Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Friday,
Summertime travels often bring people to special places, for special experiences, which they’ll talk about for years to come, right? I wonder how often you’ve been in a conversation with someone, and you both suddenly discover you’ve visited the same place and of course you immediately ask questions to see if the person had the same experiences, you had there? Yesterday in our journey with the apostle Paul we watched as this happened to him upon his arrival at Ephesus on his third missionary journey. We find the record in Acts 19:1-7.
As Paul met some men in Ephesus who were introduced to him as ‘disciples‘ of Jesus, Paul was quick to ask them a simple but profound question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2) One of the great distinctives of true Christianity is the very powerful work of the Holy Spirit of God IN the life of any person who genuinely places their full trust in Jesus Christ to save them from their sin condemnation and sin bondage.
You see my friends, in every other religion or spiritual system in the world people are instructed to do certain things which they are told will earn God’s acceptance or God’s approval or even God’s blessing of them. But Jesus had promised that those who fully trusted in HIM would RECEIVE the Holy Spirit of God coming to live within them (John 14:16,26) and the Holy Spirit would then do some life changing work of God IN their lives! (Acts 1:4)
But in his travels Paul had encountered many people who had heard the stories about Jesus, found themselves interested in Jesus, maybe even prayed to Jesus, or believed in the historical facts about Jesus, but after Paul’s questioning of them, Paul found many had not experienced the hallmark event, the work of the Holy Spirit, which confirmed God was saving that person from their sin.
They had not experienced the Holy Spirit of God coming to live within them and accomplishing the work Jesus had promised God wanted to do in those He saved from sin: Redemption; Regeneration; Reconciliation; Justification; Cleansing; Sealing etc.
Luke tells us the response of these Ephesian men was shocking to Paul: “No, we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.” Immediately Paul knew that whatever these men in Ephesus had heard about Jesus was not nearly the whole Gospel and while they might have some level of interest and even belief in what they’ve heard about Jesus, they have not yet experienced the saving work of God in their lives! They were still lost in their sinfulness.
Let me ask you my friends, if you were having a spiritual conversation with someone who said they believed in God and they even believed in Jesus, but if they said what these men had said to Paul: ‘I have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit’, what would you say in response to that?
Luke has not told us much about these men talking with Paul. Were they Jewish men who frequented the Synagogue and knew their Old Testament well, or were they Ephesian Greeks who had no idea about Jehovah God prior to Apollos giving them some instruction? I wonder if Paul started in the beginning… Genesis 1:1,2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” There it is… the first mention of the Holy Spirit in the Bible! As God was creating our Universe and planet earth, the Holy Spirit was there and involved!
By the way, did you know Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus, “The Son of God is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” This means Jesus, God the Son, was also there at the creation in the beginning of time and HE was very active in the creation work!
Friends, this is why Genesis 1:26 is so important: “God said let US make mankind in OUR image…” The name of God there is Elohim, it means one God in plural form, it’s the Trinity… God the Father; God the Son; God the Holy Spirit, working together in Creation!
Perhaps Paul moved on from Genesis to explain that the Old Testament has several accounts of normal people who were anointed by the Holy Spirit of God at specific occasions, for specific tasks God was asking them to accomplish.
Gideon, for instance, was instructed by an angel who told Gideon that God would empower him and guide him to lead a small group of Israelites in battle against a very large enemy force which was ravaging God’s people, and because of the Holy Spirit, Gideon would be successful. In Judges 6:34 the record says: “The Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon and he blew the trumpet and summoned the men to follow him.”
Perhaps Paul recited for these Ephesian men how the prophet Samuel had explained to Saul, soon to be anointed the first king of Israel, that the Holy Spirit of God would come upon him? The record says: “Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head saying: ‘the LORD has anointed you ruler over His people’…the Spirit of the LORD will come powerfully upon you, and you will be changed into a different person…and God will be with you.” In the record of 1 Samuel 10 not only did Samuel predict this, but it happened, just as he promised it would. Paul probably explained that in both these cases and others, the anointing of the Holy Spirit was not permanent but temporary, and for the purpose of enabling the anointed person what they needed, to accomplish the assignment given them by God.
But what Jesus had promised for believers in HIM was different! Jesus had said “My Father will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth…who will live in you and be with you.” (John 14:16,17) Do you hear permanence and the Spirit living WITHIN a person, not simply empowering or anointing a person temporarily?
I imagine Paul also told these Ephesian men Jesus had said: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to you, will teach you all things...” (John 14:26) therefore, as we receive the Holy Spirit living within us, we can expect He will teach us, guide us, counsel us, warn us of schemes of the devil or danger. Perhaps Paul added that Jesus had spoken all these things in that upper room the night before Jesus went to the cross, and here’s yet one more thing Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, that night: “He will convict the world about sin and judgment…and He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:8,13) This was so important for these Ephesian men and for you and me, my friends. The Holy Spirit of God is responsible to teach us God’s truth and convict us when we are wrong in our thinking, our words, our attitudes, or our actions.
I imagine Paul stopped frequently in this explanation asking if these men understood what he was explaining to them? Perhaps he even prayed asking the Holy Spirit to open their minds and help them understand these great spiritual truths. Perhaps Paul explained this powerful truth which he later wrote to the Corinthian Christians: “The god of this age [the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot understand the light of the Gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4) Maybe Paul took the time to help them understand there’s a spiritual battle which rages as people are hearing God’s truth.
This is a very important work of the Holy Spirit; Paul even dedicated an entire chapter to it in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians. (1 Corinthians 2) In that chapter Paul writes this: “The person without the Holy Spirit of God does not accept the things that come from God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Holy Spirit.”
Now let’s pause right here, along with Paul and these Ephesian men. Do we understand how each of these important truths about the Holy Spirit alive and working in us, is so significant and is evidence the Holy Spirit is actually doing in us the work God promised? Is this what you have been experiencing with the Holy Spirit my friends?
Here’s a song to help us consider the remarkable work of the Holy Spirit and we’ll come back here to continue digging into these very important truths of God, tomorrow!
Today’s Scripture are Acts 19:1, 2; John 14 & 16.
Choose below to read or listen.
Acts 19:1, 2
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John 14
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John 16
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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