When I was 10 years old, back in 1973, the Holy Spirit was being poured out throughout the United States and the world.  Many have named this special time of God’s visitation the Charismatic Renewal.

Churches from all denominations, Protestants and Catholics alike, were all experiencing what the Bible calls The Baptism with The Holy Spirit.

In the book of John, John the Baptist (not John the Apostle) said of Jesus: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.  I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who BAPTIZES WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.'”  This is where we get the phrase Baptism with the Holy Spirit.  The amazing part is that where John the Baptist would baptize people with water, Jesus was going to baptize using something much more powerful.  He was going to baptize with the Holy Spirit himself!  Jesus would baptize, or immerse, people into the Holy Spirit.

Now lets fast forward to the beginning of the book of Acts.  This is after Jesus has been raised by the Father from the dead and just as He was preparing to leave Earth to go to Heaven.  Jesus is speaking to His disciples.  Let’s listen in:  “You all shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me…”  Notice Jesus says they will receive power.  Just remember that.  We’ll get back to that in a minute.  Jesus uses the phrase “the Holy Spirit has (or will) come upon you.”  This is the same idea as being baptized with the Holy Spirit, just said a little differently.  When you are baptized into something, like water, the water comes upon you.  You’re immersed into it.  So when Jesus said to them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them, He’s talking about baptizing them with The Holy Spirit.

Now let’s go on the scene of the first instance where Jesus baptizes people with The Holy Spirit.  Acts 2:1-4 says: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  Now a couple of things.  One, notice that it says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 1:8 Jesus said the Holy Spirit will come upon you.  Although one says they were filled and another says He came upon them, both are talking about the same idea, being baptized with the Holy Spirit.  We know this because Jesus said in Acts 1:5 “John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  Then Jesus calls it the Holy Spirit coming “upon” in verse 8, talking about the same experience to come.  See?

Second, notice what happened when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they all began to SPEAK WITH OTHER TONGUES.  And remember a few moments ago we also heard Jesus say that when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall receive power.  So, being baptized with the Holy Spirit gave them power and gave them a new, special ability, the ability to speak in a language they never learned.  In fact, in a language no one had ever learned, because it wasn’t an earthly language!  This is what the Bible refers to as speaking in other tongues, also called speaking in an unknown tongue.  See?  Unknown to the person speaking.  This is what we’re going to be talking about in the next few posts.  We’re going to see that speaking in an unknown tongue, this amazing ability to speak in a supernatural language from God, was not just for the disciples of the church in 1 AD, but for you and me today!