Online Bible Study - Foundations of Faith

The Holy Spirit

Now let us look at the final words of John the Baptist, found in Matthew 3:11, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." These words are simply John's Spirit-given knowledge of what would happen when Jesus' promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit would occur, as it did on the wonderful day of Pentecost. Here is the Biblical account again. "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a blowing of 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" (Acts 2:1-4). This was the ''baptism of the Holy Spirit." This is not the baptism that saves. This is the baptism that enables Christians to witness, to be messengers of the Gospel, to be in mission.

There are not two different "saving" baptisms. Only the baptism commanded by Christ, with water and in the name of the Triune God, saves. The "baptism of the Holy Spirit" empowers us to serve.

To receive a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, such as that which was received by the first Apostles on Pentecost, is a blessing that should be prayed for. A gift like this should be the desire of every Christian, so that all of us can "Go and preach the Gospel" (Matthew 28:19a) with the Spirit's power in the whole world as His witnesses and His missionaries.

Paul makes this clear when he wrote in Titus 3:5-6, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior." We have found in scripture that baptism and the fruits of the Spirit are blessings that Christians enjoy by God's great mercy and love.

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