Repent and Be Baptized

"The sermon preached in the power of the Holy Spirit invariably commanded men not only to repent, but to be baptized with the Holy Spirit." --Cortland Myers, 1909



In Matthew 3 we meet up with John the Baptist again, who is now calling men to repent and be baptized with water, for "the kingdom of heaven is at hand", meaning near. But what did he say a few days on?

Matthew 3:11-12 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but will burn up the chaff with an unquenchable fire."

And who could do that? Jesus the only begotten Son of God, who must first go through a time of testing and temptations in the wilderness. Did He bring Himself there? No. Matthew 4:1 "Then was Jesus LED up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." To prepare for that part of His journey Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights.

When He was hungry, He was tempted by the tempter to turn stone into bread. When the devil brought Him to Jerusalem (the holy city), he tempted Him to jump off the highest pinnacle of the temple to see if God's angels would catch Him. When the devil took Him to a very high mountain, showing Him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory, the tempter offered Jesus these if only Jesus would worship him.

But none of these temptations did Jesus give into. Not just because He is God's Son, The Lord Jesus Christ but because Jesus had the Holy Spirit with Him. As an example for us, Jesus showed us that WE CAN OVERCOME TEMPTATION when we have JESUS, THE WORD OF GOD, and THE HOLY SPIRIT of GOD upon us! That is exciting news!

And what were the first words out of His mouth afterwards? Matthew 4:17 "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And while He made the rounds of the cities healing the sick, teaching in parables and raising the dead, He was forgiving sins, too, to the heart that sought Him in earnest.

Now, we move to Acts 1:4-5 "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

Which brings us to Acts 2:1-4 wherein the 120 men and women are in the upper room fellowshipping and praying together waiting for the Promise of God to arrive. Fifty days after the Passover Sabbath had passed is the Day of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-16), the feast of weeks (Deuteronomy 16:10), the feast of harvest (Exodus 23:16), and the day of the firstfruits (Numbers 28:26).

Afterwards, these men and women went out into the city streets proclaiming the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is here in Acts 2:38 that we hear Peter say to us, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

But this Promise/Blessing is not given just to them/us, Acts 2:39 "For the Promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Whether 'afar off' means geographically or genealogically, that Promise is still active today; just as the call of God on our lives is!

So, today, we say "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. You and your children and those that are afar off."

----Oh, Father God, I repent of all my wicked ways, of the sins in my heart and my life. Have mercy on me and forgive me. Deliver me from an unrighteous lifestyle and lead me in Your Word. Give me Your gift of the Holy Ghost that I might walk and live in Your power. Teach me Your ways and Your will that I might never stray from You again. Fill me and feed me that I may not hunger for the things of this world but be content in You. Be glorified, O my God, in me. In Jesus' Name, Amen. And amen. ----

Just Because Pentecostal.....

is in the name of a church does not mean that that church is really Pentecostal. Are these fighting words? Yes. Absolutely. So, if I say that such and such church is not Pentecostal, how can I be absolutely sure I am not wrong? 
Welcome Holy Spirit
Well, let's see now. What does it mean to be Pentecostal? Factually, Pentecost is celebrated exactly 50 days after Passover. It is on this day in the Book of Acts that 120 men and women were gathered together in fellowship and prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem, waiting for the Promise of God, the Comforter, who would lead them into all the world, where Jesus Christ had said that they would go. 

And what happened when these people had assembled themselves here? Well, now, we have to go back just a bit to the Day of Passover. What happened there? The Lamb of God was slain on the cross, buried in a borrowed tomb and resurrected from the dead on the third day. For forty days He walked among the township and was seen by many people. Then He gathered His followers together, gave them a few last instructions, and told them to wait for the baptism of The Holy Ghost.

So they waited. They waited for fifty days. Until the Day of Pentecost, when God sent His Holy Spirit and baptized them with fire, giving them the power to speak in tongues, other languages. With these languages the 120 people gathered in the upper room, the men and the women, began to preach the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. And the crowds gathered because they were hearing something which they had not heard before: the language of love, hope, and peace.

Pentecost did not begin in the New Testament, though. It begins in the Old Testament, but is called The Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22), when the First Fruits were gathered in the fall harvest. It was also referred to as Day of First Fruits (Numbers 28:26), Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16). All three of these references are prophetic celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He who is the First Fruit of the New Covenant which God has made with us. 

It is through the blood of this Lamb of God that we are saved: our sins have been washed away when we repented of them and believed on the Name of The Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. Now we are saved. But there's more to being Christian than being saved from an eternal death. We need to be sanctified, too. 

Being saved has set us apart from the rest of the world. We need to stop living the lifestyle we lived before we came to the realization and understanding that we needed a Savior, this Savior Jesus Christ. But how do we get from a lifestyle of bad habits, wrong choices and ignorance? The Holy Spirit. He will guide us through God's Word, revealing to us how God wants to change us. That's called sanctification. Transforming us from who we once were into who we are now. 

But The Holy Spirit has another job, too. And that is to baptize us with boldness to witness, freedom to declare the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, liberty to gather together and declare the grace of God to all nations. And for that we need the same baptism which the 120 men and women received on that Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. They turned their world upside-down. Are we? 

I want that holy anointing Isaiah spoke about. 

To me, being Pentecostal is believing in the Trinity: God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. You cannot have just one and call yourselves Pentecostal. John 3:16 God sent His Son. Matthew 17:5; Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Luke 3:22; John 15:9,10. And these are just a few which reference more than one Person in the trinity. 

Jesus Only is not Pentecostal. Oneness is not Pentecostal. 

Pentecostal is believing and receiving the Holy Spirit, who is sent by God to the believer who wants to live a sanctified, holy life; who wants to walk their life's journey with and in power. The power that comes from being filled and baptized with The Holy Spirit of God. That's Pentecostal. 

Not only that, but unless you believe that Jesus Christ Is LORD, and receive God's gift of grace through His Son's death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, you CANNOT receive God's Holy Spirit. You must be born again, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3. 

And how does such a thing get accomplished? By faith. Faith in God and God's Word. If you have a Bible, or can lay your hands on one, start with the Book of John; it is fascinating reading and will totally change your life, if you let it. 

By My Spirit

"...not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith The LORD of hosts." Zechariah 4:6

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines 'spirit' (#7307) as: wind, breath, a sensible or even violent exhalation, which are literal translations. In this same definition the figurative, or symbolic, translation is also given to us: life, anger, unsubstantiality (spirit of a rational being, including its expressions and functions: air, anger, blast, breath, courage, mind, tempest). 

Of the 238 times in the OT, only 31 references are to The Holy Spirit of God. Of the 253 times in the NT, 132 references are to The Holy Spirit. The word 'ghost' in the OT referred to death, or giving up the ghost, dying. In the NT the word Ghost is mentioned several times. It is the exact meaning in Strong's as given for the word 'spirit' (#4151) in the Greek dictionary.

Pneuma: a current of air, breath, blast; a breeze; the rational soul, vital principle, mental disposition; angel, demon or God, Christ's spirit, Holy Spirit: ghost, life, spirit(minded).

This means that The Holy Ghost and The Holy Spirit are referring to the same deity. It is impossible for The Holy Spirit of God to lose His identity. When you speak of Him or to Him, He knows to Whom you are referring.