Trevor S Ferguson
July
5, 2014
Acts 19:1-6 (KJV)
1And
it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through
the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
2He
said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they
said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
3And
he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's
baptism.
4Then
said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the
people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is,
on Christ Jesus.
5When
they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6And
when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they
spake with tongues, and prophesied.
INTRODUCTION
It is estimated that there are over 2 billion
Christians worldwide, with Christians making up approximately one third of the world’s
population. Within Christianity however, there is a wide diversity of Christian
doctrine, to such an extent, that this has caused many to be confused as to which church is the right church, and what is the right way of
salvation. Added to this, is that even within denominations there are many
differences in standards and individual church policy, and even within individual
assemblies, some policies seem to change with the times.
In light of this, it is reasonable that one may
ask – Are all persons who profess Christianity saved? The bible would suggest
that this is not so. Let’s look at what Matt 7:21-24 says: “21Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast
out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.” Note here, that this does not refer only to backsliders. Jesus
said “I never knew you” i.e. you were never a part of the kingdom!
How then can we identify the true church and
the true way of salvation? I suggest to you, that one can recognize the true church
by its adherence to the original biblical doctrine of salvation and its
adherence to the principles of holiness and righteous living as taught be the
scriptures. Tonight we will look at the doctrine of salvation with particular
reference to the importance of the baptism of the Holy Ghost as a part of New
Testament salvation.
EXPOSITION
The passage in Acts 19 relates an encounter
between Paul and persons in Ephesus who were reported to be believers in Christ.
Paul’s immediate desire was to embrace these new found believers, but before
doing so he needed to know if their salvation experience was complete. He
therefore asked one fundamental question: Have
you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? This question reveals a lot with regards to Paul’s
perspectives on the Holy Ghost. Firstly, Paul clearly expected that all
believers should receive the Holy Ghost. Secondly, Paul would not accept their
salvation as complete, if they had not received the Holy Ghost. And thirdly, Paul
expected that the Holy Ghost baptism was a clearly defined experience which
could be answered with a definite yes or no. This is in contrast to the
position of many today, who suggest that the Holy Ghost is given automatically when
a person is converted and confesses faith in Jesus Christ, or to others that
suggest the Holy Ghost is an optional post conversion experience for some
Christians.
The answer the Ephesians gave was clearly not
satisfactory to Paul – They responded – We have not heard whether there is any
Holy Ghost? Paul’s next question was therefore: “Unto what then were ye baptized?” Here again Paul is suggesting that it is
expected that a person who has received Christian baptism should shortly
thereafter receive that baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is clearly what was taught
by Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:37-39. Note that in Acts 2:39 Peter
emphasized that the promise of the Holy Ghost was given to all present at the
day of Pentecost, to their children, to their children’s children and indeed as
many as God should call. Let me hasten to say, that this promise is given to
all who are reading this blog today!
The Ephesian
disciples responded to Paul that they had only received John’s baptism. Apparently these disciples had heard the
preaching of John the Baptist and were baptized by him. I presume that they returned
to Ephesus without having heard the preaching of Jesus, or learnt about his
death, burial and resurrection. Alternatively, they might have heard the
preaching of Jesus, but had not heard about the day of Pentecost and that the
baptism of the Holy Ghost was now available to all. Paul therefore explained to
them that John preached the baptism of repentance pointing his disciples to
believe on Jesus Christ. Now that Christ has come all believers were to be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and were expected to receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. These believers acted in obedience to the further explanation
of the gospel provided by Paul and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Note that these believers were willing to accept further revelation of truth,
and did not stubbornly hold on to their previous experiences as some do today.
Their response was similar to the situation seen with Apollos as recorded in Acts 18. Apollos
was described as an eloquent man who was mighty in the scriptures, but knew
only the baptism of John. When Paul’s co-labourers, Aquila and Priscilla, heard
about this they explained to him the way of salvation more perfectly. Apollos
accepted their teaching and became a leader in the Corinthian Church.
Verse 6 of Acts 19, tells us that after the
Ephesian disciples were baptized, Paul laid hands on them and they received the
Holy Ghost, spoke with tongues and prophesied. This verse supports Paul’s
expectation as expressed in verse 1 of Acts 19 that persons who receive believe
on Jesus Christ should receive the Holy Ghost.
Let me remind you that the
promise of the Holy Ghost prophesied both in the Old Testament and in the New
Testament gospels; therefore it was not a new teaching in Acts and the
epistles. In Isaiah 28:11, Isaiah prophesied that with stammering lips and
another tongue God would speak to his people. Joel prophesied (Joel 2:28-29) that in the
last days God would poor out His Spirit on all flesh; Ezekiel also prophesied
that God would give His people a new spirit (Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26). In the
New Testament John prophesied that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost and
fire (Matt 3:11) and Jesus himself prophesied that those who believed on him
would receive the Holy Ghost (John 7:38-39, Luke 11:13; Acts 1:4-5).
Putting all of this together we can therefor
make the following statements:
Note also that speaking in tongues is not
just for special situations where people need to hear the gospel in their own
language. There was no language barrier between the Paul and the men at Ephesus.
In fact on the day of Pentecost all the Jews understood the Jewish language.
Tongues therefore are a sign both to the believer and the non-believer as a
supernatural act of God to verify the infilling with his Spirit.
CONCLUSION
Now, what does one need to do to receive the
Holy Ghost? There are only two absolute requirements – repentance and faith:
God will not come to dwell in a vessel marred by sin. We must repent. If we
come to God we must believe – Hebrews 11:6. If we truly believe by faith and
repent of our sins God will come in and fill us with the Holy Ghost – any day
and any time. God wants you to be saved and today is the best day. If you have
not yet received salvation, repent of your sins, ask for water baptism in the
name of Jesus and God will fill you with the Holy Ghost!!
