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THE BAPTISM AND THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Acts 2:1-4
Bob Bonner
March 14, 2010
The Christian life is a great adventure with purpose that comes with the supernatural power to make it happen. Christ gave this incredible promise, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do.” (John 14:13)
Jesus Christ has promised that His followers will do great things. We cannot, in our own energy, accomplish these great works which Christ has promised. It is Christ Himself—living within us, accessing His resurrection power, walking in our bodies, thinking with our minds, loving with our hearts, speaking with our lips—it is He who will empower us with His Spirit to do these great works. As His first weak-kneed imperfect disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they received supernatural power that changed them from fearful men into radiant, confident, and bold witnesses for Christ. They were used by God to change the course of history. And that same power is available to you, to enable you to live a holy and fruitful life for Jesus Christ.
Yet, too many Christians are not experiencing this life changing power in their lives. Furthermore, they do not know that it is found in the Holy Spirit. Sadly, many Christians do not even know who the Holy Spirit is and that He is a person, the third person of the trinity. Others, knowing of Him, do not know how to appropriate His power in their lives. Consequently, they go through life frustrated because they can’t change certain things or find themselves hopelessly struggling with sin and failure, wondering if they can ever gain victory over issues in their lives or have any hope of living a life of acceptance before God or of having the life of hope and fruitfulness that Jesus Christ promised.
This morning, we want to look at the key to experiencing the power of Christ’s Spirit living within us, so that we don’t have to remain or live in the ash heap of failure. Rather, we can know and live in the hope and joy of walking with Jesus Christ.
As we return to our study of Acts 2 this morning, we want to take a closer look at the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you have your Bibles with you, open them, and we will begin by rereading not only those verses we want to consider for our study for this morning in Acts 2, but also Christ’s first mention of the Holy Spirit in Acts, Acts 1:4-5. Let’s begin with Acts 1:4-5. There we read:
4Gathering them together, He [that would be Jesus] commanded them [His
eleven disciples and a few other followers] not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait
for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from
Me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from now.”
Make yourself a note: The “baptism of the Spirit” is mentioned just three times in the Bible, and this is only one of two places that it is spoken of in Acts. We will come back to the importance of this observation in a bit.
Skip ahead to Act 2. But as you do, I want you to notice that in these next verses, we do not read about the baptism of the Spirit, but of the “filling of the Spirit,” which is a different event. In Acts 2:1 Luke writes:
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind,
and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared
to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on
each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Last time we were together, I mentioned that we were going to answer five questions concerning these verses. The first two we have already answered. The first was, “What exactly happened at Pentecost?” And the second, “What has been and presently is the role of the Holy Spirit in the world today?”
Last time we said that ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, there was taking place the annual Jewish feast of Pentecost that required all male Jews to be present and celebrate. The arrival of so many Jews caused the city of Jerusalem to swell from its normal population of about 50,000 people to a million people. The disciples, probably 120 of them, were in the upper room sitting, not praying, but probably fellowshipping over the Lord, when the Holy Spirit came upon them. As He filled these 120 people, He did so in a dramatic and miraculous fashion. There were two audible sounds and one visual effect. The visual effect was something that looked like tongues of fire resting upon each person. The two audible disturbances were the sound or roar of a rushing wind without the wind, followed by the sound of 120 people speaking in known human foreign languages that they had never spoken nor understand before this time. Miraculously, however, they could now speak and understand these languages. I simply mentioned last time that this baptism of the Spirit was a one-time event that could not nor has not been repeated in history. We will come back to that point in a moment.
As well, we also took some time to help you understand the difference between the role of the Holy Spirit in Old Testament times before this event, and that of His function in the New Testament and today.
Up to the time of this Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not permanently come upon anyone. His empowering of people in the Old Testament was temporary. He could come and go, and would even often even use non-believers. But with the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, things changed. Now the Holy Spirit permanently abides in all who are saved. He does not permanently control or live in any non-Christian. But that doesn’t precluded God’s Spirit from using non-believers to fulfill God’s plans, as He did in the Old Testament. The big difference for believers in the New Testament that comes as the result of the baptism of the Spirit is that Christ’s Spirit (which is how the Holy Spirit is called in Romans 8:9) permanently dwells or lives in the believer.
With that quick review, now let’s look at where we are headed this morning. With the rest of our time we want to ask and answer the following two questions: “What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?” and “What is the Filling of the Holy Spirit?”
The filling of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit are two distinct ministries of the Holy Spirit. They both uniquely occurred at the same time on this occasion. It is the only time in history that both of these happened simultaneously, which is partly why many people get the two events confused. Although Luke only mentions in Acts 2 the filling of the Spirit, we know that the baptism of the Spirit also took place at this time because Jesus predicted it would take place "not many days from now" before His ascension (1:5). Moreover, Peter spoke of it as having taken place on Pentecost a short time later in Acts11:15-16.
With that, let’s answer our first question for today, “What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?” It should be noted from the text of Acts 1-2 that the Spirit was not induced into coming because the believers prayed, tarried, or met certain spiritual requirements. It was not based upon human effort. Luke, in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:5,8, points only to the sovereign timing of God as the cause of the Spirit’s coming, not to any effort on a human’s part.
This initial and unique and unrepeatable coming of the Holy Spirit is what Jesus refers to in Acts 1:5. The baptism of the Spirit points to the one-time action of God that brought about the birth of the church. One does not have multiple births of the church, but we do have additional believers joining the church through faith in the finished work of Christ. Just as a newborn child has many cells that make up its body, but not all he will have as an adult, likewise, as the church grows, new “cells” or members are added to the church, the body of Christ.
I have mentioned a couple times that the baptism of the Spirit is a one-time, unrepeatable event. This is similar to the crucifixion of Christ being a one-time unrepeatable event. Just as one can be saved and forgiven of sin by putting confidence in the finished work of Christ’s crucifixion on the cross, a one-time past and unrepeatable event, so we are placed into the body of Christ by faith in the completed one-time, unrepeatable event of the baptism of the Spirit. Whether we feel anything or not, by faith we become part of that new organism, the church, which was birthed at Pentecost through the baptism of the Spirit.
In Ephesians 4:4-5 the Apostle Paul tells us that just as there is only one body, the true Church, and only one Spirit, one Lord, and one faith, so there can be only one baptism. It is a single act that happened once, in the past! Pentecost, therefore, may be called the birth or birthday of the church, when the Holy Spirit came to indwell this unique group of 120 people.
The baptism of the spirit is not an ongoing event. Although countless millions of members were to be added in the centuries which followed, that group of 120 believers on Pentecost represented the entire church body of all believers in every age at that moment in time.
Look with me at Peter’s comments a little later in Acts 2:38-41. There we read:
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized [water baptism] in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your
children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to
Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on
exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So
then, those who had received his word were baptized [water baptism]; and
that day there were added about three thousand souls.”
To what were those souls added? To the church, the newly formed body of believers created by the “baptism of the Spirit” not water baptism.
Furthermore, the baptism of the spirit is not a special privilege for some believers, nor are believers challenged or exhorted in Scripture to seek the baptism. It is not even their responsibility to prepare for it by praying, pleading, tarrying, or any other means, just as it was not the responsibility of the original disciples to pray or plead for the baptism of the Spirit. The passive voice of the verb “be baptized” in 1:5 indicates that this baptism is entirely a work of God, just as salvation through grace is not a human effort, but the work of God. If you want to see more about how God’s entire redemptive plan is based upon the work of God and not the work of humans, read Titus 3:4-7. You will see in that passage that just as regeneration, justification, glorification, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are all works of God’s redemptive plan and we are not told to seek after them, so is the baptism of the Spirit. They are all works of God that happened to you the moment you placed your confidence and trust in Christ as your Savior and Lord.
In addition, according to 1 Corinthians 12:13, which is the only other time that the “baptism of the Spirit” is mentioned, we are told that every Christian is baptized into the church, the body of Christ, by the Holy Spirit the moment they put their faith in Christ. Hence, if a person doesn’t have the Spirit, according to Romans 8:9, that person cannot be a Christian.
So what is the relationship, if any, of water baptism to the baptism of the Spirit? Today, when a person gets baptized in water, he is testifying that, by faith, he has put his eternal destiny and present life in the hands of his new master Jesus Christ. And because that person has believed by faith in Christ, he has also been baptized by the Spirit and placed into the pre-existent body of Christ, making him a member of the church.
One other important distinction needs to be cleared up: Who is the baptizer of people? Is the Holy Spirit the baptizer? Is it correct to say, “I have been baptized by the Holy Spirit?” The answer is “no.” Rather, it is correct to say, “I have been baptized by Christ in the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is the One who poured out the Spirit and He did the baptizing. In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist instructs us: “I indeed baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Luke repeats the same thing in Luke 3:16. “John answered and said to them all, ‘As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’” This again is repeated by John in John 1:33.
So, what then is the significance of this? There is no such thing as the “second baptism of the Spirit” whereby a person gets something additional added to his life or by which he becomes a member of a more spiritually elite group of Christians. Furthermore, it verifies that if you believe that “praying in tongues” is a spiritual gift, then that gift was given to you at the same time all gifts are given to the believer, at the very moment you were saved and added to the body of Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. As many Christians who don’t know what their spiritual gift is the moment they are saved, you may not have known you had that gift but only later discovered it. It was there from the moment you were saved.
After the mentioning of the “baptism of the Spirit” in Acts 1:5, the book of Acts is silent concerning the baptism of the Spirit. What is mentioned from Acts 2 onward is the “filling of the Spirit.” So, what is this filling?
In Acts 2, we really don’t have a definition of what it means to be “filled with the Spirit.” We simply have an illustration or demonstration of those who were filled with the Spirit at one point in time. The best place we can turn to in Scripture for a description of what it means to be filled with the Spirit is Ephesians 5:18. So, let’s look at that passage. We read, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”
The words “be filled” are not used in the same sense of a glass that can be filled with something. Here, the expression is used and defined by its contrast with being drunk. When a person is intoxicated, you say he is “under the influence” of alcohol. His actions are being affected or dominated by the presence of an over-abundance of alcohol in his system. Therefore, we would conclude that the filling of the Spirit means to willingly obey, submit to, be controlled by, directed by, or empowered by the Holy Spirit. Rather than alcohol controlling a Christian’s life, the Holy Spirit is invited to control the person’s life.
There is another important observation to be made from this verse. The words “be filled” are a continuous command. In English, we might more accurately translate this command “keep on being filled” or “keep on obeying the Spirit” or “keep on being controlled by or submitted to the Spirit’s leading in your life.” Note this clear distinction between the baptism of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit: the baptism of the Spirit is nowhere commanded in Scripture, but the filling of the Spirit is commanded. We don’t have any ability to control being baptized by the Spirit. It is an act of God which He makes happen to us independent of our will. But the filling of the Spirit is a continuous action. We can choose to be controlled by the Spirit or not. In other words, to experience the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, it is our responsibility to choose to obey, depend upon, submit to, be directed by, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
How would you go about being continuously controlled by the Spirit, or how would you know if you were filled with the Holy Spirit? Those are two good questions. I’m glad you asked! I want you to hold your finger in Ephesians 5:18 and turn to Paul’s sister letter to another church that he wrote at the same time as Ephesians. The sister church is the Colossian church. So look with me at Colossians 3:16-17. We read, “16Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Notice what Paul says are the results of letting the “word of Christ richly dwell within you.” Now, holding your finger there, look back at Ephesians 5:18 and read verses 19-21, which tell you the results of being “filled with the Spirit.” Verse 19 reads, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be submitted to one another in the fear of Christ.” What do you see? You see that there are similar, almost exact, results of both the “word of Christ richly dwelling with in you” and “being filled with the Spirit.” In other words, these two ideas of being Spirit filled and letting the word of Christ richly dwell within are parallel ideas. They refer to the same thing. Furthermore, they give us clues as to not only what is the evidence of living a Holy Spirit empowered life but also how to live a Holy Spirit empowered life.
First, let’s note what is absolutely necessary for one to willingly submit to the controlling of, or the empowering of, the Holy Spirit. In Colossians 3:16 the Apostle Paul tells us that the “word of Christ must dwell in us richly.” What does that mean? Obviously, one cannot obey or follow what God wants of us until we learn what God wants. Hence, to be filled, one must understand what “the word of Christ,” or God’s Word, says concerning how we are to live. And “richly” advocates that we don’t just know a little bit about God’s Word, but that we must become avid students of God’s Word if we want to experience His Spirit controlling our lives. Otherwise, we might knowingly or unknowingly go against God’s leading according to His Word, thereby unplugging ourselves from God’s power source for changing our lives and enabling us to do what He has called us to do.
To put this in a negative light: One of the reasons that some of you are not experiencing the life-changing power of Christ in your life is that you don’t know His Word, and as a result, may be living disobediently, either by choice or by ignorance. God cannot and will not empower those who live their lives in a manner that is not in accord with His written will.
And this leads to the second ingredient necessary to experience the Spirit-filled life, and that is being willing to obey what God says in His Word. If you choose to disobey what you know He says for you to do, you have just unplugged yourself from the supernatural power source that was given to you and meant for the transforming work of God in your life and through your life. You have chosen to be “filled” or “controlled” either by yourself or someone else’s directions on how to live life. When we obey God’s directives as laid out for us in His Word, we can be confident about His Spirit empowering and controlling our lives.
