Lars Larson Live Stream

John the Baptist’s Witness to Jesus as the Lamb of God and the Messiah

Earthly ministry. And this is the fourth Lord's Day that we're dealing with, verses 19 through 51 of John chapter 1. John the Baptist, of course, has played a predominant role thus far in this gospel.

And here we're addressing the witness of John, the witness that he rendered directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is set forth in verses 29 through 34. This is set forth in two paragraphs. We dealt with the first last week.

John bore witness of Jesus as the Messiah in two ways. The first, he declared Jesus was the promised Savior of the world. Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And then secondly, John then declared that God had directly identified and confirmed to John himself that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

And so here are the two paragraphs again. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.

I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him.

I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.

There are actually six sentences in these two paragraphs, and we use those sentences to form the outline before you. I won't read through that, but that's basically the outline we're following. And we got through most of that first paragraph last week.

However, we left off that letter C. I just want to review quickly A, B, and C. And then we'll address C, and then we'll go on to the second paragraph, which our main focus will be this morning. So let's review quickly what we found last week, and then we'll move on.

Again, the first paragraph, we have John revealed the identity of Jesus as a promised Savior of the world. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. God had called John to be a witness of the pre-incarnate Son of God in the man, Jesus Christ.

And we see, so first, that John identified Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God. And then secondly, that John identified Jesus as the one he had previously declared was coming. John had declared that the Messiah was coming, and this was he.

John said, this is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who is referred before me, for he was before me. And so here we see John the Baptist, again, bearing witness of Jesus Christ, particularly with view to him as the pre-incarnate second person of the Godhead.

He was before me. And we've already considered how John gave repeated witness of the deity of Jesus Christ. He was before me. We read it in verse 15. John bore witness of him, cried out, saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.

That speaks of the eternal divine nature of Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. He's eternal God, the Son. And then also, it's in verse 26 and 27, John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know.

It is he who, coming after me, is preferred before me. Again, the deity of Jesus Christ is emphasized, and we have it expressed for the third time in verse 30. But verse 30, which is before us right now, there is a little different emphasis than the first two times where John made this declaration that he was before me.

For in verse 30, John the Baptist emphasizes the humanity of the eternal Son of God. And so here we read, John declared, after me comes a man. And there seems to be an emphasis on that. There comes a man after me.

And so John is declaring that he's the eternal word of God, and yet he's also a man. And so the eternal Son of God took communion with his divine nature, our human nature. And so Jesus Christ is set forth as fully God and fully man.

And it's at this point we left off last Lord's Day. So let's consider next verse 31, which concludes this description of John the Baptist's witness to our Savior. John declared his calling to reveal Jesus to Israel.

Again, verse 31, John said, I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water. John testified he did not know Jesus to be the Messiah. And this is somewhat of a mystery in that Jesus was John's cousin by natural birth.

You read about that in Luke chapter 1. Elizabeth and Mary were cousins, if you recall. And even John, before he was born, knew Jesus because he leaped in the womb of his mother Elizabeth when Mary, who was with child, came into their presence.

But this is 30 years after the fact. Much had transpired. 30 years later, John did not know that Jesus was the Messiah, apparently, until God signified to him that Jesus was indeed the Christ. And God did so, enabling John to see the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus at his baptism.

John declared here that his entire ministry of baptizing was for the purpose of revealing Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah to Israel. John the Baptist declared, but that he should be revealed to Israel.

Therefore, I came baptizing with water. God, of course, had called John to call the people to repentance. They were to be baptized with view to the forgiveness of their sins. And the reason for this action was because the promised king was about to appear before them.

And then John was also called to baptize Jesus, because it was in this event that God revealed to John the identity of the promised Messiah. And thereafter, once John saw the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus, thereafter, John continued to reveal to Israel that Jesus was the promised Christ, as one once wrote.

One might have thought that John's baptism was concerned largely with leading men to repent, but this was not John's final purpose. John baptized in view of the coming of the Messiah. He baptized in order that the Messiah would be made manifest in Israel.

That was John's primary purpose to which God had called him. Now we come to the second paragraph, and this is rich. The words may be familiar to us, and perhaps we don't therefore see the richness of these words immediately.

It's my task, of course, to be able to express them and reveal them to us and hope. So here we see that John bore witness of Jesus, the Messiah whom God identified to him, verses 32 through 34. I want to read these verses again from the King James version, New King James.

And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. And so verse 32, John bore witness of the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus. This verse records that John the Baptist's continual witness of Jesus as the Christ.

