The message in brief
Before Jesus sent his followers out, he gave them an order: wait in Jerusalem until you're baptized with the Holy Spirit. Josh walks through Acts 1:4-11 and explains what that baptism is, who it's for and how you'd know you've received it. It isn't a badge for the super-spiritual. It's a gift Jesus gives freely, and its point is power to be his witness, at work, in your neighborhood and in your own home.
“The gospel of Jesus isn't just about you getting into heaven when you die. It's about heaven getting into you while you're alive.”
Josh BrakeThree things to hold onto
Jesus made it an order
Jesus didn't suggest the Holy Spirit. He told his friends not to go and do the very thing he'd sent them to do until they were clothed with power. That shows how much he cares about us knowing the Spirit as a person.
“True obedience to Jesus only happens by the Spirit.”
The Spirit in you and the Spirit on you
Every Christian has the Holy Spirit living in them, shaping them to look like Jesus. The baptism of the Spirit is the Spirit coming on you, with gifts that let you love other people in ways you couldn't before. Maturity and power aren't the same thing, and Jesus gives this gift to anyone who asks.
“The Spirit in you is for you. The Spirit on you is for others.”
Rooted on earth
Some people talk about the baptism of the Spirit like it's about being caught up in the clouds. Josh says it's the opposite: you get filled so heaven can break into ordinary places, a coffee shop, a park bench, your kitchen table.
“It's ordinary you and me being filled with the power of heaven to release heaven into the earth.”
Try this week
Ask Jesus to fill you with his Holy Spirit. You can do it alone, or come forward at the end of any Saturday gathering and someone will pray with you.
Then do what Josh tells the people he disciples: before the sun goes down, offer to pray for someone. A coworker, a neighbor, one of your kids.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (ESV)Read the transcript
Made from the video's automatic captions and lightly cleaned up, so expect a few misheard words. Tap a time to play the message from that spot.
Okay. Go to Acts. Go to Acts chapter 1. Holy Spirit, as we open your word, just pray you'd speak, Jesus, that you would open our minds to understand the scriptures just like you did for your disciples in Luke 24. We come to you humble and docile and submitted to your word that it has authority over us in Jesus name. Amen. We've been going through the book of Acts, I think the last three or four weeks. And one of the things that we that I'm really trying to emphasize is that when the church was born in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came. When the church was born, it was born as a movement, not just as a gathering place or some activity to go partake in. The church was born and it was immediately a movement that Jesus was starting and his goal was that it would spread to the ends of the earth. A couple of things about the book of Acts that I want to I want to just I want to remind you of. I've reminded you this already. In the book of Acts, it's not really the Acts of the Apostles, although the apostles do Acts. Most scholars agree it really should be titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Luke who is the author of the book of Acts as well. The Holy Spirit is mentioned 17 times and in Acts he's mentioned 60 times. It's a big shift. It goes from talking about Jesus his ministry in the flesh on earth to his ministry on the earth through the spirit.
And so this is massive shift. There's another shift that happens in the book of Acts. The message of the kingdom of heaven is taken over by the message about Jesus the king. So some numbers in the in Luke the kingdom of God is mentioned 39 times. Remember in the king in Jesus's message was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That message is pretty much not repeated at all in the book of acts exactly as Jesus preached it. So in Luke, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God was mentioned 39 times. And in Acts, it's mentioned eight times. There's a shift that happens, I believe, in the 40 days of Jesus being risen from the dead before he ascends to heaven. He's teaching them about the kingdom of God and how ultimately it's fulfilled in him. He is the kingdom of God. So the message goes from the kingdom is here to the king is here and he has conquered sin and death by his death. That's every time you see in Acts, it mentions the word of God. It's it's every time concerning the word about Jesus. What they did in the New Testament was they took the Old Testament, what you and I have, and they would preach that it's fulfilled ultimately in the person of Jesus. So, there's a big shift. It goes from Jesus in the flesh, his ministry to the ministry of the Holy Spirit through ordinary believers. And it goes from the message of the kingdom of God to the message about the king that is Jesus. And when you look at how this movement spread in the book of acts, the message about Jesus was preached by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you want to know how does a movement, a Jesus movement start, it's they're unashamedly preaching the gospel about Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection. And they do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're going to I'm excited. I don't know how long we're going to be in the book of Acts, but we're going to we're probably going to be in there a while. Because I want us to really grasp like the culture of this first century church, what was true about her so that it can be true about us. And they were 100% clear on what the gospel is and 100 clear 100% clear about the ministry strategy, which was power. Their strategy was power. It's as powerful that these disciples, I'm about to read this, but these disciples had already known how to move in power. They've proclaimed the kingdom and they've already healed the sick and cast out demons. Go read the gospels. Jesus sends them out two by two and they actually do the stuff. They preach the gospel and stuff happens. Bodies get healed. Demons get cast out. They come back to Jesus and they're like, "It worked." Like demons listen to us. And Jesus is like, "I know. I saw Satan fall like lightning. What does that mean?" He's like, "I'm having a I have authority over Satan. I'm sending you in that same authority." So, they've already moved in power. And in this passage, what does he do?
