The beginning of the Lord’s church in Ephesus featured two baptisms, one acceptable and the other unacceptable. Paul and his co-workers Priscilla and Aquila arrived in Ephesus, but Paul’s stay was brief. While he travelled on, Apollos came to Ephesus. “He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures … though he knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:24-25). That earlier baptism was a part of John the Baptizer’s temporary mission. When Christ was raised to reign with “all authority,” John’s baptism was replaced by the King’s baptism commanded in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16). So, Apollos needed to be brought up to date. “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:24-26). Similarly, when Paul returned to Ephesus, he encountered men as uninformed as Apollos had been.
[Paul asked 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 (Acts 19:2-5).
God does not recognize just any baptism, even the best intentioned. As Paul reminds the Ephesians, there is “one baptism.” It is a one-time baptism. But it is the one true baptism, the one universally required by the authority of their Lord.
Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:18-19).
“Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.”
Since the Great Commission applies this baptism to all who would become Christ’s disciples, it must be the “one baptism.” The Ephesians themselves know how “one baptism” played a vital role in their beginnings (Acts 18, 19).