Acts verse Ephesians 5:18 through 6:9 Filled with the spirit
Ephesians 5:18 · Vern Peterman · Sep 10, 2017
Acts (2017-18), No. 34
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926198174847

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Well, we have all us non-campers this time here gathered together, and just one of the things to bring out. If you thought we were studying through the Book of Acts, you're okay. This is not a surreal experience. We have an old, old tradition at Holly Hills that we started just a few years back. And that tradition is that on campout weekend, what we do is we have something related to the rest of what we're studying, but we have it such that those who are camping won't miss the regular series. So that's what this is. And as you see, the Holly Hills campout was really intense.

Now, one of the things that we would point out here, the book of Acts repeatedly talks about individual believers, or in some cases a larger group, being filled with the Spirit, and what we want to do is to take this opportunity to see the one instance that the Apostle Paul had where he wrote to believers talking about them being filled with the Spirit. Is that the same thing? What does he mean? Etc. So we'll take a look at that.

So this is the only passage, Ephesians 5.18, the only passage in the entire New Testament where there's actually a command to be filled with the Spirit. That makes it really rare and unique. And we'll take a look at at what that means in further detail here. And also one other thing along with that, Acts is a transitional book.

That is, you're beginning the time with the church. The apostles themselves are learning things as they go along. And so what we want to find out is were the things that happened to the apostles and to those who are with them? Were the things that happened typical to be continued on through the church age, or was it something unique and different?

So I want to take a look at that. The translation, Be Filled with the Spirit, you'll find in the King James. I think it's in the New King James as well, which is in most of your pew racks. Numeric and Standard and the Update, the NIV, several different translations. have that be filled with the Spirit. And we're going to want to kind of expand on that and give some insights.

One of the things we also find is it seems Dr. Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, use this term, be filled with the Spirit repeatedly in the Gospel of Luke, first chapter, and numerous times, in times we've seen in the past and in times we're yet to see, in the book of Acts. And so this being filled with the Spirit, as we're looking at here in Ephesians 5, is actually a rather rare thing outside of anything that Dr. Luke wrote. Luke wrote about John the Baptist, Elizabeth, and Zacharias being filled with the Holy Spirit, and all those references are in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. He, that is Dr. Luke, wrote an Acts about various ones, individuals in some cases, groups of people, being filled with the Spirit.

And Apostle Paul wrote here this unique command, it's the only place in the New Testament, to be filled by means of the Spirit, as we'll see in the meaning shortly here. Then he wrote about five specific outcomes, five specific things that happen as a result of being filled with the Spirit. And so we'll be looking at that, and as we mentioned here, it's being filled by means of the Spirit. We'll talk about that a bit shortly here. So here's the way it comes across at the beginning part of this passage, and then kind of the high outline points here.

And it goes like this, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled by means of the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks, for all the things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father." And this is the part where it's often different from most of your translations. I'm glad I get to be a pastor rather than a translator. The translators are told, well, we've got to format it like this and don't use a lot of words, right? Whereas I get the chance to explain things.

One of the things that most of our translations will do is they'll make and be subject to one another as if it were a command. And then they'll continue on in the next verse and wives be subject to your husbands as if that were a command. When Paul wrote this, he didn't have chapters, he didn't have verses, right? He was simply writing it, and when he wrote it, he wrote it as more as reflected here in verse 21, and being subject, notice that there's a series of verbs, okay, actions, and you notice the "-ing ending on all those. We've got them blue on the screen here anyway. bolded and italicized.

So you have the speaking and singing and making melody and giving thanks and being subject. So you have those five things that are outcomes from being filled with the Spirit. And then it says, and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. And then what you find is three different examples in the body of Christ where being subject to one another is a result of being filled with the Spirit. This is a big insight. So what this is talking about here is in being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

So the first example is wives to your own husbands. Children obey your parents and then slaves be obedient to those who are your masters So those three are examples of being subject to one another it is not for example a command for Christian Children To be subject to their parents and their parents to be subject to them and Right? Does that make sense? No, not quite so much. So what this is, is this being subject to one another is something that results from being filled with, or as we have here, by means of the Spirit, and the wives being subject to the husbands is not a command in this passage, it is an outcome from being filled with The spirit, the children obeying their parents, and slaves being obedient to those who are their masters, those are outcomes from being filled with the spirit.

