There Is More To The Baptism Of Jesus Than You Think.

This sermon was delivered Gordon McCulloch to the congregation at Holy Trinity in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 12th January 2020; Holy Trinity is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.

Isaiah 42:1-9 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 Psalm 29

“Please join me in a short prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)

Introduction

Over the years I have been at a lot of baptisms; I have taken part in many Baptisms, and it has happened that on some occasions somebody has been to Israel recently, and brought back some water from the river Jordan. … Some people seem to get a great lift from that, and go on about it, well good luck to them, because when I looked at that water, I see … water. … And it is not even clean water … because the River Jordan is dirty, its muddy and its rust coloured because there is a lot of iron in it … yet this was the river where John spent his ministry and baptised Jesus.

Who again was John the Baptist? … Well John was really another cousin of Jesus, but the bible tells us that John like Jesus was sent by God? … He was wee bit weird … well he was weird, because he wore camel’s hair for clothes which would probably be rough, uncomfortable and untidy … and he ate only honey and insects … now think about it, forget the clothes, if knew someone who ate only honey and insects, would you be inspired by them?

Well surprisingly, many people were, even though his ministry was not in a grand church in town, no it was outside town … it was outside society … it was in the desert, the arid wilderness along the banks of this dirty river Jordan. … That is where John preached.

Now every preacher has a favourite message, mine is on the humanity of Jesus, of how Jesus was ordinary like you and me, but John’s message was on baptism, because for him Baptism was the symbolic representation of some who had admitted that they had not led the life that they should have … that they were genuinely sorry for how they had been living … and that they truly wanted to change. …

Now from my last sermon, do you remember me saying that when someone truly repents from the heart, repenting something they have done wrong, everything changes … well that basically was John’s message … except he applied that to their whole way of living, to repent from their life of sin.

And John too must have been full of fire and brimstone, shouting and telling people how truly bad they were, and how sinful they were. … And I believe he was a horrible, complex character … but he was also sincere and focused, because the people respected him, and they responded to him … because they did admit their evil ways … they said their sorryies … and they felt the relief and the great joy that came from realising they had moved on, and they felt the forgiveness.

And I am sure that it was this joy that the people were receiving that made John popular because they were not getting that from the Scribes and Pharisees … whom we know, were more interested in getting the people to apply themselves to the letter of the law … with them being so superior and condescending. … Think about it, “Don’t do as I do, do as I say”? … We have all heard it; where is the joy and relief in that? … Where is the encouragement when someone is constantly telling you, you canny do that, you got to do this, and basically, whatever you do is wrong … well in their eyes. … This type of living is torture, this type of living, trying to obey a law, a law that is impossible to keep … is basically hell on earth. … Yet many, no most religions, work that way.

Christianity is completely different. In Christianity when we realise that we have done something wrong we say, “oh dear, I have really messed up” … “sorry for that, I have sinned” … “I am so sorry” … “please forgive me” … then we are … and then we are told … “ok you are forgiven” … “on your way” … end off”. … That is the essence of it, simple quick effective, and life changing.

Now there is a warning, we have to be sincere here, not glib, and we must not mess up on purpose, and expect this to work because something will work yes, but not in our favour. True repentance and forgiveness produce results. False or glib repentance will lead to destruction … anyway, I hope you understand why John became so popular.