He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and FIRE

[tonychanyt]

What were the meanings of being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire?

Mark 1:

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

That's John's baptism.

5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

John's baptism was a forerunning of Jesus' baptism.

8 I have baptized you [pl.] with water, but he will baptize you [pl.] with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus' baptism engaged a deeper spiritual reality involving the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete would transform the baptisees.

The word fire was not anywhere in Mk 1 but was in the parallel account in Mt 3:

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Fire symbolized God's judgment.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Matthew added the word 'fire'. (Some older manuscripts did not have the words for 'and fire'.)

What was the significance of fire?

The immediate context suggested judgment and purification.

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

1. Jesus sent the Paraclete/Spirit to dwell in the baptisees to purify them.
2. Jesus sent the Spirit to judge the world.

In the context of the NT, John might have prophesied the tongues of fire of the Spirit at the Pentecost.

In the broader biblical context, fire sometimes symbolized the zeal, passion and power that comes from God and should characterize His followers. It represented being "on fire" for God.

Psalm 39:

3 My heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue.

The fire empowered a person to speak.

Jeremiah 20:

9 If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

At the Pentecost, Peter was on fire for God and spoke to the assembly. Ac 2:

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Jeremiah 23:

29 Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

What are the meanings of being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire?

1. More than John's baptism of repentance, Jesus' baptism involves the Paraclete dwelling in the baptisees.
2. The fire purifies the baptisees from the inside.
3. The baptism with the Holy Spirit puts the baptisees on fire for God.
4. The fire judges the world.