Immersion in the Holy Spirit

0:01 I would like to invite our guest speaker to come onto the stage, Pastor David Blease from David Blease is the director of the Gateway Center for Israel, and I'm excited to hear from him today. Avinu Shebashamayim, Our Father in Heaven, Lord, I thank you for David. Lord, I thank you for his family and his life. Lord, I pray that you would open up our ears that we can hear from you through his lips, through his study today. We bless you and praise you. In Yeshua's name, amen. Amen.

0:52 Thank- Together, one new man. Hallelujah. Praise God. Man, I'm so excited to be with you. Thank you, Rabbi Ari, for inviting us. Brittany, we're so thankful to be in a relationship with you. Gateway Church and Baruch Hashem have such a long-lasting relationship, and I'm excited that it's gone to the second, and now third generation. We love your father, Rabbi Marty, as well. And sometimes you don't realize how good you have it until you leave it. And so just in case you've grown up here and this is your home, I just want to remind you, you have it really, really good. Amen? Are you thankful for your leaders and your rabbis today? I'm here with my beautiful wife, Michaela.

1:40 Our three daughters are in kids ministry. God knows what they're doing in there. I don't know if you guys flash cell phone numbers on there, but if mine was on, it might be up there. But we're so thankful for the fact that you don't just do things for individuals, but everything is about the family. And we were talking at Pesach, the lifeblood of the Jewish life is in the home, and that's where everything starts is in the home, and you can see that in everything you guys do. So I'm just thankful to be here. And as Rabbi Ari said, I am the director and the pastor of the Gateway Center for Israel, and our primary vision is to help the church, the predominantly Gentile church, understand God's heart for Israel and the Jewish

2:27 people, and to help develop a biblical and sincere love for Israel and the Jewish people. But it's exciting for me. Oh, hey, yeah, that's good. We can praise God for that. But I can tell you, it is very exciting to be in a room at a Messianic synagogue because I don't have to spend the first 20 minutes convincing you that Jesus is Jewish. It just comes baked in. I love it. Now we can just get started. But I am thankful that we're seeing a lot of people within the church that maybe didn't have that revelation of Yeshua as Messiah being Jewish. We have to remind many people in our churches, Yeshua, it's not that he was Jewish.

3:13 People are comfortable that he was Jewish, especially now because we have "The Chosen." We're like, "Wow, he's so Jew-- He's kissing the mezuzah. I mean, super Jewish." But sometimes they still think that that's a fun fact. He was Jewish. We have to remind them he is Jewish right now, sitting at the right hand of the Father because he comes back as a lion of the tribe of Judah. Because my big joke is because he's a Jew, duh. We have to remember that. But sometimes we forget. But be gracious with us Gentiles. Sometimes we forget our roots. I want to bring a message tonight. The title of my message, I don't know if you guys are note-takers. When I was a youth pastor, we would tell our students, "Note-takers are history

3:58 makers. The dullest pen is better than the sharpest mind." So we have to write things down. Aren't you thankful that people before us wrote things down? They didn't just rely on their memories. And so if you're taking notes, the title of my message today is "The Messianic Marker." And by marker, I mean distinction. What was one of the distinctions of the Messianic movement? And I don't mean the modern Messianic movement. I mean the first-century Messianic movement of Jewish believers in Yeshua. And so the title of my message is "The Messianic Marker: The Spirit." Now, when you see the first century and the Jewish life taking place in Israel, there are lots of denominations of

4:46 Judaism. You have the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes. You have the Zealots. All of them are Jewish. Yet there are certain things that separate them from each other, like a modern denomination. They believe this, but they believe that. The umbrella of Judaism is a wide umbrella, but underneath the umbrella of Judaism, you had the Sadducees. They didn't believe in the resurrection as the New Testament teaches us. You have the Pharisees who believe in the oral traditions. You have the Essenes who have kind of removed themselves from society to pursue a holiness, a set apartness. The Essenes looked at the Pharisees as being lukewarm. You know you're intense when you look at a Pharisee and you're like, "Nah, not

5:32 cutting it." So the Essenes. You have the Zealots, more of political revolutionaries. And in the first century after the death and the resurrection and ascension of Yeshua, you have this new sect within Judaism. They're called the Nazarenes, the followers of The Way. They're Jewish followers of Yeshua. But what is their marker? What separates them from the other denominations of Judaism of their day? If you would've asked a Pharisee in the first century, "What separates this new group of Jews called the followers of The Way?" They might say, "Yeshua."Yeshua is what separates them. They believe this guy, Yeshua, was the Messiah promised by the prophets, that he died and rose again. You'd probably get an answer like

6:21 that. But if you would've asked one of them, one of the Jewish followers of Yeshua in the first century, I believe one of their first answers to what marks them is the Holy Spirit. That was this major delineation between these other streams of Judaism and what became Messianic Judaism, was not just that they knew about the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was active since creation, hovering over the waters. But there was a filling of the Holy Spirit and immersion of the Holy Spirit that happened in Acts two on the day of Shavuot. Us Gentile Christians, when we read Acts two, we say that's when the church started.

