Paul At Ephesus
Notes
Transcript
1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus…
Apollos, the one whom Aquila Priscilla had helped in the faith, had decided to move on to Corinth.
Paul had left Aquila and Priscilla here at Ephesus while he was on his way to Jerusalem for the feast. He had told them that his intentions was to come again unto them. So, as he promised, and after he had traveled a great distance ministering in Asia, Paul returned to Ephesus.
1 … And finding some disciples
2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
Once in Ephesus, Paul “finds some disciples”.
There has been much debate over the spiritual condition of these men upon Paul’s arrival.
Some believe these men were already saved and will use this text as a proof text to support their belief that receiving the Holy Spirit is a separate event from salvation, or what some call “the second blessing”.
I do not believe that this is an accurate interpretation of this text or of Scripture as a whole. Let me give you a couple of reasons for why I do not believe this:
To truly believe in Jesus, is to be saved.
We believe and teach that salvation is an issue of belief. All one has to do is believe in Jesus Christ. If one believes, they can and will be saved. Scripture supports this doctrine fully:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
There is no second step to salvation. It is either an all in, or all out scenario.
Also, true belief encompasses repentance (a change in heart that leads to a change in action).
Being indwelt with the Holy Spirit is the deciding factor of whether one is saved or not.
The Scriptures make it very clear that those who do not have the Holy Spirit are not saved:
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Furthermore, the New Testament Epistles teaches unequivocally that the Holy Spirit is received at the point of salvation:
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
The term “Disciple” does not guarantee their salvation:
Some have argued that since they are called disciples, that they must be saved. This is not the case. Although all of those who are saved are disciples, some who are called disciples might not be saved.
Disciples of the Pharisees/John
18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
33 Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”
Even all of those who were called disciples of Jesus were not genuine believers:
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
The Book of Acts must be viewed as transitional:
We have to remember that this time in Acts was a transitional moment. John came before Jesus. John was the forerunner of Christ. He had many people who followed Him and believed His message before Christ started His ministry. Most of them had transitioned to following Jesus during His ministry, but some of them had remained with John. Even after John’s death, some of them, like the ones we see here, never came into contact with Christ or His teachings.
This means that once Paul encounters these “disciples of John”, they had yet to come to know the truth of the Spirit that Christ preached.
This was a transitional period for the Church. We must be very careful how we build our doctrine with the events of this time period. The experiences and phenomena described in Acts are not normative for today.
The rest of the New Testament, those books that were written after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, Pentecost, and the establishment of the church, are not only consistent with one another in their teachings of the Holy Spirit, but also consistent with the Church that exists today.
The belief of those who are dead does not equate to the belief of those who are living:
Some will use a couple of other verses to try and separate belief and the Holy Spirit.
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!
Scripture tells us here in James that the demons know full well and believe who Jesus is, but they are obviously not saved. So how do we reconcile these two concepts together?
Everyone who has stood face to face with Christ, experienced His judgment in condemnation, and seen Him all of His glory believes fully in who He is… without a shadow of a doubt.
Every spirit in hell right now knows full well that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world. There is no doubt left in them that He exists, that He is who He says He is, and that His Word is true.
With these things in mind, Paul asked the best of all questions: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
If these 12 men did not receive the Holy Spirit, then they had yet to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sure enough, their response was, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
So, these men were believers in the message of the Gospel. They believed in the message of John the Baptist, they believed that the Messiah was coming or even had come, but they had yet to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and be baptized by the Holy Spirit. So Paul continues with yet another question, trying to understand the fullness of their situation.
3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
Paul’s question here challenges the motive of their baptism. “Into what then were you baptized?” There response was very simple, “Into John’s baptism.” This answer gave Paul what he needed to know. These were disciples of John the Baptist. This was not uncommon for thousands of people had went down into the rivers where John baptized, repented of their sins, turned towards God, and became disciples. At least now, Paul knows where to take the conversation from here: “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
Paul reminds these disciples of what their teacher taught them. This accomplished a couple of things. First, it allowed them to see that Paul knew John. Paul knew full well what John had taught for at the time he was a Pharisee who travelled around watching his every move, waiting for him to make a mistake so that he could rid of him. There is no doubt that Paul had been present at several of John’s meetings by the river, and possibly even received some of John’s ridicules against the religious leaders while there.
John preached that his baptism was one of repentance. John did not only teach Christ, though that was his main purpose and topic. John also taught the fullness of the law and how the religious leaders had twisted it out of control. John taught the people that this new way of living that had become customary was not in the will of God and if the people truly wanted to be in the will of God, they needed to repent, turn from their sin, and prepare themselves for the coming Messiah.
These men, as well as thousands of others had believed in this message and had followed through with the baptism of John. But as Paul points out here, John openly proclaimed that One would come after him that was greater that he was. This One who would come was the prophesied Messiah and he would not baptize with water, but “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). This man of whom John preached had indeed come. It was the man named Jesus from Nazareth.
After hearing this from Paul, the text tells us:
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
7 Now the men were about twelve in all.
Exploring Acts: An Expository Commentary (a) The Followers of John (19:1–7)
Luke’s hero was Paul. Paul was not one of the original twelve but was an apostle “born out of due time” (
