The sermon titled 'Two Baptizers, Two Baptisms' by Jason Dohm explores the distinction between John the Baptist's baptism with water and Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit, as described in John 1:29-34. John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way for Jesus by calling people to repentance and baptizing them as a symbolic act of cleansing. However, John's baptism was not an end in itself but a means to reveal Jesus to Israel. Jesus, identified as the Son of God and the pre-existent Word, is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, offering a deeper spiritual cleansing and renewal. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, as Jesus provides the Spirit without limit, enabling believers to live holy lives and be His witnesses. The sermon encourages believers to recognize the significance of being baptized with the Holy Spirit and to live with unqualified allegiance and confidence in God.

The words are God-breathed and they're beautiful. John chapter 1, our sermon text for today will be John chapter 1 verse 29 through 34. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.

Therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and he remained upon him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. I was heading to the Father-Son retreat on Friday night, and I was just using our memory text from John chapter 1, 1-14, to pray, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And then just pray, acknowledge that as truth about Jesus. He was distinct, and yet He was God, and the wonder of that. And I just want to commend as we start a new quarter, start a new memory text. We memorize these things, not just to give ourselves something to do, and not just to have it in our heart to draw on later, which is very important. But also this really helps us in our prayers.

It changes the language of our prayers when we memorize scripture. We find ourselves praying in phrases that come directly from the Bible. Those are the safest best prayers that we could possibly pray. So give yourself to these memory texts and use them in your prayers. The title of the sermon this morning is Two baptizers, two baptisms.

That's really what's before us in verses 30-34. Two baptizers, John the Baptist, but Jesus is a baptizer as well. He's brought to us as a baptizer in this text. And then there's two baptisms. They're different baptisms.

The baptism of John the Baptist is not the same as the baptism of Jesus. And so we're given these two baptizers and these two baptisms. Now, if you can see all the tags that are hanging out of my Bible this morning, you know what that means. It means we're going to a lot of different places. And it's always the case that Our best commentary as we're studying a text comes not from J.C.

Ryle or Matthew Poole or Matthew Henry. Our best commentary always comes from the scripture and maybe even more so this morning. So just have your Bibles handy and be ready to go to a lot of different texts. Because they're different texts of Scripture that really help us understand some difficult things in our texts. So we're going to be using them this morning.

Our text last week was a single verse, verse 29, where Jesus is coming towards John the Baptist and he says, Behold. Think about Jesus. Consider Jesus. Behold Jesus. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We use that as an opportunity to go to Genesis and see Abraham and Isaac. God told Abraham, who had this one son who he really really loved, the only son of Sarah, his wife, and God said go offer him up as a burnt offering. And he would have. They're going for the sacrifice and Isaac notices that they don't have anything to sacrifice. They are going to a place of sacrifice, they have the wood for the sacrifice, but they don't have a lamb.

Father, where is the lamb? And Abraham says, God will provide a lamb. At the very last second, God provides a substitute. It's just a picture of a father who really loves his son, but who is willing to lay down the life of his son. It is a picture of God the Father and Jesus.

And of course there is no last minute substitution. Jesus is the Lamb that God provides. Then we saw the Lamb all over the Law. So with Abraham and Isaac, we have the Lamb in Genesis. Then in the law we have the Lamb in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, everywhere.

He's the Passover Lamb. He's the Lamb of the morning and evening sacrifice. He is the burnt offering. He is the trespass offering. He is the sin offering, He is the peace offering.

Then we saw the Lamb of God in Isaiah chapter 53, the chapter so clearly about Jesus, the suffering servant. Isaiah 53 said He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And then finally, we might have thought that the Lamb of God was always just in what was pictured leading up to Jesus, but not so. We went to Revelation chapter 5. Of course, Revelation was written by our Gospel writer.

It was written by the Apostle John. In Revelation, God gives him this vision, kind of a window into the heavens. What does John see when he's given a window into the heavens? He sees a lamb appearing as if it had been slain. And it is the lamb who is worthy.

No one had been found in heaven and on earth worthy to open the scroll." And so John is weeping but the angel says, don't weep. And here comes the lamb who is worthy to open the scroll. And he receives worship as the one who is worthy. Jesus is the Lamb of God and there's no other way to be parted from your sins. But if Jesus parts you from your sins, he parts you as far as the East is from the West.

He takes them upon himself and he carries them away as far as the east is from the west, that's infinity. Infinity away from your sins. This week we have the continuing testimony of John the Baptist about Jesus. And I've been saying this every week, I'm going to say it again this week. This was John the Baptist's mission, period.

