As we finished up yesterday, I noted that John the Baptist, as the last in the line of the Old Testament type of prophets, prphesied something very important: “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with Spirit-fire.”
In other words, there was a different baptism coming through Christ. And while John was baptizing for repentance, what would this different baptism be for?
Christ exemplifies it when he goes, out of obedience, to be baptized by John. Let’s look at a couple things about Christ as we peruse the event more closely. Why did Jesus need the baptism of repentance?
He didn’t. Christ was to be both High Priest, the King, and Prophet, the Messiah prophesied through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and almost every Old Testament prophet, including some interesting passages from Nehemiah. John’s father was a priest, from the priest class, so the baptism of Jesus was instead the passing on of the Levitical priesthood to Jesus, through John, at the baptism. (A nod to Saji for that piece of revelation)
But like the priests of the Old Covenant, Christ was also born with the nature of God, perfect. Why then did he need the anointing of the Holy Spirit?
Because he was being anointed for ministry. The torch, the fire, so to speak, was to be passed from the Levites through John unto Jesus. And in order to minister, Jesus was blessed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
(Some might quickly say, didn’t Israel have a high priest? They also had a king, Herod, but we know Herod wasn’t the anointed choice. Neither was the current High Priest. It is God who ordains and chooses, and of course God chose John through a miraculous birth, to be the last of the Old Covenant priest and prophet.)
Not to mention that, while they happened at once, they were two separate events. Jesus is dunked in water and then the Holy Spirit rests upon him. And this leads us to the second reason Christ needed to be “baptized in the Spirit”, as an example for us, as the firstborn of many brethren. Many times through the New Testament, we are told that we should look to Christ as an example (“let this mind be in you,” etc). If Jesus needed to have the anointing of the Holy Spirit before his ministry, don’t we?
Important to remember, Jesus never baptized anyone in water. His disciples did, during his ministry, for repentance, but he never did. He knew he had a better baptism to pass on.
Moving on, Jesus gives the apostles the Holy Spirit after his resurrection, at the end of the Gospel of John. There were no tongues, no flames of fire, no preaching directly afterwards. This was a separate event from what happened on Pentecost.
At the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts (really the same long book if you put them together), we get the reason why they were to wait for the Holy Spirit, so they could be empowered unto the ministry God had prepared for them.
The day of Pentecost was a different experience, obviously. Jesus wasn’t there in the flesh. People spoke in different languages, Peter boldly preached. There was a second experience that anointed them for what happens throughout their ministries.
And before I get to Acts tomorrow, let me quickly note a couple things. Don’t ignore that while they waited for the Holy Spirit, they waited together, in love, in community, in one accord. They were in one accord before being anointed and sent. God is waiting for the Church today to do the same.
The second note is to notice the difference between the Peter of Luke (and the other Gospels) and the Peter of Acts. He is a different man. In the Gospels Peter looks like many Christians today, passionate but misguided, overzealous at the wrong times, prone to fear man and his own safety, denying His Lord. The Peter in Acts is a man of authority, stability, and boldness. He is markedly different after the anointing of the Holy Spirit on his life.
No wonder they made it an issue throughout the rest of Acts.
Peace.