The Promised Holy Spirit | Ephesians 1:11-14
Unclaimed Property
Did you know the State of South Dakota is in possession of over $600M of unclaimed cash? The State Treasurer has the challenging job of returning that money to its owners.
It’s called “unclaimed property.” Say someone moved away and left $150 in a bank account that they forgot about. After a few years, if the bank can’t get in touch with the owner, the cash is turned over to the state as unclaimed property. Or maybe a tenant paid a utility deposit but didn’t leave a forwarding address. If the utility company can’t return the deposit, it becomes unclaimed property.
I had no idea this was a thing until the Treasurer ran a Super Bowl commercial last year. So I decided to get on the state’s website. And low and behold, we found money that belonged to us … from years and years ago. In fact, I entered the names of other friends and family members and found even more!
The reason the state has $600M in unclaimed property is that most people don’t know it’s there. Sadly, many professing Christians do not know the glorious riches of their salvation. Whether from ignorance or fear or misconceptions, many Christians have little to no functional understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians 1, Paul pours forth praise for God the Father “who has blessed us in Christ with every blessing of the Spirit in the high-heavenlies” (v. 3). In order to benefit from these blessings, first you have to know about them, and then you have to experience them. Do you know all that God has promised to do for you in Christ by his Spirit? Are you experiencing the fullness of God’s blessings? That is the work of the Spirit, promised here in Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1:3–14
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The Triune God
For three weeks we’ve been camped out in Ephesians 1:3–14—a breathtaking display of the glory of God’s grace. Remember how this entire passage begins: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every blessing of the Spirit” (v. 3).
This is a prayer of praise, making much of the Triune God for the glory of his grace. Two weeks ago we focused on the Father’s “eternal and gracious purpose.” Last week, Pastor Matt helped us to glory in the Son’s redemptive work. Our aim today is to experience the work of the Spirit.
The doctrine of the Trinity is a profound mystery beyond our ability to comprehend. Stating the truths revealed in Scripture is easier than comprehending how it works. First, God exists in three Persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Second, each Person is fully God. Finally, there is only one God.
As the Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith says, “Each person is distinct, yet God is not by this distinction divided into three parts, natures, or gods.” That is, the Father is not the Son or the Spirit. The Son is not the Spirit or the Father. And the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. But the Father is fully God, the Son is fully that same God, and the Spirit is fully God. Each Person of the Godhead fully possesses the same divine essence and attributes.
People have tried to use all kinds of analogies, but at best, they all fall short, and at worst, they suggest unhelpful distortions of the doctrine. One of the most helpful ways to understand the Trinity is to understand the distinct actions of each Person—Father, Son, and Spirit—in saving humanity.
How does God—Father, Son, and Spirit—display the glory of his grace in saving sinners? “In the works of … redemption, the persons fulfill roles consistent with their eternal relations: the Father originates, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit completes.”
One reason the glory of God is uniquely visible in Ephesians 1:3–14 is because the distinct actions of Father, Son, and Spirit in redemption are so clearly seen here.
God the Father originates. The Father planned and purposed your salvation. Throughout Ephesians 1:3–14, the Father is the subject—the one acting. The Father blessed you, chose you, loved you, predestined you for adoption, redeemed you, forgave you, lavished grace upon you, revealed his will to you, and sealed you.And Paul says repeatedly that the Father has done all of this “according to the purpose of his will” (vv. 5, 9, 11). It is the Father’s plan, purpose, will, and pleasure to save you.
God the Son accomplishes. The Son of God is the one who achieved the Father’s plan and accomplished salvation. You are blessed in Christ, the Beloved Son (v. 6); adopted through Christ; chosen in Christ; redeemed through his blood; and sealed in him (v. 13). The Son is the one who took on flesh and shed his blood for your sins. And the Son is the object of saving faith, the One in whom you believe (v. 13; cf. v. 12).
And what of the Spirit? The Spirit completes. The Spirit applies all these blessings to you—planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son, applied to you personally by the Spirit, as it says here in vv. 13–14.
The Promise of the Spirit
Look at v. 13: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13).
Paul calls the Spirit “the promised Holy Spirit.” Paul speaks of the Spirit in a similar way in Galatians 3:14: “... so that we might receive the promised Spirit [or literally the promise of the Spirit] through faith.”
