Jesus Christ, The Baptizer In The Holy Spirit

November 1, 2007 by PastorHarv.

JESUS CHRIST, THE BAPTIZER IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, by Pastor Harv Meppelink

“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John….The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw The Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God’” (John 1:6, 29, 32-34).

Every one of the four Gospels spells out John’s declaration, “I indeed baptize you with water, he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John became known as John the Baptist. His ministry was to baptize with water. He became known for what he did, not by what he said or prophesied. Yet we know that he was both prophet and baptizer.

I find that very few Christians have ever heard that Christ is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. They know Him as the Lamb of God, as Savior; and as the Son of God, our Lord; but they are unfamiliar with the fact that He was announced to the world as the One to whom the Father gave the ministry of baptizing with the Holy Ghost.

“The one who sent me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus Christ is both Savior and Baptizer. We have no doubt that He is as much the Savior today as when He died on Calvary’s cross as the Lamb of God. Even so, He is still the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit as much as He was when He commenced this ministry on the Day of Pentecost, for He is the “same, yesterday, today and forever.”

I was a young pastor in Connecticut when I met the man who introduced this truth to me, taken from John chapter one and affirmed by all the Gospels. His name was David duPlessis, a man God used to introduce Jesus as the Baptizer to all church denominations. I listened to this man for five nights in a row, and he revealed the truth of the Scripture as the Holy Spirit revealed it to him, always staying in the Scripture.

The first intimation in history that a baptism with the Sprit was a possible event in the life of a human being came from John the Baptist. However, he did not announce the experience but rather announced that the Baptizer was coming. He clearly states that God had told him that Christ would be the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost. He also assures us that the image for this act of Christ was his own act of baptizing in the river. From the very beginning, therefore, all John’s converts fully expected an experience that would be as overwhelming as their baptism in the river. These converts had an encounter with the Baptizer and not with water or even the river. What they were to expect was an encounter with the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is an encounter with Christ, the Baptizer.

This is just the “opener” to this great subject. Jesus is standing by today ready to baptize in the Holy Spirit those believers who ask Him.

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