SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2018
9:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Old Testament Saints in
Transition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 19:1-7
Message of the
verses: “1 It happened that while
Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to
Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2 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." 3 And he said, "Into
what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John’s
baptism." 4 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." 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on
them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. 7 There were in all
about twelve men.”
We have been discussing as to whether or not these twelve
men were believers or not, and have come to the conclusion that even though
that they had heard John preach and were even baptized by him that because they
have not heard that Jesus died for them that they were not believers. When Paul asked them, in verse two if they
had received the Holy Spirit when they believed their answer was that they did
not know that there was a Holy Spirit.
This probably is what confirmed in Paul’s heart that they were not yet
believers in Jesus Christ for their salvation.
Paul then does some more investigation asking “Into what then were you
baptized?” Their answer was John the
Baptist’s baptism. According to J. B.
Lightfoot this was not unusual to find people who had been baptized by John the
Baptist even though this was 25 years after the death of Christ, and goes on to
state that there were some found even as far into the second century.
Paul explains why John came, as he was the forerunner of
the One who would come to die on the cross for them, that of course being Jesus
Christ. This offers further proof that
these were not believers for they had not even heard of Jesus Christ whom John
said that He would come after him. John
explains to them about what Christ did and not about what the Holy Spirit does,
at least not at this moment. I am sure
that after they became believers that Paul would explain this to them, that is
the word of the Spirit.
John MacArthur writes “The light of the truth dawned in
their hearts ‘when they heard’ Paul’s teaching, and ‘they were baptized’ in
water ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus,’ signifying their spiritual union with
Him by faith. Immediately, in a gesture
of apostolic affirmation, ‘Paul laid his nands upon them.’ Some of the apostles had been present at each
new phase of the church (Acts 2, 8, 10) so that they would be authoritative
witnesses to the reality that all who believed in Jesus Christ were on in
Him. I. Howard Marshall notes that
‘laying on of hands should
be understood as a special act of fellowship, incorporating the people
concerned into the fellowship of the church.
This was necessary in the case of the Samaritan converts in chapter 8 to
make it quite clear that they were accepted fully into the Jewish church centered
on Jerusalem; and it was necessary in the present instance to make it clear to
these members of a semi-Christian group that they were now become part of the
universal church. (The Acts of the Apostles [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992], 308)
Paul’s concluding remarks verify that they were now true
believers as he states “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy
Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.” As mentioned this was the same thing that happened
after each phase of the church that is seen in the book of Acts. Now we have Jewish believers, Samaritan
believers, Gentile believers, and now those who had heard John the Baptist, and
yet had not heard of Jesus who became believers.
This section concludes our outline from John MacArthur’s
commentary entitled “Breaking with the Past,” and so I want to quote his concluding
remarks on this chapter.
“So all the groups were
gathered in. And in each case apostles
were present to verify that all received the same Holy Spirit in the same
way. That having been completed, Paul could
write to the Ephesians ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were
called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph.
4:4-5). From then on, the Holy Spirit
would come to every heart at salvation, as the epistles teach.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Like devouring fire” (Exodus
24:17).
Today’s Bible
question: “What four things do not count
without love?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/7/2018 10:23 AM
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