"Are You Spirit Filled?" Acts 19:1-10 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Well, in the New Testament, the church in Ephesus is probably the strongest church that it is described.

It is the most mature church.

Of the different churches in the letters of uh the seven letters in the book of Revelation, for example, those letters go from strong to weak.

Ephesus was a church that was planted by the Apostle Paul.

It had uh Priscilla and Aquila at it.

It had Apollos was from there.

Paul handed it off to Timothy.

Uh church history tells us that John even spent time pastoring there, the disciple of love.

More New Testament epistles are written to the church in Ephesus than any other church.

They received not just Ephesus, but 1st and 2 Timothy as well.

They received in tremendous encouragement from the book of Revelation, which called them to repent and return to their first love.

Likely even first, second and third John were all having their target audiences with the church in Ephesus.

This was a remarkably strong and mature church.

However, they did drift away from their first love.

We find this out in the book of Revelation, chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

What's very interesting in the book of Revelation is it says the Church of Ephesus drifted away from their first love, likely because of a relentless attack from so-called apostles.

That there were false apostles, false disciples that rose up and gravitated towards Ephesus and tried to lead the believers there away from Christ.

So that's the history of the church at Ephesus.

Started through a remarkable chain of events that we'll look at the next few weeks.

The recipients of the book of Ephesians, which we'll study the next few years, likely.

And then ultimately the recipients of the book of Revelation, calling them to they were the first church to receive the book of Revelation and calling them to repent and return back to their love of Jesus Christ.

We first are introduced to the Church of Ephesus in Acts 18, the very end of Acts 18.

And so it's worth drawing your eyes up to Acts 18, verse 24.

Acts 18:24

There was a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, not where I live, but in Egypt.

And he came to Ephesus.

But just look at this man's frequent flyer status on Delta here as we read this.

He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures.

He'd been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only of the baptism of John.

Now, it doesn't say he went out to the Judean wilderness here, but it's likely enough that he did, because historians tell us that hundreds of thousands of people traveled to Israel to be exposed to John's preaching.

There was nobody like him, really, in world in world history.

More people had heard the apostle, or heard John the Baptist preach in the Judean wilderness than had heard any other person in human history live in person.

There'd never been a phenomenon like this in the earth.

Hundreds of thousands of people journeyed out to hear this man preach.

And so here now, later on in Acts 18, long after John has had his head served up, here you have this man who's from Egypt, ministering in Ephesus, modern-day Turkey, but was familiar with John the Baptist's ministry.

He was an eloquent man, he was a man fervent spirit, it says, which is speaking of his own spirit.

There's an intentional contrast with that, with what we're going to see in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

He spoke and taught accurately the things about Jesus, but here's the most amazing thing about Apollos.

He didn't really know Jesus.

He was fervent in spirit, he was eloquent, which means he could bring the thunder.

And he was preaching, it even says in chapter 18, he was preaching with great boldness in the synagogues.

So here's, and John the Baptist did not have a kosher relationship with the Pharisees.

John the Baptist did not get along well with the Jewish leadership.

Do you remember when the Pharisees went out to hear John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness?

Back before, long before Jesus.

Before Jesus had entered onto the scene, the Pharisees went out to hear John the Baptist, like all the rest of human civilization, it seems.

And John rebuked them and said, Who told you to come out here?

Who told you to free the wrath, fleet of the wrath to come?

You're a brood of vipers.

I mean, John let them have it.

Because John was preaching about repentance, and they came out there thinking we don't need repentance.

John had a baptism, remember?

The whole point of John's baptism was for you to confess your impurities.

It was a ritualistic washing.

You would go into the river, uh, the Jordan River, which was by no one's definition in world history clean.

You would wash in the Jordan River.

This is a pickup on Naaman, the Old Testament leopard.

Do you remember when he wanted to be to be healed?

He was told to go wash in the river Jordan, and he was grossed out.

He said, Are you kidding me?

We've got way better rivers than that in Syria.

I don't need to go to the Jordan River.

And his disciples pleaded with him, and so he went and did get baptized in the Jordan.

His leprosy did go away.

You jump forward to John the Baptist.

The Pharisees are having the same attitude.

They don't need to be purified.

Under the Old Testament, if you were impure, if you touch something unclean, you had to bathe yourself and present yourself to a priest.

You had to go seven days with purity, then wash yourself with this ritual washing.

In Jerusalem, they used the mikvas because there wasn't a river big enough for you to, you know, get down in.

So they had baths put in for just such an occasion.

John the Baptist didn't use the mikvas.

John the Baptist went out to a river and told you, because you're impure, come wash in this.

It was horribly offensive to the Jews.

It was essentially calling them to be like some Syrian leper from the Old Testament.

