Acts 19:1-7 – something’s missing
Something’s missing. Something’s wrong. So many are dissatisfied with their current spiritual condition, and they long for more evidence of God in their lives. Acts 18 and 19 are a series of stories of individuals and groups that were ‘missing something’ in their spirituality.
In 18:24-28 a man called Apollos was accurately teaching the scriptures and preaching about Jesus, but somehow he knew only the ‘baptism of John.’ Something was missing. The 12 disciples in Ephesus also knew only the baptism of John and had not received the Spirit. Something was missing. In Acts 19:13-16 there were some who tried to exercise demons in the name of the Lord Jesus, but they failed. Something was missing.
What was it? It was a personal, life-changing experience with the Holy Spirit.
Now … that opens a can of worms because there is so much confusion concerning what this type of experience looks like, how it happens, and when it happens (at the time of salvation or after). Do I really want to enter this theological debate next Sunday?
Yet with so many people both in and out of the church hungry for a deeper experience with the supernatural and unsatisfied with their current spiritual state, this may be just the topic that needs addressing.
But this isn’t about formulas for Spirit baptism (a phrase which only occurs 7 time in the scriptures – six from the mouth of John the Baptist). It’s about a real encounter with the Holy Spirit. There are two things I notice about the Holy Spirit encounters in these stories:
- It’s personal. Each can/must receive the Holy Spirit for himself.
- It’s real. There is real transformation, real preaching with real responses, real healings, real tongues, real prophecies.
The baptism of John is about what we need to do: repent and believe the Good News. But the baptism of the one who would come after him is the responsibility of God. Maybe that ‘thing’ that’s missing is something that only the Father can give us: the Holy Spirit. We can’t make it happen, but we can receive Him. And when we do, watch out.
He’s real.
According to Acts 2:38 isn’t the Holy Spirit received when we are baptized? Isn’t this the indwelling of the spirit promised to us by Jesus in John 16? I believe the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which we read in Acts 19:6 is the result of Paul placing his hands on them. Just some thoughts. I know you said you didn’t want to start a theological debate but I couldn’t resist. Nice post.
Good Blog, enjoy It…
Thanks
I wonder what you gonna say about experience wiht the Holy Spirit…cause people these days want to experience something visible, tangible etc.
rjeffers …
As far as I can tell, it seems as if trusting Jesus, being baptized, receiving the Spirit, and joining a community of believers all took place relatively close to one another if not at the exact same time. There could be slight delays such as Paul trusting Christ on the Damascus Road, then being baptized in water and being filled with the Spirit a few days later. Or consider the Samaritans receiving the Spirit after being baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 8:14-16) compared to Cornelius’ household receiving the Spirit prior to baptism. In some cases there is the laying on of hands of the apostles, in other cases there isn’t. So while all these things happen closely together and often at the exact same time, they’re distinct events. And there’s more than one pattern.
The Bible speaks of baptism in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, and quenching the fire of the Spirit. Baptism in the Spirit only comes from the mouth of John the Baptist with the exception of Paul’s reference in 1 Corinthians 12:13 to our unity through baptism by one Spirit into one body. I’m not sure how consistent the biblical writers were with their language, so it’s probably futile to separate these Spirit-experiences too rigidly.
I would suggest that we are ‘baptized’ in the Spirit at the point of our salvation, though many of us hindered the freedom of the Spirit in our lives. There may come a subsequent ‘crisis experience’ where, through faith and submission, the Spirit is ‘released’ in our lives. Or maybe we could say that the Spirit is ‘actualized.’
Sorry for all the ‘quotes,’ but they demonstrate how fluid these terms can be. While we should try to be as theologically accurate as possible in our terminology, ultimately it is the experience that is essential.
ml … That’s exactly the direction I hope to go with this. While there are less tangible aspects to the Spirit’s place in our lives (such as being sealed with the Spirit), throughout the book of Acts we see that the presence of the Holy Spirit created real and tangible differences. Real things happened.
I hope to communicate that we don’t merely need a better theology of the Spirit (though teaching was the primary means that both Apollos and the Ephesian 12 came to the fullness of the Spirit in their lives), but that the Spirit should actually cause things to be different in our lives.
But ultimately, the purpose of the Spirit is not to put on some kind of show, but to reveal Christ (John 16:12-15).
Rick,
Thanks for the well thought out reply. I have to say I’m impressed with you blog, especially your take on discipleship. It seems to me that you take Matthew 28:18-20 very seriously. I commend you for that.
As far as the spirit goes, I do agree with you that we should all experience the spirit working in our lives. And that does not mean some emotional/hysterical experience but an experience such as leading someone to Christ, which you so eloquently pointed out in the reply to ml. Great stuff.
Keep preaching the Word!!
Thanks… and please feel free to contribute to the discussions anytime. The scriptures that are discussed here are studied at a Bulgarian house church on Tuesdays and preached on Sunday mornings. The conversations shape what is preached, taught, discussed, and (hopefully) applied here in Cyprus.
Your contribution makes a difference …
The message went well, I think. A number of people came forward at the end to receive prayer for the release of the Spirit in their lives. Past hurts surfaced in a few of those who we prayed for and, amid the tears, God began the healing process. Prior to the msg there was a testimony from someone from a nonChristian background that was incredibly similar to the story we read in Acts 19. We didn’t plan it, but it was one more evidence that God was directing the whole service.
As often happens, there were many who came requesting appointments for further teaching/discipling/counseling. Please pray for more laborers to go into the harvest! There are more opportunities than our current leadership team can handle, and though we continue to equip others, the high turnover rate and relatively young age of the church means that we often have a leadership shortage.