Review of Acts 19

by Pastor Temilolu Oluwasijuwomi

I will dwell in the first six verses, because if I was to write on every single thing that touched my heart in this chapter we may continue for days nonstop.

So, for brevity’s sake we will just make do with the following. Be blessed as you study with me.

Act 19:

1 And it happened in the time Apollos was at Corinth, Paul was passing through the higher parts to Ephesus. And finding certain disciples,

2 he said to them, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said to him, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit is.

3 And he said to them, Then to what were you baptized? And they said, To John’s baptism.

4 And Paul said, John truly baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe into Him coming after him, that is, into Jesus Christ.

5 And hearing, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 And as Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

WHAT DID THESE 12 FOLKS BELIEVE?

They believed in John’s message; that a messiah was coming, in a nutshell.

Like the heroes and heroines of faith in Heb 11:39 …having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise,

So we see that one could have faith yet not receive the promise, if the faith is premised on a wrong foundation.

In Heb 10:1 the bible says that “…the Law which has a shadow of good things to come…”

In Heb 11:1 we are told that “…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”

In Heb 12:2 we are told to be “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…”

Putting the three verses together we can see that Law has a shadow, Faith has a Substance, and Jesus is that Substance we are to concentrate on. So the folks in verse two in Acts 19 believed John in anticipation of the substance, but they had not experienced Christ as well as his baptism. They Knew John and his baptism of water, but were not familiar with Jesus and His baptism of FIRE. Just like one is soaked with water when one is baptised or immersed in water, one is soaked with fire when one is baptised or immersed in the Holy Spirit. The beauty of the baptism or in filling of the Holy Spirit is that, unlike water baptism, you don’t need a specific location where water is, you can literarily get soaked with the fire of the Holy Spirit at any place and any time T. This always puts the enemy is a very tight corner.

No wonder Paul said in Eph5:18 to “…not be drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit,”

And 1Cor 14:18 that I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all

A filled man is a dangerous man to toy with.

SALVATION VERSUS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Some believe that if you are born again, then you have the Holy Spirit and are already baptized in the Holy Ghost. While that seems logically right, based on scriptural citations, they are mostly wrong in that assertion.

They are right in that if you are born again, you have the Holy Ghost because there is a work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth (John 3:5-8; Rom. 8:16).

John 3:

5 Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and *the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,  7 Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. 8 The Spirit breathes where He desires, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes, and where He goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

THE WELL OF WATER

Joh 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

What is a well? It is a generator as well as a reservoir of water. This is what happens at salvation. The Holy Spirit himself engineers the salvation process and works in the believer a well of salvation. We however all know how boring a well could be unlike the river described in Psa 46:4 there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God…

Though the Holy Spirit is in the believer at new birth, at the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit (Act 1:8), the believer can with Joy draw water from that well of salvation (Isa 12:3)! Hallelujah!!!! No wonder the energy and excitement level in gatherings where the people are filled with Holy Spirit is contagious?

However, this water is not drawn with the regular bucket at baptism, the Holy Spirit becomes a supernatural pumping machine that turns the well into a spring and consequently into a river of living water.

John 7:

38 He who believes on me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” 39 (But He spoke this about the Spirit, which they who believed on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

God’s gift for the world is salvation and God’s gift for his children is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which the world cannot receive.  So while a well stores water, the river is a channel through which water flows, but not in the quantity that a well can take, but billion of times over. Aren’t you excited that you are filled with the Spirit?

BAPTISM AND SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Case 1

Act 2:4and they were all filled of the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues…

They were filled, and they spoke with other tongues

Case 2

Act 10:

44… the Holy Spirit fell on all those hearing the Word. 45 …the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the nations also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God…People heard them speak with tongues

Case 3

Act 9:

17And Ananias went and entered into the house. … said, Brother Saul, the Lord, Jesus …has sent me to you that you might see and be filled with the Holy Spirit. 18 … And rising up, he was baptized.

1Cor 14:18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

Paul was baptised and he spoke.

Case 4

And as Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

The Holy Spirit filled them up and they spoke with tongues

Case 5

Act 2:33therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

The promise of the spirit was out rightly different from the new birth, and those who witnessed the baptism SAW and HEARD

IN other instances, the in filling of the Holy Spirit resulted in witnessing, boldness etc.

Act4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,

Act4:31…And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke …

Therefore, suffice it to say that it isn’t possible to be filled and it will not be evident visibly and audibly. For the filling of the spirit is characterized by a flowing out through the mouth of mysteries or witnessing as the case may be. God’s gift for the world is SALVATION and God’s gift to his children is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which the world can’t receive

Am super excited!

IS NO ONE SAVED UNLESS THEY CAN SPEAK IN TONGUES?

This is not completely true as well since John 14:17 clearly says that the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you.

You can see clearly that God’s gift for the world is salvation and God’s gift for his children is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which the world cannot receive

Similarly, in:

Mark 2:22 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, else the new wine bursts the wineskins, and the wine spills, and the wineskins will be ruined. The new wine must be put into new wineskins.

Remember that in 2 Cor 5:17, the bible says“…that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

The old wine skin represents the unregenerate man and the new wine is you and me who have been regenerated in Christ Jesus. However, the new wine represents or symbolizes the Holy Spirit.  What Jesus was saying in essence is that it is not possible that the Holy Spirit be poured into an old unregenerate man. Only those who are born again qualify to be filled with the Holy Spirit if they so desire. Hence, you are not born again because you speak in tongues, you are born again because you believe in the finished work of Christ for you, hence, you are born of the spirit and Holy Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.

Finally, these were introduced to Christ by Paul, making him their father in the faith.

Acts 19:

5 And hearing, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And as Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

So one baptism took place through the hearing of the Gospel of Christ and the Later through the laying on of the hand of Paul. The new birth and the Baptism of the Spirit was mostly simultaneous in the early church hence the mix-up. However, we know from scripture that the events are different. At the new birth we receive a well and at the baptism, we receive a river.

Bask in the euphoria of His spirit, witness to his death and resurrection and do the miraculous hence forth in Jesus name.