Pneumatology
The Study of the Holy Spirit
by
WordExplain
|
Pneumatology The Study of the Holy Spirit by WordExplain |
"And
when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came
on
them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying." Acts
19:6
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Paul encountered some disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus. Go
to a Chart of Speaking in Tongues in the Book of Acts D. The
Apostle Paul encountered some “disciples”
in Ephesus who had not received the Spirit. After he laid hands on
them, they spoke in
tongues and prophesied. What
was the
significance of tongues-speaking here (Acts
19:1-7)?
1. This
incident begins with a reference to Apollos (Acts 19:1), who, like the
disciples Paul found (Acts 19:1) also previously
had inadequate knowledge, being unaware of Jesus
(Acts 18:24-28). 2. When
Paul met these disciples, he must have sensed something missing. He asked them, “Did you
receive the Holy
Spirit when you
believed?” Their
reply confirmed his
suspicions. They
had never even heard
about the Holy
Spirit
(Acts 19:2)! These
disciples (the word
mathetes, disciple, means
“learner”) had not been baptized
in
or with the Spirit (Acts 1:5; 11:16). If
they did not have the Holy
Spirit, Paul reasoned, they were not even Christians.
They must not be believers
in Jesus,
for all believers
in Jesus
have the Holy
Spirit. For
Paul there was no such thing as being a Christian and not having the Holy
Spirit (Romans
8:9; 1
Cor. 12:13). 3. Paul
probed further. If
they had not been baptized
in
or with the Holy Spirit, into what had they been baptized? They replied that they had
been baptized into
John’s
baptism (Acts
19:3). So these disciples were
disciples of John
the
Baptist, but not of Jesus. They lacked sufficient
information to follow Jesus. They apparently had never
even heard of
Him! Paul had
discovered that, though
they were disciples of John
the
Baptist, they had not even heard all
of John’s
message. They
had never heard the
part of John’s
message in which he predicted One mightier than he himself –
One who would
baptize with both fire
and Spirit
instead of mere water
(Matt. 3:11;
Luke
3:16). These
disciples had repented
of their sins, but they had not repented
in regard to Jesus
–
in fact they had never heard of Him! 4. So Paul
proceeded to educate these deficient disciples (Acts 19:4). He
confirmed John’s
message of repentance
and the need to be baptized in water
as a
means of public identification with John and his message. This they had already done.
But he also informed them
that John preached
more – that his adherents should believe in the One mightier than John
who was
to come, namely in Jesus
the
Messiah. When these
disciples heard this
information, they placed their faith in Jesus
and were,
accordingly, baptized
by water
into Jesus’
name (Acts 19:5). “This
is the only
explicit reference to re-baptism in the New Testament” (Dr.
Constable’s Notes on Acts, 2007 Edition,
p. 244). 5. At some
point subsequent to their water
baptism,
Paul laid his hands on these new believers
in Jesus. It was at that point that
“they began
speaking in tongues and prophesying” (Acts 19:6). 6. It is
here that Luke, the writer, notes that the number of these disciples
consisted
of “about twelve men” (Acts 19:7). Luke
immediately
mentioned that Paul then entered “the synagogue,” attempting for three
months
to convince the adherents there of the need to enter “the kingdom of
God” (Acts 19:8.
Cf. John 3:3, 5). 7. It is my
guess that these twelve men (and their families) had originally been
part of
this synagogue in Ephesus to which Luke now refers.
Somehow they had been exposed to a partial
message of John
the
Baptist and had believed.
When they
found themselves at odds with the established Judaism of the main
synagogue,
they had withdrawn and formed their own smaller, independent synagogue,
which
required a quorum (minyan) of ten adult
males. It is this
larger, main synagogue to which
Paul now directed his attention. When
he
met opposition in the synagogue, he himself withdrew to the school of
Tyrannus
and began teaching there daily. He
took
away all his disciples. Presumably
this
would have included all believers
in Jesus
from both
the main synagogue and the smaller, independent synagogue.
God blessed Paul’s
ministry to such an extent
that everyone in the Roman province of
Asia heard
about Jesus,
regardless of
whether they were Jewish or Greek (Acts 19:7-10). 8. What is
the significance of speaking in tongues as recorded in this incident
recounted
by Luke? The fact that these
disciples now spoke in tongues
convinced Paul that
they were now believers
in Jesus,
as
evidenced by their having been given the gift of the Holy
Spirit. Of
course the disciples themselves also would
have found their new-found faith in Jesus
verified by their
tangible speaking in tongues and prophesying. Go to a Chart of Speaking in Tongues in the Book of Acts
The Significance of Speaking in Tongues Part
D: The Significance of Tongues in Acts 19:1-7 Prepared by
James T. Bartsch April, 2009; Updated February 4, 2022 Published
Online by WordExplain Email Contact: jbartsch@wordexplain.com This study is based on, and the links to Scripture reference the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. (www.Lockman.org) (Scripture
quotations taken from the NASB 1995.
Used by Permission.)
Search WordExplain.com here. Updated February 4, 2022 |
