Importance of Baptism in the Holy Spirit — Ralph Martin

The 40^th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and our 40^th anniversary in The Word of God have led me to go back to think and pray and study the Scriptures again to see what I really think about this thing that we call “Charismatic Renewal”. We have also just celebrated the feast of Pentecost which was originally a Jewish feast. They gathered together to celebrate harvest, the first fruits, and also celebrate the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. It is very significant that Jesus fulfilled his promise to baptize in the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost because it’s the way of the harvest, the first fruits that are coming to birth, the church coming to birth. It also points to the law which is now being placed in the heart, the fulfillment of all those prophecies about the Lord putting his own Spirit, his own heart, his own law into our hearts so that nobody would need to say to their neighbor ‘know the Lord’ but everybody would know the Lord. Pentecost is the name the feast on which something happened. It doesn’t really tell us WHAT happened. What happened was that the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s the substance of what happened on the day of Pentecost. So when we celebrate Pentecost, what we are really celebrating is people being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the language that really Scripture uses. This is the language that each of the four Gospels use, John the Baptist uses, Jesus uses, Peter, the apostle, uses. This is what they described happened on the day of Pentecost people got ‘baptized in the Holy Spirit’.

The New Testament takes the issue of being baptized in the Holy Spirit very seriously. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist is preaching and he’s a little ticked off at the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to get baptized because he doesn’t believe they are sincere. He says don’t presume to say ‘we have Abraham as our Father, for I tell you God can raise up children to Abraham from these stone. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Mt 3:9-11 This is kind of tough language! It says your repentance had better be sincere. If you claim to be turning away from sin and turning towards God but it’s not sincere, you are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire!

Now we know that John the Baptist was kind of rough around the edges, we know he lived in the desert, and this was his language. But Jesus adopts the same language. In John’s gospel, chapter 15, he says those of you who are bearing fruit will be pruned so you can bear more fruit. Those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of repentance, those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of Christian life, those whose faith really isn’t being expressed in good works and charity are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire! So this language of John the Baptist is being taken up by Jesus. This is kind of serious stuff!

Baptism in the Spirit is a serious issue The Word of God is a serious Word – it is about life and death, it’s about heaven and hell, it’s about salvation and condemnation and it makes a difference how you respond to this Word and how you live in accordance with it. John goes on to say ‘I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ (Matt 3:11-12) So there is an apocalyptic, eschatological dimension to this whole issue of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This pouring out of the Holy Spirit is intended to cleanse the human race, that those who receive the cleansing, those who receive the purifying will bear fruit and be gathered like wheat into the Lord’s barn. But those who resist the purification, those who resist the cleansing, those who resist the Spirit run the risk of being thrown into the unquenchable fire because they’ve dried up and don’t bear fruit.

Something more is needed Now Jesus, himself, uses several terminologies to talk about what’s going to happen. Sometimes he talks about the promise of the Father, sometimes he talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and sometimes he talks about being clothed with power from on high.

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them thus it was written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin would be preached in his name for all the nations who came from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed in power from on high. Luke 24:46-49

Despite having three years of the best teaching that anybody could ever have, besides having personal attention and personal spiritual direction, personal formation from Jesus, and despite being instructed by Jesus in his resurrection appearances, and despite having seen the Risen Lord -- Jesus said ‘you are not ready yet’. There is something else that has to happen. You could know everything, you could have seen everything, you could be witnesses to the Resurrection, but something else has to happen to make it all come together. So wait until that happens, and what you need is to receive the promise of the Father.

Acts 1:3 says, “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered.” Jesus spent time with the Apostles after rising from the dead, appearing to them during forty days and speaking to them about the word of God -- more teaching, more explanation. Remember, Jesus would say something and the Apostles would say ‘we don’t get that, Lord, could you explain that to us in plain language’. So Jesus would explain it to them in plain language. They got A LOT of teaching, they got a lot of instruction, but it wasn’t enough to carry out the mission.

