A Study of Acts: Paul Meets “Disciples” in Ephesus
Acts 19:1-7 - Will you be with God in Heaven when you die? How would you answer God when He asks you why you should be let into Heaven?
“It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men.”
Acts 19:1-7 NASB1995
Paul has passed through the upper country of Asia Minor and has now arrived in Ephesus. The city of Ephesus is a very important part of Paul’s third Missionary journey and the establishment of the early church. We visited the incredible ruins of the Roman port of city of Ephesus in 2011; the harbor apparently silted over and sea levels changed enough to leave this crossroads town high and dry since the time of the Roman Empire (we traveled inland a few miles to reach Ephesus and our ship docked at a newer town called Kusadasi). Here is a map showing Ephesus at the time of Paul, from bibleatlas.org:
So what do we know about Ephesus? Here’s a short synopsis about this city from gotquestions.org; if you want to read more about the city, go to the link for the map at Bibleatlas.org:
Ephesus was the capital city of a Roman province in Asia. Ephesus was a significant center of trade, located near a harbor at the mouth of the Cayster River in western Asia Minor. The city lay in a long, fertile valley. Major roads connected Ephesus to all the other significant cities in Asia Minor.
Ephesus was known for its amphitheater, the largest in the world, designed to hold up to 50,000 spectators. Ephesus was also the location of the great temple of Artemis, or Diana, built in 550 BC. This temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was “425 ft. long and 220 ft. wide; each of its 127 pillars which supported the roof of its colonnade was 60 ft. high” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia). Much Ephesian industry was related to this temple. Craftsmen sold shrines and household images of the goddess that worshipers could take with them on long journeys. The Ephesians were proud of their religious heritage and its accompanying legends (Acts 19:35).
Ephesus is mentioned often in Scripture. Paul journeyed to Ephesus during his third missionary trip and stayed there for more than two years so that “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10). Ephesus was a prime site for evangelizing the whole province, due to the city’s accessibility and prominence in the region. It was in Ephesus that Paul’s companions were taken into the massive amphitheater where for two hours the mob shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians” (Acts 19:23–41). Despite the strong objections to the gospel, many Ephesians came to faith in Christ through the faithful ministry of Paul and his companions. A church began there, and a few years later, Paul wrote to them a letter that we now call the book of Ephesians. Four hundred years later, Ephesus was the site of a major church meeting known as the Council of Ephesus.
Paul meets some men (counted as twelve) when he arrives in Ephesus who are described as disciples. For some reason, he is compelled to ask them if they received the Holy Spirit when they first believed. Their reply is that they have never even heard of the Holy Spirit! So Paul asked them how they were baptized and they said they were baptized into John’s baptism. So they were similar to Apollos and what he believed before he was corrected by Priscilla and Aquila because he focused on John the Baptist.
Paul tells them they were baptized into repentance but not into the name of Jesus. He baptizes them in the name of Jesus, lays hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues and prophesying. This is one of the only references to a re-baptism in the New Testament. This passage can also (IMHO) be misleading to many, because it implies that you can only receive the Holy Spirit through baptism or the laying on of hands. As I have discussed in other devotionals, baptism is a public declaration of your faith (a big reason why I and many other non-denominational believers do not advocate infant baptism); Baptism is an act best done after you have repented and believed. No tiny infant can understand that and they can renege on that act when they reach maturity.
Well, this passage opened a can of worms in the commentaries! Some commenters believe that these were believers that were already saved but not fully aware of the elements of the faith, but many others said that they were not saved. Here is the opinion of David Guzik in Enduring Word; he is not sure that these disciples were saved or not, due to the conflicting terms used in the passage:
One can imagine that these Ephesian disciples heard about the coming of the Messiah through John’s message, and they heard their need to be ready through repentance to receive the Messiah. Yet they actually do not seem to have heard that the Messiah had in fact come, and had not heard of their need to trust in His specific person and work.
