Baptism of Fire

 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." 

Matt. 3:11

John the Baptist prophesied that the Messiah would come with a baptism of the Holy Spirit and with "fire".  Jesus said in Mark 9: 49:

" For every one will be salted with fire. "

Jesus is also quoted in Luke 12:49:

  "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; ⁵² for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; ⁵³ they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

When one asks most believers about the baptism of fire, it has been my experience that most of the time you get that "deer caught in the headlights" look.  We understand that water baptism is the start of the new birth process and that when one is baptized we are promised the "gift of the Holy Spirit" ( Acts 2:38).  But what is Jesus talking about in the above verses?  

To begin to understand the divine a believer must empty oneself to seek a purity of heart.  The best way to begin that process is with silence. In our society today this is anathema.  Look around and you will see that humanity must fill the airwaves at all times with conversation, music, and discussion.  We are connected at all of our waking hours when we drive our cars or when we go for a walk with our headsets.  To completely unplug from the world one has to take extraordinary steps in our modern society of i phones and instant communication.  Hebrews 12: 29 declares that our "God is a consuming fire."  It was no accident that Yahweh appeared to Moses in a burning bush.  Deity and fire are connected in the revelation of God's entry into our time and space.  And, the same is true with Jesus.  To be "salted" with fire is for every saint to come into contact with God.  How does this happen? It occurs in a myriad of ways when faith is actualized in one's life.  It can occur in worship.  It occurs at baptism and when a believer partakes of the Lord's supper.  And, it can occur in the ordinary day of each believer's life in something as simple as giving a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus to someone who is thirsty.  But, it does not happen by accident. It is preceded by faith.  Jesus would often withdraw to a place of solitude to pray.  If the Son of God needed this time while on earth how can we expect to do God's will without following his example?  Prayer changes the one who prays.  It is the most fundamental way that one can partake of the divine nature.  As one matures in faith a believer begins to pray without ceasing.  It becomes a "point of view" that is instantly recognized in the cosmic battle of good and evil.  No wonder the our Lord told his disciples, "Let he who has ears hear."  If one wants to gain one's spiritual ears we need to draw near to the Lord and listen for His Word.


In my experience I believe that the fire is often preceded by what some would call the dark night of the soul.  Sometimes when we feel the most abandoned and desolate, this is when we come closer to the divine.  Death, disease, loss of relationships, a material loss of great magnitude, or separation can trigger a bleakness that creates a void in one's soul.  Any of these events can trigger a journey of walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  The irony is that it is exactly at those times when one can begin to experience the comfort of being led by the Great Shepherd.  Do not doubt that these experiences will cause division.  But, the fire is one's firsthand experience of knowing the love of God within one's heart.  

Paul tells the church in Corinth that their work will be tested by fire:

 Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- ¹³ each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴ If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 

It is only with this understanding that one can make sense out of Jame's admonition in the first chapter of his book to "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials.."  Without this understanding one would simply be a masochist.  Jesus understood in the Garden of Gethsemane what it took to accept the Will of the divine by going to the cross.  Each believer will have to pick up one's own cross to follow Him.  But, without the fire from above, this is impossible.  

The prophet Isaiah frames the question in Chapter 33:

 "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" 

The answer is then given:

 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil, ¹⁶ he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure. 

Trust and Obey

"I, I am he that comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, ¹³ and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth....."

Isaiah 51:12-13

From the very beginning God only wanted what was best for his creation. Adam and Eve walked in the Garden and discoursed with God. Being made in His image they were give the power of choice. Without choice we are no different from any other of God's created beings in the animal kingdom. What sets mankind apart from all other created beings is that God created us "in His image". The power to love by definition includes the power of choice. Love has to be a free a gift or it is not love.

