We are continuing on with the series we call The Story. The Story is God’s story as told through the people, places, and events of the Bible. For the last six months, we have been looking at the story as told through the Old Testament. Hopefully, you gained a better understanding of the Old Testament. This week and actually for the remainder of the year, we are going to be looking at God’s story as told through the New Testament. Specifically, the story of Jesus, his ministry, and his miracles, as well as the start of the church. You may recall last week we closed out the history of the Old Testament by telling the story of the Jewish people who were away in captivity in Babylon returning back to Jerusalem to build their temple. Then Nehemiah coming along and noticing that the temple was without walls, so he started this building project to build the walls, and the temple became secure. That is the good news. The bad news is that 400 years later the Jewish people were still without a king. They were subject to the surrounding kings and kingdoms. At this particular time, in this particular place, it was under the Roman rule, particularly King Herod. This was upsetting for the Jews or at least troubling because they had been told in the Old Testament several times that the Jews would get a new king someday. A king that would have a dynasty that would be forever. A king along the lines of King David. We know that God is not one to not follow through on his promises. As we open up the New Testament, God does bring a new king into the picture. A king that would be unlike all the other Jewish kings. A king with a kingdom that would not line up at all to the expectations of the Jews. We know that that king is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As we open the New Testament, we know that there is about a 400-year gap between the closing of the history in the Old Testament to the coming of Jesus Christ. Even though there was a 400-year gap, there were people who still really held on to that promise. They knew that someday God would deliver on his promise to give an everlasting king. Sure enough he did deliver it. He delivered it through that event that we know as the incarnation, also known as the birth of Jesus Christ, and also known as Christmas. That is how the king comes into the picture. We know that when the baby Jesus was born there was a lot of speculation that indeed Jesus was the King of the Jews. So much so that when the three kings came around and asked Herod, they said “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews. We saw a star in the east and have come to worship him.” The people were expecting this new king. They were expecting a new kingdom. Because I suspect that most of you are pretty well familiar with the Christmas story, what I am going to do is not begin the story of the New Testament in the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus. I am going to open the story in the New Testament with the baptism of Jesus. Probably next to the birth of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus was probably the most significant event in Jesus’ life. At the baptism is when Jesus is basically really introduced into the world. His ministry kind of kicks off. He begins to do his miracles. Most importantly, he begins to teach his disciples about himself, about God, about who they are, and to encourage them to be disciples of Jesus Christ. That is the bottom line in the New Testament. Through his words and through the messages found in the gospels, we are being encouraged to become full-fledged disciples of Jesus Christ. The story of Jesus’ baptism is actually found in variations in all four gospels. Today, I choose to read from the version from the gospel of Matthew. I am going to read through Matthew 3:1-17 and I will go back and hit on some areas. (Scripture read here.)
If you paid attention to the reading, and hopefully the video, you know that this guy John the Baptist, also known as John the Baptizer, he was pretty much a wild dude. This guy wore clothes made of camel hair. He ate bugs and honey. That was what he did. He went around yelling at people. As I thought about it, this kind of reminded me of the campus preachers that I used to encounter back at Portland State in the late 80s when I was in college out there. I remember going out during my lunch hour and sitting around the commons area and you would get these hippie types basically coming out and preaching up a storm and holding up those signs that say “Repent or burn” basically. John the Baptist reminds me of a character like that. But with the street preachers and the campus preachers, we were pretty much able to ignore them. Most people would ignore those types of guys. But John the Baptist was not one that could be ignored. It goes on to say in Matthew 3:1-2 that “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’” We will talk about this more in the next few weeks. We know that as you read through the gospels, some of the writers refer to the kingdom of heaven and others speak of it as the kingdom of God. We will talk about that in the next few weeks. Right now, I just want to consider this notion of kingdom. We are not used to using the word kingdom very much. It doesn’t come up in our common vocabulary. The reality is that we all have our own personal kingdom. A kingdom is basically a domain, an area of influence, an area of responsibility that we have. Pretty much every one has some sort of a domain. Even if you are single and stay at home and all you have is a cat and a dog. That is basically your domain. You have a family and the family becomes your domain. Then you go out into the work world and people have their domain. You know that in the work world people have certain areas they are responsible for and you better not step into their area. That is their domain. That is their kingdom. You can take it farther. You can go into the community and into the nonprofits and into the city governments and into the world governments and you have people that basically do have kingdoms. That is the thing to remember. We all have a personal domain.
