Be filled, Eph, 5:18-20

We have been made a new creation. We just have to learn to catch up with that, right? That's what our learning is about here. There is no mixture of who we are in Christ with darkness and light. Alright, now, one of the things we pointed out last week in last week's passage, there's this word, but, which has kind of varying meanings in English.

The word that is used here is Allah, which is a sharp contrast, a very sharp distinction. And it's one that he continues on in this present passage. As a matter of fact, we're going to continue to see this word pop up. And it's one of those words that is very small, but is pivotal in the passage. It is not the shade of gray, not a little bit darker and a little bit lighter, not that at all. It is a sharp break, a sharp contrast that he's making here. So as he does in this current passage, only one place does he put it, but it's as pivotal as it ever was.

There is a sharp contrast between the life that is characteristic of the unbeliever and that of the believer. We illustrate it this way by having the first area with red outline as the negative statement, but in sharp contrast, the positive statement. We use stop and go lights from a traffic light to signal that. The first is, as we draw the words from last week, the first is unwise and the second is wise.

He follows the negative statement and the positive statement with description. Notice the magnitude. He gives a brief description of what's unwise and why it's unwise, but he doesn't concentrate on it. What does he put the focus on? He puts the focus on describing why being filled with the Spirit is wisdom. He overwhelms the description, if you will, of that which is unwise.

Now, as we look at the passage, some other things to point out. Do not get drunk. A negative imperative. Basically, it's an imperative coupled with a negative. And the positive statement, be filled. Those are the two imperatives in the passage. These are the imperatives that drive the exhortation that Paul's got here and tell us what It looks like in real life when we're walking with the Lord. What does the life of Christ look like? Now, this is actually the full passage, and I have good news for you. We won't study all that this morning. But this is the full passage that this Be Filled with the Spirit is actually leading.

If we are filled with the Spirit, here is what it looks like. And we'll take weeks to go through it, a little bit at a time. We've given two imperatives. As we've been going through it, we've been making note of what's the character of these imperatives. Paul often wrote with imperatives, and this last half of Ephesians is no exception. They're not to be looked at as a moral imperative. What do I mean by that? I'm not saying he's urging us to be immoral, but they are not moral imperatives having the idea of condemnation if you fail. A believer in Christ is under no condemnation.

Instead, it is looking at this. It's a logical imperative. He's been telling them for three chapters before he even presents one single imperative. He's been telling them all about who they are in Christ. Their position that they have in Christ. He's been laying that out. And what is he saying? When he gives an imperative, he's not saying, you better watch out or you're going to get it. He's saying instead, Look, based on who you are in Christ, there is one logical conclusion here about what that looks like in real life.

Let me tell you what it looks like. So this is not spelling out law, but he is spelling out the one logical conclusion that we can reach based on the position that we have in Christ. Every believer has it, that position is eternal, and it is unfathomable. Amazing blessings. My brother puts it this way. We have been blessed through God's amazing grace. And grace isn't grace until it's amazing. Now, see this? Racing stripes, right? Not exactly. What this is, here's a parallel passage. See those? Those are parallel lines. This is a parallel passage. Colossians 3, 16 and 17.

As you'll read through it, and this is included, oh, by the way, I've got to clue you in here. This is a page number on your handout for those who are visiting with us. Got to keep you up to speed here. So that's how you can track with us. If that number is there, that's the page number in your handout. If there is no page number in the corner, it's not in your handout. Okay? If you really want it, write fast. Okay. And those little critters, draw fast. Those aren't in your handout either. Okay.

So here's a parallel passage in Colossians. We made the point when we introduced Ephesians and Colossians a year and a half ago. that Ephesians and Colossians have about 75 verses that are either identical or very similar. This is one of those similar passages between the two books. Now, we've been looking at just kind of high points. We want to dive in to the details of this passage together. You ready to do that? Got your parachute on? Got the emergency on? Let's jump. OK, here we go. Now, one of the things we're going to do is we're going to look at it each verse at a time, okay? So you can track with us here. Starting with verse 18. Isn't that good we start at the beginning?

Okay. And he says, do not get drunk with wine. That's how he starts it off, okay? What he does here, this is a passive imperative. How about that? Now scratch your head about this one. Imperative is something you must do, right? Passive is the head-scratcher because passive is something that you can't do. It's done to you. It's done to you from outside of yourself. So here he's giving us a passive imperative.

