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Baptized in the Holy Spirit-Acts 1:1-9-Pentecost Sunday
By Omar | May 28, 2007
Last week was the 5th anniversary of 9/11. Our hearts were again reminded of the horrific and terrible acts that were committed against our country. Everyone remembers where they were on 9/11 and what their reaction was as they watched the shocking scenarios taking place on their TV set. I was in the Middle East on the mission field and I will never forget the shock, dismay and even fear that I felt as I too watched the events unfold on the TV. As the fear set in, a whole range of questions plagued my soul: “what will the reaction of America be to all of this; what will the reaction of the whole world be to all of this; what will the reaction of the Church be to all of this; what about Christians, how will they individually react; and me, what will my reaction be?” In the days, weeks, and months following 9/11, there was a military buildup in the Middle East, churches here in America were being filled with people seeking answers, new legislation and even a new department was formed called the Department of Homeland Security. Since then, there has been another Iraq war and a whole host of other things going on all over the world. We all know the inconveniences of airport travel with all the security concerns. Billions of dollars have been spent to make us safer as Americans. And it is interesting that last week as Americans observed the 5th anniversary of 9/11, some of our politicians (including a few Republicans) said that we are no safer today than we were on that vulnerable day in 2001. Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska has said that we need a new message, a new strategy to fight terror and keep America safe. Even Christians are pushing a political agenda even now more than ever. In the months after 9/11, I received so many emails from Christians telling me how they thought I ought to evangelize the Muslims overseas. Some even asked me to leave the mission field and come back home to America and let God take care of them by judging them. I was even afraid to come home on furlough the following year, not knowing exactly what the reaction our supporting churches would be as we saw each other face to face. Would some give up hope for this part of the world? Would some think that this is a losing cause? Would some ask me to change our message or our strategies? Would some take away the resources we need to function on the mission field? Would some have adopted a political agenda? Would some have other misconceptions and what would those be? And as I spent time with churches and Christians during our furlough then and our furlough now in 2006, I find that there is a level of frustration and even confusion concerning how to go about taking on the world for Christ. At times, we seem powerless against the forces out there. At times, our message is not clear and even tainted with a political agenda, and other times we feel that proclaiming Christ in a time of world turmoil and terror is a losing cause. As ministers of the Gospel, you and I need more than ever to anchor ourselves in the truth of the Word of God and rest in the sufficiency of Christ. Some of you are in ministry now even as you are working on your degree here at RTS and others will be in ministry when they graduate. And together, as we love, reach and disciple people for Christ in a mixed up, crazy world trying to trip us up with doubt and their misconceptions, we need those clear assurances from our Lord that enable us to continue to minister for Him until He returns and brings the consummation of His Kingdom. And our passage before us in Acts 1:1-9, we are given by Luke those assurances as we minister and build His kingdom together. We see three amazing things that encourage us along our journey as we proclaim Christ to the world. We see that:
1. Jesus gives us the message to proclaim.
2. Jesus gives us the power to proclaim it.
3. Jesus gives us the nations to receive it.
Acts 1:1-9 reads:
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
The Book of Acts is the second volume of a two-volume history written by Luke, the companion of the apostle Paul. Luke begins his book in Jerusalem, picking up his account with the closing hours of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. It is the period between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven.
Have you ever wondered why God would have chosen Luke, not being one of the 12 apostles, to write two major books in our NT? In our day and age, we need a church historian like Luke to document for us the history of the early church, i.e. the events and the working of God as He reached down into the mass of fallen humanity and saved pagan men and women and brought them into a new fellowship, the church, and began to work in them in such a way that glory is brought to Jesus Christ. That is what Luke is writing about as he unfolds the historical events for us. Christianity is a historical religion. Most of the religions of the world can exist without their founder. For example, you don’t need a historical Buddha to have Buddhism, because all you need are Buddhist teachings. The same is true with Islam. But not with Christianity. If you take away Jesus, then all you have is mere ethics.
