The Two Baptisms

good morning and welcome to Midweek

Insights with Pastor John I'm Pastor

John Moore from Popular Assembly of God

And today we're going to take a look at

baptism And uh I I'm I'm not looking at

this as

uh which way to be baptized

or

whether or not we're talking about uh it

being an ordinance of the church which

it is What I want to look at today is

the two baptisms that are

listed in the New Testament Both are

from the book of

John And

uh the first one that we're going to

look at is I I want us to come to a

greater

understanding of the difference between

John's baptism and Jesus's baptism

Now John was beyond the Jordan baptizing

unto

repentance

and understanding that what John's

baptism was You have to you have to

listen to what he said

Um he said that uh he was not the

Christ and he was in in and it starts

out in chapter one when uh first of all

John witnesses Christ and start in verse

15 It says "John bear witness of him and

cried saying This is this was he of whom

I spake he that cometh after me is

preferred before me for he was before me

and of his fullness have we all received

and grace for grace For the law was

given by Moses but grace and truth came

by Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at

any time the only begotten Son which is

in the bosom of the Father he hath

declared him." And this was the record

of John when the Jews sent priests and

Levites from Jerusalem to ask him "Who

art thou?" And he confessed and denied

not but confessed I am not the Christ

And they asked him "What What then Art

thou Elias?" And he saith "I am not."

