Mark 1:5-8 (NIV): The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The coming of Jesus marked a qualitative change in the way that God interacted with His people. John himself was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth (Luke 1:15), but it was very rare for people to experience the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives at all. Mary was “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) as the means of initiating her pregnancy, but even she was not “baptized” with the Holy Spirit at that time.
In the days before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would usually “come upon” someone temporarily to enable them to prophecy or do mighty acts. And then He would go away. The people longed for the intimacy of communion with God, as well as the practical holiness that His Spirit living in them would bring; an intimacy and holiness that was promised by the prophets. (e.g., Ezekiel 36:24-27) But up to that time, no mechanism had yet appeared to make those promises a reality. A few people still experienced the Holy Spirit’s presence for a time and a purpose, but the long-awaited “baptism” had yet to appear.
But when Jesus was revealed by John’s pronouncement, the mechanism was also revealed. Jesus did not baptize with the Holy Spirit in the same way that John baptized with water. In order to bring the Holy Spirit on all of God’s people, Jesus first had to suffer and die to pay the death penalty for sins; He had to rise again to proclaim victory over death and hell; and then He had to ascend to the right hand of God the Father. It was from there that He finally poured out the Holy Spirit on the gathered disciples at Pentecost, and a short time later on the 3000 that believed in Jesus because of their testimony. (Acts 2) Later that same “baptism” was even experienced by gentiles. (Acts 10) Being filled with the Holy Spirit became the hallmark of the Christian experience.
All of that had been planned and promised long before it became a reality. But with the coming of Jesus, the relationship between God and His people took a quantum leap forward, because now He can guide and direct us, even communicate directly with us, from within our own hearts.
Father, I don’t think that many of us really appreciate how amazing the presence of Your Holy Spirit in our lives really is! Thank You for this massive gift, for Your very presence in our lives, and for Jesus, through whom it all became possible. Amen.