Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 2-136 (Topical & Expository Sermon)

RECEIVING THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

by Rod Benson

In 1996 Dr Archibald Hart of Fuller Theological Seminary preached at our annual Queensland Baptist pastors’ conference. I do not recall everything he said, but one image remains in my mind.

There’s a stadium; I’m on the field, and in the grandstand are people I know: my father, my mother, my family, my boss, a school teacher, a good friend, a pastor, a neighbour. Each one observes me, analysing, assessing; and instead of concentrating on the ball, I’m trying to please the people in the grandstand.

I need to recognise I am ultimately accountable only to God, but that’s no easy matter. On the outside, it may seem I have it all together. But when the mask is off, and I stand before God, why do I feel less than adequate?

Who is in your grandstand? Those to whom you owe a debt? Those with unrealistic expectations? Those who want you to succeed where they failed?

F.B. Meyer, a great leader of the church, said at the pinnacle of his career,

I left the midweek prayer meeting and crept out into the lane. As I walked, I said, ‘O God, if there is a man who needs the power of the Holy Spirit to rest upon him, it is I, but I do not know how to receive him.’ And a voice said to me, ‘As you took forgiveness from the hand of the dying Christ, take the Holy Ghost from the hand of the living Christ.’ I turned to Christ and said, ‘Lord, as I breathe in this warm air tonight, so I breathe into every part of me your blessed Spirit.’ By faith, without emotion, I took for the first time, and I’ve kept on taking ever since.

F.B. Meyer’s experience is not unique; others also have felt a special in-breaking of the Holy Spirit when they feel desperate and dry in their inner life. They long for an end to the drought, and they call to God for help, and God answers. Are such experiences the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

In his brilliant book, Joy Unspeakable, London preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones concurs with many Pentecostals in claiming that the gift of the Holy Spirit is different from the baptism of the Spirit.

He believes the gift comes at conversion, and a second experience is available after conversion, and that Christians need to seek that ‘second blessing.’

Others contend that the gift and the baptism are the same thing: you receive both when you respond to the Good News, and these special experiences are the unleashing of the Spirit you already possess, which you had perhaps been quenching (cf 1 Thessalonians 5:19 – “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire”).

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION

Christians in many Pentecostal and charismatic churches often base their distinctive theology of the subjective aspect of salvation on the Synoptic Gospels and Acts: Jesus was first conceived by the Holy Spirit, and later baptised with the Spirit; the disciples ‘received’ the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them, but were later filled with the Spirit at Pentecost.

Traditional and non-charismatic churches, on the other hand, generally base their theology on Paul’s letters in the New Testament, where only once is ‘baptising in the Spirit’ explicitly mentioned (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).

Many evangelical churches, while they may use contemporary worship and strategies, would agree with this traditional biblical perspective.

So the battle lines form, and the troops become entrenched in their positions. Both sides use the Bible to support their position. Who has the truth?

William Randolph Hearst, a passionate collector of fine art, once pored over a catalogue of rare paintings, and came upon a piece he just had to have. He instructed his purchasing agent to do whatever it took to find it. After a long a search, the agent found it – in Hearst’s own collection! He already possessed the painting, but didn’t know it was there.

Many of us are like that when it comes to the Holy Spirit. We live in spiritual poverty, never realising how rich we are in Christ. It’s like living below the poverty line when you actually have $10 m illion in your bank account.

SPIRIT BAPTISM

In the Bible, the term ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’ occurs seven times (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:4f; 11:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13).

John 1:29-33 is a vital passage, where John the Baptist declares that Jesus the Messiah, in fulfilment of Ezekiel 36:25-27, will have a two-fold ministry: to save, and to baptise.

John doesn’t say that Jesus will save all of you and baptise only some of you – he will save all of you, and baptise all of you! This baptism of the Spirit is not an optional extra, but is normative for all believers.

What about the passages in Acts? Luke was a great historian and theologian, and Acts 11 is a summary of the events of Acts 10, where Cornelius and his household responded to Peter’s evangelistic talk, and are saved, and are baptised with the Holy Spirit, and speak in tongues.

But in chapter 11, verse 17, Peter speaks of the “gift” of the Spirit coming to Cornelius; in the previous verse he describes it as the baptism of the Holy Spirit! For Luke, the baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit are the same thing.

