Matthew 3:11-13

MANIFESTED BY FIRE

‘He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.’

Matthew 3:11

There are three baptisms in the New Testament: the baptism of John unto repentance; the baptism of Christ for His people; the baptism at Pentecost. At Pentecost there appeared cloven tongues as of fire.

I. Guided by fire.—This manifestation is not altogether new in the providence of God. (Abraham’s sacrifice in the wilderness; Moses on Horeb; the pillar of fire that went before the Lord’s people in the wilderness. These were all guided by fire.)

II. Inspired by fire.—Let me place before you three considerations. There never will be a new Bible, but there will be many new readings of it. You open your Bible and you read it. But you never read like that before. It used to be ink and paper; now, as you read it, it is fire. Where does the inspiration come from? Is the Book newly inspired? No, but you are.

III. Purified by fire.—There never will be a new Saviour. ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’ But one day you looked at Him through your tears, and He seemed to you altogether new, and the Holy Ghost had fallen upon you and shown to you that you were altogether unlovely, and that your Saviour was altogether lovely. It was not that the Saviour was new, but God had given you a new and a purified heart. The fire of heaven has fallen upon you and purified your heart.

IV. Baptized by fire.—There will be no new Church. The Church is a very old Church; its altar was set up in the eternity of God. In the beginning it was baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire at Pentecost. That is the Church, the Pentecost Church, the Christian Church. There is no other. ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church,’ no new Church, no other Church. What does it all mean? If you are baptized, you are baptized into the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I know you might go away and say, ‘But is not your idea and your explanation of the Holy Ghost’s Church a little vague? We want something more definite.’ Would you ask me to draw a line round the operations of the Holy Ghost? You ask too much. ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints; the Forgiveness of sins; the Resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.’ I believe that which I cannot define.

The Rev. A. H. Stanton.