Dear Friends.
Imagine that your former pastor returns to your church for a brief visit after an absence of a short while. And at his return he’s interested in learning about how things are going in your congregation. It’s natural for pastors to be concerned about that. So he plans to ask you some questions that will help him assess the health of your congregation.
What kind of questions do you think pastors would ask to inquire about their churches. I’d imagine it would be something similar to what you’d ask an old friend you haven’t seen for awhile. Things like — how are you? What activities have you been up to? How is your family? Are you still doing the things you love?
I know what that’s like, wondering about how one of your churches is doing. I have served as pastor to four different congregations during the course of my ministry. A pastor loves the congregations he serves, and always retains a lively interest in their welfare. As I have contact with those congregations, I always find myself wondering, “how are they doing?“
I think a pastor would ask things like — are you growing in faith? What programs do you have? Do people come to worship faithfully? How’s the preaching going? Are they faithful in prayer? Things like that.
But Paul didn’t ask those kinds of questions when he made a visit back to Ephesus. Listen to his question to them: “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?“ Imagine that! And then notice that even stranger yet is their response to him, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit!“ (Acts 19:2)
Let me take a step back in time and tell you something about this church in Ephesus so we can better step into the situation there. Ephesus is a city in the southwest corner of Asia Minor, which is Turkey today. It was a prominent city with a good harbor and a good deal of commerce. Paul had stopped in Ephesus on his second missionary journey. It wasn’t a long stay, but it was enough to tell them about Jesus Christ and begin a church there.
If we fast—forward a little we’ll discover that the church there was destined to become a rather prominent one. It was a favorite of Paul’s and later on he stayed there three years, longer than at any other church he established. He sent Timothy, his best associate there, and wrote the church a letter that we call the book of Ephesians. He also wrote Timothy two letters while he was serving there. It was a good church at the crossroads of life in the Middle East. But it was a church in a tough situation, right in the middle of a lot of idolatry. It was a church with a good future in a strategic spot.
Now, back here in Acts 19, where we find this strange question, we are much earlier than that. Paul has stopped in to visit this church at the beginning of his third missionary journey. He wants to know about their welfare so he gathers a group of church members and asks them this question, “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?“ And that’s when what we call the “Ephesian problem“ surfaces.
That problem is captured by this strange question, “did you receive the Holy Spirit“. It’s also represented by their response, “No.“ And even more by their additional comment, “we haven’t even heard of the Holy Spirit.“
Now, what are we supposed to make of that? How can there be a church which doesn’t know about the Holy Spirit? And because churches are made of believing people, how can there be such a thing as a believer who has not received the Holy Spirit, and who doesn’t even know about the Holy Spirit?
There are, I believe, two factors that explain this strange situation of believers who don’t know about the Holy Spirit. Try to imagine what it would be like to be taught something by someone who didn’t have all the necessary information. Imagine being taught to bake by someone who doesn’t know anything about such key ingredients as salt or vanilla. You learn to bake a good thing, but it can’t be used because the flavor is not right. You weren’t given information about the whole recipe. Or, suppose that you are learning woodworking from a friend of yours. But he knows nothing about the different kinds of tools for carving wood. Your plans are good, the wood is beautiful, but the product you make never quite measures up because you have never used the correct carving tools. Well, that’s what happened at Ephesus. In chapter 18 we learn that Apollos was one of the missionaries who served there. He was a very sincere man, but he had an inadequate knowledge of the full truth of God. He only knew, and therefore only taught about, the baptism of John. (That’s John the Baptist.) And this baptism of John was a preparatory baptism, one that signified repentance. It wasn’t a full baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as Jesus would later teach. So part of the explanation for this problem is found in the inadequate training of one of the men who led them. And that’s why Paul spent some time instructing them further in this matter. And that’s why Priscilla and Aquilla are seen in Acts 18 giving Apollos further instruction in the matter too.
