The Holy Spirit - How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, Part 1

You may remember in the book of Acts where it talks about the Christians being filled with the Holy Spirit, then it talks about them being baptized with the Holy Spirit. What do those words mean and are they different and what do they mean to you and me today?

Stay with me and find out. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. In just a minute, he'll continue his in-depth study of the Holy Spirit. But before we get going, let me encourage you to try using Chip's message notes while you listen. They contain his outline, scripture references, and key fill-ins to help you remember what you hear. To download these message notes, go to the Broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

App listeners tap Fill in Notes. Well, with that, here's Chip with his talk, How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit. I was a Christian two years.

I have no Bible background. A lady walks up to me and asks a very nice, common question, and she says, excuse me. I said, yes. She goes, are you Spirit-filled?

I said, what? Are you a Spirit-filled question? I said, what's a Spirit-filled Christian?

Well, she went on to explain. Well, that sent me on a little bit of a journey that if someone asks you that question, they may be asking about five different things depending on their background. In some circles, if they say, are you a Spirit-filled Christian? They mean, are you a committed Christian?

Like, are you really seeking to live the life? In other circles, if they say, are you a Spirit-filled Christian? They want to know, do you speak in tongues? In other circles, if they say, are you a Spirit-filled Christian? They want to know, have you had a second blessing of some kind of the Holy Spirit? In other circles, if you're a Spirit-filled Christian, it is, have you ever come to that point of yieldedness, of surrender, of sort of the Romans 12 one and two lifestyle? And so, people use the word Spirit-filled depending on theological and denominational backgrounds in a lot of different ways. They use another phrase, too, called the baptism of the Holy Spirit that means also a lot of different things in a lot of different groups. And I won't go into the whole background, but I was being discipled with a group that had this unbelievable commitment to God's word. I mean, super committed to God's word. Like, if you weren't memorized in three to five verses a week, you were just not like even close to where you needed to be.

And then I would go home in the summer as a new Christian, and there was another group of people that were really, really committed to the experience of life in the Spirit. And so, I don't know anything, and it was like ping pong, you know? And I was just like trying to figure out, so what's the Bible say?

What do these terms mean? I don't know what it means to be filled. I don't know what the baptism is. I don't know what the... And I was just confused. And so, I went on a two-year journey, and I literally started from the beginning, and if the word Spirit or Holy Spirit showed up in the Bible, I studied it. And I took every verse in the Bible. It took me two years. I later learned there were things called concordances.

I mean, there's really an easier way to go about this than I did, but I didn't know. And I just was praying for two years, God, I want all that you have for me, and I'm hearing lots of voices, so what I know is you wrote this. And so, I went on a journey. I want you to open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. The church is born, and the Jews are going to receive the Holy Spirit.

It'll be birthed. They'll be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and what you're going to find is they will be filled with power. Follow along, verse 1. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place, and suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. And when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one of them heard them speaking in his own language. Amazed and perplexed, skipping down to verse 12, they asked one another, what does this mean? Some, however, made fun of them, said, they've had too much wine. But Peter stood up with the eleven and raised his voice, and he addressed the crowd, fellow Jews, and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain to you, listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk as you suppose.

It's only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel in the last days. God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. And so, Acts chapter 2, it's the Jews. Did they speak in tongues?

Yes. When did they receive it? After salvation. They were believing Old Testament followers of Jesus.

They were waiting. They've now come to Christ. They believe in him. The church is born, and Peter's role, his presence when it's received. Turn to Acts 8. These are the only four passages that talk about the filling or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 8, I want you to notice that now chapters 1 through 7 are the growth of the church, the first decade or more.

Some believe up to almost the first 20 years, apart from those who came to Christ and then were dispersed and went to other places, the church was primarily Jewish. Remember the big command, go into all the world, make disciples? That wasn't going well.

Remember when Jesus ascended, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria, uttermost parts of the world? That was not going well. In other words, they didn't go very far. And what you find is in the sovereignty of God, he allows some persecution to come in chapter 8. And so in chapter 8, the church is persecuted, and as they are persecuted, they move out. They run for their lives, apart from the apostles.

And as they go, guess what they start doing? It says they preached the word. Samaritans, if you don't know what they were, they were a half-breed. They were people that couldn't show that they were fully Jews and they intermarried, and so they were despised. Jews hated Samaritans. You might remember the story when Jesus wanted to cut through some Samaritan territory, and they wouldn't let him. They were off-limits people. I mean, this is like the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP. Okay, I mean, that's the kind of attitudes they had toward one another.

