I know some of you will have already seen that German Coastguard video, but just in case you haven’t, here it is now (click here)
Apart from indulging in some gratuitous humour at the expense of the Germans what was the point of showing that? Well, if the vessel going down had been Greek, and not British, the captain would have used the word baptizo instead of ‘sinking.’ To be baptized in the language of the New Testament means to be plunged, dipped, sunk or immersed and both our readings this morning speak about passing through water, you might have noticed.
If you’ve got a church Bible handy, you might like to open it again at Luke chapter 3, page 972. And while you’re finding it I want to say that apparently the river Tees is frozen over this morning. We will be baptizing in it after the service! Actually, that’s what they used to do in Soviet Russia. At dawn they’d break the ice and totally immerse their new converts before pulling them out – blue but new! It was the only time of day they were sure of being undiscovered by the secret police. In the face of imprisonment, beatings, unjust dismissal from employment, and compulsory, ice cold baptism, the Church didn’t just survive - it thrived.
1) The New Commissioning
Everybody here, and me first, is a sinner in need of a Saviour, so everybody here needs to be baptized. If you haven’t been already I would strongly suggest that you are – we won’t insist on doing the baptism in the river Tees… A few verses before our reading, in v3, Luke tells us that baptism in water is all about repentance.
In v10-14 you see exactly what that meant for the people who came down to be baptised by John. “If you have two coats, you share them with somebody who doesn’t have one, so give away half your clothes to homeless people. Civil servants shouldn’t rip people off by overcharging them and exaggerating their expenses claims. And listen to this; John calls one group “a brood of vipers” because they grumbled about their pay packet! “Be content with your pay,” he said.
John the Baptist ruffled feathers. In v19 it says how he finally went too far, openly criticising King Herod for stealing another man’s wife. I wonder what this man would say to our celebrities and politicians in 2010? I wonder what he’d say to us? I can’t imagine he would make any of us very comfortable.
The Bible says this; “(Jesus) is able to sympathise with our weaknesses; he has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet without sin.” It is perfectly clear that Jesus never sinned, so he - unlike us - had nothing to repent of, and therefore didn’t need to be baptized.
What must that have felt like for Jesus? When you and I are tempted, we come under pressure to sin, a pressure we can either give in to or we can resist. For example, Fred is tempted to steal some money. He fights the temptation for a while in his mind but eventually he gives in and commits the theft, at which point that particular battle with sin is over, the battle is lost, so the pressure eases off. But Jesus lived with the burden and pressure and full weight of temptation constantly upon him, and it never diminished by giving into it; he was always battling, and every time he resisted falling into sin in the power of the Holy Spirit - which is how we can do the same.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” says the Lord.
So why did Jesus, of all people, submit himself to John’s baptism of repentance? In a way, it’s one of those unanswerable paradoxes like: Why is the word “abbreviated” so long? Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it? How can it be that there is only one Monopolies’ Commission?
Some say Jesus was baptised because he wanted to endorse what John the Baptist was doing. He was saying in effect; “John is O.K. by me.” Others think it was like a shot across the boughs; he was identifying with the sinners in the water, rather than the Pharisees, who looked on judgementally from the riverbank. He was showing everyone that his work was going to be all about sin and how to deal with it. But, you know what? None of this convinces me 100%.
I wonder if we might be making a bit too much of the word “repentance”. That is what John’s baptism is about, as we have just seen. Repentance, for us, is a theological term. It’s spiritual language. But the original word metanoia didn’t have any particular religious baggage attached to it in the first century. Metanoia (repentance) was just a word like metamorphosis, or metabolism or metaphor. It was an everyday word, used by housewives and market traders. When you went out for a stroll, you walked a distance, then you turned back; that was metanoia. It just meant “to turn around.”
So here, while sinners were making a u-turn from their previous life of sin, Jesus was turning his back on his previous occupation as a carpenter. Everybody else went into the water as sinners, and came up out of it cleansed. Jesus went into the water as a wood craftsman and came up out it as a travelling preacher. He changed the course and purpose of his life. I think this is mostly a public commissioning of Jesus’ new ministry by his Father.
I just wonder if there is anyone here who, at the beginning of this New Year, feels they are on the verge of doing something radically new under God, in the power of the Spirit. I’m not talking about something you just dream up because you’re bored; I’m talking about a strong yearning that God places in you. Remember Alan Farish, just walking down Stockton High Street a year and a half ago, and God meets with him, speaks to him and unexpectedly gives him a completely new direction – that God has honoured since in wonderful ways.
I just felt as I was praying over this talk that God might be stirring someone here in a similar way… If it’s not from God it’ll come to nothing. If it is, it’ll be unstoppable. Step out in faith. Take the plunge like Jesus did (literally!) and follow the Lord’s leading. That’s maybe something that you’ll want to bring before God in the prayer ministry time later…
2) The Anointing of the Spirit
Back to the reading: John was preaching and baptising people one by one. People would have been led beyond the shallow water and very probably fully immersed in the river (it’s what the word baptizo means; the word for “sprinkle” is rantizo and Luke doesn’t use it). Then, we are told, as Jesus was praying, heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit came down not as a dove, but it was something like one, and Jesus was anointed by the Spirit.
