MAY 28 2017 | The Giant Series S1E3 | John 4 (Part 2)

Sea Change Church · The Giant Series S1E3 · "John 4 (Part 2)" · Elliott Stearns · May 28, 2017
John 4
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Sychar was a place and it was the home of Jacob's well. And you ask yourself, well, why wasn't this woman given a name? The reason this woman wasn't given a name is that she has all the names. She represents everybody in Sychar. And she's coming to the well to lower the container or the bucket down 80 feet and bring up a little water to satisfy. And that's exactly what they were doing in Sychar all the time.

Something to try to assuage the desolate feeling of loneliness within. Maybe it can be alcohol. Maybe it can be drugs. Maybe it can be hooking up. But one bucket after another and a little bit of refreshment. And Jesus said, he who drinks this water shall what? Thirst what? Again. You're always going to thirst again and again and again. But he who drinks the water that I shall give him, it shall be within him what? A well, a living, water springing up into eternal life. You know, that's what the Holy Spirit's for. The Holy Spirit is called spirit of fellowship, the comforter, the one who comes along beside you and you're never lonely again.

So they come, you dip down the bucket for alcohol, drugs, or what Tozer called the great God entertainment. Anything to numb the feeling of emptiness and purposelessness. No wonder this woman had five husbands. Trying again and again to get some sort of fellowship, some sort of sense of companionship. And this is one of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit, which is so important to appreciate as we come up to Pentecost.

It's not for power and ministry and mighty works and all. Those are getting included. But the main thing is that you have fellowship, communion, unity with Jesus Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the loneliness killer. That springing up of the living water of life freely given to us is what brings us into communion with God.

Quiz. One or two years ago, Pastor Adam stood up here on this podium and he announced that of the 31,102 verses in all of Scripture, he had a favorite verse. Anyone remember which his favorite verse was in the whole Bible? I hope he does. Okay. What? Raise your hand. This is embarrassing. Okay. That favorite verse. Don't be shy. Okay. Okay. Wait, wait.

John said, well, the exact phrase was, this is my favorite verse in all the Bible. Okay. It was John 14, 18. He says, I will no longer leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Greek word is orphanos. We get the word orphan and that's how it's often translated. We could just as well, maybe freely translated. I will no longer leave you lonely. I'm not going to leave you alone.

Lo, I am with you always. Every day to the end of the age, I'm always with you. Isn't that nice to know? And that's by the Holy Spirit. I will no longer leave you comfortless is the way that the King James presents it. Let's see if you have your Bibles there. First John 1, 1 through 4. If we could read that, it might be up on the board here. In fact, I wrote the back.

I'm sorry. I'm used to being in classrooms. First John 1, 1 through 4. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which our hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. Now, here's the important part. That which we have seen and heard and experienced, we declare unto you. Why? In order that you may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, these things write we unto you, just for your information, that your joy might be full.

When that spring of living water is gushing forth within, it brings us into communion with the Father and the Son, and we join our fountains together in fellowship with the brethren, rejoicing together in all the grace and the goodness that God has given to us. Amen. Amen. The walls of this church have probably heard the benediction of Paul in the last verse of 2 Corinthians 2 or 3,000 times in the 90-year history.

And it reads like this. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Now, I was studying that, and I thought, you know, I went back and looked. I said, you know, you can translate that last line, and the fellowship by the Holy Spirit be with you all. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the source of your fellowship with all the brethren.

And he says, the grace of the Lord, the love of God, and that fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. That's the blessing, and that's what we've been saying for year after year after year. And look at you. Okay. One more thing, just a footnote here. What did the woman say when she went back to the townsman to talk about Jesus? Come see a man who told me what?

Everything I've ever done. I thought, that's interesting. That's a dozen or two words Jesus spoke to her, and that was everything she ever done? Yeah. Everything she ever done was based on trying to escape the desolate feeling of her loneliness and seeking some sort of companionship to assuage that desolate feeling. And everything, and they came to Jesus and said, we don't believe it anymore just because you said it.

We've experienced it ourselves. He identified everything we've ever done. In this town called Sychar, which was given the name Drunken, in order to describe the kind of culture that they were living in. Moving on. I've got to make, this is a Baptist church technically, so I've got to be very careful with what I say here. Okay. But. How do I put this?

Drunkenness is not a good thing. Okay. Right. But Scripture is very clear that wine and drunkenness, or maybe I should say mild inebriation, is not such a bad thing if understood in a spiritual sense. Can you bear with me on that? Can you at least put it on the shelf and weigh it a little bit for a little while? Okay. What did they say on the day of Pentecost?

