Baptism of the Holy Spirit — K.P. Yohannan

Pentecost and the Promise of the Holy Spirit

So, what is the Bible study theme of this day based on our lectionary? Baptism of the Holy Spirit. So this Pentecost and the celebration of the great event, the day of Pentecost. So the biblical passages we heard all speaks of the Holy Spirit.

Now let's turn our Bibles to Book of Acts. If we look at couple of verses, and we are in chapter 1, verse 7. He said to them, it is not for you to know the time or dates or the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.

Here in this words of our Lord, there is a tremendous promise and privilege. I mean look at our surrounding, these lights are all lit up and they shine on us. What if, if the electricity is not here? Well this place will be fairly dark and of course you will be sweating, I imagine.

The air conditioning will not work and I will have to revert back to my old days of open air preaching. And usually I remember this in the days of my life in North India, Tajistan or Bihar and other places, on the street corners when you did open air preaching, you know, we sing I did too, but I didn't have the courage to be part of your team.

And then we have three, four hundred people sometimes, and of course the volume had to be very high, and lots of these people come. But after half hour or one hour, Of course God has given us two legs, you know.

We can walk, which we all do, but what if, if you get on a bicycle, it goes faster, right? But if you get in a motorbike, on a motorbike it goes even faster, car and all that. There are added dimensions to make the normal to become supernatural, natural supernatural, normal to something much greater than being normal.

The electricity and the gas and the heat make things work. Why I am saying this to you? Jesus said these simple words, without me you can do nothing. Now that is not all true though. We can do a lot of things.

But what we will want to understand, without the life of God, the aid of God and the help of God, a lot of things we do will continue to become a burden. And there is no electricity, there is no external force, no energy involved with it.

The Holy Spirit as the Believer’s Divine Help

The need for the help of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is our birthright. But a lot of people live being ignorant of it. It is like, say, you have a bank account.

I imagine he may have one. And if he got 10 lakh rupees in the bank account, and every Sunday you come here, an offering has to be given, and you are looking at your friend, if he can borrow 5 rupees or 10 rupees, 100 rupees.

Well, I am telling this to you because frequently I am borrowing money from people. I make sure I give it back also. What is the use of having all the money sitting in the bank if you have no access to that?

You don't take it, you don't use it. So let's be convinced of this. The Lord Jesus Christ said, it is good for me that I am going back to the Father and I will have a helper. The third person in the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, he is a person, he is not power, he is not some illusion.

He will come. And when he comes, he will guide you. And here we celebrate and remember this amazing Pentecost Day. What happened is described here in the Bible, we heard about it. But accessing this, now you go to the bank and you have all the machines to get your money, but you have to punch in your card and get your money.

It is up to you, it is up to everyone to recognize that you are living Christian life and you are living a life. You can live in your own flesh, in your own strength. But what God wants and insists, that you live your life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I am struggling to make it simple. Because I think there is a lot of misinformation that is being fed. You know, studying the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the pneumatology and all these terms and this and that, all those things, we make things really complicated.

But it is quite simple. That is, when I got in my car this morning to come here, I sat there just for a second and I said these words, Lord, I am going to worship you and acknowledge you. Please, you be the one that guides me.

While I am steering the car, I am driving, I am saying, yes, it is me doing it, but I acknowledge, without your grace, without your sustaining me, without your life in me and your grace, I couldn't do it.

Every second you breathe. You are breathing, right? Yes, good, you are alive. And think about it, every second that we live, it is God's incredible grace that we have this gift of oxygen. And most of the Christians or followers of Christ, they live struggling, striving and fighting to live their life.

The Holy Spirit’s Power in Forgiveness and Holiness

For example, you are not mad at me, are you? Come up here then. Yes, he smiles, looks like he is not mad at me. Suppose, this is imagination, suppose you did something horrible to me and you are very mean, I know you cannot be very mean, but you really became one of my worst enemies in the world, but don't do that, please.

And I learn about how bad and how mean you are and now here I run into you. So, two things happens. One, in my head, I say, well, I am the Metropolitan and a lot of people are watching me, I better treat him nicely because they all also know you are a really bad, bad, very bad man and they all know how bad you have been to me, but then they are watching to see how I am going to react to you.

So, I have two things now going on. One, in my head, I am very concerned about all these people, what they think about me. More so, I am concerned about what you think about me. So, why? Because you know I am the Metropolitan.

Metropolitan means you should be a better person, right? At least, supposed to be. Yes, yes. So, I go back to my brain and my learning and all the experiences and then I will say, how are you doing? So nice to see you.

God bless you. How is your family? Oh, are you married? No, no, okay, okay. And they see I lay my hand on you and pray for you and bless you and all that and they think, oh my goodness, that Metropolitan is a really nice spiritual man.

But then, I have a second thing going on in my head. The first thing I did, it was calculated, it was thought through, it was self-centered, it was my own doing for my own benefit and praise and for everybody to think I am okay.

And plus, I can be very proud that this terrible man who did so much bad to me, now I see him, but you know how good person I am. You know, my own righteousness. But the other thing is, I say quietly in my heart, which is part of what we call the sacramental life.

It's a different life. And I say, Lord, in your working in this world without time and space, this one incident that happened in my life journey with this individual, I do not know what all I did, but I know enough of how horrible he has been to me.

But I know for sure that you are in control and you created this environment and you have a good purpose. And I pray, give me your grace, your strength to respond to him correctly. It is a tiny fraction of a second prayer.

Lord, have mercy on me. And all of a sudden, I am doing everything I did that you saw before, but the reason why I did it is not because of me, because of some other power and reason and motivation. You see, that is the difference.

