All right, open up your Bible to Luke chapter three, we are in a journey, a series of talks on Luke and we'll be here for several months. And I really hope that you’re reading along with me. I hope that you’re opening up the scriptures during the week. One of the things I told the guys yesterday at Guys Morning Out was to really be careful about opening up the Bible and reading the story; a story that maybe you’ve read many, many times and getting ahead of yourself.
You know, you know the end of the story, you know all the details of the story, and often times when you read the Bible like that, you miss the revelation that God wants to show you; the new thing that God wants to point out to you. So what I’ve told you before is when you open up the Bible, when you’re reading through these familiar stories of Luke, I want you say, “Lord would you just show me something new, something fresh, something I’ve never seen before? Help me to read the story as if it’s the first time.”
And so this morning we’re going to look at a very familiar story in Luke chapter three. Last week, we looked at the verses one through 14, and today we are going to look at verses 15 through 22. And the title of the talk this morning is Both Baptisms. Both Baptisms; there are multiple baptisms. There’s more than one baptism that’s mentioned in this story and I believe that every person sitting here today, all of you watching online, all of you that may be listening by podcast, should at least ask yourself a question, “Have you received both baptisms?” And that’s a question that every person needs to answer in this room this morning. Have we all received, or have we fully experienced, have we uncovered what God wants us to do in our lives through both baptisms?
So let’s pick it up here. In verse 15 – now remember this is the story of John the Baptist. John the Baptist is out there preaching this gospel of repentance, “The kingdom of heaven is near. One greater than I is about to arrive. He is the Christ that you’ve have longed for. He is the messiah that we have prayed for and he is out there and crowds are coming from the cities, soldiers, tax collectors, religious leaders. Many, many different kinds of people are listening to him talk. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, many of them are now repenting and turning their lives toward God.
Now remember last week we talked about beautiful repentance. And if you did not hear that talk, I want you to listen to it; go back because this week’s talk ties on nicely to last week’s talk. And if you have not heard it, I want you to hear it. The idea of repentance is simply this; a simple definition is turning away, turning toward God with all of your heart and all of your soul. Now literally, when you return your passion toward God, when you turn your motives and your will toward God, you will turn away from things that are causing you to be disobedient. And nobody in this room has ever taken a significant step toward God, becoming a more mature Christ follower, if they did not turn away from something that was causing them to be disobedient.
And repentance opens the door for god to enter into the messy places of our heart and to do work there. Okay? That’s what we talked about last week. So John is preaching this gospel of repentance, and people are responding. And then John the Baptist says, “Listen, you have now repented, but there are two baptisms I want you all to receive.” And he goes into detail about these two baptisms that follow repentance, so repentance and two baptisms. Are you following with me this morning? All right? Let’s look at it, verse 15. “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. And John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I will come. The thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He …” He’s talking about Jesus, here. “Jesus, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Let’s stop here for a minute because that’s where people a little nervous; “I’m okay with the Holy Spirit, Brady. It’s that fire part. What’s that fire thing he’s talking about?”
Let me explain very carefully. When he says Holy Spirit and fire, it’s not one or the other. They are always connected, the Holy Spirit and fire. You cannot order a la carte here. It’s all or nothing. You can’t have fire without the Holy Spirit because it's false fire and you cannot have the Holy Spirit without fire; that’s religion. You don’t want-- I don't want you thinking you came in here this morning to sign up for religion. Holy Spirit and fire; let me just explain the benefits of fire though.
A fire or far, as we say down in the south -- I almost said that naturally. It almost came out to be “far”, “far from farst”. All right, so fire does two things in every situation. A fire provides warmth, it’s an attractional thing. If you build a big fire in your house, in a living room, in a fireplace, that’s typically where everyone tends to end up. They end up around the fire. That’s where conversations happen. It’s attractional. There’s warmth that’s coming from that fire, beneficial warmth, and it’s very attractional to people.