1. Jesus gives us the message to proclaim: Jesus taught about God. In verse 1, Luke says that he “wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach” and this is found in the Gospel of Luke. He taught about the Kingdom of God. He also showed what God was like. Then, in order to achieve our salvation, he died for us, taking our place to bear the wrath of God. And during the interim between His resurrection and ascension, Luke says in verse 3 that Jesus “spoke about the kingdom of God.” After three years of following Jesus, the disciples still didn’t understand fully what Jesus’ message was. That happens to many of today. We grow up in the church. We learn all the Bible stories and memorize key Bible verses. We listen to sermon after sermon, but when it comes down to us proclaiming the message of Christ, we lose track of what really to proclaim. It is as if something doesn’t click in our heads. We have all the information, just like the disciples did, but we don’t know how to process it, let alone proclaim and explain it. We get side tracked by what’s going on in the news and then we try to re-interpret our message through all the events going on in the world. We do this, don’t we? We are like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As they walked and talked together about all the events that had taken place, puzzled and confused, Jesus appears to them and walks along with them. They tell him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days…about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel…” (Luke 24:13-22). Although these disciples knew that Jesus was powerful in word and deed, through his teachings and miracles, they misinterpreted the message because they were focusing on a political event trying to get that political event to be the content of the message. This is what we do as Christians all the time.
Knowing that my wife and I served as missionaries in Lebanon for many years, a Christian friend of mine sent me an article from a Christian source talking about the recent Israeli-Hizbullah war that just ended last month. The article, written in the heat of the war, said quote, “Pat Robertson flew to Israel to be at the side of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and pray for the success of the Israeli army in destroying Hizbullah.” I was saddened as I read on. What a tragedy. Although the article didn’t say it explicitly, I hoped that, given this golden opportunity, Pat Robertson shared the real message of Christ to the Prime Minister. But, unfortunately the article (written from a Christian source) was more concerned with a certain political aspiration than proclaiming the true message of Christ. The sad thing about it for Pat Robertson is that the war ended and Hizbullah wasn’t destroyed and I can only wonder what impression that left in the minds and hearts of the Israeli Prime Minister and his people.
When we let CNN or Fox news or some Christian lobby with a political motivation be our message, we are left confused because it didn’t happen as we were led to believe.
Jesus’ response to the Emmaus road disciples clears up the confusion and gives us the correct message that we need as we proclaim Him to a messed up world. In verse 25 of Luke 24, Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” And listen to this, later on in verse 45 when he rejoins the other disciples, Jesus “opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: (we need to get this for this is the message Jesus gives us to proclaim) The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem..”
This is the message that Jesus gives us to proclaim. We are not to taint it with our analysis of what’s going on in the world or our version of how the outcomes of events need to turn out. Rather, we are to proclaim that Jesus suffered and died for our sins and rose again on the third day. He grants repentance and forgiveness of sins to all who believe. And it is this message that we proclaim to all nations beginning in Jerusalem, i.e. beginning here in Oviedo or wherever you are ministering for Him and His kingdom. Jesus not only gives us the message to proclaim but also…
2. Jesus gives us the power to proclaim this message. In verse 4, Jesus tells the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The gift that the Father promised is the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
First of all, being baptized with the Holy Spirit is not the new birth or conversion or being united with the Body of Christ. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit is when a person who is already a believer, receives extraordinary spiritual empowerment for proclaiming Christ’s message, i.e. the Gospel.
One proof for this is in Luke 24:48-9, Jesus says, “I am going to send you what my Father promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” The focus of Jesus in the baptism with the Spirit here is being clothed with power. It is a matter of empowerment. He had told them one verse earlier that they were to preach in his name to all nations. And so it is obvious that we cannot fulfill that with the greatest success unless we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, i.e. clothed with power from God.
Also, in our passage in Acts, in verse 8, Jesus tells the disciples, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…” Here the baptism with the Holy Spirit is seen as a “coming on” that gives power for witness.
Neither of these texts suggests that baptism with the Holy Spirit is rebirth, conversion or union with Christ. The disciples were already saved and had the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. John 15:3, Jesus told them, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” Rebirth is not the issue Luke is addressing here in Acts 1. Jesus doesn’t say, “Wait in Jerusalem until you are saved and converted.” Rather, Jesus says, “Wait in Jerusalem and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
The baptism with the Holy Spirit is a filling with the Holy Spirit, an empowering for ministry and proclaiming Christ. We see this throughout the book of Acts:
Acts 2:4, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” And what is the result of this filling or empowerment? Verse 41 says that about 3000 people were saved.
In Acts 4:8, Peter is again filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks to the rulers and elders of the people with such great power that in verse 13 we are told that they were astonished at his message and Peter being “unschooled and ordinary.”
In Acts 4:31, the believers were praying and their meeting place was shaken and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” and the result was that they “spoke the word of God boldly.”
In Acts 6, Stephen is described as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” The result of being full of the Holy Spirit is told to us in verse 8, “a man full of God’s grace and power” doing “great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.”
Paul in Acts 9:17 when he is filled with the Holy Spirit results in verse 22 saying that he “grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.”
