Acts 2:1–3

Acts 2:1 “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly, there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves. And they rested on each one of them.”

That is the phenomena that God designed to inaugurate the birth of the church.

In Acts 1, the disciples were equipped for their ministry. In 2, they are empowered for their ministry. In 1, the believers are held back. In 2, they are sent out. Their full resources to declare the gospel message to the ends of the earth are put in place by the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and it is the fulfillment of Acts 1:8. “But you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost part of the earth.”

In Acts 2, Jesus has ascended, and He has been glorified, and now He sends the Holy Spirit. A new thing is born that has never been known before. Something never seen in the Old Testament. Something promised in the New Testament, and even described in some measure by the Lord Himself who spoke of the church in the Matthew 16.

Jesus said, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

What is the most life changing day of your life?

The Baptism Happens

The believers were together, they were all together in one place collectively. It could have been the same upper room where they had had the Passover meal the night that Jesus was betrayed, but we don’t know that for certain.

It doesn’t say that they tarried for the Holy Spirit to come, or that they fulfilled some spiritual requirements. It doesn’t say that they met the qualifications of Pentecost, or somehow they paid the spiritual price to pull this thing together. It says, when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit was a sovereign act of God based on God’s timing, not based on anything they did.

It is on the day of Pentecost that the Lord sends the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our future complete inheritance. The coming of the Holy Spirit is another kind of first fruits, as was the celebration of the first harvest, which was Pentecost.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2 is given to believers, it is not something the individual, or Apostles ask for. It is not something God gives when you apply for it with the right formula. This is another sovereign act of God at a precise time like all other acts of God, exactly at the moment and in the place and in the way that God deemed it to happen.

So they’re all together in one place. And there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind. This is the noise like a wind, but it is not wind. The wind here, is not to indicate actual wind, but to be a metaphor or an analogy to describe the kind of sound they heard. There’s no physical wind, there’s only a sound like a hurricane. The word translated here, really means a blast.
It is this mysterious phenomenon, where this blast is the very blast of God’s breath. It reaches the earth all the way from heaven. The sound surely gathered the massive crowd that shows up to which Peter later preaches.

But the presence of the breath of God filled only the house. At that moment, they are literally immersed with the Holy Spirit. You can’t feel with your physical being something which is a spiritual reality. They could hear the blast, it was an audible phenomena. There was also visual phenomena in the fire or the tongues that were like fire. This is a work of God from heaven that comes down into the souls of believers on this day.

They are literally and immersed and drown in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit Fire

Then in a moment, suddenly, they hear this hurricane like sound, but there’s no hurricane. Then the breath of God fills the whole house where they’re sitting. There is an audible and visual phenomena.

It was the sound of a rushing violent wind, and it was the appearance of fire. Tongues sort of moving like they were flames, distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. Not physical wind and not physical fire. It was supernatural. These little tongues appeared over each one of them, over each one of them to make it clear that with no exception, each had received the Holy Spirit.

It is impossible then for them to know what has happened if there isn’t some means by which they can know that heaven has come down and done this, and the violent rushing wind would say something happened, but the individual tongue over everyone would show that it happened to all of them.”

When the Holy Spirit came at the baptism of Jesus to empower Jesus for His ministry that the Holy Spirit came down on Him in some form that appeared as if it were what a dove.

Understanding the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 5:15 Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; 19speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;

Ephesians 5:18. Be being kept filled with the Spirit. What does that mean?

It simply means let the presence of the Holy Spirit dominate you. There was that domination at the beginning. They were completely filled in the Holy Spirit. They were totally controlled by the Holy Spirit, filled not in the sense that you would fill a glass, static, but filled in the sense that you would fill sails and move something along.

Being filled with the Spirit means, basically, having great joy in God. Since the Bible teaches that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10), it also means there will be power in this joy for overcoming besetting sins and for boldness in witness. But, basically, it means radiant joy, because the Spirit who fills us is the Spirit of joy that flows between God the Father and God the Son because of the delight they have in each other.

Therefore, to be filled with the Spirit means to be caught into the joy that flows among the Holy Trinity and to love God the Father and God the Son with the very love with which they love each other.

The way to be filled with the Spirit is by trusting that the God of hope really reigns, remembering that not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from his will (Matthew 10:29), and that he runs the world for you and for all who trust his word.

What Does “Baptize in the Holy Spirit” Mean?

The phrase “baptize in or with the Holy Spirit” was apparently coined by John the Baptist. All four of our gospels record that he said, “I have baptized you with water, but he (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”.

You can never assume that a particular phrase means exactly the same thing every place it occurs in Scripture. Good interpretation lets a word or phrase mean whatever the immediate context demands. Paul and Luke need not use the phrase “baptized with the Spirit” in the very same sense.

Paul uses the phrase only once. He says in 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13:

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

Luke seems to mean something different by the phrase, namely, something essentially the same as being filled with the Spirit, which is not a once-for-all event (for Luke and for Paul) but an ongoing or repeated occurrence.