It was a public proclamation that you are diseased, you're a sinner, and you need a heart change.

That was John the Baptist's message.

You can tell why the Pharisees did not approve of that message, because they did not teach that they needed a ritual purification.

They taught that there was a form of righteousness that they could possess.

And the following, adhering to their rules, would keep you from the uncleanliness that the Gentiles had.

So that's the Pharisees' worldview.

John the Baptist rebukes them.

Here's this guy from Egypt who has made it out to John the Baptist, has been exposed to John's teaching.

There were two components to John's teaching.

You're definitely going to need to understand both of these to understand Acts 19.

John's teaching had two components.

One, that you're a sinner and you need to repent.

Two, that there's a Savior coming who will save you from your sins.

He will fulfill the Old Testament prophecies.

The Savior is on his way.

John knew that he was the messenger sent by God to make straight paths for the Savior to come.

The Old Testament closes with that prophecy that there will be someone sent by God to what it means to make straight paths is to call people to repent.

Sinners walk a crooked way.

They weave this way and that way.

And here comes John the Baptist who says, not just make your life better, but literally straighten yourself out.

Which means repent.

You're a sinner.

You need to repent because the Savior is coming.

Now, the significance of this is that John the Baptist was not preaching a different message than Christ.

They were not on opposing teams.

This is very difficult for people in Jesus' lifetime to figure out.

Even in John 1, you get this sense of a little kind of contest between the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of Christ, who's baptizing more people.

And John is so self-depreciating with this.

He keeps telling people, I am, I'm not even fit to untie Jesus' sandals.

I hope his crowd grows.

I hope people leave me and follow him.

Because John was pointing people to Jesus.

And I think we understand that.

We understand that John was calling people to repent and get ready for Christ.

Now here comes Jesus.

He's the fulfillment of John's preaching.

The Jews had a very difficult time with this.

Some of the Jews even thought that John was the Savior, that he was making himself out to be the Messiah, even though John kept saying that wasn't true.

But remember, the world had never seen anybody like John.

And so you could see why people would think that.

Now Jesus comes, John baptizes Jesus.

Jesus then goes and separates from John, does his ministry.

At the end of John's life, John sends messengers to Jesus.

This is recorded in Luke 7 saying, Are you really the Savior?

I mean, because I'm in prison, my head's about to be chopped off.

I'm telling everybody to look to you.

I just, if you're not, now would be a good time to tell me.

That's Luke 7.

And Jesus, you know, heals the sick and raises the dead and gives sight to the blind and tells John the Baptist's disciples, go back to him and tell him what you just saw.

That should give him confidence to be martyred, which he needed.

Meanwhile, though, disciples of John the Baptist have scattered everywhere.

They're out in the world, and they are calling people to do two things: to repent from their sins and to look for the Savior.

Now, fast forward, years after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, you find one of these disciples, Apollos, in Ephesus, which is a Roman city with a thriving synagogue, also a thriving Greek tradition there, Greek scholars are there.

It's a Roman city, but there's a history of Greek scholarship and Greek philosophers there.

It's a very vibrant intellectual city.

In that place is Apollos from Alexandria, Egypt, preaching to people about the baptism of John, calling them to repent, and speaking with such boldness about Jesus Christ, whom he doesn't know anything about.

All he knows about Jesus is that John said, look for him.

That's all he's got.

And so now imagine Priscilla and Aquila rolling up here into church.

It's actually the you know the synagogue place where they're they're preaching and hearing this guy bringing the thunder about Jesus, but you can tell, I don't know, maybe you've you got that impression sometimes.

You hear somebody speaking very powerfully and eloquently, but you have a sneaking suspicion they don't know exactly what they're talking about.

Picture some of your work meetings if you need a context for that.

Like that guy's on fire, but he does not know what he's talking.

It's like he read the report in the elevator on the way up here and he's trying to make up for it by yelling.

And Priscilla and Aquila got that impression about Apollos.

Man, this guy has convictions.

I don't know if he actually knows Jesus.

And so they take him aside and they and he believes in Christ.

And now he goes away even more of a preacher than he was before.

So that's happening in the white spaces at the end of chapter 18.

He's going off to Corinth, is where he's headed, chapter 19, verse 1.

When Apollos, the newly instructed, is on his way to Corinth.

Paul passed through the inland country, chapter 19, verse 1.

It just gives you that detail, the inland country to let you know that he and Apollos didn't cross paths, strangely enough.

They should have, if you look at a map, but there's a shipping route, a trade route, and the overland route.

And Paul apparently takes the overland route, it says in verse 1, there's a little detail that lets you know why he didn't meet Apollos.

And he also comes to Ephesus.