And you need to know that because it helps explain what happens. Acts chapter 8, let's pick up the story in verse 14. They've been spread, they're running for their lives, they're persecuted. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. So they went to Samaria, they started preaching, these Samaritans trust in Christ.

Well, now we've got a problem. These people that we hate since we've been little boys and little girls believe in Jesus the way we do. So we're going to send Peter and John from headquarters to find out what in the world happened. I mean, what could God be up to?

He certainly doesn't love them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them. They'd simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now there's a magician there named Simon. And when he saw that the Spirit was given by the laying on of hands of the apostles, he offered them money and said, give me also this ability that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And Peter said to him, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right with God.

All I want to do is just get the facts down. Acts chapter 8, Samaritans. So there's a mixed group. Speaking in tongues is not mentioned. It may be alluded to. There was some manifestation because this magician saw some manifestation of power that he thought he could buy by the laying on of hands. It occurs after salvation and it's Peter again is present. And what you need to understand is what's going to happen is if the Samaritans come to Christ and it isn't authenticated by headquarters and by Peter, we would have had two churches.

Those people would have never stayed under the same umbrella. And so they respond to the word and Peter and the apostles come and they say basically this is legit. These people believe like we believe.

They don't need to go through Judaism. Salvation is by grace through faith. The free gift of God through Jesus they received the same way we did.

And so he says this is for real and when he prays for them, then God manifests in some manner, it doesn't say exactly how, that they are now a part of the body of Christ. Skip to Acts chapter 10. The movement of the book of Acts, the outline is in verse 8 of chapter 1 where you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, okay. Judea, that's happened.

Samaria, right? Well now we're going to get to the Gentiles chapter 10. Peter, who is the epitome, he's upon this rock, your words, your faithfulness, your team, I'm going to build my church. He's the point person. They look to him and the other key elders there. And so Peter is in the book of Acts, the primary leader in the expansion of the gospel to the Jews.

Later we'll find Paul will be the primary personality in the expansion to the Gentiles. Peter little by little is beginning to break the cultural rules and the cultural laws. He's gone down to a tanner.

A tanner is a person that smelled, there was raw skins and hides that they used and so a good orthodox Jew would not only not go to a tanner but would never stay in his home. But Peter is beginning to see some things differently and he's beginning to realize that this gospel is beyond Judaism and he's seen it with the Samaritans and some of the things that were kosher, he realizes God's changing the rules. This gospel is to go beyond and so little by little he's sort of breaking some of the cultural rules and some of the traditions. And then something happens to him. Chapter 10 he goes down to meet with this tanner and lunch is being prepared and so he goes up on the roof, most of the homes in that day are flat on top. And he goes up on the roof kind of waiting and he goes into a trance and God speaks to him and maybe many of you remember this story and a sheep comes down with all the kind of animals that are unclean for a Jew. It comes down once, the Spirit of God speaks to him and says kill and eat. He says never Lord. It comes down a second time, same thing, a third time and then the sheep goes away and he has this vision. And at the end of the vision the Spirit of God says to him don't you call anything unclean that I call clean. And this is going to set Peter up for what's going to happen because something has happened elsewhere.

So let's pick up the story. Cornelius is a centurion and he has a household of all Gentiles and he was one day praying and God hears his prayer and the angel says I want you to send for this man. He's down by the seaside staying with this tanner named Simon. His name is Peter.

Go get him and bring him here. He has a message for me from you. So a couple of his cohorts go down. They now knock on the door shortly after Peter has the vision and the Lord says to Peter invite these men in. So now he's going to eat with Gentiles. God's sort of given him baby steps, training wheels to do some things he's never done before. He invites them in the house.

Can't do that. He eats with Gentiles then he travels back with them and he takes a few Jews with him. And what you're going to find out that's going to be very important to authenticate what happens because if you think Jews and Samaritans hate one another, Jews hate Gentiles at a whole different level. A Gentile was called a dog. They thought to a Jew a Gentile was subhuman. You wouldn't eat with a Gentile. You wouldn't walk into the house of a Gentile.

They were unclean. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and we'll get back to his message in just a minute. First though, we hope as you study God's Word with us every broadcast you're deepening your faith. But let me tell you there's another way we can help you grow spiritually. Stick around after this message as Chip shares more about our daily discipleship resource and how to sign up.

