Baptism of the Lord Acts 19:1-7

Preaching Commentary

Context

Paul in Ephesus: His Third Missionary Journey

This passage describes Paul’s arrival in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. He finds there some disciples who know only of John’s baptism, which continues a theme from the previous chapter of Acts.

At the end of chapter 18 we learned of the Ephesian ministry of the Alexandrian Jewish convert Apollos, whose understanding of baptism had been similarly lacking prior to his receiving further instruction from Priscilla and Aquila. Luke doesn’t express an explicit connection between the ministry of Apollos and the disciples Paul encounters (some scholars, like Joseph Fitzmyer, conclude that there is…