"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life" (Revelation 21:16)
Jesus is the risen Lord, the savior of all humanity, and the Baptist in fire and in the Holy Spirit. Some six thousand years ago, Jesus was present when the deep springs and the floodgates of heaven were opened up to baptize the earth, cleansing it in water. He along with the Father and Spirit remembered Noah and his family in the ark. His breath blew away the waters to resurrect the dead, to breathe new life into the earth, to give all of creation a new birth.
His body was symbolized in Noah's burnt offerings that put the first Covenant into effect. On that day on the third month, in response to Noah's sacrifice, the hand of the Lord Jesus reached down to earth and set the sign of the Father's promise over its head. With His hand, Jesus clothed and covered the heads of all living creatures, both clean and unclean, with light. In a multi-colored arc of fire produced by water and light suspended in the breath of the earth, the heavens, the Father through the hand of the Son hung His everlasting sign of Covenant. And in that sign, filled with depth and meaning beyond human comprehension, God revealed His Spirit, the Comforter, who would remind all living creatures both clean and unclean of His promise of life and everlasting grace from destruction by water:
"this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come" (Genesis 9:12)
The promise of the Father was for Noah's children, and for their children, for their children's children, for all far-off generations after them, and for all who would be saved from a watery tomb on the earth. In that sign, with seven distinct colors, God manifested His Spirit. He poured out His Spirit for all men to see. And in that rainbow, God revealed the Spirit that would rest on His Son, who was and is the Baptist:
"the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD1" (Isaiah 11:2)
All the colors of the rainbow would stand as a visible and everlasting sign overhead that would speak of God's Covenant to all generations.
Several hundreds of years later, on the third month, Jesus again was present when God made a covenant with Abram. Again the covenant was put into effect by blood. In a split red sea of carcasses, the body of our Lord was symbolically broken before Abram. And across that tract of dry ground between the walls of death on the right and on the left, walked the invisible Angel of the Lord with fiery torch and smoking firepot in hand. The pre-incarnate Christ, the Great High Priest Jesus, walked with a symbolic censor and incense sealing the promise of the Father to make Abram the father of many nations.
With a column of fire, and a cloud of smoke, the Lord Jesus traced the footsteps that the Children of Israel would take hundreds of years later through the Red Sea. With the same steps, he traced the footsteps of His other children, who even further into the future would take the same walk out of a land of captivity, to be baptized in the red sea of His blood. After passing through a wall of death, they would reemerge on the other side as if reborn from a watery womb. In the fire and smoke rising from the torch and firepot stood another promise of the Father. A promise that one day, the prayers of the saints carried by the High Priest in one hand would one day be answered by the promise held in His other. In the hand of our Lord burned a consuming fire carried overhead.
Many years later, again in the third month, the preincarnate Christ reappeared to Abram. With the breath of His Word the Lord spoke regeneration into Abram. He gave Him a new name and thus a new life. No longer was he to be called "Abram" but "Abraham."
"then God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner; those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.'" (Genesis 17:9-14)
The Lord Jesus gave Abraham instructions of how the Covenant was to be manifested in the flesh. Both Jew and Gentile who were of his family were to carry with them the everlasting sign of His covenant. The seal of adoption was to be placed on their bodies. With the shedding of blood, a ritualistic death and rebirth took place. In that act, a baptism would mark the death of the old and the life of a new man. The old body, like the womb of a virgin, would be pierced, blood would flow, and out of death and bloodshed would be conceived and born something new and holy.
Circumcision was to be an everlasting sign in the flesh. It was to mark a child of Abraham no matter if he was born into the household or purchased. Like the animals saved in the ark, both clean and unclean children of Abraham were partakers in this new Covenant and beneficiaries of the promise of their earthly and heavenly fathers. Those not of Abraham's seed would be covered under this new Covenant and all would see the promise of the Father manifested in their flesh, a sign that would edify the man's body and be a witness to unbelievers.
Hundreds of years later, in a land of captivity the innocent blood of Jesus was again symbolically shed to save God's children and to bring a new Covenant to pass. This time the blood of lambs covered wooden thresholds and in so doing, covered a whole nation. The Death Angel could not but pass over this protective arc and shield of blood. Like the rainbow before it, this covering of blood protected the flood that came by night.
