Acts 19:1-7 Sermon Manuscript

I delivered this sermon as an assignment for Exegesis of Acts with Rev. Jeremy Williams, Ph.D. at Brite Divinity School during the Spring Semester of 2023.

When I was a child, I thought like a child. I was introduced to the Christian faith by a Church that believed that fear was the greatest tool for evangelism. That threats of eternal torment in hellfire ordered by God at the final judgment was the reason that we should repent and be baptized. My Jesus was a small Jesus who was concerned only with my personal shortcomings and sins. The entire reason that I should follow Christ was to prevent him from condemning my soul.

Baptism was a personal decision that I had to make to save myself. An opportunity to confess my personal sins, be washed, then seek to live a comfortable, redeemed middle-class life.

When I was a child; I could only care about myself, my own comfort, my own salvation. The good news of Jesus Christ was a small, personal promise. At that time, I was only aware of a small glimpse of the truly radical nature of the gospel of Jesus.

            In our text today, Paul is traveling through Ephesus where he encounters a group of disciples who have apparently been baptized by Apollos on his way to Corinth. Paul recognizes these people as disciples and addresses them as believers.

            Yet, clearly, he suspects something about this group of believers because the very first thing he asks them is if they received the Holy Spirit when they became believers. Paul’s suspicions were apparently correct; these believers had not even been taught about the existence of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps Paul recognized the same burning enthusiasm in these believers that Priscilla and Aquila heard from Apollos in the preceding passage. 

            I will venture to give Apollos the benefit of the doubt and assume that he baptized these believers prior to his sacramental reeducation by his sisters in Christ. Regardless, Paul correctly recognizes that these disciples have only a partial understanding of the true nature and grace contained in the act of baptism.

            Like me as a child, they were taught the baptism of John; that baptism is merely about personal repentance; limited to a personal decision to live their lives in obedience to God’s laws. Personal restraint and following the law are good things; but are also not the ultimate concerns. Paul sees their limited understanding of baptism, yet he also recognizes the earnestness of the believers.

            Unlike the Paul of many of his letters, here Paul is a gentle teacher willing to guide these people into a deeper understanding of Christ’s teachings. He instructs them in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit so that they may gain knowledge of the gospel of Jesus.

            Rather than condemn these errant believers, Paul teaches them the way, then baptizes them in the name of Jesus Christ so that they too may know the fullness of the Spirit’s presence.

            When I was a child, I too thought that baptism was only about me and my personal decision to obey God, turn from sin, and seek repentance.  Honestly, I only wanted to avoid the horrors displayed in the church's annual Halloween Hell House.

            I couldn’t care less about what the promise of baptism meant for the world, I just wanted to save my own skin. However, the terror of hell is not a solid foundation for lifelong faith; it is not the foundation of faith taught by Jesus Christ.

            Once I stepped out of the conserving churches of my youth, I found that this terror moved me less and less. This eventually led to my absence from the Church all together.

            Fortunately, the Holy Spirit did not let go of me so easily and it drew me through the doors of my beloved University Presbyterian Church. There, like Apollos, I was taught to appreciate the true fullness of the gospel by the Reverends Patti Snyder, Betsy Irvine, and Mamie Broadhurst.

            Like Paul in this text, these prophetic women recognized my enthusiasm and helped kindle a lasting faith based on the trust in God’s expansive grace. Grace not limited to a few who look like me, live like me, or love like me. My eyes were finally opened to the true glory of the baptism of Jesus Christ.

The disciples in our text were given access to this same grace by Paul, who baptized them in the name of Jesus Christ. Only then did the Spirit descended upon them, providing them with the prophetic voice necessary to respond to the call of Jesus to feed the hungry, release the captive, clothe the naked, and free the imprisoned. They, like I, finally understood that baptism was not only an individual choice, but the work of God in our midst.

In the Presbyterian tradition we teach that the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion were instituted by Jesus Christ to be visible, tangible signs of God’s work in the world. We do not teach that Baptism is merely a personal choice but is an outward sign of the grace that has already been extended by our Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. The charge of our baptismal waters is not to save ourselves, but to be a prophetic voice for God’s holy justice in our world.

Here in Ephesus, Paul baptized these twelve disciples into the body of Christ, and they were gifted with the power of the Holy Spirit. Their voices were emboldened to be the ongoing prophetic voice of God in this world.

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem like the rush of a violent wind; but the Spirit was not done there. The teachings of our beloved Messiah spread like the tongues of flame on Pentecost through the cool waters of Jesus’ baptism.    

In our baptismal liturgy, the promise of baptism is not just a personal promise; it is a covenant between the baptized person, the community of the Church, and with God. During the act of baptism we promise to renounce evil, to trust in God, and to love and support one another. In the baptism of Jesus, we are called to join together as the hands of Christ himself so that his gospel may continue to flourish. Just as the disciples in Ephesus were empowered to prophesy, we too have access to the Spirit’s power to resist the evil forces in our world.

As prophets empowered by the Spirit, we are called to renounce those who seek to uphold white supremacy, those who seek to silence the voice of our sisters, those who refuse to recognize the sanctified love that exists in the LGBTQ community, those who refuse to see that trans rights are human rights.

Beloved, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to dwell in our hearts so that we may see clearly the path of justice that has been laid before us by God. That we may emerge from the waters of Jesus’ baptism transformed into his loving image.  

The Spirit descended upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Spirt came again upon these enthusiastic believers in Ephesus. May God allow us to remain vigilant so that we may continue to be witnesses to each new blessed moment when the Spirit stirs our souls to awaken and recognize the expansiveness of God’s grace which has been extended to all of humanity.

Our baptisms are more than merely an act of confession before God, in the baptism of Jesus Christ, we do not renounce the world. Instead, we make a holy covenant with God to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. May you go out in the peace of God and be empowered through your baptism to be the prophetic voice of Jesus Christ.