JESUS DIDN’T BAPTIZE – HE WAS WAITING FOR ANOTHER BAPTISM

Jn.4:1,2 – Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples were),

I love the way John prepares us for the heavenly ministry of Jesus all throughout his gospel. He starts with the eternal word in the beginning of the gospel, proceeds to the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, and continues through his book to unveil the mystery of His humanity and deity all throughout his telling of the life of Christ. In John chapter 4 John teaches us about the Living Water and then in John 7 he begins to describe the culmination of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the wonderful baptism in the Holy Spirit. That is what the mystery of this verse is about, the baptism that Jesus baptizes us with is the baptism into the Holy Spirit. That’s why the parenthetical statement by John in this verse, it was not time yet for Jesus to baptize people. Here is how the reformer Johannes Brenz describes this passage.

“Christ’s office was to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit has always existed, the Spirit was not yet made known and revealed by external things, as occurred after the ascension of Christ. For the Holy Spirit was revealed to the apostles on the day of Pentecost with a sudden sound coming from heaven and, as you know, with tongues of fire. Accordingly, because Christ was not yet famous and the Spirit was not revealed, he refrained from the external work of baptizing, although since the foundation of the world he has always baptized the godly by the internal breath of the Spirit. For Abraham was baptized, and so were the prophets, not, of course, in sacramental water, but they were baptized into the truth of the sacrament, which is the Holy Spirit.”

So today Jesus is baptizing more and more people, this has been a major part of His heavenly ministry for 2000 years. John spoke of this in his last vision in the book of Revelation, John saw the Father and the Son on the throne with the River of God flowing out from them. This River is the Holy Spirit and He is pouring out on ‘whosoever will’ over will all across the world. So yeah, Jesus is baptizing people today, maybe its time for all of us to step into the River.