But for the other part of the explanation let me tell you what my sons often liked to do at a lake. Whenever they were standing on the shore of a quiet body of water they couldn’t resist the temptation to pick up a rock and throw it into the water. It’s not that they didn’t like the quiet water, but they liked so much what happened. The rock not only created a splash, but also created ripples that started as a small circle around the point of impact, and then kept getting wider and wider as they moved outward. They were fascinated to see that the rock created both a splash and a circle of ripples that got wider and wider. Something like that was happening here. It is what we call the progressive expansion of Pentecost. In Acts chapter 2 we read the story of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on believers to empower them for witness. We call that Pentecost and it occurred in Jerusalem. That was the center of the church. In Acts 8, however, we find much the same thing, only now as the church spread into Samaria. In Acts 10 we find it again, and this time as the Spirit is poured out in the Gentile world. And here in Acts 19 at Ephesus we find much the same thing again, only now into Asia Minor. So like the ever—widening ripples from a rock tossed into a pond, the knowledge and empowerment of the Holy Spirit moves to wider and wider circles of believers.
Now, today we know from our study of the Scriptures that there can be no church that is healthy and vibrant without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And, of course, a church is made up of people, so a church will have the power of the Holy Spirit only to the degree that the people in that church do. That means, you see, that the question, “did you receive the Holy Spirit?“ is not a question we ask of a church. We ask it of people within that church. People like you and me.
Scriptures also tell us that no one can be a believer without the aid of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in I Corinthians 12 that no one can say “Jesus is Lord“ except by the Holy Spirit. And, therefore, we are confident that every sincere believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, dwelling within them. Therefore, after Pentecost, no sincere Christian believer can say, as Ephesus did, “No, we don’t know who the Holy Spirit is.“ It’s just an impossibility.
But, my friends, that is not the end of the matter. There is another facet of the Holy Spirit’s work that we must consider. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives is not static. It is dynamic. In other words, it is subject to a lot of changes over time.
Let me illustrate. When I was a child I was vaccinated against certain serious childhood illnesses. You likely were too. I was told that those vaccinations were valid life long. They never had to be repeated. Once vaccinated, always safe, we were told. Well, in my years of living the ups and downs of the Christian life I have learned that living with the Holy Spirit is not like being vaccinated. It’s not that once you have it, it’s always there, permanent, for life, safe! No, the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives is subject to wide variations. It’s a matter of the degree of his influence. Sometimes our spiritual lives are very healthy, but I have to admit sometimes they are not. Sometimes the Holy Spirit has full sway with us, and sometimes not.
The Apostle Paul has made this very clear in his writings. In his letter to these Ephesians he told them in chapter 5 that they should be “filled with the Holy Spirit“, leading us to believe that it’s possible to be somewhat less than that. And then in another place in the same letter he warns them not to “grieve the Holy Spirit“ by which he is teaching us that sin in our lives saddens the Spirit of God who is aiming to move us to holiness. When he wrote a letter to the Thessalonians he uses even stronger language and warned them not to “put out the Spirit’s fire“. And in a letter to Galatian Christians he exhorts them to “keep in step with the Spirit“ and why would he say that unless it were possible that we get out of step?
Now when you put all of that together, it becomes very clear that our relationship with the Holy Spirit can be subject to many ups and downs. We may keep in step with him. We may be filled with him. Or we may grieve and sadden him. And at times we may even do things that “put out his fire“.
So the question for us today is not the question he asked the Ephesians, “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?“ That’s not the question. The question for each of us is “how well are we living with and led by and filled with the Holy Spirit?“ Or, “how well are we in step with the Holy Spirit?“
The believer who is filled with self has little room for the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. It is only when we are emptied of ourselves that the Holy Spirit has full room to fill us and empower us.
If you are not a Christian believer today, God’s Spirit calls you to put your trust for time and eternity in Jesus Christ and his finished work for us at the cross of Calvary.
If you are a Christian believer, if you trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then give thanks to God because it’s the work of his Holy Spirit that must be credited with bringing you to faith. Give thanks that the Spirit of God, third person of the Trinity, actually lives in you.
