======================================================================== BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT (VIDEO) by Anton Bosch ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the significance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the need for a genuine thirst for God and coming to Jesus to receive this empowerment. It explores the various instances in the book of Acts where individuals were baptized in the Holy Spirit, highlighting the diverse experiences and the importance of ongoing filling with the Spirit for effective Christian living and witness. The sermon also addresses the balance between speaking in tongues and living a life that reflects Christ, prioritizing being a witness over merely witnessing. Topics: "Empowerment by the Holy Spirit", "Living as a Witness for Christ" Scripture References: John 7:37, Acts 1:8, Ephesians 5:18, Acts 2:4, Acts 4:31, Acts 8:14, Acts 10:44, Acts 19:1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the significance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the need for a genuine thirst for God and coming to Jesus to receive this empowerment. It explores the various instances in the book of Acts where individuals were baptized in the Holy Spirit, highlighting the diverse experiences and the importance of ongoing filling with the Spirit for effective Christian living and witness. The sermon also addresses the balance between speaking in tongues and living a life that reflects Christ, prioritizing being a witness over merely witnessing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ So, we're in Hebrews chapter 6, but we'll take our reading from Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12, through chapter 6, verse 3. So Hebrews chapter 5, 12, through chapter 6, verse 3. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you've come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment, and this we will do if God permits. So he is saying that there are these things that are the foundation, he calls them the milk of the word, or the first principles, and we find them in verse 1 and verse 2. So the first one is repentance from dead works, and then the second one faith towards God, and the third one doctrine of baptisms, and that's where we are this evening. Now you'll see baptisms is in plural, and so there are four baptisms, and we're dealing with the third one this evening. The first baptism, baptism into Christ, the second baptism, baptism in water, and then the third baptism, baptism in the Holy Spirit. For those who are online, we are following the outline in the book, Building Blocks for Solid Foundations, and so I'm sort of limited to the script for the sake of those who do follow in the book, which makes it a little bit more difficult for me, but that's fine. So let's go to Acts chapter 1 and verse 5. This is one of the places where we find this term, because the problem, as we've said all along, is that we have this term baptism, and the moment we see the word baptism, we assume it means baptism in water. But clearly, if you begin to look at each one in detail, you find out, in fact, that there's more to it than just baptism in water. There are these other three baptisms, and so in Acts 1.5, this is Jesus speaking just before the ascension, and he said, John truly baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. You remember the image or the picture that we got in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, where it speaks about Israel coming out of Egypt, and it's Egypt being a picture of the world. They are saved from the bondage of sin, if you will, and then it says they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And so the sea speaks about water baptism, as we saw last week. The cloud always speaks about the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, God descended on the tabernacle and later on the temple in the form of a cloud. He led the people of Israel in the wilderness in the cloud during the day and the pillar of fire during the night. So the cloud represents the Holy Spirit. So again, remember the word baptism means to be immersed in, to be placed in, to be plunged, to be dipped, and obviously here it speaks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit. So the concept comes from the Old Testament. There are prophecies in the Old Testament. We'll look at one in Joel in a moment, but also Jesus spoke a lot about this, particularly in the Gospel of John. Over and over, Jesus speaks about this. John 14 is probably the most important chapter on the subject. And verse 16 of John 14, I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. And of course, if you read the context, that helper is the Holy Spirit. The word helper translated counselor in the King James Version, the paraclete, the one who comes beside. And the purpose of the one who comes beside is to help us, to advise us, to direct us. And we're going to look at some of the work of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus says, I need to go away. And when I go away, he says, I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit, in a sense, takes Jesus' place, not in the work of salvation or any of those things. But the disciples are saying, well, you know, if you go, we're going to be here like orphans. And Jesus says, no, the Holy Spirit will come and he will be with you. And he will be with you always or to the end. So in John 14, verse 17, sorry. So I'll pray that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and he will be in you. Now here's a very important concept. One of the problems we have with dealing with the subject is that it is a massive subject. We would need to devote five, six, seven studies to all the aspects of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and particularly to deal with the many misconceptions that are connected to it. We're just going to devote this one. And so really I can only do an overview, only just touching on certain things. We cannot deal with things in detail. But here is one of the very important verses on the subject, because