How many here have read the Gospel of Mark? If you read that Gospel you'll notice that the very first part is full of miraculous signs and wonders. Jesus is healing, casting out demons, multiplying bread and fish and passing them out. But then about midway through, Jesus stops doing so many miracles and begins to tell the crowds what it means to follow him; that it means being willing to give up family, future, that it means sacrifice and that all who come must be willing to give up everything, to commit to a road that leads to a cross. By the time he gets to the cross, his followers are few. And in Acts when the Holy Spirit comes to “live,” within the hearts of those who've committed their lives to Jesus Christ, they can fit into one house.

 

The Holy Spirit does not descend to live within those who were unwilling to make that commitment. The same is true today. The fundamental difference between the believer and the non-believer is that a non-believer may know of God. He or she may read her bible. He or she may know all the facts of Christianity. And he or she may believe, cognitively, all the facts about Jesus Christ related in the bible, believe in the resurrection, believe in the Trinity, live a relatively good life, talk the talk, say all the right things, but still not be committed to Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior.

 

Lot 's of people want Jesus, to save them from their sins and the consequences of their sin, and he can and will do that. But while many want the salvation that Jesus offers, few want Jesus. They want him as Savior, but not as Lord. Because Jesus is a pretty demanding guy. He doesn't ask for a quarter of you're life. He doesn't ask for half of your life. He doesn't even ask for 3/4ths, he commands that you give him the whole thing. And the only way to be saved is to obey that command. Jesus is not a beggar. He's not sitting around pining away, “Oh when will Matt come to me…” Many come to Jesus Christ as if we're doing him a favor. “Well, Jesus, today is your lucky day. I'm giving you my heart.” And they carry that same attitude into their Christian life; into their worship and bible study and prayer and service in the church. Look at me I am taking time out of my schedule for Jesus. You should be happy I'm here. No, the truth is the opposite. We're the beggars. Christ does not need any of us. We need him. And so Christ does not need to fit his life in around ours, we must rearrange and reprioritize our lives according to what pleases him. Many people who think they've come to Christ because they want salvation, never really know Christ because they are not willing to serve him and follow him as Lord. They're unwilling to take “I”, “me” off the throne of their hearts, out of the center, and let Christ rule there as Lord.

 

That's when the Holy Spirit comes to live, to dwell, and the result of that, the decision to follow rather than call the shots, is a changed life with changed priorities and changed desires because God lives in you through the Spirit. You begin to live the way you know Christ wants you to live. You begin to reorder your priorities, the Lord comes first. You begin to want what Christ wants. And even when you don't want it, you become willing to do it, to obey until you do want it because the Spirit lives in you turning and changing your heart so that you love and live for Jesus Christ first. The primary sign that someone is “saved” and indwelled by the Holy Spirit is a changed heart that leads directly to a changed life.

 

Now there's a difference in the scriptures between being indwelled by the Spirit and being filled by the Spirit and this is where it can get confusing. All who surrender to and commit to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. God comes to live permanently and forever in the heart of believers. That is what it means to be indwelled. God dwells in you through the Holy Spirit..

 

Now Being filled by the Spirit is something different.

 

The disciples have already been indwelled by the Spirit in verses 1-3. He lives in them. But in verse 4 he fills them, “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” (4). What's the difference? You may've noticed if you come to bible studies or when you hear me pray or other people pray, that one thing we commonly ask for is to be “filled” with the Holy Spirit. You may have wondered. “I thought all Christians already had the Holy Spirit living in them, why do we have to pray to be filled?” Because indwelling and filling are two different things.

 

Only believers can be indwelled. But both believers and non-believers can be filled. Filling is for a specific time and a specific purpose. Moses led about 600,000 complaining, moaning, grumpy, rebellious people through the desert. The burden was too great. So he cried out to God. God told him to call together elders, leaders, to help him, to take away some of the burden, to handle the smaller stuff, “So Moses…brought together seventy of the elders and had them stand around the Tent. Then the Lord came down in a cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.”(Numbers 11:24-25) In fact, all of these elders save two, ended up rebelling against Moses and dying in the desert before they reached the Promised Land.

 

The seventy elders were filled with the Spirit for a specific time and for a specific purpose. What was that purpose?…to prophesy, to proclaim the word of God and to help Moses. But when they rebelled, the Spirit left them. They were part of the visible Church, the visible body of God's followers by virtue of having come along on the exodus, but they were not believers. The Spirit filled them temporarily; he did not indwell them eternally.

 

You see the same thing in first Samuel 10. Who knows the name of the first king of Israel ? It was Saul. After Saul was anointed King and was on the way to Gilgal to fight the Philistines, we're told that he was met by a traveling company of prophets, “When they arrived in Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power and he joined in their prophesying.” But, again, this filling was not an indwelling. It was for a specific purpose, prophesy, and it was short lived. Saul's life was a tragic one. Saul continually chose to disobey God and do what Saul wanted rather than what God wanted Saul to do and so we read in chapter 16 of 1 st Samuel, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul…” Saul died in despair because while he felt the Holy Spirit, experienced the Holy Spirit, while he had heard the word of God and the call of God in his life and while God used him to amazing things, Saul ultimately was not willing to give God his life and to devote himself to the Lord. Saul lived for Saul. So while he experienced the Holy Spirit and was influenced by the Spirit, he was never indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

 

So there's a difference between being indwelled by the Holy Spirit forever and being filled with the Holy Spirit for an occasion and a purpose. Moses and the Apostles were indwelled by the Spirit and on occasion were filled by the Spirit. The 70 elders and Saul were never indwelled but they were filled for a time and a purpose. The difference between Moses and the 70 elders and between Saul and David, and the Apostles and some of us, is that some are serious when they call Jesus Savior and Lord and others are not.

 

God can fill anyone with his Spirit for a time. God can do amazing and miraculous things through you by his Spirit, but that is not a sure sign of salvation. It is possible to experience God, to feel moved by the Spirit, and to speak his Word and have a warm sense of God's presence and power, but not be in Christ, not have eternal life. This is why Jesus warns in Matthew 7, “Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven…Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out many demons, and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers.'”

 

You can say “Lord” You can play the Christian game. It can make you feel like a good person. God may work through you or in your life, you may feel the Spirit. But in the end you must face the question. “Am I living for Christ or am I living for me? Does my life revolve around Jesus or is Jesus a part time deal?

 

God in Jesus Christ calls all people to repent of their sins and invite him to live in their hearts but doing that means committing to him as your Lord. If you are not willing to commit and submit to him as Lord then you cannot have him as Savior. The sign of that is a changed and transformed heart and life. Saved people don't just go about life as they did before. Priorities change. Lifestyles change. Hard decisions are made. Habits are discontinued and new ones picked up. Serving and pleasing and following and worshipping and studying and seeking Christ comes before work, before family, before everything else. That's the sign of a changed heart.

 

Does your life; your thoughts, words, and deeds, bear witness to that change?