January 8, Baptism of Our Lord

Lesson: Mark 1.4-11

A BIT OF HUMOR

Sermon Feedback ⁽¹⁾

After a very long and boring sermon the parishioners filed out of the church saying nothing to the preacher.

Towards the end of the line was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.

"Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God."

The pastor was thrilled. "Nobody has ever said anything like that about my preaching before. Tell me why."

"Because it endured forever."

INTRODUCTION:

1. Hare Restorer ⁽²⁾

A farmer was working on his tractor close to a highway. He noticed a rabbit jump out of the brush and run out into the roadway at the same time a car was coming along. The car hit the rabbit and flattened it right out. The farmer looked on as the driver stopped his car, got out, went to the trunk of his car and took out a spray can. He went over to the flattened rabbit and began to spray it. When he did this the rabbit began to move a little bit. He sprayed it again. The rabbit was starting to get his strength back. He sprayed it a third time. Now the rabbit got up and started hopping away. It went about three jumps and turned toward the driver and waved at him. It hopped another three steps and turned again and waved. The rabbit continued to do this until it was out of sight.

The driver put the spray can back in the trunk and was getting ready to leave. The farmer was amazed, he had to find out what was in that spray can. He ran over to the man and asked him.

The driver took out the spray can and showed it to the farmer. The can said, "HAIR (HARE) RESTORER WITH PERMANENT WAVE!"

1. In our sinful state, we're like that rabbit flattened out on the highway--there is no life in us.

2. God saw our condition and put in place the process that could restore us to life.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

MAIN BODY:

1. The process begins with the preaching of John the Baptist.

1. He is proclaiming a message of repentance.

2. People are coming to be baptized.

3. Before a person can be baptized it is necessary to confess one's sins.

1. You can imagine how noisy this must have been.

2. The clamor for attention and action must have been great.

As a pastor in Toledo, Ohio, I once went to a Pentecostal revival meeting.

I attempted to remain anonymous, but was found out by the pastor.

He asked me to lead the gathering in prayer.

It was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life.

When I began to pray so did everyone else.

When I stopped praying, so did everyone else.

In the midst of this experience it was difficult to hear yourself speak and even think.

4. John's baptism is for the remission of sins.

1. Paul in the Letter to Titus in Titus 3:4-7 (NKJV) refers to baptism as the washing of regeneration.

⁴But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, ⁵not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

2. Another symbol of baptism is found in Romans 6:3-7 (NKJV) is death to the old life and resurrection to a new life.

³Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. ⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin.

3. Jesus in not in the water of John's baptism.

A Baptist pastor was conducting a baptism in a river in South America when a man suddenly appeared at his side.

The man had come sliding, almost falling, down the hillside. The crowd of witnesses that had gathered parted to let him pass. With his momentum, he did not stop at the river's edge. He stopped beside the preacher quivering like a willow in the wind. You could see that he was drunk, lost and confused.

This did not stop the preacher. He took the man by the back of his shirt and dunked him under the water. After a brief time he raised him up and asked, "Did you see Jesus down there?"

The man confused did not know what was being aid or how to answer.

The preacher took him by the back of the shirt and dunked him a second time, letting him stay under the water a little longer.

When he finally raised the man he asked again,"Did you see Jesus down there?"

The man, a bit sober, sputtering and gasping for air still did not fully realize what was happening to him.

In response to his silence the preacher dunked him again, leaving him under the water for a long time. then the preacher finally raised him up to daylight and air, he asked a third time, "Did you see Jesus down there?"

The man now nearly sober looked at the preacher with a confused expression on his faced and gasped, "Are you sure you lost him down there?"

