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Elementary Doctrines
Baptism of the Spirit Part 2
Studio Session 33
Sam Soleyn
01/2004
This program represents a continuation of the teaching of baptisms and specifically addressing the baptism “of” the Spirit. It was necessary to explain that the baptism “of’ the Spirit conveys power and to delve a little bit more deeply into the nature of this power that the baptism “of” the Spirit conveys. So let’s begin with: whose power is it? Jesus made the statement, and it is recorded in Matthew 28:18, “All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” – Matthew 28:18-20)
Now, Jesus claims—as the settling authority of His kingdom—a grant of plenary, or total authority. And He claims that this authority has been given to Him. Where did He get this authority? Who gave it to Him? He further said, “All that the Father has is mine. That is why I say to you that the Holy Spirit will take of what is mine and make it known unto you.” (Inserted – actual verse—“All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” – John 16:15) So, Jesus claims that He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and this authority—vested in the Father before it was given to Jesus –and that authority was given from the Father (God) to the Lord Jesus Christ and this authority is described as: all authority—in heaven and on earth. (Inserted – Matthew 28:18) That is why it is referred to as plenary authority.
Well now that’s fine for Him to have all authority in heaven and on earth but He is in heaven and He is seated at the right hand of the Father—that’s where Steven saw Him, as Steven lifted up His eyes and saw heaven open. (Inserted – actual verse—“When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” – Acts 7:54-56) How does the authority of Jesus get from heaven, where He is…seated on the throne, to earth, where we are and needing that authority in which to operate, pursuant to the Lord’s business?
Well the matter is simply one of delegation. Jesus sent us a delegate to bring His authority into the earth. Now who is that delegate? Jesus promised His disciples, in the 16th chapter of the book of John, that He was going away and that He would send the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, and these were the words used in connection with the Holy Spirit coming: “When He comes, He will not speak of himself but He will speak of Me. He will take of what belongs to Me and He will make it known or distribute it to you because all that the Father has is mine, that is why I say that the Holy Spirit will take of what is mine and will make it known unto you.” (Inserted – actual verse—“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” – John 16:13-16)
What the Father had was: all power—in heaven and on earth—and the Father gave this power to the Son—the Lord Jesus Christ—so He has all authority in heaven and on earth. And His kingdom moves forward pursuant to that authority. He now has taken this authority and delegated it—through the Holy Spirit, who is His sole and absolute delegate—delegated it to the earth, where we are, to empower us to pursue the things that God has called us to pursue. There is no other way to receive the power of Jesus Christ or to act in the power of Jesus Christ other than by a specific grant of authority to you through His delegate who is the Holy Spirit. That is why we call the gifts of the Spirit, “the gifts of the Spirit”. They are actually the gifts of Jesus’ authority, of which He has vested in the totality of all authority—heaven and on earth (that’s why we refer to that authority as plenary, because that’s the description of it) and the Holy Spirit now gives gifts of Jesus’ authority to men.
It’s even said in that regard, in the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, where it says that, “When Jesus ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” (Inserted – Ephesians 4:8b) Spiritual gifts, then, are specifically this: the authority of Jesus Christ, given to you by delegation, through the Holy Spirit—hence, gifts of the Spirit—to empower you to act pursuant to the Lord’s direction upon you life. That is the difference between the indwelling of the Spirit and the baptism “of” the Spirit. Someone may be saved and have the indwelling Holy Spirit as the confirmation of it; that one is saved and is born again of God, but be totally powerless because he or she—whether through ignorance or prejudice—has rejected the baptism “of” the Spirit.
There are many religious groups today, even people who are Christian groups who refuse to cross the threshold of the baptism “of” the Spirit and insist that by having the indwelling of the Spirit as a gift from God, that necessarily means, and it also means, that they have the baptism “of” the Spirit. There is a very simple way to check if that is so: are the gifts of the Spirit operating in that person’s life? If they are not, he has no power. Many people seem intent on denying the value of all of the gifts of the Spirit. Some would say, “You know, I could go for the gift of healing.” Or, “I could go for the gift of knowledge but I don’t want the gift of tongues.” That is an arrogance beyond measure.
First, is the gift of tongues a gift of the Spirit? And the answer is, unequivocally—according to the Scriptures—yes. Numerous references in the Scriptures; Paul even saying in I Corinthians 14, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” (Inserted – I Corinthians 14:18) And he describes tongues as the tongues of men and of angels. (Inserted – actual verse—“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” – I Corinthians 13:1) Now this is not a teaching on tongues; it is a teaching on the gifts of the Spirit and, specifically, the empowerment of the spirit that is the result of the baptism “of” the Spirit. But you have people today who—because reasonably, logically—they cannot understand how the gift of tongues works. They reject it as being unnecessary or remove it from consideration as being too problematic to be of any real value.
