Luke 3v16

John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

At the end of the message of John the Baptist noted in the previous section {32 }, in verse 15 we find that the people were in expectation, and wondering whether John was the Christ (Anointed Messiah) or not. This verse is John’s reply to the question in their hearts.

John reveals that although he has started ministering in a certain way – baptism – that his example is merely a foretaste of the baptism that is to come from the Messiah. While John uses water, the baptism that will be brought about by the Christ (Anointed Messiah) will grow to also include the Holy Ghost/Spirit and fire. Just as John’s water baptism was to mean immersion, so also was the coming baptism to mean total immersion in the Holy Spirit and His fire, rather than the touch of the Holy Spirit that John himself experienced. (See also Matthew 11v11 {8 }).

The function of the fire mentioned in this verse is further explained in the following verse. The picture John uses is of a threshing floor, where Jesus will completely separate the wheat from the chaff, and then “the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” (v17). Clearly the fire is there to destroy the useless and dead works of the devil, and the fact that we are discussing it in the context of baptism shows that it is a very personal issue. In other words, attaching yourself to the devil and his works means you will eventually be permanently attached to the ‘unquenchable fire’.