Acts 19:2

Act_19:2-7

He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?

Receiving the Holy Ghost

I. The question itself.

1. Have we received anything? We have said that we believe in Christ. But to test the truth of our profession, God asks, Have you received? Believing is always accompanied by receiving. If, then, any of us have not received, it is because we have not believed. And if we have received but little, it is because we have believed but little. For the promise is, Be it unto thee according to thy faith.

2. But our text asks specifically have we received the Holy Ghost? In reply to the previous question, some of us may have replied We received peace and joy in believing. But passing by these individual benefits that flow from believing, or rather including them and all such like, our question goes to the root of the matter. Receiving the Holy Ghost is the infallible evidence of believing in Jesus. This was the great gift which Jesus died to purchase, and which before His departure He promised to send, and which is set before us in the symbol of baptism--Be baptized … and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

II. The leaning grounds on which we may safely give an answer to this question. Note--

1. The nature of the Holy Spirits work. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, but there are three respects in which the work of the Spirit is alike in the experience of all true believers.

(1) Knowledge or discernment of Divine things. Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit; they must be spiritually discerned. Eye hath not seen but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. Some men with the best of natural talents seem ever learning and never coining to the knowledge of the truth. Others again, with smaller talents and lower education, at once and clearly grasp it. Or this contrast is seen in one and the same person--sitting under the ministry for years withrut one clear idea of spiritual things; but all at once, as if scales had fallen from his eyes, seeing all things as clear as day. This is one evidence of the Holy Spirits inward work.

(2) Conviction of the truth of what we see. When the Comforter is come, He will convince of sin, etc., and on the day of Pentecost thousands were pricked to the heart. The gospel comes in word only--at the most only enlightens the understanding--and not in power, till it comes with the Holy Ghost. But then it comes with much assurance working effectually in the heart. It is then the power of God unto salvation.

(3) Holiness of life. Our knowledge and conviction, if they are alone, will prove our deepest condemnation. They are evidences that the Holy Spirit is pleading with us--persuading us--working in us. But they are no evidence that we have yielded our hearts to Him. Felix felt all this when he trembled. A holy life is the evidence of having received the Holy Ghost (Act_15:7-9). Other gifts of the Spirit may be wanting, but there is no vital difference between us and the highest of the apostles if God has given to us the Holy Ghost, purifying our hearts by faith.

2. The manner of the Holy Spirits work. It is--

(1) A thorough work. Through and through the whole man, soul and mind and body, all feel its power--character and conduct, inward desires and outward doings; heart and hand are all influenced by it.

(2) A progressive work. Like as the newborn babe grows in stature from year to year, and progresses in strength, it may be through many a long season of sickness, so it is with those who are born again of the Spirit.

3. A warfare in some more violent than in others, but experienced more or less by all; the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, etc.

4. A work and warfare to be crowned with victory. (W. Grant.)

On the reception of the Holy Ghost

I. To make this subject practical, we will endeavour to show what the deception of the Holy Spirit imparts; or in other words, what it is to receive His influence in order to salvation. In the early ages of Christianity it included the miraculous as well as the converting and sanctifying influences of this Divine agent. Those essential influences which are connected with the kingdom of God within us, though less splendid to the eye of sense, are even more precious to the eye of faith, and produce fruits in the soul, without which the most exalted gifts would avail nothing, but leave us as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. The Spirit of God must be received as the Spirit of truth to teach us. By the ministry of the Word the Divine Spirit enters the mind, sheds light upon the understanding and the conscience, and the man who was as one born blind, now sees. As a Spirit of adoption and of holiness the Comforter comes. The slave is changed into a child, the proud is now become humble, the prodigal is made to feel his danger, and to think of his Father and his home.

II. To enable you to answer the question in the text, I will state a few of the evidences or effects of the reception.

1. Prayer is one of these. It is the cry of the hungry for food, of the sick for health, of the condemned for pardon, that amounts to prayer in the true meaning of the term. It is a mark of the Spirit, when we pray from the heart.

2. Another fruit of the Spirit is the hatred of whatever is known to be sinful in the sight of God. As long as any remains of the old man are found within, so long will the conflict continue.

3. Another fruit and evidence of having received the Spirit is Christian love. A sincere Christian cannot but love those who show the holy, humble, and forgiving temper of Jesus. Hatred, variance, strife, contention, and all evil passions had so long filled the world, that men gazed with wonder on the benignant influence of the gospel in calming the troubled spirit.

4. One other mark decisive and vital of having received the Spirit is the faith that worketh by love. No man whose eyes are opened to discern his danger and the utter insufficiency of his works to save his soul, but renounces at once and for ever all dependence on the righteousness of his outward life, let it be what it may. And this leads him at the same time to place his entire dependence on the Saviour. (J. E. Everitt.)

Receiving the Holy Ghost

Inquire we--

I. What is implied in receiving the Holy Ghost and whether we may and must receive Him.

1. By the Holy Ghost is meant the Spirit of God; that is, of the Father, as proceeding from Him, although sometimes also styled the Spirit of Christ, or, of the Son; Christ and His Father being one, and the Spirit of the Father being also the Spirit of the Son, in a way to us unsearchable.

2. This being observed, it will easily appear that to receive the Spirit of God is to receive His Divine influence, imparting those graces or gifts which are necessary to our salvation. Now, the manner in which this is done is, in many respects, incomprehensible (Joh_3:8). We must, therefore, receive the Holy Spirit as our lungs receive the air, and we breathe and live.

3. But are we authorised to expect any such thing? Certainly we are (Joe_2:28-29; Isa_59:21; Mat_3:11; Joh_7:37-38; Joh_14:16-17; Luk_11:13; Act_2:38-39).

II. In what sense we are to receive Him and for what purposes. The context shows that the apostle spoke partly in reference to the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (Act_19:6). These were given of old to confirm the law, to establish the gospel. They do not seem to be necessary where the Christian religion is already received and are not infallible signs of grace (Mat_7:22; 1Co_13:1). But we may and must receive the Spirit in His ordinary graces; to renew our fallen nature (Tit_3:5); to enable us to bring forth holy dispositions, words, and actions (Eph_5:9; Gal_5:22-23). To be more particular. We must receive Him--

1. As a Spirit of truth; to enlighten our minds, and save us from ignorance, error, folly, and delusion (Joh_14:17).

2. As a Spirit of life (Rom_8:2; 1Co_15:45; Joh_14:19; Eph_2:1; Eph_2:5-6).

3. As a Spirit of grace (Joh_3:5-6; Tit_3:5-6).

4. As a Spirit of adoption (Gal_4:4; Rom_8:15-16).

5. As a Spirit of power; encouraging and strengthening us (Eph_3:16), which is necessary--

(1) For our spiritual warfare (Eph_6:10).

(2) For duty.

(3) For suffering (2Ti_2:1; 2Co_12:9; Php_1:19).

6. As a Comforter (Joh_14:16).

7. As a Spirit of holiness or sanctification (1. Peter 1:2; 2Th_2:13).

III. In what sense, and how far, a man may believe, and yet not have received the Holy Ghost and how little such a faith will avail him. Without having received the Spirit in the forementioned respects, we may believe--The Being and attributes of God (Heb_11:6), inferring them by reasoning from the works of creation (Rom_1:20). The truth of the Scripture, and the excellency of its doctrines and precepts; and the promises and threatenings. But without the Holy Spirit our faith cannot be a saving faith (Rom_8:9).

IV. Apply the question and give directions both to those that have and to those that have not received Him.

1. To those that have not received the Spirit, I would say, Reflect seriously and continually on the necessity and excellency of this gift--pray much for it (Luk_11:5-13). Shun whatever is contrary to the mind of the Spirit, or would prevent your receiving Him. He works by the word of truth; therefore, hear, read, meditate upon, and exercise faith therein. Through His aid deny yourself, and mortify the deeds of the body (Rom_8:13). Come to Jesus and exercise faith in Him for this blessing (Joh_7:37-38; Joh_4:10; Gal_3:13-14).

2. Let me exhort those who have received this Spirit to guard not only against doing despite to Him, or quenching His influences, but against grieving Him, lest He withdraw from you. To use carefully all those means of grace whereby His grace may be continued and increased. (Joseph Benson.)

Receiving the Holy Ghost

1. It may be well to notice what questions the apostles did not put to these disciples. He did not ask--

(1) Have ye believed? This would have been very important, but it ought to be settled once for all, and should not remain the subject of question.

(2) If ye have believed, how came it about? A man may be saved, and yet know none of the details of his conversion.

2. But he does ask, Have ye received? etc. Consider--

I. The question.

1. In some respects it is a vital question. For the Holy Ghost is the Author of--

(1) All spiritual life. If, when you believed, you had not a life imparted by the Holy Spirit, your believing was a dead believing, and if He has not been with you since your conversion, your religion is a dead religion.

(2) All true instruction. To be taught of the minister is nothing, it is only the Spirit of God who can engrave the truth upon the fleshy tablets of the heart.

(3) Transformation. By Divine grace we are not now what we used to be: we have new thoughts, wishes, aspirations, sorrows, joys, and these are wrought in us of the Spirit.

(4) Sanctification. A faith which works not for purification will work for putrefaction. A holy man is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit.

(5) Prayer. Prayer without the Spirit is as a bird without wings, or an arrow without a bow.

2. But where it is not vital it is nevertheless greatly important. I do not think we ought always to be asking the question, Is this essential to our salvation? Those are miserable souls who would be saved in the cheapest possible way. But I would remind the children of God that there is in the Holy Ghost not only what they absolutely need to save them, but much more. He is--

(1) The Comforter. Why, then, go ye mourning? You whose hearts are distracted receive the Spirit of consolation.

(2) The Enlightener. Do you understand little of the Word of God? Why is this? Should you not seek more of the Guide into all truth? How much happier and more useful you would be!

(3) The Spirit of liberty. If ye have received the Spirit, wily are ye the slaves of custom, fashion, etc.?

(4) A power moving and impelling to holy service.

II. This question is assuredly answerable. There is a notion that you cannot tell whether you have the Holy Spirit or not; but you can. Give a man an electric shock, and he will know it; but if he has the Holy Ghost he will know it much more. Oh, says one, I thought we must always say, I hope so, I trust so. I know that jargon; but men do not say, I hope I have an estate, or, I trust I have twenty shillings in the pound, or, I think I have a wife and children.

1. There are many professors to whom this question is inevitable. I will pick out certain of them.

(1) There is the brother with the long dreary face whose favourite hymn is--Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Have you received the Holy Ghost? Poor soul, he is perplexed. Here is a hymn for him: Why should the children of a King go mourning all their days? Surely, if we have the earnest of the Spirit, the firstfruits of heaven, we ought to rejoice in the Lord always.

(2) Another brother is a member of the Church; he is a born grumbler, and since he has been new born he has not given up the habit. I have sometimes thought that certain unfriendly friends must have been baptized in vinegar instead of water. Surely the Spirit of God is a dove full of love and kindness, and not a bird of prey. Let me ask that brother, Have you received the Holy Ghost?

(3) Here comes another who flies out into great tempers and is very sorry for it afterwards. Many a man boils over and scalds his friend, and then in cooler moments expresses his regret. All very fine; but fine words cure no blisters. The next time you are in a great temper, ask yourself, Have I received the Holy Ghost?

(4) Here is a brother who cannot be happy unless he indulges in worldly amusements. The next time you are coming home from a gay party, I should like to meet you and inquire, Have you received the Holy Ghost? You cannot expect the Holy Spirit to continue with you if you play with the devils children.

(5) I would like, when the avaricious man is totalling up his gains, to put to him the question, Have you received the Holy Ghost?

2. I know some to whom the question is needless. You meet them in the morning, soaring aloft, like the lark, in the praises of God. See them in trouble: they are resigned to their heavenly Fathers will. Mark how they spend their lives in hallowed service. You do not ask them if they have received the Holy Ghost; but you stand still and admire the work of the Spirit of God in them.

III. Lessons.

1. We are not to look for salvation to one single act of faith in the past, but to Jesus, in whom we continue to believe.

2. We must continue to live by receiving. We received Christ Jesus our Lord at the first, and now we receive the Holy Ghost.

3. We may not despise the very lowest form of spiritual life; nay, not even those who have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

4. The Holy Spirit always keeps sweet company with Jesus Christ. As long as these good people only knew John the Baptist, they could only know water baptism. It was only when they came to know Jesus that then the Spirit of God came upon them.

5. The Holy Ghost can be yet more fully possessed by all believers. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Paul at Ephesus

Christ and His work are not the whole of Christianity: this is the main truth of the lesson, negatively put. Its positive statement: The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is essential to Christian knowledge, experience, and efficiency. The teaching and power of Divine truth culminate in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Read from the twenty-second verse of the second chapter of Acts. With masterly speed Peter lifts tier above tier the stately fabric of the new doctrine: the manifestation of God in the flesh, the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, exaltation at the right hand of God; but he crowns the whole by declaring, Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. The experience was repeated to the Church in each crisis, each new beginning sanctioned by a new baptism. When Samaria received the Word of God, Peter and John came down and prayed for them, and they received the Holy Ghost. Wider opens the door for Gentiles at Caesarea, and the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word. The movement which made Antioch a new centre of the Church was started by men full of the Holy Ghost. In the first missionary venture, in Cyprus, it was Saul filled with the Holy Ghost who turned heathen to believers. But to Ephesus this experience had not yet come. We can partly account for the deficiency of their knowledge. Paul had stopped at Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem and preached but once, yet so impressively that they besought him to remain. But he must hurry on to the feast. Priscilla and Aquila seem to have done nothing to carry on the work, perhaps knew nothing of it, as the apostle seems to have left them before going to the synagogue. Then came Apollos, with all his gifts, yet knowing nothing of Pentecost. If he had learned more from Pauls two friends, he seems to have departed immediately to Greece. But imperfect work is not unblessed. The apostle returning found the little group of believers as a faint, clear flame in the darkness of that luxurious, superstitious city. But he missed in them that subtle something, not easily definable, but inevitably perceptible, which marks the spiritual life. The gift of the Holy Spirit is essential to understanding and realising Christian truth. This truth is tremendous beyond all other offered to the human mind. Yet who sees it or feels it in proportion to its majesty? It is as though the eye were dazed, the ear stunned, by the awfulness, and fail to give natural response. Even passing acquiescence may not issue in lasting acceptance. That is not a normal use of the faculties; knowledge should produce conviction. It is the express office of the Spirit of God to enlighten the mind and inflame the affections of a willing soul so that truth may become real and controlling. His work is supernatural, but not unnatural. It restores a lost sensibility, couches a blinded eye. He finds already in the mind itself a certain power of breaking through upon realities which have held themselves secluded. What boy has not groaned over some new principle in mathematics? At first, all is mist and mystery. Then he acquires the rule by dint of memory and the process by mechanical imitation. But after hours, months it may be, suddenly the heart of the hieroglyphic opens out like an exquisite flower blossoming in a mummys hand, and he revels in the poetry of mathematics. But in spiritual things this slowness of intellect is further crippled by spiritual incompetence. Sin creates a positive incapacity. The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Paul himself had proved this. He had known of Jesus of Nazareth, but only as one to persecute. Then came in a flash both vision and blindness; and after this the messenger sent, That thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. The same is true of spiritual emotions. What incitements to feeling we have here! the Infinite Deity of absolute holiness; the Incarnate God; the Crucified One; the great white throne, judgment, conscious eternity. No adjective can delineate their impressiveness. Yet myriads of thinking, feeling beings who never question them as facts heed them less than dreams. The granite headlands of Cape Ann fling back the tidal waves of the Atlantic as lightly as the ripple caused by a leaping fish; and these hearts cast off the truths of their own eternal destiny more lightly than the gossip of a neighbour or the feigned sorrows of a dramas heroine. If God Himself has any power at command which can restore to the soul its normal response, let those that love their fellow men, let the blind and deaf themselves, cry aloud, that they may be touched to live. If the unsaved themselves are thus unmoved, the more should those who have the gospel have the power of the Spirit. Oh, the Ephesian believers in our Churches! converted but powerless, believing somewhat, but knowing not the power of the Holy Ghost! But a strange comfort lies in the fact that only God Himself can supply such lack of power. Not by training and struggle the power comes, but by humble asking what He is more ready to give than are earthly parents to bestow good gifts upon their children. We look out with new vision, sweep a new range of achievement. Then open before the mind the truths that can save such a soul, the deep truths, the saving truths. Christ appears wonderfully glorious and His Cross past expression. Then we understand the meaning of atonement. All the unseen becomes the real, and the conviction of its reality and necessity stirs in the soul a new touch of power, to which hearts that were dry and hard yield like frosts in spring, for the breath of the Almighty is blowing free. This is service indeed, life indeed! Spirit is more than speech, unction than action. We are not told how the effects of this baptism showed themselves in the Ephesian Church, but we know how Paul wrought among them in the power of the Spirit. At all seasons, with all humility of mind, with many tears and trials, teaching publicly and from house to house, pure from the blood of all men as not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God. So must every soul be endued with power from on high, that it may do the work of Christ.

I. We learn that the Christian life involves a development. The popular mood of these days gives us conversions without sense of sin, union with the Church without separation from the world, activity without meditation and deep joy of communing with God. We must neither discredit these experiences nor rest with them. Though born of the Spirit, we are not born full grown. The Christian life has stages, sometimes marked off by sharp experiences, then gliding one into another, realised only as past; one as sunrise with one sparkling instant when the glittering disc touches the horizon; another, stealing up in clouds, unrecognised until we find full day around us. Each stage has its own explanation, vindication it may be, but only for the sake of the next. It is a camp, not an abiding city. Despise not the day of small things, in others, in yourself. Neither speak slightingly of experiences unknown to your own life, if sanctioned by the Word of God. God makes the caterpillar but for the destiny of the butterfly. A soul not growing towards God may well be puzzled at the wearisomeness of endless existence.

II. The duty grows out of the truth: Do your best where you are, press on for better. Never hold back effort because you know it must be imperfect, incomplete. If you have but one chance, seize it, as Paul his one Sunday at Ephesus. The good seed will not perish. Some Apollos will come to water it. God will give increase. The other side of this duty encourages those who feel oppressed by their own imperfect understanding of the truth. Do your best with what you have, and God will do His best for you. As Paul solemnly asked the Ephesians, this lesson comes to us today with its insistent demand: Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed? Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? Considerate and patient is the question. It does not deny that we are believers, or discredit what we have received, but it does require of us yet more. It comes to the unsatisfied Christian, whose conversion was a bare act of will or a blaze of emotion; in whose later experience obedience is ungraced by spiritual joy or appears as alternations from cold to hot, vibrating about a general lukewarmness, distasteful and profitless. Pray for the Spirit. It comes to baffled workers and unanswered suppliants. They use Gods own truth, their purpose is loyal, the effort unshrinking; but they yet wait their Pentecost. It has its message for those who do not believe. It faces the moral man, who accepts the Commandments and even thinks to rule his life by the Sermon on the Mount: whose conduct we admire and whose spirit we praise; with whom we find no fault, yet in whom we recognise a subtle and unmistakable lack--that he may ask for the Spirit. This abiding presence and mighty power of Deity is that manifestation given latest, to complete all that has been given before. (Charles M. Southgate.)

Paul at Ephesus

Paul at Athens stands for Christianity flinging down its challenge to the world philosophies; Paul at Ephesus, the rich port of the Orient, the seat of the splendid worship of Diana, the most dissolute spot on the globe, stands for Christianity summoning iniquitous heathenism to wash and be clean. Paul meets with the twelve disciples of John the Baptist. The life of John the Baptist to an earthly judgment seems a most pitiful failure. There is nothing more sublimely touching in history than the complete self-effacement of John the Baptist. But such a judgment of John the Baptist contains much error. We think of his work as being effaced. Yet here are twelve men, a quarter of a century after they have heard him, holding fast to the truths he taught. Who can tell how many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other lives there were, of whom we have never heard, who received at the hands of the Baptist for all eternity the impress of Divine truth? Call no mans life unsuccessful because its results are not visible or measurable to us. Moreover, John the Baptist had the honour of being the greatest of forerunners. John the Baptist did nothing that stands for himself. All his work was but a pedestal for someone else to stand upon, John the Baptist deserves not our pity but our congratulation. Such thoughts concerning the forerunner are suggested to us by the appearance before Paul at Ephesus of twelve men who had accepted Johns message and had cherished it for thirty years. Now let us study the lessons of their appearance.

I. We see in their case the reality of an imperfect Christianity. There are certain simple things which, once truly possessed, make one a Christian. The line between death and salvation has been passed. Much advance is still possible, but it does not make the fact of ones being a Christian one whir more real. The feeblest, weakest Christian is just as truly saved as the most advanced in the things of God.

1. The truth of this statement is plain in the case of these twelve disciples of John the Baptist. Just what they knew and just what they did not know has been much disputed by commentators, and to little use, as the Bible record is so slight. What was the extent of the Christianity of these men?

(1) They had repented of sin and put their faith in a coming (and as yet unknown) Saviour, and had confessed this faith in baptism (verses 3, 4).

(2) They had known as much of the Holy Spirit as was common among the Jews and as was known to John, but they had not the specially definite knowledge of Him given after the ascension of Christ, and particularly that manifestation of the Spirit which came through miracles. Nevertheless they were true Christians, for Luke calls them disciples (verse 1), which he would not have done in the quiet time when he wrote this record of the Acts without full cognisance of its meaning.

2. The general inference follows for ourselves that one may be a real Christian though a very imperfect one. If a wide knowledge of Divine truth in its extension and a deep experimental knowledge of its separate elements were required at the entrance, who could be saved? How gracious is the Lord in accepting us when there is so little in us that would seem to warrant Him in calling us His! And yet that little is everything. Faith may be smaller than a mustard seed to the eye, yet if it be genuine it has in it a mountain-moving potency.

3. Yet one thing must be said: that a genuine faith is one which utilises what knowledge it has. The message of John the Baptist was very fragmentary compared to the full revelation of Gods truth given by Christ, yet it had in it the power of salvation. The measure of our learning unto eternal life is not how much truth we have heard (as by preaching and teaching and reading), but how much we have incorporated into our own being. A very little food will save a human life, but not until it is assimilated.

II. The story of the twelve Johannean disciples shows us the necessity of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. The reply of the men to Pauls question looks as though they had never known that there was such an existence as the Holy Spirit. But this is incredible in men who were probably Jews and certainly disciples of John--who knew of the Holy Spirit. Their reply must be understood in the light of Pauls question (verse 2). And that question must be understood by the sequel when the Holy Spirit was given (verse 6). The Holy Spirit was given to them in miraculous form (it led them to speak with tongues and to prophesy), and this was the form of manifestation Paul was inquiring about and they were answering about. They meant, therefore, that they knew nothing of a Holy Spirit miraculously manifested; they did not intend to say they knew nothing at all of the existence of the Holy Spirit.

1. It was necessary that they should receive the Holy Spirit. The form in which they received Him was conditioned by the circumstances of the time. It was an age of beginnings. Christ had left the earth to take His throne in glory, and miracles were particularly calculated to allay the doubt of Christs continued existence and power which must arise in the first years of His bodily absence. Powerful signs were an evidence of Christs enthronement. It was necessary, therefore, that, in addition to that enlightenment of the Holy Spirit which is given to all at the beginning of the Christian life, there should be given to believers at that time this special endowment of the Spirit for temporary purposes which came by the laying on of apostolic hands.

2. The same necessity for the Spirits presence holds with us. The form of the Spirits manifestation has doubtless changed. The place of the Holy Spirit in the scheme of salvation is unchangeable. If a man could save himself he would not need supernatural help, he would not need the Holy Spirit. Salvation is in a change of heart, in being made a new creature before God. This is a superhuman work.

3. Always ought we therefore to be praying for the presence of the Holy Spirit. He makes ours all that Christ has secured for us at such infinite cost!

III. Although a very small faith has in it the power of salvation, yet there remains the duty of full belief.

1. Opportunity is of God. God gave them the chance to hear John the Baptist. They believed the message they heard as far as it went. God by His Providence had withheld from them full Christian knowledge. Then after a time He gave them another opportunity, which they also embraced. It is a helpful thought that Gods Providence is similarly directing us in our Christian opportunities. There are some far away from Church privileges, away from libraries, away from the possibility of reading Christian newspapers. Providence has cut off opportunity of growth by these external helps. Let such souls take courage. God has not forgotten them; He is leading them in His own way.

2. These men showed by their conduct that they had a desire for a more perfect faith. They had used what opportunity they had and were longing for more. The reason of Christian lethargy is never lack of opportunity, but failure to use what opportunities one has, which implies absence of the longing for growth. The smallness of Christian knowledge is not against it, but deadness is, even if it be very large. A little thing which is increasing will soon eclipse a big thing which is defunct.

3. When twelve men had a chance to have a new accretion of Christian faith they accepted it instantly (verse 5). There was promptitude in their belief because desire had gone before it. When the new knowledge came they did not have to debate whether they wanted it or not.

IV. The seal of success was given to Pauls labour in Ephesus (verses 8-12). The blessing of heaven was upon his endeavours (verses 11, 12) in such a form that no one could mistake it.

1. The form was unusual, for special reasons which have already been named. Miracles were wrought because at that time miracles needed to be wrought.

2. Extensive success was part of the corroboration of Pauls work being Gods work (verse 10).

3. Intensive success was an additional proof of the divineness of Pauls work (verse 12). (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)

Paul at Ephesus

This lesson divides itself into two parts. In the first part we see how the gospel attracts those who are teachable. In the second part we see how it is repelled by those who are hardened. The teachable ones are some twelve disciples of John the Baptist, who were living at Ephesus. How disciples of John happened to be found thirty years after their masters death so far away from the river Jordan we are not told, and yet it would be a strange coincidence if the labours of Apollos, an eloquent advocate of Johns baptism, whose presence in Ephesus is referred to in the preceding chapter, had no connection with the formation of this little band. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, a city which had been the scene of the labours of the Seventy (Septuagint), who translated the Old Testament into Greek, and was the home of Philo, the learned interpreter. In Alexandria Apollos became mighty in the Scriptures, and he hailed with enthusiasm the reformation which John had inaugurated, with repentance for its watchword and immersion for its sign. He had a perfect understanding of the significance Of this movement as a preparation of the Jews for the coming Messiah. Although thirty years had passed since the ascension of Jesus, no report of it had reached Ephesus, and though Alexandria is much nearer Mount Olivet, there is no record that any attempt had been made to evangelise Egypt. At all events Apollos, when he arrived in Ephesus, was still a disciple of John. Many of Johns disciples used to consort in Judaea with the Pharisees, whose frequent fasts were more congenial to them than the free and informal life of the apostles. The disciple is not above his master, and they did not rise above the state of doubt expressed by John in the question which he seat to Jesus from his dungeon: Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another? If the followers of John in Judaea were not convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, it is not strange if those living, like Apollos, in Alexandria, and the twelve in Ephesus, were utterly unacquainted with the triumphs of the risen and ascended Christ and of the descending Spirit. What Apollos taught when he came to Ephesus was the necessity of repentance and of the confession of sins. The motives he urged were the fan and the fire, the fan with which the coming Messiah would separate the wheat for His garner, and the fire with which the chaff would be burned. Those who honestly repented and forsook their evil ways made a public acknowledgment of their faith by submitting to a rite that signified complete purification. John had told the people to believe on Him that should come after him, but after his own hesitation in accepting Jesus as the Messiah it is not likely that anything more definite was demanded by his successors. We are then to understand that the disciples whom Paul found at Ephesus had been taught the way of the Lord as far as John knew it and no, further. In other words, they were in a transition state, having accepted all the light they had seen, and were now waiting for more. They knew little of Jesus and less of the Holy Spirit, but they were seekers after God. They needed someone to show them the way of the Lord more perfectly. The very first question put to them by Paul showed that he was an advocate who knew how to get at the root of a matter at once. The specific difference between Christian baptism and the baptism of John is brought out by this question. John himself recognised the: same difference when he said: I indeed baptize you with water, but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The Saviour called attention to this fundamental distinction in His last interview with His apostles, and now Paul implies by his question that Christian baptism is not complete without the gift of the Holy Spirit. This inquiry should be made of every believer. The gospel is first of all a message to the ear and to the understanding, but it is more than that. When the Word of truth is mixed with faith in the heart, then the heart is quickened by the Holy Spirit. The reply given to the apostles question indicated plainly that these disciples knew more of repentance than of regeneration, and that, they were still living under the law of works and not under the law of the spirit of life. They had not heard, no one in Ephesus had heard till Paul came, of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They were still shut up in the dark, not knowing that it was high noon. They acknowledged their ignorance with the utmost candour. They were well named disciples, for they were ready to learn. Members of Churches today who are destitute of the Holy Spirit cannot justify themselves by any such plea of ignorance. (W. W. Everts.)

Faith in a Holy Ghost

I. Implies an habitual sense of the reality of a spiritual world.

1. There is in fallen human nature a constant tendency to sink under the dominion of materialistic habits of thought. I do not now speak of formal materialistic systems, but of that materialism which tells us that we are too sensible a race to run after metaphysical and theological phantoms. Go on your way, it whispers, O most practical people! Vex not yourselves with problems which have wearied the human soul for centuries, to no purpose. Believe in your senses; make matter more and more entirely your slave. Here only progress is possible.

2. The bearing of all this on the idea of an invisible world is unmistakable, and no Christian can regard it without distress, for this popular, untheoretic, yet most real materialism is radically inconsistent with any recognition of the truth before us, which involves belief in the existence of a supersensuous world, within and upon which the Divine Spirit lives and acts. Certainly, this belief carries us completely beyond the precincts of sense. What in Himself the Eternal Spirit is, who shall say? And how spirit acts on spirit; how the Divine Spit it acts on ours must for ever remain a mystery. But to admit it at all is to deny the premises of a great deal of popular writing and conversation.

3. You may reply, that this practical materialism is not to be thus refuted. No: not for theoretical materialists. Yet we may pause to observe that civilisation itself, which we are told is to advance in an inverse ratio to mans belief in the Invisible, itself obliges us to resist the advance of materialism. Who were the founders of modern civilisation? Men who believed in the Invisible. And upon what does civilisation really repose? Not upon our conquests in the world of matter, which may merely add to our capacities for extraordinary brutality; but upon the prevalence of moral ideas--of the idea of duty, of justice, of conscience. They are products of the supersensuous world; they altogether belong to it, although they form the very foundations of our social fabric. These ideas are as much out of the reach of sense as is the action of the Holy Spirit upon a human soul; we see the ideas as we see that action, only in their effects, not in themselves. A really consistent materialism would have inaugurated pure barbarism if it could have succeeded in destroying them.

II. Protects us against the advance of materialistic ideas into the very sanctuary of Christian thought.

1. There is such a thing as the materialised estimate of the life of Christ. How many men conceive of Christ as of a Teacher of commanding influence. Recognising this, they gather up all that can illustrate His appearance among men. The idioms of Eastern speech, the scenery, flora, climate, customs of Palestine, all are summoned by the highest literary skill, that they may place vividly before us the exact circumstances which surrounded the life of Christ. But here too often the appreciation of that life really ends. Where He is now, what He is, whether He can act upon us, are points which they dismiss as belonging, to the category of theological abstractions. And if St. Paul were here, would he not say this, that they know Christ only after the flesh? Now, belief in and communion with the Holy Spirit rescues the life of Christ from this exclusively historical way of looking at it. For the Holy Spirit perpetually fulfils Christs promise--He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you. The Spirit weans Christian thought from too exclusive an attention to the outward, and concentrates it upon the inward features, and forces in upon us the habitual recollection that Christ is what He was. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. And how? Politicians are present after death, by the laws or dynasties which they have established. The intellectual survive by the force of the ideas to which they have given currency. The good and the bad live by the persuasive beauty or the repellent ugliness of their examples. Was the presence of Christ to be of this description? No. It was to be a real, but a spiritual presence. The Spirit is emphatically the Spirit of Christ, because He is the Minister of Christs supersensuous presence.

