The Baptism of the Spirit

1 Cor.12:12-13 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized into one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 

The idea that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a “second work of grace” (the first work being conversion and the second work at a later time) would create two distinct classes of Christians – the regular ones and the Spirit-baptized ones. 

But that system collapses under the weight of v.13, which says every Christian has been baptized into the Spirit.  The only way something can right now be true of every Christian is if it happens at conversion. If there were such a thing as non-Spirit-baptized Christians, Paul wouldn’t be able to say all Christians are baptized. 

The Pentecostals will argue that in Acts we see people receiving the Holy Spirit after they were already converted, which is true.  It happened 4 times: Acts 2,8,10,19.  

These four events call for careful examination in order to determine whether or not they describe what is to be the norm throughout the Church age.

At the beginning of his ministry, John the Baptist prophesied: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." (Mark 1:7-8)

At the end of His ministry, Jesus elucidated that a little further with a prophecy of His own

John 14:16-18 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Jesus promised that that would enjoy His presence in an even greater way then they had prior. It would happen through the Holy Spirit.  Up until Jesus’ death the Spirit has been with them.  In the OT, the Holy Spirit came alongside God’s people in times when they needed special enabling or strengthening.  But after Jesus ascended to heaven, instead of just being with them, the Spirit was in them.  In the Church Age we experience the Holy Spirit in a greater way.

The very first thing that happens after Jesus ascended up into heaven is this prophecy was fulfilled.  The Holy Spirit came in a very dramatic, unmistakable way. But it didn’t happen to the entire Church all at once.  It happened in 4 stages.

The first stage is when the Holy Spirit comes to the Jewish believers.  That happens in Acts 2.

Stage One

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 

They were all together, because they were celebrating one of the OT feasts.  God commanded in 2 Chrn.8:12 that Israel have a harvest celebration every year on the 50th day after Passover.  That’s where the term “Pentecost comes from. It came 7 weeks after Passover, so it was also called the Feast of Weeks. So they were all together celebrating that feast.when…

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

Now the Holy Spirit is inside them, and they have been immersed (baptized) into the Body of Christ.  

The greatest difference between the Church and the OT community of believers, and the hardest part for the Jews to understand, was the fact that in the Church there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile. Gentiles do not have to become Jewish to enter this Body.  They are members who are on totally equal footing with the Jews. That truth proved extraordinarily hard for the Jews to accept.  The only thing that finally convinced them was the Apostles. And the only thing that finally convinced the Apostles was the fact that they personally witnessed the Holy Spirit come into the Samaritans and Gentiles. After the Day of Pentecost, the word traveled quickly to Samaria.  And many of the hated Samaritans accepted the Gospel.  

Stage Two

Acts 8:14-19  When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 

When Peter and John laid their hands on them and the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit that event was accompanied by such astounding, marvelous and unmistakable miracles that Simon the Sorcerer offered to pay them money if they would do the same thing to him.

The Jews never would have believed those Samaritans were on an equal level with them and had the Holy Spirit inside them if the Apostles hadn’t seen it with their own eyes.

Do you see why that couldn’t happen right on the Day of Pentecost?  The Jews would have never known it happened. It had to happen later so the Apostles could witness it.

Stage Three

What about the Gentiles?

In chapter 10 God gave Peter a dream in which he was instructed to eat foods that were unclean in the OT.  At first Peter was horrified at the idea, and refused.  The observance of clean and unclean foods is one of the main things that distinguished Jews from Gentiles, and Peter wasn’t about to eat unclean animals.  But God insisted, so he did it.

Right after that dream, God told Peter to go into the house of a Gentile (another defiling thing).  Peter did it, and while he was there, with his own eyes Peter saw the Holy Spirit come to those Gentiles.

Acts 10:44-48   While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, 47 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. 

When the Jewish Christians in Judea heard about this, and found out that Peter had gone into the house of a Gentile, they were not happy.

Acts 11:2-18  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."   4 Peter began and explained…
15 "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'  17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."

So again, when the Holy Spirit entered the Church at the beginning of the Church age, why didn’t He enter all believers at the same moment?  Why did He wait a little while before entering into the Samaritan believers and a little longer for the Gentile believers?  It had to be that way so the Jews could see it.

Stage Four

The Spirit has come to those in Jerusalem, the Samaria, then Caesarea.  But what about the rest of the world?  By ch.19 the Apostles are out to the uttermost parts of their world spreading the Gospel, and they find themselves in Ephesus.  There they encounter some leftover OT believers who have not yet even heard about Christ.

Acts 19:1-7  While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"  They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 
3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"  "John's baptism," they replied. 
4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. 

Conclusion

When the Holy Spirit came into the Church at the beginning of the Church age, He came to the entire Church in order to show there is no longer any distinction.  And He did so in such a way as to demonstrate that every believer in every part of the world is included. 

That much is agreed upon by both Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal scholars. Where the disagreement comes is in whether that is a unique transitional event, like the crucifixion or ascension, or if it is presented as a model to describe what is supposed to happen to each believer throughout the Church age.  The mere fact that something happened in the transition from OT to NT does not, in itself, mean it is necessarily normative for the entire Church age.

In fact, if we were to conclude that based upon the description of the transition period in Acts the Holy Spirit is received after conversion; we would have to say the same thing about Christ! The people in Acts 19 had never even made the transition from John to Jesus.  They had believed (v.2), and Paul refers to that as their conversion, yet they were unfamiliar even with Jesus.  So based on that are we going to say that the norm in throughout the Church age is to become a Christian, and only years later become aware of Jesus?  And are we going to say the delay between conversion and Spirit baptism is shortest for Jews, a little longer for Samaritans, longer still for nearby Gentiles and longest of all for disciples of John the Baptist?

Since it can be seen from the context in Acts that there was an important reason why the transition from Old to New with regard to the indwelling of the Spirit had to occur in stages, we should not conclude that those descriptions are norms for everyone.  

The question of whether all believers in the Church Age, from the time of conversion, have been baptized by the Spirit, should be answered not by inferences drawn from the historical accounts of the transition period, but by passages that directly address the question, such as 1 Cor.12:13.  This text is clear that all Christians have been baptized by the Spirit.