THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

ACTS 1:4-5; 1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-14

1. THE PROPHECY OF THE BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT

          If there was any subject in the New Testament that has created confusion and division among Christians, it is The Baptism with the Spirit. In his book, The Holy Spirit, chapter 5, Dr. Billy Graham tells a story about a time when he was attending a Bible College in Florida. He said that he visited a “brush arbor” revival meeting, where an old-fashioned Southern revival preacher was preaching. The place was jammed to capacity. Dr. Graham writes, “The speaker made up in thunder what he lacked in logic, and the people loved it.” “Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit?” the preacher asked the audience during the sermon. Dr. Graham says that the preacher knew many in the audience, because he would point to some and ask, “Brother, have you been baptized with the Spirit?” and the man would answer, “Yes, bless God.” The preacher said to the young Billy Graham, “Young man, have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit?” “Yes, sir,” Graham replied. The preacher then asked Dr. Graham “when were you baptized with the Holy Spirit?” The preacher had not questioned the others on this. Dr. Graham replied the preacher, “the moment I received Jesus Christ as my Savior.” The preacher looked at him with a puzzled expression, but before going to the next person the preacher said to young Billy Graham, “That couldn’t be.” Here is Dr. Graham’s own words, “I do not doubt the sincerity of this preacher. However, in my own study of the Scriptures through the years I have become convinced that there is only one baptism with the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer, and that takes place at the moment of conversion. I hope the old preacher lived long enough to see what God has done through Dr. Graham’s life and ministry.

          Before I deal with our focal text, let me give you the passages where the baptism with the Holy Spirit is prophesied. There are seven passages in the New Testament where the baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned. They are: Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16; and 1 Corinthians 12:13. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and the Gospel of John are the prophetic records of John the Baptist concerning the ministry of Jesus Christ. Acts 1:5, is Jesus’ quotation of John the Baptist, which He applies to Pentecost. Acts 11:16, is Peter’s quotation of what Jesus promised them before His ascension and the coming of Pentecost. Peter applies this statement to Cornelius’ experience as similar to Pentecost.

          When John the Baptist and Jesus spoke of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the event or the experience was in the future. Both of them were making a promise or giving a prophecy. When Peter refers to the same subject it was a past event. Remember that Peter was the preacher on the Day of Pentecost. It was the same Peter who preached to Cornelius and his household and witnessed how they too were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10-11). Now let’s deal with 1 Corinthians 12:12-14.

II. DIVERSITY IN UNITY V. 12

          The Church of Corinth was a church that was ridden with all kinds of problems because of their carnality (3:1). There were all kinds of factions in this church. There were those who prided themselves with possessing more spectacular gifts than others. This pride has created spiritual elitism that was disrupting the unity of this Christian community. There were those who looked down upon other believers as unspiritual and second-class, because they didn’t have certain spiritual gifts. Apostle Paul therefore set out to write 12-14 to correct this misconceptions and doctrinal deviations. In verse 12, Paul compares the church (body of Christ) to a human body. The human body is a unit with many parts. The Church likewise, is a unit with many parts. Each part has a specific function that is necessary to the body as a whole. The parts are different for a purpose, and in their differences, they must work together. As believers, we are to avoid two pitfalls. 1. You and I are not to be too proud of our abilities. You should not regard your spiritual gifts as more important than others. 2. You should not think that you have nothing to contribute to the body of Christ. There are some Christians whose favorite phrase is I can’t. How different are these Christians from the Apostle Paul who said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can’t syndrome is not humility, but false humility. If you are a genuine Christian, Christ has given you at least one spiritual gift that He wants you to use to serve Him and others in and outside His church. Paul is concerned about the unity of the church. However, the caution is that unity is not uniformity. The error and fallacy of the Corinthian Church was their insistence that unity means uniformity. In other words, since you have the gift of tongues you expect every Christian to speak in tongues. Since you have the gift of prophecy you expect every Christian to prophesy. Since you have the gift of teaching you expect everyone to be able to teach. Paul says that this is a doctrinal and practical fallacy. It is a doctrinal error because the New Testament does not teach that. It is a practical fallacy because the human body is not made up only of hands. There are many parts to the human body and to the church. In both there is unity in diversity. The fact that you don’t have the same spiritual gifts that I have does not make you an inferior Christian and vice versa. Instead of comparing ourselves to one another and giving room to Satan to create disunity, we should use our different gifts, together, to spread the Good News of salvation. Every Christian is significant to Christ and His church. Every Christian is a plus in the kingdom of God.

III. BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT: THE UNIFYING WORK OF GOD VV. 13-14

          The New Testament does not teach or command Christians to be baptized with the Spirit. Nowhere in the NT are Christians subsequent to the Day of Pentecost said to be baptized with the Spirit. Pentecost was the anointing and fulfillment of the prophecy of the baptism with the Spirit. Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit is available for all who repent and believe and are baptized into Christ. On the Day of Pentecost the 3000 who repented and were baptized received the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The 3000 converts were not to wait for the Holy Spirit as the 120 had waited. Why? Because the waiting is over. Pentecost has already come and the Holy Spirit is here. Today too, Christians are not told to wait for the Spirit. Neither are we told to pray for the baptism with the Spirit. For we are already baptized with the Spirit (v. 13). The original disciples were told to wait for the coming of the Spirit, but this was before Pentecost. Ever since Pentecost there has been no need for “waiting meetings” for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Why do you wait for a Person who is already here? Why do you look for something that is already in your possession? The baptism with the Spirit is our Christian initiation. It is our starting point as Christians, not our goal. The moment you trusted Jesus Christ, you were saved. When you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior, you were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

          The key passage in all of the New Testament on “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is 1 Corinthians 12:13. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is defines as the imperceptible work of God by which the believing and repentant sinner is placed by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ at the moment of conversion. If you are saved, you received the Spirit’s baptism, because the baptism is what happens at the moment of your salvation when the Holy Spirit places you in the body of Christ, you got all of the Spirit there is for you to get. The real question is this: Does the Spirit have all of you? Now let’s analyze the text (v. 13). Notice the word all, it is inclusive—all believers not some but all Christians. The phrase, were all baptized is in the aorist tense. It describes something that happened in a definite point of time in the past. Not only is the verb baptized an aorist tense stating something that happened in the past, but it is also used in a passive sense. In other words, the subject is being acted upon. You did not baptize yourself. Whether water or spiritual baptism you don’t baptize yourself. Someone does it for you. Here Jesus is the “baptizer” and the Holy Spirit is the element into which the object (thus Christians) is baptized.

          Notice the phrase, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. The Holy Spirit baptism removes racial, ethical and social barriers that exist among people. The Holy Spirit’s baptism transcends racial and social distinctions. In Christ, Jews, Greeks, slaves, or free have equal significance. Therefore, the common life in the Spirit has eliminated the significance of the old distinctions hence we have become one body. We don’t lose our individual identities, but we have an overriding oneness in Christ.

          And we were all made to drink of one Spirit simply means that the same Holy Spirit completely fills our innermost beings. We were all made to drink of one Spirit is synonymous with the first statement, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. All Christians have been saturated with one Spirit (John 4). In verse 14, Paul is saying that although the Spirit’s baptism unites us in Christ, however, we are also diverse. Diversity is no accidental attribute of the body. It is of its very essence. No one member is to be equated with the body. It takes many members to make up one body. The feet or the head alone do not make up the human body. Every aspect of the human body is important, though each of them performs a different function. We have different interests and gifts, but we have a common goal as Christians, and that is to serve Christ, live for Him, and bring glory to Him. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is indeed the universal work of Christ. It doesn’t matter what your tradition might say.  It doesn’t matter what your denomination might say. It doesn’t matter what your mom, dad, or aunt might say. It doesn’t matter what the preacher on TV might say. It is therefore wrong to ask someone, have you been baptized with, in, or, by the Holy Spirit. What matters is this: have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you received Him as your Lord and personal Savior? If you have then you have been baptized into the family of God. Jim Cymbala, the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle Church says, God only has one family. He doesn’t have two or three families.

          The baptism with the Holy Spirit is an unrepeated work of God. It is unrepeated in the sense that you get it once and you never need it again. There is no text in the New Testament that teaches that you must be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit must always be distinguished from the filling of the Holy Spirit. The baptism with the Spirit happens once, the filling of the Spirit can happen many times. The baptism of the Spirit is a past event, but the filling of the Holy Spirit is a present reality. The baptism with the Spirit is for all believers; the filling of the Spirit is for obedient believers. The baptism of the Spirit is never commanded; the filling of the Spirit is commanded in Scripture (Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:16, etc.). The baptism with the Holy Spirit is positional truth; the filling of the Holy Spirit is experiential and practical. The baptism with the Holy Spirit places the believer in the body of Christ; the filling of the Spirit enables the believer to live for Christ. The baptism with the Spirit indicates that the Holy Spirit is resident in your life; the filling of the Spirit shows that the Holy Spirit is the president of your life.

          There is also a difference between the baptism with the Spirit and the baptism with water. Water baptism is a symbol of which the Spirit baptism is the reality. In other words, when you are saved, we baptize you as a symbol of what has really taken place in your life. The baptism with the Spirit is not “the second blessing” as some would have us to believe. It is the first blessing never to be repeated. The filling of the Spirit is the second, tenth, twentieth, and hundredth blessings.

          Let me use this illustration in closing. Have you ever watched a movie or television drama where someone is placed in the witness protection program? Somebody who has agreed to witness for the prosecution is told, “If you bring testimony against this guy in the Mafia (or whoever might be), we will take it upon ourselves to protect you from harm.” Here is the way it is supposed to work: The witness is taken out of his environment and placed in a totally new environment. He is given a new name, a new house, a new job, and a new identity. Yes, he still has the same voice. He still has the same body and the same personal characteristics. But his whole identity has been changed. He has been placed in an entirely new environment.

          That is what happened to you when you received salvation. That is God’s witness protection program. He picked you up out of where you were, and He set you down in a whole new environment, under His protection. That new environment is called the body of Christ. Therefore, if you have made Jesus the Savior and Lord of your life, you most certainly have the baptism with the Holy Spirit. You have it! And you have it forever, never to lose it. Therefore, live your life victoriously for Christ and do not let anyone put you down.