But yet God has a kingdom that he wants to integrate with our kingdom. Unlike humans’ kingdoms, God’s kingdom is unlimited. Contrary to popular belief, God’s kingdom is not way out there in some far and distant galaxy sitting out on a throne way out there somewhere. No. The kingdom of God is all around us. In fact, Jesus himself said the kingdom of God is even within you. It penetrates all realms. It is everywhere. Not only is it everywhere. It is everlasting. King David himself writes when he speaks about God’s kingdom, when he speaks about the kingdom to come, he says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.” It goes on forever. It doesn’t have a beginning. When John says the kingdom is near, he is not saying it is just beginning. He is saying God’s kingdom is once again being made available to everyone who chooses to enter into it. He would get people’s attention. The Jewish people were sitting around waiting for this king and his kingdom to show up. They were waiting for a messenger like John the Baptist. They were expecting someone like him to show up. So much so that the gospel writer Matthew says in the first few lines “This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” Again, as we know, the prophet Isaiah preached several hundred years before the birth of Christ. John the Baptist showing up is a fulfillment of prophecy. This kingdom idea was expected. The king was expected and a messenger was expected. John the Baptist, because of what he was saying, was attracting people from all over the countryside. They were just pouring out into the countryside down to the river to meet with John. But John, unlike any other street preachers or pastors, he wasn’t interested in some sort of a popularity contest. In fact, we know that John could be outright rude just like many of the prophets. He would call it like it is. So much so that “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: ‘You brood of vipers! (in other words ‘You snakes!’) Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?’” Then he goes on to say something like you guys think because you are children of Abraham you have special status. God can make children rise up out of these stones. Basically, John is saying I know your hearts you religious elite. You are not interested in the kingdom. You are interested in preserving your own personal kingdom. He basically is saying you better clean up your act. Literally, you better clean up your act because he goes on to say “I baptize you with water for repentance.” That is what he is doing. He is baptizing with water for repentance.
This is the time where I have to stop and digress a little bit and give you a little bit of history on the Jewish baptism. At that particular time, there were all sorts of baptisms going on. It wasn’t just confined to the Jewish religion. Even pagan religions would participate in this ritual of baptism. The Jewish ritual of baptism got started early on in the ceremonial washings of the priests. The priests who were charged with going into the temple and giving sacrifices would have to be baptized, be washed, of all their impurities before they would enter into the very presence of God. As they added on the different laws and regulations that applied to the individuals, the individuals also would engage in various ceremonial washings including baptisms to clean themselves off from any sort of ritual impurities. Then even people that were attracted to the Jewish religion and wanted to convert, they were encouraged to go through the ritual of baptism because they were considered unclean. Part of their conversion process would be that they would be baptized in the river like John was doing here. But really, John, what he does is add a little bit of a new twist to it because he is saying I want to baptize you for repentance. Repentance is a churchy word that basically means turn around. You are going this way, turn that way and be sorry about the way that you were going. He is calling not just Gentiles. He is calling Jews. He is calling everybody to come in and take a bath to begin to acknowledge your sin because he is preparing them for this new king that is about to show up and the new kingdom. John’s baptism is really a baptism of preparation. Preparation for this coming kingdom. John would probably acknowledge himself that his baptism was a bit deficient so to speak. In fact, he goes on to say “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” He is saying this king that is coming is going to add something to this baptism. It is an inclusion of the Holy Spirit and fire. As a side note, some of the gospels do not include the fire portion. There is speculation why he includes fire. Some say the fire suggests I am going to give some people the Holy Spirit and the other ones are going to get burned to a crisp. Some would say that the fire is part of the purging process that also goes with the Holy Spirit. Whatever the case, he is saying that this new king is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit. We know that this is what happens. Right before the church was to start, Jesus, after the resurrection from the dead, was getting ready to ascend into heaven and he says to his disciples “John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is doing exactly what John said he was going to do. That is pretty much what you have going on with John’s baptism.
