Acts 18

Acts 18:1-28

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 18:1-28 - 19:1-7 Acts 18:1-22 This paragraph chronicles the events of the last part of the second missionary journey of Paul. “After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.” If Athens was a centre of clouded light, Corinth was a centre of corrupt life. If Athens was full of idolatry, Corinth was full of sensuality. The apostle’s work in Corinth being completed, he left without any ostensible reason. It seems to have been the one place he left in quietness and peace on this journey. He left with his face set toward Jerusalem and Antioch. Making a brief halt in Ephesus, he went on, leaving Priscilla and Aquila there. Then he travelled away by sea to Csesarea, and so on to Jerusalem, where his reception was so cold, that Luke dismissed the story in a few words, “He went up and saluted the church, and went down to Antioch.”

The principal interest of the paragraph is centred in Corinth. The other matters, from Paul’s departure from Corinth to his arrival in Antioch, are incidental; the places visited will appear again, and in fuller detail later on.

Corinth was at this time the political capital of Southern Greece, and the residence of the Roman Proconsul. Thus while a Greek city, it was under Roman rule. There was a strange mixture of men in Corinth. It had become a great commercial centre, and Dean Farrar describes the commodities that were found in its markets:

“Arabian balsam, Egyptian papyrus, Phoenician dates, Libyian ivory, Babylonian carpets, Cilician goats’-hair, Lycaonian wool, Phrygian slaves.”

There was a strange mixture of wealth and of poverty there; and the life of the wealthy was a life of voluptuous luxury, and of frivolous disquisitions. One must read with great carefulness the Corinthian letters in order to see Corinth as Paul saw it, not merely to see the church, not merely to see the apostolic method of dealing with the church, but to see Corinth itself. Everything which he denounced within the church was a reflection of the corruption of the city. In his first letter, he first corrected their attempt to form societies around emphases of Christian truth. That was a reflection of what was going on in Corinth. Men were splitting hairs, even in the realm of their own philosophies, and forming schools around different emphases or views.

So when he passed to the graver matters, so far as moral conduct was concerned, we again see the picture of Corinth; the rich living in voluptuous luxury, given over to every manner of evil. It has been said that Corinth at this time “was the Vanity Fair of the Roman Empire, at once the London and the Paris of the first century after Christ.”

The masses of the people were infected by this influence. They were debauched and degraded. There were shows of all kinds, and a vulgar and ostentatious display of wealth, mingled with the most corrupt and indecent practices. All these things were affecting the people who were not wealthy, the corruption had permeated even to the slaves.

It was a city of abounding immorality. It was proverbial for its debauchery. Men of the time, when desiring to describe utter corruption, said, “They live as they do at Corinth.” In the great dramatic entertainments, Corinthians were almost always introduced as drunk. The most terrible phase of the corruption was that the religion of Corinth had become the centre and the hotbed of its pollution. In that one splendid and yet awful temple of Aphrodite, there were a thousand sacred to shame. It is significant that it was from this city that Paul wrote his Roman letter; and when one reads his description of Gentile corruption in that Roman letter, one has almost certainly a mirror of what he found in Corinth.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man. . . . God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves. . . . God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature. . . . God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness: full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful.”

With that dark background in mind we pass to the attitude of the Lord Himself toward this city: “I have much people in this city.” That was the word of the Lord spoken in the inner sanctuary of the spirit-life of His servant concerning 1 a corrupt city. That is the flaming word of the paragraph. All the other things are incidental, gathered about it, revealing the marvellousness of that word: “I have much people in this city.” He knew, and communicated to His servant, this secret concerning Corinth. He knew the heartache and the agony of many in Corinth. He knew that the restlessness of Corinth was the outcome of the longing of many, inarticulate, not understood, for exactly that which he had to minister and to give. He knew that throughout the city, notwithstanding its obscenity and its corruption, there was a spirit of enquiry, a spirit of eagerness, a spirit of wistfulness.

