Main Teaching 1: Of Baptisms and Good News

Chapter 1

Of Baptisms and Good News
Understanding the Gospels and Baptisms:
John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter at Pentecost 

Like a slow fuse dynamite explosion, this first topic seems like a standard exhaustive bible study on arcane topics, but will gradually shine a light on the powerlessness of an incomplete gospel, and will reveal that more likely than not, you are standing on the wrong side of that great divide.

So consider, before Jesus began ministry to usher in the Kingdom, a strange thing happened. John appeared.

John’s role to modern Christians is purely historical, yet oddly most current church ministries bear more resemblance to the ministry of John the Baptist than Jesus, and in this sense they are more akin to the disciples of John than being true disciples of Jesus. Forget the entire community for a moment and just consider your own ministry. Where do you stand? Would an outsider looking in at your work declare, indeed God is with you! Or, is he more likely to say, Oh well, there’s some religious people over there doing stuff …. Is God’s presence tangible in your routine meetings, or is there merely a lot of talk of anecdotes and self-help motivation going on? Is water baptism the highlight or the main goal of your preaching? Or have you realized there is more to the gospel than repentance and water baptism?

So as we now look at the differences between John the Baptist and Jesus, we will also take a look at the biblical parallel between John the Baptist and Moses, and it will help you to mainly keep some focus on your own church and your own ministry experience to better understand what gospel you preach, what manifestation of God you enjoy, and whose example your work really resembles more, Jesus, or John the Baptist.

Good News of Salvation

Don’t get me wrong, even in today’s world there is still a need for a ministry like John’s because he was used by God to prepare the people’s hearts, by preaching a message of repentance unto salvation with water baptism afterwards as a testament or a sign.

His father Zechariah’s prophesied when he was born he would preach salvation:

This was all done before Jesus was crucified keep in mind. In fact this ministry was in full swing before Jesus was even ‘revealed’ to the world, which has a double meaning. But John preached a baptism of repentance unto salvation and had already reached millions of people we think before Jesus received the Holy Spirit Baptism in the Jordan on that wonderful day.

Yet John also preached a second message, often saying that a second baptism, one of Fire, was coming and he told people to look for it and the one who would minster it, namely Jesus.

Let me interject a vision I had briefly. I was really minding my own business one day, just walking across my living room when God spoke to me and said, “Let me explain salvation to you,” and I saw from his viewpoint, as it were, as he was looking at a man whose back was turned to him, and as the man began to turn around to face God I heard God say,”Salvation is when man turns away from following his own way, and turns back to me.” As he said this the man in the vision turned around to face the Lord.

I kept this vision to myself for a long time because this had nothing to do with saying a sinner’s prayer or getting water baptized, and I just waited to understand more about the process of salvation before I said anything. We can agree I think that water baptism comes AFTER personal belief and repentance and so the act of baptism is meant to be a willing public statement of faith after the decision has been made to follow God; it does not come before belief as if the water somehow creates the faith or the salvation itself. Ceremonies are symbolic not substantive. Baptizing babies is useless. Baptizing people without their consent and authentic faith in Jesus as Savior is useless.

So the Sinner’s Prayer is still a useful tool, if you use it right. You can’t trick a person into salvation as I’ve seen people try to do. ‘Hey, can you help me read this card. What does it say?’ ‘Oh sure, I’ll help. Hmm, it says here, ‘Jesus … is … Lord.’ ‘Ha, I tricked you! Now you said it! Now you’re a Christian! Hahah!! You got saved, you got saved! I got you!!’

No, it doesn’t work that way. The sinner’s prayer needs to be a prayer of faith. Of understanding. Of agreement and willingness to turn away from your ways and turn back to God and to follow him. Man’s craftiness and cunning trickery will not substitute for the authentic work of the Holy Spirit in bringing conviction and genuine repentance to a person’s heart. It does not supplant free will. Why would people think otherwise? Why would a person think if you can trick someone into saying ‘Jesus is Lord’ by deception, subverting their free will and trying to make a shortcut around an honest conversion that you could trick a person into denying their flesh, crucifying the ways of man and following God with purpose and a clean conscience?

A sinners prayer is a tool we use, it’s not in the Bible really, but I tend to lean on ideas in Romans 10:9-10 usually, or John 3:16 of course, but it’s a useful way to help clarify points of faith and belief to a new believer … if it’s used properly that is.

But what Jesus told me is that salvation is simply when a person turns away from their ways and turns back to God. Simply put, this is what John and other Old Testament prophets were doing: Turning people’s hearts back to God.