Is it possible the reason our lives are not compelling to those around us, is it possible that the reason that we’re not seeing lost people ask us compelling questions about our life is because there’s no fire that attracts, there’s no warmth coming from our lives, there’s nothing radiating from our existence that’s attractional to anyone around us? So the fire’s a warmth, it’s attractional it’s something that provides benefits.
I’ll tell you something else it does. Fire consumes things that are not good. Fire is a consuming entity, a consuming thing. It burns up the weeds in our lives. It burns up the chaff in our lives; the things that are not productive, the things that are useless. The Holy Spirit comes and burns those things up. Listen to what he says; in fact, he goes into deep more detail in verse 17. He says. “His winnowing fork is in His hand to clean his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but He will burn up the chaff …” The useless things. The things that are taken at resources but not producing fruit; not edible, have no benefit, “… with unquenchable fire. And with many other words, John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.”
Okay the first baptism we see here is this baptism from Jesus, as Jesus is the one doing the baptizing here, okay? Jesus is the source of this. It is His gift that He’s giving to us. And then he says – by the way, this story of John the Baptist saying, “Jesus is the One who brings the Holy Spirit. He’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” is found in all four gospels; Matthew Mark, Luke, John, all four record this story and they tell it. You know, obviously they tell it to their own lands, and there are variations to the terminology but basically, they all tell the same account of John the Baptist prophesying that Jesus would come and baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire.
There are very few things in scripture that are told all four times, but this is one of them. And so when you see those things that are all four times mentioned in the scripture, you should pay attention to them. For example, the Birth of Jesus is not necessarily mentioned in all four gospels in great detail. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection are. The Holy Spirit and fire is in all four. The Crucifixion, the Resurrection is in all four. So it’s something we should pay attention to; it was important.
All right let’s skip down to verse 21 if there’s another baptism; the one you may be more familiar with. Verse 21 it says, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.” So Jesus was standing in the crowd. Everybody else is getting immersed in water, Jesus is standing in the line, He gets immersed in water.
Now notice as we read through the book of Luke in the next few months. Luke was quick to point out, how much of a man of prayer Jesus was. And a lot of times, we read right through this, but notice that Luke points out something very important. He says, “And as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven ...” This is one of my favorite things in the Bible. There’s this voice, this audible voice that everyone around heard. In fact some people – it says I think in Matthew or in John one, it says that it sounded like great thunder. But it says, “A voice came from heaven saying, “This …” listen to what it says, “You are My Son whom I love. With You …” Let’s stop here. Now this is the Messiah. This is off topic a little bit but I want to point this out to dads. If you’re a dad or you want to be a dad, listen. One of the most special things you can do as a dad is to celebrate and embrace the unique DNA of your children. Don’t try to make them images of yourself. They may not be. They may or may not be like you.
The great thing about fatherhood is looking into the depths of your children’s heart by the help of the Holy Spirit and saying, “With you, your unique qualities, your unique personality, the way you’re wired, the way you’re formed, I am pleased with you.” A lot of times dads say to their kids, “Because you’re doing what I want you to do, I am pleased with you.” That’s not what God said. Although God was pleased with the obedience of Jesus but what God was saying, “With You, I am well pleased. I love you.”
All right, that’s an off topic, but I want to point that out because I love the fact the He verbally says to His Son, “You’re My Son.” My dad was good at this. My dad was a really good dad. I literally, thousands of times, my dad would say to me, “Brady …” even on bad days when I was a knucklehead, my dad would say, “Brady, you’re so smart. I’m so proud of you. You can do whatever God calls you to do. You can do whatever God’s put in your heart.” Day after day after day, my dad would say that to me. Let me tell you something, that’s just one of those special things you can do for your kids. Tell them that you love them. Be proud of them. Say it all the time until they – in fact, I tell Abraham and Calleigh, “Have I told you lately how much I love you?” “Yes, dad.” That’s when I know, I’m doing it enough; when it’s aggravating to them.
