the fifth accounting of it that Jesus says, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

[10:16] And then again in the book of Acts, so this is the sixth time, Acts 11.16, where Peter is speaking and he's referring back to the words of Christ that we have recorded in chapter 1, verse 5.

[10:29] It's recorded, 11.16, the book of Acts, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

[10:42] So the first six times this phrasing is used, it's all, it's talking about what will happen and then what has happened. Right? So, five talking about what will, the sixth one talking about what has happened.

[10:56] But when we get to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul helps us a bit more understand what all of this means. He gives us some commentary on it.

[11:08] Verses 12-13, after speaking of the various spiritual gifts in which God imparts by the Spirit of God, he says, for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

[11:30] For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

[11:44] Now, we have to be careful in our hermeneutic understanding, which is the study of how to study the Scripture, to know that not every phrase is used in every place in the same way.

[11:58] So, hear me saying that I recognize that. We can't always draw connections between phrases every single time. Sometimes, metaphors are used interchangeably in different ways, and it would be dangerous to always make them synonymous no matter what.

[12:15] However, if we have a broader biblical understanding and we take into account passages like Romans 8-9, where Paul says, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

[12:31] We could take a step back and over to 1 Corinthians 12, 12-13, and understand what it is that he's saying. The Spirit was the element in which the Corinthian believers were baptized, was the element in which they were baptized, which moved them positionally into the church.

[12:53] They were baptized in the Spirit and found themselves as part of this body of Christ. I'm going to read it to you again with that framework. Think about verses 12-13 in 1 Corinthians 12.

[13:06] For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

[13:17] For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

[13:28] So, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be regenerate. I read to you from Ezekiel at the very outset of this morning that God gives us His Spirit.

[13:44] He replaces our heart of stone that we inherited from Adam, from our old father. He gives us a heart of flesh.

[13:55] We now have the righteousness of Christ and we place faith in Him for it. So, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be regenerate.

[14:08] So, Jesus promises something here, Acts 1-5, that this baptism will take place. Later we have an account in chapter 2, verse 4, that they were filled with the Spirit and I think the challenge there is that the outset you want to make those two things synonymous.

[14:25] That being baptized and being filled is the same thing. And what I'm suggesting to you is that it is not the same thing. That both things were fulfilled. They both happened in chapter 2.

[14:39] That they were both baptized, Jesus did not lie, they were baptized in the Spirit and, verse 4 begins, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

[14:49] I'm going to work that out for you in just a bit. But that both things happen. Now, with that said, I do not believe that the disciples were converted at this point in Acts 2 because...

[15:04] I know I'm contradicting myself. I know I'm contradicting myself. Because they had already given evidence of repentance and faith. So follow me with the text. I want you to go to Matthew chapter 16. My water cup has a handle today.

[15:19] I have a water mug. I have a water mug. I have a water mug. So I've said to you, I've made the statement that baptism in the Holy Spirit is the same as regeneration.

[15:42] That we're baptized into the church. That if you are a follower of Christ, you have been baptized in the Spirit. So I've made that statement to you. Now I'm saying that at this point, Acts chapter 2, I do not believe that this is when the disciples became believers.

[15:59] This is when they were regenerate. Let me show you why I believe that to be the case. Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is?

[16:13] And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

[16:30] And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

[16:42] So there's a spiritual work happening at least in the life of Peter at this time. Right? Something has been revealed to him from heaven. I would argue by the Spirit of God.

[16:54] Okay? So there's something happening here. He's believing that Jesus is the Christ. There's some evidence of regeneration at this point. Now turn to John chapter 6.

[17:05] I'm going to begin reading in verse 52.

[17:19] This is after a lengthy teaching of Jesus that he's the bread of life. Verse 52, John records, the Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

[17:34] It's the bread of life. How is it that he's going to actually feed us with his physical body? Which is not what he meant. Jesus goes on to clarify. Verse 53, So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

[17:50] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

[18:01] Let me pause for just a quick second and speak about transubstantiation, where some believe that the elements of the Lord's Supper actually become the body and blood of Christ, if that's consistent, then they should not have to eat until they do it again.

