Bible Study Resources: What Does the Book of Acts Teach about Receiving the Holy Spirit?

This is a series of charts I designed for a doctrinal sermon I gave at my church, examining the teaching of the book of Acts on the question of whether Christians are called to receive the Holy Spirit in a particular manner or way. You can access the original handout here, and listen to the sermon here.

Pentecost-type events (experiences of the Holy Spirit with outward or ecstatic manifestations)

 

Event	Scripture Passage	Outward Manifestations	Connections to Believing / Being Baptized	Group Event or Individual?
Pentecost (the church first established among Jews)	Acts 2:1-11	Wind & flames Speaking in tongues Courageous preaching	All involved were baptized believers	Group
Conversions in Samaria (the church first established among the Samaritans)	Acts 8:5-17	Outward manifestations present, but unspecified	All involved were recent converts, who had believed and been baptized in the name of Jesus	Group
Conversion of the Cornelius and his group (the church first established among Gentiles & pagans)	Acts 10:44-48 Acts 11:15-18	Speaking in tongues Praising God	All involved were at that moment coming to belief in Jesus, and were baptized after their Holy Spirit experience	Group
Conversion of the Disciples of John the Baptist (the church established among heretical groups)	Acts 19:1-7	Speaking in tongues Prophesying	All involved were followers of God, but only partly informed of the Gospel; they believed, were baptized, then received their Holy Spirit experience	Group

Assessing Acts’ Portrayal of “Pentecost Events” –

1.)    In every instance in the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit is poured out in outward and ecstatic manifestations (such as speaking in tongues), it involves a group event (and interestingly, never in an individual conversion). Specifically, each time it happens, it marks the establishment of the church within a new ethnic or religious group: Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles/pagans, and heretics.

2.)    After the initial experience of Pentecost, which occurred entirely within the Jewish group of Jesus’ original followers, the other three occurrences were with groups that the church would have had reason to be suspicious of:

a.       Samaritans – Jews and Samaritans had notoriously bad relations (the disciples even offered once to call down fire on a Samaritan village after it had rejected Jesus in the Gospels!); they were regarded as ethnic half-breeds and religious heretics.

b.      Gentiles – The Jews’ obligation to remain separate from Gentiles was hardwired into their religious consciousness, and so it comes as a tremendous shock to the early Jewish church that the Gospel of Jesus is meant to include the Gentiles.

c.       Heretics – These followers of John the Baptist only have a portion of correct doctrine and not the whole, and so the early church would have regarded them very cautiously, since heretical groups like this were a regular problem in the first few centuries (in fact, followers of John the Baptist who did not become Christ-followers did actually end up creating their own separate religion, Mandaeism).

3.)    Because of this pattern, it might be the case that God used these large-group outpourings of the Holy Spirit with ecstatic gifts like speaking in tongues (a replication of the original Pentecost event) to assist the established church in understanding that yes, even these dubiously-regarded groups were really being welcomed into the covenant-family of God. This pattern is most clearly seen in the Cornelius story, where it is the replication of Pentecost phenomena that convinces the Jerusalem church to start accepting Gentile converts.

4.)    As such, the book of Acts does not offer theological support for the position that holds that each individual Christian must, on conversion, have a Pentecost-type experience of the Holy Spirit with ecstatic manifestations. That’s not to say that such experiences will never happen to an individual, since Paul makes it clear in his letters that some Christians (but not all) do actually receive the gift of speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 12:4-11; 28-31); but it does mean that we cannot make ecstatic spiritual gifts the expected benchmark for authentic conversion. In Acts, such outpourings appear to happen only in a few situations: specifically, the establishment of the church in a new ethnic or religious group, for the purpose of authenticating their conversion in the sight of the wider family of Christians.