We're about to read it. What does he do? He says, "Wait for more power." He doesn't say, "Now you got the power. Now, here's how you're going to structure this thing, and here's what it's going to look like." And he doesn't do any of that. He doesn't do any of that. He says, "All right. All right. You know what to do. You've moved in power, but wait in Jerusalem until the promise of the father. His plan, Jesus's plan for this movement to spread isn't more structures or infrastructure for how to do ministry. It was organic power. The resurrection power of Jesus coursing through the life of the church. So, let's let's read it together. Acts 1 we'll do verses 4 and 5. And while staying with them, another translation says while eating with him. I like that one better. And while eating with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, "You heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Let's unpack that. Number one, when Jesus is telling them to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it's not a suggestion, it's an order. Now, what does that teach us about Jesus and what he thinks about the Holy Spirit? If he's telling them, "Wait, do not go and do what I've already told you to do until you're empowered with the Holy Spirit from on high." What does it tell us? Number one, Jesus places a very high priority on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus's desire and expectation, it's not just he wants it, he expects it, is for you and I to be filled with supernatural power from above to carry this word about Jesus forward.
This is really helpful for me. And there's been many times, many seasons in my life where I've been just simply reminded of the truth that Jesus wants me to know the spirit. He wants me to be explicitly intimate with the spirit. He wants me to know him, walk with him, emphasize the Holy Spirit, to know him personally as a person. So for me, as somebody who's committed to Jesus, if we're committed to Jesus, I only want to do things that Jesus would say is okay, and I don't want to pursue something that may be outside of what he's calling me to do. So I look to Jesus for my cues on what to pursue. And he is very clear about how I am to pursue the spirit. In fact, he says, "You can't go and preach the gospel and do what I've told you to do until you've received an increase in power." His desire, Jesus's desire and expectation, is that you and I would move in power. It's just really that simple. And what does that mean? Power. Hold your horses. We're getting there. But his desire, first and foremost, we need to understand, is that we are to be filled by the Holy Spirit, baptized in power. So true obedience to Jesus only comes about as we walk by the spirit. What do I mean by that? He doesn't give them the green light to go share the gospel and make disciples until they experience the baptism of the spirit. Meaning he's hey here's your mission, but don't obey it until you're filled with the spirit.
True obedience to Jesus only happens by the spirit. He's basically saying, "You're going to mess this whole thing up if you try to do it apart from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yes, I want you to obey, but you need the Holy Spirit to obey." Jesus's desire and expectation is that we walk in obedience by the spirit and in no way outside of the Holy Spirit. It's because of this, I believe, this story or this little this phrase of Jesus saying, "You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Wait in Jerusalem." that the early church saw the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a essential foundational ministry to what they did in the church here. What here's what I mean. Let me let me first unpack what baptism of the spirit means and then I'm going to show you how that was a very foundational thing to the church. It wasn't like optional that if you're getting called into ministry then you get baptized in the spirit or if you're super mature then you get baptized in the spirit. It was a foundational thing for everybody. So first off, baptism of the Holy Spirit. The word baptism is baptizo. It's the Greek for being immersed, being doused. And the word picture that it's compared to is John the Baptist baptizing with water. So when you go in water and you come out of water, every part of you is touched by that water and you walk out of the water dripping. When you're baptized in the spirit, the main goal is that you are immersed in a person of the Holy Spirit.
