The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a second blessing separate from salvation that is ours through Calvary’s work. There are no blessings that do not come through the work of Christ on the cross. The giving of the Holy Spirit comes along with the forgiveness of sins when we respond to the gospel to be reconciled to God. But the work of the Spirit baptising us into the body of Christ is a part of the one work of grace accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection. The time gap mentioned in Scripture is between John the Baptist’s promise that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit (John 1) and its fulfilment at Pentecost (Acts 2), not between when a believer receiving salvation as one step and then later receives an extra blessing in the Spirit. When you believe in Jesus and receive forgiveness of sins, you simultaneously receive the Holy Spirit as a part of what God gives you at Christian conversion. There are not two separate works of grace, one when we are forgiven through Calvary’s action and a second other spiritual grace called the “Baptism in or by the Spirit”. Rather, there is one complete salvation that includes all spiritual blessings. When someone responds to the Gospel to come to God they receive two blessings – the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] First up, we’ll just have another little short prayer, asking for God to open our eyes that we might understand more from his word. And just bringing ourselves and our fellowship to Heavenly Father, we thank you. We can come and present ourselves to you and know that you are a great God and a gracious God and a loving God. And one who has all power and all wisdom and who has our best interest in heart. We thank you that you work in our lives, there are many mysteries of what you allow and what you don’t. We know we are in an imperfect world, we have a perfect God and we don’t often, we’re not always able to understand everything. Thank you for the new arrival of a new little child, Xavier, is it? We pray Lord that you will help that little baby in hospital and by your spirit would you do something special in her little body? And we pray that your hand will be upon that development that she has in this arrival coming a little bit early and we commend that to you. We pray for others, Father who need your help along the way, there may be some amongst us who need you to guide them and to show them what’s their next step.

[00:01:29] There may be some who have unresolved sorrows that they don’t know how to explain or come to terms with and we pray that you will be alongside them. Thank you for the psalm that says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. It goes on to say how you lead, Lord, by the still waters and then you have that little statement, you restore our souls, he restores our souls. And we pray Lord if there are some tonight with us who, Father, have anguish of soul or who have unexplained and unrepaired sorrows, we pray Father that you will restore their souls tonight. Lord teaches we pray also about the Holy Spirit who is, we know your instrument to bring about many things. We pray that we will learn further about his great power, we pray in Jesus name. Now if you were to pick someone who was a great hero in the Bible, someone who had a very important role, I wonder who you’d pick. Would you pick the Apostle Peter? He was a big spokesman person in the New Testament. He also had a rather rough time when he betrayed the Lord and had to get repentance and there’s Peter. Who would you pick?

[00:02:51] Now someone that many folk I think would have in mind might be John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is the person that we’re looking at in the Gospel of John. We’ll put this up on the screen in the first chapter. And we’re looking here at just an incident in the life of John the Baptist and also there’s something that he says that’s going to give us a bit of a hint about how to understand the time gaps in the scriptures. And particularly the time gaps that may have relevance to the promises about the Holy Spirit. The next day Jesus, he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God. It’s really fascinating in this little passage the different names given to Jesus and Lamb of God at the start. And you’ll see at the end of the passage if we get down that far, he’s also referred to the Son of God. So Lamb of God and Son of God. You’ve got to put those two halves together if you want to understand Jesus. But he who takes away the sin of the world and if there’s something that a lamb does to take away the sin of the world is usually referring to some sacrifice. The lamb has been made a sacrifice or sin which happened in the old covenant days with the Jewish people.

