Jesus, the Holy Spirit Baptizer (April 6, 2025)

Out of 400 years of silence, John the Baptist announced “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” But John didn’t stop there. YES, Jesus came to save us from our sin, and that is the most important part, because without this plan of salvation, nothing else matters. Salvation is the key that unlocks the door for so much more! John also preached that Jesus shall baptize with Holy Ghost and with fire.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BAPTIZER

The Gospels bear a fourfold record of this prophecy of John the Baptist.

Matthew recorded the prophecy –

Matthew 3:11 ~ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Mark recorded an abbreviated version –

Mark 1:8 ~ “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Luke recorded something like Matthew –

Luke 3:16 ~ “John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John expanded the prophecy –

John 1:33 ~  “I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”

In all four of the Gospels, Jesus Christ is set forth as the Holy Spirit baptizer. The fact that the Holy Spirit has taken such care to record this passage in each of the Gospels is evidence of the importance of the experience. It is not only by these four disciples that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was foretold, but also by Jesus Himself. When His earthly ministry was coming to an end and the Cross and Resurrection were behind Him, Jesus announced –

Acts 1:5 ~  “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

When Jesus spoke, He spoke with the same definiteness that John the Baptist spoke. He said, “You will be …”. Without a doubt, Jesus and John were talking about the promise of the Holy Spirit that was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost and that was accompanied by the outward physical evidence of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance.

Why? Why did Jesus Christ and ultimately God, believe that it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to change how He interacted with man, the way He did in the Old Testament? In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come down and dwell with man only on special occasions. He never remained upon men. John 1:33, John goes out of his way to point out that when the Spirit descended upon Jesus, it was unique: He abode, and He remained upon Christ.

John 1:32 ~  “And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”

So again, we ask ourselves, why is the change?

God knew that no man or group of people were powerful enough to live for God or to convince others of the foolishness of the gospel …

• that love is more powerful than might.
• that God’s Son actually came to earth as a man.
• that God’s Son died but was raised from the dead, conquering death.
• that the cross is the way men are saved from sin, death and hell.
• that man can be born again, literally born again and made into a new creature by believing in Jesus.
• that man can live forever by being born again through belief in Jesus.

Christ knew that man needed a supernatural power, the power of God Himself. He knew that the very presence of God’s Spirit had to enter into the very heart of man and …

• impart the divine nature of God

2 Peter 1:4 ~ “by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

• recreate his being completely

2 Corinthians 5:17 ~ “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Ephesians 4:23–24 ~ “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9–10 ~ “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

• live within his body, giving the believer the power to control his life for God and to courageously proclaim the gospel to a world that would consider it foolishness and often react in violence.

Next Sunday, Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025, we will look at the following:

• The Meaning of Baptism
• The Relationship of the Baptizer
• The Ascension of the Baptizer
• The Exaltation of the Baptizer
• The Baptism and the Baptizer

Then, the next Sunday is Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, “The Truth About Easter”.