But then all of us must go on to ask some other questions. How about our life with the Holy Spirit? Is it a healthy one or a strained one? Some marriage partners are living in a close and intimate relationship; some are very estranged. It’s that way with friendships too. Some are close and trusting; some are distant and cool; and some are broken and fractured. Well, the same is true in our life with the Holy Spirit.
When your pastor stops back to check on how you are doing, would he be able to find that you are keeping right in step with the Spirit, living within his plans, using your gifts, growing his fruit, and strong in the faith? Would he observe that your life of Christian obedience is so genuine, so influential, that he would say, “surely you are filled with the Spirit of God?“
Or?is it just possible that the opposite would be discovered? Would we have to admit that we’ve grown pretty distant from the Spirit? That we’ve become so filled with our own self, our own desires, our own pleasure, that there isn’t much room for the working of the Spirit? Could it be true that our pattern of life is grieving this Spirit, saddening the one who is aiming to make us holy, discouraging the one who is trying to move us on to better spiritual growth? And, even more seriously yet, could it be that sinful habits have gotten such a hold of us, that we must admit those habits are putting out the Spirit’s fire?
Those are mighty big questions. Hard questions. But they are questions God asks of each of us. Take a good look this day, and ask yourself whether the pattern of your living and thinking is a healthy or a hostile environment for the Holy Spirit.
One day a friend of mine walked into my office to talk. It began like a very casual conversation. But then it quickly turned serious. “Pastor,“ he said, “I know that my life looks fine to everyone else, but inside me there is the gnawing awareness that I’m not what I’m supposed to be. I’m going through all the right motions. Others think I’m right with God. But it’s just not true. I may look healthy, but I know I’m not. My heart is so filled up with myself, and my own ego, that I don’t think God has much room in there to do his work. And I just can’t go on this way anymore.“ We talked, and we prayed. Our conversation centered on two things — his own unhappiness because he was feeling very phony and unfulfilled, and God’s desire to let his Holy Spirit have full sway in his heart so that he could develop his gifts, better share his faith, and become a joyful fruitful Christian.
It became a new day for him. And it all started with a sense of dissatisfaction, with honesty about it, and with seeking help. He came to realize that his life was not a fertile field for the Spirit to work. And he was eager to open it up to far more of the Spirit’s work.
How about you? Are you in step with the Spirit?
Prayer
O God, our Father, we give you thanks for sending your Holy Spirit into the world and into our lives and our hearts that we might trust in you, that we might embrace your son Jesus Christ, that we might be empowered for full Christian living. But where we have limited his work, where we have become out of step with him, would you give us honesty? Would you open our minds and our hearts? And would you capture us to be all you want us to be? In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Howard Vanderwell
Howard Vanderwell was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in 1962. He received his M.Div. and Th.M. degree from Calvin Theological Seminary and his D.Min. at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. He has served as pastor to four congregations over 40 years in Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. After leaving the pastorate in 2002 he began a new ministry at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. He is currently a staff member at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI and Adjunct Professor of Worship at Calvin Theological Seminary. He consults with local congregations, provides worship materials, leads conferences and workshops, and teaches courses on worship at Calvin Seminary. Howard’‘s interests include planning, leading and evaluating worship, preaching, and worship renewal throughout the evangelical church. “My life-long prayer, from my days as a child, was that I might be honored to serve as a Christian Reformed pastor preaching the Word of God to encourage and challenge his people. I consider the forty years of my pastoral ministry to have been the most valuable way in which I could have invested those years! When I consult with pastors, teach and mentor students, hold conferences for worship leaders, or write worship planning materials, my aim is to equip and inspire others to serve their Lord and Savior by making a whole-hearted investment in his church and his people. Such ministry is certainly not without its stresses and discouragements, and those of us who have found such joy in a life-time of ministry are uniquely fitted to encourage others.” Howard lives in Hudsonville, MI with his wife Eleanor. They have three married sons and ten grandchildren ages 5 through 19. His hobbies are yard-gardening, walking, photography and model railroading.
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