So he talks about this immersion in water. He says there’s this Holy Spirit baptism and there’s this water baptism. I want you to write this down. What I’m about to tell you is worthy of some discussion, I think. Jesus is a gift from the Father, delivered by the Holy Spirit. Let me say that again. It will come up on the screen here. Jesus is a gift from the Father.
What has John 3:16 said? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” He gave His only Son, okay? So Jesus is a gift from the Father delivered to us by the Holy Spirit. No one in this room has ever said yes to Jesus, become a convert, a believer in Christ without the help of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that opens our eyes to our need for a savior. It’s the Holy Spirit that draws us to Jesus, gives us the ability to know Jesus. It’s the Holy Spirit, right? So Jesus is a gift from the Father, delivered to us by the Holy Spirit.
All right, now here’s the second part of this. “The Holy Spirit is a gift from the Father.” Let me point this out, Jesus said, “It’s better for you that I go because the Father’s going to send one to you, greater than Me.” The Holy Spirit is going to guide you into all truth. That’s John 10; you can read it for yourself. He’s saying, “Listen God the Father is going to send you the Holy Spirit.” So the Holy Spirit is a gift from the Father delivered to us by Jesus.
Notice what John the Baptist said. John the Baptist says, “He, Christ will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” And a lot of people have concerns about the Holy Spirit because weird people sometimes represent the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit’s not weird. People are weird. And often times we say, “Gosh, I don’t want to be a part of that charismatic craziness.” And I don’t either by the way. What I do want is if it’s a gift from Jesus to me, I want it.
If we can make it simpler to people and say, “Listen we’re not talking about becoming a part of some charismatic craziness, we’re saying are you open to a gift that Jesus wants to give you?” The same way we receive salvation is by faith, right? It’s by faith that we are saved; not by works, it’s by Grace, the same way we receive the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We say, “Father, I received the gift that Jesus wants to give me. I receive this baptism, this gift, this working of the Holy Spirit in my life.” So we see repentance, spirit baptism, and water baptism. These three steps, these three things that God wants to take us all through; a time of receiving Christ; water baptism and spirit baptism. And this is found throughout the Bible.
I want to take you back to Egypt, three thousand years before John the Baptist arrived on the scene, the children of Israel were found – they were in bondage in Egypt. And here they were crying out just saying – they were saying, “Please, send us a redeemer. Please release us from our captives.” And out of the desert, Moses came. And with miracles and signs and wonders, Moses led the people out.
Now there were two bodies of water that were significant of the story of Israel being led out of Egypt. So they’re led out of Egypt, Pharaoh is pursuing them. Their past, the slavery of their past, the bondages of their past are following them literally, physically are following them and Pharaoh had – he regrets letting them go because he lost of his cheap labor. He realizes now he can’t build the pyramids. He can’t build those things that – he can’t build his country without this cheap labor that he had for all these years. Now all of his labor forces escaping, he says, “Let’s go back and get them.”
So Pharaoh’s bearing down on them. And they come to the Red Sea, and they can’t get over the sea. Pharaoh’s army is right behind them and suddenly Moses puts out his rod, the waters part, dry ground appears, the children of Israel, walk across. And as soon as the last ones are across, Pharaoh’s army is in the middle of the sea by this point and the waters come crashing down on top of Pharaoh’s army. And the slavery of their past, the bondages of their past is consumed by the water. And then what happens? What happens on the other side? A lot of stuff happened. Man have failed. Provision failed but everyday what led them? A cloud in the sky by day, fire by night.
Notice, Moses redeemed them. They passed through the water and the Holy Spirit leads them; fire by night, cloud by day, being led by the presence of God, led by the Spirit of God. The very nature of God is now leading them to the dessert; cloud by day, fire by night; redemption, walk through the water, Holy Spirit.
All those things are type and shadows of this story that we just read from John the Baptist. Forty years later, they find themselves, Moses is dead; Joshua is now the leader and they come upon yet another body of water. What was that? What body of water are we talking about? Remember the felt boards in Sunday school? You should know the story, okay?