After the Children of Israel had received salvation by the shed blood of the lamb, they were to walk in obedience and faith through the split waters symbolically completing their part in the covenant initiated by God with their father Abraham. Through those waters of baptism in the sea and in the cloud, they walked symbolically into a watery tomb, a cleansing pool and into the very womb of the earth all at once. After passing by a wall of death to their right and to their left, they reemerged new creations on the other side. With the deadly Red Sea behind them, they walked under the covering of a cloud by day and a fire by night.
"they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:2)
On the third month, on the Day of Pentecost, Jesus stretched His hand over Mount Sinai and baptized it in fire. The Spirit of the Lord descended in fire with the sound of a mighty rushing trumpet blast. The mountain shook violently and swayed as would a man drunk with wine. On that altar not made by human hands, like that of Elijah the Prophet2, the Lord showed His power in flames.
"when the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance" (Exodus 20:18)
The Assembly saw voices and blazing torches coming from a mountain baptized in fire. Both Jew and Gentile, clean and unclean, were witnesses and partakers of a Covenant that day. The Word of God, His Covenant, was spoken by the very lips of God through the fires on an earthen mountain whose crest (head) is blackened to this day! His Covenant was to be passed on by mouth and lips from generation to generation.
"teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, 'Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.' You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets." (Deuteronomy 4:9b-13)
His Covenant was to be manifested in obedience. Through His Covenant spoken at Sinai, the Lord would cover, anoint, bless, and send out His people to be for Him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That day at Mount Sinai, He endued them with power. He baptized them with fire and spoke to a mixed multitude, both clean and unclean, in visible voices, signs and wonders.
Two thousand years later, on the banks of the River Jordan, a man by the name of John the Baptist, spoke these words:
"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Matthew 3:11)
When the Lord Jesus Christ appeared before him to be baptized,
"John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" (Matthew 3:14)
John the Baptist, knew that before him stood another more powerful Baptist. On that day, John no doubt yearned for the baptism that only Jesus could give.
"He must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:30)
Three years later, the Lamb of God whom John first professed was sacrificed on a wooden cross atop the altar of Mount Calvary. The blood of an innocent man would soon cover all those who believed in Him. They would be saved from the ultimate death thanks to another wooden ark of salvation-the cross. No longer would they face eternal separation from God in a land of captivity. Like Jesus, they would emerge from the tomb as new creations. As Jesus prophesied to Nicodemus, they too would be reborn from a watery womb.
"Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:5-8)
They would leave their old bodies behind reborn and marked with seal of the Holy Spirit. They would adopt a new name and thus a new identity. They would be called to walk into the waters of baptism in obedience and faith, symbolizing their death, their re-conception, their new birth, their resurrection, and their covenant with God before man.
Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus commanded the children of the new Covenant:
"do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:4b-5)
On the third month, fifty days after putting the new Covenant into effect on Passover with His blood, Jesus the Baptist received the disciples on the banks of His river, the river of His Holy Spirit. On that day, He baptized 120 believers not with His blood (the salvation they already received) and not with water, but with His Holy Spirit.
"this is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." (1 John 5:6-8)
On that Day of Pentecost, just as He had with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the Children of Israel on previous Days of Pentecost, the Father confirmed His Covenant in the Son, through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit3. As with all the other covenants - God does not change - He extended this Covenant Act to Gentiles, who were ceremoniously unclean4 - a point that was graphically taught to the Apostle Peter by vision. As with Noah, His Spirit descended in a sign of light overhead. As with Abram, His Spirit appeared in a sign of fire again overhead. As with Abraham, the sign manifested in the flesh, this time in their mouth, lips, and tongues. As with Moses and the Children of Israel, the Lord appeared with a mighty rushing sound and spoke to a mixed multitude. He spoke in a rainbow of visible voices and torches in the form of tongues of fire overhead and in the circumcised tongues of men and women.
