The people of Israel were a people expecting deliverance from Roman domination. They desperately wanted to be free from Roman soldiers, Roman taxes, and Roman culture. As God had redeemed their ancestors from Egypt and Babylon, they now placed their hope in a new deliverer, a messiah that would embody Moses, Joshua, and David.
They were also expecting revival. They desperately wanted a revival of Jewish culture and religion. They wanted to hear the thundering words of the prophets once again, sing their psalms of praise anew, and see the glory of God descend upon the Temple. As the people heard the thundering words of John the Baptist calling the nation back to the wilderness, back to the Jordan River, they heard his call for corporate repentance. Maybe this fiery new prophet was their long awaited messiah! They asked, “Are you Messiah?”
The Baptist replied, “Messiah is coming and he will bring the Spirit and fire.” These words resonated in the ears and hearts of all who heard. Anyone familiar with the preaching of the ancient prophets knew that God had promised both the Spirit and fire.
About the coming of the Spirit, the prophets declared,
Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. the forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks– Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest (Is. 32:14f)
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. (Ezek. 36:26f).
And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28f).
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. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn (Zech. 12:10).
The coming Messiah is anointed by the Spirit and anoints with the Spirit. Messiah’s coming would mean that all of Israel would receive this anointing of the Holy Spirit. The coming Spirit would restore the barrenness of the land, bless the children, transform the hearts of the people, and would bring forth life. Luke tells us that Jesus went forth “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). Other prophets, including John the Baptist, were empowered by the Spirit, but only Jesus has the authority to empower his disciples. In fact, his disciples have become a messianic community, going forth in the power of the Spirit! Jesus gives them power over demons and disease (Luke 9:1); Spirit is given as power over and protection from the enemy (Luke 10:19); Holy Spirit is given by the Father as a sign of His love and grace (Luke 11:13); Holy Spirit inspires speech in times of persecution and proclamation (Luke 12:12). The post resurrection promise of Jesus that He will send “forth the promise of My Father upon you” and you will be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) is a promise pregnant with prophetic expectation and fulfillment.
A new Temple? Throughout the Acts of the Apostles the followers of Jesus were empowered by the Holy Spirit. But in our emphasis on the coming of the Spirit in the Upper Room, is it possible that we have overlooked something? That is, where the Spirit did not come! When the Holy Spirit was given, Spirit did not come upon the Temple, the center of Israel’s religious life! When John prophesied about the messianic baptism of the Spirit, all who heard probably assumed that the descent of the Spirit would be centered upon the Temple. Haggai declared, “The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former…” (2:9 NASB). Many could have thought of the coming of the Spirit to be a prophetic fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision of the glory of the Lord descending upon and filling the Temple (Ezekiel 10:1ff). But that is not what happened! The Spirit of God did not descend upon worshipers in the Temple, nor did He come upon the priest of the Temple, but upon the disciples of Jesus in an alternative temple, the Upper Room! It is here that we begin to see the work of the Holy Spirit in separating the wheat from the chaff and the coming baptism of fire (Luke 3:15ff).
Messiah brings the Spirit, but also fire! Isaiah proclaimed, “Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with His anger, and His burden is heavy; His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue like a devouring fire” (Isaiah 30:27). Jeremiah declared, “O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment in the morning; and deliver him who is plundered out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go forth like fire and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (21:12). Ezekiel cried out, “…I shall gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in the midst of it” (22:21). Amos prophesied of coming fire upon various cities seven times and then proclaimed, “Seek the Lord and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel” (5:6). Nahum speaks of God’s fury being poured out like fire (1:6); Zephaniah speaks of the earth being devoured by the fire of God’s jealousy (3:8); and Malachi speaks of the coming of God and says “…who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire…” (3:2).
The Messiah’s baptism of fire is a redemptive judgment! The day of the Lord is a day of salvation for the righteous and a day of judgment for the wicked. Isaiah prophesied, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me… to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God” (61:1f). How is this prophecy fulfilled in the Messiah, the people of Israel, and the church? John the Baptist used the metaphor of separation of the wheat and the chaff with a winnowing fan. It was the custom to begin the process of separation on a windy day when the harvested wheat could be tossed into the wind. The wind (pneuma) would blow away the chaff as the heavier kernels would fall to the ground. The wheat, separated from the chaff, would then be gathered into the barns and the chaff would be burned. The mighty wind of the Spirit at Pentecost began the process of separation that must occur before the baptism of fire! Those who heard these prophetic words probably interpreted them to mean that God would separate Israel (the wheat) from Rome (the chaff). But the separation that God accomplished began with Israel itself separating those who would accept the Messiah from those who rejected Him. When the baptism of fire did come, it was not Rome that was burned, but the Temple and Jerusalem! In A.D. 70, the Roman General Titus entered Jerusalem and burned the city and the Temple with fire. The people of Israel who were disciples of Jesus were baptized in the Spirit and formed an alternative community, the new people of God. Those who rejected the Messiah were baptized in the fire. Paul says that the rejection and judgment of Israel will ultimately become their salvation (Romans 11:11ff). Further, Paul told the Corinthians that they would be saved in the end as a result of the fire of judgment (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
As the mighty wind of the Spirit began to blow God’s glory descended upon an alternative Temple, the Upper Room. The cleansing and separating work of the Holy Spirit is preparation for the coming fire of God. After the division between the church and the Jewish establishment became well defined (the center of activity for the church moved from Jerusalem to Antioch, then Rome) then came the baptism of fire upon Jerusalem and the Temple. The church continued to go forth into the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Like the people who heard the prophetic preaching of John the Baptist, some Christians in America are expectant. Many are praying for revival and renewal and it certainly seems that the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing. We should not remove from our minds and hearts the possibility that with renewal and revival there will be a baptism of fire. This baptism of fire will not begin in Washington, New York, or any of the great cities of our society. They will fall, Babylon will fall, but as Peter has told us, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God…” (1 Peter 4:17). Rome was eventually sacked and burned. But the fire of God began at Jerusalem! If revival and renewal does come to the church, the fire of God will follow and all of the religious institutions, traditions, and practices that have been built from wood, hay, or straw shall be consumed by the fire of God. Remember, this is not bad news! This is not the message of a pessimist! This is the promise of God that the church shall be saved even if by fire! (1 Corinthians 3:12ff).
Although the Spirit did not descend upon the Temple in Jerusalem, we are told that as the “word of God kept on spreading, …a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). Much of the Apostles’ early ministry was done within the confines of the Temple complex (Acts 2:46). The separating and cleansing work of the Spirit is no excuse for Christians to deny the unity of the Faith or to reject legitimate headship in the church. The Holy Spirit not only separates the wheat from the chaff; Spirit’s work also causes the kernels of wheat to be gathered into the barn! The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered” (Isaiah 56:8). Jesus said, “And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16).
How then should the church respond to the message of the Spirit and the fire? “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance…!” (Luke 3:8).
