About this note
This session was preached in English with live consecutive interpretation into Spanish. This note keeps only the original English (Jeff Purswell’s own words), for reading in the source language. The Spanish interpreter’s version is in Empoderada por y dependiente del Espíritu.
Introduction
Thank you, Miguel. Your encouragement means the world, and your friendship is a rare, unique gift from God.
Well, speakers are supposed to say this, but I really mean it: it’s such a tremendous joy for me to be back at Fieles. I get to go to a lot of conferences, and this one has become very dear to me, something I cherish. To be among the pastors of this church that I love, and to see so many friends that I’ve gotten to know over the years, and to be among people like you — whose love is so warm, whose joy is infectious, whose encouragement is so meaningful. And especially to observe and to participate in something very special that the Lord is doing in this nation and in Latin America more broadly. I really do come feeling like I’m experiencing something unique in the purposes of God.
So thank you for all of the sacrifices that you made to be here. That’s just humbling to me, and I know it is to Carlos and his team, every person who has the privilege of serving you this week. More importantly, it speaks volumes about your heart for Christ and your devotion to his cause. And it’s that which unites us here this week. Amen?
So please turn with me in your Bibles to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5. We’re exploring this week the worship of the church, and we have been so well served by outstanding messages on critical aspects of the worship of the church. Carlos, I think it would be a good book idea to take these messages — maybe not mine, but the rest of the messages — and put them together in a book on worship. If you do that, I should get some royalties for the idea.
But think about what we’ve covered: the worshiper’s heart. Who created worship in the first place? Who is it for? God. The content of our worship: God’s truth in scripture. The wellspring of our worship: the gospel. And the way our worship prepares us — it prepares us to be sent into the world.
But it occurred to me: as we’re here as pastors and worship leaders and worship teams, it’s possible to have all of this in place — a purpose to honor God, a liturgy and songs informed by God’s word, an understanding of the gospel, songs about the gospel — and yet, when it comes to Sunday morning, when it comes to the gathering itself, to be under the impression that this will now automatically be pleasing to God, that this will now have its intended effect, that this now really depends upon us — our plans, our performance, our skill, our eloquence, our efforts.
That, brothers and sisters, is a deadly mistake. It’s a misunderstanding of the very nature of new covenant worship. It’s a misunderstanding of the very nature of the people of God in the new covenant age — the very nature of how God now relates to us in Christ, and draws near to us in Christ, and acts towards us in Christ, both individually and corporately. The way we, as those made new by the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, now relate to God by the Spirit, and worship God by the Spirit.
We can’t really understand corporate worship — as we tend to think about it, music and singing and lyrics and liturgy — without understanding the nature of the gathering of the people of God, the church. We’ve alluded to this a little bit this week. That’s why theologically worship is a subset of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. In most of your systematic theology textbooks, if there is a chapter on worship, it will be a subset under the larger category of the doctrine of the church.
Let me tell you something: something powerful is happening on a Sunday morning in your church — in every true church, regardless of its size, or its facility, or the quality of its music, or the skill of its musicians. The God who has drawn near to his people in Christ, and saved his people in Christ, and gathers his people in the church, and indwells his people by the Spirit — He is especially at work among his people when they gather, like no other time. At that moment, God is present to reveal himself to his people, to satisfy his people, to strengthen his people, to galvanize his people, to give himself to his people.
And we, as pastors and worship leaders and worship teams, have a consummate privilege — the humbling privilege, the fearful privilege — of observing and leading God’s people in this most holy, glorious moment. How can we, in all of our weakness and sin, given these monumental new covenant realities, how can we do that acceptably, do that effectively?
Here’s the reality we need to grasp, and this is really the thrust of what I hope to communicate this morning: true worship is a miracle. Because it demands the Spirit’s work to make it pleasing to God and transformative for us. True worship is a miracle — not because it’s unusual, but because it demands the Spirit’s presence to make it what it is supposed to be.
You could have Miguel and Sugel, and Carlos, and Joselo and Aníbal as your pastors. Anyone want to go to that church? I’m there. I’ll learn Spanish. You could have Bob and Jonathan and Arturo as your worship leaders — that’d be nice. I actually have Bob as my worship leader, but I miss Jonathan and Arturo. You could have musicians like those serving us this week. You could have a building like Gracia Soberana. But without the Spirit’s work, true worship is impossible. Because true worship — new covenant worship, worship by the people of God, made new by the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit, with access to God through Christ absolutely, but effectuated by the Spirit, being transformed by the Spirit — that worship demands the Spirit’s work to make it pleasing to God and transformative for us.