Some have suggested that these Ephesian disciples were not actually Christians yet. The problem in this is that they are called disciples, which almost always refers to Christians, genuine followers of Jesus Christ. However, it must be said that the word disciple does have a broader understanding and application than its most frequent usage – describing a follower of Jesus.
However, [F.F.] Bruce makes the point: “When the men are called disciples without further qualification, that…seems to mean that they were disciples of Jesus. Had Luke meant to indicate that they were disciples of John the Baptist… he would have said so explicitly.”
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An often-debated question is, “Were these 12 Ephesian disciples actually Christians before this remarkable filling of the Holy Spirit, or not?” On the one hand, they were called disciples – and appeared to part of the company of Christians in Ephesus, things that would not usually be said of them if they were not actually Christians. On the other hand, they knew so little about Jesus; and they were baptized in water again, this time in the name of Jesus. It is difficult to say with certainty if they were already Christians or not, but one can say with certainty that Paul perceived they lacked something of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
It is fair for each Christian today to consider if someone were to look at their own life, would they notice a conspicuous absence of the Person and power of the Holy Spirit?
These Ephesian disciples sensed their need to get right with God, and knew the answer was in God’s Messiah – but they had gone no further than that. They need to go all the way, to trust in everything Jesus is and everything He had done, and to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Have ye then received the Spirit since you believed? Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power? Put the question personally. I am afraid some professors will have to admit that they hardly know whether there be any Holy Ghost; and others will have to confess that though they have enjoyed a little of his saving work, yet they do not know much of his ennobling and sanctifying influence.” (Charles Spurgeon)
God always wants us to go deeper. We tend to sip where we could drink deeply; we drink deeply where we could wade in, and we wade in where we could plunge in and swim. Most of us need to be encouraged to go deeper and further into the things of the Holy Spirit.
If someone doesn’t seem to know if they have the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in their life, it’s fair to assume that they don’t have it. If you have it, you should know it. “Give a man an electric shock, and I warrant you he will know it; but if he has the Holy Ghost, he will know it much more.” (Charles Spurgeon) This isn’t something to hope about; we can know – one can know they are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now here is the commentary from Steven Cole, quoted in Precept Austin; he does not believe these disciples were saved (John MacArthur apparently also had this same opinion):
But since they were disciples of John the Baptist, and since John clearly taught that the Messiah would baptize His followers with the Holy Spirit (Lu 3:16+), probably they meant that they had not heard that the Holy Spirit had been given in the sense that John had predicted.....These men believed in the message of John the Baptist, but they had not heard how Jesus had fulfilled John’s preaching. Even though Luke calls them “disciples” (Acts 19:1), it is clear that they were not disciples of Jesus.
In a similar way, there are many in evangelical churches today who believe in God, and perhaps even believe in Jesus in some general sort of way, but who are not truly saved. If you asked them, “Are you a Christian?” they would answer, “Of course I am! I’m not a Hindu or an atheist!” But in spite of their answer, they are not truly saved. How can you tell? One way is to look for signs of spiritual life. We are not told why Paul asked them whether they received the Holy Spirit when they believed, but probably he sensed that something didn’t quite seem right. Maybe they didn’t understand spiritual truth as he talked about it (1 Cor. 2:14+). Maybe the fruit of the Spirit was not evident in their attitudes and behavior (Gal. 5:22-23+). But Paul sensed something that led him to ask a diagnostic question to determine where these men were really at spiritually: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (The KJV translation, “since you believed,” is in error.)