However, like I mentioned above, this was not the entire message John the Baptist preached, and if this were the entire New Testament message there would be no need to say any more! Yet this foundation idea is basically wrapped up in the first chapter of three of the four gospel accounts, and very rarely ever revisited again. Surely there is more God wants to impart to us beyond chapter 1! Verily, verily when Jesus came he proclaimed a greater message than merely the message of Salvation John was already doing so well without him. At least that’s what John said he would do! And would wear shoes John could not even carry!

A Sure Foundation

But let me say it like this: the promises of God the Gospel makes are supposed to be fulfilled in Christ. Yet there are stages of preparation that people need to go through before they can enter or receive these blessings, especially the greater ones. There is a gate to the sheepfold, a narrow door, one must enter through and only THEN the enjoyment of the pasture, or the feast within the banquet hall can be had, all that and more.

The two mistakes being made commonly are obviously first to deny there is such a door, such people simply do not get saved, but more often in today’s church is to confuse the doorway with the banquet hall. Such people have a ticket to dine, but never enter in and sit down to enjoy the meal with the Lord of the Feast. These people dwell on promises unfulfilled and never enjoy the fulfillment Jesus said at his very first sermon was accomplished in their hearing. [in Luke 4 referencing Isaiah 61]

Healing, deliverance and prophecy were plainly manifested in Jesus’ early ministry and later in his name by countless thousands across the world and over the centuries. Yet in John’s ministry these promises were left unfulfilled—in John’s ministry there was only one biblically recorded miracle, and that was at the water baptism of Jesus when he was also filled with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus did no miracles before being empowered from on high with the Spirit and with Power, and it was this fiery experience John asked Jesus for when he saw him, was denied, but which was poured out on all flesh only later at Pentecost.

See, if I go too fast you’ll miss the point.

Let me say it a different way.

You may recall that Moses, the preacher of the Law, Morals and the Torah, led people out of bondage but only up unto the border of the promises of God; Moses did not enter the Promised Land himself, and neither did the people under his leadership. And if he had not died and been removed from the scene I am sure there would still be people living in the shadow of Mt. Nebo waiting for God to lead them into the Promised Land today. Well, anyway, this is the biblical foreshadow of John’s ministry and it reveals the nature of all modern ministries that continue to operate like John’s.

You see, John himself never reached the experience of the Kingdom [Luke 7:28], yet through his ministry preaching repentance and water baptism he led multitudes of people right up to the border of it.

And only the people who repented at his preaching, who the Scripture would then call the ‘poor in spirit’ would later be able to bear the weighty words of Jesus [Luke 7:29-30] because the ‘way of the Lord’ in their hearts had been prepared and made straight. [see Malachi, Isaiah, Luke, etc.]

I say I understand this because I once saw a vision of this ‘way of the Lord’ in a girl’s heart and what it is, is the connection between them—or maybe think of it like a conceptual framework of their relationship in the person’s heart through which a person views God. If this ‘way’ is ‘straight’ then God’s intentions and character in their view are conveyed correctly. God is seen by them as he truly is: Reasonable, Trustworthy, Kind, Loving.

If, however, through abuse or suffering, ignorance or deception this ‘way’ is made rocky, twisted, tangled, broken and is somehow damaged … then the intentions and character of God, who is the very source of Love of Goodness, are perverted and God is perceived by them as devious, untrustworthy and even sinful. That’s the vision I saw. John came to set things straight WITHIN peoples’ hearts by repairing this ‘way’ between them and God. Only NEXT could they receive the blessings conveyed along this ‘way’ that Messiah would soon offer.

If people have experienced this inner healing or had their doctrinal and theological mistakes ironed out, then when it comes time to reveal Jesus in a deeper way they can accept the great Savior, and accept his sacrifice for their sin, and embrace him as he is, not only as a friend of sinners, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but also as a Healer, Deliverer, Revealer of the mysteries of God, Miracle Worker and more. This gets into what Jesus called the Kingdom.

So before many people can embrace the full miraculous nature of his Kingdom, there often needs to be some foundation laid first, which is the message of repentance and forgiveness, paid for by Christ’s shed blood, yes; and turning from their own way and looking back towards God works unto salvation for them, and then we ask them to have public water baptism as a sign of this decision.

But this foundation of repentance and water baptism itself is not the whole house God is offering to build for us, water baptism and salvation are not the only blessings in the vast expanse he foreshadowed calling it the Promised Land.

But what has happened over the years is that the ministry of salvation preparation has been misunderstood by ambitious men and women who without personal spiritual experiences or much spiritual insight have declared that this preparation doorway work, this foundation work is all there is to God’s promises and plans in Christianity! God’s promises of actual comfort and restoration have been canceled they insist! There is no more healing, deliverance or prophecy! There are still diseases, demons, ignorance and broken hearts, but no longer will God help anyone with those things. Why? Well, God had come ‘close’ to mankind during the ‘early rain’ years of the Apostles’ ministry but now is far away again and he is no longer dwelling with us or especially within us in any more than in a purely symbolic way. Too bad.

