Unnatural living (Galatians 5:16-26)

So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Galatians 5:16

The theme of our talks from Galatians 4 to 6 is called “Unnatural.” There is something different, strange, unnatural about the Christian life. That is true from the perspective of the world, but as we will see from today’s passage, that’s also true from the Christian’s perspective. To live by the Spirit, Paul says, is something that goes against our natural instincts, what our English bible’s call the “sinful nature”.

So it might surprise you to learn that the bible is speaking to Christians about their natural instincts to sin and to rebel against God. But ultimately, Christians are not to live by that nature. God has freed us from slavery to sin but he has also done something else. He has put his Spirit in us enabling us to live in obedience to him. That’s the main focus of today’s passage: What it means to live by the Spirit. What that Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered life looks like.

We will see three things in today’s passage: the struggle, the sinful nature and the fruit of the Spirit.

1. The struggle

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

Galatians 5:17

One reason why we are afraid confessing sin is fear of embarrassment. “What would my friends think if they knew that I had this sin in my life?” Especially when it is a sin that we are struggling with - it keeps coming back again and again. So we try to hide it from our friends, even from God, because we think that struggling in this way means failure.

Paul says that the very fact that you are struggling with your sinful nature and not giving in to sin is evidence of the Spirit’s presence in your lives. The fact that you still wrestle in prayer, “God help me to overcome this sin and this temptation. God please change my desires to live for you and not for myself.” Paul calls this a conflict - a war - between the Spirit of God and the flesh of man.

It means that this is what the real Christian life looks like. It’s a struggle. The Spirit is at war with our sinful nature. It is not the guy who looks as if he has everything under control - no temptations, no struggles with his conscience - such a person is either faking it, or worse, he isn’t a Christian.

1 John 1:8 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is not that one’s a sinner and the other isn’t. No, the difference is that the Christian is a forgiven sinner. The very next verse reads, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Do you believe that? That if you came to Jesus right now and said sorry; that if you brought before him all the horrible, shameful, wicked things you have done just this week, Jesus would forgive you; and more than that, he would purify you from all unrighteousness. You would walk away free and forgiven. Do believe you could do that right now and leave justified through the blood of Jesus?

The point is: Some of us think that we need to fake it here in church. We think that it’s expected of us when we come here on Sundays - to look presentable, to serve in Sunday School, to be an example to the kids.

And maybe we’ve never read a passage like this which says that it is that struggle with sin that proves you’re a Christian. That proves that God’s Spirit is working inside of you to bring you to repentance and prayer and trust in him.

And rather, it’s those who don’t have the Spirit who don’t have this problem of sinning and then hiding it from their friends. They think that God doesn’t see. They think that because their friends think they’re a good Christian it means they’re a good Christian, when in reality they are in denial. Or as John puts it, they deceive themselves and the truth is not in them.

That’s the first thing see in this passage: a struggle between the Spirit of God and the sinfulness of man. And I think what Paul does next is help us to get real with that struggle. He lists out for us the acts of the sinful nature.

2. The sinful nature

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

Galatians 5:19-20

Right after this we will be looking at the fruit of the Spirit where we get another list. That’s the list Christian’s like to memorise and hang up on their walls. I have yet to see someone hang this list up on their bedroom wall - The Thirteen Acts of the Sinful Nature.

But it’s here for a reason. This is our sinful nature. Some translations use the word, “flesh,” that is, it’s part of our DNA.

What we often do is look at a list like this and start condemning the world out there, “All those sexual immoral people; all those idolaters; all those drunken alcoholics. I’m glad I’m in here in the church.” And we might even point to verse 21, “Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” It’s those other guys who do these horrible things who won’t get in.

And what happens is that we forget that we, too, have a sinful nature. Verse 21 begins with Paul saying, “I warn you.” You guys need to watch yourselves, that you don’t do these things. You have a sinful nature, too.”

Again, it’s that denial of sin that keeps us from taking this list seriously; from actually memorising this list - not just the one that comes after that talks about love, joy, peace and patience - but acknowledging that we need to be watchful of our own tendencies to sin.

The first on the list is sexual immorality. What you do with your physical bodies matters to God. The bible is clear that sex is to be enjoyed between a man and a woman exclusively in marriage. Anything outside of that is what the bible calls sexual immorality. Impurity and debauchery just widens scope to include pornography, adultery or sleeping with someone who isn’t your husband or wife.

Then we have idolatry and witchcraft. Idolatry is worshipping something as God that isn’t God. It can be a statue of Kuan Yin in the temple. It can be your work, your money and your health. Anything that we put before God and treat as God, that’s idolatry.

Witchcraft makes us think of movies like Harry Potter, but the Greek word pharmakeia is where we get the English word “pharmacy”. It’s describing poisons and drugs that can cause harm. The two - idolatry and witchcraft - go together in that the worship of a false God doesn’t just destroy you, it harms those around you. Pharmakeia is the action of producing poison and while that can describe Professor Snape’s potions in Harry Potter, it can also describe the drug dealer who worships money and produces substances that kill, it can describe the corrupt executive who worships success and is willing sell merchandise that are harmful to the consumer for the sake of profit.

Hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, factions and envy. It’s again tempting to think of examples “out there,” but what about right here in the church? Is it possible to lift up your hands worshipping God with your voice while at the same time you are hating your brother or sister who is just next to you; your heart is going, “I can’t stand that person”? Is it possible to serve together on the same team but use ministry as a stepping stone to get your agenda across? Come on! Of course it is. We did a bible study on this passage this week at Rock Fellowship and the first thing that came out a sister’s mouth when I asked, “What do you think of when you read this?” - her very first words were, “Church politics.”

Can we get real for a moment? We struggle with this. I struggle with this - hatred, discord, jealousy, ambition. We have to call it what it is. It’s sin. Now later on, we’ll see that we don’t deal with sin just by focusing on sin, we focus on Jesus. But many of us are in denial over our sin. We think sin is something that’s out there when it’s in here in our lives and we need forgiveness for our sin when we come before our Saviour. It means that church leaders mess up and when they do, the solution is not to cover up but to confess to Jesus, not act like it’s not a big deal.

The list ends with drunkenness, orgies and the like. I would replace “orgies” with partying. Are you the kind of guy who knows how to have a good time? Just because you are in University and all your friends are out partying on a Friday night; just because you have that freedom and opportunity to stay out as long as you want; doesn’t mean that you should. I know there’s a part of you that says, “I’m young now, I need to enjoy life, I know my limits, I am free to make my own choices.” And what I am saying to you is: Can you distinguish the voice of your conscience from the voice of your sinful nature?

Now the reason why Paul calls this list the actions or the works of the sinful nature is because our actions reveal who we are listening to. Get this, the point is not whether or not you have a sinful nature - we all do. Rather the reason for this list is for us to get real about whether we are following that nature or following the Spirit. And Paul begins the list by saying, “It’s obvious.” The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. When you look at the things you are doing in your life, our actions which can be seen reveal our motives which are unseen.

