More or Less: Less of Me, More of You. (Acts 13)

This week we continued our study in Acts 13 – picking up with verse 13. 

… I love and cherish the opportunity to share the lessons that God through His Holy Spirit is teaching me, but just now I feel the urge to remind you that you should never allow a blog, book, or Bible teacher to stand between you and God’s Word!  Rather Scripture itself must form the bond between you and each of these learning tools.  Please take advantage of every opportunity you have to open the Bible yourself!

… Where were we?  Yes, Acts 13:13 – just months into Paul‘s 1^st missionary journey.  By the way, Sunday’s lesson took us through the end of Acts 13.  I say this now knowing that I will not be able to address everything covered in Sunday’s lesson.  Reading through the chapter before Sunday (or the next blog post) will help keep us together.

The first thing I hope you notice in reading the remainder of Acts 13 is the change in the way Luke (author of Acts) refers to this missionary team.  The dynamic duo that was repeatedly and consistently referred to as “Barnabas and Saul” (Acts 11:30; 12:25; 13:1-2, 7) is now “Paul and his companions” (Acts 13:13).  After the departure of John Mark (whom we know as the writer of the Gospel of Mark), the duo will be referred to primarily as “Paul and Barnabas” (with a few exceptions).

So why is this significant?  I believe that it goes back to Acts 13:9:  “But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit, …” (Amp).  I mentioned in Sunday’s class that, in preparing for a lesson (at church or in my math classes at school), I try to anticipate questions and misunderstandings class members may have with the material.  At the same time, I love it when a question is posed that causes me to step back and dig deeper myself.  Jason’s comment to my last blog post did just that.

If you didn’t read the comment, Jason basically said that a similar issue has been discussed in his Pathways Sunday school class regarding the Holy Spirit:  Is there a difference between having the Holy Spirit and being filled by Him?  So off I went, concordance in hand searching every Scripture I could find on the role of the Holy Spirit in the early church.  I’ll give you the short version.  (You’re welcome.)  The most frequently used verbs regarding new believers and the Holy Spirit were “received” and “filled.”  Received was translated from the Greek word lambano, meaning to take/get hold of, indicating to me that the person accepted the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Filled came from the word pletho which means to be full.  So what’s the difference between getting hold of the Holy Spirit and being full of Him?  

I actually found clarification in coming across (by providence, not coincidence) one of Jesus’ parables – one that has puzzled me for a while.  Luke 13:20-21 (also in Matthew 13:33):  “…To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?  It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of wheat flour or meal until it was all leavened.”  We, as humans, are made up of three parts – body, soul, and spirit.  What if we think about the three measures of flour as ourselves and the yeast, Christ referenced, as the Holy Spirit?  We receive the Holy Spirit through our belief in and claiming of Christ as our Savior, but the process of permeating our whole being has just begun.

I brought this up with a friend this week – a friend who just happens to be preparing for a speaking engagement by re-reading a book written by Billy Graham in the 1970s – The Holy Spirit.  She had actually marked a passage that she wanted to share with me – not knowing beforehand what I hoped to discuss with her.  Again, I love God’s providence!!

            “We are already the temple of God, indwelt by the Holy
            Spirit, but He wants to fill us.  However, He can fill only 
            those who wish to be emptied of self and yielded to Him.  
            Therefore, this active surrender must continue day by 
            day, concerning little things as well as big ones.”

In another place, he (Graham) says, “It’s not getting more of the Holy Spirit that results in our being ‘filled.’  It’s how much of ourselves we allow the Holy Spirit to have.”

Luke tells us that the apostle Paul was baptized when God sent Ananias to him (Acts 9:18).  Paul tells us in Ephesians that there is one baptism (Eph 4:5) and that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  When Paul accepted Christ as his Savior, he, too, was indwelt by the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead … the same Holy Spirit Who lives inside you and me.  When we meet up with Paul in Acts 13:9, the Spirits’ permeation of his whole being – body, soul, and spirit – is complete.  Thinking back to Billy Graham’s first quote, Paul had emptied himself of Saul.  From here on out, Paul fully submits himself to the Sprits’ control.  We see it in his name change.  We see it in the rise of his authority within the band of missionaries (i.e. Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark).  We see it in the divinely-inspired words God speaks through him and the miracles that God performs by his hand.