When Jesus met with them he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem but “to wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak”. “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” Acts 1:5. This is the language of Jesus. When they had gathered together, they asked him ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?’ So even despite the Risen Lord explaining things to them, they still don’t get it. They said ‘Are you going to throw the Romans out now -- should we get our weapons now? are you going to throw them out now? So having three years of instruction wasn’t enough, seeing the miracles wasn’t enough, seeing the risen Lord and being taught by him for forty days wasn’t enough.

Jesus said ‘don’t get into this end time speculation, focus on your task. “It’s not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has established by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:7-8 So don’t worry about that kind of stuff. I told you what you need to know but what you need to do now is receive the power of the Holy Spirit, be baptized in the Spirit and get on with the mission that I’ve given you to do and let the Father take care of those other things. So then they waited and they prayed. And then it happened – the day of Pentecost.

This is it When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Acts 2:1-4 ‘A crowd gathered and it said they were all astounded and bewildered and they said to one another ‘what does this mean?’ Acts 2:12 Well, here comes the answer to their question. What does the experience of Pentecost mean? What does being baptized in the Holy Spirit mean?

Peter stands up and says what it means, what the whole thing has been about. This is what Moses prophesized, this is what the Psalms spoke about, this is what the prophets talked about, this is what Joel prophesized, this is what David prophesized. This is it! This is the fulfillment of God’s plan for pouring out the Holy Spirit because his Son Jesus is truly the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Peter quotes all the Scriptures. Now how did Peter know this, probably Jesus told him! It’s all kind of coming back to him now. Later on we are going to see Peter saying, ‘and then I remembered what the Lord said’. The Holy Spirit is doing what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do. He is reminding people when they need to be reminded what this is all about, recalling the words of Jesus.

People were saying ‘what are we to do, my brothers’. And Peter said to them ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you, too, will receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is made to you and your children and to all who are far off whom the Lord our God will call.’ Acts2:38-39 Immediately Peter says ‘this isn’t just for us’. And it’s not just for you and it’s not just for your children, it’s for EVERYBODY whom the Lord is calling to himself.

Not just for the Apostles So the first significant thing here is that this isn’t just a unique experience to get the church off the ground. This isn’t just for the special leadership group that the Lord would gather together. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter says ‘this is for you and this is for your children, and this is for everyone whom the Lord is calling to himself.’ He is making a very strong proclamation that this being baptized in the Holy Spirit is for everybody.

As we look on in the book of Acts, we’re going to see that this is an important pastoral strategy that the Apostles had in mind. They are serious about seeing that everybody that they minister to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. They are concerned that every new group of converts comes into the same experience that they had with day of Pentecost. What was that experience? The experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high, receiving the promise of the Father.

What were the conditions that allowed the Apostles, the disciples, in the Upper Room to get baptized in the Holy Spirit? First of all, they were taught about it. They knew the truth about it even though they did not fully understand it. They believed the Word of God, they obeyed the Word of God to stay in the city, and they prayed for the fulfillment of the Word of God. These are the same conditions that are available today. How can people get baptized in the Holy Spirit? They need to get taught about it. They need to believe it. They need to do what the Lord asks them to do, repent and believe. They need to pray for the fulfillment of it. It’s being revealed. It’s not an esoteric mystery where some people get baptized in the Spirit and some don’t. This is for everybody. How it happens is by hearing the Word, believing the Word, obeying the Word, and praying for its fulfillment.

Everyone needs to be baptized the Spirit Acts 8:14-15 ‘When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.’ Now you know we cannot be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus without receiving something of the Holy Spirit, because that’s how we become Christians, that’s how we get connected to God. So these Samaritans must have received something of the Holy Spirit, but not enough. Something was missing, the Apostles could tell. Something was missing.

Haven’t you had that experience? You’re talking to somebody and they’re Christians, but something is missing. I had a priest in class this last semester and we were talking about being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is something that Peter Williamson and I and others teach about it at the Seminary and actually pray for people to receive! But we were talking about baptism in the Spirit in one of my classes and one of the conservative Catholics in the classroom said ‘are you trying to tell me that I’m missing something in my Christian life?’ Well, this Irish priest piped up and said ‘you’re right that I’m trying to tell you that’. He didn’t back off. It’s true, there’s more! Don’t be shy or embarrassed about saying that there’s more. The Apostles, the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit want people to know what’s available and want us to tell them.

Acts 2:18-19 Then they laid hands of them and received the Holy Spirit. When Simon (the magician) saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this power so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of magicians following Bishops around these days saying ‘how much would it cost for me to be able to do that myself! But something happened there that made Simon said ‘hey, that’s pretty cool’. Something really happened there. You could see the difference in these people. The Holy Spirit really fell on them.

The Lord wants to do more. It’s not just about being baptized and confirmed in a rote kind of way or getting a little bit of the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and that’s what it means to be a Christian. That is what the Apostles are concerned about.

Acts 10 You know the whole story about Cornelius and his household, a God-fearing Roman, and how Peter was praying and the Lord told him to go hang out with the Gentiles. Peter says ‘that’s against my religion, Lord’. The Lord says ‘well, guess what, I’m going to expand your notion of religion, I’m bigger than you thought I was. I love people more than you think I do. I want more people to be included in salvation than you think so go do what I tell you’. So Peter obeyed. That’s one of the reasons why the Lord chose Peter; he ended up doing what the Lord wanted him to do. While Peter was speaking to Cornelius and his household telling them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles – [How do they know the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles?] -- for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Acts 10:44-46 There was some manifestation of the Spirit. There was some indication that something had been released in them that allowed them to praise and worship God and manifest some charismatic gifts of the Spirit. Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit-- [listen to this!] -- even as we have.” So what he is saying is the same thing that happened to us happened to them. They received the Holy Spirit in the same way as we have.

Not just for then, but for now There is a temptation to build a little shrine around Pentecost and talk about it as a special moment when the church first began. But Peter is able to tell us NO, NO, NO, don’t do that! This is a permanent reality that the Lord wants to give each new group of Christians. This is something that Jesus wants to do. It wasn’t just for the Apostles.

In Acts 11 Peter gets into trouble for baptizing Cornelius’ household. People thought the cart went before the horse. You were supposed to get baptized first then receive the Holy Spirit Well God can do whatever he wants in whatever order he wants. Peter defends himself saying ‘As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life too." Acts11:15-18

In Acts 15 we have the whole debate about what should be done with the Gentiles, do we have to follow Mosaic Law. Peter got up and said to the Apostles, “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit, just as he did us.” Acts 15:7-9 There’s a definite identification of this subsequent experience of the Spirit as being the same as what happened to the Apostles.

This is purposeful. Luke is purposely showing us that it’s really important that each new group of Christian converts wherever they are at when you meet them need to be brought into this experience of the Holy Spirit and need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit or they are not going to have a full deck of cards. The Apostles didn’t have a full deck of cards until they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. People today can have great teaching, they can even have experiences of God, but if they’re not baptized in the Holy Spirit, everything doesn’t come together in a certain way. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit we say ‘this is it – this is what it is all about’. The Holy Spirit is poured out in the hearts, the love of God is poured our in our hearts, we want to tell people about Jesus. We can’t become witnesses unless you experience his love that allows you to be witnesses and that is why being baptized in the Holy Spirit is so important. I’m convinced that being baptized in the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential and important. The Lord wants us not to be embarrassed or ashamed about it. We should tell anybody we possibly can about it because it’s really important for the church and the world for every individual to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Well, Sister Debbie, who was with us at the beginning talked about “the beginning” and giving ourselves to the Lord with the generosity that we gave ourselves to the Lord in the beginning. One of the reasons why we gave ourselves to the Lord generously at the beginning is because we experience the Lord’s generosity to us, pouring out his love to our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And I think that is the secret for us giving ourselves to God is renewing our experience of the Lord really giving himself to us.

Before I go any further I want to say that I miss Mary Rickloff at the Hospitality table over there. What a faithful woman, what a faithful daughter of the Lord, who persevered to the end. A couple of years ago I started making little honor rolls of the saints who I’ve known, people I’ve known who’ve died in the Lord (noble servants of the Lord, and I’m going to add Mary to that list) but she certainly is happier now than she was even at Word of God Prayer Meetings. And she is probably being more effective and fruitful than she ever was as she’s drawing her intercession to the on-going intercession of Christ who is continuing to intercede for us who are still on the journey. So we thank God for Mary and remember her with gladness. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ And then Michael talked about the experience of Moses on Mt. Sinai and the experience of the Lord passing by. Now, Phil first asked me to give this talk at the Anniversary Gathering back in November. Just because how things unfolded it didn’t happen and we had some scheduling questions, but here we are.

What happened last year was that it was the 40^th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the 40^th anniversary of The Word of God community that was inspired by that. And I got asked a number of times to talk about what’s been the significance of these last 40 years and what has the Lord been doing. And that led me to go back to actually think and pray and study to look at the Scriptures again to see what I really think about this thing that we call “Charismatic Renewal” and this thing that we’ve experienced with the Holy Spirit. And even though we’re not celebrating the 40^th anniversary any more, we did just celebrate the feast of Pentecost. And so it’s relevant. It would have been relevant if it were in the dead of winter thirty-five years from now --no connection -- you know the Holy Spirit is always relevant! But one of the things about the feast of Pentecost is that that wasn’t a Christian feast. That was a Jewish feast. They gathered together on the Jewish feast day where they celebrated harvest, the first fruits. Then they came to also celebrate the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. And so it is very significant that Jesus fulfilled his promise to baptize in the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost because it’s the way of the harvest, the first fruits that are coming to birth, the church coming to birth. It’s also a way in which the law is now being place in the heart of all those prophecies that have been long listened to and long meditated on about the Lord putting his own Spirit, his own heart, his own law into our hearts so that nobody would need to say to their neighbor ‘know the Lord’ but everybody would know the Lord. So this was kind of happening.

We’ve talked about a New Pentecost and we’ve also talked about how Pope Benedict XVI when he was in New York recently said “As you give thanks for past blessings, and look to the challenges of the future, let us implore from God the grace of a new Pentecost for the Church in America. May tongues of fire combine in burning love of God and neighbor with zeal for the spread of Christ’s kingdom descended on all present.” It was kind of a fiery call for an on-going, new Pentecost. Pentecost is the description of the day or the feast on which something happened. It doesn’t really tell us what happened. What happened? What happened was that the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s what happened. That’s the substance of what happened on the day of Pentecost. So we celebrate Pentecost, but what we’re really celebrating is people being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the language that really Scripture uses. This is the language that each of the four Gospels use. This is the language that Jesus uses. This is the language that John the Baptist uses. This is the language that Peter, the apostle, uses. This is what they described happened on the day of Pentecost ‘people got baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I don’t have time to go through all of this but I do have time to through some of it because as I was reflecting on all of this I was struck by how insistent the apostles were that each new group of converts experience the same thing they did on the day of Pentecost. The often used that language, and I’m just going to run through some of this. All four Gospels speak about Jesus baptizing in the Holy Spirit. I’m just going to take a little segment here from Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 3). John the Baptist is preaching, he’s a little ticked off at the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to get baptized; he doesn’t believe they are sincere. He says you brood of vipers (gee, John laid a little kind of guilt on any person; he wasn’t really winning friends and influencing people) he says, who ticked you off, who gave you an inside rating (???) to produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And he says don’t presume to say we have Abraham as our Father, for I tell you God can raise up children to Abraham from these stone. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

So now, this is kind of tough language. It says your repentance had better be sincere. If you really want to be turning away from sin and turning towards God and if that’s not sincere, you are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire. Now we knew that John the Baptist was kind of rough around the edges, we knew he lived in the desert, and this was his language. But Jesus adopts the same language. In John’s Gospel where he says those of you who are bearing fruit will be pruned so you can bear more fruit. Those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of repentance, those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of Christian life, those who faith really isn’t being expressed in good works and charity are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire. So this language of John the Baptist is being taken up by Jesus; this is kind of serious stuff.

The word of God is a serious word – it is about life and death, it’s about heaven and hell, it’s about salvation and condemnation and it makes a difference how you respond to this word and how you live in accordance with it. John goes on to say I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So there is apocolytic, eschential (????????) dimension into this whole thing that this Baptism in the Holy Spirit, this pouring out of the Holy Spirit is intended to cleanse the human race, that those who receive the cleansing, those who receive the purifying will bear fruit and be gathered like wheat into the Lord’s barn. But those who resist the purification, those who resist the cleansing, those who resist the Spirit run the risk of being thrown into the unquenchable fire because they’ve dried up and don’t bear fruit. So this is the context that being baptized in the Spirit is being introduced.

Now Jesus, himself, uses several terminologies to talk about what’s going to happen. Sometimes he talks about the promise of the Father, sometimes he talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and sometimes he talks about being clothed with power from on high. Luke’s Gospel (chapter 24) then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them thus it was written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin would be preached in his name for all the nations who came from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed in power from on high. Despite having three years of the best teaching that anybody could ever have, besides having personal attention and personal spiritual direction, personal formation from Jesus, and despite being instructed by Jesus in his resurrection appearances, and despite having seen the Risen Lord, Jesus said ‘you are not ready yet’. There’s something else that has to happen. You could know everything, you could have seen everything, you could be witnesses to the Resurrection, but something else has to happen to make it all come together. So wait until that happens, and what that is is receiving the promise of the Father.

Acts Chapter 1. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered. So Jesus spent time with them after rising from the dead, appearing to them during forty days and speaking to them about the word of God, more teaching, more explanation. Remember, Jesus would say something and the Apostles would say ‘we don’t get that Lord, could you explain that to us in plain language. So Jesus would explain that to them in plain language. They got A LOT of teaching, they got a lot of instruction, but it wasn’t enough to carry out the mission.

Well, meeting with them and enjoining them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak. This is has been a theme of Jesus’ instruction, he’s referring back to previous teaching, it’s not a one planned thing. This is what Jesus says John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. This is the language of Jesus; this is the only profanative use of the language baptism of the Spirit too – it’s difficult -- (I couldn’t catch his afterthought comment at 12:08 into the tape) When they had gathered together, they asked him ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?’ So even despite the Risen Lord explaining things to them, they still don’t get it. They said ‘Are you going to throw the Romans out now -- there should be a representative – are you going to throw them out now? So having three years of instruction wasn’t enough, seeing the miracles wasn’t enough, seeing the risen Lord and being taught by him for forty days wasn’t enough. Jesus said ‘don’t get into this infine (????? 12:46) speculation, focus on your debts. It’s not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has established by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So don’t worry about that kind of stuff. I told you what you need to know but what you need to do now is receive the power of the Holy Spirit, be baptized in the Spirit and get on with the mission that I’ve given you to do and let the Father take care of those other things. When he said this they were looking on as into the cloud and looked away and the angel said ‘why are you looking into the sky the same Jesus that you saw has been taken away and will come back in the same way. So then they waited and they prayed. And then it happened – the day of Pentecost.

A later passage (Acts 2). When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

And a crown gathered and it said they were all astounded and bewildered and they said to one another ‘what does this mean?’ Well, here comes the answer to our question. What does these strengths of Pentecost mean? What does being baptized in the Holy Spirit mean? So Peter stands up and says what this means is this is it. This is what the whole thing has been about. This is what Moses prophesized, this is what the Psalms spoke about, this is what the prophets talked about, this is what Joel prophesized, this is what David prophesized. This is it! This is the fulfillment of God’s plan for pouring out the Holy Spirit because of his Son Jesus truly being the Messiah sitting at the right hand of the Father. And so, he quotes all the Scripture. Now how did Peter know this, probably Jesus told him, you know, it’s all kind of coming back now, you know. And now later on you are going to see Peter saying, ‘and then I remembered what the Lord said. And then a little later on he said ‘and then I remember what the Lord said about being baptized in the Holy Spirit’. And the Holy Spirit is doing what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do. It’s reminding people when they need to be reminded what this is all about recalling the words of Jesus and see it happening. So people were gathering and saying ‘what are we to do, my brothers’. And Peter said to them ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you, too, will receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is made to you and your children and to all who are far off whom the Lord our God will call.’ Immediately Peter says ‘this isn’t just for us’. And it’s not just for you and it’s not just for your children and it’s for everybody whom the Lord is calling to himself.

So the first significant thing here is that this isn’t just a unique experience to get the church off the ground, this isn’t just for the special leadership group that the Lord would gather together. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter says ‘this is for you and this is for your children, and this is for everyone whom the Lord is calling to himself. So there’s a very strong proclamation that this being baptized in the Holy Spirit is for everybody.

Now we’re going to see that this is an important pastoral strategy that the Apostles had in mind that they are serious about seeing that everybody that they minister to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. They’re concerned that this new group of converts come into the same experience that they had with day of Pentecost. What was that experience, the experience of being Baptized in the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high, receiving the promise of the Father.

What were the conditions that allowed the Apostles, the Disciples, in the Upper Room to get Baptized in the Holy Spirit? First of all, they were taught about it, right. They knew the truth about it even though they did not fully understand it. They believed the word of God, they obeyed the word of God to stay in the city, and they prayed for the fulfillment of the word of God. And these are the same conditions that are available today. How can people get Baptized in the Holy Spirit. They need to get taught about it. They need to believe it. They need to do what the Lord asks them to do, repent and believe. They need to pray for the fulfillment of it. It’s being revealed. It’s not an esoteric mystery where some people get Baptized in the Spirit and some don’t. This is for everybody. And how it happens is by hearing the word, believing the word, obeying the word, and praying for it’s fulfillment.

Acts chapter 8. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now you know you cannot be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and receive something of the Holy Spirit because that’s how we become Christians, that’s how we get connected to God. So we must receive something of the Holy Spirit, but not enough. Something was missing, the Apostles could tell. Something was missing. Sometimes don’t you have that experience? You’re talking to somebody and they’re Christians, but something’s missing. I had a priest in class this last semester and we were talking about being Baptized in the Holy Spirit and just something that Peter Williamson and myself and others teach about it at the Seminary and actually pray for people, you know. But we were talking about Baptism in the Spirit and one of the conservative Catholics in the classroom said ‘are you trying to tell me that I’m missing something in my Christian life?’ so this Irish priest said ‘you’re darned right that I’m trying to tell you that’. He didn’t back off, you know. That’s true, there’s more, isn’t there! Don’t be shy or embarrassed about saying that there’s more.

The Apostles, the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit want people to know what’s available and wants us to tell them. Then they laid hands of them and received the Holy Spirit. When Simon (the magician) saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this power so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. There’s not a lot of magicians following Bishops around these days saying how much would it cost for me to be able to do that myself, you know. But something happen there that Simon said ‘hey, that’s pretty cool’. Something really happened there. You could see the difference in these people; the Holy Spirit really fell on them. And that’s why Peter and John went down to pray with them because more, the Lord wanted to do more.

And the Lord wants to do more. It’s not just about being Baptized and Confirmed in a rote kind of way or get a little bit of the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit and that’s what it means to be a Christian. It’s got to be a process to be concerned about. Okay.

