Jim Harper - The Work of the Holy Spirit in New Testament Times - Class 1 - Holy Spirit Baptisms in New Testament Times

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is day one of the 2007 Palm Springs Bible School. Our second period teacher is Brother Jim Harper. The title of his class is The Work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The topic for today’s class is Holy Spirit baptisms and New Testament times. Brother Jim. Brothers and sisters, one of us needs all the Technical Support he can get and I think you can figure out which one that is, and I want to thank.

2. 0:26

   Those who have scrambled in the last probably 12 hours or so to get the projector, to get the cords, to get all the connections, and as I said to Brother and Nigel before the 1st class, I said I cannot imagine the Lord getting into Peter’s fishing boat with a laptop and an LCD projector.

3. 0:42

   I simply can’t. And what an infinitely better teacher and it’s great for us for me to be here. We’re we’re very glad to be here with you and we’re looking forward to the week together. I just want to say a word or two about this study before we launch into it. A few years ago, perhaps five or six, I was given an assignment in the Merit and Ecclesia to do 2 Bible classes on the Holy Spirit And this was part of a Bible seminar follow up program that we were running. And I looked at the list of assignments and I looked at my assignment and I said why me,

4. 1:20

   you know? And by the end of the week, you may be asking the same question, but there we are. I can say this, that everything I’m going to say to you this week, brothers and sisters, have been born out of that assignment. And Esther can attest to the fact that I found myself drawn to this study over the last five or six years amidst other things.

5. 1:41

   And it has been something that I’m sure will compel my interest for the rest of of my life as that understanding grows. Now, if there’s any principles, brothers and sisters, that have impressed themselves on me that I I want to have very close at hand as we go through the studies this week.

6. 2:01

   There are two, and the first is this. The more closely we find ourselves drawing the lines between the work of the Holy Spirit and New Testament times and the way God worked through the power of His Spirit and Old Testament times. Probably the closer we are going to be to understanding what’s going on in the New Testament.

7. 2:22

   All right, that’s principle number one, with perhaps 1 exception. And that brings us to principle #2. And I can state it very simply, echoing the words of John the Baptist, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And that is without exception. That is without exception. And those principles have far reaching implications, which from time to time I may remind you of as we go along through this, the week, the course of this week, and perhaps will lead us into some areas that we have not generally viewed things along the same lines.

8. 2:59

   In any case, we begin today with the Holy Spirit baptisms in New Testament times, and I I do emphasize the plural there. And in the process, there are a couple of questions I want to address. We’ll go as as much as we can during this course of time, 45 minutes. The notes will embody more than I’m able to present.

9. 3:22

   And I can simply say to you, the scriptures embody vastly more than I’m able to put into notes. So I hope that puts this presentation and this week and this presenter into proper perspective. But one question What was the significance of the Day of Pentecost? And a second question, how are we to understand Holy Spirit, baptisms and New Testament times?

10. 3:45

    And I’m going to address those as much as time will allow under these two headings. First of all, Pentecost and Biblical perspective and the little number that that shows up on the menu slide here will refer you to the page in your notes where the where this part of the presentation begins and you’ll be able to follow pretty closely I think.

11. 4:04

    The other aspect of this that I want to get to, I hope, is Luke’s Holy Spirit Baptism language, which is picked up on Page Six of Study One notes and I begin here, Counterfeit Miracles by Benjamin B Warfield, published in 1918, Tongues and Spirit Baptism. A Biblical and Theological Evaluation by Anthony A Hokema, published in 1966 Perspectives on Pentecost New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit by Richard B Gappen Junior, published in 1979 and 4th Our Miracles, Our Miraculous Gifts for Today. 4 Views.

12. 4:59

    They include the view of Richard B Gappen, who represents. The Cessationist Position of Orthodoxy Robert L Saucy, who represents the fence sitters, who isn’t sure that the gifts are not available but has not necessarily experienced them himself. See as Samuel Storms, who is a Pentecostal, and Douglas a ass, Who is? We might call a Third Wave Charismatic, or we might describe him as a Neo Pentecostal.

13. 5:31

    For those of you, in fact, this book represents a fairly widely and it was published in 1996 a a broad perspective of where Orthodoxy is coming from on the subject of of Pentecost and Holy Spirit baptism. When I say Orthodoxy, brothers and sisters, I mean basically. And this would be true no matter what view they hold of the Holy Spirit work.