You must not, based on your eternal position in Christ, be made drunk with wine. You must not have the wine be making you drunk. That's the message he's trying to get across here. Based on your position in Christ, you cannot logically Because you have this eternal position in Christ, seated in the heavenlies, you cannot logically conclude that getting drunk has anything to do with it. That's what he's spelling out here. Here's the problem in Ephesus. It was a problem common, by the way, to a lot of the Greek and Roman culture.

But they had this god Dionysius, alternate name Bacchus, and it was the god of wine. And they would have annual celebrations in which even the children were involved. This was one of the streets where they'd have processions going up and down to the God of Wine with even the children involved in this procession. They would have extended periods of days of drunkenness. They would do vile things with animals while the animals were alive. It was disgusting.

Every level of society was involved with it. every age, all sorts of occupations. But even if that were not the case, even if there was no festival of Dionysius, even if they had no religious activity, drunkenness was common among the Gentile culture. It was widespread. And one of the reasons being this, we pointed this out before, there were at least 50 gods and goddesses worshipped in Ephesus.

None of them cared about your morality. None of them gave a hoot. whether you were moral or immoral, they themselves were not moral or immoral. They were amoral. No morality at all. The gods didn't care, and so the people didn't care either. Now, there were a minority of Jews there. The Jews generally condemned it, but they also had a smaller percentage of those who were drunk commonly among them. Nonetheless, it did exist among them.

Now, there's no question, if you look throughout the New Testament, drunkenness is listed as the works of the flesh. We see that in Romans, 1 Corinthians, where he addresses the believers there and he gives a list of all the things that they were involved in.

Galatians 5.21 is where he lists the works of the flesh. No question about it, drunkenness is of the works of the flesh.

We put a but there, not to justify it, but to say, as Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he gave a list of, there were people involved in this, and this, and this, and this, and he listed homosexuality, and he listed all sorts of things, drunkenness among them, but he says, such were some of you, past tense, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like these critters that we saw. There is no mixture of darkness and light in who you are in Christ. The position that they have in Christ, now that they have believed, is radically changed. Then he says, don't get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.

The King James has excess. Other translations have debauchery. It is a tough one because the word means more than one word in English. basically has this idea. Interestingly enough, in earlier centuries, it had the idea, the word that Paul uses here has the idea of an incurable disease. How do you like that? Don't get drunk with wine and it has this overhanging idea of an incurable disease. It had basically the idea of it's a complete waste. It's just out of control. Now, in our own culture, certainly we have a continuing problem with alcohol, but aren't there a great many other things that are a big waste? that are out of control.

We could put more things on the list, but his point is not to dwell on that other than to say, this is an example of the kinds of things that are characteristic of the flesh, but have no part in your position in Christ. Now, this is the first thing Paul mentions after he makes the contrast.

Don't be foolish, but be wise. Don't be unwise, but know and understand what the will of the Lord is. So here's the first thing he spells out. That's telling you something right there. We're getting an insight. Here is what is unwise. It is a big waste. What is he said in the passage we looked at last time? See then that you walk circumspectly, that you walk diligently, with an accurate view of things, that you walk as wise, redeeming the time.

What is this drunkenness? The opposite of that. He gives the positive statements, the drunkenness doesn't even fit in any of those descriptions. The negative statement, fools, the days are evil, do not be unwise, it fits in with those things. Those are the red light kinds of statements, the negative statements that he makes.

Now he comes with a sharp contrast, but Allah, okay? This again is the sharp contrast, not shades of gray, Our culture, by the way, is inclined to throw shades of gray at us. As a matter of fact, likes shades of gray. But that's not exactly the way Scripture lays it out. Scripture is very distinct, very clear. Now, he says, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, this phrase has been understood in a variety of ways. You may have come across them.

Be constantly controlled by the Spirit. Be filled with the human spirit. Be drunk in the Spirit. There's a conference that takes place once a year in one church where they have a conference and that's the theme. You can get a t-shirt for it. Be repeatedly refilled with the Spirit since the Spirit keeps leaving. We even sing songs in some congregations pleading for the Holy Spirit to come back.