Listen: all that the Holy Spirit has come to do is faithfully represent the authority of Christ. Does Christ know that you need the gift of tongues? When He baptizes you with the Holy Spirit, by which to empower you, does He envision that you might have this need? It is somewhat like the church lady who said that she agrees with everything Jesus had to say except that she cannot understand why He would turn the water into wine because that religious group had this strong teaching against drinking any kind of strong drink. So she plans to take it up with Jesus about the wisdom of His turning the water into wine. That’s the sort of foolishness that characterizes religious prejudice against the gifts of the Spirit—all of the gifts of the Spirit.
You must assume that if the Holy Spirit gives you this as a gift there is a particular need for it because the Holy Spirit is not speaking of himself nor is the Holy Spirit presenting his own power. He is coming to equip the saints; part of His equipping is through the gifts of government, part of His equipping is through the pneumatic charismas—the enabling gifts that enable you to function in the way that God designed you to function. Final question in connection with the empowerment that results from the baptism “of” the Spirit: why do you need to be empowered at all? Why should you not be able to simply quote the Scriptures and convince people? Because after all, is this not about people who are intelligent hearing the Word and being convinced because the Word is reasonably and logically presented? That’s not even on the radar screen as a thing for which there is a need for power.
This is why there is a need for power: before you were in your mother’s womb, God knew you. Before you were born, God had a destiny already inscribed upon your spirit and He saves you to conform you to that destiny. (Inserted – actual verse—“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’” – Jeremiah 1:4,5) Now that destiny is simply this: He made you in the particular way in which He has made you so that He himself can live through you in that particular and unique fashion. So it is nothing that you are doing for God that is of any interest to God. The only thing that you have that God is interested in is your right to govern your flesh, your body… to use your life the way you want to.
Now if you say, “I will live this life the way I want to” then that life is not available to Christ in which for Him to come to live as himself. But if He were to come—if you were to present you body as a living sacrifice—then He would come and He would indwell you and He himself would live in you and He himself would live through you. He will never live in this world apart from His power to overcome the enemy because He knows that if He does it that way He will not overcome His enemy. So when you think you will not receive one of His gifts, you are deciding—unilaterally—to limit how He is free to use your body, what scope of use is permitted to Him by your voluntary choice. So if you ever hope to be a fully obedient servant of Jesus Christ, what that means is that you will have no prejudice against any of the gifts of the Spirit—whether or not you can understand the particular value of that gift. Your place is not to decide which of the gifts of the Spirit is useful to you. Jesus has empowered His Spirit to empower you so that His life being lived through you may be unhindered by the lack of power and your duty is to permit Him to live in you—fully—and He lives fully in His power in you, and He lives fully in His power through you. Therefore, the baptism “of” the Spirit is God’s gift to you of empowerment to enable you to function as God designed you to function.
Now, we said that there were four doctrines of baptisms that we wanted to consider and so far we’ve touched on the first. The first is the baptism “of” the Spirit but there is a second baptism that involves the Spirit and that is the baptism “by” the Spirit—different from the baptism “of” the Spirit. Just as the baptism “of” the Spirit—if you knew about it—you would have always known that you were born into a kingdom of power and you would have always known that you were born with a destiny that had to be empowered. And you would never have been reluctant to embrace the power of Christ working through you nor would you ever have thought that you are seeking Christ for His power. That’s absurd. When He comes, He comes with power.
The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk; it is a matter of the demonstration of power and when you unilaterally surrender power you make yourself both vulnerable to the enemy and you make yourself impotent in the face of your enemy. This is not a good strategy for war and you are wrestling, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Inserted – actual verse—“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:12) It is necessary, therefore, to address him in power.
Now what I’d like to do is begin to set up the other baptism that involves the work of the Spirit and here it is in the book of I Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 12, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (Inserted – I Corinthians 12:12,13) Now, the baptism “by” the Spirit—by contrast to the baptism “of” the Spirit—is not one that results in power, it’s one that results in identity. If you were baptized “by” the Spirit, then baptism “by” the Spirit is that He places you into the body as that part of the body that God designed you to be and when you are assembled into the body of Christ, you are assembled as that part of the body that you were supposed to be.