For 30 years up to this point, Jesus had grown up, watched his father Joseph in his workshop, become a carpenter, and spent time himself making doorframes, roof beams and furniture. He was just a little-known provincial joiner up to that point. His teaching in the temple at the age of 12 is included in Luke’s gospel not because it was routine but because it was remarkable. We know in any case that Jesus did no miracles at all before his baptism because John’s gospel tells us that turning water into wine at Cana was the first miraculous sign he ever did.
Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism so that his life thereafter would be invested with spiritual power. Jesus did not do miracles as the Son of God; he did them as the Son of Man, anointed by the Spirit. Which is precisely why he said that we are able to do the same works as he did - and even greater still - because we too can be (and should be) human beings, filled with the Holy Spirit.
One of my children at the age of 8 prayed for, and laid hands on a little girl, I don’t even know why. I think it’s the first time any of my kids ever did that. The girl slumped to the floor for about an hour and a half. Her parents had told me that the child had been abused by a visitor to her home about a year before that. I believe that God was healing the pain of that experience. The next day, I asked her about the experience in a matter of fact kind of way. I asked her if she remembered it and she said, “Yes, it was wonderful. I was in Jesus’ arms”, she said. I still know that family well. The girl is now grown up, well adjusted, and going on with God.
Any of us here can move in the power of the Holy Spirit, even from a young age. It’s an important element in Julia’s vision for the children’s work here; to train our children in knowing God personally, to step out in faith and to be become accustomed to using the gifts of the Spirit – while their faith is still childlike. Can I encourage you to pray to be filled with the Spirit the moment you get up every day and look for opportunities to serve the Lord?
That is what our prayer ministry team look to do every week. They are there for us. To pray for God’s power to break into the lives of all who ask for prayer. We have seen the Lord do wonderful things over the years and we are so grateful to God for those on the team who serve in this way. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things under God when they are anointed with the Holy Spirit, like Jesus was.
3) God’s Approval
Finally, v22. There was a voice; “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Last week we were thinking about the Magi’s journey as the pursuit of God’s glory. But this morning I want to say that the focus of God’s glory is Jesus; he is the radiance of God’s unsurpassed majesty. You see the sum of God’s goodness and greatness in the face of Christ. All God’s inexhaustible affection and approbation and esteem focus on his Son. “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
This is so important for us to understand. Because many of us grow up hearing things like, “You could do better.” “You are not good enough.” “You’ll never succeed.” “You are wasting my time.” “You never try hard enough.” “Do better, try harder, hurry up, get on with it…” Have you heard those voices? If you have, you’ll have heard them more than once, because the devil loves to replay the tape over and over. And it leads to a life of drivenness where people think “What must I do to be acceptable or accepted?”
But notice how God’s words are so different. They are words of fatherly approval. “You are my Son...” That is to say, I am your heavenly father. Since before creation, there is an unbreakable bond between us, and you cannot ‘unbecome’ my Son. That is where everything starts; in your identity as my loved Son.
“You are my Son whom I love...” That is to say, my eternal affection is directed towards you, I will not change my mind about you because my love is a devoted, covenant love that endures forever, you have stolen my heart,
“You are my Son whom I love, with you I am well pleased.” That is to say, I am so overwhelmed with pride over you, I rejoice exceedingly in who you are; I am not just pleased, I am well pleased with you.
God the Father’s endorsement and statement of approval is indisputable, unambiguous and unequivocal. Christ’s unparalleled worth is settled in the mind and heart of God. And, here’s the thing: if you are in Christ his righteousness is imputed to you, that is to say all his virtues and merits are awarded to you as a gift. So the Father’s esteem for you is exactly equivalent to the favour he bestows on his only Son. That’s why nothing can separate you from the love of God. Oh, what a blessing it is to be in Christ Jesus. “You are my child whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”
Ending
There are three words I wanted to share today.
Firstly, some here may be aware that God is stirring them for a new call, a new commissioning. You are sensing that God is saying to you that this is a time he has ordained for a new direction in ministry. I think that if that is you, this morning will be like the confirmation of something God has already been saying to you. It may be only one person here, and you may be feeling that this is all a bit weird. Well, yes, Jesus getting baptised is a bit weird too. But if that’s you I want to encourage you to follow in Jesus’ footsteps: “Step out from the crowd and take the plunge.”
Secondly, the difference between the Jesus who made wooden furniture and the Jesus who spoke with authority, had compassion on the crowds, drove out demons, healed the sick and touched lepers was the anointing of the Spirit. Some of you know you want to pray like Jesus prayed and move more in the power of the Holy Spirit. You know that Jesus was be anointed with the Spirit to resist the devil, pray with power and minister with authority. If that’s you I want to encourage you to follow in Jesus’ footsteps: “Step out from the crowd and take the plunge.”
And finally, some of you have been listening to those voices; “Could do better, not good enough, will never succeed, wasting my time, doesn’t try hard enough…” They don’t come from the Lord because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 10th January 2010
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