THE KING’S BUSINESS
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repeated in the experience of each indi vidual belidver. This baptism, however, does not always manifest itself as in this case by the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 12:13, 30). We will all do well to put Paul’s question to ourselves,1 “Have I received the Holy Spirit?” What led Paul to ask the ques tion we are not told. There seems to have been something unsatisfactory about these disciples in Ephesus that led Paul to ask it. Perhaps there was not that overflowing joyfulness about them that there always is about a Spirit-filled Christian. Perhaps he was troubled because there were only twelve of them, thinking that if they were truly Spirit-filled there would certainly be more by this time. When Paul had bap tized them not merely with the baptism of repentance but “into the name of the Lord Jesus,” i.e., into absolute identification'with Qirist in His death, burial and resurrection, and when he had laid his hands on them there was no delay, they received the Holy Ghost at once. The reason why they had not received the Holy Spirit up to this time was not because there needs to be any long period of waiting, but simply because they did not know that the receiving of the Holy Spirit was for them and had not met the condition of receiving Him. The fault was in them, not in God or in Christ. S.undayMarch n . Acts 19 : 8 , 9 . For three full months Paul had a hear ing in the Jewish synagogue at Ephesus. This was a rare opportunity and he made the most of it. He “spake boldly.” He used reason and persuasion. He did not give ethical or sociological lectures, but held fast to “the things concerning the kingdom of God.” But though he ^ got so good a hearing, not all by any means were converted. The truth, when it does not command obedience hardens, and so it came to pass that some in Ephesus “were hardened” by the very truth that saved others. Having rejected the truth for themselves, they began to speak evil of the way before others. The time for separa tion had come, and so Paul drew off the
The question implies also that one may believe and still not receive the Holy Spirit. There are many in our day who contend that every believer has received the Holy Spirit whether he is conscious of the fact or not. Paul evidently did not think so or he could not have asked this question, which plainly implies that one may believe and yet not receive the Holy Spirit. In the case'of these Ephesian believers the event also, proves the same thing. . These Ephesians to whom Paul was speaking were believers, believers in Jesus, “disciples, saved men, but they had not as yet received the Holy Spirit. It is said sometimes that these men were not Christians, but simply disciples of John, but we are explicitly told in the preceding-chapter that Apollos, their teacher, “taught carefully the things con cerning Jesus” (ch. 18:25, R.V.), but like their teacher they knew only the baptism of John. In this they were like many church members today who know no other f. baptism than water baptism unto repentance and remission of sins, and not baptism into actual identification with Jesus, and bring ing with it the baptism with the Holy Spirit. (3) The question implies in the third place that it is of the highest importance that every Christian should receive the Holy Spirit. This was the very first thing Paul attended to when he reached Ephesus, to see to it that the disciples there received the Holy Spirit (cf. ch. 8:14-17), after that the work proceeded with great power (ys.10, -18-20). (4) The question implies, furthermore, that every believer may rechive the Holy Spirit. This was a quar ter of a century after Pentecost, and a Gentile church, and yet the gift was for them as well as for the disciples at Pente cost (who were Jews). It is evident from the story recorded here that receiving the Holy Spirit and being baptized .with the Holy Spirit is one and the same thing (cf. v. 6 with ch. 2:4 and 1:5). It is evident, too, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was not received once for all by the church as a whole at Pentecost, but that it is an experience that may be and ought to be
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