January 8, 2012 AD, sermon preached by Pastor Ben Willis

Mark 1:4-6 [NLTse]
4 …John the Baptist… was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. 5 All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.

Won’t you try to picture the scene with me? We’re at a river. Let’s think of something similar to the Delaware River, the way it is right here at Milford Beach, perhaps. There’s an immense crowd gathered, packing the shoreline, some even wading in the shallow water, but because of the slope of the land down to the water even those in the back have a pretty good view of the fellow in the river before them. The air is filled with water sounds (the current’s moving along pretty well), as occasionally someone slips in along the edge as the crowd pushes forward, and because some kids are playing and splashing a bit downstream.
Before you up to his waist in the water is the famous John the Baptist! (John had an immense following; the excitement among the crowd would be like attending your favorite group in-concert or a Billy Graham crusade. John’s all scraggly and unkept-looking: Wild hair; crazy beard; wearing just a rude, camel-hair tunic…

Mark 1:7-8 [NLTse]
7 John announced: “Someone is coming soon Who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of His sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”

So, John’s preaching to the crowds, and they are yelling questions and John is yelling answers back. (You know the way sound carries over water.) And people are walking into the water: Soldiers, business leaders, rabbis, beggars, housewives, government officials; taking off their sandals (if they are wealthy enough to have sandals) and leaving their armor and outer garments on the shore and all coming into the water, just in their shifts, and immersing themselves as John prophesies and quotes Scripture over them.

Mark 1:9-11 [NLTse]
9 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized Him in the Jordan River. 10 As Jesus came up out of the water, He saw the Heavens burst apart and the Holy Spirit descending on Him like a dove. 11 And a voice from Heaven said, “You are My dearly loved Son, and You bring Me great joy.”

This particular day a Fellow approaches, not so different from the rest (a hired-hand, maybe), and He and John have some words as though John doesn’t want Him to be baptized. (You can’t hear what they’re saying all that well.) John seems to give in and you see the Man go under.
And then all Heaven breaks loose!
The clouds in the sky above you rip apart as though some heavenly being has torn the sky in two! And like a ray of sunshine when it breaks through the clouds, from the tear this bird-like thing – you hear some saying it’s a dove – flies down like it means to land on the Fellow Who’s just come up out of the water. And though the skies had been sunny and pleasant, now ripped in two there comes a quaking of thunder, and yet in the thunder you’re sure you hear, “You are My dearly loved Son, and You bring Me great joy.” And then the dove-thing lands on the Man and it disappears!

Picturing Jesus’ baptism, does it make you think of yours?
It should.
I’m not talking about whether you were baptized in a river or dunked in a tank or sprinkled at a font. Jesus’ baptism portrays what has happened to each and every one of us – according to our faith in Him – whether you were indoors or out, surrounded by those closest to you or by complete strangers.
When you were baptized Heaven was torn open and God the Father claimed you as His son; Heaven was torn open and God claimed you as His daughter!
When you were baptized God the Holy Spirit settled upon you and filled you: To guide you and empower you; to make you new and live within you all your days. And He said to you: “You bring Me great joy!”
(Now, I’m not trying to say that every person who’s ever been baptized was made to be God’s kid in its waters, or filled with the Holy Spirit. Because I’m not talking to everyone or just anyone today. I’m talking to you. And I’m saying that you – if you have trusted in Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you from sin and to lead and rule your life – that you, when you were baptized, God claimed you. God filled you. You bring Him great joy!)
When someone accepts Jesus Christ, Jesus comes into their life in the form of the Holy Spirit, so he or she is born anew! Through the Holy Spirit you become a new creation. And through the Holy Spirit you are anointed and empowered for ministry: To live Jesus’ life in the world today.

But maybe you don’t buy it. Maybe you think that just because something happened to Jesus that it didn’t necessarily have to have happened to you. Fair enough. Except that Jesus doesn’t see it that way.
When the apostle Paul, before He became a Christian, was on his way from Jerusalem to the city of Damascus to imprison the Jews who’d become Christians there, Paul met the risen Lord Jesus on the road. Acts 9 tells us: “As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from Heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?’”
“Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked.
And the Voice replied, “I am Jesus, the One you are persecuting!”
Now, Paul (he went by Saul before He put his trust in Christ) Paul wasn’t persecuting Jesus. Jesus had been killed, raised from the dead, and ascended to the Father years before Paul began persecuting Christians.
He writes to the Colossians: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of Heaven, not the things of Earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” (3:1-3) Jesus is in us and we’re in Him. Our life is with Jesus where He is, and Jesus’ life in with us where we are.
Like the prophet Isaiah, so many people cry out, “Oh, that You would burst from the Heavens and come down!” (64:1) But know that the Lord has burst from Heaven and come down upon You!

Have you expected Him to be so intimate with you? Have you been baptized all these years but you’re still bullying others or letting your anger get the best of you or seeking to control people and situations around you or looking for love in all the wrong places or chasing after the world’s priorities or … whatever it is you’re doing, doing it as though you were on your own in the world?
You give our Father much joy, my brothers and sisters! And I don’t call you “brothers” and “sisters” because it’s cutesy, or to be endearing. We are brothers and sisters because we have been adopted – together – into God’s family: We are His sons; you are His daughters! We’re not like a family. We are family in Christ!
Jesus has become so misunderstood out there in the world, and it’s often because we’ve so misunderstood Him first. Our Savior has not come to humanity making demands, “Thou shalt do this! Thou shalt not do that!” No, Jesus comes first offering a gift: “Here, let Me save you.” He has something for us:“Here, come be a part of God’s things with Me.”
It’s only after we’ve accepted and received, only then does He call us to live up to the family name. Because our Father doesn’t call us not to steal, or to be pure until marriage, or to not lie or gossip or covet what others’ have so that He might love us. No. Our Father has already publicly claimed us as His sons, He has already publicly claimed us as His daughters, in our baptisms. And He has already given us the Holy Spirit so we would know it’s all true, so that we would know we’re His kids! So, you and me, we don’t steal, we’re not sexual outside of marriage, we don’t look or listen to impure things, we don’t lie or gossip, we don’t do these things – not because we’re trying to earn God’s love – but because that’s just not what our family – not what God’s family – does!
His Spirit is sufficient to help us stand against peer pressure, fear of failure, … We can do all things through Christ, whatever might come against us! And not so that He’ll love us, but because He already does love us. And He’s shown us that love in Christ.
My brothers and sisters: Living for Christ in this world that loves darkness can be filled with much hardship and many trials. Live for Him anyway. You give our Father much joy!