The Disciples in Ephesus are Baptized in the Name of Jesus and Receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-10)

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Paul Encounters Disciples of John (Acts 19:1–10)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, October 12, 2025

I have been preaching through the book of Acts for a long time. I hope we have all learned a lot. However, if we learn, it is not good enough. I mostly hope that the Word of God is transforming our lives.

Dr. David Palmer is the pastor at Kenwood Baptist in Cincinnati. He shared with a group how he grew up in a non-Christian home. At a certain age, he was given a Gideon Bible and eventually became a Christian. A few years later, he was in college when his roommate staggered into the dorm room. At that time, he remembers reading the Bible underneath his covers by flashlight. He thought, “What is it about this book that makes me so eager to read it?” Dr. Palmer continued: “Part of the new birth is a spirit-born appetite for the Word of God.”

As I was writing that, I started thinking about my own spiritual journey. When I was in high school, I started a Discipleship class. In that class, I was required to study the Bible for one hour once a week. This was an in-depth Bible study. At first, I thought it would be too much. I was a high school student involved in extracurricular activities with a part-time job. But I began studying the Bible. By the end of that class, I was studying a chapter a week and could not stop studying. I loved it! I was studying the book of Revelation one chapter at a time. There were times in my studies when I was practically moved to tears studying the Bible. I loved it!

Part of that discipleship class involved learning about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. It is that subject that I wish to talk about today. I once heard a message in which someone shared about reading through the Bible when he was a non-Christian. At that time, the Bible did not make sense to him. Just a few weeks later, he gave his life to Christ and started reading the Bible again. Now, as a Christian, the Bible made total sense.

What is the difference? The Holy Spirit is the difference.

My theme today is: The disciples in Ephesus are baptized in the name of Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit.