In his first sermon, Peter commanded the people to repent, “and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38)! Receive Christ as Saviour, and receive the Spirit! That’s exactly how John the Baptist described Jesus’ ministry: to save and to baptise.

What was the result? Pentecostals say that typical signs of the baptism of the Holy Spirit included prophesy, dreams and visions, speaking in tongues. That’s what happened in the early chapters of Acts when a person was saved! The gift and the baptism are the same thing.

TWO PROBLEMS

There are two difficulties with this understanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. First, in Acts 1:5, Jesus instructed the disciples to wait and “in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” Yet only a few days before he had breathed on those same disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

How do we reconcile these two passages? Did the disciples receive the gift of the Spirit in John 20, then have to wait for the baptism of the Spirit as a secondary experience at Pentecost?

Yes, because Pentecost had not yet happened in John 20! They could not be baptised with the Holy Spirit until the Spirit was sent by Jesus to them. We can’t make that unique experience normative for all Christians.

We encounter the second difficulty in Acts 8:14-18. The apostles travel to a new work at Samaria, where the converts have been baptised in the name of Jesus but have not received the Holy Spirit. They are prayed for, and receive the Holy Spirit in what seems to be a second blessing.

This appears to be a strong and clear-cut case for distinguishing between the gift and the blessing, but there is one problem: were those people Christians before the apostles arrived?

The text gives no indication they had received any baptism of the Spirit, and a person who does not have the Holy Spirit is not a Christian (Romans 8:9b).

The key figure in the narrative is Simon, one of those baptised in Jesus’ name, but when the apostles arrive he offers them money for spiritual power! We have good reason to believe he was not converted at all.

In fact, Simon went on to found the first cult, appearing as the Father to the Samaritans, the Son to the Jews, and the Holy Spirit to the world in general. Finally he was buried alive, promising to reappear in three days, but he did not, for as Hippolytus says, “He was not the Christ.” So much for Simon.

Look also at verse 12: “they believed Philip.” This is unusual language for Luke, whose writing is precise and accurate. Usually in the New Testament, when a writer describes a genuine conversion experience, he says the people “believed Christ,” or “believed the Good News.” Here they believed the messenger – perhaps implying an intellectual assent with no heart change.

SPIRIT BAPTISM AND CONVERSION

In 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul echoes the words of John the Baptist: Jesus will save and baptise. “For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body” – I believe that occurred at the time of our conversion to Christ. If you have responded to the Good News and you belong to Jesus Christ, you have been baptised with the Holy Spirit.

What is the result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It gives us assurance (Romans 8:15-16). Many Christians, especially men, live in doubt and uncertainty about their faith. But if Jesus has saved you, simply claim the assurance that is yours, and hold fast to the promises in God’s word.

The baptism of the Spirit also initiates us into the fellowship of God’s new community, the Body of Christ, the church. If you struggle with going to church, or meeting with Christians, or serving God together, open your life to the Holy Spirit and allow him to lead you deeper into Christ.

The baptism of the Spirit also guarantees the presence of God’s power in your life. Whatever lies ahead, God is within you and you can overcome anything that the world or the devil toss at you.

Finally, the baptism of the Spirit enables us to be transformed into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Your destiny is to become like Jesus, to reflect his values, to have his heart, to share his passions and demonstrate his compassion; in other words, to live life God’s way! That is the Holy Spirit’s primary ministry today.

WATER FOR YOUR HEART THIRST

D.L. Moody was another great Christian leader who, at the peak of his leadership, found himself greatly distressed, walking through the streets of New York, wrestling within, panting for a Pentecost in his own experience.

Alone in a hotel room he prayed to the Lord, and later said, “I could only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of God that I had to ask him to stay his hand.”

He says, “The dry days were gone. I had been all the time tugging and carrying water, and now I had a river that carried me.” And his biographer wrote, “Moody the man became Moody the man of God.”

Have you ever had such an experience of God that you had to ask him to “stay his hand”? Each of us needs constant filling, and there are times when we all need a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s power to enrich and transform our lives.

If you are a Christian, the Bible teaches that you were baptised with the Holy Spirit at conversion. You don’t need to speak in tongues to prove or validate your faith in Jesus Christ.

But God might also want to do a deep, supernatural work in you today. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25).

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E090 Copyright (c) 2002. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980).

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