1. “He Himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 3:11).
In the Bible the first person to speak of the baptism in the Holy Spirit was John the Baptist. Before the reality of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God sent John to baptize people in water as a symbol of the coming baptism of the Holy Spirit. When John the Baptist baptized people in water, he said that the Lord Jesus would baptize people in the Holy Spirit, indicating that they would receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In his prophecy the One baptizing was the Lord Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus carried out His spiritual baptism with the Holy Spirit as the power. In this regard, we may say that the Holy Spirit is the power in baptism. This is like the water which is used in a baptism. The water represents the means of the baptism itself.
2. “You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).
The Lord prophesied concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit to the disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension.
1. “You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now”; “As the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together in the same place. And suddenly there was a sound out of heaven, as of a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5; 2:1-2, 4).
The prophecies of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. According to the Bible, the fulfillment of the baptism in the Holy Spirit occurred in two stages. The first stage was fulfilled at Pentecost in Jerusalem and the second stage was fulfilled in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. Although the fulfillment occurred in two stages and two places, it was one complete fulfillment. This is similar to a person writing a book. He may write two sections, and the first section may be written in Taipei, whereas the second section is written in Tainan. The two sections together, however, form one complete book. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was in two stages because the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not for individuals but for the church. The church was formed by joining two groups of people—Jews and Gentiles—together. In the eyes of God the people of the world are divided into two groups. God chose and called some from each group to form the church. Although the Lord wanted to baptize the church in the Holy Spirit, there was a separation between Jews and Gentiles that was like the wall of a fortress, which was the middle wall of partition (Eph. 2:14). This wall prevented Him from baptizing those who believed in Him, both Jews and Gentiles, in the Holy Spirit in one place at the same time. Consequently, He accomplished this matter in two stages and in two places.
The first stage was accomplished upon a group of believing Jews on the day of Pentecost in the upper room in Jerusalem. According to the environment and the conditions of that time, the Lord accomplished the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon this group first because He did not have a way to practically include the Gentiles in the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the Jews. Despite this limitation, the Lord could not wait. Therefore, He accomplished this matter upon the Jewish believers first and then brought the Gentiles into the church through the Jewish believers. He accomplished the first stage of this matter upon the Jewish believers and reserved the second stage until there was a proper way to accomplish it upon the Gentile believers.
We must pay attention to how the Bible speaks of this matter. The Lord’s prophecy was that the disciples would “be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). When this prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, the disciples were outwardly “filled with the Holy Spirit” (2:4). This shows that the outward filling of the Holy Spirit is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the outward filling of the Holy Spirit. The room in which the disciples were sitting was like a large baptismal pool. The Holy Spirit of power, like a rushing violent wind, filled the room in a way that water fills a baptismal pool. The disciples sitting in the room were spiritually baptized or outwardly filled with this spiritual water—the Holy Spirit of power, that is, the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the outward filling of the Holy Spirit is like baptism. It is outside of us, not within us. A believer does not go into the baptismal waters to drink the water. He is immersed in the water. He does not want to drink the water; he wants to be immersed in the water. He does not want the water to get into him; he wants the water to get onto him by being immersed in it. He does not want to be filled with water inwardly; he wants to be filled outwardly with water. Similarly, when we speak of being baptized with the Holy Spirit, our focus should be on our entrance into and covering by the Spirit, not on the Spirit’s entrance into us. In this regard, baptism is not for the Holy Spirit to fill us inwardly but for the Holy Spirit to fill us outwardly. This outward filling of the Holy Spirit is symbolized by the baptismal waters covering us when we are immersed in the water.