7:07 I have to remind many of our Gentile members, that church was 100% Jewish. Because they're in Jerusalem celebrating Shavuot, when the law came down, when the Torah came down. That's what they're celebrating. And so tonight I want to talk. I say tonight, sorry. I'm a youth pastor. If I'm preaching. I haven't been a youth pastor for years, but really, at the end of the day, if I'm preaching, I just assume it's nighttime. So if I say tonight, just give me grace. Today, this morning, this a.m., I want to talk to you about the delineation and the marker of this Messianic movement. When you read Acts two and you see Peter, who goes to the house of a Gentile,

7:52 Cornelius. He begins to preach the gospel, the good news of Yeshua. Cornelius and his family, they receive the message. But receiving the message of Yeshua was not what amazed Peter. What blew Peter's mind was what? They were immersed in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. And I have to remind many people, that was not a charismatic thing. That was a Jewish thing. That is why Peter's mind is blown, because it's God's way of saying, "I receive Cornelius as a Gentile." If you read Acts 10, that can be your homework. Do you give homework?

8:39 Okay, good. Let's give some homework. Read Acts 10. One of the things you read in Acts 10 is it says, before Peter was even finished speaking, the Holy Spirit fell. Why is it important that Peter wasn't done? Because thousands of years of Judaism, if you were going to come into the family of Israel, there were very specific qualifications. One of them being circumcision for all men. So what was Peter's altar call going to look like? There might've been his boy sharpening something in the background. We'll see if you're really going to receive this message. But before Peter was even done speaking, the Holy Spirit fell, sealing this idea that Jew and Gentile are coming together

9:26 in the body. As Peter later recounts in Acts 11:15, "As I began to speak, the Ruach Hakodesh fell on them, just as on us at the beginning." Who is the us? Us Jewish believers of Yeshua. The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles just like he did on us, and I remember the word of the Lord, how he used to say, "John immersed with water, but you will be immersed in the Ruach Hakodesh." Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as also to us after we put our trust in the Lord Messiah Yeshua, who was I to stand in God's way? Amen. So today, I want to talk to you about this idea of

10:11 immersion. Immersion. If you grew up in the church like I did, the word is baptism. Now, the reason I want to primarily use the word immersion is because baptism, although it's a biblical word and both baptism and immersion can be used interchangeably in the scriptures, baptism had become this practice of the Church, and it was no longer just a baptism into water for repentance. It became a baptism and a cleansing of Jewish identity. I have here, this was a baptismal confession used in the Roman or Byzantine Church in the sixth to ninth century. If a Jewish person was to put their faith in the Jewish Messiah of

10:58 Israel, here's what they had to proclaim before getting baptized. "I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads, and sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews. In one word, I renounce absolutely everything Jewish, every law, every rite, every custom." Now, I know this isn't news for many of you, but the enemy got into the Church very early with a very clear mission to distort God's distinction of Jew and Gentile in this ecclesia, in this one new man. We see it at work again today through the distinction of male and female, because any time God creates distinction, he puts his identity on it. It says, "Male and female, he created them,

11:46 blessed them, and named them Adam." And they uniquely together bore the image of God on the Earth. There was another distinction, Jew and Gentile, and he made them distinct, brought them together in a new covenant, just like marriage, called one new man. Male and female, one flesh. Jew, Gentile, one new man. Together in unity, but remaining distinct. But the enemy does not want the distinction because the distinction shows his identity on the Earth.So he will confuse Jew and Gentile identity, and he will confuse male and female identity because if God's identity is on a distinction, the enemy hates it. So early in the church, there was this idea of baptizing you from your Jewish identity. That is not the baptism we're talking about today.

12:35 We're talking about the immersion into water, into the spirit. Are you following me? So let us talk about the immersion because scripture actually teaches us that there are three immersions. Typically, when we think of immersion or this word baptism, we think of one. What do we think of? Water. Water. The mikvah. We think of John the Baptist. Now, he didn't belong to the Baptist church. But I like the TLV translation, John the Immerser, because his name was what he was performing. He was performing immersion in the Jordan River. But there's more than one immersion mentioned in scripture. So if you ever see the word immersion, I want you to

13:23 think of three questions. I want you to write these down, so any time you see the word immersion, you can ask yourself these three questions. Here they are. First question: Who is the agent of this immersion? In other words, who is doing the immersion? Second question: What is the element? In other words, what are they immersing you into? And then the third, which this one's the easy one: Who is the candidate? Meaning who is the one being immersed? So let's take the one that we all know and love, Yochanan the Immerser. John is in the Jordan River, and he performs an immersion. So let's ask these questions.

