EBlast for Sunday, September 16, 2018

Paul’s Third Missionary Journey

Acts 19:1   While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples.  ² He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”  ³ Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.”  ⁴ Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.”  ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  ⁶ When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied—  ⁷ altogether there were about twelve of them. (Acts 19:1-7. NLT)

Usually, You come here to watch a video each week in preparation for Sundays Sermon. Today I thought I would go Old School, so here goes…

I love this passage from Paul’s third missionary journey. Paul had come into the city of Ephesus, one of the major seaports of the Roman Empire, and he found a group of people who are professed disciples of Christ yet have a very limited understanding of what that means. From reading the story we can see that at the heart of their lack of knowledge is the fact that they do not know who the Holy Spirit is, nor have they received the filling of the Holy Spirit. 

For several years I used to take a week-long prayer retreat to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. This Catholic Monastery is Trappist, part of which means the monks remain in silence. Those of you who know me know that this was the hardest part of going to retreat there. Even though the monks are disciplined to strict silence, some of the monks break that silence to have times of ministry to people like me who come for retreat. On one of my visits I had signed up to have a session with one of the brothers and as we began our time he asked a question that messed with me for a while. He asked, “Are you a trinitarian?”  He knew I was a United Methodist Pastor and he was very knowledgeable about both Catholic and Protestant beliefs, so I was puzzled by his question. “Are not all orthodox Christians Trinitarian?” I asked. To which he explained that he had found over his years of counseling that most disciples, both Catholics, and Protestants, are only trinitarian in name. He said that most have no understanding of what it means to be triune because they have no understanding of the Holy Spirit.  

This weekend I hope to focus in on this little segment of Paul’s third missionary journey and share what it means to be trinitarian in our faith. Hope you can come and hear God’s word for us this Sunday!

This week, while you meet with your Faith Formation Group you may want to reflect on our Scripture passage by reading Acts 19:1-7 (printed above) and discuss the questions as a way to begin a conversation. 

Questions for Consideration:

1. As we consider this passage, ask: did these people understand what it meant to be a Disciple of Jesus? 
2. How deeply do you understand your faith? What do you understand about the Holy Spirit? 
3. What are ways to continue working to become truly triune in your faith?
4. Have you ever prayed to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit? 

As you meet this week, we encourage you to also take time to open yourselves up as a group and dialog on the following Wesley Challenge question:  Did the Bible live in me today? (from pages 35 through 39 in The Wesley Challenge)