THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart.

Ephesians 5:18-19

It was summer time more than half a century ago. This church had just been built. Everything was shiny-new. We were getting good crowds. Things were going well.

But something was missing---in the congregation, and in me. Nothing significant seemed to be happening in our lives. We were like a club for nice people; and I was the chaplain.

I said to Jean, "There's got to be more to it than this. If I don't find it soon, I'm going to quit and try to get a job down at the shipyards, where you see results. You bang in a rivet and it stays. You weld something together and it holds.

That summer on vacation I heard about a new church, on the edge of the town where I grew up, where people were getting healed. "Okay, let's check it out." It was a Sunday evening. We left the little ones with their grandparents, and Jean and I found this new yellow brick building that looked like a small factory. Over the entrance was a sign, THE EVANGELICAL TEMPLE. And on the roof, in blue neon lights, WHERE THE HEALING WATERS FLOW.

We walk in. Here are this normally stolid Pennsylvania Dutch people---with smiles on their faces! "Welcome! Come on in!" It's a church. But it's like they're having a party, and Jesus is the guest of honor. They're joyful! They're praising God with their hands in the air like the old Hebrews in the Temple.

The little preacher steps forward on the platform and begins to preach. He opens his Bible to Acts 2, and reads:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues, as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

What this man was preaching about was visible in that place. What we were looking at was not part of Pennsylvania Dutch culture. This was the Kingdom of God! These folks were filled with the Spirit! They were singing and making melody to the Lord with all their hearts.

The way Paul puts it, it sounds like, "If you want to, you can be filled with the Spirit"….just like "If you choose to, you can go out and get drunk." "So be filled with the Spirit! Let the Spirit give you some joy, some freedom, some life from heaven!"

The problem is, we are not accustomed to thinking that way. We're used to coming to church and going through a respectable routine. We're like those "normal" Pennsylvania Dutch folks, who say, "Let's not get too rambunctious! We'll sing a few hymns, listen to the preacher, and then we'll go home and have our sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. We don't want to be too 'spiritual.'"

When Paul says, "Be filled with the Spirit," we don’t know what that means. "Be filled with the Spirit!" How would I get filled with the Spirit even if I wanted to (and I'm not sure I want to.)? Isn't that up to God? If God wants to zap me with the Spirit, okay, I'll go along with that. But I wouldn't know how to go and get filled with the Spirit.

Strange. In every one of the four gospels Jesus is announced by John as the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit.

"I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!"

That's why he came. That's why he offered himself up on the cross. That's why he rose from the dead. To pour out God's Spirit upon us.

To give us this gift.

Without this gift, we cannot begin to understand what Jesus is talking about, much less do the things he instructs us to do.

It's the Spirit who gives us freedom and floods us with the life of God. It's the Spirit who shows us the way.

……And we don't understand this??

When Paul said to those Ephesians, "Be filled with the Spirit," every one in that church knew exactly what he meant. Listen to how that church got started:

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit since you believed?" And they said, "No, we never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve of them in all.

Acts 19:1-7

Sometimes it happens through the laying-on-of-hands. Sometimes it just happens. But this gift is available to all who open their hearts to receive it. It's the gift that lifts you out of yourself into God's World…..out of your hang-ups and fears, into freedom….out of spiritual blindness, giving you eyes that begin to see. A gift that enters these bodies of flesh and blood and turns them into temples of the living God.

Don't get drunk, get filled with the Spirit! Simple as that!

You want to be filled with the Spirit? All you have to do is ask!

"If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

----Those who ask him.

Some of us have been coming to church for years and years----and yet we've never really done that. We've never actually asked the Father for this gift.

Paul says, "Don't get drunk, get filled with the Spirit."

Our Lord Jesus says, "Ask the Father for this gift, and he will give it to you." Listen to his words:

"And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you the, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

Luke 11:13

So after Jean and I and the little ones came back here to Nova Scotia from vacation that summer, I decided that those Pennsylvania Dutch people had something that I did not have. They had a gift that I lacked. I figured that if God gave this thing to them, why not me?

For me, at least, it was not a quick deal. It wasn't like, "Lord, fill me with the Spirit, " and suddenly I got zapped. Maybe for some people that prayer is answered in five minutes. Not for me. I was like the guy who went next-door at midnight asking for three loaves of bread. "Friend, lend me three loaves. A friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to give him to eat."

"Get out of here! It's the middle of the night! My kids are in bed. I can't get up and give you any bread!" It seemed like I had to keep asking and seeking and knocking for quite a while. Perhaps God was testing me to let me prove how serious I was.

Finally, one night at prayer, I began to know. Something inside me broke loose. Jesus became more real than he had ever been in my life. This book, the Bible, began to open up. Things started happening that had never happened before. I was getting help from above. I was being filled with the Spirit.

This is the promise.

This is why the Eternal Word became incarnate in the man Jesus of Nazareth.

This is why he laid down his life as the Atoning Lamb for the guilt of the whole human race.

This is why he rose from the dead as the Firstborn of the New Creation.

So that we can have this gift!

How long are we going to sit around and listen to the promise, and not reach out and receive the gift? You ask, and keep asking….keep seeking….keep knocking---and it happens! God pours out on you the gift of the Holy Spirit, keeps renewing you with this gift, as you keep seeking.

But how will I know that this has really happened to me? Will I speak in tongues? Will I have a vision? Will I feel something? Only God knows what kind of confirmation will come to you.

But here's what will happen in every case:

The words of the Lord Jesus will become alive to you as never before.

You will pray in ways you never could before.

A love will come burning into your heart---from heaven---which was never there before. Love for God. Love for your neighbor.

Let God's Spirit flood you with his life. No matter who you are, this gift is for you, if you are thirsty enough to ask….and keep asking…until it comes.

And when it comes, you'll be like those Pennsylvania Dutch folks. You'll forget all about your sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.

You'll be singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart.