John K. Jenkins Sr - Bible Study, The Doctrine of Baptisms

Thank you all for being present over the last two weeks, even when the past week was challenging. I appreciate that very much and am grateful for our guest preacher last Sunday, Pastor Jeffrey Johnson. Now, let me see if there are any guests here tonight. If this is your first time at Tuesday night Bible study, please raise your hand so I can see if we have any guests. One? Alright! I need to do a quick review so everyone knows where we are. I’m glad you ' re here. We are in the middle of a series our church is doing called «Doing Life Together,» and we 're taking it from John 2:42, which talks about the early church and how they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. It says they did those four things, and we want to make them a part of what we do as a church and in the life of our church. Those four things are to continue with the Apostles ' teachings-that’s what doctrines are-the teachings of the church. We want to continue in fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. We will be discussing each of those four things. We are in a sub-series because the Apostles ' doctrinal teachings include the six foundational teachings of the church, which come from Hebrews chapter 6. So, if you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews chapter 6. Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at these six foundational truths or basic things that every person in the faith should understand and know. I have been persuaded that many people in church don’t know these six basic foundational truths. We have been discussing them. Hebrews 6: 1 says, «Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection-not laying again the foundations of the foundational principles.» It then enumerates the six: repentance from dead works-we’ve talked about that, repentance from dead works, faith toward God-we talked about that, doctrines of baptisms-and that’s where we are now, the doctrines of baptisms. I noted that the word " baptism» has an 's' on it, indicating there is a multiplicity of baptisms and not just one; there are five. We have already discussed the first four, so let me review them quickly. The first one is John’s baptism, which is a baptism of repentance-you get immersed while turning around. The second is water baptism -this is what every believer should do when they accept Jesus. The first act of obedience is to be water baptized. You are not saved by water baptism, but you ought to do it. Look at your neighbor and say, «You aren 't saved by a pitcher; do it!» We have taught that if you got baptized before you were saved, that is a dead work-it means nothing. We believe the first act of obedience after you get saved, after you accept Jesus, ought to be water baptism. That 's number two. Number three is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is where Christ places us in the body of Christ. We become part of the body; we are members of the household of faith. We are members of the body of Christ, and we get placed in the body when we accept Jesus. It’s a spiritual act that God performs. Number four is the baptism of suffering. The Bible talks about the fact that we all have seasons of suffering. People will sign up for the blessing conference, but nobody’s signing up for the suffering conference. The scripture is clear: if you want to reign with Jesus, you have to suffer with Him. There will come a time-and I believe we’re fast approaching it-when we will have to suffer for our faith. Everyone needs to ask themselves the question: Are you prepared to suffer? Are you prepared to be ridiculed, talked about, and rejected because of what you stand for? More and more, our community is shifting toward rejecting the teachings of the Bible. If you stand with the Bible, they will ridicule you, call you names, and label you in various ways. As a Christian, you must be prepared to endure ridicule and suffering for standing firm in your beliefs. Now, here’s number five, which we’re going to talk about today: the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the infilling of the Holy Spirit when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. I will spend some time tonight discussing this because I think it’s a very important aspect of our Christian life. The baptism of the Holy Spirit-being filled with the Holy Spirit -has six biblical references that use this term, and they are all listed right there. Let me just read a couple of them. I won’t read them all, but in Matthew chapter 3, verse 11, Jesus says, «I indeed baptize you,» and John said, «I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.»