So that when you quote come out, you're dripping with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It's immersion. So so much so that every part of you is touched by it. This is the same word they actually got they actually used for the pickling process. Take a cucumber, put it in pickling water, and it comes out a pickle. Complete transformation of like the thing that went in the substance. You go in one way, you come out the other. That's what the baptism of the spirit is. And if you've talked to anybody about their experience as getting baptized with the Holy Spirit, you would you and you would probably hear them say things like, "I was completely different after that. Things completely shifted in my life when that happened to me." And they're they're pretty passionate about it. And they may be maybe have even asked you, "Have you been baptized in the spirit? Have you been?" And it can make you feel a little bit like, "Yo, chill. What are you talking about?" But where is that coming from? It's coming from this fact that they went in one way, they came out another way. That's the power of the Holy Spirit when he comes upon you. So that's the baptism of the spirit. This was a foundational ministry for the church in the book of Acts and beyond. If you remember in the book of Hebrews, in the book of Hebrews, it says, "Hey, we're we should be moved on from the elementary doctrines like baptisms." And he mentions a bunch of other things. One of the things he mentions is baptisms plural. Baptism in water, baptism in the spirit. It was a foundational ministry that you needed as a church.
Let me tell you a story. In Acts chapter 19, one of my favorite stories in Acts chapter 19, there's this guy named Apollos. You ever heard of Apollos? Very eloquent teacher. And it says in Acts 18 that he taught accurately the things concerning Jesus. He was teaching these disciples at Ephesus. But it says specifically he only knew the baptism of John, which means he was only preaching repentance. He wasn't preaching power, forgiveness of sins, and power. He was only preaching the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila, they come by and they're like, "Dude, you're a little bit off here. Here, let's correct this." And it says that they taught him more accurately the things about Jesus. What is the implication? The implication is that they taught him about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So then he gets sent off to go to Achaia to continue his ministry. And Paul comes on the heels of Apollos to Ephesus, finds these disciples and says the first thing he says to him, Acts 19:2, this is the first thing recorded that he says to these disciples in Ephesus. Acts 19:2. There you go. And he said to them, Paul said to them, 'D did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? First question he has for them. First question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe? And they're like, we didn't even know there is a Holy Spirit. This was foundational. Paul's first question was, have you been baptized in the spirit? In other words, have you been have you received power from on high from the Holy Spirit? So, this was not something that was just for the super mature. This was not something for those that have been called to ministry.
And so my here's my point in bringing this up. It is possible. This is my story. This is why I know it is possible to be a genuine follower of Jesus, growing in maturity, loved by God, complete in Christ with nothing missing in your life, nothing wrong about you. God fully loving you, fully pleased with you, and yet also not have been baptized in the Holy Spirit in this way to receive power. That's Acts 19. I could also go to Acts chapter 8. I could go to Acts chapter 10. There there is very clear in the book of Acts when it comes to the baptism of the spirit. You can read about it and it is very clear. There's not confusion around it. It's very clear in these passages that the baptism of the spirit was a distinct experience. Sometimes it happened at the same time you were saved, but it's a distinct experience that's main goal is power to be a witness. Okay, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I think let me make sure. Yeah, let's go. I want to I want to make that clear because there can be a lot of confusion around the baptism of the spirit. Because maybe you know some charismatic brothers and sisters that have put a bad taste in your mouth regarding the baptism of the spirit. But like I said, the book the book that we have, that's the authority. It's pretty clear and accessible about what this is. So let's keep reading in verses 6-8. So when they had come together, the disciples, they asked Jesus, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel, he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Okay, so they come to Jesus and they're like, "Hey, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? What does that mean?" I don't want to go too far on this, but there's actually some biblical precedent for them asking that question. They're not totally off. There's promises in the Old Testament that said when the spirit's poured out, what will also happen is Israel will be restored to the land and have prominence and dominion on the earth. So, they were thinking like, okay, if this we're going to get baptized in the Holy Spirit, then that must mean that Israel is going to become great again. Like, this is we're going to be we're going to be the country that everybody submits to and we're going to kind of lead the world. And and Jesus basically says, "All right, you know what? I don't want you even thinking about that." He doesn't tell them they're wrong, but he says, 'I don't want you processing that or thinking about that too much. Here's what I do want you to know, though. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. So, he's connecting what's about to happen in Acts chapter 2 with the ministry of Jesus to baptize with the Holy Spirit. And the main goal of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is power to be a witness. Power to be a witness. Power to be a witness. Don't let anybody tell you that the baptism of the spirit is simply so that I can have an amazing encounter with God and be caught up in the clouds. That's not what the baptism of the spirit is for. The baptism of the spirit is so that you would receive power to be a witness to the resurrected Christ.
