SOME OF YOU MAY HAVE SEEN THIS BLOG ALREADY, BUT I AM HAVING PROBLEMS WITH WORDPRESS, SO I’M SENDING IT OUT AGAIN IN CASE YOU DID NOT SEE IT LAST WEEK. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
When we speak about Holy Spirit baptism, the first question should be whether or not it is a biblical concept or just a crazy, charismatic notion held by a few extreme believers. The answer is that it is a very biblical concept central to the New Testament. John the Baptist spoke about it in relation to the ministry of Jesus. “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8;) Some of the other writers added that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (See Lk. 3:16; Matt. 5:11, Jn. 1:33). This idea of Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit is mentioned in all four gospels plus the book of Acts which strongly suggests it is a concept and experience central to the doctrines of the New Testament.
Jesus himself emphasized this experience when he spoke to his disciples and said, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’” (Acts 1:4-8; Emphasis added;).
Earlier, Jesus had alluded to the moment when the Holy Spirit would come on them when he said, ““Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn. 16:5-7). Jesus promised that when he returned to the Father, he would send the Spirit.
In summary, Jesus mentioned several times in the gospel that he would go to the Father and then send the Spirit. John the Baptist declared that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Just before his ascension to heaven, Jesus told his followers to wait in Jerusalem and that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit within a few days. He also related this baptism to power for ministry…power for being witnesses for Jesus.
It may be helpful to mention here that the word “baptize” is not a translation, but a transliteration of the Greek word “baptizo”… meaning that the translators simply created an English word from the Greek, but did not give the meaning of the word as understood by those who spoke Greek. The word actually means to dip, drench, immerse, overwhelm, saturate, etc. If the word had been translated, it would have pointed to a time when the followers of Jesus would be immersed, saturated, drenched, or overwhelmed by the Spirit.
After his ascension, about 120 of his followers gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem where they fasted and prayed for direction from the Lord. Luke tells us, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:1-4).
In that setting, the Holy Spirit showed up as fire and supernaturally enabled them to proclaim the works of God in languages they had not known before. When explaining what was happening, Peter declared, “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:” ‘In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:17-21). In addition to tongues, the believers received a supernatural boldness to proclaim Jesus that had certainly been absent before that day and a capacity to be directed by the Holy Spirit as they proclaimed the good news. Certainly, Peter had shown no capacity for such bold and eloquent preaching before that moment.
Let me also point out the language that was used to describe the same experience:
• baptized by (or with) the Holy Spirit
• the gift my Father spoke about
• receive power
• when the Holy Spirit comes on you
• filled with the Holy Spirit
• poured out
The language above describes the experience of being baptized with, in, or by the Spirit. All three of those prepositions are allowed by the original language. But in general, it describes Jesus returning to the Father and sending the Spirit in a measure that could be described as being poured out from heaven so that men and women would be immersed or saturated by the Spirit in a way that would give power to believers for extending the kingdom of heaven on earth. The experience would also be described, from the believer’s point of view, as receiving, being filled with, or having the Spirit come on them.
The next question might be whether that one moment was the baptism of the Spirit on the apostles only or whether it was meant to be an experience for every believer in every age. Secondly, we might ask whether that experience would be a one-time experience or whether it could be repeated. I will address those questions in next week’s blog.
