church – The Lowedown

July 26, 2026July 26, 2026

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

1 Corinthians 12

¹²The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the body of Christ. ¹³Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

It’s a sad reality that many Christians know next to nothing about the Holy Spirit.

I grew up in a baptist tradition and while I had heard of the Holy Spirit, I don’t ever recall a sermon or message teaching on the role or ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

When I recommitted myself to Christ in college, I got involved in Campus Crusade for Christ and someone shared a booklet with me that explained the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, specifically, how I, as a Christian, could be FILLED with the Spirit. (I wrote about what it means to be filled with the Spirit in my blog post “Under the Influence”).

I had been a Christian for 13 years but really had no clue as to how the Holy Spirit could empower me as a believer to live a full and abundant Christian life. This was primarily because of a theological gap that existed between more conservative/fundamentalist traditions like the one I had been raised in, and the more charismatic/Pentecostal traditions regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in the modern church and in the life of the believer.

The charismatic and Pentecostal traditions seemed to over-emphasize the Holy Spirit, with what seemed to many as an extreme emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit in the daily life of the Christian, while the more fundamentalist traditions, many of which taught that the miraculous gifts of tongues and healing were no longer active in the church (a view known as “cessationism”) seemed to ignore the Holy Spirit altogether.

In the 1970’s, with the spread of the Jesus movement, churches like Calvary Chapel created a sort of doctrinal middle ground, helping to bridge the theological gap that existed between the charismatic arm of the church and the more fundamentalist arm of the church. The net result is that over the last 50 years or so, there has been a renewed interest and emphasis on the Holy Spirit within theological traditions that, in the past, had seemingly neglected the Holy Spirit.

Still, despite the fact that the Holy Spirit is no longer seen as just a topic among charismatic believers, I’ve found that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is still a mystery to many Christians. In particular, one of the most confusing concepts for evangelicals related to the Holy Spirit is the baptism of the Spirit.

Many associate the baptism of the Spirit with a charismatic experience because many of the charismatic traditions have taught that the baptism of the Spirit is a second blessing bestowed upon believers that gives them access to the signs and wonders gifts such as tongues, healings, miracles, etc.

This is not what Paul taught regarding the baptism of the Spirit as this passage in 1 Corinthians 12 demonstrates.

Click here to see a A Comprehensive List of Blog Posts Based on Bible Passage Reference

The context of this passage is spiritual gifts. There was a lot of confusion and chaos in the Corinthian church because spiritual gifts were being used improperly, causing disruption and disorder within the church worship service.

Paul is writing this passage to explain the proper use of the different gifts.

He compares the diversity of gifts to a human body. Just as a body has many parts that make up the one body, so the Spirit distributes many different gifts to the members of the one church.

Paul has already made the point that nobody has ALL the gifts and nobody should seek any specific gift.

We are all different and we have different gifts.

BUT.

Why the but?

What is the contrast Paul is trying to make?

We’re all different and we all have different gifts BUT there is ONE way in which we are all the same.

We ALL have been baptized by the Spirit.

According to Paul, the Holy Spirit baptizes ALL believers into the body.

What exactly does that mean?

It means that even though believers get different spiritual gifts, we all get the same Holy Spirit, who baptizes, or identifies us as being part of the body of Christ.

In other words, being baptized by the Spirit is our initiation into the family of God.

The Holy Spirit joins us to the body of Christ and we become a part of the family of God (see John 1:12). The Holy Spirit is our seal (see my post “The Holy Spirit as a Seal”) and our pledge (see my post “The Holy Spirit as a Deposit”) showing that we belong to Christ. It’s like the brand of cattle. It shows ownership. The Holy Spirit, in a way, is like our new family “crest”.

The tense of the verb indicates that this baptism Paul is speaking of is a past action, which means that it is something all believers (even carnal ones) have experienced.

This means that the baptism of the Spirit is not a religious experience that some Christians encounter at some point after coming to faith, giving them the ability to speak in tongues and perform other miraculous signs and wonders. The baptism of the Spirit is something that is common to ALL believers. It’s the moment at which the believer becomes identified with God’s Spirit, uniting them to Christ and ushering them into the family of God (see my post “What is Baptism?”).