Period. This is fundamental and foundational to what it means to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. So, it's probably right around this time that someone's asking, "Okay, I hear you, but don't I have the Holy Spirit? I'm I'm a Christian. I said yes to Jesus. And don't I have the Holy Spirit?" Yes, 100%. Here, let me just explain this. When you became a Christian, the Bible is very clear that the spirit of God comes and indwells you. He dwells inside of you. And the book of Ephesians calls him the guarantee of what is to come. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit. He's the down payment in you of what is to come. And the moment you become a Christian, everything God has for you is now accessed by you through the spirit of God living in you. Become a Christian, Holy Spirit becomes one with your spirit. And you're not lacking in anything. And you are loved by God. And it's amazing. Okay. There is a difference between the spirit in you and the spirit on you. Notice the language. You will receive power when the spirit comes upon you. And in Luke 24, Jesus says the same thing. He says, "Wait until you are clothed with power from on high, and the promise of the father is going to come upon you." There's a difference between the spirit in you and the spirit on you. The spirit in you is for you. The spirit on you is for others.
The spirit in you forms you into the image of Jesus over time as you partner with him in Bible study, in prayer, in worship, in community, confession, repentance, witnessing, all of those things that they're forming on the inside. They're partnering with the work of the spirit so that you can be conformed into the image of Jesus. The spirit on you is for others. He comes on you to give you graces or gifts so that you can love other people with supernatural abilities. That's what happens in Acts chapter 2. This is what happens when you're baptized in the Holy Spirit is power begins to manifest through what the Bible calls the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That's 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. There's a difference between the spirit in you and the spirit on you. So, here's one of the questions that people like to ask is, "How do I know if I've been baptized in the spirit?" And some people even like will ask, and I don't love this question. I don't I don't like it when people ask, "Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?" Because it kind of makes like an incrowd and an outcrowd. Like, I'm an insider. I've been baptized and you I speak in tongues and you haven't been baptized yet. And so, I'm not saying it, but I'm kind of saying it like you've been baptized in the spirit. And it can kind of create that. But here, I do want to address that because if somebody asks you that or if somebody was asked to me that, there's really only one way you can know if you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Well, what's the baptism of the spirit for? Power to witness. So, here's the way. Super simple.