[18:18] If we're taking this at face value, that he's not speaking metaphorically, then that's fantastic, because food is expensive. Verse 56, Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

[18:36] As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.

[18:48] Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, people that are following him around at the time, they said, this is a hard saying.

[19:06] Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

[19:21] It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.

[19:34] So catch, the positive of that negative statement, there are some of you who do not believe, is that some of you do believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him.

[19:46] Verse 65, and he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. So he has said, some of you don't believe, which means some of you do believe, and no one comes to me unless it is granted him by the Father.

[20:05] After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. A bunch of them bugged out. So Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well?

[20:16] Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

[20:31] So again, evidencing, there's a profession once again of who Jesus is. At this hard-to-understand thing. It's not that the disciples were brilliant and they figured it out.

[20:42] It was that the Father had drawn them to Christ. Like, they're still scratching their heads just like the other disciples, but the other ones go away scratching their heads. They stay and Peter says, you are the Holy One of God.

[20:56] So there's a work happening in their lives while they're with Jesus. John 20, 21 and 22, you can turn there if you want to, but I'm going to get into it for the sake of time.

[21:07] Verse 21, Jesus said to them again, after His resurrection, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you.

[21:20] And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. I must admit, I don't fully comprehend what is happening right here in John 20, 21 and 22.

[21:36] I don't fully comprehend it because later we see in the book of Acts, He's telling them to stay and wait for what? For the Holy Spirit. He's suggesting to them, don't get going on the mission yet.

[21:49] kind of spoken the mission, the Great Commission has been given to you. Don't get going on that yet because you need the power of God to carry out the purpose of God. But here, something happens.

[22:00] And Jesus says to them, receive the Holy Spirit as He breathes on them. Okay? So what's important here is to remember that as we read these historical accounts, we're observing a transition between the two economies of the Holy Spirit.

[22:20] In the Old Testament and up until this time where we're looking in Acts chapter 2, this point in history, this day of Pentecost, He came and He rested on men to empower them for specific tasks at specific times.

[22:36] And then He would depart. That was the way the Spirit worked in the old economy of the Spirit. He would come, He was given by God, He would come, rest on somebody for a specific task at a specific time and then would be removed.

[22:50] Okay? Now, in starting here, Acts 2 and moving forward, He comes and indwells a follower of Christ and empowers them for a specific task.

[23:03] Right? That is the exaltation of Jesus Christ all of the time. You see the difference? Specific tasks for a specific period of time. Now, for a specific task, all of the time.

[23:15] He indwells within us. He doesn't come and go. He is ours. So, I do not think that the promise in chapter 1, verse 5 of Acts, that the disciples will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now, and the fact that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit in 2, 4 are synonymous, but rather that both happen.

[23:37] This is what I was suggesting to you before. It's an interesting in-between time. And it's hard for us to comprehend. And that's why we must let Scripture interpret Scripture.

[23:49] We have to pull the rest of the account together. We have to look at the rest of the writing to try to properly suss out what this means for us.

[24:00] What happened, I think, is that both happened at this time. They were baptized into the church. They were unified by the gift of the Spirit. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, which empowers them for speaking the mighty works of God, verse 11, in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[24:23] So they were filled with the Spirit, which is evidenced by their obedience. They began to do the very thing that Jesus had instructed them to do many times. Certainly you can find it in chapter 1, verse 8.

[24:36] You will be my witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. They just begin to do the thing that God had commanded them to do.

[24:48] To sum that up, what it means to be baptized by the Spirit is to be regenerate. To be saved by God and welcomed into the church.

[24:58] This is a one-time thing. It is solely the work of God. It's monergistic in that way. He puts His Spirit within you. He changes you. This brings about repentance, faith, obedience.

