STEPS TO THE SPIRITUAL

Ephesians 5:9-18 (KJV)

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

·   The most important thing to God is Christ

·   The most important thing to Christ is His church

·   The most important thing in a church is unity

The topic for this message is that unity is the result of members who are filled with the Spirit.

It doesn’t seem like I would have to do a lot of convincing of that.

Is there any question that, if everyone in the church was filled with the Spirit, there would be unity in that church?

No – the question comes first concerning how to be filled with the Spirit and second, when someone claims to be acting out of the leadership of the Spirit but what they do creates disunity.

I don’t want to claim that this message will answer those questions fully, but I do see in this passage certain steps that lead to the Holy Spirit’s filling.

It’s going to all revolve around Ephesians 5:18

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Notice,

Ephesians 5:19-6:9 describes the Spirit filled church.

The Lord willing, we’ll be covering this passages in future messages.

For this message however,

Ephesians 5:10-17 gives us the steps to the Spirit’s filling.

I want to divide the passage into three stages that take us from “the fruit of the Spirit” to being “filled with the Spirit.”

Step one

I. SEPARATION

Ephesians 5:11-13 (KJV)

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

No fellowship doesn’t mean no contact.

We are in this world to affect the world and we can’t do that if we isolate ourselves out of this world.

No fellowship means no partnership.

2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJV)

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Maybe a good illustration would be that of the Anabaptists during the middle ages.

The Anabaptists refused to worship in the state mandated churches of their region

Most of the time it was the Catholic Church

Later it became the Lutheran Church or the Presbyterian[1] Church or the Church of England

And they rejected the baptism of these churches.

They would not partner with them, they worshipped often in secret places in hopes of avoiding persecution, but they did not isolate – they went everywhere preaching the Gospel and attempting to win converts to their faith.

Spirit filled Christians influence the world but they don’t get entangled with the world.

They have the effect of salt and light, reproving darkness and exposing sin.

Step number two,

II. RESURRECTION

Ephesians 5:14 (KJV)

Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

The Bible likens death and sleep and resurrection and waking a number of times.

Luke 8:50-55 (KJV)

But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.

And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.

And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.

And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.

And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.

And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (KJV)

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Christians understood this relationship so well that they began to call the places where they buried the bodies of their loved ones, “cemeteries,” which means, “sleeping places.”

I often times lay down at night and, just before falling to sleep, reflect a moment that, according to God’s Word, death is little different than what I am about to do.

·   Sleep is a sweet thing.

·   Sleep is an essential thing

·   Sleep is even a rejuvenating thing

But we can’t sleep all of the time.

Sleep has some definite drawbacks:

·   We can be exposed to danger while we are sleeping

·   We are unaware of what is happening around us when we are sleeping and

·   We are not producing anything of value when we are sleeping

God said, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead…”

We have a whole world full of sleeping Christians:

·   Who don’t seem to be aware of what is going on around them

·   Who aren’t doing much in the way of Christian service and

·   Who are in danger of losing their Christian influence in the world because of it

The answer is to wake up!

·   Raise up from your slumber

·   Rise from your lifeless Christianity and

Get alive to the things of God!

Step three is,

III. CIRCUMSPECTION

Ephesians 5:15-17 (KJV)

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Strong’s Concordance says this word means “exactly.”

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says that it literally means to look on all sides and defines it as “cautiously.”

At camp this weekend we played dodge ball.

One of the traps that happens in the game is when you get so focused on who you are trying to get that you don’t see who is trying to get you.

I understand that is the purpose of a fighter pilot’s wingman. The pilot’s job is to focus and take out his enemy. But that focus can make him unaware of the other enemy planes.

The wingman is specifically tasked NOT to try to shoot down enemy planes. His only job is to make sure the lead pilot knows what’s around him and to protect him from them.

A Spirit filled Christian stays aware of what is going on around him.

The Bible describes people like this in,

1 Chronicles 12:32 (KJV)

And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; …

Notice what Ephesians says about those who walk circumspectly:

·   They are wise

·   They are workers and

·   They are in the will of the Lord

Conclusion

Unity.

·   The most important thing to God is Christ

·   The most important thing to Christ is His church

·   The most important thing in a church is unity

– but not at the expense of purpose.

When the members of the church are:

·   Separated from sin

·   Awake from sleep and

·   Aware of the world around them

Then we can fairly know that there is the filling of the Spirit there and that the unity that exists will move the church forward toward the will of the Lord.

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[1] It wasn’t originally called Presbyterian – and it underwent some changes before it took that name, but it was the foundation of what became the Presbyterian church.