Baptism with Fire

Matthew 3:11-12

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 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."

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It struck me just yesterday. I don’t think I’d given this Scriptural description of baptism much thought before. But, yesterday, in one of those epiphany moments, it struck me. So, I looked up this passage in Matthew, and for the first time the line “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” really stood out.

Let me back up. It began with a verse from Psalm 104, which I read recently. Verse 4 in that Psalm says, “you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.” The attention to detail didn’t come immediately, but, when it did, I was struck by the fact that the Lord makes fire and flame his ministers! I took it personally. I prefer to be ministered to by something that will not burn me, or hurt me. Fire and flame sounded dangerous, and even destructive. I’d rather be ministered to with ice cream and a nice warm blanket. But, God, the Scripture tells us, sometimes uses fire and flame as His ministers.

Then I came across this description of how the Lord will baptize us. It’s with the Holy Spirit, which we often pray for and want. But, it’s also with fire, which I doubt many of us pray for in our lives. But, here it is, both in Matthew and Luke (Luke 3:16) that the Lord will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Believers are baptized. Baptism is the mark of a believer. When we’re baptized, it’s with water, isn’t it? Just like John the Baptist baptized. But, we know that all the water in the world doesn’t make us live like Christians. Water baptism is a symbol of the real thing. And the real thing is the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. We cannot live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul says that it’s the Holy Spirit that enables us even to believe and declare, “Jesus is Lord!” Thankfully, it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give the Holy Spirit in abundance to every believer.

But, what of fire? Have you asked for that? To be baptized with fire? Have you been baptized by fire? It doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience, does it? In case you were wondering about that, look no further than the Scripture around today’s text. Just prior to this, John the Baptist condemns the Sadducees and the Pharisees, urging them to “bear fruit worthy of repentance,” adding that “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John the Baptist proclaims that Jesus Christ will (not may, or probably, but will) baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And, in case we have a nice, warm camp-fire image form in our head, John the Baptist sets us straight: Christ will come, he says, winnowing fork in hand, and gather the wheat into the barn, while “the chaff” he will burn up with “unquenchable fire. (The “chaff” is debris separated from the seed in threshing grain.)

So, Christian, have you been baptized with fire? Have you felt that searing heat burning you inside and out, making you wonder if you are in hell?

What good news if, on the contrary, it is the Lord Himself baptizing with fire to purify our souls, cleanse us of all sin, to refine the gold, to burn up the debris in our lives, to leave only good, fruitful seed…

…to fit us for His Kingdom!

Psalm 104 says that this Lord uses fire and flame as ministers of His. What if, in His compassion, He is ministering to us, and like a strong antiseptic, the burning is only a harbinger of healing and binding up of our wounds?

What if there is no other way to make a true disciple of Christ? In His commission to the apostles, Jesus Christ says “Go, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

Significantly, He doesn’t commission those first disciples to make believers, but to make disciples. I think it’s possible to be a believer without being a disciple. But, Jesus Christ calls us to discipleship, and He commissions us to make more disciples. Ultimately, Christian discipleship means dying to self, and living for Christ. What if somewhere along the road of discipleship, if we truly want to be His as He wants us to be, there must come the Lord’s baptism with fire?

The Lord comes for us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there. We know about faith journeys, and how we are meant to grow and become mature in the faith. Pardon my unorthodox theology here, but what if, in a manner of speaking, there are stages to our baptism, and “baptism with fire” comes further along the faith journey? In the beginning, the minister of Christ baptizes with water when we believe in Jesus Christ. The Lord then baptizes us with the Holy Spirit from on high and gives us the power to live the Christian life, when He is Lord. And then, when we are ready – and He knows when we are ready -- the Lord baptizes us with fire, to purify us and refine us and fit us fully for His kingdom. It’s the ministering grace of discipleship, when fire and flame draw us closer to Him, and make us the kind of disciple He created us to be.

I am reminded of the words of an old hymn (“How Firm a Foundation”): “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply; The flame shall not harm thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”

If we are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have chosen to make Him Lord and to follow Him, we will repent, and He will baptize you and I with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life. The fire purifies our repentant lives and fits us fully for the Kingdom.

As disciples, when we go through the searing experience of being baptized with fire, we need to remember the One we follow: Jesus. He is the One who baptizes with fire. He loves us with an everlasting and self-giving love – so much that He was willing to die for us. Now, He is exalted and sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us. He is our advocate in heaven. He calls us by name. He sends us the Holy Spirit. He is the Good Shepherd. His intent is never, ever, to do us harm, but always good, better than we can ask or imagine.

The Lord Jesus Christ will baptize you and me, Christian, with Holy Spirit and with fire. But, when we know who He is and how He loves, we need not be afraid of this. Let Him have His way. Go through it with Him.

He is Lord. He is worthy. He is faithful.

We can trust Him who loves us with an everlasting and self-giving love.

Amen.