Foundations of the Christian Life - Chapter 20. The Holy Spirit 1. The Promise of the Father.

Foundations of the Christian Life.
Chapter 20. The Holy Spirit 1. The Promise of the Father.

INTRODUCTION.

In Chapter 18 we saw how the Laying on of Hands was practiced in the Early Church at Conversion/Baptism and it primarily had two ideas:
1. Becoming a member of the Church, which we looked at in the last chapter and,
2. Receiving the Holy Spirit.

Over the last 100 years there has been considerable controversy about the work to the Holy Spirit. This controversy was brought to a head with the advent of the Pentecostal movement (around 1905) which argued for a dynamic experience of the Holy Spirit, which they called the “Baptism in the Spirit”. They claimed that this experience was a “second blessing” subsequent to conversion. This conflicted with the general view of Evangelical Christians that receiving the Spirit was not a dynamic experience and that when we are born again we receive the Spirit in his fullness, thus there could be no “second blessing”.

I grew up in a Conservative Evangelical church and witnessed this controversy. This has led me to much deep thought on the scriptures. I could see rights and wrongs on both sides. As a result I hold a sort of “middling” position. It is this I want to present here. My observation is that “Middling positions” tend to be positions of compromise and so end up contradicting scripture somewhere. I hope I haven’t fallen into that trap. My background demands that I try to be true to scripture no matter what the cost. I hope I have achieved it here.

Though I have read widely on the subject I have not seen in print, nor heard in a sermon, the approach I am about to embark on. Michael Green and David Watson (both Anglican Charismatics) are two writers who basically teach in their books what I am about to say. In some aspects in his later writings Derek Prince (a Pentecostal) approaches some aspects of what I am going to say. I do believe it to be the scriptural position, but I freely admit it is a “private interpretation”. However as I proceed you will find that it is based on the best Evangelical understanding and interpretation. I believe it reconciles the two positions in a clear and scriptural way. I hope you agree, but if not then you are welcome to do better. I admit, I have had this “Pentecostal experience” and I speak in tongues. But this does not mean I turned off my brain as I tried to understand the scriptures on the whole question. This is the best I can do; I can do no other. I will need to spend several chapters on aspects of this to spell my position out.

Before I get into it I want to simply outline three positions which I will henceforth refer to only by the title. These definitions have some generalisations that maybe not all will agree with, but in practice I have found the generalisations to be substantially true.

1. The Conservative Evangelical Position:
* We receive the Holy Spirit at new birth. This is our “Baptism in the Spirit”.
* The Holy Spirit is a person, and we can’t receive part of a person, therefore we receive him in his fullness at conversion so there cannot be a “second blessing”, in the sense of a second reception of the Spirit.
* At conversion we receive both the indwelling and the baptism of the Spirit.
* The “Baptism in the Spirit” is thus not a dynamic experience but a legal position we have in Christ. Christ is baptised in the Spirit and we are “in him”, so we are baptised in the Spirit.

2. The Pentecostal Position:
* The Baptism in the Spirit is a dynamic experience.
* At conversion we are indwelt by the Spirit, but not necessarily baptised in the Spirit. Some are, but as a general rule, most are not. In the Early Church it appears they were, so the NT teaching on the Spirit is addressed to those who have had this experience.
* There is a dynamic experience of being baptised in the Spirit, which is the right of every believer in Christ.
* This experience is evidenced by a sign, speaking in tongues.
* Pentecostals are generally found in churches that were birthed out of the Pentecostal revival of the early 1900s, or in independent churches that have adopted that teaching.
* Some extreme groups of Pentecostals argue that if you don’t speak in tongues then you are not a Christian, but this is not the normal Pentecostal understanding.

3. The Charismatic Position:
* At conversion we are indwelt by the Spirit.
* Charismatics accept the idea of a “second Blessing” but sense there is something wrong with the Pentecostal doctrine of the “Baptism in the Spirit” so are reluctant to use the term. Instead they tend to call the subsequent, dynamic experience the “Filling of the Spirit”.
* Charismatics generally do not insist on tongues as the sign of this experience.
* Charismatics are those who have accepted the idea of a “Second Blessing” but who have remained in their denominational churches.

Note: I make a distinction between Pentecostals and Charismatics because though the differences are not great they are significant and are two distinct positions.