Paul says that this baptism, this union, happens at the moment of belief in Christ. In that instant, everything changes. We become adopted sons and daughters in God’s family. We have a new life and a new identity, along with the promise of eternal life.

Did you enjoy this post? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to like, leave a comment below, and share it with your friends or on social media if you found it helpful or interesting. Your support keeps the conversation going!

Reflection

What is the theological tradition in which you were raised? What did. your tradition teach about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?

What do you think are some of the disadvantages of being involved in a tradition that does not emphasize or teach much regarding the nature and ministry of the Holy Spirit?

What do you think are some disadvantages of being involved in a tradition that emphasizes the necessity of the signs and wonders gifts in the every day life of believers?

What do you believe about the baptism of the Spirit? What do you think it means?

How does one come to a biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit and the role of the Spirit while avoiding the dangers of theological extremism?

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

May 28, 2026

Why Can’t We Be More Like the New Testament Church?

Acts 6

¹But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. ²So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.

“We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program,” they said. ³“Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business. ⁴Then we can spend our time in prayer and preaching and teaching the word.”

⁵This idea pleased the whole group, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith, who had now become a Christian). ⁶These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

⁷God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too. (Acts 6:1-7, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

The Christian church is a mess. At least that’s what we’re to believe if we look at social media and various news outlets.

Everywhere you look and every time you turn around there’s a church scandal involving a high profile pastor or some popular Christian artist has decided to deconstruct their faith. Sexual immorality, greed, back-stabbing, gossip and slander seemingly abound within the church walls.

So why can’t we be more like the New Testament church?

That’s a question that I hear people say all the time. It’s a question borne out of ignorance and a naive desire for a return to some kind of utopian church state that NEVER existed.

The truth is that the church has ALWAYS had problems and it will CONTINUE to have problems, as long as it is being led by imperfect, corruptible humans.

The pollyannaish view that the New Testament church had it all together while the modern church is full of problems is simply revisionist history.

The early church was full of problems, starting with the issue outlined here in Acts 6.

It’s true that the first few chapters of Acts outline a spiritually robust church that was generous, giving, met often for prayer and was full of faith. However, in Acts 6, we start to see some of the flaws and problems that invaded this early community.

According to the text, an issue arose between two different ethnic communities. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew. Their complaint was that their widows were being discriminated against.

Apparently, there was a food distribution program that was being run by the church and those who were non-Jewish culturally were not receiving the same attention and consideration as those who were culturally Jewish.

In other words, there was discrimination and preferential treatment toward one ethic group over another. There was racism in the early church.

It’s not surprising that this issue would exist. After all, for centuries Jews followed the Law of Moses, which taught them that Gentiles were unclean.

This does not mean that the Law taught that Gentiles were not equal to Jews or that somehow God saw them as less than. But over the years, the Jewish view of the Gentile devolved into a state of anti-Gentilism.

This view was not isolated. It is repeated throughout the book of Acts. Jews did not like Gentiles and generally saw them as inferior.

In this passage, there is no indication of what the apostles did to address this false view, In actuality, Peter, in Acts 10, needed a vision from the Lord to break him out of his anti-Gentile trance.

The apostles dealt with the problem as indicated but their solution did not fix the racism that existed within the early church.

What are we to make of this?

It’s clear that many of the great evils and ills that infect our modern church were present in the New Testament church. And yet, God was able to use those feeble, flawed individuals just the same. This means that He can use us as well.

I want to be clear that I’m not saying that we shouldn’t call out sin in the church when we see it. We should. And leaders in the New Testament church did as well. It seems that many of the New Testament epistles were written to point out sin and correct bad theology and wrong orthopraxy.

But we shouldn’t be naive to think that the modern church is any worse than the church has been at any other time.

The modern church is not perfect. It can’t be; it’s being led by and is filled with imperfect and corruptible people. But God is in the business of using broken vessels to fulfill His purposes.

So when someone asks, “why can’t we be more like the New Testament church” my response is: brother, we already are!

Reflection

What has been your view of the New Testament church compared to the modern evangelical church? How have you tended to compare and contrast them and evaluate them?