14:08 Who is the agent, the one performing the immersion? Come on, you got to talk back. John. Yeah. Yochanan. There is the right answer. John. Now, what is the element that he is immersing into? Water. Water. Mayim. And who is the candidate in this scenario? Yeshua or the believer, if it was someone before Yeshua or after. So John is the agent, water is the element, and Yeshua is the candidate. You following me? Let's talk about the three immersions that we find distinctly in the scripture. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, "For

14:56 in the Ruach we were all immersed into one body, whether Jewish or Greek, slave or free, and were all made to drink of one Ruach." Many people see this, and because they see the word immersion, they say, "Oh, this is about the water. This is immersion of repentance." But it can't be. Because if you ask those three questions, you realize there's a different agent, and there's a different element. Let's read this again in 1 Corinthians 12:13. It says, "For in," and this word in in Greek is en, and it could be translated as by. By the Ruach HaKodesh, by one spirit, we were all immersed into one

15:43 body. Who is the agent performing this immersion? The Ruach. The Spirit is performing this immersion. What is he immersing you into? The body. The body. This can't be water baptism. It wouldn't make sense grammatically. He is talking about what we often call salvation. What is salvation? Salvation, we could say, is believing in Yeshua, realizing Yeshua is Messiah, but we don't often think that there is an immersion taking place where the Holy Spirit, who is the one that guides us and leads us into all truth, is actually immersing us into the body. Now, many people have seen this and

16:30 said, "Oh, you're being immersed into the church. You're being immersed into the body of Messiah." But let me ask you this. Who is the body? Whose body is it? It's Yeshua's body. Salvation is immersion into Yeshua, and we'll talk about this in the Tanakh as well. But let's go on to the second immersion. Actually, before we go to the second immersion, there's an amazing sentence in the Dake's Study Bible where he points this out. The body here is the element one is baptized into. The Spirit is the agent that does the baptizing into the body, and the believer is the candidate. So immersing into the body is salvation. Second immersion we see in scripture, the one we're all most familiar with, is water. And water immersion is not about salvation.

17:19 Many people ask this. Hey, we're having immersions or baptisms happening this weekend at our church, and one of the number one questions that you will get asked as a pastor is, do I need to get baptized to be saved? It's a big question, and Catholics and Protestants, they have disagreements. But what I am submitting to you is that if you understand the agent and the element and the candidate, this can't be about salvation. Scripture is clear that water immersion is for repentance. In Luke 3:3, it says, "And he came into all the surrounding region of the Jordan, proclaiming an immersion of repentance for the removal of sins." When you see water immersion, you will almost always see repentance being tied to it. Acts 2:38, Peter said to them,

18:07 "Repent, and let each of you be immersed in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the removal of your sins." What immersion is he talking to?Water. Because he mentions repentance and forgiveness of sin, the same thing that John, Yochanan, was talking about. This repentance is dying to your old self. In the BC days, it was looking forward to the Messiah. In the AD days that we're living in, it's in response to Messiah. But it's always about the repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Dying to our old ways and, as Paul says, and then raising to walk in newness of life. Amen? Water immersion is for repentance. It's funny, you'll read a scripture in John 4 that talks about

18:55 Yeshua and the disciples immersing people, but there's a very specific note that the authors made sure that we knew. Let's read it together in John 4:1. "Now Yeshua knew that the Pharisees heard that he was making and immersing more disciples than John, although Yeshua himself was not immersing, his disciples were." It's a very important note. Yeshua was not immersing. Now, when I first read this growing up, I always thought it was because, let's be honest, if you go to the Jordan River and Yeshua and his disciples are immersing, ain't nobody lining up for Thaddeus, right? Think about it. Yeshua and all the disciples. Who's going to Bartholomew?

19:42 Come on. Like thousands of people. It's like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, or do you want to go see Eeyore? And you're like, "I'll do Mickey. I'll wait." Maybe Peter's got one diehard fan, but Yeshua's got the line. So I always thought it was efficiency is the reason he wouldn't immerse people. He just knew he'd be the favorite, so he let the disciples immerse. Well, then I grew up. But here's why I believe Yeshua made a very clear distinction not to immerse anybody. Because he came to perform one of the immersions.

20:28 John the Baptist, John the Immerser, knew this. John 3:10, Yochanan says, "As for me, I immerse you in water for repentance, but there is one coming after me who is mightier than I am. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and fire." Let's ask these questions. Who is the agent performing this third immersion? Yeshua. The only immersion he performs. Does Yeshua perform an immersion in water? No. He performs one immersion. What is the element that Yeshua immerses us into?