Luke tells us that in Acts 11:24 Barnabas was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.”
There are more references to this in the book of Acts. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit is when a believer receives supernatural empowerment for bearing witness to Christ and His message. I don’t have time to develop this as a fulfillment of the promise of Joel 2 where Joel promises a release of prophetic power among believers.
In his book, Joy Unspeakable, Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes what happens when the Holy Spirit “comes on” a believer and empowers him. He says it is like a child walking along holding his father’s hand. All is well. The child is happy and 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 your mine.” Then hugging him once more with unspeakable warmth and affection, he puts the child down and they continue to walk.
Our ordinary walk with God, says Lloyd-Jones is swept up into an unspeakable new level of joy, love and assurance that leaves the believer with the assurance of the reality of Jesus that he is overflowing with praise and witnesses with boldness and courage that he never had before. Doubt is gone and you have that deep down certainty that God loves you unconditionally and that Jesus is real and all you want to do is to shout it from the rooftops and proclaim it in the streets. This is what is meant by being baptized with the Holy Spirit. The believers in the early church were filled and they were overwhelmed with the reality of God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice for them and they witnessed with joy unspeakable and with great boldness.
And why does Jesus send us what the Father has promised? Jesus knows that we need the baptism with the Holy Spirit so that the message of Christ can be taken effectively to all the nations of the world. Jesus not only gives us the message to proclaim and the power but also…
3. Jesus gives us the nations to receive the message. In verse 6, the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
At first glance, we notice that the disciples’ question reflected their nationalistic hopes. Jesus had said in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Yet, they do not appear to have shared Jesus’ understanding of a spiritual kingdom. They were thinking about earthly kingdoms. Jesus had taught them differently. He had taught them that His kingdom was spiritual, saying in Luke 17:21, “The kingdom of God is within you.” But, they didn’t understand it. In other words, they wanted Jesus to usher in the consummation of the kingdom without the continuation. They wanted to eliminate the middle C of the ICC.
They wanted a political kingdom. They expressed the old messianic hope of a newly restored Davidic kingdom. They wanted that golden era to return that they once had when David was on the throne and Israel experienced her greatest glory.
They also wanted an ethnically restricted kingdom. They didn’t just ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom?” But, “…are you going to restore it to Israel?” This meant “to us Jews”. They weren’t interested in a gentile kingdom because they were already under Roman occupation.
Lastly, they wanted a geographically restricted kingdom. And you can guess where the capital would be. In Jerusalem, because that is where David and Solomon reigned and where the Messiah will reign as well.
It’s funny. When you read the entire book of Acts you see that the emphasis is not on the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, but rather, the restoration of Israel, i.e. spiritual Israel, to the kingdom.
The disciples needed a redirection in their kingdom thinking. And I think that many of us today need that as well.
Wouldn’t you agree that we are in such an eschatology-hungry time right now. The hottest Christian books selling today are fiction and have to do with end time themes. My son Jeremy has read the entire Left Behind series and he loved them because he said that they were entertaining.
I was speaking recently at a missions conference at a Baptist Church. I reported on our work in the Middle East, how the church is growing and encouraged them to pray for the peoples of the region. Toward the end of the meeting, there was time for questions and answers. One lady raised her hand and said, “Is it true that the Jews now control Jerusalem?” I said, “They have controlled Jerusalem since 1967…” and before I could finish, she blurted out, “Then Jesus is coming back to set up His earthly kingdom.”
Now, we expect that kind of response from our dispensational brothers and sisters in Christ since we know where they stand as far as eschatology and end time prophecies are concerned. But, what about us Reformed people? Sometimes, I believe that we are so sure that God is going to save the elect and bring about the final C of the ICC, that we don’t bother with witnessing among the nations. We, too, neglect the middle C of the ICC and rationalize it by saying that the Holy Spirit will do it all.
Jesus assures us that the nations will receive His message. After the disciples understood what Jesus meant by being His witnesses to all the nations and building His kingdom, they then took the Gospel into all the world. From Acts 2 through the end of the book, we see how the Gospel was proclaimed in Jerusalem, then in all Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the known earth. God ordained it and He gives the nations to receive the message.
When I get discouraged in my ministry to Muslims; when our labors seem to be in vain in reaching the lost, then I remind myself of the end story. Revelation 7:9 has been the greatest encouragement to me as I bear witness to Christ and His message. The scene is heaven. John talks about a great multitude and says, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
Yes, the nations will receive the message.
We take the message of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and the nations will hear and be glad and honor the word of the Lord and all who are appointed for eternal life will believe (Acts 13:48).