The people
were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might
possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But
one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy
to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing
fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into
his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
When all the
people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a
dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am
well pleased.”
Who will be the next American
Idol? What is the latest between Rosie
and Donald Trump? These are the things
that have Americans on the edge of their seats.
In the big picture, does it really matter what a militant lesbian and a
defensive millionaire have to say to each other? Yet this is all Americans seem to want to pay
attention to. Therefore, when I read
today’s text - it made me yearn for such a time. The people were “waiting expectantly and
wondering in their hearts of John might possibly be the Christ.” Think about the magnitude of that statement -
in the fact that they actually cared at all who the Christ was - and that they
were not only listening to John - but also waiting expectantly for the
Christ. Who talks of such things - and
who cares in today’s society? Whereas
you hear many people in
Why was
that? The Israelites were living under
the oppression of the Romans, and their “king” was a murderous Edomite named
Herod. The spiritual leaders that they
did have seemed to only be concerned about the letter of the law, dryly reading
from the Old Testament as if it were just a rule book. Yet even those words of the Law made them
hungry for a message of hope - something to grab them by the heart and take
them to heaven. John appeared in the
middle of this oppression with a message that hit to the heart. He told them to repent and be baptized for
the forgiveness of sins - in light of a new kingdom. He promised that their long awaited Christ
was about to appear. Such a preaching of
repentance and forgiveness stood out - it wasn’t just a religion of rules and
regulations. It was a religion of
forgiveness and hope. It opened the
people’s minds to a promise of a heavenly kingdom. This message brought the people out into a
desert of all places - in droves - reawakening the hope of a Christ to lead
them out from oppression and to take them to heaven.
In order for
this message to mean anything to you this morning - you have to come at it from
the view of those oppressed Israelites who went to the desert. You have to be hungry for hope - for
forgiveness - for someone to come and take you out from your oppressors - the
things that make you feel like nothing.
You have to get deeper in your thinking - beyond what Rosie and Donald
are saying - beyond the new season of 24 - beyond who is going to win the
Superbowl - and think about eternal and spiritual things. This message is for people who are struggling
with guilt and sin - people who feel like God could never love them - would
never love them - doesn’t love them because of their back hurts, or they have
done something awful. If you’re one of
those people who feels stuck - that cannot get out from your sins - someone who
is hungry for hope - hungry for acceptance - hungry for freedom - this message
is for you. If not, well, go back to
Rosie and Donald and American Idol and let that be your meaningless
entertainment until Christ comes again.
For Christianity and the message of Christianity isn’t about petty
arguments or who can sing the best karaoke.
It’s about heaven and hell - hope and redemption.
John came to
reveal forgiveness and hope and the kingdom of heaven to these people - who
were looking for it - starving for it.
The strange thing is that their hope was walking right among them - and
they had no idea of who He was or what He was there to do. They were spiritually blind - and their eyes
needed to be opened. That’s what
Epiphany is all about - letting the light of Christ shine to those who are
blind. Last week we saw the light shine
on Jesus through the Wise Men. Today we
see the light shine on Him with water.
Watch the Wonder of the Christ Shine
with Water
I. The Christ uses the Holy Spirit without water
At the start
of our text the people thought that John might possibly be the Christ. This is either a testimony to the talents of
John or the utter blindness of the people - or maybe a little bit of both. In my 37 years of existence I have never had
anyone question whether I was the Christ or not, and I would venture to bet
that most of you haven’t either. John
really must have been something for the people to even wonder whether he was
the Christ. If you think about it - he
really did have a lot going for him. A
miraculous birth of a priest and his overaged wife Elizabeth - having lived by
a Nazarite vow - and even having the Holy Spirit from birth. His powerful preaching had the most greedy
and the most powerful - the tax collectors and the soldiers - coming to him on
their knees in repentance! So John had
plenty going for him. Wouldn’t that be
something to have someone think you were the Christ? Maybe a little tempting to play it up?
John resisted
the temptation and had none of it. “I
baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of
whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing
floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire.” It might first
appear that John was minimizing what he was doing - as if his baptism wasn’t
really that great. This is not the case
though. He told the people to repent and
be baptized with the promise that they would then receive the forgiveness of
sins. Later on in Luke 7:30, Luke says
that the Pharisees ended up rejecting Jesus’ teachings specifically because
they rejected John’s baptism. John and
Jesus’ disciples baptized side by side.
