REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM!
MATTHEW 3:13-17
JANUARY 12, 2014
BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY, YEAR A
FARM HILL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, HARRISBURG, AR
INTRO. Strange things can happen at baptisms. I read somewhere of a pastor who was baptizing in a river. Not realizing what he was doing, he positioned the person he was baptizing so that they faced down river. When he immersed the person, the current of the river grabbed him and took him out of the grasp of the pastor and down the river a ways! He was able to swim to shore and rejoin the service, but the pastor learned - NEVER baptize a person with the current of the river - ALWAYS baptize them against the current, so the river will push them back up instead of pulling them away.
The story is told about the baptism of King Aengus by St. Patrick in the middle of the fifth century. Sometime during the ceremony, St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and, by mistake, stabbed the king’s foot. After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king’s forgiveness.
Why did you suffer this pain in silence, the Saint wanted to know.
The king replied, “I thought it was part of the ritual.”
- Knowing the Face of God, Tim Stafford, p. 121ff
Doesn’t that sound like a strange baptism? Here in Matthew, we have John protesting to Jesus that it was suddenly a strange baptism - one, in fact, where John should be receiving baptism, not administering it! However, Jesus had a sure purpose in what he was doing here. What would he teach us about baptism?
I. BAPTISM MEANS WE BELONG TO JESUS. Verses 16 and 17 read. Just as we see the Holy Spirit appearing and God the Father speaking at the baptism of Jesus to tell the crowd that yes, Jesus belongs, he is God, so baptism tells us that we belong to Jesus. Baptism uses water to tell us and the world that we have family ties that go even beyond the blood we share with members of our physical family.
Romans 6:4-5 says, “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his..”
We share in the life, death, and resurrection to Christ. Because he went through all of that for us, we belong to him. When Carol and I lived in Cincinnati, we attended one church the last three years we lived in the area. One couple we got to know well were Dan and Iris - they became almost like another set of parents to us. Dan and Iris had only one son, Roland. Roland and his wife, Shirley, have two sons - Paul and Kevin. For years, Iris would babysit her grandsons and keep house while Roland and Shirley were at work. Roland and Shirley were Christians, but Iris wanted to do her part to see that her grandsons served the Lord, too. I remember her telling us more than once of how she would tell Paul and Kevin that they needed to be Jesus-boys. That’s what baptism tells us - we are Jesus-men, Jesus-women, Jesus-boys, Jesus-girls. We belong to Jesus.
II. BAPTISM ALSO MEANS THAT JESUS BELONGS TO US. In verse 15, after John questions why he should baptize Jesus, Jesus tells him, (read). To fulfill all righteousness meant that Jesus would put into motion the plan of God that led to the cross and made possible the offer of salvation to whoever would call on the name of the Lord. In baptism, we are saying that we have called on his name, we have asked him to forgive us of our sins and save us, that Jesus belongs to us! What a glorious truth to experience every day of our walk with Jesus. There is a song I remember singing in church years ago. Part of it went:
Now I belong to Jesus; Jesus belongs to me!
Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.
Baptism is a witness to our own hearts and to all around us that Jesus does belong to us. Of course, if Jesus belongs to us, that means we will look like Jesus, talk like Jesus, act like Jesus. In Philippians 2:5, Paul tells us to “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Verses 6-11 gives us the various life-changing ways Jesus modeled the attitude we should have, and it is quite a challenge to think that when we belong to Jesus, we must identify more and more closely with him. I am glad, however, that God gives us a lifetime to continually learn more and more of what it means to be like Jesus.
A lady taught swimming lessons in her pool. She always left the line up separating the deep water from the shallow water until her students were familiar with the pool. After a week of lessons and the children were swimming, she knew they were ready for the deeper level. To acclimate them to this, she would take down the line separating the two levels. Usually, this would make the students very nervous. This was shown by one boy in particular when he remarked, “Miss Tahnee, please put the line back up. The deep water is getting into the shallow water!” We laugh at this, but are we no different? Our Father may challenge us to a newer level of growth by urging us out of our comfort zone. And we cry, “But Father, the deep water is getting into the shallow water!” (www.bible.org).
