01.01B. The Historical Development of Baptism with the Spirit.

B. The Historical Development of Baptism with the Spirit.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit was initiated at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, when “the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:22; Luke 4:1). Christ the Head of the church was baptized with the Holy Spirit first so that later those who believe on Him might be baptized by the Spirit into His body, the church. This Spirit-baptism of believers into the body of Christ was revealed for our edification in four stages that followed the geographical pattern set forth in Jesus’ command to His disciples to be “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

1. In Jerusalem and in all Judea (Acts 1:12-26; Acts 2:1-47). The disciples, having received Jesus’ Great Commission, waited in prayer at Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them to endue them with power. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, while they were all together praying, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and performed two operations. First, the Lord’s promise-“you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now”-came true (Acts 1:5). At that moment the New Testament church was formed when all the Pentecost believers “by one Spirit…were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Second, at the same time the believers “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” and received the power and ability necessary to be His “witnesses” to the people of every nation (Acts 2:4; Acts 1:8). Their baptism with the Holy Spirit was certainly not a salvation experience, since they possessed eternal life long before Pentecost (“Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God,’” John 6:68-69; also see John 13:10; John 17:19). Baptism with the Spirit was for those who had already been born again to properly join and become members of the body of Christ. Their being filled with the Holy Spirit was to give them wisdom, ability and liberty in preaching and in other service for God. That same day, Pentecost, 3,000 Jews were saved and added to the newly formed body. As 1 Corinthians 12:13 makes plain, their baptism with the Holy Spirit was God’s procedure to make the disciples members of His body. On this occasion “baptism with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5) and “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4) occurred simultaneously, so that all the 120 believers at Pentecost became members of the body of Christ (Spirit-baptism) and also were qualified to serve the Lord with power (Spirit-filling).

2. In Samaria (Acts 8:1-25). Following His operation at Jerusalem during Pentecost, the next place where the Holy Spirit manifested His presence in great power was in Samaria. The Samaritans were neither wholly Israelite nor completely Gentile. After his conquest of Israel Sargon II, the king of Assyria, brought from cities such as Babylon, Cutah, and Avva people who intermarried with the native Israelites left behind when he carried many of the northern Jews into exile. Not only were the Samaritans a mixture of various people but their religion was a combination of fearing the LORD while simultaneously worshipping idols (2 Kings 17:24-41). As a result the Jews of Judah in Jesus’ day held them in contempt, considering them to be religiously unclean. Since the days of Ezra and Nehemiah several hundred years earlier, the two groups had not mixed either socially or religiously (Ezra 4:1-10; John 4:4-9, “The Samaritan woman therefore said to [Jesus], ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan?’ [For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans]”). Although the Lord Jesus charged His disciples during His ministry not to enter into any city of the Samaritans because at that time He limited His ministry to the Jews, He still had compassion toward them. This was illustrated by the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and her neighbors whom He led to have faith in Himself, and also, by His parable of the Good Samaritan.

Although He spent two days with the people while passing through Samaria, His present mission was “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). At Pentecost the time came for God to expand His mission beyond the lost sheep of Israel to include Samaria and the rest of the Gentiles (Acts 1:8). His first step was to remove the 500-year-old barrier that existed between Jews and Samaritans by making of the two one new entity in Christ Jesus. Under God’s providence, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The Samaritans believed God’s Word as preached to them by Philip and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received Christ and sent Peter and John to help in the work. The leaders laid their hands on the Samaritans who were then baptized by the Holy Spirit, placing them into the new and ever-growing body of Christ (Acts 8:1-17). This was the first time since Pentecost that the Holy Spirit had extended His work beyond the Jews, and now those who had formerly worshipped on Mount Gerazim could worship God in “spirit and truth” (John 4:20; John 4:24). As at Pentecost, so at Samaria, both “baptism with the Holy Spirit” and the “filling of the Holy Spirit” occurred sometime after the believers had received the Lord. These two events were the first steps in the progressive development of the “baptism with the Holy Spirit.” At Caesarea, however, the “baptism with the Holy Spirit” would occur at the same moment that the converts exercised faith in Christ.

3. In Caesarea-a city further removed from Jerusalem than is Samaria (Acts 10:1-48). Caesarea was built by Herod the Great along the coast of Palestine in honor of Augustus Caesar. In his usual magnificent style, Herod erected splendid palaces and public buildings, including a theater and amphitheater with an extensive view of the sea.

Under the city a spacious sewer system promoted cleanliness and health. The city was thoroughly Roman. The Talmud called it the daughter of Edom which is the mystic name for Rome, probably denoting the low moral and spiritual condition of the city. There was a large Jewish population living in the city, but the major part of the city’s population was Gentile.

Approximately 40 years after the birth of our Lord Jesus, the Roman centurion at Caesarea, Cornelius, sent messengers to Peter inviting him to come to preach to his household, relatives, and friends. Peter was about 30 Roman miles away at Joppa.

