He Will Baptize You With the Holy Spirit and Fire

1-7-24

Hoonah-Hadley

Mark 1:4-11

Call to Worship Psalm 29

Daily Verse Matthew 3:11

We have before us, a new day, a new year, a new dawn and as Tom Hanks said in Castaway, “There is one thing that is certain, tomorrow the sun will rise.”  We pray this new day, this new year that the “Son” will rise in your heart. That the fullness of His glory will descend upon you.  That the Light of the world will quicken you to a higher way, a better way. That the Son of Man and the Son of God will strengthen you, encourage you, comfort you, transform you, fill you and send you that you might put your lamp on a table and let your light so shine before humanity that all that see you might see your Father Who art in Heaven. Here in the love of Christ we stand. Let us come together in the power and strength and unity that God intended when He created us, called us and teaches us.  Genesis 1:1-5 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” This same Spirit that hovered over the waters in the beginning, descended upon Christ as He came up out of the water. This same Spirit that descended upon Christ is given us. Mark 1:8 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  Mark His words, “He will.”  It’s 2024, the argument is over. Be done with the blame game, the finger pointing, the he said, she said. So what!  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  Take the rubbish of yesterday out to the curb, be cleansed, filled, for our Lord does a new thing, be that new thing. Rise up on wings of eagles, receive the Holy Spirit today.

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Perhaps we should have stayed with Marks account of this verse, surely it would fill our cup, but our search and God’s will has us in the parallel verse of Matthew 3:11 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” We’ll not pretend to gather it all in, this is where faith and trust come into play. We’ve got to trust God to reveal His Spirit to us in His time and His manner. What that looks like for me, and you and the next guy are 3 different things and times, but the same Spirit. Folks have given their entire lives to studying and understanding the Holy Spirit, written books about it and still at the end of their days, find it eluding them. Yet in the same breath, child like faith may receive it, be filled with it and live in light of its power. We don’t want to get into an argument about “he”, “she” or “it”, most modern translations refer to the Holy Spirit in the masculine as “he” or “him”.  It is rather easy to see an all knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God in 3 persons, or as we know it to be, the “Trinity”, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In its simplicity, take your average married man today with children, is he not somebody’s son, spouse, and father? 

We remember the many hats that grandpa wore, most were employed, owned businesses, tended the garden, mowed lawn, did laundry, raised livestock, were elders in the church and so on and so forth. John the Baptist suggest his baptism with water to the repentance of sin is pedestrian to the baptism of the one that comes after him, namely Christ. The thing that Mark and Matthews account has in common, is the “He will”. If you’re wondering, how, why, when or where it may happen, know this, if your name is in the Book of Life, if you are called, chosen, elected, predestined, “He will” baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. It may happen by sprinkling, it may happen through submergent, or it may happen in a train wreck, but if you are called, “He will”, you can count on it.

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The Holy Spirit in its raw undiluted sternness is “The” Holy Spirit. It is not just another spirit come what may. We’ll not pretend to understand how many or the diversity of spirits about us but what we do know is that there is “A” Spirit that is “The” Spirit that was there in the beginning, is ever present, and has no end. The Spirit is “Holy”.  It is of God, is God, from God, for God and issued forth by God. Holy is derived from, belonging to, or associated with Divine power, it is sacred.  It is revered. Set apart. Above. It is Holy. It is The Holy “Spirit”. It is as it where, is and will be, a spirit.  Not in the pedestrian sense as yours or mine, but in a universal sense without limits or restrictions. It is everywhere, all the time, relentless, consuming and if we might, reckless. That is, it is set, firm, determined, undeterred in its purpose, pursuit and calling.  It cannot be denied, eluded, or ignored.  It is no respecter of persons, places, religions, or races.  As Pittsburgh is different than Cleveland, Pennsylvania from Alaska, and me from you, so it is with our spirits.  You’ve heard it said, “I love your spirit!” “He’s a spirited rascal!”  “Fair to midland”. “Same stuff, different day.” We have spirits of gratitude, love, peace, indifference, darkness, apathy, boring, lazy, welcoming, standoffish, industrious, narcissistic, kind, giving and so on. 

The Holy Spirit is a difference maker.  Among other things it is “The Comforter”, “The Teacher”, “The Promise”. It is the Spirit of God, The Spirit of Christ, The Spirit of Truth, The Spirit of Adoption, The Spirit of Grace, The Spirit of life, The Spirit of Glory, The Spirit of Wisdom, counsel, knowledge, revelation, judgment, prophecy, Helper, Advocate, it is all consuming, it is “eternal”. 

Did I mention power? Romans 15:13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  God delegates His power to His creatures, yet it is His.

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It is as they say, “a birds eye view”, we’ll trust the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to take you deeper, beyond our brief time together this morning and pray that your diligence will forever labor in that direction. Now, let us give our closing remarks and meditations to Matthew’s account and the addition of “fire” therein. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Fire serves many purposes, in and of itself can be a blessing or a curse. Through and through scriptures has much to say about it, and, our search there further reveals the heart of God. All in all, nearly 500 listings in the NIV concordance, sufficient to set our heart ablaze. Should we single out a few, we might begin with Malachi 3:2 “For He is like a refiners fire and a launderers’ soap.” The fire in Matthew’s gospel and here in the last book of the Old Testament is one that refines, purifies. Let us just say, if you take Christ for your Savior, then take all of Him, for His salvation employs fire, and that fire purifies, it purges, it saves us from ourselves. In fact, it saves us from God Himself. God is a jealous, wrathful, unquenchable fire, but the refiner’s fire saves us from the wrath, the consuming fire of God. 

Nahum1:6-7 “…His wrath is poured out like fire…” The refiner’s fire is one that test, cleanses, purifies, and saves us from the wrath to come.  Psalm 66:10 “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.” Zechariah 13:9 “I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.”  1 Peter 1:7 “that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested with fire…”  He will test us, indeed consume much that is dear to us, the part of our nature that is unprofitable in His economy will He remove from us. God knows what He is doing. He is determined that His elect shall be purified. Grace will complete what grace began.

“He will…”   Amen.