Then, as we know, Jesus pops up like he does in unexpected places. He kind of throws a whole wrench into John’s baptism. It says “Then Jesus came from Galilea to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” In other words, I am baptizing sinners. I know you are the Son of God. I know you are not a sinner so why don’t you just baptize me. Then Jesus makes this off-the-cuff comment as he often does. He says “‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented.” This is one of those somewhat vague statements of Jesus. He says “to fulfill all righteousness”. I will be honest. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I am in good company because I studied a lot of different commentaries and everybody has a different opinion. But what I like is, to keep it simple, to fulfill all righteousness is to make things right. Right in the sense the way God designed it. At that particular point in history, we know that there was a lot of wrongness in the world. Starting with Adam and Eve, going to Cain and Abel, and going to the place where we saw the sacrifice to the golden calf. We see the wrongness in the early judges. We saw it in the kings in the idol worship and all that kind of stuff. There was a lot of wrongness in the world. God was in the process of making things right. It was through the baptism of Jesus that was going to begin the fulfillment of all righteousness. The point where God would begin to bring back all of creation, all of humanity, and make things right in the way that they were supposed to be for all eternity. That is what I see as the fullness of righteousness.
But that doesn’t really answer the question. Why did Jesus need to be baptized? Why did he need to get wet? He could have easily just showed up on the scene and said I am going to skip this part. I am going to go right to the cross. He could have done that. For some reason, he chose to be baptized. This is one of those things that gets a lot of speculation and ides but you really don’t know the true answer. Only Jesus knows the true answer. Some suspected that maybe he would be able to identify with the sinners. Not that he was a sinner, but he was tempted like the sinners. Some believe he actually could sin but he did not sin. Maybe it was just to create some sort of a solidarity with the sinners. With the people that were in the water. Then others suspect maybe it was just some sort of an example for all the disciples to follow, including us today. The idea is that if baptism is good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for all of us too. Some suggest maybe there was just some rich symbolism involved where Jesus was trying to get the Jews to recall the Old Testament flood stories. Back in the Old Testament, water was an evil thing. It represented chaos. You have the Noah flood story where God floods the entire earth and kills the people. And the only one who survives and comes through the flood is Noah. He comes through to dry land. You also have the story of Moses. Moses and the exodus where all the people were let free from the grip of pharaoh and headed toward the Red Sea. They got to the Red Sea and they couldn’t cross, and the army was behind them. Moses held up his staff and the waters parted and Moses walked through and the people walked through to freedom in the Promised Land. Some suspect that Jesus is trying to say follow me. I am the new Moses. I free you from the chaos of your past life. Follow me into the Promised Land which I refer to as the kingdom of heaven. There is a lot of speculation of what that could mean. Aside from that, all we know is he did it and when he did do it, basically all heaven broke loose. It says “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” Some see this imagery of the heavens being opened up that this is a sign of God pouring out his blessings upon the people. God is now making his kingdom available to all. Then it says that the spirit of God descended on him like a dove. Not it was a dove but the Holy Spirit just seemed like a dove and sat on Jesus. It is speculation but some believe what it represented was the power that Jesus needed to go into the world to begin to make things right. He needed the extra power of the Holy Spirit behind him. He was about to go out and face all this wrongness, including the demons when he was tempted and including all the sick and lame people. He was going to begin to deal with all this wrongness and begin to make it right. He needed the power of the spirit behind him. The bottom line is when he stepped out of that water, he heard from above “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” What this affirms is that the people surrounding him would know that this man Jesus was no ordinary man. He was the Son of God. Being the Son of God, he had all the authority of God to be able to carry out the mission of God on earth. For this, the Father delighted in him. In fact, it is a reference to another Isaiah passage. Isaiah 42:1 says “Here is my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” Again a prophecy several hundred years before that is being fulfilled that day and that moment in Jesus Christ. That is basically the story of the baptism of Jesus Christ.
