Numbers 28:16-29:11; Luke 3:15-22; Psalms 62:9-12; Proverbs 16:21-23
NT: “Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.” …When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As he was praying, heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”” (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 CSB)
One of the things that Luke’s gospel focuses on in Jesus’ manhood. While Jesus was, is, and will ever be the Son of God, He limited Himself by becoming a man. He set aside all of His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence to become manifested in a human body, with all of its finite limitations. When He walked the earth, He was not omnipotent, omniscient, nor omnipresent. The reason He walked in power and knew things that were beyond His natural capacity to know was because He was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. The prophecy that John gave of the Messiah was a foretelling of the Messiah in His glory that had not happened yet. It was not true of Jesus who was among them at the moment. However, when Jesus presented Himself to John to be baptized, not only was Jesus baptized in water, He was baptized with the Holy Spirit. From that point on, Jesus walked in heavenly insight and heavenly power. Jesus, from that point on, was a man empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is often overlooked, but nevertheless, He is just as much a part of the Godhead as the Father and the Son. Just as Jesus didn’t start His ministry until He was baptized with the Holy Spirit, He told His disciples to not start their ministry until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. This past Sunday, we celebrated the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and the church of Christ was launched. When we are in Christ through faith in Him, we are given the same anointing that He has, and we are given the opportunity to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, just like He was, to walk in the same heavenly power and insight that He walked in… that His apostles walked in after Him. As John prophesied, Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire, if we allow Him.
Jamie Hicks 