The Most Important Question
Traveling through the interior regions by the Cayster valley (see note on 19:1), Paul came to Ephesus. This city was an essential port for all sea lanes north, south, and west; the starting point for the two great trade routes east to the Euphrates; the judicial center and capital of the Roman province of Asia; and the religious and cultural center with its Artemis cult (cf. 19:27). Ephesus was, indeed, “the principal trading center of Asia” (Strabo Geography 12.8.15) and most strategic to Paul’s evangelistic purposes (19:10, 26).
The gospel had already been preached there by Priscilla and Aquila and Apollos, who had moved on to Corinth (18:19, 24–27). Thus, it is not surprising that Paul encountered people that appeared to be “believers” (see note on 19:1). Finding no evidence of the Spirit’s fruit or giftings, at least probably no talk of the Spirit, Paul asked, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Paul’s assumption, and Luke’s, is that the gift of the Holy Spirit, however manifested, normally accompanies conversion (2:38; 10:47; 11:15–16; 15:8; cf. Eph 1:13–14; 4:4–5). The believers’ (or better, “disciples’ ”) response in 19:2 (which the NLT renders literally) probably should be taken to mean that they had not heard of the Holy Spirit’s contemporary presence as a salvation blessing. Since they had received John’s baptism and were his “disciples” (19:3), they would probably know of the Spirit’s existence, if not from the Old Testament witness (Num 11:16–17, 24–29; Isa 63:10–11; Joel 2:28–32), then certainly through John’s preaching (Luke 3:16). In fact, John closely tied together the Messiah’s baptism “with the Holy Spirit” and the baptism “with fire” at the final judgment. John’s disciples apparently still looked forward to the Spirit’s coming. Unlike Apollos—who had the Spirit but not the whole truth about the universal, Christocentric, present salvific meaning of salvation blessings—they lacked both the truth and the reality of those blessings. Thus, it is fitting that Paul’s third missionary journey began with helping these disciples of John the Baptist see that faith in Christ is intended to bring a present experience of the Spirit.
Paul placed John’s baptism and their spiritual condition as his disciples in the context of the Christocentric focus of salvation history. John’s self-proclaimed role as the precursor of the Messiah (Luke 3:16; 7:20) rendered his baptism preparatory and potentially obsolete after the arrival of the Messiah. Though the Gospels never explicitly state that John called for faith in Christ, the exalted status and role as savior and judge he gave to Jesus certainly imply it (Luke 3:16–17; John 1:27, 29; 3:23–30).
These disciples of John heard and believed the gospel, so it is right that they received Christian baptism “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” By Paul’s laying on of hands and the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit parallel to Pentecost—speaking in tongues and prophesying, God mercifully gave these disciples the presence of the Spirit in their lives. Pentecost, again, served as a benchmark event. It binds together all Christians, no matter their prior understanding, in the one conversion-initiation experience: faith and repentance, baptism, and the reception of the Holy Spirit (2:38–39; Eph 4:3–6).
The apostle recognized that the disciples’ knowledge of Jesus was incomplete. He therefore asked, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (RSV) The Greek participle is having believed, and it is capable of being translated either since ye believed (AV) or when you believed (RSV). Since the Holy Spirit was usually received at the time of belief in Christ, the latter is preferable. Their answer must mean that they had heard no distinctively Christian truth about the Holy Spirit, for any one familiar with the OT would have heard about the Holy Spirit. 3, 4. These disciples had not heard about Pentecost. They knew only the message of John the Baptist-that men should receive a baptism of repentance in anticipation of the coming One, Jesus. The word Christ (AV) is not found in the best texts.
Much of the mental attitude and spiritual pose of the modern Church is pre-pentecostal, and in this thin and immature relationship is to be found the secret of our common weariness and impotence. (1) If I go into one of our assemblies of praise I find that we are still ‘tarrying at Jerusalem,’ waiting for ‘the promise of the Father’. If I listen to the phraseology of the hymns, I discover that the outlook of the soul is frequently pre-pentecostal—
