In the previous segments, we've looked at the characteristics of the Holy Spirit, the nature of the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, and how the Holy Spirit was used to give the apostles the full deposit of faith. Now I want to take a look in this segment at what the Scriptures say about receiving the Holy Spirit, about being filled with the Holy Spirit, and also some important things related to unity in the Holy Spirit. I want to start off with Luke chapter 11.
Luke chapter 11 is one of the two places where we have the Lord's Prayer. And it starts off in Luke 11 verse two. It says, Jesus says, when you pray, say our Father in heaven, He continues on from there. And early Christians took this literally. They would say this prayer and say it with feeling and with meaning, understanding each clause, and they would pray this prayer regularly. And Jesus in His teaching on prayer after He gives this prayer of what they should say.
In verse 5, he says," And He said to them,' Which of you having a friend? Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him,' Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey. I have nothing to set before him.' And he will answer from within and say,' Do not trouble me. The doors now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you.
I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he's a friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you," Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, he who seeks finds, and him who knocks, it will be open. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? This is that last line in the statement is what really kind of sent me reeling. He's talking about not just asking for random things. He says," How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" So what do we do with that? How do we understand that?
This is a puzzling statement because on the one hand, the Bible teaches that when we become Christians, when we're baptized, we're born again of the water and the Spirit as Jesus says in John 3:3 to 5. Acts 2:38," Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, you'll receive the Holy Spirit." And this promise is for everyone, as Peter explains in Acts chapter two.
In Ephesians 1:13 to 14, he's writing to the Christians in Ephesus, Paul, and he's saying," You were sealed with the Holy Spirit." So that, and other references, it's obvious that Christians have the Holy Spirit in them. Here, Jesus is saying," How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" So I'm wrestling with the idea how do we put these things together? If people ask me," Chuck, do you have the Holy Spirit?" My answer is yes.
And so, well, how do you know you have the Holy Spirit? Do you feel the Holy Spirit? Well, I don't trust my feelings anyway. I'm more of a thinker type and more of a skeptic anyway. So the reason that I am confident that I have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me is not based on a feeling. It's based on a promise of God. That when God says, you know when I wake up in the morning, I don't ask myself am I married or not? Because I don't feel married.
I know that I'm married because I entered into a marriage covenant with my wife and we may exchange promises with each other. So I know by faith that God forgave my sins because he promised that he would if I met the conditions and he also promised to give me the Holy Spirit. So it's a universal promise in Acts chapter two. Peter says it applies to all people. So regardless of personal feelings, I'm confident my sins have been forgiven. I'm confident that I received the Holy Spirit.
Now am I supposed to be asking for the Holy Spirit? The picture in Luke 11 is someone who is pounding on the door, who will not give up, who, because of his persistence, it says in the new King James, I like the original King James or I think it's the 1900 edition, it says, the early King James. It says," Because of his importunity, this is someone who is bold and will not give up." This is to the point of being almost obnoxious and embarrassing.
So this is the picture that Jesus is talking is presenting to us that we need to have this attitude about the Holy Spirit. So basically you don't give up and we ask God for the Holy Spirit. So let's consider then what it says in Ephesians chapter 5. In Ephesians 5:17, it says," Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Do not be drunk on wine which is for dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." So Paul in Ephesians 5 is calling the Christians in Ephesus to be filled with the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, in Ephesians 1:13 and 14, he says that they were already sealed with the Holy Spirit. So it seems to me putting the scriptures together that we can have the Holy Spirit in us, but we can also be asking for even more of the Holy Spirit.
We can ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And so since for quite a while, I've been praying that although I believe the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside of me, that God would fill me with the Holy Spirit, that God would give me more of the Holy Spirit just as Jesus says we should be praying in Luke chapter 11. And I would encourage you to do the same thing.
One of the questions that comes up when getting more of the Holy Spirit in us, he says that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts, the Lord, giving thanks always. He talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit and having that flow out into other aspects of our lives. I came from, as I mentioned in the first session here, came from a Church of Christ background.
