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The Majesty of God, the Holy Spirit!
This morning we continue to follow the apostle Paul as he ministers, through the book of Acts. I want us to pay particular attention to the Holy Spirit this morning. My prayer is that we would learn, or in some cases, simply be reminded of the Majesty of God, the Holy Spirit. Throughout church history God, the Holy Spirit has been misunderstood. I pray that we would properly understand the Holy Spirit, who is eternal God.
Acts 19:1-3
And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
Paul was traveling from one ministry venue to another. In doing that God put people in his path to minister to. We are never “off” or on “vacation” when it comes to our faith. We must always be prepared to give an answer for our hope.
There are some who terribly misunderstand this text. Let’s pay close attention to the context. First, we remember that Acts is a transitional book. The Holy Spirit had not been baptizing and indwelling believers for very long by this time. These people were not yet Christians, though God had prepared their hearts. Like Apollos, they knew of John the Baptist and were eagerly awaiting the Messiah. They were now finding out that the Messiah had come.
They only knew John’s baptism. John’s was a baptism of repentance which pointed toward Christ. Notice Paul asked “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed” Obviously Paul asked this because he knew that when one believed they should receive the Holy Spirit. They had not because they had not yet believed Christ’s work on the cross. Now while they had not yet believed on what Christ did on the cross, they were sure to do so as God had called them to Himself. All they needed now was a missionary to point them to the cross. This is where Paul comes in.
That is how missions works. We don’t save people, we are simply God’s instruments to bring the message that God has prepared the hearers for.
Now we must notice what Paul does in this text. He does tell them how to get the Holy Spirit, but rather he tells them about Christ. Upon believing on Christ, they received the Holy Spirit. Far too many Christians lack a basic understanding of how God, the Holy Spirit operates. Now notice what Paul says:
Acts 19:4-5
And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
God had prepared these hearts and they believed on Christ. Upon believing on Christ they received the Holy Spirit. This is not some “second blessing” or filling of the Holy Spirit, since these people were not Christians until now.
Allow me to briefly distinguish between a few ministries of the Holy Spirit. Most of us already know this, but we should review it. Among the many ministries of the Holy Spirit are five common that all believers should have a working knowledge of. In fact these five we see throughout the book of Acts. They are:
1. Baptism of the Holy Spirit – (I Cor. 12:13) This occurs when we become saved and (1 Cor. 12:13) This is what was happening to these disciples. To further prove that Spirit baptism is a one time event that occurs the moment one is saved, we can look to the Scriptures. You will not find one time in the church age, or the entire Bible for that matter, where believers are commanded to be Baptized by the Holy Spirit. Believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, but never baptized. That is because Spirit baptism is a one time event.
We must also remember that Baptism identifies us with Christ. Spirit baptism identifies us with Christ and places us into the body of Christ.
2. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit – (Acts, Rom. 8:9) Every believer has this today. This is permanent. In fact, in Romans 8:9 Paul says that if you don’t have the “Spirit of Christ,” that is the Holy Spirit, you are not saved.
3. Sealing of the Holy Spirit – (Eph. 4:30) This also occurs when we believe. As we are Baptized in the Spirit, we are sealed or given a “down payment” of our sure eternal reward. Basically this means that the believer is sure for heaven. Furthermore, Ephesians 1:13 is constructed in such a way as to convey the fact that the sealing takes place simultaneously with salvation.
4. Filling of the Holy Spirit – (Acts 2:4; 4:31) This is not permanent, but is on and off. God fills the believer with more of the Spirit to allow him/her to accomplish certain tasks. This is why you read of people in the Bible doing extraordinary things and you say, “I couldn’t do that, or I couldn’t hold up under that persecution.” You are right and they couldn’t do it either, except that God does it through them by the Holy Spirit.
5. Gifting of the Holy Spirit – ( I Cor. 12:11, 18; Eph. 4:11) As the Holy Spirit indwells us He gifts us according to His will. In other words we cannot decide which spiritual gifts we get. God decides that. Remember that, b/c we will come back to this in a moment.
Ok, so now we understand that portion of this text, now what about the next two verses? Let’s take a look:
Acts 19:6-7
And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.
Here again people often misunderstand. Why did they speak with tongues? Should this always happen when you become saved? Again there are those that say that once you receive the Holy Spirit you will speak in tongues. Again we need a reminder of several facts here:
- Tongues were human languages – They were not some unintelligible heavenly language. (c.f. Acts 2)
- This happened when they believed – The moment they heard the truth about Christ they were baptized into the Holy Spirit. It was simultaneous with them believing.
- They did not have the New Testament as we do.
All right now let me ask you a question: “When you were saved and received the Holy Sprit, could you physically feel some great sensation that made it clear that you had the Holy Spirit? I mean, was it like someone slapping you in the face or something? Of course not! And it was not that way for them. So how do you know what happened when you got saved? Because you have the New Testament that tells you! These people did not have the New Testament as we do. And they did not get some physical sensation either. So how were they to know during this transitional time that they receieved the Holy Spirit and that Paul was not just some crazy man? They themselves said that they had not even heard of the H.S. The proof was that they spoke other human languages that they had not studied and they prophesied.
Well, now that Paul has instructed these men he will go get some rest, right? Wrong! He just continues on. It is almost as if these seven represent and “in between” for Paul as he went from one ministry engagement to another. Paul did more incidental ministry than most of us do intentional ministry!