Lord, I [state your name] don’t know where I am in the process of being fully and completely permeated by Your Holy Spirit, but I’m so thankful that You do.  I ask, in Jesus’ name, that you keep working the dough that is my body until I am emptied of myself and fully yielded to You.  I thank You that You are faithful to continue the good work You have begun in me through Christ until it is brought to full completion (Phil 1:6).  Amen.

Melt me. Mold me. Fill me. Use me. (Saul becomes Paul)

Hello everyone.  Sorry about the week of silence.  I assure you it wasn’t intentional.  I thought about you each and every day, but I never could quite put words together to summarize and extend last week’s lesson – that is, until yesterday.  I had a song in my head – “Spirit of the Living God.”

            Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

            Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

            Melt me.  Mold me.  Fill me.  Use me.

            Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

We’re moving past our study of Jonah and Nineveh, but the question that Jonah prompted isn’t answered or forgotten with the turn of a page or two:  As ministers of the Gospel (which each and every believer is called to be), what responsibility do we have to those with whom we’ve shared God’s Word – as Jonah shared it with the people of Nineveh?

To help us get a better grasp on God’s answer to that question, last week we began looking at the apostle Paul.  Specifically we looked at his life as Saul – starting with Acts 13:1-2, but quickly jumping to Acts 22 where we read Paul’s first-hand account of what God had done for him.  The process started with melting. 

MELT ME.  MOLD ME.  In Acts 22:4-16, Paul – arrested by the Roman army and consequently in their protective custody – testified to the story of his own conversion (originally told in Acts 9).  Saul literally melted to the ground on his way to Damascus when confronted by Jesus Himself.  Over the next 10-12 years, God continued the process of melting away the old Saul and molding him into His “chosen instrument … to bear [God’s] name before the gentiles and kings and the descendants of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

FILL ME.  Part of the prophecy Ananias spoke over Saul in Acts 9 was recovery of his sight.  He also said that Paul would “be filled with the Holy Spirit” (vs. 17).  We see (vs. 18) that Saul received his sight and wasted no time being baptized, but I find it very interesting that we‘re not told that Saul was immediately filled by the Holy Spirit.  I’m not saying Saul didn’t receive the Holy Spirit upon his baptism in Damascus!  Rather I’m saying that there is a difference between a new believer receiving God’s Spirit and one being “filled unto all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19).  So if Saul wasn’t immediately and completely filled with the Holy Spirit, when did it happen?  I’m not sure when it happened, but we know it did.

I told you that we started last week in Acts 13:1-2.  If you read on, we get a glimpse into the first days and weeks of Saul’s first missionary journey (10-12 years after his conversion).  It is in Acts 13:9 that we read the name Paul for the first time in Scripture.  It slips by almost as an after-thought:  “Saul, who is also called Paul …”  But an afterthought, it definitely is not.  Saul is never again used (except with Paul referring to himself before this moment in time).  Coincidentally, or NOT, it is also the time we read of the definite fulfillment of Ananias’ prophecy – that Saul would be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17).

 

USE ME.  Vessels are filled to be used.  In that moment, Saul – the re-formed (Yes, I know it isn’t hyphenated; it’s play on “mold me.”) Jewish Pharisee – came face-to-face with another Jewish man who was “perverting and making crooked the straight paths of the Lord and plotting against His saving purposes” (Acts 13:10).  I imagine it was like looking at himself in the mirror.  It had taken years for God to melt away Saul’s old self, mold him into God’s chosen instrument, and fill Saul to the point of overflowing with His grace and power.  Now instead of being the one with blinded eyes, God gave Paul eyes to see into the dark soul of Elymas.  God used Paul to blind the eyes of this self-proclaimed wise man.

Scripture suggests that Elymas’ blindness was temporary (Acts 13:11), but we never again hear from Elymas to know the end of his story.  Saul had come full circle and was beginning a new one – his first missionary journey – as Paul.  I wonder who God used to restore Elymas’ physical sight.  I wonder if, in receiving back his physical sight, God restored Elymas’ spiritual sight as well – molding, filling, and using him to further advance His kingdom and glorify His name.

…In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to travel with Paul on his missionary journeys and check on the churches he ministered to through his letters.  I hope you’ll join us!

            Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

            Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

            Melt me.  Mold me.  Fill me.  Use me.

            Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.