They answered, "No, we have not 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's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts19:1-3
(Quick Recap:) In the previous chapter, we saw how Paul was travelling through Ephesus and went to preach in the synagogue. He promised to come back because there had not been time to tell the whole story of the gospel.
Then we saw how a Jew named Apollos came after Paul. He spoke a lot about Jesus from the perspective of the Old Testament, but his message was really the message preached by John the Baptist: "Repent and get ready for the coming of the Messiah." (End of recap)
The people in Ephesus were baptised, not in the name of Christ, but with John the Baptist's baptism which was a generic baptism of repentance. (Basically they were saying: "We're sorry that we have sinned." But they did not have a clear picture that Jesus was their saviour.) In a sense we could say that Apollos had brought them to a place where they were "proto-christians" (one step away from Christianity.)
We know that Priscilla and Acquila later explained things more fully to Apollos.
So when Paul returns, he brings them to that final step: Realising that only Jesus can save us and trusting Him as our Lord and Saviour.
These folk were not really Christians before this encounter. They had merely taken on some religious traditions and practices. With Paul's help they came to recognise that it is only and all because of Jesus that we are saved. Their baptism symbolised their wholehearted trust in Him.
Today many people are the same. They think that "being good" or "being sorry for our sins" or "trying to obey the ten commandments" will be enough. We, like Paul, need to bring clarity. We need to introduce them to the full work of Christ.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