He knew that it was but to have His great evangel proclaimed there for very many to hear and to respond. Paul entered Corinth alone, and at once became keenly, acutely conscious of the corruption of the city. He came into Corinth, without a saint of God; and yet at last, after a period of patient work and preparation, this was the word of the King, “I have much people in this city.”

So the Lord speaks of every great city long before the people to whom He refers are manifest to others. Do not put this out of its historic relation. This word was not said when the church had been formed. This was not said of those whom we call saints in Corinth. It was said at the point when this man seemed to be at the end of his work, and was filled with fear, and with trembling of soul, even though there had been a measure of success. As a matter of fact, Paul’s fear is not chronicled, but it is revealed in the word of Christ.

The Lord knew the lurking fear in the heart of His servant, a fear born of his overwhelming sense of the corruption of the city, of the almost impossibility of doing anything there that was worth the doing. Yet to him He said, “I have much people in this city.” I think from that moment as this man passed through the streets, or talked in the house of Titus Justus, or looked at the curious crowd who came to him, he was forevermore looking, hoping that he might see beneath the exterior that repelled him, because it was so unlike his Lord, those whom his Lord numbered among His own. “I have much people in this city.” What an inspiration for the Christian worker in a great city given over to corruption.

Then mark the revelation of His power in a corrupt city in His protection of His servant, “No man shall set on thee to harm thee.” Then remember also the method by which he was protected, through the instrumentality of Gallic. Gallio is one of the much abused men in the New Testament. “Gallio cared for none of these things “has been quoted to prove that he was indifferent to Paul. That is not what the sentence means. Read the story of Gallio, the brother of Seneca, as it has been written in profane history; and the description of him is that of one of the sweetest, gentlest, and most lovable of men. Gallio had recently been appointed to Achaia, and when the change was made, the Jews thought that they had their opportunity to get rid of Paul. Gallio stood throughout that movement in defence of Paul.

When Gallio declined to listen to the case, because they were disputing about words, he was speaking within the proper limits of his jurisdiction. He cared nothing for the wildness of the attack upon Paul; or that the Greeks, glad that the Jews had been defeated in their desire to interfere with Paul, seized the ruler of the synagogue, Sosthenes. Do not imagine that there was neglect on the part of Gallio, that he ought to have interfered, and did not. This is a picture of the proconsul declining to do injustice, and handing the matter of the dispute over to those who had raised it. By that overruling of Gallio, Paul was protected from the onslaught of the mob. Ere that onslaught the Lord had said, “Be not afraid . . . for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee.” So we see the Lord Christ overruling the forces that would hinder the proclamation of His Word, and holding them in check, as He preserved His servant.

This is in the first chapter of Church history, but it is not the last chapter, nor is this the last story of its kind. We know very little of it in this land, because we do not preach in the midst of peril as did these men. Talk to the men in the great centres of heathen darkness to-day, and they will tell you how wonderfully they have often been protected. Not always! Paul was not always protected; for he had been stoned and left for dead. But within the compass of His purpose, within the economy of His power, where necessary, the Lord holds in check the forces against His servants, and sets them free for the proclamation of His Word. Such is the power of our Lord, even in a corrupt city.

His power acted in the deliverance of all those who seeking for truth, life, and purity, obeyed the Gospel; and in the ultimate doom of those who disobeyed that Gospel. “I have much people in this city.” That word must not be misinterpreted, as though the heart of the Lord were only set upon those who ultimately yielded to Him, and formed the Christian community in Corinth. His heart was set upon every man, woman, little child, and slave in Corinth, no matter how corrupt. But only to those who, in obedience to the word when they heard it, turned to Him, was He able to communicate the power of a new life, to regenerate and to remake.

When Paul began his work in Corinth, he joined Aquila and Priscilla, and laboured at tent making. When we read his letters we shall discover his reason. At Thessalonica he had done the same thing, and at Ephesus; and for a brief period it was absolutely necessary in a city wholly given to commercial enterprise, that he should demonstrate the fact that the preaching of the Gospel was not commercial. So he contented himself for a period with preaching only on the Sabbath day in the synagogue to Jews, and also to Greeks, while he wrought with his own hands during the week.