The Jews who were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost represented all the Jewish believers both past and present. In God’s eyes all the Jewish believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit once for all on the day of Pentecost. This corresponds to the Lord’s word to Peter in Matthew 16 about building the church upon Himself as the rock. The Lord gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of the heavens so that he could bring in the people whom the Lord needed to build the church. According to the Lord’s word, Peter was charged with opening the door to the kingdom of the heavens for those who would believe in Him. If a Jewish person believes in the Lord today, does he need to go to Peter and ask him to open the door to the kingdom of the heavens? This is not necessary, because Peter opened the door on the day of Pentecost once for all for the Jewish people who believe in the Lord. When he opened the door on the day of Pentecost, it was opened forever. In the same principle, the Lord baptized all the Jewish believers, past and present, in the Holy Spirit once and for all on the day of Pentecost. His baptism accomplished this aspect of His work forever. However, the Lord accomplished the baptism of the Holy Spirit only upon the Jewish believers at Pentecost. This was the first stage of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The second stage was accomplished at a different time upon the Gentile believers.
2. “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as also on us in the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord...you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit” (Acts 11:15-16).
The second stage of the baptism in the Holy Spirit was accomplished in the house of Cornelius upon a group of Gentile believers who were representative of all the Gentiles, even those who believed before them, such as the Ethiopian eunuch. Cornelius was a centurion of the Italian cohort. His whole family was Gentile. The Lord opened the door for the Gentiles to believe in Him through those in the house of Cornelius. Therefore, Cornelius invited Peter, who held the keys to the kingdom of the heavens, to his house. Just as Peter opened the door for the Jews on the day of Pentecost, he opened the door for the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. Today when a Gentile believes in the Lord, he does not need to ask Peter to open the door, because the door was opened in the house of Cornelius. The Lord confirmed this fact while Peter was speaking by causing the Holy Spirit to fall upon those in Cornelius’s house, just as it fell upon the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost. When Peter saw this, he remembered the Lord’s promise concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He realized that this was also the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Thus, on that day in Cornelius’s house the Lord baptized the Gentile believers in the Holy Spirit. Other than these two instances, the Holy Spirit did not fall upon man as He did on the day of Pentecost and in Cornelius’s house. The Bible speaks of these instances as the Lord baptizing people in the Holy Spirit. According to the principle of representation, just as the Lord baptized all the Jewish believers, past and present, in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, He also baptized all the Gentile believers, past and present, in the Holy Spirit in the house of Cornelius. In the Lord’s eyes all Jewish believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and all Gentile believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit in the house of Cornelius. Just as the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost represented all Jewish believers throughout the ages, the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius represented all Gentile believers throughout the ages.
3. The baptism in the Holy Spirit not being accomplished through the laying on of hands but by Christ, the Head, directly baptizing the church, the Body, in the Holy Spirit.
The incidents on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius involved two stages of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which together fulfilled the baptism in the Spirit. These two incidents did not occur through the laying on of hands. Instead, in both cases Christ, the Head of the church, directly baptized the church, His Body—including the Jewish and Gentile believers, both past and present—in the Holy Spirit. In this way Christ eternally fulfilled His promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit was accomplished by the Lord on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. Consequently, the Bible refers to only these two cases as the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Apart from these two instances, the Bible does not refer to any experience of the Holy Spirit falling upon man as the baptism in the Holy Spirit because the baptism in the Holy Spirit was completed on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius.
4. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit...This is what is spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh’”; “Having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this”; “The Holy Spirit fell upon all those hearing the word...On the Gentiles also the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out” (Acts 2:4, 16-17, 33; 10:44-45).
These verses show that the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which was the Holy Spirit’s falling upon people and outwardly filling them, fulfilled the promise of God in the Old Testament to pour out the Holy Spirit. The pouring out was a pouring upon. God poured out the Holy Spirit upon people outwardly. Pouring out does not refer to the Holy Spirit entering into the believers. In the New Testament the pouring out of the Spirit upon people is mentioned only in Acts 2 and 10. Chapter 2 speaks of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost, and chapter 10 refers to the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius. The Bible refers to the baptism in the Holy Spirit only in regard to the events on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. Thus, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This indicates that the baptism in the Holy Spirit involves an outward filling rather than an inward filling, as people generally believe.