How It Is To Be Taught

"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?' " (Acts 19.1-2a)

It was about twenty years after the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit that this incident took place. While journeying through Ephesus, Paul found some disciples within the Christian church who were lacking something in their belief or experience. So he asked them the question, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit?" They had been baptized by John the Baptist, in hope of their coming Savior, but they still had no concept of the outpouring of the Spirit or the significance of it. Their region of the country had not yet been penetrated by the full pentecostal preaching of Jesus their Savior.

At once, Paul took them and carefully explained the the full Gospel of our glorified Lord who had received the Spirit from the Father, and had sent Him down to this world so that every believer might also receive Him. Hearing this good news from Paul, the excitedly accepted it and were baptized in the name of Jesus, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Then, when Paul had laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit and obtained a share in the Pentecostal miracle and spoke in other tongues (languages).

Through these chapters, it is my desire to bring all children of God the message that there are two levels to the Christian life. The first is that we experience mildly something of the operations of the Holy Spirit, as many did under the old covenant, but we do not yet receive Him as the Pentecostal Spirit. The second is a more abundant life, in which the Spirit's indwelling of us is fully known and experienced! When Christians truly understand the distinction between these two conditions, they will be able to find God's will for them.

Therefore, it is possible for the believer--still humbly acknowledging his own sinfulness--to dare to hope that Christian community will once again be restored to its Pentecostal power. So now, with our eyes fixed on this, let us ponder the lessons we can learn from this incident at Ephesus.