Some weeks after his initial baptism, we've already shown how the theme of witness is a major emphasis of John's gospel, the fourth gospel. And this is actually the fifth time the word witness is found here in John chapter 1.

It's a major theme. And here in verse 32, John was speaking of what he had witnessed on a much earlier occasion. John testified that when he had baptized Jesus, he had seen the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus like a dove, which we should understand to have been in the form of a dove.

Now, there are some who rejected the idea that the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove, but rather they argue that John saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus as, say, a dove descends, in other words, which pretty much resembled the hovering and lightning of a dove upon anything.

And so they argued that the Holy Spirit did not come in the form of a dove, but he came like a dove. It would seem to me, however, it's best understood that John saw a dove descend upon Jesus, which he had recognized to be a visible representation of the invisible Holy Spirit.

You cannot see the Holy Spirit because he is spirit. He came in the form of a dove. This was a visible manifestation to John of the invisible presence of the Holy Spirit. The dove is an emblem of the Holy Spirit.

How is the Holy Spirit like a dove? Some suggest it implies the simplicity, the meekness, or the love of the Holy Spirit. Others suggest the main thought of the Holy Spirit as a dove is the dove-like innocence, humility, and affection of Christ on whom he lighted.

What John saw was not only significant, but apparently it was quite remarkable. And we can tell from the verb that the evangelists use, the writer of the gospel, which is translated as saw in our text.

John said he saw this. But the Greek word that the gospel writer John, the apostle John, used was not the common Greek word for seeing, rather an unusual word. And so the word actually conveys a greater meaning, more significant meaning than just seeing with his eyes, as one wrote.

The verb John used to describe what he saw is used in the New Testament to denote seeing with the physical eye, though it can carry along with physical sight a sense of perception that is above and beyond what is merely seen with the eye.

John is saying, I saw him. And he used this word to suggest it was more than just physical sight. He saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus. The tense of this verb is also somewhat unusual. It's translated in our English text, of course, as a simple past tense, I saw.

But it's actually a perfect tense verb in the Greek language. And so perhaps the best way to translate this statement would be, I had beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained upon him.

Again, John is talking about something that happened in the past. John was testifying much later what he had witnessed firsthand on the occasion that he had baptized Jesus, which was at least 40 days before this.

There's not a great deal of information about Jewish belief in the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Some see a correlation with the Holy Spirit brooding over the deep that's recorded in Genesis 1, verse 2, which speaks of the Holy Spirit ready to bring about the six-day work of creation.

And so the Bible opens up with, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And the verb hovering carries the idea of brooding like a dove broods, hovering. And so in Genesis 1, the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the chaotic waters, signifying the onset of God's work of creation, the creation of this world and life upon it.

And here in John 1, in which the Holy Spirit descends and lights upon Jesus Christ, signals that through Jesus Christ is the onset of the new creation. That probably is what's being conveyed by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

Holy Spirit brought about the old creation. Holy Spirit brings about the new creation in and through Jesus Christ. Interestingly, there was an early Jewish writing that wrote of the dove that Noah had let fly out of the ark.

You remember that account? They'd been in the ark quite a long time. Noah was trying to determine if the waters had abated so that they could soon depart from the ark. We read of that in Genesis 8. So it came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark, which he had made, and then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

And he also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot. And she returned into the ark to him, to Noah, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth.

And so he put out his hand and took her and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days. And again, he sent the dove out from the ark. And then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth.

And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. And so he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove. And then I am bold and italicize this, which did not return again to him anymore.

Now, interestingly, the Jewish writing that I came across expressed the belief that this dove that did not return to Noah would one day actually carry the crown that would be set upon the head of the Messiah.

Isn't that fascinating? And so I saw this in John Gill's commentary. John Gill was a Baptist pastor in the 18th century. Spurgeon would later pastor his church. John Gill was an expert in Jewish writings.

He taught himself Hebrew as a young, as a teenage boy, going down to the bookstore and reading Hebrew books on the shelf. And he became an expert in Judaism. And so in his commentary, he came across this Jewish writing.

However, who can read, and these are Gill's words, however, who can read this account talking about John 1 with the dove coming upon Jesus? Who can read this account without thinking of Noah's dove, which brought in its mouth the olive leaf, a token of peace and reconciliation when the waters were abated from off the earth?

Give me leave to describe a passage I have met with in the book of Zohar. A door shall be opened and out of it shall come forth the dove which Noah sent out in the days of the flood, as it's written, and he sent forth the dove, that famous dove, but the ancients speak not of it for they knew not what it was, only from whence it came, in other words, out of the ark, and did its message.