"Art thou that prophet?" And he answered

"No." Then said they unto him Who art

thou that we may give an answer to them

that sent us What sayest thou of thyself

And he said "I am the voice of one

crying in the wilderness Make straight

the way of the Lord as said the prophet

Isaiah." And they which were sent were

of the Pharisees And they asked him and

said unto him Why baptis baptize thou

then if thou be not that Christ nor

Elias neither that pro prophet Now

listen to what John says in response

John answered them saying,"I baptize

with water but there standeth one among

you whom you know not He it is who

coming after me is preferred before me

whose shoe latched I am not worthy to

unloose." And these things were done in

uh Betha beyond Jordan where John was

baptizing And the next day John seeth

Jesus coming unto him and saith Behold

the lamb of God which taketh away the

sin of the world This is he of whom I

said "After me cometh a man which is

preferred before me for he was before me

and I knew him not but that he should be

made manifest to Israel Therefore I come

baptizing with

water." And John bear record saying "I

saw the Spirit descending from heaven

like a dove and a boat upon him and I

knew him not But he that sent me to

baptize with water the same said unto me

upon whom thou shalt see the spirit

descending and remaining on him the same

is he which baptizes with the Holy

Ghost And I saw and bear record that

this is the son of God

Now John makes it clear that his baptism

is clearly a baptism of water and it's

called John's baptism was a baptism unto

repentance And the word

repentance means to change direction or

to change one's

mind And the one of the biggest things

that John dealt with

uh in his ministry was the hypocrisy of

the scribes the Pharisees and the

priests And u he made it clear that when

they would come to him he would tell

them

uh go and bring back meat worth

repentance before he would baptize them

And if you jump over from there jump

over to John chapter 4 This is just this

is right before he goes to Samaria and

speaks to to the woman of the well It

says "When therefore the Lord knew how

the pre Pharisees had heard that Jesus

made and baptized more disciples than

John though Jesus himself baptized not

but his

disciples he left Judea and departed

again into Galilee

And what I think is so important for us

to realize

is John's

baptism was

ceremonial It was it it didn't provide

salvation It didn't it provided

repentance but not salvation Salvation

only comes one way and that's if you go

over to Romans and we will take a look

at what Paul said This is uh there isn't

a person out there who believes that you

uh that we have to confess Jesus as Lord

and Savior that doesn't believe this And

it's uh Romans 10:es 9 and 10 And if you

actually read through chapter 10 the

whole chapter Paul is talking about how

Israel rejected

Christ And this is what Paul said He

said that if thou shalt confess with th

with thy mouth the Lord

Jesus and shall believe in thy heart

that God hath raised him from the dead

thou shalt be saved For with the heart

man believeth unto righteousness and

with the mouth confession is made unto

salvation For the scripture saith

Whosoever believeth on him shall not be

ashamed For there is no difference

between the Jew and the Greek for the

same Lord over all is rich unto all that

call upon him For whosoever shall call

upon the name of the Lord shall be saved

Now this makes makes it kind of strange

for some people because they say "Well

if I if I call on Jesus that makes me

saved." No calling on Jesus is just the

beginning That's where it starts But

when you want to understand the truth of

baptism you have to understand the

difference between John's baptism which

was a ritual cleansing

uh promoting a changed lifestyle

Now notice I used the word lifestyle

there It's a changed lifestyle but not a

changed

life When Jesus comes and his baptism is

the baptism of the Holy Spirit Now one

of the things that uh in the book of

Acts 1 verse 4 Jesus this is this takes

place 40 days after the resurrection 10

days before Pentecost And here's what

Jesus tells his disciples He has them

all assembled He says "And being

assembled together with them commanded

them that they should not depart from

Jerusalem but wait for the promise of

the Father which saith he you've heard

of me." Now listen listen closely For

John John John the Baptist truly

baptized with water but ye shall be

baptized with the Holy Ghost not many

days hence fulfilling what John said

back in John chapter 1 that he truly

baptized with water but he that was

coming after him would baptize with the

Holy Ghost and with

fire When they therefore were come

together they asked him saying Lord wilt

thou at this time restore again the

kingdom to Israel And he said unto them

it is not for you to know the times or

the season which the Father hath put his

own power but ye shall receive power

after that the Holy Ghost has come upon

you and you shall be witnesses unto me

both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and

in Samaria and unto the uttermost part

of the

earth Last thing he said before he

ascended into heaven

So baptism in and of

itself does not

provide any type of it doesn't provide

salvation It doesn't provide

sanctification It's an outward

expression of an inward experience And

so we need to understand the difference

between the baptism unto repentance and

Jesus's baptism in the Holy Spirit

Jesus the word baptism means to

wash Um so John's baptism was ritual

cleansing He people were being

cleansed from the outside and Jesus made

that statement He says "Why wash you the

outside of the cup and leave the inside

dirty?"

He he told them they were like whitened

sepicurs That means these beautiful

mausoleum tombs They're all whitewashed

and painted on the outside but the

inside is full of dead men's bones And

the purpose of

Christ's

baptism is to restore life to the

spiritual man which is the true

person All of us are made

up of three parts

We have the body We have the thinking

part which we call the soul And then we

have the spirit When Adam sinned in the

garden the spirit man was cut off from

God the source of eternal life Jesus

says "Come to me all you that are weary

and heavy laden and I will give you

rest." He also says that no man cometh

unto the father but by me And what he's

saying is "Come to me

My baptism will bring your spirit man

back to life and restore fellowship

between you and the father through me

through my sacrifice my work on the

cross So baptism uh we need to

understand baptism for what it

is

When we get baptized we're making a

public

declaration that we have chosen to

follow Christ

That's what baptism

is and that's all it

is But the spirit baptism is a promise

of the father It's something Jesus said

you need this If you've ever wondered

why you have such a hard time overcoming

certain things in your

life excuse me It's because you don't

have a relationship with God based on

coming into the presence of his with his

spirit because it's his spirit he puts

in you It's what brings that spirit man

back to life And if you want more

victory if you want more

um power to overcome the power of the

enemy you need to do what uh Jude said

and what the other apostles said which

is you need to pray in the

spirit And uh you need to realize that

without that intimate relationship with

God without that time spent with God

walking into the presence of God and God

manifesting to him to you who he

is you have no power to overcome the

power of the enemy which he told you he

would give you But it requires you

coming into God's presence to receive

that power to do it And

uh all believers who have truly

confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior have

turned their lives around have access to

that Doesn't matter what what your

religious background or doctrinal

background is The one thing that remains

the

same is that we

overcome the enemy through the blood of

the lamb and the words of our testimony

and that if it's a gift from the father

to believers it's something we should be

openly

receiving because it's a gift And if you

understand the nature of gift giving if

I give you a gift let's say

Christmas and have all the gifts under

the tree and that gift's got your name

on

it but I never tell you the gift is

there or I never get the gift and give

it to you It's not a gift to you until

you actually receive it till you

actually put it into your hands So Jesus

is telling you the Holy Spirit is God's

gift to you It's yours All you have to

do is reach out and take

it It's life-changing It empowers you

for testimony Uh it empowers your

spiritual life and your walk with Christ

where you can come into God's presence

at any time and have one-on-one

conversation with God And conversation's

two-way street Remember conversation

requires sending and

receiving information That's

conversation God wants an intimate

relationship with you He wants the

sending receiving to go The only way

that you can come into God's presence

and receive that two-way conversation

with God is through the power of the

Holy Spirit within

you So I want to leave that with you

Remember John's baptism was a physical

baptism It was a baptism under

repentance which says "I'm going to

change my life I'm going to change my

life."

Jesus's baptism which is a baptism

through the Holy Spirit and and with

fire is Jesus saying "I'm going to

change your

life and give you victory over the

things that you're bound by." So keep

that in mind this week and we'll see you

guys next week Thanks