Two Baptisms Explained: What Most Christians Miss in Acts 1

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, again, we're ready to go for the last half hour program of this session. And again, I always like my television people to know that when you see the same people for a whole month in the same clothes, it's just simply because we tape four programs in one afternoon. And some people have asked, well, why are most of your people older? Well, it's working time. Most people are working. This is a Wednesday afternoon, and unless you're fortunate enough to get off or have a vacation, why, most of our routine class members here in the studio are retired. And so that's the way we do it. Every fourth Wednesday afternoon, we come in and tape four programs. So for those of you again on television, remember that all these programs are available in tape. And in order to make them affordable to almost everybody, we put 12 half-hour programs on one six-hour video. And we ship them almost anywhere, postage paid for, what are we now, getting 30? Honey, we always did get 25. We were getting behind, so we moved it up to 30. But if someone, like in prison, we get quite a few letters from people in prison. And when they don't have the wherewithal, we'll just send them what they need. So anyway, we don't try to make anything on the tapes or the books or anything. We just try to get them out at our cost. So those are available. And the books, of course, as I mentioned before, are becoming more and more available. We've got eight of them now that can be sent out. And the others, Jerry and his wife are working on the transcription of them, and they'll be coming. I've also been asked to announce our weeknight classes here in Oklahoma. On Monday night, we have a class at Tahlequah. On Tuesday night, we're down at Wilberton. On Wednesday night, we are up here at Tulsa, meeting right here. And then on Thursday night, we meet at Macalester. And Saturday night, we have a class at Muskogee. So if you're in any of those areas, just please call us on the 800 number, and we'll give you details of the time and so on and so forth. We'd love to have you. All right, now for those of you here in the studio and for those of you on television, I appreciate when so many say that we take our Bible and we take notes. Well, that's exactly what we intend for this to be. So if you've got your Bible, I'd like to have you turn back to Acts chapter 1. But I'm going to spend a moment or two on, again, just introduction. As I said in the last program, Acts is a book of transition. The first nine chapters are predominantly Peter and the Jew. And then, of course, in chapter 9, we have the conversion of Saul. Then for a little bit, we go back to Peter and the Jews in Jerusalem. And then after chapter 11, Peter falls off the stage, and it's nothing but Paul. And that way you can see it's such a change. Now also, I think it always helps wherever we are in the Scripture, and I think I'm getting to be known for my timeline teaching. And even in the book of Acts, I like to show a timeline, how that chronologically, in time, all these things happened, which fit this whole transitional thing. Now I went ahead and put them on the board during our break time. You want to remember that according to our latest chronology now, Christ was crucified in A .D. 29, and of course 50 days after His resurrection, you had Pentecost. So Pentecost in A.D. 29, then 7 years later you have the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. Now that's a 7 year period of time. A lot of people don't realize that. But 7 years from Pentecost until Stephen's martyrdom, then it's only 1 year after Stephen's martyrdom when you have Saul converted on the road to Damascus. Then a year after Saul's conversion, you've got Peter going to the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, or A.D. 38. Then in A.D. 40, which is 3 years after Paul's conversion in 37, in A .D. 40, Paul and Peter meet in Jerusalem, just for a little short period of time, I think for 2 weeks, and none of the other apostles, just Paul and Peter. Then Paul goes on up into the area of his old hometown of Tarsus, ends up at Antioch, and then begins his missionary journeys. Then after he's been holding forth up at Antioch, and taking his gospel now to the Gentiles, the Jerusalem believers get all shook up, and they call him down to Jerusalem for the council of Acts chapter 15. And that Jerusalem council is also referred to in Galatians chapter 2, and that takes place in A.D. 51. Now when we come to it verse by verse, we're going to see that at this point in time, in Acts 15, Peter, remembering now what took place at the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, comes to Paul's defense, and he says, "...you know how that a good while ago God by my mouth went to the Gentiles?" Well what was the good while ago? 13 years! 