1st Century Van Winkles

Is there a demonstration by the believer for today whereby you can demonstrate that you have indeed been baptized by means of the Spirit into the body of Christ?

Yes. Here's the demonstration of the Spirit's power, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. That is, these are the miraculous demonstrations of the Spirit's control in your life.

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, you can't do it. This is the demonstration of the Holy Spirit in your life. In many parts of the world, the people are divided into classes. It may not be a formal systematic structure, but some people are viewed as better or more important than others.

And by the way, the same issue exists here in the United States. However, when God bestowed the Holy Spirit in the church of Ephesus, he showed us that the church is without social castes. We should be diverse, but unified in spite of our diversity. This current series through the last chapter of Acts is from our Vintage Wisdom Archives. Stephen Davey is calling today's message, First Century Van Winkle's.

In 1820, a lawyer by the name of Washington Irving published his first short story. It became so immensely popular that it would be read by millions of people over the next 170 years. So popular that most of you in this auditorium know the name of that chief character in his story. The story of a man who went off into the woods one day with his favorite rifle and his favorite dog by his side. Met a strange looking man who invited him to watch a game of bowling pins deep in the forest.

He went and observed other rather strange men at play. And then under the influence of some magical brew, he fell asleep and he slept for 20 years. When this man, Rith Van Winkle, awakened, he made his way back down the mountainside where everything had changed. He went back to the tavern where he used to sit at the doorway and talk to his friends.

He would sit underneath the sign on that end that had a picture on it of King George III. He noticed that that picture was now changed and the portrait was of a man named George Washington. During one long 20 year nap, the world of Rith Van Winkle had dramatically changed and he had a lot of catching up to do.

I couldn't help but think of him studying now more than 20 years since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 20 years since the creation of the church at Pentecost. The world has changed dramatically and yet there are people who still are unaware. They don't know about all the changes.

Like first century Van Winkles, they haven't learned of the vast changes brought about by this Pentecost. One night they went to bed under the law, bound to Judaism, governed by the prophets. The next morning they awakened to a world that was no longer under the old covenant but that which had been replaced by the new covenant. A world where the synagogue had been replaced by the church.

A world where Moses had been set aside for this one called Jesus Christ. And a new race of priests and priestesses were now called the body of Christ. Acts chapter 19 introduces us to a group of these. They are about to awaken, as it were, from a long leap. They were still following the teachings of the Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist.

They had a lot of catching up to do. Let's pick up their story with verse 1. And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found some disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.

Now can you just imagine for a moment that these people must have felt a lot like rip. They're confronted with the news of the Holy Spirit and they don't have a clue about this. They needed several things. One, they needed new revelation. They needed the revelation of Jesus Christ and the fact that the Holy Spirit had already come.

They also needed, secondly, a new relationship, verse 3. And he said, into what then were you baptized? And they said, well into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him. That is, in Jesus.

And you ought to underline those last two words because they represent the true deficiency of knowledge. Their knowledge of Jesus Christ was deficient. They needed a relationship with him. When Paul discovers here, by the way, that these men didn't know anything about the Holy Spirit, what's intriguing to me is he doesn't proceed to give them a lecture on pneumatology. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit. He proceeds instead to give them a lecture that Luke chooses not to include here on what it means to be in Christ. Christology.

That was their deficiency. And I want to stop here just long enough to say that whenever people fly the symbol of the dove, those who pursue the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the miracles of the Holy Spirit, in an effort which in effect magnifies this third person of the Godhead, which glorifies the Holy Spirit, they forget what Jesus Christ himself said. When he said to his disciples in the Gospel by John chapter 16, he told his disciples that when he ascended the Spirit would descend and that Spirit of truth would lead them into all truth and he, the Spirit, would magnify him. The role of the Holy Spirit is to point our attention to the second person of the Godhead, the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. And I want to give you a warning of ministries and ministers that focus their prayers and attentions on the Holy Spirit, exclusively almost, calling for the Spirit as an end to himself, who tarry for the Spirit, who plead for the Spirit, who seem to pray only in unto the Spirit, for the Holy Spirit does not desire to be the focus of your worship. Now the ministry of the Holy Spirit is incredibly significant. In fact, without the Holy Spirit's indwelling, you and I couldn't take one step forward in growth or ministry or prayer or maternity.

