Sunday School - Teaching On Baptism - Part 2

Baptism as the Lord’s Ordinance and the Danger of Delaying It

Thank you, Lord, for your word, which is powerful and your word, which is able to transform us from the inside out by being to the inner workings of that Holy Spirit. We ask, Lord, that you help us to see the meaning of baptism in Scripture.

Lord, that we would do that which is according to your word and that which is according to your great and pleasing will. That we would find ourselves on that grand day of truth and standing before the Son of Man.

We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.

We're going to recap quickly last week's message because some of you weren't here. We're going to teach you about baptism. One of the things that's important to realize when we're talking about baptism is that baptism is one of the Lord's ordinances.

It is a command. It is not ours to do as we may or want to do it.

It is a divine command.

When we look at baptism, we realize it's not ours. One of the mistakes people make often in baptism, when we're talking about baptism, or when we're practicing baptism, is that we treat baptism kind of like the end of the personal Christian eschaton.

Do you know what eschaton means? End times? Yeah, kind of like the end. The end thing. We kind of put baptism as the end of the Christian eschaton, meaning this. You probably heard a Christian say, well, I believe in Jesus, but I didn't baptize.

Because what? There's a reason to fear. That's probably the most common reason. I want to get this. This is important for every Christian. They want to get their life together. They're not ready to say, I don't want to get baptized because I'm not ready.

What are you going to say? It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. Some people grossly think that. What's the big deal? Just a little water. What's the big deal about it? Now, most Christians, who go all baptism, do so because they think they have to come with a certain amount of readiness, a certain amount of preparedness, or perpetual maturity, essentially.

And while it's normal to want to have a certain level of preparedness and readiness and the right attitude to have, I think it's far more important when you go into baptism with lividity. Which is also the other extreme that we see in Christian circles, predominantly amongst Baptists.

Sometimes Baptists are a little too eager to get the blood. And so as long as they raise their hand during a service, that's good enough communication that that person should not baptize. What are those two extremes that are dangerous?

One extreme that says, well, if you raise your hand during a service, we're going to get to it right now. And the other extreme that says, well, we're going to wait 20 years until we're ready. And I literally, I did this with you last week.

I had a guy in my Christian church, been a Christian for 20 years, was a youth pastor, and had never been baptized.

Never been baptized. I think one of the dangers is that with one of the extremes where it's like, you know, we're eager to get you wet and so forth, is that it's so easy when you have your membership that you're not really inviting people properly to the rest of it.

It's really not scriptural to make it easy when it comes to you. That's true. That's very true. Anyone else have any?

I think perhaps another one of the dangers of the other extreme that has to do with the story is the lack of importance one has on baptism. You know, to speak in regards to the ordering of the church and how they're conducting, the understanding of the significance and importance as well as the power of the church as well.

You know, the extremes of baptism, baptizing someone immediately when they raise their hand for your service. The danger of that is, once you recognize the gravity of what baptism is, what does it signify?

What does baptism signify to the Christian? Death or redemption or the gospel. So there's no like matter. What is more important than the gospel? Nothing. And so when we're talking about entrance into God's church, entrance into the right covenant relationship with the Lord, we want to take that seriously.

We want to have a right understanding of what that is. And so we don't want to take it flippantly. We want the person to understand the significance of what it is that they're doing. Right. So we don't want anyone to get baptized because they raised their hand during the service.

Because what is required with baptism are two things. What is it? Faith and repentance. Faith and repentance for Christ. Okay. So the person just simply raises a hand during the service. Like an altar hall, which is very common amongst baptistic services.

There's an altar hall. Raises their hand. Makes a, you know, maybe a form of confession of Christ. And then they are baptized right away. There's no, you're going to hear from today's message this morning.

That faith and repentance is so important. It needs to be weighed. It needs to be examined. Which is why the process of this church is when we have a solution to the membership. Then you come forward and share testimony.

And then that testimony is weighed by believers. Right. It's examined. It is, you know, it's not something that we take casually or flippantly. It happens as a serious matter. Because it does deal with the gospel.

It deals with the reenactment of the gospel. The application of the gospel in the Christian life. Jesus put it this way. And this is a great commission you can show by now. Go ye therefore to all the earth and then baptize.

Okay. Make these disciples baptized. And then they will bother so much a Christian. Because they are all like him. And they will love what you do. Even to the end of the age. And so the mission for the Christian is to baptize.