And Paul ties up this list by saying in verse 21, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live in this way,” - literally, those who do these things (hoi ta toiauta prassontes) - “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” It is your actions; what you’re doing, that reveal who you are listening to and where you are headed.

The sinful nature produces sinful actions which are obvious, says Paul, but in contrast, the Spirit shapes your character. It literally changes, not just what you do, but who you are to be like Jesus. This, according to verse 22, is the fruit of the Spirit.

3. The fruit of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Earlier on, we saw thirteen actions of the sinful nature. (Paul even adds the words, “And the like,” meaning there could be lots more.) But here we see just one fruit.

Why is this important? If you have the Spirit, you will produces all nine characteristics of this fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control - because they all form one fruit. All of them should be present in some degree and form in your life.

To be loving means to seek another person’s good at the expense of yourself. To be joyful means you have found something of true value and meaning to pour out your love upon, such that even if circumstances are tough and you might be suffering, your joy still remains because your treasure still remains. To be peaceful means your relationship with God is rock solid - your conscience is clear; and therefore you are always seeking to reconcile others who aren’t at peace with God, we who aren't at peace with their friends or with themselves.

To be patient means you’re not someone who’s quick to get angry; some translations have “long-suffering,” meaning, it’s painful when others sin against you, but you are still keeping your cool. To be kind and good is another way of saying that you are generous and merciful; you are actively looking serve others whether or not they deserve your help and generosity. To be faithful means that you are trustworthy; you are dependable; you are reliable. To be gentle means you respond to sin the way God does; you don’t condemn, but you want to forgive. In Galatians 6:1, Paul says, “Brothers, if someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” Finally, the self-controlled means that you do have temptations; your sinful nature is still there, but you are not using that as an excuse to sin. It’s your life, your actions are your responsibility and you are keeping a check on your behaviour and actions.

Nine characteristics but just one fruit. You can’t pick and choose. All of them are present in the life of the Christian.

But then Paul rounds of this list by saying, “Against such things there is no law.” Think with me for a moment: Why does he say that?

If you have been following our series through Galatians the past few months, you might know the answer. Throughout the letter of Galatians, Paul has been telling us that there is a big difference between the law and the gospel. The law tells us what we need to do. The gospel tells us what God has done.

That’s really, really, really, really important because the fruit of the Spirit is something that Spirit does. That’s why it’s called fruit. It is a result of trusting in the cross of Jesus Christ.

And after giving us this list of nine character traits, Paul wants us to be absolutely clear - You don’t get saved by doing these things. You don’t get saved by being loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.

If we don’t get this we make the mistake of thinking that Sunday School is about teaching kids how to be good. If we don’t get this we make the mistake of thinking bible study is about how to be loving. If we don’t get this we make the mistake of thinking worship is about us trying to make our way up to God.

You can’t legislate people into being good and loving. The best you can do is enact laws that keep people from doing evil and acting out their sinful tendencies. That’s why the acts of the sinful nature are obvious. You can come up with a new rule every day on what shouldn’t be done. But if you try to do that with Christianity, you don’t understand the gospel. It’s not about what you do, but what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. In verse 24, Paul brings us back to the cross to remind us of that.

Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5:24

This is how you deal with sin, you bring it to the cross. Paul began in verse 16, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Meaning, keep your eyes on the Spirit not on your sinful nature; keep your eyes on Jesus, not on your sin.

In other words, the fruit of the Spirit is really the fruit of the gospel. It is the by-product of trusting in Jesus for our justification and our sanctification. The point of having a list like this is not be burdensome - to check up on Christians, “Are you loving, peaceful, patient?” - these are not rules are reflections of God’s presence in our lives. He has put his Spirit in us!

Keeping in step with the Spirit

Think about that for a moment. God who is holy and awesome and gracious and loving, lives inside this human body. Let that sink in!

The Spirit is mentioned seven times in this passage, don’t miss that. God’s Holy Spirit is literally inside this body. He’s not just up there in heaven, he is right here with us; he is right here inside of us. That is an awesome thought!

And yet, if that is true, why is that we still sin? Why is it that, at times, we still live as if God didn’t put his Spirit in us? It’s our sinful nature. The bible says that there’s that part of us that is at war with God. That’s the whole point of this passage, to open our eyes to that struggle.

Paul keeps saying to us, “Live by the Spirit. You are led by the Spirit.” That is, he is telling us that we need to be consciously seeking to be obedient to God at every moment. In verse 24, it means coming back again and again to the cross to be forgiven and restored. But the way he puts it in verse 25 is to say that following the Spirit is like marching to a rhythm.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25

It’s saying that life has a rhythm, a pace, a momentum to it. It’s saying that what matters aren’t just the big decisions - career, marriage, where you’re going to live, what huge siginificant thing you are going to do with your life. If we think that way, we are still thinking in terms of the law; in terms of things we have to do.

Yet Paul says you live by the Spirit by keeping in step with the Spirit. What does that mean?

Years ago when I joined the music team at my church in Singapore, I had learned an invaluable lesson: Listening to others and playing together as a team. I thought that since I had been playing the piano for years; since I’d been playing in my student fellowship for years, it was not a problem playing in this church and I was so wrong!

When you’re playing by yourself it’s just you and the music score. You just play. But when you are playing as a team, you are listening out for the voices, for the other instruments. In particular, you are listening out for the drums, because the drums keep everyone in step and in sync.

I remember how much I hated it when my music coordinator would point me and say, “Piano and bass; play!” “Piano and drums; play!” She would isolate each pair of instruments and force us to play each piece over and over again, not so that we would get our parts individually, but so that as we played our parts, we were in sync with the other instruments. So that we were listening to one another.

It’s the same in our Christian lives. There is a rhythm to this life and God’s Spirit is prompting us to always seek him every step of the way, such that He is setting the pace, He is setting the direction, He is leading us. And it shows, not just in our actions, but in our character.

That’s the point of the nine characteristics of the Spirit - to be loving at all times, to be peaceful at times, to be joyful in all situations - not just in the big life decisions and the rest of the time you are a totally different person. No, you are constantly seeking to live out your life rooted in the gospel, standing at the cross, keeping in step with the Spirit.

And just in case we forget that, Paul slips in verse 26.

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Galatians 6:26

Did Paul forget something from the list of sinful actions? Is that why he says, “Don’t be conceited”?

No, the reason is Paul knows that even this can be turned into a law; into a work that we do. “Look at me, I’m following the Spirit.” “Check this out, my church is sooo loving!”

And Paul is saying, “Don’t use this as another burden to lay on people’s shoulders.” It’s sad when we use godliness as a cover-up for putting people down in the church; as a way of making people feel small. That’s not the gospel.

The gospel is about Christ taking our burdens of sin, death and judgement. The gospel is about Christ freeing us from slavery to sin and restoring us as sons.

