Study With Me - Acts Lesson 6

What is the difference between being filled with the Spirit and being baptized in the Spirit? Is there a difference?

I Corinthians 12:13 tells us that “in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body.” We learned earlier that in those passages that say that John baptized with water but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit, the word “with” is really the word “in”. John baptizes in water, Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit. The passage in I Corinthians 12 tells us what that means. “In the Spirit” we’re baptized into the body of Christ. In the case of John, people were baptized in water into repentance. So I would define the baptism of the Spirit this way: Spirit baptism is that operation of the Spirit whereby a believer is placed into the body of Christ.

From the I Corinthian passage we can see that this baptism is true of all Christians. We have all been baptized in one Spirit. It’s not something that certain spiritual Christians experience.

The filling of the Spirit on the other hand seems to be something that can take place over and over again. We are told not to be drunk with wine but to be continually being filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) Comparing the filling of the Spirit with wine makes me think that just as a person who is drunk is influenced and controlled by the wine, we should rather be influenced and controlled by the Spirit. There can be times when we don’t yield to that control and other times when we do. God would have us be controlled by the Spirit.

It seems to me that being filled with the Spirit is almost always related to speaking. If you look up the following verses, you can see that almost every one of them says something about speaking right after it talks about being filled. Even in the Ephesians 5:18 passage follows up the exhortation to be filled with the Spirit with “speaking to one another…”.

See Acts 1:16, Acts 5:32, Acts 8:29, Acts 13:1-4, Acts 16:6-7 and Acts 20:23

From this I gather that God would have us be controlled by the Spirit so that we could faithfully speak the truth of God’s Word to others.

Memorization Monday - Week 16 Obedience

I hope you all had a good Christmas time. We are at week 16 of our Bible memorization plan. This is the second of three verses focusing on obedience.

This week’s verse is John 15:10, 14

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

Hymn of the Week - Rejoice the Lord is King!

Rejoice the Lord is King! Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing and triumph evermore;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again, I say, rejoice!

Jesus the Savior reigns, The God of truth and love;
When He had purged our stains He took His seat above;
Lift up your heart, lift u your voice!
Rejoice, again, I say, rejoice!

His kingdom cannot fail – He rules o’er earth and heaven;
The keys of death and hell are to our Jesus given.
Life up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again, I say, rejoice!

Rejoice in glorious hope! Our Lord the judge shall come
And take His servants up to their eternal home;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again, I say, rejoice!

On the Death of a Friend

A good friend died this morning. Such events always make me step back and reflect on what God has taught us about life and death. This lady found out four weeks ago that she had cancer and today she is gone from us.

One of the first things I think about when I see suffering and death up close is that God is serious about the curse He has placed on us because of sin. Ezekiel 18:20 reminds us that the soul that sins shall die. I’m not suggesting my friend is a worse sinner than I or anyone else. We have all sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory. Even those of us who have believed on Christ for salvation have bodies that are getting older and will eventually die if the Lord does not return first. We learn from the Apostle Paul, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:22, 23

I received the call at 6:30 this morning. “Roger, Eileen just died.” It reminded me of the time Jesus told His disciples, “Lazarus is dead.” But later He told Martha, “Your brother will rise again. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:23-26

That was the question that kept repeating itself in my mind throughout the morning, “Do you believe this?”

I answer with the man who cried out with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Study with Me - Acts Lesson 5

One of the things that has been kind of intriguing for me in my study of the book of Acts is order of events and accompanying signs related to the coming of the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that there is no one pattern that is normative for the church.

Here’s a summary of what I find. Look up these passages and see if you would list it differently.

Acts 2:1-4 Filled with Spirit then spoke in tongues

Acts 2:38 Repent, be baptized, forgiveness, receive Holy Spirit

Acts 8:14-18 Received the Word, layed on hands, received the Spirit

Acts 9:17-18 Apostle Paul – hands layed, received Spirit, baptized

Acts 10:44-48 Holy Spirit fell, tongues, then baptism

Acts 11:14-18 Heard the word, Spirit fell, God granted repentance

Acts 15:8-9 God knew the hearts, bore witness, purified hearts by faith (this all refers back to Cornelius’ conversion.)

Acts 19:1-6 Baptism, hands layed, tongues

I’m not sure what to make of all this except to say that Acts is a time of transition between the focus on the Jewish faith and worship and the gospel going to the gentiles. To me it makes it obvious that we shouldn’t be dogmatic about how things are supposed to happen. God has a way of doing things according to His own will and purpose and He doesn’t fit into our man-made categories.

While You Were Sleeping

Recently I was listening with about a quarter of an ear to a new Christmas CD. Suddenly my ears perked up and I said to myself, "What did they just sing?" I found the lyrics folder and read the following. What challenging and convicting words!

I'll pass these on to you to meditate on this Christmas.

Have a blessed Christmas.