As in the days of Noah, the floodgates of heaven were opened, the deep springs of their souls burst forth and out of them flowed rivers of living water. They began to prophecy in a brilliant multitude of linguistic colors. As in the days of Abram, their earnest prayers had been answered when the Lord Jesus, the Great High Priest, lit them with the blazing torch of His Holy Spirit. As in the days of Abraham, the everlasting sign of this Covenant manifested itself in the flesh, in the circumcised and fluent tongues of seeking believers. As in the days of Moses, the Lord descended in fire on altars not made by human hands but formed by God in the womb. He descended on altars known as men and women. Although unseen, the Lord spoke through them in a torrential rainbow of languages. As with the mountain at Horeb, the Spirit of the Lord shook them and made them sway as though they were drunk. He clothed them with multi-colored prophetic and priestly power as Jacob clothed Joseph (the coat) and Aaron clothed his sons (the ephod). On that day, the words of the prophet Isaiah were fulfilled:
"'As for me, this is my covenant with them,' says the LORD. 'My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,' says the LORD. 'Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 'Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.'" (Isaiah 59:21-60:1-5)
These words were witnessed by the believers on the Day of Pentecost and by all those who had come from afar:
"they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs; we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!' Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, 'What does this mean?'" (Acts 2:3-12)
The words of the prophet were also echoed by the Apostle Peter:
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off; for all whom the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2:38-39)
Jesus is the Baptist in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He has not changed. He is waiting to baptize you in fire and in the Holy Spirit. If you are saved, you have already been baptized in His blood. If you have been baptized in water, you have walked in obedience and faith. If you have not been Baptized by the Lord Jesus, hearken now to the words of John the Baptist:
His Covenant is the same as it was on the Days of Pentecost. He is and will forever remain, Jesus the Baptist."I need to be baptized by you!"
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)
1. The Seven-fold Spirit of God was fully manifest in the ministry of Jesus, which began with His baptism in the Jordan River and His empowerment by the Holy Spirit. His earthly ministry and the words of Isaiah demonstrate a common beginning - the Spirit of God. As followers of Jesus, believers should imitate this example.
"I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'" (John 1:33)2. Note how Elijah baptized the altar atop Mount Carmel in three ways. He first baptized the altar with a bull and its blood (the atoning body and blood that covers us like a rainbow-Salvation). He then baptized the altar three times with water. This was a sign to us that it was indeed a three-part baptism. It was also a sign that foreshadowed the three days that the Lord would be "baptized" in the belly of the earth (the Sign of Jonah). After this baptism in water, the Lord baptized the altar with fire from heaven (Spirit baptism). The altar that God seeks to cover, atone for, clothe with blood, water, and Spirit is one not made by human hand and fashioned by human tool. That altar is you and me! We are the altars of living stones (1 Peter 2:5). We like Noah's mountain, Sinai, and the Temple Mount on the Day of Pentecost, are the Mountains of His new Covenant. We are the temple and tabernacle of God able to be filled with the glory of God (1 kings 8:11; 2 Chronicles 5:14, 7:2; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:19-21). Elijah's three-part Messianic baptism and the altar he prepared atop Mount Carmel gives added insight to the Enunciation and Messianic ministry of another prophet - John the Baptist:
"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children" (Ephesians 5:1)
"And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17)
3. The Lord's Baptism with the lasting sign of the unknown tongue is the third major covenantal act found in the New Testament. The remaining two are salvation and baptism in water with the lasting signs of blood and water respectively. These major covenantal acts join the four found in the Old Testament (lasting sign in parentheses): The Covenant of Noah (rainbow), The two-part Covenant of Abraham (circumcision), and the Covenant of Moses (God's laws and decrees). Four of the major covenantal acts fall under the category of "ordinances": the two-part Covenant of Abraham, the Covenant of Moses, and baptism in water. Three fall under "promises": the Covenant of Noah, Salvation, and the Lord's Baptism in the Holy Spirit. However, all seven major covenantal acts involve both promises and ordinances. For instance, salvation involves following the teachings of the Lord (John 14:23-24; Acts 5:32; Romans 2:13), while the Lord's Baptism in the Holy Spirit involves obeying the Great Commission and the Lord's instructions to wait (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:47-48; Acts 1:4-8).
4. Gentiles owe speaking in unknown tongues for their acceptance as believers by the early Christians who as observant Jews could not associate with Gentiles. They were seen as "unclean" just as the unclean animals onboard the Ark, the aliens in Abraham's camp, and the mixed multitude who left Egypt along with the Hebrews. The inclusion by God of what was seen as unclean in the covenants of previous Days of Pentecost gives added insight into the vision given to the Apostle Peter. If the Gentiles of Acts Chapter 10 had merely said they were believers or had exhibited any other sign it would not have been enough for the Spirit-baptized Jews. The lasting multi-colored, fiery, covenantal sign in the flesh is what confirmed loud and clear that they were a part of the new Covenant. Put another way, their circumcised tongues and lips testified that they had been grafted into the line of their Father Abraham.
"The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God." (Acts 10:45-46)
Light the Fire Ministries ©2006