So each time we hear this gospel, we hear Christ calling us to come to the cross and lay down our burdens; to confess our sins - the things we have done against God this week, the things we have left undone for God this week - and ask that he cover us with his righteousness and empower us by his Spirit to live by his grace. Each time we hear this gospel, we hear Christ calling us to lay down our lives and pick up our cross and follow him.

In our closing song, we sing these words:

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone

And live so all might see

The strength to follow Your commands

Could never come from me.

Oh Father, use my ransomed life

In any way You choose.

And let my song forever be

My only boast is You.

Let us pray,

Father, use our ransomed lives in any way you choose
and let our only boast be in You.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

The Spirit-filled church (Acts 2)

An unmistakable theme running through the book of Acts has to be the movement of the Holy Spirit.

If you go through the book, Luke the writer gives tremendous emphasis on the Holy Spirit as a key agent in the narrative; as a key character in the storyline. With the exception of a few places throughout the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit features prominently and is mentioned explicitly in each and every chapter - through the display of miracles, the speaking of tongues, in the direct speech of the apostles - but the way the book of Acts begins is with Jesus Christ telling his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit.

The very beginning of the book reminds us that Acts is part-two in the two-part series, both written by the same author, Luke, who refers back to his previous book - the gospel of Luke - in verse 1 as, “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” That’s a very curious way of summing up the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: All that Jesus began to do and teach.

As if to say, “Theophilus, what you read in my previous book - That’s just the beginning.” The book of Acts is a continuation of everything Jesus began to do and teach. In fact, you could say that the book of Acts is about what Jesus continues to do today.

And the way that Acts begins in Chapter 1 is with Jesus “giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen” (Acts 1:2), commanding them with the words of verse 4, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised... For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”

The passage we are going to look at today is the fulfilment of that promise. It is described in several different ways - the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5), the empowering of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), the filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) - but the one question we need to ask ourselves as we go through the book of Acts is: What is descriptive and what is prescriptive in the book of Acts? It is important to differentiate between the descriptive - what Luke is telling us happened then - and the prescriptive - what Luke is telling us ought to happen today as part of our daily Christian experience.

Now you might agree or disagree with what I put into the descriptive and prescriptive categories, but I wanted to begin by saying that there is a difference between the two, and more importantly, that the way we decide which is descriptive and which is prescriptive is by looking at what the bible says. Over and against our own experiences and traditions, what I want us to do is come to the bible and see how Luke describes and prescribes the events the book of Acts.

With that in mind, we will approach Acts Chapter 2 under three headings:

1. The Spirit-filled Witness (verses 1 to 15)

2. The Spirit-filled Message (verses 16 to 36)

3. The Spirit-filled Community (verses 37 to 47)

1. The Spirit-filled Witness

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 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 began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:1-4

We begin with the when and the where. Verse 1 tells us “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”

Pentecost is a harvest celebration in the Jewish Calendar, which is when the grain harvest is brought in. We find it in Old Testament passages like Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 16 referred to as the Feast of Weeks. The reason why it is called Pentecost (a Greek word meaning “fifty”) is because this festival is held fifty days from Passover. The symbolism of this is all the more pronounced when you consider that verse 1 could just as accurately be translated, “In the fulfilment of the day of Pentecost.”

Meaning, there is fulfilment that comes from Pentecost - from this festival symbolic of the gathering in of the harvest from the fields - that points us back to Passover; back to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Something that happened fifty days earlier at the cross now bears spiritual fruit and brings in a spiritual harvest.

That’s the significance of the when but notice as well the significance of the where. The believers “were all together in one place,” and that place was Jerusalem where Jesus told them to remain back in Chapter 1, verse 5. As many as one hundred and twenty believers gathered in this one place, unsure about what was going to happen exactly yet obedient to Jesus’ command and promise. Chapter 1, verse 8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem; and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of all the earth.” Something about Jerusalem made it ground zero for Jesus’ mission plan. The gospel was to go out into all the world - that was the plan - but first, something had to happen in Jerusalem. We’ll come back to this point later but for now, just realise that it’s no accident that this is all happening in this particular place at this particular time in history.

From the when and the where, verse 2 tells us what happened next. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven.” What they heard sounded like a hurricane but wasn’t. Similarly, what they saw seemed like fire but wasn’t fire. Verse 3, “They saw what seemed like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” The experience was overwhelming yet at the same time deeply personal. The Spirit of God, symbolised by wind and fire, filled the entire room where they were but also came to rest on each individual believer.

“All of them,” verse 4 reads, “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” We will get to the tongues phenomenon in a moment, but don’t miss the impact of this statement. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, not just the apostles. Each and every one of the one hundred and twenty believers who had gathered in that place that day received what Jesus had promised them with no exception.

Having said that, when we get to verse 5, we see that this phenomenon was not for the believers’ benefit alone.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them speaking in his own native language?

Acts 2:5-8

What follows is a pretty lengthy description about where this crowd were from - Parthians, Medes and Elamites (to the east of Jerusalem, modern day Iran); residents of Mesopotamia (the western region, now Iraq), Judea (the region surrounding Jerusalem itself), Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia (to the north-west, where Paul eventually brings the gospel later in Acts) and Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene (to the south).

On the one hand, these were God-fearing Jews (verse 5) living in Jerusalem (verse 14). On the other, the people in these crowd had come from far-flung countries, what verse 5 describes as “every nation under heaven.” These were Diasporic Jews who had been spread across the different regions due to events in history (such as the exile, recorded in Old Testament books of the bible such as Daniel). The Greek word diaspora is where we get the word dispersed, meaning, “spread out”. These Jews whose ancestors had originally lived in the Promised Land had been spread out across the nations, but now had moved back to Jerusalem, perhaps to attend the Festival of Weeks or more likely, had moved back for good and called the city their home.

Similarly, many of us from Singapore and Malaysia are diaspora Chinese: our parents or grandparents migrated from China, from villages like Guangzhou or Fujian and settled in South East Asia, which is why a couple of generations later you end up with “bananas” like me (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) who can’t even speak a word of proper Chinese, except for phrases picked up from Chow Sing Chi movies (like Tah Kip and Pek Yau).

These diaspora Jews hear the believers speaking in tongues, they gather around the 120 believers, but notice what they ask in verse 7, “How is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?” Literally, the word is dialect - “How is it that each of us hears them in his own dialect where we were born?” They are amazed that these Galileans are able to communicate so fluently in the language they grew up with - their mother tongues. Furthermore, what they hear is described for us in verse 11, “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues (or dialects)!”

Now we need to understand their amazement at two levels. Firstly, remember that the crowd did not witness the wind and the fire in the giving of the Spirit, rather they are drawn by what they heard. Tongues, in this instance, simply means languages - real understandable languages and dialects spoken by these Jews who had come from all over the Roman Empire. They were amazed because these fifteen or so different languages were now being spoken by these “Galileans” (which was a polite way of calling them “Ah-bengs”).

