John's Baptism
From my "Wacky stuff in the Bible" file:
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"This might not strike you as strange if you're charismatic, but if you're not, it probably should. To paraphrase, Paul meets a group of "disciples" (we prefer the term "believers" - why, do you think?) and asks them if they've received the Spirit of God. The disciples are pretty sure they haven't, in fact, they've never heard of the Spirit.
They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"
"John's baptism," they replied.
Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.-Acts 19:1-6
(I think the idea of being indwelt by the essence of God would sound a little odd to someone who'd never heard of it before. It would probably also sound like something very significant, and very difficult to miss - not something you'd have to tell someone about, as in "If you're a Christian you have the Holy Spirit", but something you in-your-face obvious, as in "I see you're filled with God's Spirit; you must be a Christian")
Paul's reaction is, "If you don't have the Spirit, then just whose disciples are you?" They say John's. "That explains it," Paul says, "John was all about repentance. John called people to turn from their sins because the chosen one was coming. Well good news: he's come!" Evidently these people were persuaded (persuaded how, I wonder) and were baptized in Jesus' name. Once they'd proclaimed their devotion to Jesus (Baptism, I'm told, was the official way to declare your discipleship to someone), Paul lays his hands on them, and "the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied."
All of this sounds pretty weird to me. I'm not sure what it all means. But what it seems to say is that there's a difference between repentance and receiving the Spirit, and that receiving the Spirit is very palpable and dramatic. The whole thing sounds strikingly similar to what John himself says in Matt 3:11: "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
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2 comments:
Ironically, though many scholars talk of these 12 men as disciples of John the baptist they are not. Luke NEVER uses the term disciple for anyone other than a follower of Jesus. Paul asks them if they have received the HS since they BELIEVED. There is no doubt that they have come to faith. They have a deficient faith because like Apollos in the previous story in Acts 18 they don't know of the death resurrection and dispensing of the HS. Luke's intent seems to be to give instruction to those with deficient faith in Christ. The weakness of the ephesians is that they hadn't heard of the sending of the HS in power. (Remember Jesus told the disciples to do no ministry until endued with power) So to impart and complete their faith Paul lays hands on to immerse them in the power of the Spirit. That is how all ministry is to be done. Right?
Actually, Luke 5:33 mentions disciples of John and the Pharisees. Luke 7:18 mention's John's disciples again. So I think it's possible that these disciples are John's. This seems likely because they don't appear to know about Jesus or the Holy Spirit (they probably weren't Jews). This is probably a very brief summary of the encounter, but Paul seems to have focused on Jesus being the one for whom John (whose baptism they'd recieved) had prepared the way, not Jesus dying and resurrecting. It's also worth noting that (at least the way the story is presented) Paul seems to emphasize the indwelling of the Spirit, not salvation from Hell, as the crux of the good news.
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