13 years have elapsed from the time that Peter saw the house of Cornelius converted, until he comes to Paul's defense in Acts 15. Now in that 13 year interval, has Peter been going to Gentiles? No way! He went right back to Jerusalem. He's still dealing only with his own people, the nation of Israel. But time is rolling on. And so here we've come now to Stephen in 36, Saul's conversion in 37, Peter goes to the house of Cornelius in 38, Paul comes back from his 3 years of seminary training with the Lord alone at Mount Sinai, I think, in Arabia. And so after that 3 years, from 37 to 40, he meets that short moment of time in Jerusalem, and then he's called on the carpet in AD 51, and then of course he writes his letters, Romans and Galatians and so forth, but within this time frame from AD 46-48, when he writes his earliest letters, until he's martyred in about 67 -68, and in AD 70, the temple is destroyed, and Israel is scattered into the world. Now that's the book of Acts. 40 years. 40 years. But the first, the first 7-8 years, it's still God dealing with Israel. Then He raises up the apostle Paul, and He begins that Gentile dealing with the house of Cornelius, even at Peter's preaching. And again, it had to be that way, so that Peter could come to Paul's defense here. And then you see the whole thing going. Israel falls away. The Gentiles are coming up. The Church is coming up. And that's the book of Acts. Now, I think most of us have always had it hammered into us. I did. That the book of Acts was the account of the birth of the Church. Well, it is. But primarily, I prefer to look at the book of Acts as the fall of the nation of Israel. Because here in the book of Acts, we're going to see that Israel finally rejects their Messiah completely. They'll not have Him to be their king. And God puts them into a dispersion, takes away their temple, and He turns to the Gentile. Oh, not exclusively. Some Jews are still being saved. But for the most part, the last 1900 and some years have been God calling out Gentiles, comprising the Body of Christ. But we're not up to that point in time yet as we come into the book of Acts. So now, let's just in the next few minutes take the first few verses. And Acts, of course, is written by the same gentleman who wrote the Gospel of Luke. And so Luke writes this, and he says, "...the former retreatus have I made, O Theophilus," that is, his Gospel account, "...of all that Jesus began both to do and teach." In other words, Luke makes mention of the fact that his Gospel only dealt with Christ's earthly ministry. Verse 2. "...until," there's that time word, "...from the time of Christ's earthly ministry until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen." Now who were the chosen apostles? Well, the eleven. Judas is out, and so there's eleven left. Alright, verse 3. "...so it's to these eleven that He showed Himself alive after His passion," that is, after His death, burial, resurrection, "...by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days." Now we used this verse a couple weeks ago. Now look at the next statement. "...in this forty-day period between His resurrection and now His ascension, He has been speaking to especially the eleven," concerning what? The Kingdom. See? The Kingdom. And what have I said about the Kingdom? I said it in my class again the other night. The Kingdom is the Kingdom is the Kingdom is the Kingdom. There's only one Kingdom in Scripture, and it's the Kingdom that is going to be set upon this earth, and He's going to rule as King of kings and Lord of lords, and yes, you and I are already citizens of that Kingdom, which tonight is in heaven. Christ is the King, absolutely, but He's not the King, as I said a week or so ago, of the Church. He's the Head of the Body, but we are members of that Kingdom. Colossians 1 makes it so plain that we have been translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son. And when the Son returns and sets up His Kingdom on this earth, we're going to be part and parcel of it. "...and all then, He has for forty days been speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." Now as we go on into the book of Acts, you're going to see that Peter now, and the other ten, and then they're going to be filled up with Matthias in chapter 1, I think it is. But these twelve men are so expectant of the King setting up His Kingdom now, that this is just going to fill every moment of their existence. And this is why Peter just almost burns himself out in these early days after Pentecost, preaching to the nation of Israel that the One they crucified was indeed their King. And if they could just believe it, the King would yet return and they could have the Kingdom and all these Old Testament promises of going to the Gentiles, it would have been theirs. But see, God in His foreknowledge knew they wouldn't do it. They're going to reject it. But let's not put the horse behind the cart or the cart ahead of it. Let's just take it as it comes now. And so then in verse 4, after forty days of talking to them about the Kingdom, their role in it, remember what He said back in Matthew 19, "...and you shall sit upon twelve thrones ruling