14. 5:53

    I mean basically those who subscribe to the Nicene doctrine of the Godhead and those who believe in the inherent immortality of man, the immortal soul. All right? And I want to just spend a moment or two with the Orthodox positions on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit baptism, in order that we may better perhaps appreciate our own ability to look at the Scriptures and and ferret these things out for ourselves.

15. 6:22

    Looks like I’ve just shown our products of the 20th century Christendom. They represent Orthodoxy’s reaction to the emergency of the Pentecostal movement in 19 O1. Just a quick word on that. If you go to the Chris Adelphian magazine, you’ll find the term Chris Pentecostal Revival first appearing in May of 19 O 8. By 19 oh, by 1915, you see the term Pentecostal movement emerging in the the literature of our magazine. So all 20th century stuff, brothers and sisters, all right. And so really the the last book I showed you, 1996, gives a pretty good perspective of where Orthodoxy is coming from on these subjects.

16. 7:02

    But the movement began, at least as Pentecostals would claim, January 1st, 1901. Together, books of this kind show us how Orthodoxy attempts to understand Pentecost and Holy Spirit baptism. So just a few words about that in Orthodox theology, at least in one major aspect of it. The Day of Pentecost stands alongside the Incarnation, and I use their terminology now, all right, stands alongside the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the ascension of Christ in historical importance.

17. 7:36

    It is viewed as the crowning act of Christ’s redemptive work. But we read of an Acts too. Is is viewed in some aspects some major aspects of of Orthodoxy as the crowning redemptive act of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Baptism and Holy Spirit that took place on the day of Pentecost was an institutional event.

18. 7:58

    Its context was the Church. Consequently, most Orthodox writers will insist that the entire body of 120 believers was involved in the the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 versus 1 to 4. All right, those who had assembled in, presumably in in an upper room at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost, categorically, Anthony Hokema will say this.

19. 8:22

    The day of Pentecost categorically was the birthday of the Christian Church. On the day of Pentecost, Christ established once for all that he would ever work in his church by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that has some frightening implications in some respects, some comforting ones and others. All right. In fact, one Orthodox cessationist writer would say that on the day of Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit came into the world, and that was as unrepeatable as the birth of Christ.

20. 8:51

    All right. Orthodox Cessationists and and you’ll You’ll get the sense of what I mean here, if if it isn’t already clear to you. Orthodox cessationists assert that the miraculous baptism and Holy Spirit that took place on the Day of Pentecost was an unrepeatable event.

21. 9:10

    In the cessationists view, baptism and Holy Spirit today is the same as conversion. So it’s no longer what you see in Acts 2 today. It’s the same as conversion. It does not involve miraculous empowerments. From the Cessationist point of view, miraculous gifts were a phenomenon of New Testament times only, all right. On the other hand, the orthodox charismatics assert that the miraculous baptism and Holy Spirit that took place on the day of Pentecost was a repeatable paradigm.

22. 9:45

    In the Charismatics view, a believer today not only experiences conversion, but may expect an empowering Holy Spirit baptism as well. Miraculous gifts were intended for the last days, which the charismatic movement will equate with the New Covenant age, which they will equate with all church history. All right.

23. 10:11

    The thing that struck me as I read across the literature, brothers and sisters, simply is this. That both branches of Orthodoxy, cessationists and Charismatics look for the meaning of Holy Spirit baptism within the framework of Church history. That seems to be fairly evident in in most of what they write for the one, mainly the the sensationists. At least since New Testament times, Holy Spirit baptism is conversional.

24. 10:37

    And subtle. So if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have had a Holy Spirit baptism, whether you know it or not. All right? For the other, the charismatics, Holy Spirit baptism is extra conversional and it is miraculous. In either case, Orthodoxy seeks the significance of Holy Spirit baptism in the life of the mortal believer here and now.

25. 11:07

    Where do we stand? And you know, I have to ask myself that because I’ve had to ask myself that question. And I’ll come right to the point. Brothers and sisters, you may agree with this or not. I’ll spend the rest of the week trying to convince you if you don’t. And at the end of the week, you can make sure I get on the plane back east.

