May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. Amen.

I wonder if you'd look again with me at that gospel reading from Luke chapter 3. You'll find it in the Pew Bibles on page 891.

I don't know if you're at all frustrated as I sometimes am that we spend all this time in preparation for Christmas and we anticipate the birth of the baby Jesus and there's this tremendous long build-up and finally it comes and two weeks later here he is 30 years old. being baptized.

Sort of wish you could delve a little bit into those 30 years.

But in God's economy, this is the moment that we really have to look at, the beginning of his public ministry. Whatever happened in those years of preparation, we can only guess at. The only comment we're given is that one incident when he visited the temple at age 12. We don't know what went on except that we're told he increased in stature with God and man. We find ourselves then in chapter 3 of Luke's gospel, coming to the time of Jesus' baptism, his inauguration, if you will, into his ministry.

And the turning point involves this other figure in the gospel story, John. John who we usually call the Baptist.

But in fact what we find if we look closely is that John proclaims Jesus the Baptist.

Jesus the Baptizer.

And John defines Jesus' ministry as being that of a ministry of baptizing people, baptizing them with the Holy Spirit.

So we want to take a look at this this morning. I want to back up just a little bit from where we read a few moments ago and look at John's message.

Beginning with verse 7,

chapter 3, verse 7.

He said therefore to the multitude that came out to be baptized by him You brood of vipers That's a nice way to begin isn't it?

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance And do not begin to say to yourselves We have Abraham as our father For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is being laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

The multitudes asked him, What shall we then do? And he answered them, He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise.

Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, Collect no more than is appointed you. Soldiers also asked him, And we, what shall we do? And he said to them, Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content. with your wages. This is the message of John. A message of repentance. A message of getting ready.

Christ is coming. Be prepared for him. We know the language of tearing down the mountains of pride. Filling in the valleys of despair that a highway might be built. Get yourselves ready. Christ is coming. He needs a highway to walk on. What highway?

The highway of men's hearts. And he spells out some details here. It's very practical. Be content with your wages. That's pretty practical.

The people were in expectation and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John. Whether perhaps he were the Christ.

John answered them all. I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong 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 granary. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

John the baptizer

pointing away from himself and saying there's somebody else coming and he as a matter of fact is the real baptizer

are you ready for him

we've been giving some baptismal instruction in recent weeks to those who are bringing their children to be baptized I'd like to summarize very quickly for you some of the things that we've been looking at. It's interesting, I think, that most Christians are not aware of the fact that baptism has a long history predating even John, let alone Jesus.

That baptism was practiced widely in the ancient Near East by many different peoples.

There was a common sign, a rite of passage, of leaving behind one way of life, one cultural upbringing, and joining another.

And so very typically, if you were to convert from one religion to another, you might be asked to be baptized.

And the symbolism was very obvious. You're washing away your past.

Being cleansed.

What's remarkable is that the Jews began to practice baptism for about 200 years prior to the time of Jesus.

And I say that's remarkable because God himself had already given them a right of initiation. Namely circumcision. This was the mark of being a Jew. And yet for about 200 years, in addition to that, they began to baptize people. If you were a Gentile and you wanted to convert to Judaism for one reason or another, you would very likely be asked to be baptized.

The Rabbi Hillel, who was one of the great rabbis of Jewish orthodoxy, one of the great teachers who lived about 100 B.C., was once asked, which is more important, baptism or circumcision?

And Hillel answered, baptism.

Absolutely astonishing that he should say that. I can only speculate as to why he didn't go on and elaborate. My guess is for two reasons. One, the symbolism is much more obvious.

The washing away is a very dramatic kind of symbol.

And two, that baptism, you see, could be performed for women as well as for men. That's my guess, though I don't know for sure. In any event, Hillel said, Baptism is even more important than circumcision as a mark of becoming a Jew, becoming a follower of God.

I hope you see, in light of that, that the drama of John is not that he's dreamed up some brand new thing, you see.

But rather that he's saying, you Jews need to be baptized. You think that because you're descended from Abraham, you've got it all sewed up with God.

And it's only those dirty Gentiles who need to be baptized.

You dirty snakes.

You also need to repent.

And you see how he addresses that in verse 8. Don't begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

Don't you rely on the fact that you've been raised in a Jewish family.

God doesn't have any grandchildren.