As it's written, it returned not again unto him anymore. No man knows whither it went, but it returned to its place and was hid within this door, and it shall take a crown in its mouth and put it upon the head of the king Messiah.

And a little after, the dove is said to abide upon his head and he to receive glory from it. That's interesting. What this suggests is that there were some on the part of some ancient Jews that the dove would set the crown of kingship upon the Messiah, and thus it was God anointing the Messiah to serve as his king over his people.

Now, this is an apocryphal story. Don't misunderstand. I'm not advocating this actually a right understanding of the dove in John chapter one, but it does connect the dove with the Messiah, at least in some Jewish thinking in the ancient world.

Nevertheless, in the days of Noah, when the dove did depart from him, leaving the ark and not returning, it indicated that the dove had come across new life in the post diluvium, or the post-flood world.

And when God called Noah and his family forth from the ark, the Genesis account clearly sets forth the idea of God having set before Noah and his family a new creation, having washed the old world with the floodwaters, cleansing it of the corrupt human race that had populated its surface, and now Noah and his family would signal a new start in a new creation.

And again, the dove is connected with this new creation. We know, by the way, that coming, that new world coming forth from the flood is depicted as a new creation because God gives the same instruction to Noah that he gave to Adam and Eve.

Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. It was like a new start. The problem, of course, is Noah and his family carried sin over into the new world too, and it soon became corrupted. We've already considered the evangelist's emphasis in this first chapter of John as being on the new creation.

We saw it in Genesis 1 .1. These words in the beginning are also the words in John 1 .1, in the beginning. Genesis 1 .1, in the beginning, God created. John 1 .1, in the beginning, was the word. Here's an emphasis on the new creation in John's gospel.

And just as the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the waters in Genesis 1 .2, here in John chapter one, we read of the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus while he stood in the baptismal waters of Jordan, signaling that this one would affect the long-promised new creation in which God would dwell with his people.

The idea of the new creation is evident everywhere here in John chapter one. Now, John had not only seen the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove, but also John, the gospel writer, the evangelist, declares that John saw this dove remain on him.

And there's an emphasis to that. The Greek word translated remain emphasizes a continual abiding of the Spirit that had landed upon Jesus. The Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus at his baptism was God empowering Jesus of Nazareth to fulfill his office as the promised Jewish Messiah, the son of David, who would rise to reign over Israel.

This was God anointing his son, empowering his son. To conduct and fulfill his office as the promised Messiah. And so he was anointed as promised king, he was anointed as high priest, he was anointed as prophet at the onset of his earthly ministry.

This event at the Jordan River is to be understood to be the fulfillment of God's promises that he gave to his prophets in the Old Testament. And perhaps the prophecy of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah is most pronounced in this regard.

And I want us to consider three passages in Isaiah's prophecy that speak about the coming Messiah who would be anointed with the Holy Spirit. The first is in Isaiah 11, verses one and two, which speaks about the promised messianic kingdom.

There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. Jesse was of course the father of David. And so here's the descendant of David and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

And commentators commonly see this as being realized in the Jordan River when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit came upon the Messiah. Also we can read in Isaiah 42. Here we have one of the servant songs of Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one and whom my soul delights, I put my spirit upon him.

This is God the Father speaking of Jesus prophetically. And again, the Holy Spirit, God the Father put the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. And what would take place? Well, he would be the messianic king. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles, that's to the world.

He'll not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he'll not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. Clearly prophetic of the Lord Jesus. And then lastly, we could look at Isaiah 61, verses one through three.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

And of course that passage, Isaiah 61, is what the Lord Jesus himself read and quoted in the synagogue in Nazareth at the onset of his public ministry. Not long after this account in John chapter one.

And we read of that in Luke chapter four, verse 20 and 21. Jesus had read this passage from the scroll there in the synagogue. He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. The spirit of God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. When the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, when John baptized him, it was God the Father anointing his son as his servant, as the Messiah, to begin to bring about the salvation of his people and in the inauguration of the kingdom of God.

Now again, we cited three passages from Isaiah, all speaking about the Holy Spirit upon the Messiah, the servant of the Lord. These were prophecies of the promised age of salvation to Israel that would commence upon the arrival of the Messiah with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism, God was announcing and declaring that the days of fulfillment had arrived.