They come to the Jordan River. Now the young Joshua, trying to be a courageous young leader, right across the river is the Promised Land. The land that God had swore to their forefathers. God had promised Abraham this land and they can’t get across it. It’s spring of the year, it’s flood season. They can’t get across the river. And so Joshua like a young Moses stretches out his hand and the waters of the river part. They walk through the water into their destiny.
Now here’s the power of water baptism in my opinion. The power of baptism is that it is symbolic not only of what has happened but what it is going to happen in that when you are immersed in that water, it says that the old man dies, a new man comes to life. Is it possible that many of us in this room today are not living this victorious overcoming life that Christ has already died to give us because we have not humbled ourselves obediently to the idea of water baptism? And maybe even if we did do it, maybe we went to the ritual of baptism but we weren’t aware of the miracle that could happen when we humble ourselves and let someone baptize us.
Listen this is an idea. There are two things that happen at water baptism; obedience and humility. There’s nothing more humbling than to have someone else dunk you into the water and bring you back. It’s literally of submitting myself to God and to others saying, “Okay, you could baptize yourself but it’s not – in scriptures it’s always somebody else that baptizes you. There is a humility, a brokenness in your heart saying, “I need the help of somebody else. I’m humbling myself. I’m going to obey what God asked me to do.”
And so they immerse you in the water. At that point, at the place of humility, at the place of obedience, God is able to come then and restore and rebuild and cut off from us the things of our past. The slavery of our past is consumed. We have this new path in front of us. The Promised Land is in front of us; this new identity, this new inheritance. And then with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit then is welcomed into our lives and immediately we begin to ask for the work of the Holy Spirit.
So the past is cut off. We welcome the work of the Holy Spirit. And somehow, in us, while we may know what to do, we may know the Will of God, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to obey the Will of God. Do you agree? We may know the Will of God, but only with the help of the Holy Spirit can you obey the Will of God. The old man’s cut off with the water, the Holy Spirit arrives in our hearts and we walk forward into this new place, this new thing that God has for us.
So not only did it happen with people of Egypt, notice that the temple, once the tabernacle once built, once the Holy of Holies was established there were three things you had to walk past in order to get to the Holy of Holies. In fact if you’d skip any of these steps, you died. So the priest, before they could go to the Holy of Holies, went past three things.
The first thing they went past was this altar where the lamb had been slain. The lamb, the sacrificial lamb, it was there for what? The blood was there symbolic, as a sacrifice for their sins. So there’s repentance, by bringing your first and your best lamb to the priest and allowing him to sacrifice it was saying to God, “God, I give you this gift. I give you my first and my best and what I want back is forgiveness. I repent, oh God.” So there’s this altar, where there was a lamb that was slain. There was blood, there was repentance.
The second place that you had to walk by on your way to the Holy of Holies was a big washing bowl, a laver of water. There was water there and you were required to cleanse yourself, literally take a sponge bath; a bath to wash yourself to cleanse yourself to get ready. Water was there.
And the third thing you walk past before you went to the Holy of Holies was a bowl of oil, you anointed yourself with. You cover yourself in these nourishing oils before you went into the Holy of Holies.
Sounds like the message of John the Baptist. “Repent, immerse yourself in water. Obey by humility, humble yourself, obey. Immerse yourself in water and then let the oil of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, fill your life through the baptism of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.”
This is all throughout scripture. The plan has never changed. It is amazing to me how few people have walked through all three processes. And the people who have taken these giant steps toward God. And those who have not find themselves stumbling and they can’t figure out why. They can’t get traction they want so badly, and yet it’s simply right in front of us. Be a person of repentance; easy, quick to repent. Be someone who is quick to obey and find a humble position so you can be baptized and be someone who welcomes the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
In John chapter three, Nicodemus – in fact throughout the book of John there’s an interesting story that’s kind of interwoven through the book of John; these encounters between Jesus and Nicodemus become more and more personal. But it starts out in John chapter three verse one. It says, “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling counsel.” Notice, you don’t become a member of the Jewish ruling counsel unless you have years of education, years of influence. For Nicodemus to say yes to Jesus, was literally saying, “I’m willing to give up my life’s work. I’m willing to be thrown out of the synagogue. I have to find a new job. I’m going to be shunned by my friends. My family is going to reject me.”
