Baptized In Fire Series

6So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

You see, His disciples were saved and at this time all they were thinking about was the kingdom that Jesus was going to establish. And Jesus was telling them that there is business between here and eternity that has to be taken care of.

7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Now this is not something new that Jesus waited to tell them about right before He ascended into heaven. He had told them about this before in John 14:16-17, 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 7:37-39, 37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

This is different that the indwelling presence of the spirit given at salvation. This is an overflowing of the Spirit.

Now, what did Jesus say was the purpose of this outpouring of the Spirit? It is for power – dunamis miracle working power for all who receive it. The power to be a witness for Christ. Would the Word of God tell you that you would receive power if you didn’t need it? I said, do you think God wants you to have power? Why? Because He knows that if this church is ever going to be an overcoming church it must have Holy Ghost power active in it. I said, it has to be active.

Turn over to Acts chapter 6 and then we’ll go to chapter 8. In Acts 6 we see that there were 7 men who were chosen as deacons to do the work of ministry so the apostles could focus on prayer and the word of God. Verse 3, Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. Seven men who are what? Filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom (supernatural wisdom). Philip was one of those chosen. Now the next time we see Philip is in chapter 8. What is he doing? 5Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8So there was great joy in that city.

Let me ask you a question. Did Philip, before he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, have the power and authority to do the things that he did? Last week we talked about that. Jesus gave power and authority to all whose names are written in the book of life. So he did didn’t he?