As if you're kind of filled and then half filled and you've got to get back again. Be filled with the Spirit so that you can do miraculous things. That's what's necessary. Or be filled with the Spirit, which is an impersonal spiritual force. We're going to jump past all that and take a look at what is this here. Be filled is an imperative. You must be filled. It is not optional. It is also passive. So here's something that must take place, but you can't do it. The Lord must do it.

It's God's job. You must be filled with the Spirit. How could He command you to do something that isn't yours to do? How could He do that? The only reason is the imperatives are a logical imperative. Based on your position in Christ, you must be filled because that's consistent with your position. That's consistent with how God has blessed you and will continue to do so.

A lot of translations will have filled with, as if it's some sort of a fluid. But I think there's something that will help us here. If we look just in the prior chapter, at the very end of the prior chapter, we get this. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Here's the mention of the Holy Spirit. And it says, by, and that's the same Greek word, en, by whom you were sealed, passive again, for the day of redemption.

So what's this really spelling out here? It is you are filled, not with the Holy Spirit as if the Spirit was a fluid, but you are filled by the Holy Spirit. So now the question is, with what? With what? Look at this Colossians. Remember the parallel lines, the racing stripes?

Here we are in this Colossians passage. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you is how we look at the equivalent words there. Now, this word is logos, that's message content. Let the message content of Christ richly dwell within you. And we have this word dwell.

Enoi keo. Now, I want you to understand this word enoi keo, that's not like anoi and then keo. Nothing like that. It has nothing to do with that. This is a Greek word that means, it's a present imperative, it has the idea of this. Right now, continually making it home.

So what's that telling you? Let the message content of Christ richly, right now, continue to make its home in you. To be at home. Think in your own life about, you get in a situation where you say, I feel at home here. Hopefully you've had a place where you can say that. I feel at home here. I feel comfortable here. When you feel at home, you feel like you can get, you know, you can touch and get involved in the various places of the home, right?

He's saying he wants that kind of at home of Christ's message in your hearts. Richly, fully, making itself at home in your life. Not with reservation, not in a limited way. Full on, full out. That's what he's spelling out here. So let's expand it and explain it, okay? You must be filled with the Spirit. So here's the way we put it.

In sharp contrast to drunkenness, which is being foolish, being wise and understanding the will of the Lord looks like this. The logic which is based upon your eternal position in Christ can only come to one conclusion. You must be filled with the life and the living word, which is Christ himself, that being accomplished totally by means of the work of the Holy Spirit. You must be filled with Christ. That is the one logical conclusion based on your position. The Holy Spirit does it, not you.

Now, oh, questions coming up here. So Hal says, that's fine, but what does that look like? None of this theoretical stuff here. Or, yeah, you can give us a specific example, can't you, how that takes place? OK, all right. That's a great question. I'm glad you guys asked that. Let's look at it.

He gives us an example right in the next verse there. He says, speaking to one another. Here's what that looks like when you're filled with Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. Here's one example, and he's going to give us more, but let's get a good start here. Speaking. Now, we have parallel words in Colossians to help us here. With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing. All right.

Now, we're going to take a slight detour. Can you handle that? Very slight. Small detour. OK. Colossians 1.28, which we've studied some weeks back, and Colossians 3.16, which we're just looking at now.

Notice, he starts off in Colossians 1.28, admonishing, teaching, all wisdom.

He says, we do it. Now what is he doing in chapter 3? He says, you do it. We do it. Now you do it. Your turn. Notice, here's admonishing, teaching, With all wisdom, same words that he's drawing upon again, only previously he said, we do it, and he even said we do it, and he used an athletic term. We do it full on, full out. He says, now, it's your turn, and here's what that looks like. Now, what is the result in Colossians 128 that we may present every person complete? That's the reason for the teaching and admonishing with all wisdom. Now he's saying, you do that, and why are you doing it?

Your teaching and admonishing one another in song has a part in the process of maturing the believers around you. Ah, interesting connection, huh? He used the exact same words as we even did this morning and will do more after the message, as we teach and admonish one another through even the songs that we sing. We are helping to mature one another. That's part of what's going on here. So, now we're back, okay? Speaking.

Paul is going to talk next in Ephesians and the Colossians passage about psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And one of the things that's important to look at, he says, speaking, teaching, admonishing, what we sing, the content matters. See that? What we sing, the content matters.