We'll talk about that in a moment. But for now, these men listened with rapt attention, I'm sure, to this new revelation of Christ. They evidently entered into this new relationship with Jesus Christ coming into Christ. Now they needed, thirdly, a new rite, R-I-T-E. Verse 5, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The baptism of John was perfectly acceptable until they learned about the work of Jesus Christ and disciples' baptism, which identified them with Jesus Christ. The baptism of John looked forward to the death of Christ. The Christian baptism looks backward to the death of Jesus Christ. The baptism of John signified repentance. Christian baptism signifies regeneration. John's baptism pointed to a coming immersion by means of the Spirit. Christian baptism points backward to that present already had happened baptism of the Spirit. Notice verse 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying and they were in all about 12 men. Now this is where it really gets fun. The challenge here is not so much in the interpretation of what happened to them, it is to any application as to what is supposed to happen to us, right?

So I want to spend a little time here. The Third Wave movement, which is sort of a categorical heading for the neo-Pentecostal, charismatic, vineyard, tongue-speaking, signs-and-wonders movement, has taken this paragraph as a chief proof text of a doctrine that they have developed errantly and misapplied to every believer. A doctrine that actually distorts the ministry of the Holy Spirit in an ongoing fashion and confuses the believer. It's called the doctrine of subsequent. That is the belief that a person experiences a second blessing, an outpouring, or Spirit baptism sometime after conversion. We don't know how long after, it's different for every person, we don't know if it follows pleading, praying, fasting, or whatever, but it comes afterwards.

You could add to this doctrine the doctrine of evidence. It's another tag on that they make, that is the belief that the true Christian will evidence in some physical, supernatural manifestation the fact that he has indeed been baptized by means of the Spirit into the body. In other words, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as they teach it, comes sometime after conversion rather than at conversion. Which certainly seems to be the case here with John the Baptist's disciples, right?

It came after conversion. Well, I spent a lot of time studying this passage with you in our exposition to Acts in a series entitled Holy Confusion. We need to stop here and reiterate some truth in light of the book of Acts, especially as it relates to the doctrine of subsequent.

I want to give you three things. Number one, it misunderstands this doctrine of subsequent, the transitional nature of the book of Acts. As one author commented, the book of Acts is not to be taken as normative but be understood as narrative.

That's a critical thing to remember. Narrative that takes you from the pages and the practices of the old covenant into the pages and practices of the new covenant. Some changes we've observed already were immediate. Others are taking years to be put into form and position. In the Gospels, then, you have the Church predicted in Acts. You see the Church established, but in the Epistles, if you don't move into the Epistles, you will never hear the Church instructed.

And you will shipwreck on the rocks of many misinterpretations. Yet the classic statement of a man named John Wimber sums up the confusion of the movement that he created, the Vineyard Movement. It's a flagship movement which blends Pentecostalism or the old Pentecostalism with the current Signs and Wonders movement. A man who, by the way, recently died and went home to be the Lord, a believer. This is a family discussion. This is not for people out there.

It's for us in here. He died after those who followed him fasted and prayed passionately for his healing, healing that he claimed earlier was the right of every believer. But in an interview that I watched, he said, I want to do the things that I read in the Book of Acts. It all is for me and for any Christian. Otherwise, why would God have put it in the Book of Acts? And that is the summary misinterpretation of the Book of Acts. The belief that I should and you should be able to do what Peter and Paul did, apostles, in this foundational miraculous era of the establishment of the Church, that my shadow should be expected to heal you if it passes over you, that my handkerchief should be expected to heal you as Paul's did, would be as foolish for an Old Testament saint who says, I see Moses parting the Red Sea. I should be able to do that because that's in the Bible, or at least that's been recorded and I've observed that. Or some Old Testament saint saying, I should be able to call down fire from heaven because Elijah the prophet did that.

You would never expect them to think that way, would you? And yet, unfortunately, we have people who believe that because the apostles did it, we should do it. And they make that error. So we must be careful about getting our doctrinal foundations from this book because we may be trying to set in cement something that God hasn't fully formed yet. More significantly, this brief episode in Acts 19 is never mentioned again in the rest of Scripture, and Paul never uses it to establish a norm or standard of practice for the Church.

