Acts 19:1-7
English Standard
Version (ESV)
19 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul
passed through the inland country
and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did
you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not
even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?”
They said, “Into John's baptism.” 4 And 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, Jesus.” 5 On
hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the
Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve
men in all.
At the beginning of this passage we
see how these men of God, Apollos and Paul were partners in Christ yet were
spread to different regions to preach the Gospel. I find it interesting that Apollos goes to
the place where Paul spent much of his time, Corinth. I would imagine the words Paul spoke to these
people were also spoken to Apollos through the people and he grew in his walk
with Christ. I find it even more interesting
to find that Paul went back to Ephesus, where Apollos had just come from, and
found about twelve men that still believed as Apollos had once believed.
As I thought about this I remembered
a story that our pastor told about going on a missionary trip. While waiting at an airport he and his group
ran across some other people going on a missionary trip. It was eye-opening to both of them because
each group was going to the others homeland to spread the Gospel. It may seem like a waste of time, effort, and
money to have to travel some distance when there are people in our own
community that we could spread the Gospel to. Yet, sometimes it is the outsider
who is not in the midst of the life situations to see the needs for Jesus for our
neighbors. As I read this scripture I
thought that Apollos would have been a good person to have shared with these
men because he too had found himself in the same situation. Yet God had other
plans, just as he did for the two missionary groups, that went to the others
territory to spread the Gospel.
There are many religious
organizations that take part in Baptism.
Some people want to argue as to whether you sprinkle, immerse
(frontwards or backwards), or pour. They
get really hung up in the process forgetting
about the purpose of baptism. Instead of
asking the big question as to what “type” of baptism we find ourselves asking
the question of how did you do it. I
would venture to say that even those who baptized by immersion do not all do it
for the same reason. Some believe
baptism is not important at all while others believe that it is the only way to
be completely saved. I would have to
argue against both of those claims.
Baptism is a very important part of my walk with Christ, I remember the
experience vividly, but it is no way means by which I was saved.
When John baptized, he baptized
those who recognized their sin and were then were baptized to show a cleansing
of their sins. John prepared the way of
the Lord by preparing others to recognize that they were not perfect and their
ways were not perfect. Through this recognition
others were then able to see the One that was perfect and believe upon Him. You may ask then, why was Jesus baptized,
other than to fulfill the scriptures? I
had never really thought much about this until I began writing this today. I have
to wonder if Jesus was baptized because of all of our sins. He didn’t need to be cleansed, He was already
clean. He didn’t need to recognize His sin and repent
because He was without sin, yet, our sins were carried by Him to the cross, was
His repentance and baptism for me was it for you?
As we read on we see that Paul
recognized that these men believed they were sinners and went so far as to be
baptized yet they had not heard or had not recognized that Jesus was their
Savior. Many religious organizations
recognize that there is a higher being and that they are sinners but they don’t
recognize who their Savior is. They try
to make an act the salvation rather than making Christ their salvation. When you are baptized you need to make sure
of the reason for that baptism. If you
were baptized for salvation and yet did not ever know or understand sin, or did
not recognize that Christ was your Lord and Savior, then your baptism was just
an action but if you are baptized recognizing that Jesus is your Lord and
Savior that He died for your sins and rose again to show His power over death,
and you received the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you, then you know that
you are a child of God. Some of you may prophesy, some of you may speak in
tongues, others may have the gift of serving, teaching encouraging, leadership,
showing mercy, but the greatest gift is that of love. (Romans 12, I Corinthians
13) It is the gift the Father gave us
and we need to share it with others.
These men had gifts of prophesy and tongues but that doesn’t mean that
those are the only two gifts the Holy Spirit pours upon us. Take the gift that the Holy Spirit has given
you and use it to bring glory and honor to Him.
Seek Him with all your heart and
know that He is within you when you recognize that you are a sinner and that
Christ is your Savior.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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