We don't just get up here and go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or, Jesus, I love you, Jesus, I love you, Jesus, I love you, Jesus, I love you, praise, praise, praise. We're not just singing a bunch of religious words and just repeating a little mantra. We are saying words that have content and have meaning and have a purpose. When we are singing, we are indeed delivering a message with content. What we say matters and the content matters.

Now, one another. There's an interaction here. It's not just we're getting up here and we're singing to the screen. The screen doesn't care, believe me. We're singing to one another. There's an interaction that's taking place here. It's between believers. Every believer here this morning has the same position in Christ. We encourage one another and teach and admonish one another as we sing songs that are communicating a message. That message then goes between believers.

There are other one another's in scripture and so Here are just the ones in Ephesians and Colossians outside of this passage we're looking at here. It is a common thread and a common theme in both of these books. Why? Because our growth as believers depends not just on what we do personally and individually, it depends on our interaction. And the interaction we have between one another expresses the life of Christ in a unique way. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This word is psalmos in the Greek.

And of course, the Jewish readers would have said that and say, I recognize that. And you probably do too. It would bring to mind the Psalms. Typically, they thought of those as songs about God, even though some of the Psalms are directly to God. They often thought of those as songs about God. I say typically because it wasn't categorical. That would be the usual thinking. Next, though. Hubnas, we get our word hymns, refers to songs that are directed to God. That's how they would understand that word.

So we have songs that are typically about God, songs directed to God, and then the third category, Odais, is songs that are of spiritual content. Maybe it's about our walk with the Lord, things we're learning. blessings that we have. So there are spiritual songs, although they're not necessarily directed to the Lord or about Him, they're still dealing with the spiritual life that we have. All three of those categories of songs are valid, and we may in fact in the same song overlap. This would illustrate that. You may have songs that are exclusively one or mixtures, sometimes mixtures of all three, and those are fine.

That's good. They're all biblically valid. But notice, they all have content. You're speaking, you have content that you're communicating. Singing and making melody. I want to take a little focus on this making melody point here. Psalo is the word. It sounds like it's related to psalms and it is. And it means to pluck. As in the strings of an instrument.

And they would have something in mind when they would think of that. But think about this. Making melody in your heart. And what are you doing? You're playing a harp in your heart. How about that? You're making melody in your heart. And that's a good thing. Some of us have better singing voices than others. Let the melody come from your heart. Don't worry about how it comes out. I didn't expect you to read that fast. Notice that Paul isn't laying down a bunch of rules here. And, you know, in terms of do this, don't do that.

The church where I grew up in is there's a lot of neat things to be said about it. The first organist they had, though, refused to play anything in three, four time. You might take a look through the hymnal sometime and see what that cuts out. Real interesting is it was apparently it was a dance timing and the chance that you might consider it a dance timing made it off the organist lists. Paul does not lay down such rules here. He says, sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, but certainly not anything in three or four times, okay? He's not laying down any rules, is he? What he is spelling out, though, is this is the positive content. You have a message to tell one another. There is content. Is there variety allowed? Absolutely. But here's the direction it's headed.

It is either to God, about God, or about spiritual life that you have in God. Okay? In the end, He is to be glorified through it all. He says, to the Lord. And I think that's valuable for us to take a look at. Even if I am singing something and it's to you, there's a one another aspect, it's also to the Lord, even if I am singing content to you. How about that? Now, so this is an interesting thing.

I can be here with you this morning. We're all singing together. And Paul is spelling out, I'm singing to the Lord and to you at the same time. There is a message communicated that we all are involved in, and the Lord as well. Even if the words are not directed to the Lord, it's still to the Lord. We're not done. We're spiritually multitasking when we're praising the Lord in song, but we've still got one other aspect.

Christian art and music tends to portray angels singing, When we look at scripture, however, although we find some examples of angels singing, more often the redeemed are singing. Case in point here in Ephesians and Colossians. Real interesting. We like to have our art and music referring to the angels singing. The redeemed are singing. The redeemed have something to sing about. And the other thing we pointed out in Ephesians chapter 3 is that the process of revelation is through the church to the angelic beings.

So when we're singing here, This morning, we are singing to one another, we are singing to the Lord, and the angels are watching and learning from us as we sing. How about that? This is phenomenal. So when we're singing, we're not just opening up and singing some songs to the screen. This is amazing. We are involved, God is involved, even if we're not singing directly to Him, it is still to the Lord, and the angels are watching and learning from us. That's amazing. That's phenomenal stuff. When the angels go to angel college, they learned about God's character by studying us. That's not the US, that's us. Alright, I'll let you check that on your own here. Get to verse 20.