There is a third ingredient to experiencing the Holy Spirit’s power working in you and through you that is more clearly revealed in our Colossians passage. In verse 16, the Word of God is said to “dwell” or live in you. Although the Apostle John uses a completely different word in John 15 concerning the branches “abiding” in the vine, the idea here is the same. It is the Word of God abiding in you and you abiding in the Word of God. And like a branch has to depend or abide in the vine to produce fruit, being spirit-filled means to live your life continually abiding/depending upon the Spirit of Christ to work in and through you.
Let me give you an application from how this works out in my own life. When one of you spontaneously or by appointment meets with me for counseling, I will either pray silently or with you for the Lord to take over that counseling session. I humbly desire to depend upon Him to work in and through me at that moment. Success in counseling not only requires His Word being passed on, but His Spirit working through the counselor to drive truth home to the counselee.
In another arena, when I find it difficult to care for or cherish or nurture my wife the way she needs to be loved at a particular moment, I try to stop and humble myself before the Lord and ask Him to love her through me—to empower me as I submit to Him and to put myself second in order to care for her. When I do that, I discover later that usually something wonderful has taken place in our relationship.
And then in preaching, even after I have spent hours praying over the preparation of a message, and even though I may feel confident that I have got it right, I have learned to seek God’s face and to ask Him to enable me to speak in such a way that I rightly divide the Word of God and that I choose words that challenge and illuminate. I tell Him that I, by faith, am choosing to depend upon Him to get done the job He wants to get done in our time together looking at His Word, to bring about the changes in your life that He desires for you.
What we often forget and thus need to be reminded of is that the Christian life was meant to be a supernatural life lived in concert with God. In communion with Him, our lives become supernatural, and they not only affect temporal outcomes but can make eternal investments in the lives of others. The Christian life is only a supernatural life as we learn to submit to and depend upon Christ’s Spirit to live His life through us.
As we study God’s Word and learn of His wisdom, His resources, and His life, and as we consciously depend upon Him rather than our own strength or self-discipline, then God can supernaturally move through our weaknesses to produce a mighty work. I really like how someone else put this. These are not my words, but come from discipleship material that I use on a regular basis. This person wrote:
Christ lives in us and expresses His life through us by the power of His Spirit: this
is one of the most important truths of the Word. Jesus does not want you to live
the Christian life. He wants to live the Christian life through you! The Apostle
Paul confessed this in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The Christian’s body now
becomes Christ’s to use as He wills; the mind becomes His to think His thoughts;
the will is now yielded to His will.
To summarize: There are three ingredients necessary for a Christian to experience the Spirit-filled life. First is an understanding of what God says in His Word. Second is a commitment to obey and submit to God’s Word and whatever the Holy Spirit directs us to do. And third is to learn to depend by faith upon the Spirit of Christ to work in and through our lives.
When you pay attention to these three things, you will find the order of God rather than the confusion of the world in your life. You will find the peace of God rather than guilt ruling your life. You will find the joy and contentment of the Lord rather than bitterness and regret dominating your life. You will experience hope for today and tomorrow rather than the despair and defeat that this world has to offer.
Are you experiencing the joy of the Lord? Are you feeling confident about your life with Him? Do you have hope and assurance about your future? Well then, check out these three areas of your life.
1. Are you reading and studying your Bible on your own? If not, then you are not only going to be ignorant about how God would have you live, but you leave yourself wide open to the lies and accusations of the evil one. If you are not in the Word, you leave yourself adrift in the current of this world’s philosophies, a current that surely will lead you over the falls. To be Spirit-filled you must “abide in God’s Word.”
2. Is there anything in your life that you know is wrong, like holding resentment or bitterness against someone, refusing to forgive another, or a sin that is unconfessed? Then that is a sign of rebellion against God. It is a refusal to obey Him or a refusal to submit to Him. If you want to experience the power of God’s Spirit in your life, then come clean with God. 1 John 1:9 assures us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Go to God; admit you have been wrong and have been refusing to submit to Him. Commit to turn away from whatever it is in which you are refusing to submit to Him, and He will forgive you and grant you a new beginning.
3. Are you trying to live your life under your own power, separate from God? If you are a student, have you invited the Lord to direct your studies, to help you learn, and help you remember what He wants you to know? If you are a parent, are you trying to rear your children in your own strength, or are you going to the Lord daily in dependence, seeking His strength and wisdom. If you are depending upon your own abilities and strength, the Bible calls that walking in the flesh. Stop that! Turn back to the Lord, seek His face as often as you can, and ask Him to enable you to do what He wants you to do. Trust Him, and then as you step out in faith, watch Him part the waters.
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