19:1 And it happened,
while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper
regions, came to Ephesus. 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.”
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.”
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.
OK we're tracking the revelation that Paul could tell this
group of believers in Ephesus had never received the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. In fact they confess they have never heard of the Holy Spirit. It comes
out that they were baptized by John the Baptist. It appears they never met
Jesus. This is not a stretch since Ephesus is a long distance from Jerusalem
and Jesus even though He crossed borders in foreign lands He never went that
far. Clearly these men had been in the region of Judah. Perhaps they went to
the temple for a Passover celebration or another feast and heard the preaching
of John the Baptist and were under conviction that they needed to repent and
were baptized. They returned to Ephesus and without mass media or further
contact with the events that transpired in Judah afterwards are essentially
"cut off" from "the rest of the Story".
Now years later Paul somehow comes in contact with this small
group of believers and instantly recognizes they are stunted in a very specific
way - they have never been baptized by the Holy Spirit.
Like I said yesterday fireworks started going off in my head
back in 2005. Was it possible that my church in general after nearly 2000 years
of Christianity and 150 years of Adventism was equally stunted?
I began studying out the instances of Spirit baptism
beginning with the baptism of Jesus. As He came up out of the water God spoke
from heaven, the Spirit came down on Him in the form of a dove. John had
mentioned that He who would come would baptize with the Spirit and with fire.
Clearly the men from Ephesus didn't stay with John long enough to hear that
teaching. Regardless, there was no fire at Jesus' baptism. The Spirit came as a
dove. A dove represents peace. Fire represents purification. That's why we sing
about and the Bible talks about the Refiner's fire. The words God spoke reveal
why the Spirit came as a dove and not as fire: "This is My Son in whom I
am well pleased. Listen to Him."
God was pleased with all that was "in Him". There
was nothing undesirable or what we might call 'sinful' to burn away. Jesus was
the spotless Lamb of God. The Spirit of God found a perfect home in Him. The
power and presence of God could fully inhabit Jesus in human form because there
was nothing evil or twisted or perverted to prevent or disturb a full open
relationship. No fire was needed. God was at perfect peace with His Son even in
after He became one of us.
One more thing to think about and then we'll continue
tomorrow. When Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit it was an undeniable,
tangible event. Anyone who was there knew something supernatural happened. It
was far more than a simple dip in water.
See you tomorrow...
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