in the end of the verse he says he dwells with you and he will be in you. Now where was the Holy Spirit when Jesus was speaking? Remember this is before the cross. Jesus says, I'm going to have to go away, and I'm going to send you the comforter. So before the cross, where was the Holy Spirit? Was he absent from the world? Was he absent from his disciples? No, he was with them. He dwells with you. But he says there's going to be a change. He will be in you. You see now, this is key to understanding a number of things. The first is that if the Holy Spirit is the restrainer in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, which I believe he is, if he is the restrainer, the question is always, well, if the Holy Spirit is taken, how can people still be saved? And we know that certainly Jews will be saved after the church is taken. So the answer is easy, because the Holy Spirit can never be absent from the world, because he is God, and God by definition is omnipresent. He's always present everywhere. David says even though I go to the deepest hell, you're there. If I go to the highest heaven, you are there. There can be no place where God is not. And the Holy Spirit was on the earth in the Old Testament. And he was there empowering the saints, helping the prophets, and doing the work that the Holy Spirit does. And even now, as Jesus speaks to his disciples, he says, he is with you. But there's a difference coming, he's saying, that he's no longer going to be with you, he's going to be in you. Now that's a big difference. So if the Holy Spirit is taken when the church goes, it doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is not still on the earth. But his indwelling the church will no longer be so. So it will go back to the way it was in the Old Testament. Did people get saved in the Old Testament? Yes they did, obviously in anticipation of the cross, we understand all of that. But the other important thing here, and this is absolutely crucial to understanding, you see the problem when we come to speaking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that there are so many traditions that are man-made traditions, and there are so many misconceptions based on a shallow reading of the scripture that results in all sorts of practices in Pentecostal and charismatic churches, which is not right. The result of that is that there is an overreaction on the part of those who are cessationists. In other words, they believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit cease. Now that's another whole subject, and I shouldn't have mentioned that because I really can't unpack that. But those who do not believe that there is a baptism in the Holy Spirit, most of them don't believe that because of an overreaction of some of the craziness that goes on under the covering of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we know some of that stuff, people running around like chickens without heads, and rolling on the floor, and all sorts of crazy stuff. The excuse when you say, well, you know, you're doing this stuff, the excuse is always the Holy Spirit made me do it. I couldn't help. The problem is that those actions that you see are based on Old Testament things, things that happened in the Old Testament. The difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that you'll read right through the Old Testament that the Holy Spirit came upon the prophet, and he would do certain things, or he would say certain things. But the Holy Spirit never indwelt them in the way that the Holy Spirit indwells the New Testament believer. And so the Holy Spirit would be an external, and so they would speak about the anointing, the anointing came upon him, and so he would do certain things. Most of the things were good and legitimate things, but sometimes they were a little bit crazy, in the sense that Saul, you remember, Saul is out of sorts with God. I don't believe that Saul was a believer at that point anymore. But he goes to do some bad stuff, and it says the Holy Spirit comes upon him, and he takes his clothes off, and he begins to prophesy. So he just goes nuts. Now it was God's judgment, so sometimes this is God's judgment. So to use that as an example and say, well, that's what happened, it must happen in the New Testament. No, it doesn't happen. So the difference is that he is with you, but now he will be in you. So no longer does the Holy Spirit come upon a man on the outside and make him do certain things, or he feels certain things. The Holy Spirit will be within us and empower us from inside—a very, very different mode of operation. And I know there's a whole lot we need to say about that, but I'm just leaving that there, and we can always come back to it at a later stage. Joel, on the day of Pentecost, when they began to speak in tongues, people said, these guys are drunk, those who were onlookers. Peter says, no, they are not drunk, it's the ninth hour. But this is what Joel spoke about. And he quotes Joel chapter 2, 28 and 29. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. This is Old Testament. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. So even in the Old Testament there was the promise that God would pour out his Holy Spirit, and Peter says this is that which Joel spoke about. So what happened at the day of Pentecost was what Joel had prophesied. Now what I want to do now is I want to look at each one of the events in the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit appears, or where people were filled with the Holy Spirit. And there's different language, and I'm not going to try and analyze the difference between being filled with the Holy Spirit or being baptized with the Holy Spirit. But we want to look at each one of the, I think there's six, two, four, six in the book of Acts, and we'll learn certain things from each one of these events, and of course the first event is in Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost. So when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came the sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. This was unique