I was taught cessationism, which is basically the Holy Spirit. The miraculous gifts ceased soon after the first generation of the church. Now, I was given a justification for that based on a few passages in Scripture. I was never terribly convinced by that, by the arguments there. On the other hand, I've never seen personally something that I would consider a genuine, miraculous manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So I believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit can still be around.
I haven't seen them personally. I'm praying for more of the Spirit. I want to be filled with the Spirit. So, you know, people ask me the question," Well, what do you do over here in this group or that group?" There are people who claim to have the ability to perform miraculous signs in the name of Jesus. What do we do with that?
Well, in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said in verse 22, 23, he says," Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name, and I will declare them," I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." So Jesus says," The one who will enter the kingdom of God is the one who does his father's will." So, whether the miraculous gifts are around today, or they're not around today, according to Jesus, the ability to
perform miracles.
It says," Many will say they cast out demons in his name and did many wonders." And he'll say," I never knew you." So there's no guaranteed link between the ability to perform a miraculous sign and the fact that someone is even saved or entered into the kingdom of God in the first place. Even Balaam talks about it in Jude verse 11 and 12:11 in 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 15 and 16. Even Balaam had the gift of prophecy who loved the wages of wickedness.
So whether God has brought back or maintained or will bring back the miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I don't know. I can't say for sure one way or another. But I do know for sure God wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that God wants us to have more of the Holy Spirit in us, and that when it comes to our salvation in the end, it's not going to be based on performing miraculous signs that many Jesus will say are performing signs and He never knew us.
One of the implications of the Holy Spirit is related to living holy lives if we have the Spirit dwelling in us. Let's turn to Exodus chapter 14. As we mentioned earlier, the Holy Spirit is foreshadowed by the pillar of cloud and fire. Moses is told to build the tabernacle in the Book of Exodus. And after it's built and the Tabernacle is set up, let's listen to what happens and starting in verse 28. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of testimony and the tabernacle was filled with the Lord's glory.
But Moses was not able to enter the Tabernacle of testimony because the cloud overshadowed it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud ascended from the tabernacle, the children of Israel prepared to depart with their belongings. But if the cloud did not descend, they did not prepare to depart until the cloud ascended. For before all Israel, throughout all their journey, the cloud was above the tabernacle by day and the fire was over it by night.
So this is a picture of the tabernacle being filled with the presence of God with the Holy Spirit and leading the people through the wilderness. When the Tabernacle lifted, they would move. They would pack out the Tabernacle was a tent-like structure. They pack it up and they follow wherever it went. Of course, the first Corinthians chapter 10, it says it talks about the people following the tabernacle through the wilderness.
They were baptized in the cloud and the sea and the various dangers that the people fell into. One of the four sins that they fell into was a sin of sexual immorality. And Paul reminds them that in one day, 23,000 died. That's referring to the event with a Moabite women in numbers 25. And this important lesson for Christians in the wilderness about not getting involved in sexual immorality. But there's another point made from the Exodus journey related to homosexuality. I'm sorry, related to sexual immorality.
Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 starting in verse 1. So it's actually reported there's sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles. A man has his father's wife. And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For indeed, as absent in the body of present and spirit, I've already judged as though I were present. Him was done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven. You may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Therefore, let us keep the feast not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So Paul uses in 1 Corinthians, he uses another example from the Exodus story about the reason that we need to be living pure lives and not involved in sexual immorality and cast those who are outside of the church. He points to the story of the Passover Lamb, not only Passover Lamb, but the whole Feast of the Unleavened Bread.
He says," Look, the Passover Lamb has been slain," Exodus chapter 12. And he says," Now you have to get all the yeast out." In Exodus 12:15, it says that anyone who partook of yeast during the seven days after the Passover would be cast out from the community. Yeast, of course, represents sin. So you have to get the sin out of our lives. The third example Paul uses from the Exodus story to teach us about the sin of sexual immorality has to do with the Holy Spirit and the cloud.