2. There is a materialised estimate of the Christian Church. The Church has of course an earthly side, and there are many Christians who see no more than this. They mistake the kingdom of the Spirit for a merely human organisation, patronised by the State in the interests of civil order, education, and philanthropy. They are exclusively concerned with the mere outward trappings of the Church. But the Church is a spiritual society, and it is only faith in the Spirit that enables us to grasp this, to act out all it means, and to share the certain triumphs which such a society must win.

3. There is such a thing as materialised worship. That the sense of beauty may be appealed to in order to win the soul to God, is a principle consecrated by the language and example of Scripture; and it seems to be the true and generous instinct of an earnest piety to deem no measure of artistic beauty too great for the embellishment of the temples and service of Christ. Nor is there any real connection between spirituality and that slovenliness which is sometimes termed simplicity. But this truth should not blind us to the fact that aesthetic aids to worship may, like other blessings, be perverted, by coming to be regarded as ends. Let us give of our best to the churches and the service of our God; but let us ever remember that, since He is a Spirit, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Surely, to realise the presence of the Holy Ghost in the soul, and in the Church, is to be anxious that the inner realities of worship should as far transcend its outward accompaniments, as the kingdom of the Invisible transcends the world of sense.

III. Implies a correspondent elevation of character. It implies that a man aims at something higher than mere morality. Yet, before we think disparagingly of morality, we do well to ask ourselves how far it may not rebuke us for falling as far below as we profess to rise above it. Nevertheless, the Eternal Spirit has Himself set up in the world a school of morals; and He whispers within the soul a deeper and purer code than nature dreams of. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. How unnatural, men say, they are! True! but not in the sense of contradicting nature so much as in that of transcending it. And if we will reach that high standard, we may with the Spirits help. He makes the feeble strong, and the melancholy bright, and the cold-blooded fervent, and the irascible gentle, and the uninstructed wise, and the conceited humble, and the timid unflinching. (Canon Liddon.)

The baptism of the Spirit

I. What is this blessing? The Lord Jesus is the life of His people, for in Him they are complete. But the teaching here does not exalt God the Spirit by giving a lower place to God the Son. For the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. To have Him, therefore, is to have the Spirit of Christ--

1. Becoming our spirit. We think of our Lord, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and it is almost startling to read, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; yet that is precisely the result of the reception of the Holy Ghost; the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.

2. Revealing Him to us. We often wish we had seen Christ after the flesh. We can think of nothing better. But it was as something better that He promised the Comforter. It is expedient for you, etc.; a little while, and ye shall not see Me, and again a little while and ye shall see Me. Pentecost opened the eyes of the apostles; they knew their Lord then as they had not known Him; He was a hundredfold more to them from that hour than when He walked with them on earth. It is on the baptism of the Spirit that ever-growing perception of the wondrous fulness of His glory and trace depend. Neither will I hide My face any more from them, for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel.

3. Qualifying us to serve Him. It not only gives us more of Christ, but Christ more of us. The coming of the Holy Ghost was a baptism of power; it was a new zeal, a new perception of truth, a new utterance, a new force.

II. Is there reason to think we may receive this baptism? No doubt this must be answered in the affirmative; there is a reception of the Holy Ghost which corresponds to what we need. For consider that the bestowment of the Spirit on the New Testament Church was--

1. Greatly to exceed what was given before (Joh_7:38-39). The Holy Ghost was not yet! That is a remarkable expression. All spirituality is from Him; under His influence patriarchs worshipped, psalmists sang, prophets wrote, and holy men of old lived saintly lives. That must mean that the measure of the Spirits bestowment after Jesus was glorified would be such that His previous bestowment would be as nothing. And the favourite Old Testament expression pour points to an overwhelming abundance, far beyond what preceded the time to which it refers.

2. Set forth as the Crowning Gift of the Risen Lord. This was strongly emphasised by His herald. As our Lords ministry neared its close His thoughts were fixed on this. And after He rose it was His frequent theme. Does it not seem as though He regarded it as the end of His incarnation and that which, having made the atonement that secured it, He hastened to grant! If so, it is the undoubted heritage of all for whom that atonement avails.

3. Plainly declared to be possible to all believers. That is the point we fail to grasp. We think this was fulfilled once for all, but Pentecost was repeated even in the history of the apostles (Act_4:31); nor was it limited to them, nor to the Church at Jerusalem, it was repeated in the household of Cornelius, whilst in the incident before us it is repeated again in Ephesus. And doubt is finally removed as we still listen to Peter (Act_2:39).

III. Why, then, have we not received it? Have ye received the Holy Ghost, as the apostles did? If we answer that our spiritual state is more like theirs before than after Pentecost, that may be due, in part, to--

1. Lack of knowledge. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, or, at least, such a possible reception of Him as this. We have thought of the Pentecostal blessing as power to speak with tongues.

2. Failure in prayer. For prayer is a condition of its bestowment. Those to whom it was first given had continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. A second time, when they had prayed,…they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ Himself received it thus--when being baptized He was praying. And He said, Your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.

3. Lack of consecration to Christ. Before Pentecost the apostles placed themselves at their Lords disposal. Then the blessing came. Nor will it ever come otherwise. The world spirit cannot receive it, for He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; the disobedient cannot receive it, for He is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey Him; lack of love cannot receive it, for we mark the connection: Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God; let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, etc.; self-seeking cannot receive it (for, alas! like Simon the sorcerer we may desire the baptism of the Spirit for personal ends), for when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall glorify Me. Conclusion: To prayer and consecration this sorely-needed, all-inclusive blessing is never far off. There may, indeed, even then be a time of waiting. Nor may it come as we expect, for its recorded manifestations were not in every case alike. It may come to us as the dove, peace bringing; or as a baptism of fire, consuming our dross; or as the pouring out of rain, sweeping away our evils, and making buried seeds and drooping graces revive; or as the withering wind, making the goodliness of the flesh to fade, but the final issue will be the same; we shall be filled with the mind of Christ, and growingly transformed into His likeness; we shall live in fellowship with Him; and our words and works, yea, our very life, will become channels of grace to men, so that on every side they will cry What must we do to be saved? (C. New.)

The gospel test

1. These men were already disciples. What lacked they yet? Paul came among them with a single question. Did ye, after coming to faith in Christ, receive that outpouring of His Holy Spirit which is the sign and seal of His chosen? That was a very definite question. It referred to a gift which could not come without their knowing it.

2. The answer was as plain as the question, Now it was impossible for any reader of the Old Testament to be ignorant of the existence of the Holy Spirit. The very second verse of the Bible speaks of Him. And the devotions of holy men recognised more than His mere existence (Psa_51:1-19). All that is good in man has ever been the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore these disciples could not literally mean that they did not know of any such Person. What they say is, We did not even hear, when we believed, whether there is such a thing, in the gospel sense of the words, as the Holy Spirit; whether, that is, the great promise, as conveyed by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel, of a special outpouring of the Spirit is yet fulfilled. If any doubt could otherwise have rested upon the meaning of this question and its answer, it will be removed by a reference to Joh_7:39. The Spirit was not yet--or, not yet was there [in the distinctive gospel sense of the words] a Spirit--because Jesus was not yet glorified; even as our Lord Himself said, It is expedient for you that I go away, etc. The Holy Ghost was not yet come, because Christ was not yet gone. Even so it is here. These disciples had not yet heard of Pentecost.

3. And not to have heard this proved them to be ignorant of the very elements of Christian truth. Unto what then were ye baptized? Christian baptism is a baptism into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost--the way of admission into that Church in which the Holy Spirit dwells, for the use of each one of its members. Into what then were ye baptized, if you have not so much as heard whether there be any such Holy Spirit? The answer explained all. They had only received the baptism of John: who stood, himself, outside the Church, insomuch that it was said of him, Notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater, in privilege and in possession, than he, the greatest of the prophets. This baptism was designed only as a temporary and preliminary ordinance; inasmuch as after it came a baptism not of water only but of fire; not of repentance only and reformation, but of the personal presence of the Holy Ghost.

4. When they heard this (verses 5, 6). Thus were fulfilled in them those words afterwards addressed to the same Church (Eph_1:13). The miraculous gifts of the early Church are withdrawn, chiefly because they have done their work, because they have lost their necessity as signs. It is in His ordinary rather than in His extraordinary gifts that we trace the hand of God now. In this respect the Holy Spirit is only where He acts; and, where He acts, He shows that He is acting; and, where He shows His operation, it is by signs of a certain particular nature, written down for us in Scripture. I will select three of them to serve as heads of inquiry, when we are asked by St. Paul, and by One greater still, Have ye received that Holy Spirit, which all who believe in Christ were to receive? The fruit of the Spirit is--

I. Joy. Are you happy? the text says, You do not look so. I know that you have an excuse for this. Your circumstances are perplexing; trade is bad; the sky of the future dark and lowering. St. Paul might have said many things of this kind. In every respect but one I will venture to say St. Paul was worse off than you. And yet St. Paul could say when he was asked, Hast thou received the Holy Ghost? Yes, for I am filled with joy! yea, I can glory in tribulations also! If a man has the Spirit of Christ, in the same degree he is a joyful man. Do not put away from you this first test. For could anything so recommend the gospel to a man living in a troublesome world as this fact, that it offers him joy?

II. Gentleness. Are you kind? Do you think of the feelings of others? Do you never allow in yourself that miserable excuse, It is only my way; I do not mean it? There are other words in the list of the same character. The fruit of the Spirit is love, longsuffering, goodness, meekness. Every part of the gospel is full of this topic. And how bright would human life be, by comparison, if it also were full of gentleness! Alas! where is the house in which some ungentle spirit is not more or less marring the general tranquillity? Even good manners cannot succeed in doing thoroughly this work of the Holy Spirit. Other things break down somewhere: they who are courteous to strangers are not always courteous at home: they who are agreeable to equals are not always considerate to servants; it is only that Divine Spirit which touches the very spring of being which can make gentleness uniform, genuine and heart-deep.

III. Temperance--i.e., self-control, inward strength. It is not one appetite only which it rules: it is all the appetites. It is not that spurious virtue which casts out one evil spirit by the help of others, and compounds for pride and contempt and self-righteousness and utter ungodliness by deifying one single abstinence into mans sole virtue. It is the power of saying No to inclination. It is the not being brought under the power of anything, save the law of God, save the love of Christ. And who has got this without being a Christian? (Dean Vaughan.)

The Pentecostal test

1. These disciples were Christians, but separated from the common body, and ignorant of the common doctrine. Paul soon perceives the secret of their isolation, and makes them feel their defect by his abrupt question. They explain their case, receive fuller instruction, are baptized into Jesus, and the signs of a little Pentecost accompany their full admission into the Church.

2. There were three lesser Pentecosts after the great one, continuing with lessening demonstration the original signs--when Peter threw open the gate to the Gentiles, when Samaria was added to the fold, and now when the Spirit set His seal on the dispensation of the Baptist. After this there are no more renewals of the Pentecostal tokens--the extraordinary signs melt into the ordinary. This question--

I. Finds out the weakness of a vague kind of faith which does not pay due honour to the person and work of the Holy Ghost.

