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6/1/2025

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Acts 19:1-7

This chapter will tell if you want to be a part of a New Testament church or not, or be a N.T. believer. First, let’s be clear on this – according to John 3:16 and many other Scriptures, all it takes to be saved (be forgiven and have eternal life) is to believe in Christ. Salvation is by faith alone (Eph.2:8-9). Faith in the death and resurrection of Christ will make you right with God. From the Bible, there’s no doubt about that. But there is more to believe in order to experience the full benefits of our salvation. Since Pentecost it is possible to have the Spirit in you but not have the Spirit upon you. In and upon are two different things.

There’s nothing wrong with being incomplete, unless it is a willful incompleteness. It is better to be complete. Imagine having a bicycle that has no brakes. It will get you down the road, but it is dangerous without brakes. Every bike needs brakes to be complete. Imagine having a house without a roof. That house is not bad, just incomplete. Every house needs a roof to be a complete house to live in.

You don’t want your body to be incomplete. Nothing sinful to have lost an arm or leg or an eye. It’s just better to have two arms, two legs and two eyes, to be complete. Wouldn’t you like to be complete? If you’re not, you are not at full strength. No wonder you’re always struggling if you’re incomplete spiritually; you lack the power Pentecost provides. If you’re saved but not full of the Spirit you are an incomplete believer, much like the believers at Ephesus in our text.

I. All Old Testament believers were incomplete. Before Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4 every believer, though saved, was incomplete. At Pentecost the full blessings of the death and resurrection of Christ was fully realized. Some of those blessings we have gone over in all the chapters we’ve covered leading up to this one. They include:

1. The Church was born on this day. This is Christ’s heavenly people, distinguished from Israel. God gave two visions to Abraham to say he would have numberless descendants: stars and sand. The stars represent his heavenly descendants and the sand represents his earthly children. His heavenly people are the church who will live with Him forever in the New Jerusalem. Abraham’s earthly people were incomplete without the church, and their experience was incomplete. This all changed when the Day of Pentecost had fully come.” Full salvation would be for Jews and Gentiles. Every Pentecost Sunday is a birthday celebration for the church.

2. Believers began to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Jn.14:17). Jesus said, The Holy Spirit was with them and would be in them. On this day believers became “in Christ” and Christ came into us. Remember earlier in this book I talked about the sponge being put into the bowl of water and when that happened the water came into the sponge? The water was in the sponge and the sponge was in the water. So, the Spirit came into us and upon us. This began to happen when the Day of Pentecost had fully come.

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