PODCAST
Have you Heard?
May 19th, 2010
In our communications age where news travels instantaneously around the world via the Internet and text messaging, we are still occasionally confounded by those who seem unaware of information that we think everyone knows. Perhaps Paul was similarly confounded to hear the Ephesian believers say, “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit”. After all, the gospel message was spreading around the world, energized by what had happened on the Day of Pentecost.
In Ephesus was a group of believers who had been baptized and taught by the learned Apollos, nurtured in the faith by Priscilla and Aquila, yet they had not even heard about the Holy Spirit. While their answer to Paul’s query is instructive, it highlights the importance of asking questions of fellow Christians as we seek together to grow in knowledge and understanding. It now sounds archaic, but there was a time when it was common to inquire of another, “Are you saved?”
Paul’s questions about receiving the Holy Spirit and the nature of the baptism they had received suggest we should never take such things for granted.