So the Christian has been a Christian for 20 years. He himself is not baptized. What's wrong with that? He hasn't even fulfilled the great mission of his whole life. How can he do so? At the end of the church.

Right. And again, it's this poor mentality of a low view of a baptism. That says, well, I'm just not ready. Because I think with the gentleman by reference. Who, by the way, was baptized. He's really grown the Lord since then.

He's really come a long way. And it shows that proper baptism has a spiritual power. It's just like the Lord's table. We don't leave it just in the low view of the table. Where the table is just a representative of Christ's death.

Rather, that there is a power to communicate. There is a spiritual reality that we are taking in. When we do so, we obey the Lord in that right. Any questions so far? Any questions from last week's message on baptism?

Baptism as Union with Christ and the Meaning of Romans 6

So just to go over that real quickly with those who weren't here last week. Baptism is when a believer is received. Christ is fully immersed in the Lord. Resembling the Lord's death and resurrection. Scripture.

Romans 6 specifically. Let's turn there for a moment. Paul says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Were baptized into his death. I love that imagery. Into. We were baptized into Christ Jesus.

And into his death. Which means, you know. There's a very simple Greek word. I'm not sure this last week went well. We would translate that English word as in. Transliterate it in English. It would be in.

And in Christ. You see this phrase a lot. In Christ. You are in Christ. You are sealing Christ. You are saving Christ. You are setting apart Christ. All these phrases. That puts our position as Christians where?

In Christ. Not next to. Not above. Not below. In Christ. When you look. When you learn. In seminary. They give you this diagram. Of all of the positions. That exist in Greek. And so. One of the diagrams show.

What the Greek word for above is. And through. And in is one of the most. Intimate words that is used. In the Greek. To describe a relational. Truth about us in Christ. We are not around Christ. We are not.

We are through Christ. But Christ through us. But we are positionally. Relationally in Christ. And baptism. Is one of the ways. In which we are. In. Because we receive. Obviously. The down payment. Of our salvation.

When we leave. And we repent of our sins. So we are not saved by baptism. We don't believe in baptism. Or regeneration. That teaches that. You need to be baptized. In order to be saved. But we do believe.

However. That there is a. True spiritual. Power. That is incorporated. In baptism. And that positionally. You are in Christ. In particular. In the body of Christ. And that is really important. Because in the Bible.

Christ's body. Is a reference to what? The church. So when we are talking about. That we are in Christ. We are in Christ. Relationship. Jesus. Jesus. We're all talking about your in. Christ's body. This morning.

And so it says. In the text of scripture. That we were very. We were very. By. Baptism. Into. Death. In order. That it is. Christ was raised from the dead by the Word of the Father, we, too, might walk in his life.

So we are, again, in Christ. We are baptized into his death, into his death, which meant, in the Bible, water often represents the grave, represents being separate from life. And so when we're baptized, we're baptized into Christ's death, so we're not in the office.

It's, again, us sharing in our union with Christ, and sharing in the power of the gospel walking in his life, as I did in Romans 6 .4, where it says, again, that we were buried with him in baptism into death, and that just as Christ was raised from the father by the glory of the father, we, too, might walk in his life.

That's the way it's done. That's the circle we're in. Any questions so far on baptism? We're starting to see the importance of the proper denoted, as well, being that of immersion.

I never heard about the water being signified as death, but now I think about it, the water, your age, and all that. And you talked about the sea giving up its depth. That's right. That's right.

Especially revelation, right? Revelation, you see, for instance, the beast rises from the abyss, the water rises from the water. You have the beast also that has authority over land and water. There's a lot of powerful imagery there that relates to death, and water, and land.

So when we come to water, again, the proper mode is us going into the water and identifying in Christ's death. That's why, again, the only proper mode of baptism should be what? Full immersion. You're not sprinkling yourself with death.

You are being immersed in it. You are immersed in it. So when we don't practice the proper mode of baptism, what ends up inevitably happening is that we're stripping the ordinance of its meaning. And again, whose ordinance is it?

It's ours. It's not ours. It's Christ's ordinance. It's the Lord's ordinance. Therefore, who has the authority to regulate it? The Lord. We don't have that luxury to change that which Christ has ordained, that which Christ has specifically prescribed as baptism.