1. The Ephesians were in ignorance of the full revelation of the Trinity. Of the Personality of the Spirit, as also of the Person of Christ, into whose name they were not yet baptized, they had only an indistinct knowledge, and hence the supreme revelation of the Son had not unfolded the Father.

2. The holders of this scanty creed today cannot evade the test by asserting that they hold all that is vitally necessary, in that they believe God, that they accept the teaching of Christ, and that they acknowledge a supernatural power resting on the mind, whether called the influence of the Holy Ghost or not. The Spirit is God in the unity of the Father and the Son. As there is no Redeemer but a Divine Redeemer, so there is no Holy Ghost but the third Person of the Trinity.

II. Discovers deficiency in those who in their views of personal religion practically leave out the Holy Ghost.

1. No truth is more deeply stamped on the New Testament than the necessity of the Spirits illumination to an experimental acquaintance with Christ and His salvation. As none know the Father save through the Son, so none can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost. He makes the Word effectual in conviction of sin, in the energy of faith, in the revelation of mercy, and in renewal and sanctification.

2. But it is equally true that there may be correct theological belief and ceremonial exactness without conscious enjoyment of the Spirit.

(1) How many, forgetting that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, etc., make Christianity a reproduction of Judaism, as if they were baptized into Moses, hide the Saviour under ritualised sacraments, and forget, in their symbolical worship, that God is a Spirit, etc.

(2) But there is a formal unceremonial Christianity, a round of decent prescribed observances which is equally void of the Spirit, and which embraces everything about religion but that which is the result of earnest prayer on the part of man and a direct gift on the part of the Spirit.

III. Searches those who have received the Spirit in his preparatory influences, but not yet in fulness of His grace.

1. These Ephesians were disciples of John, whose ministry had its value in this, that it prepared for Christ and His baptism of the Spirit. They were penitents waiting for mercy, and while the Saviour had come they knew Him not.

(1) Among those who are in earnest about their religion a large number fall short of the full light and grace provided in Christ. Their sins have been revealed to them, but not their Saviour. They are on the way from the Baptist to Christ, but only on the way. They are lingering at Jordan while there is elsewhere a voice crying, Come unto Me, all ye that labour, etc.

(2) Others take the view that the gospel only provides for a lifelong penitence, the hope of being accepted at last, and that it has nothing better for this life than a discipline of sorrow--an altogether morbid estimate of Christianity; utterly untrue to the gospel, which is glad tidings. To such the Spirit asks, as if grieved, Have ye received the Holy Ghost? If He be a Comforter, where is your strength? If He be a Spirit of joy, where is your rejoicing?

(3) Others miss the comfort of the Holy Ghost because their repentance is not sufficiently deep. The revelation of mercy by the Spirit cannot be extorted before the set time, and that is deferred till penitence has had its perfect work. There can be no peace where the exceeding sinfulness of sin is not deeply felt. Such must go back to John, and abide under the preliminary leading of the Spirit of conviction, who waits to afford consolation, but His time is not yet.

(4) Others misapprehend the simplicity of that faith which the Spirit seals. The apostle wrote to these same men, When ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit. That sealing is not always accompanied by the demonstrations which many require. Many doubting Christians hesitating to answer the question, if they would examine themselves they might find that the Lord the Spirit is in their hearts, and they knew it not. They have a humble trust in Christ, a filial spirit of appeal to Him, a relish for prayer, a secret joy in the name of Jesus, a hearty abhorrence of sin. What is all this but a token of the indwelling Spirit?

2. With regard to this great class there is in our question an abundant promise. It detects a deficiency only that it may be supplied; for there is nothing more remarkable than the sudden way in which these men were translated out of their partial darkness into perfect light.

IV. Detects in the regenerate whatever is inconsistent with the high privilege contained in such a gift.

1. They have received the Holy Ghost, but they have forgotten the conditions on which His presence is suspended, and have fallen into the habit of grieving that Spirit by whom they are sealed. Hence the question serves only to remind them of better days, and gives birth to other questions. Having received the Spirit, why have you not been one with Him in temper, desire, and act?

2. But if the question awakens regret, in that sorrow there is hope. The Spirit is not easily driven from the soul He has once inhabited. The duty of such a troubled Christian is plain. There is occasion now for a fresh repentance; and if with all our heart we ask for the tokens of reconciliation, He will give them as richly as at the first.

V. Applies to those who are not fixing their minds steadily on the Spirits supreme design in their sanctification. Some undervalue this sanctifying power as received by the believer on his first union with Christ. They read the question as if it ran, Have ye received the Holy Ghost at some epoch of transcendent consecration, raising the regenerate life into a higher sphere? But Paul actually said, Did ye receive? etc. There is no distinction between a state of regeneration and a state of higher religious life. The same Spirit whom we receive in the new birth is given for our entire consecration. Then do not undervalue the grace you inherit as having the Holy Ghost. There is no limit to His present willingness to fill, rule, and consecrate the soul. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

The gift of the Holy Spirit

I. The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ. To manifest Him, to draw men to Him, to bring them into captivity to His easy yoke and light burden--this is the Spirits operation in the human heart. And this it could never be before Jesus was glorified.

II. The Spirit has wrought since the day of Pentecost as He never wrought before, in the testimony which He bears in the heart of every individual believer. We do not read of any such direct access to God granted to individual men in ancient times.

III. Again, the indwelling Spirit of these latter days of the Church is eminently the Spirit of wisdom. The humble child, walking by the light of this Spirit, is wiser than his teachers if they have Him not.

IV. Lastly, the Spirit of God now abiding among us is a transforming Spirit; not merely enlightening, nor merely comforting, nor merely conferring the adoption of sons, but changing us into the image of God, begetting in us a thirst to be like Him whose sons we are, to have done with sin, and to cast off corruption and to put on perfect holiness. (H. Alford.)

Divine influence

Consider--

I. The influence of the Holy Ghost on the department of relief. We are often where these Ephesians were. God the Holy Spirit came into them, and then their old belief opened into a different belief; then they really believed. Can any day in mans life compare with that day?

II. The Holy Spirit not only gives clearness to truth, but gives delight and enthusiastic impulse to duty. The work of the Spirit was to make Jesus vividly real to man. What He did then for any poor Ephesian man or woman who was toiling away in obedience to the law of Christianity was to make Christ real to the toiling soul behind and in the law. I find a Christian who has really received the Holy Ghost, and what is it that strikes and delights me in him? It is the intense and intimate reality of Christ. Christ is evidently to him the dearest person in the universe. He talks to Christ. He dreads to offend Christ. He delights to please Christ. His whole life is light and elastic, with this buoyant desire of doing everything for Jesus just as Jesus would wish it done. Duty has been transfigured. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit

How shall we know whether the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us? The tokens of His indwelling are such as cannot be mistaken.

1. One of them is the growing love of our neighbour which He works in us.

2. There is another test--the hatred of sin.

3. There is yet a third test--that of love of Christ in God. Let us ask Him to burn up all the wood and stubble wherewith we have been building in ourselves after a fashion of our own, and build up in us a sincere trust in Himself and His Son. (Abp. Thomsom.)

The gift of the Holy Spirit necessary to the spiritual life

Have you ever been under the water in a diving bell? I have; and very glad I was to get up again! The bottom of the diving bell is open just like an ordinary bell or a tumbler, and all the time we were below air was being pumped into the bell through tubes from above. Without this constant supply of air we could not have lived. We were out of our natural element. As a fish cannot live out of water, so neither could we exist under the water except under special conditions. The fresh air coming into the bell kept the water out of it and kept us alive. Had it not been for this constant stream of pure air we must have died by drowning or suffocation. Now, every man, woman, boy, and girl born into this world is, in one sense, like a person in a diving bell. We are made for heaven, not merely for earth. We need the air of heaven, or our souls cannot live. This beautiful earth suits our bodies, but our spirits require something more. We need the atmosphere which is from above. God supplies us with the breath of spiritual life. He gives us the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the Sabbath, and means of grace to help our souls in this life and to prepare us for the next; and if we inhale the Divine air which God supplies for our use, our souls will live, and our spiritual life will act upon our bodies and make us happy, good, and useful. (T. L. Cuyler.)

The Holy Spirit as a conscious possession

Dr. McDonald, of Ferintosh, whom the Lord so signally blessed in Scotland upwards of half a century ago, and to whom the Lord gave such multitudes of souls, had often to deal with young believers, and to warn them in regard to the future of their life. He used to put the question to them thus: Why is it that so many who made a hopeful profession at the beginning seem so quickly to fail? and he answered the question by saying, It was because they started business without capital. By this he meant that the indwelling of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Power for a pure life and devoted service was not personally and specially asked for and obtained as a conscious possession; hence the failure. (W. Ross.)