To understand the significance of what Paul is saying, you have to understand the promises he is referring to—the promises that are fulfilled in the outpouring of the Spirit of God. For example, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the outpouring of the Spirit as the defining reality of God’s new creation:
“... until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest” (Isaiah 32:15).
“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3).
Ezekiel describes the gift of the Spirit as the defining reality of the new covenant:
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).
The New Testament begins with John the Baptist announcing the coming of the Messiah, the One who would pour out the Spirit and usher in the new covenant and the new creation. “John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire’” (Luke 3:16).
During his ministry on earth, Jesus himself repeatedly promised to give his Spirit to his people. Just before the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out, Jesus instructed his disciples to remain in Jerusalem “to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4–5). Jesus called the Spirit “the promise of the Father.”
Given that context, consider again Paul’s statement to the saints in Ephesus: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13).
“Were sealed” is completed action. That means all the promises have begun to come true! The outpouring of the Spirit is proof that God’s promise of a new creation has begun. By his death and resurrection, Jesus established the new covenant and inaugurated the new creation. And everyone who has the Spirit of God is living in that reality already.
The Work of the Spirit
What does the Spirit do? Paul describes the work of the Spirit with vivid imagery. He describes the Spirit as a seal and as a guarantee or down payment.
In v. 13, Paul says, “You … were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” In the ancient world, a seal was usually made by stamping wax or clay with a mark. A seal could be a mark of identification to show ownership—kind of like branding. A seal could serve as proof of authenticity, like a wax seal on a document. Or a seal could protect or secure something that was meant to remain shut, like products in our grocery stores have seals that indicate if someone has tampered with them.
What a rich image of the work of the Spirit! The grammar indicates that you were sealed with the Spirit and not by the Spirit. The Father is the one who performs the sealing; the Spirit himself is the seal. The Spirit of God is the mark of God’s ownership on God’s people. He identifies you as one who belongs to God. The Spirit is the proof of the authenticity of your salvation in Christ. And he protects you and preserves you through every trial and temptation in life.
The distinguishing mark of the people of God is the dynamic presence of God by his Spirit. And Paul assumes this mark or seal of the Spirit is evident in every Christian.
In v. 14, Paul says that the Holy Spirit “is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” A guarantee means a down payment or deposit—a portion of the full sum given as a promise.
This is incredible! It points to the glory of your forever future if you are in Christ. The Holy Spirit is more than a pledge. A pledge is something of value offered as security or collateral to guarantee the repayment of a different debt. So someone might use their home or a vehicle or a valuable piece of jewelry as a pledge. If that’s what this meant, it would be like God saying, “Here’s my Spirit for now, until I give you the real promise.”
But a down payment is different. A down payment is part of the sum total that will be paid. God himself—his presence and glory—is the ultimate blessing promised to you. So he gives his own Spirit to his people now as a guarantee of his presence forever. Your experience of joy in God now is the guarantee that you will enjoy God forever.
The ESV says, “The guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” But a better translation of v. 14 would be something like, “The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance toward the final redemption of God’s prized possession.” The down payment is toward the final aim. And that final aim is your redemption. According to verse 7, that redemption was already accomplished on the cross where Christ shed his blood for you. But it will be consummated on the last day, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Now here’s the thing. Being filled and sealed with the Holy Spirit is a discernible reality—something you experience. Otherwise it’s not much of a seal or a guarantee.
To be clear, the Holy Spirit himself is not a feeling. Neither is He an inanimate force or a power like electricity or gravity. He is God. To be filled by the Spirit of God is a supernatural experience that you notice.
And this is where many people go wrong. There are two ditches to avoid. One ditch is defining the experience of the Spirit exclusively in terms of miraculous gifts like speaking in tongues. Others are so freaked out by that that they swerve into the other ditch, where there is no discernible experience of the Spirit. But what can we tell from Scripture about the work of the Spirit?
Jesus described the work of the Spirit as living water that quenches your heart-thirsts.
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:37–39).
You know what it feels like to be physically thirsty and then to have your thirst quenched. Heart-thirst is a reality you experience in the form of anxiety, depression, fear, insecurity, discontentment, or guilt. Likewise, when your heart is satisfied, that is an experience of joy, peace, hope, contentment, and love.