I want to look at a text where Paul specifically addresses our gatherings — which, outside of 1 Corinthians 11 to 14, he rarely does. But as he does, he demonstrates how critical the Spirit is to our gatherings, and the effects of the Spirit’s work in our gatherings. So look with me at Ephesians chapter 5, we’ll read verses 15 to 21.
(The speaker read this passage aloud in Spanish for the room — see the Spanish version of this note for the text of Ephesians 5:15-21.)
Let’s pray. Father, we come to you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, and we ask that you would speak to us now. We ask that we would experience something of this that we just read. Help us to think rightly, and to feel appropriately, and to respond faithfully, for the glory of our Savior. Amen.
Well, in this almost hidden text about our gatherings, Paul reveals just how vital the work of the Spirit is. And in this text we find three characteristics of our corporate worship that clarify the Spirit’s role and its effects in our worship.
I. Our worship is enabled by the Spirit
Now, in this thick cluster of Pauline phrases, it’s easy to overlook or to minimize the Spirit’s role. But it’s actually quite prominent — even emphatic — on a couple of levels.
It’s emphatic literarily. Now this paragraph — your Bible may not be organized this way — but this paragraph serves as a climactic summary of all of the exhortation and application that begins in chapter 4. That’s where Paul started applying the incredible realities brought about by Christ in chapters 1 to 3. And this final imperative about the Spirit plays a key role in capping off the exhortations that began in chapter 4, verse… it’s kind of like a hinge: this is how they will be able both to live out the preceding commands, and how their worship will fulfill its intended purpose.
It’s also emphatic theologically. When we come along and read “be filled with the Spirit,” the reader is reminded of the repeated references to the Spirit and his decisive work throughout the entire letter. Chapter 1, verse 3, we received every spiritual blessing — which means blessings involving the Spirit. Chapter 1, verse 13, we’re sealed by the Spirit — he stamps us as belonging to God and protected by God. Chapter 1, verse 14, he’s the guarantee of our inheritance — in him we already taste of heavenly blessings. Chapter 2, verse 18, we have access to God through Christ in the Holy Spirit — which means, depended upon, empowered, and directed by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2, verse 22, we’re being built into God’s dwelling by the Spirit — your pastors are not building you into a dwelling of God, the Spirit is building us into a dwelling of God. Chapter 3, verse 16, we are strengthened with power through the Spirit: no Spirit, no power.
So when we come to chapter 5, verse 18, we’re not surprised to find that the Spirit who seals us, and mediates blessings to us, and directs us, and matures us, and strengthens us — surely we need Him to worship God rightly. I mean, I’m not smart, but I get that. And that connection is fascinating to me, and it should be instructive to us: in the only text in the New Testament where we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul connects it to the worship of the church. It’s not to say that it is the exclusive context of the Spirit’s work, but it is a vital one.
So, what is Paul commanding here? Verse 18 again: “Do not get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit.” We all nod, I know what that means. I hardly know what it means. It’s an unusual command. Paul does not tell them to be full of the Holy Spirit, but to be filled by the Spirit — which is a command, you’re responsible to obey it, but it’s a passive verb, which means we cannot produce this. We receive this rather than producing it. You cannot fill yourself. You cannot produce spiritual power on your own. You cannot produce spiritual effectiveness or worship leading effectiveness or preaching effectiveness on your own.
So what does he mean? This is not a mystical idea, it’s not an ecstatic experience. Paul is not saying “don’t get drunk with wine, but get drunk with the Spirit” — if any pastor teaches that, run. It’s a metaphor, very similar to Paul’s commands in his letter to the Galatians to walk by the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit. All of those commands point to one fundamental idea: to let your life be controlled by the Spirit.
We could put it this way: it’s a lifestyle of active, intentional dependence upon God — to actively seek to let your thinking, and your values, and your priorities, and your conduct be under the direction and guidance and impulses and control of the Holy Spirit. And the means to that are many: filling our minds with His Word, letting that renew our thinking, our perspectives, our attitudes, our appetites; communing with God in prayer; fellowship, with all the encouragement and care and accountability of others — we don’t do this on our own; fleeing temptation — do you realize, every time you say no to sin, you’re positioning yourself to be filled by the Spirit; holding on to God’s promises when you’re suffering, or your heart’s broken — some of you are doing that — when you do that, you’re filled with the Spirit.
And the tense of this command points to a continual activity. It’s really a vision of life: every day we live to know Him and delight in Him and depend upon Him and devote ourselves to Him. That kind of life will invite the Spirit’s work into our lives and our churches, and it will position us to be under the control of the Spirit, to be filled by the Spirit.