Because of the divine instruction God gave him in a vision earlier in the day, Peter accepted the invitation and with some close companions journeyed to Caesarea. When he arrived at Cornelius’ house, Peter, the orthodox Jew, amazingly admitted, “In every nation the man who fears [God] and does what is right, is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:35). Through the vision previously granted to him, Peter had learned that God is not partial. His gospel was not only for the Jews but for all people who fear the Lord.

Addressing his audience of Gentiles who feared God, Peter continued to preach the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and that “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43). During his sermon the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message, just as He had fallen upon the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 11:15). Then Peter said, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized” (Acts 10:47). What Peter meant was that since the people of the Roman household had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, made members of the body of Christ, and were filled with the Holy Spirit who gave them the gift of speaking in tongues (Acts 11:16; Acts 10:46), no one should forbid them the outward ceremony of water baptism as a public testimony to their inner faith and to admit them to the company of other believers. Here baptism with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ immediately followed the converts’ faith in Christ, whereas at Pentecost and Samaria there was quite an interval between the two events. Henceforth, in all of church history from Caesarea onward, faith in Christ will be immediately followed by baptism with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

4. At Ephesus-a city symbolizing the “remotest part of the earth” (Acts 19:1-41). The next revelation regarding the simultaneous baptism and the filling with the Holy Spirit occurred at Ephesus. In Paul’s days, Ephesus was situated at the intersection of several major highways in Asia Minor, including the great trade route to the Euphrates River. It was also a major port for trade goods coming from all over the region to be shipped to Rome. At this time it was the governmental center of Rome in Asia. So sooner or later almost everyone in the whole region would visit the city. Therefore, in God’s wisdom, the apostle Paul taught here “for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the words of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

Later, the Holy Spirit through John would point out Ephesus’ spiritual importance by listing it as first among “the seven churches” (Revelation 1:20; Revelation 2:1). Although the city had great commercial advantage and was an important church center, the majority of the people were very superstitious. Ephesus was probably a center for Eastern magic and magicians.

Yet many of these practitioners of magic believed the gospel, confessed their evil practices, and gathered their magic books and parchments together to make a great bonfire of them. The documents they burned were worth 50,000 pieces of silver, which equaled 50,000 days of wages (Acts 19:18-19). Those who practiced the Jewish religion were numerous but had little influence among the local inhabitants. Josephus stated that the special religious privilege enjoyed by the Jews had to be approved by the local authorities and then in Rome by Augustus himself. Ephesus therefore was basically a Gentile city and fittingly represented the non-Jewish world.

Some thirteen years had passed since the Holy Spirit manifested Himself at Cornelius’ house in Caesarea by simultaneous Spirit-baptism and Spirit-filling. Coming to Ephesus in about 52 AD, Paul met twelve men who claimed to be disciples. They had been baptized according to the message proclaimed by John the Baptist, but they did not know that Jesus Christ was the One of whom John testified. Paul’s first question was “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Their response was, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” Paul immediately explained to them the necessity of believing in Jesus. Following Paul’s admonition, they accepted the Lord Jesus and were baptized by water into His name. The Holy Spirit came upon the twelve, and they received the baptism with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ and were also filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues and prophesying, which is speaking edifying words inspired by the Lord. This combination of baptism with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ and filling by the Holy Spirit for successful service occurring simultaneously was not seen after that time in the book of Acts or in the rest of the Bible. In other words, the combination of these two works of the Spirit in one operation happened only in the early stages of the church. It began on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem about 30 AD and lasted through Paul’s initial meeting with the twelve disciples at Ephesus about the middle of 52 AD.

After the event at Ephesus, when the church had become fairly well established, baptism with the Spirit and Spirit-filling became two separate events. The Spirit’s baptism of the believer into the body of Christ continued happening immediately after receiving by faith Jesus as Lord. However, being filled with the Holy Spirit most usually followed salvation after some interval of time. Also, the external manifestation caused by the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers resulted from their being filled with the Spirit, rather than by their baptism with the Spirit into the body of Christ.

Consequently, now whenever a convert believes in Christ, the Holy Spirit gives him a new birth and immediately baptizes him into the body of Christ, without the need for any special external manifestation or any interval of time occurring. This is confirmed by what God said through Paul to the Corinthians, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body [the church]” and “your body [singular] is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19). The “one body” (the church) and “your body” (the individual believer) included all the members of the church in Corinth. No matter who or how weak or how insignificant they were, all the believers there had become “one [church] body” and also the individual “temple of the [indwelling] Holy Spirit” through baptism with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, no one after having been born again should still be seeking for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. To alleviate some of the confusion regarding the various operations of the Holy Spirit, let us consider the differences between baptism with the Spirit and filling with the Spirit.