[00:04:13] Yet Jesus when he was coming and John the Baptist spots him it was John the Baptist calling to introduce Jesus to the nation Israel. And he calls in Lamb of God and yet he is Son of God. How is he the Lamb of God? He is that way because he takes away the sin of the world. And given their background and the old covenant of sacrifices, then it sounded like Jesus being a sacrifice to take away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said after me.” That’s interesting because they’re cousins, John the Baptist and Jesus, but John the Baptist is by father, elder cousin. But he says, after me comes a man who ranks before me, but John the Baptist appeared on the scene with the purpose of introducing Jesus to get on the scene. There are those two respects of how old they were and who was to introduce who. Why does he say, this man ranks before me? Well, he’ll go on to explain, because he was before me. And so here John the Baptist is whether he knew somehow, being a cousin wouldn’t necessarily tell him this,

[00:05:28] or wasn’t the Holy Spirit upon him, that’s my guess, that he knew that somehow Jesus was more than just his cousin. He ranks before me because he was before me. He was from everlasting. He was the eternal Son of God. I myself did not know him. Now, he’s not saying there that he was not acquainted with Jesus. They were cousins, probably had times of wrestling. I don’t know the age gap as to whether John the Baptist ever lost. But then again, knowing who Jesus was, maybe there’s another thinking I’d better do. But I myself did not know him, meaning he didn’t know who his cousin actually was. But for this purpose I came, excuse me, I came baptising with water. He might be revealed to Israel, and so the mission John the Baptist does know by spirit revelation and perhaps reading relevant prophecies in the Old Testament. He’d come to spot himself. And he does know his purpose, but it’s for the purpose of introducing Jesus to Israel. He might be revealed to Israel, and that’s the major thing John the Baptist did.

[00:06:43] So matter of fact, he ministered in the time period that is still the Old Testament regime, though we might be reading of it in the New Testament, for the Old Covenant times where they didn’t have the full blessing that Jesus would give to his church yet. But nonetheless, he’s here to introduce Jesus, and he knows his mission. Do you know your mission? If something happens to Christians along the way, there’s no one experience everybody has to have, but along the way as a Christian, there come a growing understanding, if you walk with Christ, of what is your mission. He coincides with what gifts he gives you, but he knew his mission, that he might reveal Jesus to Israel. And John bore witness. He’s partly how he knew because he’d be given instructions by the Holy Spirit that he’d be able to identify the coming promised Messiah, the Christ, the Word Messiah. It’s just another language for the Greek Christos Messiah, Noitum, one to be the Messiah. And I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with order that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit from heaven like a dove descend, and it remained on him.

[00:08:16] I myself didn’t know him, but he who sent me, who baptized with water, has said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Now the point I wanted you to notice on the way through is that John the Baptist identifies that Jesus is one day going to baptize with the Holy Spirit. And my talk tonight is actually to open up the question of when do we get the baptism in the Spirit? And amongst the Christian churches there are varying differences about that, some which I would agree with and some with which I would disagree with. But nonetheless, they can be people who are ones who love the gospel. And just because someone has a different interpretation at this point doesn’t mean that they’re not real Christians. They just might be real Christians who either have got it right and I’ve got it wrong or we’ve got it wrong, and right, and they’ve got it wrong, But they still might be Christians. And if you’re a Christian because you love the gospel and have responded to the gospel, we call that an evangelical.

[00:09:29] The word evangel is just taking literal English letters for the Greek word for gospel, euangelion. That word, evangelical, means a lover in the facts of the gospel, makes you an evangelical. There are evangelicals who would have the opposite opinion about what I’m actually delivering for you tonight. So just because someone might be wrong at this point, doesn’t mean that they don’t belong to the Lord, but they’re just a little bit wrong somewhere, just as you and I can be wrong a little bit somewhere, if we don’t take caution to see what the Bible actually says. Well, what we’re going to do tonight is examine the matter of a time gap between when people

[00:10:12] believe and become Christians and when they get the Holy Spirit, or whether or not the giving of the Holy Spirit is actually wrapped up in what you get when you get eternal life, when you believe in Jesus. So, that’s what my sermon is on tonight, and we’re going to go now to the other end of the Gospel of John, and that is in chapter 20. Now, the reason why we’re going there is that we’re going to see another spot where some Christians interpret that there is a moment when the receiving of the Spirit happens. They have a good reason,

[00:10:47] so to believe as you will hear as we go through. This is in John and Chapter 20, starting at verse 19. Now, on the evening of that day, this is the first day of the week, the door’s being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. This is after Jesus South resurrection. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, he needed to, when he turned up like that, peace be with you.