Who knows what part of the body God designed you to be? Who would know that? In the book of I Corinthians, chapter 2, here is what is said, “The Spirit (this is from verse 10) searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (Inserted – I Corinthians 2:10b-12) Now, so the Spirit knows you. Before you were in your mother’s womb, God designed a destiny for you to come here and for you to live out and God has known what that destiny is and that destiny is in the mind of God. Who knows that destiny? Well, of course, the Holy Spirit because just as a man’s spirit within him knows the thoughts of a man so it is the Spirit of God, in the person of the Most High, who knows the deep thoughts of God and the Spirit of God knows exactly what God designed you to be and to become.
When you are saved, God begins to assemble you as the body of Christ and you are a part of the whole body. Listen to this from I Corinthians 12 again: “Now the body (verse 14) is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.” (Inserted – I Corinthians 12:14-16) And then it goes on to say in verse 27, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” And furthermore, back just a little bit earlier it says that God put the parts in the body as He predetermined. (Inserted – actual verse—“But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them just as he wanted them to be.” – I Corinthians 12:18) So that’s why one part is this and another part is that; God made you to be that part of the body that you are. So, for example, if who you are in the body is operating in the gifts of helps, that’s why you want to help all of the time. If who you are is an administrator, that’s why you make lists. If who you are is an exhorter, that’s why you find people drawn to you and encouraged just because you are around; that’s the part of the body that you are.
In the book of Hebrews, the 10th chapter, the Scriptures say, “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another—and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:25) Now, not forsaking the assembling, that’s not the same as saying, “Do not forsake the ‘meeting times’ together.” No, he is speaking about an assembly that is going on in the body. The parts of the body are being assembled—epicoriago. In this “choreography” the parts of the body are being joined together—fitly assembled—and that’s the assembly that he says that you should not forsake. “Episunagoge” is the Biblical term—the Greek term. There is a synergy of that assembly; God is orchestrating that assembly. So he says, “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.” It is, in fact, the part of the body that you are that is being fitted into the body as the part that you are. Everyone should remain within the calling with which he or she was called and you should not forsake that because there is a Day against which this “assembling” will be made complete. All the parts are meant to be assembled.
Now the parts of the body of Christ are not just on the earth, they are also in heaven. The whole body of Christ is both in heaven and on the earth and the assembling is, in part, with those who are gone and part with those who are yet here. Those who have gone do not function here anymore but they are waiting for those who are here to be finished with their race. The glory will come on them—those who are gone—and upon us at the same time, although now they know more fully than we know. They know all that we will know but the glory has not come on them yet, it is waiting on the time when the glory also comes on us. The body of Christ will cross the finish line at the same time—whether you are in heaven or whether you are on the earth. That’s why there is a great cloud of witnesses that is applauding and encouraging us to go on and finish the race. (Inserted – actual verse—“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” – Hebrews 12:1)
So the assembling of the body is not an occasional thing. The body has been assembled—is being assembled—and the assembly of it will be complete eventually and so we are admonished not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together because we are parts that are being fitted together to form the whole. And the whole will be one new man and when that new man rises up on the earth the whole earth will see the fullness of the glory of God. The whole earth will see that Jesus came from the Father—that He was indeed who He said He was—and the assembling of the body of Christ is that which God intends by which to demonstrate—to the heavens and to the earth—the fullness of this truth.
So the doctrine of the baptism “by” the Spirit is this: that if we were taught the doctrine of the baptism “by” the Spirit we would have always known that there is only one body, there can’t be any more—it’s just one. You would have also known that you have a unique placement in the body because you are a part of it. It is not the “Baptist hand”, the “Methodist foot”, the “Church of Christ knee” and so on. It is not groups of parts, it is individual parts. If we had received the baptism “by” the Spirit you would have been confident that who you are, God has made you to be and has assembled you into the body because the context of the body of Christ was always the context in which God envisioned that you would live out your destiny. The baptism “by” the Spirit is the confirmation that there is only one body and if you are baptized by the Spirit in this fashion you would have always known that there is only one body. I’m Sam Soleyn, God bless you and I’ll see you again.
Scripture References:
Matthew 28:18-20
John 16:15
Acts 7:54-56
John 16:13-16
Ephesians 4:8b
I Corinthians 14:18
I Corinthians 13:1
Jeremiah 1:4,5
Ephesians 6:12
I Corinthians 12:12,13
I Corinthians 2:10b-12
I Corinthians 12:14-16
I Corinthians 12:27
I Corinthians 12:18
Hebrews 10:25
Hebrews 12:1
