It's only lesson two in the series and we were talking about the establishment of the church at Ephesus. And last week we
left on a note of left on the subject of rebaptism because of the discussion in Acts chapter 19
verses 1 to 7. Again the beginning of the church in Ephesus, why some disciples
were rebaptised, why it seems some of them were not; and we
just ran out of time. There isn't a universal agreement here
so we don't have to all have the same conclusion. The Bible does give some
information but there are some things we just have to figure out for ourselves
as we just pick up the information from different parts of the
Scriptures. So here's what I believe the Bible teaches on this question of John's
baptism and Jesus's baptism and those who lived through the period of time
when both of these were in effect. There's a kind of an overlap period
there that brings about a lot of discussion on this particular topic.
Let's go to Matthew shall we, chapter 3 begin there verses 1 to 6. It says, "Now
in those days John the Baptist came "preaching in the wilderness of Judea
saying, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven "is at hand.' For this is the one referred
to by Isaiah the prophet saying 'The "voice of one crying in the wilderness
make ready the way of the Lord make His "paths straight.' Now John himself had a
garment of camel's hair and a leather "belt about his waist and his
food was locusts and wild honey. "Then Jerusalem was going out to him at
all Judea and all the district around "the Jordan and they were being baptized
by him in the Jordan River as they "confessed their sins." And so John
preached his sermon, his idea was that the Messiah and His kingdom were coming,
and in order to prepare for that kingdom a person was to repent
and be baptized, to be immersed in water. If we continue in John
chapter 3 and again we're just kind of going over a survey of the
land there: John's baptism, Jesus taking it over, then the Apostles, to get an idea
of what we'll be talking about. Jesus' baptism this time Matthew 3 beginning in
verse 13 it says, "Then Jesus arrived from "Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to
be baptized by him. But John tried to "prevent Him, saying, 'I have need to be
baptized by You, and do you come to me?' "But Jesus answering said to him, 'Permit
it at this time for in this way it is "fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.' Then he permitted Him." And so Jesus as we know had no sin, no sin to
repent of, but He was in human form he was a human being, He was a Jew and He
obeyed all things commanded by God and John's baptism was one of the things
commanded to the Jews, those who were preparing for the kingdom to do. And so
to fulfill all righteousness, to do all the things that God had required, Jesus
also submitted Himself to that baptism. Alright let's go to John chapter 1 this
time John chapter 1 beginning in verse 35. John chapter 1 beginning in verse 35
it says, "Again the next day John was "standing with the two of his disciples,
and he looked upon Jesus as he walked, "and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God!' And the
two disciples heard him speak, and they "followed Jesus."
So as Jesus' public ministry increased John's ministry decreased. And so John's
disciples began following Jesus. And of course this was as it should
have been. John was there to prepare the way for Jesus, and once
Jesus' public ministry begins it's natural that John's followers begin
to follow Jesus. Okay let's go back to Matthew, I know you're flipping
around a lot here, Matthew chapter 4 this time. Matthew chapter 4 verse 17 says, "From that time Jesus "began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" Does that
sermon sound familiar? So Jesus continues to preach the message
of John and baptized those who respond to that message. So for a time of course
Jesus is preaching exactly the same thing that John was preaching: prepare, repent prepare the kingdom is at hand. All right after the resurrection
and the ascension, the Apostles were to preach the baptism of Jesus. So let's go
to our Mark verses 15 and 16 Jesus says, or rather "He said to them, [to the Apostles] 'Go into all the world and "preach the gospel to all creation. He who
has believed and has been baptized will "be saved; but he who has disbelieved will
be condemned." And we repeat that same commission if you wish in Matthew 28
verses 18, all scriptures you're familiar with, "And Jesus came up and spoke to them,
saying, 'All authority has been given to "Me in heaven and on earth. Go
therefore and make disciples of all "nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son of the Holy "Spirit.'" So the mode of baptism would be
the same: immersion. But the reason and the result would be different. In Acts
chapter 2 verse 38 Peter says to the people who ask what should we do he says
repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of John? No, in the
name of Jesus. What for? To prepare for the kingdom? No, for the forgiveness of
your sins and that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So John's baptism was to prepare for the kingdom. Jesus'
baptism the result of that forgiveness and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
John's message and baptism prepared people for the forgiveness and the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit to come. The Apostles message and baptism told
people that the promise of the kingdom was here and the fulfillment of those
promises were now available now. Remember last week I said to you, we often
concentrate or focus on the idea of the forgiveness that takes place at baptism,
and it does, but we don't talk a lot about it the indwelling of the Spirit
and I mentioned to you that for the Jews the big news was the indwelling of the
Spirit. Because in the Old Testament the Spirit came upon different people at
different times just for a time. The Spirit was with a prophet so that
prophet could speak or the Spirit was with one of the judges so that judges
could do mighty work or the Spirit was with a king so he could lead. But the
Spirit was not with the people. The promise was when the Messiah comes He
will give the Spirit to everybody. Everybody will have the Spirit. Young, old,
male, female, free, slaves, everybody that was the exciting part of the promise.