And Exodus chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 in verse 12," All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both it and them." Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and He will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I take the members of Christ and make the members of a harlot? Certainly not. Do you not know that he who joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says shall become one flesh, but he was joined to the Lord is one in spirit with him. Verse 18," Flee sexual immorality." Every sin a man does is outside his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God.
You are not your own, you are bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your God. So this is the picture that Paul uses here. He goes back to the picture in Exodus 40. After the tabernacle is set up, that the spirit of cloud, the pillar of cloud and fire descends and fills the tabernacle with the glory of God. It says," Don't you understand your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit of God is dwelling inside of us? Would you dare to desecrate the temple of God?
Would you take a spray paint and deface and desecrate the temple of God?" He says," That's what you're doing. Would you take a wrecking hammer to it?" So this is the picture. Of course you wouldn't do that. This is a sober reminder that God destroyed the temple of the Jews more than once as a result of their unrighteousness. And if we desecrate the temple of God in which His Spirit dwells, He'll destroy us as well.
So with that in mind, let's consider what it says in Hebrews chapter 10, that our bodies are temples in which the Spirit of God dwells. It has huge implications for us if we understand this, if we grasp this. Sorry, Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 26." For if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there's no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose? He will be thought-worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace." For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So if we understand that our bodies are the temple, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. This should motivate us to lead lives, to protect the temples, to lead holy lives, lives that are set apart for God. Our bodies are special. We've been purchased by God for a price. We cannot keep on sinning after we become Christians. In Ephesians 4, Paul says," Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice." So a personal challenge with this in view is take inventory of your life. Take a look at your temple. What's inside of it? What's inside your spirit? What is dwelling there? Is there anything in your life that is grieving or insulting the Holy Spirit? Is there anything in your life that is defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is your body?
And considering what Paul says related to the sin of sexual immorality, certainly that would apply to internet pornography, which is so prevalent and so accessible today. If you need to clean out, cleanse and rededicate your temple. Confess your sins. Brother to a trusted brother or sister to a trusted sister. As we are admonished in James 5:16, repent and restore, purify the temple of God.
How can we be petitioning God for more of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us if we are currently grieving and insulting the Holy Spirit by the way that we're living? We have to be pure and clean temples that are a welcome place for more of the Holy Spirit to come. I want to close this session talking about the Holy Spirit and unity. I personally consider the subject of the unity of all Christians to be the last frontier. It's like the Mount Everest.
This is the toughest challenge of all that all those who would consider themselves to be kingdom Christians or radical Christians who want to follow all the teachings of Jesus. In some ways, this may be the hardest teaching of all to implement, and this is one that we particularly need to rely on the Holy Spirit. And unfortunately, I don't see enough people today who are seriously pursuing the unity that Jesus calls us to have.
In his farewell discourse, reading from John 14 and John 16, the night before he was crucified, after praying for the apostles, Jesus then prays for the rest of us. In John 17, let's read starting in verse 20. Jesus says," I do not pray for these alone," referring to the apostles, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe you sent me.
And the glory which you gave me I had given them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to perfect. May they be made perfect in one that the world may know you sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. This is Jesus praying for. Jesus praying before he dies for the unity of all his future believers. For perfect meaning complete unity.
The kind of unity, the picture of the kind of unity Jesus wants us to have is the same kind of unity that He and the Father have, that kind of unity. And he's praying for all believers. I believe Jesus is concerned that Satan, the enemy who's been dogging him the whole way, even after he triumphs in the cross and the resurrection, that Satan will attack his followers in the future in many ways.
And if all else fails, Satan will attack to discredit them and to dishonor the Lord, our Father, by creating disunity among the followers of Jesus. There's nothing like disunity of Christians that discredits us in the eyes of the world. I think this is why Satan is so focused on this and why he's been so successful over time. Look around you and take inventory of the state of the Christian world today, even among those who are serious about following the teachings of Jesus, including the hard teachings.
