The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Unites Us

The disciples, even after seeing the Lord after his resurrection, were still a scared bunch of people in locked rooms. But you suddenly see in the Acts chapter 2 they're thrown open the doors and all the fear is gone. Before that they were wondering who's the greatest and who's going to be the leader.

All that disappeared and 120 of them became like one family. That is what the genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit does. See, you can experience a personal anointing.

Many people in the Old Covenant had it, like John the Baptist had a powerful anointing, Moses, Elisha, Elijah. But there was no such thing as one family in the Old Covenant. They were a congregation, all disconnected people.

But it is as though on the day of Pentecost God took these 120 people and put them all in the fire. It's like 120 pieces of iron and became what is one piece of iron, melted together. And we need to ask ourselves whether the baptism in the Holy Spirit is just giving us some personal revival and holiness and pure thoughts, which is good, very important.

But how is it making us members in this church as one family? Do we have rivalries and bad thoughts and criticisms? Then you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, genuinely. I remember when I was a young person before the first church and CFC in Bangalore started, somebody told me, Brother Zach, if you want to do a work for the Lord in your life, go to Bangalore, fall into the ground there and die. There's a corn of wheat.

You can be absolutely certain that God will bring truth from there. I've never forgotten that. And I said, Lord, show me what that means.

I'll do it. I'll fall into the ground and die. I was all alone.

I was just one person. But I said, Lord, I believe your word is true that if one seed falls into the ground and dies, from that fruit will come. And I want to say that I've proved it now in my life.

That is the secret. Any amount of powerful preaching and anointed servants of God will not produce a body of Christ. It's falling into the ground and dying.

And if you have a bunch of people who are all willing to fall into the ground and die, it will become one family. Otherwise, we'll forever be disconnected individuals coming together like a club, meeting together, experiencing some anointing in our own life, and perhaps getting revelation on the word and maybe even getting power to preach in the word. But if the baptism in the Holy Spirit that we experience is only bringing me personal anointing and personal holiness and so many things in my own life and the freshness and communication with God and is not making me an integral part of God's family here in this church, I have missed one of the most important parts of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and that's the Lord has come here not to make a bunch of holy individuals.

He's come to make us one body. And that's the direction any true servant of God, any truly spiritual man will be going. I've got to do my part not just to live a holy life, not just to be an anointed one who can share God's word in an anointed way.

I've got to do my part to build a body. So I was reading, you know, it says in Psalm 68 and verse 6, it says here in Psalm 68 and verse 6, God makes a home for the lonely. Have you read that verse? God makes a home for the lonely people.

There's a loneliness in every human being. There's a loneliness even in believers who come to the church. People can sit in a church and feel lonely.

I don't feel I'm a part of a family here. I feel it's a nice club, everybody cares for one another, helps one another, but I don't feel one. There's a loneliness, and God wants to put the lonely and make it a home, a family.

And that is not possible in the Old Testament, and it's not possible for anyone who lives under the old covenant, but it is in the new covenant. So in the new covenant, it says, I like this verse in 1 Peter chapter 3. It's a very beautiful verse, and I want to read it in the Living Bible. 1 Peter 3 and verse 8, speaking first about husbands and wives, and then it says, to sum up 1 Peter 3 verse 8, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted and humble in spirit, and so on.

And let me read this in the Living Bible. And now this word to all of you. You should be, take this seriously, everybody here, you should be like one big happy family.

I'll read it slowly. You should be like one big happy family, full of sympathy toward each other. That means not immediately to criticize that something went wrong.

We will all do many wrong things until Christ comes back, but you can be critical of that. If you keep criticizing your children every time they do wrong, that's the best way to ruin your children. Correct them.

But if you're always criticizing your children, your children will grow up wrong. They will not grow up to be godly young men and women. We have to know wisdom and encouragement also.

Full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. I read that sentence many, many times. Many, many times I come back to that verse in the Living Bible.

This word to all of you, you should be like one big happy family, full of sympathy toward each other, because we are all weak. So we have to have sympathy toward each other, not be critical. Loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds.

I recommend that verse to you in the Living Bible and to meditate on it very frequently. I do it. I say, Lord, if I'm not doing that part, then I'm not doing my part in the family.

I'm not building a family. I'm just building up myself as a very anointed person and satisfying myself that I'm growing spiritually and I'm being useful to the Lord. That can be a very selfish type of experience.

Many people are seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They read of some guy who was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to preach powerfully like D.L. Moody or Charles Finney and say, I want to be like that. Yeah, it can be very, very selfish.

Ultimately, what happened on the day of Pentecost was 120 people became one family. And if that doesn't happen, then there's some part of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we missed out on. Because individual anointing was there in the Old Testament too.

I mean, imagine the anointing of a man like Elijah who could bring fire down from heaven for John the Baptist. And we'll never get there. But to be like this, this is the mark of the completion of the baptism of the Holy Spirit where we are forged into one family.

And then when we look at each other, you ask yourself, how do you look at your children when they do something wrong? You don't go around criticizing them all the time. There's a tenderness in your heart that says, that's my child and I don't want to lose him. I want him in the family.

I want to encourage him. And I believe that's how we should look at one another in this. We're all weak in many ways and we have weaknesses and limitations.

And we should not look at each other with critical eyes to find fault. May God save us from that. The devil is the accuser of the brethren.

Jesus never accuses. He never condemns. He corrects.

He rebukes. But he never condemns. If you keep condemning your child saying you're good for nothing, you're useless, he will grow up to be good for nothing and useless.