In the midst of this ideal creation enters the Tempter who was supposed to be a Guardian. In his rebellion he tempts Adam and Eve to look upon the "knowledge of Good and Evil" so that they can be like God. That desire is the basis of all sin. I will choose what I want because it pleases me is the way every human being enters the world as a child. We can't get away from it. It is always there lurking in each of us in the form of self justification. It is the "wolf" within each of us. Just when one thinks he or she can control it, it breaks forth and causes devastation to relationships. God gave us law that was to be like a school teacher. Law can create boundaries to help us avoid destruction; but, in the end law can never save us from ourselves. We each fall short and miss the mark.

Forgiveness is the oil that allows healing and restoration of relationships. When we live by the law of an "eye for eye" and a "tooth for a tooth" we end up in a society of blind and toothless people. Love allows for the possibility of choice. Only love can let one "turn the other cheek". It is a choice that is empowered by God who places within each of us the desire to know Him. We live in a cosmos of pain and suffering. We were made for eternity and community. So how do we get there?

It begins with a single relationship. First we have to trust that the Creator who made us and who desires a relationship with His created. So how does one find that relationship. Second, it begins with doing what He tells us to do. The result is that even in the midst of the most intense pain and suffering it creates "comfort". It is a peace that passes all understanding. That relationship is blocked by fear. What is the worst fear that one can have? One might be tempted to think that death is the greatest fear? However, I believe that what is even worse than death is life without purpose or meaning. We "forget" that the one who made us desires for us to be His children. The good news is that God has not forgotten us. His invitation to return is there for those who wish to turn away and to seek His face. Sharing that message is what it is all about. In the end we will be asked if we "trusted" and "obeyed"?

Lord of the Sabbath

¹ At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath." ³ He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? ⁶ I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath."

Matt. 12:1-8

I love this small obscure passage that shares such an important message. The teachers of the law in his day had determined that these actions by his disciples contravened "their understanding" of what was appropriate on the Lord's day. Today, I hear such talk about what we do or don't do on Sunday mornings during worship. I believe that the point of this story is that God is more concerned about fulfilling a basic human need like hunger than he is about the technicalities of the Sabbath observance.

First, we need to understand that Jesus never broke the laws of God. He makes it very clear that the "Son of man is the lord of the Sabbath" in verse 8. What those who disapproved of his disciple's actions were objecting to was a violation of their interpretations of what they deemed to be the law. In other words, they had "added" to the law. These were man made rules that had become law to the religious establishment of his day. The same thing is true today. There are many things which believers bind upon people to observe in all churches which are not commanded by God, but are the result of customs within our culture which we have grown up with and are interpretations imposed by men. Learning to distinguish the difference is critical. This is the same answer that Peter and the apostles gave to the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:29:

"We must obey God rather than any human authority."

Second, Jesus answered the criticism of the Pharisees by quoting from the prophet Hosea. He told them if they had understood Hosea, they would NOT have objected! Hosea spoke for God when he said, "I desire mercy not sacrifice". The passage in Hosea ends with, "...and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings". The significance of this statement of Jesus is far reaching in its application to our worship services today and to how we live our lives.

Third, what Jesus is proclaiming is that God is more interested in our being aware of and addressing human need than He is in our formal actions which we call worship. He is more interested in our recognition of His presence in our everyday life and interactions with people. This is much more important than anything we do with our hands that we call worship. In simple words, it means that one cannot acceptably worship God with our hands and our mouth if our minds and our hearts are not attuned to Him. We need to be more concerned with the plight of those who suffer in our daily walk. It is the story of the Good Samaritan. When one comes across a basic human need, one needs to act upon it. It is about God and NOT about us! Instead churches are full of self-absorbing people who are more worried about what songs we sing, or what we do between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. This may appeal to our desires and our feelings; but, we are not the ones to be pleased with worship.

Jesus is giving us a picture of the nature of God. The Bible says that God loved the world. What does this mean? The world in this case means the creatures God made and placed in this world. His love is not something that pleases Him or of which He is the proud possessor. It is the love of compassion and concern. It is the love of the Father who wants the best for his sons and daughters. This is not for the father; but, for His children. This is why mercy and grace, and being concerned for one's neighbor is more important than the naval gazing of the self absorbed. This is the message of Jesus who says "If you have seen me you have seen the Father".

