Filled with the Spirit

Filled with the Spirit

2018-05-20 – Year B – The Feast of Pentecost – The Rev. Christopher M. Klukas
Acts 2:1–11; Psalm 104:25–32; 1 Corinthians 12:4–13; John 20:19–23

Anglican Church in North America, Anglican Church in North America Sunday and Red-Letter Day Lectionary (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016).

• The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity with whom we often have the most trouble relating. We pray to the Father, we pray to Jesus, but how often do we pray to the Holy Spirit?
• Not an “it” or a “force” or a “power” but a person.
• The person of the Trinity with whom we have the most direct contact.
  • Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
• Children’s illustration: blow up a balloon. What is inside the balloon? How do you know?
• John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes…”
  • We can’t see the wind, but we can see the effects of the wind.

The Holy Spirit in Your Life

• Leads you to salvation
  • John Newton, author of Amazing Grace and many other hymns which we still sing today. In his younger years, espoused freethinking principles, was arrogant and insubordinate, and lived with moral abandon: “I sinned with a high hand,” he once wrote, “and I made it my study to tempt and seduce others.”
  • He was a sailor and actively participated in the slave trade, eventually becoming the captain of a slave ship.
  • Influenced by both the Wesleys and George Whitefield, he became increasingly disgusted with the slave trade and his role in it. He quit, was ordained into the Anglican ministry, and in 1764 took a parish in Olney in Buckinghamshire.
  • That conviction of sin is a work of the Holy Spirit – John 16:7-8
• Given at Baptism – John 3:5 “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit…”
  • Acts 2:38 – “Repent and be baptized…and you will receive…the Holy Spirit.”
  • Galatians 4:6-7 – God sends the Spirit into our hearts crying “Abba, Father”
• Teaches us – John 14:25-26
• Working in you to make you Holy (sanctification) – Romans 15:16

The Holy Spirit in Our Life

• 1 Cor 12:7 – gifts given for the common good
  • Teaching, helps, healing, faith, giving, prophecy, tongues, leadership, administration, hospitality, evangelism, etc.
• The gifts of the Spirit are meant for you to share
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis. In chapter 10, gifts are given to the children, including a healing cordial given to Lucy.
  • At the end of the book, Lucy has the opportunity to use it. Her brother, Edmund had been wounded.
  • Lucy takes out her cordial and pours some in her brothers mouth, then she waits, wondering if the cordial will have any result.
  • “‘Daughter of Eve,’ said Aslan in a [grave] voice, ‘others also are at the point of death..’ For the next half hour they were busy–she attending to the wounded while he restored those who had been turned into stone.”
  • Lucy’s gift was not just for her, or for her family, but for all those of Aslan’s army who were wounded.

The Holy Spirit for the Life of the World

• John 20:21-22 – “I am sending you…receive the Holy Spirit.”
• Acts 1:8 “You will receive power…and you will be my witnesses.”
  • On the day of Pentecost, as they left the safety of their locked room, the disciples went out into the streets. Acts 2:5-8 – everyone heard in their own language.
• There is a cycle at work here. Just as the Holy Spirit convicts us and bring us to salvation, so also the Spirit empowers us to fulfill Jesus’ great commission, convicting the hearts of those he sends us to reach.
• In your own strength, you can’t bring anyone to repentance. In God’s strength, through the Holy Spirit, God can use you to bring about change in people’s lives.

Filled with the Spirit

• Buying a piece of exercise equipment makes no difference unless you use is.
• We all receive the Holy Spirit when we are baptized, For the Holy Spirit to make a difference in our lives, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 2:4 “they were all filled with the Spirit.”
  • This term is used elsewhere in Acts on people like Peter and Paul after they had already received the Holy Spirit.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:19 – “Do not quench the Spirit.”
  • When we try to accomplish things in our own strength
  • When we suppress the gifts that he has given us to use
  • When we don’t consult the Spirit for guidance and direction
  • When we don’t pay attention to his guidance and direction
  • When we don’t invite the Spirit to be a part of our lives
• We need to invite the Spirit to fill us continually (Ephesians 5:18).
• “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire. Thou the anointing Spirit art, who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart. Thy blessed unction from above is comfort, life, and fire of love. Enable with perpetual light the dullness of our blinded sight. Teach us to know the Father, Son, and thee, of both, to be but One, that through the ages all along, this may be our endless song:Praise to thy eternal merit, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Veni Creator Spiritus, 9th cent.