The main argument you often hear people insist on promoting is that since now we have scriptures we do not need God’s presence or his Holy Spirit, or the promises of restoration anymore. Once the perfect comes they quote, the imperfect is done away with. This is from the Love chapter, talking about Christ’s character being formed in us, but they insist no, what this perfection means is the bible text. For some reason the bible text is PERFECT whereas the author of the text, the Holy Spirit himself, dwelling among us fulfilling the promises the text records is but an imperfect, temporary, partial remedy.

Can you really argue that with a straight face?

Since we now have the scriptures they argue, we no longer need God’s living presence. Really? Are you sure?

The promises of God being with us until the End of the Age and stretching beyond into eternity must have been revoked, somehow, and now we are living a powerless life in our own strength and understanding, yet claiming to be enjoying God’s Kingdom on Earth in all its Glory, as the very children of the God of Heaven. Sure.

Do you see the plain lie here in this reasoning?

Moses himself refused to bring the people of God on the journey towards the promised land if God’s presence would not go with them. That’s an Old Testament model for us to understand which applies now in our real-life journey towards the Kingdom. Why do we now have to endure such a condition by God’s choice that Moses himself refused to accept?

Aren’t we in a much better covenant than they were? Didn’t the law come through Moses as a type and shadow, but Grace (empowering strength) and Truth (the reality of his spirit, not merely the promise or foreshadow of it) come in Jesus? Jesus promised us to be with us until the end of the age? Didn’t Jesus promise us that while he had to be with the Father, that he would send a helper in his place, “that he may be with you for ever,” the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit?

As if we could even follow God’s path without God helping us to do it. Are we to suggest we need God’s help to get saved, but then since we have a book of scared mysteries, we are now on our own to not only decipher it, but be empowered to do what it says in our own strength? As if God’s grace were no longer needed once we got saved to understand and lay hold of God’s promises? How would we then become transformed into Christ’s image on our own without the ongoing vital work of the Holy Spirit within us? How can we achieve a supernatural task of transformation into Christ’s image without the spirit and power of the Holy Spirit living and being active with us?!! How can we achieve a supernatural task with merely earthly, natural tools? It’s a non-starter!

Well, why then do they see no miracles in their lives? Miracles must no longer exist they insist! But well, I suppose if people were living within the framework of a ministry that had no miracles under it’s primary minister, John I mean, and who was a prophet but otherwise had no intimate spiritual interaction with the power of Life, the Holy Spirit, such as we saw so powerfully exhibited in the Pentecost experience, then why would you expect anything else?

I am not trying to be rude, but without the active presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst, I too would be at a loss to understand any of these Kingdom mysteries, and these kinds of false doctrines would be bound to emerge to anyone, me included, if we were left on our own, in our own intellect and understanding to try and decipher his sacred secrets. It’s just human nature that we would improvise from our own earthly ignorance.

So such people don’t challenge their powerless earthly experience to line up with Scripture, no they have to modify their preaching and teaching of Scripture to line up with their powerless worldly lives.

So while we still do need a ministry preaching repentance, and water baptism follows, but we simply cannot endure any ministry that is ruled by Man’s Ways and Man’s Heart in charge of the ministry of the Holy Spirit’s church. This is how you make the Church of Man built on sand! We need to press on, and those who fall back God is not pleased with. We must ever seek an upward calling, not abandon the hope of divine intervention and divine intimacy and turn the great revelation of Christ into mere rules and doctrines made by men. I think you know the verses I am quoting.

If this is you, if you feel you have chosen the low road, you now have a choice. Humble yourself, prepare for change and seek the next step. Jesus told me, “Don’t call it the next step … It’s the Kingdom.” Ok, so humble yourself, prepare for change and seek the Kingdom this message of repentance is meant to prepare you to receive and enter into.

This will immeasurably help both you and your people to enjoy the fulfillment of the promises of God we are all groaning to receive more fully.

Your freedom of choice remains intact, however, to otherwise reject this message, dismiss this warning, and carry on preaching that the Holy Spirit is gone and once you’re saved you’re on your own to navigate an increasingly evil age, with sickness, demonic affliction and impossible situations in increasing abundance … full of promises of God’s presence never leaving you, but void of any manifestation, actual power or any spiritual reality to do anything about these problems. It’s not funny, people actually teach these things from the pulpit!

I heard Jesus say this:

“Imagine the illogical confusions in the minds of the religious ones who preach the Kingdom, but that the Keys are lost and no longer available,” Jesus told me that and more!