21:15 The Holy Spirit and fire. Do you see that these are different? They can't be the same. One is an immersion into the body. One is an immersion into water for repentance. One is an immersion into the Holy Spirit. They can't be the same. And they have different functions because the Spirit immersing you into Yeshua is for salvation, a disciple immersing you into the water is for repentance, and Yeshua immersing you into the Holy Spirit is for power. And everybody said amen. For Yeshua, he said of himself, Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Ruach HaKodesh has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in

22:02 Jerusalem and through all Judah and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Three distinct immersions, salvation, repentance, and power. Now, I want to ask you three questions that I asked myself and that many have asked me since when this concept of three immersions come up, because it can kind of throw us off guard. We're very aware of one immersion. I saw that mikveh you have out there. That's where I want to get baptized. It's like Jordan River and then the mikveh at Baruch Hashem. When we went to Israel the last time and we went to the Jordan River, it was closed. I know. So Wayne Wilkes literally just dipped his finger in and rubbed it on our foreheads. I don't know if it was a Catholic thing or...

22:48 But hey, we received it. We were like, "That's water from the Jordan River. That counts." Jordan River, check. I got one more that's left unchecked. Okay. We'll talk about this later. Well, first question. Doesn't scripture literally say there is only one immersion? Answer, yes. Heretic already. Ephesians 4:2. Here we go. This is the scripture. "There is one body, one Ruach, just as you were also called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one immersion." And people use this. Stop talking about three. It literally says there's one faith, one Lord, one immersion.

23:35 What's it say next? One God. Hey-oh. One God. One Lord. We all worship one God. Isn't it interesting? It's one God with three distinct persons. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Three, one. One immersion, yes, with three. Salvation, repentance, power. In the body, in the water, in the spirit. So this idea of one immersion being laid out in scripture so clearly does not negate that there can be one but three distinct things happening in this one immersion.One of the big issues that I think is if you read the Book of Acts all the way through,

24:24 you will see people being saved, being immersed, and being filled with the Holy Spirit in one moment. You'll see, I'm thinking of Philip walking with the Ethiopian eunuch, and he explains where Yeshua is in all of Isaiah, and he gets it. And what does he say? "Who can withhold water? Get this guy immersed." He's not wasting any time. And many times in scripture, you will see them, "Repent, be filled with the Holy Spirit, get immersed in water." Repent, they're saved, they're immersed in water, and then what happens right after? They're filled with the Holy Spirit, and they begin speaking in tongues and prophesying. So I think in the modern ecclesia, we feel the distinction greater because many times we focus

25:11 on salvation. Close your eyes, raise your hand. No one peek. Come on. Amen. Praise God. Let's pray. Baptisms are two months from now. I hope you sign up. So it feels like, oh, so there's another step? Now, I'm not knocking what we're doing in the modern day. There's a lot more people today than there maybe was in the early ecclesia, where they're at a house like Cornelius, and there's a family there. They receive Yeshua. Look at there. There's water. Let's immerse you in water as Yeshua commanded us to do, filled with the Holy Spirit. We're going to lay hands. The Spirit comes. But many times because the way that we do things today, we feel the distinction more, and therefore, people are led to believe, are you saying there's another step?

25:59 You're saying that you're a better Christian because you were immersed in water? That's how many people feel. Do I have to to get saved? No, you get to because Yeshua commanded us to. I don't know if this happens a lot in the Messianic world, but I can tell you in the church world, we make everything about salvation. That is the one-- Does this affect my salvation? Are you saying to be saved, I have to do that to be saved? So you're saying I'm not saved if I have to do that? Who's talking about salvation right now? We're talking about obedience. Maybe you should do it because God told you to do it. Oh, so Sabbath. Are you saying if I don't do the Sabbath, then I'm not saved? No. It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's one of the Ten Commandments. You murdered anybody today? Oh, so you like the Ten Commandments, do you?

26:48 Sorry, am I getting too sassy? Goodness gracious. Some people make everything about salvation. Not everything is about salvation. Salvation's actually pretty easy. Romans 10:9, "Believe in your heart Yeshua is Lord. Confess with your mouth that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved." But sometimes we look at that as the finish line. That's the starting line. Because then we live out the life that Yeshua called us to live. What's my time? Do I have a clock? I just realized. Do we have a time that I should get done? No need for a clock. No need for a clock. That's what I like to hear. Someone's filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking truth right now.

27:34 Okay. Usually, I have a clock, so if I don't see one, I'm like, "They love me so much." Okay. So let's keep going. The scripture talks about this immersion, but what I love is that this is not just a Brit Chadasha, a New Testament thing. This is something that was echoed all the way back in the Torah, and Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 10:1. And pay attention very closely to the words he uses. "For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. They were all immersed into Moses." That's odd.

28:21 They were immersed into Moses, they were immersed into the cloud, and they were immersed into the sea. Three immersions. This is not just a New Testament idea. This is something that Paul saw all throughout the Torah and the Tanakh. They were immersed into Moses. What does that mean? They were immersed by the faith in their deliverer. How were they saved from Egypt? The easy answer is, well, God saved them. Yes, but there's also the pillar of fire that led them. There was also Moses, their deliverer, that they believed in. I was having a conversation with a very prolific Messianic rabbi, and he was talking to us about a conversation he had had with an Orthodox rabbi.

