06. Baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire  -  I

 

 

The evening following His resurrection, Jesus, all of a sudden, came and stood in the midst of His disciples, and after having spoken to them He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-22).

 

Now let’s look at Luke 24:36-48. Here Luke gives his account of Jesus’ appearance to His disciples. And in verse 45 we read: Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. How did He do that? The answer is quite simple: by His Spirit. When Jesus breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit, they understood the Scriptures. Many times I have heard people saying: “The Bible was a closed book to me, but when I got born again, the Holy Spirit made it an open book to me.”

 

A lot of people think, that this is the gospel, and that there is no more. They go to church every Sunday, hear the Word, hear that they are saved when they are living a decent life, they have the Holy Spirit to help them, etc. And that’s it.!

 

But, praise the Lord, He has far more in store for us. Luke 24:45 is not the end of Luke’s gospel. Let’s look what it says in verse 49: And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city (i.e. Jerusalem) until you are clothed with power from on high. What is that promise of My Father?  And what does it mean to be clothed with power from on high?  The answer is to be found in Luke’s book on the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, as from verse 4, where he refers to the meeting of Jesus and His disciples in his gospel (Luke 24), that we just read. In verses 4 and 5 of Acts 1 we read the following: …..He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which, He said, you heard of  from Me;  for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And in verse 8 Jesus says: …..you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

 

It’s getting time to look at this baptism with the Holy Spirit.