What did you receive?
Notes
Transcript
I love this encounter this morning of Paul with these new believers in Ephesus. Paul is on a journey. Everywhere he goes he seeks out other believers. He often seeks out people who are hungry for the spiritual and shares Jesus with them.
In our Scripture this morning from Acts we read about a portion of the Apostle Paul's third missionary journey. On this journey we learn that his companion is in Corinth and he heads off to Ephesus.
One of the very first things that Paul did was to search out and find some disciples. These were some men that had come into contact with John the Baptist at some point and had become believers in the coming Messiah through John's teaching and had been baptized.
Lots of times we miss out on lots of new things because we get comfortable with our current situation. If you ask us on most any Sunday what we're going to eat for lunch the usual answer is that we're going to Hosses. It's not that it a particularly great place to eat, but they do have a variety of items on the menu and we've just gotten use to going there.
We can be like that in the church. We know what we like or are comfortable with or that some teacher or pastor taught us and we've pretty much built a fence around us and that is where we live.
Too often in our lives we grow comfortable with where we are at in our Christian faith. We come to expect that God will act and do in accordance with our comfort zone and what we like. There is nothing wrong with rituals for example but if we do rituals for the sake of doing them they are meaningless. The liturgy or ritual that we use during the Lord's Supper is an example. You pretty much know exactly what I'm going to say during that portion of a service. But if we just begin thinking of it as just words then we miss out on what God wants to do in and through us as we partake of that Holy Sacrament.
Over the years as we've moved while I was in the Air Force one of the first things that we did when going to a new town was to find a local church. There is something that helps stabilize your life when going through a moving transition by finding a local church and getting involved in it. If you have someone new move in near you, take an opportunity to invite them to church. They will be more open to the invite then.
According to the written account, the first thing that Paul asks them is: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"
It seems like an odd question to ask. We are usually much more dignified I guess in what we ask when we meet a new person in church. We might ask "How long have you been attending this church?" or "How long have you been a member?" Nothing wrong with those questions, and I've asked them myself but they don't really give an indication of the person's spiritual condition.
Paul jumps right into the heart of things and asks them if they've received the Holy Spirit.
They're reply is "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
I think that Paul must have stood back and slapped his forehead and shook his head in disbelief. The Holy Spirit, you haven’t heard of the Holy Spirit? How is that possible?
Didn’t you hear about Pentecost, that was the Holy Spirit?
Until my mid 20's I could have answered Paul's question in a very similar manner. The local church that I grew up in didn't teach or preach anything about the Holy Spirit. I knew there was a Holy Spirit because of verses that I read in the Bible but I didn't know anything about Him.
About the only time that we heard about the Holy Spirit was in reference to what we didn't believe about Him. There was a growing Pentecostal church nearby and our Pastor was very anti anything that that church did. I've always said that it was like tossing the baby out with the bathwater when it came to anything involving the Holy Spirit.
When I went to Bible College my eyes began to be opened about the possibility of the Holy Spirit being active in my life. I remember being with the Chair of the Theology Department and some other students. He asked me to pray during our meeting and to specifically pray for a filling by the Holy Spirit. I honestly didn't know how to pray that way because I'd never heard that before. I prayed some words which I guess didn't satisfy his request as he prayed after I finished.
As I began to learn about the Holy Spirit and how He wants to work in us I resisted because I was dealing with a serious control issue. I grew up believing that you had to be in control of your spiritual life and do everything as the Bible says "decently and in order". As I learned more about surrendering my life fully to God I saw that as an issue of losing control and I couldn't do that.
As I read this scripture I love their response - "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." They were honest. Their response also reflex a desire on their part to know more about God.
Paul asks them about their baptism, who's baptism did they receive. Their response was that they had received John's baptism, meaning John's baptism. Paul uses that as a spring board to teach them about Jesus.
John's baptism was all about preparation, preparing for the coming of the Messiah. Paul said to them: "John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." John's mission was to prepare people for the Messiah, Jesus. Paul is saying that there is more.
One of things that I believe that many get wrong about Christianity is that it is primarily about judgement. A lot of people will not even darken the door of a church because they have been judged in the past and believe that they will be judged if they come to church.
Christianity is not about judgement, it is about freedom in Christ. When we come to faith in Jesus, we are set free from sin. We are set free and are promised an abundant life, one that is full of the promises of God.
Do you remember the scripture from last week?
3 Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
Paul wrote that God has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings in heaven. That is not some future promise, but it is about right now.
That does not sound like judgement to me, does it you?
If it is not about judgement then why do we continue to believe and teach that it is?
We’ve got it all wrong when we believe that.
In the Gospel reading this morning, Mark wrote:
7 He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
These disciples that Paul was with only had the first part of this. They had received John's baptism, they had repented but that was it. They were still waiting on the promise that John gave of a baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus addressed this with His disciples. He spoke to them as recorded in John chapter 14 about His going away. That conversation caused a sense of panic and uncertainty in the hearts and minds of the disciples. In the midst of that conversation Jesus gives this great promise:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. 17 This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you. 18 “I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you.
