Briefly, the baptism of the Spirit was a promise made by God many times through the prophets. Note the 'common denominators' in the Old Testament passages quoted below:
1. Intimacy with God
2. Forgiveness of sins
3. Outpouring of God's Spirit producing a 'new heart'
4. The indiscriminate nature of the gift - to highest and lowest
These features bind all the passages together.
The word 'baptise' was not a specially religious word in those days - it simply meant to 'dip' or 'immerse' (you would have said you 'baptised the dishes' when you washed up); and the Holy Spirit, as we have seen, is God's Inmost Self. So the phrase means simply 'to be immersed in God' - to be plunged into intimacy with Him.
John the Baptist
reaffirmed the promise, saying, "It is now."
Jesus confirmed it, and plainly said Pentecost was its initial
fulfilment.
The Pentecostal fulfilment was in two stages:
1. To the Jews in Jerusalem
2. To the Gentiles in Cæsarea (probably Acts 8 records a similar experience granted to the Samaritans). This confirmed the indiscriminate nature of the gift.
It is promised to all who are "called" - Acts 2:39. The Baptism of the Spirit is given, by promise (Acts 2:38-9), in answer to Christ's prayer for us, (John 14:15) when we believe and receive the forgiveness of our sins.
The gift of tongues to the Apostles at Pentecost is not to be confused with the gift of tongues referred to in I Corinthians 12-14. They were quite different gifts. At Pentecost, no interpretation was needed, since the languages spoken were the native languages of many Jews present for the Feast from overseas: Luke catalogues them in detail. In Corinth, interpretation was necessary to make the tongue intelligible, since it was not a language of any kind spoken on earth. Both were 'tongues,' but quite different kinds of tongues; just as oranges and bananas both are fruit, but quite different kinds of fruit. You would not say that because they are both fruit, oranges can be peeled and bananas have pips. No more can you ascribe all the features of one kind of 'tongues' unthinkingly to the other. The Pentecost gift was of mother tongues, the Corinthian gift was of other tongues. The Pentecost gift was to launch the Gospel multi-racially; the gift at Corinth was simply one way (among others) in which a heightened sense of communion with God was experienced: but like all the gifts of the Spirit, it is given at His sovereign discretion. (I Cor. 12:11 - "as He wills;" Heb. 2:4 - "according to His own will.")
Phrases like 'filled with the Spirit' or 'full of the Spirit' occur 15 times in the New Testament, and of those 15, 14 occur in Luke's 2 volumes, Luke and Acts. The only other occasion is the phrase used by Paul (Luke's travelling companion!) in Ephesians 5:18. That alone suggests that it is a favourite phrase of Luke's to describe something the other New Testament writers described by some other phrase (just as 'new birth' is one of the ways, but only one, in which conversion may be described - another e.g. being adoption).
Of Luke's 14 uses of the phrase, four occur before Pentecost and ten after.
The four before Pentecost refer to John (1:15), his mother Elizabeth (1:41), his father Zechariah (1:67) and Jesus (4:1). These link up with the idea of the Holy Spirit as God's inmost self - by the birth of Jesus the very heart of God was to be revealed.
Of the remaining
ten:
Two mean the same thing as the Baptism of the Spirit - Acts
2:4 and 9:17. The 'equation' here of the 'Fulness of the Holy
Spirit' with the 'Baptism of the Spirit' at conversion destroys the
erroneous notion that being filled with the Spirit only ever refers
to some second experience subsequent to conversion.
Four describe a special supply of the Spirit to meet a special
demand - Acts 4:8, 7:55, 4:31, 13:9. They describe special
provision made by God to meet emergency situations - 'heightened
powers for high hours' - a not uncommon experience for ordinary
Christians meeting trouble, sickness, or a challenge to witness.
Three describe the Christian character of individuals, with
particular emphasis on one of the fruits of the Spirit - Acts 6:3,
6:5, 11:24. The mark of the Spirit's fulness was not the
possession of a charismatic gift, but of Christlike character.
One describes a newborn church - Acts 13:52.
Luke here means the same
thing as Paul meant in I Thessalonians 1:5-6.
Drawing all these threads together, it is clear that Luke uses the phrase to describe the essential dynamic of Christian life, both in its beginning and on through all its later development, whether in steady growth in Christlikeness or in some unexpected crisis, and that it applies equally to our life in fellowship as to our individual life.
"Be filled with the Spirit" - Ephesians 5:18
Note again, this is the only use of the phrase outside of Luke's writings.
1. The verbs and participles are all in the plural - the exhortation is directed toward shared, congregational life.
2. Compare this verse with Col. 3:16 - the two passages are almost identical, with the single notable difference that where in Ephesians 5:18 Paul says "Be filled with the Spirit," in Col 3:16 he says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly" ... as though the two phrases meant the same thing. They do! In John's Gospel, to have Christ abiding in us is the same thing as to have His Word abiding in us (15:7), and Christ the living Word in fact abides in us through the Holy Spirit, the 'other Paraclete.' To be filled with the Spirit, therefore, is the same thing as to have Christ abiding in us, and the way to secure that experience is to feed upon His Word.
(Here is an example of John's use of different language to mean the same thing Luke means by 'the fulness of the Spirit.' Paul uses language like 'putting on Christ' or 'putting on the New Man,' 'having the mind of Christ' or 'walking according to the Spirit,' or even 'being filled with all the fulness of God' etc. Eph. 3:16-19 is the key example of what Paul means by all this varied use of language.)
The phrase occurs 15
times in the New Testament :
14 times in Luke/Acts - once in Ephesians!
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Two = |
Baptism in the Spirit |
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Four = |
"Emergency" Supply |
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Three = |
Christ-like Character |
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One = |
Christ-like Community |
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Ephesians 5:18 = |
Colossians 3:16 |
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"Be filled with the Spirit" = |
"Let word the of Christ dwell in you richly" |
Finally, notice:
1. Paul does not liken 'being filled with the Spirit' to 'being drunk'; rather he likens the way to be filled with the Spirit to the way to get drunk. It is the process that is compared, not the state. To get drunk, all you have to do is to drink and drink and drink ... so to be filled with Spirit all you have to do is to drink and drink and drink Christ the Wine of Life.
2. Just as it is said that you should not do your drinking alone, neither should you seek the fulness of the Spirit alone: you should do it in fellowship.
3. There is a parallelism between verse 17 and verses 18-21 of Eph. 5:
A - v. 17 "So then, don't be woolly-minded and hair-brained, but ...
B - v. 17 "Get a firm hold on what the will of the Lord is ...
C - for 'yo' all.'A - v. 18 "Don't soak up grog, which leads to muddle-headedness and loose living, but ...
B - v. 18 "Soak up the Spirit in a joyful sharing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Scripture in Song!), making music in your hearts to the Lord, with thankfulness in any and all circumstances since Christ Jesus is Lord over all of them, and our lives are in the Fatherly care of God Who carries us on His heart, and...
C - v. 21 setting other's interests above your own out of a shared reverence for Christ in your brother." (Free paraphrase mine.)
In the Greek here is no full stop at the end of v. 20; the sense of what Paul writes is: "Be being filled with the Spirit ... singing and psalming ... giving thanks always ... being subject to one another." The marks of the Spirit's fulness are joy, thanksgiving and submissiveness.
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