The long promised kingdom to Israel was being realized. And later on the day of Pentecost, when the risen and thrown son of David poured out his spirit upon his people, the days of fulfillment commenced.

We are living in the last days, the days of fulfillment proclaimed and foretold by the Old Testament prophets. Thomas Schreiner wrote two paragraphs that I thought were excellent. They're a little long, I realize this, in these block quotes, but he stated it very well.

"'The servant is endowed by the Spirit,' and notice he quotes two of the three passages that we mentioned, Isaiah 42 and 61. "'Only by virtue of the power of the Spirit "'does he carry out his ministry, "'by which he suffers for the sins of Israel.'.

"'If we put all of Isaiah together, "'we see that the son of Jesse, the Davidic king, "'is also anointed with the Spirit.'". He refers to Isaiah 11, which we read earlier. So there are all three passages.

"'What is remarkable is that in chapter 11, "'the Spirit endowed one brings in the new creation, "'which as was argued above is the same blessing "'brought by the servant of the Lord in chapters 40 -66.

"'It seems fair to conclude from Isaiah's own narrative "'that the servant of the Lord and the future Davidic king "'are one and the same person.'". Now he's making that statement to counter some liberals who argue that they're two different people.

He's saying it's obvious it's the same person, Jesus Christ. "'For both have the Spirit empowered "'and bring about the new creation. "'Of course, this fits well with the New Testament witness, "'as we will see, Jesus is the Spirit anointed Messiah, "'the royal son of David, "'the one who will bring in the kingdom of God, "'but he is also the servant of the Lord, "'the one who dies as a ransom "'to deliver his people from their sin.'".

Now the second paragraph. "'The coming of the Spirit in Isaiah signals "'the fulfillment of Yahweh, "'or Jehovah's promises to Israel. "'Israel suffers judgment because of its sins, "'and when the Spirit is poured out, "'the new creation will dawn.

"'Israel will be secure at peace "'and live righteously in the land. "'Similarly, the end-time blessing for Israel will come "'when Yahweh pours his Spirit upon Israel. "'When the Spirit is dispensed, "'Yahweh's covenant with Israel will be fulfilled.

"'We see another indication that the Isaac themes "'cannot be asundered from one another. "'The Spirit is the eschatological Spirit,' in other words, the end-time Spirit, "'who brings eschatological salvation,' in other words, the end-time or promised salvation, "'and the servant of the Lord is endowed with that Spirit, "'showing that the new creation "'cannot arrive from the Spirit "'or apart from the servant of the Lord.

"'In the New Testament, Jesus, "'as the exalted and resurrected Lord, "'is the one who pours out the Spirit on his people. "'The Spirit is poured out when Jesus is glorified, "'and the coming of the Spirit signals "'the arrival of the last days, "'the fulfillment of all of God's saving promises.'".

Those are very accurate, very detailed descriptions of what I think is true to the Scriptures. And if you take what he's saying to heart, it completely discredits and disregards any notion of a future thousand-year Jewish millennium on the earth.

What's being declared here is that Jesus Christ was bringing to pass the promises that God made to Israel that the Messianic kingdom was gonna be inaugurated, the new creation would begin, and what we're arguing is that's exactly what John the Apostle was setting forth in John chapter one.

Now, in this statement of John 1 .32, of John's witness of the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus at his baptism, John's ministry was coming to an end. And so of John the Baptist, it was written, "'The Baptist is not Elijah or the prophet, "'and is certainly not the Christ.

"'Rather, he's the one who sees and points, "'the one who understands in order to testify "'what he has seen. "'He's nothing more for nothing more is needed. "'Once the Spirit descends upon him, "'all attention has moved appropriately "'from the witness to his subject matter.'".

All attention, John now, is pouring into the Lord Jesus. Once the Spirit came upon him, John recedes from the background and Jesus comes to the forefront. And again, beginning next week, Lord willing, we'll begin to address the Lord Jesus as calling out his first disciples.

Now, let's look at verse 33. Here, John tells how God identified to him that Jesus was the Messiah. Verse 33, John declared, "'I did not know him, "'but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "'upon whom you see the Spirit descending "'and remaining on him, "'this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'".

Now, this verse, he repeats what he's declared in verse 31. "'I did not know him.'". We touched on this already. Again, the question asks, how did John not know him? He was his cousin. He knew him before he was even born.

He leapt in his mother's womb when she came into the presence of Mary who was pregnant with Jesus. How is it that he did not know him? And I included some explanations that were proposed by some old church fathers, Chrysostom, who was the silver tongue.