You've got to come to the point of repentance and commitment to God for yourself. You don't have to wash away your Gentile background, but you do have to wash away your sinful background.

And we read that multitudes came out. John had his finger on the pulse. They knew that there was something lacking in their relationship with God that needed attending.

And so along comes Jesus. In the midst of this incredible message of judgment and denunciation and God's wrath against sin, you need to be baptized because you're sinners. And in comes Jesus.

And he says, I want to be baptized.

And John is horror struck. You? You should be baptizing me.

And Jesus says, no. It's right that I be identified with other men. And he submits himself to a baptism. A baptism for repentance.

I want you to notice something here. Very, very important.

John's message is one of universal condemnation. God is not pleased with you. No matter who you are, no matter what your parents' heritage has been, you need to repent. You need God's forgiveness. God is angry with sin.

And Jesus comes along and identifies himself with sinful men at that very point.

and yet it's in the midst of his identification with sinners that we have God's pronouncement on him this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased you see the irony of that

that Jesus comes to a baptism that he does not need he submits under a pronouncement of judgment and in the midst of identifying himself with sinners God says he's different from everybody else

did you notice as Diane was reading to us twice in that passage in Isaiah it says I am the Lord My glory I will share with none other.

This is one of the phrases that rings like a refrain through the Old Testament prophets. My glory I will share with nobody else.

And yet here comes Jesus,

and we find God sharing his glory with Jesus.

you see what I'm saying is that there are several levels of meaning to baptism before we ever get to the specifically Christian meaning first of all it's a washing away of your cultural past secondly it's a washing away of sin

and then thirdly it's Jesus identifying himself with us in the midst of our need he didn't need to be baptized

but he identified himself with people who do

if you watch very closely from this point out Jesus begins to refer to his death as a baptism

he says to his disciples I have a baptism to be baptized with and my heart is constrained until it's accomplished

why would he say that?

why would his death be a baptism?

because he didn't need to die either because his death is the supreme moment of identification with us.

When did Jesus make himself one with us? On the cross of crucifixion. He didn't need to die, but I did. He entered into the total God-forsakenness of my sin.

When he screamed out, why? Why?

Have you forsaken me?

He put himself into my place.

That's his baptism.

He identified himself totally

with me.

Now in Christian baptism we go yet another step.

In Romans chapter 6, Paul turns the whole thing inside out.

And he sees a brand new dimension here in Christian baptism. You remember the language. Therefore as we were buried with Christ in baptism, so also we know we shall be resurrected with him.

If Jesus' baptism was his identification with me, my baptism is my identification with him.

The word baptism had a secular use long before it became a kind of a religious word.

What it really meant is to be absolutely saturated

so that the argument between the Baptists and the Episcopalians is somewhat beside the point. Whether we sprinkle somebody with a few drops of water or we immerse them in a river somewhere, We still haven't really baptized them. The only way we could do that is hold them under.

Until they're totally saturated with that water inside and out. You know that tanker that sank this past week? It's been baptized.

Saturated. It's filled with water.

What we have here is merely an external symbol. however you do it.

I think the symbolism is important. And there is a drama involved in baptism by immersion. You're buried in the water.

And then you're resurrected to newness of life.

And we lose something when we sprinkle.

But it's all symbolic, whichever way you do it. The real baptism is a saturation,

not just something external.

And I want us to see this very clearly. John says, I baptize you with water, but that is not the real baptism.

There's somebody coming after me who's so much mightier than I that I'm not even worthy to stoop down and lace his shoes.

and he's the baptizer

and he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

What does that mean?

Well, if baptism is to be saturated

than to be baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be saturated with the Holy Spirit.

To have Him so totally indwell us

that God not only shares His glory with Jesus, but He ends up sharing His own nature with us. We become the Christ ones, saturated with the life of God.

I want to notice a couple of things here.

The phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit has been a very controversial phrase.

The church has been divided between those who think they're baptized and those who think they're not baptized by the Holy Spirit.

What I want to point out to you is that the issue is not some momentary experience, however dramatic it might be, but an ongoing, indwelling, saturation experience

of God's Spirit indwelling us and living out His life through us.

And I want to suggest to you that that not only is not momentary, but it's ever-growing.

And if it's not growing, it's a fraud.

and that God's will for us is that we be ever growing in the experience of his spirit.

