Was the apostle Paul baptized in the Holy Spirit subsequent to his salvation?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson. Thank you for joining me once again. We're continuing our
series on the speaking in other tongues and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And I think this is,
goodness, maybe our 10th Little Lesson on this subject. If you've missed the previous ones,
it would be best if you would go back and find the other ones on YouTube, because we've laid a lot of
foundation. And the whole reason I'm doing this is the same reason that the apostles sent Peter and
John down to Samaria after they responded to the preaching of the gospel by Phillip the evangelist.
The Bible says that the apostles, all the original apostles, except for Judas, of course... Matthias
was selected to be his replacement... all of the apostles in Jerusalem said, "Here's something very
important for the new believers in Samaria. They need to be filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit."
And so they sent no one less than Peter and John down for the express purpose
that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
and they laid their hands upon them and they were. And so when people say
that when you're born again, that's the sum total of all the experience that you might have with the
Holy Spirit, well, obviously the apostles didn't believe that. Peter and John didn't believe that,
otherwise they wouldn't have gone down to Samaria. So currently, in relation to our very last Little
Lesson... we're in Acts chapter nine now. We're looking at the third of five instances where
somebody was filled with the Holy Spirit or baptized in the Holy Spirit.
And in this case, it was Saul of Tarsus. In this case, he was already born again.
When you believe in Jesus, you're born again. Everybody who knows anything about the Bible
knows that. Saul of Tarsus believed in Jesus when he asked, "Who are you Lord,
that I'm persecuting?" And he said, "I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting,
but get up and go into Damascus and wait there for instructions." And so he obeyed his Lord. He was a
believer. How could he not have been a believer after being struck down the road to Damascus
and hearing the audible voice of God? Come on, and then being led as a blind man into Samaria.
He's waiting there in Samaria. I'm going to pick up the store where we left off last time.
He doesn't eat or drink anything for three days. He's waiting there. And now in
verse number 10 of Acts chapter nine, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Oh,
I'd love to follow a rabbit trail right there,
because we have this false dichotomy in so many Christian circles today that you can be a
Christian but not be a disciple. That's ludicrous, unbiblical. If you're not a disciple of Christ,
you're not a believer in Christ. Every true believer of Christ is a disciple of Christ.
If you're not a disciple of Christ, you don't really believe in him. That was my rabbit trail.
And the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias," and he said, "Here I am Lord." And the Lord said
to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas
for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man
named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he may regain his sight."
Now this is, of course, a truncated version. Luke can't tell us every single detail in the
book of Acts. We don't know perhaps everything that the Lord said in this vision to Ananias.
In fact, we get a hint later on that the Lord definitely
said at least a little bit more as to the purpose of why he needs to go to Ananias.
Now I don't understand why God just didn't do it himself. Why does he have to send somebody
to lay hands upon Saul of Tarsus so that he can receive his sight. God knocked him
down on the road to Damascus without anybody's help. He didn't send Ananias, say "Go out there
to road to Damascus and touch Saul and he'll be struck down." No, God did all that by himself.
God can do anything by himself. But for some reason he wanted to use Ananias in this case.
And Ananias, even though he's having a vision of the Lord, he has a little objection. But Ananias
answered, "Lord. I've heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints
at Jerusalem. And here, he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.
So, Lord, I don't want to show myself to this guy who's out. He's liable to put me in handcuffs."
Obviously God didn't tell Ananias all the details of how this guy, Saul, just got knocked down
and so forth. So Ananias had some objections, but listen, what the Lord says to him. I love this.
But the Lord said to him "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine. And
what specifically? To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel."
All that came to pass over the next few decades of Saul's life. And you will follow as minister
in the book of Acts. At the end, he's talking to kings. At the end, you'll get the actual story,
but he's there in Rome to make an appeal before Caesar himself. Wow.
And then God said, "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake."