He was known to be a great orator, a great preacher of the gospel. He declared, John is speaking of former times, not of the times near to his baptism. In other words, earlier on, he didn't know that Jesus was the Christ.

Then, not too long after that, Augustine believed that John was saying, "'I had not known till the day "'that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost. "'Although I had known all along him personally "'and had not recognized him as the Christ of God, "'but when he came to be baptized, "'it was also revealed to me that he would confer on men "'the great gift of the Holy Ghost.'".

In other words, more clear and full understanding was given to John. Still others thought John was saying, "'I had not known Jesus by sight "'until the day when he came to be baptized. "'I knew that he had been born of the Virgin Mary, "'but was not personally acquainted with him, "'having myself been brought up in the wilderness.'".

Jesus was brought up in Galilee, John the Baptist in the Southern Judea desert wilderness. Matthew Poole, we commonly hear Matthew Henry. Matthew Poole wrote about the same time. He also wrote a full commentary on the Bible.

Matthew Poole was one of Charles Spurgeon's favorite commentators. And Matthew Poole wrote, "'I knew him,' this is what he thinks John was thinking, "'I knew him not perfectly or distinctly, "'though I had an impression when I first saw him "'coming to be baptized, "'that he was one far greater than myself.

"'And under that impression, demurred to baptizing him.'". In other words, I hesitated to baptize him. "'And after his baptism, I saw clearly who he was.'". And J .C. Ryle liked Matthew Poole's explanation of the matter.

And so Ryle wrote again in the 19th century, "'The last explanation is perhaps "'the simplest and most probable, "'that John at one time did not know our Lord by sight at all "'that he afterwards knew him imperfectly, "'and that his perfect knowledge of him, "'his nature, office, and work was not attained "'until the time when the Spirit descended at his baptism.'".

Or points that seem clear. "'The time when he said, I'd need to be baptized of thee, "'would seem to be the time of imperfect knowledge. "'When the fact that Jesus was the Messiah "'began to dawn upon him, it made him cry out, "'Comest thou to me?''.

I think that explains why John could say, I knew him not. "'After John declared he had not known Jesus, he said, "'But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending "'and remaining on him, "'this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'".

We're not told when God told John. Now you wait, and when you see the Holy Spirit come upon this man, he's the Messiah. We're not told when God told John that, but probably when God commissioned John to begin to baptize.

By the way, notice John says, he who sent me. We already emphasized in an earlier week that word sent is a very important word in John's gospel. John the Baptist came with the authority of God who sent him.

God sent him to baptize, and of course later, the Lord Jesus would challenge the Pharisees. Was John's baptism from heaven or from men? And you recall that the Pharisees didn't know how to answer. If we say from heaven, then Jesus will ask, well, why didn't you obey him or believe him?

And if we say from men, the people are gonna stone us because they all think he was a prophet. But God had told John the Baptist, upon whom you see the Spirit descending, remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

This was a sign to John alone. The others who witnessed the baptism of Jesus did not see the sign that God had intended for John. Perhaps they had seen the dove descending, but they did not recognize it to be a sign of the Holy Spirit.

That was God informing John the Baptist as to the identity of Jesus as Messiah. God had shown John that Jesus was the promised Messiah who would baptize his people in the Holy Spirit. In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you have the common idea, John baptized in water, the one who comes after him will baptize in the Holy Spirit.

And I cited three passages there, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus Christ baptizes his people with or in the Holy Spirit. The parallel is with John baptizing with water. And so in any baptismal setting, you have one who's doing the baptizing, whether John or Jesus, they're baptizing people, and then they're baptizing them into the sphere of something, John into water, Jesus in or with the Holy Spirit.

This is important, may seem to be rather simplistic and straightforward, but if we understand this, this actually refutes a common error that I hear all the time in evangelicalism, especially among our Pentecostal friends.

They teach that there is a second blessing subsequent to salvation. Sometime down the road after you're saved, the Holy Spirit will baptize you and you will have power. The Bible nowhere teaches that the Holy Spirit baptizes anyone.

The Bible always presents it's Jesus Christ who baptizes his people in the Holy Spirit. John baptized people in water, Jesus baptizes people in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't baptize anyone.

Jesus baptizes his people in the Holy Spirit. What does this mean? What is suggested or meant by Jesus baptizing his people in the Holy Spirit? I think this is critically important. First, we should understand that being baptized in the Holy Spirit, what it is not, is not to be understood as a second blessing that a believer may experience sometime after initially coming to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.