Preached at Holy Trinity Barkingside January 18th 2010
Preached at St Barnabas Northolt 16 January 2022
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Today we look at "Epiphany the Sequel: The Baptism of Christ". Over these weeks we look at Jesus being revealed to the world.
- Last week we looked at wise men coming from far off countries to visit the baby Jesus: Jesus is not just for the Jews but for all nations.
- Next week we will look at Jesus's first miracle as he reveals his power and his purpose to the world, turning water into wine.
- This Sunday we look at his first public appearance, as he is baptised in the river Jordan by John the Baptist.
As we learn about Jesus it's impossible not to learn about his love for us, so we will be learning not just about Jesus's baptism, but also about what that teaches us about our baptism.
I'm going to open the passage up under 4 headings:
1) Joined with Jesus
2) Picked by the Father
3) Empowered by the Spirit
4) Sent out to Serve
JOINED WITH JESUS
Why did Jesus bother to be baptised?
You and I need to be baptised - we are sinners and we need those sins washed away.
But Jesus is the sinless Son of God. What need has he to be baptised? Luke does not spell this out, but in Matthew's Gospel we see John the Baptist asking exactly that question. "I need to be baptised by you, and you come to me?" (Matt 3:14)
So why did the sinless Son of God come to be baptised? Let me tell you a story
You may have heard of Corrie Ten boom. She belonged to a dutch Christian Family. Her grandfather Wilhelm ten Boon started a weekly prayer group in 1844 in the city of Haarlem, near Amsterdam for the salvation of the Jews. This weekly prayer meeting amazingly continued uninterrupted until 1944 when the ten Boon family were sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews to save them from the holocaust.
There is an interesting story about her father Caspar ten Boon. When the Jews were forced to wear the “Star of David,” Casper lined up for one. He wore it because he wanted to identify himself with the people for whom he and his family had been praying for all those years.
He was prepared to be so completely identified with the Jews that he was willing to wear a sign of shame and suffer persecution for the sake of the people he loved. He didn’t have to wear the Star but chose to. [illustration taken from a sermon by Martin Dale on this site]
In the same way - Jesus does not have to be bapstised. But because he loves us to much, he is baptised to identify himself with us, just as Caspar Ten Boom put on the yellow star to identify himself with the Jews he loved so much.
Jesus joined himself to us by baptism into the river Jordan. And when we are baptised, we are joined with Jesus. "Baptism...now saves you, not as a removal of physical dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a cleansed conscience through the resurection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of the Father." (1 Peter 3:21). We are joined to Jesus and so through his prayers we are made clean. It is not the outer dirt that is washed away but the inner dirt of sin.
Lutheran Priest Fr Tim Zingale describes baptism as "a boarding pass to a life of adventure with Jesus Christ." We are joined with Jesus and given the invitation to get on the plane, to take the boarding pass and start the adventure of a lifetime.
PICKED BY THE FATHER
After Jesus is baptised, the heavens open, and we hear the voice of the Father. "You my son, the beloved, in you I am well pleased" (Lk 3:22)
As one preacher puts it, "when God is pleased, nothing else matters." Think what is going on inside Jesus's head. "OK - I'm the Son of God - or am I? Am I making it up? am I crazy?" Before he begins his ministry, God affirms publically who he is. "You my son, the beloved, in you I am well pleased" (Lk 3:22) In all the dark days ahead, Jesus will be able to look back to that occasion and remember those words. "You my son, the beloved, in you I am well pleased" (Lk 3:22)
And those words are not just for Jesus. Isaiah tells us "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1).
Another Lutheran priest, Father Matt Hoffman says of our baptism: "God gave you a name that day. God said, "you are MY BELOVED CHILD" and he doesn't change his mind. Remember that not just on your good days, but on your awful days. Thank God that you are baptised because it means something" "You are MY BELOVED CHILD" "When God is pleased, nothing else matters."
Now you may be saying "but I don't even remember being baptised - how can that be meant to help me?" My friend you have missed the point.
I don't remember being born. I have vivid memories of my two children being born. I remember vividly Jessica being born despite the fact it was after 36 hours of having no sleep. But I don't remember my own birth at all. Now, if I had never been conceived, never come out of my mother's womb, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you today. So being born was quite a significant event for me. Yet I don't remember a thing about it.
