Baptism and Fullness-The work of the Holy Spirit today
John Stott
The Holy Spirit is essential in the life of the church, as well as the life of the believer. In
Western countries, there is a diminishing Christian influence in an increasingly secular
community. We as individuals are conscious that we fall short of the standards of Christ, and
short of the experiences of the early Christians as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
It would be impossible to be a Christian, let alone to live and grow as a Christian, without
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Gal 4:6 reminds us that because we are sons, God has sent
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. All who have God’s Spirit are the sons and daughters of
God, and all who are sons and daughters of God have the Spirit of God. Anyone who does not
have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him (Romans 8:9).
The Holy Spirit resides within us as the temple of God (1 Cor 6:19-20) to reveal Christ to us,
and to form Christ in us, so that we grow steadily in our knowledge and likeness to Christ.
It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the evil desires of our fallen nature are restrained
and the good fruit of Christian character is produced (Gal 5:16-25).
It is the Holy Spirit that prompts us to be a witness for Christ and who equips us with gifts
to serve the body of Christ, as well as to unite us with one another.
The Holy Spirit has been ceaselessly active from the creation of the world, and in Old Testament
times he came upon individuals to equip them at specific times for special tasks. The
prophets told of a time when God would pour out his Spirit (Isa 32:15, Ezekiel 39:28-29, Joel
2:38)-pointing to a time when the Holy Spirit will be available to multitudes.
Salvation in Christ should not be viewed as only encompassing rescue from sin, guilt, wrath and
death, but must include the blessing of the Holy Spirit to regenerate, indwell, liberate and
transform us.
Jesus not only takes away our sins but He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:4-8 Jesus
reminded the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift God the Father promised-the Holy Spirit
who will empower them (and us) to be His witnesses.
In Acts 2:38 Peter outlines the gospel-Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It does not
imply that only some selected people will receive the Holy Spirit while others do not.
At Pentecost, the first batch of 120 believers had a supernatural phenomenon of tongues
when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them as a sign. All the believers began speaking in
other tongues and people from around the region heard them declaring the wonders of God in
their own language. The 3000 who were added later did not have any description of this
happening, though the early church obviously taught that all believers received the Holy Spirit.
The second description of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened in Acts 8:5-17, Philip the
evangelist preached the gospel in Samaria and many believed and were baptized. Peter was
sent because this was probably the first time the church had experienced conversion of
Samaritans, the earlier converts were mainly Jews. The question which needed to be answered
was whether their conversion was genuine and acceptable. It is possibly this reason that the gift
of the Holy Spirit was manifested again like during Pentecost, to give confirmation that God
was also pouring his Spirit and bringing salvation to the Samaritans.
The third significant outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred in Acts 10. Peter had been led by the
Holy Spirit to visit Cornelius in Caesarea. As he was preaching to the people there, the Holy
Spirit came upon all the believers- Jews and Gentiles- to indicate that God was offering
salvation to Gentiles as well.
The next incident happened in Acts 19:1-7. Paul had begun his third missionary journey and
came to Ephesus. There he met a dozen men who had received John the Baptist’s baptism of
repentance but had never heard of the Holy Spirit. He had to preach Christ to them and give
them a Christian baptism, at which point the Holy Spirit came upon them.
In the New Testament letters, authors take it for granted that the listeners understood that God
has given His Holy Spirit to all believers. (Rom 5:5, 1 Thess 4:8, 1 John 3:24, 2 Cor 5:5)
The term Baptism of the Holy Spirit has its basis from the gospels (Matt 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke
3:16, John 1:33) and Acts 1:5. Paul also mentions baptism of the Spirit in 1 Cor 12:13 by which
we form one body of believers. It would suggest that Paul expected all believers to have
received the gift of the Holy Spirit and not selected people only.
The Fullness of the Spirit
While the baptism or gift of the Holy Spirit is a one time event upon receiving Christ, the filling
of the Holy Spirit can occur repeatedly. In Ephesians 5:18 Paul urges us to be filled with the
Holy Spirit.
In Acts 6:3 the deacons were described as people full of the Holy Spirit, Barnabas in Acts 11:24
was similarly described as being full of the Holy Spirit. Evidence of being filled with the Spirit
was not based on gifts (which were given for ministry and service) but based on the fruit
of the Holy Spirit which manifests itself in Christian character.
A person is seen to be full of the Holy Spirit by his conduct and maturity of faith, and not the
degree of talents he possesses.
In John 7:37-39 Jesus said “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” By this he meant
the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
This is a continuous tense verb, that we are to come to Jesus repeatedly, daily, to be filled
with the Holy Spirit. There is no way to ensure a constant inflow except to keep coming to
Jesus and to keep drinking.