Other conversion stories –

 

Event	Scripture Passage	Reference to Believing?	Reference to Being Baptized?	Reference to Receiving the Holy Spirit?	Reference to Outward or Ecstatic Manifestations of the Spirit?
The crowd hears Peter’s sermon at Pentecost	Acts 2:38-41	Yes	Yes	Yes (Peter describes it as a gift freely given to all who accept his message)	No (none mentioned for the converts from this sermon)
The crowd hears Peter’s sermon at the Temple	Acts 4:4	Yes	Yes	No	No
Many from Jerusalem respond to the apostles’ healing and preaching ministries	Acts 5:14	Yes	No	No	No
Ethiopian Eunuch	Acts 8:35-38	Yes	Yes	No	No
Paul’s conversion	Acts 9:15-18	Yes (it’s implied that Saul believes based on his experience along the Damascus road)	Yes	Yes (Ananias promises this before saying his prayer for Paul)	No
The Gospel preached to Gentiles in Antioch	Acts 11:21	Yes	No	No	No
Paul preaches to the Proconsul	Acts 13:12	Yes	No	No	No
Gentiles in the synagogue respond to Paul’s sermon	Acts 13:48	Yes	No	No	No
Jews and Gentiles in the synagogue at Iconium	Acts 14:1	Yes	No	No	No
Lydia	Acts 16:14-15	Yes	Yes	No	No
The jailer in Philippi	Acts 16:30-31	Yes	Yes	No	No
Jews and Gentiles in the synagogue at Thessalonica	Acts 17:4	Yes	No	No	No
A few Athenians respond to Paul’s sermon	Acts 17:34	Yes	No	No	No
Crispus and the Corinthians	Acts 18:8	Yes	Yes	No	No
(Apollos – probably already a Christian, but not fully informed)	Acts 18:24-25	Yes (“he had been instructed in the way of the Lord”)	Yes (but he “knew only the baptism of John”)	No (but it might be implied that he needed instruction about the Holy Spirit)	No
Paul’s plea to the crowd in Jerusalem	Acts 22:16	Yes (implied where Paul says, “calling on [Jesus’] name”)	Yes	No	No
The Jews of Rome respond to Paul’s message	Acts 28:24	Yes	No	No	No

 

Assessing Acts’ Portrayal of Conversion Stories Outside of the Four “Pentecost Events” –

1.)    In regard to the question of whether Acts presents the experience of being filled with the Spirit, accompanied by ecstatic gifts, as a necessary and expected part of individual conversion, the answer appears to be “no.”

a.       The last column on the “conversion stories” chart lists all of the conversions recorded in Acts (aside from the group-focused “Pentecost events” dealt with in the first chart), and in none of them are ecstatic phenomena like speaking in tongues recorded.

b.      The next-to-last column lists all the occurrences of conversion stories being associated with “receiving” or “being filled” with the Holy Spirit. In the vast majority of cases of individual conversion, this is never mentioned. The two exceptions are when Peter tells people that those who convert will receive the gift of the Spirit (apparently as an automatic endowment upon believing and being baptized) and Ananias telling Paul that he will be filled with the Spirit upon his conversion to Christianity (and in Paul’s case, this “filling” seems to be connected with his calling as a missionary and his early preaching work, which are described immediately before and immediately after Ananias’ conversation with him).

2.)    The one constant in the book of Acts when it comes to being saved is believing. This fits perfectly with Paul’s message in his epistles, that the single thing necessary for salvation is faith.

3.)    In the majority of cases (but not all), baptism is also described as the next step. In the places where baptism is not actually mentioned, it’s probably simply assumed. But, as Baptist doctrine teaches, it’s clear that baptism isn’t actually the thing that saves you (consider, for instance, the Gentiles’ “Pentecost event” at Cornelius’ house—they are clearly saved and filled with the Holy Spirit before receiving water baptism). Even though baptism is not what saves you, there is no indication in Acts or anywhere else that it is optional for Christians: it is the expected physical enactment of one’s decision to believe.