So these are the three examples. And by the way, in the household of the time, you would have husbands and wives, you would have children, and slaves who worked in the household were considered part of the household. So those would all be, these are household family relationships. So we'll talk about those more in detail.

But the key thing to get here is being filled by means of the Spirit has the result of speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody, there's now three of them, with your heart to the Lord, and notice that's making melody with your heart, right? So if you don't happen to sing really great, that's okay. You just have to make melody in your heart, that's fine. And if you're not quite so great with a musical instrument, I'm glad that we have those here who are, but that's okay, because it's making melody in your heart, and singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

And then always giving thanks. That is an outcome from being filled by means of the Spirit. And then that being subject to one another is what the rest of the passage that we're talking about addresses. So, what's very often overlooked is that Ephesians 5.18 says to be filled by means of the Spirit. Our translations typically, as we saw with several of the modern translations, be filled with the Spirit.

The idea that we can get from that is that we kind of need to have our fluids topped off. Yeah, I think I'll go by Jiffy Lube and be filled with the Spirit, right? But it's not really communicating, you need to have your fluids topped off, right? You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit as if the Holy Spirit were a fluid. Instead, what we have is indicators, both in the text and the context, that we are to be filled by means of the Spirit, and the question is filled with what or who, right?

So we have this earlier in Ephesians that gives us an indication. This is Ephesians 1, 18 through 23. And I give you that whole context so that you'll have that to be able to read and see where it starts. For our purposes, we'll go to verse 22 and look at verses 22 and 23. And here's where we have to kind of parse out the pronouns, all the he's and him's, right?

So, and He, that is the Father, put all things in subjection under His, Christ's feet, and gave Him, Christ, as the head over all things, to the church. So let's ask this question. God the Father gave who to the church? Christ. Christ is a gift, because notice there's no invoice on this, right? Christ is a gift to the church, to us. Isn't that something? Christ is head over all things, which is His, Christ's body, the fullness of Him, Christ, who fills all in all. Christ is the content of the filling.

We get another place there where that shows up. It turns out that Ephesians and Colossians were either written at the same time or very nearly the same time. They share about 75 verses that are either identical or very similar. And so here we quote Colossians 3.16.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. So notice some things here. One, is this the word of Christ? That is the message of the Christ, because that actually has the definite article. The message of the Christ is what's in there. Next, richly dwell within, filling and living in the believer.

And next, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, just like, same words as in Ephesians 519. We won't have time to go into this in detail, but the psalms are songs implied in the language, songs about God. The hymns, I know we have our kind of idea what a hymn is, right? But the hymns were songs to God. And then the spiritual songs were songs that just had spiritual content, and it might be things like we sing, where it talks about certain things in our Christian life, and expressing different truths, and that kind of thing, that might not be directly talking about God, or directly talking to God. So that's the third category.

But those exact same words match up there with Ephesians 5.19.

And then also, just like we see here in Ephesians 5.20, being thankful, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And notice that the thankfulness is directed to God. So we have these indicators that talk about what is the filling. The filling is with Christ.

And by the way, if you're wondering, well, is Vern trying to pull some tricks here? This is something that I actually sat down with Hal about and talked with him through this, to look at, do you see this too? And have talked with others as well to check, yeah, that's what the Greek is saying.

So, one of the things to focus on here is the spiritual outcomes. Now, notice that unlike what some of our translations would imply, What it says here is there are these five outcomes, things that go on as a result of being filled, to expand it, with Christ by means of the Spirit. And these five outcomes are speaking. Now, just because you talk, that doesn't mean it's a result of being filled with the Spirit. But what it's talking about, this is spiritual conversation and message.

The next one is singing. So even what we're doing here is a part of that kind of thing. It is the work of the Holy Spirit through the life of Christ in us as we sing and making melody. And notice that we're making melody here, and it can easily just be kind of earthly focused. Oh, I like that music, and I don't like this one and all that. But the making melody and the singing are pointed to whom? They're pointed to the Lord.

And so one of the things to look at is that our singing is not just, oh, I like that style, I like this song, I don't like this, but really a matter of we're talking to one another and we're talking to the Lord and communicating with the Lord with our time of worship, our singing and making melody.

