19:4
John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Now repentance is still vitally important, as has been noted on numerous occasions throughout this study on Acts, and is something that the church too readily ignores. However, it is not the whole story, and John the Baptist was fully aware of this. He knew that one far greater than he was coming, and that his job was to testify to this One, and prepare the way for Him. He also knew that this One would baptise with fire and the Spirit (Matt 3:11,12).
19:5
They were then baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now this is an example of bewaring of overreading a phrase or verse in the Bible. In Matt 28:19 Jesus tells us to baptise in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here we just have the name of Jesus. We would be foolish to read too much into this! (There are some who do.) Notice that they were baptised almost immediately.
19:6,7
Paul placed his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. So we see again the tangible effect of the Holy Spirit coming upon people. There are some who see this only as applying to the apostles, and that the sign of tongues and prophecy applied only to the apostles. But Scripture does not make this claim. It seems to make more sense to say that tongues and prophecy are signs of the Holy Spirit, not of Paul or Peter being apostles. There were about twelve men, and they are sometimes referred to as the “Ephesia dozen”.
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