26. 11:29

    All right? Orthodoxy fails to see Holy Spirit Baptism as the gift of eternal life. Which believing men and women, devoid of inherent immortality, devoid of inherent immortality, will receive from the glorified Christ at his coming. The doctrine of inherent immortality, the immortality of the soul, makes it impossible in my estimation, having having read across and and thought about what I’ve read. The doctrine of inherited mortality makes it impossible for Orthodoxy to comprehend that a converted believer must yet be baptized with the Holy Spirit if he is to live forever in the presence of God.

27. 12:18

    Or put another way. Why is it imperative? Why do we find the New Testament just just, you know, riddled through with this concept? Why is imperative for believing man or woman to be baptized with the Holy Spirit in order to be saved? An orthodoxy simply does not have a satisfactory answer to this question.

28. 12:38

    As far as I can see. The cessationists will equate, as we’ve already seen, Holy Spirit baptism with the believing process itself in this day and age. They effectively evade the question of why is it necessary for salvation by calling that salvation.

29. 12:56

    Have you been saved? All right, Charismatics on the other hand, view Holy Spirit baptism as extra conversional, but if pressed, they will grant that the experience is not necessary for a believer to be saved. Now, why is that the case? Well, within the Pentecostal slash charismatic movement, brothers and sisters, there are plenty of sincere people who have have as much faith as anyone else and who have prayed as hard as anyone else and have not been able to replicate the miracles in their life.

30. 13:36

    They’ve not been able to speak in tongues, as many of the others claim to have done, to the point where finally they have to be told, look, it’s all right, you’re going to be saved anyway. All right. They’ll grant that the experience is not necessary for a believer to be saved. Orthodoxy simply does not understand man’s fundamental need for eternal life.

31. 13:59

    Thank God for the truth, brothers and sisters. Simply does not understand man’s fundamental need of eternal life. So let’s come to Pentecost. And by the way, Jeff, you know. Give me the hook when the time comes. I don’t. Is there clock around? All right, yeah. Just give me the high side. There’s a time to start and there’s a time to stop. And I will as quickly as I can.

32. 14:23

    That’s the way life works. And I’ll. I’ll honor that. All right, Let’s go to Pentecost itself. Birthday of the Christian Church. Brothers and sisters. Certainly that is an Orthodox view, and it’s not uncommon in our own thinking. Or is it something else?

33. 14:39

    I want to go to John’s Gospel. Brother Nigel I will he will plead for your help if I if I get these points wrong and and you know I don’t mind being set straight on this and we go to John Chapter 7 and we are in the context of the feast of Tabernacles about six months before the Lord’s crucifixion.

34. 15:02

    And we’re told on the last day, that great day of the feast. Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as a scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living waters, living water. And that of course conjures up our thoughts of John Chapter 4, doesn’t it?

35. 15:27

    Because living water speaks of eternal life, it has a relationship to the concept of eternal life. And there Jacob’s well. In the meeting with the woman of Samaria, Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink. You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. And then in verse 14, whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

36. 16:01

    But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. So we see the connections there, and we come back to John 7 The end of verse 38, Living Water. What does it mean? Well, John goes on to explain to us in verse 39 this he spake.

37. 16:24

    This Jesus spake concerning the Spirit which. New King James, of course, as you know, has a Trinitarian agenda, brothers and sisters, and personalizes the pronouns I like it in many respects, but that’s one area where where it lacks. We will find another versions which the impersonalized pronoun this he spoke concerning the Spirit which those believing in him would receive.

38. 16:51

    For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. So whatever else we make of this Holy Spirit baptism, the giving of eternal life to those who believe in Jesus would depend on the glorification of Jesus himself by the Father. All of that makes sense to us. Our salvation at the hands of Jesus depends categorically on his salvation by his Father. And I ask this, did the Apostle John, as he wrote these things to say nothing of Jesus as he spoke? These have only the day of Pentecost in mind, keeping in mind, brothers and sisters, that John wrote this after the days of Pentecost, after the day of Pentecost. And you go back, and you look at the phrasing again. He who believes in me, those believing in him would receive. I find nothing there to limit that. To just the day of Pentecost, that sounds very universal to me if the conditions are met for all believers. And again, John is writing this record of the words of Jesus when Pentecost is already history though just Pentecost or just New Testament times.