How do we know that Christ prescribed this particular manner of baptism as fully immersion? How do we know that? Amen. So if he did it, and he showed us the pattern by which we are to follow him, he sets the pattern for all righteousness, we are to follow in his footsteps, then we see not only how Christ was baptized, obviously in the Laws of the Lord, and fully immersed by John the Baptist.

What do we see in the New Testament church? Do they follow the same order? Or do they have flexibility to change it anywhere in the New Testament? They follow the exact same mode of baptism, full immersion.

There are six examples of this in the Book of Acts, of baptism in this same mode. So we don't have the luxury, again, to change what the Lord has prescribed for us in Holy Scripture in regard to the mode of baptism.

The Church Fathers, Church Practice, and Why Baptism Must Follow Scripture

To me, it's always been strange. You know, the, you know, strengthening has always been a strange one to me, because it's just not been, it's just not in the churches. And I get that one's gonna make a fairly interesting argument from church history, but you can make an interesting argument from church history with a lot of crazy things, with a lot of interesting things.

The church fathers, I always liken them to, especially the pre-Christian fathers, I liken them to a comment section on YouTube, right? If you go to a theological video, you go to a comment section on YouTube, you're gonna find 100 different people saying 100 different things in 100 different ways.

And that's exactly what was happening in the early church, with the pre-Christian fathers. You can have a lot of just messy theology, a lot of messy practice, and a lot of, to be honest, a lot of influence from Greek philosophy, from Greek thinking, and so you see pretty early on which is why the New Testament writers warn us of such things, that we are to guard ourselves from the false teacher, the false doctrine, because it had already happened in infiltrating the church.

And not only was the call for doctrinal purity, but it was also for a call to purity in relation to the practices of the church. Paul wanted us to guard the practices of the church and tell us the truth, it's not going to be one of the things that are written.

For that reason, he wanted to guard not only the faith, but the practice of the New Testament church.

Any questions so far? Would you say, sort of like in a rare sense, that this is a Christian church that works back to the Bible, an example I can typically raise, because there's not much law in the Bible in it.

Okay, well let's flip it around. Let's talk about it as if it was the Lord's table, okay? If we were in a desert land, and we didn't have wars, you know, we don't have a love of bread, we don't have wine, and I say, gosh, that's sort of what we'd get right there.

That's sort of what we'd be able to do, and that would be the Lord's evening meal. Would that be proper? It would be proper. So why do we think we have the right to change baptism when we know that the proper form in the Lord has been laid out in the church?

The argument in effect, you see this in the early Christian document that says essentially, the right mode of baptism is fully immersion, but if you don't have fully immersion, if you don't have enough water, then you can dump them with as much water.

If you don't have enough water to dump some of the water, like that was completely thin, you can sprinkle them, right? And so they kind of have these scenarios built in, but I don't think it was helpful.

Again, if we have the Lord's tables as an ordinance that we're in, that's our land, and we don't have proper envelopes for them, then we can't do it, we can't access it. It's better to do things rightly than to change what God has set forth for us.

This reminds me a lot of the debate from yesterday, because that's what happened during the pandemic. Oh, we can't meet in person. Can we still meet online and call that church? And doesn't the extremities of the situation warrant this?

And if Christ has ordained that it's only in gathering that we have for you to make such declarations about who his people are, et cetera, then there's just not that important.

That's exactly right, we don't have that flexibility and luxury to change what we're doing. That's why, again, it's important to stick to scripture as the ordinance and standard. And as we look at today's teaching, I get a lot of questions from last week's teaching, and I'll just make one thing clear, is that we're not saved, we're not saved by means of baptism, we're saved by grace, through faith alone, by the church for Christ.

But it is in baptism that we follow in the Christian apostolic rite of that ordinance. And it should be the beginning of the Christian life, not the end. But we should prolong it. As many Christians do, we prolong baptism because we think that we need to be at a certain level of spirituality.

That's not how I see it. I would like to be born again in a perpetual sin, give a testimony to the Holy Church,.

And then maybe get baptized. Now, if you look at today's lesson,.

Baptism, Faith, and Putting on Christ in Galatians 3

I want you to turn to Galatians chapter three. In today's discussion, it's more of the, not just the meaning of baptism, but the association of baptism with the Christian membership.

I actually wanna start with verse 26. Again, notice the position.

