baptism3
We are doing a baptism today. I hope everyone will join us. It is important that when a believer gets baptized, our church family is a part of it. It is a witness and a promise of accountability that is necessary for the believer to grow in faith.
When I was a youth pastor, I took the kids camping at Silver Creek Falls Oregon. This was a great, beautiful park where you can follow a well-traveled path to see awesome falls. This was no boony-path that you have to search just to find the flags. This was a National Parks Path. I had just purchased a new pair of jeans. We were broke and so, of course my wife did not want me to have them on –camping. I promised to keep them clean and then went off to trek the 7 miles of the trail.
As we were walking-we traveled three abreast-so we could talk. I was close but not on the edge. I stepped on what I assumed was an animal hole-very small no threat. It wasn’t an animal hole. It was the top of where the rain had disintegrated the side of the bank. When I stepped on it-the ground gave way. I began to roll hoping to land on the solid part of the path squarely. The problem was—the path was falling apart all around me. I clawed at bushes. They fell out of the loose dirt where the bank was collapsing. I finally caught my self on a bush that was wrapped around a tree. I looked down-I was dangling some thirty feet or more above a pile of rocks. The kids all peered down from the bank at me-I had already fallen 10 feet or better. I was able to get my foot up on the tree and they had a blanket that they lowered down to me. And in this way I was saved. When I got back? Val was mad that I stained the pants!
We all come to God with stained consciences. We all come with stuff-problems, addictions, failures, crimes-and in short Sins. It is who we are when we approach God.
Around the year 30 AD a fiery young preacher came on the scene. He didn’t gather at the temple or the Synagogue. He didn’t preach at the city square. He went to the deserts of Judea. He dressed in camel’s hair and wore a leather belt. He lived simply, off the land on locusts and wild honey. He was probably long haired and dirty. He was the original hippy. And he preached a message that had never been heard before.
Matthew 3 (NRSV)
2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
This was both old and new. The people had been looking for a Messiah. They were expecting a liberating king that would set them free, make them rich, give them power and glory. They expected God to come save them in just that way. But John had a prerequisite-Repent. Get your heart right. Change your life. Give God your best and turn away from the things you are doing-then get ready for God to bring about his kingdom.
Repentance means to change your mind. You decide to see things a new way. You change your feelings. You make up your mind to have a new purpose in your life. It often comes with difficulty and pain. You sense that you have been holding on to the wrong things and it often is preceeded by a crisis of identity. You don’t like what you see in the mirror. You want something different.
John was baptizing people with their repentance. They probably saw him walking by and asked-who is this guy? Oh that’s John-John the baptizer.
3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ”
Isaiah 40:3 Isaiah 40:3 (NRSV)
3 A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
This tells us that there was an expectation. Isaiah wrote to slaves living in captivity. This spoke to people captured and longing to go home. They expected God to make a highway for them to travel to the promised land on.
The New Testament reveals to us that it wasn’t a highway in the desert
that God needed. God was using John to prepare hearts for his entrance. God was calling people to change. If you want to meet God face to face-you need to build a highway paved with repentance. Remember repentance is not shame, but it does find its birth in regret. It is a heart that is freed from the bondage of sin-that is open to the freedom of knowing God.
5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
So John was a famous preacher. He was all the rage with the who’s who of Jerusalem. Only problem for the who’s who-is that John was telling them to repent too. You know if you grow up in a community of faith. If you believe the right things. If you follow the big laws-God should like you right? John told the religious leaders of his day that they needed to change. They needed the same baptism that he offered the sinners. They needed to repent of sinful hearts. They were no better than the new comers.
Baptism in John’s day represented purity before God. You were old enough to choose if for yourself
Believer’s Baptism
It came with Public repentance
It was full immersion
And it was intended for new converts to Judaism. And the biggest stumbling blocks for Old religion is new conversion. They had always believed and taught the right things. They came to John for affirmation. They received conviction. Obviously this isn’t what they were looking for. John stirred the pot with the religious elite by telling them to become common just like everybody else.