So now the Apostle Paul rolls into Ephesus.

What Ephesus has had so far in terms of Christian witness has been Apollos, who didn't even know Jesus, but preaching with lots of boldness, lots of conviction, telling everybody their sinners, telling them to repent and make way for the Savior.

That's likely the content of Apollos' message.

Paul comes in there a few months later, a few weeks later, we don't really know how long.

And there he found some disciples.

And when it says he found some disciples, what disciples of whom?

These are not Christian disciples, because we're going to see in a second, they also don't know Jesus.

In fact, they don't know the Holy Spirit, they don't know Christ.

What kind of disciples are they?

It seems, well, the reason I rolled in from 18 to 19 here is that it seems like they're disciples of John the Baptist.

That would make the most sense of this.

They've been taught by John, which does not mean that they're not saved, I don't think.

I mean, if these people were to have died at that moment, and I believe they would have gone to heaven because they have faith in the coming Savior.

That's the whole point of this.

I know there's a different view out there that says that they are not saved, that they would have been lost if they died.

And it's this is kind of hypothetical questions.

They're always tricky because they don't die.

You know, they're here in Acts 19, so we know what happens to them.

But what if?

I think they're meant to stand in here, and this is important to understand this passage, I think.

They're meant to stand in here as kind of the closing of the Old Testament era.

These are people that really did believe the Old Testament scriptures.

They really did believe in the coming Savior.

They really did believe in repentance of sins.

And they knew that even though they're washed by John the Baptist, even though they were cleansed for the repentance of sins, that they needed the Savior to come.

They needed the new covenant.

That's what they're waiting for.

They're waiting for the new covenant.

This is something that every Old Testament saint knows.

Old Testament saints were acutely aware that they were not members of the new covenant, that not all Israel is Israel, as Paul says in Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

A key verse for this is Jeremiah 31.

And let me just read for you.

Jeremiah 31, verse 31 Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Jeremiah 31:31

It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them out of Egypt.

Because they broke that covenant, even though I was their husband, declares Yahweh.

This covenant I will make with Israel.

I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts.

So that's the new covenant.

I will be their God, they will be my people.

Old Testament saints understand how God write his law on your heart.

He does so through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So this is like Old Testament Soteriology 101.

If you're an Old Testament saint, you're looking forward to the Savior coming to die and make atonement for your sins, to be your substitute, and for the Holy Spirit to seal you.

That's the old covenant.

So here in Ephesus Acts 19, verse 1, the middle there, there are some disciples of John the Baptist.

Acts 19:1

They believed all that.

Paul finds them and he said to them, verse 2, uh, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

This should remind you of the conversation Priscilla and Aquila had with Apollos, probably in the same plot of grounds just a few weeks earlier.

You hear these people speaking, and you're like, man, these guys can preach, but again, do they know Jesus?

And so Paul asks them, just a question, guys.

I don't know how to ask it.

And maybe you've had this before.

I was even talking to someone today who said one of his coworkers just started changing his speech around him recently and started speaking a little bit differently, and he was trying to figure out what's going on, so finally he just asked him, Hey, are you saved now?

The guy's like, Yeah, I didn't know how to say it.

But eventually you just got to man up and ask the question, right?

Like, hey, are you saved?

I'm getting mixed signals here.

That's what Paul does here.

Hey, are you saved?

Well, what's the way to ask?

Are you saved?

This is what this is what he comes up with.

Did you receive the Holy Spirit?

Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 28 that everyone who's who's saved should be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is how the church started back in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

When they confessed their sins, they believed in Christ, the Holy Spirit descended upon them in a visible way with the tongues of fire.

They spoke in strange languages, they prophesied.

Peter even said, You're prophesying to fulfill what Joel said in Joel chapter 2, and you should all be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

And so that's what Paul's asking here.

He's asking, hey, are you guys saved?

Did what's happened to people when they come to Christ, did it happen to you?

That's a very good question.

By the way, the phrase disciples, there are some that try to make this mean, especially in the charismatic movement, charismatics and Pentecostals take this passage to mean these people were Christians.

They just needed a second or a third or a fourth or nineteenth baptism to be filled with the Spirit.

And I used to be, I used to work at a church that taught that, that taught that this chapter was teaching that the ongoing being baptized with the Spirit, that you need to be baptized with the Spirit before any work of substance in Christian ministry.

You're going to go on a short-term mission trip, you're going to do VBS, you're going to do lead music on Sunday, you need to have people lay hands on you and pray that the Holy Spirit would fill you.

Because look at Acts 19, the Holy Spirit comes to you after you're a Christian.

You know that's because it says they were disciples here.

But you know, in the Bible, the word disciple is used usually at this point in the New Testament for disciples of John the Baptist.

Matthew 9, disciples come to Jesus clearly from John the Baptist.

Mark 2, looking at Jesus in awe.

Luke 7, they come to see if Jesus really is the one.

Remember, they believed that sin was bad, that repentance was good, and they believed in the coming Savior.

So, their disciples of John the Baptist.

Paul asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

They said something outrageous.

No, we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Which is a very interesting line, isn't it?

I didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.

It's like that when somebody says, Hey, do you want a uh a milkshake from five guys?

What did you say?

I didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.

That's my go-to response right there.

Did you even know that five guys served milkshakes?

You didn't know?

Did you even know there's a Holy Spirit?

They do.

You can go there afterwards and get one.

That's this kind of conversation here.

Hey, did you get the Holy Spirit when you were saved?

Like, we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.

Now, did they know there's a Holy Spirit?

Obviously, they know there's a Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has a strong presence in the Old Testament.

Uh Psalm 51, verse 11, David says, Please don't take your Holy Spirit from me in a prayer to God.

Psalms 51:11

Isaiah 63, verse 10 says that Israel had rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 63:10

This is a typical Old Testament statement.

There's clearly a Holy Spirit.

That's the whole point of the New Covenant.

John the Baptist disciple obviously knows there's a Holy Spirit.

It's Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

The Spirit of God hovered on the face of creation, okay?

The Holy Spirit was not a New Testament invention.

He didn't enter the stage in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

At the very least, he's descending upon Jesus like a dove, and you have the whole triune ministry of God at the baptism of Christ to say, nothing of all the Old Testament.

Obviously, a John the Baptist disciple knows that there's the Holy Spirit.

What he means by this, I think, is it's the new covenant prophecy.

Remember, when the Savior comes, the new covenant will be inaugurated.

The word of God will be written on people's hearts.

That's what they're waiting for.

That's what John the Baptist was waiting for.

That's what the disciples of John were waiting for.

And here comes Paul who says, Did you receive the Holy Spirit?

And they said, We didn't even know this happened yet.

But the new covenant's here?

And no one told me?

How can it be?

How can it be?

You know we're getting out of church a few minutes early next Sunday.

I told you I wana ends at 6.30.

We are not ending, by the way, early for the Super Bowl.

That's not why evening service is ending early.

Evening service is ending early because I wana is ending early.

You could offer me$100 right now, or$1,000.

Money is not the issue here.

I would not be able to tell you who's playing in the Super Bowl.

I have no idea.

No idea.

Last I checked, Vice President Pence was talking about the Packers getting there.

It was the only thing I heard about it.

No, that didn't happen, apparently, judging by looks.

He said, he said that the Packers were gonna teach Nancy Pelosi's 49ers a lesson or something like that.

That's all I heard about it.

It didn't work out.

No.

Yikes.

I don't know what that means for our future, but that happened.

But the point is, the game is already settled.

The teams are already in it.

It's already happened, right?

Like the teams are gonna be in it.

It's decided.

Okay, good.

Good.

I don't know who they are.

That's the window here with John the Baptist's disciples.

They know that the Savior's coming.

They don't know that he's already come.

They don't know that he arrived.

They don't know that he was crucified and resurrected and ascended into heaven after teaching about the kingdom for 40 days.

They don't know that.

They know that he's on his way, and here comes Paul who says, psst, it already happened.

And you're like, I had no idea.

So that's the context of their answer.

And so Paul has a question for them into what were you baptized?

And they said, into John's baptism.

Into John's baptism.

This means that these people went out to the wilderness, went into the water, came out of the water to give a public profession that they needed to repent from their sins.

It was identifying themselves as sinners in desperate need of the new covenant.

That's the point of John's baptism.

They need the new covenant.

And here Paul is telling them it already came.

And they said, We didn't know.

And Paul said, But I thought you said you were baptized.

And they said, By John, though.

Oh.

So these people are functioning here.

They're standing in for your Old Testament saint who believes in the Old Testament, believes in John's preaching, believes in repentance, believes that sin is bad and the gospel is good, but they don't know Christ.

They haven't met him yet.

The New Testament isn't written yet.

They don't know Jesus.

That's who these people are.

They have the faith of David, the faith of Abraham, of Isaac, even the faith of that rascal Jacob.

They have the faith of the Queen of Sheba.

They have faith in a future Savior who they know not of.

That's what they believe.

So Paul tells them, verse 4, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in the one who is to come after him, that is Jesus.

So he's what's fascinating here, what was Paul's first question?

Did you receive the Holy Spirit?

And they said we didn't even know there was the Holy Spirit.

So what does Paul respond with?

A lesson in the Trinity?

Does he draw a triangle?

Does he take an egg?

A three-leaf clover?

No, what does he do?

To talk about, he says we don't know, they don't know the Holy Spirit.

So he says, What you, you don't know the Holy Spirit, great.

What you need to learn about is Jesus.

That's what you need.

Paul does not take them to the Holy Spirit to introduce them to the Holy Spirit, he takes them right to Jesus.

John, the whole point of his ministry was to point you to the Savior, the one who will come after him.

The end of verse 4 says, that is Jesus.

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Now there's a debate about people who look at this verse and say, that means you should be baptized in the name of Jesus.

Or that means, you know, Matthew 28, you should be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I have even seen people in Pentecostal churches that will be baptized twice.

Pentecostal baptism I went to once, they lower the person down, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, back up, and in the name of Jesus and back down again.

Cover all the bases.

In fact, there was a pastor at the church I was at before that believed that you should be baptized that way.

And uh, and so he never did baptisms at church.

But Pastor MacArthur, you still don't mind you doing baptisms.

It's the first one that counts.

The second one is just, you know, a bath.

But there is those who look at this verse and say, this is something different than the Matthew 28 baptism.

And I don't think so.

I think Matthew 28 and this line up perfectly to be baptized after your conversion.

Remember, this is after your conversion.

You're not baptized in order to be saved.

That's not what this is teaching you.

They're saved.

They put their faith in Christ as a result of which they need to be baptized.

And when you're baptized, Matthew 28 says you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, key word, the Holy Spirit.

Here, Paul says they now they need to be baptized in the name of Jesus.

That's the middle one on that list.

So of course they're baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is a very new covenant context.

They didn't know the new covenant.

They're waiting for the Spirit.

The whole conversation is about the Holy Spirit here.

That's what they're talking about.

And so it makes sense then that Paul would highlight they were baptized in the name of Jesus.

That was the missing piece for them.

That was the missing piece.

Now, when this happens, Paul then lays his hands.

This is after water baptism.

Did you notice this?

Water baptism, verse 5, verse 6.

Paul then laid his hands on them.

The Holy Spirit came on them, and they begin speaking in tongues and prophesying.

There are twelve of them in all.

So this group of twelve get saved, and then the Holy Spirit falls on them in visible ways, and they start speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Now, I'm sure you know some of the controversy with this.

Again, in the charismatic Pentecostal world, this is taught to be normative.

Your normal baptism, your normal conversion experience should have this go alongside of it.

You should speak in tongues.

This is the difference between the charismatics and the Pentecostals, by the way.

If you don't know the difference, the charismatics would teach the importance of an ongoing filling of the Spirit, that you can be filled with the Spirit multiple times.

A sign of being filled in the Spirit would be speaking in tongues.

A sign would be prophesying.

A sign would be casting out demons.

Lots of different signs.

Pentecostals, on the other hand, would take a more strict view that a spirit baptism is a one-time thing, that you can be filled over and over again, but it's a one-time spirit baptism.

That's the key one.

And the result of it is going to be speaking in tongues.

So if you have not spoken in tongues, you are not converted.

And both groups looked at this passage.

And so, what do you do when you get to this passage?

You read this and you say, Whoa, I didn't speak in tongues and I got saved.

No fire from heaven fell on my head.

I didn't start prophesying.

What's going on here?

Well, this same scene has played itself out over and over again in the book of Acts.

And so I think it's helpful to zoom out and see the big picture.

Acts 19 is not in a vacuum here.

The first time you see this is Acts 1, verse 5, when Jesus declares to them that John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Acts 1:5

So they know that they are going to have the Holy Spirit fall on them.

Acts 1, verse 16, which lets you know the disciples of Christ, by the way, when Jesus ascended, had not yet been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:16

So, were Old Testament saints sealed with the Spirit?

The answer is no.

The answer is no.

Old Testament saints were regenerate.

They were born again.

We know this because Jesus tells Nicodemus, you're a teacher of Israel, and you don't know the importance of being born again.

Obviously, Old Testament believers had to be born again.

There's no other way to be saved than to be born again.

But they were not sealed with the Holy Spirit.

They weren't spirit-filled.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon individuals for certain works, like the judges, to make them kings, to do certain activities.

This is why David prayed that the Holy Spirit wouldn't leave him.

He didn't want to be fired like Saul was by God.

But the Holy Spirit does not seal individual believers.

By the way, what Bible passage talks about believers being sealed with the Spirit?

Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

This is a concept that is very near to the Ephesian church because they have a front-row seat to this.

Why does the Holy Spirit seal believers in the New Testament?

Because he is doing something new with the new covenant.

He's making a new group of people, a new spiritual body.

The church is not Israel.

Israel had regenerate and unregenerate people in it.

It had true and false believers.

You entered Israel through birth.

The sign of your entrance into Israel was circumcision.

You maintained the Old Testament law as best as you were able, even though you constantly failed.

There was no true atonement for sins, only symbols and signs that pointed forward to Christ.

The New Testament church is fundamentally different.

The New Testament church, you enter through conversion.

By design, there are not true and false converts.

If there's a false convert in the church, they are supposed to be confronted and ultimately put out of the church or converted.

Very different than Israel.

Because of that, the New Testament church, it's not a nation, it's not an ethnicity.

It's a separate group of people that transcends national boundaries, transcends racial boundaries, transcends ethnic boundaries, it transcends cultures and languages.

It just blows through every wall people set up, rich and poor.

It just knocks down all those walls.

Jew and Gentile breaks down those walls because one spirit is in everyone.

That's the promise.

And so when Jesus tells these 12 disciples, 11, they're going to draft their 12th one in a minute, the Holy Spirit's going to come on you.

He's telling them, even though you're believers, you're not part of the church yet.

Then in Acts chapter 1, verse 16, Peter identifies the Holy Spirit as the source for the Old Testament.

Acts 1:16

Peter says the Holy Spirit inspired the Old Testament, Acts 1, verse 16, and he's going to come to us.

Acts 1:16

So notice what Peter is saying.

The Holy Spirit wrote the Old Testament, and he's coming.

We're going to get him.

We will receive him.

You get the sense that Peter is just stoked that what's going to happen, he doesn't know what it'll look like, but it's going to be new.

It's going to be insane, and insane it is when you find out what happens.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit comes, descends on their heads with tongues of fire.

A very visible sign.

They all begin to speak in tongues.

Tongues, glossy is the Greek word, which means languages.

They begin to speak in languages.

There's nations there for a Jewish feast.

People from all kinds of different language groups are gathered there and they all hear the gospel preached in their own language.

It's not gibberish, it's not andalanda, shandalanda, handalanda.

It's an actual language.

And they all hear in their own languages.

Which makes sense, doesn't it?

I mean, if the point of the church is it's going to blow through ethnic distinctions, blow through language divides, blow through national borders, it would make sense.

The sign of it is the miraculous speaking in different languages.

Acts 2, verse 38, the first converts believed, received the gift of the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues.

Acts 2:38

However, all of those people in Acts chapter 2 were Jews.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Different languages.

Different, even you could say, ethnic groups, depending on how you define that, but not different in the fact that they were all Jewish.

So, Acts chapter 8 rolls around.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 8, you have the Samaritans.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

You remember the Samaritans?

You should go boo.

In Acts chapter 8, you have the Samaritans.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

I mean they're compromising, intermarrying.

We're running in them in the book of Ezra.

They're causing problems to Ezra and the causing problems to Nehemiah, and just there's a thorn in Israel's side.

But in Acts chapter 8, disciples preach the gospel to them and they believe and get saved.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And they run and go get Peter and say, Peter, you got it, you got it, you got to see this.

And so Peter arrives, and when Peter gets there, the Holy Spirit falls on them, and they all start speaking in tongues.

And it even says, Luke writes, Acts chapter 8, that, quote, Peter saw that the Spirit was received through the laying on of hand of the disciples' hands.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

He realized that they received the Holy Spirit just like the Jews did.

And so there's a very public demonstration that Jews and Samaritans are now both part of the church.

You remember the conversation with the woman at the well who said, What mountain are we supposed to worship on?

And Jesus says, Woman, the time is coming, that the mountain's not going to matter.

Well, here it is.

Samaritans and Jews are both part of the church.

They both speak in tongues, they're both sealed with the same spirit.

Now that doesn't mean that every time a Jew gets saved from that point forward, the Holy Spirit will follow them and they'll speak in languages.

It's not recorded that it ever happened again.

It doesn't mean every time a Samaritan gets saved, the tongues will fall on them and they'll speak in different languages.

It's not recorded that it ever happened again.

The idea is that they're now a public entrance into the church in the same way.

Acts chapter 9, verse 17.

Acts 9:17

Paul is struck blind by God.

A messenger is sent to him, who went very reluctantly, by the way.

I don't know what kind of gospel presentation there was in that conversation.

But Paul believes, scales fall off of his eyes, and he received the Holy Spirit.

His sight was restored.

So now Paul is brought in.

Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Gentiles in Caesarea.

Caesarea is a port.

It's the Jewish port.

It's how the Jews, the nation of Israel and the Roman Empire, connected to the rest of the world.

Any commerce to Rome or to Corinth or Ephesus is probably going to go through the port in Caesarea.

It was named after Caesar.