On another level, what these tongue-speaking Galileans were declaring was the wonders of God. This is a side point but a notable one: There is something amazingly attractive about God’s word being communicated in a way that is understandable and familiar to us that it simply draws us into that word. These diaspora Jews did not grow up in Jerusalem and therefore did not speak Hebrew or Aramaic (much like British-born Chinese who struggle to order bubble tea in Cantonese at HK Fusion, “One pau pau cha please, extra pau pau!”). There must have been something pretty amazing and refreshing about hearing God’s word in such a way that you understood every word, that you didn’t need someone else to explain to you. To hear something as wonderful and as important as the greatness of God and to just get it - That is an awesome experience.

The fact that Luke describes the crowd as “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven,” ought to cast our minds back to Genesis 11 to the account of Babel. There, God strikes the people of Babel with a judgement that confuses their language and scatters them “over the face of the whole world” (Genesis 11:9). What is happening here in Acts 2 is a reversal of that judgement - God’s people were being gathered and God’s word was being fully understood. Here, it is important to see that the way in which God reversed the effects of Babel was not so much by taking away the languages but by using the languages. Notice how the phrase, “each one,” is repeatedly used to describe the reaction of the crowd - verse 6: “each one heard,” verse 8, “each of us hears.” The result was a personal encounter with the word of God - “the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

When we get to verse 12, it is no longer each one, but every single one. “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’” (ESV) Some were skeptical. “Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’” (Acts 2:13) All of them were affected by the event, and by “all,” it’s actually talking about the crowd. That is, the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was not simply for the benefit of the apostles and Christians gathering in Jerusalem that day. God was using them as his witnesses to the crowd. The Spirit was empowering them to carry out his mission to the nations.

Otherwise, there would have been no need for the tongues. And otherwise, there would have been no need for Peter to explain the tongues.

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!”

Acts 2:14-15

Peter understands that it isn’t enough to do apologetics. Some in the crowd are going, “These guys are out of their minds. It’s just the alcohol talking.” And immediately, Peter says, “Come on, get serious! The pubs aren’t even open yet.” Essentially, what he is saying is, “That’s a silly idea, and you know it.”

Now if Peter’s motivation was solely to protect his friends, he would have stopped right there. Apologetics is a defence of Christianity. It’s answering questions - often times, objections - to Christianity using reason, logic and factual data. Peter does apologetics by appealing to the crowd’s common sense, “Look at your watches, the pubs aren’t even open yet.” And if his motivation was purely to give an answer that would silence his critics and protect his friends, the story would have ended at verse 15.

But you see, Peter’s motivation for getting up and speaking to the crowd is not apologetics but evangelism. Apologetics is useful - it is even essential in an age of skepticism - but the agenda in apologetics is always set by the few. “Some... made fun of them.” Peter wanted to address the real question that was on every single one of their minds, “What does this mean?” and the way he did that was through evangelism. It was with the gospel.

Evangelism presents God’s agenda and not ours. The Spirit-filled Witness always accompanies the Spirit-filled message: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. The Spirit-filled Message

Peter begins by explaining the tongues-speaking as an indication of the end times. The pouring out the Spirit of God is an indication that the final day of God’s judgement has arrived.

No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy.

I will show wonders in the heavens above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Acts 2:16-21

It’s not the most attractive way to begin a sermon. Peter didn’t tell a joke or open with an illustration from last night’s episode of Downton Abbey. He said to the crowd, “You want to know what this means? It’s judgement. It means that we are now living in the end times.”

Quoting the prophet Joel, he describes how God promises to pour out his Spirit on all people, enabling them to prophesy, see visions and dream dreams. In a word, the Spirit reveals God’s will to his people. The prophets in the Old Testament were a select few to receive this gift of the Spirit. Their job was to speak on behalf of God, revealing his will to the kings and leaders.

In contrast to that, Joel says in the last days, the Spirit would no longer be limited to a select few but poured out on all: men and women, young and old. And the purpose of this pouring out of the Spirit is direct revelation. That’s prophecy. Prophecy means knowing and speaking God’s word without the need for a middleman. God reveals it directly to you. God speaks it directly through you.

Here we see it in speaking of various tongues by the believers at Pentecost. They were declaring the wonders of God directly to nations, without the need for interpreters.

Yet notice as well, that we see the fulfilment this in Peter himself. He stands up and says quite confidently, “This is what God’s word has to say to you.” What is he doing? Peter is prophesying. By that, it doesn’t mean that unintelligible gibberish start coming out of his mouth. Quite the opposite. He reveals God’s will by clearly explaining God’s word. “This is what it means. This is what God says.” That’s prophetic speech.

So the first half of Joel’s prophecy has to do with the Spirit, but the second half talks about judgement. Verse 19: “Blood and fire and billows of smoke,” and verse 20, “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood.” As scary as these descriptions may be, what was shocking was not the reality of judgement but its immediacy. These were God-fearing Jews. They knew that God was holy. They knew the bible spoke of a day of God’s judgement. What they did not know was that God’s judgement was not far off; it had already begun.

And Peter’s point is this: Judgement began with the cross. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s way of putting the world on notice, “This is the last call.”

Friends, are you the kind of person who puts things off? Judgement, God, Jesus, Salvation - it’s just another thing you’ll deal with... tomorrow. Peter is saying to us: Judgement has come, Salvation is now, because Jesus Christ is Lord.

Look at verse 22:

Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Acts:2:22-23

Keeping in mind that Peter is speaking to residents of Jerusalem and his fellow Jews, he describes Jesus to them as someone, “you know.” In the last chapter of Luke, Cleopas says to Jesus, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn’t know these things?” Jesus asks him, “What things?” And Cleopas goes on to describe how Jesus was well-known as a prophet, he did miracles, he spoke from God with an authority that no one ever did, he was someone everyone knew as sent from God. But the tragic thing, according to Cleopas, was that Jesus got killed. He was treated like a criminal, hung on a cross and left to die. The point is: such news was so sensational, no one in Jerusalem could not have known about it.

Peter says to the crowd, “You guys know this.” But more than that, “You guys are responsible for this,” verse 23, “You with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” He doesn’t say, “Those guys - the Romans, the chief priests, the guys at the top... No, you... You did this.”

Yet at the same time, verse 23 begins with God handing Jesus over to them, according to his “set purpose and foreknowledge”. Now what’s going on? Peter is explaining what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah. The cross was not God’s plan gone wrong. The cross was God’s plan all along.

Especially for these Jews who were God-fearing, who knew God’s promises to Abraham and to David about a kingdom that would one day be established in God’s name and ruled under God’s king, they would have been thinking: How on earth can Jesus be this king? The Messiah is supposed to defeat his enemies, not be killed by them. The Messiah is supposed to be empowered by God, protected by God - not humiliated and stripped naked like he was and killed on the cross, suffering a death so horrible it probably meant that he was cursed by God.

