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Sorry for the absence. I have been out of town on a staff retreat the past couple of days. Today, we are going to continue following Paul on his third missionary journey. There is a link in the “sites” section that will allow you to interactively track his journey.


Acts 19
1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. 2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.” 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.” 5 As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.


As. “As soon as they heard.” I don’t know about you; but I sometimes have a hard time accepting something new. Familiarity can provide security. We don’t know when these guys had heard John’s message. If they happened to hear John speak in person, it could have been as many as 27 years between messages. I’m not asking you to believe everything you hear. At the same time, I’m asking you to not dismiss everything you hear. Paul, the guy that introduced these guys to Jesus, probably said it best when he said to “Test everything” (check out 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 22). On a side note, this story is a reminder of the important role we play in telling people about Jesus. Take a minute and check out Acts 4:13-21.