Alright so some people now live through all of John, Jesus and the Apostles
ministry. In Acts chapter 12 verse 12 I think it's up on the board there talks
about the fact that John's mother lived in Jerusalem. John lived through the, for
example, lived through the time where John the Baptist was preaching, he lived
of course through the time that Jesus was preaching it and now was still alive
when the Apostles were preaching. baptism So you have an individual here
certainly not the only one but you have an individual here who lived through all
three of these baptisms if you wish as they were preached.
Okay so I just wanted to set that up a little bit from a scriptural point of
view to see that there's a history of activity and preaching here that evolves
or changes from person to person. Now we have some commonly asked
questions about this issue. About people who live through these things. Question
number one: When were the Apostles baptized? Well since most of them were
disciples of John to begin with or became disciples of Jesus during John
and Jesus' ministry they received the baptism of John. Go to John
chapter 1 if you don't mind verse 35 well it says, "Again the next day
John was standing with two disciples, and "he looked at Jesus as He walked, and
said, 'Behold the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him speak, and they
followed Jesus." They received the baptism of John. Why? Because the first time they
heard the message was through the preaching of John. Next question: Were the Apostles rebaptized after Pentecost when Jesus' baptism was
preached at Pentecost? And why? Why or why not?
The answer: No they were not rebaptised because like Jesus they had also
fulfilled all righteousness. In other words, they had done all that God had
commanded concerning this matter by receiving John's baptism. In other words,
if you had been baptized during John's ministry or during Jesus' ministry when
He was alive, meaning before His death burial and resurrection, then you didn't
need to be rebaptized when Peter and the Apostles began preaching Jesus' baptism
at Pentecost. I mean you can deduce that just from logic, but also
there's nothing in the New Testament that tells us that any
one of the Apostles was rebaptized. Not even a hint of it. Another question:
When did the Apostles receive the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit? That's a tricky one. Well they received the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit after Jesus had arisen from the dead and gave him to them as he had
promised. In John chapter 20 verse 19-22 it says, "When therefore it was the
evening on that day, the first day of the "week and when the doors were shut where
the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, "Jesus came and stood in their midst and
said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" Now remember He has died on the cross, He's
been buried and He has resurrected but He's not ascended to heaven yet. He's
still appearing to the Apostles and other disciples. It says, "And when He had
said this, He showed them both His hands "and His side. The disciples therefore
rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus "therefore said to them again, 'Peace be
with you; as the Father has sent Me, I "also send you.'
And when He had said this, He breathed on "them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy
Spirit.'" They were the first, and I want you to
really pay attention to this word, they were the first ones to receive the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said He wasn't going to give the Spirit
until the cross, until after His resurrection. So the first ones that He
gives the indwelling to are the Apostles. He breathes on them and they
received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So that brings us to the next
question: What was it that they received at Pentecost? At Pentecost after
Jesus had risen and appeared to them for forty days and then ascended to heaven
the Lord empowered them with the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice I'm not using
the same word. Before I said He gave them the indwelling of the Holy Spirit;
at Pentecost He gave them what? The empowering of the Holy Spirit.
