LIVE@5 – Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Acts 19:1–10 (NKJV)
1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
Acts 19:1-7
So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”
So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7 Now the men were about twelve in all.
Paul returned to Ephesus as he had promised. While there, he found some disciples of John and asked them if they had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They had not heard of the Holy Spirit, so Paul explained the baptism. When they understood, Paul laid hands on them and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. This story establishes a subsequent experience to salvation where the saved believer can be baptized in the Holy Spirit. While there were surely Biblical examples of individuals receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the same time as salvation, there are others, such as the Day of Pentecost and this passage, where the baptism is subsequent to salvation. This story shows how the Holy Spirit enabled the church to spread throughout Asia Minor and into Europe. His power enabled the church to overcome resistance and take territory for Christ.
8 And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
Acts 19:8-10
After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Ephesus, Paul reasoned in the synagogue for three months until some of the hardhearted Jews resisted him. Paul then withdrew from the synagogue and reasoned in the school of Tyrannus for two years. Ephesus became a home base of Paul’s ministry in Asia Minor. Some scholars even teach that the Epistle to the Ephesians was actually a circular letter meant to be passed throughout the region of Asia Minor. Again, a salient point of this story is the fact that when the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon Ephesus, the church was victorious and spread miraculously. God empowered His church and the entire region was transformed. Let the church seek for the power of the Holy Spirit and transform the culture around it!
Devoted To You 