  1. Context is everything, so let’s begin with the context.
    1. Paul has been traveling from city to city preaching the Gospel. This is Paul’s second missionary journey.
    2. In the previous chapter, Paul was in Corinth and then set sail to Antioch of Syria.
    3. In the previous chapter, we were introduced to Priscilla and Aquila.
    4. At the end of Acts 18, we see Priscilla and Aquila teach Apollos more fully the way of Jesus.
  2. Meet the disciples of John (Acts 19:1).
    1. Acts 19:1 (ESV) And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.
    2. Verse 1 reveals that Apollos is staying in Corinth, while Paul travels through the inland route to Ephesus during this time. Ephesus was a very important city. Later, Paul would write the letter to the Ephesians. 1 and 2 Timothy were written to Timothy, who was pastoring the church in Ephesus.
    3. Disciples here refers to followers of John the Baptist; they did not know of Jesus (19:4).[1]
  3. John’s disciples are baptized in the name of the Lord, Jesus (Acts 19:2-7).
    1. Now, Paul meets some of John’s disciples. Paul asked them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed.
    2. Acts 19:2–7 (ESV)
    3. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
    4. I believe, based on John’s Gospel chapters 14-17 and Acts 2 and many other passages, that we do receive the Holy Spirit when we believe in Christ.
    5. Romans 8:9 is about this:
    6. Romans 8:9 (ESV)
    7. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
    8. Now, Paul was struck by something. He knew that these 12 people (verse 7) were not saved. He could tell by something that they were not Christians. One thought is that they did not have the Holy Spirit. Certainly, when he asks them a question, their response makes it clear.
    9. The Bible does call them disciples, and this is likely the word “disciples” in a broad sense as followers of someone. They were followers of John the baptizer.
    10. They knew nothing about the Holy Spirit.
    11. They said in verse 2, they had not heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
    12. How do you know if you have the Holy Spirit?
    13. When you become a Christian, you are baptized with the Holy Spirit. If you have truly trusted in the blood of Jesus to cover your sins and have committed to making Jesus Lord of your life, then you are saved and have the Holy Spirit.
    14. Have your desires changed? The Holy Spirit is God living within you. He changes your desires to match God’s. What is the pattern? Do you have convictions concerning sin? There are sins of omission and commission. Sins of commission are things that you do, such as stealing. Sins of omission are actions that you are not taking that you should be doing. Do you have convictions as to doing the right thing?
    15. Do you have convictions to read the Bible?
    16. Do you have convictions to participate in the church community? I am not only talking about Sunday morning worship, but do you have convictions to be involved in corporate, small group Bible study? Do you have convictions to participate in ministry? The Holy Spirit wants you involved in these things. How do we know? The Bible tells us so.
    17. Do you have a hunger for the Bible?
    18. We must be convicted to walk by the Spirit as Galatians 5:16 and the following verses talk about.
    19. In this passage, these disciples tell Paul that they didn’t know that the Holy Spirit had come upon the people. Actually, it says they didn’t know about the Holy Spirit. But what is more likely is that they didn’t know that the Spirit had come upon the church. They knew about the Holy Spirit.
    20. In verse 3, Paul asked about their baptism. They said they were baptized in John’s baptism. Back then, they would be baptized “in the name of” someone. You’d be baptized in the name of the person you were a disciple of. It was a baptism of identification.
    21. I love verse 4: John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. John was pointing forward. He was telling the people to believe in the One Who was to come after Him, that is, Jesus.
    22. In verses 5-7: Paul then tells them the Gospel of Jesus, and they receive Christ. Paul prays over them, and they speak in tongues and prophesy, which in this case is evidence of the Spirit.
    23. Rydelnic shares: John’s baptism was a baptism of preparation. They would all be rebaptized into Jesus.
    24. The book of Acts is a transition book. There are abnormal passages in Acts.
    25. We should get our doctrine from the Apostles’ teaching, not their experiences. We have their teaching in the epistles.[2]
    26. Further, when he would have his students study the various ways the Holy Spirit came upon people in the book of Acts. There is no consistency. Sometimes they spoke in tongues, or sometimes, like the apostle Paul, they received their sight back.[3]
    27. Witherington III shares: The laying on of hands is also only sporadically associated in Acts with the receiving of the Spirit; for example, it is not mentioned in Acts 2 or 10. There is no evidence of a regular or formal association of the two being assumed by Christians before about a.d. 200.[4]
    28. Verse 7 shares that the Holy Spirit came upon them. They then started speaking in tongues and prophesying.
    29. Witherington III shares: It is clearly the fact (and evidential value) of these manifestations, not the content of the prophesying, that Luke is concerned about, because he does not tell us the content. It is interesting that here we have in the Western text (itp, vgmss, and Ephraem) yet another clarifying addition—they spoke in “other tongues and they themselves knew them, which they also interpreted for themselves; and certain also prophesied.”[5]
    30. Further, The sequence of v. 5 followed by v. 6 makes quite clear that the disciples did not receive the Holy Spirit by means of water baptism. Rather, the Spirit came when Paul laid hands on these disciples, and the evidence that this in fact had happened was that the disciples spoke in tongues and prophesied. This is much like what we find in Acts 8 with the Samaritans (see Acts 8:17). The narrative concludes by informing us that there were about twelve persons involved in this baptizing and laying on of hands.47 This is the only example in all of the NT where rebaptism is mentioned, and the text makes quite clear that we are not talking about one form or act of Christian baptism being supplemented by another. John’s baptism, while valid and valuable as a baptism of repentance, was not Christian baptism.[6]
    31. An application is that the Spiritual gifts are important, but just because you have not spoken in tongues does not mean you are not saved. That is what happened in this instance. But don’t discredit the work of the Holy Spirit.
  4. Paul enters the synagogue (Acts 19:8-10).
    1. Acts 19:8–10 (ESV)
    2. 8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
    3. Paul continues his custom.
    4. He spoke for three months.
    5. He was reasoning and boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
    6. Verse 9 shows that there is once again resistance.
    7. Paul withdraws, but there are new disciples with him. Now, he is reasoning in the hall of Tyrannus.
    8. IVP BBC NT: Philosophers often lectured in rented halls; this could have been a guild hall as easily as a “lecture hall” (NIV). (If the former, Tyrannus is simply the owner; if the latter, he is the customary lecturer. Public life in Ephesus, including philosophical lectures, ended by noon; so if Tyrannus lectured in the mornings Paul used it in the afternoons; if no one else lectured there, Paul probably lectured there in the mornings, and did his manual labor afterward.) Either way, residents of Ephesus would view Paul as a philosopher or sophist (professional public speaker). Many early Greco-Roman observers thought that Christians were a religious association or club (like other such associations in antiquity), or a philosophical school that took the form of such an association.[7]
    9. Verse 10 shows that this continues for two years. All these residents of Asia, this is modern-day Asia Minor, heard the Word of the Lord.
    10. The Bible says this includes both Jews and Greeks.
    11. IVP BBC NT: Ephesus was a cosmopolitan center from which word would spread quickly, especially if Paul were training disciples (as philosophers and rabbis typically did) and sending them out to spread the message.[8]
    12. Again, from Dr. Witherington III: The further one proceeds in Acts 19, the clearer it becomes that Luke intends the material in this chapter and the next to depict the climax of Paul’s ministry and missionary work as a free man.50,[9]
    13. Think about this: Is it not amazing that God saves us?

Is it not amazing that God sets us free from our sin? If God is who He is and He has done what He has done, does anything make sense than to live our lives as living sacrifices, that is Romans 12:1. God saved us from His wrath by sending His wrath upon His own Son. He slew Him and poured all of my sin upon His own Son. That is amazing.

But what is more amazing is that was not all Jesus did for us. He died in our place, yes, but then He sent us the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-18 is written about Jesus sending us the helper, who is the Holy Spirit.

Are you sensitive to His presence? Maybe today is the day to rededicate your life to Him. Maybe you have realized that your passions are not being conformed to Jesus’s? Where are you at in your spiritual life?

Let’s pray

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2125.

[2] Dr Rydelnic; Open Line on Moody Radio. 01.04.2020

Also; 05.08.2021

[3] Ibid., 07.11.2021

[4] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998).

[5] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998).

47 Luke often uses ωσει or ως with numbers; see Acts 1:15; 2:4; 4:4; 5:7, 36; 10:3; 13:18, 20; 19:34. Since Luke says “about,” it is doubtful there is any symbolic significance in the number twelve despite Johnson’s insistence (Acts, p. 338).

[6] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 571–572.

NIV New International Version

[7] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 19:8–9.

[8] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 19:10.

50 See Pereira, Ephesus, pp. 138–76.

[9] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 572.

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