Oh, the Spirit came down. They're starting to shout and proclaim the praises of God in a multitude of languages, and they said, ah, no, they're just what? No. No. Filled with new wine. Okay. Filled with new wine. That's the, you know, the strong stuff. Right? And so, and so Peter had to get up and say, no, no, they're not drunken as you suppose, for this is that which the prophet Joel talked about, and he goes on in a wonderful sermon there.

And, but, but you see, it was mistaken. Their, their, their exuberance in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit upon them was mistaken for, for drunkenness. But it wasn't. And so, that's why I want to say the, the, it's inebriation can be a good symbol of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not because there's anything virtuous in drunkenness, but because it, the, the freedom that is exhibited in the Holy Spirit can resemble the lack of inhibitions that you see a drunken person exhibit.

I want to give you a definition of inhibition. An inhibition is an inner impediment or a blockage or a hindrance unto free activity or expression or conduct. In other words, when you see someone who's roaring drunk, they've put off all inhibitions and their most carnal propensities come out. When you see someone who's filled with the Holy Spirit, then you see someone who's put away all the inhibitions coming from guilt and shame and trauma and all the remembrance of the past.

Okay. And so when you see, and so scripture is, is, is plain on this. Psalm 104 says that, and wine that makes the heart glad. And the Holy Spirit does the same. Let's look also at Zechariah 9, 15. Verse 9, 15 of Zechariah says, The Lord of hosts shall defend them. And I want you to, I had here in your notes, start with verse 9, go verses 9 through 17.

I want you to do that later because the context is very clear. We're talking about the redeemed of the Lord. The Lord of hosts shall defend them and they shall devour and subdue with sling stones. And they shall drink and make a noise as through wine. Other scriptures say they shall roar as through wine. We're talking about roaring drunk. We're talking about spiritually filled with the spirit to the point where all impediments, all, what I say, inhibitions are put away.

And they shall make a noise as through wine and they shall be filled like bulls and as the corners of the altar. Also go to chapter 10, the next chapter in Zechariah, verses 6 and 7. But let's just read verse 7. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man and their heart shall rejoice as through wine. Yea, their children shall see it and be glad their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.

Paul said, be not drunk with wine. Be not drunk with wine, but be what? Filled with the spirit and the Greek says continuously filled with the spirit. What did Jesus say? Of well of living water springing up into eternal life. The Shulamite delights with her beloved in the song of Solomon. And she says that he, that he, that he, well, let me ask a question.

How many have heard the little children's chorus? He brought me to his banqueting table, his banner over me. How many, how many have heard that? Raise real high because I want to see if I'm, if I'm going to talk to the wind here. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. He brought me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love.

Have you ever seen the signs for that? All right. This is the way it goes. He brought me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love. It goes on three lines and a half a line and that's it. Okay. Same thing. All right. It's a, it's a wonderful little, thank you. Okay. Wonderful little ditty. But actually in the Hebrew, what, what, uh, his banqueting table is, is the Hebrew, but ye, but ye, but ye, but ye, and it means house of wine.

The, the, the Shulamite in the song of Solomon delighted that her beloved brought her to the house of wine. And to have a good time, to, to be in sweet communion over that, over, over a bottle of the best. I was thinking, you know, we better not let the school, the, uh, Kim or the school teachers teach it literally. Okay. He brought, he conducted me to the house of wine, his banner over me is love.

Okay. We feasted and drank of the fruit of the vine. So far. But anyway. Okay. You might have some problems in emails going back and forth when the children came home after that. Okay. But, but certainly they were enjoying. The, the rabbis had no problem with a little mild inebriation. They even said in Purim that if you can't, you should have enough wine so you can't tell a difference between Haman and Mordecai.

Right. But, I mean. I wasn't, well, nothing personal. But. You pick. King David was filled with the Holy Spirit. He danced before the ark, remember? And if you go to Psalm 30, I love the last two verses of Psalm 30. He's in the seven, the first verses he's describing the problems that he's having. And at the end he says, but thou has turned for me my mourning into dancing.

You've put off my sackcloth. You've girded me with gladness to the end. My glory may sing praise unto thee and not be, what? Silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. A man who says you've turned my mourning into dancing. That's like that woman at the well. You drink this water, you're going to keep going down in the well. Lower in the bucket.

No, take my water. It'll turn your mourning into dancing. You've put off my sackcloth. He gives beauty for what? The oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for what? The spirit of heaviness. That's his job. That's the Holy Spirit's job. C.S. Lewis said, The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.