And one thing that Peter had to get straight with his fellow Jews was that Jesus had to die. The way in which we know that Jesus truly was the Christ was precisely through his death and humiliation on the cross.

Notice that what Peter does here in explaining who Jesus is and what he did on the cross - is not to absolve them of their guilt, “You, with the help of wicked men put him to death,” - but to show from scripture how God used even their sin to bring about his salvation.

Look at verse 24:

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:

“I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will live in hope,

because you will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence.”

Acts 2:24-28

A moment ago, we were considering Jesus’ death, and here Peter tries to explain God raising Jesus from death as significant of much more than just having a second chance at life. No, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is actually a kind of vindication. It’s a kind of proof.

When God raised Jesus from the dead, Peter says in verse 23, he freed him from the agony of death. Death is pictured as a kind of prison. It’s pain - the agony of death. The bible describes death as not simply the end of life - You live, and live, and live, then one day.... finally, you die. No, death in the bible is a separation. And verse 23 tells us it was impossible for death to keep a hold on Jesus. This prison couldn’t contain him.

If you understand death that way - as a separation, a breakdown, a prison - then what the resurrection does is help us understand what life really is. It is a restoration. Here, Peter uses the words of King David from Psalm 16 to talk about the resurrection in terms of joy, hope, gladness. Verse 26, “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope.” Verse 28, “You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with the joy of your presence.” David defines life as knowing God; being in the presence of God; rejoicing in the promises of God.

What did God do when he raised Jesus from the dead? He restored him to his true status and position as Christ - as God’s King ruling over God’s kingdom.

Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on the throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.

Acts 2:29-31

From the testimony of Scripture in Psalm 16, Peter moves on their own testimony as witnesses of the cross in verse 32, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses to the fact.” I think he is referring to the empty tomb and their personal encounter with Jesus over the last forty days (Acts 1:3).

But then Peter does something very interesting. He turns to the crowds own witness of events. Verse 33, “Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” He ties it back to Pentecost. Now this is very important. What is Peter doing? He is explaining the tongues and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, yes. But more importantly, he is preaching the gospel by pointing his hearers back to Jesus.

For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,

“The Lord said to my Lord:

‘Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”

Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Acts 2:34-36

Why does Peter keep saying, “This Jesus.” Did you notice that? Verse 23, “This man.” Verse 32, “God has raised this Jesus.” Verse 36, ‘God has made this Jesus...” Why not just say, “Jesus”?

Because Peter is saying, “This is the guy you need to take notice of.” Not me. Not your own guilt. Not even in a sense the Holy Spirit. The focus of the gospel is this Jesus whom God has made both Lord and Christ.

He is saying to the crowd who heard the tongues, who asked the question, “What does this mean?”, and responds to them by saying, “It means that Jesus really is God’s chosen King. It means that he is chosen to judge the world - that’s what Lord means, hence the Day of the Lord. But it also means, he is God’s means for salvation - everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

I put it to you that what we have here in Peter’s sermon is Spirit-filled preaching. It’s prophecy. Preaching that is prophetic, that is anointed by the Holy Spirit of God, is preaching the points us clearly to Jesus Christ as Lord. Isn’t that what Peter is doing? He keeps bringing us back to Jesus.

It’s not the tongues, as miraculous as it was, and as essential as it was in this moment of history. It was the explanation of the gospel, as revealed in scripture, pointing to Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross, proclaiming him as Lord and Christ. Inasmuch as your pastor preaches the gospel on Sunday mornings, inasmuch as your bible study leader preaches Christ in your weekly groups, inasmuch as you yourselves point to Jesus in your evangelism, this is the work of the Holy Spirit, poured out on men and women, enabling them to prophesy - enabling them to reveal Jesus as who he truly is: Christ, Lord, Saviour, Judge, King!

And when men and women respond to such authentic, prophetic, Spirit-filled preaching - when they respond to the good news of Jesus Christ - what happens next is they are gathered in by God into a Spirit-filled community.

3. The Spirit-filled Community

When the crowd heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Acts 2:37-41

So far, what we have seen is the descriptive. Acts has given us a description of what happened, what was said, what was done. When we come to verse 39, we find a statement that is unmistakably prescriptive. “The promise if for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call.” What is the prescription? To turn and trust in Jesus Christ.

That’s what Peter means by repentance. “Repent and be baptised.” It means turning. Repentance isn’t feeling sorry for your sins, it’s not an emotional response. It means turning away from your sins and trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation, “for the forgiveness of your sins.” As a sign of that repentance, Christians therefore get baptised - a word that simply means dunked (into water). They go into the water to symbolise their death to sin and rebellion against God, and they are raised out of the water to symbolise their new life in Jesus Christ.

So what we have here is Peter’s prescription - what it means to respond to the gospel, what it means to trust in Jesus, what it means to be saved as a Christian. It means turning to him as Lord.

Yet at the same time, notice that there are several implications to this prescription. The first one that is hard to miss is the fact that Peter says, “You will receive the Holy Spirit.” It’s a given. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t say that you will speak in tongues. He doesn’t say that you will relive the events of Pentecost, there is none of that here. All it says is that the three thousand new Christians were baptised as a sign of their repentance. In fact, the only way in which you can respond to the gospel is through the work and witness of the Holy Spirit. You see, this means that the Holy Spirit was not just poured out on the 120 believers, it was poured out on all the 3000 new converts as well. If you are a Christian, it’s because God has given you of his Spirit, enabling you to respond to him in repentance and faith.

However, this then raises the question: Why then was there a need for Pentecost? Why just the 120 believers in the upper room (or wherever it was) who received the gift of tongues?

As you go through the book of Acts, what we find is a trajectory - a movement - of the Holy Spirit, in each case, evidenced and punctuated by the speaking of tongues. There are four in total. The first occurrence is here in Acts 2 in Jerusalem. The second is Acts 8 where the Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit at the laying on of hands. The third is Acts 10, where Peter is preaching to a group of God-fearing Gentiles. And the last is Acts 19, in Ephesus when Paul lays hands on a group of believers who had only known of John’s baptism. These four instances of the Holy Spirit enabling the believers to speak in tongues are significant because they are the fulfilment of Jesus’ own words at the beginning of the book of Acts, when he tells his disciples in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

In each case, the giving of the Holy Spirit evidenced by the supernatural ability to speak in tongues is a confirmation of God’s plan in bringing in outsiders into the kingdom of God. And significantly, it begins here in Acts 2 with Jerusalem. Jesus tells his friends to remain in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4). They are to be his witnesses beginning with Jerusalem (Acts 1:8). In other words, Jerusalem is ground zero. Why? Because of the cross. The way in which the outsiders are brought into the kingdom of God is through the message of the cross. It’s not by becoming Jewish - if anything, the gospel goes out to the surrounding cultures. It’s not by learning Hebrew and memorising the Torah in Hebrew - the phenomenon of the speaking in various tongues and dialects is enough evidence against that. It is only by repentance and faith in the message of the cross: that Jesus Christ is Lord. What we see here is that the Holy Spirit always moves in tandem with the gospel. It is the Holy Spirit which enables the gospel to be truly heard and the Holy Spirit which enables us to respond to the gospel.

