In the previous post I taught about the Holy Spirit being poured out on the church. Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit and he predicted it would happen. He predicted it in John 7:39, John chapter 16:13, Luke 24:49, and Acts 1:8. But many Christians today have not heard of that promise, and so faith is weak, churches are poorly attended, and believers are bored.
1. The Necessity of a Spirit Baptism
The death and resurrection of Christ was an earth-changing event. But Jesus taught in the parable of the yeast growing in the bread, that this would take time (Luke 13:20,21). Jesus visited them many times after his resurrection. The disciples were eager for the kingdom of God to be manifested with power. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3 ESV).
No wonder they voiced their desire, in Acts chapter 1, with the question, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
We all want the kingdom of God to be manifested in the earth. But what about verse four?
And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Acts 1:4-5 ESV.
Jesus had told them about the Holy Spirit before his resurrection. But they did not understand what the baptism in the Holy Spirit was, because it had not happened yet. They told Jesus, We want to see the kingdom of God. But Jesus told them, First, you need the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
2. The Baptism Fulfills God’s Promise
Jesus taught that being filled with the Holy Spirit was the promise of the Father in heaven. They wanted Jesus to set up the kingdom in Jerusalem for the world to see it, but Jesus wanted them to have the Holy Spirit set up in their hearts so that they could see God at work in them.
As I taught before, the coming of the son of God in the flesh was not the end of God’s plan. The death of Jesus on the cross was not the completion of history. The disciples’ conviction of the reality of Jesus’s resurrection was only one step along the journey of redemption. God had a major plan to fill the world with the Good News of Jesus.
Jesus was telling them to their faces that the next step in his plan was for them to receive the Holy Spirit, not for him to rule from Jerusalem. But all they could think of was the revelation of Jesus as a mighty King over Israel.
Even today, in many churches who are true believers, they talk very much about the second coming of Jesus from the clouds, but they do not talk much about the Spirit of God descending on the church today without delay. Jesus told the disciples, Wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit in a few days!
Earlier during his ministry on earth, Jesus told Peter, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The church of Jesus is built by individuals knowing God, the revelation of Jesus as the eternal Son of God and growing in their relationship with God in His fullness.
Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion with an immediate goal of proving his victorious resurrected life to his disciples. After he confirmed them as his witnesses, he carefully instructed them to wait for the Holy Spirit to come because that was the promise of the Father. This is the foundation of the church. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the will of God for every person who believes in the resurrected Jesus.
3. God’s Promise of the Spirit was Universal
Jesus said that John baptized them in water, but they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in a few days, there in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, who was left out?
No one was left out. The Bible says they were all together in one place. The sound of a mighty wind filled the whole house. And the appearance of fire was on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages. Luke wrote four times that everyone was included because they were all praying for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, as Jesus instructed.
At that time Luke said the number of the disciples was about 120 persons (Acts 1:15), so Jesus was not talking to the 11 apostles only, but to all believers. They all prayed together and all were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Peter spoke that day to the people who had gathered because of the outward visible and audible signs. He did not discourage anyone from the same relationship with God. He said they were seeing the promise of God manifested in themselves (Acts 2:33), and invited all his hearers to receive the same promise (Acts2:39).
4. Misunderstandings About the Baptism in the Holy Spirit
It is very difficult to put into words a proper description of what it is like when God moves in our lives. This is because our human nature has both a physical life and a spiritual life. It would be easy to say, God made me 6 inches taller yesterday. Anyone could measure you for confirmation.
It is more difficult to describe an inward change in your spirit that you received the gift of eternal life. But just because you cannot understand another’s heart, does not negate that God has revealed Himself to them.
Jesus used the word “baptism” to describe this working of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. This word means a physical experience of being overflowed or submersed in water. He was using a common word to describe a spiritual experience of a deeper relationship with God’s Holy Spirit. Good doctrine cannot be based upon literal interpretations of physical analogies. Otherwise, Jesus is made of wood because he is “the door.” Or, you cannot be saved unless you eat his earthly body (John 6:55). To argue that a person cannot be baptized in the Holy Spirit because they “received” the Spirit at the new birth is that kind of literalism that obscures the workings of God.
The idea of baptism in water is a washing away of sins by full immersion in water. Ideas based upon physical things help us understand our sins are removed, but sins cannot really be washed away with water; sins must be forgiven. Words that are analogies must be treated with care.
In Christian baptism, Paul extended the analogy of washing by comparing immersion in water to the burial of a dead body under the ground (Romans 6:4). This is more than just washing. Baptism in water for Paul was symbolic of being dead, and afterwards we arise to a new life in God.
Many people misunderstand the use of physical analogies when they are applied to spiritual realities. They say, incorrectly, that a person who is born again already “has” the Holy Spirit, so that there cannot be another “filling” with the Holy Spirit. They say we should not seek a filling with the Holy Spirit because we are already saved.
But these same people hold “revivals” and call out to people to come experience a deeper relationship with God. By this they acknowledge that our relationship with God is designed to grow.
When we are saved, we open the pathway to maturity. We legally possess perfection in Christ, but experiencing it is our future. Peter wrote many years after Pentecost that all Christians are to “grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Are we supposed to reject future experiences of grace because “we were saved by grace” in the past?
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a deeper relationship with God, not the new birth. If a person is confused about this distinction, they resist going deeper with God. When Jesus spoke to the disciples who had already believed in him after his resurrection, and said, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now,” he was not asking them to believe in him all over again.
5. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is for All Believers
We should therefore not reject a baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is a deeper work of God after our initial new birth. Luke used an abundance of other terms to describe the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Words based on physical experience are meant to be used to communicate God’s spiritual workings in our lives, and not to be used to restrict them. Using different words for the same experience should reveal to us that this is a complex happening, and not simply assume it is being born again.
