Baptized For God

Last week we began a new sermon series entitled Journey with Jesus. We are spending some time following the ministry of Jesus and allowing Jesus and those around him to help us receive a greater understanding of what it means to be like Jesus and to follow Jesus.

This is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. The Sunday that we remember that Jesus was baptized just like many of those that follow him. This week we are focusing on being baptized for God. Our scripture comes for Matthew 3:13-17.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Please pray with me…

In one of the commentaries I use called, “Feasting on the Word,” there is a story of a boy who him and his parents didn’t attend church regularly but was asked if he wanted to be a part of a group of 9th graders that were taking classes to become members of the church.

Him and his parents agreed, and the boy seemed to enjoy the classes and when the time came he joined the church. Part of him joining the church was for him to be baptized. Afterwards him and his family weren’t seen again at the church for a number of weeks.

The pastor eventually decided to check in and ask if there was a reason they hadn’t been attending church. He was shocked by their answer. They said it was because they thought they were done.

They believed that since their son was baptized and a member of the church that there was no reason for them to attend anymore. Becoming a follower of Jesus and being baptized is not the end of the Christian journey. It is the beginning.

(Transition)

We are baptized to God for God. When we become a follower of Jesus we become adopted into his family. Baptism could be considered adoption papers. A person can become a part of the family before an adoption officially takes place.

Adoption papers are the public acknowledgment of something that has already taken place. Baptism is our adoption papers for our relationship with God. It is a public acknowledgement that we are a part of the family of God.

With that being said, the United Methodist Church believes that this public acknowledgement is only one small part of what is taking place. We believe that baptism is a means of grace. A special way for God to connect with us and for us to connect with God.

We believe that the waters of baptism are stirred up by the Holy Spirit and through these actions a person become changed. The sacrament of baptism should lead the individual into a closer relationship with God.

We believe that this is the case even if you are baptized as a child. Being baptized as a child is believed to begin the process towards becoming a follower of Jesus. God is at work throughout your life attempting to lead you into a relationship with him.

(Transition)

Our scripture focuses on John the Baptist and his baptism of Jesus. In order to understand what is taking place we need to go back earlier into chapter 3 where we are told that John was offering a baptism of repentance. He sees the people in need of further understanding of what is to come.

We receive further confirmation of how John the Baptist viewed himself through a conversation he has with the Pharisees and Sadducees where he states

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

We find other places in scripture where John confirms that he is not the Messiah. He states that he is the one who is to “preparing the way for the Messiah.” He is preparing the way by offering the people a baptism of repentance.

(Transition)

Onto this scene walks Jesus, someone who John himself acknowledges does not need to be there. After all, he is without sin so why would he need to receive this baptism from John. Matthew assumesthis as a question that will be asked and he gives us our answer.

In fact, he has Jesus tell us in verse 15 why he is being baptized. He is being baptized in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” This is Jesus saying that I need to do this because my father told me so. He is stating that he is following the journey prepared for him by his father.

This shows us that from the beginning of him about to begin his ministry to the end when he asks the father to find another way besides him dying on the cross, Jesus is listening and responding to what he is being told to do. The father tells Jesus and Jesus listens and responds.

Jesus in this brief encounter shows us how we should choose to act and react through the words given to us by God. Baptism or if you were baptized as a child a willingness to become a follower of Jesus becomes the step in what should be a constant journey with God.

(Transition)

John lives out this example. He doesn’t believe he is worthy to do what Jesus is asking from him but after being told it is time and why he fulfills Jesus’s request and baptizes him. He listens and responds to Jesus despite feeling unworthy.

There may be times as a follower of Jesus that you feel unworthy. There may be some of you in person or online as a part of our You Tube worship experience that do not believe you are even worthy to have your sins forgiven and be in a relationship with God

John shows us that Jesus makes us worthy. We might not believe we are good enough, but it is actually us being humble that makes us good enough. It is our willingness to acknowledge our weaknesses and are willingness to follow Jesus that can lead Jesus to ask for our help.

(Transition)

We see this in the lives of Jesus’ disciples. These were imperfect and many would say undereducated men that Jesus chose to be the twelve that he poured his heart, mind, soul into. They would not have been chosen by any other Rabbi.

Jesus saw them for who they can be. He saw them as individuals who would be willing to listen and follow him even though what he was saying did not match what they had been told their whole lives.

You are also someone who Jesus loves and trusts. You are also someone who is worthy. You are someone who has been given the gifts to allow you to serve God the way that God desires for you to serve him. Jesus makes you worthy.

And if you are someone that feels unworthy to be in a relationship with Jesus. There is no one who deserves the forgiveness offered to us by God. That is where grace enters into the equation. Grace tells us that there is nothing that we can do to earn or deserve the right to be in a relationship with God.

God loves you so much that he is willing to not let that stop you from having your sins forgiven and being able to be connected to him. God is waiting for you to believe that you are worthy and ask for him to become a part of your life.

