Sermon

Acts 19:1-7

The Baptism of the Spirit

Check out these helpful resources
Biblical Commentary
Children’s Sermons
Hymn Lists

Acts 19:1-7

The Baptism of the Spirit

By Dr. Philip W. McLarty

Our series on Acts continues with Paul in Ephesus.  At this point, he’s well into his third missionary journey.  Ephesus was a major Roman city and home of the temple of Artemis, one of the great wonders of the world in its day.  The temple served both as a holy shrine and a thriving marketplace.  People came from all over to shop and trade and pay their respects to the goddess of fertility.  If Paul could win the Ephesians for Christ, he stood a good chance of winning the whole of Asia Minor.

When he got there he discovered a small, but active, group of Christians.  They’d accepted Christ and were baptized, but they hadn’t gotten the full effect.  Luke puts it this way:

“It happened that, while Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul, having passed through the upper country,
came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples.
He said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’
They said to him, ‘No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’
He said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’
They said, ‘Into John’s baptism.'” (19:1-3)

Paul told them that the baptism of John was a merely a baptism of repentance and that’s just the first step of coming to Christ.  First, you renounce the power of sin and evil over your life and then you receive the promise of new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Ephesians wasted no time.  Luke says,

“When they heard this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
When Paul had laid his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came on them,
and they spoke with other languages and prophesied.”
(Acts 19:5-6)

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized?

That’s what I’d like for us to think about this morning.  To give you a heads up, I want to highlight what the Bible says about the Spirit, and then I want you to ask yourself the extent to which you’re filled with the Spirit.  My hope is the more we know about the Spirit, the more we’ll recognize the work of the Spirit in our lives as we seek to live out our lives in faith.

SermonWriter logo3

A SUBSCRIBER SAYS: “I always look forward to your materials—especially your excellent research. I always hit the books and documents and all the other things. But your materials are always user friendly. Keep up the great work.”

TRY SERMONWRITER!
Resources to inspire you — and your congregation!

GET YOUR FOUR FREE SAMPLES!
Click here for more information

So, what does the Bible say?  In a word, lots.  I won’t try to cover it all.  (You can thank me later.)  But I do want to emphasize what I consider to be the most important points.  The first is this: The Spirit brings us to life.

This goes all the way back to the story of creation.  God took a lifeless lump of clay and fashioned it into the form of a little person and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, and it became a living being – literally, a bundle of appetites.  (Genesis 2:7)

The Spirit brings us to life, and what that means is this: To be filled with the Spirit is to be fully alive, with all the curiosity and wonder and taste for adventure that goes with it.  In other words, God didn’t create us simply to go through the motions; God created us to live life to the fullest.

I had a beggar approach me in front of Union Station in Washington this summer.  As you might imagine, he gave me a hard luck story and asked for a handout.  I gave him more than he bargained for.  I said, “Sit down.  Let’s talk about it.”  Then I asked him his name.  He said his name was Lewis and that he was hungry. Long story, short, I told Lewis he was a child of God and that God didn’t put him on this earth to panhandle tourists like me.  I said, “God has a purpose for your life, Lewis; you have a destiny to fulfill; and, if you’ll trust God and let God lead you, God will bless you far more abundantly than you can ever imagine.”  He looked at me and said, “Would you pray for me?”  I said, “Sure,” and we offered a prayer, right there on the sidewalk.  Then he said, “Now, how about giving me a little money to get something to eat?”

The Spirit brings us to life – not go through the motions – and not settle for a menial life of begging or stealing or working at a job where you’re stressed out and miserable.  Jesus said,

“I came that they may have life,
and may have it abundantly.”
(John 10:10)

God breathes his Spirit into us in order that we might come alive to the knowledge of his presence and play a part in the wonder of his creation.

The Spirit brings us to life, and then it leads the way. That’s the second point.  Paul said,

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are children of God.”  (Romans 8:14)

So, what does it mean to be led by the Spirit?  It’s first to pray, “Lead me, Lord.”  Then it’s to look and listen for the Spirit to give direction.  Sometimes that comes as the voice of conscience, and sometimes it comes as a gut-level feeling that you ought to take a left instead of a right at the next fork in the road.

It’s a subjective reality, this leading of the Spirit – not something you can define or quantify in any way – so that to walk by the Spirit is to walk by faith, not by sight.  It’s to seek God’s will for your life and trust God to lead the way.  Think of the Spirit like the Prompter in an opera.

The Prompter is the person who stands in a little recessed compartment at the front of the stage.  Only his head and shoulders are visible from where the actors stand.  There’s a little hood behind him to conceal him from the audience.  He has the complete score in front of him so that, as the drama unfolds, he can prompt the actors if they forget a line or miss their pitch.  All they have to do is glance down at the prompter, and he’ll give them the help they need to play their part.

The Spirit is our Prompter.  The Spirit gives us the direction and support we need to live out our lives as children of God.  The Spirit not only leads us, it anticipates our needs – point three.

