Sunday 6 January, 2013

19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road to Ephesus. When he arrived, he found some believers there. 2 He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” “No,” they answered. “We haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4 Paul said, “John baptized people, calling them to turn away from their sins. He told them to believe in the one who was coming after him. Jesus is that one.” 5 After hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Paul placed his hands on them. Then the Holy Spirit came on them. They spoke in languages they had not known before. They also prophesied. 7 There were about 12 of them in all. 8 Paul entered the synagogue. There he spoke boldly for three months. He tried to talk the people into accepting his teaching about God’s kingdom. 9 But some of them wouldn’t listen. They refused to believe. In public they said evil things about the Way of Jesus. So Paul left them. He took the believers with him. Each day he talked with people in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years. So all the Jews and Greeks who lived in Asia Minor heard the word of the Lord.

This is an intriguing story.

Luke records these people as believers.  Yet they had not received the Holy Spirit.  They had received John’s baptism which is a baptism of repentance.

It would seem they were believers in God and Paul introduced them to Jesus and baptized them in

the Holy

Spirit.

At any time I will meet people who have gaps in their understanding of Jesus. I will need to be able to explain to them who He is and help them grow in their relationship with Him.

Written by Ps. Richard Botta