Now let’s probe this command a bit more deeply. My English translation says “be filled with the Spirit,” as if I’m a container — like this container, this bottle — and the Spirit is the content that fills it up, that fills me up. Like this was empty at one point, you pour water into it, it is now full of water; the Spirit’s poured into me, and I’m now full of the Spirit. Call that the container theory of Spirit filling. But the original points not so much that we are filled up with the Spirit as content — although there is truth in that, the Spirit does live inside you — but the text is more indicating that we’re filled by the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit is the one acting to fill us.
So that raises a question: what does he fill us with? Well, the rest of the letter helps us. In the great prayer of chapter 3, Paul uses the same verb: he says the Spirit strengthens us to grasp Christ’s love, its breadth and length and height and depth, so that we would be — verse 19 — filled with the fullness of God. In the same prayer, the Spirit strengthens us so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. So what the Spirit fills us with is the character of Christ. We’re changed to be more and more like Jesus, more and more like God — chapter 5, verse 1, as beloved children who imitate God. We’re illuminated with a greater understanding of Christ’s love. Our affections for God are stirred and strengthened. Our delight in God is deepened. That’s what the Spirit is doing in us. And the results and effects of that are seen in the following verses in our text.
Verses 19 to 21 are not additional commands — they are, the grammatical term, participles. They describe the effect, the overflow, of the Spirit’s filling of believers. And the effects in verse 19 are — well, worship. 18b and 19: “…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” When the Spirit fills us with a deeper grasp of Christ, and transforms us to be more like Christ, and kindles affections for Christ — you see the logic — there will be joyful, amazed, heartfelt worship of Christ.
So that’s the first characteristic of true worship: it is enabled by the Holy Spirit. Regardless of our gifts, our skill, our performance, our planning — and those are good things — but in our gatherings we offer nothing to God that He hasn’t first given to us: eyes that perceive His greatness and goodness and worth; hearts that cherish Him and value Him above all things; a resolve that turns from sin and trusts in His promises; a will that denies ourself and seeks to serve and edify and care for others. And when we’re besieged by trials, or bewildered by circumstances, or grieved by suffering, who but the Spirit can give us faith to lay hold of Christ, and to look to Him for mercy and help and assurance and joy, and sustaining grace?
Friends, it is the Spirit who enables our worship, and empowers our meetings. And we have no greater need than for the Spirit to fill us so that we might worship God rightly.
II. Worship is edifying to the church
You probably noticed this as we read, but there’s a dimension of the church’s worship that’s contained here that’s far too often underappreciated. Miguel pointed us so well to the ultimate object of our worship: the exaltation of our great God. And that’s perhaps what we’re most familiar with. But here we see another intended effect of corporate worship — not automatic, but made possible by the Spirit — and that’s the edification of others, not just through preaching, but through our singing as well. “Addressing one another in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs.”
So, our singing — and not just the sheer act of making sounds, but the content of what we communicate accompanied by music, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs — that content is aimed not only at God, but at each other as well. Paul says a very similar thing in his letter to the Colossians, and there we see the effects of our addressing one another in song. Colossians 3:16:
Colossians 3:16 (as read in this session)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
By that Paul means the message about Christ, the gospel — let it dwell in you richly. So as Joselo reminded us so well, the gospel should be at the center of the church’s life, in teaching and worship — not superficially, but richly. It should receive our absorbed attention and reflection and meditation. But then note what Paul adds: teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. So the teaching and admonishing happens by means of singing. And I want to say, I wouldn’t get caught up in distinctions between those terms — psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Paul is not weighing in on worship wars. He has in mind a wide range of singing that praises God in response to who he is and what he has done.
So this changes the way we typically think about singing, and its relationship to preaching. We tend to think singing is to God, and preaching is to us. Singing is adoration, preaching is exhortation and instruction. Now, singing is adoration — of course it is. Preaching is exhortation and instruction — of course it is. But according to Paul, singing is more. It’s incredible when you think about it: in the economy of God, through the created realities of us in the image of God, and music as a creation of God that structures sound waves — using patterns of frequency and amplitude and mathematical relationships between pitches — that enter our ears, and fluid-filled cochlea, microscopic hairs that convert frequencies into signals that our brains then interpret as sound, and that affects our emotions, and that right-brain function combines with our left-brain function, processing lyrics and ideas and truth — and it all combines, by the mysterious work of the Spirit, to teach, to affect our thinking, to admonish and affect our conscience, and to encourage us and to strengthen us and to knit our hearts together in Christ.