[00:11:13] When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. What did they see but the holes of his crucifixion and the place where the spear thrust in on his side? That’s what they saw. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Why they glad? Because he’d been killed. There have been reports from amongst them, some of who had seen him. Now he’s turning up and the group of them

[00:11:45] together have absolute knowledge that he’s alive because he’s come amongst them. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again, Now, there’s something important that Jesus is saying, just repeat, peace be with you. That’s the part he said again, as the Father sent me, even so I am sending you. And he’s getting them warmed up to the facts that as he was sent from the Father to come into the world to achieve the reconciliation, reconciling of people to God, so he’s going to send them on the same mission. As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you, and here’s the bit, verse 22.

[00:12:33] And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you read it in the King James it would be receive ye the Holy Spirit. Now the way it’s written in our Bibles and at least in the King James, and this is the ESF you’ve got on the screen up here. receive ye the holy spirit would make you think that that’s the moment they received the spirit and you could fit that in and says a good length of time since John the Baptist made the promise that Jesus was the one who was going to Baptized them with the Holy Spirit But he is wording it to receive the spirit So some people say well, maybe it is you received the spirit here that you get baptized with the spirit in another place

[00:13:17] They’d be wrong to think that but there wouldn’t be be … I’m not surprised that that possibility is there in the grammar, the way the language is as we only have it in this verse. But I’m going to give you reasons tonight why this was not Jesus giving them the spirit. This is Jesus commanding them or they are to receive the spirit. The reason I say that is by knowledge of Greek, I know that that word receive is put in the command mode where it’s a command to be obeyed and it’s in the the sense of it being an axe that’s done once is not go on receiving receiving receiving but it is command to get to have received the Spirit but the other thing about it is there is in the form of the verb in their language the greek in the greek language has to not specify anything

[00:14:08] about the time. It’s just a command given. On Friday, sometimes, Heidi asks me to look after two of their boys, the older two, and to take them off somewhere where they get some medical treatment. Anyway, as I take them, they get out of the car and it’s in another suburb and they hop out of the car and run like crazy and I’ve got to get out to catch them before they run on the road. But I give them a command. Don’t run on the road! And I expect them to keep it for the whole afternoon and I have them. Don’t run on the road. It’s a command. It’s in the imperative mode. Now this receive the Holy Spirit or receive the Holy Spirit, this command is in the command mode in the Greek but it So it doesn’t have any specification as to whether it’s a now thing or a later thing. It’s a simple command put out there.

[00:15:09] So it doesn’t demand that he’s necessarily giving the Spirit to them then and there. If there were no other evidence, I would probably assume it does, but there’s nothing in the language that so demands. But it goes on to say, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. And if you withhold the forgiveness of from any, it is withheld. That’s the first hint we have as to whether or not they received the Holy Spirit then. It’s only a hint because what we can do is go through and see when the time came that they actually got about announcing the opportunity to have the forgiveness of sins. If you can find the spot where they actually gave people a chance to have the forgiveness of sins, you’ll find that it’s on the day of Pentecost when the Gospel was announced

[00:16:06] in a way that said, believe in Jesus, be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so the time to actually receive the Spirit elsewhere in the book of Acts, in the book of Acts it shows us, is immediately after that day of Pentecost, the first Gospel message that Peter gave. And he made the offering that if they repent of their sins, they’ll have forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit, they can receive the Spirit, and 3,000 people did that day. Many of them people who might have been good Jews who would have gone to heaven had they carked it on that moment or previously. If they obeyed and received the forgiveness in the New Covenant way, they would have got

[00:16:58] the Holy Spirit then. So my thesis tonight, and I’m introducing it to you just step by step so it can be clear, is that the whole idea that John the Baptist gave when he first saw Jesus coming and said, this is he who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, or this is the one who, you know, all those promises that John the Baptist gave about Jesus and the difference between him and Jesus was that he could only call them to repentance, but Jesus could baptize them with the Holy Spirit. That was going to be fulfilled first. When the New Testament time came upon the New Covenant being offered to the Jewish nation and to all who had listened to the Apostles preaching the gospel, that the first day

