Part 80

But this is not all. In Acts x. 38 we read, “How _God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power_; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” To what does this refer in the recorded life of Jesus Christ? If we will turn to Luke iii. 21, 22, and Luke iv. 1, 4, 17, 18, we will get our answer. In Luke iii. 21, 22, R. V., we read that after Jesus had been baptized and was praying, “The heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.” Then the next thing that we read, with nothing intervening but the human genealogy of Jesus, is “And Jesus, _full of the Holy Spirit_, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” (Luke iv. 1). Then follows the story of His temptation; then in the fourteenth verse we read, “And Jesus returned _in the power of the Spirit_ into Galilee: and a fame went out concerning Him through all the region round about.” And in the seventeenth and eighteenth verses, “And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because _He hath anointed Me to preach_, etc.” Evidently then, it was at the Jordan in connection with His baptism that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, and He did not enter upon His public ministry until He was thus baptized with the Holy Spirit. And who was Jesus? It is the common belief of Christendom that He had been supernaturally conceived through the Holy Spirit’s power, that He was the only begotten Son of God, that He was Divine, very God of very God, and yet truly man. If such an One “leaving us an example that we should follow His steps” did not venture upon His ministry, for which the Father had sent Him, until thus definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit, what is it for us to dare to do it? If in the light of these recorded facts we dare to do it, does it not seem like the most unpardonable presumption? Doubtless it has been done in ignorance by many of us, but can we plead ignorance any longer? It is evident that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an absolutely necessary preparation for effective work for Christ along every line of service. We may have a very clear call to service, as clear it may be as the Apostles had, but the charge is laid upon us as upon them, that before we begin that service we must tarry until we are clothed with power from on high. This enduement of power is through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.