Let's flip over to Acts shall we chapter 1 verse 8 it says, and Jesus
is speaking, "but you shall receive" what's the word? Power not indwelling
"power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts
of the world." Chapter 2 verse 4 let's go to chapter 2 verse 4 says the following,
"And they were all filled with the Holy "Spirit" there's the empowering "and began
to speak with other tongues as the "Spirit was giving them utterance." That's
the demonstration of the power. It is so important that we understand the
difference between the indwelling of the Spirit and the empowering of the
Spirit. They are two different things. One of the main reasons why there's such
confusion in the modern age about what the Holy Spirit does or does not do and
the things that we can do and not do as disciples of Jesus is this very simple
confusion about the difference between indwelling and empowering. Not
everyone who has the indwelling has the empowering. Okay. And so the next question
then: What is the difference between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the
empowering of the Holy Spirit? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the
fulfillment of the promise that when the Messiah came God would be with everyone.
And so the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is fulfillment. In Isaiah 44 verse
3, Isaiah in a sense promises the Spirit or the Holy Spirit to
everyone. Isaiah 44 verse 3 says, "For I "will pour out water on the thirsty land
and streams on the dry ground; I will "pour out My Spirit on your offspring and
my blessing on your descendants. In the Old Testament that's a form what
we call parallelism. Parallelism in the Old Testament was a form of poetry and
parallelism there are a lot of forms of it but one of the forms was the writers
would say something in one way and then simply repeat the same idea in a
different way. So he talks about a you know watering the dry ground and then he
explains what that means watering the dry ground the metaphor for giving the
Spirit to the dry to the people who are dry who do not have the Spirit. And then
in Acts chapter 2 verse 39 it says, and this is part of Peter's sermon.
He's preached the gospel, he's exhorting the people to repent, to
be baptized, to obey the gospel and then he keeps on exhorting them and he says,
"For the promises for you and your "children and for all who are far off as
many as the Lord our God shall call to "Himself." If you were a Jew, if you knew
the Scriptures, that would resonate with you. The promise, what was the promise? The
promise was of the Spirit. And here it is he says. And how do you know? How you know
Peter's saying how do you know that we're offering this we'll look at what
we're doing we're demonstrating the not indwelling we're in demonstrating the
power of the Holy Spirit. Now in Romans chapter 8 Paul describes the reason why
it is important to have the Holy Spirit. If you'll go there he says, "However, you
are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, "if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in
you. But if anyone does not have "Spirit of Christ he does not belong to
Him. If Christ is in you "though the body is dead because of
sin yet the Spirit is alive because of "righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in "you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the
dead will also give life to your mortal "bodies through His Spirit who dwells in
you." So what was the important thing? The promise of the Spirit will be given to
you. Why is that important? Why is that such a valuable promise? Because Paul
explains, the Spirit that was in Christ that raised Him from the dead, if that
Spirit indwells you then that Spirit will also raise you from the dead just
as He raised Jesus from the dead. And then we learn in Acts chapter 19
verse 6 how this power was transferred. It says, "And when Paul had laid his hands
upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, "and they began speaking with tongues and
prophesying." Those were the ones who were baptized at Ephesus. The 12 that were
baptized at Ephesus. And some people say well they use all kinds of expressions
the Spirit came upon them fell upon them came within them but how do we know
which one is indwelling and which one is empowerment? Well you know it's
empowerment because there's always a demonstration of the power. So the
Apostles received empowerment at Pentecost. How do we know? They began to
speak in languages that none of them had ever learned. That was a miracle, that was
a demonstration of that power. How do we know these people, here the twelve at
Ephesus, how do we know what they received at the hands of the Apostle
when he laid hands on them how do we know that was empowerment? Because the
Bible says they began to speak in tongues, they began to prophesy. So when did those who had been, another question: When did those who had