Let's move on. Number two, the doctrine of subsequence and evidence ignores the testimony of other Scripture. That's a fundamental error. As you study the Bible, ladies and gentlemen, you can find a phrase or verse that can give you any form of aberrant theology. You can go to the book of James and prove that you have to work in order to be saved, can't you? But you compare James with Romans and discover that James is revealing the proof of salvation to those who see you by means of your works. Paul clarifies that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. To Paul from this paragraph, the sequence of events for all believers of New Testament, error creates great confusion. All you have to do is study the other three manifestations of the Spirit by means of apostolic authority, and you come up with the fact that they don't even follow the same sequence, and all of the same events aren't even present, which is an interesting truth if you're willing to study it. In fact, the reason that there is so much division and confusion even within this third-wave movement concerning the formula for receiving the Holy Spirit's baptism is because Acts doesn't provide a standard formula.

Do you need the laying on of hands? According to Acts 19, yes, but not in chapter 10. Do the new converts speak in tongues? They did in chapter 10 and chapter 19, but not in chapter 8. Do they prophesy as well as a manifestation of the Spirit baptism?

In chapter 19, they did, but not in chapters 8 or 10. So which events are they, and in which sequence are they found? The reason for so much confusion today over the model is because the book of Acts is not intending to provide a model for Spirit baptism. They were unique experiences during this transitional period of the establishment of the Church. The question we should be asking, now that we've seen the Church predicted and established, how is the Church instructed? What do the Epistles teach about the reception of the Holy Spirit? Would you believe that the Epistles consistently teach the same sequence in every paragraph where they talk about the receiving of the Holy Spirit, consistent throughout? What are those sequence of events?

Let me give them to you. Number one, there is saving faith in Christ alone. That's the first step in this process of conversion. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works.

The sinning man should boast. Second, the Epistles teach there is an immediate or simultaneous baptism by means of the Spirit into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 13 uses the past tense as he writes to Corinthians, and by the way, he wasn't writing only to the mature Corinthians. In fact, it's a question of their word. He wasn't writing just to the Christians who were following the Lord faithfully, who were praying or pleading for the Spirit.

He writes to the body at large and he uses the past tense. He says, for we were all baptized into one Spirit. In fact, in Romans 8, verse 9, ladies and gentlemen, do you know it's impossible to even be a Christian without having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ? For Paul informs us, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to God. So I have a problem with the belief that somehow I can become saved and then later receive the Holy Spirit.

It's simultaneous. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is that invisible event. I didn't see it. I didn't hear it.

I didn't feel it. It occurs at the moment I accept Jesus Christ among many other things that occur that I didn't see, hear, or feel. Like the fact that my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Hallelujah.

Let me give you a third event in this sequence. There is public immersion in water to illustrate inward immersion by the Spirit into Christ. Romans 6 reads, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism, this is referring I believe to spirit baptism, into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. So now we illustrate that inward spirit baptism by this public demonstration into the water that typifies the crosswork of Christ.

By the way, let me say it so you don't misunderstand it. Water baptism is the third of events, the first to happen simultaneously, the third follows. Your water baptism does not make you a Christian. It announces that you are a Christian. Your water baptism does not place you into the family of God, it simply illustrates that you are in the family of God. Third, the doctrine of subsequence and evidence not only misunderstands the transitional nature of acts, not only ignores the record of other scripture, it also misses the larger connection to Pentecost.

When you study these four instances, ladies and gentlemen, the fascinating thing is you see something incredible. This early church is revealed by means of these signs and wonders through the spirit as one church. And God makes sure that every possible category of individual living at this time when the church was established, that they evidence the miraculous presence of the invisible spirit to validate that this spirit is indeed from God. The first instance involved the category of Jews, Acts chapter 2. The next instance in Acts chapter 8 involved half Jew, half Gentile. We know them as Samaritans.

I'm so glad that he did it with them because they, of all people, would have felt that they were left out. The third instance was with the Gentile, Acts chapter 10. And now this fourth instance in Acts 19, this final instance, this final illustration of that bestowal of the Holy Spirit, separate from conversion, takes place, and you know what it does? It sweeps into the body of Christ this final category, the Old Testament saint.