God doesn’t care if you have been coming to church your whole life. God doesn’t care if you do all the right “public stuff.” You can follow the rules that everyone else sees. You can say the right things and have the right friends. You can be in ministry even-but if you don’t change your heart and admit your sin-you won’t be acceptable before God.
John compares them to the fruit of snakes rather than the product of faith. They can’t just rely on Abraham for salvation. It doesn’t matter who you are related to-you still have to get things right with God. Make no mistake-God has no favorites. His kids come from the dregs of society and he prefers those who have clean hearts and changed lives.
10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
John looked beyond his own moment in time and said—listen the day is coming. There is going to be a great harvest. We think of harvest and assume it is people coming to Jesus. That isn’t the harvest John is talking about. John is telling us the harvest will be a day when everyone will be called to account.
In a harvest-everything is cut down; both the wheat and the stalks, the weeds and the fruit. And then it is separated. A large pitchfork throws the cut wheat in the are. The stocks are blown by the wind and separated from the good fruit or heads of the wheat. Then the good wheat is gathered and the chaff is burned.
Those who repent will be the wheat-gathered by the master. Those who are still sinful will be raked into the fire and destroyed.
And guess what? This is just the beginning. There is one coming who will baptise you with the Spirit and fire. Joel 2:28-30 (NRSV)
28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
[1]
The coming of Jesus would bring two things: People: both men and women would be empowered by God for service. There would be an appearance of the prophetic and the miraculous. People would see God insert himself in history though mighty works. And he would use his people to do it.
And with that touch would also come persecution. Our baptism can come with water-as purification and entrance into a community of faith. It can come with the Holy Spirit as an embracing, indwelling touch that empowers us for service. Or it can come through persecution wherein we become very close to God and purified by the trials we endure for his sake.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him 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, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
What do you do when the perfect savior of the world asks you to baptize them? Remember it is a symbol of repentance. John didn’t want to do it! He didn’t feel worthy. John wanted to be cleansed by Jesus. He responded to Jesus with humility.
Jesus did not meet the prerequisite for baptism-sin. But he insisted. The baptism of Jesus is a vision of the whole ministry of Christ. Jesus is God coming in the form of man to identify with sinners for the sake of their salvation. By being baptized-Jesus said: I’m with you. I am here to carry the sinner to wholeness. I’m here to fix what is wrong. Jesus came for broken people and in being purified in baptism he in essence grabbed a hold of the filth and sin of humanity and said-its not so dirty it will keep me from loving you! This is the way. Come follow me.
The law included no requirements about baptism, so Jesus didn’t do it to fulfill the law
He did it to identify with sinners
In Jesus’ baptism we see the Heavens open and the Spirit descend. We hear the voice of the Father say-here is my son with whom I am well pleased. We see all three persons of God together. God is doing two things-he is giving the life and work of Jesus authenticity. God the Father and the Spirit-they put their blessing on the work of God in Jesus and his life. Jesus is recognized by the miraculous appearance and voice at the beginning of his ministry. He is about to launch out on his own to show us the way to God. And it begins with baptism.
He was authenticated by Father and Spirit
We have learned a lot about what baptism is today. Let’s remember some things for our own faith. We are sinners before we are saints. We can’t be born into a relationship with Jesus. It doesn’t matter who your momma or your dad is. It matters that you have your own faith. It doesn’t matter how you were raised or where you go to church-It matters that you come to God with a hear that is willing to change.
Sometimes we focus so much on the message of grace we forget that grace is preceeded by repentance or a change of heart. If you don’t have a change of heart-you can’t approach God for his anointed touch.
Baptism is God wrapping his arms around us and saying-I love you. I’m here to fix what is broken.
Our hope is twofold-we can change. We change through a willingness to be fixed by God. And our hope is that God is here with us. Jesus is who he claimed to be because—he came with God’s real authentication and through miracles that also authenticated his ministry. He met us where we are at to change us according to his will.
We all came to Jesus with a different need and at a different place. And God called us to change. Now its time to change. Now its time to let go of sin. Now its time to turn away. Now its time to say no more-I need God and I need a different life. And Baptism is the public way to say-I believe.
Who would like to join us at the water for the Purity, the Presence, and the Change the a lifetime with Jesus will bring?
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[1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
