Message for Pilgrim Church 21/3/21

“And while staying with them he [Jesus] 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).

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4 ESV).

 

There are a lot of different words used to describe the one event.  This is because it was a complex event in salvation history and it is difficult to describe the person of the Holy Spirit.  This chart compares the different places in Luke and Acts where words describing the Baptism in the Holy Spirit are used.  (Two of these are in Luke; the rest are in Acts.)

Incident	Clothed with power from on High	Wait for the promise of the Father	Baptized with the Holy Spirit	Spirit poured out	Receive the Spirit	Give the Spirit	Spirit came upon	Holy Spirit fell on	Filled with the Spirit	Full of the Spirit	Gift of the Holy Spirit
Mary							Luke 1:35
Disciples	Luke 24:49	Acts 1:4
Pentecost			Acts 1:5	2:17, 18; 2:33			1:8		2:4		2:38
Apostles									4:8; 4:31
Promise					2:38	5:32
Stephen										6:5; 7:55
Samaria					8:15; 8:19			8:16			8:20
Saul conversion									9:17
Cornelius			11:16	10:45	10:47			10:44; 11:15			10:45; 11:17
Barnabas										11:24
Saul									13:9
Gentiles						15:8
Ephesus					19:2		19:6

 

The words on the table above seem to be synonyms for what happens when someone is baptized in the Spirit.  If we look elsewhere in the New Testament (below) and how these words are used of the Holy Spirit, they are applicable to all Christians, not merely some Christians.

Elsewhere in the New Testament that uses these words:

The promise of the Father

“He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 3:14 NIV).

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13 NIV).

Clothed with power from on high

Here is an interesting verse using clothed: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:27 NIV).

This verse is interesting because the Holy Spirit clothes believers and Christ also clothes us.  The Holy Spirit is another Paraclete/Advocate/Counsellor like Jesus (John 14:16; 1 John 2:1) .  The idea of being clothed with the Holy Spirit and being clothed with Christ is not very different, especially if you understand “baptized into Christ” as the baptism in the Spirit (as some do).

Receive:

“even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17 ESV)

“And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22 NIV).

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:15 ESV).

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Cor. 2:12 NIV).

“For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Cor. 11:4 NIV).

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?” (Gal. 3:2 NIV)

Given:

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13 NIV)

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5 NIV).

“and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Cor. 1:22 ESV).

“Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor. 5:5 NIV).

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph. 1:17 NIV).

“Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8 NIV).

“The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us” (1 John 3:24 NIV).

“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit” (1 Jn. 4:13 NIV).

Filled and Full:

I will discuss these another day.

Baptized in one Spirit

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13 ESV).

This applies to all believers.

The second half of the verse contains a synonym: “made to drink of one Spirit”.  This is a very similar description to what Jesus said about the Spirit in John 7.

“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.  Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (Jn. 7:37-39 NIV).

What should be our takeaway from this?

There are many different ways of describing the Baptism in the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not easy to pin down and to describe.

There are not two kinds of Christians—those baptized with the Holy Spirit and those not—but only one kind of Christian and each has received the Holy Spirit.

Jesus promised that those who believe in him would be baptised in the Holy Spirit.  We are.  This is not a second blessing but something for every Christian.

We don’t need to tarry or ask for the Baptism of the Spirit.

We don’t need a sign because we all have this.