"While You Were Sleeping" by Casting Crowns

Oh little town of Bethlehem
Looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep
A giant star lights up the sky
And while you're lying in the dark
There shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne
And is sleeping in a manger tonight

Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
For God became a man
And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

Oh little town of Jerusalem
Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son
The Way, the Truth, the Life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save

Jerusalem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
The Savior of the world is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while we're lying in the dark
There's a shout heard 'cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night

America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping
Will we be sleeping

United States of America
Looks like another silent night

Memorization Monday - Week 15

Here we are at week 15 of our memory program. The next three verses focus on the principle of obedience in the Christian life.

This week’s verse is John 14:21 “He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Memorization Monday - Week 14 Review

Week 14 and another opportunity for review. I’ll give the section headings, the reference and the first two words of the verse in the NKJV and you see if you can remember the verse.

The Christian Life
The Life in Christ
II Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if
Col 2:6 As you
Col 2:9, 10 For in

Christ the Center
John 15:5 I am
Phil 1:6 Being confident
Gal 2:20 I have

The Word
Matt 4:4 But He
Acts 17:11 These were
Col 3:16 Let the

Prayer
John 16:24 Until now
Matthew 21:22 And whatever
I John 5:14, 15 Now this

And the Word Became Flesh

The verse I decided to focus on this month is from John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

There are many things one could meditate on in this passage, but as we approach the Christmas season, I think it’s worth while to really try to get a handle on what is means that God became flesh and lived here among us. What an amazing thought! If you’ve been a Christian a long time, then perhaps you, like me, tend to skim right over this because we’re so used to it. There seems to be such a wide gap between the kind of being God is and the kind of beings we are that so big a step would be impossible. But as the angel told Mary, with God, nothing shall be impossible.

Michael Card wrote a song several years ago that may help us meditate on this truth. It’s called “The Final Word.”

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

And so the Father’s fondest thought took on flesh and bone.
He spoke the living luminous Word, at once His will was done.
And so the transformation that in man had been unheard
Took place in God the Father as He spoke that final Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

And so the Light became alive
And manna became Man.
Eternity stepped into time
So we could understand.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

Have a blessed Christmas.
Roger

Study with Me - Acts Lesson 4

If you’ve just joined us, you’ll see that I am studying the book of Acts, but I’m studying it topically so we’ll be going through it several times looking at different aspects each time. In the past few posts, I shared a discussion of the baptism in the Holy Spirit based on the prepositions that are used in the Bible related to baptism. On the right side of this blog there is a link that takes you to the location where notes and mp3 files of these studies can be found. There is a chart of how the word baptism is used with various prepositions. There are also two versions of the study notes – one without the “answers” and one with. The mp3 files are unedited recordings of the adult Sunday School class at Faith Baptist Church in Mattawan Michigan where I teach. The whole list of resources is here.

One of the topics that I thought was important to look at was the comments of Christ about the Holy Spirit prior to His coming on the Day of Pentecost. In John 14:16 and 26, for example, Jesus told the disciples to ask the Father and He would give the Holy Spirit. He told them that the Father would send them in Christ’s name and that His mission would be to teach them and to bring to remembrance the things which Christ had taught.

In John 15:26 Jesus said that He would send the Spirit from the Father. He called Him the Spirit of Truth.

And finally in John 16:7, 13 we are told that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment and would guide us into all truth.

From these passages I believe we can get an overview of how the Spirit is supposed to come and what He will do. In several of these passages we gain the understanding that both Jesus Christ and the Father are involved. He comes in the name of Christ and sent by Christ from the Father. He comes at the request of the Son. This shows us how caring Christ is for His disciples and consequently for us in that He did not want to leave us without His very presence in our lives. In John 14: 16-18 Jesus says, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

As far as the ministry of the Spirit is concerned, we can see that He has a convicting work in the world and a teaching work in the lives of believers. The focus of that teaching is on the mission and work of Christ. In John 14:26 we read, “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” And in John 16:13, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

So if we wonder what the content of the Holy Spirit’s teaching is going to be, we can see it in the previous verse. He will glorify Christ and will take what is Christ’s and declare it to us. Much of the emphasis on the Holy Spirit among Christians is on the Holy Spirit Himself, but the Holy Spirit never lifts Himself up, but always focuses on Christ.

As far as His ministry to the world is concerned, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. (John 16:8) Sometimes we think that we can do the convincing; that it is somehow our job to change people’s minds. We know that we can present the truth and even argue persuasively and passionately for it, but it is the Holy Spirit’s job to do the convicting and convincing. And, I might add, He is better equipped to do so. He knows exactly what sort of motivation will work on which people. After all, He is God. He is all-powerful and can fully be trusted to accomplish what God intends to do in the world.

Memorization Monday - Week 13 Prayer

How are you guys doing on these verses? I don’t hear much feedback, but hopefully they are encouraging. Even if you haven’t got all the other ones, let’s get this one down.

Today is the 3rd verse with a promise concerning prayer.

The outline section is The Christian Life – Prayer

I John 5:14, 15
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Thanksgiving Thursday

This is the fourth and last installment of our Thanksgiving Thursday series.

I'm thankful for Jesus Christ who willingly died in my place on the cross. I'm thankful that He was made to be sin for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Where would we be if we did not have a savior to save us from the awful torment of Hell forever. God is serious about the sin issue -- so serious that he was willing to go to the cross to pay the debt himself. Thank you Lord for saving my soul!