Here's the way you can know if you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit. When you witness, does power show up? It's that simple. You want to know, have I have I received power from on high to really be like an effective witness here? Just try to go witness. See what happens. Do do you get supernatural insight about someone whenever you're ministering to them in that moment? Are they convicted of sin? Or actually, let's back up. Let's back up. Do you even have a desire to go witness? Do you want to get out there and share the gospel and share your faith with people? Because I would say one of the things the baptism of the spirit did for me and I think does in the scriptures is it propels you out of the four walls of the church to go share the gospel with those that are see those that are lost. So, so that's one way of knowing, have you been baptized in the spirit? Do you have power and boldness to actually go out and do the stuff? So when you walk in a room, does supernatural stuff happen? I'm not saying like you walk in a room and all this stuff just starts like crazy happening like you walk in, everybody like falls down, electrocuted. That's not what I'm saying. But do you have like a track record? Is there stories that you could tell of when you're ministering, something happens that you can't do? Like you lay hands on someone, they get healed. Or all of a sudden, you know something about someone, you're like, "How do I know that about them?" And you share it with them. And they're like, "How did you know that?" "Well, I didn't. The Lord did. He just revealed it to me." That's that's a gift of the spirit. That's power on display. Our witness should be accompanied by power. That is without a doubt the pattern in the book of Acts. And the way into that power to witness is called an experience, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Is this making some sense? So the baptism of the spirit is not just something that happens once but there is a first time. There's a first time. But then there's many times after that. Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 8. I could show you all these stories in the book of Acts of people who have already been filled and baptized with the spirit getting filled again. Many people call it one baptism, many fillings. And I think that's accurate. I think that fits. There's one baptism because it's like that initial like you just get dunked in power and you go forward, you start seeing stuff happen in your witness and then over time as you need it, you continually get filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. One thing that I definitely don't want anybody to think is that I am incomplete or immature because I have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit because I'm not seeing power in my witness. I just really don't want anybody to think that because on the flip side, a lot of people will think because I've been baptized, I'm mature. And oh buddy, I cannot tell you how untrue that is. Maturity in Christ and baptism, if you've been baptized in the spirit, do not that don't mean the same thing. Which is really good news. You know why? Because the baptism of the spirit is a gift freely given by Jesus to anyone regardless of how mature you are. Why? Because he cares about you learning to be a witness in the power of the spirit. And really, he cares more about the people that you're going to minister to with power. So sometimes we see people that are like iffy on the maturity character thing.
You're like, I don't know about that one. Yet God is using them powerfully. Why? Because he cares more about the people he's ministering to not do it. This is really good news. He cares so much about people getting rescued into the kingdom of heaven that he'll use a donkey to speak. He'll use people that seem like immature and they're like, "Why?" Well, because it's about the Lord. It's not about their maturity. But we should be able to just like just like the priests in the Old Testament, they had No, I'm not going to go there. Gosh, that is such a tangent. Shoot that rabbit. That's bad. We need to be mature and powerful. How about both? How about both? How about we commit to living a mature life in Jesus, confessing our sin, spending time meditating on God's scripture daily, spending time in prayer and fasting, and also expect God to move through ordinary people like us to move to spread this movement to the ends of the earth. And all I'm trying to say is that what it seems like the Bible presents is that what I just explained to you about the power there's an experience that's offered to you freely by King Jesus called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And the result of it is power to be a witness to the resurrected Lord. In the coming weeks, we're going to look at more stories of this happening in the scriptures. I want to give you some real life stories right now. Because I've tried to in incomp incompletely and imperfectly I've tried to imperfectly adopt the apostles perspective on this in my ministry.
And so if I ever start discipling someone, one of the first conversations that I'll have maybe week three or four is I talk about the baptism of the spirit because it's pretty important according to scripture and seen I don't know 12 15 20 people through just prayer and conversation about the scripture get baptized in the spirit whether it's out on the mission field or in my office. And I wanted to share a couple of those just really quick. One of them he I was with I was kind of at this park thing outside of this restaurant with two guys that I've been discipling and I felt led to really talk about this and so we I went through all the scriptures and really explained like what I mean and what the fruit should be and there may not you might not feel anything or you may feel everything and I don't know and everything in between and so I just talked about it with them and then I just said come Holy Spirit I just pray you would just fill them baptize them right now in power and as soon as I prayed that my bro on the left started to sweat profusely sleep. I mean, he was already kind of sweaty cuz we were outside. And so I'm observing that. I'm like, "Okay, you kind of were sweaty, but now you're dripping, dude." Like, it was pouring off of him. And he said inside of his stomach, he felt just this warmth and this strength just like come inside of him. And I was like, "Okay, good." So, we just we blessed that. In the middle of that, he had a word about the guy that we were the other guy that we were with, a word of knowledge, the Bible says, about how this guy had been feeling about something that happened in his life years ago. And he said it to him and he's like, "How'd you know that?" This was like immediate.