For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. All right, so here's the good news, brothers and sisters. We're not saved by baptism. We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. You become the son of God, born again here, ventured into God's family, ventured into God's kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

That's a pretty crystal clear. Right, no one can contend with this. Especially when you read Galatians. Galatians is so strong in reviewing the heresies of works, faiths, salvation. And it's not even the word baptism.

Notice what it says on the next verse. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. In baptism, we reformed ourselves with what? Oh, what was it? With Christ, right there. In baptism, we reformed ourselves with Christ.

This idea of unloading ourselves. So we are, in the previous verse, we're already in Christ. We're in Him already. But notice what baptism is accomplishing. It's accomplishing in our work, isn't it? So there's an inner work that precedes the outer work.

The inner would be faith in Jesus Christ. You are saved by grace through faith in you. You are saved not by works, so no man may boast. But that inner work results in an outward expression, namely the putting on of Christ through baptism.

So one is internal, and the internal must precede external. That which comes by faith comes first. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. And then we do. This is exactly what we've seen in Ephesians chapter two.

We're saved also by grace through faith, but we're saved onto good works without our internal work, and that would be walking in the Lord's hand. And so we're not saved by works, but we're saved onto good works.

One of the first good works of Christian thought to be the pursuit of baptism. That should be the first. Remember, we don't put it at the end of the Christian eschatology, we put it at the beginning. It's the beginning, right?

Again, it'd be very strange, for instance, if you got married, and you didn't consummate the marriage, or you didn't exchange wedding rings, or you delayed something for a very strange reason. So we don't want to delay more than we have to.

Obedience on putting on of Christ through baptism.

Any questions on that verse, on that concept?

We put on of Christ through baptism, which is to get outwards, I don't like this noun too much, but I'll use it. I heard it said that baptism is like putting on the jersey. And that's very simplistic, but for the purposes of this discussion, it kind of helps.

It is the same, it's like if you're putting on of Christ, you're like a part of Jesus now, right? Like, I signed the contract, right? You're an NFL player, you signed the contract,.

And now the next thing you do is you get your jersey,.

You put on the jersey, and it shows you're associated now with Christ as a kingdom. And it's very simplistic, but the imagery helps. So we put on of Christ through baptism. The analogy is, it's like a wedding ring, right?

It's like a wedding ring. It is a sign of the covenant between you and God, between you and Christ. And so, and again, that's also a little bit simplistic, but it still gives kind of a helpful imagery of the importance of baptism.

And I want to emphasize one thing here in verse 28. For there is neither a shooter or a reaper, there is neither a slave or a free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Notice the language that Paul is incorporating here.

He's talking about the uniqueness of, and also the diversity of the body of Christ. He's not talking about the outside world, he's talking about church, right? He's saying there's Jew, reaper, there's female, female, but really, we're all one here.

What position were we one in? In Christ. Now what does that, that has implication for baptism in church membership. Why? Because what we're being baptized into. Into? Into Christ. Particularly in his body, which is why there is no either male or female, free or slave, reaper or barbarian, we are all one in Christ Jesus.

In reference to the church, to the body of Christ, we're all one in Christ, in his body. There is those distinctions melt away, in a sense. And it does so by means of what precedes that, which is baptism.

Baptism being a requirement for church membership. Do you see this? It's not like, we're not like, just making this up. It's actually pretty clear here in the text, and it's very implicit in the text of scripture.

Baptism and Membership in the One Body of Christ

Now to look at another example of this, let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This discussion is always interesting to have. I've had a boss who was an apostle. He belonged to the poor server, which is kind of a characteristic offshoot of apostatism.

And we were having this debate years ago, when this was back in Canada. And he asked, do you believe, are you willing to baptize that believes that you need to be baptized in order to, you know, be a member of church membership?

Absolutely. He's not. You baptists are all crazy. And it's not that crazy. I mean, it's pretty clearly laid out here. For instance, this is one of the verses of the church. But it's 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

Let's look at verse 12. It says, for just as the body is one, and has many members, what body do we make of our spirit? The church. And it says, as all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit, we're all baptized into what? One body, it's the church. Jews or Greeks, slaves, or you notice the language, what we just read from Galatians chapter three, a very similar use of the language.

We're all made to drink of one spirit. Verse 14, the body does not consist of one member, but many, it's clear that Paul's talking about the church. Okay, and when we were baptized, what were we baptized into?