He didn't have another mission. His one mission was to point to Jesus. He was only on the scene, only on the stage of history for six months, and then he had to decrease and Jesus increased. His whole reason for being was to testify to Jesus, was to make the people ready for Jesus. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer.

I thank you, our Father, that not only are you holy, but you also have a heart of mercy. You would send your Son, and you would not draw back at the last moment, but you would sacrifice Him, give Him up as a ransom for many, for the forgiveness of sins. Sinners could be cleansed. I thank you, Jesus, You Son of God, that You would willingly lay aside the glory that was rightfully Yours, the glory that You shared with Your Father in heaven from eternity past, to come and live a life, a blameless life, so that you could be the Lamb without a blemish, the innocent to die for the guilty. I thank you Holy Spirit, who worked in and through the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and baptized His people, works in and through His people, now and forevermore.

We glory in Your Word and what John the Baptist said about our Lord Jesus Christ. How sweet this is to our taste. We pray that you would bless us, that you would help us through this text today. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. So I'm organized a little differently this morning.

Normally we have sort of a phrase by phrase ordering, and so the order of the text is the order of the sermon. This week we have a number of things that are said about the two baptizers, John the Baptist and Jesus, and We have a number of things that are said about their two baptisms. The baptism of Jesus, the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is given by Jesus and the baptism of John the Baptist. So I'm actually going to be organized that way. There are things about John the Baptist, and I'll be bringing those out of our text.

There are things about his baptism, I'll be bringing that out of our text. Same with Jesus, same with his baptism. So our first section here, if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's John and his baptism. Baptism fills in the blank. John the Baptist and his baptism.

Two weeks ago in our text, the Jews in Jerusalem, the leaders of the Jews, had sent priests and Levites to question John the Baptist. We learned that in verse 19. And then in verse 24, we learned that they were of the Pharisees. So the Jewish leaders, the Jews, send priests and Levites who were of the Pharisees to question John the Baptist and in verse 25 they say, why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? And in verse 26 John the Baptist answers them and he says, I baptize with water, but one is coming after me.

He points to Jesus. He actually takes their question and He really wants to shift the focus away from his baptizing with water, because his mission is to point to Jesus, not to explain or champion his baptism. So when he's asked, why are you baptizing, He says, I baptize him with water and then he shifts the focus to the Lord Jesus Christ. And now in our text we learn more about John and his baptism. Again in verse 30 he identifies Jesus as the one who deserves honor.

So John the Baptist, again, de-emphasizes himself. He does not put himself forward as the one deserving of honor. He says Jesus deserves honor. He is preferred before me. You should be honoring the one who is coming after me because he is the pre-existent God.

He was before me. In other words, John the Baptist is saying, my life began on the day of my birth, Jesus' life began in eternity past. Even though Jesus as a man was born after John the Baptist, he was pre-existent God. That is what is being declared there. And these are words that have now been said three times here in chapter 1.

I don't think anything else has been repeated like this has been repeated. Almost exactly the same words in verse 15, almost exactly the same words in verse 27, now almost exactly the same words in verse 30. So at this point we should say, we got it. We understand how important it is that Jesus is the one who deserves the place of honor because He is pre-existent God. He is not just another man.

He is also God. Now we learn something significant about John and his baptism from our text. So, first John. What did we learn about John the Baptist? Not the Gospel writer, but John the Baptist in this text.

Well, we learned that God gave him a very specific sign that would infallibly identify the Messiah. We learn that in this text. God Himself through direct revelation gave John the Baptist an infallible sign to identify the Messiah. A sign that he would never be able to mistake and this is in verse 33. Look at verse 33.

I did not know Him, I did not know Jesus, but He who sent Me, God the Father, to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." So direct revelation, God the Father told John the Baptist, you're going to see something with your own two eyes that will be unmistakable and it will infallibly identify the Messiah. You will see the Spirit descending on someone and remaining on him and then you will know this is the one that you have come your whole life, your whole ministry is to point to Him. Now the first part of that verse is somewhat confusing. The second part is really clear. You're going to see something and that will infallibly identify that one as the Messiah.

The first part of that is confusing to me. John the Baptist says, I did not know him. So I'd like to go and look at Jesus' baptism to try to explain what is meant when John the Baptist here says, I didn't know Jesus. So turn to Matthew chapter 3. We see the Gospels fitting together perfectly here in this way.

There's no baptism account in the book of John. It says nothing about his actual baptism. The Gospel of Matthew has a baptism account. The Gospel of Mark has a baptism account. The Gospel of Luke has a baptism account.