39. 18:14

    Did any believer receive eternal life on the day of Pentecost or at any time afterward in all church history? And I was just scanning through and you wondered maybe how I got the statistics from the Christadelphia magazine. You all have, perhaps the the CD that you can go to and you can just track all the uses of Pentecost and Pentecostalism and all the rest of these terms. All right, Which off and on I’ve been doing for weeks. And then I went and looked at what Brother Thomas wrote in Eureka.

40. 18:46

    And he says that the baptism of the Holy Spirit that came upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost left them as it found them mortal and dying men. And that’s true. It hasn’t happened yet. None of the believers received eternal life on the day of Pentecost. And that already says to us that Pentecost was in some way of foreshadowing an incipient event rather than the ultimate event itself. And at no time afterward, in all church history has that been accomplished yet Back to John’s Gospel, and now to John 20. So Jesus said to them, and now he’s meeting with at least ten of his apostles, and it’s hard to know how many others. So Jesus said to them, again, peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. So there is John’s version of the Great Commission coming out here, and when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit.

41. 19:54

    I don’t know. But perhaps this is a passage that sometimes we wish wasn’t there because it seems to take attention away from Pentecost and, well, it might, brothers and sisters, take it at face value. Take it at face value. He breathed on them and said to them, received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they’re forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they’re retained. And he’s, he’s, he’s preparing them for the Great Commission. But what day is this?

42. 20:25

    What day is this? Well, clearly John 20 is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. And if I’m reading John John’s gospel with everything else just set aside and all preconceived ideas set aside. If I’m reading John’s Gospel, brothers and sisters, and I read this in John 20, my mind is going to go back to John 7. All right?

43. 20:55

    The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. He breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Spirit. Jesus has been glorified. Jesus has been glorified. That’s the way I would read John’s gospel. And this is the day of his resurrection. And it’s the day when Jesus breathed the new life, as it were, into all of his apostles, with the exception of Thomas, who would make that classic confession 8 days later. Was it?

44. 21:31

    And Matthias, was he there? We don’t know. But he’s been glorified, and he now breathes new life, first of all into his apostles. They are the foundation of his church and the Holy Spirit. Ministry, brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus, began on the day that he rose from the dead, Not the day of Pentecost, in my estimation.

45. 21:57

    So birthday. What does John 20, verse 22 remind us of? What does it take us back to? And it takes us back, Doesn’t it? To Genesis 2, verse 7. The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils. He breathed on them. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.

46. 22:20

    There’s the birthday of man and I submit, brothers and sisters. At least this is the view I’ve come to after five or six years. It isn’t always what I’ve held. But the birthday of the Christian Church took place on the day that Jesus was begotten from the dead, received eternal life from his father, and showed for the first time that he is now the lifegiving spirit.

47. 22:48

    What form that Holy Spirit empowerment might have taken at that time, brothers, we’re not told, but I think we can take it. Say at face value that his Holy Spirit ministry has begun at that moment with His apostles. The day of Pentecost I believe served a related but different purpose. And so we go to the book of Acts and being assembled together with them and I say probably the apostles. I don’t see any need to really equivocate there. The the antecedent in verse two is the apostles. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me? For John, Julie baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Fair enough, Baptized with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost?

48. 23:42

    Absolutely, absolutely. But here, brothers and sisters, is the crunch. I don’t know how many times I’ve read that and just assumed certain things. But as the study has unfolded and I’ve begun to see other things, I’ve come back to this and I’d say to myself, yes, baptized with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but only once, and only on the day of Pentecost.

49. 24:09

    Now we have a theology, brothers and sisters, that that that demands us to say yes to that only once, and to which I agree there’s only one baptism of the Holy Spirit. It hasn’t happened yet. It simply hasn’t happened yet, and we’ll see more evidence piling up for this. What we see, brothers and sisters, I believe in the book of action to the New Testament, is that the Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified by His Father, and we are now being given categorical evidence of this over and over and over again. He has been glorified by his Father to baptize his believers with the Holy Spirit and to give them eternal life. And the New Testament is a documented evidence of this marvelous truth, and we look forward to the fulfillment of this When he comes again and does what I believe John the Baptist meant when he said I can only baptize with water and repentance, and that’s all we can ever say to any of our candidates for baptism.