5. There is another baptism of which we ought to be aware.

6. There is another baptism that is most desirable for the Christian.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

2. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

1. John proclaims that "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.

2. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

3. At that time Jesus comes to John to be baptized.

3. What is this "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" and how may we acquire it.

1. Jesus conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:1-10 (NRSV) provides some help in understanding.

¹Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." ³Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." ⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" ⁵Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' ⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." ⁹Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" ¹⁰Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

2. No one can enter the kingdom without being born of water and the Spirit.

1. Some people find this difficult to understand.

Jaime Potter-Miller recounts a moving story in her "Questions" sermon, which was the Second Place Winner in the 1991 Circuit Rider Sermon Critique-Contest. ⁽³⁾

Miller recalls when she was on a visit to the then Soviet Union, and was invited to preach and sing before a bursting-at-the-seams Soviet Methodist congregation. In order to make her way across the crowded meeting hall to sing her solo, Miller had to exit the building to re-enter it on the correct side. Outside the church door she ran into a young man, who introduced himself as Patrick. Miller says,

"I invited him to come in, but he shook his head. 'You are a believer?' he asked me. I nodded. The vodka on his breath stung my eyes. His jacket revealed red flag pins embossed with the face of Vladimir Lenin. If he was not a Communist, he certainly wanted to look like one. In excellent English he spit out the words, 'You are a believer! Show me your Holy Spirit! I cannot believe what I cannot see! Where is it? What does it look like? Where can I touch it? It's all a fantasy! A child's game!' I took his hand and led him to the door.... I said, 'Patrick, I will show you the Holy Spirit if you will show me the wind.' We watched out on the street as blossoms and leaves blew around. Flags flapped and babushka'd women left a trail of fringe. He began to describe what he was seeing. I said, 'No, Patrick, you're telling what the wind does. Show me the wind. For I, too, can show you what the Holy Spirit does. But I cannot show you the Spirit anymore than you can show me the wind.'

"Patrick became very quiet. Now I've been around enough to know that just because you've silenced someone doesn't mean you've won. So I continued. Borrowing the device from my early years as a mother, I cupped his face in my hands. Borrowing wisdom from Brother E. Stanley Jones, I spoke his name, 'Patrick, if you are right and there is no God, then I have lost nothing by believing. But if I am right and you are wrong, then you have lost everything.'

"Patrick's eyes filled with tears and he ran out the door as I assured him that every time he felt the wind blow, he would remember that there was a Christian in America praying for him. "

2. As J. V. Taylor in the book "The Go-Between God" has written: ⁽⁴⁾

"The Holy Spirit is that power which opens eyes that are closed, hearts that are unaware and minds that shrink from too much reality....Vision and vulnerability go together.

3. The work of the Holy Spirit has two functions:

1. You could call one the extraordinary.

1. This is what happens on Pentecost.

1. There is a mighty wind.

2. Tongues of fire appear

3. The disciples speak in other languages.

2. This powerful demonstration of the Spirit arouse curiosity of the crowd and leads to the proclaiming of the Gospel to many people of different places and languages.

2. You could call the second the ordinary, even though it is extraordinary.

1. This is what happens to you and me in the church.

2. It is clearly outlined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:1 through 1 Corinthians 12:31 (NRSVA)

¹Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. ³Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body. ²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." ²²On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ²⁸And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

CONCLUSION

1. The sermon title for this sermon is: The Baptized and the Baptized, and I have added: (Or When Water Is Not Enough).

1. To be a Christian you must be baptized by water, the washing of renewal.

1. This baptism is not enough.

2. There is no power in the water.

2. Because to be a Christian, you must also be baptized by the Holy Spirit.

1. This is the source of the Christian's power.

2. Power to be transformed, and conformed to the image of Jesus.

Pope John Paul II, took the opportunity to "put Bob Dylan right" when the two megastars headlined a gig together in Bologna, Italy in 1997. ⁽⁵⁾

Dylan met His Holiness on stage during a Catholic youth event before playing three of his best-known songs. After the two men had shaken hands and exchanged a few words, the pope stepped up to the microphone and took the singer to the theological cleaners.

"You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend," he observed. "So it is. But it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, 'Come!'"

Clearly enjoying the thunderous applause that greeted these words, the pope continued in a style that would not have disgraced a TV evangelist: "You ask me, how many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man? I answer: One! There is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said I am the Way and the Life."

Unsurprisingly, Dylan was not seen to be taking notes for revised lyrics to his song.

3. Perhaps we have taken notes during this sermon to help us evaluate and, if necessary, revise our understanding of baptism and its purpose for us.

1. Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

2. Gary D. Headapohl, St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Westland, MI

3. Jaime Potter-Miller, "A Question of Questions," Circuit Rider, May 1992, 16-17.

4. J. V. Taylor, "The Go-Between God"(New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), 19.

5. Ship of Fools Magazine Online, September 29, 1997.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)