There is always a danger of reading into the Old Testament and the four Gospels some of the facts that are only revealed in the Epistles.
There is a danger of attributing to the disciples, before the day of Pentecost, much that is not true.
Let me make this statement first and then we will prove it.
No one who walked with Jesus during His three-and-one-half years of public ministry was born again, was a new creation, or had eternal life. No one under the first covenant had eternal life until the day of Pentecost.
But someone might ask, Didn’t the disciples believe in Jesus?
Yes, but not as their substitute, not as their Savior who was going to die and rise again from the dead.
They believed in Him as the Son of God, as a Great Prophet, as the One who was going to redeem them from the Roman yoke and establish again a Jewish nation.
They knew nothing of His substitutionary work.
In John 11:25–27, we read the story of Martha and Jesus’s conversation about the dead Lazarus:
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
She did not believe in Him as a Savior.
She did not believe in His redemption.
They knew nothing of His redemptive work.
He could not make it clear to them.
Paul tells us why in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
They did not know that He was going to rise from the dead, and even after He arose, they did not believe it.
In Luke 24:11, it says, “And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.”
They knew nothing of the new creation.
True, Jesus had told Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7), but he didn’t understand it.
Nicodemus replied, “How can these things be?” (verse 9).
He knew nothing about receiving eternal life and its effect upon man.
True, Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10) and, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
That was prophecy on the part of Jesus.
The disciples knew nothing about righteousness, of the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without condemnation.
They knew nothing of fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ.
They had never had fellowship with the Master, any more than an unsaved man today can have fellowship with a child of God. They knew nothing of sonship or of the family of God.
They were Jews under law; servants, nothing more.
They knew nothing of the Father in reality.
He was just God to them.
They knew nothing of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
They had heard Jesus’s teaching but they did not grasp it.
They knew nothing of the new kind of love that Jesus brought. It didn’t govern their lives or touch them and it could not until they were recreated.
They didn’t understand what John the Baptist meant when he said, “He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize [immerse] you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).
If you will compare that with 1 Corinthians 12:13, you will know what being baptized in the Holy Spirit means. The term is used incorrectly by most all believers today: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
This has reference to the new birth, the new creation.
Jesus told them, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Acts 1:5).
You know that when one is baptized, he is put into the water, he is not filled with the water. When he is baptized in the Holy Spirit, he is not filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now read Acts 2:1–4:
When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Holy Spirit filled that upper room where they were sitting, and they were all immersed in the Holy Spirit. In other words, they were all recreated, received eternal life.
The second thing that happened—“there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” Those tongues of fire showed that the gospel was going to be preached by men with tongues of fire, a message that could not be withstood.
Stephen was the first man who paid the penalty of having a tongue of fire. They stoned him to death.
The third thing that happened in that upper room—“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” You understand that they could not receive the Holy Spirit until they were recreated.
The third thing that happened on that wonderful day was the Spirit entering their bodies.
Jesus said He would be with the disciples, that He would be in them. They did not understand Him, but now the reality of the thing has come. They have been recreated.
They have received the nature and the life of God.
Now the Spirit is going to take them over.
He is going to use their vocal chords to speak His own message. Then the fourth amazing thing took place. They “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
It is very important that we realize this: the disciples were entering into things of which they had no conception whatsoever.
You can understand now what is meant when Jesus said that they were to be baptized in the Spirit. That immersion had meant their receiving eternal life, their union with deity. It meant that the body of Christ had been brought into being. The thing we call the ecclesia, the church, had now become a real thing in the world.
God’s sons and daughters were in that upper room where only servants had been a few hours before.
The words “be baptized with the Holy Ghost” were never used after the day of Pentecost in any place but in Acts 11:16.
This is the story of the Gentiles receiving Christ as Savior. Peter was down in Joppa. There a centurion sent for him to come and tell him about the Master. And while Peter was preaching, the Holy Spirit fell on them who heard the Word. It was almost identical with the thing that happened on the day of Pentecost. Peter returned to Jerusalem and told the apostles what had happened, how the Gentiles had had the same experience as they had in the upper room.
And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? (Acts 11:15–17)
The disciples never believed on Jesus until the day of Pentecost. What faith they had was simply sense knowledge faith. They could only believe in the things they could see and hear and feel.
Now notice this fact: the expression, “Have you received your baptism?” is unscriptural when you are talking about the Holy Spirit, for in Acts 8:14–17 is the story of Samaria receiving Christ, of Philip baptizing them and then of the apostles coming down from Jerusalem and laying hands upon them and they received the Holy Spirit.
And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should 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 his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. (Acts 19:1–7)
Understand this fact: nowhere in the Pauline Epistles is that expression used in the way it is used by Christians today. We should never ask a person, “Have you received your baptism?” or “Have you received your experience according to Acts 2:1–4?”
When we do, we betray our lack of knowledge of the Word.
From the book of Acts, it is clear that a man receives eternal life before he can receive the Holy Spirit as an indwelling presence.