The gift of the Spirit

A clergyman told to the Rev. Asa Mahan the following story of his mother:--For years past she has been wholly confined to her bed from nervous prostration. During the early part of this period it did seem that no one could take care of her or endure her continued manifestations of irritability, impatience, fretfulness, and furious anger. Right there, she became fully convinced that through grace and the baptism of the Spirit she could have perfect rest, quietude, and self-control. She set her whole heart upon attaining that state. Such was her fervency of spirit and earnestness in prayer, that her friends thought she would become deranged, and urged her to cease seeking and prayer. I die in the effort, was her reply, or I obtain what I know to be in reserve for me. At length the baptism of power came gently upon her. From that hour there has not been the slightest indication of even the remains of that temper. Her quietude and assurance have been absolute, and her sweetness of spirit as ointment poured forth. It is no trouble to anyone now, but a privilege to all, to care for her. Many come, even from long distances, to listen to her divine discourse. Years passed on, and again he was asked, What of your mother? Does her faith hold out? She is gone, was the reply. But from the hour of that baptism to that of her death that quietude and assurance remained, and the ineffable sweetness of temper was never for a moment interrupted. I witnessed the closing scene. She died of cholera, and in the greatest conceivable agony. Yet such patience, such serenity of hope, and such quiet waiting for the coming of the Lord, I hardly before deemed possible. My son, she would say, nature has a hard struggle; but it will soon be over, and I shall enter into the zest that remains for the people of God.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 19:2-7. Having found certain disciples — Who had been formerly baptized by John the Baptist, and since imperfectly instructed in Christianity, he said, Have ye received the Holy Ghost? — The extraordinary gifts, as well as the sanctifying graces of the Holy Spirit; since ye believed — These disciples were converts to the Christian faith, that is, they believed that Jesus was the Christ; but Paul inquires whether they had received the Holy Ghost, whose operations on the minds of men for their illumination, conviction, conversion, sanctification, and comfort, were revealed some time after the doctrine of Jesus being the Christ was made known. He asks whether they had been acquainted with this revelation; and had been made partakers of this blessing. This was not all. Extraordinary gifts of the Spirit had been conferred upon the apostles, and other disciples, presently after Christ’s ascension, and these had been frequently communicated since upon certain occasions; and he inquires whether they had received these; whether they had had that seal of the truth of Christ’s doctrine in themselves. Observe, reader, although we have now no reason to expect any such extraordinary gifts as were given then, the canon of the New Testament having been long since completed and ratified, and it being our duty to depend upon that as the most sure word of prophecy; yet there are graces of the Spirit, given to all true believers, which are to them seals of the truth of their faith, and earnests of their future inheritance in their hearts, (2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; Eph 1:13,) and it concerns us all, who profess the Christian faith, seriously to inquire whether we have received these. The Holy Ghost is promised to all believers, who sincerely, earnestly, and importunately ask his influences, Luk 11:13. But many are deceived in this matter, and think they have received the Holy Ghost, when really they have not. As there are pretenders to the gifts of the Spirit, so there are to his graces and comforts. We should therefore strictly examine ourselves on this subject; and inquire whether we have received the Holy Ghost since we believed? The tree is known by its fruits. Do we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, &c., all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Are we led by the Spirit? Do we live and walk in the Spirit? Do we experience his renovating power, and are we under his government? See Gal 5:22; Gal 5:25; Eph 5:9; Rom 8:14; Tit 3:5. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost — They had heard and knew that the Holy Ghost was promised in the Old Testament, to be given in the days of the Messiah, and they did not doubt that that promise would be fulfilled in its season; but they had been so much out of the way of receiving information in this matter, that they had not yet heard that the Holy Ghost had actually been communicated to any, especially in his extraordinary gifts. It is probable that they were Hellenist Jews, natives of a remote country, who, having been in Judea (perhaps attending some of the feasts at Jerusalem) upward of twenty years since, had heard John preach, and had received his doctrine concerning the Messiah; but, having returned to their own country, had not been made acquainted with the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of pentecost, and with the progress of Christianity since that period. And he said, Unto what were ye baptized? — Into what dispensation? to the sealing of what doctrine? It seems, those who were baptized by the apostles, commonly received the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. They said to him, Unto John’s baptism — We were baptized by John, and believe what he taught. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance — John called sinners to repentance, to prepare the way of the Lord, and admitted the penitent to the baptism of water, saying, that they should believe on him that should come after — That is, the whole baptism and preaching of John pointed at Christ. After this John is mentioned no more in the New Testament. When they heard this — Their hearts were so impressed with it, that they readily complied with the direction and advice of the apostle, and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus — So that they were baptized twice, but not in the same manner, or with the same baptism; John did not baptize in the manner Christ afterward commanded, that is, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And — After their baptism; Paul laying his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them; and, as a proof of it, they spake with tongues and prophesied. These brethren being the first in Ephesus who received the Holy Ghost in his extraordinary gifts, it is probable the apostle afterward ordained, at least, some of them, elders of that church. If so, they may have been among those elders of Ephesus who came to Miletus, and received from Paul the pathetic exhortation recorded Act 20:18-35.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 19:2. Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον) The article is not added: the language is indefinite, to accord with the part (pro parte) of those who are being interrogated.—πιστεύσαντες) since ye have received the faith.—οἱ δὲ) but they said, plainly and openly.—οὐδὲ) i.e. not even have we heard this, that there are others (some persons) who receive Him (the Holy Spirit). For they could not have followed either Moses or John the Baptist, without hearing of the Holy Spirit Himself. [Therefore what they were ignorant of was, the effusion of the Holy Spirit peculiar to the New Testament.—V. g.]—ἔστιν, is) that is, whether He is received. See note on Joh 7:39 (To be is used for to be present, to be given, Mat 2:18; Gen 42:36).

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_19:2. The want of the distinctively Christian life of the Spirit in these disciples must have surprised the apostle; he misses in their case those peculiar utterances of the Holy Spirit, commencing with Christian baptism, which were elsewhere observable (1Co_12:13; Tit_3:5). Hence his question.

εἰ] The indirect form of conception lies at the foundation, as in Act_1:6.

πιστεύσαντες] after ye became believers, i.e. Christians, which Paul considered them to be. See on Act_19:1.

ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ εἰ πν. ἅγ. ἐ. ἠκούσ.] As the existence of the Holy Spirit at all cannot have been unknown to the men, because they were disciples of John and Johns baptism of water had its essential correlate and intelligible explanation in the very baptism of the Spiriteven apart from the O.T. training of these men, according to which they must at least have been aware that the Holy Spirit was something existing

ἔστιν (to be so accented) must necessarily be taken as adest, as in Joh_7:39 : No, we have not even heard whether the Holy Spirit is there (already present on the earth). Accordingly, they still remained ignorant whether that which John had announced, namely, that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit, had already taken place, and thus the πνεῦμα ἅγιον had become present. The supplements, δοθέν, ἐκχυνόμενον, and the like, give the sense, just as in Joh_7:39, but are quite unnecessary. The view which takes it of existence generally has misled Olshausen to import the here inappropriate dogmatic assertion: that God still stood before their minds as a rigid, self-contained, immediate unity, without their knowing anything of the distinctive attributes of the Father, Son, and Spirit, necessarily conditioned by the nature of the Spirit; and, with Baumgarten, has given rise to the supposition that they were Gentiles.

On ἀλλά, in the reply, see Klotz, ad Devar. p. 11 f. The question occurred to them as surprising; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 14.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 19:2 . μαθ .… πιστεύσαντες : Blass points out that both these words are used only of Christians. From St. Chrysostom’s days the men have often been regarded merely as disciples of the Baptist (so McGiffert, p. 286), and Apollos has been named as the person to whom they owed their conversion, whilst amongst recent writers Mr. Wright, u. s. , argues that they had been baptised by the Baptist himself. But if we realise the force of the remark made by Blass on the two words, they were men simply in the same position as Apollos, i.e. , “ignorabant illi ea quæ post resurrectionem facta erant” (Blass) their knowledge was imperfect like that of Apollos. There may have been many who would be called μαθηταί in the same immature stage of knowledge. Much difficulty has arisen in insisting upon a personal connection of these men with Apollos, but St. Luke’s words quite admit of the supposition that the twelve men may not have come to Ephesus until after Apollos had left for Corinth, a consideration which might answer the question of Ramsay, p. 270 as to how the Twelve had escaped the notice of Apollos (see Felten, p. 351, note). εἰ , cf. Act 1:6 . πιστεύσ .: “when ye became believers,” or “when ye believed,” R.V., in contrast with A.V. the question was whether they had received the Holy Ghost at their Baptism, and there is no allusion to any subsequent time. The two aorists, as in R.V., point to one definite occasion. εἰ Π . Ἅ . ἐστιν : “whether the Holy Ghost was given ,” R.V. ( cf. Joh 7:39 ): (the spirit was not yet given ), A.V., but in margin, R.V. follows A.V. in the passage before us: ἐστιν , accipitur , Bengel. There could not be any question as to the existence of the Holy Ghost, for the Baptist had pointed to the future Baptism of the Spirit to be conferred by the Messiah, and the O.T. would have taught the existence of a Holy Spirit the meaning is that they had not heard whether their promised Baptism of the Spirit by the Messiah had been already fulfilled or not. So δοθέν , ἐκχυνόμενον may be understood. Alford holds that the stress should be laid on ἠκούσαμεν when we received Baptism we did not even hear of a Holy Ghost.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Those excellent gifts of the holy Ghost, which were in those days in the Church.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?--rather, "Received ye the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" implying, certainly, that the one did not of necessity carry the other along with it (see on Act 8:14-17). Why this question was asked, we cannot tell; but it was probably in consequence of something that passed between them from which the apostle was led to suspect the imperfection of their light.

We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost--This cannot be the meaning, since the personality and office of the Holy Ghost, in connection with Christ, formed an especial subject of the Baptist's teaching. Literally, the words are, "We did not even hear whether the Holy Ghost was (given)"; meaning, at the time of their baptism. That the word "given" is the right supplement, as in Joh 7:39, seems plain from the nature of the case.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. Have ye received the Holy Ghost] It is likely that these were Asiatic Jews, who, having been at Jerusalem about twenty-six years before this, had heard the preaching of John, and received his baptism, believing in the coming Christ, whom John had proclaimed; but it appears that till this time they had got no farther instruction in the Christian religion. Paul, perceiving this, asked them if they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed? For it was the common privilege of the disciples of Christ to receive, not only the ordinary graces, but also the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit; and thus the disciples of Christ differed from those of John, and of all others. John baptized with water; Jesus baptized with the Holy Ghost. And to this day the genuine disciples of Christ are distinguished from all false religionists, and from nominal Christians, by being made partakers of this Spirit, which enlightens their minds, and convinces of sin, righteousness, and judgment; quickens their souls, witnesses to their conscience that they are the children of God, and purifies their hearts. Those who have not received these blessings from the Holy Spirit, whatever their profession may be, know nothing better than John's baptism: good, excellent in its kind, but ineffectual to the salvation of those who live under the meridian of Christianity.

We have not so much as heard whether, c.] That is, they had not heard that there were particular gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit to be received. They could not mean that they had not heard of the Holy Spirit for John, in his baptism, announced Christ as about to baptize with the Holy Ghost, Mt 3:11; Lu 3:16; but they simply meant that they had not heard that this Spirit, in his gifts, had been given to or received by any one.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Whether they had received the Holy Ghost. The end of the history doth show that Paul doth not speak in this place of the Spirit of regeneration, but of the special gifts which God gave to divers at the beginning of the gospel, for the common edifying of the Church. But now upon this interrogation of Paul ariseth a question, whether the Spirit were common to all everywhere at that time? For if he were given only to a few, why doth he join him with faith, as if they were so linked together that they could not be separate? Peradventure, they were none of the common sort; or because they were an indifferent number, that is, twelve, Paul demandeth whether they were all without the gifts of the Spirit. Notwithstanding, I think thus, that so many Jews were offered in presence of the Gentiles, not by chance, but by the counsel of God; and that at one time being disciples, that is, of the number of the faithful, who did notwithstanding confess that they were ignorant of the principal glory of the gospel, which was apparent in spiritual gifts, that by them Paul’s ministry might be beautified and set forth. For it is unlike that Apollos left so few disciples at Ephesus; and he might have taught them better, since that he learned the way of the Lord perfectly of Priscilla and Aquila.

Moreover, I do not doubt but that the brethren of whom Luke spake before were other than these. In sum, when Paul seeth that these men do profess the name of Christ, to the end he may have a more certain trial of their faith, he asketh them whether they have received the Holy Ghost. For it appeareth by Paul himself that this was a sign and token of the grace of God to establish the credit of doctrine; I would know of you whether ye received the Holy Ghost by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith (Galatians 3:2).

