Sermon for Pentecost/Baptism Sunday – May 23, 2010
Acts:2:1-4; 36-47
Today’s Scriptures speak of birth. Of new life, of spiritual belonging, and of supernatural events that brought about the beginning of the church. And they speak of baptism, which of course today we gather to celebrate. William, Dylan, Kirk, Mary and baby Aries will all be baptised today.
And around the world today Christians of all stripes are remembering and celebrating this day, which was the fulfillment of a promise by Jesus, the promise that when he left planet earth He would send a comforter, a counseller.
Jesus had told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem; to wait for power to come upon them from on high. Pentecost Sunday is the celebration of the birthday of the church. It began with the Holy Spirit, who came upon the followers of Jesus with power.
They had gathered together in great expectancy. They had good reason to be excited. They had been through the dark, dark day of Jesus’ crucifixion. All their hopes and dreams had been squashed.
A few days later, Jesus rose from the dead and showed Himself to the disciples and then a great many others. The resurrection of Jesus turned the disciples around. It altered history; changed everything, really. And just before Jesus ascended to the Father, He had told them to hang out in the Holy City.
So there they were, waiting, hoping for some sign from God, anticipating that God would do something, something big. Something big enough to enable the Apostles and the early followers of Jesus to do what Jesus commanded them to do.
Jesus had said: “…Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
That was a big command, quite beyond their ability to do in the natural. These were, none, of them, particularly impressive folks.
The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1: 26 Brothers (and sisters), think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
And as they were together, the Spirit of God showed up in power, filling each of them so much that they couldn’t contain their joy. Their joy spread from one to another that day, and since that day the joy of knowing Jesus and the revolutionary new way of living that Jesus began has not stopped spreading.
Sometimes it’s spread like wildfire, sometimes in slow motion, as if from candle to candle. Always it has spread person to person, as each Christ-follower has lived the Way of Jesus and demonstrated the radically different values of the Kingdom of God in the here and now.
So the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was huge. That’s why 2000 years later we still celebrate it.
And something else happened that day that we just heard just a little bit about in our reading. Peter, having been restored by Jesus after he denied knowing Jesus three times…Peter was among those waiting in Jerusalem. And when the Holy Spirit came, he was filled with a new boldness, and new fearlessness.
And so Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke to the people and reminded them of a prophesy in the book of Joel that was about what was happening that very day:
Acts 2:17 (from Joel) "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
Then Peter spoke about Jesus having come, sent by God. How he was among them and was “a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know”.
But Jesus was crucified – dead and buried.
Peter continued: 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him…36 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
And then something very important happened.
Acts 2:37 says” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
On the day of Pentecost a great number of new believers were baptized. It was quite the sight.
Now I want to speak directly today to those who are being baptized. I want to speak briefly about symbols. Signs of the faith, signs of life. Important symbols, and how they impact the life of a Christ-follower.
Often we talk about the first symbol of baptism is going under the water to symbolize death. But today I want to suggest that the first symbol is when the baptismal candidates get into the baptistery. They will simply stand there.
Only those who are alive can stand. Only those who have breath in their lungs can appreciate goodness in life. Only those alive can be found by God.
That is common grace. That standing is a symbol of the grace of God; we have life and goodness in our lives even though we are, as the Bible says, spiritually dead until we receive Christ as Lord.
Ephesians chapter 2 says: 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
So perhaps we can see standing as the first symbol. You are alive by the grace of God and by the grace of God you have received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
The next symbol is, indeed, going into the water, and it is a symbol of dying. It is a symbol of having died to the old you, the you you knew before receiving new life in Jesus.
Jesus also died, and as a follower of Jesus, you follow Him in dying to your self.
Gal 2: 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This is a profound reality for followers of Jesus that we take a lifetime coming to understand. We exchange our old life, our life coloured by sin and self-centredness, with a new life. The Bible calls it the ‘life of Jesus’. That’s why we sing: “Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory”.
Then we have the symbol of being under water. I tell some of the baptismal candidates when meeting with them ahead of time that once they are under the water, the congregation votes how long they should stay under water. The voting process takes five minutes. Oddly enough the baptismal candidates rarely laugh.
Being under the water is a symbol of having died!
Romans 6:3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
The key to living a new life is dying to the old life. The key to embracing the Way of Jesus, the values of Jesus and the lifestyle of a Jesus-Follower is to know that you know that you know that you are dead to the old ways you used to live.
2 Cor 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Being under water is a symbol of having died. Unlike Jesus, mercifully, those who will today be baptized, will be under water for only a second.
And third is the symbol of coming up out of the water. This is a symbol of…? Resurrection.
Rom 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Symbols. Standing, going under the water, being under the water and coming up out of the water. Common grace, dying to self, the old self dead, the new person emerging from the water, resurrected to new life.
And this is where we come to. Today our baptismal candidates…Mary, baby Ariel, Dylan, Kirk and William, go public with the fact that they are now alive to God in Jesus Christ. Right now we will all have an opportunity to reaffirm our baptismal vows as Pastor Ronda takes us through the baptismal liturgy.
After baptisms: You know…there’s a story in the Book of Acts about a eunuch who Philip happened upon. He was reading in Isaiah 53 about Jesus.
Acts 8: 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" 37 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
So, if you are here today, if you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and are walking with Jesus, if you have become alive to Christ and you want to be baptised today, why shouldn’t you be? We have changes of clothes for two people. So, before I get out of the baptistery, who here today, which adults among us, would like to be baptized right now? Whosoever will may come!