So to play one off of the other is not in keeping with the rest of the
Scriptures. It also doesn’t follow with
what happens in Jesus’ own baptism that shortly follows.
What John is
doing instead is contrasting the power of the Christ with his own power. If they were impressed with his preaching and
baptism - they would be much more impressed when HE - the Christ - would
come. John said, “He is MORE POWERFUL” -
so powerful in fact that John didn’t even feel worthy to untie his
sandals! What made Him so much more
powerful? He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and with fire. At
first reading of this, I had always assumed that this was a prediction of
Pentecost - with the fire being
the means of the Holy Spirit. Yet as I
looked at this again I had several questions.
Were all of these people that John was talking to in the desert present
at the day of Pentecost? Also - the
reference to “fire” doesn’t seem to coincide to his next reference of fire - of
burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Some people
have assumed that since John was contrasting Jesus’ giving of the Holy Spirit
with his baptism - that there was no Holy Spirit present in his baptism. Then you would have to wonder, “why did the
Holy Spirit then show up at Jesus’ baptism?”
Also you would have to ask, “how could there be forgiveness of sins
apart from the Holy Spirit?” Forgiveness
is always connected to faith - and faith is always connected to the Holy
Spirit. You cannot say that the Holy
Spirit had nothing to do with John’s baptism.
Instead, it would appear that John is wanting to show the special power
and authority of the Christ to give the Holy Spirit when and where He
wishes. The Christ was not limited to
the means of water. When you think of
Jesus’ ministry - you might think of when Jesus “breathed on His disciples” -
giving them the authority to forgive or not forgive sins. You would also naturally be drawn to the
special gift of the Spirit that Jesus did give at Pentecost - in their ability
to speak in other languages. Jesus’
giving of the Holy Spirit - if anything - might seem to be more visible and at
the beck and call of Jesus when and where He pleased.
Let’s look at
the fire now. Later on in Luke 12:49
Jesus Himself said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth.” In context, he meant that his kingdom would
cause divisions between fathers, sons, mothers and daughters. This fire naturally occurs when believers and
unbelievers live with one another. If it
doesn’t - and you try to avoid that baptism of fire - you will only end up
being burned up with the fire of hell on Judgment Day - which John mentions
directly after this. This shows how
powerful this Christ is. Whereas John
was warning of hell and telling people to repent, this future Christ would
actually be so powerful as to come between the love of family members for one
another - and also to send the people into hell. He draws a picture of a man with a pitchfork,
throwing the wheat and the straw and chaff up into the air - and then taking
that chaff into a huge fire. He tells
the soldiers, tax collectors and other listeners - “you will either be the
grain or the chaff - and you will either be baptized with the Holy Spirit or
with fire!” You can’t have any more
power than that.
You get the
point? If you want to be ready for this
Christ, you need to open your eyes and see who this Christ is. This Christ is powerful. He will bathe you in His gifts of the Spirit. He will enable you - through faith in Him -
to fight the world, Satan and your own flesh.
He will free your tongue to speak of His grace and power. But if you do not repent - if you will not
believe and open your eyes to who this Christ is - you will be bathed in
fire. There is no escaping His
power. Like it or not, you will either
be bathed with the Spirit or with fire or both.
This is the way we need to view Judgment Day to come. If all you are concerned about is the latest
news - the weather - the newest sitcom - or even world events - you will remain
blind. You need to see the light of this
powerful Christ.
II. The Christ is
exposed through water
John had set
the stakes high - laying eternal life on the line - giving Christ heavenly
powers. Yet the people still didn’t even
know who He was - even though He was walking among them. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and
what we don’t see. True believers would
have believed that Jesus was the Christ without any more than the Word of God
speaking through John. Yet God didn’t
leave Himself without testimony. The
skeptical and weak believers in the crowd would want more than just the Word of
John. God didn’t disappoint.
When all
the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. John was surprised at Jesus’
request. After all, his was a baptism of
repentance - and Jesus had nothing to repent of - yet here He was placing
Himself at the same level as these sinners.