[25:12] That's baptized in the Spirit. Okay, second question. I'm going to try to pull it together all for you. What is meant by they were all filled with the Holy Spirit in chapter 2, verse 4?

[25:26] Now, in the past weeks, and I apologize for those of you who haven't been here, but I've been priming the pump to answer this question. I've been setting you up for the answer to this question by reminding you one of our goals for the study of the book of Acts.

[25:42] Goal number 3. To pay careful attentions to the means and ways of the Holy Spirit. And I've been telling you that the primary role of the Spirit of God is the exaltation of Jesus Christ in the salvation and perfection of His church.

[26:03] This is job number one. There are other things that the Spirit of God does, but this is job number one. The exaltation of Jesus Christ in the salvation and perfection of His church. And the primary means by which He accomplishes this is the Word of God spoken by the people of God.

[26:21] He empowers that activity. The Word of God spoken by the people of God. In our text today, we see the first record of those ways. Speaking the Word of God in a rather miraculous way.

[26:35] In languages that these people could understand. I've also tried to prime you for the answer I'm working toward by showing you that the disciples were not gathered in this place praying for the baptism or for the filling of the Holy Spirit.

[26:53] And I'm not suggesting that we can't pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. What I'm saying is they weren't working out some training. They hadn't attended some seminar that taught them if you just do the following steps then this will happen.

[27:06] So it's not the way in which God sends the Spirit or fills us by the Spirit. If you look at chapter 2 verse 2 Luke records for us they're in a house and they're sitting.

[27:24] Why would he record such an obtuse detail? Because it's not. He's telling us that they were sitting because that's not the way they would have been praying. They're sitting and this thing surprised them.

[27:37] They're baptized and they're filled. So I've been priming you to rightly understand what is happening here and therefore what this means for us by speaking against kind of subversively a popular belief in our day called Pentecostalism.

[27:59] Many, many Pentecostal denominations. And I'm going to paint with a broad brush. I know people who are part of Pentecostal denominations that are to be admired.

[28:13] They get so much so right. There are some things that we can learn from and benefit from Pentecostal some things about the work of the Spirit of God.

[28:31] But generally speaking broad brush hear me with humility saying this I don't pretend to have it all figured out. I know there's so much that I don't know but with a broad brush Pentecostalism is dangerous.

[28:49] In order to be known for what I'm for which is ultimately my aim and I want you to know what I believe to be true at times I need to tell you what I'm against.

[29:01] It just helps to say not this but this at times to do that. So hear what I'm trying to say to you. I'm humbly just trying to show you what the Word of God has to say about the filling and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

[29:17] I'm anti-Pentecostalism because generally it's not biblical. They use extra-biblical and unbiblical language to speak of a second experience of the Christian faith called baptism in the Spirit.

[29:39] This is why I started. What is the baptism of the Spirit? They use this term in a much different way. A second experience of an indwelling, of a pouring out of the Spirit of God.

[29:52] At best they use this to divide saved people into two classes. So you've got unsaved people, people who have not placed faith in Jesus Christ as a separate category.

[30:06] Then saved people, they divide into two classes. Those who are ordinary Christians and those who are Spirit-baptized Christians.

[30:19] This is dangerous, beloved. This is not the nature of sanctification. You are not in Christ or you are in Christ. These are the categories. This is the way that the Scripture speaks about it.

[30:31] It does not divide believing people into two categories. We have gifting in various form and in various measure.

[30:42] We are at different places in the sanctification process. There are some that are more mature than others, but we are not classified into different categories. There is no clergy laity type of distinction amongst the people of God.

[30:56] At best, that's what it does. At worst, many Pentecostals believe that unless you do miraculous things like speak in tongues, that you're not saved at all.

[31:09] They often elevate, often, not always, but they often elevate mindless experience over the Scripture. John Arnott, a popular Pentecostal writer, wrote, do not take control, do not resist, do not analyze, don't think about what you're doing, just surrender to his love.

[31:35] You can analyze the experience later, just let it happen. Beloved, we are meant to be a mindful people, never mindless.

