Activity 4 – What is Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the difference it makes?

Overview

Pupils will consider how Baptism with water and the Holy Spirit helps Christian believers follow the commandment of Jesus to ‘Love  your neighbour as yourself’, in ways that make a difference to people’s lives. Pupils will investigate the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit’s relationship with Jesus and believers, and ways he is understood to help believers follow Jesus’s example, in loving others. See below for Theological reference.

In exploring the impact of Christian beliefs and actions pupils are able to benefit from the ‘live relationships’ between Christian believers in their local church communities and communities in Mozambique through ALMA  the Diocese of London Companion Link.

SIAMS and Global Neighbours

Activities in this unit are designed to be adapted for use with any Diocesan Companion Link, to support schools in engaging with Global RE and Citizenship linked to SIAMS and Global Neighbours as well as Understanding Christianity 

Key Questions

• What difference does being baptised make to a Christian believer?
• What does Baptism in the Holy Spirit mean and what difference does it make to a believers life?
• How do believers  follow Jesus’ example of loving people individually, locally and globally?

 Learning Objectives

• To understand the difference that water and Holy Spirit Baptism makes to a believer’s life.
• To understand who Christians believe the Holy Spirit is.
• To understand how Jesus example inspires believers to love people
• To consider how the Holy Spirit helps people follow Jesus.
• To recognise that the Holy Spirit is described as interacting in different ways with people

 Starter

What difference does being baptised by water and the Holy spirit, make to a Christian believer’s relationship with God and others?

• Christians believe that Jesus example of loving people is for them to follow.
• What was the job of loving people that God gave Jesus to do after he was baptised?
• See Bible text – Luke 4 v 14-22
• Make a list of the different ‘acts of love’  Jesus describes in this passage

What does the Bible text say about how the Holy Spirit was with Jesus and would help him fulfil the tasks?

• Imagine if you were a Jewish person in the Synagogue where Jesus was saying these things. How would you respond? Would you feel inspired, encouraged, confused..? Look at how the Jewish people of Nazareth reacted to what he said the time, in the Bible text.

Main activity

What is the Holy Spirit? Why do Christians believe they need the help of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus?

• Explore the concept of good and evil and how we deal with good and bad thoughts (idea of angel and devil on shoulder influencing our thoughts and actions)
• Who helps us make good choices? e.g.  homework-parent, carer, sibling, maths task– teacher, friendships -teacher, parent or carer
• Christians believe that the Holy Spirit functions in different ways e.g. sometimes as an inner voice or conscience helping people make good choices, or motivates people to follow Jesus’s example, for example in using their time and talents to show ‘kindness and love’ to a neighbour.
• Look at Bible texts  to find out about the different ways that the Holy Spirit is described:
  • Creation – Genesis 1 v 1-6
  • Baptism of Jesus Matthew 3 v 3- 18
  • Jesus begins his ministry Luke 4 v 14-22
  • Pentecost Acts 2 v 1-4
• Consider what it might mean to a believer to choose to follow Jesus example and how the Holy Spirit helps them to love people.
• Think of a series of questions to ask a believer about the difference being baptised in water and by the Holy Spirit makes in their lives.  For example: How does the being baptised and the work of the Holy Spirit affect the worship, values and actions of a Christian believer?
• Invite a leader or representative from the local church to talk to the class about how believers follow Jesus’s example of servant hood (loving people) and the difference Baptism in water and the Holy spirit makes to believer’s lives.
• Pupils ask the visitor questions and record answers.  A video could be made of the session.

 Plenary

If you were a believer and had the Holy Spirit to help you follow Jesus example of loving your neighbour, what might you ask the Holy Spirit to help you do about the following?

• You had been given £500, that is £100 every day for a week to spend on helping people at school, at home and overseas.

Make a display to explain the person of the Holy Spirit to consolidate learning using symbols, Bible texts, key questions and pupil’s responses

Learning outcomes

• Explain why a believer is baptised in water and the Holy Spirit
• Describe the ways in which baptism makes a difference to a believers life
• Explain how a believer is helped by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus
• Know who I ask for help with different things

Theology

Theology of Holy Spirit at Baptism

Holy Spirit at baptism 1. Christians hold that at baptism, believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (see below). 2. The Holy Spirit unites their life to the life of Jesus – today; and in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. 3. The Holy Spirit has an impact on the believer’s mind and heart, changing how they see and think about the world, giving them ‘the mind of Christ’.

Definition of Holy Spirit: Christians believe that the Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. He is present in and through all things, bringing the presence of God close to us. The Holy Spirit is the Creator – described as ‘breath’ hovering over the waters of chaos at the beginning of creation. He is described as the ‘Spirit of Christ’, making Jesus known to his disciples after Jesus’ ascension.  The Holy Spirit is then sent upon the disciples at Pentecost as the one who empowers the Church and animates its life.

Christians believe that through the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are all part of Jesus’ family, with Jesus as a shared brother, making God known to men and women.

Gifts of the Spirit: Each member of the family has a different set of experiences and slightly different gifts. Part of God’s work through his Spirit is to build up the relationships within his family. As followers of Jesus meet each other and get to know each other, they discover more of God’s work and purposes – and have a stronger sense of being united as one family. This meeting of family members always ends up with a sense of reward – just as it feels good to spend time to be re-united with a friend you haven’t seen for a while, or when you meet a new friend.

Resources and Points to note

• Luke  4 v 14-19
• Theology of Holy Spirit – Pentecost