That’s the first implication: the Holy Spirit comes as promise to all who respond to the gospel. But the second unmissable implication is the church. Verse 41, “Those who were baptised... were added to their number that day.”

Being a Spirit-filled Christian means being part of a Spirit-filled community. It means being a part of the church.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that unless you are in a gospel-proclaiming church, you’re not a real Christian. Neither am I saying that unless you are baptised, you are not a genuine Christian. You become a Christian by turning to and trusting in Jesus Christ alone. Yet here we find both baptism and church membership tightly linked to that act of conversion. The three thousand believers were all baptised, they were all counted amongst the believers.

The Spirit-filled gospel gives birth to a spirit-filled community. The church is a gathering of God’s people around God’s word. Therefore, if you are a Christian but you are not baptised or you are not a regular member in a church, the question to ask is not, “Where can I find this loving, generous, Spirit-filled community to be a part of?” The real question to ask is: Is the gospel being preached? If so, the next question for you is: Are you being obedient to the call of the gospel?

Especially amongst students who come to faith in Jesus Christ here in Cambridge, there is a tendency to put of baptism and to put off committing yourselves to a local church. One common excuse is, “I want to wait till I’m back in Singapore. Then I’ll find the real church I’m going to invest my life in. That’s the church I’m going to be baptised in and invite all my family and non-Christian friends to attend.”

Friends, that is a foolish excuse. (I know, because it was the excuse I used as a student!) The church are you “attending” now on the weekends, inasmuch as it is faithfully proclaiming the gospel, that is your church. The only question is: Are you being faithful to the gospel yourself in being a part of that community and investing your life now in that church?

If Jesus Christ is your Lord, if he died on the cross for your sins, if he has filled you with his Holy Spirit, then listen to his word of instruction and obey his will. Be baptised. Love your church. Commit your life to following him now.

To recap Acts Chapter 2, we have seen three things. Firstly, we see a Spirit-filled Witness - the Holy Spirit enabling the 120 believers to witness to the crowd through the speaking of tongues. Secondly, we see a Spirit-filled Message - the gospel being proclaimed by Peter, prophesying through the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, we see a Spirit-filled Community: One that is devoted to the teaching of the apostles and to one another in love and fellowship.

But really, what I hope we see in these pages is Jesus. The 120 believers were waiting for the Holy Spirit, yes, but they were waiting in obedience to Jesus’ words. You might even say, they were waiting for Jesus himself to give them his Spirit. Secondly, Peter preaches powerfully through the empowering and emboldenment of the Spirit, but though he begins with the explanation of the tongues, he ends with the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Finally, we see the church, a community that has responded to Jesus in repentance and faith, and live out their lives in obedience to Jesus as members of his body and witnesses of his gospel.

Obedience to Jesus. Boldness for Jesus. Love for one another in Jesus. That’s how you see the evidence of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Wake up and smell the Jesus (Ephesians 5:3-20)

Back in college, I used to bunk in a room with three other guys. We’d go to lectures together, eat our meals together, revise for our exams together, and then stay up late chatting over cups of Milo together. This meant, though, that we always had problems waking up in the morning. None of us could get up on time, even though we all had alarm clocks. We would set them, our alarm clocks would start ringing, but then we would immediately turn it off and go back to bed, thinking that the other guy’s alarm would still wake us up. As a result, we were often late. Together.

In today’s passage, the bible is telling us that we need to wake up. It is saying that some of us go through life like sleepyheads. We make unwise decisions and choose foolish paths simply because we are unconscious. Meaning, we coast through life. We don’t take advantage of the opportunities given to us. We waste our time, not realising that we are wasting our lives. As Chinese philosopher and thinker, Bruce Lee, once said, “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” (Whhooaaaaaah!!) The bible says the same thing:

Be careful then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16

In particular, the bible says we need to be wise about three things: sin, secretiveness and the Spirit. Those are the three points from our passage today. We need to be aware of sin - how destructive it is but also, how deceptive sin is. We need to be wise about secretiveness - about hiding our sin, putting on an act and covering our sin instead of confessing our sin. Finally, we need to be filled with the Spirit - a way of saying, that we need to actively seek out God’s will for our lives and encourage others to do the same.

Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Ephesians 5:3-4

The first thing the apostle Paul deals with is sin. He warns Christians about sinful actions - sexual immorality, impurity, greed. he also singles out sinful speech - obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking. Yet the word he uses to describe these sinful actions isn’t “sin”. They are bad, yes; they are destructive, definitely. Instead, the person who does all these things isn’t just the bad guy; the sinful man. Paul says such a man is an idolater.

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Ephesians 5:5

Meaning, Paul is calling the sinful man an idol worshipper. He is saying that when you sin - whether with your body, mind or speech - you are no different from the guy bowing down at the temple with joss-sticks before idols. That’s surprising for many of us to hear. We expect the bible to condemn the sinner by saying that he has broken the rules; he has offended God. And indeed, one aspect of sin is all about turning against God in defiance and rebellion, and saying to him, “Get lost!” But another important way the bible pictures sin is the replacement of God, is the setting up of a counterfeit God. We look for our identity, fulfilment and satisfaction in something else other than God. That happens in temples, before statues of Kuan Yin - idols of deities, to whom we might offer incense, money or devotion. But that also happens in the Grand Arcade, before the gods of All Saints, Three Mobile and the Apple Store, in which we exchange our money and our time for a new look or a better phone plan. Both are essentially the same thing - the worship of idols. We turn away from God to look elsewhere for our fulfilment and meaning in life.

So, when you go back and read how Paul says these things are “improper” for God’s holy people (verse 3), he doesn’t mean “goody-two shoes”. To be holy means to be different. To be distinctive. To be exclusive to God and God alone. One important mark of this difference is therefore, thanksgiving. Verse 4: “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse-joking, but rather, thanksgiving.” We are acknowledging God in his goodness and his blessing to us, not because we are deserving but because he is a merciful and generous God. That is distinctive worship. That’s what Christians do when they gather as God’s people on Sundays and in small groups. They recognise God for who he is what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. And that’s what Christians do when they do get that iPhone or those new pair of jeans from All Saints - sorry, to imply that you can’t ever shop in the Grand Arcade - but your distinctiveness is seen not in where you shop but how you shop. You are conscious of God’s grace. You are thankful for God’s goodness. You are giving glory to God when you receive his good gifts.

Here as Paul addresses the serious issue of sin, we need to hear his note of concern. This isn’t an angry schoolteacher telling off some students for goofing off at the back of the class. This is a concerned parent. This is a loving pastor saying to a group of Christians, “You guys don’t know what serious harm you’re doing when you sin. You don’t get it - the more you sin, the more you are fooled into thinking that it doesn’t matter that you sin.”

