In Matthew 28:19, the Lord revealed the way to build up the church: “Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Gk.). The nations, pagans, need to be discipled. After they have been discipled, they must be baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christianity has made baptism a formal ritual. But in Matthew 28 baptism is not a ritual; it is the immersing of the believers of Christ into the Triune God. In Christianity a pastor may baptize a new convert either by sprinkling a few drops of water upon him or by immersing him. In either case he may say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” But whether the new convert is sprinkled or immersed, he remains the same. Nothing has changed.
Years ago, in South America, a Catholic priest baptized a certain native boy and changed his name. After bringing him into the cathedral and sprinkling water upon him, the priest changed his name to John. At that time Catholics were not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. On a particular Friday John was preparing some venison to eat. Realizing that he should not eat meat on Friday, John decided to change the venison into fish. He said to himself, “If the priest could change my name by sprinkling water on me, then I can change this venison to fish by sprinkling water on it.” Therefore, he sprinkled water on the venison and called it fish. As the priest walked by, he smelled the venison cooking. Offended, he rebuked John, saying, “John, don’t you know that today is Friday and that you are not allowed to eat meat? You must eat fish today.” John replied, “I have done the same thing to the venison that you did to me. You sprinkled water on me and changed my name to John, and I sprinkled water on the venison and called it fish.” This illustrates what a ritual baptism has become throughout much of so-called Christianity.
Genuine baptism is a matter of putting people into the Triune God. The Lord Jesus did not tell the disciples to baptize the nations into water; He told them to baptize the nations into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One writer has pointed out that the name here denotes the Person of the divine Being. Hence, to baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to baptize them into the Person of the Triune God. Whenever we baptize others, we must exercise our spirit and our faith to say, “We do not merely place you into the water; we are immersing you into the Triune God. Before now, you were outside the Triune God and had nothing whatever to do with Him. Now we are putting you into the Triune God; hereafter you will be one who is in the Triune God.”
After the Lord Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His disciples. Although the doors were shut where the disciples were, on the day of His resurrection, the Lord, with a physical body, mysteriously entered the room (John 20:19). As He was speaking with them, He breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus came back to breathe Himself into the disciples. Many Christians know what took place on the day of Pentecost, but they do not know what happened on the day of the Lord’s resurrection. They do not know that on the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus breathed Himself as the Spirit of life into His disciples. After the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into them, we are not told that He left them. This indicates that He stayed within them. After He breathed Himself into them, He remained within them as their life of resurrection. Most Christians think that the Holy Spirit was not given to the disciples until the day of Pentecost. This is a mistaken concept. Fifty days earlier than Pentecost, the Lord breathed the Spirit into the disciples, and they received the Spirit of life. According to Acts chapter one, the disciples were able to pray for ten days. How could they have done this if they did not have the Spirit within them? The only way one hundred and twenty believers could pray in one accord for ten days was to have Christ as the life-giving Spirit within them.
Although the disciples had the Spirit of life within them, they did not yet have the Spirit of power upon them. For that, they had to wait until the day of Pentecost. At that time the ascended Christ poured Himself upon the disciples. On the day of resurrection, the disciples received the life of resurrection, for they received the Spirit of life. But on the day of Pentecost the ascended Christ poured Himself upon His disciples to empower them. Therefore, on the day of Pentecost the disciples had both the Spirit of life within them and the Spirit of power upon them. Within and without, they were permeated, saturated, and filled with the Spirit.