By: Thomas F. Booher
The following is taken from notes from a sermon I preached on 8-8-21.
I. QUESTION TO EXPLORE: Why
would Jesus submit to a baptism of REPENTANCE?
A. We’ve
seen how John affirms His unworthiness to unlatch Jesus’ shoe, much less
baptize Him.
1. John says in Mt. 3:14 “I need to be baptized
by You, and are You coming to me?” to which Jesus says, “Permit it to be so no,
for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
2. So,
certainly Jesus had no sin to repent of, but this fulfilled righteousness, by
Jesus identifying with His people in their baptism, that He would be
condemned in their place as a law-breaker.
3. Just
as Jesus is without sin yet must come to the cross to atone for His people’s
sin, He is without need of repentance yet must come to the baptism of
repentance in order to identify with His people.
4. But also Jesus
submits to this baptism b/c, at this moment, we see the surpassing
ministry/glory of Jesus’ ministry over John’s come to fruition.
a. It is here that God
speaks audibly and appears visibly in the form of a dove, so that John and any
others would know Jesus’ surpassing glory/ministry.
b. Jesus baptizes with the
Holy Spirit b/c He is anointed and full of the Holy Spirit unlike anyone who
has come before Him. He pleases the Father, yet will be burned with the
unrepentant chaff!
B. Also,
do not miss that, at Jesus’ baptism, He is named as the Father’s Beloved Son.
1. Those who heard about
this understood who Jesus was, and also that submitting to John’s baptism of
repentance was blessed by God.
2. So we see that true
repentance, true obedience, brings true blessings, true Sonship with the
Father.
3. Indeed, Jesus would tell
the disciples to preach “repentance and remission of sins…to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem…” and that Jesus would send to His apostles the “Promise
of My Father upon you…power from on high” (Lk. 24:47-49).
4. Acts, the second part of
Luke, is explicit that this promise of the Father is Jesus baptizing them with
the Holy Spirit, the greater baptism than John’s (Acts 1:4-5, 8), and it indeed comes like tongues of fire, Acts 2:5, causing the
disciples/apostles to be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues.
5. Acts 2 is the fulfillment
of this outpouring of the Spirit, and this “gift of the Spirit” is for all
those who are “cut to the heart” at the preaching of Peter and is also promised
to “your children” (Acts 2:37-39).
II. QUESTION: Does this then mean that we all must speak
in tongues in order to have the Holy Spirit?
A. Rom. 8:14-17 says if we are led by the Spirit of God, we are sons of God, for we have
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father”, and 8:26 says “we do not know
what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Are these groanings inward “tongues” that all
Christians must speak in? Not at all!
B. All
of Acts, often called “Acts of the Apostles” is plainly the “Acts of the Holy
Spirit”.
1. The whole book is all
about the work of the Spirit, the receiving and rejecting of the Spirit, the
lying to/blaspheming of the Spirit like Ananias and Sapphira, etc.
2. To answer whether we must
speak in tongues today, & for the purpose of our text way back in Luke 3, we know that some, when they were baptized with Jesus’ baptism, received the gift of
tongues, visions, prophecies, revelations, etc. I Cor. 12 says there’s
diversity of gifts/not all speak in tongues.
3. These
gifts/powers of the Spirit were not given to John/those receiving his baptism, for his did not come
with the heavenly Holy Spirit & fire, but only earthly water.
a. But these miraculous
gifts/powers of the Spirit confirmed that salvation/repentance unto life was
given even to the Gentiles, that this was a supernatural work of God and not a
clever trick of man.
b. Remember, at this time
the NT Scriptures are not written, and so the confirming word/evidence had to
come through these miraculous/confirming gifts of the Spirit as the gospel
advanced from the Jews, to the Samaritans, and finally to the Gentiles.
4. These miraculous gifts/baptism
of the Spirit that Jesus poured out from heaven onto His apostles (hence our
pouring for baptisms), were then spread by the apostles to those they
came/preached to.
