There was a teacher who told her class that tomorrow for Show and Tell I want you to bring something that shows your religious beliefs. The next day the children were all there and the first little boy came up with a Star of David and he explained that he was Jewish and what the star meant to his family.
The next little girl was catholic and she brought up a rosary and explained about the rosary and the prayers that went along with the beads.
Then there was a little boy who brought up a statue of Buddha and explained that he was Buddhist and what the statue of Buddha meant for his family.
The last child to come up was a little Girl who had a casserole. She explained that she was a member of the Church of Christ and since she could not bring a Baptistery in she thought this was the next best thing.
Today we continue our series on Baptism. We talked the first month on Baptism where we have been right. Then last month we looked at Baptism where we have been wrong. And today we are going to look at Baptism, Where we have been silent.
I believe that it has been good for us to talk about Baptism. I know that it has been good for me to look at my beliefs on the subject and reconfirm and add to my faith through this study. But I believe that to often we leave out a whole part. Or at least I am guilty of doing that.
Often we turn to scriptures to prove without a doubt the essentiality of Baptism, and in the very same scriptures we see words about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and just glaze over them. In fact when you think about God’s promises that we encounter at Baptism it seems that there are two primary works going on: cleansing and empowerment.
We understand because of the tie to the cross and the resurrection that we can be buried and resurrected with Him. Then we start a brand new life, and we are cleansed and our sins are washed away. But we also need to grasp the idea that at Baptism I am empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a life that I could not live on my own.
You see after we leave the waters of baptism, we turn that babe in Christ to face a world that is full of evil and say go ahead, good luck. And it’s like leaving a baby alone amongst the wolves. We talk about the water and we are silent about the spirit.
But in Scripture they are the double cure. You can’t have one with out the other. The Cleansing and the Empowerment.
Unfortunately for many of us we have heard a lot about the cleansing and nothing about the empowerment. In fact many of us have been taught just the opposite of what the Bible teaches: “You don’t have the Holy Spirit.” and what a dangerous doctrine.
Like we talked about last month, most false doctrine is a knee jerk reaction to other false doctrine. It seems to me that we were reacting to the excesses we saw in Pentecostalism that we swung all the way in the other direction to our own odd doctrine. We say that Jesus came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died a cruel death, and ascended back into heaven. He leaves the Holy Spirit to inspire the disciples to write the Bible and then at the end of the first century just like Elvis, the Holy Spirit has left the building. And now God looks at His children and says good luck. I made sure you have got the manual, just follow the 5,000 easy step-by-step instructions and you will be OK.
But today as we look at Scriptures we are going to see that God has promised us much more than that. We have a church that says we want to be just like the church that we read about in the Bible. We want to live and worship like our brothers and sisters that we read about in Acts. We want to be as loving, and powerful, and dynamic as they were. But how can we be that church if we neglect the power that made that church what it was. What an awful position to put ourselves in. We can only be that church if we use the power of the Holy Spirit.
So what do we do? We try to build churches that are well organized, have great staffs, and have a lot of good programs, and great advertising, and all the right kind of things, thinking that will build the right kind of Church. If it works in the business world it must work in the church.
We are left with brethren who want to be Christ like so they are looking for the right program and after bouncing around from program to program for a couple of years they finally give up, and quit trying or even worse quit God all together.
Brethren today I am here to tell you that the only thing that can build the right kind of Church is a family that learns to tap the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer.
So today let’s look at some scriptures and see what the Bible has to say about this double cure. The first place I want you to look is Matthew 3, at the baptism of Jesus.
Read Matthew 3:16-17
Do you see the two elements? John was there and get’s a front row seat. And he says in John 1
"I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ’The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
John the Baptist baptized for the remission of sins, what made the Baptism of Christ unique is that Jesus promised that we would also receive the Holy Spirit. He is saying not only will you receive cleansing but you will receive empowerment.
Look at John 3:1-5
Look again at the two elements that are linked: Water and Spirit. Now from what I can see, in the Greek, these two things are linked. You cannot have one with out the other, at least not in Jesus’ way of thinking. It parallels what Peter says in Acts 2:38
And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
Now for to many of us that is where we stopped. We forgot to read the rest of the verse.
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now you may say, “Come on Jeremy. That was just for the first century, that was just for the apostles.”
Well did you continue reading?
"For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself."