But the Gospel of John does not. I would just say, God knew he was writing them all to fit together. And that as a unity together they would tell us everything that we need to know. So not every Gospel writer needs to say everything because God is the author of the Gospels, not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. John being the last one written, and I believe John had access and full knowledge of what was in these other gospels he writes them knowing that the baptism of Jesus has already been recounted in the other gospels.

Matthew chapter 3, and I'm going to be sprinkling in comments as we go, but I'm going to read 1-6 and then I'm going to read 11-17. Matthew chapter 3, follow along as I read 1-6. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." So Matthew identifies John the Baptist here in Matthew chapter 3, just as John the Baptist identified himself in John chapter 1, remember when the Pharisees come to ask, who are you? He quotes this same prophecy, Isaiah 40 verse 3, and he says, this is who I am.

I am the fulfillment of this prophecy Matthew the gospel writer does the same now verse 4 John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey then Jerusalem all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins. So John the Baptist is preaching about repentance. Saying, repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And people are repenting. It says that everyone was coming out to him to be baptized and they were confessing their sins.

They were agreeing with John that they needed to repent. They were confessing their sins and he was baptizing them. It was a physical symbolism. What do I mean by that? The water is not really washing away spiritual defilements.

That's not what water does. It was a physical picture of spiritual cleansing. John the Baptist's baptism was symbolic. The water wasn't really doing anything. It was symbolic.

Your spiritual defilements can't be washed away at the faucet. You need something else for that. Now I'm skipping from verse 7 to verse 11 because it has what John the Baptist says, desegacies and Pharisees, and it's interesting and profitable, but it doesn't have anything to do with our text. So now I'm picking back up in verse 11 through 17, follow along, verse 11, Indeed I baptize you with water unto repentance, But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandal I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Now Jesus' baptism beginning in verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him. And John tried to prevent Him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to Me? But Jesus answered and said to Him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then He allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now when we take these two texts, our text in John 1 and this text in Matthew chapter 3, the account of Jesus' baptism, It cannot be that when John the Baptist says, I did not know him, John the Baptist did not know the Lord Jesus, in our text he says that twice. He says it In verse 31, I did not know him.

He says it again in verse 33, I did not know him. That cannot mean that John the Baptist had no acquaintance at all with Jesus. If that's what it means, then Matthew chapter 3 isn't true. We don't need to go there because this fits together quite well. Clearly, John the Baptist knew enough to know that Jesus should be baptizing him.

Jesus comes, not as a nameless, faithless person to John the Baptist, but Jesus recognizes him. He does know him in that sense. He is acquainted with him in that sense enough to know that it doesn't feel right that Jesus would come to John the Baptist for baptism but it would be more proper for Jesus to baptize John the Baptist because of their relative identities. He must know at least that. Because John The Baptist has been given an infallible sign, but not the name attached to the sign.

In other words, in God's direct revelation to John the Baptist, he didn't say, you will see the Spirit descend on Jesus. He says, the one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. At a minimum, John the Baptist knew what his mother knew. In Luke chapter 1 verse 43, Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, says to Mary, Jesus' mother, the mother of my Lord. She calls Mary the mother of my Lord.

In other words, Mary, the baby in your womb is my Lord. Elizabeth knew that much. Certainly John the Baptist knew that much from his mother. Later in Luke chapter 1, Zechariah is given a wonderful prophecy about what his son John the Baptist would be and do. It's clear that he goes before one who is mighty.

You'll be the servant of the highest. But it never says that that will be Mary's baby. So there's been a lot said but not directly connected to Jesus yet. And John the Baptist has been given an infallible sign to identify the Messiah, but that has not been fulfilled yet when Jesus comes to John. It is fulfilled after his baptism and as he comes up out of the water.

So what we have is things coming progressively into focus as God gives more and more revelation. Are you still with me? That's a long explanation. I'm just saying. There are these two things that we have to harmonize and it looks confusing but when you look at them in sequence it makes sense.

You have things coming progressively into focus as God reveals more and more. He revealed a little bit when the angel met with John the Baptist's father when he was in the temple. He revealed more when Mary comes to visit Elizabeth. He revealed more when Zechariah receives this prophecy from God. And John the Baptist has been given an infallible sign, And now that sign has been fulfilled at Jesus' baptism as He comes up out of the water.

Things are coming progressively into focus as God gives more and more revelation. How kind of God to pile proof upon proof both for John the Baptist. Now if your mission was to identify the Messiah Wouldn't you want proof piled upon proof? Not just what your parents experienced 30 years ago. My mission is to identify and to make straight the way of the Messiah, to make the people ready to receive the Savior.

I want more than just accounts of what my parents experienced 30 years ago. And God gives that to John the Baptist. He gives him direct revelation that there will be a sign that you can't miss. You'll see it with your own two eyes that will infallibly, unmistakably identify who the source of your ministry is, who the focus of your ministry is to be. So kind that God would cause it to unfold in this way.

John the Baptist can't possibly miss it, and neither can we. We get the proof upon proof. So it's so kind to John the Baptist, but it's so kind to us as well. We get the proof upon proof that Jesus is the Messiah. So these are significant things that we learned about John the Baptist from our text.

What about his baptism? What very specific significant things do we learn about his baptism? We learn that the purpose of it was to reveal Jesus, the Messiah, to Israel. Look at the second half of verse thirty-one. So we're back in John one.

The second half of verse thirty-one. That he, capital H, so we're talking about Jesus here, that Jesus should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. The revelation of Jesus as the Messiah to Israel is the ultimate reason for John's baptism. Yes, people were being called to repentance and they were repenting. We saw in John chapter 3, they were coming and being baptized, confessing their sins.

They were called to repentance, they were repenting and confessing their sins, but that was not an end in itself. In other words, that's wonderful, but it wasn't the main reason for John's baptism. It was a means to the end. The preaching about repentance, and the people receiving that preaching and confessing their sins, and John the Baptist taking them down in the water to baptizing them all had a purpose. It wasn't the end itself, it was to bring people into a state of readiness to receive Jesus and to reveal the Messiah to them.

Christians don't just turn away from things. Isn't this the nature of repentance? To turn. That's literally what it means. To turn around.

So repentance is wonderful, but repentance is so incomplete. Okay, so there are things. They're not worthy. We shouldn't be engaged in them. We need to turn around and go in the other direction.

Towards what? Like turning away is only half. At best. What are you turning towards? We also turn towards, let me ask, what is the call of response to the Gospel?

So the gospel is the good news that Jesus has come and died for sinners. The innocent dying for the guilty. But what's the call of response to that? And it's universal. If you ask John the Baptist that question, he has an answer.

Jesus has the same answer. Peter has the same answer. Paul has the same answer. It is repent and believe. Repent and believe is the response to the Gospel.

Repentance and faith saves. So John the Baptist preaches, and what does he preach? Two things. One, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, And two, one is coming after me. He is the one who deserves honor.

He is the pre-existent God. You have the Gospel in seed form. You have both of these elements, repentance and faith. Yes, that seed grows and comes to full flower in the preaching of Jesus and his disciples. But the Gospel is right there in seed form with John the Baptist.

So we learn something specific and significant about John in this text and about his baptism in this text. The purpose of his baptism, As wonderful as repentance is, repentance wasn't the ultimate purpose of his baptism. It was to make the people ready to receive Jesus. Repentance turning away makes you ready for what you turn towards. Now, Jesus and His baptism.

So we're finished with that first section about John and his baptism. The first baptizer and baptism. Now we're to the second baptizer and baptism. Jesus and His baptism. What do we learn about Jesus in our text?

Well, I'm going to give you two things. Number one, the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and remained on Jesus. Those are the exact words of the text. The Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and remained on Jesus." Those are the exact words of the text. The Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and remained on Jesus.

Both of those things are very important. The Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus and remaining on Jesus. Those are actually words I'm taking out of Matthew 3 now. Those are words I'm taking out of Jesus' baptism account in Matthew chapter 3. Or am I?

I'm a little confused now. Nope, like a dove. Verse 32. Sorry. I'm unconfused now.

This is from our text. It is verse 32. The Spirit descends like a dove and remained on Jesus, both being important. We saw this in Matthew 3 and it's recorded again in a little bit different words in Luke 3 verse 22. Luke 3 is Luke's account of Jesus' baptism.

It says, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. So there was something to see. This is the fulfillment of the direct revelation to John the Baptist that would be a sign that would infallibly identify the Messiah. A bodily form, a bodily form of a dove, like a dove descending upon Jesus and remaining upon Him. Now, was Jesus receiving the Spirit here?

I think this is a very important question. My favorite answer is the answer, which is the text doesn't say. However, I don't believe Jesus is receiving the Spirit here. In other words, I don't believe that up until this point in Jesus' life that the Son of God had been devoid of the Spirit and now there's a new experience where Jesus is receiving the Spirit. I don't believe that holds water theologically.

And every commentator that I read is unified that the answer to that question is no. Jesus isn't receiving the Spirit for the first time here at His baptism. Well then, what's happening? I want to make the case that two very important things are happening when the Spirit descends from heaven like a dove and remains on Jesus. First, it was a visual demonstration that Jesus is the fulfillment of several prophecies.

It was a visual demonstration, something that you could see with your own two eyes, John the Baptist did, but that demonstrates visually that Jesus is the fulfillment of several prophecies that are to be fulfilled by the Messiah and because the Spirit is Spirit and doesn't have a body it it needed to have the bodily form in order that you could see that Jesus is what the prophecies said He would be in relationship to the Spirit. So I'm going to take you to three places in Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah. Isaiah, Starting in chapter 11, Isaiah has so much messianic prophecy. It is prophecy for telling God, telling Isaiah what will happen in the future about the Messiah.

Okay, so it is foretelling about who the Messiah will be and what he will do. Isaiah 11 is definitely a chapter of messianic prophecy for telling about what the Messiah will be and do. Look at verses 1 and 2. Follow along as I read Isaiah 11, 1 and 2. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse." Pause.

Who is Jesse? David's father. King David's father. Jesus the Messiah is the son of David. So anytime in the prophets you see Jesse, you have to know King David's father and that the Messiah will be the son of David.

He will be from the line of kings. He will be from the line of King David. David is a type, a picture of Christ. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. So This is a descendant of Jesse and David.

Verse 2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. So now think, we have the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining on Jesus. A good Jew, a knowledgeable Jew will hyperlink to Isaiah chapter 11. And the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel and might. The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. This is unquestionably about the Messiah And what we have in Matthew chapter 3 and referenced in our text in John chapter 1 is a visual demonstration that Jesus is this. Jesus fulfills Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 and 2.

The Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining on him. He is the Messiah and the Spirit of the Lord rests upon him. Now, verse 42, Isaiah 42, staying in the book but switching chapters. Isaiah 42 verse 1. Again, Isaiah 42 verse 1 bears the unmistakable marks that God through the prophet is talking about the Messiah.

We have it here in Isaiah 42 verse 1. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. Now think back to Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So we can Now look back at Isaiah 43 through our New Testament lens.

Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. Here we have a Messiah not only to the people of Israel, but also to the Gentiles. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

Here we have a Messiah not only to the people of Israel, but also to the Gentiles. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. Finally, Isaiah 61. We've already heard Isaiah 61. In our time, even before the service started, when we were reflecting on Luke chapter 4, it was Jesus going to the synagogue and he's reading out of Isaiah and he ends by saying, today this is fulfilled in your hearing.

Today this is fulfilled in your hearing. And he was quoting Isaiah 61 of himself. Let's read Isaiah 61, 1-3. I'm going to read all the way through 3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor." So, let me stop there.

I didn't make it very far. This is the Messiah saying, the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me too. And then He is going to list things that He is going to do. And how is He going to do them?

Well, He is going to do them through the anointing of God to do them. And it is the Spirit of the Lord who is upon Him to anoint Him to do all the work that God has given Him to do. This time I won't stop. The Spirit of The Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

This speaks so beautifully about what Jesus was sent to do, what He came to do, what He actually did. And it was because the Spirit of the Lord God was upon him, anointing him to do the work of God. So John the Baptist was told, you're going to see something with your own two eyes. The Spirit descending from heaven. The Spirit was given a bodily form like a dove so that John could see that Jesus was the fulfillment of these prophecies of how the Spirit would rest upon him to anoint him to do the work that God had given him to do.

And then this is fulfilled at his baptism. John the Baptist sees the form and he hears the voice from heaven. Second, so It's been a while so I'm going to go back and sort of reset this. So you know what I mean when I say second. What was first?

What was that all about? There are two things that are happening when the Spirit descends from heaven in a form like a dove and remains upon Jesus. First, it was a visual demonstration that Jesus is the fulfillment of those prophecies. Second, all of that sets up the understanding that Jesus has the Holy Spirit and can therefore baptize His people with the Holy Spirit. In other words, how are you going to baptize a nation, a holy nation of people with the Spirit unless you have the Spirit in overwhelming abundance?

How Are you going to baptize with the spirit? Unless you have the spirit in overwhelming abundance Listen to John chapter 3 34 in John chapter 3 John the Baptist disciples have come to him sort of in a panic because the people are no longer coming to John the Baptist in the same numbers to be baptized. Where are they going? They're going to Jesus. And John the Baptist disciples are very disturbed about that.

Because they are losing the crowds to Jesus. And John the Baptist tells them essentially that he is delighted. That he is the friend of the bridegroom, but Jesus is the bridegroom. Jesus is the one who gets the bride and so the friend of the bridegroom is simply happy when the bridegroom appears and he is content to decrease and for Jesus to increase and to assume his place of honor. And then he says this about Jesus John the Baptist says this about Jesus in John chapter 3 verse 34 for he whom God has sent Jesus for he whom God has sent speaks the word of God for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

God does not give the Spirit to Jesus by measure. And the NIV instead of measure says limit. God doesn't give the Spirit to Jesus with a limit. Now listen to how King James renders this. It renders it just a little different.