Into the body, okay? So Paul is laying it out very strongly here. And I love the fact that he uses the term members, obviously members, when he's using the verse 12, he's talking about, what do members represent?

Body parts, that's right. And so he goes on to say that everyone's the blood, everyone's the eye, everyone's the hand, and there are different functions of the body, yet we are all one body. And this is a clear, clear reference to the church.

And so, Paul says that we're all baptized into one body, which is right there, and that one body is the church. Again, to reread that text, verse 12, for just as the body is one, it has many members, and all the members of the body, though many.

So it's not using members in the same way we would refer to membership, in terms of church membership, but it's still very closely related, the concept, the idea that's being poured here. So it is with Christ, for in one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, okay?

So baptism is linked as a prerequisite for membership into the one body. And in baptism, again, there's a spiritual truth and a spiritual presence that is accompanied in baptism, similarly to the Lord's Table, where you are made to drink of the one spirit.

Interestingly enough, when we encounter baptism in the book of Acts, I think it's chapter eight, or 19, actually, where you have John, the disciples of Christ, and they encounter the disciples of John.

You remember that, do you recall that interaction? And John's disciples had been baptized, okay? But what had they not yet received? Holy Spirit, okay? They had received the word, they had repented, they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, right?

They had not yet been baptized into Christ. They had not yet been baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They had not followed into Christ's baptism. So they were baptized, and then with the laying on of hands, they received the Holy Ghost, okay?

That's of great interest, that scenario. And there's a lot of questions that I have in my mind as to that scenario. That one's very influential to me. One of the things that is relevant to this discussion is that it was only after their Christian baptism that they received the Spirit, and that they were no longer just considered John's disciples, but now Christ's disciples, okay?

That's a very important distinction. And so they're no longer just John's disciples under the baptism of repentance. Now they've received the baptism that was promised, the baptism of fire, even though it's a one, baptism of the Holy Spirit.

So they were baptized rightly, and then they received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, okay? Very important. Now again, I'll open it up to you guys. Do you have any questions so far? Because I've got questions, and I don't necessarily have answers to.

The One Baptism, the Holy Spirit, and Church Membership

Okay.

There are some modifications to the baptism in regards to 1 Corinthians 12, the verse we just went over. Yeah. It says that in one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, going on to end our sin, that we were all made to drink from one spirit.

Somebody would say, well this looks to be referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that it brings you to the spiritual body of Christ, and not water baptism, right? How would you respond to that?

Which is why I brought up the scenario of John's disciples, right, because John's disciples had been baptized in water, but not under Christ. They weren't baptized into Christ, which is again, what the text is talking about.

The text that we just went over, both in Galatians and 1 Corinthians, is talking about being baptized into Christ, right? And so, the disciples of John were baptized, but not into Christ, and they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, right?

The anointing of the Spirit had not yet come upon them until after the baptism of Christ, and laying on of hands by elders. And so, as far as I understand this text, and one could make an argument that the reference for in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, this is talking about regeneration, and I wouldn't disagree to some extent, actually, that this has implications and reference to regeneration, which comes through faith and repentance in Christ.

But ultimately, notice again what it says in verse 12, for just as the body is one, has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. So the church, being that one body, for in one spirit, Ephesians four comes to mind, verses four, five, and six, that says, for there is one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God Father of all.

So when Paul says there's one baptism, he doesn't separate baptism of the spirit and baptism of water, he doesn't separate it, he says there's one baptism, right? And so when Paul goes on elsewhere to refer to baptism in this context, I believe he's referring to the one baptism, okay?

And so we're baptized into one body, the body of Christ, Jew or Greek, slaves, and the context is really important here, because he's talking about church membership, and he's talking about our differences, Jew, Greek, male, female, slave, free, he's talking about all of our differences, and how all of our differences serve a greater function in the body, in the church, right?

So not everyone is the eye, not everyone's the foot, not everyone's the hand. So to me, when we look at the context of what Paul's trying to communicate here, there's no doubt he's talking about the one baptism and its importance in relation to church membership and the function of church membership in the greater context of 1 Corinthians 12.

Pastor Carl, do you want to add to that? Yeah.