to Jerusalem. This does not happen in the other cases. We've got to be careful when we look at the book of Acts what things were unique to their experience and what things are what we call normative. What becomes the norm? What is standard? What should we expect today? Today we do not expect the sound of a mighty rushing wind, because that was unique to the experience in Acts. And so the flames of fire, the same thing. There appeared to them divided tongues as a fire, and one sat upon each one of them. This happened at another occasion in the book of Acts, but never again. There's nothing in Paul's teaching that says that when the Holy Spirit comes, there'll be the sound of the wind, and there'll be flames of fire. That was something that was unique to the book of Acts. Verse 4, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. See here's the other term. We saw the word baptized with the Holy Spirit, here filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus says, he is with you, he will be in you. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, I'm not going to get into the issue of tongues. I'm going to make reference to it later on when we get near the end. This is a very hotly debated subject. I do believe that tongues are valid today. Just to give you the very short version, but I believe that most of what we see that passes as tongues is fake. I'm just going to say that. I'm not going to try and explain it because I would have to do another whole 45 minute study to prove my point, but I can prove my point. All right, so, but it does not, the problem with a fake, it does not do away with the real. The fact that there are fake hundred dollar bills running around town doesn't mean that there aren't real hundred dollar bills. So to say, well, you know, I mean, here's the problem now. You go to a supermarket or a convenience store and you give them a hundred bucks, what do they do? They say, no, no, no, no, we don't want a hundred bucks. You see, because now they think every hundred dollar bill is fake. And that's the danger when it comes to spiritual things. Because there's fake, people say, no, well, you know, the whole thing is fake. No, it's not necessarily all fake. There are legitimate hundred dollar bills, even though there are fake ones in between. All right, so the next time is in Acts chapter four. Now this is the same group of people who were in the upper room. Not just the twelve, but a hundred and twenty were in that upper room. So it's the twelve plus another hundred and eight. Is that right? I think so. And when they had prayed, the place where they assembled together was shaken. So here's something happening again. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. So here we see a different event. We don't hear the wind, but the place is shaken. It doesn't say that they spoke in tongues. These were the same people from chapter four, so they probably continued to speak in tongues, I would imagine. But notice the sign, and this is very important. I want to spend some time on this in the end, and that's why I need to rush through the rest, because this is one of the most important points I want to make this evening. That tongues is not the only evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is common Pentecostal doctrine. In fact, it's inscribed in the Constitution of the Assemblies of God and of many other Pentecostal denominations that tongues is the only initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We'll see in the book of Acts that tongues is not the only evidence. The evidence here was what? They spoke the word of God with boldness. So they preached with boldness. Persecution had begun. That's the context. And so you can see that you had tongues as evidence in chapter two. You now have boldness in the preaching of the word in chapter four. The next event is in Acts chapter 8, verses 14 through 20. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. You remember Philip had gone to Samaria, and he had preached the gospel. People had gotten saved. The message gets back to Jerusalem. They send Peter and John, the two apostles, there. And when they had come down, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Now here's another important point. Were these people Christians before Peter and John got there? Yes, they were. And yet they prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit as a second experience, if you will, a second event in their lives. So, again, here's the complication. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us. Every single one who's born again has the Spirit, because Paul says if we don't have the Spirit, we are not born again. We are not his sons. By that Spirit, we cry, Abba, Father. It's only by the Holy Spirit that I can call God my Father, obviously not in the fake way that the world does, our Father that is in heaven, but in the real way, call God your Father. So the Christian who is born again has the Holy Spirit. These people were born again. They had the Holy Spirit, but now the Holy Spirit comes in a different way, in a special way to empower them for service. That's just the saying that we use. And we're going to see this happening, the same in the upper room, the 120 in the upper room. Were they Christians at that point? Yes, they were. They were believers. They had gone through the experience of the cross with the Lord Jesus. Many had, Peter, of course, had denied him, and so on. We'll see this as we get into the next few chapters of Luke. But after the resurrection, Peter is restored in John chapter 21, as they have breakfast with Jesus at the seashore. They are real believers. They are born again, and yet they have not received the Holy Spirit, because Jesus says wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes. We're going to go back to that verse a little later. So here you see exactly the same thing again. The apostles that were in Jerusalem heard that Samaritans received the Word. You don't receive the Word. It doesn't mean the Word was preached there. The Word was received. That's the problem, is that