The next is giving thanks. And why do we give thanks, by the way? Why do we give thanks? It's because everything God does is by grace, and that's the only thing we can do back. Right? Thank you. Because God doesn't send us an invoice. He doesn't say, okay, that's really great, I'm glad you like this and that. God doesn't send us an invoice. We can't pay Him back. He doesn't want us to try to pay Him back. There's no expectation of that. So the only response that we can have is thankfulness. This comes as a result of a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer.

And next is being subject to one another. Notice I put that, being subject, not as a command, because the command is there to be filled with Christ by means of the Spirit. That's the command. being subject to one another in this passage is not the command, it's the outcome from the command to be filled with Christ by means of the Spirit. So those all have to do with our fellowship with the Lord, our fellowship with one another, and our role-specific submission. And that's why we give the example, wives to husbands, children to their parents, and then slaves to masters. So, let's take a look through this. So, 521, being subject to one another is an outcome from being filled with Christ by means of the Spirit.

Being subject to one another is not a separate or independent command. It's not, at least in this passage. That's not what this passage is intended to convey. I had one husband say, well, I thought it was my job to make sure she knuckles under. I said, no, it doesn't say that. Right? No, it doesn't say that. It says that her being subject to one another doesn't come because you pressure her.

Her being subject to you comes from her being filled with the Spirit, filled with Christ by means of the Spirit. That's how the her being subject comes across. That's how it happens. This is very, very important. And one of the reasons we make this distinction is that her being subject is an outcome from her being filled with Christ by means of the Spirit.

It is not biblically an outcome from her being pressured to submit. It is not a result of either the husband's pressure or societal pressure or anybody else's pressure to submit, but rather her relationship with the Lord. Next, wives to your own husbands, and so we take out the command there because it's actually not in the Greek. Wives to your own husbands. in being filled with Christ by means of the Spirit, are then subject to their husbands.

So today, Nancy and I have been married for 16,000 days. I keep track of that. Of course, Stan reminds me that's how people keep track of their time in prison too. I never thought of it that way, anyway. One of the things as I look at this is that it is not a matter of my pressing to get some certain behavior, but rather for me to look at where Nancy is spiritually. Ah, what do I need to do to encourage and support her walk with the Lord, rather than, you know, hey, you need to knuckle under and I'm going to apply some pressure here. Really big insight. Okay, next.

Children obey their parents. And notice this children obey your parents, it doesn't say children obey your parents, or else you're going to get it. What is the perspective here? Children obey your parents and it comes from a spiritual perspective. So that tells me a couple of things. One, that it is the parent's place to communicate and bring across the spiritual principles and spiritual perspective in order that the children can properly obey their parents. not just simply because it's a threat.

So this is a very important insight here. We won't have time to go into all that. We have the marriage seminar coming up this next Saturday, and we have about a month out a parenting seminar. And these are some of the things we'll go into those in more detail. But just the initial insights are really huge. because that gives us an understanding of where the husband-wife relationship needs to go and where the relationship with children needs to go.

Thirdly, slaves be obedient to those who are your masters. One of the things that people look at, I say, oh, wait a minute, we don't have slaves here, or at least I sure hope not. And then masters. And so people will sometimes just sort of discount this. As we'll see in a little bit, we really have all kinds of different authorities that we step in and out of in the course of our modern life, and sometimes multiple times a day. We'll talk about that in a minute here.

But the point we have here is all relationships with those in authority spring from a spiritual outcome and perspective. See that? All relationships spring from a spiritual outcome and perspective as opposed to simply, you know, do this or you get penalized or, you know, don't do that or you get this ticket or something of that sort. But that there is a spiritual reason for following through and carrying through being subject to the authorities that are out there.

Okay, so the first one of these three being subject to has to do with the relationship between wives and husbands. There's not just a spiritual insight and instruction for the wives here, although there certainly is, but there's spiritual insight and instruction for the husband. As a matter of fact, we'll look at it shortly, the instructions to the husband in this passage are much more substantial than to the wives. And there's a reason for that, as we'll see shortly here. In the Greek text of the Apostle Paul wrote, the example and the instruction of the commands are particularly and most significantly directed to the husband, and the wife is responsive to the husband's love and expressions, right?