I fear that all the discussions about public worship betrays the way we live our Christian life. We focus on creating services to satisfy our needs to feel religious and pander to our desire to be accepted by Him; but, we often miss the mark of what does God want? I believe the answer to that is that our Lord wants us to be more concerned with human need than pious words and religious pretense. Our daily lives need to be focused on a sincere desire to please Him and Him alone. Whenever we let our time at church become a ritual that represents our "religious life" allowing us to put God in the background in our day to day life, we have lost our way.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalms 34:18-19

Why is it that good people find themselves struggling with all sorts of heartaches, disease, and the failings of the flesh. The irony of life is that we learn more about the divine when we are in the valley than when we experience the thrill of the mountaintop. Even Jesus had to learn in this manner.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Hebrews 2:10

I keep wanting to know why God could not have chosen another less hurting manner for us to learn more about him? In the end however, that is like the clay asking the potter "why". It is the same scene of Job before the Lord in the 38th chapter of the book of Job. The answer is found in James 5:13. Is anyone among you suffering? Then let him pray. The answers do not come from the outside. They are revealed internally through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the promise given to us in the Word of the Lord revealed in his Psalms quoted above. The Lord delivers us all if we seek Him first with all of our heart, soul, strength and might. Let us begin by seeking the truth.

¹⁷ Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles; ¹⁸ lest the LORD see it, and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. ¹⁹ Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked; ²⁰ for the evil man has no future;

the lamp of the wicked will be put out. Proverbs 24: 17-20

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome and told them:

^"1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. "

This would be the same government that would later execute the writer of this passage for his belief in Jesus as Messiah. Governments are ordained by God to punish wrongdoers. But, the passage in Proverbs quoted above warns us about rejoicing over a fallen enemy. I think the reason is straightforward. Vengeance is the prerogative of God and not the individual. Governments hold authority granted by God; but, the children of God are not to partake in the blood lust of vengeance. Or, again as the apostle Paul instructs the church:

¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." ²⁰ No, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head." ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:19-20. Praying for one's enemies is not the way of the world; but, it is the way of the cross. Marantha!

Prophecies of Christ's Death and Resurrection in the Old Testament

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced…" -Zechariah 12:10

"…Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:" - Luke 24:46

John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and wore camel's hair and ate locusts and wild honey (Matt 3:4). Yet by the Spirit, John recognized the true purpose of Jesus of Nazareth from the beginning. Before Jesus' ministry had even started. John introduced Jesus to the crowds in John 1:29, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John the Baptist revealed the truth of God's revelation in the Wilderness.

After his resurrection, Jesus met two men on the road to Emmaus. He listened as they struggled to understand the events which they had witnessed. He expected them to already understand through the Scriptures that Christ was meant to suffer and die. "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself," (Luke 24:26-27).

We would all have loved to be there on the road to Emmaus that day, walking with the resurrected Jesus himself as he detailed the different prophecies that concerned his death and resurrection. Still, the apostles and other New Testament writers do a good job of filling us in. The Old Testament is filled with prophecies and types of Jesus' suffering and death and resurrection as payment for the sins of the world, and the New Testament points those out.

Psalm 16:8-11
Simon Peter starts out on the day of Pentecost explaining that Jesus the Messiah had risen from the dead, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it," (Acts 2:24). Peter then pulled from the Psalms to prove the truth of his testimony.

"For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." -Act 2:24-32

Psalm 22:
The sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah are throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 22, written by King David a millennium before Christ, gives us the very perspective of the Lord hanging on the cross. It describes how the people mocked Christ (Psalm 22:7-8; Mat 27:41-43), how they cast lots to divide up his clothes (Psalm 22:18;Mat 27:35), how his bones were out of joint (Psalm 22:14), how the wicked had surrounded him and pierced his hands and feet (Psalm 22:16) – the scars of which Thomas later got to touch and feel (John 20:27). Psalm 22 ends by saying God's righteousness would be declared to "a people that shall be born" (Psalm 22:31).