Compare that to where John Wesley got to in his walk with God in “Thou Hidden Love of God,” hymn 414 in The United Methodist Hymnal:
Each moment draw from earth away
My heart that lowly waits thy call;
Speak to my inmost soul and say,
“I am thy love, thy God, thy all!”
To feel thy power, to hear thy voice, to taste thy love, be all my choice.
(Emphasis suggested at http://www.shol.com/featheredprop/theo4.html)
Steven Curtis Chapman puts it this way in his song “Dive”;
I’m diving in, I’m going deep, in over my head I want to be
Caught in the rush, tossed in the flow, in over my head I want to go
The river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive
So sink or swim, I’m diving in.
Baptism should remind us all that Jesus belongs to us and that we belong to Jesus, that we can dive deep into his love and presence and live!
III. BAPTISM MEANS WE ARE ON A MISSION. Jesus rose up from his baptism and went straight to work on the ministry that would lead him to the cross. Baptism should be the same kind of force operating in our lives to lead us down the path that God has for us! Our mission should make us uncomfortable with the fact that so many around us do not love our Jesus.
The Impact of Coca Cola
91% of the world’s population has heard of Coke.
74% have seen Coke.
51% have tasted Coke.
10% of the world’s population has heard the Gospel.
- Source unknown
Our mission is to be light in darkness, salt to the wounded, a friend to the friendless, a healer to the sick, strength to the weak. God has called us to be all these things and more, and we can do it! As Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Yes, the mission is before us, but so is God at our back, holding us up and guiding us on. Baptism is not the end of a journey; no, it tells us that a journey has begun, one that will take us through the rest of life here and on to heaven. Our mission, baptism reminds us, is to take as many people with us as we can!
IV. BAPTISM MEANS THAT PEOPLE ARE WATCHING. Baptism is a public act - it is not something we do in the dark. Even in countries where Christians are being persecuted, baptisms usually take place in front of a group of believers.
An old fable that has been passed down for generations tells about an elderly man who was traveling with a boy and a donkey. As they walked through a village, the man was leading the donkey and the boy was walking behind. The townspeople said the old man was a fool for not riding, so to please them he climbed up on the animal's back. When they came to the next village, the people said the old man was cruel to let the child walk while he enjoyed the ride. So, to please them, he got off and set the boy on the animal’s back and continued on his way. In the third village, people accused the child of being lazy for making the old man walk, and the suggestion was made that they both ride. So the man climbed on and they set off again. In the fourth village, the townspeople were indignant at the cruelty to the donkey because he was made to carry two people. The frustrated man was last seen carrying the donkey down the road (Traditional; received 010708 from illustrations@clergy.net).
Just as others were watching the old man and the boy, eyes are on us to see if the baptism we have received has really made a difference in us or not. And, just like the old man no doubt wished people were not watching all the time, we may want to go unnoticed, unseen, unapproached in certain places or at certain times. But we cannot escape - others are watching. What we have to do is not avoid the watching, but as others see us, prove by our actions, our thoughts, our words, that God has truly made a difference in us, that Jesus is truly our Savior, and that we truly believe what we say we believe about living a Christian life. As a preacher demanded of his church on a Sunday like this, “Remember your baptism!”
CON. Remember your baptism. We belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to us. We are on a mission. Others are watching. When it comes right down to it, what does it mean?
A ten-year-old boy was failing math. His parents tried everything, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Catholic school. After the first day, the boy’s parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door.
For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room - with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime. This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card.
The boy walked in with his report card - unopened - laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. Cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red “A” under the subject of MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son’s room, thrilled at his remarkable progress.
“Was it the nuns that did it?” the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, “No.”
“Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?”
“No.”
“The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?”
“Nope,” said the son. “On that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the plus sign, I just knew they meant business!”
- America Online: McKinleyIB, Nov. 6, 1997
Baptism means that the Christ of the cross - the man on the plus sign - has made such an impression on us that we will never be the same, that we mean business too. Using that change in our hearts and lives, God will work through us so that others will come to know him too. Thank God for the witness of baptism. Remember your baptism, and live that changed life for now and eternity.
01202002 McCrory, AR Nazarene - Baptism of the Lord A
01132008 Osceola, AR Nazarene - Baptism of the Lord A