The wife's place is responsive. She is subject to the beginning of the passage. She is to respect her husband, the end of the passage. Almost all of the rest of the passage is directed to the husband. So here we have, and this should be on page three of your handout if I count it correctly, this will be some of the core content for this marriage seminar coming up.

So the four kinds of love, let's just step through them and talk about them briefly. One, husbands love your wives, that's a command. And by the way, husbands love your wives unconditionally, selflessly. It's not husbands you really need to respond to how beautiful your wife is. Husbands, you really need to love her because she's awfully nice. It's husbands love your wives unconditionally.

And what's the example? And what we have here is an example in all the kinds of love. The relationship between Christ and the church is the example for husbands and wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. Here's a pattern that we see in the New Testament, and it's consistent. Same words, same sequence. For God so loved the world that He gave. Right?

In Galatians 2.20, He loved and He gave.

Earlier in this same chapter, Ephesians 5.2, He loved and He gave. And now here the fourth time, the same words and the same sequence. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So the first kind of love that's spelled out in the passage is sacrificial love on the part of the husband. Now there's something that's a little tricky here, guys. How many times do you get to die for your wife? Once, right? And so here is the really challenging trick to this verse. Here's the challenging trick.

How do you live life continuously such that you are conveying an I-will-die-for-you kind of love? See that? How do I live life continuously such as to convey an I-will-die-for-you kind of love? One of the questions that Nancy and I will ask, and we'll do this with pre-engagement counseling, Pre-marriage counseling, we'll do a marriage counseling, is we'll ask the question, to her, what does this kind of love look like in life? In life.

The next one we call sanctifying love, I could also state it as spiritual care. Spiritual care. So, verses 26 and 27, "...so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." This is a spiritual care kind of love. One of the things that we tell the guys as we're going through this is, first, find out her spiritual frontier. Where is her growing edge, spiritually speaking? Next, be her frontiersman. See that? Be her frontiersman. This is spiritual care, and for those with children in the mix, It's care also for those that the Lord has given you. Next, caring love.

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body. This is caring love. This is a care for physical and emotional needs. And one of the ways that we'll often express this biblical principle is widening the care that a man would naturally have for himself in physical and emotional need areas to include her and then to include their children as well. The fourth kind is bonded love. This is the physical intimacy kind of love.

Starts by quoting from Genesis 2 24 for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and should be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church now. It says this mystery is great It doesn't mean it's really really mysterious Okay, it doesn't mean it's really really mysterious what it does mean is because a mystery is something not previously revealed, but now revealed, is saying this is a great revelation, not something that's still hidden.

So you have then the four kinds of love, the motivation for sacrificial love, since it's based on Christ loving the church and giving himself up for her, We've seen four different verses, this being the fourth one, that talk about He loved and He gave. There is also, in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Love brings and motivates Christ to come to the cross. Joy beyond it motivates Him after that. For the husband, the motivation is love and joy. just like with Christ.

So motivation is the key to the first kind of love. Next, sanctifying love, this is spiritual intimacy. This is spiritual intimacy. Caring love is emotional intimacy. Now here's the key thing. The first three kinds of love can be expressed by a couple moving towards possibly a romantic relationship biblically. And these become the test, the testing ground to know whether the relationship ought to proceed towards marriage. This is not just marriage advice, this is also how should a romantic relationship develop. The first three kinds of love are key.

Interestingly enough, Nancy and I didn't discover this in one instance. Nancy and I, to start with, we didn't like each other. I first met Nancy and it wasn't very long, she didn't like me and I didn't like her and we were both happy. But what happened is long about some, I think it was more than six months later, there was an instance that now, I just stopped and prayed with her about something, and now she looks back and she says it was sacrificial love, sanctifying love, and caring love. And we didn't discover that until we were married for over 30 years.

So, amazing. And then finally, bonded love is physical intimacy. But this is the key not just for marriage, although it most certainly is, and it's directed there, but it's also for how should a romantic relationship develop. So there's biblical guidance for that. Anyway, we don't have enough time to cover everything that's in there, so let's move on.

Children and parents. Children are told to obey, that is, to listen and place themselves under. And by the way, I have to underscore, this is a figure of speech. Probably if you told your kids to do something and they went and stood underneath you, that probably wouldn't be quite what you had in mind. So you have to understand this is a figure of speech. The perspective is spiritually based. The children are to listen and place themselves under, and what does it say?