I'll tell you that. You keep on telling your child, you'll never make, nothing good will come out of you. You're guaranteeing nothing good will come out of your child.

But encourage him. That's wrong, son. That's not the way you should do it.

I want you to grow up to be a man of God. And so I want to correct you here. That's a different way than saying, how many times have I told you not to do that wretched thing? He'll grow up to be a useless person.

And we should not look at one another like that. People make a mistake. They slip up.

Haven't we made mistakes? Then we should look at each other like it says here with tender hearts and humble minds. And my goal should be, I'm here to build one big happy family. Now we can't do that with visitors who are not committed to us.

And people come here and we want to welcome visitors who come because we wanted them to hear the gospel. And they can hear some people who belong to other churches sometimes come here, welcome. But if they're not committed to us, we cannot become one family with them.

They're coming and visiting just to hear a good message. There are people who go to a church, oh, that's a place where they preach good messages. Let me go and hear that.

I hope those who belong to this church, I'm talking to this family, I hope you don't come here just to listen to a good message. I hope every message we hear in the church is, Lord, I want to be more integrated into a family here. I want to do my part to fall into the ground and die.

When I was a young Christian, somebody gave me a little booklet called Looking Unto Jesus. I was just born again. And it made all the difference in my life.

Because I didn't know much of the Bible those days. And it brought my attention to Hebrews chapter 12 as to how I was to live my entire Christian life. And till today, that expression has been sort of the guideline in my life, looking unto Jesus.

And I saw that in Hebrews 12, that the way I'm to live my entire Christian life from start from the time I was born again till the time Jesus comes, is described here in Hebrews 12, verse 2. One verse, fixing our eyes on Jesus, that's how it says in the NASB, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. And there are two ways in which I have to look at him. That's also mentioned here.

One, I have to see him as one who endured the cross. I have to look at him the way, that means I must meditate much on how Jesus took up the cross every day of his life. From the time he was a young boy, as a young man, finally on the cross, he took it up and endured it.

He didn't enjoy it. There's no enjoyment in the cross. It says he endured the cross.

And I have to look unto him who endured the cross so that I will also endure the cross. And is there a shame in it? He despised, there will be a shame in following the Lord. He despised the shame.

And then I have to see him as sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God. So there are two ways in which I have to see Jesus according to this verse. Looking unto Jesus and how he lived on the earth, dying to himself every day from the time he was a child, when he was working as a carpenter and the numerous ways in our place of work, we had to die to ourselves.

Jesus is my example. And then finally, he hung upon the cross for the sake of others. And that I'm willing to die to bless others who are in need instead of finding fault with them, to say, Lord, what can I do to die to help that person to come closer to you? That's what Jesus did.

His whole aim was, I'm willing to die to get that person who's on his way to hell to closer to you. And did that even the last minute to bring that dying thief, who was just about to go to hell, to save him and bring him into heaven? I say, Lord, make me like that. I want to be like that.

I want to take up the cross so that people's eternal destiny can be changed by the way I react to them. And the second way I have to look at Jesus is that he's at the right hand of the throne of God today. All authority in heaven and earth belongs to him.

And so I must look at him as one who took up the cross, and I must look at him as one who's got all authority and says, don't be afraid, I'm with you. All heaven and earth is under my control. You don't have to be afraid of a single human being.

You don't have to be afraid of any circumstance. You don't have to be afraid of any boss who hates you and sacking you from your work, firing you and sending you out. You don't have to be afraid of anything.

I've got control of the whole universe. If I don't look at him like that, I can't run this race. So it's this double way in which I have to keep looking at Jesus, falling into the ground and dying, at the same time recognizing that he runs this universe.

That's why he taught us to pray, our father who art in heaven, one who loves me and one who runs the universe. That's basically my prayer is, oh God, one who loves me and one who runs the universe. That's the meaning of saying our father who art in heaven.

All fear goes away from my heart. I'm not afraid of any human being after that. I'm not afraid in a world where there's so much of insecurity.

And I don't want to be critical of other people who are blind. For example, there's a lot of criticism of all these rich people who build big homes and they learned a lesson by having their homes burnt in fire. I don't want to rejoice in somebody else's home being burnt on fire.

Okay, he was a godless person. But what do I rejoice in seeing his home being burnt? I say, Lord, I'm here to save people from sin, not to rejoice in calamity. I want to be a light.

Jesus never rejoiced in anybody's calamity, not even in the calamity of sinners. That's eternal. In hell, let them do that.

But as long as I'm on earth, I am to manifest the love of God to people and the mercy and forgiveness of God. Because the Bible says he's got one day of judgment and 365 days of mercy. That's the proportion.

One is to 365. The Lord has anointed me, we read in Isaiah 61, 4, to proclaim the day of judgment and the year of the Lord's long-suffering and mercy. 365 days of mercy and one day of judgment.

So that's the proportion that there must be in my life that a ruthless attitude towards sin and judgment is one day warning people and 365 days of mercy. So the proportion in my heart must be one of judgment to 365 days of mercy. When I have that proportion, I've got it right.

So I believe that baptism in the Holy Spirit brings that. And when we are like that towards each other in the church, we can build a family. And all those here who are helping to build a family are doing the work of God, even if you never stand in this pulpit.

Remember that. You can do something, maybe just a little prayer for somebody, maybe a little help to someone who's in need. Do something to build the family and you'll be doing the work of God.

Amen.