Sometimes you will be talking with someone who claims to believe in Christ and who has been in the church for years, but you sense that something isn’t right. The two diagnostic questions that Evangelism Explosion uses are excellent tools to determine where the person is at spiritually: “Do you know for sure that when you die you will be with God in heaven?” And, “If God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’ what would you say?” Their answers will reveal what they are trusting in for eternal life. A person must believe that Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, paid the penalty for sin that we deserve when He died on the cross. And that person must personally receive God’s gift of eternal life by trusting in what Christ did for him on the cross. Any trust in human goodness, even if coupled with faith in Christ, reveals that the person does not understand the gospel and has not trusted in Christ alone for salvation. (Evangelizing, Empowering, and Equipping Acts 19:1-10)
Both this commentary and the one above by David Guzik have some good questions to ask to determine where a person is spiritually. What I find so fascinating is that I was raised in the American Lutheran church (later this denomination broke up into the ELCA and Missouri Synod denominations). We recited creeds every week that spoke to the reality of the Triune God (Apostle and Nicene Creeds). I was confirmed in the faith. Yet, there was little or no discussion that I recall on discerning how to know if a person was filled with the Holy Spirit. Sanctification was thought to be a “Catholic” word associated with their process of declaring sainthood for someone (at least that’s how I understood it). I never looked for signs of spiritual life in others in that congregation and couldn’t describe how I knew if I was indeed “baptized with Jesus” (and that doesn’t mean my infant baptism).
I personally believe now that in my youth I was not acquainted with or filled with the Holy Spirit. This monumental event happened when we decided to return to the fold and truly follow Christ (I now know the date - December 19, 2006). We can grow in faith only with guidance of the Holy Spirit. Fortunately for those twelve disciples, Paul was discerning enough to know that their justification was incomplete. Here is one more commentary from John Phillips and from the author of Precept Austin:
[John Phillips] The popular but false teaching in some quarters is that believers must ask God to give them the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is one of the benefits sovereignly and eternally bestowed upon a believer at the moment of conversion. Romans 8:9 says, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Either one has the Holy Spirit, in which case he belongs to Christ and is saved, or else one does not have the Holy Spirit, in which case he is not saved. It is wrong to ask God to give us something He has already given to us. The baptism of the Spirit and the gift of the Spirit are interrelated. The baptism puts me in Christ (cf 1 Cor 12:13); the gift puts Christ in me. The one makes me a member of His mystical Body; the other makes my material body the Holy Spirit's Temple. It is equally wrong to ask God to give me more of His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person, and one cannot receive a person by installments. When you accepted Christ as Savior, God gave you the gift of His Holy Spirit. You received that marvelous Person into your life. The Christian life is largely the process of finding out more and more the vastness of the wisdom, the love and the power of the amazing Person who has come to share His life with those who trust Christ as Savior. (Exploring Acts: An Expository Commentary)
THOUGHT [from the author of Precept Austin] - We have all of the Holy Spirit we will ever receive the moment we are saved. For the rest of our sojourn on earth, it will be about the Holy Spirit having more and more of me, as I learn to die to self and rely more and more on the fullness of the Spirit. This will be our lifelong "project" and at its core is the essence of progressive sanctification or growth in Christ-likeness (cf 2 Cor 3:18+).
Good stuff!! If you are asking for more of the Holy Spirit, it’s time to step back and re-visit your initial statement of faith in Christ. He is there in His completeness (and unbounded state) from that conversion moment and we grow into Him as we are sanctified. In case you think I’m always picking on the Lutheran denominations, the non-denominational church we just left was constantly telling congregants to pray for “more” of the Holy Spirit. We have all we need (in each individual) when we are saved.
My next devotional examines Acts 19:8-10. Paul preaches in the Synagogues, encounters opposition, and takes disciples to the school at Tyrannus.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I am going to Heaven when I die and the reason why is because I believe that You, Lord Jesus, redeemed me when You suffered and died on the Cross and You granted me eternal life through Your Resurrection. By believing in You I have the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide me until that day of death. Amen!
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Bibleatlas.org was accessed on 12/20/2024 to review maps for Ephesus.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 12/20/2024 to answer the question, “What is Ephesus?”
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 12/20/2024 to review commentary for Acts 19:1-7.