Compare this to Jesus' desire for the unity of all his followers over all the world worldwide. I mean, honestly, the church is in terrible condition. There have been several worldly approaches to unity which have all failed. And I'd like to take a look at those and then point to the unity of the Spirit that I think God wants us to have. I mentioned I was raised up in the Roman Catholic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church solution for unity is very simple. It's basically everybody join them.
You've got one man in charge and there's one church and they say they are the one church. They're the original church. So if everyone just goes along with them and follows them, we'll all be unified with one person in charge. And this certainly is one way to get unity. But this is the unity that this reminds me of the unity in 1 Samuel chapter 8. The people wanted to be unified so they asked for a king to be appointed over them. I don't think this is the kind of unity that Jesus had in mind.
The unity that Jesus has in mind is the unity of the Spirit where we're all following His teachings. That's one approach is we just all submit to one political organization which will tell us what to do. The second type of unity is the ecumenical big tent approach which is kind of going to the opposite extreme and say," Look, anything we disagree on, we'll just consider this to be non-essential." So let's just water everything down.
Let's omit all the controversial teachings of Jesus and just base our unity on a few simple beliefs. We'll be on divinity of Christ, we believe in the Trinity, we'll believe in the inspiration of the Scripture, the resurrection of Jesus on the third day, and anything that people disagree on will consider to be non-essential. Eternal judgment bees being the only way teachings on homosexuality or homosexuality or sexual immorality, roles of men and women.
Anything that we disagree with, we'll just consider that non-essential and disputable matters and sweep those things under the rug. So the church will be just one big tent where people basically believe you know anything can be tolerated and allowed, and we'll sit around singing kumbaya together. Of course, this kind of unity is worthless. There's no unity at all. Then there's another approach to unity, which is let's all look unified on the outside. Let's define unity as everyone following the same man-made rules.
So let's just make some rules, force everyone to follow them, and we'll focus especially on outward external things. Everyone looks the same. Now this creates the appearance of unity within a particular group. But what happens when you go to the other side of town and there's another group there? They've got another completely different look and another set of rules.
You know I was told in, as I mentioned, I'm from a Catholic background, not an Anabaptist background, but I have many good dear friends in conservative Anabaptist circles. Some churches will require everyone, all the men to have beards. Some churches say you can't have a beard. Some churches will say you have to have a chin beard, but no mustache. And everyone, if you want to be in the church, you have to submit to the church rules, the leadership, the rules of the leadership there.
Now how this can produce a sense of unity within the group, yes, it can. But Jesus is praying for the unity of all believers. How are you going to do that if you're setting up rules and somebody else is setting up a completely contradictory group of rules? This is creating division in the body of Christ. So it may create an outward appearance of local unity, but in reality, this is just creating more fragmentation division because it's impossible for those two groups to get together.
Another approach to unity is what I would consider a sectarian or doctrinal uniformity approach. Let's come up with a long list of positions about things, including things the Bible may say nothing about and say, if you want to join our group, you've got to agree with all these things. Now if they're all things that are based in the Scriptures, that's fine. But once you get beyond that, that just creates more disunity. And the Church of Christ, the background I come from.
The church, they'll split over instrumental music or no instrumental music. They'll split over whether you have a kitchen in the church and the church building. They'll split over missionary societies. It's just tremendously fragmented group of believers because they start coming up with specific rules and then casting everybody out who doesn't agree with them. That's not going to produce unity. Then there's another prototype of unity is what I call the cultic or ostrich approach to unity.
And I had some exposure to this, unfortunately, in my own past. And basically the group will stick its head in the sand like an ostrich. When it's threatened, will put its head in the sand to pretend that there's no enemy out there because it's going to panic and freak out otherwise. So the group will stick its head in the sand and pretend that outside of that group there are no other Christians on the face of the earth. So you can have unity because you don't believe there's anybody else out there but yourself.