[00:17:42] of the day of pedicost was the other end of the gap between John the Baptist’s prediction and when it was fulfilled. It’s not a time gap any other than that, but I need to go a bit further to knock out a few other options that people do have about these time gaps between when people might first believe when they actually received the Holy Spirit, and I hope that if you’re listening along you’re getting… my thesis is that you’re receiving the Holy Spirit is the New Testament Gospel of the new covenant, and if you receive that in the new covenant time, there is no time gap, because when you believe is when you receive, which is what Peter said on that first day of Pentecost. And however, we better go a bit further and see, we just were in John 20, 19-23, and we’ll

[00:18:35] turn now to the final verses of the same chapter, verses 24-29. Now Thomas, you know Thomas who has the reputation of being doubting Thomas, poor fellow, because the final episode that we have in the Scriptures is not him doubting at all, but he’s early and got in the name of doubting Thomas. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus had come that first Sunday when he came and said, receive you the Spirit. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. Now notice, they didn’t say we have seen the Lord and what’s more, he gave us the Holy Spirit and whoa, everything’s been different. They didn’t say that.

[00:19:24] All they said was, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. He was an early example of people who think themselves so good at thinking that they placed themselves in a spot where they think that they only believe the things that their minds can construe and show and prove. There are greater evidences available to us than just our little human thinking capacities. There’s a bigger evidence. We’ll talk about that a little later. Unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side. Their soldiers would thrust a spear up

[00:20:23] his side so he would sanguinate. You know what that means. Nothing to do with it. It let all the blood drain out and the quickest way to get some of the dye is to puncture them enough little blood drains off. Without blood, there’s no life. Literally, if the heart’s got nothing to pump around you, the person with such a scenario goes dead. Unless I see the hands in his hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, he wants an evidential thing for him to believe. Now, evidence is good, and we have an apologetics club. I meet again this Thursday night at half past seven in my office, in the building behind, down at the bottom, where I have an office. Half past seven come if you want to. All ages can come. And we discuss things where there’s a difficulty in understanding or there are various points of view to be chewed over.

[00:21:29] Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, he wants evidence first. The fascinating thing about the Bible is that it does present us with evidence that it seems to have someone who’s written it, you can guess who, the Holy Spirit, who doesn’t exactly respect your putting him second place, coming to believe. Well, I mean that. There is a way to believe because you get a spiritual conviction from the Holy Spirit. And sometimes if you’re a person who’s, you know, a thinking person who’s come to trust your own mind, you can have a squabble with the conviction of the Holy Spirit and your own reasoning that might be hanging on, so sticking to an opinion that you’ve thought through. So if you put the leading of the Scriptures and the ministry of the Holy Spirit ahead of your ability, you’ll come to a different response. And this is what this fellow is having trouble about because he’s going to insist on seeing the evidence firsthand in his case, or Jesus’ hands, before he believes.

[00:22:51] I will never believe. Don’t lock yourself into that spot. I praise God that this man, Thomas, did believe. A lot of people who take that approach of putting their intellect over above the Scriptures amongst theological students, you call that putting your mind over the Scriptures. What God is waiting for you to do is to put yourself under the Scriptures. It doesn’t mean that you automatically believe all your own interpretations. It means that you’re open to the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the prophetic word. And the nature of a prophetic word is this spiritual dimension that comes and gives a reason to believe. When God speaks, I want to tell you something about God when he speaks. The most natural thing is to tremble. And when God somehow comes and begins to convict you, that’s what happens in evangelism when you go and present to people the need to come to Christ to be a Christian and to be saved. You watch it with people who struggle with the facts, if they come under conviction, which might depend on how much praying the church did,

[00:24:07] but when they come under conviction, that conviction, this is really true. And somehow, in their hearts there’s a little witness that’s saying this is true. It’s the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The word conviction isn’t only showing you where you’re wrong. The word conviction is it points to the truth. God is in the business of turning up to people’s lives and teaching them the truth. And when the gospel is pronounced, whichever way that might be through a child’s video through something that you see on TV when people speak. You’d be amazed at how God uses the simple testimony of Christians at times when they’re interviewed and they’ve had a problem and they just thank the Lord for helping them. And something hits some of those listeners. And there are some