But those who suffer the most are the people under these rain-less clouds who preach a religion about a Savior, but also that the Savior is now nowhere to be found! And so I accept your freedom of choice, but I also have freedom of choice myself for how I pray for stubborn leaders for the sake of these suffering people under them and for the blocked advancement of the Kingdom of God.

It is for the very sake of bridging the gap between God’s goodness, comfort and provision and these ignorant, blind and suffering poor people who cannot help themselves for which God has made you a servant of his Word; it is so that you can cover them with God’s protection, by your prayers, intercession, and also by finding and releasing healing, deliverance and prophecy for their benefit.

If you gather them together under your wings, but refuse to actually protect them … well, your very purpose of being, your raison d’etre is in danger of being brought to nothing. I’ve heard God say this exact thing to a large church so geared towards music and entertainment … but ignoring the broken and oppressed messy lives of the people sent to them to be healed and set free. Their spiritual ministry programs were not much more than lip service, their ministry a show to draw crowds to bolster their tithing. Please don’t let this happen to you. That’s why I am trying to explain to you as clearly as I can what Jesus told me on this topic. John’s Ministry and Jesus’ Ministry overlap, they correlate, they are two phases of the same journey but in essence the preparation work of repentance has for many become a trap Jesus told me, and people preach the beginning of the journey as if it were the end, and what is to be preparation as if it were the total fulfillment of all promises itself. It is not. It is clearly not! Entering the Kingdom and living an intimate life with Christ as Immanuel—God with us—having a daily, personal intimate companion because we have become regenerated, transformed into someone like him, and if two agree they can walk together, what fellowship would light have with darkness? The more we resemble the light, not in doctrine but in reality, the more we can comfortably hang out with Jesus. That’s what Adam and Eve did! If we hadn’t fallen, that’s what we would do too! THIS is the reason for the promises, the purpose, it’s fulfillment. Repentance and salvation is but preparation towards laying hold of this end, not the end in itself.

Add Fire to Water

So I am not trying to separate these two gospels, one of Salvation and the other of the Kingdom, in fact I want to merge them together as Peter did at Pentecost, but I need to first point out that this dichotomy exists. They are related, linked, but not quite the same. We see this stated plainly in Acts 19:1-7.

There are in fact still people today like this who are ministering in a precursor, preparatory mindset, just like John the Baptist did and who live just like these ‘disciples’ did, preaching repentance but also living without the fulfillment of the Promise of the Father of the Holy Spirit. No miracles, no tangible presence of a living God. In one way of thinking many of today’s ministers are not even doing as much as John did because John told people the Holy Spirit baptism was coming and modern preachers often deny this is even valid anymore!

But this idea is not just my invention. Let me show you a biblical type to make this point even more clear.

Biblical Parallel of John the Baptist and Moses

We can find a helpful parallel type between John the Baptist and Jesus …. and Moses and Joshua. There are three main elements of this comparison, and understanding this will help you understand the nature of the gospel you preach, and also even evaluate which side of the Kingdom divide you may be on: Man’s Church or God’s Kingdom.

Water, Law and Coming up Short

First both Moses and John the Baptist’ names have something to do with water. This word ‘baptize’ is also rendered ‘immerse,’ and which simply means to ‘dunk into water,’ but no, he won’t leave you down there. You come up out of the water as well. While Moses’ name means something similar, like to ‘draw out of water.’ Water-related names in the Bible are rather uncommon and I just find it interesting that both John and Moses are named for a water experience, namely going into and up out of it. But also note that Moses was said to have brought the people out of bondage and through a ‘red sea baptism.’ [I Corinthians 10:2] So Paul himself also makes this comparison. So both John and Moses are ministering a kind of baptism of water.

Second, they both preached Law and Morality, as well as consequences for disobedience and promises for faithfulness. Moses was of course given the Ten Commandments, and many more rules, while John got himself imprisoned and even killed for speaking truth to power as they say. No timid weakling, John was prophesied to be the one coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, “turning the hearts back.” [Malachi 4:5-6] John even dressed like Elijah [2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4].

But did you ever bother to look this passage of Scripture up? When did Elijah ever ‘turn the hearts back’? Do you know the reference?

Well, it’s a prophetic prayer from Elijah on the top of Mt. Carmel when he was facing off against the 450 plus 400 evil false prophets, baby killers and sorcerers. You know how the story goes, and it is THIS scene that is the prophetic image of John’s ministry. [I Kings 18, esp. verse 37] No, not exactly a garden party. But this was the prophetic image of John’s purpose and ministry.

