Have You Received?

Acts 19:1–7 NASB 95

1 It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2 He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. 7 There were in all about twelve men.

Introduction

The outpouring on the Day of Pentecost had come. Now, the body of Christ became the temple of the Holy Spirit

While all were indwelt with the Spirit, not all were baptized and received this new experience, this new Spiritual era

An uninformed people

They had only heard of “John’s baptism” (v. 2)

English language is incredibly complicated because we have homographs (words spelled and sounding alike), homonyms (words spelled the same but different definitions) and homophones (words that sound alike but had different definitions)

homographs

tear (rip / cry)

bass (fish / instrument or sound)

homophones

meet / meat

ball / bawl

vain / vein / vane

so / sew / sow

there / they’re / their

homonyms

bark (tree / dog talk)

right (correct / opposite of left)

ring (jewelry / encircle)

Baptism in Scripture

John’s baptism / Christian baptism—water

Baptism into Christ —salvation

Spirit baptism—Pentecostal experience

A subsequent experience

At this point the disciples (v.1) had not yet been baptized in water following the command of Christ. (v. 3-5)

In obedience to the Great Commission (Mt 28), they were baptized by Paul and associates.

A new beginning

After all this, Paul laid his hands on them and they had their own “pentecost” with evidence of tongues and prophetic utterance. v. 6-7

Conclusion

Salvation is the best decision a person can make, and they should follow it up with water baptism.

Spirit baptism is the next-best decision for it enables believers in ways not usually possible otherwise.