Luke 3; 16, 17 John the Baptist said to them all---He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. IMO John was speaking to a mixed audience, good guys and bad guys, wheat and chaff. The good guys, the wheat, are going to be gathered into His barn, these are the ones that will be baptized with the Spirit. The bad guys, the chaff, are going to be burned up with unquenchable fire. Fire in this context and in v. 9 does not appear to me to be a fire of purification but rather a fire of eternal destruction. Nevertheless the baptism with the Holy Spirit was promised to number of Jews who are not identified as apostles. If this is true, then the baptism with the Holy Spirit was not for only the apostles and Cornelius and his household. When was this promise fulfilled? Later, Acts 11: 16, Peter seems to apply Jesus' words, "but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, to the Gentiles also. Some folks appear to be overly restrictive, in their interpretation of the promise ff the baptism with the Holy Spirit. God bless.