As I said - I remember my two children's birth, even though they won't. We may not remember our baptism, but somebody more important remembers. God remembers your baptism. "God gave a name that day God said, "you are MY BELOVED CHILD" and he doesn't change his mind."... and he doesn't forget.
Joined with Jesus, picked by the father, and thirdly,
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT
Luke's Gospel places an HUGE emphasis on the Holy Spirit. As the the third century Bible teacher St Origen puts it:
“Christ is born; the Spirit is his forerunner.
Christ is baptised; the Spirit bears him witness.
Christ is tempted; the Spirit leads him up.
Christ ascends; the Spirit fills his place.”
All throughout Luke's Gospel, everything Jesus does, the Spirit is there. John the Baptist predicts one who "will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Luke 3:16) and then after Jesus is baptised, "the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove"
Jesus is baptised and the Holy Spirit comes down. You can't miss the connection. It's not just that "ooo the Holy Spirit happened to come down, by the way, a few versed earlier Jesus was baptised." No. Jesus is baptised and the Holy Spirit comes down.
Like at waters of the flood - when it was a Dove who showed that Noah was safe - so at the waters of baptism, it is a dove that shows the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is baptised and the Holy Spirit comes down
So too at our baptisms. We are baptised and the Holy Spirit comes down.
But there's something I hadn't noticed until I was preparing this sermon. Luke says that it is "AFTER Jesus was baptised" as he "was praying" that the physical manifestation of the Spirit comes. Not in the middle of the baptism, but afterwards - who knows how long afterwards - a few seconds, a few minutes, quarter of an hour, half an hour? who knows? Yes it is because Jesus is baptised that the Spirit comes down. Yet it is not immediate.
We are baptised and the Holy Spirit comes down. For some, they will never know a time since their baptism when the Spirit was not present. Yet for most of us, it is some time after we are baptised that we experience the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, perhaps 20 or more years since the baptism that we experience the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Being baptised is a bit like having a tap put in your bath room. A tap is rather essential furniture. Putting a tap in makes it a bath room. But you still have to turn it on. Imagine a bath room which stayed there for 80 years before being knocked down, and during that time not one of the taps was ever turned on in sink shower or bath. Could you really call that a bath room? It is a moot point. In the same way - imagine someone who is baptised, and yet the tap of the Holy Spirit is never turned on. Can you really call them a Christian? It is a moot point.
Often when we look at great Christians in the past - St Dominic, St John Wesley, St Martin Luther, St Ignatius Loyola, they seem to have fire in their bones. Unfortunately, what we have in our bones is often not fire but... ice cream
[illustration taken from pentecostal pastor Daniel Olukoya on this site]
If we are not just here for entertainment, if we want to be great, to have fire in our bones, we need to turn the tap on full, to let the Holy Spirit flood into our lives. "You shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire".
Fr Tim ZIngale described baptism as being like "a boarding pass to a life of adventure with Jesus.". Well a boarding pass is not much use if you don't get on the plane.
JOINED WITH JESUS
PICKED BY THE FATHER
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT
and fourthly
SENT OUT TO SERVE.
Jesus's baptism marks the start of his ministry.
God reveals him to the world. Now John's ministry will end and Jesus's begin.
Jesus's baptism marks the start of his ministry.
In the same way, our baptism is meant to mark the start of our ministry.
St Martin Luther describes the moment of baptism as "our ordination into the priesthood of all believers". christianity is a plane on which there are no passengers. You've been given a boarding pass because you've got a job to do. I can look into YOUR eyes and tell you, yes you, that God has a job for you. You may think you just turned up for the ride or to watch, or ... to have an icecream. Uh uh. There's no passengers. God has a job with your name on it. Baptism is meant to mark the beginning of our ministry - Your ministry.
I end with another quote from one of the Lutherans I've already quoted today, Fr Matt Hoffman.
Fr Matt describes the miracle of Jesus's baptism with heavenly voices and the Holy Spirit like a dove - wow. "But" he goes on to say " what happened in your baptism is no less a miracle by any means.
Your baptism was filled with Jesus and connected you to him,
Your baptism was filled with the Holy Spirit and marked the start of his work in your life,
your baptism was witnessed by your Heavenly Father, the creator of heaven and earth, who smiled and said of you, exactly what he said of Jesus, “You are my beloved child, with YOU I am well pleased.”
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit amen.
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