It's not that I can point back to some moment when I had some kind of dramatic religious encounter, but that my life is continually open before God, ready to receive from him everything that he has for me, anxious to express that in my obedience to him.

So that I become a channel, a vehicle for him to do whatever he wants through me. And if he cares to give me a gift of speaking in tongues, praise God, I'm ready to speak in tongues. If he wants me to be someone through whom a prophetic word can come, praise God, I'm available. But I'm not hung up on those gifts. If he wants me to exercise a ministry of hospitality, I'm ready for that.

I'm ready to be used or I'm ready to be left on the shelf.

I'm ready to be in the spotlight or I'm ready to be behind the scenes involved in a prayer ministry. A very thankless, behind the scenes ministry. I'm ready to get the glory knowing that it's ultimately his, or I'm ready to be absolutely unseen,

involved in his work anyway.

And secondly,

and most importantly,

I want us to see the close connection between water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism.

That if water baptism symbolizes a washing, a cleansing externally,

then we mustn't avoid the implication of the words that he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

There are two ways to make something clean.

One is to wash it on the outside. The other is to cleanse it through and through. You can take some gold and you can scrub it till it shines on the outside. But if you want it really to be pure, you've got to pass it through the fire. And then all the impurities will be burned up and consumed away. This is what John is really saying in proclaiming Jesus. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit means what? He will cleanse you inside as well as outside. He will purge away, if you'll let him, all that is not holy, all that is not true.

You see how he uses that language of fire? Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. God's will is that we would be fruitful trees.

and so he prunes us and that which isn't fruitful he burns up but that which remains would be the more fruitful

you're a tree and out of you he's either going to get fruit or heat

one or the other

and he will cleanse you with the Holy Spirit bear fruits that befit repentance

his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor to gather the wheat into his granary but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire what's he talking about? separating the sheep and the goats? absolutely not stripping away that part of the plant which is not fruitful and saving the fruit.

He's talking about you. He's talking about me. He's talking about purging that which does not reflect his own character.

What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It is an ongoing experience of saturation, of filling, of cleansing from within. of allowing God to totally have his way with me, that what's left is pure and holy and fruitful and praiseworthy for his great namesake.

And that is the ministry of Jesus.

For some, it begins in infancy.

with their water baptism and their whole life is like a flower unfolding. And I know some of the most beautiful Christians who can't tell you any time when they remember being other than a Christian.

Probably for most of us, there are a series of dramatic events

when we know God is dealing with us and we come to a new stage of commitment.

but the issue finally is this that none of us none of us

would sit back and make the mistake of the Jews and say well

I've got it

see I've been baptized and therefore I'm a Christian that's all there is to it

I've been born again I went forward at a Billy Graham crusade, and I gave my life to Jesus Christ on June 7, 1958.

I've hardly seen him since.

I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Do you know what? I speak in tongues. Isn't that fantastic?

And we run around dividing the Christian church into those who are spirit-filled and those who aren't. Nonsense. the language of the book of Acts is they were filled and then they were filled and then they were filled and then they were filled again you think once filled always filled you're in deep trouble

I need continually to be refilled by the Holy Spirit of God I need continually to be baptized

with fire no two people's experience of this Lord Jesus Christ is going to be identical

God can't even make two snowflakes alike

the issue is not to look back to what experience have I had the issue is right now am I willing to have this Lord Jesus Christ do and be all in me that he wants to.

Let's pray together.

Lord, I'd pray very personally to you this morning

and confess to you that I need more.

I want to be your man totally through and through. I want to be saturated with your Holy Spirit. I want to be available to you. I want you, Lord, to feel free to distribute whatever gifts, whatever ministries, whatever public, whatever private

that you'd be pleased to give to me.

I want to be available to you for others.

Not for my self-aggrandizement spiritually, but that I might be a blessing, that through me you might be a blessing to others.

And so I ask, Lord, for myself, that you would fill me more deeply with your Holy Spirit, that you would purge out as by fire whatever of myself remains. an obstacle to the beauty and the sweetness, the holiness and the power of Christ in me.

And Lord, I pray that for every member of this parish that we might be your men and women available to you, totally free of pride and envy and simply anxious to see you

exalted in our midst as Lord of the church and head of the body

for we ask it in Christ's name Amen Amen.