Acts 1:4–5

And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, v5 for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

The book of Acts, deals with what Jesus CONTINUES to do and to teach.

We saw last week three things the apostles and Christians need if they were are to be the kind of instruments through which the living Jesus could do his work and speak his Word.

1. They needed a Spirit-authenticated commission
2. They needed verification that Jesus was really alive and triumphant over death.
3. They needed more instruction about the kingdom of God.

The Need to Be Baptized with the Holy Spirit

There is another crucial thing needed for them and us, in order to be the most effective instruments in the hands of the living Jesus. The need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

V4 And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus is saying here in Acts 1:5, “This is going to happen in just a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. John immersed you in water; I am going to immerse you in the Holy Spirit.

The Day of Pentecost Acts 2:1–4:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. They were all FILLED with the Holy Spirit”.

Peter Explains Pentecost

V16–17: This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”

So when Jesus said in Acts 1:4, “Wait for the promise of the Father,” what he meant was, “Wait till the promise of Joel 2 is fulfilled.” The promise of the Father is what is now being experienced by the disciples.

Here we see Jesus doing the actual work of baptizing the disciples with the Holy Spirit. He enters into heaven. He receives from the Father what he had promised. And he pours out what the Jews are seeing and hearing at Pentecost, namely, the rushing wind, the tongues of fire, the speaking in other languages, the prophetic praise and exultation.

The Main Question Concerning the Baptism with the Spirit

What is the essence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit? What is the most important thing for them and us concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

What is happening here in Acts is not the same as being born again or being united to Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not the same thing that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:13.

Paul says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free.” The context shows that he is referring to a work of the sovereign Spirit who unites all believers to Christ. This is virtually the same as the work of conversion. When you are born again and put your faith in Christ, the Spirit of God unites you to Christ so that you are part of his body and a fellow-heir with him of eternal life.

Many scholars and teachers still make that connection, but I don’t see it that way exactly.

Baptism of the Spirit is Receiving Extraordinary Power for Ministry

The essence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit could be, when a person, who is already a believer, receives extraordinary spiritual power for Christ-exalting ministry.

Keep in mind Luke 24:49 as you turn in Acts 1:4 Jesus said, “He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,” namely, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In Luke 24:49 Jesus says virtually the same thing. “what Jesus focuses on, of all the things he might focus on in the baptism with the Spirit, was having power. He told them in Luke 24:47 that they are to preach to all the nations. And the point of verse 49 is we cannot do that with greatest success unless we are clothed with power from God, that is, unless we are baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:6–8. Right after Jesus says that they would be baptized with the Spirit (v. 5), the disciples say, “ ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses.’ Here the baptism with the Spirit is seen as a “coming upon” that gives power for witness.

Neither of these texts suggests that what is happening in the baptism of the Spirit is rebirth or conversion or union with Christ.

Jesus doesn’t say, wait in Jerusalem until you are born again or converted or put into the body of Christ. He says wait until you are clothed with power

Peter explains what promise of the Father is being fulfilled in the baptism of the Spirit, he focuses on the promise in Joel 2. There are promises that might have stressed the promise of the Spirit to bring new birth (like Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26f.). But that is not what Peter or Luke focuses on. Peter says that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a fulfillment of Joel 2; and what Joel 2 promises explicitly is not new birth or conversion or membership in the body of Christ, but a new power to prophesy. “

Seeing baptism with the Spirit as a special empowering for ministry is almost always associated with this extraordinary power for ministry in the book of Acts.

Acts 4:8 Peter is again filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks with such power that the Jewish leaders were amazed at his boldness in spite of his being relatively uneducated.

In Acts 4:31 other disciples were praying and the place where they were was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The effect of their fullness was that they spoke the Word of God with extraordinary boldness and Christ-exalting power.
\In Acts 6 we meet Stephen who is full of faith and the Holy Spirit and did wonders and signs among the people, but especially in verse 10 the leaders could not resist the wisdom and Spirit with which he spoke.

In Acts 9:17 Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit at his conversion and the result was that he spoke with such extraordinary power that the Jews of Damascus were confounded

In Acts 11:24 Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and faith and the effect Luke mentions was that “a large company was added to the Lord” (as at Pentecost).

In Acts 13:9 Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit as he spoke to Elymas the magician and God gave him the extraordinary power to pronounce Elymas blind for a season.

The Apostles Question

Now when the apostles hear the promise of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, they ask in verse 6, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” In other words they knew that the Old Testament promise of the outpouring of God’s Spirit was a promise for the last days when God would establish his kingdom on the earth and restore his people.

They knew enough of the Old Testament to think it meant something big is about to happen.
Ezekiel 39 God says, “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel … I will not hide my face any more from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God” (vv. 25, 29).

They wanted clarification: “Do you mean the end is that close? The final kingdom is about to be established in just a matter of weeks or months?”

Just a short time ago Jesus said this, Luke 22:29–30, at the Last Supper Jesus had said, “As my Father assigned a kingdom to me, so I assign to you, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Jesus had told them that the kingdom would be restored to Israel—they themselves would sit on thrones as rulers along with the Son of Man over a renewed and believing Israel.

