Untitled Sermon (11)

You know what they say… Absence makes the heart grow fonder… of some one else. Suppose that your loved one goes off to war and is gone for an extended time. How are you going to remain faith and true? You likely are going to keep a picture of them close, perhaps on the wall or on the side table in the room. You might correspond via letter, or email, on the internet. BUT when they come and when they knock on the door, the anticipation is gone because your loved one is standing right in front of you. Do you then close the door in their face and continue to stare at their picture? No you open the door and embrace them. The fulfillment of all of your hopes and dreams and future are in the person not their picture.

A Better Baptism

When anticipation is no longer appropriate or adequate.

A picture is great and phone calls and letters are great but they are only meant to point us to a greater reality. And so was John’s Baptism.

Luke 3:2–16 (ESV)

during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall become straight,

and the rough places shall become level ways,

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The Baptism of anticipation. (19:1-4a)

Imagine with me for a second that you have decided to take a trip to the Grand Canyon, so you begin to plan your trip and plot a course on the map or the GPS. And the day comes for you to leave all of your cares behind for the next 2 weeks. You head out in the car and the closer you get you start seeing signs and billboards on the side of the road confirming you are on the right track. And you get a little bit closer and you start seeing signs for the Grand Canyon Museum. So you pull into the parking lot and once you get in there are brochures about the Grand Canyon and park rangers there to greet you and tell all about what you can expect to see when you get there. And you pay to sit in the state of the art 3D theatre on the Grand Canyon. And once the movie is over you head back to the car and finish the 2000 mile trek back home with out ever having stepped foot, or laid eyes on the Grand Canyon.

they had not fully entered the kingdom of God, they still had their 3D glasses on sitting in the theatre. Well this is the situation of the brothers here is Ephesus. They were still stuck back at John’s Baptism and had not yet fully entered into the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit of promise had not yet come to them, and this is the sign and entrance into the Kingdom of God.

Admittedly this passage is very difficult theologically especially since it does not fit the normative of scripture, but should we expect anything different in this transitional period between the coming of the Gospel and the forming of the early church.

For example how is it that these 12 had not heard of the Holy Spirit?

These men being baptized by John or one of his disciples were probably Jews. If so then it would be doubtful that they had no understanding of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament is full of promises of the Holy Spirit. Beyond this the message that John preached was that of the coming of the Holy Spirit and it is doubtful that they were ignorant of the doctrine associate with John’s baptism.

This verse is similar to the statement in

John 7:39 ESV

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

What is likely is not that they were ignorant of the Holy Spirit but that they had not heard that the Holy Spirit had come at Pentecost. Evidently these men had been influenced by John or one of his disciples but did not know that the Spirit had come at Pentecost and had little or no contact with believers who had.

There are a few who believe that these men were not believers, and admittedly this does solve some problems, like the fact that they did not yet have the Holy Spirit which seems to be the normative in scripture that believers are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, but let us remember that there was a time before Pentecost when no one had this gift not even the disciples, and they were certainly believers. Suffice to say that these men being from Ephesus a city central to the spread of the gospel and no doubt these men were among the disciples that Paul took with him and spread the gospel throughout all of Asia. Should not their ministry and message to the Gentiles also be authenticated by the Spirit and Power?

No longer appropriate. (4b-5)

I love archery and there is nothing more satisfying than opening up a box of cedar arrows and the smell of the wood. But those arrows compared to the modern carbon arrows are prone to warp and constantly need straightened. BUT those arrows must fly. So the preparatory work for John was to baptize in repentance and point others to Christ. This is is the uniqueness of the superior Baptism of Christ, that John preached repentance which in the context was that the Jews must turn from trusting in the Mosaic System, that they had to repent of thier trust in Abraham as their father.

It is not by accident that the result of the residents of Ephesus turned to Christ from their magic arts. But this is only half of it. Repentance can only make sense in light of Faith. For if we turn away from the law or from the magic arts or from any other sin and idolatry, how shall we be saved unless our faith is lays hold of the mercy of God found only in Jesus Christ. Can anything else save us? Therefore genuine repentance must apprehend the mercy of God by faith in Christ.

Repentance and faith are at the heart of the issue here. We must be careful as we examine these. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. They are not the same things and yet they are so dependent upon each other that you cannot have one without the other.

The Apostolic Authority of Paul. (6-7)

They believed what they heard, we believe what we read in the Word. Same message same authority different form. The message of the Gospel came with apostolic authority. It was not anything innate in Paul but the Spirit chose to use Paul in such a way.

The Spirit in Acts 10 was poured out among the gentiles in a similar fashion by the preaching of Peter. The giving of the Holy Spirit the forgiveness of sin comes through faith in the Word of Christ. It does not deny a close connection to baptism and faith and yet baptism is not the source of the Holy Spirit but rather faith.