And if anybody challenges the tenets of that group, they get kicked out and they become non-Christians if they're not part of the group. So this is not the unity of all believers that Jesus is praying for either. So what kind of unity are we supposed to have? How do we how do we who want to really love Jesus and want to follow him? How do we put into practice what he's asking for that all the believers may be one as he is one, not just within one particular group. I think of Ephesians 4 verses 1 to 6.
Paul says," I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling in which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope in your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all. There's only one Spirit of God. There's only one Lord.
There's only one faith. There's only one baptism. God wants all of His followers to be unified, to have that Spirit. That's what Paul is Paul is praying for this, that we will all with lowliness and gentleness and forbearance with each other keep the unity of the Spirit. This is a Spirit-driven unity. The Spirit desires the unity of all Christians. I think of the Israelites in the wilderness. There was one spirit, one cloud of pillar and fire. And when it descended, all 12 tribes were camped around the Spirit.
The Spirit pulled them all together and kept the entire camp unified. This kind of unity only comes about through gentleness, humility, bearing with one another in love. It doesn't mean we're compromising the truth on anything. However, I believe I have to strive with unity to the fullest extent possible with anyone who is a true brother in Christ, even if I don't necessarily agree with them on every single point of doctrine or lifestyle.
The Christian faith is actually extraordinarily simple and somehow or other the early church stayed pretty unified. Two things I know that are going to contribute to disunity and are going to not bring about the unity of the Spirit. One is adding anything to the commands of God that was handed down to the apostles. The other one is taking anything away that people who do either of those are guilty of bringing division in the body of Christ.
So in order to bring about the unity of the Spirit, I believe God wants us to follow the simple faith that was handed down that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would give to the apostles. Don't add anything and don't take anything away from it. We need to have the Spirit of God living in our lives, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge, and godliness and fear of the Lord. A spirit that produces an attitude of humility and love towards other believers and forbearance.
And we need to look for opportunities to promote unity in the body of Christ overall and build bridges and break down the artificial barriers of sectarianism and suspicion to the fullest extent that we can without compromising anything in the Word of God. And I think one of Satan's great successful tactics has been that there are many groups out there that have different strengths that are really strong. Some very strong in devotional life in prayer and fasting.
Some are strong in holiness and some are strong in study of the Word of God. Some are strong in evangelizing or meeting the needs of the poor. And if Satan can get each of the groups that has a strength to just be off on their own and not communicating with the other groups. He can divide and weaken the church.
Instead of pulling together in the unity of the Spirit and learning from one another, promoting unity to have a stronger church that combines the great strengths of the different groups that are out there that are separated unfortunately from one another. So basic concluding remark or remarks is I hope that you have a deeper love for the Holy Spirit, understanding of the Holy Spirit, and appreciation for the Holy Spirit, the character of the Spirit, the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
The fact that God has given us this wonderful gift to dwell inside of us, that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come, and the Holy Spirit will lead us to conversion. And then during the 40 years in the wilderness, this time of the Christian life, the Holy Spirit will guide us all the way to the promised land, to the heavenly home that we look forward to. That the Holy Spirit also has inspired the Word of God.
I can have complete confidence in the Old Testament and the New Testament because I know that it's been inspired by God. It's inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith is not just a life of boiling down the New Testament to a set of mechanical rules that we follow. It's a relationship where the Spirit of God is dwelling in us, where our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we live our lives accordingly.
We are called to be full of the Spirit, to have more and more of the Spirit and the Spirit operating within us. And the Holy Spirit is not going to be leading us in a different direction. It's not going to be telling us something different than what the Scriptures say.
If we know the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, if we're feeling something or something, somebody is telling us something, claiming us from the Holy Spirit, and it goes against the Word of God, that can't possibly be true because we know the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures. Anyone leading us in a different direction is not really from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, is the Spirit that inspired the Word of God.
And my hope is that the Spirit, we will all be asking for more of the Spirit in our lives, and we will especially be striving for the unity of the Spirit, a real Spirit formed unity that Jesus was praying for from all of those, from whatever group, from whatever background who were sincerely trying to follow Jesus. Amen.