I please God to bless us together
as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the Apostles.
And this evening we'll speak on chapter 19, the first seven
verses. Last week we left the God's servant
Apollos, and we saw that Paul was coming, moving on, and so
we read here, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at
Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came
to Ephesus and finding certain disciples, he said unto them,
have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? Well, again,
it's so encouraging to see how the Apostle Paul constantly desires
to preach the Gospel and to speak to those who who received the
word and whatever opportunity he was given it seems that he
took it and made the most of it. And here he is in Ephesus,
he left Ephesus a short while ago, he was there just for a
short time and then he'd come into Corinth and now he'd gone
back to Ephesus and of course it was quite a long journey,
it wasn't a short journey, he'd gone through the upper coasts
and he'd come to this big and worthy city, and he found there
certain disciples. So quite clearly, these were
true followers of the Lord, they were disciples, they weren't
strangers, that's how he addressed them, and he asked them a question. He asked them an important question,
really, in those days. He said, have ye received the
Holy Ghost since ye believed? Now it's clear, therefore, that
these were believers. And they had, therefore, received
the gift of the Holy Spirit. As when we are born again by
the Spirit of God, of course, it is His Spirit working in us.
And there is no new birth unless that Spirit does work within
us. So everyone who is born again has received the Spirit of God
within them. But here the Apostle is speaking
really of a different situation. And of course we are thinking
of these apostolic days, the days when the disciples were
on the earth, and when the Apostle Paul was preaching the Gospel
and how the Lord greatly blessed their work and granted them many
signs. They were blessed with great
abilities which were granted to them from the Holy Ghost to
heal and to perform miracles. And therefore the Apostle, he
addresses these disciples and he asks them the question. that
whether they have received the Holy Ghost since they believed.
And it's always good to realise that when we're asked questions,
we answer it in an honest way. There is perhaps a tendency to
prevaricate, especially when it comes to the things of God. When people are asked direct
questions, they sometimes don't really answer very honestly.
But here we have these men, they were asked this question, whether
they'd received the Holy Ghost as they believed, and they said
unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any
Holy Ghost. Well, that was a very honest
answer, wasn't it? They didn't pretend to know or
to have that which they did not. And it's a good thing when we're
honest. We're often perhaps fearful, to be honest, because we show
up our ignorance. That doesn't hurt, does it? It's
far better to confess what we don't know than to pretend that
we do know when we don't, in which case we're acting in a
hypocritical way. It's right to answer questions
honestly. And so here they came, And they
spoke to the Apostle and they said, well, we haven't heard
whether there is any Holy Ghost. Well, the Apostle, of course,
was directing them to this extra gift of the Holy Ghost, which
came upon the disciples and early church in this way. And so it
goes on. And he said unto them, unto what
then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism.
And again here, this is a very straightforward answer, wasn't
it? And we know that John the Baptist had been sent by God,
a most amazing prophecy fulfilled when John the Baptist came to
speak of the Messiah who would come. He'd come to prepare the
way. It had been prophesied so many
years ago, and it had come to pass, and John the Baptist was
graciously blessed to proclaim this good news. And he did baptize,
but he baptized unto repentance. He didn't baptize in the name
of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, but it was
right that people should confess their sin and to repent of their
sin. therefore that which was done
was good, but now there was a different situation. And the situation
was that they then said, Paul, John verily baptized with the
baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should
believe on him which should come after him, that is, that is our
Lord Jesus Christ. It's important to understand
that John was preaching of the Lord Jesus who would come, and
now he had come. And of course the Apostle Paul
was able to declare who he was and what he'd done. And of course,
there was now a very different scenario. It was really that
which was now what we call, and rightly so, believers' baptism.