There was a lot at stake here for Nicodemus. Often times they read the story and go, “Oh come on, Nicodemus. You’re standing there in front of Jesus. Just say the prayer, dude.” But there was more wrestling going on in his heart. He was having to die, literally, to his whole life to say yes to Jesus.
Do you know that around the world right now in countries like Malaysia where Pastor Glenn is from, in the Philippines, Northern India, places that are controlled by very militant Muslims, those militant groups, they don’t care if you go to the church and listen to the sermons. They don’t care if you go to the church and sing the songs that Christians sing. They won’t punish you necessarily for any of those things but your life is literally at risk when you agree to be water baptized. The moment you are immersed in water, the moment you are water baptized in those countries, you literally put a big bulls eye on your chest.
And a lot of people even today – and this something we’ve completely forgotten about sometimes, you know that hundreds of people to day are going to give their lives as martyrs for Christ, hundreds today, because they decided to humble themselves not only to believe in Christ but to go through the process. And once you are water baptized in that world, it is a sign that you are cutting off your past. They get it. They get it, we don’t get it.
They know the significance of water baptism. They’re saying, you are making a public declaration of a private transformation. You get water baptized; you’re saying to us, “I’m cutting myself off from the slavery of my past.” And that’s the moment they’ll throw you out of the family. They will exile you away from the city. You lose all your business influence. You lose your family contacts. And that’s why the local church has to be family.
Listen, you know that sitting throughout our city right now, there are people that once they say yes to Jesus, their families will reject them. Do you know that? Now listen very closely to what I’m about to say, okay? We have to become family here so that when people say yes to Jesus, and lose their natural family; they have another family to come be a part of. We are that family. We have to become family. We cannot invite lost people into a family that does not exist.
So this is a good crowd today but I don’t care about the crowd. I don’t see you as a crowd. I see this as one big old messy family sitting in one room together. I’m not interested in speaking to the crowd on Sunday. I’m not enamored with a crowd, but I am fascinated by family; fascinated by pasturing a big family. I’m not fascinated by pasturing a big church, I can promise you. I’m way over that. But I am sure fascinated by pasturing a big family because when people say yes to Jesus, there is someone who is going to pay a dear price and I want to have a place to welcome them, family.
I’ll just keep reading here. He says, verse two he said, “He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher.’” He makes a profession, a private profession. This is literally his salvation prayer almost. Nicodemus says to Jesus, he says, “Rabbi, we know You are a teacher who has come from God; for no one could perform the miraculous signs You’re doing if God were not with Him.”
So he makes this – he said, “I believe who You are. I think You’re from God.” He was this close. He was so close. And this is what Jesus said, Jesus is about to tip him over. Jesus is about to push him right over the line a little bit. Verse three he says, “Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
So born again requires what? Repentance, confession, repentance, “I am a sinner. I need a savior.” And then of course Nicodemus goes, “I don’t get that? How can a man be born when he’s old?” I mean, that was a good question. I mean it’s the first time they’ve ever heard the phrase born again. He goes, “What does that mean?”
Nicodemus says, surely you can’t enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born. And then Jesus said – now listen very closely, what Jesus says here, Jesus’ answers and says, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born water and the spirit.”
Jesus says three things to Nicodemus; repent and then believe, be born again and then enter into the kingdom. See it and enter it. Enter into the kingdom through the water and the Spirit. Isn’t that interesting that Moses , the temple, John the Baptist and Jesus all echoed the same thing; be a person of repentance, be a person who will humble themselves to the baptism of water and be someone who welcomes the work of the Holy Spirit, spirit water into your life.