Then Timothy and Silas arrived, and they brought help from Philippi. The proof of that is to be found in his own reference in his letter. Immediately that help came, ministered to by another church, he abandoned the toil with his hands, and gave himself under the constraint of the Word, to constant preaching in Corinth. When the Jews set themselves in battle array against him, for such is the force of the word, he resolutely turned from them, and preached to the Greeks, and many believed and were baptized.

Then came an hour of haunting fear. Luke does not record it, save through the word of the Lord. “Be not afraid,” said Jesus, and through that word of Christ we know that the apostle was filled with fear. Perhaps the very success of his ministry, the fact that many hearing, believed and were baptized, filled him with fear. He knew the seductions of the city, the corruption of the city, the consequent peril of those who so eagerly were listening, who apparently so readily were believing, who with such eager haste were being baptized. We enter into sympathy with him. He had preached to the Jew, and the Jew had refused; and with stern words he had said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles”; and eagerly the Gentiles had heard, believed, and were baptized; and so he became filled with fear.

Then it was that the Lord said to him, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee: for I have much people in this city.” Do not be afraid of those who hearing, are eagerly believing, and being baptized. Do not doubt the sincerity of those who are coming to you. I have much people here. The thing you have seen, I have known ere you saw it. Your coming here has also been within My Divine arrangement. Trust these new converts.

When presently Paul rebuked them with sternness for their derelictions in spiritual life, there was nevertheless in his heart a great love for them, a great confidence and belief in them. He wrote to them as the saints of God, in spite of all their failure, in spite of the fact that they had yielded to the seductions of corrupt Corinth. When the Lord said to him, “I have much people in this city,” there came a new courage into his heart, which enabled him to face success.

Yet surely there was also in his heart a haunting fear of the hostility that he knew was working. He had seen the movement which presently broke out, and appealed to the bema, or judgment seat of Gallic. It is often in the moment of success that the heart becomes cowardly. It was immediately after Elijah’s victory on Carmel that he ran away from Jezebel. It is often in the hour of success, that the fear of opposition and hostility is born. This man, beaten, bruised, and stoned, bearing in his very body the brands of Jesus, knew what was going on in Corinth, against him, and he was filled with fear.

The Lord came to him with no rebuke, with no harsh word, but with words of ineffable comfort, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace.” He was almost inclined to give up preaching. “Hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee.” The haunting fear in the presence of success, merged into cowardice in the presence of hostility. Perhaps one other element contributed to the fear in his heart, that of the overwhelming sense of the vastness of the work. How often to-day one pauses in the midst of work, and feels as by comparison with the thing to be done, that the thing being done is nothing. The Lord still says, Be not afraid, speak, hold not thy peace, I am with thee, and I have much people in this city. Do not measure My victory by the things seen. Do not measure My victory by the statistics taken and read.

I have much people, says the King, in this, and in all cities, never yet seen, never yet known. Abide in My strength; I am with thee, speak, be not afraid.

From that moment the heart of the man was filled with a new courage. He dwelt there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them; and when the Gallio incident occurred, he still continued. I am with thee, said his Lord to him. Mark the effect upon the Word. Was he afraid of the success? “I am with thee,” and in a moment he knew that if it was His work, however much he might fear its instability, this Lord was able to preserve the work that he saw begun. Was he afraid of the hostility? If his Lord was with him, the fear was at once banished. Was he afraid of the overwhelming sense of the vastness of the work? If his Lord was with him, he would be content to do the piece of work that he had to do, and to leave the issues with Him.

A wonderful page is this, but the words out of it that abide, that will sing their song in life and service for many a day, are these, “I have much people in this city.” Said He in the days of His public ministry, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.” This man in Corinth was finding some of them. Still in the days of His public ministry it was written of Him “that He might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad.” Paul was finding some of them in Corinth. The most hopeful things in humanity to-day are its restlessness, its intensity, its disgust. These are open doors for the Christian preacher. Corinthian habits, Corinthian words, and all the restlessness of the city, it matters not how it is manifested, create the open door for the evangel of Jesus Christ. What is the Gospel for the corrupt city?

