Experiencing the Spirit
Experiencing the Spirit
Tom Steller
Bethlehem Baptist Church
March 11 and 12, 2006
Ephesians 3:14-19 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The climax of this prayer—what everything else is moving toward, is that each of us individually and we as the new humanity made up of Jews and Gentiles, of people from every tribe and tongue would be filled up with all the fullness of God. There is no greater thing that can be prayed. Our hearts are made for this. God has put eternity in our hearts. Even the streets of gold and the reunion of loved ones and no more crying or pain isn’t the ultimate, to be filled up with all the fullness of God is the ultimate. Paul prays that this will happen for believers. And his prayer will be answered, progressively in this life, gloriously when Jesus returns and we are glorified with him. And then it will take an endless eternity for it to be fully answered. I can’t focus on this now, but I was blown away when it hit me that immediately after Paul prays that we will be filled with all the fullness of God, he says in verse 20-21 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”. Paul just finished thinking about and asking that we be filled with all the fullness of God. And then he says God can do even more than that! What can be more than being filled with all the fullness of God, unless it means that our eternity will be an ever increasing capacity to enjoy more and more profoundly the fullness of God. Aren’t you excited about this 22 week sermon series that Kenny launched last weekend?
As a means to this fullness, Paul prays in v. 18 that we will know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. Or as one of our TBI apprentices, Jason Abell, translated a similar phrase to this one—that we will know the mind-blowing love of Christ. Right now, if we are Christians, we are rooted and grounded in this love, but its breadth and length and height and depth we will need an eternity in order to experience it’s fullness.
But in order to know the depths of this love, v. 17 says that Christ must dwell in our hearts through faith. Everything flows from faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is what connects us to God through the righteousness and sacrifice and person of His Son.
And before faith can happen, there must be a supernatural working of God through His Holy Spirit in the deepest core of our being. Paul’s first petition in this great prayer is found in v. 16, Here Paul prays that “according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.”
It is this petition that is our focus today. Or more specifically, what I want to focus on today is the first instant of this petition being answered. Here Paul is praying for Christians to have an on-going experience of being strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner being. But there is an initial work of the Spirit in the core of our being that must take place if we are to experience the fullness of God in mercy. Apart from this work of the Spirit, left to our own sin all we will experience for eternity is the fullness of God’s wrath. So what we are talking about is so important—so important! No playing church today. We are blood earnest about what we are doing in the preaching of God’s Word here at Bethlehem.
Turn with me to Eph. 2:1 where you can see the predicament of every person from every culture apart from Christ. Let’s read vv. 1-3 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
All mankind, all of humanity, every person from every tribe and tongue and nation, is by nature children of wrath, dead, spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins.
We need a miracle. We need an act of God. We need a supernatural intervention. Look at how v. 4 begins: BUT GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You were dead in your trespasses and sins. BUT GOD!! You were by nature children of wrath. BUT GOD!! But God what? What did he do?
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 (NOW LISTEN TO THIS: HERE’S ALL THE FULLNESS COMING, ARE YOU READY?? WHY DID GOD INTERVENE, WHY DID HE MAKE US ALIVE? “…so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Oh, may God help us comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this awesome love of God in Christ!!!
So in Ephesians this miracle, this intervention of God is called “resurrection/being made alive;” in 2 Corinthians it is called “new creation (5:17);” in John’s gospel and letters it’s called “being born again” or “being begotten from above” (John 3:3,) or being “born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5,6)” or being born of God (1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18). I think John’s language is taken from Ezek 36:25-27. Let’s read that together, “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” This is perhaps the most detailed description of the miraculous, supernatural intervention of God that each of us needs so bad. Because of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, all their children, including you and me are born with a heart of stone, one which isn’t inclined to embrace God on His terms. At some point in every redeemed person’s life God did a supernatural heart transplant. He took out my stoney heart, that resisted embracing Him on His terms, and He put in its place a heart of flesh, a soft heart, a heart that welcomes Him on His terms, a heart that says Jesus is Lord; a heart that cries out Abba Father, thank you for the cross, for not sparing your Son.