There were those who now were baptised, who were true followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they believed in what the Lord
Jesus had done. And it is significant that we
know that the Ordinance of baptism is symbolic. It shows the believer
going down into the death of Christ, as he goes into the waters,
and then as he comes up out of the waters, is raised again to
a newness of life. And therefore, it was a different
situation. And we see here then that Paul
is speaking to these believers and telling them of the situation. Now we might think, well what
effect did it have upon them? When they heard this they were
baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there have
been those people still today who perhaps have been baptised
in a false way. They may have given what they
think was a testimony of God's mercy and favour to them, but
in fact it may not have been. They may still have been in darkness.
may not have been in the light and therefore when the light
shone into their hearts and they saw how they've been baptized
falsely then they were baptized again in the name of the father
and the son of the holy ghost of course there's no need to
be baptized twice if we've been baptized rightly on the first
occasion but we see here the immediate response And it is
wonderful today, as we read the Acts of the Apostles, and again
and again, we come across those statements, they believed, wonderful
blessing, and were baptized, a true follower of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. As we read the New Testament,
we don't really read of any believer who was not baptized, apart from
the dying thief. And of course he could not be
baptised. He was on the cross, it was not
possible. But sometimes people hide under that situation and
quote him as a good excuse why they shouldn't be baptised. Well,
my friends, it is a wonderful privilege to follow our Lord
and Master, because we put on Christ, therefore, as a testimony
before men of whose we are and whom we serve. And to think that
the Lord Jesus Christ so wondrously and so mercifully died so that
we might possess the great gift of eternal life. If we really
have an understanding of the cost of our salvation, shouldn't
it move us? to be a true follower of our
great and glorious Saviour. And so, here we hear these words,
when they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord
Jesus. You see, they couldn't have been
baptised previously, because Jesus hadn't been revealed, and
of course he hadn't died, and he hadn't risen again, and he
hadn't ascended into glory. So this was a different situation,
but it was a wonderful thing. And the Apostle Paul directed
these disciples, remember they were believers, but they were
now being taught, if you like, like Apollos was. Apollos, he
was very eloquent, and he was very much for being diligent
in the things that he preached, but there were those things,
that he didn't speak rightly. And therefore we see, and we
saw last time, Aquila and Priscilla, they took him aside and taught
him more perfectly the way of God. We should never be surprised
to receive more perfectly the Word of God. We should realise,
we're ever learners. We'll always be a learner, this
side of the grave, until we pass into eternity, then all will
be revealed. What a glorious scene that will
be. And so we then come and when
Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on
them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. Now this was
the effect, the special effect, of the Holy Ghost being placed
upon them. It wasn't something that was
continued. But it was in these days granted in this special
way so that there would be a wonderful evidence that the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ was the true Gospel and he was the true Messiah
who had now come and had been revealed as the only begotten
Son of God. And therefore the Holy Ghost
granted these special gifts upon some of his people. And so they
came and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. They spoke with
tongues and by that I believe it was speaking in the tongues
of the people that were there. It wasn't gibberish, it was tongues
of the other people who couldn't perhaps understand Greek or Hebrew,
but they were able to understand it in their own language exactly
as it was on the day of Pentecost when all those nations were gathered
together in that place and they all heard the words spoken in
their own tongue. And so here these people were
given this great and glorious gift and all the men were about
twelve. Well it must have been a wonderful
occasion, wasn't it? We can imagine, can't we? Now
they were all in unity, no divisions. Why? Because they were seeking
the honour and glory of God. He was seeking that He might
be lifted up and He might be exalted. And they might do that
which was right and in accordance with His will. There's a great
blessing in being a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ who was a despised and crucified man. And as our
brother spoke in prayer tonight, it is a great blessing to take
up our cross and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a
cross to take up. The Christians are to take up
that cross. They're not to pass it by. The
Word of God is so encouraging to us, and what a blessing it
is, and what a favour it is to be able to, as God sets it before
us, the Gospel, the great truth, and to come and hear God's word,
spoken to our hearts, and be a true follower of our blessed
Lord and Saviour. My friends, tonight, if the Saviour
was to come into this place, would we desire to follow him,
or would we desire to turn our back upon him? Would we say it
really well, I'm not going to have that man to reign over me? Would we be bowing down and desiring
to truly do that, which he has spoken to us of. Yes, let us
never despise the Saviour, but let us, by his grace, take up
our cross daily. It's not once a year, daily,
and to follow him. And it's a great blessing to
be found in that path. And all the men were about 12.
God bless his word, amen.