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BAPTISM OF OUR LORD - Lk 3:15-22, Acts 8:14-17, Isa 43: 1-7 - 10/1/2010Epiphany 1 Lk 3:15-22, Acts 8:14-17, Isa 43: 1-7 Baptism of Our Lord 10/1/2010 Rev Mark Harris Doesn’t time fly? It seems like only the other day that Jesus was in a manger! Now he’s become a grown man of some thirty or so years and once more he’s down south - only this time he’s come seeking baptism from Cousin John. He’s what? Yes, he is seeking to be baptised. And if you feel uncomfortable about that, well you are in good company. John himself isn’t exactly won over on the idea. And he only does so as a result of a bit of persuasion on the part of Jesus. After all, his mission is about preparing the way for the greater more powerful one, the one whose sandals he is unfit to carry - Jesus! And yet it happens. It’s clearly a very deliberate event, And a highly significant event in itself which tells us much about the Gospel that’s about to unfold. So why should this event be so important? One reason is not so far removed from the message of Christmas. We heard that the baby of Bethlehem would be called “The Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord” And here we see Jesus starting out on that ministry. The main idea for our today, concerns the Baptism of our Lord Jesus: And today we’re going to consider why Jesus was baptised, What Baptism is, And finally what the result of our baptism should be. So firstly WHY, was Jesus baptised? And there are 2 answers to this question I’m considering today. The first answer is relatively simple to understand, but for us the hardest to do, And it’s that Jesus was OBEDIENT to God that Father’s call on His life. As we saw the other week, 12 year old Jesus knew what he was called to do, He knew he had to be in his father’s house, Jesus was in a perfect relationship with God the father, in a way we can only imagine. When God answers us, we hazily take his answer on board. But Jesus had that perfect communication with God, and so I believe he knew he was the suffering servant of Isaiah, The Messiah of the rest of scripture, who would redeem His people from their sin, and crush the serpent Satan’s head! And here Jesus is being obedient to that call of God. He knew what was ahead for him, And yet he didn’t shy away from it, as difficult as it would be! What about us? What has God called you to do for Him? It might be difficult, but are you being obedient to that call? [Pause] The second answer to why Jesus was baptised is a bit less straightforward. Yes God directed him to be baptised, but why? Jesus was perfect, so WHY should he be baptised? Consistently the scriptures teach that the Messiah would take on to himself the guilt of God’s people, as well as the punishment they deserve. Our reading from Isaiah said clearly NRS Isaiah 43:1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. Judah would go through the most terrible time as a result their continued rebellion against God, And yet here God through Isaiah speaks of the Grace he is going to pour out on His people. Throughout this Isaiah passage we hear God say ‘I’ repeatedly to reinforce that redemption will be all HIS doing. I have redeemed you I have called you by name I will be with you I am the LORD I give Egypt I love you, I give people in return for you, I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, I will gather you; I will say to the north I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." God’s people won’t be able to save themselves, But God himself will save them because of his great love for them. We’re reminded of this in Paul’s letter to the Romans Romans 58 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. What we can’t do for ourselves, God was about to do through His Son. As so here at Jesus Baptism we find Jesus commissioned in a sense, for his task of redeeming us. Jesus is IDENTIFYING with the Guilt and sin of the people, through Baptism, To be able to take away that sin by His own sacrifice on the cross. As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 521 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus doesn’t as some remote Deity condemn these people for their shortcomings. Far from it! He joins them. He gets down in the river with them to identify with them! The water of Baptism was entered by a person who was a sinner, And who recognised they needed to repent of their sin, And have their sins washed away. And whilst Jesus had no personal need to be cleansed, He symbolically identified with and took on the Sins of the people. And this is a BIG thing for Jesus to do. It meant Jesus FULLY knew his purpose in ministry. That he was coming to redeem the sins of the world And at all the key points in Jesus ministry, he prays, And so he prays after his baptism, And in response to Jesus prayer He’s empowered by the HS, And endorsed by God the Father as his beloved Son, The one who came to redeem God’s people from their sin, Jesus is Centre stage here, As he sets out to do the will of God the Father in heaven, In the power of the Holy Spirit So WHY Jesus was Baptised? He was obedient to God the father’s plan for him And to identify with the sins of the people he came to redeem! Jesus undertook John’s Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of Sins, But WHAT does it mean when we Baptise someone? And here I think many people confuse baptism, You might have noticed from the Gospel reading, That the HS came upon Jesus AFTER he was baptised, The other Gospels make this clearer, Matthew 316 And when Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him The water wasn’t magic. It was symbolic. The Holy Spirit came on Jesus bodily as Jesus left the water and prayed. We call Baptism a sacrament, An outward and visible sign, of an inward and spiritual truth, It’s like a sign that points to the real thing! Much like the sign at Casino that say’s LISMORE ISN”T Lismore, Baptism in water, Points to true Baptism. You haven’t “arrived” so to speak, because you’re at the sign. John the Baptist tells us that Jesus will baptise with the HS and with fire! In other words, The Baptism Jesus would bring would TRULY cleanse you from your sins, The HS will remove your sin, In a way like water removes dirt, Or fire burns up disease and rubbish. And this is where I think people today get confused. We have Baptism as a sign, a sacrament, And we have true Baptism which is reception of the HS. Let me read Acts 814-17 again Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit 16 (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. You’ll notice the HS didn’t come at water baptism, even in the name of the Lord Jesus, But at the laying on of hands. And so the Samaritans received true Baptism, When they received the HS When we baptise an infant, or an adult for that matter, We’re NOT saying they now have the HS. We ARE saying, this act is a sign pointing to the need for spiritual cleansing, Through baptism in the Spirit. And so we have in scripture people who have been baptised in water, and haven’t received the HS, As well as people who have received the HS, And haven’t been baptised in water! Acts 1045-47 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" And Peter says then in Acts 1116 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.' The water is a symbol, and standing alone it is just so many molecules of hydrogen and oxygen strung together. If the water worked by itself giving people the HS, And the certain hope of heaven then it’d be magic, and we could bottle it up and use it to control God! We’d go wild pouring it on everyone we could find! But it remains a symbol, a sign, a sacrament of our inviting God's Holy Spirit to come into our lives. God's spirit alone provides the power of baptism. [Pause] Water baptism, is a sign pointing to our need to be baptised in the Spirit, And when is someone baptised in the Spirit? I believe it happens, when we put our faith and trust truly in Jesus as our Saviour. When we submit to God’s will, and put Jesus as King of our life. So why baptise people in water? It points to the reality of something much greater and more important that needs to happen! It points to a cleansing that truly makes us fit for heaven, Why baptise infants? Well that’s another can of worms I can’t spend time on today, Other than to say we baptise infants based on the profession of faith of their parents. You’ll remember Lydia of Acts 16 who was baptised with her whole family, And later in the same chapter the jailer and his entire family were baptised. Without contraceptives like today, it’s likely children made up a part of those families. And so the sacrament of baptism is used today to symbolically welcome a person as an adopted child of God As a member with us of God’s family, And it’s partly because of this that I’m encouraging us to have baptisms in the 9:30 family service So the church family gathered can mix with the Baptism family, so that those who are attending for all the wrong reasons, Might find in the congregation the love of Christ! It gives us the opportunity to shine as lights for Jesus, Tolerating the unchurched, so they might find in us something special. A loving, welcoming community of Gods people. So finally what should be the result of our being baptised? |
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