5. Tongue-speaking was first
a sign to the Jews who were in Jerusalem during Pentecost who heard the
apostles speaking tongues in their own language. This convinced doubters that
the apostles really were Christ’s sent-out ones, that the Gospel of the
resurrection of Christ really was true, for “many wonders and signs were
done through the apostles” (Acts 2:43).
6. The Holy Spirit falls on
the Samaritans in Acts 8, as the apostles Peter and John lay hands on
the Samaritans (those mixed with Jew/Gentile blood) to receive certain gifts of
the Spirit (speaking in tongues, etc.), and the former sorcerer Simon sinfully
wants to buy this power from the apostles!
7. Then in Acts
10-11,
we see The Gospel & baptism of the Spirit extending even to the Gentiles,
as Cornelius & his household, including his relatives & close friends (10:24), were gathered, and all
had the Holy Spirit fall upon them so that these Gentiles spoke in tongues/magnified
God (10:46).
a. Peter’s response is that
they should be baptized with water, since they have received the Holy Spirit
just as Peter and the apostles had.
b. Peter recounts and
defends his actions of baptizing Gentiles, recounting how God showed him in a
vision all the unclean animals, told him to eat them, for God had made them
clean.
c. This pointed to the
Gentiles also being made clean through receiving Christ in true repentance.
d. Peter says he recalled,
when the Spirit fell on the Gentiles in this way, how Jesus had said, “John
indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit”
(Acts 11:16).
e. The Jewish apostles &
brethren then realized the work of God’s saving grace, and so they glorify God
and say, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life”
(Acts 11:18).
III. QUESTION: Does the miraculous gifts/gift of
tongues, revelations, etc. continue today?
A. No, these miraculous gifts of the Spirit were temporary, evidenced as said above
by the Apostles having to lay hands on those in Samaria & pray that God
would confer them (Acts 8:13-25).
B. Like Simon the Sorcerer,
many today only want the Holy Spirit’s “supernatural” gifts, such as
tongue-speaking, visions, prophesies, etc. Some claim to confer these gifts
today, & must repent like Simon!
C. But since there are no
longer any living Apostles today (who had to be commissioned by Christ directly
and be eyewitnesses of His resurrection), the Apostolic Age has ended, and with
it, the miraculous/supernatural gifts of the Spirit, which served to bear
witness to the good news of the Gospel of salvation according to Hebrews
2:3-4, and according to Luke Himself in Acts 1:8.
D. I Cor. 12 lists a pecking order of what God has appointed in His Church; 1st
apostles, 2nd prophets, 3rd teachers, miracles, healings, helps,
administrations, & lastly varieties of tongues.
E. Paul goes on to say that
we are to desire the best gifts, and not all have gifts of healings, tongue
speaking, interpretation of tongues, etc. Those aren’t the
best gifts anyway & have now ceased!
F. In I Cor.13, he says all spiritual gifts are meaningless without love, and
that faith, hope, and love abide, but prophecies will fail, tongues will cease,
knowledge will vanish away b/c we know and prophesy in part, but when
the perfect has come, that which is in part will pass away (I Cor.
13:8-10).
G. The
ultimate perfection is the glorified state in heaven, but we also have the perfect and complete written Word of God to guide
us now.
H. Paul would rather speak
in the church with five words that he and everyone understands, than ten
thousand words in a tongue that he and others do not understand without an
interpreter, for tongues are a sign to unbelievers, not
believers, and have little value in the Church (I Cor.
14:18-23).
I.
Even Philip, one of the 7 chosen by the
apostles to serve the widows from Acts 6, who was said to be full of the Spirit, could
not confer these supernatural sign gifts of the Spirit.
1. The Apostles had to come
and do that by the laying on of hands. While Philip did miraculous works (Acts
8:6-7),
he could not confer them as he was not an apostle.
2. But he did have them
conferred to him when the apostle’s hands were laid on him & they prayed
for him when he was commissioned (Acts 6:6).
3. Thus, the miraculous gifts
of the Spirit ceased when the apostles’ ministry came to an end, for they were
part of the foundation upon which the Church was built, the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (Eph.
2:20).
J. In neither Ephesians
4 or Romans
12 where gifts of the
Spirit are listed, workers of miracles, speaking in tongues, and the like, are
conspicuously absent.
