Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton, VA
Matthew 3:11-17, Romans 6:4
I have a question for you:
What does God do when someone is baptized?
Baptism is an “ordinance”. In Baptist doctrine, that means it is a command given by our Lord, which we follow out of simple obedience to the Great Commission we find in Matthew 28:19 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” It is one of two, the other being the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, which we celebrated last Sunday. As things have worked out, we will be celebrating the second ordinance this afternoon at the Coates’.
In our passage, we find Jesus asking for Baptism.
Why would Jesus of all people ask for Baptism?
Why would he even feel it necessary to follow where John had led hundreds if not thousands of others before him to be baptized for repentance from sin? If anyone didn’t need this, it was Jesus. If anyone KNEW he didn’t need this for the same reason as all the others who were going through it, it was Jesus.
John was aware of that. He was aware of his own sin, when he looked at Jesus and says, "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”
In his following statement, Jesus redefined the purpose of the act of baptism.
"Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness."
What Jesus is saying, and what convinced John to go ahead and baptize him, is that this is the next step. This is what needs to happen now. The event marks the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. In a sense, it marks Christ’s commissioning to service. In the passage, we also find the presence of the trinity – the Body of Christ, the words of the Father, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
If we turn to Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, chapter 6, verse 4 and following, we find the model for baptism that has been dominant in the church since the 4th century:
4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Paul goes on to describe baptism as our symbolic death to the old life, to sin, and rebirth to new life in Christ, free from sin. It still carries with it an element of John’s baptism, in that it represents the cleansing from sin, which comes with repentance, but it also speaks of what we are alive TO: ‘So we too might walk in newness of life”
What we find in both passages is very simply the presence of God. What George Beasley Murray calls a ‘rendezvous of grace’ – God has agreed to meet us in Baptism. In that we are called to unity with Christ, through his death, burial and resurrection, suggests that God has said, “When you do this, I will be there”.
Today we will be observing two points in the lives of members of our community of faith where this is happening.
In baptizing Hannah, we are observing only the second public step in her lifelong pilgrimage to follow Christ. The newness of life she is beginning to experience spiritually is not that far removed from her own newness in this world.
In baptizing Soozin, we are reminded more of Christ’s baptism. When Jesus spoke of the baptism he was requesting to be performed as a way to ‘fulfill all righteousness’, that term is a direct reference to the will of God. It is ‘the next step’ which follows a lifetime of steps that have already shown a faithful sensitivity and obedience to that will – and to the leading of the Holy Spirit in her life. When she came up here a few weeks ago to join, ask for baptism, and in rededication of her life, it was a humbling moment for me. To see a life already dedicated be Re-dedicated is a challenge to us all to find new ways by which we can follow Christ.
In a couple of days, we will observe a third instance of this newness of life.
Most of you know that Fox Schools passed away this past Friday. On Tuesday, Beulah Baptist Church and Jerusalem Baptist Church, both families of faith to which he belonged while with us, will celebrate his passing into the new life, which awaits all of those who have given their lives to Christ.
This is what it comes down to:
John said “but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
In joining Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, we welcome into our lives the Holy Spirit, who brings to us not only life, but who also works in us to purify and refine us – makes us into who God intended us to be. It is an unfinished task while we are on earth. The Glory of which we are a part is not made fully evident until we reach up from that last resting place, grasp the hand of him who led us and preceded us there, and are lifted up into eternal newness of life.
If you are here today and have not yet followed Christ, your invitation is to be buried to sin and death, and to be reborn in newness of a life of commitment and obedience to Christ and his Lordship.
If you are here and have already dedicated your life to Christ and followed him in baptism, your invitation is to grasp again that sense of the newness of Christ in you. If you are looking for a church home, a place of service, and people with whom you can work alongside for the Kingdom, we would welcome you.
If you are here and have long since followed Christ in baptism, and ARE a part of this family of faith, your invitation is to be an encourager to those who come after you, to be an example and to live out Christ in such a way that you are transparent and HE is Apparent, to anyone with whom you come in contact.
Let’s pray.
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