God’s Word for You
Acts 19:1-2 Is there a Holy Spirit?
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, November 12, 2020
Paul in Ephesus
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul went through the high interior regions and arrived at Ephesus. He found some disciples there 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we hadn’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
Paul had tried to go this way during the second journey but had been prevented (Acts 16:7). Now he was able to make it through the mountain passes, bypassing cities like Colosse and Laodicea (Colossians 2:1), and he came down to Ephesus on the western coast. We will learn later on that he encountered twelve men in all who were disciples. His question to them seems strange to us, but we must remember that Paul surely said more to them than this, and he had a reason for probing more deeply into their Christian experience. It would seem that they had almost no knowledge of Christ at all.
Their answer showed what kind of instruction they had received. These were Gentiles who had barely been instructed, and yet they showed faith, a hope in the coming of the Messiah. We know that they were Gentiles because Jews would have already understood about the Holy Spirit. There is no moment during the ministries of John or Jesus when any of the Jews objected to the mention of the Holy Spirit. About Jesus, John had said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). And Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit many times (Mark 3:29, 12:36, 13:11, etc.). The Holy Spirit is sung about in the Psalms (“Do not take your Holy Spirit from me,” Psalm 51:11) and preached about in the prophets (Isaiah 63:10-11). So if these men had not heard about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament nor in the preaching and teaching of either John or Jesus, then they must have been Gentiles, and they must have had little if any teaching at all.
Paul’s question, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”, isn’t a question about whether the Spirit gave them faith. He saw that they had some kind of faith. Luke describes them, based on Paul’s report, as “disciples.” Paul knew perfectly well that no one can believe unless the Spirit gives them that faith (1 Corinthians 12:8-9). No, Paul must be curious about whether some special gift of the Spirit was conferred on these men when they came to faith. This didn’t always happen, and as the New Testament age progressed such special gifts became less and less frequent. For example, although the Eleven Apostles spoke in unlearned tongues at Pentecost (Acts 2:4), some three thousand converts were made that day without any mention of any such gift for themselves apart from faith (Acts 2:41). In the same way, Lydia and her family received faith but no other special gift (Acts 16:14-15), and also the jailer of Philippi and his family (Acts 16:32-34). Yet at other times, important moments in the progress of the gospel, special gifts were given:
(1) The Apostles speaking at Pentecost (Acts 2:4).
(2) The Samaritans who believed received some sort of gift which was coveted by Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:14-19).
(3) The Gentiles in the home of Cornelius were enabled to speak in tongues in a kind of “little Pentecost” (Acts 10:45-46).
Something similar would soon happen again. But in each case, the gospel was making an important step outward: The beginning of the New Testament Church, the acceptance into the church of the Samaritans, and the acceptance into the church of Gentiles in Judea. The next step would involve gentiles in Asia Minor.
I think Paul just wondered whether any of these new friends had received a special gift. But the question uncovered a deficiency in their Christian instruction. They could not have been disciples of John the Baptist; at least, they couldn’t have heard John in person, otherwise they would have heard about the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:32-33).
The conclusion we come to is that Paul was encountering people with an incomplete instruction in the faith just as Priscilla and Aquila had. The further out into the world the gospel’s missionaries went, there were bound to be more of these spiritually poor people, aching for the coming of the promised Savior and unaware that he had already come. And this must be what is meant by “disciples” who had never heard about the Holy Spirit. They had been given some small amount of instruction, but not enough even to understand what Jesus had accomplished. It was as if they were spiritually still standing on the bank of the Jordan River, listening to the beginning of one of John’s sermons, but without even hearing the rest. They were ready for the gospel message and they had only heard the first few syllables. They knew “Christ,” but not “Christ crucified for our sins.” They had not rejected Jesus in any way. Quite the opposite! But there was so much that they didn’t know, through no fault of their own.
And there was Paul! He was eager to fill in the gaps. He had found out about their faith, he had noticed some kind of deficiency, and he had diagnosed the trouble right away. It was time to bring on the means of grace: the gospel in the word and the gospel in the sacrament. It was time for the message about Jesus to be preached, and for the Holy Spirit to strengthen their tender faith. God the Father had promised this about the Christ: “I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring forth justice. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking wick he will not snuff out” (Isaiah 42:1,3). If ever we encounter tender, bruised reeds of faith in the Scriptures, it’s here with these dozen Ephesian Gentiles. Their “smoking wicks” were hardly even lit, but they were seen by God. They were loved by God. They fell under the blanket of God’s salvation. It was time to firm up their faith.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.