CHAPTER 8
THE POWER OF BAPTISM
MEMORY VERSE SELECTIONS
Lk. 11:13 “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Jer. 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Jn. 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
SCRIPTURE READING
Observe the transformation of Peter in these verses.
See him before and after the Holy Spirit had filled him.
Matthew 26:69-75
John18:16-27
Acts 2
CHAPTER 8 QUESTIONS
-
1. What are the three types of baptism in the New Testament?
-
2.How is water baptism different from Holy Spirit baptism?
-
3. We are often baptized or immersed into our cultures and don’t even realize it. T F
-
4.Leaders can exert an immersion over their followers. Moses is an example of this. T F
-
5. The Holy Spirit works through every individual to bless the body of Christ in exactly the same way.
T F
-
6. What might happen when a person eats too many carrots for a prolonged period of time?
-
7.What is the spiritual relevance of the above scenario?
-
8.Which of the following is NOT true. We should
a) drink of the Spirit.
b) walk in the Spirit.
c) bear the fruit of the Spirit.
d) Have the mind of the Spirit.
e) manifest the power of the Spirit.
f) show the love of Spirit.
g) have the unity of the Spirit.
h) bear the sword of the Spirit.
i) be invisible like the Spirit.
-
9.Does the Old Testament foreshadow the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?
a) Perhaps b) How could it! c) Definitely
-
10. God is easier to please than any person on earth.
T F
-
11. According to Luke 11:11-13, how can we have the power of God’s Holy Spirit?
-
12. Jesus said that if we are having a problem with a brother in the Lord that we can ignore it as long as we are meeting with Him. T F (Mt. 5:23-24)
-
13. Forgiveness is at the apex of Christianity. T F
-
14. According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, loving the church more than loving the Lord is actually destructive
T F
-
15. The “my church is better than your church” attitude violates the spirit of the Lord’s law of Love. T F
-
16. Human weaklings defeat Satan through obediently praying according to the Father’s will and being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. T F
RESOURCES
CHALLENGES
The idea of baptisms (water, Holy Spirit and fire) is the idea of immersion, that is to be submerged. Today the ritual of water baptism takes place in rivers, like the Jordan where John baptized Jesus along with many others. Baptism also take place in hotel swimming pools, ancient cathedrals, ponds, lakes and church baptismal tanks. Wherever this happens one truth prevails: the person is symbolically buried and resurrected with new life.
New life is the key here. When a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit he becomes a new person in Christ, new from the inside out. Water baptism touches the outside of one’s body while the Holy Spirit touches the inside of one’s body. This person is filled with new power, evidenced in thoughts, words and actions.
Baptism in water surrounds a person from without. Baptism in the Holy Spirit fills a person within.
People are changed through baptism.
Are there contemporary nonreligious baptisms similar to the Christian ritual of baptism? Are there social trends that surround us? Are we immerse in culture, it’s values and way of life? Do these influences bury us like the water of baptism? Do we come out of the waters of our cultural baptism drenched in society’s values?
Ponder the principle of baptism as you relate it to everyday life. To add credence to this thought we must see it in Scripture. First Corinthians 10:2 tells us, “They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” This refers to Israel coming out of Egypt under Moses‘ leadership. The Israelites were an emerging nation, a culture as well as a spiritual group. Do leaders exert a kind of baptism? Do political and spiritual leaders, along with celebrity leaders, cover people like water covers those being baptized?
Journal through these discovery questions.
Into what are we baptized today? This is extremely important to discern, because baptisms always bury or cover people and then empower them. Under what baptisms are we living?