Acts 19:8
And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
This is quite a long stay in the synagogue. Paul was persistent. Again I am struck by the fact that he did not simply preach the word and just walk away. He “reasoned,” (from which we get our word “dialogue,” so Paul was conversing with them.) and “persuaded” which means to convince by argument. Paul spoke with them about the things of God, eternal things, not earthly things. Ministry takes patience. You need to be patient with me and I need to be patient with you. And let’s praise God that He is patient with us all!
Acts 19:9
But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation,
The gospel will save some and harden others. There is no in between. The words “some were hardened,” is in such a tense that indicates that this hardening was a process. As Paul preached over the course of three months, some of their hearts hardened. This, too, is the intended work of the word of God. It will never return void!
he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.
Acts 19:10
This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
For two years Paul taught in this school. Tradition suggests that Paul taught from 11:00am to 4:00 pm. Tyrannus did not use the school at this time and it was quite hot in the sun outside, so this was a good time for Paul to teach. That is 5 hours a day! And you think I preach a long time?
Conclusion:
As we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper, I want to say a bit more about God, the Holy Spirit. It is not often noted that the Holy Spirit played an integral role is what happened on the cross. Hebrew 9:14, tells us that the Holy Spirit—“the eternal Spirit—was involved in Christ paying for our sins on the cross.
(Note: It is worth noting that some try to contend that the words “eternal Spirit,” do not apply to the Holy Spirit, but rather to Christ’s spirit. Without going into detail, it is most probable that this is, indeed, speaking of the Holy Spirit.)
We should also say a bit about a dangerous false doctrine surrounding the Trinity: MODALISM
This is not a new heresy, but it is common enough that we need to be aware of it. This view teaches that there is One God, who manifests Himself at different times in one of three modes: The Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Thus when God manifests Himself as the Father, there is no Son or Spirit. When God manifests Himself as the Son, there is no Father or Spirit. When God manifests Himself as the Spirit, there is no Father or Son. You can see why this is heretical, then. Some treat this false doctrine as if it is a small error. It is no small error! As I said this is nothing new. There was Monarchianism which was followed by Sabellianism in the early 3rd century of the church. Both of these movements taught modalism. Any definition of the Trinity which falls short of expressing that the following is lacking: “God is One, yet in the unity of the Godhead, exists in three coeternal, coequal persons who are the same in substance,”
The reason I bring this up this morning, is because we are focusing on Calvary, as we observe the Lord’s Supper. Modalism destroys the biblical picture of what happened at Calvary. At Calvary we find that God the Father forsook God the Son for a period of time as the Son paid for the sins of all believers past, present, and future. God the Son speaks to God the Father, as well, while on the Cross. And in Hebrews 9:14, we see that God the Spirit played an integral role in the Death of Christ. If Modalism is correct, then the substitutionary death of Christ as detailed explicitly in Scripture is brought to nothing. So we can see how important it is to be aware of and to steer clear of such heresy.
And so as we have seen, several of the ministries of God, the Spirit, this morning, we now want to turn our attention to the cross. It is there where the Godhead worked harmoniously for Their glory, to secure the redemption of all those who would trust Christ as their savior. I want to make this clear to you today: IF YOU HAVE NOT BELIEVED IN CHRIST THEN YOUR SINS HAVE NOT BEEN ATONED. THERE IS NO ATONEMENT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT TRUSTED CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOR!
Acts 19:11-12
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
Now should we expect this today? NO. God even says this was not usual, but extraordinary! (story about false prophet selling handkerchiefs)
Now we come to a Sarcastic evil spirit. Paul’s life certainly was not dull was it. Paul just wanted to preach the word, pray for people and encourage people. But in the midst of trying to do that he always had other things to deal with.
Acts 19:13-15
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?
These opportunists figured they could invoke the name of Jesus and do the same thing. They wanted popularity and the spotlight. Instead they were made to look like fools. The demon would not recognize their authority.
We must remember at this point that only Jesus and the apostles had the authority to cast out demons. That is important to remember. Also, we must remember that there are no apostles today, at least not true apostles!
Acts 19:16-17
And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
This was the point of all these miracles in the first place: To magnify God’s name. When anything in the ministry becomes about a person or group, it is wrong. Everything should be done to magnify God! Paul did what he did to magnify God. Let’s apply this:
I better preach to magnify God, not myself. Whatever ministry you do it better to magnify God, not yourself. It is not about me. It is not about you. It is all about God! If every one of us puts that into practice, this place will explode for God’s glory.
Acts 19:18-19
Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
This is what it was all about. True belief will bring about changed lives. By some estimations this would be like 5 million dollars in our day! This shows how widespread these practices were.
Now what was the result of all of these things?
Acts 19:20
So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
That is what I want to be said of this church. It will only happen if I do as I believe God wants me to do at every turn. I don’t practice magic, and I’m quite sure you don’t either. But there is still a great application here for us. Everything we do has to be with an eye toward the “God’s word increasing.”
Now let me get personal. This applies to me, the deacons, and all of us: We can sit around and complain and say well, we used to do this or that this way or that way. Or we can look around and praise God that there are about twice as many people sitting here this morning as there were two years ago at this time.
God has been increasing His word here. And Satan doesn’t like it. And so Satan is trying to get to all of us. We must heed the word of God. It must be about God and not ourselves.
I don’t say these difficult things for my sake. I don’t say them because I am mad at anyone here. I say them because it is my responsibility. I am to exhort and rebuke when needed.