[31:48] At the biblical counseling and discipleship training that we were at this weekend, if you heard me talk about that in previous months, I appreciated Dr. Stuart Scott said that most of who we are, most of our personality, rather than thinking of it as residing our heart in our chest, it really resides between our ears.

[32:06] We're meant to be mindful people, never mindless. Think about Romans 12, 2. Paul says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by what?

[32:20] The renewal of your feelings, by being renewed, by seeking out experience, your mind, by the renewal of your mind.

[32:35] And anyone who tells you that the Christian life is divorced from thinking should be avoided. they often elevate the work of the Spirit, real or supposed, and worship Him over Christ.

[32:53] So this is back to my previous point. The primary job of the Spirit of God is the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Many old theologians got it right when they called Him the shy Spirit.

[33:04] The Spirit of God says, not me, Christ. And when a denominational system worships the Spirit and the work of the Spirit, that's a really dangerous thing.

[33:16] I'll show you from the Scripture, John 16, 12-15. Jesus says to the disciples, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.

[33:38] Verse 14, He will glorify me. The job of the Spirit, He will glorify me, Christ is speaking here, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.

[33:50] All that the Father has is mine, therefore I said that He will take what is mine, He will declare it to you. This is the job of the Spirit of God. There's a quotation on the front of your bulletin written in nine-point Helvetica so I can get it to fit.

[34:08] But I know it's helpful for you to see it, so I hope you can see it. Let me try to read it to you carefully by the late preacher Martin Lloyd Jones. He says, The Spirit does not glorify Himself.

[34:21] He glorifies the Son. This is to me one of the most amazing and remarkable things about the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seems to hide Himself and to conceal Himself.

[34:36] He is always as it were, putting the focus on the Son. And that is why I believe, and I believe profoundly, that the best test of all as to whether we have received the Spirit is to ask ourselves, what do we think of and what do we know about the Son?

[34:55] Is the Son real to us? That is the work of the Spirit. He is glorified indirectly. He is always pointing us to the Son.

[35:07] And so you see how easily we go astray and become heretical if we concentrate over much and in an unscriptural manner upon the Spirit Himself. Yes, we must realize that He dwells within us.

[35:21] Not to minimize that, right? He does in fact dwell within us, but His work in dwelling within us is to glorify the Son and to bring to us that blessed knowledge of the Son and of His wondrous love to us.

[35:34] It is He who strengthens us with the might in the inner man that we may know this love, this love of Christ. This is the job of the Spirit.

[35:48] This is why Paul prays for the church in Ephesus. It's recorded in chapter 3, verse 14 and 19. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.

[36:00] That He's about to say, this is the reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.

[36:15] Why? Strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being. Verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, the love of Christ, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

[36:45] Are you seeing it? So, to be filled with the Holy Spirit is not a secondary, necessarily miraculous experience of the Christian life, but rather it's the normative experience of the Christian life that's yielded to God.

[37:06] It's normative, and it evidences itself in obedience. You want to know if you're filled with the Spirit? When you're obedient.

[37:17] When you're obedient, you're filled with the Spirit. In our text this morning, in verse 4, the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit, and then what do they do? They're obedient.

[37:29] They do it in a really miraculous way. I'm not going to discount that, but the point is, the driving point is, they were obedient. They were telling the mighty works of God, which they have been commanded to do.

[37:41] They were to be witnesses. And this is exactly the activity that they are doing as the Spirit gives them utterance. Being filled with the Spirit brings about obedience.

[37:55] I'm going to show you through Acts quickly. I just want you to track me. Don't try to turn. I just gave you the first one, Acts 2 verse 11. They're speaking the mighty works of God. In Acts 4.8, it's recorded again that Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks with such power that the Jewish leaders were amazed at his boldness in spite of his being relatively uneducated.

[38:12] That's chapter 4 verse 13. He speaks with power. Acts 4.31, other disciples were praying in the place where they were shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The effect of their fullness was that they spoke the word of God with extraordinary boldness and Christ-exalting power.

