What Does It Mean to Be Filled with the Spirit? Part 2

Luke 4.1-13

A few months ago, we reflected upon what it meant to live a life filled with the Spirit (from Ephesians 5.15-21). It is essentially living a God-centered life where we edify others and honor God. Often times, we overlook this understanding of a Spirit-filled life because of our own selfishness.

This sermon, we will look at another aspect of being filled with the Spirit from Luke 4.1-13. Jesus was filled with the Spirit as he was being led to to the wilderness, fasting and being tempted for forty days. Despite all of the opposition, Jesus was still able to honor and obey God by holding fast to God's word.

There are many implications from this passage. One is that being filled with the Spirit sometimes means undergoing a season of discomfort and temptation. For many of us, we have experienced a similar season and this passage might be calling us to reinterpret what is going on in our lives. Rather than a season where God is distant, it could be a season where we are actually full of the Spirit.

Another implication is that the way Jesus was tempted is the same way that Satan usually tempts. Ever since Adam and Eve, Satan's most effective tactic is to distort God's word. In our own lives, Satan also tempts us by distorting God's word. The way we counter it is to hold fast to God's word.

Lastly, Jesus had to go through this period of temptation not for his own sake, but for our sake. The forty days of wilderness is a reflection of Israel's forty years of wandering. The temptation from Satan is also a reflection of the way that Adam and Eve fell. What Jesus's temptation implies is that Jesus is the new Adam and the new Israel. Prior to Christ, our identity was bound in Adam and Israel. We had no power or hope to overcome sin. Because we are now in Christ (and no longer in Adam or Israel), we can refute Satan's temptations even in the fact of our most vulnerable moments.