This was cool because he got baptized in the spirit, immediately moved in one of the gifts of the spirit, gifts of power, of prophecy, word of knowledge. And he had this word about this guy. And we were able to pray for him. And this guy left, got in his car, and on his way home just got wrecked by the love of the father that he loves him even though he did this thing. But that thing would not have been ministered to if he didn't receive that word on the heels of being baptized in the spirit. Power to witness to the resurrected Lord using the gifts of the spirit. It was so cool. It was immediately after another guy, it was in my office and we were praying for this as well. And he yeah I asked the Holy Spirit to come and fill him and he began to manifest in some way and just kind of start feeling the presence of God and the power of the Lord on him. And u we just talked a little bit more and I blessed him. I said, "Hey, don't let the sun go down until you lay hands on someone and pray for them. Because you're you're going to be if you want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit for power, you got to be willing to actually move and do something about it. I don't think God will do it unless you're like, I want to do it, but I don't want to go do anything about it. He's going to be like, okay, well, maybe we should work on that. But I told him, hey, go and lay hands on someone before you go to bed. So he went that night, found somebody with a bad knee, prayed for it, the pain went away in his knee immediately after, just hours after we prayed in my office. And those are just two of many stories of people that imp that I personally know. And then there's stories even beyond that of people getting having this distinct experience like this one-time thing where it's like the first time and they're doused in supernatural power to do things that they could not do before and they actually go and do the stuff Jesus did because I think Jesus's expectation is for us to be able to do what he did, right?
He did not just say go make disciples and kind of build a church and he said go preach and heal the sick and cast out demons and you see it all over the book of acts ordinary disciples of Jesus not even just the apostles others are moving in the power of the holy spirit this is how this movement spreads and this is how we gain the attention of the world I think we need that nowadays I think on some level we've kind of blended in maybe a little too much because I don't know And and for good reason in the ' 80s and 90s trying to be a little bit more relevant, attractional, which is good because the opposite of attractional is ugly. And I don't think anybody wants to be ugly. And so churches want to be attractional. Like we do want people to like want to come here. And I think that's great. But I think over the years we've kind of blended in and become like just a part of the world. And so therefore, we don't have the attention of the world. But when you start moving in power to do things that are supernaturally impossible for you to do, but God's doing it through you, then people perk up and they're like, "Whoa, what happened there?" Then you get to tell them, "It wasn't me. It was Jesus." And by faith in his name, this happened. This is a beautiful picture of ministry. It's word and deed. It's proclamation and demonstration. It's word and spirit coming together to create this movement, this flywheel effect where it's just momentum in the spirit happening over and over and over again to the point where guys, we're sitting here right now because this works.
Case and point. We're sitting in these chairs as followers of Jesus acknowledging our need for him and trying to show others the same. This stuff works. And let me tell you, the disciples, they had to wait 10 days. You don't have to wait 10 days. I'll say this in faith right now. We'll have a time of ministry in a second. I want to close with this last part of this scripture. But if you feel like a hunger growing, you're like, man, I want that. I believe you could get it tonight. There's no reason to wait. If you want to be baptized in the spirit or you're just like, I just wish I could get more power. Come forward after service and let's pray. I've seen it happen. Dozens of times you're like, "Yep, raise your hand. I want that. Come forward." We pray. Holy Spirit comes on you and you have power to do things that you couldn't do before. And the only way to know is to go lay hands on someone before the sun goes down, which is pretty soon. See, when we get to it, okay, it's getting darker earlier. Sheesh. Okay, let's close with verses 9 through 11. I think there's an important thing we learn here. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." so they're just in a trance almost.
They're staring into the heaven, into heaven, which that word means could mean just sky. It doesn't mean that they're like having a vision of heaven. They're literally just looking into the sky as Jesus levitates and then disappears and they're just caught up looking into the clouds. And there's two angels right next to them and they don't even notice the angels because they're staring into the sky. And the angels, they say sky or heavens four times in two verses as they're staring into the sky. Well, why are they what's happening here? They're trying to snap them out of it. Like, hey, okay, I get it. Jesus just went. You probably want to go with him because you love him, but you're also perplexed because you don't know what's happening. And you're like, is he going to come back? Like we're and hey, don't worry. He's going to come back the same way he came or he left. You don't have to worry about it. He's got this. He's going to come back. He's given you an order. Go wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the father. And then they go and obey. But here's what I wanted to say about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A lot of the times people will say the baptism of the spirit is about getting caught up in the clouds. And I want to tell you the baptism of the spirit is more about getting rooted on earth so that you can release heaven into earth by the power of the holy spirit. The baptism of the spirit can sometimes put a people can put a bad taste in our mouth with it because they emphasized that moment and what the how they manifested in that moment with shaking or heat or whatever and they overemphasize the heavenly experience they had in the moment and therefore turn everybody else off because what if I don't do that?
