turn to Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. Paul is beginning his third missionary journey and we will follow him through much of the rest of the book of Acts. I want to get the context of beginning the third missionary journey. If you'll turn to chapter 18, in verses 22 and 23. Let me read that first. And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. That was the home church. And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. So he began his third missionary journey returning to the churches that he had established in Galatia and elsewhere. And then chapter 19 in verse 1, And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, Into what then were you baptized? So they said into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after Him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all. Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you about this story of these men hearing the gospel, following Jesus in baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit in His fullness. And Lord, I pray that as we consider this text of Scripture together, that we will gain a greater understanding of what it is to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus. What it is to receive the Holy Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit. I pray that I will be filled with the Holy Spirit as I preach this message, and that Your Holy Spirit will work in the heart of each one that's gathered to hear Your Word today. And I pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, as Paul continued his third missionary journey, He ended up for about three years in the city of Ephesus. He had been there briefly before, but this time he had a much longer ministry there. The reason I believe he went to Ephesus is because it was the major city of that part of Asia. It had a population of up to a half million people. And one indication of the size of the city is that it had a theater that could seat 25,000 people. And so this was indeed a major city from which Paul could reach the rest of Asia from. This city was also the center of the worship of the goddess Diana, or Artemis, a fertility goddess. And it was also the center of black magic, sorcery, and what have you. And so it was a very religious city. But it was not saved. It wasn't Christian by any means. And so Paul went there to take the gospel to this city. Now when he got there, he found twelve disciples, it says here in our text. And I believe they were probably disciples of Apollos, who knew about the baptism of John, but did not know yet about Jesus. They were probably Gentile proselytes there in the synagogue. And Paul shared the gospel with them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And I believe that they, along with Paul, formed the nucleus of a powerful and great church that would grow up in that city. And just as Paul knew that he needed some spirit-filled men to help him, even so, if we're going to reach our city for Christ, we need spirit-filled believers. And this morning I want to share with you about how God brought these men to where they were filled with the Holy Spirit following Jesus and how we can be filled with the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord in the power of the Spirit and be witnesses in our community. Now if we are going to do this, I want to share with you first of all that we need to avoid the spiritual problems that we see in these men. And these men are representative of a lot of people who are religious, who believe in the Lord, but are not yet saved and certainly not yet filled with the Holy Spirit. Now notice the problems that these men were experiencing. First of all, Paul discovered in them a lack of spiritual knowledge. Notice it says in verse 2, when Paul asked them about the Holy Spirit, they said, We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. These people were ignorant of something as basic as the Holy Spirit of God. And you know, spiritual ignorance is a real problem. God said in Hosea chapter 6 and verse 4, that My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And Paul said no less than six times, I would not have you to be ignorant brethren. And so it's important that we learn the Word of God. It's important that we learn about God and His way of salvation and how we can have the Holy Spirit empowering our lives. The lack of spiritual problem was a serious problem indeed. And what particularly did they not know? Well, certainly concerning the Holy Spirit. Now, they must not have heard John himself preach. Because John preached that one is coming who would anoint you with fire and with the Holy Spirit. John preached about the Holy Spirit. But evidently they didn't hear John's preaching, they heard Apollos and perhaps some others, but these folks did not know about the Holy Spirit. Another reason why I believe they were Gentile converts rather than Jews is because Jews would know about the Holy Spirit from their Old Testament Scriptures. But they did not even know something as basic as about the Holy Spirit. Do you realize that you don't have to live your Christian life on your own, but that God's Holy Spirit has been given to be with you, and fill you, and enable you to live the Christian life? You need to know about the Holy Spirit. The other area of ignorance was concerning Jesus. They didn't know about Jesus yet. It says there in verse 3, Paul said, "...into what then were you baptized?" So they said, "...into John's baptism." Then Paul said, "...John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after Him, that is, on Christ Jesus." Oh listen, you're disciples of John, but you don't seem to know whom John came to preach about. And it was the One who was coming, the Messiah. And His name is Jesus. They did not even know about Jesus. But it's important that we know about Jesus, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, Peter said in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12. And oh, as we look about us in this world today, there's a lot of folks that don't know about the Holy Spirit. There's too many folks right here in America that don't know