Grace Bible Church Gillette, Wyoming

1. The lives of Paul and Apollos were intertwined. Their paths had not crossed but their ministries had. Apollos had just missed Paul in Ephesus. After Apollos had been instructed in the way of God more accurately by Priscilla and Aquila, he went to Corinth (Ac 18:26-27), a city where Paul had previously stayed for 18 months (Ac 18:11). When Paul came back to Ephesus on his third missionary journey, he was only able to hear about Apollos.

2. Apollos was able to minister in Corinth so much that many Corinthian believers highly respected him (1Co 1:12; 3:4). Later Paul would say, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1Co 3:6). Paul also wrote about him in Titus 3:13, suggesting that Apollos was a co-worker.

3. Paul came back to Ephesus just as he had promised (Ac 18:21). Many in the Jewish synagogue were eager to hear more from Paul (Ac 18:20). In addition, Ephesus was a major city that Paul desired to see won for Christ.

4. Ephesus was the capital of western Asia Minor. It was first colonized by the Greeks (Athens) and later came under Roman jurisdiction. Ephesus bore the title of “the first and greatest metropolis of Asia.”

5. It was there in Ephesus that Paul found some of John the Baptist’s disciples. In Ac 18:25, Apollos himself was a disciple of John the Baptist, “being acquainted only with the baptism of John.” History informs us that there were various factions among John the Baptist’s disciples. Some of them even held that John was the Messiah or equal to him (Lk 3:15 cf. Lk 7:19). Also, John had been beheaded some 23 years earlier.

B. Inquiry of the Holy Spirit (2)

1. It is difficult to know exactly what these disciples of John knew or did not know. The term “disciple” does not always refer to a true believer or a NT Christian (Mt 9:14; Jn 6:66). Nor do the terms “believe” or “baptize” always equate with a true believer (Ac 8:13).

2. Apollos, at least was “teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus” (Ac 18:25). Yet he had to be taught the way of God more accurately by Priscilla and Aquila (Ac 18:26).

3. In order to ascertain the spiritual status of these disciples, Paul asked them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed. To the apostle Paul, it was the promise for every true believer to have the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ac 1:4-5; 2:33; Gal 3:14; Ep 1:13).

4. The response of these disciples revealed that they did not possess the Holy Spirit or a full understanding of NT Christianity. They had not even heard about the Holy Spirit, even though John the Baptist spoke of Him (Lk 3:16; Jn 1:32-33). Similar to Apollos, these disciples possibly had an OT mentality of faith in the coming Messiah.

C. Inquiry on Baptism (3)

1. In trying to further comprehend how much these disciples knew, Paul asked them what kind of baptism they had. They replied that they were baptized into John’s baptism.

2. Baptism was not just a formal act, it also signified with what particular teaching a person identified. This gave Paul an indication what they did not know and where he was to begin teaching them.

II. DELINEATION OF JOHN’S MINISTRY

A. Explanation of John’s Message (4)

1. Having now discerned what these disciples did and did not understand, Paul began to explain John’s true message.

2. First, John’s baptism signified a “baptism of repentance” (Mk 1:4). John’s message was to the people of Israel. They needed to turn back to the Lord by repenting (Mt 3:2a), confessing their sins (Mt 3:6), and bearing fruits of repentance (Mt 3:8; Lk 3:8).

3. Secondly, John’s message pointed forward to Christ (“to Him who was coming after [John]”). Israel needed to be ready for the “kingdom of heaven” (Mt 3:2b), which was the coming of the Messiah, God’s Son (Mt 3:11-12).

B. Explanation of NT Christianity

1. From a dispensational point of view, John himself was technically an OT saint and OT prophet because he lived and prophesied before the cross of Christ (Mt 14:5; 21:26; Lk 20:6).

2. John’s message was a message from God for the people to prepare for the coming of Christ. So John’s message was important because it was letting Israel know that God was about to bring the full revelation of His redemption. However, John’s message was not in itself the full revelation. It was a necessary revelation in God’s progressive revelation. Therefore, it was still a partial revelation.

3. The coming of Christ was God’s full revelation (He 1:1-2). All prophesies and revelation pointed to Christ.

4. The knowledge and revelation that John and His disciples had was progressive but not full. John would have been a redeemed OT prophet (with the Spirit because He was a prophet, Lk 1:15, 41) but not a NT Christian. John did not have the full revelation in Christ, which was proclaimed by the apostles (Ac 3:17-19; 17:30).

III. DEMONSTRATION OF NT CHRISTIANITY

A. They were Baptized in Jesus’ Name (5)

1. Next, we read that these disciples were “baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Obviously, Paul witnessed to them about the death and resurrection of Christ. It was at that time that they believed in the Christ and became NT Christians.

2. Their baptism in Christ did not save them. Their baptism in Christ revealed that they had heard the NT message and believed in Christ.

B. They Received the Holy Spirit (6-7)

1. Unlike what some claim, their water baptism in Christ did not cause them to receive the Holy Spirit.

2. Paul laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The question would be, “Was that the norm and do we apply that to our day?”

3. First, it was not the norm for receiving the Holy Spirit, then or now, through the laying on of hands. There were numerous occasions of laying on of hands in Acts, but the majority of them were for commissioning ministry (Ac 13:3), welcoming into the church (Ac 6:6), or being thrown into jail (Ac 4:3) (and healing). There is however another example of laying on of hands in order to receive the Holy Spirit in Ac 8:17. In addition, Paul had initially asked John’s disciples if they had received the Holy Spirit with the assumption that they had first believed (Ac 19:2).

4. The norm in the book of Acts, in the epistles, and for today was that when a person placed their faith in Christ as Savior, they received the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:39; Ac 11:17; Ep 1:13; 4:30 cf. 1Co 3:16; 6:19; 12:13).

5. Several reasons explain why this scenario was out of the ordinary. The book of Acts was a time of transitions between OT and NT (e.g. sacrifices, Holy Spirit, tongues of fire, some gifts, etc.). God demonstrated salvation to all groups and peoples evidenced by the indwelling Holy Spirit: Jews (Ac 2), Samaritans (Ac 8), Gentiles (Ac 10), and now John’s disciples (Ac 19). The apostles were present on each occasion so that we would recognize salvation for all the groups. When the apostles laid hands on individuals to receive the Holy Spirit, it was also to affirm apostolic authority.

6. An underlying context of Acts is transition as well as evidence for that transition. Tongues can be explained primarily as an evidence of the Holy Spirit in several of those groups. Tongues was only mentioned three times in Acts. It was first mentioned with the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jewish believers (Ac 2:1-4). It was next mentioned with the conversion of Gentiles (Ac 10:44-47). The final time it was mentioned in Acts was with these twelve disciples of John (Ac 19:7).

IV. OBSERVATIONS AND APPLICATIONS

A. The gospel needs to go out to all peoples and races.

B. The gospel needs to go out to the uniformed.

C. The gospel needs to go out accurately.

Grace Bible Church · 4000 E. Collins Rd · PO Box #3762 · Gillette, WY · (307) 686-1516