What if that doesn't happen to me? And right here it's like no, it's not about getting caught up in the heavens. It's about being rooted on earth because heaven's about to come to earth. In Acts chapter 2, Jesus meets finally gets to the right hand of the father and the father gives him all authority and he uses that authority to send the holy spirit to earth that heaven might meet earth. Not that those on earth might get to heaven. The gospel of Jesus isn't just about you getting into heaven when you die. It's about heaven getting into you while you're alive. And that's the coming of the Holy Spirit. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's the order of heaven invading the chaos of earth. And how does that happen? Through people like you and me. Ordinary bros and girls. What's the girl version of bro? Gal. Bros and gals. It's ordinary you and me being filled with the power of heaven to release heaven into the earth. That's what the baptism of the spirit is about. It's not about am I having a moment with God right now? Am I shaking? Am I feeling am I sweating? Am I? It's not about the manifestation. Although I would argue that something probably might happen to you because if God touches you're probably going to feel it, but it's not about that moment. It's about heaven coming to earth, filling you so you can release it into the earth. And this is the gospel. This is how we move it forward by being people who gather, get filled with power, and then go out and release it through gifts of the spirit and proclamation of the gospel.
And I want to say also last thing, this is not just about going out beyond the walls. You know, this stuff can happen in your home. This stuff can happen in your home. I feel I feel led to say that because if you're anything like me, you feel like, "Oh, I got to get outside of my house to go and do this stuff." And I just feel like the more we submit to the person of the Holy Spirit in our households, we will have bold, powerful witnesses in our homes so our kids can see the kingdom coming in their lives. I'm going to put Sal on the spot not to share right now, but I want later. He has a story about this of just being sensitive to the spirit in his home and having an amazing encounter with his kids that was like out otherworldly it felt like. So if you want to hear that story, talk to him after. Haha. Put you on the spot. But I just feel led to say it's not just about forsaking everything and going out on the mission field. Like this stuff matters in your home. Like the Holy Spirit giving you supernatural insight into what your kid is struggling with or giving you dreams on how to move your family forward in life or whatever it might be. The spirit of God wants to do it in your home, too. This is so encouraging because Jesus's desire is for us to be filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit so that every part of us is dripping with him. So when people walk around us, they sense him. There's this famous pastor named John Wimber. He's he's dead now, but he started the vineyard movement of churches.
And one of the things that happened to him once was he was in an airport and this was a guy that was known for moving in power in a significant way. Like God had really anointed him in this way. And he's in the airport and people were just started like getting close to him and like looking at him and kind of like getting close to him and he was a really funny jovial guy. And he looked at him and he said, "Feels good, doesn't it?" He was talking about the presence of the Lord that just surrounded him. And that is what the invitation is for all of us that so filled with the person and presence of God himself that when people walk around us, they notice something's different. They're drawn to you. And just like Jesus, they may reach and touch you and power comes out from you and heals them. I don't know what this could look like, but I do know Jesus's desire is that we're a people so filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that it's just easy to go and preach the gospel and see people get rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into light. You need to know this is for you guys. This is this what I'm preach is for you. Like the average ordinary person who's got a nineto-five stay-at-home mom, thousand plates spinning in the air all the time trying to figure out how am I even going to go to sleep tonight or wake up tomorrow? What are we going to eat for dinner? This is for you. I'm not talking about going and having a 10-day prayer and fasting retreat to get filled with power. You know where power comes from? Comes from the side of our savior. When he was pierced, what flowed was blood and water. If you want to be filled with power, you don't have to go and do this thing for 40 days and 40 nights.
You just come to the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. His name is Jesus. He's the baptizer. So when we come to receive communion, we're we're we're not just remembering a fact, a historical fact that Jesus did. We're truly coming to a person to join with him again to participate in the body and the blood of Jesus to become one with him in this moment by the spirit.