In practice, both Pentecostals and Charismatics tend to identify the Baptism in the Spirit with the Filling of the Spirit, even - if they don’t say so in theory. This is then identified with the ”Experience of receiving the Spirit”, whatever it is called. I will return to this point later on.

It is my feeling that all three positions have some aspects of truth on their side, but also are missing things that cause them to fall into doctrinal holes that could be avoided. The following discussion may seem to be a bit intellectual or technical to some of you but I feel it is important to clearly define things. I am going to have to spend some time doing a bit of Doctrine. Good doctrine leads to good practice. Bad doctrine is deception in itself and leads to bad practice and eventually to deep deception. It is my view that all three positions outlined above end up in positions that can, and often do, rob Christians of the full enjoyment of what God has for us in Christ. The aim of the following discussion is experience, not ideas, so please stick with it. I will get through the theory as fast as possible and on to the practical.

You may wonder why I want to correct false doctrine – but the Bible is clear in several places that the role of the teacher is not just to teach right doctrine but is also to correct doctrine that is wrong. One has to be a bit thick skinned for this task because people get very emotionally attached to their deceptions. I hope by the end of this series of studies that you will be able to see certain errors of understanding that are popularly held and also come to a clear understanding of the truth – even if you are presently holding some of these errors.

It will become clear that I take a different view on the work of the Spirit to what is commonly taught just about any group you care to name. There is a good reason for this – basically I think that the debate over the last 100 years has produced entrenched positions that ultimately end up being unhelpful and divisive. Most teachers and writers in this school of thought live with inner contradictions in their doctrine or a contradiction between their doctrine and their practice. When I am finished I hope you will agree that my approach actually answers all the questions and deals with the Biblical data better than most. And this ultimately has to be the test: “How well does it deal with the scriptures?” Not: “Well my experience is this and so it must be right.” Our experiences can easily be deceptions if they are not in conformity to the word of God.

I am not saying other writers/teachers are deceived – I think not. But there are elements of each doctrinal position that are weak and so leave room for problems – and the problems regularly emerge. Probably someone will find weak points in what I am about to present here also. I hope not, but we all only “know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9). If you find a weak point you can always post an opinion.

I need to clear up what I see as misunderstandings because of the way our minds work. If we have a misunderstanding and don’t realise it then certain things can happen:
* When someone tries to teach the truth we can filter what we hear through our misconception and “hear” things wrongly because our mindset so our deception continues.
* Or the misconception can block the truth in our minds so that we can’t hear it at all.
* Or we can get confused and then angry because of the confusion.
In all of these the Devil stops us from hearing the truth so we can’t walk in it. And the purpose of God is that we walk in the truth.

A DEFINITION:

In these chapters, for the sake of clarity, I will call the experience Pentecostals talk about “the Pentecostal Experience”. I choose this title in preference to either of the two popular names, “the Baptism in the Spirit” and “the Filling of the Spirit” for reasons that will become obvious as we progress. However there are two initial reasons why it is a good name:
1. It appears to be similar to the experience of the 120 on the Day of Pentecost.
2. It is the defining mark of Pentecostal doctrine and experience.

So on to the gift of the Spirit.

THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT WAS PROMISED BY THE FATHER.

The Holy Spirit is called “the promise of the Father” by Jesus.

Luke 24:49.
“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Acts 1:4,5.
“On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

This is a reference back to OT promises that, in the age of the Messiah, under the New Covenant, the Spirit would be given in a more general way to those who believe in him. The Church has always taught that there was a different experience of the Spirit in the OT period. This difference is typically summarised by theologians in three statements which compare the OT situation to the NT situation.

In the New Covenant, the gift of the Spirit:

1. Would be permanent, not temporary.
It is understood that in the OT when the Spirit came on person this was only a temporary thing to fulfil a set task given by God.

1 Samuel 16:14.
“Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, ...”

It is generally held that this was the situation for all who received the Spirit – when the task was over the Spirit would leave them.

2. Would be to all, not just a select few.
In the OT the Spirit was given only to prophets, priests and kings. In the NT it would be for all.

Joel 2: 28,29.
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

3. Would be a personal relationship, not just an empowering.
In the OT the Spirit “fell” on people and empowered them, a bit like putting on a suit of clothes. But the promise of the New Covenant was that the Spirit would not just be “on” people, he would be “in” people. There was to be a new level of relationship with the Spirit that then OT saints did not have.

