WHAT IS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

/WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FILLED

WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
- (Mark 1) vs 8
o Baptism simply means to immerse or overwhelm. John didnt
sprinkle when he came baptizing. As was the custom in some
other Jewish ceremonial washings, John completely immersed those
he baptized. Naturally, therefore, the baptism was not a mere
sprinkling with water, but a bath in which his whole body was
bathed. (Barclay)
- Now John was clothed with camels hair and with a leather belt
around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he
preached, saying, There comes One after me who is mightier
than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and
loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit.

- (Matthew 3) vs 11
o f. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His
winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean
out His threshing floor: John warns them to prepare for the
Messiahs coming, because He is coming with judgment.

o i. Baptize you with the Holy Spirit: This is the promised out-pouring
of the Spirit promised with the New Covenant (Ezekiel 37:14).

o ii. And fire: To baptize with fire means to bring the fires of judgment,
which will purify the pure, but destroy the wicked like chaff. Chaff is
the worthless residue of a wheat stalk after the kernel of grain has
been removed. These proud and unrepentant leaders were just as
useless to God. Purification by fire was also a prophetic hope
(Isaiah 4:4; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:2; cf. Isaiah 1:25). John
therefore predicts a real cleansing, in contrast with his own merely
outward token. (France)

- (Zechariah 13) vs 9 And it shall come to pass in all the land, says
the Lord, That two-thirds in it shall be cut of and die,
but one- third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through
the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold
is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will
say, This is My people; and each one will say, The Lordis my
God.
o a. I will bring the one-third through the fire: After the
dispersion of Israel there will come a time of devastation and
purification through fiery trials. Two-thirds will be destroyed and the
remaining third will be put into the fire but preserved.

- Malachi 3:2-5 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who
can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiners fire and like
launderers soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may ofer to the Lord an ofering in righteousness. Then
the ofering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord,
as in the days of old, as in former years. And I will come near you
for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against
adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage
earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn
away an alien; because they do not fear Me, says the Lord of
hosts.
o Who can endure the day of His coming? Malachi 3:1 spoke of two
messengers to come one to prepare the way of the Lord, and one
to be the Messenger of the covenant. The coming that man must
endure is the coming of the Messenger of the covenant, but it is His
second coming.

o i. Like most Old Testament prophets, Malachi, in his picture of the

coming Christ, mingled the two advents. (Alden)

o b. He is like a refiners fire and like launderers soap: The coming of

this second Messenger will be awesome and terrible, but with a
purpose. Both the launderer and the refiner work to clean, not to
destroy.

o i. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver: The beauty of this

picture is that the refiner looks into the open furnace, or pot, and
knows that the process of purifying is complete, and the dross all
burnt away, when he can see his image plainly reflected in the
molten metal. (Baldwin)

o ii. If any of you, my hearers, are seeking the Lord at this time, I
want you to understand what it means: you are seeking a fire which
will test you, and consume much which has been dear to you. We
are not to expect Christ to come and save us in our sins, he will
come and save us from our sins; therefore, if yon are enabled by
faith to take Christ as a Savior, remember that you take him as the
purger and the purifier, for it is from sin that he saves us.
(Spurgeon)

o iii. We note that He will sit as a refiner. What a comfort it is that He

surrenders this work to no other hands than his own. He may give
his angels charge concerning us when we are in danger; but he
keeps our purification beneath his special superintendence.
(Meyer)

o iv. At the same time, notice that He will sit as a refiner. The sitting
posture shows that the refiner may seem indifferent, but He is not.
He is carefully working with the silver, burning off and scraping
away the dross that that the flames bring to the top. I think I see in
the sitting down of the refiner a settled patience, as if he seemed to
 say, This is stern work, and I will sit down to it, for it will need care,
and time, and constant watchfulness. (Spurgeon)

o v. If you are just now in the fire, dear soul, be of good cheer it
shows at least that you are silver, and are capable of performing
more acceptable service in Gods holy Temple. (Meyer)

o He is a refiner's fire, and that makes all the difference. A refiner's

fire does not destroy indiscriminately like a forest fire. A refiner's fire
does not consume completely like the fire of an incinerator. A
refiner's fire refines. It purifies. It melts down the bar of silver or
gold, separates out the impurities that ruin its value, burns them up,
and leaves the silver and gold intact. He is like a refiner's fire. It
does say FIRE. And therefore purity and holiness will always be a
dreadful thing. There will always be a proper "fear and trembling" in
the process of becoming pure. He is like fire and fire is serious. You
don't fool around with it. But it does say, he is like a REFINER'S fire.
And therefore this is not merely a word of warning, but a
tremendous word of hope. The furnace of affliction in the family of
God is always for refinement, never for destruction.

