Baptizer or "Baptizee"

Just a thought or two to stir us to dig into the word of God.  I just want to stir us up enough to get some serious study for this day.

In Acts 1:5 "For John truly baptized with water."
This is Jesus speaking.  He is fixing to open these apostles eyes to what is ahead. And ahead is going to be a change.

He goes on to say in verse 5, "but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

Turn with me to Matthew Chapter 3 and read in verse 11.  John is speaking and says, "I indeed do baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

The biggest reason today for all the controversy and disputing in the "church" (more on that word later in our studies) is because we take scriptures and doctrines and try to make them fit what we believe, or what religious groups have taught us, without study of the statements on our own.

First, who is John speaking to?  To whom is John addressing?  The scriptures clearly indicate John is addressing the Jews.  There are no gentiles here in the crowd being addressed. So this is a Jewish group being preached a Jewish message.

In this sermon, John states he will baptize with water, but Jesus the Christ will baptize you with the Holy Ghost or into the Holy Ghost.
So John is stating, that Jesus the Christ will be the Baptizer. He is going to baptize the Jews into the Holy Spirit.
Well, where or when did this happen? When will Jesus fulfill this?

Well, when you go to the book of Acts, there is a Jewish feast day taking place called Pentecost. The Nation of Israel, devout Jews from all the nations, are gathered together and the fulfillment of this   promise was to take place.
What promise?
That He would baptize them (the Jews) with the Holy Ghost.

It was not just so people could "speak in tongues" or experience an excitement.  It is a valid offer for these Jews to be empowered by God to perform miracles, signs, and wonders, just as Jesus had done in His ministry.  It was so they could carry on with the ministry that Jesus had been doing for the last 3 to 3 1/2 years in His ministry.

When I start a study on the Book of Acts later, we will restudy Acts 1:8,  which defines what the Jews were to do, if they would receive Jesus as Messiah, and perform the works of Messiah.
Acts 1:8 declares that they, "would receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:  and ye shall be witnesses unto me both is Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,  and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
In Acts !;4, they were to wait for the promise. Verse 8 declares what the promise is they are waiting on.

Now that is what the Holy Ghost was sent to do. Give the power needed to win the Gentiles to Jesus Christ.

So that was the whole idea in John's gospel that Jesus would be the baptizer, and Israel would be the one's baptized or the "baptizees."

Now let me stir just a little more. I love controversy.
Turn in your bibles to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 and start with verse 12.

Paul is in his "Mystery" (Much much more on that later) is writing to the Gentile Church at Corinth. Now we learn a term you will hear much from me, "a Pauline term",  The Body of Christ. 
Jesus and the Twelve never spoke of the Body of Christ.
So here in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12, " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

He is making the allusion to the Body of Christ, the Church. We've got all these different people who are making up the Body of Christ. All are different cultures and backgrounds, but they have all been saved by the same Gospel, then we are now "one" in Christ

 Now the question, How did we get there?  How did we get into that we call the Body of Christ.
The next verse, has the answer.

1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit) are we all baptized into one body (not a local church) one body (The Body of Christ, the church)....

 Let me dig a little more. No unbeliever can go or get into the Body of Christ.  Now you can baptize as many people as you can, use imported water from he river Jordon, broad river, or in a Church baptistry, (and it makes no difference)  and then make them members of a local church, but they can be lost. They may be baptized but not into the Body of Christ.

But however, the true child of God, saved by the work of the Holy Spirit is baptized by the Holy Spirit into that Body. There are no hypocrites in the Body of Christ. And that baptizing is the one that counts and stands.  Baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and now you are His.

Paul is the only one that uses that term. He will say the Church, which is His Body, or  the Body of Christ which is the church. And trust me, you can soon tell if you are dealing with one that was baptized just in water,  or one baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit of God.

 So to sum it all up. As we came out of the four Gospels, and into the Book of Acts with God dealing with the Nation of Israel, Christ is the Baptizer. 

He is placing the Jewish people as they believe, into the power of the Holy Spirit to perform the sign and miracles, that the Jews required as you will remember, 

(1 Corinthians 1:22) that would continue Christ's earthly ministry thus evangelizing the world for Jesus Christ..

But as Israel rejected all of this completely, God turns to the Gentiles through the Apostle Paul, and now we find the Holy Spirit has become the Baptizer and He places us into Christ.

Many scriptures bear this out. Colossians 3:3 "We are hid in Christ in God."

How did you get "in Christ?" Not with water baptism, but when the Holy Spirit baptized you into Him.

That should be enough stirring for this study. May God bless those who will hear and study for themselves.