Enough Violence!; Luke 22:35-38

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Getting Set Up; Luke 22:1-13

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; Luke 3:15-22, Acts 8:4-17

Jesus commanded part of the disciple making process is to baptize in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as recorded by Matthew in what we know as the Great Commission.  Today we have two stories of baptisms that don’t use this formula—one in Acts, and Jesus’ own baptism.  Is the Trinitarian formula all that important?  We consider baptisms that don’t use the Trinitarian formula invalid, so why wasn’t it used in these two cases? 

We see in our Acts passage that in fleeing persecution, Philip went to Samaria, taking the gospel with him.  Just as Jesus said, the gospel was proclaimed in Jerusalem first, then Judea, and then in Samaria.  Philip’s evangelistic work wasn’t wrong.  Many people were coming to Christ and were being baptized.  When Peter and John are sent to check out what was going on, what they saw in the believers was a testimony to the work of Philip.  The gospel was preached and received.  But Philip’s work wasn’t complete,; he only baptized in the name of Jesus, and baptism into the name of Jesus wasn’t enough.  Did Philip not know about the Trinitarian formula?  Perhaps, if this is Philip the deacon and evangelist and not Philip the apostle, which is most likely.  And yet even Philip the evangelist was well acquainted with the baptism of the Holy Spirit for he had received it himself.  Did he think that it was only the apostles who could baptize in the Holy Spirit?  Perhaps.  But I think Philip baptized in the name of Jesus to show the people that Jesus was God, and most likely it is because the apostles needed to know that in Christ, there was no difference between Samaritan believers and Jewish background believers.  The apostles complete the work of Philip and recognize the Samaritan believers as equal brothers and sisters in Christ, breaking down hundreds of years of hostility. 

In our Luke passage, Jesus wasn’t baptized in the Trinitarian formula, and yet Jesus was baptized with Holy Spirit.  We know from historical Jewish records that John would have said something very close to the following.  He would have prayed, “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us in tevilah (immersion or dipping for ritual purification).”  And as Jesus was baptized, John might have said, ”May God, whom we call Mikveh Yisrael (the Purifier of Israel), be a source of hope and sustenance to you, now and always.”  John might have added, “As you enter the waters in peace, may you emerge as a source of peace to your family and to the Jewish people.”  And truly Jesus is the source of peace, not only to the Jewish people, but for all people. 

What John wouldn’t have said is “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  This is the way Jesus commanded us to baptize, and yet we still see that all members of the Trinity were present in Jesus’s baptism.  Jesus is obviously present.  The Holy Spirit appeared as a dove, and the Father’s voice was heard from heaven.  Note that the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus.  Jesus was empowered with the Holy Spirit to begin His public ministry.  Jesus received the power of the Holy Spirit at Baptism.  Jesus wasn’t baptized using the words of the Trinitarian formula, but this was a Trinitarian baptism.  Jesus lived continuously in the power of the Holy Spirit. He could say, “I do nothing of My own.  I only do what I see the Father doing.”  He could say, “I and My Father are One.” 

            In looking at the Greek text, the Acts passage doesn’t say, “The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive THE Holy Spirit” but just “that they might receive Holy Spirit,” implying not the person of the Holy Spirit, but the work of the Holy Spirit.  The evidence of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit were missing even though the presence of the Spirit is obvious by the faith of the believers.  What the apostle’s did in the laying on of hands was for their benefit and the benefit of the Samaritan believers to recognize who had the gifts of the Spirit needed for leadership in the church and to do the work of ministry.  It is God who gifts and equips.  It is God who ordains.  The laying on of hands makes manifest those things, just as it does today.  The presence of the apostles also demonstrated that there was no distinction in the Spirit between Samaritan and Jewish background believers.  It represented the unity in Christ. 

The Trinitarian formula is important for us today.  Baptism is directly linked to the coming of the Holy Spirit, but the order is not always the same.  In the case of Cornelius and his friends, they received the power of the HS first and were baptized with water afterwards.  True baptism is an invitation for the Holy Spirit to work in your life to the good of the church.  The Holy Spirit can work without baptism.  You do receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of conversion.  Conversion and baptism were closely linked in the NT and still are often today.  Baptism invites the work of the spirit, not the person of the Spirit who works independently, and indeed the Holy Spirit is active in our lives well before we are aware.  For it is the Spirit Himself who enlightens our hearts to recognize Jesus Christ.  This is why we can baptize infants. 

Baptism is a seal of the Holy Spirit.  Think of a passport.  It has a seal that shows that one is a citizen of a particular country.  Baptism shows that we belong to God and God’s kingdom.  We are citizens of the kingdom of God.  We have a new nationality, if you will.  The role of the Father in baptism is to say as He did to Jesus, “This is My beloved child.  This one is mine!”

Jesus was baptized for us.  John’s baptism was the baptism to show repentance, but Jesus has nothing from which to repent.  This is why John said to Jesus, “You should be baptizing me!”    Reverend Edward Markquart points out that “Jesus was baptized not to get rid of his sins, but in order to carry our sins on the cross.  So it is with our baptism: when we are baptized, it is guaranteed that Christ carries all of our sins on the cross.”  He reminds that when the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased,” that God is specifically identifying Jesus for the people that Jesus is the Servant spoken of in the book of Isaiah.  For example, Isaiah 42:1—“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One in whom My soul delights.”  And from the great Servant Song of Isaiah 53:10-12:

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes[a] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life[b] and be satisfied[c];
by his knowledge[d] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[e]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[f]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors. 

 

The Servant is the Sin-bearer. 

 

John the Baptist said Jesus was the One who would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Jesus is the One who baptizes.  The Holy Spirit is with every believer and desires to work through every believer.  Because the Holy Spirit is with us, we have immediate access to the power of the Spirit, to the comfort of the Spirit, to the wisdom of the Spirit.  But the Spirit must be invited to work in and through our lives.  As long as we want to be the ones in control, the Holy Spirit takes a back seat.  That’s why we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  It is why these believers in Acts were taught about and filled with the Spirit. 

You’ve heard how we have a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts.  Blaise Pascal originated this phrase except his original word was abyss.  We have an abyss, an infinite void in our finite bodies that cannot be filled with finite things.  It can only be filled by an infinite God.  The Holy Spirit fills our void. 

We can ask the Holy Spirit, “Do what you want to do with me just as you did with Jesus and with these believers in Acts.  Empower me.  Guide me as You did Jesus.”  We can live in the same Spirit power as Jesus did and as these believers in Acts did.