Luke sees what happened at Pentecost as both a baptism with the Spirit and a filling with the Spirit. Since Luke refers later on to the disciples being filled again (Acts 4:8, 31; 13:4), but never refers to them as being baptized again with the Spirit, it seems that for Luke “baptism with the Spirit” refers to that initial filling by the Spirit after a person trusts in Christ.

Luke does not equate “baptism by the Spirit” with regeneration like Paul does. If he did, that would mean that all the apostles, who, with God’s help, had confessed Jesus to be the Christ (Luke 9:20; Matthew 16:17) and had seen him alive after his resurrection and had their minds opened by him to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), were in fact dead in trespasses and sins and enslaved to the flesh during all their time with Jesus and up till Pentecost morning. That does not seem likely, or does the scripture indicate it.

It seems Luke is saying they had already been born of the Spirit, just like all the great saints of the Old Testament, but they hadn’t yet experienced to the full what God could do through them by his Spirit. But now that Christ has come and through his death and resurrection purchased all the blessings of God, it is God’s purpose to call all his people to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit.”

Dealing with Pentecostal Theology & the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Often people have asked me, and probably many of you, Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? The best first answer is, What do you mean by baptism with the Holy Spirit? Many arguments could be avoided if we just started off defining our terms. If there answer is something like, it is an experience you have with God after conversion in which the Holy Spirit falls upon you in such a way that your heart bursts forth in the utterance of tongues ( ecstatic speech or unknown language).

Some might say, Yes, I have experienced that. Others would say, No, I never have spoken in tongues. The truth is, our answers should be, first, your definition of baptism with the Spirit is not a biblical one.

But in order to do that, you need to study that concept a little. There is no way to argue rightly from the book of Acts that God intends for baptism with the Spirit always to be accompanied by speaking in tongues.

Paul teaches plainly in 1 Corinthians 12:10 that God does not give the gift of tongues to everyone. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit may or may not result in another language. Speaking in tongues is not a necessary part of either Luke’s or Paul’s definition of baptism with the Spirit.

Honestly, we can not reject the validity of the gift of tongues for our own day. God could still do that for a purpose He decides.

I have been urged by others of a different theological persuasion, to seek a “second blessing” or second experience of the Spirit after my initial conversion experience.

This brings up several things we must remember.

The blessing of the fullness (or baptism) of the Holy Spirit may occur at the moment of conversion and leave nothing to be sought but its preservation and growth or repetition.

Even if one does not experience the fullness of the Spirit at conversion, the thing to be sought is not “the second blessing,” as if that experience would be the end of our spiritual quest. What all Christians should seek is for God to pour his Spirit out upon us so completely that we are filled with joy, victory over sin, bold to witness.

Without question, the way God brings us to that fullness is different for the individual.

Understanding the Baptism of the Spirit

Ephesians 5:18 uses the present tense of the verb in Greek, it meanst: “Keep on being filled with the Spirit.”

V15 Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Why does he us a contrast with drunkenness here? What do people go to alcohol for? For a happy hour. We all want to be happy, but there is a problem: “The days are evil.”

Where do you turn when the days are evil, when you are frightened or discouraged or depressed or anxious? Paul begs, don’t turn to alcohol; turn to the Spirit. Anything of value that alcohol can bring you, God the Holy Spirit can bring more.

There are people who can’t begin to whistle a happy tune or sing a song at work because they are so tense and anxious about life. But later in the evening at the bar, with a few drinks under their belt they can put their arms around each other and sing and laugh. For many people, even Christians, there is a belief that the only way they can find this child-like freedom and be happiness, is by drugging themselves with alcohol or other mind-benders. Paul says: There is a better way to cope with the evil days, be filled with the Spirit, stay filled with the Spirit. And you will know unmatched joy that sings and makes melody to the Lord.

The fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song. The reason for this is that “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). When you are happy in God, you are a strong and brave witness to his grace.

Psalm 4:7–8: You (O Lord) have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Nobody stays full of the Spirit all the time—no one is always totally joyful and submissive to God and empowered for service. But this should still be our aim, our goal, our great longing.

How do we keep being filled with the Holy Spirit as Paul said in verse 18?

If we receive all of the Holy Spirit the moment we trust Christ, then what happens to it that would prevent us from being controlled or dominated by it? That is simple, sin. Sin is what clogs up the power source, which is the Holy Spirit. It is like a motor that is designed to run on gas or fuel. The motor has the power to do what is expected of it, as long as nothing prevents the fuel from getting to it from the tank.

There is usually a filter between a motor and the fuel tank. When trash clogs it, it must be cleaned so that the fuel and return to the engine. That is a picture of what happens to Christians who allow sin in their lives to prevent them from being empowered and controlled by the Spirit.

The scripture says, if we confess our sins Jesus will forgive, and cleanse us from that sin.

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confessing our sin and Jesus cleansing us, is the means by which the spirit is allowed to control and impower us. Paul said, we have to keep on allowing the spirit to control us. How do we do that, by constantly confessing and turning from our sin.