Jesus, when He was resurrected, literally the last thing He said to His disciples, was go to Jerusalem and wait for me; wait there. The Holy Spirit is going to come. And when He does then, you’ll be my witnesses. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, then literally you will be attractional to people. There will be a warmth about you, a glow about you. There will be something that will attract people to you and your own life will be unspotted. Your own heart will become more and more pure. This thing that is controlling you now will be broken off. You’re going to be a person of power now. Miracle, signs, and wonder will follow your life because the flesh will get less and less and the work of the Holy Spirit will increase, and increase and increase.
Let’s read it together. I want to show you this one thing that – Acts chapter two. So in Acts chapter two, Peter and him they do exactly what Christ told them to do. They go to the upper room, they tarry there; they wait there. There was a great sense of unity among them. And you know the story; the room was filled with the sound like the rushing mighty wind. Tongues of fire came upon their heads. Some of them begin to speak in other languages and the people outside the room heard them speaking in these foreign languages. And many of them outside said, “I would think they’re drunk but it’s only 9 AM.” And they’re not from Colorado. So, all right that’s a bad joke.
So Peter with his boldness now, Peter was the one that denied Christ. Peter was the one that was quick to tell people, I’m one of the followers of Christ. I’m not His follower. But this time he was full of the Holy Spirit, now that he’s welcomed the work of the Holy Spirit, he steps out in front of the crowd and he preaches this very clear message of the gospel. And listen what happens in verse 37, “And when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’”
Now let’s pause here for a second. Remember when John the Baptist preached? Religious leaders, tax collectors and soldiers all asked one question after hearing the gospel. What was their question? What shall we do? What’s next then? Okay what’s next? All three groups said, all right. Peter gets out, preaches the same message and the crowd goes, “Okay, what do we do now?” What’s next? We believe, all right. He says, “Repent...”, alright step one, “...be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Isn’t that amazing? Repent, be water baptized, welcome the work of the Holy Spirit into your life. I mean, Peter hadn’t had any seminary training. How did he know that? Because he had heard John the Baptist. He knew the story of Moses. He knew how to get to the Holy of Holies, he was Jewish scholar. He knew that. And then listen to what he says. Verse 39, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off…” including New Lifers “…for all whom the Lord our God will call.” For you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.
So this morning I know this, no one is led to Christ unless the Holy Spirit speaks to them. But there are some of you who are hearing this, this morning and you realize, I’m far away. I’m not even close to the place that God has for me, I’m far off. I’m a long ways away.
Here’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit draws you. And some of you know that, some of you are feeling that and I’m not trying to manipulate that, I can’t. I don’t want to. All I want you to do is respond to what God is saying to you today. Are you far off? Some of you never even said yes to Jesus; never prayed that simple prayer just saying, “God I repent. I believe you’re the Christ, you’re my Savior. I receive You as Lord of my life.” Just a simple prayer of repentance and humbling yourself, recognizing that you do need a Savior.
Some of you have never ever submitted yourself to the idea of water baptism. And I’ve said this before, tonight at 5:00, we’re going to have water baptism. We expect a hundred to a hundred and fifty people or maybe more; I don’t know, less, it doesn’t matter the number, but it’s going to be a big crowd of people getting baptized tonight. A lot of people have already said, “I’m there. I realize.” Some of them are brand new believers who just have been born again here in the last few weeks. Many of them are people who realize that they were really water baptized as a baby or as a child before they ever really gave their lives to Christ. And I've told you my story. I don’t want to tell it again too much but I – really quickly, I was baptized when I was 15 years old because everybody else in the youth group was getting baptized and I wanted to go to the ice cream party afterward and everybody patted me in the back. So I said, “All right, well if everybody else is getting water baptized, I’ll get water baptized.”
I was 21 before I really gave my life to Christ; before I really surrendered my life, I was 21. Well fast forward, I mean a year and a half, two years after, I’m saved. I’m a pastor. And it dawned on me, I don’t really think I have been water baptized after salvation. But by this time, I’m a pastor. What am I supposed to do? Get in the line with all the first time converts? I’m the pastor. I’m running the baptism service. I’m in charge of it.
