The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 22 November 2015

Here in Acts 2, the church is born. Jesus had promised two great events. First, Jesus promised the birth of the church in Matthew 16:18 when He said, "I will build My church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." Then Jesus also promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16-17 He said, "I will pray to the Father and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth." And in Acts 1:5 He said, "You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

Now, the birth of the church, as we learned last week, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred simultaneously. Because the theological definition of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that it is the placing of believers into the church. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:13 defines it very clearly when he says, "For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body." That is, at the moment of salvation every believer is placed into the church, which is a closely-knit together body. That is the baptism of the Spirit.

This was the beginning of the design of God, so the baptism and the entering in of the church didn't happen to these disciples the moment they were saved. This is a transition time, the Holy Spirit did not come until the day of Pentecost so we see the transition of two ages, the Old Testament age and the New Testament age. That does not mean that you receive Christ and 50 days later you get the Holy Spirit. That is simply what happened there in the transition.

From then on, at the moment you are saved, when you believe Christ, you is baptized into the body and becomes one with Christ. So the definition of the true church today is those people who have been placed into a union with Christ and who are at the same time received the Holy Spirit in their hearts. All Christians are part of the body. All Christians are indwelt by the Spirit. And the body was formed in Pentecost, Acts 2.

The evidence of the Spirit's coming in the first four verses, the effect of the Spirit's coming is in verses 5-11 and the explanation of the Spirit's coming in verses 12-13. Now, last Sunday we began to talk about the evidence of the Spirit's coming and we will pick that up now to fulfill the meaning of that feast from Leviticus 23. You see, these three feasts are types or pictures prophetically of what is to come.

The Spirit came on a specific day designed by God, the day of Pentecost. So on God's chosen day the church was born, just as on God's chosen day Jesus arose, as on God's chosen day Jesus died as pictured in Leviticus 23 in the feasts that He gave to Israel. Notice verse 2 where it tells us the evidence, "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” Notice the sound. This is the breath of God, the Holy Spirit.

Then in verse 3 it says, “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” Not only were they blended together in verse 2 into the body through the baptism of the Spirit, but in verse 3 the Spirit of God came to indwell every one of them as signified by the tongues resting on each of them. There is no such thing as a Christian who doesn't have the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 says "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.”

Then, in addition to receiving the baptism of the Spirit, verse 4 says, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” So in verse 4 the Spirit of God released His power to fill them. Baptism grants the power; filling turns it on. So for a theological definition look to 1 Corinthians 12:13, where the baptism of the Holy Spirit is placing the Spirit in your heart.

The filling of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18, is a matter of yielding to the already present Holy Spirit so that He totally controls you. Every Christian already possesses the Holy Spirit; it's only a question of whether you yield to His power or not. The only issue in the Christian life is not who is Lord, but it is are you obeying who is Lord? It's only a question of whether am I following or not.

Now, a lot of Christians, who have the Holy Spirit, do not understand what it means to yield to the total dominance of the Holy Spirit. Self-will, self-effort, self-design, do your own thing and not yielding certain areas of your life does not mean you don't have the baptism of the Spirit. It only means that you are not willing to totally yield to the Spirit. Paul only said to allow the Holy Spirit who is already there to fully control you.

And it says at the end of verse 4, “As the Spirit gave them utterance.” In other words, at that point, all that came out of their mouth would come from the Spirit. And they began to speak but it was not them. It was that they yielded to the Spirit of God and He controlled what they said. So this speaking in languages, did not occur as a result of the baptism of the Spirit; it occurred as a result of the filling.

Now what are these other languages? Well, they are real languages. They were not gibberish or non-sensical talk or ecstatic speech. It always has meant languages. In fact, in verse 6 it mentions the word language, in verse 8, tongue, and in verse 11, tongue. There are two different words used, one is glossa and the other is dialekto. So this means languages and dialects, not gibberish.

Now, the miracle of languages here was important because of the strategy of the spread of the gospel because in Jerusalem at this time there were millions of Jewish people from all over the world. And this specific miracle was specifically for this occasion. But it happens again in Acts several times and not only in Jerusalem and not with just a group of Jews. In fact, it happened to Gentiles too. Let us look at this together.

Look at Acts 8:14-17, “Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”

Here you have a group of Samaritans who are despised by the Jews. Because originally they were pure Jewish stock but they inter-married with Gentiles. Now the gospel came to Israel, the Messiah of Israel is believed. Then all of the sudden some Samaritans believed too. Now, the Jews want to treat the Samaritans as second-class Christians. So to insure that that did not happen, the Holy Spirit converted those Samaritans the same way.

But at the moment of their conversion, they did not receive the Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit of God wanted some very important Jews to be there when it happened so they would know that, indeed, it happened just like it happened to them. And so not until Peter and John went up there, did the Holy Spirit come. So that they could say to the Jews, that the Samaritans got the same thing they got. And they too must have spoken in languages, so there would be no difference. This is uniting the body of Christ.

Let us now look at Acts 10. Peter has gone over to Cornelius who is a Gentile. Acts 10:44-47 says, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

It was important there that they speak in languages so that those Gentiles would know they got the same thing that the Jews got at Pentecost. In other words, as the church is being formed in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit wants everybody to be sure that the church is one body, right? And Peter is telling about this in Acts 11:15, "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.”

What a shock, that was hard for him to handle. Acts 11:16-18, “And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted.”

The reason that they received the same Holy Spirit in the same way was to tie them in with the one body that was born at Pentecost, not because there was any significance for languages anymore, only as a connector to Pentecost. The language in itself had nothing to do with anything, it simply connected them. Now, there is one other group that hasn't been included in the body yet and that is a little group of 12 Old Testament saints who were baptized by John the Baptist. And the Holy Spirit wants them in the body, too.

Acts 19:1-7, “And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.”

So the same thing happened to tie them together with the first group at Pentecost. This is all perfectly designed by the Spirit of God. But once the body included all the Old Testament saints and all the New Testament Jews and the New Testament Gentiles, there was no reason for this phenomenon anymore, because everybody who comes to Christ now is covered under what has already happened to Jews and Gentiles. And here we see a picture of those who yielded and the Spirit moved through them to a special miracle.

If Pentecostal people want to make speaking in tongues, the norm for all Christians, then they also have to have noise from Heaven like a mighty rushing wind, and tongues of fire because this is a special wonder by God for a special historical event. This was not primarily for preaching the gospel. This is a sign. You see, this was to get the attention of the Jews that something supernatural is going on and then Peter would preach the gospel. This is always the apostolic pattern.

The preaching of the apostles throughout the early church was accompanied by signs and wonders. 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” How do you know the apostle is speaking from God? If he has super-natural things going on along with the message, that is pretty good evidence, right? But this did not substitute for the preaching, the sermon which comes in Acts 2:14 and there are many more sermons following.

If there still is such a gift of languages as in Acts? Then why does God make people go through years of studying other languages before they can ever begin to preach and witness? And if God had designed such a language miracle for today, it would seem that it could be put to great use. Why is it only for certain special people in special movements who get together in special prayer meetings and speak it to each other, who already speak the same language and who already, know the truth?

Let us look now at the effect of the Spirit's coming, Acts 2:5, “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. Now, the statement, "from every nation under heaven," means Jerusalem is invaded at Pentecost by a cosmopolitan assembly of Jews from everywhere. Verse 6, “And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were confused, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.” That was the sound from heaven like before, a mighty hurricane that confused them because there was no wind.

Verse 7, “And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” The Jews looked down at them because those people were uneducated, uninformed, farmers and people who just really weren't in the cultural flow. And here, all of the sudden, these uneducated Galileans are rattling off all these languages and they are absolutely dumbfounded. Verse 8, “And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”

In verse 9-11 they name all these languages, “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” Jews from everyplace were all gathered together. What a strategic time for the Spirit to do something. And notice in verse 11 it says this. "We do hear them speak in our own languages the wonderful works of God."

Now, watch the strategy of the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Spirit sent a sound like a hurricane just to make sure they are gathered together. Then they had this marvelous miracle of speaking in several different languages just to make sure He made them wonder. And when they then began to speak about the wonderful works of God, then the Jews only had two choices. Either this was a miracle of the devil, or it is a miracle of God. But when they started praising God, it showed that it was God.

And then when right out of the midst of all this praise of God Peter stands up and they have no other option but to say this has to be from God. The devil will not run around Jerusalem praising God. So Peter jumps up and says, now let me speak to you about what this God has to say to you concerning His Son. What a beautiful setup for the message. And that's exactly what happened. We will get into that next week.

Now, in this crowd there are a lot of unbelievers. With all the proof in the world some people still are not convinced. It has nothing to do with how well we present it; it has to do with how the Holy Spirit breaks down the barriers. Verses 12-13, “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” So with mockery they embrace the theory that drunkenness teaches new languages.

The work of God splits people right down the middle and men either come to love Jesus Christ or they come against His own with hate. And so the Spirit of God moved in a marvelous way to prepare those who hear. And so does the Holy Spirit want to work through your life. Let the Spirit of God fill you that when you open your mouth there might be reception. Let's pray.