been baptized by John before Pentecost, when did they receive the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit? If in Acts, I'm setting up questions here, hard questions,
if everybody receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when they're baptized
and we see that happening at Pentecost, well how did the ones who who
were baptized before Pentecost how did they get the Holy Spirit? The indwelling? The answer is they received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost as Peter and the others began to preach and offer it to all. I mean
they already prepared themselves for the day for this day by repenting and by
being baptized according to John's command. Now that forgiveness was
available through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross,
now that the Holy Spirit was given because Jesus had returned to the Father,
John 15:26, all of those who had received John's baptism were granted forgiveness
and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Why? Because that was the
promise, that's why they were baptized by John. They were waiting for the promise
to be fulfilled. Their promise however was on layaway, you understand? It was
still in the future. Even your promise, somebody's here is preaching
to you and saying you know repent be baptized then you're listening to this
and you realize well I haven't done that it's time for me to give my life to the
Lord to you know to become a Christian. Well between the time that you hear the
message and you go change in the back and get the water ready, there's a time there between the moment you believe and accept and respond and
the time that it actually happens might only be twenty minutes but there's
still time. The same thing with John's disciples there's just more
time until the promise was fulfilled. All those who had received
John's baptism were granted forgiveness and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost because this is what was promised. It was a delayed payment for
those who had believed and repented and prepared ahead of time by receiving
John's baptism. All those who had not received John's baptism and heard the
gospel on Pentecost were therefore required to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, repent of their sins, be baptized, notice he says in Jesus'
name, and they would receive forgiveness of sin, and what? The indwelling or the
empowerment? Come on, what do they get? They get the indwelling. What did you get
when you were baptized? Indwelling. Do you know why? Because there's no part of the
gospel that promises the empowerment. There's no part of the gospel that
promises if you believe in Jesus you will receive empowerment. The promises
you will receive the indwelling, why? Because the ultimate purpose of the
indwelling is to raise your body up again to eternal life. Alright next
question: What about the disciples in Acts chapter 19,
why were they rebaptized? They were rebaptized because they received John's
baptism, but they received it after Pentecost. They were baptized to show
that they were preparing for the kingdom to come.
Paul rebaptized them in the name of Jesus for forgiveness and the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. He did it the right way and the right reason. If you
say to someone, were you baptized? And they go, yeah. Did you
receive the Spirit? And the person goes, what Spirit? We never even heard of the
Spirit. Well you know that they haven't really heard the gospel. Certainly Paul
recognized this was the core idea of the gospel being preached by the
Apostles. So if they hadn't heard about the Spirit of God and receiving the
Spirit of God then something was lacking in their teaching. So obviously he had to
teach them over again. Next question: Why does it seem that Apollos, the one who
originally taught these twelve, why does it seem that Apollos, their teacher, was
not rebaptized but his students were baptized? Anybody going to
answer that question? Well perhaps Apollos received John's
baptism. When? Before Pentecost. He didn't need to be rebaptized, he needed to be
taught more perfectly concerning the coming of the kingdom at Pentecost. His
students were baptized in John's baptism after Pentecost so they needed
to be rebaptized. This used to work better when I had a blackboard
and I could draw lines, but I think you get the idea. Next question:
What does this mean for us today? Because the gospel is the same, nothing has
changed. Well it means that we need to be rebaptized, or a person needs to be
rebaptized if you've been baptized the wrong way. If you haven't been
baptized the way that the Scriptures tell you to be baptized I think it's a
good idea that you should obey. What did Jesus say to fulfill what? All
righteousness. The One who had no sin can you imagine subjected Himself to a
public immersion. Why? Because He said it was important to fulfill all
righteousness. All righteousness includes the manner in which we're baptized. So