29:06 This Orthodox rabbi was very open but had a lot of struggles with this idea of Jesus and how that could ever be something Jewish. And his major hang-up, I know there's lots, but his major hang-up was the idea of a mediator is so not Jewish. Like the fact that you need to believe in Jesus in order to have relationship with God, that is idolatry in Judaism. This idea that you have to have somebody in order to get to Hashem. So explain to me how this is not idolatry, how this is not heresy. And this rabbi responded with two things. One, we asked for a mediator.

29:52 Think about Mount Sinai and the fire of the Lord comes down. Come on up, everybody. What do they say? How about Moses? How about you go up? You tell us everything he wants us to do. What are they asking for? A mediator. Second thing is, in the Shacharit, in the morning prayers of the Siddur, there is a section that Jewish people pray every single morning, Emet V'Yatziv, which talks about the Red Sea. This is after the Shema, and listen to what it says. It quotes Exodus 14:31When Israel saw the great work that Adonai did over the Egyptians, the people feared Adonai, and they believed in Adonai

30:38 and his servant, Moses. This idea of like, oh, you have to believe in Jesus to get to Hashem is a Christian idea, not a Jewish one. Sorry. They believed in Adonai, in Hashem, and they believed in Moses. How they got through the Red Sea. Here's what the rabbis will say. They clinged to Moses, their deliverer. How are we saved? We cling to our greater Moses. Yeshua Rabinu, our rabbi. We are clinging onto Yeshua, our mediator, but he's not just a mediator. He is the Son of God, the

31:24 Son of Man, at the right hand of the Father, and he takes us through salvation. Amen? So this idea is Jewish. The second question that I often get asked is, is there an order? Is there an order? Do you have to get immersed in water, and then I can be filled in the Spirit? I haven't been immersed in water, so I have to wait to be immersed in water, then immersed in the Spirit? And here's the biblical answer. Here's the order. Salvation, and then get funky with it. Whatever order you want to do. Because we actually see both in scripture. Acts 10:44, "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Ruach Hakodesh fell on those hearing the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were

32:13 astonished because the gift of the Ruach Hakodesh had been poured out on even the Gentiles." Praise God. That's me. "For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and magnifying God. And then Peter answered, 'Can anyone refuse water for these to be immersed? For they have received the Ruach Hakodesh just as we did.'" So they received the message of Yeshua, the gospel, that he is Mashiach, Messiah. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they got water immersed. We also see the other way around. Acts 19:5, "When they heard this, they were immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua, and when Paul laid hands upon them, the Ruach Hakodesh came upon them." They were saved, they were immersed in water, and then they were immersed in the Holy Spirit. So the order is truly not important as long as you get number one

33:01 first. First things first. Number three. I thought I had the Holy Spirit when I got saved. This is the big one because we're often taught there can't be a third step. There can't be a third thing. There can't be a third level. And we reject this because many people feel, are you telling me that I don't have the Holy Spirit? And so there's an offense that's made. You're saying that I need something, and by saying that I need something, you're saying I don't have something. And are you telling me that I've been living the Yeshua-following life for 30 years, and I've never had the Holy Spirit? The answer is no.

33:47 We're not saying that you don't have the Holy Spirit. Here's what scripture says. Ephesians 1:13, "After you heard the message of truth, the good news of your salvation. And when you put your trust in him, you were sealed with the promise of the Ruach Hakodesh." Our salvation is sealed by the Spirit, sealed with the Spirit. Here is the delineation. Sealed is not filled. And you will see Yeshua himself have the same interaction with his disciples. I don't think I have this one in my notes, but if you want to flip with me real quick to John, the Gospel of John. I believe it's verse 20.

34:34 Chapter 20. Yeah, sorry. Chapter. Yeah, it's chapter. You're good. Good call. Chapter 20, verse 19. Yeshua appears to his disciples. This is after the resurrection. He says, "Peace be upon you. Peace. Shalom aleichem." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Yeshua said to them again, "Shalom aleichem. Peace be upon you all." I always have to remind people, that's y'all. He didn't say you, peace be upon you. He said, "Peace be upon y'all." That is a plural word. Jesus might be a Texan. We don't know. A Jewish Texan. It's okay. "As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And after he said this, he breathed on them and he said to

35:21 them, 'Receive the Ruach Hakodesh.'" Yeshua breathed on them, and they received what? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The Ruach. Okay. So then what was Acts 2? Yeshua tells his disciples. And this is one of the most important reasons why we should all receive this third immersion into the Spirit. I'm going to skip ahead to my notes, but I just feel like we're supposed to cover it right now. The last command of Yeshua before he ascended. What was it?