We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost. How could it be, that men being Jews heard nothing of the Spirit, concerning which the prophets speak everywhere, and whose commendations and titles are extant in the whole Scripture? Surely we gather by this that Paul did neither speak generally of the Spirit; and that these men, as they were asked, did deny that they knew those visible graces wherewith God had beautified the kingdom of his Son. Therefore, they confess that they know not whether God give such gifts. Therefore, there is in the word Spirit the figure metonymia. And this sense doth that confirm that if they had altogether denied that they knew anything concerning the Spirit of God, Paul would not have passed over with silence such a gross error; yea, an error altogether monstrous. When he demandeth to what end, or how they were baptized, he showeth therewithal, that wheresoever Christ had been soundly and thoroughly preached the visible graces did also appear, that such worship might be common to all churches. Wherefore, no marvel if Paul wonder that the faithful are ignorant of such glory of Christ, which God would have to be apparent everywhere at that time; and a correction immediately, he telleth them that they must not stay in those rudiments which they had learned; because it was John’s office to prepare disciples for Christ.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2) Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?—Better, as connecting the two facts in the English as in the Greek, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?—i.e., on your conversion and baptism. We are left to conjecture what prompted the question. The most natural explanation is that St. Paul noticed in them, as they attended the meetings of the Church, a want of spiritual gifts, perhaps, also, a want of the peace and joy and brightness that showed itself in others. They presented the features of a rigorous asceticism like that of the Therapeutæ—the outward signs of repentance and mortification—but something was manifestly lacking for their spiritual completeness.

We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.—The standpoint of the disciples so exactly corresponds to that of Apollos when he arrived at Ephesus, that we may reasonably think of them as having been converted by his preaching. They must, of course, have known the Holy Spirit as a name meeting them in the Sacred Books, as given to the olden prophets, but they did not think of that Spirit as a living and pervading presence, in which they themselves might claim a share. They had been baptised with the baptism of repentance, and were leading a life of fasting, and prayers, and alms, but they had not passed on to “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom_14:17). It lies on the surface that they were Jewish, not Gentile, disciples.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. and he said unto them] The different reading in the last verse renders a conjunction needful here, and this the oldest MSS. have.

Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?] The two verbs in the original are in the same tense, and there is nothing to justify the “since” of the A. V. The description of the state of these disciples is not easy to understand. St Paul addresses them as believers. But this perhaps is only because they presented themselves among the real Christian disciples, and his recent arrival made it impossible for him to know the history of all who appeared among the members of the congregation. He presumes they are believers from the company in which he finds them.

And they said unto him, Nay, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was [given] This rendering of the Revised Version makes the sense more clear than did the A V., but even yet requires explanation. Of the existence of the Holy Ghost no disciples of John could (as might be conceived from the A. V.) be ignorant, for in his preaching he had proclaimed that the baptism of Him who was to come after him should be with the Holy Ghost and with fire. But in the Greek where, as in this verse, the expression “Spirit” or “Holy Spirit” is found without an article (although in English we are forced to put “the” before it) it signifies not the personal Comforter, but an operation or gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus in Joh_7:39, the A. V. rightly renders “the Holy Ghost was not yet given,” although there is no verb for “given,” because the noun is without an article in the Greek, and so signifies “a spiritual outpouring.” These disciples at Ephesus, then, imply by their answer not that the name “Holy Ghost” was strange, but that they were unacquainted (as was the Baptist himself) with any special bestowal of the gifts of the Spirit.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He said unto them, have ye received the Holy Ghost,.... Meaning, not the special regenerating and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost, for that is supposed in their being disciples and believers, but the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, for it follows,

since ye believed? that is, in Christ; which is taking it for granted, that they had received the special grace of the Spirit of God; for this believing is to be understood of true, spiritual, special faith in Christ:

and they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost; by which they could not mean the person of the Holy Ghost: for they must have known that there was such a divine person as the Holy Ghost, from the writings of the Old Testament, with which they were conversant: and from the ministry of John, into whose baptism they were baptized; who saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus, and bore witness of it; and declared, that Christ who was to come after him, would baptize with the Holy Ghost: nor could they mean the special grace of the Spirit, which they themselves had received; but the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit of God, which they at present knew nothing of, and which were afterwards bestowed upon them: they knew that there were prophecies in the Old Testament, concerning the effusion of the Spirit in the last days, in the days of the Messiah; but they had not heard that these had had their accomplishment; they had heard nothing of the day of Pentecost, and of the pouring out of the Spirit upon the apostles then, nor of any instance of this kind since; they did not know that the Holy Ghost was yet, Joh 7:39 they knew he was promised, but not that he was given; the Ethiopic version, to avoid the difficulty of the text, renders it, "we have only heard that there was an Holy Ghost".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

Ver. 2. Have ye received the Holy Ghost] That is, the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost in prophecy, tongues, &c., as Act 19:6.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have ye received the Holy Spirit? - Have ye received the extraordinary effusions and miraculous influences of the Holy Spirit? Paul would not doubt that, if they had “believed,” they had received the ordinary converting influences of the Holy Spirit - for it was one of his favorite doctrines that the Holy Spirit renews the heart. But, besides this, the miraculous influences of the Spirit were conferred on many societies of believers. The power of speaking with tongues, or of working miracles, was imparted as an evidence of the presence of God, and of their acceptance with him, Act 10:45-46; 1 Cor. 14. It was natural for Paul to ask whether this evidence of the divine favor has been granted to them.

Since ye believed - Since you embraced the doctrine of John that the Messiah was soon to come.

We have not so much as heard ... - This seems to be a very strange answer. Yet we are to remember:

(1) That these were mere disciples of John’s doctrine, and that his preaching related particularly to the Messiah, and not to the Holy Spirit.

(2) It does not even appear that they had heard that the Messiah had come, or had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, Acts . Act 19:4-5.

(3) It is not remarkable, therefore, that they had no clear conceptions of the character and operations of the Holy Spirit. Yet,

(4) They were just in that state of mind that they were willing to embrace the doctrine when it was proclaimed to them, thus showing that they were really under the influence of the Holy Spirit. God may often produce important changes in the hearts and lives of sinners, even where they have no clear and systematic views of religious doctrines. In all such cases, however, there will be a readiness of heart to embrace the truth where it is made known.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

St. Paul first inquires of them, if they have received the Holy Ghost by confirmation. Their answer is probably not to be interpreted with rigour; since they must have heard something of the holy Spirit, so often mentioned in the Old Testament, by whom the prophets are said to speak, &c. They meant, they did not know there was in the Church, any means of communicating this Spirit to the faithful. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Have ye received the Holy Ghost? The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, as prophesying, speaking with tongues, healing of the sick, &c., as appears by Act 18:6, and Joh 7:39; for it could not be, that they, who were instructed and baptized by John, should be ignorant of the essence or person of the Holy Ghost; for the Baptist had seen him descending upon our Saviour; as is remembered by all the evangelists which speak of his baptism, Mat 3:16; Mar 1:10; Luk 3:22; besides other scriptures which testified of him; and St. John had spoken of him unto all he baptized, that our Saviour would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire, Joh 1:32,33.

We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost: this answer must be understood, according to the question, of those gifts now mentioned; and which by the imposition of the hands of the apostles were given, especially at the ordination of such as were sent to preach the gospel, it being necessary for the planting of the church, those miraculous gifts assuring those unto whom they preached, that their doctrine was from heaven; as also to assure the apostles themselves of the success of their ministry, and the conversion of such they preached unto, as Act 10:44,47. And this acceptation of these words is paralleled, 1Sa 3:7, where it is said, that

Samuel did not yet know the Lord; the meaning is, that he knew not that God was wont so to speak unto any; otherwise, that holy man, as young as he was, both knew God, and served him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Have… Holy Ghost—Dr. Hackett renders this question, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed? Observing signs of their defective Christianity, Paul puts the question preparatory to a fuller work. Their answer also Dr. H. would render, We did not hear, when baptized, even if there be a Holy Spirit. By the term Holy Ghost, as by them used, we do not understand the Divine Spirit as an essential existence, but the Holy Spirit as a conscious manifestation and movement then in the Church. (See note on Joh_7:39, where a similar meaning exists in the words.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said for he said, A.V. and T.R.; did ye receive for have ye received, A.V.; when for since, A.V.; nay, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given for we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, A.V. Did ye receive, etc.? The R.V. gives the sense much more accurately than the A.V., which is, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost at the time of your baptism, when ye first believed?" Something led the apostle to suspect that they had not received the seal of the Spirit, (comp. santev Eph_1:13, pisteu ejsfragisqhte) and so he asked the question. The answer, Nay, we did, not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given, as in the R.V., is justified by Joh_7:39, where the exactly similar phrase, Ou hn Pneuma Agion, is rendered in the A.V., "The Holy Spirit was not yet given." Esse pro adesse" (Bengel). The sense given in the A.V. does not seem probable. The answer means, "Not only have we not received the Holy Spirit, but we had not even heard that the dispensation of the Spirit was Come.

HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER Vers. 2-7. Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and its sequel

The exceeding economy of Scripture will prevent our supposing that these verses lie on the page of Scripture for no end, and will equally prevent our supposing they are present for no distinct and important end. Starting from quite the opposite creed, we are led to notice

I THAT THE STRESS OF THE PASSAGE BELONGS, NOT TO THE SUBJECT OF BAPTISM, BUT TO THE SUBJECT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. The point of departure of Paul is from the question, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" His first inquiry is not respecting the baptism of those whom he was addressing.

II THAT THE DISPENSATION OF CHRISTIANITY IS TO BE EMPHATICALLY APPRAISED AS THE DISPENSATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Too little stress is ever laid upon this grand fact. Too much stress cannot possibly be laid upon it. And whatever the causes of the former of these things, it may be said that the apostle, from the very first, did what in him lay to provide against a defect so disastrous in its certain tendency and work.

III THAT BAPTISM IS THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, WHATEVER REFERENCE IT MAY OBVIOUSLY AND FOR OBVIOUS REASONS CARRY TO HIM, IS EQUIVALENT TO THE SIGN OF ADMISSION TO ALL THE PRIVILEGES OF THE SPIRIT, AND TO IMPLICIT SUBMISSION ON THE PART OF THOSE OF MATURE YEARS TO THE FULL RULE OF THE SPIRIT.