And they knew from the Old Testament.

Ezekiel 39:27 When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the countries of their enemies, I will demonstrate my holiness through them in the sight of many nations.m 28 They will know that I am the LORD their God when I regather them to their own land after having exiled them among the nations. I will leave none of them behind.G 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel.”n This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

Isaiah 32:15; 44:3–15until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a Do not fear, Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.

Joel 2:28ff.; 28 After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 I will even pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. this restoration was going to be the result of a great outpouring of God’s Spirit.

They did not ask a foolish question.

Jesus does not rebuke them, but He does not correct their theology of restoration.

He corrects their assumption that they can deduce the timing of it. God has appointed the times and the seasons for all things, and they are kept in the secret of his own wisdom. Such things are not for us to know.

Jesus goes on to tell them what the baptism with the Spirit will mean for them. It does not mean immediate restoration of Israel; it does not mean the immediate, full establishment of the kingdom.

BUT, it does mean. “You shall receive power” when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

Is the Power Promised to the Apostles Then, Available Now?

Was this power only for the first generation of Christians or whether it is something we should seek from Jesus today?

This power, this experience of the “coming upon” or “being clothed” by the Holy Spirit was something beyond ordinary, happy Christian living. In the Old Testament “being clothed” with the Spirit referred to extraordinary times of empowerment and prophecy as in some lives. Those who were called to do a special difficult task for the Lord. Here are a few examples.

Judges 6:34;But the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him.

1 Chronicles 12:18; Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the thirty, and he said, Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse: peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thy helpers; for thy God helpeth thee. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band.

2 Chronicles 24:20 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of Jehovah, so that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken Jehovah, he hath also forsaken you.

Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book Joy Unspeakable tries to describe the difference between common Christian living and what happens when the Holy Spirit “clothes” a person with power or “comes upon” a person with this unusual power.

He says it is like a child walking along holding his father’s hand. All is well. The child is happy. He feels secure. His father loves him. He believes that his father loves him but there is no unusual urge to talk about this or sing about it. It is true and it is pleasant.

Then suddenly the father startles the child by reaching down and sweeping him up into his arms and hugging him tightly and kissing him on the neck and whispering, “I love you so much!” And then holding the stunned child back so that he can look into his face and saying with all his heart, “I am so glad you are mine.” Then
hugging him once more with unspeakable warmth and affection. Then he puts the child down and they continue their walk.

This, Lloyd-Jones says, is what happens when a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit. A pleasant and happy walk with God is swept up into an unspeakable new level of joy and love and assurance and reality that leaves the Christian so utterly certain of the immediate reality of Jesus that he is overflowing in praise and more free and bold in witness than he ever imagined he could be.

The child is simply stunned. He doesn’t know whether to cry or shout or fall down or run, he is so happy. The fuses of love are so overloaded they almost blow out. The subconscious doubts—that he wasn’t thinking about at the time, but that pop up every now and then—are gone! And in their place is utter and indestructible assurance, so that you know that you know that you know that God is real and that Jesus lives and that you are loved, and that to be saved is the greatest thing in the world. And as you walk on down the street you can scarcely contain yourself, and you want to cry out, “My father loves me! My father loves me! O, what a great father I have! What a father! What a father!”

This is basically what happened at Pentecost, and has happened again and again in the life of the church. They were so filled with the fullness of God—they were overwhelmed with the length and breadth and height and depth of the love of Christ—that they began (as Acts 2:11 says) to speak “the greatnesses of God.”

This kind of experience is what Jesus meant by the “witnessing” in Acts 1:8 that will be able to extend the gospel to the end of the earth. “You will receive this power … and you will be my witnesses.” You will no longer be merely advocates who can prove like a good lawyer that Jesus rose from the dead. But under the influence of this power, you experience the Spirit of the risen Christ. Then you will speak with the unwavering assurance of one who has tasted and knows the reality so immediately that all doubt is gone. You will become a witness of the living Christ.

The Promise Is for Us Today

The promise of this extraordinary power, and experience of the fullness of God is given, Jesus says, to enable his witnesses to take the gospel to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8), or, as Luke 24:47 says, to all the nations. We have not completed that assignment yet, therefore, it is logical that Jesus has not withdrawn the promise yet either. If the promise was given to empower the church to complete the Great Commission, then the promise is valid till the Great Commission is complete, and the witness to Christ has been taken throughout the world.

If we love the glory of God, and if we long for his kingdom to advance, and if we have compassion on the lost and hurting people of the world, we will increasingly want this power to enable us.

The Question for Us

Are we leading valid, worthwhile Christian lives and ministry? Are we attempting anything for God that would demand unusual power to bring Glory to his name and salvation on the lost?

In the history of the church the steady, obedient, faithful, persevering years of life have preserved and nurtured the fruit of the times of extraordinary power. It has led to extraordinary outpourings of God’s Spirit and have taken the work of the kingdom forward, often accomplishing overnight, what people have been laboring years to see.

Through our obedience to His Word and leading, let’s live our lives in such a way that the Holy Spirit can empower us in extraordinary ways for God’s glory and mans salvation.