Ezekiel 36:26,27.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

While I am not sure I agree fully with these three statements, for this discussion I am going to assume this position to be correct. There are scriptures that indicate the OT period experience of the Spirit was different to this, but I don’t want to debate that now. This, as far as I can tell, is the standard approach of Bible believing theologians - and has been since the Early Church. For this reason alone it is a good enough starting point.

We can see then, from this, that there are two relationships we can have to the Holy Spirit:
1. The Spirit can come “on” us, and empower us.
2. The Spirit can dwell “in” us.
In the OT period it, is generally held, they only experienced the “on”, or empowering of the Spirit. The promise of the Father for the New Covenant is that we would experience both the “on” relationship and the “in” relationships.

THIS PROMISE WAS FULFILLED AT PENTECOST.

Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until “the Promise of my Father” had come on them (Acts 1:4-8 above). This happened on the Day of Pentecost.

Pentecost is an annual festival held by the Jews to commemorate the giving of the Law to Moses at Mt Sinai. But, in God’s economy, it was also prophetic of the time when, in the New Covenant, he would “write his law on our hearts” by the work to the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 31:33.
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

* Where observance of the Law had been, in the past, obedience to and external written code, in the New Covenant the Law would become an inner motivation, engraved into our deepest motivations by the Holy Spirit. It is this “inner work” of the Holy Spirit, which is to be new and radically different from the Old Covenant experience.
* This identification of the New Covenant with the giving of the Law set the coming of the New Covenant, and hence the Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost. The timing of the gift of the Spirit was determined by prophetic words made hundreds of years before. This fact will important at some points of our later discussion.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE GIFT OF THE NEW COVENANT.

(1) A Gift of Grace.
The Holy Spirit is given to us on the basis of Christ's work, not our own.

Acts 2:32,33.
“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”

Christ ascended to heaven 2000 years ago and was given the Spirit. He then proceeded to pour our this Spirit on the Church on the day of Pentecost. Since then the Spirit is available to all the Church, all we have to do is avail ourselves of Him.

Psalm 133.
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

This is a prophetic picture of what happened after the ascension of Christ. The Gift of the Spirit was poured out on the High Priest, who is Christ. He is the Head (Ephesians 1:22), but then the oil flows down onto the Body, the Church. The Body only receives what belongs to the Head – not because of it’s own worthiness, but because of the Head.

The gift of the Spirit, then, is part of the High Priestly ministry of Christ as mediator of the New Covenant, which has been the theme of this series of studies on Foundations.

Christ has fulfilled all of the conditions for the activating of the New Covenant – both from the Divine Side and from the Human side. Because “it is finished” the blessings of the New Covenant are made freely available as gifts to all who receive the covenant by faith.

(2) The Spirit is to be Received.
The Holy Spirit is a GIFT. We cannot earn Him or work him up. This is so clearly emphasised throughout the book of Acts by the use of a particular word that describes what must be our attitude towards the Spirit. It is the word “receive”. The only thing we are told to do with the Spirit is receive him – just as we would receive a gift from someone. In Acts the emphasis is always on RECEIVING the Spirit, not on asking for Him.

Acts 1:8.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 8:15
“that they might receive the Holy Spirit”

Acts 10:47
“Who have received the Spirit just as we did.”

Acts 19:2
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit…”

The way we experience the Spirit is by “receiving”. There is no effort on our part that is required.

The other way we see this “gift-like” nature of the Spirit is emphasised is in the telling of the story in Acts 2 of how the Spirit first came. In those four verses the attitude of the disciples was passive. The most active thing that is said of them is that they “were all together in one place”. But when the Spirit came the verbs are all passive as far as the disciples are concerned. The only active agent is the Holy Spirit. The initiative is with God. They were not seeking the Spirit or praying for the Spirit to come – in fact they really had no idea what was soon to fall on them. The same picture occurs throughout Acts. Whenever a person or a group receives the Spirit they are totally passive as far as that receiving is concerned.

THIS GIFT OF THE SPIRIT CONTAINS ALL THE PROMISES OF GOD.

Let’s hear a parable.

A wealthy man and his only son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Viet Nam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.”
The young man held out his package. "I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.
"Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift."
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel.
"We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?"
There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted. "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”
But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting?
Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"
Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!”
But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who'll take the son?"
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the long-time gardener of the man and his son. "I'll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
"We have $10, who will bid $20?"
"Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters."
"$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?" The crowd was becoming angry.
They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"
A man sitting on the second row shouted. "Now let's get on with the collection!"
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I'm sorry, the auction is over."
"What about the paintings?"
"I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who takes the son gets every thing!"

