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A
Devotional by Tony Bruno
February 6, 2003
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It
was a typical summer weekend in the hood with an untypical event
being put on that drew a crowd. On Saturday night a local church
put on a hip-hop concert in their building with hopes to reach out
to their area. Some of the teens from the church brought some
friends, and promotion for the event caught the attention of
several people in the neighborhood as well.
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As
headz gathered to check it out, they saw a hot concert with a rap
group that blazed the mics as they represented Jesus Christ. The
newcomers were amazed by the group who were authentic hip-hoppers
and were so serious about God while sounding that good.
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Introduction
Continued...
They were rocked by God's message
of love and forgiveness given to them in their language. When the
rap group gave the offer for those who didn't know Christ
personally to" be forgiven of their sins" and
"enter into a personal relationship with God," many of
them responded. They made their way to the front and were led in a
prayer asking Christ to forgive them and to become God's children.
It was an exciting moment as people who were deep into street life
opened up their hearts for the first time and gave their lives to
Jesus Christ. Those from the church who surrounded them cheered
and applauded for the work that God began in their lives.
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Following this moment, however,
something began to happen that changed the direction of how things
seemed to be going. A leader from the church took the mic and
began expressing himself with loud and wild behavior. It wasn't
long at all before several people from the church began expressing
themselves in the same way, and they tried to influence those who
came forward to do the same. The new believers were getting
nervous, not understanding what was going on.
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However, one of the new converts
finally got the courage to ask a leader who was praying over him,
"what's all this?" "We're a Spirit-filled
church" the leader replied. "You may've been used to
getting drunk, but now you're gonna be getting 'drunk in the
Spirit,' like us!" Several of the young people who responded
to the invitation were simply hoping they could talk to someone
about their lives. Unfortunately, the awkwardness they felt from
what took place at the end of the event kept them from pursuing
guidance for their new lives with Christ. |
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This story is not taken from any one particular situation, but it
reflects what often tends to happen in certain settings. I don't doubt
at all that these outreaches are sincere. However, when this type of
situation happens, I honestly don't know whether to be glad or
disappointed. A part of me says, "Thank God that headz from the
neighborhood accepted Christ into their lives." Yet another part of
me is disappointed because the idea of "being filled with the
Spirit" made them not want to return, when it should've made them
eager to come back.
Being filled with God's Spirit
is definitely
something that we see displayed and talked about in the Bible, and it's
clear that believers are told to be filled. But I wonder how often we
have the right idea of what that looks like. There are several passages
that refer to the subject, and I'd like for us to look at a couple of
them and see if we can get a clear, accurate view and a practical
application.
One of the classic passages of scripture used to discuss
being filled with the Spirit is Ephesians
5:18, "Do not be drunk
with wine, for that is dissipation," (indulging in wild or
riot-like behavior) "but be filled with the Spirit." The
assumption seems to be that this text is telling believers to be so
filled with the Holy Spirit and lifted from reality that we would even
appear to be drunk. The only difference from actually being drunk,
though, is that the behavior is credited to the Holy Spirit and not to
booze. In other words, it's okay to be emotionally chaotic, as long as
it's from the Holy Spirit. Some call it being "drunk in the
Spirit," like in the story described in the introduction.
Now, I'm not at all
against being emotionally expressive without disruption in our worship.
But I want us to see that it's not the point of this Biblical passage
(nor any other for that matter) to tell us to be emotionally radical. As
we look closer at this verse, hopefully we'll not only see what it isn't
saying, but we'll also realize the enormous responsibility that comes
with being filled with the Holy Spirit. As I typically make the point,
no Biblical text should be interpreted apart from it's context and
surrounding conversation.
So, before we look directly at our target
verse, let's see what the context looks like. If we start from the
beginning of the chapter, we'll see that the apostle Paul is writing to
his crowd to be "imitators of God," or to pattern themselves
after God's character.
The description is from
verses 2-14 which
includes:
1. Walking in love
2. Moral purity
3. Giving thanks
4. Not
being deceived
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