The Cross and the Resurrection, and none other. Are we at His disposal, as this man was at His disposal in Corinth? If so, He is at our side, and we need not fear the success or the hostility or the vastness of the work; but be content to do that piece of work which God has given to us, in the consciousness of our fellowship with Him, and His fellowship with us. As we look and serve, let us look for saints, remembering that He is saying to us in the midst of all that tends to dishearten, “I have much people in this city.” Let us look for them, find them, and lead them to Him.

Acts 18:24-28 - Acts 19:1-7 We now commence that portion of the book of the Acts of the Apostles which tells the story of Paul’s work in Ephesus. In the New Testament narrative, Ephesus is the outstanding and representative church, to which two letters are addressed. Even if Paul’s letter was a circular letter intended for other churches in the district, it is quite certain that among them it was intended also for the church at Ephesus. There is also the letter of the Lord to Ephesus, the first of the seven in the book of the Revelation.

In writing to Ephesus Paul reached the summit of his system of teaching. It was to this church he was able to write of those profound matters concerning the ultimate vocation of the Church of God. In writing to the Romans he laid the foundation truths concerning salvation, broadly and forever. In writing to the Corinthians he corrected a condition of affairs which issued in failure to fulfill its function in a heathen city, on the part of the Church. But in writing to Ephesus he soared far above all these matters of minor and local importance, and wrote of the sublimest truths concerning the Church, dealing first with its predestination to character and the service of God; then with its edification in the processes of time, in order that it may fulfill its true vocation; and finally with its vocation. Then he revealed how such doctrine should affect the lives of men and women, members of that Church, in all human inter-relationships. When we turn to the letter of our Lord to the church at Ephesus, we find a church fair and beautiful in very many respects, and yet we have revealed, that first peril that ever threatens the Church of God: the loss of first love.

This story of Paul’s coming to Ephesus must be of special interest, because of the place that Ephesus thus occupies in the New Testament revelation of the Church. Here also we are considering the last part of the work of Paul in liberty. Not that he was never free again after his imprisonment in Rome, for personally I have no doubt that he was set at liberty, and that he visited these churches again. It may be that he visited Spain, and perchance came to Britain. But so far as this record is concerned, we here see the last work of Paul at liberty. Presently we shall see him a prisoner.

Ephesus was a city, notorious for idolatry; in some senses, the very centre of the great idolatries. There was the temple of Artemis or Diana; and there religion and commercial life had entered into a remarkable alliance, for the great merchantmen made the temple of Artemis their banking house; so that anything of purity or virtue that there might have been in the Greek ideals of worship was corrupted, because receiving the patronage of the merchantmen. Moreover it was a city at that moment given over largely to demonism, to sorcery, to witchcraft, to magic. Here the apostolic work was accompanied by special signs.

In this paragraph we have two accounts merging into one, put together because of their intimate connection; the story of Apollos and his ministry, and the story of the coming of Paul to Ephesus. It will be seen by glancing at the nineteenth and twenty-first verses (Acts 18:19-21) in this chapter that Paul had already been in Ephesus.

“They came to Ephesus, and he left Priscilla and Aquila there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. And when they asked him to abide a longer time, he consented not; but taking his leave of them, and saying, I will return again unto you, if God will, he set sail from Ephesus.”

That was about a year before this coming to the city, for Luke has given us no detailed account of the apostolic labours, but only such incidents as serve to teach spiritual lessons for all time.

During that year something had happened in Ephesus, which is chronicled in the closing part of the eighteenth chapter: the coming of Apollos. Let us look at this story, observing two things: the man himself, and the ministry that he exercised.