And literally, it was pride. I mean, to be quite honest with you, it was just pride that kept me from saying; “Okay you know what? I don’t think I have really been water baptized.” I just kind of pushed it in the back and said, “Ah, you know...” But water baptism doesn’t guarantee me to heaven, I know that. Salvation is what gets us to heaven. Water baptism doesn’t open the door to heaven. So I knew that and I was trying to push it away.
Until fast forward, a couple of years ago, I’m on the banks of the Jordan River; I’m in Israel. And you can get baptized there. What are the odds? And I turned to Pastor Garvin and Pastor Ross Parsley who was with me and I said, “You know what guys? I need to humble myself and tell you something. I’m the pastor at New Life. I don’t think I have been water baptized.” And to my relief, they didn’t freak out, didn't ex-communicate me. I said, “So let’s do it then.”
So I wait out there. In the Jordan River there a little place, they let you go out into the river. What they did not tell you is there’s a bunch of little fish down there that nip at your heels the whole time you’re out there, which can be weird. And it can be mistaken for a move of the Holy Spirit because you’re going …. If you’ve ever been in that – anybody ever done that, been out in the Jordan River? You know that those fish, that wasn’t on the billboard. I paid my ten bucks for the white robe. They didn’t give me fish repellant or any kind of boots.
So I’m out there, you know and Pastor Garvin and Pastor Ross prayed over me, immersed me in the Jordan River, and came up. Now I didn’t hear a voice from heaven, by the way but it’s just the idea of being obedient opened up something in my heart, the idea of looking for an opportunity to humble myself. This is the power of water baptism; obedience and humility. By the way, obedient and humble people really get used a lot by God. It opens up the space in your heart for God to fill. And so tonight, there may be a lot of you that came from traditions where you’re sprinkled as a baby but you know you didn’t get born again until later.
By the way, you can’t be saved as a baby. I know some of you think you were but you weren’t. You weren’t that good either. All right? Somewhere along the way is when you said, “All right God, you’re the Lord of my life.” And then what needs to happen next is water baptism; humbling yourself.
I had a lady – I was walking right through here in section one and two, she’s a lady my age I guess, I don’t know. She said, “All right, I’ll be there tonight.” I said, “Well okay.” She said, “I was baptized when I was eight years old. You could barely see the top of my head at the baptistery when they did it. But I didn’t really get saved until later. I didn’t really surrender my life until much, much later. I’ll be there tonight.” I said, “All right, come on. Bring a change of clothes and a towel and do it. Bring some family and friends; celebrate with each other.”
Here’s what’s going to happen. We've got a lot of kids getting baptized tonight. We had 18 children received Christ in the third and fourth grade classroom during the 11:00 service like three weeks ago. Eighteen kids came forward to say yes to Jesus. It‘s amazing.
My little girl was in there, Calleigh was in there when it all happened. She came home, she said, “That was kind of cool. A lot of kids prayed the prayer.” You know she’s very, non-dramatic. “That was pretty cool; a lot of kids got saved today.” Okay Calleigh, awesome. Be a little more excited, you know.
So if you’re a parent, and your kids are getting baptized -- and can I tell you about how to pray? Say, “Father, just prepare their hearts. That the old, the curse of their past, whatever, is broken off them and Lord, let their hearts be wide open in this time of obedience in this place of humility, would you open up their hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit, to allow God to come in and take up the space that the world wishes to occupy.” So we’re going to baptize tonight in water. But this morning before we leave, I want to give all of us an opportunity in this room to experience the other baptism. Now let me make it as simple as I know how to make it. I can teach on this for hours, on the baptism and the Holy Spirit, let me sum it up for you.