4.)    Even though Acts seldom mentions individual converts being “filled with the Spirit” (outside of the major “Pentecost events”), the New Testament as a whole does teach that receiving the Holy Spirit is part of the conversion experience. But it is usually portrayed in the way that Peter states in his sermon: as a gift of God, given upon believing in Jesus, not as a “next step” of something that the believer needs to do or achieve in order to be really saved (see Eph. 1:13). In Baptist doctrine, we teach that Christians are indeed given the gift of the Holy Spirit the moment they are saved and that they are endowed with spiritual gifts for the edification of the church (some of which may or may not include ecstatic gifts, as Paul indicates in his long discussions in 1 Corinthians).

References to being “filled with the Spirit” –

Event	Scripture Passage	Connected to Conversion?	Ministry Empowerment / Fruits of the Spirit?	Ecstatic Manifestations?
Pentecost	Acts 2:4	No	Yes	Yes (tongues)
Peter before the Sanhedrin	Acts 4:8	No	Yes	No
Jerusalem church’s prayer meeting	Acts 4:31	No	Yes	No
Description of the deacons’ character	Acts 6:3; 6:5	No	Yes	No
The end of Stephen’s sermon	Acts 6:55	No	Yes (see also Acts 6:10)	Yes (Stephen sees a vision of Christ at God’s right hand)
Ananias’ conversation with Paul	Acts 9:15-18	Yes	Yes (Acts 9:15, 20)	No
Description of Barnabas’ character	Acts 11:24	No	Yes	No
Paul’s confrontation with Elymas	Acts 13:9-11	No	Yes (boldness)	Yes (Elymas is struck blind)
Description of Paul’s ministry team	Acts 13:53-14:1	No	Yes	No

Assessing Acts’ Portrayal of Being “Filled with the Spirit” –

1.)    Being “filled with the Spirit” does not usually refer to conversion or to the use of ecstatic spiritual gifts.

a.       The only occasion in which being “filled with the Spirit” is connected with conversion is in the case of the Apostle Paul, and a good argument can be made there that the reference is to Paul’s empowerment for the ministry to which God had called him. (Peter also promises the Holy Spirit to those who believe his sermon on the day of Pentecost, but the language of “being filled” isn’t used there.) In every other instance, being “filled with the Spirit” does not refer to conversions, but to the ministry efforts of Christians.

b.      Similarly, ecstatic phenomena are usually not recorded in these cases of being filled with the Spirit. There are three exceptions, each which also appear to be connected with the Spirit’s empowerment for a climactic moment of ministry: the Christians speaking in tongues and preaching at Pentecost; Stephen’s vision of Christ at the end of his sermon; and Paul’s act of judgment in striking the sorcerer Elymas blind.

2.)    All told, the occasions of  being filled with the Spirit in Acts seem to refer to one of two things:

a.       A general description of a particular Christian’s character (in Acts, being “filled with the Spirit” is often immediately connected with a fruit of the spirit, like joy or wisdom).

b.      A sense of boldness and power in the public proclamation of the Gospel that comes upon the apostles or missionaries when they are speaking. In this, it is very similar to what happens in the Old Testament, when the Spirit “comes upon” a judge or prophet and empowers them for a great act of ministry. This use, then, refers to an occasional empowerment, and not necessarily a constant state of experience in the Christian’s life. It is possible, but not assured, that ecstatic spiritual gifts may accompany this occasional empowerment.

3.)    Based on these usages, the book of Acts lines up with what the rest of the New Testament teaches:

a.       That all Christians are temples of the indwelling Holy Spirit;

b.      That some Christians, who have allowed the Holy Spirit to manifest his presence through the growth of spiritual gifts and “the fruits of the Spirit,” may be referred to as “full of the Holy Spirit” in a general sense;

c.      That there are moments in our lives where we may feel or experience the Spirit’s presence more powerfully, especially when we are being prepared or equipped for a particular ministry, and these moments may or may not be accompanied by powerful supernatural manifestations.