Transformation Through the Holy Spirit in Acts

So, when you talk about the Holy Spirit baptism, which is one of those non-negotiable thing in Christian life. As a matter of fact, Book of Acts, we proclaim always as the Believers Eastern Church, our guiding principle, our blueprint.

When you read the Book of Acts, you are not reading it just for seeing stories and this and that or theology, but rather, this is your life. And so you'll find ordinary men like Peter, who would be scared to death running away, except Mary and John, all were running away from the foot of the cross, when the persecution, they were hiding.

And you saw how Jesus had to go after these people. But, when in chapter 2, as you read and heard, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, you'll find them completely transformed. Now, may I say a statement to you, which would be significant, but you need to listen.

In my years of serving God, trying to help people, there are some truths I learned that are extremely significant, without which you really cannot function properly. And one of those things is this. Whatever problems you may be dealing with, it could be some horrible experience you had in your past, that you just cannot forgive or forget it.

Or some guilt that is just drowning you continually into despair and hopelessness. It could be some horrible sins that you have committed, that you just want to forget it, you don't even want to think about it.

But still it haunts you. Whatever it may be, I can tell you something. The real solution, and the only solution, that I found in my experience of dealing with people and this journey, is somewhere, somehow, someway, you come to the place of what Athim today declares, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

That is how Peter, John, and all these lives were changed. And this is what happened in Paul's life, how he was changed. So if there is a watermelon, if there is one medicine for all ills, it is allowing the Holy Spirit to have control of your life.

Regeneration and the Ongoing Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Now, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is misunderstood in a thousand different ways. I don't want to get into all that today, because I want to make it practical. When we come to Christ, we are born again, as the Bible says.

The regeneration happens, the beginning of the changed life happens when we acknowledge Jesus Christ is Lord, He died on the cross, He was buried, He rose again, and I surrender my life to Him. And then the Holy Spirit comes in and regenerates.

And new life begins. That's what happened with the experience of committing one's life to Christ. But then, there is an ongoing, a second experience. That is, the Holy Spirit not only now gives us regeneration, the new life, but also now the ability to function, an ongoing power.

When He comes, He will give you power, so you can be my witness. Try to link that in your mind. You be my witness and power. How does that work? We are living in what is called the enemy's territory. Satan controls the whole world.

Being Christ’s Witness in the Enemy’s Territory

How do you represent Christ? Like a student who is studying in school. I was talking to a student the other day, and he was telling me about the exam hall. Everybody writing in, it's a college student.

And he said, it's funny, all around him, the students are opening their books and writing their notes. I said, that don't happen. Oh, he said, the teachers are from their own college. And they see you're copying it, and they just look and walk.

So I said to him, so you must be doing the same thing. He said, no, no, I don't. And he said, all those people must think I'm mentally crazy or something, because I didn't take my books inside. I just had my paper to write.

Then I told him an experience I had. When I was studying in the 10th grade, I was terribly a poor student in some subjects, especially math. If you ask me 2 plus 2, I will tell you 7. That's the kind of math I had to live with.

I was horrified. But the final examination came, and I never forget this. It is in a school of 14 kilometers from here. I was writing my exam, and there was one question, and I knew the answer, but I was not sure.

So when you are not sure, you ask someone, right? I didn't ask. And I said, well, that's my answer. Sure. So then I was convinced that my answer was the correct answer, because the guy I was looking at is the smartest one in the school.

But you know what happened? It took me just a second. I didn't have to pray long prayers. In my heart, the Holy Spirit said, but that answer you wrote, you had to cross it out. I was relating the story to him.

So although the answer was right, because I did that, I crossed out. I thought, well, if I fail, I fail. What can I do? Well, the reason I did that, I was young, I admit, but I normally in my energy couldn't do things like this.

It's a rational thing. Anybody does that. So let's do it. So, you know, you have 10 million people do the same thing, so let's do this. No. Like you have Daniel and his friends in Babylon, the whole country is moving on one direction, and he and his friends on a different direction.

And they get punished for that. Yet, how they could do that, it was never in their own strength. It was God's giving them the help. So here is application. I have written a book about baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I think there's a chapter in one of the book.

The Holy Spirit’s Constant Presence and Guidance

Here is what I wanted to know. Wherever, whenever, all the time, you need help, and we always need help. Holy Spirit is a person who invisible is living in you. Plus, Holy Spirit is a person, he said, he will always be with you.

He's a paraclete. He's always with you. You don't see him. And he's before you, and he's behind you. He's on your both side, and he's above you. You have no clue how awesome it is that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have been given the Holy Spirit in the place of Christ, who is not now physically with us, but the Holy Spirit is representing him, his life, and leading us.

So, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is intensely a practical reality, and as you acknowledge the Lord, and continue to ask him to be involved in the small things or big things, and whatever, he will guide you.

The Word of God is the main source the Holy Spirit uses to open our eyes and understanding of his ways. And the Holy Spirit that came upon the people on the day of Pentecost, now he came not to leave until the final day when all the believers are removed from the earth, and he is here to stay.

And he is with us. And he's with us so that we will learn more and more and more about the man Jesus, how he walked on earth and he lived. And we will not become like him overnight. Don't get the illusion, no.

It says in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, He, the Holy Spirit, helps us to see Jesus in the Word of God. And then he works within us, changing us to become like Jesus. And so he is a creator, continually changing and shaping us.

And you need to be aware of that. And I pray that you will read the book of Acts and see the incidents, so many places where the new believers were admonished and encouraged to understand the work of the Holy Spirit.