Acts 2 • Spirit Baptism

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Acts 2-Spirit Baptism description and understanding
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Have you ever had those moments when you knew something life-changing was about to happen but you did not know what? You will see that often when you study the book of Acts. In the last blog, we looked at how to make decisions with a conscious dependence on Christ. This is post #3 in the Radical Acts blog series. In this article, we will look at the radical changes God made to this world we know when He gave us Spirit Baptism.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Radical Acts Bible Study covering the book of Acts in the New Testament. (11 lessons)

An Unplanned Landing

In January 2009, a passenger jet made an unplanned landing in the Hudson River. Everyone onboard was safely brought to shore. When the captain recognized the danger, he announced, “Brace for impact because we’re going down.” What really caught my attention on the news reports was what happened after that announcement. Some folks screamed. Some tucked their heads between their knees. Several asked God to forgive them for their sins. An engaged couple kissed. And the guy in the exit row took out the instructions to read so he would do it right. What a variety of responses! Everyone knew something was about to happen, and life as they had known it may never be the same. They just did not know what.

Have you ever had those moments when you knew something life-changing was about to happen but you did not know what? You will see that often as you read the book of Acts.

Something Is About to Happen

Jesus promised it

In Acts 1, Jesus told His disciples to hang out in Jerusalem for a few more days because something promised was about to happen. Do you think they had any idea of the adventure that lay ahead for them? Jesus said, “You will receive power to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Okay, they had been there. Then, Jesus added to the ends of the earth. That sounds a bit scary, doesn’t it? Have you been to the ends of the earth or thought you had been there? Jesus was telling them, “Something’s about to happen, and life as you know it will never be the same.”

Promise fulfilled

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together 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. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? (Acts 2:1-8)

On the day of Pentecost, a sound like that of a tornado suddenly came and filled the place where 120 Jesus people were sitting. They saw flames of fire resting on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the Spirit enabled them.

Now, hearing praises to God in foreign languages in Jerusalem was not new, especially during festivals when all kinds of Mediterranean and Asian languages were frequently heard around the Temple. But hearing those foreign dialects uttered by Galileans was totally surprising. Everyone knew Galileans because they had a certain drawl, like we can recognize people from Boston or Australia by their accents. When those foreign Jews hanging around the Temple heard their own native languages spoken by Galileans, they knew something amazing and unusual was happening. But what was it? Spirit Baptism had occurred. And life as they had known it would never be the same.

Probably no other doctrine of the Holy Spirit has created more confusion than that of Spirit Baptism. And that confusion comes from several sources: a lack of understanding of the Spirit’s work in a Christian’s life, the expectation of certain experiences to be associated with it, and even misinterpretation of our English translations.

Dear reader, I do not claim to understand everything related to the works of the Spirit. But God’s Word is clear about the truths He wants us to know so we can have confidence in what He gives to us. Let us discover that.

First, we will look at what baptism meant to the people of that day. In other words, what were those 120 Jesus people expecting based on previous experience? Then, we will look at what they actually received.

What were they expecting?

Old Testament baptism

The Old Testament Jews used water rituals for cleansing and initiation into special groups. They also used a water ritual for Gentiles who converted to Judaism. Gentiles were non-Jews. They were ritually “cleansed” by water being poured over them to wash away their idolatry.

So, when the Greeks translated the Hebrew Old Testament 200 years before Jesus, they chose the word baptizo or baptismos to represent this water ritual. Our English word “baptism” comes from that Greek word. Baptizo came from the process for dyeing cloth. It did not matter if the cloth was sprayed, dipped, or immersed. The significance was taking on the identity of the dye. Keep that in mind.

Just before Jesus, John the Baptist preached water baptism associated with repentance. Repentance means to change your mind. John called for the Jews to agree that their sin was bad and to decide to change their behavior. Baptism was no longer just an outward ritual for the Jew, but it now required an inner commitment to change one’s life, similar to what was required of the Gentiles before this. What John did with water baptism prepared the way for changes coming with Jesus. Jesus challenged people to not only think about their sin differently, but to think about Him differently—as the Son of God to whom they would commit their lives. We cover this in our Heartbreak to Hope study of the gospel of Mark.

New Testament baptism

When Jesus taught about Spirit Baptism, he used a different word than what the disciples had known for the water cleansing ritual. Jesus chose baptisma, which means “immersion.” Think about Spirit baptism in terms of the dyeing process and taking on the identity of the dye. With Spirit baptism, the transforming power of the Holy Spirit creates a permanent change in the believer. We are dyed with Christ. D-Y-E-D. We are immersed into Jesus Christ—never to come out again. In Acts chapter 1, Jesus said this,

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5)

In essence, Jesus was saying to His disciples, “What you are about to receive will be nothing like water baptism. Something is going to happen. And life as you know it will never be the same.”

But what would that look like? Their understanding of the work of the Spirit was only what they read in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit was very active in Israel—coming upon leaders, prophets, and even craftsmen to enable them to do the work that God had chosen for them to do. This was often accompanied by spontaneous praise of God just flowing from their hearts with joy. That was one of the evidences of the Spirit’s presence. The Spirit spoke to both men and women for all the people to hear God’s word. He was with them, but He did not live in them permanently. That was promised for the future.

Jesus promised His disciples that the Spirit would do many of those same things I just described. But He would do much more than that. He would live in them forever. And He would change them from the inside out. Their lives as they knew them would never be the same. And it would all begin with Spirit Baptism. So, what did they receive?

What did they receive?

There are 11 specific references to Spirit Baptism in the New Testament—enough to understand what takes place. I am going to examine a few of those now.

Let me tell you this. Some of our confusion comes from the English translations of the Greek phrase en pneuma. I am not a Greek scholar. But I do read the works of those who are. Here is what I discovered: That word pneuma is “the Spirit” in every case. That little word en is a preposition and can be translated with, by, in, or of. Translators choose the word that reads best in the context. So, you might read in your Bibles “baptized with the Spirit” in Acts 1:5 and “baptism by the Spirit” in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Sadly, different theologies have been built on those two English phrases as though they are different events, but they are really the exact same phrase in Greek and the exact same event. So, because we all come from different spiritual backgrounds, to avoid confusion, I am calling it “Spirit Baptism.”

And I am going to give you several facts from the Bible about what Spirit Baptism really is so that you, as a Christian, will be confident that this has happened to you.

Truth #1. Spirit Baptism is the Spirit’s work of indwelling the believer.

Every believer receives the complete Holy Spirit the moment they trust in Christ. Romans 8:9 confirms this.

…if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:9)

You either have the Holy Spirit, or you don’t. Every Christian has the complete Holy Spirit indwelling her or him. That is necessary for the rest of what happens to us.

Truth #2. Spirit Baptism is the Spirit’s work of uniting us with Christ–identifying us with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

This is described by Paul in Romans chapter 6.

… don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus (Spirit Baptism) were baptized into his death? … For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3,5)

At Spirit Baptism, we are joined to Christ Jesus, fused together with who He is and what He has done. His death provided us with forgiveness of sins and His resurrection gave us new life. That is the process of us being born again. We are dyed with Christ. D-Y-E-D. We take on the identity of Jesus so that when God looks on us, He sees Jesus instead. We are in Christ. All those spiritual blessings we have in Christ—being chosen, adopted, forgiven, sealed—all of those are wrapped up and delivered to us in the Spirit. It is a package deal. Every Christian receives this at Spirit Baptism. Our Seek the Treasure study of Ephesians covers these in detail.

Nowhere in the New Testament is any believer commanded or exhorted to be Spirit baptized. It is God’s gift initiated by God to those who put their faith in Christ. It is not initiated by us. We are the ones born again. We are united with Christ and receive the blessings that identify us as Christians at that time.

Truth #3. Spirit Baptism is the Spirit’s work of making all believers permanent members of the Body of Christ.

On the day of Pentecost, all 120 believers were plugged into the brand-new Body of Christ—the Church—by Spirit Baptism. We get that from 1 Corinthians 12:13.

… For we were ALL baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body … (1 Corinthians 12:13)

That is permanent immersion into the body of Christ. Paul stated clearly that all believers had been Spirit baptized and placed permanently into the Body of Christ.

Truth #4. Spirit Baptism occurs once and for all at the salvation of each believer.

In Acts, God was introducing something new, and He did not follow a set pattern at first. So, it is not wise to selectively choose a passage from Acts and use it as a doctrinal statement on how to receive the Holy Spirit, especially up to the point when the Gentiles as a group were added to the Church. But absolutely positively, everyone who believed received Spirit Baptism. The Spirit writing through Paul makes sure we know this truth in Galatians 3. Paul wrote,

So in Christ Jesus you are ALL children of God through faith, for ALL of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

There is that being dyed with Christ again.

Ephesians 4 also says this,

There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one BAPTISM… (Ephesians 4:4-5)

“One baptism” evidently belongs to the same group as “one Lord” and “one faith.” Spirit Baptism is a permanent condition and occurs once. Water baptism can be repeated at different times in your life. Spirit Baptism cannot be repeated because a person would have to be removed from the Body of Christ in order to be reinstated again by a second baptism. We know that cannot happen because Scripture makes it clear that the Spirit will be with us forever. It is not like the Old Testament days when He came upon people temporarily for them to do a specific job. Under the new covenant, Jesus assures us that He has given us the Holy Spirit as His indwelling presence forever. That is from John 14:16. Forever does not stop.

Did you notice the repeated use of all in the verses we have covered? There is an emphasis in the New Testament on Spirit Baptism as universal and equal for every believer.

What we can learn from all of these verses is this:

Truth #5. Spirit Baptism is a change of state and is not validated by any particular outward sign.

What do I mean by change of state? Think of baking a cake. Individual ingredients are mixed together for a cake, but once baked those ingredients can never be separated out again. Just like what happens to a cake, a person goes from being without God to being with God forever; from being filthy with sin to being cleansed of all sin; and from being an enemy of God to becoming the Temple of God. Those flames of fire in Acts chapter 2 represented the presence of God as He inaugurated His new temple. No longer would the faithful go to a building inhabited by God. He is now living in Jesus people. That truth both astonishes and humbles me—God living inside me. Does it astonish and humble you? By faith, I know this is true because the Bible says so.

What might trip you up

What might trip you up is that you may expect an experience similar to what they had at Pentecost or a few other places in Acts to validate that Spirit Baptism has happened to you. So, you may tend to measure your spirituality by whether or not you have had a particular “experience,” especially speaking in languages foreign to your understanding. Tongues. You may have had that experience in your life. That is great. I am not saying that experience is not valid or genuine or anything like that. What I am saying is Spirit Baptism is not necessarily evidenced by that particular experience or any other like the sound of rushing wind or tongues of fire on your head. It is primarily a change of state from being separated from Christ to being united with Him receiving everything we need for life and godliness at that instant. Are you still with me at all? Hang on and let me explain.

Jesus told Nicodemus that,

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

We have already seen that being born again is simultaneous with Spirit Baptism. Jesus said it happens whether or not the believer is conscious of it. He does not promise that our senses will know we are born again at Spirit Baptism.

In Acts, not every new Christian had the experience of speaking in tongues. In less than 30 years, when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, only some were given the gift of speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10-11). The rest are given other gifts by the Holy Spirit. Nowhere does Paul exhort them to be Spirit Baptized to receive the tongues gift.

In the book of Romans, where Paul gives his fullest and most definitive statement about salvation and the central truths of Christianity, tongues are not mentioned once, and yet every other doctrine vital to living in this world as a believer is carefully expounded. (Hal Lindsey, Carole C. Carlson, Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, p. 143)

This is very important. Volcanic! The gift of the Spirit is separate from the gifts of the Spirit. Jesus’ gift of His Spirit to every single one of us—all equally at Spirit Baptism—is not the same thing as the spiritual gifts given to individual believers according to the Spirit’s own will and choice. Those are individually received and accessed.

Some of you when you believed in Jesus felt a warmed heart, a feeling of relief or belonging, or a sense of tremendous joy. You will see joy as one of the first responses of believers in the book of Acts. Some people cannot remember a specific experience or even a specific time. That is okay. They just know that they looked at things one way before a certain time in their lives and then looked at things from God’s point of view after that time. Yet, we hear about those who have received the outwardly visible gift of speaking in tongues and think, “If only I had that, then I would know that I was Spirit Baptized.”

Dear believer, the point I want to drive home is this: whether or not you sensed anything, God’s Word assures you that Spirit Baptism happened to you the moment you placed your trust in Jesus Christ.

Experiencing Spirit power

But there is another issue. Many of us have a sincere desire to know and experience the power of God. We may tend to think that those outwardly visible signs are the best evidence of spiritual power. I recently read a great way of looking at this.

The Holy Spirit is indeed manifest in great explosions of revival and power. But to seek those evidences as the primary work of the Spirit is like looking at fireworks exploding on the Fourth of July as the way to keep America independent. The fireworks are a celebration of what already exists … They have very little to do with the business of winning and maintaining liberty and independence. And that liberty exists whether or not there are any fireworks.(Donald K. Smith)

Isn’t that a wonderful way to view the sign gifts? Yes, we want to experience spiritual power like we see in the book of Acts. But listen to this: The whole New Testament confirms that the greatest evidence of the power of God in a person’s life is not in the gifts given. It is in the miracle of a transformed life that comes to us through the Spirit living in us.

Conclusion

I know I did not answer all your questions about Spirit Baptism. But I want you to know with confidence that if you have trusted in Christ, you received Spirit Baptism at that moment. If you have not trusted in Christ yet, you can do so today and receive Spirit Baptism immediately. Based on what you know about the Spirit’s work in your life, I hope you develop a sensitivity to His presence and what He is doing in you.

You can see evidence that the Holy Spirit lives inside you, empowering you to live and serve Jesus. That is the kind of experience we can all embrace and enjoy. With that, you might get a sense that something is about to happen. And life as you have known it will never be the same as you embark on the adventure God has for you.

Read the next article in this series on Spirit Filling.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with His Spirit’s transforming power. And say yes to a life of adventure with Him!

All of the above information is covered in the Radical Acts Bible Study of the book of Acts.

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AI was not used to generate this post.

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