50. 25:06

    He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. He will give you the eternal life. And I I’m thrilled of what Brother Thomas wrote about that in Eureka. You know, if you’re interested in seeing what he said about that, it it, it tends to support what I’m saying, We may assume not that that’s vital, by the way. What is vital is ultimately that we’re scriptural in what we say. We may assume a once for all baptism of the Apostles with the Holy Spirit in the Day of Pentecost, but nothing in the text.

51. 25:48

    You go back and read acts one verse five in the surrounding verses. Nothing in the text compels us to believe that this was all that Jesus intended.

52. 25:59

    I liken that to to to a little thought here, brothers and sisters, a little analogy. You know, my grandchildren come to Sunday school and if I were to say to them, wait for a moment after Sunday school, I’ll give you a dollar. Does that mean it’s the only time I’m going to give them a dollar? And you don’t have to answer that question, all right. But you see the point.

53. 26:20

    You’re to wait in Jerusalem. You will be in and do the power from on high. You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You received the promise, but only that. We infer that from it. But I don’t think there’s anything in the text that compels us to believe that that’s all that Jesus ever intended. We’ve already seen that he breathed the Holy Spirit into His apostles on the Day of Day of Resurrection. So Pentecost was not a person in this respect, and much in the book of Acts, much in the book of Acts, as far as I’m concerned.

54. 26:55

    And the rest of the New Testament demands that we rethink that assumption. Multiple baptisms with the Holy Spirit, even not just, even especially of the apostles, were a reality. And New Testament times. And I’ll, I’ll show the evidence. We’ll get there. We’ll get there. So what then was the importance of the day of Pentecost and quite simply brothers and sisters, but profoundly and all I want to do here is, is redress the the, the balance on things a bit. If we can correct that.

55. 27:30

    It was day one of the Great Commission and the day after Pentecost was Day 2. All right, that’s not to minimize the importance of Pentecost, but I hope it is to to bring it back into the perspective that I think Luke intends for it. We. We’ll say more on that, I I’m sure, as we go along.

56. 27:51

    So we go on the next one to the Great Commission. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me. That’s why the apostles, at least one of the reasons why the apostles would be baptized with the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost. There are other reasons too, and we’ll touch on these multiple reasons as we go.

57. 28:09

    But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Day one comes and it is the day of Pentecost. It’s all right. It’s wonderful. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

58. 28:36

    By the way, the antecedents of all with one accord are the are the 11 plus Matthias. Check that for yourself. The end of Acts one and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. That is Old Testament temple language. It filled the whole house.

59. 29:02

    Then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire, and one sat on each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak. Now whatever we make of tongues, and God willing by by Friday we’ll we’ll touch on this a bit. But whatever we make of tongues, brothers and sisters, this was the beginning of the Great Commission for the apostles.

60. 29:23

    They are now beginning the witness to the glorified Jesus of Nazareth who is empowered to save us. The empowered witness to Christ began, and it is an empowerment given by the one who’s empowered to empower on the day of Pentecost. The Apostles of Jesus, not the 1:20 in my estimation, were empowered for the first time to make public what they had learned on the day Jesus rose from the dead. And that specifically is that God had raised the crucified Jesus from the dead, given him glory, and empowered him to give eternal life to all who believe in him. And the evidence of Christ’s glorification was made plain to the Jews that day, that which you see and hear. And so Peter would later explain the significance of it. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. And there are the 12 able to stand up in unison, all in one place, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. So he has received that promise.

61. 30:54

    He has received the promise of the Holy Spirit. He’s poured out this which you now see and hear. They’ve certainly heard it in the tongues.

62. 31:05

    They had perhaps seen it in the tongues of fire as well. We can’t be sure on that, but Peter says that which you have seen and heard. It’s as if I might paraphrase this Jews of Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth has been glorified by God to give you eternal life. Observe the evidence of this truth, respond to it, and receive the gift.

63. 31:36

    And so some asked men and brethren, what shall we do? Recognizing the the the depth of their sin in in the crucifixion. Then Peter said to them, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children, and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call you shall.