Apollos was a Jew, an Alexandrian, a learned man, mighty in the Scriptures. We have dwelt upon the fact that the apprehension of Saul of Tarsus was a wonderful evidence of the presidency of the Lord Himself over the affairs of His Church, and of the guidance of the Spirit. The work among the Gentiles had to be done in cities where two great influences obtained in matters of religion, the influence of the Jewish synagogue, and the influence of Greek culture. When Saul of Tarsus was apprehended, it was the apprehension of a man who was, to quote his own words, “A Hebrew of Hebrews”; but he was also Saul of Tarsus. He was at once Hebrew and Hellenist. The two great ideals combining in him, made him the power he was through these Greek cities.

In this man Apollos the same two great ideals merged. He was a Jew, but also an Alexandrian. Alexandria was the centre of Greek learning and culture at this time; where the Jews were all under the influence of Philo; where the influence of the Greek method of culture of that day invaded the Hebrew method of the study of their own Scriptures and writings. This man Apollos then was one in whom, in some senses perhaps even more remarkably than in Paul, the two ideals merged. He was learned, eloquent. He was an orator, and yet an orator through whose speech there was manifest the fact of his culture and his refinement.

The last word of the description, “mighty in the Scriptures,” does not merely mean that he knew them; nor had ability to deal with them and to present them; but that he had the ability to master them, to understand them. That word of description is that of a special and specific gift that this man possessed by nature. We cannot say this was a spiritual gift in the Church sense of the word, for as yet he had not come into union with that Church, for he had not received the Spirit by enduement. Here was a man gifted naturally. The Spirit always bestows His special gift upon a man already gifted by nature to receive it. That may be a dogmatic statement which some would like to challenge.

The instance quoted against it very often is that of Dwight Lyman Moody. Yet his experience proves its accuracy. If he had never been a Christian man, he would have been a mighty orator, and a leader of men. If a man has no gift of speech by nature, do not imagine God wants that man for a preacher, because He does not. He may have equally important work for him to do, but a preacher is born, not made. This man Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures, and was gifted by nature with a gift which every man does not possess.

It was a distinct ability, a natural power to know the Scriptures, and to see their inter-relationships. He was familiar with all their parts and their bearings. He had a familiarity with the Scriptures which enabled him to impart to others that which he knew. This man, therefore, by birth and training, was singularly fitted for work in these Greek cities.

His ministry in Ephesus was not distinctly Christian. Mark his equipment. “This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord,” which does not mean, in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the fullness of that description. “Being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught carefully the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John.” Mark the distinction carefully. In the third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, we have the account of the ministry of John.

“In those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet saying,

“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord.” Apollos had been instructed “in the way of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.” Apollos was a disciple of John, and “the way of the Lord” referred to here is that referred to in Matthew, and is a direct quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah, in its fortieth chapter, and second verse. To understand this we must get back into the atmosphere of that great prophecy. The fortieth chapter opens, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.” It is the beginning of the great ministry of peace, resulting from judgment. The thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, the last of the first prophetic portion, ended with the promise of ultimate peace. This is all Hebrew. Apollos was a Jew.

This chapter in Isaiah ended with a picture of an ultimate peace; first desolation, and beyond it, restoration. That was the vision of the prophet, as he spoke, while Sennacherib’s armies were melting away. The great declaration was that Jehovah would prepare a way for His people back into peace. Omitting the historic portion (36-39) we come to that fortieth chapter; and the message is that the people of God are to prepare a way for Jehovah. Mark the link between the two. John came, as Isaiah had foretold, the ascetic, the hard, the stern, the pure, the righteous, and he proclaimed “the Way of the Lord,” which was to be prepared for by repentance.

Apollos had been instructed in “the way of the Lord,” in that sense, had been instructed in the Messianic prophecy, and purpose. He was a disciple of John, and in obedience to John had been baptized unto repentance, and to expectation of the coming of Messiah; but he did not know the meaning of the Cross. He was not acquainted with the fact of resurrection. He was not familiar with the truth of the outpoured Spirit. His view was Hebrew on the highest and purest and best level, as interpreted by John. He was fervent in spirit, fiery-spirited, having inherited from John, or under the influence of other teachers perhaps, that fiery note.