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

Ephesians 5:6

“It is no big deal!” That’s the excuse we give whenever we’re confronted with a sinful action or behaviour. Such words are empty words, and yet we are tempted to believe them. They convince us that God doesn’t care how we live; that we can go on living any way we like, and it is nobody’s business but our own. Paul warns us, “because of such things” God’s anger is going be poured out directly on the disobedient. These “sons of disobedience” (as the English Standard Version has it) describe those who know God and yet choose to ignore him as God; who choose to ignore his word for their lives. Words like wrath, anger, hell, judgement. They say these are just words designed to scare us into being good, things parents say to get their kids to behave. Paul says judgement is very real. In fact, notice that Paul says that judgement is very near - God’s wrath “comes” - not that it “will be coming”, but that it is here: judgement is described in the present tense. There comes a point in our act of sin when we are so wilful and determined to carry out that sin, that all God needs to do is to step back and give us over to our sinfulness. To that person may seem like, “Hey! Look at me, I’m doing this with no consequences whatsoever.” To God, that person has been written off. That’s scary. Paul is describing a real, present judgement that can be seen even today, and he says to us, “Let no one deceive you.” Wake up!

But also, Paul says, “Don’t join them.”

Therefore do not be partners with them.

Ephesians 5:7

He’s not saying here to Christians that we need to avoid them. Don’t be partners with them, meaning, don’t join them in their actions; in abusing your freedom, don’t join them in sinning with your body and mind, don’t join them in carelessly speaking hurtful words to one another. Being holy means displaying God’s holiness in a world that isn’t holy. It doesn’t mean pulling away from the world, but displaying God’s distinctiveness in this world. Paul clarifies in 1 Corinthians Chapter 5:

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave the world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, or an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

1 Corinthians 5:9-11

Here in 1 Corinthians, we find the same categories of sin we saw in Ephesians - sexual immorality, greed, idolatry - but Paul says you can’t hide away from people who do these things. You are not supposed to. Otherwise, “you would have to leave the world”. Sometimes, that’s what we try to do. In a sincere effort to be God’s people, to live in a way that is pleasing to God, we pull away from anyone who doesn’t meet God’s standards. Paul is saying, “That’s just silly!” What he does warn us to do is to stay away from the Christian brother who does do these things. “With such a man do not even eat.” Again this is a wake-up call. We get the order mixed-up: we condemn the people who sin outside the church, and we ignore the sin that goes on and on inside the church. Paul says we live holy lives in the midst of a world that isn’t holy, and we are more conscious of it within the church which should be holy - not more oblivious to it, or dismissive of it here in the church - but more serious about it.

So, the first thing we need to be aware of is sin: the destructiveness of sin but also, the deceptiveness of sin - the kind of “empty” talk that says that there are no consequences to sin. Paul uses worship language to open our eyes to what really happens when we sin - we a giving ourselves to idolatry and we are facing the reality of God’s wrath. Instead, as Christians, we characterise our lives with holiness and we characterise our words with thanksgiving. Or, as Paul says next, we are to be “light in the Lord”.

Living as children of light

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5:9

Elsewhere in the bible, Christians are described as those who have been called out of darkness into God’s wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). It’s like you’ve moved house. You pack up all your things, you move out of darkness and you now live at a new address - Light. Things should look different in your life. Darkness is where you used to come from but not any more. You now live in the light.

However, Ephesians puts this rather different. Paul says, you were darkness, now you are light. Not that you’ve moved into light but that you’ve become light. Let me tell you why this is important - to see that we are not simply moving into a domain of light, but that we ourselves, have become a source of that light. We’ve just been talking about sin - sexual sins, greed sins, idolatrous sins - and we just heard that these sinful actions have no place among God’s people. The temptation is to deal with sin by avoiding it, maybe even, by denying it. So, we stay away from sinful people. We tell our kids to stay away from the bad kids who always get into trouble. We move out of bad neighbourhoods, away from crime, away from violence. These are not necessarily bad things to do. It is wise to stay away from temptation, especially when you know that you are susceptible to particular sins. And yet, the problem is, we might think that the solution to sin is simply to change our address. To put on a show. To try to look respectable. To avoid the bad hats and hang out with the good guys. Thinking this is what it means to be in the light.

Paul says, “You are light,” and that means two things. Firstly, you need to change. You were once darkness - you used to do these things; not any more. You need to change - your behaviour, your attitude, your life - and live for Jesus. This change is inside-out. It begins with a heart that says I’m no longer living for myself, I am going to do what God wants me to do (which is why Paul writes in verse 10: “Find out what pleases the Lord”). So, the first thing it means is radical change beginning with your life - from darkness to light. From living for ourselves to living for Jesus Christ.

But secondly, it means you become the agent of change in the lives of others. Your job isn’t simply to avoid sin, to avoid darkness. Being light means your job is to shine into the darkness. To speak lovingly and truthfully into situations where you do encounter sin. Or as Paul says next, you are called to expose the darkness.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible.

Ephesians 5:11-13

Now I know that this is a risky thing to say because it sounds like an excuse for being judgemental. It sounds like the busy-body who goes around pointing out problems in other people’s lives. No one likes that guy and no one ever listens to that guy. No, the way we are called to “expose” darkness is by being light in the darkness. It is talking about a contrast; a radical difference. We don’t go around saying, “That’s wrong, that’s wrong, that’s oh so wrong,” but rather we humbly live lives that say, “This is what it means to do right, to act justly, to love God.” It’s a contrast. Paul says, “The fruit of light is goodness, righteousness and truth” and he contrasts that against the “fruitless deeds of darkness.” Meaning, on one hand, you can’t help but expose sin simply by living holy lives. People will be more aware of their sin, they might even be more ashamed by their sin if they see you not caught up in those same sins. But on the other hand, you aren’t leaving people stuck in the dark either. You are speaking light into darkness. You pointing them to Jesus who died for our sins and frees us from our sin.

For it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

It’s never pleasant dealing with sin, whether it’s in ourselves or in those we love. But the reason why we don’t avoid it, or sweep it under the carpet - the reason why it is actually loving to wake people up to the reality of their sin - is because it means we are waking them up to the reality of who Jesus is. We are not telling them that they are bad people who need to be good. We are not telling them they are lazy people who need to work harder. We are waking them up to see that they can’t help themselves, they are caught up in their sin, they are in danger of God’s wrath, but that they need Jesus who died on the cross to change them from darkness to light. Wake up, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you!