Have you been at a loss or down in the dumps, and a friend asked you, “What can I do to help?” and you honestly didn’t know what to say?  Jesus told his disciples,

“Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you will ask anything in my name,
I will do it.”
  (John 14:13-14)

The problem is we don’t always know what to ask for.  Sometimes the things we want the most are the things we need the least; and the things we need the most are the things we never thought about asking for.  The Good News is that the Spirit prays for us.  Paul told the Romans,

“The Spirit also helps our weaknesses,
for we don’t know how to pray as we ought.
But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us
with groanings which can’t be uttered.”  (Romans 8:26)

Several years ago I was introduced to the discipline of contemplative prayer.  Contemplative prayer is prayer without words.  Some think of it as meditation, but it’s more than that.  Contemplative prayer is a way of centering your life in the Presence of God.  It’s to lay aside the cares of the day and enter into the peace of God’s holiness.  The irony is, when you enter into the peace of God’s presence, you realize that God already knows what you need before you ask, and you find that God’s grace is sufficient for your every need.

Listen: It’s not up to you to name every problem and say what you think God ought to do about it.  All you have to do is come before the throne of God’s grace and praise God from whom all blessings flow.  The Spirit will take care of the rest.

The Spirit prays for us.  The Spirit also brings us into unity with God and each other.  As Paul told the Corinthians,

“For as the body is one, and has many members,
and all the members of the body, being many,
are one body;
so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks,
whether bond or free;
and were all given to drink into one Spirit.”
(1Corinthians 12:12-13)

Last week we talked about the spirit of collaboration and how we’re called to work together as the Body of Christ in the world today.  When we pool our strength and resources and work together for the common good, we can accomplish just about anything.  When we compete and fight and look out for Number One, we become divided and get nothing accomplished.

Remember the story of the Tower of Babel?  It’s found in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Genesis.  It begins, “The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.” (Genesis 11:1)  It was an idyllic time in the dawning days of civilization.

But it didn’t last long.  The people said, “Come… let’s make ourselves a name…” (Genesis 11:4), and that’s where the trouble began.  The people began to bicker and quarrel to such an extent that they could no longer communicate with each other.  Scripture says the Lord confused their language.  Construction stopped, and the people went their separate ways.

The moral of the story is clear: When we focus on God, our differences are miniscule; when we focus on ourselves, the smallest issues come between us.

The Spirit brings us together in spite of our differences.  Most importantly, the Spirit enables us to profess Jesus Christ as Lord.  Paul told the Corinthians,

“No man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.”
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,”
but by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

This inspired Charles Wesley to write,

“No one can truly say that Jesus is the Lord
Unless Thou take the veil away and breathe the living Word;
Then, only then, do we feel an interest in His blood
And cry with joy unspeakable, Thou art my Lord, my God!”

The Bible has more to say about the work of the Spirit, of course, but let me stop here and ask: Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized?  Please nod your head and say, “Yes.”

In the Presbyterian Church we baptize with water and the Spirit, so we believe that when you’re baptized – whether as an infant, youth or adult – you’re filled with the Spirit.  God’s Spirit is within you, whether you know it or not.

The problem is the Spirit may lay dormant for years and you never know it.  That’s because it’s up to you to unleash its power.  It’s up to you to call upon the Spirit as your Advocate and trust it to give you strength and lead you in making right decisions.

Even then, you’ll only know the Spirit in part.  You can spend a lifetime calling on the Spirit and still not recognize its full potential.  So, if someone were to ask you right now, “Are you filled with the Spirit?” a good way to answer is, yes and no.  Yes, I received the Spirit when I was baptized; but no, I’m not filled with the Spirit as much as I could be.

Also, consider the possibility that you’re standing in the way.  Paul told the Thessalonians,

“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks…
Don’t quench the Spirit”
(1Thessalonians 5:16-22).

We quench the Spirit when we rebel against God’s will for our lives and insist on doing things our way.  Contrary to Jesus, our prayer is, “Not Thy will, mine be done.”  When our humanness gets in the way, we stifle the Spirit and short-circuit its power to transform our lives.

To experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit you have to get yourself out of the center of the circle and admit it’s not about you.  It’s about the sovereignty of God.  Once we get our egotistical nature out of the way, a transformation occurs.  The Spirit takes over and becomes evident in every aspect of our lives.

A good example is my mother-in-law, Louise Gentz.  Louise was a saint, no two ways about it.  She was a godly woman – quiet, unpretentious, steeped in scripture and diligent in prayer.  She taught elementary music during the week and played organ for the church on the weekend.

She had the most positive attitude of anyone I’ve ever known.  I used to accuse her of wearing rose-colored glasses.  I never knew her to be critical or judgmental in any way.  She lived by the rule: “If you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything at all.”  One of her favorite passages of scripture was Paul’s words to the Philippians, where he said,

“Whatever things are true,
whatever things are honorable,
whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report;
if there is any virtue,
and if there is any praise,
think about these things…
and the God of peace will be with you.”
(Philippians 4:8-9)

The God of peace was certainly with her.  She walked by the Spirit, and Paul said if we walk by the Spirit we’ll exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

Let’s wrap it up.  Here’s what I hope you’ll take home with you today: The Spirit brings us to life; it leads the way; it anticipates our needs and brings us into unity with God and each other.  Most importantly, it allows us to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  We receive the Spirit at baptism, but we don’t get the full effect until we do our part; even then, it takes a lifetime.

So, where do you start?  You start by recognizing the work of the Spirit around you.  Then you pray for the Spirit to increase within you.  And, if you don’t know what to say, you can always use the words of Edwin Hatch, who wrote:

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine;
Till all this earthly part of me
Glows with a fire divine.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Copyright 2009, Philip McLarty.  Used by permission.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible.