Marcus Mecum - Receiving The Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 12:13. It says, "For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free- and all have been made to drink into one Spirit". I want you to see that this text, and even if you read earlier in the chapter, that no one could say Jesus is Lord apart from the Spirit of God. When you give your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit is who prepares your heart, prepares situations, and that it's not a natural thing, but it's a supernatural thing.
And the Holy Spirit baptizes you into Jesus, baptizes you into the body of Christ. And that is the first, what I would consider baptism, we call it salvation, but it is in this verse, it referred to as Jesus, or the Holy Spirit baptizing us into Jesus. Then you have Matthew 28:19 where the Bible is teaching us to go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, and then it gives us specific instructions to teach and to preach. But it goes into saying that you are to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so, water baptism is a second baptism that you read about in scripture.
So, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Jesus, that's how we get saved, baptizes us into the body of Christ. Then you have water baptism. And then the third one is Matthew 3:11, it says, "Indeed, I baptize you with the water unto repentance, but who is coming after me is mightier than i, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire". And so, here you have Jesus baptizing us in the Holy Spirit. Now, water baptism, the second one we mentioned, we're gonna push that over here for today. But we're gonna look at number one, the baptism of or by the Holy Spirit. And the third one, which is the baptism in or with the Holy Spirit. When you get saved, you get the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. But the Bible specifically talks about the baptism in or with the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew 3, John the Baptist is there, and he says, "There's one who is coming that I'm not even worthy to buckle his sandal. And he, Jesus, will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire". So, we're going to look at both of these. The first one is how the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ. The second one is how Jesus baptizes us in or with the Holy Spirit. Theologically speaking, these are not the same. Theologically speaking, they cannot be the same.
Let's go one step further. If you wanna argue there, grammatically speaking, they are not the same. I'm no English major, but the person that brought my attention to this thought has their major, they are a grammarian. It's what they do. They pick apart the English language in every possible way. And it is clear, grammatically speaking, that these are two very different subjects. Salvation is where the Holy Spirit baptize us into Jesus, receiving the Holy Spirit is Jesus baptizing us, immersing us, surrounding us, filling us, overflowing in our life with the Holy Spirit. And it's very important that you consider this thought as we move forward into some of these subjects. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is in every single one of the four gospels.
And I want to tell you why this matters so much to you and to me, it's because there are very, very, very few things that make it into all four gospels. You have Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they're the synoptic gospels or the same or similar gospels. So, they're telling the same stories, the same parables, they're going through the same miracles. But John is the fourth gospel and it's not one of the synoptic gospels. And the reason why is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came along, they record pretty much the same things. They begin with the birth of Jesus. They go to the John, John the Baptist being beheaded, and then they primarily record the third year of Jesus's ministry. And they're all the same in that way.
So, you can read the same parables, the same stories, the same miracles. They kinda walk right through the same things. Well, John is the only apostle that lived to be an old age. He's the only one that would die a natural death. And so, 70 years after Jesus' death, John looks back and he is looking at Matthew, Mark and Luke, and he's saying to himself, "There are some things that they're missing. They miss the first two years of Jesus's ministry". And so, he began to say to himself, "I want to try to fill in the gaps. I wanna make sure that everything is filled in". So, you're not going to see the same stories and parables in John that you do in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And so, John 1, John clears up that Jesus was not just born of a virgin and show up on the planet, he existed before all of that. And John takes him all the way back to the creation of the earth. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God". So, he clears that up. John 2, we see Jesus's first miracle where he turns the water into wine at the wedding of cana, of Galilee. John 3, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. John 4, the woman at the well. John 8, the woman caught in adultery. John 9, the blind man is healed. Lazarus is raised from the dead. My favorite part of John would be chapters 14, 15 and 16 where we have a detailed walk-through, exactly what Jesus talked to the apostles about at the last supper.
And John 14 goes into great detail about the Holy Spirit, why it was important that Jesus die. Why it was important that he not only raised from the dead but ascended the right hand of the father. And he begins to walk through with the apostles, not just that his body would be broken, not just that his blood would be shed, not just that through that we would have healing and forgiveness in life, but he's also walking them through that when he ascends, the Holy Spirit is going to descend and carry on and continue the ministry that he began.
And so, none of that is recorded in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. What is recorded in all four of the gospels is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, which according to 1 Corinthians 15 is the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus came, he died a death, he was buried in a real tomb, the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and he was raised from the dead, physically was raised up from the dead on the third day. That is the gospel. And on top of all of that, watch it, the only thing that you see that is recorded in all four gospels, like those three things is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is clear in all four gospels.
You can see it in Matthew 3, you see it in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and then in John 1:33, the Holy Spirit had never descended and remain. But we see, when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended and remained on Jesus, which means Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit when he was on the earth. And it is clear, it's as clear as his water baptism was that his spirit baptism followed the water baptism. And if Jesus needed the baptism in the Holy Spirit, do you really think that you and I can live our life trying to serve God without the baptism in the Holy Spirit? And so, Jesus never had salvation because he was perfect. He didn't need to be saved, but he was water baptized and he was spirit baptized.
Acts 1:4-5 give us the last words of Jesus on the earth. And this is what he said. "And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise," everybody say, "Promise". It says, "The promise of the father, which he said, 'you have heard from me,'" verse five, "'and John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now'". So, Jesus is ascending. He says, "The promise is coming," which was the Holy Spirit will descend. All 120 that were in the upper room, the Holy Spirit descended on them, they were baptized, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost. He preaches Joel where he said, "This is what the prophet Joel spoke about, that in the last days, God will pour out his spirit on all flesh, that your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will dream dreams. Your old men will see visions". And many people will look at that and they miss that if you jump over to acts 2:37, it says, "Now, when they heard this," they heard this sermon, "They were cut to the heart, and the rest of the apostles said, 'men and brethren'", or, they said to Peter and the apostles, "'men and brethren, what shall we do'? Then Peter said to them, 'repent,'" that's salvation. Right? That's the Holy Spirit baptizing them into Jesus. "Repent, and every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins:" that's the baptism in water, "And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'".
You have salvation, you have water baptism, and you have spirit baptism in that same verse. They're all there. Well, it's important that you realize that when you hear the word baptism in the Holy Spirit or receiving the gift of the spirit, many people will take that and they'll think to themselves, "Well, he's talking about speaking in tongues". I want you to think about this. If I give you a watch, let's say I give you a nice watch. Now you're gonna have to imagine this 'cause I don't have this.
Let's say I gave you a Rolex. That's right. Praise God. Imagine, just, and let's say I give you the watch and it's got everything. It's got, I don't know all the things that it's got, but it's got all the things that make it expensive. It's all there. This is a very valuable watch. And then all you do is obsess over the second hand, like the little, it just clicks, just. I mean, it's got all kinds of other mechanics. It's got a face, it's got a little date thing to it. You just move your wrist and what do they call it? Charges itself or something makes it work. I don't know, however that, it's got all these mech, it's got a, I don't know, a nice silver band or gold, but whatever you think. It's got all of this stuff, but you're obsessed about the second hand. No, I gave you the gift of the watch. The watch was the gift.
The second hand is part of the gift. It comes with the gift, but it's not the gift. And so, what we have is the gift of the Holy Spirit is not one particular gift. The gift of the Holy Spirit or receiving the gift of the spirit is receiving him. You get him and when you get him, you receive all the gifts that come with him. So, the gift is not speaking in tongue, the gift is him. And when you get him, he is your gift, and you can desire all the other gifts when you receive him.
Now people say, "Well, all of this ended after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early church when the 120 received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost". Well, Jesus said, "This is a promise". And because he knew that someday we would be so limited in our thinking that we would try to argue our way away from this, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke continued in verse 39 of acts 2, and he says, "For the promise is to you and to your children". So, you got the 120, now you got their children. But then someone would say, "Well, it ceases there". So, they go a little bit further, "And to all who are a far off". Well, how far? "As many as the Lord our God will call".
If God's called you, if God's forgiven you, if you are a son and a daughter of God, this promise is for you. It is not ceased. It is very much so as available today as it was when the early church initially received it. Acts 8:12, actually, let's just drop down to verse 14. "Now, when the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit".
Why is it important? Because in the Bible you have people that are saved, they're water baptized and they never received the Holy Spirit, and they settle for less than what God has intended for us to receive. You say, "Well, do I have the Holy Spirit at salvation"? Absolutely. We started with that. The Holy Spirit is who initiates any work that God does in your life. The Holy Spirit baptizes us into Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us. This is clear with Jesus when he went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights in Matthew 4. It says, "He was led by the spirit". So, the Spirit of God lived on the inside of him. But then he came out of the wilderness, went to the river Jordan to be water baptized, and the Holy Spirit descended on him and remained.
So, God wants you to have the first baptism where he baptizes you into Jesus, where apart from the Holy Spirit, you can't even say, "Jesus is Lord". He wants you then to be water baptized, but he also wants you to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, immersed, filled, surrounded by the Holy Spirit. Acts 19:1-6, I can see that you're still tracking along with me. That's okay. I like it. 'cause the Word of God's just like a Hammer, right? You just keep, and eventually it breaks.
