Daily Archives: July 22, 2013

Dunked Into Jesus

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DUNKED INTO JESUS

“‘We’ve never even heard of that — a Holy Spirit? God within us?’
“‘How were you baptised then?’ asked Paul.
“‘In John’s baptism.’
“‘That explains it,’ said Paul.’ John preached a baptism of radical life-change so that people would be ready to receive the One coming after him, who turned out to be Jesus. If you’ve been baptised into John’s baptism, you’re ready now for the real thing, for Jesus.’

“And they were. As soon as they heard of it, they were baptised in the name of the Master Jesus. Paul put his hands on their heads and the Holy Spirit entered them. From that minute on, they were praising God in tongues and talking about God’s actions. Altogether there were about twelve people there that day.” Acts 19:2-7 (The Message).

Why did Luke include this incident in his story of the church? Was it because the Holy Spirit knew that in days to come the church’s understanding and practice of baptism would become another issue so contentious that it would split the church and even be the reason for bloodshed? Misunderstanding about baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit have done major damage to the unity of Christ’s body.

It is impossible, in a short article like this, to deal with the subject thoroughly. However, these few verses indicate that there is a close link between truth, belief and experience. Unless the practice of baptism is linked to the truth of its meaning, it becomes just another useless religious ritual.

In the light of Paul’s action when he found believers who had only been baptised into John, we have to question the practice of infant baptism. How is it possible for a baby or young child to understand and believe the significance of baptism into either John or Jesus? It’s not the act of sprinkling or immersing in water that is important. It is the meaning of the action that gives it its power

Baptism was a common practice in Judaism. It signified a washing away of the old life and initiation into and identity with a new movement. Priests were baptised into the hereditary office of the priesthood when they reached the age of thirty, as were rabbis when they had completed their training in the Beth Talmud.

There seems to be a close link between baptism into the name of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

To be baptised into the name of Jesus indicated that the initiate had been washed clean of the old life with its sinful practices and embraced Him and His teaching as a new Master and a new way of life. The Holy Spirit sealed this transaction by taking up residence in the new believer and empowering him to become what he had confessed to be.

“Don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4 9(NIV).

There is much more to baptism than being dunked under water. A spiritual transaction takes place in that act of obedience; the old life for a new life, an outward sign of identification with Jesus in His death and resurrection, initiation into a life of discipleship and a sealing of that action by the Holy Spirit’s permanent indwelling. The believer is immersed both into Jesus and into His body, which is the church, by the Holy Spirit.

“For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” 1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV).

God Inside You

Bible Study, ,

GOD INSIDE YOU

“Now it happened that while Apollos was away in Corinth, Paul made his way through the mountains, came to Ephesus and happened on some disciples there. The first thing he said was, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace Him with your heart? Did He get inside you?'” Acts 19:1-2 (The Message).

First of all, it’s possible that these disciples were not part of the mainstream church in Ephesus. Paul had spent time there and would no doubt have thoroughly taught the believers the practicalities of their faith, including the person and work of the Holy Spirit. These people might have been the fruit of Apollos’ ministry or an isolated group who had been influenced by other believers in Ephesus but had not yet heard the whole story.

When Paul encountered them, the first question he asked was very significant. If they were unaware of the Holy Spirit’s existence and work in them, they would have lacked an awareness of God’s presence, which was basic to their experience of being “in Christ” and “Christ in them”. As recent converts from paganism, the idea of “God inside them” would have been completely foreign.

Paul did not want them to have the wrong idea that they had simply changed religions. This was not about mental assent to a new belief system. This was about something as radical as relocation into a new dimension of living in which Jesus ruled in the core of their beings through His personal representative, the Holy Spirit.

It was vital that they understood that they were “under new management”, and that they acknowledged and became increasingly aware of His presence in them so that they would recognise and respond to His voice. What was the point of a new religion? That would simply be exchanging one lie for another. To believe that Jesus is who He said He is meant a change of master, a transformation of character and disposition, and a new destiny and destination.

Why is it, then, that the Holy Spirit has become such a contentious and divisive issue in the church? Is this another one of Satan’s ploys to divide the church, and to cloud the truth with such irrelevancies that the most important thing is forgotten? Without the Holy Spirit’s inward, intimate work in us, we can only give mental assent to Jesus, and He becomes just another religious figure among many.

The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is the key to knowing Him. “‘…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth'” John 14:16 (NIV).

“‘All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.'” John 14:25-26 (NIV).

“‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.'” John 16:12-14 (NIV).

Could Jesus have said it more plainly? Is the church not full of immature believers because Christian leaders have failed to do what Paul did — introduce them to the Holy Spirit? Instead of quarrelling about the “doctrine” of the Holy Spirit, how much better it would be for us to get to know Him personally and, by so doing, get to know Jesus!

The Holy Spirit is not some “thing” that we can divide up and choose what we like about Him and ignore or reject what we don’t like. He is God, the third Person of the Trinity who indwells us in the fullness of His person. When we acknowledge Him, it is His divine right to choose what He does with us, and He will always do good because He is God.