Acts 19:3

"And he said, Into what then were ye baptized? And they said, Into John's baptism"

Christians, whether they possessed spiritual gifts or not, would know that the Holy Spirit had been given, Paul now knows that these "disciples" and not truly followers of Christ. We can quickly skip over Paul's question without inferring something very important. Paul just assumed that every Christian had been baptized. To Paul the idea of an un-baptized Christian never entered his mind (1 Corinthians 12:13; Romans 6:1 ff; Galatians 3:27). Again, let us note that Jesus and the apostles viewed baptism as the line between lost and saved (Mark 16:16); forgiven and unforgiven (Acts 2:38); and Christian and non-Christian. The above question is very strange, if as some popular denominational groups claim, baptism is unnecessary. "Into John's baptism" Nothing in the text tells us whether Apollos had baptized them (Acts 18:25), even though that seems like. strong inference. This text does remind us of something that we might not have perceived as happening years after the death of John the Baptist, that being his disciples and those they converted continued to preach his message of repentance, even after Jesus died on the cross, and the events at Pentecost. These verses contain some exciting inferences: (a) The events that took place in Palestine radiated throughout the Roman Empire. Who would have guessed that some 20 years after John the Baptist died, in the city of Ephesus, there existed followers of John? (b) Since so many Jews traveled to Palestine at the annual feasts, many Jews outside of Palestine probably already had heard something about the wonderful events that had taken place in Palestine. Modern Application: There exist many people in the denominational world--just like these 12 or so men. They have been told some truth, but not enough truth to enable them to become Christians. They have been taught. distorted and or imperfect view of Christianity. We need to reach the honest, yet ignorant hearts in the denominational world.