K. I Corinthians was one of
the earliest NT books completed. I Tim. 5:23, a later book, has Paul telling Timothy to
drink wine for his stomach ailments, not to seek a person with the gift of
healing, etc.
L. From this we see that the
Charismatic and supernatural sign gifts that many boast about in the Church
today are spurious and unbiblical/false at best, demonic/intended to deceive
God’s people at worst.
1. Nevertheless, these gifts
played an important role in the establishment of the foundation of the NT
Church, and to transmit the Gospel in the natives’ own tongue/with understanding.
2. The near complete absence
of these supernatural sign gifts after the first century or so of Christ’s
coming is further evidence that these gifts have ceased, as those who profess
to practice them today do not even do so according to Paul’s rules, “decently
and in order”, listed in I Corinthians.
IV. QUESTION: So do we have the Baptism of the
Spirit/what the Apostles had today or not? Yes!
A. In Luke 3, we must see
that Christ was imbued with supernatural gifts of the Spirit at the time of his
baptism, when he was around 30 years of age. Jesus’ signs and wonders/miracles
begins at this time.
B. After He ascends on high,
He would pour out the Spirit on His apostles at Pentecost in the same way, and
indeed, all of us in Christ now have the fullness of the
Spirit poured out on us, the supernatural gifts of the Spirit coming to a close
do not change that reality.
C. Remember,
not everyone spoke in tongues even in the Apostolic era, & those weren’t
the best gifts!
D. That God has covenanted
with us and our children through Christ’s blood is a great blessing, as we are
in the sphere of God’s saving work, under the influence of His Holy Spirit, and
that Spirit is likewise operative upon and promised to our children, received
in full/salvifically through true faith/repentance.
E. Likewise,
as Christ was declared to be the Father’s precious Son at His baptism, so each
of us are named as God’s own children at our baptisms, as we are baptized INTO
the triune name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! His name is on us,
and He is the Father of us and our children.
F. May we never be severed
from Christ and fall away from grace (Gal. 5:4), and if we are in Christ savingly, born
again of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 3:5), praise God that we never will be severed
and fall away, but will persevere to the end and inherit eternal life in
Christ’s kingdom.
Conclusion: The HS descends upon Jesus in the form of a
dove at His baptism. This is significant, for at creation, the Spirit of God
hovered over the face of the waters when it was still without form and void,
just prior to God beginning the shaping work of His creation. In Genesis
8, Noah sends out a dove,
who again goes out over the waters covering the earth, and when the dove does
not return, Noah knows God’s judgment has receded and that dry ground/the
renewed creation has come. When the Holy Spirit comes like a dove upon Jesus,
the renewed creation has begun in the person and work of Christ, whose glory
and calling is to be the Word made flesh, to be the Light of the World, to
separate the wheat from the chaff, to redeem all Creation, all His people,
& usher in everlasting peace.
The Baptism He was
baptized with leads to Him fulfilling all righteousness, so that after His work
is finished and He is seated at the right hand of the Father, He then receives
from the Father the gift of the Spirit, Spirit Baptism. The same Spirit that
overshadowed Christ now indwells you who trust in Christ, so that we too can be
one with Christ, eternally united to Him as His bride, His body, in a more
perfect union than even husband and wife!
Presbyterians who
actually know their confessions and Bibles believe in the work of the Spirit
more than any Pentecostal or Charismatic. It is by the fullness of the Spirit
that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, received at His baptism, and it is by Christ’s
full outpouring of the Spirit that we too, in Christ, live righteously, and are
forever united to Him.
And by Christ’s Spirit,
when the waters of our Lord’s baptism came upon you, in a public and formal
way, He Himself confirms, speaking through baptism, that God is your Father,
Christ is your Head, and the Holy Spirit, like a dove, has overshadowed you.
So hold fast to Christ
your Head, obey and love your heavenly Father, and keep in step with the
Spirit, do not grieve or quench Him, and thereby improve your baptism as you walk
humbly, repentantly, and faithfully before the Lord in the Light of His Word. Let
us pray.
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