“Baptism” is not the only word picture used to describe the new relationship of a believer with the Holy Spirit of God. Other words are also used as analogies of this new experience with God. In Luke’s writings the Spirit “fell on them,” or “came upon them,” or “was poured out,” or was “received as a promise.”
If you are a Bible-believing Christian, then you cannot honestly dismiss all these expressions of the workings of the Holy Spirit as meaning nothing new was occurring in their lives. You cannot say the Holy Spirit will never teach you new things about Jesus, or that the Holy Spirit will never give gifts to you that you did not have before. God will build upon the experience of being born again to continue to perfect the work He has begun in believers who already are born-again.
Does not Jesus compare a new believer with a baby? We all know that birth is the beginning of a life that can experience dramatic growth and maturity. That is why the apostles were urgent in their pleas for believers to “desire the Word of God like a child who needs its mother’s milk.” This is why Jesus instructed his disciples to wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit before leaving Jerusalem to preach the Gospel of his resurrection to the ends of the earth. There are different workings of the Holy Spirit to make us like Jesus.
How different my grandson is today than two years ago! Then he was a newborn, just trying to learn how to drink enough milk to survive. Now he runs and jumps and speaks words! God wants to give you a new heavenly language to pray and praise His name, just as my grandson grew to learn a new language. But the new tongue that God gives comes in a moment of time.
Too many Christians stop going to church because it is boring. Actually, what is boring is their own life! God has better for you-- but you must be the one to ask Him for it. That is why Peter did not only tell the people in Acts 2 to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus to receive forgiveness. He said, You will be forgiven AND you will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. This gift is for every person in every generation.
6. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is Specially Given to the Church
The gift of the Holy Spirit is a promise of God. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would continue to communicate with them after he returned to heaven, helping them to remember all that Jesus said and did. This is what he said to the disciples.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:12-14 ESV.
The baptism of repentance by John the baptizer was a parallel ministry to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus confirmed this to be true. That is why he used the term “baptized in the Holy Spirit” before the first outpouring in Jerusalem. John said, I baptize with water, but the Messiah baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Jesus repeated the idea to the disciples immediately before Pentecost. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. (Acts 1:5 ESV).
John’s ministry of baptism in water affected thousands. He preached a repentance from evil deeds to doing good works by faith in God. The Jews practiced ritual washings at the entrance of the Jewish Temple in small pools called “mikvahs.” But John’s baptism was not for physical dirt, but a washing of the heart to turn the nation back to God. His baptism in water was preached to people whose hearts became broken over their sinful neglect of God’s commandments. His baptism in water was an opportunity to wash away their complacency in repentance and to begin to do what was right.
Jesus approved John’s ministry because John was preparing the people to believe in Messiah. Beyond that, God used baptism by water as a symbol of the Father’s desire to baptize with His Holy Spirit. John directly told the people to expect that the Messiah would baptize them in his Holy Spirit. John said, I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'(John 1:33 ESV).
In the New Testament book of Hebrews, Paul described Jesus as the new High Priest of Israel and all believers. Once a year the high priest would offer a special sacrifice for all the people. Jesus took on this responsibility when he came to John’s baptism. John called him the lamb of God, the sacrifice for all the people. Because Jesus was both the High Priest and the sacrifice, he let John baptize him.
When he came out of the water the Holy Spirit came down on him, and John saw it. God told him directly, he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit' (John 1:33 ESV).
The Spirit descended on Jesus because Jesus is the One who baptizes others with the Holy Spirit. No one dares to say that Jesus did not have the Holy Spirit in himself before John said, I saw the Spirit descend and remain on Jesus. Jesus was being empowered, or we could say anointed, for his ministry to begin publicly.
Likewise, the church at Pentecost had the Spirit descend upon them, visibly, to anoint them for their ministry to the world. This baptism in the Holy Spirit was received by many, but for each person it was a personal experience. It still is today a personal experience, but it is the same experience for everyone who receives it.
When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus it did not mean that Jesus never had the Holy Spirit in himself before. That is foolishness. Likewise, when the baptism in the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was received by the church, it did not mean the disciples were not born again already by the work of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. God was working in a deeper way in their lives. Jesus called it "the baptism in the Holy Spirit." You must be born-again to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
This is why Jesus is called “the Way.” God pours out the Holy Spirit on him so that he can baptize every believer in the New Testament church. This is what Peter taught in Acts 2.
He said, This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Acts 2:32-33 ESV.
Peter was not afraid to say that when God’s Spirit was poured out there was something to be seen and heard. Peter said, This is the promise of God. He finished his sermon by saying that the promise is for you, your children, and all their children, every believer who asks to be saved may be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
7. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Must Be Personally Received
Because of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, John's baptism is not the same as Christian baptism. About twenty years after the first baptism in the Holy Spirit, Paul found some disciples in Ephesus. They said they did not know about the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2). He told them to believe in the One John designated as Messiah who is Jesus.
When they did believe, and received Christian baptism in water, the Holy Spirit "came on them" and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
These were only twelve persons, and God gave them the same personal experiences as he poured out in Jerusalem twenty years prior. The apostolic practice was to preach Jesus and lead the new believers into a personal experience of a baptism in the Holy Spirit.
I think that some of you just figured out that I am talking to you. Yes, if Jesus died for your sins, then he died for you to receive the promises of God. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is one of the promises of God. I want the expectation of faith to arise in your heart. God wants to do a work in your life. God will not leave you out.
That means that God says you also can be filled with the Holy Spirit and receive the gift of new tongues to pray and give praises to God. Faith grabs a hold onto the edge of the robe of Jesus and will not let go until the blessing comes, because faith can move mountains.
This is why Jesus said in Luke 11:13, If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Amen and Amen. Blog # 20240513
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