But for now let's get back to today's program. So now Peter is sort of scratching his head and he goes back. He takes this walk and he goes to Cornelius' house. And in verse 30 of chapter 10 we're going to pick up the story where Peter says to Cornelius, by the way Peter doesn't know what's going on. I mean he's thinking what's the message?

What am I supposed to say? I don't get it. So he comes in and when he comes in the guy bows down and Peter says look I'm just a man too. And so Cornelius explains beginning in verse 30, Cornelius answered four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, Cornelius God has heard your prayers and remembered your gifts to the poor. Sent to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.

He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner who lives by the sea. So I sent for you immediately and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here.

He fills his house with his relatives and his friends. Hey an angel came, sent for a guy, there's a big message you got to come over. So Peter walks in, now we're all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us. Then Peter began to speak, the lights are coming on, I now realize how true it is that God shows no favoritism.

But accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. And then skip down to verse 44. At verse 44 while Peter was still speaking these words, he starts preaching the gospel. The Holy Spirit came on all those who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished at the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They've received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Acts 2, the church is born, baptism filled, Peter, authentication, Acts chapter 8, mixed group. They hear, they don't have the Holy Spirit yet, they check it out, it's legit. Now they're under the umbrella of the mother church, they pray for them, there's a manifestation, now they get the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 10, Cornelius, they don't get to pray, they don't get to talk, they don't get to explain. While he's preaching, boom, it happens. And the Jews are going, wait a second, this is just like Acts 2, they got what we got the same way we got it.

I guess, I guess God loves Gentiles. Now, notice there's one other passage, Acts chapter 19, this is sort of one of those, I wonder what's going on passages. We're now in the Apostle Paul's ministry, and there was a group of people apparently who were zealous. And John the Baptist said, behold, I'm the forerunner of the Messiah, and one is coming greater than me. And some of his disciples got so fired up about telling people about the Messiah, they went on a mission strip. And while they were gone on their mission strip to tell everyone about how the Messiah is going to come, the Messiah came. And He not only came, but He died and He rose again. And not only He died and rose again, but the church has been born, and they must have gone on a long mission strip, so Paul meets them. And when Paul meets them, he has this dialogue, hey, where are you guys from?

Well, let's pick up the story. Chapter 19, verse 1. When Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? No, we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.

Now that's a good one, isn't it? So Paul asked, then what baptism did you receive? They said, John's baptism, they replied. Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and they prophesied. There were about 12 men in all.

Now here's what I want you to see. In the confusion about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, what it means, does it involve tongues, is it at salvation, is it after salvation? Most of the theology will take one of these passages and say, look, this is how it happened in Acts 2, so this is how it should happen with us.

In other words, I remember being on a basketball team. We were playing basketball throughout South America, and we had guys from all over the country, and one guy named Tim, super guy, little point guard, could just shoot tremendously, and he came from a certain theological position that was just, I mean, he was like, this is the way it is. And, you know, I was on my journey and learning a lot at the time, and so he said, look, we have to do it like the New Testament church. We need to do it just like the book of Acts, and it's interesting. And then, I didn't know this then, I studied later, because then he gave me one of these different parallels and said, this is how the spiritual life works, and this is what it means, and this is why, because of Acts 2, or Acts 8, or Acts 10, or Acts 19. My question would be, which one of the churches in Acts do you want to be like? So, do you pray and get the Spirit later?

Does it happen at the same time? Do you believe and then get it? See, you know why I put that there? You can't build a theology out of Acts that's prescriptive.

It's descriptive. It's describing how the church was birthed. And what I want you to see is the baptism of the Holy Spirit always includes the inclusion of a new people group.

It's the only time it ever happens. It happens when the Jews are brought into the body of Christ and it's created. It happens when the Samaritans are brought into the body of Christ. It happens when the Gentiles are brought into the body of Christ.

And then you kind of have a group that never heard there was one. And so, there's no consistent, like, when did they receive? After salvation, after salvation, at conversion, at conversion. My only point is I want you to hear is there isn't a consistent pattern in the New Testament in the book of Acts that says the baptism filling, this is what it means. The Epistles are written letters to give us instruction to say this is how the theology of God's church is to be directed and to be followed. The book of Acts is a history of how it happened and how it laid out.

So those are great experiences, but the consistency is the authentication of people groups in the body of Christ. The book of Acts is descriptive, not prescriptive. I mean, if it was prescriptive and we want to be like the church in the book of Acts, then we should all go and worship at synagogues and only meet from house to house in churches.