It was the international capital of Israel.

Jerusalem was not the international capital of Israel.

Jerusalem was the capital of the Jews.

Very reluctantly, the Romans let them keep that just because of its historic value.

But Caesarea was where the action is.

It's where there are way more Gentiles than Jews in Caesarea, even though it's right in Israel.

Caesarea named after Caesar, of course.

That's the best place for the Gentiles to get saved, isn't it?

You have a Gentile city that stands as a monument to Gentile influence in Israel.

Just think about God's sense of irony.

It's incredible.

The Gentiles make this massive city in Israel to show the dominance of the Roman world over God's people.

And what does God do with that city?

He saves the first Gentiles there.

It was meant to be importing Greek culture into Israel.

Instead, God flips it around, saves the Gentiles, and then exports it to the rest of the Roman Empire.

It's incredible.

Incredible.

But after the Gentiles get saved, they have to go fetch Peter again.

Peter's up in modern-day Tel Aviv of Jaffa.

They have to bring him up to Caesarea.

It takes a day or so to get there.

Peter arrives, Acts chapter 10, verse 45.

Acts 10:45

The believers from among the circumcised, Luke, not even going to bring himself the right Gentiles there, just from among the circumcised, I mean the Jews there, who had come with Peter, were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the uncircumcised, even on the Gentiles.

They were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

And Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water from these people who've received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

So the whole thing is designed to show Peter that Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans are now all part of the same church.

There will be no distinctions in the church.

Paul testifies this in Acts chapter 15, when Paul is explaining how the Gentiles should be part of the church.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Remember, Acts 15 is the whole church council.

They're debating this.

And Paul says, listen, stop it.

Stop this debate because the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit just like we did.

I think a reference to Acts 10.

So now you have Jews that are part of the church, Gentiles part of the church, Samaritans that are part of the church.

So I used to be a referee in Major League Soccer.

And we had a ritual to get into the league.

Once a referee was chosen to be part of the league, they had to run their fitness test, which was three miles and eighteen minutes along with some sprints.

But the three miles, eighteen minutes, that was the key one.

Three miles, eighteen minutes, you had to run it, and you had to do it we used usually did in a high school stadium.

And there would be captains and coaches from the teams there heckling the people when they ran.

So to get into the league, you had to do, and they do this every year in the preseason camp, the referee, so every year you had to do this.

You have to run on the track, and you'd be some of the players are even taking bets on the different referees, like who's going to finish first.

They're exchanging money in the stands over which referee is going to finish first, and they're cheering for you so that they win their money.

It was a very weird situation.

If a new referee got promoted during the season, like maybe there was an injury and a new guy gets put in the field, he's now a referee in the league.

The very next break in the season, like the all-star break or a bye week or something, they would bring all of the referees together and representatives from all the teams together to watch the new guy run the race.

Because he couldn't be a real referee in the league until he had gone through that humiliating experience.

Didn't matter if he'd already done a game or two, maybe he got promoted to Miss.

It's okay.

But he's not really a ref until he can do that in front of everybody.

The humiliating ritual.

I think that is an analogy or analogous to what you're seeing here in the book of Acts.

That the Jews get saved with tongues of fire, the Samaritans get saved with tongues of fire, the Gentiles get saved, tongues of fire.

They're speaking in languages, the Holy Spirit falls in them.

They were saved 48 hours earlier, but they weren't really treated as part of the church until this happened, and now there's no more excuses.

Is there any group of people left in the whole wide world now that you don't know if they should be part of the church?

We've seen Jews added, we've seen Gentiles added, we've seen Samaritans added.

Is there any other group of people anywhere in the world?

And the answer is yes.

There's one group we've missed so far.

Who is that group?

John the Baptist's disciples.

Old Testament saints.

What about them?

What happens to their faith?

What about somebody who believes the Old Testament, believes in the coming Savior, but just doesn't know about Jesus yet?

Are they saved?

Yes.

Are they part of the church?

Not yet.

And then Paul finds them in Acts 19, runs into them in Acts 19, preaches the gospel to them in Acts 19, and the Holy Spirit falls in them, and they speak in tongues and prophesy.

Just like everybody else.

Now they're part of the church.

This the technical theological phrase for this is a dispensational time warp.

This closes the dispensational time warp.

Here were Old Testament saints in the New Testament era who have now gotten saved.

It closes out that chapter of history.

From Acts 19 forward, there's no more.

Listen, this should end the whole argument about is a believing Jew today who's not a Christian, like they don't believe in Jesus, but they believe the Old Testament, are they going to heaven?

The answer is no.

Acts 19 ends that conversation.

There is no such thing anymore.

Now, if you believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you had better believe in Jesus Christ because he is that God incarnate.

