No Shortcuts to Spiritual Maturity
Series: Mark, Sermon 2
Chuck Sligh
November 17, 2019
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 1.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – When our boys were little, we were scheduled to attend a field conference with my mission board in Interlaken, Switzerland. We decided to go a week early, and begin over in Salzburg, Austria on the opposite end of Switzerland, and then drive west across Switzerland to Interlaken in time for our field conference that was to start that next Monday. After seeing Salzburg, we slowly meandered west, leisurely taking our time.
Susan wanted to visit a quaint village several kilometers south of the main Autobahn, so I looked on the map and it looked like there was a non-Autobahn shortcut from that village straight west over to Interlaken. (This was long before GPS, by the way.) We visited this gorgeous village and then headed west to Interlaken on this road.
Well, what looked like a good straight road on the map was anything but in real life. A trip that should have taken half a day took us almost a day-and-a-half on a one-way road that zig-zagged on hundreds of hair-pin curves directly up into some of the steepest mountains of Switzerland. The scariest part was that about on 90% of the road, you were looking straight down cliffs and steep valleys WITH NO GUARD RAILS…ON A ONE-WAY ROAD! And the VERY scariest part was when we encountered another vehicle. Have you ever tried to drive IN REVERSE to a little pull-off so a car can pass by with deep cliffs and valleys on one side with no guard rails? Believe me; you NEVER want to do that!
You see, sometimes shortcuts aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Hold that thought until the end of this sermon because we’re going to come back to it.
Last time we were in the Gospel of Mark, we had a short intro into the book, and then saw John’s ministry in verses 1-8 and drew some applications from his life for our own. We studied most of the passage, but in verse 8, John dropped a bombshell that I didn’t feel I could cram into that sermon.
So today we’re going to look at the part I left out last week. Look with me at verse 8 – “I…have baptized you with water: but he will baptize you with the Holy spirit.” Today, I would like to talk about this “baptism with the Holy Spirit”
I. FIRST, LET’S THINK ABOUT WHAT IS THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT?
The key passage explaining Spirit baptism is found 1 Corinthians 12:13 – “For with one Spirit we all were baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles,…bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” –
Before proceeding, let me point out that the if your translation begins with, “For BY one Spirit we are all baptize,” that is a mistranslation. The second word in the verse is the Greek word en, which, in this context, cannot mean anything other than “with” or “in.” John said, and Jesus also said in Acts 1:5, that Jesus would be the baptizer and the medium Jesus would baptize with would be the Holy Spirit, just as in John’s water baptism, John was the baptizer and water was the medium. It’s seems like a small detail, but we’ll see its importance later.
Now, what Paul tells us in this scripture is that in the baptism with the Spirit, believers are immersed with the Spirit into the body of Christ. The body of Christ is a term Paul uses of the people of God in the New Testament age and describes their integral relationship with Christ. Jesus is the head, and we are all members of Christ’s body.
We don’t have time to delve deeply here, but this idea teaches us that when we come to Christ, we become a member or a part, of Christ, just as my arm, or my stomach or my toes or my feet are parts of my body each with a particular function. They are only alive because the body is alive, governed by the head. There is a vital, organic relationship of the body parts to the body, and likewise, when we trust in Christ, we enter into a vital, organic relationship with Christ.
So, the “body of Christ” is a synonym for what theologians refer to as the “Universal Church”—that is, all the believers from Pentecost until Jesus returns. There are many theological ramifications of this, but these are the main things to get out of it for our purposes today.
Let me make three quick observations about this passage:
First, when we hear the word baptize and baptism, we only think of it in terms of the religious rite we practice as Christians, but the Greek word was a common word meaning to “dip, submerge, immerse” something. It was used by wool makers when they submerged plain-colored cloth into colored dye, so that the wool was completely changed. When the Corinthians read this, the rite of baptism would not have been uppermost in their minds. They would have understood Paul to be saying, “So with one Spirit we all were submerged, or immersed into the body of Christ.”
Second, it is important to note the verb tense in this passage when Paul says “with one Spirit we all were baptized into one body…”. The phrase, “were baptized” is in what Greek scholars call the aorist passive tense. The aorist passive refers to “a simple action received one time in the past.” So, Paul’s literal meaning is, “For by one Spirit we all were immersed into one body at ONE point in time in the past…” That’s an important point we’ll return to in a moment.
Last, note that Paul says that ALL the believers in the Corinthian church were baptized with the Spirit. In other words, there were not some of them who had experienced this Spirit-baptism and some who had not. They had ALL been baptized. This too will be important in a few moments.
II. THE SECOND THING WE WANT TO DISCOVER IS WHEN DID THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT TAKE PLACE?
