Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I presume you’ve had the experience of starting a project and without enough time to finish, leaving it for another day, maybe many more days? I left you yesterday mid-stream, almost mid-sentence, in an experience like that with the apostle Paul and 12 men in the city of Ephesus in the year 52ad. It’s recorded for us in Acts 19 and let’s rejoin Paul as he is explaining Jesus and the full Gospel of Jesus to these men who only knew a little about Jesus.
Paul had asked them a simple but powerful question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2) They had responded “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Yesterday I led you through what I suspect Paul explained to them about the Holy Spirit of God, and we believe these men enthusiastically placed their full trust in Jesus Christ to be their Savior.
Paul pressed in with another question for these men: “Then what baptism did you receive?” Paul was asking what they had been taught and if they had actually experienced any type of baptism. “John’s baptism” was their response. Immediately Paul knew what they meant and that they had a very limited understanding of Jesus, and the life transforming work of God that Jesus offered them. So, Paul jumped right in, he never wasted an opportunity like this. “Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the person coming after him, that is Jesus.” (Acts 19:4)
Now that’s all Luke gives us of this conversation, but I have to believe it was much, much more than that. Paul had never met John the Baptist, as far as we know, but Paul knew the Old Testament very well and had memorized most, if not all of the Scriptures which pointed forward to the long-awaited Messiah.
Paul had a remarkable way of contextualizing the Gospel. That means he could explain Jesus and His Gospel to a person in a way that person would understand within the context of their person and social setting. So, perhaps as Paul did in Athens at the Areopagus, (Acts 17:16-34) or in Thessalonica, (Acts 17:1-4) Paul stepped into their experience and clarified for these Ephesian men the story of who John the Baptist was, what his relationship to Jesus the Messiah was, and what John’s message was.
Paul explained that the baptism John practiced in the Jordan river was an opportunity for Jewish people to proclaim their belief that one day soon God would send Messiah, and to acknowledge that they were sinful people who needed God’s forgiveness.
Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t just preach about God, or call people to prepare for Messiah, Jesus IS the God sent Messiah! But more, Jesus is God the Son, who came to our world to proclaim God’s Redemption truth and then to PAY the full Redemption sin price for humanity through His atonement death on the cross.
I can see the eyes of these men opening wide, their mouths dropping open in amazement as Paul explained Almighty, Holy God’s willingness to accept the atonement death of Jesus on the cross as payment in FULL for their sin, and God’s readiness to declare them forgiven of their sin and assured of eternal life with God in heaven!!
But there was even more! As Paul explained that Jesus had promised HE would send the Holy Spirit of God to cleanse and live within every person God saves from their sin. Oh my goodness can you see these men beginning to gain a whole new understanding of a new life available to them in a dynamic, living RELATIONSHIP with the resurrected Jesus? A Holy Spirit empowered life!
Acts 19:5 tells us what happened next: “On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” That word “baptized” means “immersed”. This is what Jesus had commanded His apostles to do: “As you are going make disciples of all peoples baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them all I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
It matches with what we see in Acts 2:41, when 3000 Jews, in Jerusalem, trusted Jesus Christ to be their Savior and were baptized! And it’s what happened in Acts 8:12 with many Samaritans who trusted in Jesus and were baptized in Samaria; and Acts 8:38 with Philip and the Ethiopian official; and Acts 9:18 with Saul in Damascus; and Acts 10:48 with Peter and Gentiles at Cornelius’ home; and Acts 16:15 with Lydia and her household; and Acts 16:33 with the Philippian jailer and his household.
You see, the normal pattern is a person who hears the Gospel believes in the truth about Jesus, then trusts in God to apply the atonement death payment of Jesus to them as they repent of their sin. Then, this newly saved person steps forward into what most people call ‘believers baptism’, as an outward symbol of the inward act which God is accomplishing in His Redemption work of salvation in that person. Evidently these men in Ephesus did that, fully trusting in Jesus Christ to be their Savior, and then asking Paul to baptize them!
Look, can you see them? 12 dripping wet men standing around together thanking Paul for his explanation of Jesus and his helping them move, from simply believing a few historical facts about Jesus, to actually trusting Jesus to be their Savior, and then stepping into the baptism waters to proclaim their full allegiance to Jesus.
Luke tells us Paul, who had been watching very carefully, now did one more thing: Paul gathered them around to pray. Luke writes: “When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” (Acts 19:6) Once again we have a brief statement summarizing a very, very significant experience. Now friends, what is this and do we have any record of a similar event in Scripture?
Yes, I see almost exactly the same event in Acts 8:17 as apostles Peter and John placed their hands on new Samaritan believers and prayed for them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them. But do you notice there is NO record of this ‘placing on of hands’ before receiving the Holy Spirit, with any of the other reports of conversion and baptism through the story of Acts? In fact, with the Gentiles, in the home of Cornelius in Caesarea in Acts 10:44, the Holy Spirit came upon those people as they were listening to Peter, even BEFORE they had professed their faith in Jesus and been baptized!
So, my friends, what does God want us to understand about this? May I suggest these three things at least:
1. First, the saving work of God in the life of a repentant human being is a miracle of God which God uniquely accomplishes in each person.
There is the normal pattern of hearing and understanding the Gospel of Jesus, then confessing and repenting of sin, and then fully trusting in Jesus Christ to be their Savior, but God’s response to that is uniquely, miraculously applied to each person, as God saves and transforms them.
2. The work of God accomplishing our salvation includes our Regeneration and Cleansing and Baptizing into Christ by the Holy Spirit of God; and our Redemption from sin and our Reconciliation to God accomplished by Jesus Christ, God the Son; and our Forgiveness, Justification and Adoption being accomplished by God the Father.
Each of these is unique and distinctive, each requiring the power of God applied to our sinful but repentant life and most of them happening simultaneously!
3. Speaking in tongues or languages, other than the normal mother tongue of the person speaking, was occasionally miraculous evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in a person experiencing the Salvation work of God. (Jews Acts 2:4; Gentiles in Caesarea Acts 10:46; Gentiles in Ephesus, Acts 19:6)
However, the vast majority of people experiencing salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ and the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, DID NOT have a speaking in tongues experience. (3000 new believers Acts 2:41; many more in Jerusalem Acts 5:14 & 6:7; Samaritan believers Acts 8:17; the Ethiopian official Acts 8:38; Saul’s conversion Acts 9:17; the church in Antioch Acts 11:26; etc.)
So, let’s be careful we don’t expect this miracle of tongues as validation that salvation by God has actually occurred in a person. It was a rare Holy Spirit anointing for a specific purpose each time.
Now, let’s pause and ponder all this my friends. What stands out to you as most significant in what the Holy Spirit has helped us see today?
Today’s Scripture is Acts 19:1-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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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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