Both parents. It's not just, well, I listen to dad because he'll let me have it, but I don't listen to mom. Both parents. Next, when it comes to bring the children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, Scripture places the primary responsibility for discipline and instruction on the father. This is key because the roles are not just equal. There are complementary roles and the primary responsibility for instruction is with the father.

The next one is slaves and masters, and this is the one we can tend to set aside since we don't seem to have those in our culture except by figures of speech. You treat me like a slave or that sort of expression, or we'll say facetiously, yes master. So a lot of times we kind of set that aside. The reality is We have a number of authority structures outside of husband and wife and children and parents. We have a number of authority structures that we step into and out of all day long, every day.

And let me give some examples. Not only do we have employee and employer relationships that we move into and out of the authority as we step from state to state, As we step into a store, when you step into a store, that store has certain policies about the way they do things, and we step into exactly that, right? Even, ever seen, like you start to install some software, what do they have you do? I agree, right?

You check this because we're stepping into and out of authority structures. Nancy and I traveled here this morning from Aurora, out of the authority structure in Aurora, and then into Denver, and apparently this isn't all officially Denver yet either. This is Arapahoe County and not officially under Denver for everything. So anyway, we step into, just as we're driving along and going different places, we step into different authority structures.

One of the examples Nancy and I talked about, let me just give you a little insight here. My daughter Becky, since she was fairly young, learned that she could torture me by popping in the videocassette, Father of the Bride. She learned that. You pop in the videocassette, Father of the Bride, and Dad would writhe and just go through all sorts of agony. She just loved it. So anyway, she would do that sometimes. Dad, have a seat. Pop this thing in and she just... She didn't watch the movie. She watched my face. She watched my body language as I squirmed.

But anyway, one of the scenes in there is where the father, played by Steve Martin, goes into the store and he's not happy with the number of buns that are in the package versus the number of hot dogs that are in the package. And so he tried to take the packages apart and make them match and of course then he got in trouble for that and it was all very funny. Except for Becky where she just loved to watch, didn't matter what was going on, she watched me, not the movie.

Anyway, So, but you get the idea, we step into and out of authority structures all the time. And what the Bible says is, that as we step into those authority structures, that rebellion, or playing a Steve Martin, is not what God has in mind. Right? Not what God has in mind. So don't reprimand the policemen. Right? Okay.

So one of the things you also notice is you kind of scan down the page here, and we've tried to at least bold them, if not underline them, repeatedly to the Lord and in the Lord. You'll see on that passage. The passage has several instances where doing things here is on the basis of relationship and fellowship with the Lord. Now let me make a distinction between relationship and fellowship. Relationship is something that is established. You are a child of God if you have put your trust in Christ for salvation. Period. That is always going to be. You are always a child of God. That relationship is established. It's not going to change.

Fellowship, however, can be different from one moment to the next. We can. Verne included, walk in fellowship with the Lord, or we can walk out of fellowship with the Lord at any instance. So that's the difference between fellowship and relationship. They're not just interchangeable.

Now, all relationships for us here on earth have their definition and motivation begun in and founded in the personal relationship to and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. See that? That's why it keeps saying, as to the Lord, to the Lord, in the Lord, all those things. That's why all the way through it keeps saying it. Everything that happens here on planet earth starts in its definition in relationship and fellowship with the Lord. So that's why he keeps repeating it.

As a husband, my relationship with Nancy starts with my relationship with the Lord. That gives it definition. That gives it definition. Every relationship here on earth takes its starting point and definition from the relationship to, permanently established, and fellowship moment by moment with the Lord.

So, one of the questions we have here is just do it? So our English translations will oftentimes just say submit or be subject to or later on down the passage obey, right? And one of the key things to bring out as we look at that is obey just sounds really simple and it sounds like just do it, right? What is translated as to submit or be subject to means to under-attach.

Now, again, this is a figure of speech, but what is the idea there is to recognize the authority of another and to place oneself, figure of speech, under the authority of the other. That's what it's trying to convey. What's translated as obey, and so here's what you see, you know, children obey your parents, That's actually two steps, and that's the limitation of using the word obey. It's two steps.