He who takes the Son gets every thing!

This is a beautiful picture of what our Lord has done for us. When we take the Son of God into our lives we get all of the gifts of God with him.

We need to look at this, but in doing so I want to also point out another connection that is clearly in the mind of St Paul, and it is this:
The Gift of the Spirit IS the sum total of the gifts of God. If we have the Spirit we have all the gifts of God.

Romans 8:31-32.
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

“How will he (God) not also, along with him (Christ), graciously give us all things.”
He who takes the Son gets everything.
One of the most marvelous things about the gospel of Christ is the absolute lavishness of the gift that God has given us. When we stop and think about it, the gift of his Son was an amazing thing. The gift of his Son gives us forgiveness of sins, cleansing, freedom from death and many other immediate blessings. But here Paul makes this extend even further: “Shall he not also give us ALL THINGS”. I wonder what “all things” means?

This statement of Paul’s – that God has “given us all things” occurs in a chapter that is recognised as being Paul’s most in-depth exposition on the work of the Holy Spirit. In Paul’s mind there is a strong connection between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gifts God has given us. We will see this connection again in the next two scriptures.

2 Corinthians 1:20-22.
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

“All the promises of God” (KJV) – no matter what it is about – are in Christ “Yes” to us. It doesn’t matter what promise you want to name – one in the OT, one in the NT – it doesn’t matter – all of them are “Yes” to us in Christ. God has given them all to us.

“He has… set his seal on us and given us his Spirit as a guarantee” - a guarantee of what? Of the promises he has given us in Christ, of course.

Paul is not saying two different things here – we need to be clear on this. We need to understand how he thinks as a Jew. He is writing in a Jewish way. What he is not saying is that God has given us two things:
1. All the promises of God and
2. The Holy Spirit.
To interpret it that way is to think like a Greek.
Rather he is using Hebrew parallelism to say the same thing twice in two different ways. In other words “all the promises of God” are the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He is not contradicting himself rather he is explaining what he means by “all the promises of God”.

The gift of the Spirit is the sum of the promises of God. It works this way:
1. God gives us every promise, every gift.
2. They come to us through, or in, the Son. He has purchased them all for us through his work on the Cross.
3. They are brought to us by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the bearer of every gift of God.

He who takes the Son gets everything.

A third scripture:
Ephesians 1:3.
“God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ”.

Later on Paul goes on to explain in other ways what he means by giving a list of these blessings. But he summarises them all again in v 13,14:

Ephesians 1:13,14.
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”

We have been given the Holy Spirit who is the down payment on what God has for us. The full settlement, Paul says later in Ephesians 4:30, is when Christ comes again. But what we have now is this “down payment” of the Spirit. In other words the gift of “every spiritual blessing” that Paul talked about in v3 is the same thing as the gift of the Holy Spirit he talks about in v13,14.

In the Greek this identification is clearer than in English. In the Greek from verse 3- verse 14 it is all one sentence. Paul gets carried away talking about the things God has given us in Christ and forgets to stop to make grammatical sense of it. But the fact that it is all one sentence shows that he hasn’t changed subjects. In talking about the gifts God has given us he is talking about the gift of the Spirit.

So again we see the same picture as we did in 2 Corinthians 1:
1. God gives us every promise, every gift.
2. They come to us through, or in, the Son. He has purchased them all for us through his work on the Cross.
3. They are brought to us by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the bearer of every gift of God.

He who takes the Son gets everything.
The gift of the Spirit is the gift of every spiritual blessing.

THIS GIFT OF THE SPIRIT IS SUMMED UP IN TWO RELATIONSHIPS WE HAVE WITH THE SPIRIT.

As we saw earlier, it has always been the teaching of the Church that there are two ways the Holy Spirit relates to men. In the OT he only came “on” men. But in the New Covenant added to this “on” relationship would be an “in” relationship.

A simple lesson on prepositions.

What is a preposition?
The word comes from two words:
Pre – meaning "before", or "in front', and
Position – meaning "a place", or placement.
So a preposition is a word used in a sentence to indicate where one thing being talked about – the subject - is in relation to the place of another thing – the object.

A preposition is a definition of relationship.

