Good morning. Paul then goes to those same churches he
visited before; but my Bible says he does so in reverse order from the first
time. While he is doing that, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent man, came to
Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way
of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching
accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism
of John (this will be important later). He began to speak out boldly in the
synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila (the couple Paul stayed with) heard
him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
He wanted to go to the region around Corinth, and so he left Ephesus, and when
he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. He
powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the scriptures that
Jesus was the Christ. While this was happening, Paul, during his journey, came
to Ephesus, and found some disciples. Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed? Why would he ask that? My guess is that he was not seeing any
evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives, including speaking in
tongues. The king James translates this passage as “since you believed”. Partially
because of this, there is a Pentecostal group that says that receiving the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a separate act from getting saved - they
believe you must receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit to have Him within you.
We will see next time how the disciples responded. Father thank You that we
received the Holy Spirit when we believed. Thank You that He gives us guidance
every day. Give the reader the guidance that he/she needs today.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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