It's first to listen to, and next to place oneself under. Have you heard some kid say, or hear of some kid saying, you know, I'm obeying on the outside, but I'm not obeying on the inside? That's what this is talking about, is to listen, Of course, that's the other part, is did they listen, right? But it's to listen and then place oneself under. So this is a key insight for both parents, you know, did they listen, right? And then for them to place themselves under, but also for children to understand, okay, did I really listen to what mom and or dad had to say and then place myself in subjection to that, voluntarily understanding what was said.

Not in resistance, not in obeying on the outside, but not on the inside. So both words convey two parts or two steps, and there is an act of will to attach under, and again this figure of speech, and to listen under in each case. And it's important for us to take a look at that and not just kind of glance over it. It isn't just do it, it is in fact listening and understanding first and voluntarily placing oneself subject to, under, again as a figure of speech, under what is being communicated and what's being said.

This Filled with the Spirit in Acts versus Ephesians as we continue through this book of Acts, which is a just great book. By the way, I tell you, I'm learning all kinds of things. But a great book. Dr. Luke is going to tell us about groups of believers and individual believers. It actually goes on into about chapter 13, as I recall, who are filled with the Spirit. But those are usually there for a specific task or circumstance. It is a special filling of the Spirit for, for example, Stephen to be able to speak with the Sanhedrin. A special filling of the Spirit for that circumstance.

But the command to be filled with Christ by means of the Spirit is unique to Ephesians 5.18.

It's also stated uniquely, looking at the detail in the Greek, it's not stated the same way at all in Ephesians 5.18 as what Dr. Luke wrote in the Gospel of Luke in Acts. So there's a contrast between the two.

What we see in Acts is not necessarily, here's the example of what being filled with the Spirit always looks like. Being filled with the Spirit doesn't always mean you're going to speak in tongues. Being filled with the Spirit doesn't always mean you're going to go and do miracles. But what we see here in Ephesians 5 is being filled with the Spirit does look like speaking and giving thanks and making melody and being subject to one another.

One of the other key points here, and this is very important because a lot of times we can can fail to look at, you know, what is the Bible saying. The New Testament has different ways of describing or illustrating the exact same thing, but with different words or different word pictures. This is very important.

Abiding in Christ. Here, Jesus tells the disciples on the night before he's betrayed, probably on the way to being betrayed, he tells them I am the vine, the Father is the vinedresser. Abide in me and I in you. That abiding means intimacy, that abiding means trust, that abiding means dependence. Abide in Christ is another way of saying the same kind of thing. Reckoning ourselves dead to sin, Or as we would expand on it from Romans 6, 11, reckoning ourselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God. To fellowship with Christ. This would come numerous places, but one of them right out of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We are called in to fellowship with his son. To fellowship. That is a close relationship. And fellowship means also a sharing.

Next is beholding Christ, 2 Corinthians 3.18 would be one of the places where you'd see that. Beholding Christ, in this case it's beholding Christ through his word. That is also the same kind of teaching, same thing. as these other things, and walking in the Spirit. This would be Galatians 5, 16 and 17 and 18. I've been over to Uganda several different times, and each time I go over there, as I teach in the church service, I teach on Galatians 5, 16, 17 and 18. And it's walk in the Spirit, and you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh. And so I talk just through that, but that's a very similar kind of teaching to the rest of what we have here.

And then as we see here in Ephesians 5.18, filled with Christ by means of the Spirit is also a similar kind of teaching. There are different ways of expressing something that is the same. And another from Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. These are different ways of expressing the same thing. And all of those have to do with our focus, putting our focus and attention on the Lord Himself, looking to Him, depending upon Him, and by the way, also intimacy with Christ, and dependence upon Him. So, as we look through this, this passage has a lot in it.

We've kind of hit the high points here, but the key point as we look through the book of Acts, and we'll see again, because we have several more times of seeing it, it'll talk about people being filled with the Spirit, but it's a specific filling for a circumstance and for a particular task, and that has to do with the character of the book of Acts as transitional, the ongoing pattern of being filled with Spirit, being filled with Christ by means of the Spirit, is something that doesn't necessarily result in tongues and doing miracles and things of that sort, but it's the five things that we talked about that follow Ephesians 5.18, including finally being subject to one another.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for what you've laid out here and made clear. Thank you. As we look at this, it seems to come back again and again to our relationship to and fellowship with you. And so we ask that you would teach us that. Teach us you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.