Week 43 Acts 19
Paul started the chapter located in Corinth but he immediately headed inland to Ephesus. It turns out that the whole chapter is about “What Happened in Ephesus?” and it’s a really good reminder of how contentious & dangerous Paul’s life was. But it was the first paragraph that caught my attention.
As soon as he got into town Paul met a dozen men who were described as believers. For whatever reason Paul asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit when they believed. They didn’t know what or who he was talking about. They said they’d been baptized with the baptism of John.
Paul didn’t tell them that the baptism of John had been superseded by the baptism of Jesus. But he did baptize them a second time…this time in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when they were baptized this happened: when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.
This more-or-less confirms the Cornelius story from yesterday where conversion included belief + baptism + speaking-in-tongues. By contrast the Samaritan story & Paul’s conversion didn’t explicitly include all three elements. And the poor old Ethiopian left for home without anything said about either the Holy Spirit or speaking-in-tongues.
Anyway the coming-to-belief of these Twelve Men of Ephesus adds another piece to the puzzle. With them it was: belief + baptism + speaking-in-tongues + (the added element of) prophecy. Similar and a bit different.
Note: quotes from Acts 19:1 3 5 6 (NLT)