[38:31] In Acts 6, we meet Stephen, who is full of faith in the Holy Spirit, verse 5, and Luke tells us in verse 8 that he was therefore full of power and did wonders and signs among the people, but especially in verse 10, the leaders could not resist the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke.

[38:50] In Acts 9.17, Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit at his conversion, and the result was that he spoke, with such extraordinary power that the Jews of Damascus were confounded, chapter 9, verse 22.

[39:02] Acts 11, verse 24, Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and the effect Luke mentions was that a large company was added to the Lord.

[39:15] So he's speaking again the truth of God. So, it brings about obedience. Now, there are respected, conservative, evangelicals that I look to for many answers to help comprehend and understand.

[39:32] I'm not going to name their names for you because it might make me look really foolish, but that suggests that this filling of the Holy Spirit is a thing that we should be longing for.

[39:44] It's a thing that we should be looking to and longing for in our lives. We want extra empowering. And we do. I want my ministry to be effective. I want the Spirit of God to work mightily in His people through my preaching.

[39:59] These are good things to long for, but what we're hoping for is the miraculous. That suddenly I begin to speak to you in different languages, or I'm healing people, or these are the types of things that we should be longing to see happen.

[40:13] That is what is meant by the filling of the Spirit. But I have a problem with that because Paul commands Christians to be filled with the Spirit. Not this thing in our life that we may not experience, that we should long for, like regular Christians hoping for this extra outpouring, but Paul commands it, suggests that it's normative that Christian people should be filled with the Spirit.

[40:39] Ephesians, turn to Ephesians chapter 5. I want you to see this for yourself. beginning in verse 18.

[40:59] And do not get drunk with wine. Do not have one thing control you, is what he's saying, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

[41:15] The sentence doesn't stop there. This is not a list of things to do. Be filled with the Spirit and do this and do this and do this. He's saying, be filled with the Spirit and here's what that will look like.

[41:27] This is what's going to happen if you're filled with the Spirit. Verse 19, addressing one another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

[41:47] For the husband that has the wife is Christ the head of the church, his body and his Savior. I'm reading fast for the sake of time. Now, as the church submits itself to Christ, also wives submits everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ the church gave himself up for her.

[42:00] These are the things you will be doing if you are filled! with the Spirit. Do we as Christian people get to discount these things because we're not filled with the Spirit? If I don't love Sam the way he's commanded me to love Sam, my wife's name is Sam, if you don't know me, do I go, well, I've been hoping, I've been praying for this miraculous filling of the Spirit so that I can, and I just haven't been able to, no!

[42:27] I'm commanded to do these things and the way in which I do them is I'm filled with the Spirit. Are you catching it? Dan Phillips, a contemporary pastor, wrote this, show me a person obsessed with the Holy Spirit and his gifts, real or imagined, and I will show you a person not filled with the Holy Spirit.

[42:47] Show me a person focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ, never tiring of learning about him, thinking about him, boasting of him, speaking about and for and to him, thrilled and entranced with his perfections and beauty, finding ways to serve and exalt him, tirelessly exploring ways to spend and be spent for him, growing in character to be more and more like him, and I will show you a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit.

[43:18] So that's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. How are we to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Number three. Third question, how are we to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

[43:31] So if you are in Christ, if you place believing faith in him, you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit, right? So catch that, you've got to get that. He exists within you, but it is possible as Christian people to not walk by that Spirit.

[43:48] It's possible to not be filled by the Spirit, right? How do we know we're filled with him? Because we're obedient, right? Because we're fulfilling the commands of God by his power at work within us.

[44:00] So if we find ourselves in that place, and we do so often, right? Transgressing the law of Christ, what are we supposed to be doing as Christian people? Our sanctification is a synergistic activity, right?

[44:14] We're not passive agents in the process. We're told to do things, to be active, to be moving, right? All of this by the power of God at work within us, by the Spirit, let me show you the primary way in which we are filled with the Spirit.

