19:1 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?”
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.
Oh man there is so much to be said about this passage. It
consumed me for at least a year about ten years ago.
Let's begin at the beginning. Paul arrives in Ephesus and
finds a small group of believers. The first question he asks them is "Did
you receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized?"

More intriguing is: "What was it about them that made
Paul ask the question?"
Clearly Paul could tell the difference between a man with the
Spirit and a man without. He knew they had not which is why he asked the
question. He found believers without the Spirit meaning there are believers
with and believers without the Spirit. Which am I? Which are you? Have you
spoken in tongues? Have you prophesied?
Now that God's Word has your attention I'll give you the next
24h to process this and we'll continue tomorrow. I can't promise a comfortable
journey but I can tell you it's worth taking.
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