IV THAT TO INVEST THIS FACT WITH THE GREATEST POSSIBLE PLAINNESS AND EMPHASIS, EVEN THE SPECIAL GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN APOSTOLIC TIMES WERE BESTOWED AS THE SEQUEL OF BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS. B.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 2. Progression in Divine revelations.

have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." This is evidently the simple answer of men who knew nothing whatever about the matter concerning which they were asked. They were sincerely religious men; they are called "disciples," and yet though the thing seems almost incredible to us they had heard nothing about the Holy Ghost. Much is explained by a careful observation of the facts connected with the early preaching of the gospel at Ephesus. Give some account of the attractive eloquence, but limited knowledge, of Apollos. It was an advance upon Judaism to accept John the Baptist as a prophet, but it seems that Apollos knew only of John"s demand of repentance, and had not heard of his direct witness to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. Apollos could only teach as much as he knew, and when St. Paul reached Ephesus, he was troubled to find the condition of the disciples. "He noticed a lack of spiritual gifts; perhaps, also, a want of the peace and joy and brightness that showed itself in others. They presented the features of a rigorous asceticism, like that of the Therapeutae (of Alexandria) the outward signs of repentance and mortification, but something was manifestly lacking for their spiritual completeness." In his anxiety to find out what was wrong, the apostle asked this searching question, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" They did not; they knew nothing about the Holy Ghost. So St. Paul lifts them on stage after stage. First to the apprehension of Christ, the Messiah and Savior, to whom John gave witness, and then to the experience of the coming and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as the seal of the believer. And in this we are plainly taught that there is a progression in Christian truth that it is unfolded to us in parts and stages. And we may even cherish the inspiring assurance that the Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word." A sentiment is allowed to prevail that "revelation must always be perfect and complete." It is always perfect in its fitness to its times and to its purpose, but any particular revelation is only a piece and a part of the truth, and it is imperfect when it is treated as separate from the whole of which it is a part.

1. There is historical progression in Divine revelation. Broad principles, covering the general relations of God with men, were given to the early world. Each passing age was helped to fill in some part of the outline. There was a fullness of times for the manifestation of Messiah, and, step by step, truth had advanced to meet the revelation which he brought.

2. There is progression in our apprehension of the Christian truth. No man can grasp it all at once. It comes to us all bit by bit, step by step. Some of the more advanced Christian truths cannot possibly be grasped until certain other and preparatory ones are well learned; and some even of these preparatory truths cannot be really grasped until we have passed through the sanctified experiences of middle life. Take, for instance, the Fatherhood of God. A man must experimentally learn the mystery of the human fatherhood before he can really receive the full revelation of the Divine Fatherhood. As a son he may know how he feels towards the Father, but until he is a father he cannot know how the great Father feels towards him. In the matter of our salvation the Divine order of progress seems to be

1. John and repentance;

2. Jesus and faith;

3. the Spirit and holiness.

I IS THE PROGRESSION OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH, THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY GHOST IS THE HIGHEST REVELATION YET MADE. It comes last. It comes after and through the objective Christ. It is the inward witness to him who lived, labored, died, and rose," God manifest in the flesh." The spiritual operations of God in men"s minds and hearts may be traced in Old Testament times. All spiritual life always is by the energy of God"s Spirit. And the specialty of the working of the Holy Ghost in the new kingdom is not that he is some new Spirit, but that his agencies of motive, persuasion, and instruction are all taken from the manifested life of the Son of God. He "takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them unto us." Our Lord said of him, "He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.

II THE TRUTH OF THE HOLY GHOST, BEING THE HIGHEST TRUTH, IS THE ONE WHOSE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE IS MOST ESSENTIAL TO HIGH AND HOLY LIVING. We are responsible for attaining the best that can be attained. We are not at the highest when we accept of the truth of Christ for us; that is but a low first step of spiritual apprehension. We have but taken a little stepup when we apprehend the truth of Christ with us. We only gain the wonderful experiences, and reach the highest Christian power, when we know of Christ in us. All growth in the Christian life is response to the life of the Spirit in our souls. Growth

(1) in knowledge;

(2) in graces;

(3) and in the mastery of the soul over the body.

His presences and his working in us are the spring of all our impulses to whatsoever is good and wise and true.

III THE TRUTH OF THE SPIRIT, BRING THE HIGHEST TRUTH, IS THE ONE MOST EASILY IMPERILLED. Therefore we should be most jealous of the doctrine and the personal experience of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The Christian sin that is of unspeakable sadness is quenching or grieving the Spirit. The sin that hath never forgiveness is sin against the Holy Ghost. The prayer that utters forth to God a soul"s innermost agony is this: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." The highest truths are always likely to fade first. In the individual experience, and in the Church doctrine, the truth of the Spirit will fade from its place and power long before any dimness seems to pass over the figure of the manifested human Christ. Trees mostly die from the top downward. And the first effect of wearing and weathering is to rub off those delicate touches and tints, which are the highest efforts of the artist, and give the supreme charm to his work. Impress that we may be, like these Ephesians, behind the revelation that has been made for us, or indifferent to it. Then we may pity them, but we must blame ourselves. And we must humble ourselves, and repent, if, knowing of this gentle, awful, gracious, comforting Holy Ghost, we are found neglecting his Divine inworkings. He is the last and highest revelation of God to men; then let us not "grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have ye received the Holy Ghost? - The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, as well as his sanctifying graces? We have not so much as heard - Whether there be any such gifts.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Have

Not as in A.V., "since ye believed," but as in R.V. and marg.: "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" Paul was evidently impressed by the absence of spirituality and power in these so-called disciples. Their answer brought out the fact that they were Jewish proselytes, disciples of John the Baptist, looking backward to an accomplished redemption. Rom 8:9; 1Co 6:19; Eph 1:13.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. “Did you receive the Holy Ghost, having believed? And they said, But we did not hear that the Holy Ghost is given.” Apollos, under the powerful preaching of John the Baptist, having learned that the Messiah will baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire, after He has consummated the atonement on Calvary and ascended into heaven, thus satisfying the violated law and preparing the way for the incarnation of the Holy Ghost as in the Eden times. Apollos, after his powerful conversion and call to the ministry under the preaching of John the Baptist, who so constantly emphasized the coming Baptism of the Holy Ghost by his Divine Successor, had gone away to Africa, faithfully preaching the glorious gospel, but not enjoying an opportunity to keep posted in the current events at Jerusalem. Thus, under the Johanic dispensation, as was his custom, on arrival at Ephesus he preaches in the Jewish synagogues, proclaiming Jesus after the manner of John, who had introduced Him, and assuring them that it will be their privilege to receive the personal indwelling Holy Spirit when the Messiah shall baptize them. The E. V., “We have not so much as heard that there be any Holy Ghost,” is not only illusory, but out of harmony with the Greek. Apollos, “fervent,” i. e., boiling over in spirit, was really a Holy Ghost preacher, bright in the experience of regeneration, so prominent in the ministry of John the Baptist, to whose dispensation he belonged, yet preaching, as we see from this record, the second work of grace, though he had not yet received it, and was consequently incompetent to lead others into it.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 1

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? This question is asked in order to lead their way to a knowledge of their imperfect obedience. For their reply, see the Revision. They had heard of the Holy Spirit; John always spoke of Christ as one who should bestow it, but they had heard nothing of the scenes of Pentecost and the descent of the Spirit. It must not be forgotten that they lived nearly a thousand miles from Jerusalem, in an age when each part of the world knew little of what transpired elsewhere.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2. εἶπον omitted with אABDE. Vulg. has ‘dixerunt.’

2. εἰ πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐλαβετε πιστεύσαντες; did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed? On the use of εἰ as simply the mark of an interrogation cf. Act 1:6.

The position of these disciples is difficult to understand. St Paul addresses them as believers. But this perhaps is only because they presented themselves among the real Christian disciples, and his recent arrival made it impossible for him to know the history of all who appeared among the members of the congregation. He presumes they are believers from the company in which he finds them.

ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ εἰ πνεῦμα ἅγιόν ἐστιν ἠκούσαμεν, nay, we did not so muck as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given. This is the sense of the verse, and not that given by the A.V. Of the existence of the Holy Ghost no disciples of John could (as might be conceived from the A.V.) be ignorant. In his preaching John had proclaimed that the baptism of Him who was to come after him should be with the Holy Ghost and with fire. But in the Greek where, as in this verse, the expression ‘Spirit’ or ‘Holy Spirit’ is found without an article (although in English we are forced to put ‘the’ before it) it signifies not the personal Comforter, but an operation or gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus in Joh 7:39, the A.V. rightly renders οὔπω γὰρ ἦν πνεῦμα ἅγιον ‘for the Holy Ghost was not yet given,’ although there is no verb for ‘given,’ because the noun is without an article in the Greek, and so signifies ‘a spiritual outpouring.’ These disciples at Ephesus, then, imply by their answer not that the name ‘Holy Ghost’ was strange, but that they were unacquainted (as was the Baptist himself) with any special bestowal of the gifts of the Spirit.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. ἐλάβ. πιστεύς.] The aorist should be faithfully rendered: not as E. V. ‘Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?’ but Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye became (not, when ye had become: cf. προσευξάμενοι εἶπαν, ch. 1:24, and Winer, edn. 6, § 45. 6. b, also note on ver. 29) believers? i.e. ‘on your becoming believers, had ye the gifts of the Spirit conferred on you?’—as in ch. 8:16, 17. This is both grammatically necessary (see also Rom 13:11, ἐγγύτερον ἡμῶν ἡ σωτηρία ἢ ὅτε ἐπιστεύσαμεν), and absolutely demanded by the sense; the enquiry being, not as to any reception of the Holy Ghost during the period since their baptism, but as to one simultaneous with their first reception into the church: and their not having then received Him is accounted for by the deficiency of their baptism.

ἀλλʼ οὐδέ] On the contrary, not even …

ἠκούσαμεν] Here again, not, ‘we have not heard,’ which would involve an absurdity: ‘nam neque Mosen neque Johannem Baptistam sequi potuissent, quin de Spiritu Sancto ipso audissent’ (Bengel);—but we did not hear, at the time of our conversion:—Our reception into the faith was unaccompanied by any preaching of the office or the gifts of the Spirit,—our baptism was not followed by any imparting of His gifts: we did not so much as hear Him mentioned. ἐστιν cannot, from its position, be emphatic, nor does it mean “were to be had” (Wordsw.), as Joh 7:39. The stress of the sentence is on ἠκούσαμεν: so for from receiving the Holy Ghost, they did not even hear of His existence. Tiros only will find an objection to this rendering in ἐστίν (expecting ἦν): the present is commonly used after the aorist of declarative verbs or verbs of sense, in the clause which contains the matter declared, seen, or heard: the action being transferred pro tempore to the time spoken of. See reff.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? The two verbs are in the aorist tense, and therefore denote instantaneous acts. The A. V. therefore gives an entirely wrong idea, as there is no question about what happened after believing; but the question relates to what occurred when they believed. Hence Rev., rightly, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?

We have not heard. Also the aorist. We did not hear; referring back to the time of their beginning.

Whether there be any Holy Ghost. But, as Bengel observes, "They could not have followed either Moses or John the Baptist without having heard of the Holy Ghost." The words, therefore, are to be explained, not of their being unaware of the existence of the Holy Ghost, but of his presence and baptism on earth. The word estin, there be, is to be taken in the sense of be present, or be given, as in Joh 7:39, where it is said, "The Holy Ghost was not yet [ουπω ην] ," and where the translators rightly render, "was not yet given."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.