We know that promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came in mighty power and filled the Disciples and totally transformed their lives. Do you remember those verses?
1 When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
That same Holy Spirit is the same Holy Spirit that longs to work in and through our lives.
What was their response to Paul's teaching? Look there beginning in verse 5:
5 After they listened to Paul, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in other languages and prophesying.
They were baptized in the name of Jesus. The command of Jesus was being followed. Jesus had said in Matthew 28 "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
If you go on and read and I would suggest you do, the rest of this chapter you see that this event was the catalyst for the spreading of the Gospel throughout the province of Asia. Luke who was the writer of the book of Acts tells us that Paul stayed on for 2 years having daily discussions about Jesus and the Gospel spread.
Paul in midst of his work in Ephesus wrote to the church that he had established in Corinth about his desire to visit them. This letter to the Corinthians must have been near the end of his ministry in Ephesus because he wrote:
8 I’ll stay here in Ephesus until the Festival of Pentecost. 9 In spite of the fact that there are many opponents, a big and productive opportunity has opened up for my mission here.
A big and productive opportunity opened to me Paul wrote.
How was that opportunity opened?
It was by the Holy Spirit. If we desire for a big and productive opportunity to be opened to us it will only happen through the Holy Spirit.
I have this fear and concern that we the church have bought into the idea that if anything is going to happen that it's going to happen because we really work had at making it happen. The idea that the Holy Spirit can transform our lives and empower us was great for our grand-parents generation, but not for today.
We can work hard until the cows come home and not accomplish anything lasting. The history of the church is full of examples of this.
I remember reading a news story about a church down south. The pastor of the church died possibly due to a drug overdose. He and his wife had started this church and divorced a number of years prior to his death due to marriage infidelity. He continued as the pastor of this church and she went off to start a new church of her own.
After he died she threatened to sue the church if they didn't name her as the new senior pastor of the church. She put out a press release claiming that the church was her kids heritage and that she was the rightful pastor of the church. She's since dropped her planned lawsuit when she was reminded that as a part of the divorce settlement that she gave up any claim to the church.
That might be a church in name only but it certainly is not being led by the Holy Spirit when the main concern is what is mine. That not only happens in large churches like that, but it happens in small churches as well.
We can get comfortable with the idea that I'm a member, I come to church, I put some money in the offering plate, life is good, what more do I need to do.
My answer based on scripture is that you don't need to do anything! Doing stuff won't get you anywhere. You need to allow the Holy Spirit to fill you and to empower you and then He will work in and through you.
We often think that hey, I remember when I went to the altar when brother so-and-so was the pastor and I was sanctified.
We had a lady in one church who every time there was an opportunity to testify would stand and give her testimony. It was exactly the same thing every time. "I'm saved, I'm sanctified and I've been in the way ever since". Sounds like a great testimony, sounds like she was actively serving Jesus daily. The problem is that it wasn't true, or it was partially true.
She could indeed point back to a point in her life when she got saved. She could point to a place in her life where she had been sanctified. But when she said "I've been in the way ever since" she was saying that she had been walking with Jesus daily ever since those events in the past. The problem I had is that her life didn't reflect that. Every time she said "I've been in the way ever since" I just wanted to shout out to her to "Get out of the way so that the Holy Spirit can work"! She was one of the biggest gossips and backbiters in the church. Her testimony didn't reflect how she lived her life.
In church when things get tough we try harder. If it's an attendance problem we try harder. If it's a money problem we try harder. Trying harder will not get us there.
Preachers are really good at that, if things get tough they say the Holy Spirit has called them to leave and go someplace else. I'm not saying that doesn't happen because it certainly does, but lots of time is just a copout.
I've looked at the careers of some pastors and you see the trail of wreckage that they've left behind in church after church.
We don't need to try harder. We need the Holy Spirit. Time and time again as you read through the book of Acts you'll see the Holy Spirit coming on to the church. When Peter and John were arrested and hauled before the Sanhedrin, the church prayed. When they were released they prayed. What happened as a result of their prayer?
Luke records this:
31 After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence.
When Peter had his vision while at Cornelius' house and that group came to see him what happened?
44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on everyone who heard the word. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 They heard them speaking in other languages and praising God. Peter asked,
What do we need today? Do we need more people, or more money or more workers, or more, well you fill in the blank? Do we need those things? They would be nice. We could start today and work really hard to get those things, but is that what we need?
No, we - you and I - need a fresh filling, a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit into our lives.
I would ask the question that Paul asked, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Of course the answer is yes to that question, but the in-depth question is have you fully surrendered your life to Jesus? Have you been sanctified? Have you surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?
Are you struggling in life and in your walk with God? Are you tired of trying it on your own? I'd suggest that the first thing that you ought to do is surrender it to the Holy Spirit. Let Him take care of it.
We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy into each of our lives. We need a fresh surrender to Him allowing Him to work in and through us.