o Why are we not simply consumed? Why does Christ come as a

refiner's fire and not a forest fire? Verse 6 gives the answer? "For I
the Lord do not change; therefore, you, O sons of Jacob, are not
consumed." But by itself that doesn't make sense. What if God were
changelessly bent on being a forest fire? What if he were
changeless in unrelenting wrath? What sort of changelessness is it
that guarantees that we are not consumed? It is covenant-keeping
changelessness.

o What Is Life Like in the Refiner's Fire? The most important

thing to say is that it is a life of confidence in God. And the
foundation of our confidence is this promise: The furnace of
affliction in the family of God is always for refinement, never for
destruction. "I the Lord do not change; therefore you are not
consumed, O sons of Jacob!" Which simply means that life in the
refiner's fire is a life of trust in the unchanging, purifying love of
God. And perhaps the next most important thing to say is that there
is no painless path to heaven. Why? Because Jesus said, "Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And it is no more
possible to become pure painlessly than it is to be burned
painlessly. Purity comes through the refining fire.

o And on the path to purity and heaven the other truth is this:
no pain, no gain.

o God is in the process of refining His church. He wants a pure,

beautiful bride upon whom He can pour out His anointing and His
power. God desires to manifest Himself through His church so that
each of us is able to do the things Jesus did (John 14:12-14). Christ
longs for each member of His body to see what the Father is doing
 and to do it with Him. It is His will that we walk in victory and be
overcomers. These are His highest priorities for the church.

o We will survive the refiner's fire if we keep our eyes focused on

God's sovereignty and what He is doing. His goal in this process is
to refine us so that He might pour out His power and His glory on
us. The refiner's fire sets us free from hindering imperfections and
works God's character and nature into us. And when the flames
subside, what emerges from our lives will be pure, perfect,
indestructible and worth more than the finest gold.

o Think about a precious metal like gold. Gold is purified in only one
way: with fire. And were not talking an outward brush with the
flames.
o Purification comes from being plunged into the heart of the fire
the place where fire is harshest and turns blue and being kept
there until that which is being purified loses any resemblance to
what it once was.
o Having been purified, the gold can be molded according to the will
of the goldsmith. It only loses contact with the fire when its final
shape has been formed.
o When we, as believers, confess our sin, God not only promises to be
faithful (which He always is) and to forgive us (which He always
does); He promises to engage us in the painful process of
purification in order to cleanse us from the sin that is tearing us
apart.

- Acts 2 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole
house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them
divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
o iv. What this passage tells us about the gift of the Holy Spirit.
o The gift of the Holy Spirit is promised to us.

o The gift of the Holy Spirit is worth waiting for.

o The gift of the Holy Spirit comes as He wills, often not according
to our expectation.

o The gift of the Holy Spirit can come upon not only individuals,
but also upon groups (see also Acts 2:4, 4:31, 10:44).

o The gift of the Holy Spirit is often given as God deals with the
flesh and there is a dying to self.

o e. There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat

upon each of them: These divided tongues, as of fire, appearing
over each one, were also unusual. It probably should be connected
with John the Baptists prophecy that Jesus would baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11).

o i. The idea behind the picture of fire is usually purification, as a

refiner uses fire to make pure gold; or fire can burn away what is
temporary, leaving only what will last. This is an excellent
illustration of the principle that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not
just for abstract power, but for purity.

o ii. In certain places in the Old Testament, God showed His special
pleasure with a sacrifice by lighting the fire for it Himself that
is, fire from heaven came down and consumed the sacrifice. The
experience of the followers of Jesus on Pentecost is another
example of God sending fire from heaven to show His pleasure
and power, but this time, it descended upon living sacrifices
(Romans 12:1).