We should all have very important, some dietary laws that they were still keeping for a period of time. I mean, there's a number of things in the book of Acts that we might keep doing. Maybe we should all pool our resources and live out of one part of a community, which they did for a season of time in the early part of the book of Acts because of the pressure that they were under. God is describing in the book of Acts the birth, development, growth, maturity of his church and the work of the Spirit in that.

And so, in summary, here's what I'd say. Baptism is not the same as filling. Baptism doesn't always occur after salvation. The baptism doesn't necessarily require us to speak in tongues because in Acts 8 it doesn't say.

And then the early church experience is not normative. But the New Testament epistles tell us exactly how the filling of the Spirit works. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, from our series, The Holy Spirit.

Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. In this eight-part series, Chip takes the mystery out of this critical third part of the Trinity. Join us in key passages across Scripture that illustrate the Holy Spirit's power, presence, purpose, and relevance to our lives today. Learn why he is more than a spiritual force and how a meaningful relationship with the Holy Spirit can lead to deeper intimacy with God, the Father. Let me encourage you to stick around for each message. But if you do miss any part, catch up through the Chip Ingram app. Chip's with me in studio now, and Chip, before we hear your application, talk to the person who connected with what you taught today and is interested in learning more about the Bible and God, but doesn't know where to begin. Would you take a minute and highlight a tool we've developed that'll help them get started?

Well, thanks, Dave. I would love to do that. If you have a difficult time studying the Bible, honestly, I think you're liking the great majority of Christians that I know. And often, I hear people say, I don't know what it means, I don't know where to start, I mean, it's a really thick book, and there's a lot of names I can't pronounce, and there's a lot of different countries and times. And let me just tell you, the Word of God was written by the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets, and it was designed for everyday people just like you and me. And so here's my offer. I will teach you how to study the Bible for yourself. I'll meet with you individually. It's called Daily Discipleship with Chip, and it's not just going through some passages of the Bible. I'm going to go through them in a way where you'll actually learn to study the Bible, to make observations, to discover that, you know, just like a piece of literature, you can know what was happening in the author's life, and when did he write it, and what was the purpose of the first century, and what are the principles that apply today. And more importantly, you're going to hear God speak directly to you. And so join me one-on-one, and let's learn to study the Scriptures together. Now let me tell you how this works. For each series, I begin with a short teaching video, no longer the 10 minutes, and then there's a little assignment that I'm going to ask you to take 10 minutes on your own and do some study.

And here's what I know. People that have done this with me, who make it a habit just to spend 20 minutes with me, day after day, for somewhere between 10 days to a couple weeks, they learn to hear God's voice. They learn to discern the Spirit. God begins to change them from the inside out.

This is a habit that you cannot afford not to develop. Thanks, Chip. So if you're looking for a practical way to deepen your faith, let me encourage you to sign up for Daily Discipleship with Chip. This free video resource will help you learn more about God and His Word. To sign up for any of our Daily Discipleship series, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap Discipleship. Now here's Chip with a few final thoughts to share. As we close today's program, I want to remind you that sometimes when we teach God's Word, it's not necessarily filled with lots of amazing and inspirational studies. It's called theology. And what theology is, is the study of God. And what we've been doing today is very carefully walking through specific passages of Scripture that tell us exactly who the Holy Spirit is. And we've traced His work through the book of Acts.

Now, doing this by way of audio is very frustrating for me, I'm going to tell you. Because as I taught this live, I had a chart that people could follow along where they could see, I literally developed a grid where you could see Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10, Acts 19. And what I want you to know is I want to give those to you. I want you to study. I want you to think with me. And quite honestly, I get kind of discouraged sometimes when people talk about the Holy Spirit and then people start arguing. I don't think we should argue. I think we should look at the text and learn together.

And we may even agree to disagree on a few things, but what does the Bible say? So your assignment is to go to LivingOnTheEdge.org and click on the message notes and download them so that you can see exactly what I was teaching. And you'll see some blanks in those notes and follow along, fill those in, study God's Word with me, and see if God doesn't really speak to you.

Good word, Chip. But before we go, let me take a second and thank the generous people who support this ministry every month. Your faithful gifts help us inspire Christians to live like Christians. Now, if you haven't partnered with us, would you prayerfully consider joining the Living on the Edge team? You can set up a recurring donation at LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. Have listeners tap donate. We'll listen to next time as Chip picks up in his series, The Holy Spirit. Until then, this is Dave Drouie saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge. .