36:06 You don't have to answer out loud. I hate trick questions. Many people think the last command of Yeshua, "Go, proclaim the good news. Make disciples of all nations in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth." But the last command of Yeshua before the ascension was do not go. Peter, stop. Get back here. What are you doing? StayDo not go out and try to make disciples of all nations. You will fail, is essentially what he's saying. Why? Because you heard from me, for John immersed with water, but you will be immersed,

36:52 not breathed upon. You will be immersed, not just given, immersed with the Ruach. No, it doesn't even say with, in the Ruach HaKodesh. Because remember, the spirit is the element. You will be immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh not many days from now. What was a very understandable response? I thought we got the Holy Spirit. Remember that? What was that? I think at this point, the disciples knew. Don't question anything. Just hey. We don't know. I'm not asking. You can ask, I'm not asking.

37:37 But they could have asked that. They received the Holy Spirit. But then Yeshua says, "But wait, because not many days from now, you will be immersed in the Holy Spirit." And then verse eight, "But you will receive power when the Ruach HaKodesh has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem throughout all of Judah and Samaria to the ends of the earth." Amen. See, what Yeshua is saying is, you cannot be obedient and effective as a follower of me if you do not have the power of the immersion of the Holy Spirit. Not the sealing of salvation by the

38:23 Holy Spirit, not just receiving the Holy Spirit, but being immersed. So when people say, "I thought I had the Holy Spirit." You do, praise God, sealed with the Spirit, blown on the Spirit. As Yeshua says to Nicodemus, we must be born again of the Spirit. We've been born of water, which was natural means, and now we need to be born of the Spirit, of spiritual means. You are a spiritual being. You have a spirit. As the New Testament says, if you do not have the spirit of Messiah, then you cannot be obedient to him. You have the spirit of Messiah. We're talking about an immersion in the Spirit. And in that comes power. Now, the last question,

39:09 this is a great one. I thought the Holy Spirit was weird. Have you gotten that one? You're like, "Yeah, this is great, and I'm so excited, but I swear, if you lay hands on me and I start doing crazy things, I'm out." People talk about tongues. You're like, "Man, I don't know about this tongues thing. I'll pray for it if God wants to give it to me, but I swear, if I grab a megaphone and start speaking in tongues, I'm out." People have this idea that if you get immersed in the Holy Spirit, you become weird. Let me just break the news. People are weird. We just have to accept it. Not everyone's weird, but there are some weird people. And when you see someone demonstrating what it

39:58 means or what it looks like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and you look at that and you say, "That's really weird," I promise you, they were weird before the Holy Spirit. Every time, 10 out of 10. You show me a weird person filled with the Holy Spirit, you're showing me a weird person. As scripture says, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." If you give me a really weird glass and then you fill it with wine, and I say, "That's a weird glass," guess what? It was weird before it got filled with wine. It's just filled. And hey, I guess we're all a little bit weird, just weird in our own ways. But can we not be super weird? Can I just say that as a pastor? Rabbi, do you agree with me? Can we not be super weird?

40:44 Be filled with the Holy Spirit, but don't be weird with the Spirit. Just be filled with the Holy Spirit. A pastor once said it like this, and I like this, because people have this idea of like, oh, you're saying you're better than me because you've been immersed in the Spirit. Oh, so you're saying you're like a better Christian than me because you've got this third thing. And he said, "No, no. The filling of the Holy Spirit doesn't make me better than you. It makes me better than me." Amen. It allows me to live the empowered life that Yeshua called me to live. Many people are failing in their walk with Yeshua, not because they don't have enough theological knowledge or don't have enough desire in their heart. It's because they don't have enough power from the Spirit. The issue might be that you have done what Peter probably wanted to do, which is just go. You got saved,

41:32 you got immersed in water, and then you went to go, and you forgot his command was to wait and to first be filled with the Holy Spirit and power. I want to remind you of these two verses, and then we'll go. I don't know if we're late or we're early, but hey, we're right on time is what I think. I think I have this scripture here. Let me see. Okay, yeah. If you want to flip with me to Acts 8, and you can put a marker in Acts 19. There are people that we see in the New Testament that believe the word of Yeshua but have not been immersed in the Holy Spirit. The first we see is Acts 8. It says, "Now when the emissaries in Jerusalem heard

42:20 that Samaria had accepted the message of God, they sent Peter and John to them. They came down and prayed for them to receive the Ruach HaKodesh, for he had not yet come upon them." Did they believe in Yeshua? Had they been immersed in the Holy Spirit? No. And that's okayBecause when they heard that there was an immersion, not just of water, but in the Spirit, they rejoiced and received it. For he had not come upon them yet, they had only been immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua. What do you think they're referring to? Water. So they've received Yeshua, salvation. They've been immersed in water, repentance, and the removal of sin, but they