Moses himself was generally feared and rightly so, most everyone who opposed him, died. I mean they all have since died, but those who opposed him died ‘unnatural deaths’ and often quite very dramatically. [Number 16, esp. verses 28-32] Nether of these two prophets of God were wimps, as they preached about Sin and Death. Someone said, ‘Oh, but that’s the Old Testament God before who was always angry,’ and Jesus said to me, “What?! Am I TWO DIFFERENT GODS? One God in the Old Testament and a different God in the NEW? No,” Jesus told me, “I am the same Yesterday, Today and Forever. This is a false doctrine.” The same God of Moses, was the God of John and of Paul and of Us today. God is one! And he still sends preachers to preach Fire and Brimstone, to bring men to repentance and yes, this deals with moral law, sin and it’s consequences, which is death.

But the third point in this comparison is that neither Moses nor John the Baptist were allowed to enter the Promised Land. Moses was stopped on Mt. Nebo and had to pass the mantle of leadership onto Joshua, who led the people in to possess the Land. Joshua is a Anglicization of the Hebrew name Yeshua, and so it was Yeshua after Moses who led the people across the Jordan in a miraculous water crossing, a kind of ‘second baptism,’ and only then into the promised Inheritance of the Lord, which was a country, a place to live.

Now consider John who prophesied that while he only had water to baptize with, another one would come who would also baptize but with fire and the Holy Spirit. [Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33] Clearly a ‘second baptism.’ This person he was prophesying about was Jesus, which name is an Anglicization of the Hebrew name Yeshua. When John saw Yeshua (Jesus) coming to be baptized in water John said, Wait! I want YOUR baptism! Talking of the Fire Baptism he said he saw a vision of Jesus ministering! But Yeshua (Jesus) said no. There was an order of events, a plan and giving John this fire baptism now at this time was, sadly for him, not a part of it.

John had seen a vision of Pentecost

So can I ask you, have you ever thought about this and realized what John was talking about? What did John see in prophetic visions about Jesus that he was proclaiming? He said Jesus would baptize in fire, and in the Holy Spirit, but Jesus never did that during his earthly ministry, did he?

So what is this fire baptism John saw in his visions that he wanted so badly? It was obviously Pentecost, correct? Jesus said in Acts 1:15 that he would soon send the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father, once he was in heaven … and also how long would the Holy Spirit remain on Earth among his people? A few days? A week? Fifty years?

Be with us forever, but the world (and worldly believers) cannot receive him, they can’t even see him, and so don’t believe he is real! But he abides with us and shall be IN us … even until the end of the world. Isn’t that telling!

Just think that over, and no, I just don’t see how you can say the Holy Spirit was recalled, like an amendment after the fact, because a few years passed and God just changed his plan. …. No, I don’t think so. The Holy Spirit was given to us … forever. That means until the end of the age … and beyond. We certainly won’t suddenly lose him once we get to Heaven, will we?!

Were you ever taught that the Holy Spirit came … but then one day he left? That he was given to explain all of the mysteries of God to us, to teach us all things, so that we need no man to teach us, but was for some reason taken back and so the keys of understanding are no longer going to be revealed to us? No, this is a false doctrine. Be kind, but it’s just not true.

Well, OK, you insist but then why have we seen no miracles for hundreds of years … but this a fault of secular historical revisionism, not truth. It’s a cover up! In reality there have been people walking in the power ministry of Jesus right up from biblical days unto this very moment in time, including walking in healings, deliverance, miracles, resurrections, heavenly visitations, prophecy and the works. But such testimonies are often destroyed by repressive regimes and unsaved antagonists. In truth Jesus’ Kingdom never failed, never ended and has been expanding from that day until now.

But even if your argument based on your flawed view of history is true you must now admit that his Presence which caused the ‘early rain’ outbreak of miracles in the ministry of the early apostles, would also have to return in the ‘later rain’ era for an outbreak of miracles in the ministry of the Body in the end time seasons, correct? [James 5:7] Can’t do many miracles without the presence of the miracle worker, can you?

So either way you have it, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh for the Body in the end time harvest. Whether as you insist he took leave for a few hundred years or not, which he didn’t.

Add to it the prophecy in Daniel I just referenced above, who said he saw a kingdom coming from God, one not made by man, and what else did he see? This Kingdom would a) fill the whole earth [Daniel 2:35], b) never end, and c) never be passed onto another people. [both in Daniel 2:44] So how can Mormons say God’s kingdom failed and so Christianity and Christians have no more legitimacy, and God instead passed his movement on Earth onto a new community of people with a different kingdom, with different laws, different doctrines and rules and with very different core beliefs? Ask Daniel and he would simply tell you No, this is a false doctrine. One of many, despite being very talented at singing heartfelt Christmas carols, but no. This is a lie. Be kind, like I said, but it’s just not true. The work spreading the miraculous Kingdom begun by Jesus has never ended, never been passed to another people and in fact will continue to expand and so fill the whole earth.

