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The Promised Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire

Matthew 3:11 – 12 - “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John the Baptist was a voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord.  His birth was announced by the angel Gabriel to his father Zechariah, who was a priest. His birth was a miracle. His mother, Elizabeth, was an older woman and had been unable to have children. She was the cousin of Mary, the mother of our Lord. 


His father had lost his voice because he did not believe the angel’s word. Luke 1:22 says, “But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own” In Luke 1:59-64 his voice is restored when he wrote, “his name is John.” The name John means “God is gracious, or the Lord has been merciful.”  


In Matthew 11:11, Jesus referred to John the Baptist “as the greatest of those born of women.” He was great because he was chosen to be the forerunner of the Messiah. It was John who introduced Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).”  The Lord used him to break the 430 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments.


This unusual prophet came on the scene preaching a message of repentance. John 1:23 quotes him as saying, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’” In Matthew 3:11 he prophesies, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”


We see the beginning of the fulfillment of this word in Acts 2:1-4, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

This was just a beginning. The Lord is still pouring out His Spirit and baptizing people with the Holy Spirit and fire. Acts 2:17-18 says, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.”


We are living in days of outpouring. The Lord is not finished with His church, but has a plan to pour out His Spirit in these last days.

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