Daily Thoughts from Acts: Rewarding Faith with Knowledge ((Acts 19:1-7)

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.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 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. 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.  (Acts 19:1-7 ESV)

As Apollos leaves Ephesus and goes to Corinth, Paul comes to Ephesus, where his good friends Aquila and Priscilla are ministering, and finds some disciples just like Apollos, who have been baptized  by John the Baptist for the repentance of sins and to ready themselves for the coming Messiah, Jesus, and his kingdom.  But also like Apollos there is some aspect to their faith that is missing.  Because they have already responded in faith to God’s message they are called “disciples,” but their knowledge is lacking.

Unlike Apollos this group of believers was unaware that Jesus was the one John was preparing them to follow.  They must have left Israel before Jesus began his ministry and John the Baptist announced him as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Salvation has always been by faith in the promise of God, but the unveiling of this aspect of the promise was missed by them.  So God sends Paul to fill in the missing gaps.

Paul’s question of them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed,” indicates that he believes receiving the Spirit at conversion to be the normal procedure.  You believe and when you do you receive the Holy Spirit as part of your salvation.  But something of His ministry is missing from these men and that is why Paul asks.  They indicate that they hadn’t heard that the Spirit had come in this fashion and upon baptism in Jesus’ name Paul lays hands on them like Peter did for the Samaritans, and they have a Pentecost-like experience of speaking in tongues and prophesying.  This shows that Paul has the same authority as Peter as an apostle and it brings to a close this transitional period where people groups need this kind of demonstration of membership in the kingdom and where people have only heard part of the message.

We often hear people ask how God could judge someone who has never heard the gospel.  But the witness of God to who He is and to the obligation of all to worship Him is made evident in Creation (Romans 1:18-20).  The revelation is crystal clear but we have an agenda of running our own lives and so we repress the knowledge of God for fear of having to submit to Him.  But should anyone acknowledge Him, have faith in Him, based on the revelation in nature, as God did with these men in Ephesus, He would send someone to fill in the knowledge they need about Jesus in order to be saved.