Fire denied! Then poured out on All Flesh

So let me recap, John the water baptizer saw Jesus coming and asked him for the fire baptism which John had seen a vision of Jesus ministering. John was not allowed to have the Holy Spirit baptism, a second kind of baptism after the ‘red’ baptism of repentance, and so John was not allowed to later be an Apostle and walk in miracles and power like James and Peter and even Timothy and the rest. This is just like Moses who after doing all the heavy lifting trekking through the desert wilderness was not allowed to lead the people across the Jordan to enter the Promised Land either. Interesting that the Jordan Moses could not cross was the same river Jesus would receive the Holy Spirit Baptism himself in, when it came down like a dove onto him. Interesting parallel.

So anyway this vision of the fire baptism that Jesus would give to ‘all flesh’ was later fulfilled at Pentecost when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from Heaven down to fill and empower anyone, of any background, of any profession, of any tribe or genealogy, even on people of many non-Jewish ethnic backgrounds! Did you realize that? The people who heard Peter speak from the upper room were from all over the populated world—yes, they were all Jews, all believers, all worshippers of God, all repentant after Peter’s harsh rebuke as well, but they were also from over a dozen gentile ethnic backgrounds as well! And yet they all were allowed to receive the indwelling fire of God that Jesus got a few years before in the Jordan. It was not limited to only Cohen priests, or Bethlehemites, or people from only a special guild, or calling, clan, tribe or language. Joel’s prophesy was that the Spirit would be poured out on ALL FLESH, not just Male Jew Cohen priests, and indeed when the Spirit came down this word was fulfilled literally, and 3,000 were added to the church in that single day! [Acts 2:41]

And as for Jesus, after he received the indwelling Holy Spirit, he then spent 40 days being tested and prepared to carry this presence and then came out of the wilderness in the POWER of God. [Luke 4:14] And I am sure if any of these 3,000 newly spirit-filled believers at Pentecost had done the same thing that they too would quickly walk in POWER—and some did!—but they were all given the same indwelling Spirit that Jesus had received, and that without a limit.

Wow, the Kingdom had really come. At least for those who were prepared and willing to receive it.

There is much to say here and I want to recap this third point again: the third point of comparison is that John saw a vision that Jesus would minister a baptism of fire, which was at Pentecost, which Jesus was responsible for. This promise was known to John, was seen by John, was prophesied about by John … but never received by John. Just like Moses who was told God had a promised country for the people and he gave himself without reservation to the huge task of bringing these stubborn people out of total bondage and darkness and through a long purifying process and only then into the Land of the promises of God … but he himself never enjoyed entering into the experience of that promise on earth either.

Do you see the clear link that the Promised Land is a country, it has a territory, and now the term Jesus uses to describe the Blessings he was releasing is a very similar term, the Kingdom, also a kind of country.

Do people expect the ‘narrow door’ to merely lead into a ‘larger foyer’ of God’s promises? They may have such a low expectation, but no, the size of the promises of God are so large that Jesus does not compare them to a larger room, a mansion, a large estate, neighborhood or district. He calls the promised land an entire Kingdom!

A higher baptism, a higher message

Note also the message Jesus preached was not merely the Gospel of Salvation. In fact John was said to be preaching a message of repentance and water baptism for the remission or forgiveness of sin, which is basically good news of salvation. Yes John was preaching more than that as I have been saying, it was the knowledge of salvation, and preaching the prediction of Pentecost … but also as a foundational experience it prepared people to be able to hear the next great message, which is what Jesus preached and why Jesus often said he was preaching the gospel … of the Kingdom.

This gives new meaning to John’s words that he ministered water baptism ‘so that Jesus would be revealed.’

I mean if people were not prepared in heart then Jesus would remain hidden to them, even if he was standing there in plain sight! So preparing them means when he shows up they will recognize who he is. John’s ministry gave them eyes so they could see, something which the Pharisees who rejected John’s ministry still lacked. So John baptizing ‘so that Jesus would be revealed’ has a double meaning! He saw him and pointed him out, but also caused peoples’ spiritual eyes and ears to be opened by preaching repentance so they could both “see” and “hear” the Messiah when he came for who he was.

The Greatest Born of Women, but still less than the least in the Kingdom

Another time we see this two-tier treatment is in Luke 7 when before John died he began to lose hope in seeing God’s promises for himself. He was in prison and sent disciples of his to ask Jesus basically, are you the Messiah we are waiting for or not? Image John’s state of mind!

Jesus said, basically, well, tell him what you see! There are miracles and people can now see and walk … and blessed is he who is not offended in what I’m doing!

That’s a slight cuff, basically, tell John to watch it!