The Corinthian church had been blessed richly with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but yet Paul calls
them unspiritual for their lack of the moral quality of love (1 Cor 3:1-4)
Galatians 5:22-23 described the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is evidence of the Spirit
working in the life of the believer to sanctify him to become more Christlike.
The problem with many Christians is that we do not live in accordance with the Holy Spirit, to set
our minds on what the Spirit desires (Romans 8:5-6). We have been given the Holy Spirit but we
do not experience the Holy Spirit in our day to day lives.
What about the Christian who experiences an encounter with God where he feels the presence
of God in a special way and maybe even has the gift of tongues or any other supernatural gift
manifested? Is this genuine ? We must not limit the working of the Holy Spirit. Stott is not a
cessationist (people who believe that the Holy Spirit does not bestow supernatural gifts in the
modern age, only in the apostolic age). But he believes that the Holy Spirit interacts with each
one of us in a different, personal way.
All Christians can expect fresh experiences of God throughout our journey as a believer. But we
should not expect that our experiences will be the same as another believer, or insist that
only a certain manifestation of the Holy Spirit must be present in everyone to signify the
filling of the Holy Spirit.
These experiences must not form the basis of our faith for none of them can compare in
importance with God’s work of grace in reconciling us to himself and the transforming work of
the Holy Spirit.
Paul was sarcastic to the Corinthians when he said that they were filled and rich (1 Cor 4:8).
This can happen when we base our experiences of gifts as the goal, and after that no
further progress is made in our sanctification.
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self control. (Galatians 5:22)
The fruit can be classified into 3 groups.
1.Our relationship with God:Love, Joy, Peace
2.Our relationship with others:Patience, Kindness, Goodness
3.Our relationship with ourselves:Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self control
Together these qualities constitute Christlikeness, and we cannot pick and choose which
ones we desire. They are qualities that are of supernatural origin and are the harvest He grows
and gathers in the lives of the people He fills.
These are contrasted in verse 23 with the works of the flesh which are characteristics which we
will naturally tend towards without the regenerative work of the Spirit.
But why do we not see the fruit in all believers ? In order for fruit to grow, the right environment
needs to be present. Romans 8:5-6 reminds us to have minds governed by the Spirit. This
means that we should be watchful about what company we keep, what we watch in the media,
the kinds of pursuits we engage in our leisure time, what engrosses our interests, the
friendships we cultivate- all these determine what we are sowing in our lives.
Paul at different times uses different metaphors to describe the Christian life- Clothing where we
take off our old self and put on Christlikeness (Ephesians 4:22-23), athletic prowess where we
forget what lies behind and run towards the goal (Phil 3:13-14), killing our old sinful self and
living by faith (Gal 2:20).
We also need to feed on God’s word daily, praying and being patient, for fruit needs time to
ripen, it does not happen overnight. We also need to be tolerant of one another, for we are all
works in progress, at different stages of maturity, but none of us have achieved perfect
Christlikeness.
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to individual believers for the healthy growth of the church.
1 Cor 12:4-6 reminds us that although the gifts are diverse, they have one source-the Holy
Spirit.
We are urged to exercise the gifts we have received as good stewards of God’s varied
grace (1 Peter 4:10). The lists in 1 Cor 12, Romans 12:3-8 Ephesians 4:7-12 and 1 Peter
4:10-11 tells us that there are many types of gifts and these lists are possibly not even
exhaustive.
While God can bestow a new spiritual gift on a person who previously had no natural talent, He
can also enable a person with natural talents to have Spiritual enhancement to serve the
church. Afterall is not God the giver of natural talents for He is the one who formed us in our
mother’s womb and knew our purpose from before we were born.
Not all spiritual gifts are spectacular. Gifts of teaching and encouraging, giving money and
acts of mercy, administering, helping, all contribute to the wellbeing of the church. The bible tells
us that we are all important no matter what role we are chosen to play. But we are to serve
according to what gift we have been bestowed.
A miracle is by definition an extraordinary event, a creative deviation from God’s normal and
natural ways of working. If miracles were a daily commonplace occurrence it would cease
to be a miracle. We should not base our faith in God on the presence or absence of miracles
alone.
The Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts according to his gracious and sovereign will, so there
should be neither envy nor vanity within the body of Christ. We ALL play a role though differently
and ALL are important. Self deprecation and self importance are BOTH wrong and should be
avoided. We need each other. (1 Cor 12:21-26).
Gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for our own personal edification, they are to be used in
service for the good of others and the church.
Conclusion
We as believers should daily thank God for in His love He gave us His son Jesus to die on
the cross for us and then to give us His Spirit to live within us.
Then we must seek to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, by obedience and by allowing the
fruit of the Spirit to grow and ripen our character.
We should look for gifts that the Spirit has bestowed on us and use them to serve and edify
the church in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.