Filled Up or Filled Out?

Ephesians 5:15-20

Two common symbols for the Spirit are wine (or water) and wind. You can fill a cup with wine (or water), and we can fill a balloon with air. Which better describes to you what it means to be filled with the Spirit?

The liquid in the cup is a picture of the Spirit permeating every aspect of our being (sanctifying us in spirit, soul, and body, 1 Thess. 5:22-23). On the other hand, the balloon gives us a picture of growth in the Spirit--becoming capable of more. As far as which symbol I like more, read on.

If you had two cups—one large and one small—or two balloons—one large and one small—would you consider the larger container to be more filled? Does it make sense to describe a Christian as being more filled with the Spirit?

Obviously, the smaller cup should not ask, "Why didn't God make me a bigger cup so I could be more filled?" For the smaller cup, the filling is what counts, not the volume. For the balloons, volume is an aspect of being filled--can I blow a little more air into this balloon without popping it?

The NT never talks about being more filled with the Spirit, but just being filled. How often do we as Christians err by seeking after more filling instead of simply seeking after the one doing the filling?

What common misconceptions do you think Christians have about being filled with the Spirit? Based on tonight’s lesson, what would you want to say to counter these misconceptions?

The verses tonight speak about a filling by the Spirit that seeks to edify others: v19 "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord." I think well-intentioned Christians stumble by viewing the filling of the Spirit as something that edifies them when in fact the filling of the Spirit is for the edification of others. "Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.'" (John 7:37b-38) That overflow is for the work of God's kingdom in the world, not the kingdom within the individual.

What will you do with what you have learned tonight?

I wonder if the whole metaphor of filling a cup or a balloon is too simple. I think the filling by the Spirit of Christ is transformational; it would be as if the Spirit filled our cups with water and then turned the water into wine. Part of the filling is the sweetness, the change of heart and perspective, that comes through life in the Spirit. Paul Eluard wrote, "There is another world, and it is in this one." Nothing in this world may have changed, our circumstances are still the same, but everything by the Spirit has changed: that is the kingdom being born.

Progressive Sanctification: Trending Upwards

Philippians 1:

3 I thank my God every time I remember you.
4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy
5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the 1st day until now,
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me.
8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Does partnership in the gospel require maturity before beginning to work for the gospel? Think of a time where a parent took you along to "help." What made the time significant—your help, or something else?

Who starts and complete the good work in us? What is our part to play?

What is necessary for love to grow? Can it happen in a vacuum?

A.B. Simpson says, "Seek the blesser, not the blessing." I say what we usually think of as holiness is the fruit of being sanctified [i.e. set apart] for Christ. How do you do these ideas coming through in these verses?

What will you do with what you have learned tonight?

The Crisis: Filing for Bankruptcy

Romans 7:15-25

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Write or draw about a time in your life when you felt this way.

Do you think it’s possible for a Christian to ever feel this kind of anxiety? Remember this is Paul writing. Is he talking about his pre-Christian life; the moment of his conversion; a moment subsequent to his conversion; or a process we repeat often as we grow spiritually? (Good Christians can agree to disagree about these verses!)

Since Jesus calls us to pick up our cross daily, we must be open to the idea that each day may bring a fresh challenge to how we understand what it means to follow Jesus. The Alliance talks about a crisis experience—in the process of becoming sanctified, there is a moment, at conversion or later, in which one realizes the inability of real life apart from Christ. We have been writing checks our spirit cannot cash, and we need a bailout. Who will rescue us? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The crisis is the moment we commit to separating from sin and dedicating ourselves to Jesus for everything. Crisis leads to surrender, and surrender leads to obedience. A.B. Simpson says, "This act of dedication should be made once for all, and then recognized as done and as including every subsequent act that we may ever renew as we receive more light in detail respecting His will concerning us. It is possible for us, once for all and not knowing perhaps one-thousandth part of all that it means, to give ourselves to God ..." (Wholly Sanctified, p31). God makes your vow good!

Point to Ponder: I have two candles on the altar: one has a single wick, and other--a fatter candle--has multiple wicks, hence multiple flames when it is lit. If holiness denotes dedication to God's service and the place where God is at work, then which is holier: the one-wick candle, or the multiple-wick candle? They're equally holy, since they are both dedicated to God's service. We tend to discount the early crisis moments in our lives, thinking, "I didn't really understand what I was doing!" However, God understood you committed all that you knew of at that time. Later, when you discovered more to your spiritual growth, you didn't become more holy; rather you were simply obedient to continue to give you life over. (You thought you were a one-wick candle; when you found out you had yet another wick, you asked God to light & use that one as well!) OK?

A Word on Perfection

One of the most common problems that I've encountered in ordination and consecration papers is referring to Matthew 5:48 ("Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.") and concluding that Jesus is calling us to be holy as God is holy (which admittedly is what the OT says in Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:26).

However, this conclusion takes the verse out of its immediate context (another common problem in the papers I've read). The immediate context is Matthew 5:43-48 ("love your enemies ...").

While I believe that the whole Sermon on the Mount exhorts the hearer to a higher moral standard, we commonly misunderstand what the NT says about perfection. Teleios, the word translated in Matt. 5:48 as "perfect", is frequently translated elsewhere in the NT as "whole", "complete" or "mature." We beat ourselves up when we are less than perfect, when I believe that God wants us to be mature! (The difference is this: neither children nor adults are perfect, but adults go back and try to rectify their mistakes; children don't!) If we translate Matt. 5:48 as "mature" instead of "perfect", I assert that what Jesus is saying in Matt 5:43-48 is something like, "You have heard it said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,' but I say to you, 'Grow up! Love your enemy and pray for those that persecute you. Even a child can love those who love him first."

I preached a sermon on exactly this two years ago: "The Gospel of Baseball: We Did Everything Right but Win" in which I said our idea of perfection is like the Red Sox going 162-0. (God's idea of perfection--i.e. maturity--is something more like the Red Sox going 108-54. A team that does that is playing smart baseball. Such a team will still stumble, but they will adjust, correct, and get back on track.)

The Three Key Steps towards Sanctification

Sanctification doesn't just happen. It is an intentional process in which God's Spirit and our bodies, minds, and spirits work together to change how we live as individuals and as communities.

Romans 8:12-13
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live ...

Pick one word or phrase from v12-13 and meditate on it for at least 5 minutes. What do you discover?

Romans 8:14-15
... because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

Pick one word or phrase from v14-15 and meditate on it for at least 5 minutes. What do you discover?

Romans 8:16-17
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Pick one word or phrase from v16-17 and meditate on it for at least 5 minutes. What do you discover?

Questions:

The Alliance doctrine of sanctification says that we need separation from sin, dedication to Christ as our source, filling by Christ and identifcation with Christ. How do you see this played out in the above verses?

Over the ages theologians (e.g. Athanasius & Bonhoeffer) have said God became man that man might become God. The suggestion is that the perfect man paves the way for righteous living. More than simply being a moral exemplar, Christ's obedience allows him to be sanctified (John 17:19) by God, and in turn be our source for sanctification as well. What do you think?

Some eastern churches (e.g. the Orthodox Church) speak of theosis (or divinization) as the process of transformation by which humans are conformed to God's direction and energized by God. This transformation is a 3-step process: purification, illumination, and sainthood. How does this compare (and how is it different from) the Alliance 3-step process of separation from sin, dedication to Christ, and filling by the Spirit of Christ?

What will you do with what you have learned tonight?