But once these disciples of John left and as soon as Jesus knew they were gone, Jesus began talking about John, telling people that he was the promised forerunner to the Messiah, and that—and take careful note here—that John was the greatest born of women, yet, the least in the Kingdom was still greater than he. [Luke 7:28]

John therefore was not in possession of this ‘Kingdom’ that Jesus kept saying was near, was close, was soon coming. If John was NOT in the Kingdom, what was he missing? Repentance? Water baptism? Faith like a mustard seed? Nope, the only one thing he was missing was the baptism of fire.

But then look at the reaction of the people in verses Luke 7:29-30:

Wow, do you see that? The people who had the ‘way’ in their hearts made straight by listening to John’s preparation ministry years ago were able to ‘hear’ Jesus’ words now. They were ‘poor in spirit’ and when Jesus spoke, they received his wisdom and comfort. Yet those bible scholars, the pastors, bible school professors and church council elders of their day REJECTED GOD’S PLAN FOR THEMSELVES because years ago when John preached they refused to listen. Their fate unfolding TODAY was decided in large part by their actions SEVERAL YEARS PRIOR and how they responded to a wild man wearing camel hair and a leather belt crying out in the desert.

This pattern is also referenced in Isaiah 61, which Jesus just referenced to John’s disciples, and which we will get to in the next chapter, and wow, is it a bombshell!! But this is the verse where Jesus said he was empowered by God to preach the ‘good news’ to ‘the poor.’ This is a strange way to look at it maybe, but if they are ‘poor,’ meaning not that they are lacking funds, but they have been humbled by a sense of their need for forgiveness, or as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, they are the ‘poor in spirit,’ then they are already ‘saved’ because they have faced their sinfulness and repented before God, asking for redemption and in Jesus and John’s case, they surely would have already undergone water baptism.

John’s ministry of preaching repentance unto salvation with water baptism prepared people to later hear Jesus’ words as is said plainly in Luke 7:29-30. So the way I look at it, and you don’t need to say it this way because people are likely to misunderstand you, but those who John baptized were thusly ‘saved,’ and so Jesus came later to preach the Kingdom … to the saved … it was to these repentant and baptized people, meaning yes, he really only preached the Kingdom to those who were already Saved. It was only to the ‘poor’ that Jesus was sent to preach ‘good news,’ or at least that’s the only people who really listened to him or were able to hear it.

Yes, Jesus also first preached a message of repentance, continuing where John left off, but by the time he began walking in miracles a great divide arose in the community and the time of taking sides was suddenly forced upon people in a heartbeat. If they were not prepared for this sudden display of miraculous power, they would persecute it, maybe involuntarily. It was a matter of their hearts. It was now a manifesting outwardly of what was hidden inwardly and people simply found themselves standing on this side of the move of God or that one, as soon as the blind began seeing and lame began walking. The preparation work of preaching repentance had indeed borne it’s fruit—at least in those who received it’s message like a seed planted in good soil.

Is this ministry of John’s now obsolete?

So we now continue John’s ministry of preaching repentance in Jesus’ name, and rightly so, but people are often neglecting the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached, and instead merely preaching the Gospel of Salvation as John preached it, as if it were the complete New Covenant message, and that is why I say most ministers today are more like or have more in common with John the Baptist’s Disciples and John the Baptist’s ministry, than they do with the ministry of Jesus. This should not be so.

I think this is also a biblical point, because don’t you find it interesting that the bible says Jesus did not baptize people in water? Why make this point unless he wants us to get some understanding from it, meaning water baptism is not the end-all be-all purpose of New Testament ministry?

And also note what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:14-17

This part where Paul says he was sent to preach yet not with eloquent words lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power will be the subject of a later chapter—but wait a minute! If the Gospel is all about water baptism, is Paul being neglectful of his calling? Why can’t Jesus lend a hand to the disciples with this huge watery task? So not only is there more to the Gospel than water baptism, there is more to the Gospel than salvation, there are even more than one or even two kinds of Baptisms! Jesus even said in Luke 12:50 that he had YET ANOTHER baptism to undergo:

Paul later talks in Romans about Baptism being a way we join Jesus in DEATH.

Maybe it is the same meaning in some way, but still calling his crucifixion a kind of baptism is clearly a third way this term is being used. Also in Mark 10:39 Jesus said not that the disciples were but that they WILL BE baptized …

Notice the future tense. So Jesus is talking either about Pentecost … or Death … or maybe both!

But nevertheless let me tie this all together like this … in fact, following in the mode of John’s ministry of preaching salvation and water baptism but WITHOUT preaching the Fire Baptism is one root of the modern problem of powerlessness in many churches. John himself preached repentance and water baptism IN CONNECTION to looking towards the soon coming fire baptism which he told people to be on the lookout for. If you are preaching salvation without adding a heads-up! call that the fire baptism is the next step, you are not even doing as much as John did so long ago, and your gospel is incomplete!! All FOUR gospels attest to this.