This is not an academic question because the baptism in the Holy Spirit is one of the most misunderstood, mischaracterized, and misinterpreted concepts in the Bible.
Look with me at Acts 1:4-5 – “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you have heard from me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Jesus told His disciples to wait for “the promise of the Father.” The promise was that, just as John had said, Jesus would baptize them with the Spirit.
Illus. – In my first year of college, I had gotten away from close fellowship with the Lord and felt something was missing in my life. One day I met some long-haired college students who were “Jesus Freaks.” (Look it up “Jesus Movement” on the Internet; it was a big thing at the time, culturally.) Salvation was cool, they said, but there was something MORE I needed—a second experience they called the baptism “of “the Holy Spirit, which would empower me in my Christian walk and help me be more of what God wanted.
I had been having a lot of defeat in my Christian life, so the idea that I could have some experience that would help me LEAP FORWARD in spiritual maturity appealed to me, as it would any Christian. So, in all sincerity, I prayed to God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and a few weeks later I spoke in what I was told were tongues. I joined in the movement and was an active Charismatic for almost a year.
The problem was that I already had what I prayed for according to the Bible. Also, what I thought was speaking in tongues was not at all what the Bible calls speaking in tongues, though I’ll not have time to discuss that today. Worst of all, I found myself just as defeated in my Christian life than ever.
Something was wrong. The problem was that I had started with 2 wrong premises—namely that I, as a born-again believer, did not already HAVE the baptism with the Holy Spirit and, second, that it was something that I had to ASK God for.
Now there is a very important key that unlocks the secret of this whole matter of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Again, that key is found in the Greek language. The tense of the word “baptize” in Acts 5 is the punctiliar passive future tense.
I know that’s mumbo-jumbo to you, so here’s what you really need to remember: The punctiliar passive future tense was used in the Greek of an action that was to take place in the future at ONE particular time, ONCE FOR ALL. In other words, Jesus was saying this: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit—at one exact time, once-and-for-all.”
So…when was this once-and-for-all, exact, particular event that Jesus promised? It happened on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The baptism with the Holy Spirit was a ONCE-IN-HISTORY EVENT—which took place on the Day of Pentecost and was never to be repeated again.
When the Spirit was given at Pentecost, believers in the church age were baptized with the Holy Spirit ALL AT THE SAME TIME into Christ’s body. In other words, the baptism with the Sprit is not something that happens to believers individually at the request of believers, or even something that occurs at salvation. Rather, it’s something that happened involuntarily to ALL believers in the church age collectively, at a single moment in history—an act which believers have no active part in receiving.
It’s true that the EFFECTS of this baptism (that is, “submersion” or “immersion”) with the Spirit, are not realized ,practically speaking, until one believes in Jesus, but that’s true of Christ’s redemption on Calvary as well. Just as our redemption was sealed by Jesus on the cross, but our salvation does not affect us personally until we believe, we were all baptized by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, but do not actually receive the Spirit until we are saved.
So, if you’re saved today, you were baptized with the Holy Spirit 2,000 years ago. It’s not in an experience AFTER salvation, nor even something that occurs on the day of your salvation, as is commonly taught by many Evangelicals. It happened one time—once-and-for-all, on a single day—the day of Pentecost—almost two thousand years ago.
THAT was the baptism with the Holy Spirit which John and Jesus looked AHEAD to in the Gospels and in Acts, and which Paul referred BACK to in 1 Corinthians 12:13, the verse we looked at earlier.
Spiros Zodhiates, one of the world’s great New Testament Greek scholars until his death in 2009 explained it this way:
“The baptism in the Spirit by Christ of every believer into His body is a historical event similar to His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and coming again. Christ did it once-and-for-all when He sent His Holy Spirit…in Acts….It is not something that we experience, but something that Jesus Christ did once-and-for-all in joining all believers into His body.” [Spiros Zodhiates, The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), p. 1403 in his notes on 1 Corinthians 12:13 (emphasis mine).]
This makes the scripture we looked at earlier, 1 Corinthians 12:13 make more sense. Remember, I said that that verse, Paul’s literal meaning, by the tense that he used, is, “For by one Spirit we all were baptized [i.e., at ONE point in time in the past] into one body…”
They had ALL been baptized with the Spirit into Christ’s body because Jesus had baptized all New Testament believers way back at Pentecost. John and Jesus pointed to a singular, one-time event that was to happen in the future, while Paul was looking back on that singular event that had already occured.
So, if you’re saved today, you’ve ALREADY been baptized with the Holy Spirit! You can’t ask for and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit because it’s not something you have an active part in receiving. Jesus ALREADY baptized you in the Holy Spirit—and every other believer in the church age—2,000 years ago on the Day Pentecost.
Praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is like asking for your inheritance from your parents after they had already given it to you. – They’d say, “What are you talking about? We’ve already given you your inheritance. We can’t give it to you twice.” Look through the whole New Testament and you’ll find that, though we’re commanded to BE REPEATEDLY FILLED with the Spirit (which simply means to be constantly controlled by the Spirit), we’re never told to be BAPTIZED with the Spirit. Why?—Because it was already done two thousand years ago.
CONCLUSION
So, what personal applications can we draw from this somewhat technical study this morning?
First, in order to be in the body of Christ, you have to be saved.
Have you come to a place where you realized your need for God and turned to Jesus Christ as your Savior? You cannot be saved by your good works and obedience to biblical commandments or participation in a church or denomination or by doing religious things. Salvation is a gift from God that comes by recognizing that you are a sinner before a holy God, that there is nothing you can do to earn God’s favor, and that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sin by dying on the cross in your place.
If you will turn from sin and trust in Jesus as your Savior, He will give you eternal life and put you into a living, vital relationship with Jesus Christ and place you into His body and give you a spiritual gift to serve Him with. Please, please, please, see me after the service if you wish to know how you can be saved, or fill out one of the Next Step cards on the back cabinet and let’s get together this week to discuss this matter of your eternal destiny.
Second, if you are saved, let me warn you to be careful about shortcuts in your Christian life.
There are many things in Christianity that purport to give you a boost in the Christian life—that will allegedly help you leap from spiritual babyhood to maturity. Our Charismatic and Pentecostal brethren—and they ARE our brethren, and may we never forget that—they talk of “being baptized by the Holy Spirit.” The Nazarenes and some old-line Methodists talk of a “second blessing” after salvation that can conceivably lead you to a state of sinless perfection. Some say you can jump to the head of the pack by attending some special seminar, or by espousing some particular doctrinal scheme, like Calvinism or Arminianism, or through the teachings of a particular teacher or preacher. But all of these are false hopes that leave believers discouraged and disillusioned when the boom falls and people realize that they are no better—or at best, only marginally better—Christians than they were before.
Illus. – I shared earlier how I got involved in the Charismatic Movement. I remember going home to Okinawa, where my parents were missionaries, after that first year of college and found myself somewhat unstable in my Christian life and realizing I had not grown in any substantial ways in my Christian life.
After returning home, my very concerned parents persuaded me to take a semester off to figure out what was going on in my Christian life. I thought to myself: I ought to be a stronger believer than ever after experiencing the so-called “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and by speaking in tongues and having all the experiences I had had. But, in fact, I was at the lowest point ever in my walk with God—spiritually, morally and emotionally.
I remember getting into God’s Word more than at any time in my life. The more I got to know God in His Word—the WHOLE of His Word, not just the parts that deal with spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit, the more stable I became in my Christian walk and the stronger in Christ I became. It was in God’s Word and in obedience to its precepts that I began to grow in my Christian life and get victory over certain sins in my life.
In that time of struggle, I learned one of the most important keys to the Christian life: There are NO SHORTCUTS to Christian maturity.
I remember reading Isaiah 28:9-10, a scriptures that God used to show me this truth: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the message? Those who are weaned from milk, and taken from the breasts. 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”
6What was Isaiah saying?—He was saying that there’s not a single experience that will catapult you to spiritual maturity. There are no shortcuts; no magic bullets; no panaceas. Spirituality is never a giant leap— Precept must be upon precept. You must learn line upon line. You learn a little here, and a little there.
Maturity is a multitude of tiny steps—one after the other. Each previous one is necessary for the next one. You cannot jump too many steps at a time.
Illus. – The Holy Spirit matures believers like a cheese maker matures cheese—slowly but surely, but not until the time is right.
So, if you are a believer, the question for you is NOT “Have you received the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’” or the second blessing or gone to the latest seminar, but…
• Have you been in the Word this week?
• Have you been obedient to God this week?
• Have you spent time with God in prayer this week?
• Have you surrendered to the Lord’s control of your life daily this week?
• Have you been in the Lord’s house, and in a homegroup or a Bible study so you can hear the Word preached and taught so you can grow in the Lord?
• Have you had a steady input of Christian music and Christian reading rather than a steady diet of the world’s entertainment and news media?
THESE are things that ultimately produce growth! We are changed a little bit more each day we as we learn God’s Word and obey what it says and cultivate that vital union with the body through prayer and fellowship and worship. God help us to work at it patiently day by day, and not look for some magic bullet that will be a shortcut to spirituality. In fact, what you think is a magic bullet really short-circuits God’s plan for your life. So be patient; be faithful; keep on keeping on; study the Word; pray, be faithful to God’s house; hang around Christians; have godly inputs into your life. THESE THINGS mark the road to spiritual maturity.