This man therefore who came to Ephesus between Paul’s first and second visits, Apollos, a man, a disciple of John, taught them “the things concerning Jesus,” so far as John had revealed them. His method in Ephesus was that “He spake and taught carefully the things concerning Jesus,” and “began to speak boldly in the synagogue.”

But there were two people in .Ephesus who knew much more about Jesus than he did: a woman and a man. The order of the names is significant, “Priscilla and Aquila.” These two had been left in Ephesus by Paul, and had been there a year. They knew Christ experimentally, because they were of the Christ by the work of the Spirit. They heard Apollos, and they took him, and instructed him more carefully; and that ended his ministry in Ephesus. One of the most beautiful touches about Apollos is the revelation of the fact that he was willing to let two members of the congregation who listened to him, and who knew more than he did, teach him. They took him, this persuasive, eloquent, sincere, burning soul; and opened to him the truth, with the result that he passed on from Ephesus to Corinth.

Very little is recorded concerning his ministry there. He was commended by these people in Ephesus, for his natural ability, for his zeal, and for that simplicity of character which had been revealed in his willingness to learn. We simply read about him in Corinth, that “he helped them much which had believed through grace.” Whether the words “through grace” refer to “believed,” or to “helped them much,” cannot finally be determined. I prefer to believe that they belong to the “helped them much.” We find also from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that they had made him the head of a sect, some saying, “We are of Apollos.” That does not reflect upon him at all, because they did the same about Paul. But there is one little illuminative word in the Corinthian letter. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.” That is the brief story of a ministry which lasted for some considerable period in all likelihood.

In the second letter to the Corinthians it is evident that Apollos had left Corinth on account of these difficulties, and declined to go back again. We see him, however, going from Ephesus, instructed by Priscilla and Aquila, with the larger view, the more perfect understanding, the fuller enduement of spiritual power; and Luke says, “He helped them much,” and Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.”

Now it was to Ephesus that Paul came, after the departure of Apollos. This nineteenth chapter, and the first seven verses, one of the most familiar paragraphs in the whole book, is a most constantly misinterpreted passage. It needs careful consideration. Let us notice first Paul’s investigation and his instruction; and then observe the things that immediately followed.

Paul found a little group of about twelve men, and he asked them this question, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” The word “since,” “Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed” creates an entire misrepresentation of the question he asked. That is something to be stated emphatically, because it is on the presence of that word, that the misinterpretation of this passage has been based. The tense of the verbs “receive” and “believe” is the same, so that it may be rendered, “Received ye the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” Not, Have ye received since; as though there were a belief at some time, and a subsequent reception of the Spirit; which in the terminology of our own day is described as a “second blessing.” Paul asked no such question.

Now mark their answer. “Nay,” they said, “we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given.” I think perhaps no better word can be substituted for the word “given.” As a matter of fact there is no word in the text. It is introduced for the purpose of interpretation. They said, “We did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was.” As to what word should follow the “was,” it is not easy to say. Probably none. They might have meant that they did not know of the existence of the Spirit. But that is not likely for they were disciples of John, possibly as the result of the preaching of Apollos.

What then had they heard? What was the ministry of John? John had said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” The baptism of John had included a declaration of its own limitation, and the affirmation of a fuller baptism to come, not through his ministry, but through the ministry of Another. John had distinctly foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit; and these men therefore were not likely to have meant, We have never heard anything about the Holy Spirit; but rather: We know that the Spirit was promised by the great prophet John, but we do not know whether He is yet given, whether He has yet come.

The apostle then asked them, “Into what then were ye baptized?” and they replied: “Into John’s baptism.” That is why they had not heard whether the Holy Spirit was given. They had only proceeded as far as John had been able to take them; to the place where Apollos was, when he came to Ephesus.