Memorization Monday - Week 12 Prayer

Here's your verse for this week's memorization and meditation.

The Christian Life – Prayer
And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. Matthew 21:22

Have a wonderful week with your families as you thank God for all He has done.

Roger

Study With Me - Acts Lesson 3

We’re studying through the book of Acts together. In the last two sessions I have been discussing the distinctions in baptisms based on the prepositions involved. I showed last time that there is a difference between the baptism of John and the baptism commissioned to the church. The importance in all of this is to be able to understand scriptures that otherwise might lead us to the wrong conclusions. I shared one of those passages last time.

Look at this passage from Romans 6:3 “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”

What kind of baptism is this? Does baptism really put us into Christ? If I’ve not been baptized in water, does that mean that I am not in Christ?

Again let’s take a look at the chart I gave you a couple of weeks ago. You will notice that this passage speaks of being baptized “into” Christ. This contrasts with being baptized into the name of Christ. Galatians 3:27 uses similar terminology to say that as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. I Corinthians 12:13 tells us that “in” one Spirit we were all baptized “into” one body. I take it to mean that this is the same Spirit baptism that is spoken of in passages like John 1:33. In this baptism the Spirit places us into Christ. I maintain that this is not water baptism at all, but the baptism of the Spirit foretold in the gospels when the writers say that John baptized “in” water, but Jesus would baptize “in” the spirit. I Corinthians 12:13 tells us what that is.

So back to the original passage of Romans 6:3. I believe what Scripture is teaching us is that when the Holy Spirit put us into Christ at our salvation we were made one with Him and were therefore also baptized into His death. Water baptism is, of course, a perfect picture of this, but it doesn’t do it. We are made one with Christ when we are saved.

Thanksgiving Thursday

On this Thanksgiving Thursday I’m thankful for all of the abundance God has given. I saw a heart-wrenching photo of refugees in Congo the other day and I thought through how I sleep in a comfortable bed, have hot water for a shower, am able to clean my teeth and enjoy good food. When my clothes are dirty we can throw them in the washer and dryer. When we want to communicate with our children and grandchildren, phones and email are right there. I have a roof over my head and warmth on cold snowy days like we’re having now. I thank God for all the benefits He has loaded on me. There is no reason I can see why I was born here rather than in the Congo.

If you care to add your thanksgiving praise to this blog, please click on comment. Let's fill this page with praise to our great God.

Memorization Monday - Week 11 Prayer

Today we start a 3-part series of verses on prayer.

The outline section is The Christian Life – Prayer

John 16:24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Hymn of the Week - May the Mind of Christ

May the mind of Christ my Savior
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing
This is victory.

May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.

May His beauty rest upon me
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.

Thanksgiving Thursday

On this Thanksgiving Thursday I’m thankful for the family God has given me. My wife of 39 years has been supportive and encouraging. It’s humbling to think that a young woman would choose to join with a man and trust God and him to lead in her life. I’m thankful for her courage and willingness to join me in life’s adventure. I’m thankful for my three children. Each one of them has a special and unique place in my heart. Each one is supportive encouraging and loyal. Each one desires to serve God through their life. I’m thankful for their spouses and the special man one of my children is courting. Finally I’m thankful for five grandchildren – two boys and three girls. God has wonderfully blessed and as I expressed last time, it is only through His grace because there is not one human being on the face of the earth who deserves anything from God. And yet He has given bountifully.

Study With Me - Acts Lesson 2

If you read back over the Study With Me post last week, you will find a discussion of baptism and the prepositions involved in those passages. Some of you may immediately feel that it is too complex or detailed to worry about. But I would argue that there are some basic differences among Christians that stem for our interpretations of passages related to baptism.

Take Acts 2:38 for example, this passage reads: Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Some believe that the Holy Spirit and consequently salvation is received through baptism. That’s an important question. Did the Holy Spirit come to dwell in you when you trusted Christ or did he wait until you were baptized?

If you look at the chart I explained last week, you will see that the baptism Peter spoke about in Acts 2:38 is “into” forgiveness and is associated with repentance. If you’ll look through the other passages in the gospels you will notice that this was what John’s baptism was about. This baptism of Peter is not the same as Christian baptism, it is the same as John’s baptism.

But you might ask, Isn’t it all the same thing? Look with me at Acts 19:1-5. Paul asked the disciples if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed. They said they hadn’t even heard of the Holy Spirit and Paul asked them into what were you baptized. They said they had received John’s baptism. Paul then explained the difference and they were rebaptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. If it was an important distinction for Paul, it should be an important distinction for us.

More next time.

Memorization Monday - Week 10 Review

Well, this is week 10 and I thought it would be good to have another review. I’ll give the section headings, the reference and the first two words of the verse in the NKJV and you see if you can remember the verse.

The Christian Life
The Life in Christ
II Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if
Col 2:6 As you
Col 2:9, 10 For in

Christ the Center
John 15:5 I am
Phil 1:6 Being confident
Gal 2:20 I have

The Word
Matt 4:4 But He
Acts 17:11 These were
Col 3:16 Let the

Have a great day.

Roger
http://faithfulmen.blogspot.com