Baptism....It only conjures up one image for me and that's someone being dunked in or sprinkled with, water. Tonight's meeting produced many questions about baptism.
We are in the book of Acts. We were looking at Acts 19:1-7, " And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 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." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John’s baptism." 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." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all."
These verses lead to many questions.
1. What exactly is baptism?
2. What is the difference between John's baptism and being baptised in Jesus' name?
3. Does baptism have to involve water?
4. What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
5. Why the laying on of hands?
6. Is there another word for baptism?
These questions lead to one conclusion, we need to study baptism. So for the next few weeks we will be looking at it. We will look up all the verses that mention baptism and try to draw some conclusions.
I want to try and keep as much denominational doctrine out of the conversation as possible and just let the Scriptures speak. I think this can be very exciting and informative. Obviously I want it to encourage us too.