I'm asking for backup here. Well, I mean, I have a, I think I have a slightly different take on some of these. Go for it. Well, so, yeah, I don't want, I mean, I don't want to contradict you, but the, well, yeah, if you look at what John Calvin says about the baptism of John, I think it's very important that Jesus shares the same baptism that we have, and he had John's baptism.

So his interpretation of that situation in Acts, which I would agree with, is that John's disciples didn't receive a second water baptism, they actually received the baptism of the Holy Spirit,.

And that was, that was true. So they had it, but it was a water baptism?

No, they had, by John, and that was enough. So when they, that second baptism they received was not, it's not describing a water baptism, it's just describing when the Holy Spirit came on them. This is a, I'll bring the Holy Spirit on.

And the major theological thing is, if you say that John's baptism wasn't the same, then Jesus doesn't share the same baptism with us.

Right, it's a baptism of repentance. Christ did not have to repent, obviously, but he set a model for us by which we have to, that we ourselves have to follow him. And so, but in reference to his question about,.

Right, but whether or not you need to be baptized to be a member, yeah, I mean, the, you know, we live in this physical, visible world, and there are signs that God has given us to attach to, you know, this administration membership.

And so, yeah, I don't disagree that someone who's been baptized by the Spirit and not yet been water baptized is a member of the new covenant. I don't deny that, but as far as, you know,.

Our administration of church membership,.

You know, this is a physical, visible thing. We've got physical, visible signs that Jesus has given us.

That's right. This is why, again, notice what it says in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 12. He says, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. So he's talking about the unity of the church, when one suffers, it all suffers, when one is honored, it all is honored.

And there is, it's not just talking about the invisible aspect of the church, right? So when you are born again, you enter into the invisible church, you're part of the universal church. But he's not simply talking about the implications of the invisible church.

There's implications for the physical church when we're together in a gathering. And that mark, that sign, is baptism. Now again, there's one baptism, but baptism has two signs. Baptism of water, baptism of the Spirit, but there's one baptism overall.

Yes?

Yeah, I got a question, and I think you kind of answered it a little bit. So this is going back to the baptism of repentance. So on Acts, just last night I was reading this, Acts 19. He was talking about Paul and his forces that John baptized him in baptism of repentance, right?

And then he said, you must believe who was to come after him. And then he said, who, Jesus? And then he said, and when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then he laid hands, and then they were baptized in speaking in tongues and in prophecy.

So they didn't get baptized in?

Yeah, I had probably misremembered of this encounter. That was another encounter in Book of Acts. I'm not sure which chapter it is, where it seems like others got baptized upon the confession of Christ.

But so I probably conflated the two. But in this one, I think, yeah, Conley's right. The persons here mentioned are, they received John's baptism, but then they are anointed by, I think, the name of the answer, right?

Right. Verse six, and Paul laid his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying, and there were about 12 in all. And so the baptism of repentance, water baptism, was administered by John, and then through the apostles, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes, which actually shows the one baptism, right?

So you have this, obviously, the sign of water, but also the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the believer. Now these two are inseparable in a sense, and they're incomplete if one of them is missing, one of these components is missing.

So the person just gets baptized, and there's some implications here I don't know how to answer, to be honest, because if I were just a straight reading of this, would seem to indicate, then, that people could be baptized and not born again, or what does it mean to receive the Holy Spirit?

Is this just a reference to an anointing, a particular anointing, or a regenerational anointing?

Maybe Pastor Collin has the answer. Yeah, I mean, there was something different about the Holy Spirit's activity before Pentecost, right? He still indwelled believers in the Old Testament, but there's something special that happened at that outpouring, so that now, you know, we're a kingdom of priests, rather than before, where only certain people were specially anointed to be priests or kings, et cetera.

Yeah, now we're a nation of priests. Right, right, we're a royal priesthood. So, yeah, that special outpouring, that special work of the Holy Spirit, it's not that they weren't regenerated, didn't have the Holy Spirit indwelling in them, but whatever that outpouring consists of, they didn't have yet.

And is there an application for us today, or is it just different? I suppose there's a lot of applications.

But yeah, I mean, that was certainly a special period in time where people had been being baptized before Pentecost, right? Now that people are getting baptized.

After Pentecost, they don't have the same. That's a good distinction to understand, is that, you know, I firmly believe, I don't like using this term, because it's so misapplied, but I firmly believe we're in the same dispensation as the New Testament church.