BAPTISM OF FIRE

BAPTISM OF FIRE

After Paul’s ministry to the Greek philosophers of Athens in Chapter Seventeen Paul left Athens and went to Corinth and met Aquila and his wife Priscilla and lodged with them, working together with them at their common trade of tentmaking. Aquila and Priscilla had just arrived from Italy after being expelled from Rome along with many other Jews by the Roman Emperor Claudius Caesar. For many years the Jews had been exercising political activism and resistance against the Roman oppression wherever it was. This was apparent in the time of Jesus, who had been perceived as the Saviour from the Roman oppression in Judea for many Jews, and this is why so many were disappointed when he declared that his Kingdom was not of this world and told Pilate to crucify him. And the Romans finally killed or scattered over a million Jews and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 70AD. 

Then finally Silas and Timothy arrived at Corinth from Macedonia and joined Paul as he preached in the synagogues, but the Jews argued and totally contradicted him at every turn, so Paul left off preaching to the Jews and began preaching to the Corinthian Gentiles and a great many of them believed and were baptized. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a dream and said to him: "Keep it up, and don't let anyone intimidate or silence you. No matter what happens, I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you. I have many people with me in this city." That encouraged Paul and he stayed another year and a half, faithfully teaching the Word of God to the Corinthians. Then when it was time to leave Corinth Paul sailed with Aquilla and Priscilla across the Aegean Sea to Syria and then journeyed across to Ephesus which was one of the largest and most important cities in the ancient Mediterranean. Priscilla and Aquila decided to stay on there but Paul left them and travelled east to Antioch. 

Then a man named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was a Jew, born in Alexandria in Egypt, and a very powerful speaker, accurate in everything he taught about Jesus up to a point, but he only went as far as the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Aquila came across Apollos and heard him preach, they perceived that something was lacking so they took him aside and told him the full story of the power of the Holy Spirit, and about the life of Jesus within. Apollos then left Ephesus and travelled to Corinth to preach there.

We now come to Chapter Nineteen, and it so happened that while Apollos was preaching in Corinth, Paul made his way down through the mountains back into Ephesus, and came across some disciples there, and must have perceived something lacking in the way they spoke about their faith in Jesus (presumably the same lack that Aquilla and Priscilla saw in Apollos). The first thing he said to them was, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They told Paul that they had never even heard of having the Holy Spirit within them, so Paul asked them how they were baptized, and they told him they had only received John's baptism.

He told them that John preached a baptism of radical life-change – a commitment in their hearts and minds to live for God and to purify their intentions - away from self and towards God. He said this to prepare people to be ready to receive the promised One coming after him, who was Jesus. John the Baptist told people that while he baptised with water the One to come was far greater than himself, John prophesied that ‘He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He will separate the chaff from the wheat, burning the chaff with fire and storing away the good seed in the heart. The good seed is the word that Jesus speaks to us for faith to grow in our heart.

As soon as the Ephesian believers heard this - Paul laid hands on them and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. From that moment on, they began to move in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and to proclaim the greatness of God's mighty acts. But when Jesus brings us into the Baptism with the Holy Spirit it is not just about the power of the anointing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit or just about the love of God being spread abroad in our hearts - It is also about being baptised with the fire of the Holy Spirit for the purifying fire of God to burn out of us the self-glorifying and self-serving desires of our hearts. 

In the Scriptures fire speaks of purifying, which is the loving chastisement of the Father upon our souls. It is not about punishment, which comes from a different motivation than chastisement. The motive for punishment is retribution and pay back whereas chastisement comes from the loving good will of Godly authority. Chastening develops character and integrity and steadfastness so that we can grow in God to live a settled and productive life of hope and faith, but the experience of chastening in our souls is still unpleasant and difficult to go through. 

If people are deprived from the learning experiences of suffering through life’s challenges the growth of character and spiritual potential will not happen for them. We currently live in a progressive and permissive culture that lets young people invent their own values and avoid taking personal responsibility of many of life’s painful challenges. The ACT even introduced legislation last month for fourteen-year-old children to request euthanasia. Today’s teenagers are being taught that they can identify as being who or what they would like to be – male or female or something else – what about a cat? And the government legally protects them so that they can be as free and as happy as they think they will be. 

Paul said that he was willing to go through whatever challenges of life he needed to, and to experience the weaknesses and limitations of his own humanity in order that he might know the power of the resurrection life of Jesus within him (Philippian 3:10-14). In other words, he saw this as sharing in the sufferings of Christ – He said bring it on Lord – I want to know why I’m here with you on this planet. 

Peter spoke about how this Baptism of fire worked to grow us in our faith. He wrote ‘do not be surprised at the fiery trials that come upon you to test you, as though something strange is happening to you. Sharing in Christ's sufferings is cause for joy, just as it is when his glorious life is on display through you. (1Peter 4:12)

We have the choice to get all the useless and ungodly things out in the open before God as he reveals them to us so that we can find his mercy and grace. We let him prune off the deadwood branches and let him regrow us as productive branches drawing from his life, abiding in the vine. This Holy Spirit fire will progressively burn off the dead wood and stubble day by day and purify our hearts and heal and save our souls - or we can let it all pile up like deadwood behind us, but if we collaborate with the Holy Spirit in this burning off we enjoy the sweetness of his life within us here and now and also avoid suffering a fiery sense of loss when we stand before him at the end. 
This is stated clearly by Paul. ‘No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (That’s a prerequisite). Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Don’t you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone trashes (phtheir??) the temple of God, God will put the heat on them (phtheir??). For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple. (1Corinthians 3:11)

What is this work that we build on this foundation of Jesus Christ that turns trash into gold? 
The word ’work’ (Greek – ergon) is used in that passage of Scripture four times so it must be an important word to get that much emphasis. Strong’s Concordance defines it as anything accomplished by hand, art, industry, or mind - any product whatever. In other words, it is an endless list. In this Scripture it is not just about things being done by the mind and the heart and the hands and feet, but it is about the energy that is behind the work that involves having faith and finding grace and mercy in a loving partnership with God. Anything that we do together with God either for our own spiritual edification or as a blessing for someone else, will produce the gold of God’s spiritual energy and character that will endure forever. Knowing that Jesus is with us changes our fear into faith, our despair into hope, our indifference into compassion and our selfishness into generous love. That is the work - and each one of us can choose as far as we are able, in whatever we are doing, to say yes to God - for him to live and move and have his being in us.