You want to know why C.S. Lewis wrote such great stuff? You know, because he read the Psalms, he knew them, and he can in his heart dance before the Lord. And then he could put pen to paper and write such good stuff. He wasn't, you know, we think of him as a scholar, and he was, but he was a scholar that could dance in his heart. The early Christians sang and made melody in their hearts to the Lord.

They sang amongst themselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They exalted with joy unspeakable and full of glory to the Holy Spirit's indwelling their hearts and minds. And the nice thing about this also is that this praise and this outwelling of praise is also wonderful spiritual weaponry. We see the Psalm 149, The high praises of God in their hands, the throats, and the two-edged sword in their hands, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron.

Those speak of the principalities and powers of this age. And I'll go back to Zechariah 9.15. Interesting. The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue with sling stones. What was it that killed Goliath? A sling stone. You get filled with the Holy Spirit. You become a stone in David's sling against Goliath. Goliath represents all the powers of the world, all the powers of the enemy that come against you.

First, just make a noise as through wine. Rejoice. The high praises of God in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. That's what spiritual warfare is. Is faith and trust in the authority and power of the Lord through all circumstances to meet any Goliath that ever comes. I gave a sermon a while ago, a year or two ago, about Goliath, remember?

And I was using the scripture that the Lord always provides a way of escape. And I said, the way of escape through Goliath is what? Through Goliath. If you go off to the left or right on Monday, I sure escaped Goliath. Guess what? He comes back on Tuesday. But if you go through Goliath, bring him down to the high praises of God in your mouth. You're free of Goliath.

Romans 5, 1 through 5. Again, love. If you've been in any of my classes, you've probably heard this so many times. But let's go through Romans 5, 1 through 5 again. Being justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom we have access by faith into the grace that allows us to stand through any circumstance. And we boast of the hope of the glory to come.

Not only that, says Paul, we even glory in tribulation. And then going to the last verse, because the love of God is poured into our hearts through all tribulation. We glory in God through tribulation, knowing that it's going to work in us in enduring patience. That's going to produce a wonderful tested character. And that's going to produce and engender a hope that never disappoints again.

Because the love of God, what? Is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he sent. It's always, always present. I wanted to say that this power of the Holy Spirit, once it's received, is a stewardship. If I take this gentleman here. If I give you my watch to hold for the rest of the service. I give it to him as a stewardship, right? He can look at the time if he wants.

But it's not his watch. The power of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit's. And it is required of stewards, according to 1 Corinthians 4, to be what? Faithful. And so he gives us this power and he asks us to hold on to use it faithfully, obediently. If we're going to do spiritual warfare or whatever it might be, always be faithful. In Revelation chapter 17, the saints overcome the enemy.

And it says they overcome because they were called and chosen and what? Faithful. And so when we talk about receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, it's not for us. It's for the glory of God in all things. And I had a section here in the notes also. I just, I can imagine someone with a dure countenance coming up to me and saying, yes, yes, Brother Stearns.

It's okay to talk about all this wine and rejoicing and dancing and so forth. Get real. Life is hard and serious. And Paul and Peter 12 times talk about you must be sober and sober-minded and serious and somber and so forth there. How can you explain that? Aren't you, you're telling it one side. Maybe. But really what I'm trying to say is this, just this.

Start your day Pentecostally in the Lord. Get filled with wine. Rejoice like David. Dance a little. Exult in his salvation. Confess his faithfulness. And then go into your somber, serious, and sober times. Okay? Recognize that underneath, as Deuteronomy 33 says, underneath are the what? The everlasting arms. And from above is poured out the spirit of, the love of God by the Holy Spirit into your life.

Then go forth and in that spirit. And when you meet those times where you need to rebuke, reprove, and exhort and so forth, or deal with hard circumstances and difficult circumstances and people, all of that, the Holy Spirit will be with you. Giving you wisdom and grace and power to deal with them. So, I'd like to have the worship team come up now, if you would.

The last part of this message again. I just wanted to give a little instruction, an opportunity, and an invitation. It's proverbial that sometimes we preachers like to preach about great things. I hope these are great things. Anyway, and then you say, good, what do we do about it? But we've closed the service and you go off. No, I'm not going to do that today.

I want to give you an invitation to come up and be prayed for for the filling of the Holy Spirit if you'd like. Or you can wait until next Pentecost, or the Pentecost next Sunday. Use this week as a time of preparation. Whatever you'd like to do on that. We want to give you an opportunity to come up and be prayed for by those who've been asked to help here.