My goodness. Who can grasp all that God is doing in our hearts, in our minds, in our churches, when we worship? It’s a miracle. Amen.
Now, we do want to be clear — a parenthesis for our pastors here — nowhere does God address us more specifically and powerfully than through the preaching of his word, and nowhere is the Spirit more active than in the preaching of his word. But God also addresses us when we sing, and hear others sing, and hear a room filled with the greatness of God and the glories of the gospel and the hope of God’s promises through song. And even when your battery dies — God is at work. Maybe God wants me to just be done, I don’t know. Or he wants you to lean forward and listen, so I’ll whisper.
Do you realize what God is doing on a Sunday? Doesn’t it motivate you who are composers, as you grapple with words faithful to God’s truth, and you combine it with music — this creation of God that is beautiful and resonant and stirring? I hope it’s motivating to you as a musician, as you work your craft, and you practice, and you understand how you’re playing and notes and rhythm — it provides a matrix for the people of God to be addressed and edified by the realities of God and his character and his word and the gospel.
But let’s not forget the connection with verse 18. This is not automatic. Pick the right songs, this will happen. Design the right liturgy, this will happen. Worship ex opere operato — what is that? Never mind, we’re not Catholics — we don’t believe by doing something disengaged from God that it just happens, magically. This will only happen if the Spirit is at work. Paul is describing the effect of singing and hearing by those who are Spirit-filled, by those who are, by grace, dependent upon Christ, and imperfectly but sincerely seeking to align themselves in mind and heart and life with the Spirit’s work.
III. It’s exalting to God
Finally — and we’ll be briefer here — the third characteristic of our worship made possible by the Spirit. It’s enabled by the Spirit, it’s edifying to others, and third, it’s exalting to God. And here we come to the core of worship that is truly pleasing to God. We’ve been exploring this all week, but our text reveals it as well. Verse 18 again, 18b to 20: “…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Verse 19 can sometimes seem confusing, but it’s really rich. We should read the two halves of the verse as parallel. Paul is not speaking about two different vocal activities — speaking in songs, singing songs — they’re the same activity. But that singing has two different audiences and two different purposes. We saw the first already in verse 19a: one audience is each other, and the purpose is edification. In 19b we see the other audience, and the more important audience: singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Our singing is intended to edify, but these are not self-help songs, they’re not man-centered songs — they’re songs expressing praise and adoration to God, and here especially to Christ, the Lord, the one who reveals God to us and brings us to God.
And that is ultimately what the Spirit’s work is about; that’s why he was sent. As Jesus said in the climax of his teaching on the Spirit in the upper room, just before the cross — in those chapters there’s five different paraclete verses, but the final one, John 16:14, Jesus says of the Spirit:
John 16:13-14 (as read in this session)
He will glorify me… The Spirit’s on a mission — the mission to glorify Christ.
He’s constantly at work to make Christ’s uniqueness and supremacy and beauty and grace be seen and acknowledged and experienced and rejoiced over and rested in. He comes to make Christ present to us, to strengthen us, and comfort us, uphold us, assure us. And when He does that — when we’re filled by the Spirit, with such illumination and awareness and affections — when that happens, we will sing and make melody to the Lord with all our hearts. We will, verse 20, give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How can we do that? How do we do that amidst the realities of a fallen world, with all of its suffering and injustice and frustration and heartbreak? Only if the Spirit opens our eyes to see God’s sovereign goodness, His infinite wisdom, His unswerving faithfulness governing everything in our lives. Only if the Spirit helps us see that nothing befalls us but what He designs for our eternal joy, in Christ and His eternally reverberating glory.
Left to ourselves, we can write and sing songs, we can compose beautiful music, we can play instruments skillfully, we can exhort people passionately, we can preach world-class sermons like we’ve heard all week. But for our worship to be truly from our hearts, to be undeterred by our circumstances, to be enamored of God, to find our greatest joy in Christ, we must have the Spirit at work in us. We must be filled by the Spirit for the glory of Christ.
How should we respond?
Now, given this reality — the nature of new covenant worship, the necessity of the Spirit’s work to make our worship pleasing to God and transforming to us — how should we respond? What postures and pursuits should characterize those of us who lead God’s people in worship? Pastors, small group leaders, worship leaders, worship team members, listen.
I want to conclude by suggesting two — then a third — simple postures and pursuits that this text and these realities call us to.
Devotion
This is for all Christians, but especially for those who lead in any capacity. If you’re a leader of God’s people, you should have no greater concern, no greater pursuit, than a knowledge of and an intimacy with and a delight in and an obedience to Jesus Christ. A deeper knowledge, a deeper intimacy, a deeper joy in Christ Jesus.
