The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 2



In my first post in this series, I talked about the new birth. Today I will be sharing on the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned in Acts 2, and other places in the book of Acts, is not the same thing as the new birth.  It is an experience subsequent to salvation, and often comes through the laying on of hands, but not always.

In Acts 1:4 and 1:8, Jesus is speaking with His disciples after the resurrection.  He gives them a command to wait in Jerusalem until they receive the “gift my Father promised.”

“One on occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”-Acts 1:4-5

“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 to the ends of the earth.”-Acts 1:8

I find it interesting that in Acts 1:4-5, He points them back to John’s baptism with water, because that is where He first received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, was when John baptized Him with water.  It was when the power of God came on Him, and His own ministry started.  He is an example for us.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not the same thing as the New Birth.  We know this because Jesus told them to wait for this.  They had already received the Holy Spirit in John 20, which was the new birth, when Jesus breathed on them.

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”-John 20:21-23

Jesus would not tell them to wait for something He had already given them, unless it was something different.  No, what was coming was the power of God to do what He had called them to do.  Being baptized or immersed in the Holy Spirit would make them like Him.

In Acts 2, on the day of the Jewish festival of Pentecost, the disciples who were all waiting received.

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”-Acts 2:1-4

This was different than what happened to them in John 20.  Jesus had gone back into Heaven, and the Holy Spirit had come in His place, to equip every Believer to do what He has called them to do.

In my next post, we will look at other examples of other Believers in the book of Acts being baptized in the Holy Spirit.  We will also learn more about the differences in the experiences of the new birth, baptism in the Holy Spirit, and water baptism.

All posts in this series include:

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit-The Life of Jesus

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 1

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 2

The Holy Spirit Came on All Who Heard the Message

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 1

The new birth, water baptism, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are three separate events in the life of the Believer.  These three happenings are all very important experiences to the Christian, and are for every Believer today.  Let’s look at the Bible and examine what the Scriptures have to say about each of these experiences.

The New Birth

The new birth or being born again is what Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”-John 3:1-8 ESV

Jesus called it being born again and being born of the Spirit.  The Bible also calls it the new birth, or being saved.

“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”-Titus 3:5 NLT

“By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth so that we would be the first fruits of His creatures.”-James 1:18 Holman Christian Standard Bible

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”-Ephesians 2:8 ESV

“who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”-1 Timothy 2:4 New American Standard Bible

In John 20:21-23, we see the disciples become born again.  The Holy Spirit is the one who gives everyone new life or salvation.

“That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

When this happened, Jesus had already risen from death, so the new birth, or salvation was a possibility to all who believed.

So, how does one become born again?  In Romans 10, we are given the steps that a person has to take to be saved.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. –Romans 10:8-13

You can prayer that prayer right now.  If you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then confess him as your Lord and receive Him into your heart and life.

In part 2 of this series, I am going to teach about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and how that is an different experience and follows salvation.

All posts in this series include:

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit-The Life of Jesus

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 1

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 2

The Holy Spirit Came on All Who Heard the Message

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit-The Life of Jesus

Everything Jesus said or did was an example for us. That includes the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

You can find the account of Jesus’ baptism in water and in the Holy Spirit in all four Gospels.

Matthew 3


Mark 1


Luke 3


John 1


Let’s look at the one in Matthew 3.

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’

Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, Heaven opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my Son, who I love; with Him I am well pleased.’”-Matthew 3:13-17 (NIV)

I have often wondered why Jesus was need to be baptized. He was sinless. He didn’t need to repent. And then one day it dawned on me. He wasn’t repenting. He was being baptized unto new life.

Up until that point, Jesus had done no miracles. If you read the Gospels, you will see that before His baptism, He had performed no miracles and healed no one. After the water baptism, and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is when He began His public ministry.

It is the same with us. When we receive Jesus,  we are water baptized as a demonstration of what has happened internally. We are made clean, washed on the inside. The water baptism is an outward symbol of us entering into new life.

An even though Jesus did not need to be renewed on the inside- He was the sinless, Son of God- He needed to be an example for us. He was teaching us what was to come for us as Believers, for His Church.

But it doesn’t stop there.

"...and he (John) saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him."

The Holy Spirit didn't come down in the form of a dove. He came down like a dove, gently, and anointed Jesus to fulfill His ministry.

Acts 10:38 says,

“...how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

Just like Jesus was going toward something, so are we. And we need the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to take us there.

All posts in this series include:


The Baptism of the Holy Spirit-The Life of Jesus

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 1

The New Birth, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Water Baptism, Part 2

The Holy Spirit Came on All Who Heard the Message...

Rethinking Worksheets as a Teaching Tool

Yesterday I tried to work on a worksheet with my little guy, just for fun, to give him some “work” to do.  He is almost 5, and can do lots of things already like write, spell his name, count, and he knows a lot of signs in ASL (American Sign Language). 

The objective of the worksheet was to color code the pictures based on the letter the picture began with.  For example, if the picture began with “w”, you colored the picture brown.  If it began with “d”, you colored it yellow.  If it began with “r”, you colored it orange.

For my son, this was confusing.  Watermelon was one of the pictures he was supposed to color brown.  I could sense what was going on in his mind.  A watermelon is pink and green.  A donut was one of the pictures you were supposed to color yellow.  Donuts definitely are not yellow.  They are brown, so we should be coloring that picture brown and not the watermelon.  A rainbow was one of the pictures he was supposed to color orange.  A rainbow isn’t orange.  It is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  He knows that.  He has seen a lot of them in person because we lived in Hawaii for a few years.

He ended up not coloring the pictures.  We still went through all of them to identify beginning letter sounds, but he didn’t want to color the pictures.  I really didn’t blame him and didn’t make him do it.

It seemed like the point of this particular worksheet, which was to teach beginning letter sounds, was diminished by the instructions.  In the end, the main focus of the activity was whether or not the learner could follow instructions.

There are so many other ways that this skill could be taught to your homeschooler in a natural manner.  My son was already familiar with many of the pictures, because he had seen them in real life, learned about them in literature or movies, or learned how to sign the word in ASL.  Some of the word included other than the ones I have already mentioned were wagon, duck, rug, robot, door, and web.

Some simple ideas for learning beginning letter sounds with the above objects could include taking a ride in a wagon.  You could have a conversation with your child about the wagon, about the beginning letter and teach them the ASL sign, which looks like the letter all in a very short ride.  To continue with the letter w, you could observe and draw a spider web, most likely during the spring and summer.  (Later in the day, he was actually trying to teach his older sister how to draw a spider web.) This activity would overlap into science.  There are so many hands-on activities that you could do that would help your child connect with and retain beginning letter sounds better than a confusing worksheet.

Just a note, I am not completely against the use of worksheets.  It is fun sometimes to sit down and answer questions about what we know.  I like to take tests.  However, I don’t believe that worksheets should be used as a teaching tool.  The object is to help the child learn and retain this information, and that is best accomplished by helping them connect with the information.

I hope I have given you some simple ideas on how to teach your homeschooler using real world scenarios, and critical thinking about using worksheets as a teaching tool.

Many blessings to you and I hope you enjoy your journey!