A Fire Baptism

Acts 1:3-5 After Jesus’ suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. Jesus appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”    
 
WE move from a brief view of the gospels’ teachings on the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ prophecies of the end times. We now go to some of the epistles’ teachings pointing toward God’s Kingdom to come to earth. Acts begins with our resurrected Lord teaching his disciples and many more for 40 days before his ascension. Paul summarized this time well in 1 Corinthians 15:3 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
   It is critical to note the number of eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrected life. The Kingdom of God had come with life power. To this point the King has faithfully completed his mission and spent considerable time to teach the Twelve (Matthias will soon be chosen to replace Judas.) more about the Kingdom of God. They have seen the truth of what Jesus has said to them as his prophetic words became real life before them.
   Do you find it remarkable the Lord Jesus would still continue to teach after he is raised? How comforting to know the Lord continually reveals his truth to us. The apostles, soon to be Spirit anointed, would have had new eyes to see and ears to hear, wouldn’t they? Do you think they saw Jesus’ teachings through his resurrection? He was dead and now alive! Was their Kingdom view changing to become more real for their personal lives?
   The apostles were coming to the time in their lives they would fully cast aside their limited world view to replace it with eternal Kingdom vision. This is Jesus’ desire when he said, “But wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus declared they will be the first to receive the Spirit baptism John prophesied: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
   The King is about to anoint his faithful Twelve Apostles with the Holy Spirit. The apostles are to remain together until this baptism occurs. They will have God’s power to do God’s Kingdom will on earth as it is done in Heaven. The time has come to begin the church. And the Lord will do so in Jerusalem. From there the Spirit’s fire baptism will begin to transform the world’s hearts to know God. The Kingdom of God had come in Immanuel. It was about to become more global through the Spirit.