These Rip Van Winkle's who would yet to hear that they no longer needed to follow an Old Testament prophet, that they now need to follow the New Testament savior and shepherd and king, Jesus Christ. Now, with the remaining time, I want to overview for you the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and I think this is a good time to do it. If we are to wait, ladies and gentlemen, for the Holy Spirit, if we are to plead for him, if we are to tarry for him, if we don't have him yet, all the things that I'm about to mention couldn't take place in your life. In fact, it would be impossible to even be a Christian without his baptism and indwelling power. But here's what the Spirit does, and by the way, this is just a fraction of some 35 ministries given to us in the New Testament.

I'll read seven or eight. Number one, he enables intimacy with the Father. Galatians 4, 6, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, and he is the one crying what?

Abba, Father, an intimate term of affection. Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. The Spirit of God allows you to say, Father, my Father. Second of all, he equips believers for ministry.

1 Corinthians 12, 13, we looked at that, for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Then that chapter goes on to delineate the many gifts, the gifting that he does so that you and I can function within the body. Chapter 13 informs us that some of those gifts are temporary, tongues and prophecy are mentioned.

In fact, chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians tells us, clarifies for us why tongues is temporary because it was a sign to the nation of Israel that they had rejected the Messiah. But he equips believers for ministry so that we can serve one another. Then next, he seals believers until final redemption, that is when we see him face to face. Ephesians 4, 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

By the way, your eternal security, ladies and gentlemen, is not dependent upon you. It's dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Next, he provides a new identity. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things continually passing away, all things continually becoming new. Furthermore, let me give you another one, the Holy Spirit anoints believers with an understanding of Gospel truth. You read the newspaper account, how there are a group of scholars meeting over in Durham, pseudo-Bible scholars, some pastors, professors, and they're deciding what of the New Testament is actually true and after hours of deliberation, they came up with two things that they do believe conclusively are true, that John the Baptist lived and that Jesus Christ died. Now this week, they're going to decide which miracles in the Bible actually occurred. I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I predict to you they will miss the truth by a long country mile.

Why? Because according to the New Testament, the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned.

Let me go on. The Spirit of God transforms us into Christ's likeness. 2 Corinthians 3, 17, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face beholding us in the mirror of the glory of the Lord are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory by means of the Spirit. You and I are being transformed in that new identity to look and act and talk and walk like Jesus Christ by means of the Spirit of God.

One more. He engineers the ministry and growth of the church. Ephesians 2, 19, you are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God by means of the Spirit. Jesus Christ, our shepherd, the Holy Spirit, the engineer that makes us, fits us together, causes us to serve and walk and grow up in Christ. Without the Holy Spirit, ladies and gentlemen, if you had to wait one moment for him, you wouldn't be able to serve, walk, relate, pray, declare the Gospel, and on and on and on and on.

But what was happening in Ephesus? A pattern for spirit baptism was not established, but a principle of spiritual unity was established. All four groups received the bestowal of the Holy Spirit under the direction of the apostles. All four groups were included as members of the body in full standing.

The Church is without social classes, diverse people, yes, but unity in spite of diversity. Let me close by asking you a question. Is there a demonstration by the believer for today whereby you can declare or demonstrate that you have indeed been baptized by means of the Spirit into the body of Christ? Is there a demonstration?

Yes. I want you to turn there. I'll show you Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 verse 16. But I say walk by the Spirit. You can write into the margin of your Bible by means of or in the power of, under the control of the Spirit. And you will not carry out the desire of the flesh, for the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. What's the demonstration of following after the flesh?

Here it is. Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Here's the demonstration of the Spirit's power, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. That is, these are the miraculous demonstrations of the Spirit's control in your life. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, you can't do it.

It's impossible. This is the demonstration of the Holy Spirit in your life. Have you realized in your Christian life yet that these are impossible?

The only way they are possible is for you and me to submit to the dominating, controlling influence of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. This is the new truth delivered by the Apostle Paul to the New Testament church that life is now to be different for those of us who have awakened from the slumber of sin and find ourselves in this new race, new world, new family as we submit to Him. I hope this time in God's Word has encouraged you. Today's message is from Stephen Davies' Vintage Wisdom Archive.

This message is called First Century Van Winkle's. In addition to equipping you with these daily Bible messages, we also have a magazine that we publish monthly. Our number is 866-482-4253. That's 866-48-BIBLE. We'd love to talk with you and introduce you to this resource, Heart to Heart magazine.

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