He continues telling us what it's like for the person who is filled, because based on their position in Christ, that's the only logical conclusion, who is filled with the Spirit. Always giving thanks for all things. Now, real interesting here, this always giving thanks, boy, you know, he uses these superlatives. How can he do that? You've heard people say, never say never and things like that. He uses always and all things. He doesn't leave anything out. How can he do that? Well, the reason he can do that is God is sovereign and makes all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Even the things that you say, oh no. Yeah. All things. All things. The Lord works all things for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, for the purpose of good. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you see, we have privileged access to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why He can say this. And when we look back in Ephesians chapters 2 and 3, we saw this privileged access. Let's take a brief tour through it in case you don't recall that. There was a Greek historian who wrote about the practices in the Persian kings and the palaces. And as this Greek historian wrote about that, here's what he came up with. He said that you couldn't just walk into the throne room of a Persian king.

And matter of fact, the book of Esther that the lady studied on Tuesday night was one of those illustrations of that very thing. For Esther to walk in as she did was a very bold move because she could very well even lose her life for it. And so it wasn't something that you did casually. You had to have authorization to count on an acceptable entry.

And so the Greek historian wrote about this person that you could approach who would introduce you to the king and then it would be okay. That person was a prosagogue. And so that's why we see here in Ephesians 2.18, through him, that is through Christ, we both, Jews and Gentiles, have our access, that word access is the prosagogue.

You have the royal introduction to the throne room of the Father by Jesus Christ. That special privileged introduction. And that's why in the name of Jesus Christ, we don't just walk into the throne room and say, hey, hi, Father, on our own merit. We come because Jesus Christ has given us that special introduction. The same word here is carried across with a verb, prosago. Obviously, you see the similarity there.

1 Peter 3.18, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring, prosago, bring us to God, that he might give us that special introduction, privileged introduction, that only that introducer, the prosagogi, can give. God, even the Father. Now, some folks, what do you mean, God, even the Father? What's that all about?

There is a rule here called the Granville Sharp Rule. Now, I understand the Greek class learned about this last night, and the Granville fellow was really sharp. But anyway, all that means is it says, God the Father. He put it in a way that kind of packs it together. God the Father is what he's spelling out.

We are always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us that special introduction. who uniquely is qualified to introduce us and say, Father, this person is a saint I want to introduce you to and he has access from here on out. That special introduction to God the Father. What's amazing is that God the Father is the one who is credited for all the blessings. Remember we started off in Ephesians One, verse three, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Who gets the credit? God the Father. He's due all blessings. So we have access to Him and we can say thank you. Unfathomable blessings. Blessings without end. Unbelievable blessings. The Father is the one who is to be praised for that.

Notice also one other thing in the passage. We have the Spirit. We have the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have God the Father. We have the Trinity involved in this whole process, in this passage. This is a neat thing to look at here. We have all three persons of the Godhead involved here today.

And this is definitely the Lord's doing, isn't it? It's the Lord's work. God is so concerned with this that He doesn't say, hey, talk to this guy down here. He's the guy I've appointed. He says, no. All of the Godhead is involved in us and cares about us. We've seen here for the last time the involvement of all three persons of the Godhead here in Ephesians.

But notice it's been a repeated pattern from the very beginning, from the very first chapter. All of the Lord is involved here in carrying out God's eternal purpose. that He is, through us, involved in declaring and revealing His glory. He shares His glory with us. That is amazing. And what we do as we praise Him in song, as we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord, is we are giving glory to God. That fulfills His eternal purpose. We are an amazing part of it. And it's amazing on top of that, that the Lord uses us as the textbook to teach the angels. That is amazing. That's phenomenal. So we've got angel teaching time here, folks. That is marvelous.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we do indeed thank you for the marvelous blessings that we have in you. And Lord, we can easily fall into thinking that we're just opening up a hymn book and singing a song and going through the motions. But in fact, we are teaching and admonishing one another. We are speaking to you. And you are using our praise of you to teach the angels on into eternity. We are the living textbook. What a marvelous and tremendous thing. Thank you for the access that we have to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.