All you’re doing by saying, “I want the Holy Spirit to say – the Holy Spirit is a gift from Jesus.” So if I were to say to you, if I didn’t tell you what the gift was and I just said to you, “Jesus has a gift for you.” A gift is something you get for free and it will change your life if you receive this free gift. Salvation changed your life forever but another miraculous moment can happen when you say, “I want the gift of the Holy Spirit.” If I didn’t tell you it was the Holy Spirit and I just said it was a gift that can change your life forever, almost all of you, I would assume will say, “Oh, I want that then.” Well it’s the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So here’s what we’re going to do. If you’re comfortable – by the way I’m not here to make you comfortable. I’m not going to lead a comfortable church. The Holy Spirit is the comforter but He rarely makes us comfortable. He is the great comforter and for that I am so grateful but he also messes my hair up all the time, messes me up all the time; makes me feels awkward sometimes, makes me do things that are way outside my comfort zone. All the time that happens. So if you’re here today and you say, “You know I’ve never really asked for the work of the Holy Spirit.” May be here you’ve prayed that prayer everyday but you’re just dry and just need.
It says in Ephesians, “To be continually filled with the Holy Spirit which should be a lifestyle of asking for the Holy Spirit and at work in your life.” Could you just focus on the Lord for a minute? Don’t focus on me; don’t focus on anything or anybody around you. But could you just turn your hands like this when you’re saying, “Father, I welcome the work of the Holy Spirit; this Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift from Jesus, I want it. I receive it today. I want more of it. I want more of God. I want an awareness of Your work in me. I want….” It says that before we were ever knit together in the wombs of our mother that God gave us gifts; these special abilities to be used by Him. So would you say, “Father, I want the gifts ,the unique abilities that You’ve given me as an individual, as a human being, would You awaken those gifts in my life. Would You let the work of the Holy Spirit grow in me, prosper. Lord, would you just let it multiply in me now.”
It’s just simply obeying God and saying, “I want the work of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit in my life right now. I welcome the Holy Spirit in me, through me, with me. Or let my eyes be fixed on You, on the Christ, on the Spirit. Father, we welcome it. I want more of the Holy Spirit. It’s the gift from You, so I receive it. By faith, I receive it. Lord as for my own heart, I can only speak for my own heart, I ask Lord that You would increase the capacity of my heart for more of the Holy Spirit; more of You working through me, in me for You, for Your glory for Your kingdom, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now here’s what I want, I want you to pray that prayer all the time. That’s a prayer that we should pray all the time; just whisper it to God throughout the day. I’m telling you, you’ll change the way you – everything about your life if you’ll just keep that at the front of your mind and heart everyday. Father I just want to welcome the work of the Holy Spirit. Father welcome, I want more room in my heart for the things of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly this awareness of God will grow. You’ll begin to hear the voice of God better. You’ll be led by His Spirit here today. The works of your flesh will become nauseating to you because they just don’t compare to the work of the Holy Spirit. And when you do that, just something happens. It changes your life.
So would you stand this morning? And I want those who prayed down at the front, we have pastors and small group leaders – those of you who pray like …. I want to invite – there’s some of you right now that the Holy Spirit is speaking to if not ever said yes to Jesus. I want you to step out. By the way, if you need someone to pray for you, for more of the Holy Spirit, often times in scripture the work of the Holy Spirit will happen when someone else prayed for them. Almost all the time in the New Testament, there was someone praying for them when the work of the Holy Spirit began to happen in their lives. If you want more of the Holy Spirit, you step out. Let us pray for you. If you’re sick, you have something going on in your marriage or your home; let us pray for you, okay? We’re here to pray.
I’m going to go to Guest Central and I’ll pray for you there too, but I’d love to meet you. If you’re new to New life, I’d love to say hi. If we’ve never met, I’d love to meet you, okay? That’s where I’ll be.
So let’s pray together one more time; “Father, thank you so much for the work of the Holy Spirit. Thank you that tonight when we baptize people in water, Lord, that something is going to happen; a miracle is going to happen in many, many people tonight. Father, we thank you for what You’re doing, in us and through us, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
All right, one more thing, we got a class at 4:00. If you want to know more about water baptism, the class is at 4:00, the service is at 5:00, okay? Come be a part of it. Have a great day. Have a great Sunday.