[00:24:57] who are stupid Christian people, you know, going like that. But there’s others who realize there’s something true that’s striking them. That’s called conviction. First of all, conviction of sin that you’re of sign, but also conviction of the truth about the Savior. And when there is an announcement of the gospel, I count on this happening. To be a successful preacher is really based on your counting on the power, the message that you have. You don’t trust in your your little skills, to make it nice and cozy or make it acceptable or whatever, you count on there being a power in this message that when delivered, there is a person who he doesn’t have

[00:25:37] to do it to every person every time. He doesn’t have to turn up at every meeting. But there’s a person whose job it is to bring a conviction. It’s amazing when you see people get struck down by conviction, not just the conviction they’ve been wrong. Although Jesus did said, well, when the spirit came, convict people of sin because they did not believe in him. One of the worst things you can do is to refuse the evidence of the Holy Spirit as he’s busy pointing to you to Jesus. It’s amazing when you hear people’s testimony of how first times they can turn down the Christian witness who was delivered to

[00:26:12] them but somewhere along the line something happened and God ruled home brought home in a more forceful way that they knew he was getting through and they respond and become a Christian because that’s the real reason why people get converted is not because we the church have been good persuaders or that we have been people who’ve had all the great knowledge and came out wonderful and answering every question. It is because the truth of the message is accompanied by this conviction of the Holy Spirit and if you put yourself under the gospel that’s language that means if you make yourself available to consider this message. This Christian message about the Jesus who died on a cross, for your sin and rose again and went back to heaven. This Jesus who’s

[00:26:57] worked your salvation and invites you to be what the Bible calls being born again. Invites you to participate in being a Christian and becoming a part of the church. When you come under conviction that’s a spiritual happening. One of the ways you learn to be useful as a preacher is you learn to trust in the power of the message that you’ve got. I’ve learned this from other preachers who demonstrated it and when I’ve asked them, how come it works for you? And they tell me the story. I had help from one evangelist and he taught me about his style of preaching. I copied it and I learnt where he got it from. Well, he was sitting in Milton tennis court when Leighton Ford came and did some meetings here in Brisbane. While he was watching Leighton Ford’s method and that

[00:27:50] sense of relying on the spirit and his conviction, something in his heart, he was a Christian, he said I can do that. And he began to follow that method of relying in the message having its own power. Well, he later on was helping me and I used to copy his sermons. He doesn’t know how many of his sermons I’ve been giving. But they work when I trust in the same thing that in this message is a message that’s got its own inspiration attached to it. And when you deliver the gospel you rest back into the fact that there is the spirit of God to bring it home. STOP somehow it picks people. Same thing happens when you witness to them at work or if you’re at university or somewhere, and you tell them the gospel. What you want to do is to count on another voice in the conversation. I do it on aeroplanes.

[00:28:41] when I go travelling and sit next to someone, and I usually have a style of letting them get quizzical about me and asking questions, so then they don’t get angry. I don’t start up on me at first, but when they ask questions, they not get the Gospel in, but I count on that being a three person conversation. Me, that person, and the Holy Spirit, and when you count on the Holy Spirit, I want to tell you there’s things that happen.

[00:29:06] Things that you could never make happen yourself. That’s what happened, of course, with the first disciples in the gospel. Now, I’m getting away from my topic, but here we have Thomas not believing. Well, eight days later, which I think is the way in their culture of saying the next Sunday. You could have said seven days later, but if you count on a day for Sunday before and the one after, you’ll get eight days.

[00:29:33] The disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them, although the doors were locked. And this is after Jesus’ resurrection now. Jesus came and stood. He stood among them and said, peace be with you. As I said before, he needed to say that because that would be a spooky moment. Then he said to Thomas, put out your finger here. See my hands, put out your hand and place it in my side.