It adds a couple of words to make sure we get the right meaning. King James says, for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. God doesn't give the Spirit with a limit to Jesus. He gives an unlimited portion of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Him in a boundless way.

And that's important to our text because it means that he has boundless ability to baptize his people with the Holy Spirit. Boundless ability to baptize his people with the Holy Spirit. So, in our text, in John chapter 1, we're learning specific significant things about Jesus. I just talked about those. I just talked about the first thing, that the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and remained on Jesus and what that means.

Now the second thing that we learn about Jesus from our text, Jesus is the Son of God. That has not been said in the Gospel of John yet. It's the first time this has been said in the Gospel of John. Jesus has been called the Word. Jesus has been called God.

The Word was with God and the Word was God. Jesus has been called the Light. Jesus has been called the Lord by virtue of John the Baptist quoting Isaiah 43 saying he is preparing the way before the Lord. So Jesus has been called the Lord. All capital letters meaning Jehovah God.

But Jesus has not been called the Son of God until now. Again, the Gospel of John doesn't have the baptism account, but we've gone and looked at the baptism account in Matthew chapter 3 and at Jesus' baptism, Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by a voice from heaven. If you need a good authority that Jesus is the Son of God, how do you like this? A voice comes from heaven, this is my son, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. John the Baptist has heard a voice from heaven declaring Him to be the Son of God.

This is why in our text in verse 34, John the Baptist says, and I have seen and testified that This is the Son of God. John the Baptist is so rightly putting himself forth as an eye witness, or we might say an ear witness. John the Baptist is an ear witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He didn't see God the Father, but a voice came from heaven and he heard it. He is an eye witness that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus, the Word who became flesh, eternal God, who took flesh upon Himself and dwelt among us, had a human mother, Mary, but he did not have a human father. Joseph was not his father. Listen to Luke chapter 1 verses 34 and 35. I think I'll be gone by the time you get there, so just listen. Luke chapter 1 verses 34 and 35.

Gabriel has come to tell Mary that she's going to be pregnant. And here's what Mary says in verse 34. Luke 1, 34, Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? How can you be telling me this is true? There is no human father.

Verse 35, the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God. The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us had a human mother, Mary, but did not have a human father, because God is His Father. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God is His Father. Now, I just want to put a placeholder here.

And it might be months until I want to go back to that bookmark. But I'm putting in the bookmark now. I believe that there's much more to Jesus being the Son of God than just this. That it actually precedes that and extends into eternity past. In other words, Jesus has always been the Son, but that's for another day.

We'll return there. At least we have this, that by virtue of Jesus, the Word made flesh, having a human mother but not a human father, that the angels said, you'll be overshadowed by the Most High. God is his Father. He is the Son of God. The voice of heaven said so at Jesus' baptism.

What are the specific things about Jesus' baptism that we learn from our text? Well we learn this, while John the Baptist baptized with water, a physical baptism, physical water over physical people, it was a symbolic baptism Again, no physical water can wash away spiritual defilements. It takes spiritual water to wash away those spiritual defilements. But Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Baptizes, plural.

He did baptize with the Holy Spirit and he does to this day in the world. People will be baptized today with the Holy Spirit. Now I want to look back to Ezekiel chapter 36 and then I want to look forward to Acts chapter 2. And as we're looking back to Ezekiel 36 we get we get the privilege of looking through the New testament lenses where this has been fulfilled and we can know with great precision what this meant. So turn to Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36. The uninspired heading in Ezekiel 36, meaning the publishers have put in different headings just to help us have divisions in the text. What the publisher put in this section is the renewal of Israel. Because it's about the promises of God to a people in captivity, that they won't always be in captivity, but they will come back into the favor of God. This is about the time of people in favor with God, not drug off into captivity, but enjoying the favor of God again.

The renewal of Israel is the uninspired heading in my Bible. I'm going to be reading in Ezekiel 36 verses 25-27. This is a people under the favor of God. Ezekiel 36, 25-27. Follow along as I read.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them." This is a people under the favor of God and we are looking back now through the lens of the New Testament knowing that this is really fulfilled in Jesus Christ and we are seeing the cleansing of Jesus Christ.

So God through the prophet says, I'll sprinkle clean water on you, you shall be clean. I'm going to clean you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Your filth away. Your idols removed from you, cleansed from you. We know this is the cleansing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can only lose your filthiness one way. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here we see the new birth. You get a new heart. The stone, try living with a stone heart.