Notice that key little word there? All! Folks this is not an old out of date promise that was just for the first century brethren. That promise is for God’s people throughout the ages. And yet many of us grew up with a theology that endorsed the first parts of these verses and ignored the last part. There we see again the Double cure that was promised to us for our salvation: Cleansing and empowerment. Not only can God handle your past, Make you secure in your present, but He can also give you power for the future.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:13 where Paul is reminding them about their Baptism.
What is he saying? At the point that I am going through my baptism God is transforming me through His spirit. Now I don’t understand everything about the topic of Holy Spirit baptism, and I do believe that there were some special things going on in Acts 2 and 10. But I do believe that there is a promise here that we are baptized with the Holy Spirit with our baptism. It is that powerful moment when we receive cleansing and the power from God to be changed from the inside out.
Let’s look at a beautiful passage that I believe puts this all together. Titus 3: 3-7
Now lets look back at verse 5 and see the beautiful description of the double cure.
Two things happen, there was that washing and there was the empowerment.
Now let’s look at Romans 8:9
Did you hear that? He basically answers the question about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I remember living in New Orleans and there being the big discussion of the Holy Spirit and does he live in you or not. Well Paul is saying if you are a Christian then you have the spirit living in you.
The Holy Spirit is not optional equipment. It’s not like when you are picking out a car and you say, “I think that I would like to add a sunroof, and a CD player on this car so that it will be a little nicer.” It comes standard, on all Christians. Paul says if you don’t have the Holy Spirit you don’t have Christ in your life. So we must restore a clear teaching of what happens at our Baptism and the power that is available to us when we come to the Lord.
The Christian life is not just hard; it’s impossible, on your own. And yet what we taught whether by inferred teaching or by direct teaching is that you need to go out there and live for Christ on your own. You pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, and get this thing right. Yes, He cleansed you back at Baptism But from here on out you understand it the best you can and do the best you can and if you are good enough you can make it.
I believe that is a denial of Scripture. What else does God have to say for me to believe that I have got the Spirit?
I can’t find a verse where it says that He stopped working. I know 1 Corinthians 13:8 says that gifts will cease but nowhere does it say that the Holy Spirit stopped working. There is not a verse that says only a few people got the Spirit, it says everyone who is saved has the Spirit.
You know what makes Christianity different from every other world religion? It’s the teaching of the Holy Spirit. In other religions God is out there somewhere and maybe you will find Him, and maybe you wont. The Christian faith says that He’s not out there… He’s in here. He’s that intimate and that close to us who believe in Him.
Lets close out by looking at 6 things that the Spirit does for us as believers.
So what does he do? There are a lot of strange teachings out there. A lot of weird stuff that people give the Holy Spirit credit for today. There is this one group that says they are giggling in the Spirit. The get together for their corporate worship and just start giggling. It starts with one and then pretty soon 100’s of people are all giggling in the Spirit. There is a lot of weird stuff out there. What does the Bible say in Black and White that we can know today what the Holy Spirit is doing for you.
1) The Holy Spirit Sanctifies us 1 Peter 1:2
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.
What does it mean to be sanctified? It means to be set apart to become Holy. Practically to become like Jesus.
You say I would like to become like Christ, that’s what I committed to at my Baptism, but I can’t do it. You’re Right. You need some help, and that help comes through the Holy Spirit who is doing work from the inside out to help you become like Jesus.
2) The Holy Spirit Strengthens us Ephesians 3:16
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;
There is a power that you can have through the Holy Spirit that you cannot have on your own. We cannot do the Lord’s work with out the Lord’s power. It is fleshly, it’s human, it’s vain, it’s egotistical if we think we can.
3) The Holy Spirit Empowers Us To Overcome Sin Romans 8:13
for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
You become a Christian and say I repented, I want to obey Jesus I want to live a pure life. Great Idea! But on your own? You say where do I get some help? The Holy Spirit.
The Devil is so good at his job, isn’t He? He knows how to get at you no matter where you are walking.
I love the story of the young couple and the woman wants to go to the mall and her husband says baby you can’t we don’t have any money to spend and it’s going to be tight paying our bills this month anyway. The wife says I just want to go window shop and try clothes on but I won’t buy anything. The Husband says if you write a check it will bounce. She assures Him it will be OK and she goes off on her way.
6 hours later she walks in the house with a new dress. The Husband is irate and says I thought we had a deal that you wouldn’t buy anything because we couldn’t afford it. And the wife replies well I was trying this dress on and while I was looking in the mirror Satan told me how good I looked in this dress and how proud you would be to walk in to church with me wearing this dress.