43:05 had not yet been immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they received the Ruach HaKodesh. We see this similar thing happen in Acts 19. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul traveled through the upper region and came to Ephesus, and he found some disciples. And some theologians will argue that these were not disciples of Yeshua, they were disciples of John. And really you could have that understanding, because this is something that's all throughout scripture. I personally believe they're disciples of Yeshua, because it doesn't say they're disciples of John, and it says that they're believers. So I think they're disciples of Yeshua. But anyway, he finds these disciples and said to them, "Did you receive the

43:53 Ruach HaKodesh when you believed?" They replied to him, "No. We've never even heard that there is a Ruach HaKodesh." And he said, "Then what were you immersed into?" Like you're saying you're immersed, what were you immersed into? And they said, "Into John's immersion," which is water. And Paul said, "John immersed with the immersion of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the one coming after him," that is in Yeshua. When they heard this, they were immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua into water, and then Paul laid hands upon them, and the Ruach HaKodesh came upon them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. In all, there were about 12 men. The band can come back up. I don't know, do we usually close with a song or just

44:38 end in prayer? Do a prayer. I'm too Gentile for this, sorry. You mean after? Yeah. Okay, cool. Okay, cool. So I'll just invite you up. Yeah. Okay. I'll say a little Gentile prayer, and then you can seal it with a Jewish prayer. It's what you got to do, right? So, here's what I want us to end with. I had this conversation with two pastors that had been in ministry for 30 years, and I was talking about the immersion in the Holy Spirit. And they had a lot of issues. Theological issues at first, and then personal issues of feeling like, "You're saying I'm behind," or, "You're saying that I'm not a

45:25 certain level." Which again, that's from the enemy. There are no levels. The ground is equal at the cross. However, there is obedience, and I believe that the Lord holds us accountable for what we hear and then what we do with what we've heard. If you have heard, now we're accountable to be obedient with what was presented to us. And so one of their big questions or wrestles was with this idea of a third thing they had to receive. I receive Yeshua, Jesus. I've got baptized, immersed in water, and now you're saying I need to receive this third thing? And here's what I told them.

46:11 Every gift that God gives has to be received. Is there a gift in scripture that just automatically applies to you because scripture says it? It reminds me of a conversation I had with a modern Orthodox, a good friend of mine, and not a believer in Yeshua, but very open and kind. We've developed a great friendship. And he had a really interesting question, just to show how his mind was working as he was getting introduced to the gospel. He said, "Okay, so Jesus died for everybody?" I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Okay, so everyone born post Jesus is saved?" And I was like, "That's a very Jewish way of looking at it." I would've never thought about that. Again, I grew up in the church.

46:58 I kind of knew, no, you have to receive it. But here's what instantly I felt like the Holy Spirit showed me. I said, picture this, a bank account. And every time you sin, whether it's a white lie or something terrible, $10,000 gets taken out of your bank account from the day you were born. And every time you sin, negative. You can never catch up. You're 30 years old, and I know a little bit about your life. You're big in the negative. And I am as well. And what I'm saying the gospel is, what Jesus did on the cross by his death, resurrection, and ascension, is he used the word tetelestai in the Greek, which is, it is

47:46 paid in full. It is done. Could literally be translated, paid in full. What was paid? Our debt. I said, so here is the understanding. He was asking, so if I'm born post Jesus, salvation applies to me because Jesus paid for all. I said, no. What I'm showing you by telling you the gospel is I'm opening up your bank app, going to notifications, and showing you that someone has tried to transfer a billion dollars into your account, and it says accept or deny. The transfer has been made, but you have to accept it. It doesn't automatically come into your bank account. You know what he said? "Dang, that's a good analogy."

48:34 Maybe he thought he got me, I don't know. But that's one of the ways that you could tell the gospel message in a parable.And when I was talking with these pastors about being filled with the Holy Spirit, they said, "Well, okay, so what are you saying I have to do?" Again, they probably interacted with some weird Spirit-filled people. What do you think I have to do? Do I have to dance? Do I have to get crazy? Do I have to start speaking in a foreign language, an angelic language? What do I have to do? And I said, "Well, you're a pastor. If someone came to you and said, 'Talk to me about the gift of salvation. What do I have to do?' What would your response be?" And she said,

49:20 "I would tell them they have to receive it." How do they receive it? They pray. They tell God, "I'm receiving salvation. I'm receiving Jesus into my heart." I said, "Okay, so what you're telling me is, all I have to do is believe that the word of God is true, and then with my mouth declare that I'm receiving the promises that are for me but haven't been automatically applied to me." Salvation is for all, but all have to choose to receive. And when you choose salvation, what you're choosing is you're choosing to believe that the word of God is true. I believe that the word of God is true, and so when you say, "Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and God raised Him from the dead,

50:08 and you will be saved," I'm believing that that verse is true. And so I'm saying, "God, I receive Yeshua as Lord and Savior, that you, God, raised Him from the dead, and your word says I'll be saved." Then here's the next and final question. What if I don't feel anything? What if I don't feel the Holy Spirit shivers running all down my spine? What if I don't just already start dancing? What if that doesn't happen? What if it happens to my neighbor but not to me? And I said, "You're a pastor. Let's talk about salvation again." What if someone said, "I prayed that prayer. Didn't feel anything. But I heard a testimony on YouTube of this guy that got electrified in his spirit, and the minute he prayed that prayer, he had