And we have actually, Bowles, I'll give you a little opportunity to talk about it a little bit. Oil. But I want you to listen for just a minute more here to receive prayer for this. It is advantageous, as Scripture says in Acts 8 and 19, to have hands laid upon us, sometimes to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But that isn't necessary. But we want to offer that opportunity today.

And then what can you expect if we pray for you? Well, it could be anything. Blaise Pascal, back in the 1600s, when he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, at least that's what it looked like, for two solid hours he was inflamed. He just felt like he was burning up in the Holy Spirit. And he wrote this about the experience. He actually wrote down things as it was occurring.

And he sewed the record of this event in his garment, and he carried that with him all the rest of his life. They found it on him. They didn't know that. They found it on him after he died. He says, The year of grace, 1654, Monday, the 23rd of November, fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and of the learned.

Certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. And it goes on. He's just filled. It could happen like that. How many wouldn't mind? It can be a quiet sense of peace. It can be something very subtle. It can be something that wells up. That spring of living water wells up.

And you just start just wanting to praise the Lord. And some of you might even praise the Lord in a language you never learned. If that happens, don't worry. I won't tell anybody. Okay. Okay. It can be seemingly without any manifestation. A friend who was head of a missionary training center in Minneapolis. And the pastor of the church that he was associated with, it's been years ago.

T.A. Hagry had this experience. And I wrote back, emailed Alec, my friend there in Minnesota. And he, and I said, what was the experience he had? Because he had described it earlier. And he said this. He wrote back this, if you don't mind me taking the time. He said, Ted had been pastoring Bethany Chapel, a small independent Lutheran congregation that he had, and others had formed a few years before.

When he arrived at the conclusion that his ministry was ineffective as there was little evidence of God's working in the church. He had been a successful in business. And he began to wonder if he should not return to that line of work. One Sunday afternoon, things came to a head. And alone in his study, he sought the Lord as to what he should do.

He felt led to make a fresh surrender of all he was and had and hoped to be. He recalled that he had read in one of Andrew Murray's books that a person should give himself entirely to God, ask God to fill him with his spirit, and trust that he had. This Ted did. He said he got up from his knees and, although he did not see anything, say anything, hear anything, or feel anything, he knew that God had heard and answered his prayer.

He believed that the spirit had come, just as Murray had said. From that day on, everything changed. God began to move in the church. The church began to grow. People came to Christ. People were filled with the spirit. Others were healed, and others experienced deliverance. Out of their experience, Bethany Fellowship came into being. It would be several years later before Ted experienced the manifestations of the spirit, such as speaking in tongues.

But he always dated his experience of the fullness of the spirit from that day in his study. In the early stages of the charismatic movement, a number of pastors and others came to Ted to be prayed for and experience the fullness of the spirit. So it could be you won't feel anything. But what's going to happen when we pray for you, if you want to come up, if you want to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, my prayer for you is going to marry your desire for God.

And it's going to plant within you a seed. And you hold that seed precious of hope and expectancy, and that's going to blossom in due time. So regardless of whether you feel anything or not, understand, just as with Reverend Hagrey here, something has happened. You may not feel anything, but something has happened. The main thing here is attitude and desire to want God, not just to want God, but to want God's wanting of you.

I repeat, how much does God want you? How passionate is he for you? That's what we want to note. And so the Shulamite, that we talked about in the Song of Solomon twice in the song, says she was sick with love. She was lovesick. And I hope I'm reverently speaking this, but did you know the Lord is lovesick for you? And those who experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit usually say, I just didn't realize just how much God loved me.

Joy, joy, joy, certitude, certitude, said Pascal there. Lastly, really is. Lastly, do not let your sins hinder you. Don't let you say, oh, I fought with my wife this morning. I couldn't possibly do that. Okay. Whatever it might be. In the Old Testament, there was a number of sacrifices that were given in the temple and the tabernacle on Pentecost.

And one of those sacrifices was two loaves of bread that were baked with leaven. Leaven is a type of sin. And yet they were offered up to the Lord. When you come to the Lord filled with whatever amount of sin there still is, God is saying, I accept you. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring you to sinlessness, ultimately. But that's a don't worry.

And let the hindrances of your past or your feeling of shame now heap you from coming forward. I like the other musicians are up here. Oh, good. Yeah. Thank you. Let's thank Elliot for that. Thank you. Let's thank Elliot for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.