ROUGH DRAFT—NOT FOR CITATION

Originally Published in Illustrated Bible Life

 

The Promise from John

            Occasionally, I have the privilege of leading travel seminars in the Holy Land.  As a university professor and guide for pilgrimages to the Holy Land, I’ve baptized new believers in the Jordan River, waded in the Sea of Galilee, peered into the empty tomb and taken communion on the Mount of Olives.  Needless to say, all of these experiences were profoundly moving. 

            Although I wouldn’t want to minimize the power of visiting these traditional holy sites, the most stirring moment for me personally during my last trip to the Holy Land came at the summer palace of Herod Antipas.  While Jesus probably never set foot in that particular building, the ruins of this palace reminded me of some of the most important events in the history of the Christianity.

            According to Christian tradition, it was within the courtyard of this once great palace that Salome, step-daughter of Herod Antipas, performed the provocative dance that prompted Herod’s rash promise to fulfill any request Salome would make of him.  As the story is recorded in Mark’s Gospel, she requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter (Mark 6:14-29).

            As I stood there where this death-evoking dance had taken place, I thought about how the disciples of both John the Baptist and Jesus must have felt when they heard the news of John’s death.  John had been the one who, more than anyone else, had understood the unique work of the Holy Spirit was going to accomplish through Jesus’ ministry. 

            In Luke 3:16, John predicted that Jesus, the one who would come after him, was going to baptize people with the Holy Spirit.  Yet, John was martyred (Luke 9:9) without witnessing the fulfillment of his own prophecy.  In fact, not only did John die without seeing his prediction fulfilled, but even Jesus’ own death occurred without John’s prophecy being fulfilled.  No one in the whole of Luke’s gospel was baptized with the Holy Spirit before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

            As I stood there at the site where John’s death sentence was handed down, I thought about how forlorn John’s disciples must have been to see John—and then Jesus—die without any evidence of John’s promised baptism with the Holy Spirit.

            Of course, the Holy Spirit was deeply involved in the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Luke.  The Holy Spirit was active in Jesus’ conception by the Virgin Mary (1:35) and Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, were both filled with the Holy Spirit (1:41, 67).  The Holy Spirit rested upon the prophet Simeon and enabled him to prophesy about the salvation that was to come to the gentiles through the baby Jesus (2:25-32).  The Spirit even led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted (4:1) and then into Galilee to begin his ministry (4:14).  In his first sermon, Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah and announced that the Spirit of God was upon him to proclaim salvation (4:16).

            According to Luke’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit was active throughout the whole of Jesus’ ministry, so much so that Jesus himself even promised believers that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who asked the Father for the Spirit (11:13).  Yet, John died, and Jesus died, without any mention of believers receiving their promised Spirit baptism from Jesus.

            The disciples of John the Baptist, most of whom became followers of Jesus, must have wondered why Jesus had failed to deliver the Spirit baptism which John had promised would come from the Messiah.  Jesus’ seeming failure to deliver the promised Spirit baptism must have concerned the earliest Christians because the second volume of Luke’s Gospel, the book of Acts, begins with the disciples waiting in Jerusalem to “be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5).

            The disciples did not have long to wait.  A few days later, on Pentecost, they received the expected Spirit baptism as a select group of about 120 Christian believers “were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).  The promised Spirit baptism had finally arrived and, by its arrival, had demonstrated that the work of Christ was being carried forward in the emerging Church. 

            Although John’s prophecy had been fulfilled among that small group of disciples in the upper room, baptism with the Spirit did not stop with them.  In Acts 4, the baptism with the Holy Spirit fell upon a larger group of believers, including some prominent Jewish leaders like the Levite, Barnabas (4:31, 36), demonstrating that Jesus was the Messiah not only for his original disciples, but also for all Jews who would believe in him.

            The Spirit baptism in chapter four was followed by another in chapter eight when a group of Samaritans received Spirit baptism (8:14-17).  The Spirit’s work among the Samaritans, who were considered “half-Jews”—neither fully Jewish nor fully gentile—in the ancient world, demonstrated that Christ’s mission extended beyond the Jews.

            Baptism with the Holy Spirit was becoming the means by which God demonstrated the saving mission of Christ for ever growing groups of people and, in keeping with this demonstration of the fullness of God’s salvation through Christ, the man who was to become the great witness to the gentiles, Saul (later, Paul), was baptized with the Holy Spirit in chapter nine (9:17).  Then in chapter ten, the gentiles themselves received baptism with the Holy Spirit (10:44).  Seemingly, the Spirit had been poured out upon all people and John’s prophecy had finally been fulfilled.

            Alas, however, one last group still waited for the promised Spirit baptism, John’s disciples, and in chapter 19, this last group finally received baptism in the Spirit (19:2-6).  With their baptism in the Spirit, the prophecy of John the Baptist had been fulfilled and the Spirit had witnessed to all people of the lordship of Christ.  Undoubtedly, John’s disciples were left thinking, “If only John had lived to see this day.”

            Of course, the Spirit was also active in the church and among believers guiding their decisions (Acts 15:28), directing their evangelistic efforts (Acts 13:2-4, 16:6), and empowering their speech (Acts 20:23-28; 28:25).  In the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, however, the primary mission of the Spirit is to confirm Jesus’ role as the expected Messiah and Savior to all those who hear the Church’s proclamation.