Paul In Ephesus; Acts 19:1 – 22 Part 3

Church History: Date: A.D. 53–57

Paul inquired how they came to be baptized, if they knew nothing of the Holy Spirit; for, if they were baptized by any of Christ's ministers, they were instructed concerning the Holy Spirit, and were baptized in his name. "Know you not that Jesus being glorified; consequently the Holy Spirit is given? Unto what then were you baptized? This is strange and unaccountable. What! baptized, and yet know nothing of the Holy Spirit? Surely your baptism was a nullified, if you know nothing of the Holy Spirit; for it is the receiving of the Holy Spirit that is signified and sealed by that washing of regeneration. Ignorance of the Holy Spirit is as inconsistent with a sincere profession of Christianity as ignorance of Christ is." Applying it to ourselves, it intimates that those are baptized to no purpose, and have received the grace of God therein in vain, that do not receive and submit to the Holy Spirit. It is also an inquiry we should often make, not only to whose honor we were born, but into whose service we were baptized, that we may study to answer the ends both of our birth and of our baptism. Let us often consider unto what we were baptized, that we may live up to our baptism.

They said that they were baptized unto John's baptism. that is, as I take it, they were baptized in the name of John, not by John himself (he was far enough from any such thought), but by some weak, well-meaning disciple of his, that ignorantly kept up his name as the head of a party, retaining the spirit and notion of those disciples of his that were jealous of the growth of Christ's interest, and complained to him of it, (John 3:26). Some of these people found themselves edified by John's baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, not thinking that the kingdom of heaven, which he spoke of as at hand, was so very near as it proved. They ran away with that notion, rested in what they had, and thought they could not do better than to persuade others to do so too; and so, ignorantly, in a blind zeal for John's doctrine, they baptized here and there one in John's name, or, as it is here expressed, unto John's baptism, looking no further themselves, nor directing those that they baptized any further.