“The Power of Conversion”
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11
By: Rev. Kenneth Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
Paul had no more arrived in Ephesus when he met 12 men who had the baptism of John but not the baptism of the Lord Jesus.
The baptism of John is a name for Christian water baptism without the Holy Spirit.
In a sense, the baptism of John was a baptism into moral improvement.
It initiated persons into a great reform movement, and it was very important but it wasn’t the baptism of Jesus.
To be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus is a baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ.
It is a dying to self, and a living for God.
It is a recognition that in and of ourselves we can do nothing, therefore we are willing to stand as sinners in the presence of God, claiming nothing, but only counting on God’s love and forgiveness—and nothing else.
This changes the center of our lives from some self-directed effort into a God-given grace!!!
It’s the difference between a person who is trying desperately to be good enough to enter God’s Kingdom, and a person who admitting that he or she is a sinner who will never be good enough—decides to rely fully on God’s unmerited grace to bring him or her into the Kingdom!
And once that admission is made, the person is raised into a new kind of life where there is a power living inside that he or she never had before!!!
Before, this person was like Atlas trying to carry the entire world on his or her shoulders; after it, he or she is a new man or woman who has allowed the Cross of Jesus Christ do the heavy lifting.
Remember that grace-filled offer Jesus gives us in Matthew chapter 11?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
How many of us are weary and burdened because we are trying to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders?
Well, the good news is that we don’t have to do this!
God, in His love and grace, is the One we are to rely on and can rely on to do the carrying for us!!!
In our Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles this morning Paul comes upon some folks who are trying desperately to follow Jesus Christ, but they have not yet received the power they need in order to do this.
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Paul asks them.
No they hadn’t. They knew nothing about it.
I fear that there are a lot of folks who have the baptism of John, but not the baptism of the Lord Jesus.
Churches are filled with persons who are Christians, but not quite.
If we look back just a little to Acts chapter 18 we find such a person.
His name was Apollos.
We are told that Apollos “was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.”
Two Christians named Priscilla and Aquila invited Apollos to their home in order explain “to him the way of God more adequately,” where more likely than not Apollos was baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
Later we are told that Apollos became a great help in “proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”
In our Gospel Lesson from Mark for this morning John the Baptist says to the crowds: “I baptize you with water, but he [meaning Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Most all of us here this morning have been baptized with water in one style or another, some as infants and some as adults.
Most of us also know the gist of the gospel message.
We try to live good Christian lives.
We have a high sense of moral responsibility.
But have we truly died to self and been raised to life in Christ Jesus the Lord?
Have we received the Holy Spirit?
Have we received the power of God’s grace?
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, spent many years as a Priest in the Church of England having been instructed in the way of the Lord and speaking with great fervor about Jesus.
But he knew that something was missing in his life.
He didn’t have a certain ‘power’ which he had witnessed in others and he didn’t know how to go about getting it.
He had been on some missionary crusades, even one to America, but he had experienced no success.
In his journal, Wesley describes his powerful conversion experience:
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
The next day, which was Thursday, May 25, 1738 Wesley wrote: “this I know, I have ‘now peace with God.’”
Do you have peace with God?
Do you trust in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation?
Has an assurance been given you that He has taken away your sins and saved you from the law of sin and death?
It makes all the difference, does it not?
Baptism with water is only a sign of the new birth or of conversion, is it not?
It’s only water.
The water used in this baptismal font here at Parkview--I usually get it from the sink in the men’s bathroom.
I know that some churches and religious groups call it Holy Water, but it’s still only water.
It has no power in and of itself.
Baptism is not magic.
What gives baptism its power is the Holy Spirit, not the water in the font!
It is the grace of God calling us to a transformed life, to a new way of living, thinking and being by accepting for our very own the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—as being more than sufficient to make up for all the short comings in our own lives.
It means having faith that God is gracious enough and willing enough and powerful enough to save even me…even you!!!…
…to forgive even me…even you!!!
And it’s also about allowing the God of grace, through the indwelling power of His Holy Spirit to fashion even me, even you into the persons we were created to be…into the persons we can be…only through Christ!!!
It is the difference between life and death.
It is the difference between a person who is frantically trying to hold onto a sinking ship, and a person who, knowing the helplessness of his or her situation gives up on that sinking ship and instead reaches out for a life jacket that has been thrown down from above!!!
To be a Christian is to be a member of the Resurrection Center, where men and women see the Reality of God, surrender the direction of their lives to Him, die to their own wills, and are raised into a new and different life—a life where all the old problems will still be there, but will be controlled…
…so that underneath all the disquiet of the world in which we live that which rises above and takes control is the Holy Spirit of God who gives us—free of charge—“the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.”
This is what it means to be baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
It means that we have invited God into our lives and that God is at work in our lives through the power of His Holy Spirit.
In acknowledging our baptism, which we will be doing in just a few minutes…
…we acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives.
It means that we really are different than we were before we had even heard that there was a Holy Spirit.
It means that we are no longer merely our own, but that we have been bought with a price.
We now belong to God, and what a reason to be thankful!
All through the Old Testament God reminds the people of Israel from Abraham on down that He has made a covenant with them. That He will be there God and God will be His people.
God meant for Abraham and Abraham’s descendants never to forget this.
And we are told that we too are Abraham’s descendants if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!!!
Through our baptism into the name of the Lord Jesus God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit.
Christ’s victory over death and the grave becomes our victory as well.
We do, indeed, take on Christ’s name.
We are Christians, those who are called to follow Christ!!!
What a privilege!
Don’t forget it.
In a few moments we are going to remember our baptisms and be thankful.
After the words of institution, if you so chose, I encourage everyone who has been baptized to come up front to the baptismal font, touch the water, and thank God for His grace.
You may want to spend some time at the chancel rails after you do this.
If you have not yet been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus—but you feel God calling you toward this, I encourage you to come forward and let me know that you would like to be baptized this morning.