"And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, 'did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed'? So they said to him, 'we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit'. And he said to them, 'into what then were you baptized'? And they said, 'in John's baptism'. Then Paul said, 'John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is on Christ Jesus'. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues, and they prophesied".
1 John 5:7, "There are three that bear witness in heaven, the father, the word," that's Jesus, "And the Holy Spirit, and the three are one". Then it says, "There are three that bear witness on the earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree as one". In the same way that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in heaven work in unison to bring about the fullness of the Godhead, so it is in our life, it's the blood, the water, and the spirit that work together as one to bring about the fullness of God in our life. And so, when you get saved you become a brand-new person. When you're baptized, the old is cut off. And then the Holy Spirit is the power for you and I that comes and lives on the inside of us to help us walk out the life that God has called us to.
1 Corinthians 10:6, I'm gonna now show you how this has always been the pattern of God. This has always been how God operates. So, we're gonna go back to the Old Testament because 1 Corinthians 10, let's look at, I don't know, maybe verse 10. Actually, let's look at verse 11. "Now these things happen to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon the ends of the ages have come". In other words, another translation says that everything you read about in the Old Testament, this is what Hebrew says, is a present-day illustration.
So, when you read the Old Testament and you read about Egypt and you read about the wilderness and you read about water coming out of the rock and you read about manna every day, or you read about the Jordan parting and you read about them possessing the Promised Land, when you read about it all, it actually happened, it's a real story, but it's also this massive illustrated sermon that God has been preaching throughout human history so we can somehow track with how he works in our lives, how he's worked throughout human history, so we can maybe better understand how he does things, how we can approach him, how we can have a relationship with him.
And so, verse one of that same chapter, 1 Corinthians 10:1, "More over brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea". Moses is a picture of Jesus, the Red Sea is a picture of baptism, and the cloud by day, and fire by night is a picture or a type of the Holy Spirit. And so, it's important that we understand that this is the way God has always worked. He gives us a picture, he gives us an idea so we can begin to track, and seeing how does God work? How does God move in our lives? How does God move in our hearts?
For example, if you were to take the Old Testament tabernacle, God gave very specific instructions on how the tabernacle was to be built and designed. You have a door that goes into the tabernacle. There's one door, there's only one door. You gotta go through that door if you're going to enter into anything that God is doing inside of the tabernacle, which is where the Ark of the Covenant dwelled, which is where his presence was. And so, you had to come through that door. You couldn't, you know, come underneath it. There was no back door in, there was no exit door. You had the one door and you had to come through that, which is the picture of Jesus, that Jesus is the door. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but through him. He's the door.
Now there's a lie in the world that the church has gotta be careful of, and that is that Christianity is like the other religions, that this is just another version of the same thing, that you've got Buddhists and you got Hindus and you got Muslims, and you got all these people out there, and that Christianity's just kind like them, just uses different terminology. That's actually not true, not even close to true. What we have is not that we're superior to them, we found the door. And the door is Jesus. And whether someone's lost in addiction or lost in sin or lost in a false religion, our job is to not act like we're better than them, our job is to point them to the door, that Jesus is the way to the father.
And what those things are, are those are the devil's way. That is a false religion, that the little 'g' God of those religions and the little 'g' God of this world is trying to blind their minds and their hearts from finding the door. Jesus is the door. You come through the door into the tabernacle, then there's the altar. This is where the high priest would sacrifice the lamb and sprinkle the blood. So, this is salvation, the picture of salvation. Then after that you have the brazen laver, which is where the water dwells.
So, the high priest would sacrifice the lamb, sprinkle the blood, then he would go wash his hands in the brazen laver or the water, this is water baptism. And then after that, you would stop and there would be a oil, a flask of oil where the high priest would then be anointed. And so you come through the door, which is Jesus, you stop at the altar, this is the cross, this is where Jesus died for our sins. Then you go and you're water baptized, you are washed through the water, you're washed through his words, you're washed through his blood. And then you stop, and you're anointed, you're filled, you're baptized with the Holy Spirit.
And many people say yes to Jesus being the door, and they clap and they shout, and they say yes to he died on a cross, and that's the altar, that's where we come and bring our sin, and that's where we lay our lives down, and we pick up the new life he has for us. And yes, we go to water baptism and we lay our life down, and the old is buried, and we raised into newness of life. But then it comes to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and we say, no.
But you don't get to the most holy place, which is where the presence of God dwelled, you don't get there without the Holy Spirit. And it is important for you and I to realize that if you're saved and you love God, that he wants you to be baptized in his spirit, he wants you to experience the fullness that he has for you, the blood and the water and the spirit, these three are one.