To illustrate this: Imagine I have a shoe box and two pieces of paper.
* I take the first piece of paper and fold it up then I put it in the box.
When I say, “the paper is in the box” the preposition is the word “in”. The subject is the paper and the object is the box. The relationship of the subject, the paper, to the object, the box, is described by the preposition “in”.
* I take the second piece of paper and hold it in several places in relation to the box:
Under, in front, behind, beside, above, ON (I finally put it on the box).

So now we have a box with two pieces of paper. One piece is in the box and the other piece is on the box.

Can you see the difference?
“In” and “on” do not mean the same thing.

Now let’s use this revelation of preposition, or place, as we turn to the scriptures.

2 Corinthians 1:21,22 (NIV)
“He has put his seal on us
And put his Spirit in our hearts.”

Question: The relation of the seal to us is described by what word?
Answer: “On”.
Question: The relation of the Spirit to our hearts is described by what word?
Answer: “In”.

Question: What is the seal that is on us?

Ephesians 1:13.
“…you were sealed in Him (Christ) with the promised Holy Spirit…”

So the Seal that is “on” us is the Holy Spirit.

So the Spirit is “on” us, and the Spirit is also “in” us.
Neither in English, nor in Greek, do these mean the same thing. The Bible makes a clear distinction between them.
There are two ways that the Holy Spirit relates to us and these relationships are defined by the prepositions “in” and “on”. This is no “new doctrine”. The distinction I am putting forward is not my idea, it is the commonly held view of the Church:

* It is standard Evangelical doctrine and has been the teaching of the Church since the beginning.
* Pentecostals assume this distinction. It is part of classic Pentecostal doctrine that you can be born again, i.e. have the indwelling Spirit, and yet not be baptised in the Spirit, i.e. have the “on” relationship. In this assumption Pentecostals are in agreement with the teaching of the Church from the beginning.
* Charismatics (who are often from infant baptism background) also assume this distinction as they have always taught that a child(infant) when baptised is born again of the Spirit, and receives the Spirit in a different way at confirmation.
(I am not in any way endorsing the doctrinal applications of this assumption in these streams, just pointing out that the assumption of there being two different relationships of the Spirit to the believer is common to Christian thought.)

My point here is that all sides of the debate agree on these facts:
* There are two relationships of the Spirit to the Believer – an “in” relationship and an “on” relationship.
* These were promised by the Father in the OT as part of the New Covenant.
* This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost.
So the New Covenant gift of the Spirit includes, as a minimum, these two relationships of the Spirit to the Believer. On this we all agree.

We can see the distinction between the "in" and "upon" relationships of the Holy Spirit most clearly in the case of Jesus.

(a) Born of the Spirit.

Luke 1:35.
Unlike us, Jesus was born spiritually alive because of his relationship with God as his Father. This is a mystery and we don’t seek to understand or explain it.

(b) Baptised in the Spirit.

Matthew 3:16,17.
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

Here the Holy Spirit descended ON Jesus like a Dove. The two OT quotations explain the meaning of the gift:

(i) "this is my beloved son" - from Psalms 2:7.
The idea of "sonship to the gods" in that culture meant that the person was the anointed king, thus this means "Here is my King, the Messiah." It was at this point in time that Jesus of Nazareth became "Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One", meaning, "The King".

(ii) "with whom I am Well pleased" - from Isaiah 42:1.
This is from the first of a series of four "songs" in Isaiah commonly called "the Servant Songs". The last is ch 53 which tells of Jesus’ suffering and death.

The combination of these two quotes gives the meaning, "Here is my King who is going to suffer and die for his people".

The Baptism in the Spirit is a gift of power to reign as kings, but the power/authority is not yet released in Jesus.

(c) The power was released through temptation/testing/suffering.

Luke 4:1,2,14.
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
… Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, …”

He went into the Wilderness “full of the Spirit” but came out “in the power of the Spirit”. There is a growth here, a releasing of the potential through testing.
In these scriptures Christ is being portrayed as our prototype. We are to follow in his footsteps.
Christ was anointed King, but he had to undergo temptation in the area of kingship and overcome so that he could enter into his rule.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, UNLESS that character of the person has first been tested and proved to be true.

Hence there is an indication here sense, from the life of Jesus, that whatever this "Baptism in the Spirit" is, our appreciation of it in experience can grow.

What are these two relationships of the Spirit?

(i) "IN" = the Indwelling of the Spirit. This begins with being born again, when the Holy Spirit enters into our spirit and we are made alive spiritually again.
As we shall see, this is primarily to do with personal relationship with God as “sons” and also with character – we are to be transformed by the work of the Spirit in us into the image of God.