(Transition)

We see further confirmation that it is because of a willingness to follow God that Jesus has made the decision to be baptized by what happens after he is baptized. We have the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove and his father making the statement “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

The baptism of Jesus is one of the few times that we have the trinity: The father, the son, the Holy Spirit all interacting together in scripture. Matthew wants us to recognize that these three are all God but that they are also all separate entities working together to serve the world.

This scripture also offers us another insight. We discover through this scripture that God not only asks us to serve him. He is “well pleased” when we make the decision to serve him. We need to remember Jesus didn’t need to be baptized but he was willing to take this step because he was asked to by his father. He gives us an example through being baptized and also through his willingness to listen and follow the will of his father.

There may be times that we are asked to do something that we don’t want to do. There may be times that we don’t understand why we are supposed to do what God desires for us to do. Jesus gives us the example that it may not be about us. It may be as an example to those around us.

(Transition)

We have gone through the story. We have seen God at work through baptism and through the life of Jesus and John. What we don’t receive in this text is the aftermath. What happens after Jesus is baptized.

Scripture shows us that following Jesus and being baptized does not mean that life is suddenly going to become easy and that we are not going to face hard times. In fact, what happens next proves the opposite to be true.

We have Jesus going into the wilderness and spending time with his father. We are told that he prayed and fasted for 40 days. We are also told that either during or after these forty days, I would expect it would have been both, Jesus faces temptations from Satan.

We have Jesus being tempted in three ways, you can find this story in Matthew chapter 4. First, Satan knows he is hungry and tells him to get himself something to eat, that is followed by asking Jesus to throw himself down from the top of the temple to prove that his Father would protect him. Third, he was promised dominion over the world if he would bow down and worship him instead of his Father.

We will all face our own temptations. Satan will look for ways to get us to choose to rely on the world or on ourselves instead of God. He will find our weaknesses and will use them against us when the opportunity presents itself.

(Transition)

Jesus also shows us how to overcome temptation. First, we need to expect to be tempted or to have our faith challenged. We should expect that there will be times in which we will be challenged to do what we know is not the right thing for us to do.

Second, we have Jesus using scripture as his means to not fall into the temptations offered by Satan. This is why I speak often of the importance of having some form of spiritual discipline. Some way in which you are attempting to daily stay connected with God.

The third thing that Jesus does is that he tells Satan to leave. This may seem like a small thing, but words have power. When we feel we are being tempted or if we believe we seem to be moving away from instead of towards God we need to be willing to remove Satan from our midst and make more room for God.

(Transition)

What we also see through the life of Jesus and later his disciples is a willingness to serve God. A desire to do what God asks for them to do. The disciples lived that out through his time on earth by responding to his desires. This continued after Jesus left the earth through listening and responding to what they heard from the Holy Spirit.

That is where the importance of prayer and listening enters into the equation. We have talked about these many times before. We need to attempt to be open to what God desires from us not just individually but also as a church.

We need to be willing to not only listen, but we also need to be willing to respond. We might not like what we are told to do but we have to have the faith to believe that we are doing what God desires for us to do.

(Transition)

We find from our first reading what takes place when we live our lives as people that were baptized for God. Paul is led by the Holy Spirit through a vision to go to Macedonia. He had previously tried to go to two other locations but scripture says the Holy Spirit stopped him from entering into those areas.

In Macedonia on the Sabbath he goes outside of the city gates searching for a “place of prayer.” This should tell us that either the Jewish people or possibly more specifically these women were not welcome to worship in the city.

Paul is going to outcasts. Paul is speaking to those that the people of the town and maybe even some of the Jewish people want nothing to do with. Paul is acting like Jesus. He is reaching out to those that others have chosen to ignore.

There is no one that we should not be willing to reach out to and talk to about Jesus. It is why our mission statement says that we want to connect with those around us and show the love of God to all people. We are loving like God loves when we choose to treat all people the same.

(Transition)

This leads Paul to have a conversation with a woman name Lydia who listened to Paul and because “God opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” So, we see Paul doing what God called for him to do which allowed God to work in her heart for such a way to lead her to choose to become a follower of Jesus.

 This then led to her and her family being baptized. So Paul’s decision along with God’s work within Lydia’s heart led to a whole family being baptized. We see this as a theme in other places in scripture. It is through our willingness to listen and respond to God that lives are changed.

(Scripture)

We can find throughout scripture people who were willing to die for their faith. Individuals who stood before those that hated them and didn’t believe that ended up giving their life to Jesus and impact those around them.

This is the story of the first martyr of the church Stephen. He was stoned for not being willing to denounce Jesus as the Messiah. Stephen didn’t deny his faith despite what he knew would happen to him.

We will hopefully never have to take that step but the lives of those who did and the lives of those who live in areas that they are not allowed to be Christian should lead us towards a decision that we are going to tell others about the one who has saved us,

We have been baptized for God. Our journey with Jesus should lead us to respond to what God has done for us. We are called to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus to the world. Let us as a church decide that we want to be who God desires for us to be.