Acts Chapter 10. You know the whole store about Cornelius and his household, a God-fearing Roman, and Peter’s praying and the Lord tells him to go hang out with the Gentiles and Peter says ‘that’s against my religion Lord’ and the Lord says ‘well, guess what, I’m going to expand your notion of religion, I’m bigger than you thought I was. I love people more than you think I do. I want more people to be included in salvation than you think so go do what I tell you’. So Peter did. That’s one of the reasons why the Lord chose Peter; he ended up doing what the Lord wanted him to do. While Peter was speaking to Cornelius and his household telling them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles (How do they know the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles?) for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. There was some manifestation of the Spirit. There was some indication that something had been released that allowed them to praise and worship God and manifest some charismatic gifts of the Spirit. Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit (then listen to this!) even as we have. So what he is saying is the same thing that happened to us happened to them. They received the Holy Spirit in the same way that we have.

So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

There is a temptation to build a little shrine around Pentecost and talk about it that it is a special moment when it first began. But Peter is able to tell us NO, NO, NO, don’t do that! This is a permanent reality that the Lord wants to give each new group of Christians. This is something that Jesus wants to do. It wasn’t good for us.

Acts Chapter 11. Peter gets into trouble for baptizing Cornelius’ household, you know, the cart went before the horse, you know you were suppose to get baptized first then receive the Holy Spirit Well God can do whatever he wants in whatever order he wants. We just have to clean up the pieces and set up a little bit Acts Chapter 11. Peter gets into trouble for doing this and he’s defending himself as he says As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life too."

Acts Chapter 15. The whole debate about what are we going to do with the Gentiles, do we have to follow Mosaic law, and so Peter got up and said to the Apostles Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit, just as he did us. So there’s a definite identification of this subsequent restraint (???) of the Spirit as being the same as it happened to the Apostles. Then, I’ll just mention this Acts chapter 19 Paul comes to Corinth and he finds the disciples and he says ‘did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers, and they answered him ‘we never even heard there is a Holy Spirit’. And he said ‘how were you baptized?’ – there’s something defective in their catechesis, something defective in the process of Christian initiation. It appears that they were willing to be baptized by the baptism of John through repentance so Paul fills in the pieces and he tells them about Jesus, when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul laid his hands upon them the Holy Spirit came upon them, they spoke in tongues and prophesized and altogether there were about twelve men.

This is purposeful. Luke is purposely showing us that it’s really important that each new group of Christian converts wherever they are aimed wherever you meet them need to be brought into this experience of the Holy Spirit and need to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit or you’re not going to have a full deck of cards. The Apostles didn’t have a full deck of cards until they were Baptized in the Holy Spirit. Now people today can have great teaching, they can even have experiences of God, but if they’re not Baptized in the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t come together in a certain way. Like when you say ‘this is it – this is what it is all about and the Holy Spirit is poured out in the hearts I want to tell people about Jesus. So you can’t become witnesses unless you experience his love that allows you to be witnesses and that is why being Baptized in the Holy Spirit is so important.

The subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit (Acts chapter 4) a tough situation with the Apostles say ‘hey, man, we need more of the Holy Spirit and they prayed and the Spirit came where they were. There’s extra help in the Spirit at different times. You should go through Church history. Paul tells Timothy to ‘fan at the flame, to get to receive, then you let the Holy Spirit kind of die down and you kind of forget how important the Spirit is. You can let the embers get a little low. And Paul says ‘fan at the flames and get to where the Spirit is – (26.32) that it was the gift of one nation or whatever is true at our gift of the Spirit that we can fan at the flame the gift we’ve received and it is just important to do. So I tried to look at this again, and there is a lot more that I’ve looked at, I’ve looked at the history of the early Church, I’ve looked at the evidence of us being Baptized in the Holy Spirit and Charismatic gifts, kind of continuing on in the history of the Church, I’ve looked at theological interpretations of it, I’ve looked at contemporary Church teachings, and I’m convinced that being Baptized in the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential and important. The Lord wants us not to be embarrassed or ashamed about it. You can tell anybody you possibly can about it because it’s really important for the church and the world and every individual to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit. Amen