[00:30:01] Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. When you give in, do not hold to your little mind’s decision and you trust in the bespeaking of Jesus into your life. My Lord and my God is the right thing to say. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you’ve seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed, and that might be someone here tonight. Never really seen much, but when the Spirit speaks to you

[00:30:39] and this message gets a grip of you and you know God is on your goat or he’s getting through to you and you believe, Jesus has just said, blessed are you who have not seen and yet believed. That was in John in chapter 20. We’re gonna move to bringing to the, where the time gap does get finished. The time gap is between John and the Baptist saying Jesus will baptise for the Holy Spirit

[00:31:09] and when he actually does it. So we’ll go to Acts chapter one and verses four to five. And Jesus, this is after his resurrection and he stayed for a number of days before he ascended back to heaven. And while staying with them, Jesus, that sort of implies that he stayed overnight. He stayed with them. He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,

[00:31:36] which he said you heard from me in John’s Gospel in several spots where Jesus talks about his death and the fact that he’s gonna ascend the Holy Spirit. And then he goes back to heaven and I think he’s referring to that. But you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days hence or not many days from now. And so if there was a time gap in what was said earlier on by John the Baptist

[00:32:08] that Jesus would baptise for the Holy Spirit and Jesus later saying that it’s going to happen. If there’s a time gap, it was not fulfilled in the upper room when he breathed on them and said, receive you the Spirit. Because later than that is this moment and it’s now the day of Pentecost. And this is after the day of Pentecost, well, I don’t know whether it’s still the day of Pentecost,

[00:32:35] but Jesus is turning up and he’s spoken to them. Actually, I think he spent 40 days, a number of days with the disciples after his resurrection from the dead and before he ascended, but he’s with them and he’s telling them of what’s going to happen. What is going to happen will probably be after he goes to heaven and sends the Holy Spirit. You will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

[00:33:05] Now that means in between, Jesus speaking to Thomas in the upper room was not the moment when the promise was fulfilled. Promise first given back in the meeting with John the Baptist in John chapter one. Promise not fulfilled in John 20 where Jesus breathed on them. I can get back to that and give you more evidence if you like from the passage. But promise is fulfilled in this

[00:33:30] just before the very day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the 12 disciples, they preached the crowns. Peter gave that very powerful sermon which finished up by saying to repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the availability of the Spirit to come as promised and for it to include that baptism in the Spirit

[00:33:58] is fulfilled here in Acts one verses four to five. Now there’s other proofs I can bring to you if I go through the book of Acts and find reference back to this moment that it is when the Holy Spirit came. I won’t do that now because of how long I’ve been. But I’m telling you that the time gap that is a real one is between the promise given when John the Baptist and Jesus are relating through to this moment in the upper room

[00:34:25] when Jesus has been them after his resurrection. But in my opinion before his sending to heaven and it is just before he goes back to heaven and he sends the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost happens. That’s the time gap that is the real one. We’ll go to some other verses, one Peter chapter two of verse 24. You’re doing a good job back there, thank you. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,

[00:34:56] the trees away they spoke of the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds, you have been healed. I think that was a verse from used in the morning. Let’s go back to John chapter one and verse 33. That’s not your mistake. I’ve edited in my list wrongly. John one, I wanted that verse, John one verse 30. We’ve already looked at this verse, so that’s all right, thank you.

[00:35:30] All right, so we’ve been talking about a time gap and what we should do about the time gap. There is no time gap now because all of these things. Okay, here’s the end of one of those things. That’s right, thank you. Though I myself did not know Jesus as John the Baptist, but he who sent me… …we didn’t read it before… …but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”

[00:36:01] And the reference to John the Baptist seeing the Spirit, come on, Jesus, was that Jesus own baptism, because he submitted to that baptism of John to sit a president, and as he was coming up, either out of the water or climbing out onto the beach, onto the bank, we don’t know, but as he was coming up, John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit come down and land on Jesus. That anointing of Jesus, that taking over of the Spirit of Jesus, was marked the beginning of his ministry. It was to culminate in eventually the baptism of other people to have a ministry at the Day of Pentecost after Jesus had gone to heaven and had sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit was now available to come on all persons who received the salvation of Jesus. I can testify as a person that when I came to Christ,

[00:36:58] it was a moment when something happened that I’ve never been the same person since. I can tell you that it was a time when I got a sense of the presence of Jesus with me as a Christian. It’s a time when spiritual things began to happen with me. Because the baptism of the Spirit, it’s linked to us coming to Jesus’ Saviour. There’s not necessarily, there can be times of God spreading his action over time, he’s quite a liberty so to do, but it’s not necessary that there be a time gap between when you believe in Jesus and when you are baptized in the Spirit, because your baptism in the Spirit is a consequence of God fulfilling his promise, that if you believe in him and confess him, the Bible likes his baptism, then you shall receive the Holy Spirit.