[44:31] Turn to Colossians chapter 3. This is a parallel text to what I just read to you, Ephesians 5, 18-25. And the reason I read it all to you, even though I know I read it so extremely fast, you couldn't understand what I was saying.

[44:46] I'm not sure I actually said all the words, but I wanted you to see the parallel between the two. Okay? Beginning in verse 16, there's not much different about these two passages.

[44:59] There's not a lot different except the beginning of verse 16. Okay, so let me remind you, verse 18, chapter 5 of Ephesians, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

[45:14] Colossians 3, beginning of verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

[45:25] Paul uses the phrase, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, interchangeably, with be filled, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

[45:38] Look, he goes on, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

[45:53] Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. You see the parallel connection between those two texts now.

[46:06] It's not like I went and unlocked this. Oh, parallel texts, and these have to be synonymous things. It's not the only place that Paul speaks in this way. Another example, Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 5.

[46:20] He writes, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

[46:35] You're catching the mind. The activity of the mind is part of this process in here. Not their emotions, not their experiences, not a void in their brain, but their mind.

[46:46] They set their minds On the things of the! Spirit. Verse! 6. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace, fruit, obedience, coming out of setting your mind on the thing of the Spirit.

[47:04] And my argument is that is to be filled with the Spirit. Verse 7. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit! to God's law, indeed it cannot, for those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

[47:22] So the primary activity and the primary way that we as the people of God are filled with the Spirit is that we know this book, that we are engrossed with it, that it saturates us, the Holy Writ, the Scripture, the 66 books of the Old and the New Testament.

[47:41] I'm going to look for some opportunities as we go through Acts, I'm sure they will abound for me to teach you some of the Bible's canonical veracity. Why do we believe that these are the 66 inspired books of the Old and New Testament?

[47:55] They were inspired by God, spoken into men, written down, that they were expired! by him, all scriptures breathed out by God, that he is such, like we pick it up as such.

[48:14] The creator of all the universe condescended to become an author spoke through men to write stuff down so that we as a people who use language to communicate ideas have something we can hold in our hands to understand what we need to know about who he is and how we're meant to operate in relationship to him.

[48:35] And beloved, I put myself in this place as well. we neglect this book far too much. The disobedience in your life is almost always a direct response to your lack of understanding of the word of God.

[48:57] You don't fill yourself up with it and it evidences itself in your disobedience. Now that is not to say that simply having knowledge of the Bible I know unbelieving people that read the Bible.

[49:13] I know unbelieving people who have searched the religious books that didn't come to saving faith in Christ as a result of reading and knowing. I know some unbelieving people who have a clearer theology because they're thinkers and they read the Bible than some Christians that I know.

[49:33] It's frightening. But this is the tool. If we're to set our mind on the things of the Spirit, what are those things? That's the book that he wrote.

[49:44] These are the things of the Spirit that we're to set our minds on. This is the tool that the Spirit of God uses to bring about change in our lives. At times it's the sword he wields.

[49:58] At times it's the scalpel that he uses to bring about the necessary change. And if we are reading and meditating on the Scripture the Spirit of God will use it to bring about obedience in us.

[50:16] We will be filled with the Spirit. Eastern religions have stolen the idea of meditation from us and made it a mindless thing. Meditation is not a mindless thing.

[50:27] Meditation is a mindful thing. It's reading the Word of God. It's considering the Word of God. It's to the Word of God. And all of this the Spirit is mixed in the middle of helping us understand spiritual things and giving them right and proper application in our lives.

[50:45] If we're not obedient and we're not we find ourselves in sin we commit these acts of sin it's not because we need to try harder because we need to go back to the source of filling.

[50:58] We need to be filled by the Spirit so that we won't be disobedient so that we won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. We need to be back here saturating ourselves letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.

[51:16] And this is what it means to be baptized to be filled and this is the way in which we are filled. Let's pray together.

[51:27]