Try living with a stone heart. Your heart of stone removed and a warm, soft, fleshy heart in its place. And we see the indwelling of the Spirit. I will put My Spirit within you. People enjoying God's favor get cleansing.

They get a new birth. They get the Spirit dwelling in them. It is the new covenant people of God who enjoy these benefits. Now forward to Acts. I will be reading a little from one and a little from two, so turn to the book of Acts.

Acts chapter one is the ascension after the resurrection, after spending forty days with the disciples, Jesus ascends into heaven to sit next to his father. Acts chapter 2 is Pentecost. The promised spirit is poured out on the early church. Acts chapter 1, follow along as I read verses 4 through 8. And being assembled together with them, He, Jesus, commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, you have heard from me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him saying, Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But, but, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." So Jesus actually constrains them at His ascension, leaving them after 40 days of instruction about the Kingdom of Heaven, He ascends, He leaves them, but He constrains them, don't go preaching yet outside of Jerusalem. You stay in Jerusalem and you wait for what I have promised, I promised I would send the Holy Spirit, He's coming, don't you leave Jerusalem until He's been poured out on you. And then you will be my witnesses in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Now, Pentecost chapter 2. I'll be reading verses 37 through 39. 37 through 39 is after the Spirit has come down on the disciples as they were gathered like tongues of fire. They all began to speak the wonders of God in languages that they did not know. Not languages that they had learned but people from every nation who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, who speak different languages, hear the wonders of God proclaimed by the disciples in their own language.

It's a miracle. And then Peter preaches about Jesus one of the most powerful sermons you will ever read, and this is the response to that sermon. Acts chapter 2 verses 37 through 39. Peter finishes preaching. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren what shall we do?

Then Peter said to them, repent And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, for the forgiveness of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as many as the Lord our God will call. The promise is, till the end of time, as many as the Lord will call, to those who repent and are baptized, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you are born again, Jesus has baptized you with His Holy Spirit.

I will say that again. In our current environment, I might say it a third time. If you are born again, Jesus has baptized you, has immersed you, has covered you in His Holy Spirit. I'm going to read two quotes from J.C. Ryle that I think are enormously helpful.

Here's the first one. J.C. Ryle says, it is a baptism which the penitent thief received though neither dipped nor sprinkled by the hand of man. It is a baptism which Ananias and Sapphira did not receive, though admitted into church communion by apostolic men." Now let me unpack that. There's more to that quote, but I'm going to stop there and unpack it.

So what is J.C. Ryle saying? He's saying, look at the thief on the cross right next to Jesus, who repented and believed in Jesus on the cross with only hours left to live. No time to be baptized in water. No one to baptize him.

J.C. Ryle says he was baptized with the Holy Spirit by Jesus, the head of the church. He never received water baptism. There was no time or opportunity for that. But he received the one that counts the most.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit at the hands of the great head of the church who has the Spirit without limit, without measure. He can dispense as much of it as he wants. There's no limit. He gives to the thief. He says, oh but think about Ananias and Sapphira.

Baptized by apostolic men. Part of the church brought into the church through water baptism. And yet Jesus had never baptized them with the Holy Spirit. They were not born again. They were not indwelt with the Holy Spirit.

They had not been cleansed from all their filthiness and all their idols. They still had a heart of stone. They were never given a heart of flesh, the Spirit of God never indwelt them. Even though apostles probably baptized them. Continuing, let it be a settled principle in our religion that the baptism of which John the Baptist speaks here is the baptism which is absolutely necessary to salvation.

He's speaking of the baptism with the Holy Spirit at the hands of Jesus Christ. It is well to be baptized into the visible church, but it is far better to be baptized into that church which is made up of true believers. He is saying, only Jesus can baptize you with the Holy Spirit. There's not a man on earth who can do it. Jesus retains that privilege and honor of immersing his people in his spirit.

He keeps that to himself. We could say exactly the same thing. In the last month and a half, we've had 10 baptisms. We can do no better than to say what John the Baptist say. We baptize with water, but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

We do what we can in baptism interviews and making sure you understand the gospel. And then we do something symbolic with physical things. We baptize physical people and physical water, but that doesn't cleanse from spiritual defilements. Only what Jesus gives can cleanse from spiritual defilements. Here's a second Ryle quote.

Ryle says, thousands unhappily are wasting their time in controversy about water baptism and neglecting the baptism of the heart. Now Ryle cares about water baptism. Don't read that quote and misinterpret him to think hey water baptism doesn't matter he's not saying that. But he's saying Many who argue endlessly about water baptism, who should we put in the water, and what should the mode of water baptism be? Now I care about water baptism a lot, but I agree 1000% with J.C.