[00:37:53] Our John the Baptist connection and Jesus’ own testimony there is about the fact that Jesus would do his baptizing with the Spirit at that moment of the availability of the Holy Spirit. I think it’s important as evangelicals to be able to have an answer when other brother evangelicals who also believe in trusting Jesus and becoming Christians, but you want to make it a second blessing to tell them, no, God is able to stretch time sometimes with some people. I don’t think we should make rules for how God does things, but there’s only one blessing. The one blessing is the blessing of the success of Jesus’ mission, that he died on the cross for our sins, he was buried, went to Hades,

[00:38:43] rose again the third day, got around amongst his disciples a bit and then went back to heaven. And being back in heaven, he presented his blood to the Father and that presentation of his blood was what brings our atonement. And the availability of the gospel to be announced, as Peter did in the first formal occasion on the Day of Pentecost, as he preached what Jesus has done, makes available the forgiveness of sins and the salvation that’s attached to that forgiveness of sins. He said to his crowd that very day, save yourself. No, he’s not making himself a, you do your hard work and savour. He’s saying save yourself from this wicked generation by refusing to believe.

[00:39:31] Many of those Jewish people had not believed even Jesus being the preacher. He’s saying if you reject the message, you push yourself out of the possibility of having the benefit of why Jesus died to atone for our sins. It doesn’t mean that his atonement wasn’t successful because he died for the sins of the whole world. I can talk that one over another night. But I want to say to you that if you repent and believe in this Jesus, there’s one work of grace. Same work of calvary. There’s not two works of grace. One that gets you to be going to heaven and another that gets you to be baptized in the spirit. It is one of the same work of grace that brings you atonement for your sins.

[00:40:19] It brings you to be the receiver of salvation, to be ready for the future no matter what, to be a person who has received the Holy Spirit and has been also, by that coming of the Spirit, baptized you into the body of Christ and made you a Christian. All of that, there is only one work of grace. There’s a work of grace that centres around Jesus and what he did. There’s not two works of grace. This is how you get to be a Christian and another work that will get you the special extra-blessings. There are lots of blessings along the road, but not coming by some second methodology of giving it to you or needing some preacher to have some second experience.

[00:41:05] many times, there are many experiences we have as a Christian. Don’t knock out the possibility that you can have another time when God warms you up and gets you to see things. We live a Christian life that has multiple Christian experiences, and the best ones are the ones where the Holy Spirit makes His presence felt. But there’s only one work of God saving us for it, and that’s the work that His Son did and achieved in His death and His resurrection and His return to heaven and His sending of the Spirit. All of that is one work of grace, and it includes in it the true baptism with the Holy Spirit. I think the people who get told that there is some second blessing that they don’t have because they’re just normal Christians have been deceived. And I think what they need to do is to discover that all the blessings that God has for us are in Jesus. There aren’t any outside of Jesus and the

[00:42:06] work He did when He came to earth. They’re all attached to the one gospel message. Though we may open the gospel message for ourselves, it’s a bit like a present that someone gives you one Christmas and you don’t get to open it to Easter. Many people don’t open all that they’ve got, but there’s only one work of grace. I hope you’re hearing me. And the only time gap that’s true is between John the Baptist’s promise in John 1 and Jesus fulfilling it in Acts chapter 1, or telling Him of the fulfilment. After many days for the day of Pentecost, they’re going to have the answer to what was promised back with John the Baptist. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity of making clear the gospel, and the gospel includes not only the forgiveness of sins, but the gift of the Holy Spirit. That’s receiving Him and the baptism of the Spirit, which is putting you into the body, the body of Christ and blessing you by taking over the controls of your life. Thank you that these things are all wrapped up in the one salvation that Jesus was.