The reason for Paul’s question to them is not declared. It may, however, be surmised upon the basis of the general observation of the story. When he met those men he may have felt there was something lacking; that they were sincere, honest, but there was something lacking, something of fire, something of emotion. He then gave them instruction, and revealed to them the fact that the baptism of John was preparatory, and that the teaching of John vindicated the necessity for going beyond him to Jesus. He then began to tell them all that they did not know of the Christ; of the resurrection and Pentecostal effusion; of the fact that through Pentecost men .were brought into living union with Jesus. When they heard that, “they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Then Paul laid his hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Then all that Paul had missed, was immediately manifest. They “spake with tongues,” they began to prophesy. Their enkindled emotion expressed itself in ecstatic utterances of praise, for tongues were bestowed, not for edification, but always for adoration. If the tongues witnessed to enkindled emotion, the prophesying witnessed to enlightened intelligence; and they became martyrs, witnesses; for in that moment they became Christian. This was not a second blessing, but the first blessing, as the baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit always is.

I believe there are multitudes of people in Church membership who are not Christian in the New Testament sense of the word, who have come to John’s baptism, and have come no further. That is what Paul found when he came to Ephesus. They were honest men, obedient, sincere, who had followed the light as far as it had come to them; but there was fuller light, and a brighter and larger life; and to that Paul introduced them.

What are the values of this study? As I look at this page I learn that men can only lift other men to the level on which they live; can only lift other men to the level to which they themselves have come. Apollos, a Jew, an Alexandrian, learned, mighty in the Scriptures, fervent in spirit, careful in his teaching, bold in his utterance, could only take the people as far as he had come himself, not one yard beyond it, not one foot above it. His disciples will know only the baptism of John. Paul came, and not because he was a better man than Apollos, but because he had fuller knowledge, a fuller experience, he lifted these same twelve men to the higher level, until the cold and beautiful accuracy of their honest morality was suffused wjth the passion and fire of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Apollos could not bring them there until he himself had reached that position.

When Apollos came to the fuller light and experience, he could pass to Corinth, and do for Paul in Corinth what Paul did for him in Ephesus. Paul can do his planting in Corinth, and be very successful; and Apollos waters. When Paul comes to Ephesus he will find the planting of Apollos, and will water it.

If we are preachers and teachers we can only help men to the level to which we have come. The declaration is full of solemnity. The Holy Spirit always needs the human instrument. That is what the book of the Acts of the Apostles emphasizes. There are many ways of telling the story of this book. God the Holy Spirit cannot do without men and women. He must have them to do His work. That is the whole genius of missionary endeavour. God the Holy Spirit can only bring the message of the crucified and risen and glorified Christ to any part of the world through men and women who know the power of these things.

But mark the law. The fit instrument is always found. The operation of the Spirit is limited by the instrument. Is it any wonder when Paul came to write his letters to Christians, that the great burden was not that they should believe, nor that they should love, nor that they should hope. He thanked God for faith and hope and love, but he prayed that they might have full knowledge (epignosis). We have no right to send men out, and think they can do the full work of the ministry, either apostolic, or prophetic, or evangelistic, or the work of pastor and teacher; without full knowledge. I do not mean academic knowledge only, Apollos had that, and failed. I mean spiritual knowledge and discernment. This can only come by the illumination of the Spirit of God, and by patient training.

Lastly mark the diversities. How did these twelve men enter into the larger life? They heard the teaching, they obeyed, they were baptized into the name of Jesus. Then Paul laid on his hands, and they received the Holy Spirit. In the tenth chapter we find Peter was talking to Cornelius, and he received the Spirit immediately, and was baptized, not before, but after receiving the Spirit. The Spirit bloweth where He listeth.

We must not take any illustration in this book, and make it an abiding rule, for if so, there will be as many schools as there are stories in the Acts of the Apostles. We cannot base a doctrine of the Spirit’s methods upon any one story. Upon the whole of them we can base the doctrine of the Spirit’s method, and that may be stated thus. Not according to human ideas, or human laws formulated by any story; but in many ways, through the laying on of hands, and without such laying on; in answer to water baptism, before water baptism; so comes the Spirit. The important matter is that we have this Spirit, without Whose presence and illumination we cannot preach this Christ, or teach Him. May it be ours to press to the highest height, and the fullest knowledge, that we may lift all those whom we teach on to this highest level.