about Jesus and certainly not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a serious problem when we lack spiritual knowledge. But you know, there's no excuse for us not knowing these things about God and His Word. We have Bibles. There are Bibles everywhere. We can open our Bible and we can read the Bible. We can come to a Bible preaching, Bible teaching church where we can learn the Bible. We need to make sure we do not have the same problem of spiritual ignorance. Another problem that we see in these men is this, they had belief without true salvation. Again, I believe that they believed in the Lord God of Israel. They believed that John was a great prophet. They believed certain things and yet it is clear from verse 5 that they were not yet believers in Jesus. And so they had belief without salvation. And again, there's a lot of folks that believe in God. And James says, you believe in God, you do well. The demons believe and tremble. Just believing in God is not going to save you. There's a lot of folks that are religious, they have certain beliefs, but they're not saved. And they're not going to be saved until they know about Jesus and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They needed to know about Jesus. You know, it's not enough just to have faith. You've got to have faith in the right object. You know, you can be sick. And you go to the doctor, and the doctor prescribes medication. And let's say the pharmacist makes a big mistake and gives you the wrong medication. Well, you can have all the faith you want, but if it's the wrong medication, you might even get sicker, you know. You've got to have faith in the right object. You've got to make sure your faith is in Jesus Christ. Another problem that we see in these men is a lack of spiritual problem. As Paul talked with them, he could sense that they lacked something. That's why he asked if they had received the Holy Spirit when they believed in the Lord. And again, they didn't even know about the Holy Spirit, and they obviously lacked spiritual power. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 3 and verse 5 where Paul talks about those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. There's a lot of religious people who don't have the Holy Spirit, who aren't filled with the Holy Spirit, who are not born again. They have a form of godliness but don't know the power of the Lord in their lives which comes by the Holy Spirit. And so I asked you this morning, do you have any of these problems in your own life? Do you lack spiritual knowledge? Do you have belief without true salvation? Do you lack spiritual power in your life? Well, you can correct that today. But if you don't have these problems, I'm sure you know some people that do, and you need to know how to correct and address these problems. And so I want to share with you, secondly, that we need to proclaim salvation as God's answer to these problems. He knew these problems existed in these men and so He shared with them about the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. And so note with me what He shared and what we should share with others. The first is the provision of salvation is in Christ. Verse 4, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him whom would come after Him, that is, on Christ Jesus. You know, of course, the word Christ means Messiah. John came to preach that the Messiah is coming, the Messiah is coming. Prepare the way of the Lord. It was a little later when John discovered who the Messiah was. It was Jesus. And these men didn't even know that yet. And so Paul proclaimed Jesus to them. It is Jesus. who was the Son of God who took on human flesh. It was Jesus who did these mighty miracles. It was Jesus who died on the cross for our sins. It was Jesus who rose again from the dead. We must believe in the Savior that God has provided. His name is Jesus Christ. Because you know, just because God has provided salvation in Jesus, doesn't mean everybody is saved. Everybody has to appropriate the salvation. We have to do something to receive this salvation. So note the fact that we should fulfill the requirements of salvation. And these requirements are stated by Paul in verse 4. The first is, we must repent of sin. John came preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus came preaching repentance. Peter preached repentance. Paul preached repentance. We must repent of our sin. We must change our mind about what is wrong. doing what is wrong, wanting to do what is wrong, and say, God, show me what's wrong, that I might do what's right, and do what's right, pleasing You. We must repent of our sin. There is no salvation apart from repentance. Have you repented of your sins? But secondly, we must believe in Jesus. We must put our faith in Jesus. He's the Savior. Don't put your trust in yourself, in your works, your religious deeds. Put your trust in Jesus. The Bible says in Ephesians 2.8, by grace you're saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Have you put your trust in Jesus? And then thirdly, we need to fulfill the first requirement of discipleship. Notice what happens, verse 5, when they heard this, when they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first requirement of discipleship is baptism. Jesus gave the Great Commission and said, "...going therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." And so Jesus Himself listed baptism as the first step of discipleship. And these men, as soon as they repented, as soon as they believed in Jesus, they said, we too will be baptized. and they were baptized. You cannot be a true disciple of Jesus without obeying Jesus. And the first thing we must do is follow Him in baptism. And so if you're a believer but haven't been baptized, I encourage you to present yourself for baptism this morning and follow Jesus in baptism as the first step of your discipleship. And so Paul recognized a problem in these men. He shared the solution to their problem. But then finally this morning, he also prepared them for Christian service. You see, God is not about just getting you saved. He's not about just getting your ticket to