(ii) "UPON" = the clothing, anointing, or baptism of the Spirit.
This is primarily an equipping or empowering of the Spirit for ministry.
Two scriptures to show this:
Luke 24:48.
“I am going to send the Promise of my Father”
“You will be clothed with power from on high”

The idea of being “clothed with power” is very OT language and scholars accept that it is referring to the OT experience of being empowered, equipped to do a service for God.

Imagine clothing – e.g. a jacket.
Question: When I wear a jacket do I have it “on” or do I have it “in”?

Acts 1:4,5,8 (above).
Another account of the same conversation between Jesus and his disciples – here Luke fills out details of what Jesus said that he didn’t include in Luke 24. Remember Luke wrote Acts as well as his gospel so he is not likely to be contradicting himself.

“ the gifts of the Promise of my Father”
“you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”
“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”

So the “clothing of the Spirit, the promise of the Father, the Baptism with the Spirit and “power from on high” are all phrases that refer to the same thing – The “on” relationship of the Spirit.
But the aim of the “coming upon” is that we will “be witnesses”. It is ministry related.

Both of these relationships of the Spirit belong to the "gift of the Spirit" in the New Covenant. If you receive Christ, and hence the New Covenant, then you automatically have both.

St. Paul makes this quite clear in Ephesians 1 and 2 Corinthians 1 (above) – if we are Christ’s then we have the Spirit in us and the Spirit on us.
Both of these aspects of the Spirit's work are ours’ because of our position in Christ. In other words the baptism in the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit belong to Jesus. We get to share in them because we are “in Christ” i.e. in his body.

HOMEWORK:
At the beginning of this chapter I mentioned the typical way of understanding the difference between the work of the Spirit in the OT and in the NT. This I summarised in three statements:

In the New Covenant, the gift of the Spirit:
1. Would be permanent, not temporary.
It is understood that in the OT when the Spirit came on person this was only a temporary thing to fulfil a set task given by God.
2. Would be to all, not just a select few.
In the OT the Spirit was given only to prophets, priests and kings. In the NT it would be for all.
3. Would be a personal relationship, not just an empowering.
In the OT the Spirit “fell” on people and empowered them, a bit like putting on a suit of clothes. But the promise of the New Covenant was that the Spirit would not just be “on” people, he would be “in” people. There was to be a new level of relationship with the Spirit that then OT saints did not have.

I have some reservations about that understanding of the work of the Spirit in the OT. Below are listed most (if not all) of the scriptures that talk about the relationship of the Spirit to the people of God in the OT.
Group these scriptures into categories where they are talking about the same sort of thing and then think about the different categories you end up with.
Ask yourself the question: Are one or all of the three points made above true in this case, or is it different?
You may not come up with definite answers but thinking about the question will stimulate you.

Genesis 6:3
Genesis 41:38
Exodus 31:3
Exodus 35:31
Numbers 11:17
Numbers 11:25
Numbers 24:2
Numbers 27:18
Deuteronomy 34:9
Judges 3:10
Judges 6:34
Judges 11:29
Judges 14:6
Judges 14:19
Judges 15:14
1 Samuel 10:6
1 Samuel 10:10
1 Samuel 11:6
1 Samuel 16:13
2 Samuel 23:2
2 Kings 2:15
1 Chronicles 12:18
2 Chronicles 15:1
2 Chronicles 24:20
Job 32:18
Psalm 51:11
Isaiah 11:2
Isaiah 42:1
Isaiah 44:3
Isaiah 59:21
Isaiah 61:1
Ezekiel 36:27
Ezekiel 37:14
Ezekiel 39:29
Daniel 4:9
Daniel 5:11
Joel 2:28
Micah 3:8
Galatians 3:14
1 Peter 1:11
1 Peter 1:12
2 Peter 1:21

TRANSFORMER VERSES:

The Promise of the Father.
Luke 24:49.
“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Acts 1:4,5.
“On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

PRAYER:
Father God,
I pray that you would bring me in to a full understanding and experience of the Holy Spirit in my life as a believer in your son, Jesus. I open my mind and heart to you for you to teach me about the Spirit over the next few chapters. Help me to put aside preconceived ideas that may not be helpful to me in my relationship with you. Grant me to come into all of your provision, given to me in Christ and brought to me by the Spirit, that all the promises of God would truly be mine.
In Jesus name I ask it, Amen.