64. 32:08

    When that day there may have been some token that day, I’m inclined personally to think that might have been so. But surely, brothers and sisters, it wasn’t all done and over with on the day of Pentecost. It simply was not. It goes on to read then in Acts 2, verse 41. Then those who gladly received His Word were baptized, and that day about 3000 souls were added to them. Added to them the Church already existed, brothers and sisters, The day of Pentecost did not mark the birthday of the Christian Church.

65. 32:53

    It marked the first growth of the church as the gospel message went first of all, to the Jews of Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost was day one and only day one. And yet that’s mighty in meaning, Day one of the Great Commission. This, I believe, is its rightful place in church history. How many minutes have we got?

66. 33:24

    10 or 15 minutes with an hour and a half to do it. Work. Work to do. An hour and a half work to do. All right, Luke’s Holy Spirit, baptism, language, brothers and sisters, And if we get through that, we’ll be going well. When you look across the book of action, by the way, Luke is the only one who actually uses the term filled with the Holy Spirit.

67. 33:46

    That’s not to say that the concept isn’t throughout the New Testament, but he’s the only one who actually uses those terms three times, by the way, in the first chapter of his gospel. That’s something we need to bring into our frame of understanding, as well as about six times in the book of Acts.

68. 34:07

    And as you look across all of these examples, there are certain nouns promise Spirit modified by holy gift, and certain verbs that recur, baptize, receive, fill, give, pour out, fall upon. And if I were making up the list today instead of about two or three months ago, I would have add, added, came upon, all right, which is rich, rich, rich and Old Testament background, Luke uses summer.

69. 34:44

    All of these words in several Holy Spirit baptism contexts, and I just want to look at those and we’ll just introduce them, say a few words about them and we’re going to have to stop. But what I do want to emphasize, brothers and sisters, is I think we’re seeing some repetitive events here that Luke does not place on some kind of a value scale, as if to say one of these is more important than the other.

70. 35:09

    They are all going to fuel, if you will, the progress of the Great Commission in one way or another. They are also going to give testimony to the fact that Jesus has been glorified to give eternal life to men. It’s going to fulfill all of these things. And these kinds of events are repeated.

71. 35:26

    They punctuate the the book of Acts. And so in Acts Chapter 2 with the apostles at Pentecost, there are the passages which refer, using these terms to what happened on the day of Pentecost, whether it’s the use of the word promise and these writings of Luke, passages of Luke, or Holy Spirit or gift, there are the nouns, or whether it’s these verbs. It’s a very comprehensive set of passages in which Luke at one time or another uses these words. They’re they’re also used, of course, in that passage. We looked at it at John 7, verse 39, the one where the Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus has not been glorified.

72. 36:08

    They had not yet received it. All right, so Pentecost was precedent setting. In many ways, Luke’s record of Pentecost establishes a comprehensive language base from which we can recognize any Holy Spirit baptism when he reports it to us. Come to Peter before the council and you’ll find, in fact, if you want, you can get your Bibles open to Acts and go to Acts Chapter 4, and just just see this as we go along. This is the problem with the PowerPoint is you sit here and and never open your Bibles, but you look at Acts for verse 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is not the day of Pentecost. This is afterward.

73. 37:04

    This is afterward, and we’ll take the time later in the week, God willing to to look up passages like Luke 1212 and Luke 2115, and I think the evidence, as you compare it with the Acts for incident, the evidence begins to mount up that Peter was given that feeling of the Holy Spirit then in that very hour. And there’s nothing to distinguish that, brothers and sisters, from the language of Acts 2. Maybe our theology makes a distinction in that, but I don’t find that distinction in the way Luke is writing the book of Acts.

74. 37:43

    We just say a word or two about this. If you look at the nine places where Luke speaks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, the first one is of course the reference to John the Baptist and Luke chapter one. He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. That’s future tense. All other references to the the filling with the Holy Spirit are in what is called the aorist tense in the Greek, and what that simply means to me at least. And I’m no language expert, so you can correct me if I’m wrong on this, but what the aorist tense means to me very simply is that it’s a snapshot of past action, and it doesn’t say how long it lasted.