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
“By the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).
Paul described the work of the Spirit as causing those who were blind to suddenly behold the glory of God as beautiful.
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).
At conversion, your blind eyes are opened and you behold the glory of God.
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).
And that is the work of the Spirit: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
So this is the work of the Spirit. He causes you to see and to feel the glory of Jesus in such a way that you experience satisfaction and security in Jesus. You are no longer hostile to Jesus or indifferent to Jesus. But you desire Jesus and treasure Jesus and rely on Jesus.
If God the Father planned your salvation and God the Son accomplished your salvation, God the Spirit applies all the blessings of that salvation to you in such a way that you personally experience soul-satisfying joy in God.
The Experience of the Spirit
But how can you experience the Spirit for yourself? This is the most important question. It does you no good to know about the Spirit and his work. The only benefit to you comes when you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, when you know that God has guaranteed your redemption.
Thankfully, Paul does not leave us in the dark, but tells us plainly: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13).
When you heard and believed the gospel. The filling and sealing with the Spirit happens at conversion. It happens when you hear and believe the gospel.
This is what Jesus taught: “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:39). Peter taught the same thing on the Day of Pentecost: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
In fact, the church in Ephesus was founded with a discernible outpouring of the Spirit. In Acts 19, Paul arrived in Ephesus and found a group of disciples who had followed John the Baptist. The first thing he asked them was, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2). “And they said, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit’” (Ac 19:2). They had heard of John, but not Jesus. They had believed John, who pointed to Jesus. But evidently they had not yet heard about the finished work of Jesus or the outpouring of the Spirit! So Paul proclaimed the gospel—that Christ died for their sins—and they believed.
“On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying” (Acts 19:5–6).
They heard the gospel and believed, and they were filled with the Spirit.
One more text. Paul wrote this to the Galatians,
“It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. [Now, the Galatians lived in Asia Minor, not Jerusalem. They did not witness the crucifixion, so Paul is talking about the moment when the gospel was proclaimed to them.] 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? [It’s a rhetorical question: the answer is by hearing with faith.] … 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith …?” (Galatians 3:1–2, 5).
Everywhere you look in Scripture, the answer is the same. The life-giving, soul-satisfying, down-payment experience of the Spirit is connected to hearing and believing the gospel—the good news that Jesus Christ died to redeem you from your slavery to sin and rose from the dead so you could enjoy God forever.
This is good news! Jesus promises to pour out his Spirit on all who trust in him alone, who turn away from seeking their satisfaction and security apart from him.
Here’s what that means. The experience of the Spirit is always connected to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As the message of Jesus is proclaimed, the Spirit causes you to see and feel the glory of Jesus so that your soul is satisfied. It’s as you look to Christ that the Spirit gives you heart-satisfying joy, peace, and hope. When that happens, you will experience the comfort and joy of knowing with full assurance that your sins are forgiven, that you belong to God, and that you are secure in him forever.
Now, it’s important to clarify something: You don’t start with your feelings. You start with faith—relying on Jesus, taking him at his Word, looking to and agreeing with the truth of Jesus no matter how you feel. And when you trust in Christ, you will experience his glory and goodness.
Do not try to stir up your feelings. Instead, take steps to behold Christ—read Scripture, memorize and meditate on Scripture, listen to the Scripture preached, rehearse the truths of the gospel. And do that no matter how you feel, trusting that Jesus promises to pour out his Spirit on all who trust in him.
Conclusion
The glorious riches of God’s grace are available to you in Christ, applied by the Spirit. Do you know that every blessing of the Spirit is given to you in Christ? Have you experienced that work of the Holy Spirit? Are you experiencing that right now? This is not a one-time experience, but an ongoing, repeatable, deepening experience available throughout the Christian life—a foretaste of the joy that will be yours forever.
One sign that you are is that the Spirit stirs your heart to join Paul in this expression of praise to God the Three in One, who has exalted the glory of his grace by saving sinners. All of this is “to the praise of his glory” (v. 14; cf. vv. 6, 12). That’s where Paul ends. That’s where all of history is headed. So bless God who has blessed us in Christ with every blessing of the Spirit.