if you've been baptized the wrong way: sprinkled, poured, some people just
baptism of the mind, there are groups they don't even practice water baptism
they just say if you believe you're entering into a
baptism of the mind. But in the book of Acts alone there are 10 references to
water baptism I don't know how you can infer from 10 examples of water baptism
that baptism is just a baptism of the mind. A little too esoteric for me. Or if
you have been baptized for the wrong reason. As was the case with these 12
people at Ephesus. They had been baptized the right way, by immersion. They were
enthusiastic, they were zealous, they wanted to do the right, I mean
their heart was right and yet Paul took them aside taught them the entire gospel
and then rebaptized them. Why? Because they hadn't been baptized the wrong
way, no they had been immersed but he reimmersed them. Why? Because they didn't
do it for the right reason and many times, and this is a very individual
thing and I'm not beating the drum here to get
people to question their baptism. The only question you need to ask about your
own baptism is always why was I baptized? Why did I accept to do that? And I've
taught you before that so long as you have a biblical reason for it that's
fine and there are many biblical reasons: to obey the gospel, for forgiveness of
sins, to receive the indwelling of the Spirit, to have the new birth, to
be born again. I was baptized to be born again, to wash away my sins,
to appeal to God for a clear conscience. There are many reasons
the Bible gives that someone enters into baptism. As long as you have one of those
biblical reasons you have them all. But if you don't have one of those reasons,
if you were baptized so you could eat the cracker and grape juice
like your older brother, that's not a good reason. So you have to have both
correct. If you have one out of two in any combo, I believe that you should do
it again. Next question, last one for this morning, I think we're
almost out of time here: Is rebaptised common today? Is that
something we do? And the answer is yes of course. I was rebaptized. I was baptized as a
child, I mean if you're French-Canadian and your mother is French-Canadian and
your father is Italian and you live in Quebec in the 1940s trust me you're
Catholic. You know what I'm saying back in the 40s 97 percent of
people who lived in Quebec were Roman Catholic. ninety seven percent. So I was
baptized as a little baby and then at some point along the way my spiritual
journey, I was looking, I ran into a group and they baptized me in the
Spirit. They said we're going to baptize you in the Spirit because we want you to
speak in tongues and do all that kind of stuff. So I was baptized in the spirit
through the prayers and the you know laying on hands of the people at that
group. And then along the way I was baptized again, this time in a lake
because the people there said no no if you want to join our group
you know everybody who joins our group has to be baptized by the chief
pastor and I was baptized in a lake by immersion. That's three times you. Think I
would have had enough of baptism don't you? And then one day as I was studying
with a preacher for the church and I remember he didn't insist that I was
baptized he simply showed me the scriptures. Simple scriptures, Matthew 8:28, mark 16, John 3, Acts 2. Just
those scriptures that talk about baptism and his only question to me was: is this
what you've done? He didn't say all you're wrong, he didn't say
anything like that. He says, all I want you to do is pretend this is your baptism.
This is what it looks like and then I want you to study these scriptures and
overlay the baptism that you read about here and overlay it onto your baptism
and if it's a match fine but if it's not a match
then you have to assume you're the one who is wrong, not the Scripture. And I
mean, to an A-type, object motivated, task oriented person such as
myself, was easy to see there was no match even in all three that I had
experienced. Not one of them was a match. And on a cold November night the water
was not even heated you think it's not cold in a church building in Montreal in
November, I finally was immersed in order to obey the gospel and have my sins
forgiven. Perfect match. And I've never looked back since and I've had a lot of
studies with other people you know they said all you need to be baptized for the
dead and you need to do the... I have a match. So I tell people again, not to
shake someone's faith, but if this is a question you ask yourself, just do
the match thing. Does my baptism, the reason and the way, does it match up with
what the scriptures say? And if we love the Lord, if we want to obey Him, if we
want to fulfill all righteousness, then we ought to aim to have the match. Well that's our lesson for today I promise if Lord is willing and we're
still all here next week we will actually get into Ephesians the text
next week. We are dismissed for this one. Thank you.