75. 38:28

    It doesn’t say if it happened before, and it doesn’t say if it happened afterward. It’s just simply a snapshot of past action. An analogy again, if I may. You get the family photo album out of the closet, and you blow the dust off, and you put it down and you open it up and there’s a photo taken in 1954. All right.

76. 38:49

    And your dad is standing next to his Nash Rambler. All right. And you say, oh, yeah, I remember that car. You know, Dad really liked that. You know, Now you look at the photograph, brothers and sisters, and you cannot tell from the photograph how long he had that car. You cannot tell from that photograph whether he had one like it in 1953 or 1952, and you cannot tell whether he had another one like it after that.

77. 39:17

    It’s simply a snapshot of some past event. Now, we’re not going to know much about the history of Dad and Nash Ramblers unless maybe we turn the page in our photo album and there he is standing next to another one. He really did like those Nash Ramblers. He got another one later. I don’t know how long they made those cars. But anyway, if you know if, if, if, I’m off on that, you know, substitute Studebaker or something in there. But anyway, all right.

78. 39:47

    In any case, you you get the point. If you see that again, then you say he had another one. Well, now that’s the way Luke presents things in all of its simplicity. A series of aorist tenses, brothers and sisters that simply say here it happened, here it happened again, here it. And by the way, this is happening to Peter. And if you come to Peter before the Council now in Acts, well, I’m sorry, we just did that.

79. 40:13

    Let’s come to Peter and his companions, still in Acts chapter 4. And they are the passages. Not much. But you’ll find that they are praying. Grant Lord, that your servants may with all boldness preach by word that by restretching out your hand. And that’s taking us back to the healing of the lame man, stretching out your hand to heal, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

80. 40:38

    And the place where they were was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Now, brothers and sisters, I can’t emphasize enough that the features of that are a complete replication of Pentecost. And not just a replication. There are repeat event, there are a twin event.

81. 40:57

    And Luke in his Greek is exactly the same there in Acts 431 is as he is in Acts 2 verse four, right down to the parsing of the Greek verb. It’s the same. So why should we say that one of them is the ultimate event and all the rest are something else? It’s interesting.

82. 41:12

    It’s interesting to read the cessations on this who say that Pentecost was an unrepeatable paradigm, an unrepeatable event. How? They try to dance around these other passages. They’re there. They’re there again. They’re there again. This is the third time that Peter’s being filled with the Holy Spirit. We’ll have more to say on this tomorrow as we get into the idea of two inseparable baptisms, water and spirit. So the Samaritan case, How we doing, time wise, Jeff? 3 minutes, 3 minutes, and I’m down to an hour and 20 minutes worth of work.

83. 41:46

    All right, Quite a few passages. Quite a few passages. All right. And here again we are seeing an A Holy Spirit baptism of Samaritans. And may I say something here, brothers and sisters. And this will probably have to to draw this to a close and then we’ll glance at the summary. If you read in the the orthodox literature or even some of our own will be inclined to say, well, this is a, this is a a Holy Spirit baptism of the Samaritans. Or if we come to to Acts 10 and here’s here’s Saul, by the way, in Acts 9, it’s come to Acts 10 and there’s a tremendous representation of the same language with Cornelius and the Gentiles.

84. 42:32

    We have an inclination to say, well, this is the Pentecost, the Gentiles or Acts 8 is the Pentecost of the Samaritans or Acts 19 is the Pentecost of the the disciples of John. If you’re comfortable with that, brothers and sisters, that’s fine. I have become uncomfortable with that kind of language. First of all, it’s not a scriptural rhetoric. It is not a scriptural rhetoric.

85. 43:03

    The New, the New Testament. Luke, do not look back on Pentecost that way. They don’t look back on it as Founders Day. They don’t look back on it as the crowning event of Christ’s redemptive work. They don’t look back on it and conceptualize it. They don’t. There are only two other places, and in the New Testament where Pentecost is even referred to Acts 20 and 1st Corinthian 16. And in both cases, Paul is looking at a day on the calendar and that day on the calendar is the next spring, not looking back.

86. 43:32

    Remember the first time I thought that thinking I was going to be able to really get my teeth into this theology of Pentecost. And I said this is no help

87. 43:41

    because I’m not sure the New Testament spins out of theology of Pentecost. The problem with calling this the Pentecost of the Gentiles or whatever is it’s taking our vision and it’s throwing it back to the day of Pentecost. The New Testament starts from there, and it goes forward to the age to come, then hardly looks back, hardly looks back.