That's another story, too, but let's keep with the topic, verse 17. So Ananias departed and he
entered the house. He found the street called Straight and found that house of Judas then,
and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul." Now I suppose you can say
that he was saying that fellow Jewish brother.
But God has just told Ananias that this man is a chosen instrument of his to bear his name
before the Gentiles, kings and the sons of Israel. And he's going to suffer for the name of Jesus.
Surely Ananias believed this guy's saved, this guy is a born again believer. He's a brother,
not just a Jewish brother. He's a brother in Christ and he's had a dramatic transformation.
Now he was coming here to put the brethren in prison, but he's turned into a brother
himself. And so there's that reassurance when Ananias tracks him down, and he says,
Brother Saul, brother Saul." So one more proof that three days earlier, Saul of Tarsus became
a born again believer in Jesus Christ. You with me? "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to
you on the road by which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight."
We already knew that was going to happen, didn't we, because that's what Luke told us that Lord
said to Ananias in that vision. But here's something that the Lord told Ananias in that
vision that Luke didn't record initially. "So that you may regain your sight and be filled with the
Holy Spirit." There it is, just like happened in Acts chapter eight, just one chapter before this,
when Peter and John came down to the believers in Samaria to pray for them to lay hands upon them,
that they might be filled with Holy Spirit. Now God is sending Ananias to lay hands upon
Saul that first of all that his eyes might be opened. He wouldn't be blinded anymore,
and so that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. So there was at least two purposes in
the Lord sending Ananias to Saul. Get your sight back, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Subsequent by three days to his salvation. So once again, once again, if we're going to go by
the Bible and not go by what some folks believe or teach, go by the Bible, being filled with the
Holy Spirit was subsequent to salvation. And so it can and should be with you if you are a believer
in Jesus, like Ananias and like Saul of Tarsus. Amen. I'm trying to build your faith to receive
the infilling of the Holy Spirit. If you're born again, you already have the Holy Spirit in you,
no doubt about that. No doubt about that. But this is a subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit.
And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales,
and he regained his sight and he got up and was baptized and he took food and he was
strengthened. So it actually doesn't tell us the instance of Ananias laying his hands upon him and
him being filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke just didn't record it. I kind of wish he would have,
but if Luke had recorded everything that happened, the book of Acts would be an encyclopedia.
Now we've established beyond any doubt whatsoever that Saul's, the apostle Paul's, experience was a
baptism in the Holy Spirit three days after he was born again, just like in Acts chapter eight, the
Samarian Christians baptized by the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit after salvation,
just like on the day of Pentecost, same thing. They were all believers, believing in Jesus,
had eternal life and their baptism in the Holy Spirit was subsequent to their salvation.
Did Saul speak in tongues? Well, it doesn't say right here that he spoke in tongues, but
we know that he spoke in tongues sooner or later because he himself testified in First Corinthians
chapter 14, "I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all." I think it's around verse number
12 of First Corinthians chapter 14. Look it up for yourself and see. So Paul was a tongue talking
guy. He was a Pentecostal. But back in those days, you didn't have Pentecostals because all the
Christians were Pentecostals. So they didn't have to come up with a special term for those people.
All right. All right. Well, I hope you're learning something. Hope your faith is growing.
At any point in time in the series, you can pray and ask God to baptize you in the Holy Spirit
and with the evidence of speaking in tongues, and he will answer your prayer.
But I still got more to say on this. We've got two other instances in the book of Acts
to look at and their faith. Then we have to go to First Corinthians 14.
So we're going to be spending some time on this. I'd like to hear from you. You can say something
in the comments, or you can send us a message in some way and let us know that you prayed to be
baptized in the Holy Spirit and you have received and spoken in tongues. That'll make me glad. Hey,
if you've never been to heavensfamily.org .... that's the word heaven, the letter S,
the word family.org... check us out. We've got tons of ministry flowing out from Heaven's Family
all over the world, and lots of people involved on both ends of the spectrum. And I wish that you
could be one of them. All right, until next time, may the Lord continue to bless you.