Ryle about this, whatever we give to wrangling about that we better give times ten to the baptism with the Holy Spirit which regenerates a person and brings them from death to life and only Jesus can give it. I have met people, no people who are obsessed with the wranglings over water baptism, who don't talk nearly enough about what only Jesus can give, and that's the one that matters most. Heaven forbid that we should be one of them. I will end with this and it is stunning and it is the words of Jesus in John chapter 16. By the way, the Gospel of John has more about the Holy Spirit and His ministry and work than all the other Gospels combined.

So we can wind this sermon up because we are going to be coming back to this subject. 16 verse 7. Jesus says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away the helper will not come to you, but if I depart I will send them to you Now just think about how stunning that is That Jesus says it's better for you 12 men if I die and go away.

I just want to let that sink in. It's better for you if I die and go away. You know they're thinking, no, no, Jesus, no. Don't go away. We don't believe you.

So I think that's why Jesus prefaced, I tell you the truth. It's better for you. Because If I don't die and go away, you don't get immersed in my Holy Spirit. That's who the helper is, the Holy Spirit. But if I go away, I'll plunge you into my Holy Spirit.

He'll indwell you. You'll be full of Him. He'll work in you like has never worked in you before. He will guide you like He has never guided you before. See in the Old Testament, the Spirit came and went.

He came to give power and to anoint people like we saw the Spirit anoints Jesus in Isaiah 61. He would come to give you an anointing and power to do something specific, but it wasn't all the time. It wasn't an indwelling certainly. So did they experience the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament? Absolutely.

Is there a difference after Pentecost? Absolutely, and its magnitude. It's dispensed by the great head of the church who has the Spirit without measure, without limitation. He can just pour it endlessly out on us. He indwells us.

Applications. Two. Two applications. So here's the time. We get to what do I do with this truth?

Heaven forbid that we come and listen to this like a lecture where our brains gain some information but our lives don't change at all. So let's think about this. Let's talk about what we do with this. How should this change today for me? This week for me?

Number one, this could have been one for any text, but it just struck me this week. Do not play with the Bible. Do not play with the Bible. Either this is true, And if it is true, then this God demands and deserves our unqualified allegiance. And we should live with an overwhelming confidence.

Confidence. Or it's not true, and it's the most diabolical, devilish hoax ever propagated on mankind. I can't see how there could be a third option. So there is no patting the Bible on the head. Oh nice book.

It's not a nice book. It's either the best book ever or the worst book ever. These things that are related, either they happened, either Jesus went down into the water and when he came up out of the water, the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and remained upon him, infallibly identifying him as the Messiah and anointing him to do all that the prophet said that the messiah would do or that didn't really happen and these are lies and a great hoax has been perpetrated upon us and this is a devilish book. It happened or it didn't. It happened or it didn't.

And if it is true, then the God of this book demands and he deserves our unqualified allegiance, holding nothing back. And we have a birthright to live with such confidence that this God will always take care of us. We can walk through life with no fear and perfect confidence and just Trust and obey and be happy in Jesus. I believe it's true. So I want to stop qualifying my obedience, My allegiance.

Haven't you hit that point from time to time just like disgusted at your own half-heartedness? Just wanting to be free from half-heartedly going about this. If it's true, doesn't he demand our unqualified allegiance? Doesn't he deserve our unqualified allegiance? Aren't you sick of qualifying your allegiance?

And I want to live with the confidence that this God who has done these things in time and history is indwelling me. Telling me that I'm immersed in His Spirit and I can do anything that He wants me to do. Number two, we need to seriously consider the implications of having been baptized with the Holy Spirit. I'm talking to those who are born again in the room, Christians, brethren. Brethren, if you've been baptized with the Spirit, first of all, it is the Holy Spirit.

If He indwells you, the Holy Spirit makes His home holy. I hope we are at least a little disturbed at the unholiness that remains. What kind of home for the Holy Spirit? And that we would do whatever we can do to try to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit. So He can make His dwelling in us holy.

And we learn from Acts that they were constrained from being witnesses outside of Jerusalem until the Spirit comes upon. If we have been immersed, baptized, over flown by the Holy Spirit. We have power to be witnesses in our hometown, our state, in our country, to the end of the world. There are implications to being baptized with the Holy Spirit by the great head of the church. Are we becoming holy?

Are we using the power to be his witnesses. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for this text. I pray that you would press these truths upon us this week, cause them to linger in our minds, and use your word to change us, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.