88. 44:05

    All right, where the emphasis belongs. And the emphasis is placed here in the case of the the House of it’s not the Pentecost of the Gentiles. Brothers, sisters, this is a Holy Spirit Baptism of the Gentiles. And what does it mean? Well, you can look this up for yourself in Acts 11. When when Peter is called on the carpet, so to speak, back in Jerusalem, you went into Gentiles and he explains the whole thing. And those in Jerusalem in the Ecclesia there finally had to accept the fact.

89. 44:37

    Then God has granted under the Gentiles repentance unto life. And that’s what the Holy Spirit baptism that fell upon the householder Cornelius, meant to them at that time. That’s what I take to be the meaning of it. They don’t say, well, now God has Pentecost of the Gentiles,

90. 44:58

    all right? And I don’t mean to be critical brothers and sisters. I don’t mean to be critical. There are beloved brethren who have used that kind of language. All I say is that language is not scriptural. It’s a lovely rhetoric, but I think it clouds the issue. These are Holy Spirit baptisms that are telling us categorically that the one whom God has glorified at his right hand is empowered to save the Jews of Jerusalem, or the Samaritans of Samaria, or the Gentiles of Caesaria, or the ends of the earth. Thank God for that.

91. 45:29

    We got the documented evidence of it, brothers and sisters. Well, I’m past the three minutes. I suspect by now. Jeff, turn to page 13. We’re going to sum this up, brothers and sisters. We’re going to leave an awful lot unsaid. But again, and I don’t say this to be funny in any way, there’s a time to start and there is a time to stop.

92. 45:47

    We may not accomplish within that framework all that we want to accomplish, but that’s life. And we accept that fact. And when the end comes, the end comes. We’ve done all we need to do before Almighty God. Now page 13 is the summary and I just, I will just go through this with you to sum up where I would have finished had had we had the other hour and 15 minutes Now I believe and again brothers and sisters, I’ve thrown an enormous amount at you. I’ve asked you to to flex your thinking, probably, and I apologize if if it has been been too tough an exercise. But the birth of the Christian Church took place on the day that Jesus rose from the dead, received eternal life from his Father, and breathed the Holy Spirit, the breath of eternal life, as it were a down payment and earnest A token, A foretaste, into his Apostles.

93. 46:50

    The Day of Pentecost was day One of the Great Commission. This, I believe, is its rightful place in church history and shouldn’t be taken away from it, nor necessarily enlarged on. On the day of Pentecost, the Apostles of Jesus were baptized with the Holy Spirit, empowering them to bear public witness for the first time in Jerusalem to Christ’s resurrection, glory, and life saving power. Consequently, the Day of Pentecost saw the first growth of the Christian Church from among the Jews at Jerusalem who believed the witness of the apostles repented of their sins against God, and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

94. 47:38

    All Holy Spirit baptisms in the New Testament times were administered by the glorified Jesus. I’ll revisit that point, brothers and sisters. I think that has great bearing on the Samaritan case, which I think we’ve misused. But you know, enough is enough for the day. All right, All Holy Spirit baptism in the New Testament times were administered by the glorified Jesus. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and provided the faithful recipients with an earnest of eternal life to come life from the dead.

95. 48:08

    If we had had time to track the language in other contexts, we’d find again that those words which are part of Luke’s Holy Spirit baptism language occur again and again and again, and they have reference to eternal life from the dead. Holy Spirit baptism and eternal life from the dead. Same. Same in the ultimate sense, same. Same.

96. 48:33

    To be sure, brothers and sisters, I believe this with all my heart. God works in our lives now by the power of His Holy Spirit to bring us to Himself. Holy Spirit baptisms and New Testament times teach us more than this, however. They confirm God’s promise of life to come. Just look at what’s going on in the New Testament. They vouchsafe to all of us, brothers and sisters, the certainty that Jesus will come and give us eternal life over and over and over again.

97. 49:05

    They tell us that Holy Spirit baptism transcends the here and now. It transcends the here and now lives of mortal believers. Its greatest promise is for the Kingdom age that will succeed Church history.