Jesus and the Baptism of Fire

The Scripture the Lord gave me for this next season is Luke 12:49, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  Jesus speaks this verse during a very lonely time of His ministry.

At Caesarea Philippi Jesus revealed both His messianic identity and His messianic mission but no one is listening. Moments after declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Peter rebukes Jesus for His statement concerning the Cross. No one is listening to Jesus. From this time until the last supper the disciples will be arguing over who is the greatest. At the end of His earthly ministry during this lonely time Jesus gives us a glimpse of His heart longing.

Jesus wants to bring fire on the earth. His very longing and goal was to fill human beings with the fire of the Holy Spirit. His goal is to put the very life of God in the soul of humanity. Not God with men but God in men. There is something greater than God with us. It is God in us, the life of God in the soul of men and women.

John the Baptist’s main identification of Jesus in the four gospels was to describe Him as the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt. 3:13-17, Mk. 1:9-11, Lk. 3:15-16, Jn. 1:29-34).

So closely was Jesus’ messianic ministry connected to the Holy Spirit that John declares the purpose for His baptism was to reveal who Jesus was and that the revealing of Jesus would occur when during baptism the Holy Spirit would descend and remain upon the Messiah. Unlike the Old Testament prototypes(Gideon & David), Jesus had the permanent endowment of the Holy Spirit. 

Though John emphasized Jesus as the Baptizer with the Spirit, sermons on the Holy Spirit are few.  It is simply a false notion that you can love Jesus without giving any focus to the Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are inseparable. They are one essence.  The Holy Spirit is the very Spirit of Christ. The doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is One in Three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, share one nature.  Norman Geisler describes it this way, “The three Whos (persons) each share the same What (essence).”

God wants to make His home in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He wants human beings to be the very Temple of God, the very dwelling place of the Almighty. The climax of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:26 is that the Father’s love would be in us and that He would dwell in us. This is unthinkable! The One who fills all eternity wants to dwell in us.