My burden today is three-fold:
1) for the many here who know that they are born again;
2)for those who are not sure whether you are born again;
3) for those of you who know that your heart is hard toward Christ and His Lordship isn’t welcomed.
1) Here’s my encouragement for the many of you who are confident that you are born again by His grace alone, that you have received this miracle of the new heart: My burden is that you would simply be reminded how stupendous, how marvelous, how glorious it is that your heart is inclined toward God; that you are embracing Him on His terms. It’s a miracle that you are welcoming His Lordship over your pocket book. You’re not serving mammon, you acknowledge that every penny you have earned or inherited is His, not just 10%. You welcome His Lordship over your sexuality. What a personal thing you have surrendered to him! Whether you have a high libido or a low libido, whether you have a heterosexual or homosexual orientation, whether you are married or single, your heart’s desire is to honor Him with your sexuality and to welcome His commands which you know are given for your deepest happiness. You welcome His Lordship over your failures and on-going battle with sin. You love the cross of Jesus; you hide yourself in His righteousness. Of course in all of this there is a battle, sometimes the battle is huge. In Galatians 5:17 Paul tells of this battle “17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other...” No wonder life feel like a war!! It is! You are by the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the body (Rom 8:13). Despite many defeats in this battle you know that “the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin”—including your cheating, or your cowardice, or your lust, or your adultery, or your divorce, or your racism, or your callousness toward the poor (1 John 7-9) You welcome His forgiveness and move forward. I have prayed as I prepared this message that you would be astounded afresh that your heart is inclined toward the savior-hood of Jesus and toward the Lordship of Jesus and that you would marvel at how powerfully the Spirit is at work in your life.
Back when I was in seminary, I went through a dark night of the soul battling with trying to evaluate my own experience of the Spirit. I was converted when I was a junior in high school. I got involved in a charismatic church which had such a huge influence on my life as it stressed the value and authority of God’s Word for all of life; as it introduced me to the beauty and joy of whole-hearted worship; as it made me to yearn for all the fullness of the Spirit. For this I am so grateful. It also introduced me to a two-stage Christianity which divided the church up into “Spirit-filled Christians” and “not Spirit-filled Christians”. What usually distinguished these two groups was a certain understanding of the baptism of the Spirit and the necessary evidence of speaking in tongues. I’m so glad that next weekend Wayne Grudem will be preaching about “being filled with the Spirit” and that we will also be hearing from Sam Storms and C. J. Mahaney who all celebrate the charismatic dimensions of the Holy Spirit and yet avoid the pitfalls of a two-stage Christianity. By the time I got to seminary I had abandoned the two-stage theology that I had learned but I didn’t abandon my reading of the Scriptures that the Spirit is free to distribute the full range of His gifts today. I was longing for more experiences with the full range of His gifts. But as I labored over this, I was working my way through Rom 8:4-8. “4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” In this text Paul is burdened to show that those who are in Christ experience the work of the Spirit in such a way and to such an extent that the requirement of the Law is fulfilled in them. Then he goes on to describe the difference between someone who has the Holy Spirit and someone who doesn’t: “5For 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… 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” I remember asking myself, do I submit to the Law of God. Of course the answer is, not perfectly. But by the Holy Spirit I now welcome Jesus Lordship over my life and my heart is changed so that I want to follow Him on His terms. Paul says that those who are in the flesh not only don’t do this, but they CANNOT do this. God used this insight from His word to cause me to glory in the reality that His Law has been written on my heart and that by His Spirit He is slowly but surely causing me to walk in His ways. Since that time I have never ceased to delight in God’s supernatural new covenant work through His Spirit purchased by His Son. I am astounded every day that my heart is inclined toward God. The very fact that I am inclined to cry out Abba Father or that I can say Jesus is Lord is concrete evidence that I have been born again and that His Spirit is mightily at work in my life. The wonderful sovereign bestowal of His gifts is a wonderful thing which we should earnestly desire (I Cor 14:1). But it’s not the main thing. The main thing is that the Spirit so magnifies the glory of God in the face of Christ that my heart responds in faith and joy and the inclination to obey His commands. Those of you in this room who are so inclined, do you realize you are a walking and talking miracle? Are you utterly astounded and overwhelmingly grateful that God is right now granting “you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being?” I am utterly amazed that 34 ½ years after my conversion my heart loves Jesus and want to relate to Him on His terms. If your heart is inclined toward Him, no matter how hard it is battling the temptations of the world, the question, “Where is God” is utterly illegitimate. He is right there in your heart mightily at work preserving you for Him. Let me read to you 1 Pet 1:3-5 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Those whom God has caused to be born again, He is guarding by His power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time!!!