To serve God’s people, as a pastor, as someone on a worship team, it requires a number of things. It requires gifts, and diligence, and skills. So, by all means, tend to those things — the workshops being offered this afternoon, they’re wonderful, they’re designed to serve you in those things. But your greatest pursuit, your magnificent obsession, must not be musical excellence or lyrical eloquence. Certainly not public prominence — on your team, or in your church, or online, or on somebody’s phone. It should be, it must be, Christ. And his smile. And his glory in my life and in the church and in the nations.
So we respond to this text by ruthlessly placing ourselves in God-ordained paths of zeal-kindling joy. And you will be filled by God’s Spirit, and you will lead your people in God-exalting, people-edifying worship.
I hope you leave this conference knowing this: the best thing you can give to the people you serve is not your performance, it’s not your gifts, it’s not your skill. Here’s what I want to give to my people: I want to give them a heart that’s obviously animated by a fervent love for Christ, and His priorities, and His glory in the church and in people’s lives. That’s what they need most from you. You can give them that. Let’s give them that.
Dependence
Second posture we should adopt: dependence. Remember, true worship is a miracle, because it demands the Spirit’s work to make it pleasing to God and transformative for people. So as you think about and prepare for your Sunday meetings: what are you depending on? What are you looking to? What is your confidence in? That is the question. Is it your planning? Is it your liturgy, or your production, or your preparation, or your rehearsal, or your gifts? Or is your confidence in the Spirit — who delights to make Christ known? He delights and is powerful to do this, to show Christ to be glorious and supreme and all-sufficient.
And if your confidence is there, it will show — it will show in things like prayer, the humility of your leaders and musicians, even at times spontaneity. We do plan, absolutely — we pray for guidance as we plan, we trust in the Spirit as we plan. But there are times when the Spirit may withhold some specific guidance and prompt spontaneous elements: an impression about a particular need God wants to speak to, perhaps an unplanned need, an unplanned word — which Scripture has a category for, a prophetic word — by which the Spirit makes known the goodness and glory and grace of Christ.
A verse I pray virtually every single day — it’s a good mantra for pastors and worship leaders — John 15:5:
John 15:5 (as read in this session)
Apart from me you can do nothing.
If you look in the Greek: oudén, “no thing.” I like the Spanish, nada. Not something just a bit less than what God would do — not a decent sermon, but not quite what the Spirit could do; not very good worship. No. Nada.
Expectation
Alright, let me add one more real quick — devotion, dependence, let’s add a third: expectation. If all that we’ve said is true, and we obey this text, and seek daily to be under the sway of the Spirit — devoted to Christ, depended upon Christ, and yes, God-centered, scripture-governed, gospel-driven, mission-oriented — if you do that, it doesn’t matter if your liturgy is perfect, doesn’t matter how big your church is, how flawless your plan is, how gifted your team is: the smallest church, the least impressive musical team, can, by God’s grace, empowered by the Spirit, experience a depth of worship that smells like heaven, that is pleasing to God, exalting of Christ, and transformative for His people.
Let’s pray. […] And your desire — your ardent desire — to reveal yourself to your people, to draw near to your people, to exalt Christ in the hearts of your people, to encourage and strengthen your people, to transform your people more and more into the image of Christ — allow us, Father, I pray, to be filled by the Spirit, to live and pray in such a way that invites your work in our lives, so that Christ would be shown to be glorious in our lives, so that your people would be transformed by a sight of Christ, strengthened by the power of Christ, that we might truly worship you. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray. Amen.
Note on this transcript
Transcribed from the Fieles 26 conference audio (whisper). The room audio contains the English talk interleaved with live Spanish interpretation; this note keeps only Jeff Purswell’s English. Ephesians 5:15-21 was read aloud only in Spanish during the session (the speaker explicitly said “let’s read it in Spanish”) — see the Spanish version of this note, Empoderada por y dependiente del Espíritu, for that text; it was not fabricated here in English. Colossians 3:16 and John 15:5 / 16:13-14 are quoted as transcribed from the speaker’s own English reading, not re-translated from a specific published English Bible version — there is no English Bible text in this vault to check them against, so treat the exact wording as approximate rather than a citation of a specific edition (e.g. ESV).
The opening of the closing prayer is missing in the original file (it jumps mid-prayer); marked with […] rather than invented.
No runaway Whisper loops, but several short stretches were duplicated two or three times in a row (typical of overlapping transcription segments) — those were collapsed to a single instance.