There's no salvation outside of being regenerate and sealed into the church now.

That's what Acts 19 closes out.

That's what Ephesus stands for.

From this time forward.

Listen, it's not a coincidence that Ephesus is the most mature church in the New Testament.

Not a coincidence.

It is the place where the church was brought to maturity.

This is why Ephesians 3 even writes about this.

And into Ephesians 4, about how the church used to be immature, tossed to and fro, but then God blessed them with pastors and teachers and evangelists to bring the body to maturity.

It happened in Ephesus.

The Old Testament era was closed out in Ephesus.

This is the era where the church in its maturity was inaugurated.

And by the way, this might interest you.

This is the final reference to the gift of tongues in the book of Acts.

Nobody else will be saved in speaking tongues because there's no more point to it.

The point was a public demonstration of the unity of the church.

I know every group has been brought in.

I have three lessons for you.

I was supposed to get to this roughly 15 minutes ago.

Let me just rattle them off very quickly for you.

Three lessons from this.

First, Christians are spirit-filled.

Christians are spirit-filled.

Paul's question is just brilliant.

Are you spirit-filled?

If you're a Christian, the answer is yes.

There's no such thing as a Christian that hasn't received the Holy Spirit.

That ended in Acts 19.

Anybody who has put their faith in Christ is regenerate.

That's what regeneration means.

They've come to life through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit didn't just make them alive, he seals them and keeps them.

So first lesson.

Christians are spirit-filled people.

If anyone is in Christ, Paul says, Behold, he is a.

The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.

Every believer, that's a guarantee for.

That's true.

That's not true in the Old Testament.

But it is in Christ.

Second, Christians have no racial distinctions.

Maybe I should say ought to.

Christians ought not to have any racial distinctions.

Because we all drink from the same spirit.

We all have unity in Christ.

This is the power behind the letter to Philemon.

That the transcendent power of the Holy Spirit can knock down the wall between Philemon and Anisimus, between slave and master, between the runaway slave and the master who is wronged.

The gospel can break that wall down.

Anissimus, by the way, ends up pastoring that church that Philemon, as former owner, was part of.

There's no way that can.

Function for long unless the Holy Spirit is in it.

And you recognize a genuine, transcendent power in the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 13.

1 Corinthians 12:13

In one spirit, we're all baptized into one body.

Jews, Greeks, slaves, free.

We all drink from one spirit.

We all drink from one spirit.

In the church, there ought not be racial distinctions.

There ought not be class distinctions.

Obviously, we're creatures of our society.

Obviously, we're creatures of the prejudice and the sinfulness of our own society.

You know, we're fish that are wet, and it's hard to tell sometimes.

But this is an ought to be.

There ought not be those distinctions in the church because the Holy Spirit unites us all.

We're going to get to this in the book of Ephesians.

The main point in the book of Ephesians is that the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile is torn down.

And third principle from this that the church begins in Acts.

The church begins in the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The church is not Israel.

The church is not even, in a sense, spiritual Israel.

We're spiritual children of Abraham because we have faith in Abraham's God.

But the church is new.

It begins in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It begins with the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

It begins with the gift of tongues and languages that people could hear, a very visible demonstration of God transcending different language groups.

I have an entire sermon on this.

It's on our church website under 1 Corinthians 14 on the gift of tongues and languages.

I have so much I want to put in here, but we won't tonight.

But I've preached a sermon on this, it's on our website, 1 Corinthians 14 about the gift of tongues.

Anyway, the church is not Israel.

This is huge for understanding the Bible, huge for understanding the New Covenant, huge for understanding why there's elders and deacons in the New Testament, and not elders and deacons in the Old Testament.

No deacons in the Old Testament, no elders in that sense.

The priests served in the temple.

We serve in the church.

Ephesus then functions as the model of the mature church.

He even functions that way all the way in the book of Revelation.

Not the perfect church.

Not the perfect church.

They've left the first love.

They must repent, just like we must as well.

But praise be to God that he builds his church with the transcendent power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we're thankful that your spirit dwells in our hearts and makes no distinction between persons except through faith.

We echo Paul's words that we purpose in our minds not to see people in classes, not to divide the world, except through Christ.

We see the world, we encounter those who are in Christ and those who are out of Christ.

That is it, God.

So give us the courage to see that.

Give us the courage to see the transcendent power of faith in the lives of people.

We're so thankful for the faith that binds us together, the Spirit who builds the church.

He is the one who builds our church.

Church is indeed spiritual, it belongs to the Holy Spirit.

We are his.

We're thankful for these promises.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you for being with us today.

And now a parting word from Pastor Jesse.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, emmanuelbible.church.

If you're not a member of the local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.