5 Smooth Stones

When Paul found that the people in Ephesus had been water baptized into John’s baptism but had not received a baptism of forgiveness and power in Jesus’ name he brought them into the new covenant gospel. Acts 19:4 “Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” When Jesus brought the message of the gospel to the woman at the well of Samaria, through a word of wisdom, He said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:13, 14, 23, 24). He was not only bringing a message of salvation, but of complete transformation and restoration of relationship with Father God. The coming of the Lord (as the prophets and the angels preached) and His resurrection (as Jesus preached) are central to the good news of the Kingdom of God (Ma tt hew 2:10, 28:8, Luke 2:10, 24:52). With the coming of the Lord came the gospel and good news and great joy and a transition into Kingdom power and victorious living. “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, [euaggelizo] and everyone is pressing into it...” (Luke 16:16). The New Living Translation has it this way - Luke 16:16 “Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in.” John the Baptist was a transitional fi gure in scripture, a herald of the good news and of the Lamb of God. He baptized people in water with a baptism of repentance and forgiveness. But with Jesus came the kingdom and His disciples baptized with a baptism of repentance, forgiveness, and power which gave freedom from the past and power for the future (Ma tt hew 3:11; Acts 2:38; 19:4). Wherever Jesus went preaching the good news there was great joy that followed, as did power over the enemy and healing and freedom from 105