{"id":32330,"date":"2024-08-29T22:00:53","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-18_12-28-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-07-30T21:43:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T04:43:15","slug":"acts-19_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-19_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Baptism and the Holy Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 19:1-12 \u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 19:1-12.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 19:1-7 (NIV)<\/strong><\/em>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0There were about twelve men in all.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-7:\u00a0 Here Apollos and Paul end up switching places.\u00a0 Apollos goes to Corinth and Paul goes to Ephesus.\u00a0 In Ephesus Paul finds 12 men who had received \u201cJohn\u2019s baptism\u201d, which is probably referring to a baptism where the person being baptized says, \u201cI am turning from my sins and I wait for God\u2019s Messiah to come\u201d.\u00a0 These 12 men in Ephesus, who may have been taught by Apollos (see Acts 18:25), had not yet been baptized into the name of Jesus, which is where the person being baptized is essentially saying, \u201cI believe Jesus is God\u2019s Messiah who has come and died on the cross and rose again to save me.\u201d\u00a0 So when Paul finds this out, he baptizes these Ephesian Christians in the name of Jesus.\u00a0 Also, since these 12 men had never even heard of the Holy Spirit (v2), Paul lays hands on them in prayer, at which point the Holy Spirit falls on each of them in a powerful way as they begin to speak in tongues and prophesy.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Here we see the importance of being baptized into the name of Jesus as well as the power of being filled with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 For every one of us who has trusted Jesus Christ as our Saviour,\u00a0baptism into the name of Jesus as well as being filled with the Holy Spirit are crucial experiences to have if you want to live with the assurance, the power and the joy that God intended you to live with<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Acts 19:8-10 (NIV)<\/strong><\/em>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 8-10:\u00a0 When Paul was in Ephesus, notice what he did with those who were obstinate, who refused to believe and who publicly criticized the church.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t try to appease them, negotiate with them or beg for their support.\u00a0 He left them and instead focused on those who were honestly searching, hungry and willing to learn (v9).\u00a0 Effectively it was a similar experience to Paul\u2019s time in Corinth (18:6-7).<\/p>\n

One of the quickest ways to drain your energy and to live in frustration is to be in an environment where the people around you are consistently complaining and criticizing.\u00a0\u00a0If you find yourself surrounded by complainers and critics and if you are not bound in obligation to them, move on and focus on investing in those who are willing to listen, learn and grow with you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 19:11-12 (NIV)<\/strong><\/em>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-12:\u00a0 Not even in Jesus\u2019 public ministry did we hear about people taking things Jesus touched and those things bringing healing to the sick and demonically oppressed.\u00a0 Yet we see this happening with Paul.\u00a0 It goes to show that\u00a0Jesus\u2019 ministry was meant to be a launchpad for the church to do even greater things<\/strong>.\u00a0 As Jesus says in John 14:12, \u201cI\u00a0tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank You Father for the power of baptism and the power of Your Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Please empower Your church to do even greater things in this generation for Your glory.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 19:1-12.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Acts 19:1-7 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples
\n2\u00a0\u00a0and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
\n3\u00a0\u00a0So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
\n5\u00a0\u00a0On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
\n6\u00a0\u00a0When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
\n7\u00a0\u00a0There were about twelve men in all.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-7:\u00a0 Here Apollos and Paul end up switching places.\u00a0 Apollos goes to Corinth and Paul goes to Ephesus.\u00a0 In Ephesus Paul finds 12 men who had received \u201cJohn\u2019s baptism\u201d, which is probably referring to a baptism where the person being baptized says, \u201cI am turning from my sins and I wait for God\u2019s Messiah to come\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32333,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32330\/revisions\/32333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}