The Sign of Jonah:
The Bible is also full of types and foreshadowings. Jesus Christ is throughout the Old Testament in a variety of details. For instance, before his death and resurrection, Jesus offered simply the "sign of Jonah" as a foreshadowing of how long he would be dead.

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." - Matt 12:40

Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 offers one of the most profound prophecies in the entire Old Testament, written over 700 years before Christ's death and resurrection.

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."- Isaiah 53:3-6

Some have argued that this passage refers to Israel, but in the context that explanation makes little sense. Isaiah clearly says in verse 53:8, "for the transgression of my people was he stricken." That is, "he" stands in contrast to Israel, Isaiah's people.

In the next verse, Isaiah says: "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."

It cannot be said of Israel that there was no deceit in the mouth of the nation.

On the other hand, Jesus was crucified between two thieves (Mark 15:27), and yet was buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy man with enough standing to go ask Pilate for Jesus' body (Mark15:43-46).

In Isaiah 53:10, we get a hint at a resurrection, because after his soul is made "an offering for sin" he will then "prolong his days."

In the end, Isaiah says in verse 12 that God would reward this righteous servant (numbered with the transgressors, but not one himself), "he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

Our Redeemer Lives:
In the oldest book of the Bible, written even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch, Job prophesied from the ash heap where he suffered. He declared in verses 19:25-26:

"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

Passover:
These prophecies are just the beginning, of course. Exodus 12:1-28 describes the feast of Passover. It was set up as a type of Christ, one that gave the Hebrews an understanding of the use of a perfect lamb as a sacrifice, the blood of which would protect those under it from the wrath of God, the angel of death. The Jews were to prepare for the feast by removing all leaven from their homes, symbolic of removing sin from their lives.

Paul the scholar writes in 1 Corinthians 5:7, "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."

The Pure Spotless Lamb:
Peter describes how we are saved by "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Just as John the Baptist understood, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Levitical system of blood sacrifice (e.g. Lev 8-9). Jesus was the true spotless lamb whose blood could take away sins. The sacrifice of bulls and goats could never take away sin, as the writer of Hebrews noted in verses 10:4-5, quoting Psalm 40:6:

"For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:"

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of humanity was not an afterthought of God. It was always the plan from the beginning. Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

Throughout the Law and the Prophets, God revealed His eternal plan of redemption to mankind. In advance, He described the sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah. It was a plan He had purposed before He had even formed humanity. He then accomplished it, and through Jesus Christ we have the victory now and forever.

Praise the King!

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it." - Isaiah 25:8

Hope

¹⁷ This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ¹⁸ "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will any one hear his voice in the streets; ²⁰ he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick, till he brings justice to victory; ²¹ and in his name will the Gentiles hope."

Matt. 12: 17-21

One cannot live without hope. We each "hope" for a better tomorrow. It does not matter how old or how young we are, we each find those things that give us hope. For many, that hope gets dashed on a regular basis. When we lose our hope we fall into despair. It is important that we put our hope upon a solid foundation that will not disappoint us.

Sometimes our hope is for simple things. Like, getting through the night, the examination, the end of the week or for the safe passage of a loved one. But, it helps if one's hope can be in something larger than the here and now. I read the following quote on a young lady's blog who is struggling with stage 4 colon cancer.

HOPE is the ability to hear the music of the future...

FAITH is having the courage to dance to it today.

The New Testament proclaims that our hope as people of faith has to be in the God who made us. Nothing else is big enough. It is the rock upon which one can build their spiritual house. The passage above in Matthew which quotes Isaiah says that our hope is in the Messiah. Justice and mercy are joined in a way that brings victory over death. Our hope is built on nothing less.