Good Wednesday to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
There are some words in our Christian vocabulary which stir up people and fairly quickly evidence their differences, would you agree? “Baptism” is one of those words, isn’t it? Yesterday I left you in a conversation the apostle Paul was having with some people in the great city of Ephesus who thought they were Christians, but they admitted they had never heard of the Holy Spirit! Furthermore, when Paul asked them if they had been baptized, they answered yes, with John the Baptist’s baptism. (Acts 19:1-5)
Yesterday we looked closely at several different uses of the word “Baptism” in hopes of bringing some clarity.
* First, John the Baptist’s baptism, which he preached and practiced.
John called the Jews to acknowledge their sinfulness and declare their readiness to recognize and receive the Messiah whom John predicted was coming very soon. Their act of baptism, in the Jordan river, was their action of agreement and response to John’s preaching. (Mark 1:1-11; Acts 19:4)
* We discussed, yesterday, the important reality that the Holy Spirit of God is very involved in the salvation experience of anyone who repents of their sin and fully trusts Jesus Christ to be their Savior.
One part of that, described in Romans 6, is the Holy Spirit ‘baptizing’ us into union with Jesus Christ, as part of our salvation experience. (Rom. 6:3-7)
* Thirdly, we looked at the command of Jesus to His disciples that they should “Make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them all I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19,20)
I call this ‘believer’s baptism’, because only genuine believers in Jesus are eligible to receive this baptism, and we discussed this at length yesterday.
* But there’s one more baptism seen in the story we’re following in the book of Acts and that is the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”.
This anointing and filling of the Holy Spirit was life changing as the Holy Spirit manifested His presence and power in the lives of these Jesus followers, and both gifted and mobilized them to powerfully impact their city! This experience with the Holy Spirit took their salvation experience to the next level of spiritual vitality and mobilized them into involvement with the promise of Jesus to build His Church globally!
The first time this occurred was with the Jesus followers when the Holy Spirit baptized them with fire and power, and they spoke in languages they did not know, but languages understood by thousands who had come to Jerusalem for the Jewish Pentecost festival. (Acts 2:1-12)
Most Bible scholars would say this event was the birth of the Church Jesus had promised HE would build. (Matt. 16:18) We presume this was primarily, if not exclusively, Jews thus the first church of Jesus was the Messianic Jewish church in Jerusalem, born at Pentecost.
But Jesus did it again as His Gospel message was taken to Samaritans by Philip the Deacon, as recorded in Acts 8:4-17. On that occasion apostles Peter and John were sent by the Messianic Jewish church to validate that what was happening among Samaritans was authentically of God and the same as they had experienced! Yes, Jesus was building His global church by including Samaritans, both saved and baptized by the Holy Spirit.
A few months later, in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit again broke down prejudice barriers as Jesus continued expanding the scope of His Church, when the Holy Spirit came upon Gentiles in the home of Cornelius the Roman centurion, in Caesarea, as the apostle Peter explained the Gospel of Jesus to Gentiles, even though it was contrary to anything Peter thought possible! (Acts 10:34-48)
Now, here in Ephesus, as these believers in Jesus were taught the truths about Jesus and baptized by Paul, in obedience to Matt. 28:19,20, Paul then prayed over them, placed his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came powerfully upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. (Acts 19:6) God was here in Ephesus confirming the authenticity of genuine Holy Spirit accomplished salvation and baptism, out there on the Asian frontier, far from Jerusalem but just as God had done in Jerusalem, Samaria and Caesarea. It was another step in the fulfillment of Jesus’ final commission to take His Gospel to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
Now let’s pause and reflect on what we’ve seen today. Do you understand what Jesus was doing as the Holy Spirit anointed and empowered Jews, Samaritans, Caesarean Gentiles and now Asians in Ephesus? Has this same life transforming work of Jesus been accomplished by His Holy Spirit in your part of the world, even your town? Has it included you?
Important “lessons learned” notes at the link below will help you dig more deeply into these important baptism truths, and a wonderful worship song will draw you to prayer, and I’ll be here tomorrow waiting for you.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 19:1-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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