as a preacher, I preach, but the Word is not always received. When you receive the Word, you accept it, and you obey it. So they sent Peter and John. They 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. So you remember the lesson from last week. Who can be baptized? Only believers. Philip says to the Ethiopian eunuch, if you believe, you may be baptized. So they were believers, and they were baptized as believers, but the Holy Spirit had not come upon them. Verse 17, then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money. Now, here's another issue. You can see that this becomes complicated. What happened in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost? They were just sitting there. They were worshiping God. The Holy Spirit came upon them. Nobody laid hands on them. But here, they laid hands on them. So, immediately, without looking at the other verses yet, we must ask the question, do you need to have hands laid on to receive the Holy Spirit? And the answer is no, because they didn't in the book of Acts. They did in this case. But you see, this is what people do. They take this verse, and they build a whole doctrine on it, and the doctrine is called impartation. In other words, certain men have the gift of impartation. It's not a word or concept you get in the Bible. It's based on this idea that there are certain people who have the gift in their hands to lay hands on people and impart to them, to give to them, the Holy Spirit. That's rubbish. There's no such thing in the scripture. In some cases, hands were laid on people, and they received the Holy Spirit. In other cases, hands were not laid on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. All right. Now, verse 18, when Simon saw, so what did he see? I don't know. What those who say that tongues is the only initial evidence say that he must have heard them speaking tongues. Well, that's not what it says. He saw something. Something had happened. What it was, I don't know. It doesn't tell us. But there was a visible difference. So much so that Simon, remember he was a magician, a sorcerer, was willing to pay money to have this gift of impartation. All right, verse 19, saying, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And of course, that by itself blows this whole impartation thing out of the water, because only God can give the Holy Spirit. No man has the authority to give the Holy Spirit. All right, verse 20, and Peter said to him, your money perish with you, because he thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. The next event, this is the fourth one, is in Acts chapter 9, verse 17. This is Paul. So Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. Is he saved? Yes, he is saved. And of course, he is blinded by that experience. He goes into the city, and Ananias is sent to Paul. This is not Ananias, the prophet that you read about in Acts, there are two Ananiases, this is a different one. But Ananias went his way, God sent him to Paul, and he entered the house, and laying his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So here, again, he lays hands on him. And Peter, now, again, it doesn't tell us what happens. Later on, in the book of Corinthians, Paul says, I speak in, I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than you all. So people say, well, you see, he received the gift of tongues here. That may be so. I'm not going to argue about that. Acts chapter 10, this is the fifth one, verse 44. This is the household of Cornelius. Remember, Peter sees this vision of a sheet with clean and unclean animals. God gives him instruction to go and preach the gospel to a Gentile. Cornelius is this Gentile. And Peter goes there. And while Peter was still speaking these words, so he goes to Cornelius' house and begins to preach. While he is still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. Did he lay hands on them? No, he was still preaching, and it happened. So you can see the difference. Verse 45, and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. So this becomes a pivotal experience for the church. Up to this point, all those who had received the Holy Spirit were either Jewish or half Jewish. Samaritans were half Jewish. This is the first time the Holy Spirit comes on a Gentile. This argument would be used later on at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 when they would say, well, you know, what do we do about Gentiles who are getting saved? They need to keep the law. They need to be circumcised and all of these kinds of things. And they say, no, we have evidence that God has accepted them because he gave them the Holy Spirit. And so this becomes a very important sign that God had fully accepted the Gentiles as members of the church, even though they were not circumcised and had not kept the law. Verse 46, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. And Peter answered, all right, yeah, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized and have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? Now here's another thing. Mostly the pattern is that you believe are baptized in water and then baptized in the Holy Spirit. But here the order is reversed. They believe they're baptized with the Holy Spirit and then baptized in water. So what do we deduce from that? God is not fussed about the order of these things. Obviously the first thing that needs to happen is believing. Nothing can happen before that. But whether the one happens before the other, suffering may happen immediately. We're going to speak about baptism and suffering next week. That may happen immediately even before the others happen, before you're baptized in water. So the order is not important as long as obviously the first thing is first, and that is that we are born again, we are saved. Verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized and named the Lord, and they asked him to stay a few days. Here's the last one, Acts chapter 19, verse 1. And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, Gentiles again, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples. Are these people Christians? Yes. They call them disciples. At this point in the book of Acts, someone who would be a disciple of John the Baptist would not be regarded as a disciple. The only disciples would be disciples of Jesus Christ. So they are believers. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, we've not as much heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. Now, let me just try and unpack this. Well, let me get to the next verse, verse 3. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, this is an example of what we spoke about last week. Remember last week we said that there are baptisms that are invalid. They may be baptisms of people who are nonbelievers, or they may be baptisms in a cult, which we do not accept. Or they may be baptisms that are practiced in an unbiblical way. And if that happened, then you need to be baptized properly. If you were properly baptized to begin with, in other words, you were a believer, it was a public baptism, you were dunked under the water, then it is a valid baptism. You cannot be re-baptized because you cannot crucify Christ a second time. Remember we spoke about that last week. So what is Paul saying? Your first baptism was not valid. It was John's baptism. It wasn't Christian baptism. So he baptizes them again. But what does that have to do with the Holy Spirit? Well let's go back. Verse 2, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And Paul's immediate question then is, by what baptism were you baptized? Now this is important relative to what we were saying last week about baptism in water. Why does Paul ask the question, they say we've never even heard of the Holy Spirit. Why does Paul say then, by what baptism were you baptized? Because Jesus' command in Matthew chapter 28 is, going to all the world, preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So if they were baptized in the right way, they would have heard the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So Paul immediately says, no, but you know, these guys couldn't have been baptized properly because they would have at least have heard about the Holy Spirit, even if they didn't know what the Holy Spirit did, or any of those kinds of things. And you say, well that's not that important. Yes it is very important. Because there are those in the oneness movement that believe that you baptized in the name of Jesus, not in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, basically because they deny the Trinity. So they just believe in Jesus, and that's why sometimes we call them Jesus only, so there's only Jesus, there's no Father and the Spirit. And they baptize in the name of Jesus. And they will say to you, if you were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your baptism is not valid, you need to be re-baptized by us. For those who've been with us some time, you may remember we looked at doing a trade with a church in Burbank when we were trying to move. And they are one of these churches, they had a baptistry, and they also believe in baptismal regeneration. So the moment someone makes a decision, they immediately fill the tank with water, and they dunk him under, and he's baptized in the name of Jesus. And so if that was true, then Paul's whole argument here falls apart. But clearly they're baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. All right, so now let's get with verse 6. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. So again, hands are laid on them, and they spoke with tongues, and they prophesied. All right, now I'm going to come back to the speaking in tongues, as I said, in a moment. But these are the only times in the book of Acts when people were baptized in the Holy Spirit. And immediately you can see that it's different in each case. The order of things, baptism in Christ, baptism in the Holy Spirit, baptism in suffering, baptism in water, the sequence is different for some of them. Laying on the hands is there in some cases, it's not there in other cases. Tongues is there in some cases, three of the cases, and it is not there in others. So we need to be very, very careful how we become emphatic about the fact that it needs to happen in a particular way, because clearly it didn't happen in a particular way. There were certain principles, but that was it. Now let's talk very quickly, and I'm going to refer to page 95 in the book, on what does the Holy Spirit do, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And I'm really just going to read the list, and I have a scripture reference to go with each one of them. He helps in worship, he teaches and opens the word, he convicts and he guides. Notice I speak of him as he, he is a person, not an it, as some people refer to the Holy Spirit. He is a person, he has in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the scriptures attribute to the Holy Spirit personal attributes. So he is a person in the same way, he's not a man, obviously he's part of the Trinity, but he is a he. Convicts and guides, he makes Jesus real, John 16, 14. He gives power to witness, I'm going to come back to that in Acts 1.8. He gives powerful service, he gives power to face persecution, he fills with love, he leads, he gives gifts, he helps us pray, he gives us the guarantee of our inheritance, or he is the guarantee of our inheritance, Ephesians 1.13 and 14. And he gives us a foretaste of heaven, Hebrews, and we're going to come back to that at a later stage. All right, so the next question we need to ask then is, is how does this happen? And as I've said to you that there is no, there is no formula. The problem in Pentecostal tradition is that there's a formula, it needs to happen in a particular way, you have what they call a tarrying meeting. I think Americans have a different name for it. But you have these special meetings where people are going to be prayed for to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and they can last for hours, sometimes for days, and all sorts of things happen. People are laying hands on people in order to receive the Holy Spirit. Is that how it happens? Well, I