Second, at the Upper Room sermon Peter merged these two ministry messages into one, and I think we should continue this as a best practice as established at Pentecost:

Their repentance unto salvation was connected to immediately receiving the Holy Spirit Baptism next—do it right away! Now? Yes! NOW!!!

I think this is the best and certainly the most developed biblical model of evangelism, tying in the entire Gospel Journey into one unified message of Repentance AND the Kingdom, and this is what we ought to do I believe to be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God. Why waste time separating these messages now, giving the devil an opportunity to sow confusion and doubt in the gap we create between these two events? Please mind the gap!!

So John preached salvation, Jesus preached the Kingdom, Peter merged the two into one at Pentecost. Most Christians today sadly only preach a message nearly identical to John the Baptist: repent and be baptized and you will be saved; and like with John there are no miracles, no prophecy, no healing, no ‘second’ baptism, no fire baptism I mean being released to his disciples under his ministry, and so no power and ultimately no Kingdom possessed by these disciples. This describes more than half the entire current Body of Christ I fear! What a state to live in!

And so I think we have a context now for why Jesus told me the way most people minister in church WILL NEVER produce his Kingdom. This is surely one of the first reasons why (not the only reason why). And it is because they preach an incomplete Gospel. A gospel of salvation, but even this is short-changed. Even we find people preaching that this shortened salvation message is the entire message God delivered in the New Testament through Jesus to the Earth, yet it is not even close! This is not the full message John preached, not nearly the full experience Jesus revealed, nor as a ministry is it even an end unto itself. Jesus told me people who think repentance is a means unto itself, that it is the reason they are saved can and often do fall into a trap. Which I think we will discuss in more detail later.

Salvation is but a narrow door and one that is meant to lead those who enter fully through it and continue the journey on into a greater world of divine intimacy, even while still here on the Earth—a realm of blessings so large Jesus compared it to an entire country not merely an attached hallway, a wide room or large house!

When Only Those ‘Faithful Until the End’ will be Saved

We surely need people to preach a gospel of salvation, but you MUST NOT neglect to tell people to seek the baptism of fire next. Why, you ask? They’re already saved, it’s fine! Relax!

Well, looking back historically you could make that argument, but looking ahead at what we are about to face that’s deadly advice!

Because there is a threat we will soon face where mere water baptism is NOT enough to be saved.

I am looking ahead to what is to come regarding the persecution of the even now emerging government of the Antichrist, because these people are already in political power among us, trying to usher in a new world order and it’s hardly even being hidden. In this era the bible says great persecution will come to force believers to denounce Christ under pain of torture—this is already taking place in many places, and for these people a mere privately held belief will not save them.

We must add to this the mark of the beast, which will include an RFID chip as people have seen prophetically, and in this case again a mere profession of faith and water baptism will not save them. All who take the mark will go to hell, regardless of water baptism. All who deny Christ will go to hell, regardless of water baptism.

Are you ministering in a way to prepare your people to endure this kind of soon coming trial? If not, they will surely not endure to the end and so not be saved … and you will also surely not be rewarded as a faithful shepherd of the flock you claim to love so dearly. God gave us the Kingdom also because we will need it before the age is out. It was not extra credit for super disciples. Think it over. Think it over very carefully.

So in a nutshell, what we ought to do is preach the Gospel … of the Kingdom—the Full Gospel. Preach repentance and salvation; yes, we need this, but minister it in power and in the living presence of God. Preach repentance not as an end unto itself, it is but a narrow door and not the full banqueting hall we are being invited into, let alone the whole country!

Yes, do water baptism, but not at the neglect of preaching and especially ministering the higher ministry of the Fire Baptism as the next step, and I think time is short and you should do them both at the same time!

Water baptism can be done in myriad ways, but certainly demonstrate the power of the Spirit and lay hands on these new believers to impart the Holy Spirit baptism as soon as you can, like Paul did in Ephesus (Acts 19):

And no, do not call it the ‘next step,’ Jesus told me—
it’s the Kingdom. So preach and demonstrate the Kingdom and do it in a demonstration spirit and of power and not only in words! Which I will talk about in a later chapter.

Many ministers already do this. Kudos to them! They are doing what I think is best practice in spreading a knowledge of salvation and of the Kingdom! Good on them!

So we can preach repentance and also minister the Holy Spirit Baptism and merge the two messages into one, just like Peter did at Pentecost (Acts 2). You can quote Peter on this, it works!

So having covered the first Key of Gospels and Baptisms, we can now turn our attention to a much misunderstood sacred secret, one that explains this Kingdom in great detail. This next conversation I had with Jesus I am about to share on Isaiah 61 has the power to change your life, and how you understand the very meaning and purpose of your service to God from here on out! As Jesus explained this verse to me, it is the model of your new life!