As I have testified and confessed so many times, even with all my Doctoral oral exams in New Testament Greek behind my name, in 1992, as a Dutch Reformed minister after a ministry of about 12-13 years, I never really discovered Jesus's title of “Baptizer with the Spirit” and certainly did not understand it!
Yes, even though I accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour on October 10, 1969, it was only in January to March 1992, in my three-month study of all the verses in the Bible that directly referred to the Person and the working of the Holy Spirit, that I really “discovered” this title of Jesus for the first time and began to understand it.
This is found in so many places in the New Testament.
Let me quote one or two here.
John the Baptist had already spoken about this in Matthew 3:11: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is greater than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Which is also repeated in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and John 1:33.)
Then we hear how Jesus taught His disciples the following after His resurrection from the dead:
“He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses to these things. And I will send you the gift my Father promised. But stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
We also read about this there in Acts 1.
“While he was at the table with them, he commanded them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift that the Father has promised, which you have heard from me.’
John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”
I hope you hear that Jesus will “baptize his people with the Holy Spirit”!
Let me now take you to the events of that day when these promises were first fulfilled, where Jesus, as the Baptizer with the Spirit, himself “baptized” and “filled” his people who believed in him with God the Spirit.
You must notice this important distinction: God the Holy Spirit, who has already lived in every believer since their rebirth, will now “come upon” them to supernaturally equip them with power and the gifts to be His witnesses. Because remember, it is every believer's calling to testify about an invisible God and to be used by this God to do "the same and even greater things that Jesus himself did!"
Therefore, the people of God in whom the Spirit of God already lives must also be "baptized" with this Spirit to be equipped with His power and His gifts!
This happened for the first time on that day of Pentecost, on May 30, after Christ, which we read about in Acts 2.
Here, God baptizes His people with the Spirit. And after this, we see it happen again, for example in Acts 4:31, but also in Acts 10:44 ff.
Although God does this here and there himself, as in Acts 2, most of the time it happens when new converts are baptized in water and then hands are laid on them by other believers and we hear them praying that Jesus as the Baptizer with the Spirit himself will “baptize” them with His Spirit and so supernaturally equip them with the gifts and power of the Spirit!
Go and read it yourself in passages like Acts 8:4-25; Acts 9:15-22; Acts 19:1-10.
Then thank Jesus again for the miracle of God the Spirit living and working in you. However, I also trust the Lord that you can testify how and when God the Spirit also “came upon” you and supernaturally equipped you for your calling and task!