Title: Baptized For Service
Date: 2010-01-10
Reference: Matthew 3: 13-17
This is the Sunday on the Church Calendar we remember the Baptism of the Lord. This is also a good time for each of us to recall our own baptism. Years ago I heard a minister explain the significance of baptism to our Sunday School Class. He held up his hand and called our attention to the shadow of his hand on the wall. He said: “My hand is real and this is just a shadow of my hand. When you come to Jesus and believe in him that is your real baptism. When you accepted Jesus as your Savior you were joined to him and what happened to Jesus happened to you. Jesus was alive, he died, was buried and then he rose from the dead. That happened to each of us when we believed in Jesus. Our baptism is a picture, or a shadow of what has already happened. Baptism is a shadow of the real. It is a symbol to remind us of what happened when we believed in the Lord Jesus.
Baptism pictures our identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward experience, a picture of what the Holy Spirit has done in our loves. This is one reason immersion is so powerful. The water really is like a grave. Coming up out of the water is like resurrection to a new, happier, better life.
We ordinarily think of baptism as a symbol of redemption, the washing away of sins which it is. For Jesus baptism was a kind of ordination or a commissioning for ministry, the launch of his career as Messiah. For Jesus this experience was for service rather than for cleansing.
As we remember our baptism may we think of God’s Grace coming into our lives. May we also think of our baptism as a challenge for service and Godly living.
John the Baptist was the last of the prophets and the greatest of all. Crowds of people went to John and he told him how sorry they were for their sins and he baptized them in the Jordan river. John said: “I baptize you with water so that you’ll give up your sins. Someone more powerful than I is to come. I’m not good enough to even carry his shoes. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
When Jesus came to the river bank John recognized him as the one who was to come. He tried to stop Jesus but Jesus knew it was God’s will. The baptism of Jesus pictured his future baptism on the cross. The coming of the Holy Spirit like a dove assured Jesus as he began his ministry that the Spirit was present with him. God, from heaven, spoke approval of all Jesus had done up to that point.
Today baptism reminds us how each one of us is a loved and wanted child of God. Baptism is a sacred moment of invitation. We celebrate our acceptance by God. God loves us and values each of us. God desires our company. We matter to God. Baptism is a symbol of that acceptance by God. This sacrament also symbolizes our intentional desire to walk away from the old way of life and to walk forward to the new.
The Apostle Paul compared the water of baptism to the water of the womb. He said: “As we are born from the womb, so in baptism we are born into a new Christian life.” Water symbolizes the cleansing of sin, nourishment and growth of a new life. Baptism links our names with the name of God forever.
Some of us here clearly remember our baptisms. Where it happened.
Who was there with us? Others of us who were baptized as young children or infants don’t remember the circumstances around our baptism. We need others to tell us how and when it happened. This Sunday as we remember our Lord’s baptism we pause to remember our own. This is a good time to reaffirm the vows we took or that were taken for us on the occasion of our baptism. This New Year is a wonderful time to rededicate our lives to Christ.
I remember the very first baptism I presided at. I was a young seminary student, a youth director at a small membership church. We had grown up our youth program from scratch and so the kids were all very close. Our group numbered about 12 kids and we did everything together. One Spring day one of our 15 year old girls suffered a severe Asthma attack and she was surviving on life support. I came to the hospital to visit her parents and they asked me to baptize their beautiful daughter. There in the Intensive Care Unit with water from a Styrofoam cup, I performed my very first baptism. I was very certain this young woman had accepted Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. The baptism in the hospital room was comforting for her family. But it was a shadow of what had already occurred in her life.
Baptism is a sign of God’s complete, total love and acceptance of each of us. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace. A way of identifying with Jesus Christ in his life, suffering, death, and resurrection. It is also a celebration of our acceptance by Jesus Christ as a member of the family. Many Christians today lack joy in life because they are not sure of their relationship with Christ. They don’t know where they stand with God.
People of Jesus’ day believed the only way we could be sure of their standing before God was by keeping the law. Many people today believe this as well. Jesus offered a new way, Grace plus nothing. Jesus’ way is based on unconditional love and acceptance. Through Christ we have personal access to God without bearing the burden or consequences of the law. Only grace secures our position with God. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve God’s love. Salvation is grace plus nothing. The next time you doubt god’s love think of the cross where Grace paid the eternal price for our sins. We are saved by Grace, nothing more. Grace is moving from a living death to a deathless life in Christ. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of that inward saving Grace. Grace reminds us of what we have in common. And who we have in common, Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately baptism has become a source of division within the larger church community. Many congregations today refuse to accept the legitimacy of a baptism performed by another denomination. As a result some persons are baptized two or three times in a lifetime. Even in the early church this was an issue. In the Corinthian Church some boasted they had been baptized by Apollos while others would say I was baptized by Paul. Paul told them it was wrong of them to identify baptism with any other name than the name of Jesus. Too often baptism has created disunity in the church, while it was meant to honor Jesus and create unity in his body, the church.
This beautiful sacrament has the power to unite us as well. My daughter was the very first American ever baptized in the Bethany Church in Arad Romania. The pastor who baptized my daughter is coming to visit us next month. I’m so anxious to see him again. This baptism was a special moment.
Abby was there with a group of Romanian candidates for baptism. None of them could speak English and she couldn’t speak Romanian. But they all understood they were soon to be related as brothers and sisters in Christ. The sacrament of baptism reminded them they were all accepted by Christ and united into his body. On two occasions I had the great honor of participating in baptismal services in Romania. As I prayed over persons there, they didn’t need to understand the words I was saying. They did understand the spirit with which I said the words.
Baptism was never meant to be just another empty ritual. In some places it’s been very costly to identify with Christ in this way. In the old Soviet Block, including Romania, persons knew they could lose jobs, opportunities, and other benefits by becoming baptized. Children who were baptized were often excluded from scholarships and other educational benefits as a result of their parent’s actions on their behalf. In Russian and all across Eastern Europe grandmothers took their grandsons and granddaughters to church and quietly had them baptized. Mikhail Gorbachev the last premier of the Soviet Union was baptized in this way.
Today in Africa, China, Cuba, and various Islamic countries it is a costly thing to become baptized or to have ones children dedicated to God in this way. We must keep those dear sisters and brothers in our prayers. For through baptism we are one family in Christ. And when one part of the body suffers we all suffer.
This day I invite each person here to remember. Remember your baptism. Will you bow your heads and heard the words of the baptismal statement. As you listen why not rededicate yourself to Jesus. “I take God to be my chief and highest good.
I take Jesus Christ to be my prince and savior. I take the Holy Spirit to be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and comforter. I take the Word of God to be my rule in all of life and the people of God to be my family. I do hereby dedicate and devote to the Lord all that I am, all that I have, and all I can do. All this I do deliberately, freely, and forever. At this time I remember my baptism.