What are some of the reasons why people tend to yearn for a New Testament version of the church?

What do you think it is about the New Testament church that causes people to long for a return to that era?

What are some reasons that wishing for a return to the New Testament church era would ultimately be futile.

How should we as Christians approach the fact that there are many problems that afflict the modern church? What do you think are appropriate solutions or courses of action for individuals and for the church as a whole?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

February 3, 2025

A Divine “Coincidence”

A few months ago, I approached one of the pastors at my church about meeting to discuss a personal matter. We had met many times before over lunch and coffee to talk about men’s ministry, which he helps to oversee, but since this was a personal issue, I suggested we meet at the church office.

When I arrived at the office, he escorted me upstairs and into a conference room, which I had never been in.

I made a remark about how I liked the glass plates on the wall that functioned as dry erase boards and even the conference table had the same glass plates with notes and ideas from a previous meeting scrawled on its surface.

In response, my pastor shared how, just prior to our meeting, he had been in that conference room brainstorming with a Young Adult about men’s discipleship within the Young Adult ministry.

My antenna immediately perked up. Did he say “Young Adult ministry?”

If you’ve followed our ministry with Young Adults for the past 10 years, you probably know about the challenges we’ve experienced in ministering to this audience.

Young Adults are the largest population group in America, and yet, they are the least churched. There are a number of reasons why Young Adults are not active in church, some of which I’ve outlined in previous blog posts. To learn more, check out some of our prior newsletters and blog posts:

Young Adults are leaving the church in droves and most churches simply do not minister well to this demographic.

For the past several years, I’ve talked to a number of pastors at our church, wondering where the Young adults are at and whether Saddleback church has a ministry dedicated to this specific audience.

The response was always the same. The pastor was unaware of any specific Young Adult ministry, but maybe if I talked to “so-and-so”, they might know.

I learned more than I wanted to about the history of Young Adult ministry at Saddleback – how it had once been a thriving ministry but was not currently active.

So when my pastor friend casually mentioned that he had just had a meeting with a Young adult about the Young adult ministry, I was naturally curious.

Before diving into the issue which I wanted to discuss, I asked him some questions about the meeting he had. He knows that I work with Cru and that our ministry focus is Young Adults so I asked him if he would connect me with the young man with whom he had just met.

He agreed to reach out to the person and see if they would be willing to connect with me. He sent a quick text before we moved on to talking about my personal issue.

When our time was ending, he noticed that the Young adult had already texted him back and said that he would definitely be interested in meeting. So I got his contact information and I sent him an email later that afternoon.

A few days later, Logan got back with me and we arranged to meet up for breakfast.

When we met, I asked Logan a few questions to get to know him better. I learned that he grew up really close to me and he had recently graduated from Cal Baptist University.

I was curious where Logan went to high school. It turns out, he went to the same high school as our boys.

I asked him what year he graduated and I learned that he graduated the same year my boys graduated.

I told him I had twin boys who went to his high school and I wondered if he knew them.

That’s when the light bulb went off.

He said, “Wait! Your last name is Lowe? I know your boys. We were in the same Life group together in high school. I didn’t make that connection when you reached out to me.”

Logan is on staff with Saddleback, serving at the Brea campus. But he also helps to lead the fledgling Young Adult ministry that started up last year.

As I shared with Logan our vision for Young Adults and the resources we provide, particularly in helping Young Adults grow and mature in their leadership and their ability to become multiplying disciples, I could see his eyes light up.

I’m constantly amazed at how God works to orchestrate opportunities and open doors. In all the times I initiated with various pastors at our church to inquire about Young Adult ministry, it went nowhere. Then when I initiated to talk about something completely unrelated to Young adult ministry, the door suddenly and unexpectedly opened to connect with a key Young adult leader.

I’m not sure where this might lead but we’re excited about the potential of mentoring and coaching these young leaders who are working to create a community where Young Adults can thrive spiritually and live with purpose.

Our vision is not just to coach and mentor Young Adults, but to coach and mentor others, whether Young Adults or older adults, who can help to lead and mentor Young adults in church communities everywhere.