Which brings me to my point of secretiveness. Paul says we need to expose darkness. We need to wake up and let Christ shine into our darkness. Again and again, the bible is saying to us how pointless it is to put on an act to cover up our sin. I know it is a shameful thing to admit that we are sinful. I know it is a painful thing to have those around us know that we have been sinful. But trying to hide it is foolish and it doesn’t work. I am not saying that you then need to confess your sins to me or to everyone in front of the church, that’s not what I’m getting at. What I am saying is this: Are you even aware of your sin? Do you need a wake-up call about a particular sin your life, which maybe no one sees because you have hidden it so well, in the dark, for so long? Why not try this: say to God, show me my sin. Say to Jesus: Shine your light on my life - every bit of it - show me who I really am. You know, Jesus says one of the signs of a genuine believer is that he isn’t afraid to do this.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

John 3:20-21

To recap, Paul says the second thing we need to be aware of is secretiveness - our propensity to hide our sin, the temptation to cover up our sin. And he says to us, You were once darkness, now you are light. In Jesus, he enables you to confront the darkness inside of you. He even uses you as an agent to confront the darkness in the lives of others, such that you are not simply calling them to turn away from their sin; you are giving them the opportunity to respond to Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

He is saying to us, this is what it means to live wisely - it is making the most of every opportunity in living for Jesus and speaking to others about Jesus.

Be filled with the Spirit

Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Ephesians 5:15-17

In the movie Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays John Keating, an English teacher in a prep school. On the first day of school, he brings all his students to the trophy room. He makes them all stand in front of a large display case, drawing their attention to black and white photographs of old students who used to be just like them, who studied in the same school, who shared their hopes and dreams, some of whom went on to do great things. John says to his students, “Go on. Lean in and look at them. Can you hear their voices speaking to you?” Then, whispering in the background, Mr Keating goes, “Car-pe.... Carpe.... Diem. Carpe Diem. Seize the day!”

You have one life. Make it count. Seize the day. Don’t just coast through life, be deliberate. Or to use Paul’s words, “make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.” Literally, the phrase means “buying time”. It’s a business term, meaning, your assets, your commodities are in a currency called time. Like a good businessman, you are always thinking, “How can I invest my time?” “How can I make the most return for my time.” It is saying that if you are smart and wise, you will realise that the important things in life cost you time. It means you have limited time - you can do one thing, you can’t do everything. And the worst thing you could do with your valuable time is nothing. The worst thing you could do is to waste your life.

That is what we do, if we are not wise. If we do not wake up. We let time pass us by, and in doing so, we let our lives pass us by. In the same movie, Robin William’s character quotes these words from American poet, Henry Thoreau:

‎"I went to the woods

because I wanted to live deliberately,

I wanted to live deep

and suck out all the marrow of life,

To put to rout all that was not life

and not when I had come to die

Discover that I had not lived."

You have one life. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy to say at the end of your life, “When I had come to die, (I discovered) that I had not lived”? But what’s the alternative? What does it means to “suck out the marrow of life”? I think it means this: To live passionately for Jesus. Or as Paul calls it, to be filled with the Spirit.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:18-20

Some have used this phrase, “Be filled with the Spirit” as a way of saying that we need to have more of the Spirit, implying that some of us have less, others have more. You have 20% for coming on Sunday, but if you lead worship, you have 40%, and if you can lead worship and play guitar, you have 60%. That’s not what it’s saying. It’s not about having more of the Spirit, but about the Spirit of God having more of us, again linking back to the concept of redeeming and buying our time. It is making God more and more central in every aspect of our daily lives and saying to God, “Please fill me, all of me - my studies, my work, the way I use my money, the way I relate to my brothers and sisters in church - please use more of me for your glory.”

But why, then, does Paul compare the Spirit to wine? “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery (which means recklessness; a destructive behaviour which doesn’t care about consequences) - instead, be filled with the Spirit, he says in verse 18. The problem is with drunkenness and not with the wine. It is taking something which is good and turning to it in excess for fulfilment and for pleasure, instead of turning to God. It’s no different from the idea of idolatry we saw earlier. It only results in disappointment and destruction. You could replace wine, with food: too much results in gluttony. You could replace it with money: too much results in greed.

On the other hand, we have the Spirit. And Paul is saying, being filled with God’s spirit is a tremendously good thing and when it overflows it results in blessing. In other words, you can’t have too much of God. “Speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (or songs inspired by the Spirit).” It is talking about joy and encouragement. Some songs you can listen to again and again. You’re not trying to memorise verses for an exam. You’re not being forced to sing it. You listen and you sing it because it’s fulfilling in and of itself - it’s an overflow. Often you call these “worship” songs, that is we are singing them to God, expressing thanks in Jesus. But notice that these songs are sung to “one another”. It says the same thing in Colossians 3:16, by the way. We sing to one another as a form of encouragement, that’s why it’s not just about those one or two people who are the best singers standing up front, doing a performance in front of the church. It is all of us, singing together, praising together, even singing to one another, as an overflow of being filled with the Spirit.

But also, we sing to our hearts. “Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord.” Jesus Loves me this I know.... Yes, Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so. Knowing you, Jesus, there is no greater thing. You are ministering to your heart when you do that.

And Paul’s point is, You can’t do this enough. Anything else, you kinda need to watch yourselves that it doesn’t come back and bite you in the backside. Wine, movies, Facebook, TV, holidays, gardening, Tripos - all these are good, helpful, godly things given us for our enjoyment and God’s glory. But we can make idols out of them. Too much and we lose ourselves in them. Not the Spirit. Not Jesus. If you had to choose one thing to invest your time in that you know will give you a 100% return on investment, it’s knowing God’s will. He actually says it three times in our passage.

For of this you can be sure... (or know with certainty, and then he goes on to talk about the kingdom of Christ and of God)

Ephesians 5:5

And find out (discern, figure out) what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5:10

Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Ephesians 5:17

Three times, Paul comes back to knowing Jesus, figuring out what pleases him, and understanding his will. With regard to sin, the bible says, Don’t be swayed by empty words but be anchored on God’s word about his judgement and salvation. With regard to salvation, the bible says, goodness, righteousness, truth aren’t just perks that come with trusting Jesus, they flow from a heart that wants to please Jesus. And will regards to wisdom about the Spirit, about not wasting your life, Paul says, Don’t be foolish. Find out what Jesus wants you to do. That’s pretty amazing. Actually, I think it makes things very simple. The best way to guard your hearts, to spend life, to find true satisfaction is keep coming back to Jesus.

And amazingly, as he ends, he says even when we turn to God, when we give thanks to God, the best way of doing so, is always through Jesus Christ.

Wake up and smell the Jesus

Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:20

In a way, today’s passage speaks to three kinds people, and to all three, the bible says, you need to wake up and smell the Jesus. To the one caught in idolatry and sin, the bible says, give your worship to Jesus, who died for your sin and freed you from your sin. To the one trying to help his friend in sin, the bible says, point them to Jesus who is the one who can change them and whose love transforms them from darkness to light. Finally, to the one looking to spend his life wisely, who wants to live the extraordinary life, the bible says, look to Jesus and live for him. Everything we receive, we receive by grace from God, and it comes to us through one person and by one name, Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.