2) A word to any of you who might not be sure that you have been born again. There are different reasons for this lack of assurance. One is illegitimate and the other one is legitimate. Here’s an illegitimate reason: Sometimes people who can’t remember an exact moment of their conversion have nagging doubts about whether they are truly born again. This can especially be true for those who grew up under the influence of the gospel and often times can’t remember a time when they didn’t love Jesus. My counsel to you is don’t feel like you need to pin point the exact moment. God knows the moment he regenerated you. He knows exactly when He took out the heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh. That’s all that matters. If you trust in Christ alone for your righteousness and the forgiveness of your sins today and you welcome His Lordship over your life, simply marvel at this and praise Him for begetting you anew, whenever He did it.
A legitimate reason for you to lack assurance of whether you have been born again is if you are persisting in willful intentional sin with no desire or intention to repent and obey Christ in that area of your life. When Jesus is Lord, we can’t pick and choose which of His commands to obey and which to ignore. I’m not talking about perfection here. We will never be perfect this side of Christ’s return. If anyone says he has no sin he is a liar and the truth is not in him. But John also says that if someone says he loves God and hates his brother, he’s a liar and the truth is not in him. And the writer of Hebrews warns professing Christians “26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” If this is true of you, don’t comfort yourself that when you were 6 or 16 you walked the aisle and prayed the prayer and accepted Christ as your savior. I’m not criticizing walking the aisle and praying the sinner’s prayer. I did both! But don’t rely on that for your assurance. Your assurance is based on
God alone who caused you to be born again and who is protecting you by His power through faith for your final salvation. At Bethlehem we don’t believe that someone who has truly been born again can lose his or her salvation. Those who seem to make a promising beginning by professing Christ and then fall into persistent unbelief and disobedience may be giving evidence that they were never born again in the first place.
So my word to those who have a legitimate reason to lack assurance today is turn to Jesus right now in repentance and faith. And after you have done that to thank God that He is preserving His born again children through faith.
The final burden is to address any in here who know in your heart of hearts that you have never been converted. Maybe you’re here because a parent or friend or son or daughter pressure you to come. Or maybe you’re here because you’re curious or lonely. Or maybe you’re here because you think it’s your religious duty and that if you perform your duty God will help you get that job or get that spouse. Whatever reason you are here, it’s no accident. I am so glad you are here My admonition to you is to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior; to believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and to confess with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead. I’m not saying, do this in order that you might be born again. I’m saying this because according to Peter and James, the new birth happens through the Word of God. If you do consciously receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Scripture says that it’s because you were born again not by the will of man but by the will of God (1 John 1:12-13). My prayer is that God the Father and the Holy Spirit are moving right now to cause people to receive Jesus’ gift of righteousness and the forgiveness of sins purchased by His death on the cross. If you are sensing God’s tug on your life, don’t resist Him. Welcome Him. Talk to the person you came with or if you came alone talk with someone you are sitting nearby or in a few moments you can come up here and talk with me or anyone on the prayer ministry team. Most important of all, talk with God.
Let’s pray.