heaven, your sins forgiven. He wants you to become a disciple of Jesus Christ in discipleship. involves serving Jesus. And I want to share with you what's involved in becoming a serving disciple of Jesus Christ. The first is, you need to Get yourself under someone who can teach you and lead you in the right way. And so our spiritual leaders will be confirmed as we see here in this text of Scripture. They were disciples of Apollos at one time, more than likely. They considered themselves disciples of John. But now they needed to become disciples of Jesus and disciples of Paul, the apostle. And I believe that explains why something unusual took place in how these men received the Holy Spirit. Now look at verse 6, And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now what is normal when it comes to receiving the Holy Spirit? Do we normally receive the Holy Spirit the moment we believe? Or do we only receive the Holy Spirit after baptism and someone lays their hands on us? Well, if you know Romans chapter 8 and verse 9, you know that every believer receives the Holy Spirit generally the moment they believe. You look at Acts chapter 10, Cornelius believed on the Lord with his house and immediately, before he was even baptized, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And so what was the change in order about? Why was it that they didn't receive the Holy Spirit until Paul laid his hands upon them? Well, I believe it's this very point, that God wanted them to see for themselves that Paul was His anointed apostle. And if you look at verses 11 and 12, God continued to give special anointing upon the apostle Paul. In verse 11, it says, Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and evil spirits went out of them. Have you ever watched one of these preachers on TV? And they'll say, listen, we'll send you a prayer cloth. And we've prayed over this prayer cloth, and we've anointed this prayer cloth, and you just lay it on your sick, and they'll be healed. Well, here's where they get that from. But folks, this was an unusual sign of the apostle, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 1. You see, there were special signs unique to the apostles, and this was one of them. Laying hands on them so that they received the fullness of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and prophesied. I believe that was another sign of the apostle where God was showing these men, now listen, Paul is your teacher now. Paul is your leader now. I want you to work with him to reach this city for Christ. So what's the application? The application is that even though pastors and evangelists and pastors and missionaries today are not necessarily going to have the same miracles that the apostles had, nevertheless, I believe there will be some evidence of God's anointing upon their ministry. And this is a sign that we can see God blessing. And this is the man we need to follow. But notice something else we see here. We see that the Holy Spirit was given to these men. You cannot serve the Lord effectively apart from the Holy Spirit. You cannot grow as a Christian. You cannot live the Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit. And so we read that Paul laid his hands on these men and they received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to convict you when you get out of line. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to lead you and guide you, Romans chapter 8. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to strengthen you for service, to be a witness for Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to enlighten your mind, to understand the Scriptures, to lead and guide you. We all need the Holy Spirit. And when you're saved, you receive the Holy Spirit. But we not only need to receive the presence of the Holy Spirit, but we also need the filling of the Holy Spirit. You know, it's one thing to have the Holy Spirit in your life, it's another thing to have the Holy Spirit filling your life. And I believe, though it doesn't say in so many words, that these men were filled with the Holy Spirit of God, as indicated by the fact that they spoke in tongues and prophesied. And so there will be manifestations of the filling of the Holy Spirit. I want to ask you this morning, and we need to be honest with God. I want to ask you, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Not just indwelt, but filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, there will be certain manifestations of that filling. You can't see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind. You can't see the Holy Spirit, but you can see the effects of the Holy Spirit in your life. And so these men, as soon as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in tongues, they began to prophesy or preach and proclaim God's Word. In Acts chapter 4 and verse 31, we read that The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word with boldness. A manifestation that the Spirit of God had filled their lives. There are other manifestations of the Holy Spirit. For example, Ephesians chapter 5 verses 19 to 21, Paul says, Be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're going to be filled with His joy, and you're going to be singing to the Lord on a regular basis. Not only singing, but it says furthermore in Ephesians chapter 5, that you will be giving thanks to the Lord. Giving thanks to the Lord. I tell you what, If you're grumbling and complaining, you're probably not filled with the Spirit at that particular time. But if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're going to be giving thanks unto the Lord. And then it says, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Submitting to one another in the fear of God. If you have a rebellious spirit about you, you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will cause you to submit to authority in your life. And to submit to one another in the fear of God. Let me tell you another manifestation of the filling of the Holy Spirit. And that is this. That if the Holy Spirit is full within you, you will live a holy life. A holy life. Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 says, if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Listen, I wouldn't give two cents for someone who speaks in tongues on Sunday and lives an ungodly life on Monday. That's not the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will help us to live a holy life. In Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23, it talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll certainly be full of the fruit of the Spirit, including love, and joy, and peace. and being long-suffering toward people, having a gentle spirit toward people, these are some of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. So I ask you again, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? There will be manifestations of that feeling. And there will also be evangelistic results of that feeling. Again, Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be witnesses unto Me. Jesus said in John chapter 16 that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will bear witness of Me. He will glorify Me. And one of the results of being filled with the Holy Spirit is that you're a witness, that you want to share God's Word, and you just are bubbling over with the Word of God, sharing the Word of God with others. And you know, we look at verse 10, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, these twelve men were filled with the Holy Spirit, and look what happened, verse 10, and this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And so they were filled with the Holy Spirit. You know, if you look at your life and you're really honest with God, and you see on the screen there what are the real evidences of someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit, and you say, you know, I have to be honest that most of the time, if not all the time, I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit. So how can I be filled with the Spirit? Well, I want to share how you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. First, you need to be saved or born again. No one is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit until the Holy Spirit is present in your life. And so the first step in being filled with the Holy Spirit is to make sure you're saved. Secondly, you need to die to sin and self. In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, Paul says, Be not drunk with wine which is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. You can't be full of the Spirit if you're full of alcohol, if you're drunk. You've got to get rid of that sin, you've got to die to sin, and then you can be filled. How can you be filled by the Spirit if you're full of sin and full of self? And so we must repent of our sins and turn from our sins if we're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then thirdly, ask to be filled. James 4.2 says, you have not because you ask not. When was the last time you asked? to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You know, you can ask today, perhaps during the invitation, you can come to the prayer altar and ask God to fill you with this Holy Spirit, anew and afresh. Ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then finally, by faith, do what requires that filling. You know, as you look at the Old Testament, those that were filled and anointed by the Holy Spirit were anointed for a task. In Acts 4.31, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness. If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then I suggest that by faith you do something that requires the filling of the Holy Spirit. How many times do we serve God in the energy of our own flesh? Just doing what we can do. How many of us step out and do something that we can only do by the power of the Holy Spirit? And so if you'll step out and do something that only God's Holy Spirit can enable you to do, you're much more likely to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I remember quite well the first time I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I was 17 years old. I was at youth camp in Hargis Christian Retreat in Alabama. And we had spent several days hearing powerful preaching and teaching of the Word of God. I had witnessed the Spirit of God moving in our youth group. God was convicting me of some sins in my life and dealing with me and I went during free time into the woods a ways where there was a miniature chapel. And I went into that little bitty chapel, got on my knees at that prayer altar, looked up and through a little window across the way on top of a hill was a cross. And I began to pray. And I began to repent of my sins. And I surrendered my life completely to the Lord, even to do what I could not do, and that was preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I remember being filled with the Holy Spirit that day. And folks, my life has never been the same since I was filled with the Holy Spirit. All of us, if we're going to be a part of a church that has an impact, if we're going to have an impact in our own lives, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you need to be saved. As we give the invitation this morning, if you're not yet truly a believer in Jesus, I invite you to trust in Jesus in repentance of sin this morning. You're not going to be a true disciple without being baptized. I invite you to present yourself for baptism this morning. Or if you want to pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit this morning, or unite with this church family, recommitting your life to the Lord, we invite you to do that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You that though we have problems, You have the answer to our problems. And the answer is Jesus. The answer is the filling of the Holy Spirit. And I pray, Lord, that we would seek anew and afresh the filling of the Holy Spirit so that we might be witnesses for You, so that we might be effective servants for You, that we might grow in Christ. And I pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our hymn of invitation. It will be upon your screen, our hymn 411. Let's stand together. And if you're ready to make a commitment, you come as we stand and as we sing.