Baptism and Repentance

Intro

For 400 years, the Jewish people were eagerly awaiting a new word from the Lord. Upon the death of the prophet Malachi, there was silence from heaven. No prophetic word came.

Then, angels appeared to Mary, Joseph, and some shepherds to announce the incarnation of the holy God of the universe.

Now we come to an interesting man named John. He was a pretty eccentric guy who lived in the wilderness and ate bugs and honey. But he was the one to foreshadow the ministry of Jesus the Messiah.

Who was John the Baptist?

John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus whom we also meet in Luke 1. He was not the founder of the Baptist church. He actually wasn’t even Baptist.

He lived in the wilderness. The wilderness was home to three types of people, criminals, displaced peasants, and religious ascetics (think like monk level). John would fit in that last category. He was a very abstinent type of guy as noted by his diet and attire.

Matthew quoted Isaiah 40:3 to show that this was the man that Isaiah was referring to in that passage. John was preparing the way for Jesus.

John had a very large following at the time. People from all over the region were going to him for the baptism of repentance.

It is possiblle that the bulk of his popularity came from his resemblence to the prophet Elijah. John wore camel skin and a leather just as Elijah was described in 2 Kings 1:8 “They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.””

Interestingly enough one of the last things the Israelites heard was in Malachi 4:5 ““Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

So for the silent years, the Jews were holding onto the possibility of the return of Elijah. And now he has come.

What was his message?

His message began with a simple yet intense message, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This message was crucial to the Jewish people in that day. Most of John’s audience were descedants of those who were taken in exile by the Babylonians or Assyrians. Most of them have likely led very sinful lives with the Hellenistic influences of the day. So John’s message was clear to them. They had to repent and return to the Lord.

They spent all those years hoping for the coming Messiah and the kingdom of God to come to earth, but they failed to live a life worthy of the coming King.

All throughout biblical history, repentance was a necessary means to a right relationship with God.

Just as David sinned terribly and repeatedly, we read his heartfelt repentance in Psalm 51. What else is very interesting is that David knows that the actions of himself or others are not as important as the posture of his heart. God doesn’t want our sacrifices. God doesn’t want our songs. God doesn’t want anything that we have to offer if it is absent of a repentant heart.

King Solomon was reminded of this by the Lord in 2 Chronicles 7:14

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

This is a very popular verse especially around election time and sometimes at the new year. But I think it is an important verse for us to consider daily. If you want God to move in your life, repent!

The Pharisees and Sadducees went to John to be baptized themselves, but John would have none of it. They were trying to be baptized not according to their repentant hearts, but according to their lineage and status. That’s why John called them out.

As the poet said of the man who gained the mercy of God in the instant of death: Betwixt the stirrup and the ground, Mercy I asked, mercy I found.

Baptism in spirit and in fire

The word for spirit is ruach, and ruach, like pneuma in Greek, means not only spirit; it also means breath. Breath is life; and therefore the promise of the Spirit is the promise of life. The Spirit of God breathes God’s life into human beings. When the Spirit of God enters us, the tired, lacklustre, weary defeatedness of life is gone, and a surge of new life enters us.

(2) This word ruach not only means breath; it also means wind. It is the word for the storm wind, the mighty rushing wind that once Elijah heard. Wind means power. The gale of wind sweeps the ship before it and uproots the tree. The wind has an irresistible power. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of power. When the Spirit of God enters into us, our weakness is covered with the power of God. We are enabled to do the undoable, to face the unfaceable and to bear the unbearable. Frustration is banished; victory arrives.

(3) The Spirit of God is connected with the work of creation. It was the Spirit of God who moved upon the face of the waters and made the chaos into a cosmos, turned disorder into order, and made a world out of the uncreated mists. The Spirit of God can re-create us. When the Spirit of God enters into us, the disorder of human nature becomes the order of God; our dishevelled, disorderly, uncontrolled lives are moulded by the Spirit into the harmony of God.

(4) To the Spirit, the Jews assigned special functions. The Spirit brought God’s truth to men and women. Every new discovery in every realm of thought is the gift of the Spirit. The Spirit enters into our minds and turns our human guesses into divine certainty, and changes our human ignorance into divine knowledge.

(5) The Spirit enables people to recognize God’s truth when they see it. When the Spirit enters our hearts, our eyes are opened. The prejudices which blinded us are taken away. The self-will which darkened us is removed. The Spirit enables us to see.

John says that the baptism of the one who is to come will be with fire. In the thought of a baptism with fire, there are three ideas.

(1) There is the idea of illumination. The blaze of a flame sends a light through the night and illuminates the darkest corners. In the past, the flame of the beacon guided sailors to the harbour and travellers to their goal. In fire, there is light and guidance. Jesus is the beacon light to lead us into truth and to guide us home to God.

(2) There is the idea of warmth. A great and kindly man was described as one who lit fires in cold rooms. When Jesus comes into our lives, he kindles our hearts with the warmth of love towards God and towards one another. Christianity is always the religion of the kindled heart.

(3) There is the idea of purification. In this sense, purification involves destruction; for the purifying flame burns away the false and leaves the true. The flame tempers and strengthens and purifies the metal. When Christ comes into our hearts, the evil dross is purged away. Sometimes that has to happen through painful experiences; but, if throughout all the experiences of life we believe that God is working together all things for good, we will emerge from them with a character which is cleansed and purified, until, being pure in heart, we can see God.

So, the word fire has in it the illumination, the warmth and the purification of the entry of Jesus Christ into our hearts.

But there is also a picture which has in it a promise and a threat—the picture of the threshing-floor. The fan was the great wooden winnowing shovel. With it, the grain was lifted from the threshing-floor and tossed into the air. When that was done, the heavy grain fell to the ground, but the light chaff was blown away by the wind. The grain was then collected and stored in the barns, while any chaff which remained was used as fuel for the fire.

The coming of Christ necessarily involves a separation. People either accept him or reject him. When they are confronted with him, they are confronted with a choice which cannot be avoided. They are either for or against. And it is precisely that choice which settles destiny. People are separated by their reaction to Jesus Christ.

In Christianity, there is no escape from the eternal choice. On the village green in Bedford, John Bunyan heard the voice which drew him up all of a sudden and left him looking at eternity: ‘Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or wilt thou have thy sins and go to hell?’ In the last analysis, that is the choice which no one can evade.