The husband says why didn’t you say get behind me Satan? And the wife replies I did and he said you really look good from back here.
What’s the point? It doesn’t matter what direction you are traveling in Satan can meet you there and tempt you. He knows the buttons to push. Isn’t that how it is in your life? So when we think that we can go out there under our own power and defeat Satan we get in trouble.
But if we understand that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, not to giggle at but say no to Sin, then we have got something really, really special. And we need to embrace that.
4) The Holy Spirit Helps Us In Our Prayers. Romans 8:26
And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
What a great deal! Have you ever been upset and didn’t know what to pray for? Have the prayers just not come out or when you finished you were scared you left something out? Are you just hurt so bad and you don’t know what to say?
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit speaks up for you, He intercedes for you. Since He is in you he knows intimately what the struggles are in your life and helps you make those struggles knows to God the Father.
5) The Holy Spirit Produces Fruit Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Now how do you get those things? I was always taught that if I wanted love here are the 4 things I needed to do. Peace here’s your 4-step plan. That is not what Paul is saying here. He is saying it is not something that you produce in your life. It is something that the Holy Spirit produces in your life.
This is the Fruit, the result of the Holy Spirit living in you. You are going to be more loving, more at peace, kinder, more self-controlled. It’s not by human effort but by the Holy Spirit.
6) The Holy Spirit Guarantees us Heaven Ephesians 1: 14
The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.
The Holy Spirit is our deposit, our pledge guaranteeing our inheritance. In our terms he is our engagement ring. When God is looking down here to find His bride, Who’s he looking for? The folks with the Holy Spirit. When God’s looking for who’s going to heaven? It is the people that God lives in.
Those are some things that the Holy Spirit does for us. And we haven’t even gone over the whole list of what the Bible says.
We need to tap into this power. Many of us are frustrated because on our own we fail. We need the Power of God’s Spirit to change us. And yet often times because we are so scared of the Holy Spirit we do nothing.
We are like the Rich woman who had a huge house and the man from the power company would read her meter and it would hardly ever move. He thought it was broke and checked the meter and it was working and after months of this he finally had the opportunity to ask her what was going on. He said” Lady how do you use so little power? I mean you have this great big house and you hardly use any power.” The lady answered. “What I do is every night I just turn the lights on long enough to see the candles so I can light them.”
Here is this rich woman living by candlelight when electricity was right there in her own home. When the power was right there to live a different life. And I am afraid that is the same story for many of us as Christians. Here we are living by candlelight, living on very little power when there is a storehouse of power available within us to live a very different life.
Often as a church we meander around trying to do little things that we think that we can do or we can plan and we use little power, when we should be doing great things that God can do because we have a great power. But that will only happen when we as a people live like we believe that there is a power beyond us. We need to quit thinking and deciding what we can do or not do and we need to start thinking what can God do through us!
Paul talks about the Power of God that mightily worked with in him. That’s what we need.
So I leave you with this question today. What will you do with the Holy Spirit?
Biblically we have two options: We can cooperate with the Holy Spirit in your life or you can quench the Holy Spirits work in your life.
You can cooperate and walk in step with the Spirit that you received at Baptism. You can let God do mighty things through you by staying in step with the Spirit.
Or you can quench the spirit. There are passages in our Bibles that say you can grieve the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew writer says you can insult the Holy Spirit.
So if you are a Christian today you’ve got the Holy Spirit. The Question is do you say in step with the Spirit or do you neglect the Spirit.
You see I used to think that all of this Holy Spirit stuff didn’t matter, that it didn’t make a whole lot of difference. But Now I realize that it makes all the difference in the world. I mean the Holy Spirit moves to live with in me and I just act like He’s not there. I ignore Him or even deny Him. Do you think that He is going to be at work in my life?
You see this doctrine that we have taught, that he’s not working, has some awful ramifications. To ignore His work is certainly to quench His work.
This morning are you in step with the Spirit? Or are you quenching the spirit by trying to live by your own power.
I know that there are some here this morning that need to come before this church and say everything is not right. I am tired or living a life that is not right. Please pray with me that I will get in step with the spirit.
Then there may be some here today that have never experienced the cleansing or the empowerment that only comes through a burial in baptism with Jesus Christ. If today you can believe that through faith you can have all of your sins washed away and you are ready to be clothed in Christ and receive this awesome power. Then today is the day of your salvation.
Please come.
* This sermon passed several hands before it got to mine. I believe Rick Atchley preached the original series.
