Do you recall that on his second missionary journey, Paul wanted to go to Ephesus, but the Holy Spirit somehow kept him from it? He tried again on his third journey, and got there. Early on, he met some disciples whom John the Baptist (or a follower of his) had baptized. They didn’t know about Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Paul showed them that John had pointed forward to Jesus, and that the Holy Spirit’s power continues Jesus’ work in giving us a new inner life. Baptized in the name of Jesus, they began to experience that power.

• John the Baptist’s ministry was powerful (cf. Matthew 3:1-12), and not everyone who heard him or whom he baptized was present when he baptized Jesus. It makes sense that there were people who accepted John’s message about repentance, but didn’t know all about Jesus’ life, teaching and resurrection. How fully do you understand your faith? What helps you to keep deepening that understanding, and experiencing the Spirit’s life-changing power?
• Scholar N. T. Wright noted, “Luke does not say that tongues always accompanies such baptism.” (In fact, he wrote the opposite in a letter to Corinth—cf. 1 Corinthians 12:27-30.) Wright added, “The main thing Luke is doing in this story is to introduce Paul’s work in Ephesus, and to show that … he was concerned with the spirit’s powerful work both in the lives of individuals and out into the wider community.” When have you sensed the difference between ministry or service done with purely human effort, and that done when the Spirit’s power is present?