Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 3:11

"I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and [in] fire:" — Matthew 3:11 (ASV)

John could plunge the penitent into water, but a greater than he must baptize men into the Holy Ghost and into fire. Repentance is well attended by washing in water, but the true baptism of the believer by the Lord Jesus Himself brings us into spiritual floods of holy fire. John considered himself to be nothing more than a household slave, unworthy of the office of removing his Master's sandals, and his baptism in water was as much inferior to the Spirit-baptism as a slave to his lord.

Jesus is the divine Lord who covers us with the fiery influences of the Holy Spirit. Do we know this baptism? What is water-baptism without it? What are all the Johns in the world, with their baptisms in water, when compared with Jesus and His baptism into fire!