Hopefully, you can begin to see there is a lot of stuff going on in that story. A lot of imagery. A lot of things. A lot of significance going on in that story. Without too much of a stretch though that story of Jesus’ baptism is really in some sense a picture of our baptism. If it is a picture of our baptism, then that means that maybe our baptism has some significance beyond simply getting our hair wet and getting water up our nose. It is beyond that. Maybe when we step into the waters of the baptistery, we are in some sense in solidarity with every sinner that has ever walked this earth. We are in solidarity with those who acknowledge the holiness of God, understand the holiness of God, and understand that they have no right to enter into his kingdom, and that they know that the holiness of God way overshadows their sinfulness. They know that they are all sinful. There is no one righteous. Not even one. In some sense, for that person, the water becomes a cleansing water. You can even take another spin on it. Really it also represents in some sense a death. It represents identifying with the one, Jesus Christ, who took the sins on the cross and died and was buried. When we step into the waters, we are identifying with the one who took our sins away. In some sense, that water represents a grave for us. John’s baptism was a preparation for the coming king. When we step into the water and out of the water, it becomes the first step into a new life. Into the kingdom life. Into the life not down the road but right now. In that sense it becomes a sense of deliverance, a passing through the waters of chaos into something brand new. A new kingdom with a new ruler with new laws and a new way of living.
Finally, John’s baptism was a little bit deficient because as we see it, at some point in the process, because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when we come through the waters of baptism, we receive the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit comes into us to continue that cleansing activity in us and to empower us to do ministry to the world based on our giftedness, to live as kingdom citizens, and go throughout the world teaching others to do the same. In some sense, our baptism becomes our ordination. Our setting aside for ministry. A few months ago, we ordained some people in the ministry here. This is what was going on here. When Jesus stepped out of the water, it was an ordination. It was the first part into the ministry. It was a commissioning. It was a setting apart to do God’s kingdom work not down the road but right now.
In closing, one thing I want to say is one of the most tension-filled topics in all of Christianity is the topic of baptism. I don’t know exactly why, but if you start talking baptism in any Christian circles and people get their feathers going. For some reason. Unfortunately, those struggles often revolve over two things: the method and the timing of baptism. The method of baptism. Should it be by immersion? Should it be by sprinkling? Should it be by pouring? The timing of baptism. Should it be as an infant? Should it be as a teen? Should it be as an adult? I am not discounting those issues. Those are important issues. But I think what we are doing is missing a lot. We are missing the objective behind the baptism. It is transformation. It is transformed lives that choose to live in the kingdom of God and again understand that they are commissioned to do God’s work. Aside from all the differences, if you put those aside, I would hope that, if anything, all Christians across the world should be able to agree on two things. Baptism is part of the Christian life. It is part of the Christian experience. It is part of the salvation experience. Where it fits in, we all have our different views. But it cannot be denied that baptism is part and parcel of the Christian experience. To deny that is to deny several thousand years of history and tons of scripture. That is the first thing. If you are honest, you know that every Christian needs to be baptized in some degree or another. If not, it is flat out disobedience. Putting that aside again, what you have to remember is whatever you choose as your method, mode, and timing of baptism, for every Christian it serves as an entrance into God’s kingdom and a commissioning to do God’s work. It doesn’t matter if you think you do it as a baby and you grow up into that commission. Fine. If you think you do it as a believer as an adult when you can acknowledge it. Fine. The bottom line is you are commissioned to do God’s work. The good news about that is that seems to be one area that a lot of Christians can agree on. When we become baptized in whatever form, we have been commissioned for mission. To go on the mission field.
In fact, I read an article a few months ago. It was in the Catholic Register by a guy named George Wiegel or something. It was an interesting article because it was a Catholic saying when I meet all these Protestants there is something about the Protestants. They know the day they were baptized. They know the exact date and the exact year they were baptized. Why don’t the Catholics know that? He did a survey. Only 3% of the Catholics could nail down their baptism date. That was frustrating. He was telling the Catholics you have to remember you baptism date. The baptism is your date of commission. In fact, he goes on to write “We are baptized into mission and for mission. Indeed, viewed through the prism of the new evangelization, the day of our baptism is the day of our being commissioned as missionary disciples.” This is from a Catholic. I hope that we can all agree on it. We disagree about the method and the timing, but there is one thing we agree on. If you think you are a Christian, you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you need to be baptized to be obedient. And again if you are baptized in whatever form you believe in, you know what we believe in around here, but whatever method, what you have to understand is your baptism is your commission. You have a responsibility. You, through your baptism, have been accepted into God’s kingdom. You have become a kingdom citizen with a kingdom mentality with the spirit of God living in you that begins to transform you from the inside out to get you to repent of your old ways and change your old ways and to partner with Him as he carries on that mission in the world. That is not just from George. That is not just from Chuck. That is from Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 28:19 “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Let us pray.
