The Water Baptism of John Compared to the Baptism of The Holy Spirit

 “For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:5 (NKJV)

Not a single saying was purging out from the outset of Luke’s letter to the one who loves God aka Theophilus. Raking up Jesus’ sayings on both baptismal is for our feeding, the differences on both is to dissect and to find the spiritual treasure, with the purpose of applying it to every believer who come to the knowledge of Jesus.

Luke, the writer of the book of Luke and Acts, physician by profession, a servant and ministry partner of Paul, was necessitate to present the importance of both water baptismal and the Holy Spirit. Luke elaborates the application on both baptismal in the later chapter to further explain both applications. Nonetheless, the purpose of knowing both baptismal is for spiritual erudition inspired by Holy Spirit to widen the spiritual horizon to its reader toward the widespread of the church worldwide.  Here’s the difference between the water baptisms with the Holy Spirit:

1.   John’s water baptism: done by man through the hand of man. John is known to be baptizing the crowds during the time of Jesus. The word baptized derived from Greek word which in English is translated as to dip or submerge, since the water is the element of baptism, so both can be concluded as, someone who is dipped into the water or being submerged in the water.    Typically water baptism is a response from a person who, after hearing the message being preached, voluntarily comes and wanted to be baptized. John the Baptist emphasizes that his baptism is unto repentance (Matthew 3:11) meaning that the heart of the hearer was convicted by John’s message in his preaching and they repented it. Paul in Acts 19:4 also added that people were being baptized because they repented on the preaching of John and believe in the name of Jesus.   In Acts 8:35-36 also mentioned that the preaching of Jesus by Phillip from the scripture is what causes this Eunuch to be baptized.      John’s water baptism is not cultural but it is a breakthrough spiritual baptism ordained by God (John 1:33): it was God who sent John the Baptist to baptize people with. The cultural water baptism has been practiced by the Israelites as long as they were there and many rabbinical requirements to be followed to keep the cultural water baptism legal. John’s water baptism is a spiritual breakthrough to them, meaning, the simplicity of being baptized is as easy as being dipped into the water whenever they want and at any time. Traditionally speaking, to be baptized, a person ought to bring at least 12 jars of 4-6 gallons of water and pour in a prescribed manner.   Question: Why Jesus wanted to be baptized by John the Baptist? First, Jesus permit John to baptize Him: in the King James Version the word permit is translated as “suffer” which means to allow and not to hinder, in other word, by allowing the instrument to baptize Him, Jesus is giving an authority to man to serve the purpose of God to Jesus through water baptism.  Jesus is making a point that by accomplishing the purposes of God in righteousness could be done together with Him.

2.   The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is, prophetically speaking, promised to be given on all flesh just as mentioned in Joel 2:28, later in Joel 2:29 the recipient of the Holy Spirit is explicitly mentioned as His servants. The word servant is for people who are sold or purchased for a certain amount by a master and that they should render themselves services to their master and also by being submissive and subservient. If God is their Master and so the Holy Spirit is promised to be given to them as His servants.    The Holy Spirit is coming down from above: It was culminated in the day of Pentecost as Acts 2:1 described.   The day of Pentecost is also known as the feast of harvest and the feast of harvest are created to commemorate the completion of grain harvest.  Right after the disciples received the Holy Spirit, the crowds truly are witnessing the spiritual harvest throughout all Jerusalem.     The feature of the Holy Spirit is audible and visible though the description is clearly mentioned in Acts 2:2-3. It was such a dramatic moment to read such passage in the context where people can visualize and hear the Holy Spirit start to hover and work in them. It is indeed indescribable attraction for some and yet they were overwhelmed by its power to work in every disciple they see.    Its nature is to enable the communication process as they can all speak in other tongues or languages after the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It will go viral if the event is happening in our day.

I do hope this blog about the water baptism and the Holy Spirit baptism will enlarge your spiritual knowledge that you may share to others who are confused about the function of each baptismal. Perhaps some of you have been blogging about this subject and, with my permission, may add some points below. Please do add in your own hand writing, so we can avoid any plagiarism form another Christian author. May the Lord be with you all!

My previous verses I wrote comes in a different heading, but it is applicable for a current church situation such as the importance of conducting a meeting  in a church, scriptural evidences that Jesus is resurrected, the defining cores in the ministry.