Acts 11:15-16
What is written? (ESV)
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
What does it say?
Peter was speaking as the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his family/friends. He recalls Jesus telling him that while John had baptized with water, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
What is its immediate context?
Peter is reporting back to the church in Jerusalem about the vision at Joppa and subsequent visit to Caesarea and the conversion of the first Gentiles (Cornelius and his family/friends – chap 10).
How Acts 11:15-16 is applied across Bible answers
What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?
Peter directly relates the "falling on" of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles in Joppa[no repeater] with the "falling on" that occurred to himself and the other apostles on the day of Pentecost[no repeater] by remembering what Jesus had said to them[no repeater][no repeater].
He concludes, "If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed..." (vs 17). By Peter's own testimony, it was a necessary display by God to show the Gentiles' acceptance into the kingdom. The Jewish brethren concluded, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." (vs 18)
What is the baptism of John the Baptist?
Peter remembers what Jesus had told them "at the beginning"7 as he repeats how "the Holy Spirit fell on them".
Peter is telling the church in Jerusalem about what had transpired when he preached to Cornelius' household (Acts 10 -- conversion of the first Gentiles).
