Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
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7:34
The Pentecostal Movement is all about being filled with the Spirit, being controlled by Him much like a drunk person is controlled by the wine (or other alcohol). And yet we find in this lesson that the Spirit and the Word are the same. Maybe Pentecostals need more bread with their wine?
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Once you're regenerate, you're always regenerate. Once you're indwelt, you're always indwelt. But the filling can come and go. And we see this in people in the book of Acts. Multiple occasions it'll say, for example, Peter was filled. So it's pointing out on certain occasions he was filled, which implies that in between those events, he may not have been filled, but on this occasion he was. So the filling can come and go. So let's talk about this filling because this is the vital thing.
The imagery of being filled by the Spirit is being controlled. Okay, the idea of control by the Spirit. You're yielding, you're giving up your will and what you want to do, and you're allowing yourself to be controlled by the Spirit. But this is a command to follow. And if it's a command to follow, you have to consciously be thinking about that. Okay, I'm going to yield my will to his will. I want him to control. I don't want to control the outcome. The second thing that relates to this, of course, is the walking by the Spirit. And the imagery here is dependence. Walking in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. As the text will tell us, walk by, walk by means of the Spirit of God. So not in your own strength, but in his strength, you're going to walk if you want to see the soul. The third is the imagery of abiding in Christ. And this is the picture of the vine and the branches in John 15, which we'll turn to, where you've got the branch that has to be vitally connected to the vine. Or we'd say, in if we're talking about arbor and arbory and stuff like that, we talk about a tree and it's got to have branches. The branches have to be connected to the trunk of the tree, or else there's no life that's going to flow through the branches to produce the fruit. And the fruit is what we all want. We want fruit in the end. That's the thing we're most interested in. It's the stuff that tastes good. So when the conditions are met for each of these three, then there is fruit. We reach that in the very sweet production. And this is the most effect, this is most effective in believers, and we're going to talk about this, who have made a once-for-all surrender of their wills to God's will. I want to talk about this in some detail. So while any believer can be in fellowship, only those who are surrendered to Christ are prone to be in fellowship. These are the ones who tend to go on to spiritual maturity and bear much fruit. When we sin, of course, we lose fellowship with God. We need to confess to be restored. That's what we do every Sunday. I give you an opportunity for that. But these principles are essential to spiritual fellowship and maturity. But the part I really kind of want to focus on today as we work through all this is this idea of a once-for-all surrender, which there's a little dispute about this type of thing. And I've kind of gone back and forth. But uh looking at it once again, I think this is actually somewhat of a key. So I want to discuss that, and I think that it will be beneficial to all of us. So let's talk first of all about the three commands to be filled, to walk, and to abide.
The first one is to be filled by the Spirit. Okay, the filling of the Spirit, we'll turn to Ephesians 5.18. Ephesians 5.18. This, of course, is a human condition since it's a command. Whenever we're commanded to do something, it's implied that yes, that's a condition for some result. So Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18, and then we'll look at what's uh what's the companion epistle to Ephesians? Colossians. Okay, these two go together. They're written about the same time. They were, we think, probably even sent by the same courier. Uh both Ephesus and Colossae are within about 120 miles of each other. They're both in Asia Minor. And the language is very similar. I've got some 50 different linkages in my own personal study to show the corollaries between these two books. So there's actually going to be a corollary between what we we know most commonly, Ephesians 5.18, and a passage in Colossians which describes the same type of ministry in a little bit different way. But here's the human requirement in verse 18. Paul says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. So there's a contrast here, right? Not getting drunk with wine, because that's debauchery, but on the other hand, instead, right, be filled with, or technically by means of, or by the spirit. Be filled. This is the idea again of control. You are yielding, you obey this command in order to yield to the spirit, so that he does what? So he produces a certain effect, just like wine produces a certain effect. So if you have too much wine, you get drunk, then of course, what happens? Well, the wine begins to control you and your actions. That's why you behave differently than you normally behave. And in the same way, when we are filled by the Spirit, we behave differently than we would left to ourselves. So this is a condition, and you can see the results of it in following verse 19 and 20. There's four participants speaking, singing, making melody, and always giving thanks. So this is fruit. Okay? This is fruit. We'll talk about those results a little bit more later.
Um now if we turn over to Colossians, the parallel is Colossians chapter 3. And you find almost identical. Like I said, these are companion books. So the description is in Colossians 3.16. And the results are what follow there at the end of verse 16 and 17, which are the same same exact results from Ephesians 5. So he doesn't say though, be filled with the Spirit. Notice what he says in Colossians 3.16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Richly dwell within you. And then you see the result. Wisdom teaching, admonishing, songs, singing, thanking, and so forth. Same, same result. But different way to express it. In in Ephesians, be filled by the Spirit. Here, the Spirit's not even mentioned, is he? But what is mentioned? The Word of