the twelve tribes of Israel." Of course they will. Oh, let's look at it, so that you get the emotion that is driving these eleven men. Back to Matthew 19. Matthew 19, beginning of verse 27. Matthew 19, verse 27, "...and then answered Peter and said unto him," that is, unto Jesus, "'Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore?' See how human they are? They're not talking about their salvation. He knows they've got that. But what's in it? What are we going to have? "...and Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that you who have followed Me," comma, now you've got to be careful in punctuation. See, if you take that comma out, then it makes it sound as though you've been following Me in the regeneration. Isn't that right? But that comma tells you, no, that's not the way it's to be read. "...but you who have followed Me," these last three years, comma, "...in the regeneration," which is still future, that's the kingdom, of course, "...when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging," or ruling, whom? Twelve tribes of Israel. Oh, but now we've got a dilemma. We need twelve men. And how many have we got? Eleven. So what's going to be the first order of business? Hey, filling that vacant position. Now, it's only logical, and yet I have read over the years good men who have castigated poor old Peter, and have blamed him for getting in a hurry, running ahead of everything. He should have waited for Paul. Listen, Paul wouldn't have fit in that slot any more than a square peg in a round hole. No way. He didn't fill the qualifications. And so Peter was right on. He was in perfect accord to the will of God when he immediately took steps to fill that twelfth slot, because he is expecting the Lord's return in short order. He doesn't see 1900 and some years down the road. Peter sees that Old Testament program that after Christ was rejected, he would be raised from the dead, he would be ascending to the Father, and then the tribulation, and then the king would return and set up his kingdom. And so this is what drives these eleven men later again to be twelve, because of the promise now of this coming kingdom. All right, now let's read on. Verse 4, "...being assembled together with him, he," that is Christ, "...commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but they were to wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he," that is the Father, Jesus is speaking, "...you have heard of me." And then verse 5, "...for John truly baptized with," what? "...water." Now this is Jesus speaking. "...John truly baptized with water, but," now those of you who have been in my class and those of you who have been listening on television now for four years, whenever you see that word, but, what have you got? Flip side, see? Flip side, every time. Oh, He said, "...John baptized with water," but the flip side is, you're going to be baptized differently. You're going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. I think I've got time. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. I'll probably run out of time. Matthew chapter 3. Drop down again to verse 11, where we're dealing with John the Baptist, and John the Baptist says, quoted of course by Matthew by inspiration, "...I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but," there's that flip again, it's going to be a change, "...he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, he," speaking of the Christ, of the Lord Jesus, "...he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire." Now again, who is John the Baptist addressing? Jews. He doesn't have Gentiles in his crowd, but to the Jews he says, Jesus the Christ is going to baptize you with, or into, the what? The Holy Spirit. Now, I always like to put this in legal terms. I've always had some lawyers in my classes, and it kind of helps when they put their okay on all this. As you read this verse, you'll find that Jesus is going to be the baptize, he or her? Her. Jesus is going to be the baptize her, and he's going to baptize the Jews, that's who he's talking to, into the Holy Spirit. All right. When did Jesus do that? Well, at Pentecost, because that was a Jewish feast day. It was the nation of Israel that was gathered, and down came the Holy Spirit with power, and it was the Jews' valid offer again to have experienced that power of the Holy Spirit to do what? Miracles, and signs, and wonders, as Jesus had done. And so this was the nation's prospect, that they could just literally carry on as individual, believing Jews, what Christ had been doing for three years. And how would He manifest it? By placing them into the very power of the Holy Spirit. Now, we'll get into that in the next half hour, when we get to the next verse, or chapter 1, verse 8, where He says, "...you shall receive power." And so that was the whole concept, that Jesus would be the baptize her, Israel would be the baptize ease. All right, now let me show you the flip side. Now turn all the way to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, and we're going to have to start with verse 12. 