Why would Jesus do such a thing?
Well - look at what happened when Jesus was baptized. And as he was praying, heaven was opened
and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice
came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Not only did the Holy Spirit descend
visibly on Jesus’ but the Father also spoke audibly from heaven. Even those who had no knowledge of the Bible
(this was predicted in Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1) were witnessing God descend
on Jesus - and they also heard God speak - just as He did on Mt. Sinai.
This was not
just an empty ritual designed to testify to who the Christ was, however. Jesus was being officially anointed into
office as the Christ. From this point on
the light of Christ was going to be shining brighter and brighter. Acts 10:38 says that in this baptism, “God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . he went
around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil,
because God was with him.” Jesus
already had the Holy Spirit as He was conceived by the Him. Yet with this baptism and this special gift
of the Holy Spirit Jesus in His humility was being prepared for His officially
duty - to testify to the truth - to fight Satan - conquer the hearts of men -
and to be bathed in the sins of the world.
From this point on the fire would be kindled. The devil would take Jesus into the
desert. The Pharisees and teachers of
the law would attack, and Jesus would fight back. With this baptism Jesus was in fact taking
the place of sinners and agreeing to be identified as a sinner and punished as
one - taking on the fiery wrath of His own Father. As He went through this baptism - He was in
effect being prepared for another baptism - a baptism of death and hell on the
cross. Jesus said as much in Luke 12:50
when he said prior to the cross, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed
I am until it is completed!” This
would take a Godly strength to conduct such a war.
For one more
moment - let’s look at the light of Christ shine through what the Father had to
say. a voice came from heaven: “You
are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Did you ever consider to ask the question - “why
did the Father say this?” Didn’t Jesus
know this? Was there some doubt in his
mind as to whether the Father was His Father - or that the Father loved
Him? Of course not. This was obviously for the benefit of those
standing there and witnessing what was happening. It confirms that Jesus was not being baptized
for forgiveness - for God was pleased with Him and loved Him. Jesus was being baptized for US - so that He
could go through the fires of temptation and hell as our substitute. It was also the completion of the public
testimony - of the two witnesses needed according to the Old Testament. Both the Holy Spirit and the Father were
testifying that this was the Christ.
Even John said the next day,
John 1:31-34 I myself did not know him, but the
reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a
dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who
sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come
down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I
testify that this is the Son of God.”
Therefore, John’s purpose in baptizing was complete - to
reveal the Christ to the world. The Holy
Spirit and the Father made their testimony and revealed to John and the world
who the Christ exactly was. The light
was now focused on Jesus and beginning to have a focused shine to it. It all started with this water baptism. Look at Jesus - and take comfort in this
baptism. He was being baptized to be
your substitute. The Father assures us, “I
am well pleased with Him.” The Father
would then say the same thing after Jesus’ death - when He sent His Holy Spirit
into Jesus - raised Him from the dead - and testified to the world that our
salvation was complete - our sins were paid for through our baptized Brother -
Jesus Christ.
It was years
ago that my wife and I were walking through a Chicago airport - when we both
walked by an elderly gentleman with a real nice smile to him. He looked at us as if we should recognize
him. We both smiled at him - paused -
and then kept on walking. It wasn’t
until weeks later that we finally figured out who that old guy was - Art
Linkletter. In hindsight, it was
interesting - but no real big deal. I
don’t know what I would have said anyway.
There’s a
saying that goes, “If we meet and you forget me, you have lost nothing. If you
meet Jesus Christ and forget Him, you have lost everything.” Millions of people have been introduced to
Jesus in the crib - and even on the cross - and forgotten exactly who He
is. They will be baptized with the fire
of hell if they don’t open their eyes.
After this baptism of John, you have no excuse. The light has been revealed with the water of John’s baptism. John has clearly told us, “look to the Christ! Jesus has the power to give the Holy Spirit and His gifts of forgiveness and so much more - but He also has the power to bring division and hell.” God has clearly spoken through the descent of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father. All of this evidence of the Christ has been revealed to us at Jesus’ baptism. With this revelation - heaven is opened to those who believe and are baptized. Do not forget it. Remember who Jesus is - and remember your baptism - and heaven will be opened to you. Amen.