guess it can happen in some cases. I'm not saying that it never happens that way. The problem with that whole system is the chances of something being fake or being forced is very, very real. What you see in the Book of Acts is that there is no pressure on any of these people. They simply laid hands on them, they filled with the Holy Spirit, or they're busy preaching, they filled with the Holy Spirit. It's something that happens spontaneously, it is a work of God, it is not something that can be manipulated and forced. Getting people to say certain phrases over and over and over so that their minds become mesmerized, and they then begin to speak words that they don't understand, but it's really not the real thing. We want the real thing, and we need to be careful of anything that introduces anything that is fake. Now, I'm not going to get into a whole study on this. I'm going to give you one verse in John... Oh, sorry, I missed that whole point. All right, let me come back to it. Let me go to John 7, verse 37. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried and said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And he who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart or out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, as the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 14? I'm going away, but when I go away, the Holy Spirit will come. In fact, he says it's necessary for me to go, because if I don't go, the Holy Spirit can't come. That's part of God's economy. So, let's go back to verse 37. How do we receive? Well, we need to thirst, and we need to come to Jesus. He is the giver of the Holy Spirit. As we've spoken about impartation, no prophet, preacher, elder, pastor, whatever, is the one who imparts the Holy Spirit. God alone, Jesus alone, is the giver of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says, If you want this, then come to me. He doesn't say go to the apostles after the day of Pentecost, or go to the prophets. He says, Come to me. And that's never been rescinded. So, if you want this, you come to Jesus, and you drink of him. Now, again, all sorts of stuff has been taught based on that verse. What is he speaking? He's saying that there is an inner thirst for more of God, for more of God, more of Jesus. And that's the problem, and that's the reason why many people, so many people are not baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit today. It's because they are not thirsty for God. They are satisfied by the shallow waters of this world that does not satisfy. But when there is a deep thirst for more of God, we come to him, and we drink more of him. He says, Once that happens, we begin to drink of him, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. And, of course, he's not talking about literal water. He's speaking about the Holy Spirit, as he explains. So, my advice, if you feel you don't have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit, go to the source. Don't go and look for some guru, or some pastor, or someone who's going to take your money in exchange to be prayed for, or whatever. Get the real thing from the Lord Jesus himself. This may take time. Remember in Acts 1.8, we're going to come back to that verse, as I promised. Wait until he comes. Tarry in Jerusalem. And they waited ten days, in the case of the apostles. Ten days before the Holy Spirit came. And some people wait days, weeks, months. But wait. The Lord honors his word. The Lord gives his Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus said that if you, as earthly fathers, know how to give good gifts to your children, in other words, you won't give them a stone if they ask for bread. How much more will your heavenly father not give you the Holy Spirit if you ask for it? So he will give us the Spirit if we ask for it. Now, let me just go back to Ephesians 5, verse 18. This is out of order in the book. But this is a very important part of the concept. You see, one of the problems we have here is that many people say, well, I was baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit in 19-whenever, and I spoke in tongues, I'm done, I've got it. No. Something happened way back then doesn't mean it's still happening today. Ephesians 5, verse 18. Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. And the word there, remember when we did the book of Ephesians, be continually, the word filled there is in English present continuous tense. Be continually filled with the Spirit. It's not a one-time deal. It's an ongoing deal. Yeah, just verse 18. And so the need for us, and this is part of the problem in modern charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity is that the churches are filled with people who say, well, you know, I was filled with the Holy Spirit 20 years, 30 years, 40 years ago. That's not the question. Are you filled now? The same is true of our salvation. Oh, no, I signed a decision card way back and I became a Christian then. The question is not then. How are you living now? There are many people who have decision cards that they signed it at crusades or wherever it is and they say, I'm a Christian, but they're living like the devil. Doesn't help you. You can have a thousand decision cards. You can be have hands laid on you and you can have, but if you're not filled with the Spirit today, you have a problem. All right. Now, we're running out of time and I need to get to Acts 1. 8 as I promised you will receive. This is Jesus speaking. Remember we began in Acts 1. 5 now verse 8. He said go to Jerusalem. Wait for the Holy Spirit. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Notice what Jesus said the sign would be of receiving the Holy Spirit. It does not say you will speak in tongues. While tongues is valid. Jesus is definitive statement about the Holy Spirit is that you will receive power and that power will empower you to be witnesses to me. Now, here's why I said that a lot of what goes as tongues today is fake is because those same people who speak in tongues, whether it's pub in public and in the service or in private, but both that they speak in tongues do not live a life of as a witness. Their life is a mess. They're addicted. They're in sin. They living in all sorts of disobedience. And I said, but now I'm full with the Holy Spirit because I can speak in tongues. No, the thing that differentiated these men was that they had a power upon them to live the Christian life. Not just to preach. I'm going to speak about preaching in a moment, but you will be witnesses. Not you will witness to me. It's not what it says. What does it say? You will be witnesses. There's a difference between witnessing and being a witness. The world is sick and tired of Christians who are witnessing, but they're not being a witness. Your actions speak so loud. I can't hear what you're saying. But these men when they saw them, it says they took note of them that they had been with Jesus. When Peter and the others were brought before the Council of the Jews, they were amazed because they said these are ignorant fishermen, but they've got something different. At the end of the day, and I know my Pentecostal friends and I have Pentecostal friends, believe it or not. Will be and are very upset with me when I say this kind of thing. I don't care whether you speak in tongues. Tongues is valid. Tongues is useful and we can do a whole study on the value and the purpose and the help of tongues. But I don't care whether you speak in tongues. What I care about as a pastor is whether you live the Christian life. And yes, you can live the Christian life without being baptized with the Holy Spirit, but you can live it much better having been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus. He was lived an absolute life of obedience baptized in water as we saw last week and then the Holy Spirit descends upon him and then he begins his ministry. Exactly what Jesus says to the Apostles. He says wait in Jerusalem. He says I gave you a job and the job is to go preach the gospel, but he says first wait until the Holy Spirit comes then you go and preach. So when we go through the book of Acts and here's the exercise that is that is important. If you look at tongues in the book of Acts. If the word appears only four times. In three passages in other words in one passage that appears twice in the same passage. So there are only three passages four times that you read about tongues in the New Testament. Does that sound like it's very important? I'm not saying it's not important, but does that sound like it's the ultimate thing? No. If you count up the times that you have the word pray or prayer or prayed. That's 35 times. So I would imagine that praying was more important. Than tongues by 10 times. Obviously we can't base our theology on statistics, but I think you get the idea. The word preach or preached appears 37 times. The word teach or taught appears 20 times. So 57 times it says that they preached or they taught. But only four times it says they spoke in tongues. In fact only three times. That makes preaching and teaching 20 times more of what they did. It's not say more important but more of what they did than tongues. I think you can begin to see that maybe we get things a little bit mixed up when we put too much of an emphasis on tongues at the expense of other things. Remember when it says that they preached and they taught, it doesn't mean that they got up there and gave a lecture. It means they preached under the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God confirming the word it says with signs and wonders. So not all preaching is legitimate preaching. The same way is not all tongues is legitimate tongues. But most of what goes for preaching these days is fake preaching. Even in so-called evangelical Pentecostal charismatic type churches. Because the preacher is more interested in preaching about politics or preaching about himself than he is about preaching you the word of God. Preaching to make people feel good instead of bringing people to repentance. But those who are filled with the Holy Spirit will preach the gospel both in preaching and in living and in living. That's what we need today. The world does not need more people speaking in tongues. The world needs more people who are living Christ. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we've said many many things tonight. Lord, we've covered tremendous amount of ground and I pray that you give us grace that we may understand that we may ask questions of you and search the scriptures of those things. We do not understand. But Lord above all, we don't want this to become just a lecture or just a study on the meaning of this thing. But Lord, we want the reality. Lord, we want to be known as a church that lives Jesus Christ. There are witnesses to the gospel. There are witnesses to the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, that we are people who are living as expecting Jesus to come at any moment. Lord, that's the problem we have in churches all over the world and most churches today is that there's too much talk and too little action. Lord, we know that the Holy Spirit came to empower people to do the things of service. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be those who are doers and not just those who are talkers or hearers. And so Lord, we pray that you would help us understand. Lord, I know that there may be many especially those who've tuned in online who may be confused because we've touched on so many things and we've touched on so many areas that are idols to some. But Lord, I pray that there may be a genuine searching your scriptures that we might be able to come to a full understanding of what is truth. And Lord, at the end of the day as I've prayed that it may not just be theory, but it may be a reality. We ask this in Jesus name. I pray that you'd go with us, keep us and protect us, bring us together again safely on Sunday. I pray in Jesus name. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/MSHBWH3cQcE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/baptism-in-the-holy-spirit-video/ ========================================================================