BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
“John baptised with water but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (Jesus to his disciples) Acts 1:5
“Exalted to the right hand of God, he (Jesus) has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear”. (Peter preaching at Pentecost) Acts 2:33
The baptism with the Holy Spirit was of great importance to Jesus. It was something he wanted to give, and he was able to give because of his death on the cross. It was part of the glory of his ascension. It was something that was of primary importance for the dynamic spread and development of the church. It became of great importance to his disciples. It is not therefore a matter that we should allow to lapse on account of theological disagreements. It is much too important for that. Neither is it something merely of historical interest. It is something that needs to be grasped, received, experienced and sustained in our spiritual walk today.
As an expression, “baptism with the Holy Spirit” first appears with John the Baptist. John, the forerunner of Jesus had three essential “programmatic” things to say about Jesus; first he was the “greater one who was coming (The Lord)”; second he was the “Lamb of God”; third he was the one who would “baptise with the Holy Spirit”. These three things formulate the “gospel”. All three are crucial in our understanding of Jesus and none is to be neglected. All are to be part of our spiritual life and experience. All four gospels make direct reference to Jesus as the one who “baptises in the Holy Spirit”. The question we need to ask is how are we to understand this baptism?
We look first at Jesus. Jesus himself received the Holy Spirit after he had been baptised by John in the Jordan. John the Baptist gives testimony that God told him that he would recognise the “one who would baptise in the Holy Spirit” by the fact that he, John, would see the Holy Spirit come down upon that person. And John saw the Holy Spirit come down as a dove and settle on Jesus. This presents a problem, for Jesus already had the Holy Spirit. Indeed he was literally born of the Spirit in Mary’s womb, and his discussion with the Jerusalem elders when he was in early youth indicated a person in whom the “Spirit of wisdom” truly dwelt. By the time he came to his baptism he had an extraordinary prophetic grasp of the Scriptures through the Holy Spirit and knew precisely the nature of what was to come in his life. What was happening, then, at the Jordan? Why the coming of the Spirit?
First we need to notice that it was immediately after the coming of the Spirit at the Jordan that Jesus began his ministry. The ministry started with forty days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness and conflict with Satan. Luke tells us Jesus went into the wilderness “full of the Spirit”. and likewise came out of it “in the power of the Spirit”. The period in the wilderness was a crucial preparation time for the nature of the ministry he was to pursue, a fundamental beginning of the ministry. Clearly the timing of the coming of the Spirit at the Jordan was related to the onset of his ministry. Luke throws more light on this connection when he reports in some detail a sermon of Jesus at Nazareth in which Jesus took the book of Isaiah and read the words from chapter 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach… to proclaim freedom ….to release the oppressed etc.” Jesus affirmed that this had now happened to him. (Luke 4:18). Luke wants us to recognise that this was Jesus’ own understanding of the coming of the Spirit at the Jordan – it was an anointing for his ministry. This is evident from the fact that chronologically Luke puts this episode at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry
If the events of Pentecost tell us anything it tells us likewise that the coming of the Spirit on that day was fundamentally related to the forthcoming ministry of his disciples as witnesses to Jesus, and that it was the essential thing that was necessary for their witnessing. Nothing could be clearer that Jesus’ own words concerning this; “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses ….” (Acts 1:8). On that day the apostles were filled with a great Spirit of praise and worship together with great boldness and freedom. This was their equipment for witnessing to the risen Jesus. They were further strengthened by the remarkable prophetic sign of the gift of tongues – prophetic because the gift of tongues was the sign that the gentiles with all their different languages were now to begin to come into the Kingdom. Peter’s great sermon on that day which led to the conversion of some three thousand people was a remarkable testimony that he had now been appointed to preach. No less remarkably the vital personal witnessing among the rest of the believers indicated they also had been anointed to proclaim the gospel.
This baptism with the Spirit remains the great need of the hour. We must never suppose that it is always part and parcel of our conversion experience. If there is any sense of the lack of this in a person’s Christian experience then there is simple solution – “ask and you will receive”. As with Jesus it may come later in time, as many have experienced. As things get increasingly difficult for Christians to witness it becomes increasingly important.
Bob Dunnett