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, starting at verse 12, where Paul, of course, is now writing to the church of Corinth, which was basically Gentile. Now he comes up with a term that is strictly Pauline. Jesus never spoke of the body of Christ, Peter never spoke of the body of Christ, only Paul did. And so Paul now, in verse 12, is using our human body as an illustration. And so he says, "...for as the body," our human body, "...is one," it functions as one unit, "...but it hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body." In other words, your hands, your feet, your eyes, your ears, everything that makes up our being operates from a central nervous system, from a central place of thinking, and so forth, operates as one. But it has all these members. Now what does he say? "...so also is Christ," and he's making the allusion to the body of Christ. We've got all these different people that are making up the body of Christ, rich and poor, black and white, whatever. From all around the world, they have come into the body of Christ. They're all different. They all have their culture. But yet if they've all been saved by the same power and the same gospel, then what are we? We're one in Christ. And I dare say that you and I could go to the Philippines tonight, and we could go into a class of believers in the Philippines, and in five minutes you'd feel perfectly at home. You could bring people from any other part of the world you can think of. If they're born again children of God, they could come into this class and they'd feel right at home. Why? Because we are one in Christ. How did we get there? Now here's the crucial question. How do we get into this unique, I don't like to call it an organization, it's an organism, how do we get into this living organism that we call the body of Christ? Verse 13. "...for by one Spirit," capitalized, who are we talking about? Holy Spirit. "...so by one Spirit," the Holy Spirit, "...are we," what's the next word? "...all, not just the elite, not just the few, but every born-again believer, are all," what? "...baptized into," not the local church, but the what? The body. The body. And the body is that universal, complex makeup of born-again believers. No unbeliever goes into the body of Christ. No unbeliever. Now you can baptize buku people and make them members of local churches, and they can be as lost as a dog. But they're baptized. But they're not in the body of Christ. But the true Child of God, the moment He is saved, the moment He's been born by the work of the Spirit, He is baptized by the Holy Spirit into that body. Now that's the One that counts for eternity. And regardless of whether you've been baptized any other way, by Jordan water, or by Timbuktu river water, that makes no difference. But when you've been baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, you're His. You're safe for eternity. Alright, so for by one Spirit are we baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, bond or free, I'll even put, if I may, whatever color, whatever race, whatever our lot in life, rich or poor, makes no difference. We have all been made to drink or partake into that One Spirit for the body that is the body of Christ is not one member, but many. Now as you'll read your Bible, you'll notice that that, as I said, is a term unique only to Paul. The church, which is his body. The body of Christ, which is the church. And that makes all the difference. Alright, so now then, let's put us back up here where as early on, and as we come into the early part of Acts, Jesus is the baptizer. He's going to baptize the Jew into the power of the Holy Spirit. But now you see, Paul completely flips that. And now the Holy Spirit becomes the baptizer, baptizing predominantly, not exclusively, I hope I'm not getting too low for the camera, Gentiles into the what? Into the body of Christ. Can you get that on the board, Sharon? Now you see that? There's a whole, complete, 180 degree turn in operation. As we come out of the Gospels and into the book of Acts, God dealing with the nation of Israel, Christ is the baptizer. He is placing the Jew, as they believe, into the power of the Holy Spirit to perform the signs and the miracles and what have you, that would continue Christ's earthly ministry. But when that fell apart, Israel rejected it, God turned to the Gentile, and we have a complete flip. And now the Holy Spirit becomes the baptizer, and, I mean, yeah, the Holy Spirit becomes the baptizer, and He places us into Christ. Just the opposite. Whereas first the Holy Spirit placed the Jew into the Holy Spirit, or the Jesus placed the Jew into the Holy Spirit, now the Holy Spirit places the Gentile into Christ. Can you see that? And oh, they're just boo-coo verses. Colossians chapter 3, For you are hid in Christ, in God. Well, how did you get in Christ? When the Holy Spirit baptized you into it. And that wasn't with water. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 7480.