50:56 an experience with Yeshua," or, "He had a vision of God." Have you heard a testimony like that? So you can have different experiences, but both of them have to just rely on what God's word said and believing it was true. If anyone asks you, if you've been walking with Yeshua for any amount of time, "I prayed the prayer, but I didn't feel anything," what would you say? That's okay. Because God's word is true. And you being faithful to receive what God's word said is enough. And then you will walk out, and you will begin to see the fruit of salvation. In the same way, when we are immersed with the Holy Spirit, I don't care if you feel something or don't feel something. I hope you feel something. But our

51:43 walk with Yeshua is not based on emotion. It's based on God's word. Amen. So, here's what I want to do. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I don't know if you guys do this here. It's a very Christian thing to do. But here's why we do it, because we don't want you to focus on who's on your right and on your left. This is between you and the Father. And too often, we make decisions based on other people. But first, if we're worried about what other people think, we're already trusting in the wrong person. It's about what our Father thinks. But here's what I want to ask you. Just like a message of salvation,

52:31 I've presented the word, we're believing that God's word is true, and asking if anyone needs to receive it. And some people will say, "Well, maybe I have been immersed in the Holy Spirit." Okay, if someone said, "Maybe I have been saved. Maybe I did say a prayer," what would your first question be? Can you tell me when you did? Because if you can't pinpoint the moment that you gave your life to Yeshua, maybe we should be certain. If you're sitting here, and you're like, "Maybe I've been immersed in the Holy Spirit," my response would be, can you tell me when? Because if you can't pinpoint the moment that you were immersed in the Holy Spirit, maybe we should have some assurance. I'm not saying the Holy Spirit's never moved in your life.

53:16 I'm not saying you've never been led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's been working since the creation of the world. I'm saying, have you been immersed into Him as you've been immersed into water, into the body? And so right here, with every eye closed, if you're here and you're saying, "I desire to be immersed in the Holy Spirit," I just want you to lift your hands in a posture of receiving. I want to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. I want the power that Yeshua claimed, declared, told me to wait. And now, in a moment, I'm going to pray, but I'm going to ask you to do something bold because just like the declaration of Yeshua, we often think it's a private declaration, but it is a public declaration.

54:03 It's a declaration that I need Yeshua, I need His power. So if you're here and you're saying, "I need to be immersed, filled, overflowing with the Ruach HaKodesh," will you stand up? I want to pray for you. If you want to be immersed, filled. I can't do it alone. I need power. The same power that rose Yeshua from the grave dwells in you as you've been immersed. Praise God. Just hold your hands in a posture of receiving. Just like salvation, we receive it as a gift. And Yeshua Himself said, "What good father, if a son asks for a piece of bread, would give you a

54:49 snake?"A good father wouldn't do that. And then Yeshua says, "So will my father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask." So just in your own words, say, "God, would you fill me fresh and new with the Holy Spirit? Immerse me in the power of your Spirit. I am believing that your word is true, that fruit of this immersion will come. But right now, if I'm hearing that there's more of you, I want as much as I can take. I don't want to be filled halfway. I want to be filled to the full fullness of the Spirit." God, we thank you. We receive your word. We receive your Spirit. I pray that power would begin to flow, Baruch Hashem, more than any other generation, any other year, because the power of God has

55:37 declared that this is going to be a place of miracles, a place where the blind see, the lame leap, the deaf hear, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Let's all stand together now, because there's a scripture that says, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." That literally in the Greek could be translated, keep on being filled. You will read the book of Acts and you will see they were standing before the courts, and then they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not a one-time thing. If someone says, "I prayed that prayer in eighth grade for salvation, never prayed since," we would say, "I don't think you understood the assignment." In the same way, you've been immersed in the Holy Spirit once, but we are called to keep on being filled with the Spirit. It is a continual overflowing, a continual

56:25 fulfillment of power in our lives. So let's all receive it now. God, I thank you that you told us to keep on being filled with the Spirit, and I pray that you would fill us all fresh and new in the power of your Ruach HaKodesh. May we never spend a day in the Yeshua-following life where we do it in our own strength. We need your Holy Spirit. You said it's better that you go so that you could send your Holy Spirit. And so we receive it right now in Yeshua's name. And everybody said, Amen. Thank you guys for letting me be with you. It was such a blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

57:17 Yevarechecha Adonai. Ve'yishmerecha. Ya'er Adonai panav eleicha. Vi'chunecha. Yisra Adonai panav eleicha. Ve'yasem lecha shalom. Bashem Yeshua Mashichenu, in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua. Shabbat shalom. Shabbat shalom.