September 1st 2024
Vermillion South Dakota USA
Grace Baptist Church
Welcome In The Name Of The Father, The Son, And The Holy Spirit.
The Ground Beneath Your Feet Is Holy Ground.
Therefore Let Us Worship.
Mark 1:9-13 NASB
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
I wonder what He did?
That’s what people would have been thinking. John the Baptist was calling people to repentance. He was offering a baptism of repentance. This wasn’t entrance into the Church or even “the faith” as we think of baptism now. Although, being humble enough to repent and admit that God knows what He’s talking about is the first step to being part of the people of God.
But all the people there that day would have been wondering when Jesus was baptized…
What does He feel guilty about? What did He do? Is that why He got baptized? What’s He trying to make up for? What’s He trying to make right? What wrong is He attempting to atone for? Why does He feel the need for a clean conscience? What kind of water could ever wash a dirty conscience?
He would be accused of being a sinner later on, for eating with the sinners, for casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, or so the accusations went. Wouldn’t receiving John the Baptizer’s baptism of repentance fuel the fires of accusation?
Why did he do it?
What is the virtue of being misunderstood?
In our times people often blame their own inability to understand something on the one communicating. “You didn’t communicate good enough.” They’ll say.
You didn’t explain it well enough. Did you want to be misunderstood?
We won’t admit that we weren’t paying attention. We won’t admit that we just don’t understand the concept. “Hit me over the head but also don’t be too pushy” that’s how people are. Convince me to do what I’m supposed to be doing, if you can’t, it’s your fault, you’re not a leader! What a mixed up world we live in.
What was Jesus thinking receiving a baptism of repentance? It’s just going to confuse everybody. Even John the Baptizer himself is confused.
Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15 But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. 16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
John had leaped in his mother’s womb when Mary showed up carrying the yet to be born Jesus.
Luke 1:39-45
39 Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
John’s life had always been intertwined with Christ’s, just as the life the the world is intertwined with Christ’s life.
One thing John had always known: Jesus wasn’t a sinner. Jesus is savior.
How then is The Lord Jesus receiving John’s baptism of repentance righteous? Doesn’t it seems like the opposite of righteous to take the fall for something you didn’t do? The Lord Jesus is the only one in the history of the world who had no need of repentance.
He never sinned.
But what is the cross of Christ if not the righteous dying so that the unrighteous might live? When we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, by faith alone in His perfect obedience and not our fair weather obedience, we are admitting that we need forgiveness from the only one who didn’t need forgiveness, and that the just died for the unjust.
2nd Corinthians 5:21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He shows us how to repent. He shows us how to be humble. His baptism moves us to receive baptism as well, precisely because He didn’t need baptism at all. It shows us how desperately weary we all are of pretending we’re righteous. Your baptism in and of itself doesn’t fulfill all righteousness. Mere water could never do that. Your baptism colors every other day of your life that follows in resurrection hue. Your baptism’s power is that it is a picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ you can never completely shake.
1st Peter 5:6-7
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
God wanted to show you how to live, and so Jesus received baptism. God humbling Himself has led to the life of the world. If you have a toddler who is afraid to try a new food, you just gobble it up and make a big show of how good it is, and so Jesus jumps into the river for all of us. You humble yourself to make a little human do what’s best for them. Baptism is best for you because if you believe in Jesus every act of obedience makes you feel and taste, and see Him all the more, and Jesus is real, so we should act like it.
It doesn’t always work though: toddlers often times just do whatever they want, but so do we. I’ve never met a toddler I didn’t understand. Neither have you.
How often do we see Jesus showing us the good and right way and we just won’t follow Him? How often do we see Him leading us on the narrow hard road that leads to the land of milk and honey, and we just won’t follow Him even though He’s going where we want to be and He’s the only one who can guide us out of the valley of the shadow of death?
The Lord Jesus knew the medicine that we needed so He takes a big gulp. Repentance will set us all free. If only we can die to ourselves enough to take the medicine. If only we can take up our cross and die to ourselves to that we can live.
Matthew 16:24-27
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.
Can we ever just get over ourselves in a world that is telling us to exalt ourselves? And what if in doing so we entrust ourselves to the king of heaven, the architect of the cosmos?
God meets our deepest wounds with His goodness.
That’s one reason I don’t downplay baptism as a mere symbol. Symbols are extraordinarily powerful. Symbols have meaning. What baptism is, is a picture of God taking the things we all fear: death, lost of vitality, loss of productivity, loss of worth, loss of being remembered, loss, just searing loss, God takes all the woundedness and makes it about eternal renewal and life. Baptism is a picture of being dead and buried and then coming out roses, resurrection roses, just like Jesus.
Pride is a high that just breeds more and more sin. Pride is the mother of all sins, C.S. Lewis and a lot of other brilliant people have surmised, because it goes back to the garden and back to the fall of Lucifer. Old St. Paul writes against sin quite a lot. The reason he does so is because there is an incongruity, an ugliness, if you will, with God the Son coming to earth to save us all from damnation and then us all rejoicing in grace as if it were a free pass to sin. This simply won’t do in the logic of Paul.
Because, Paul reasons, baptism is the initiation into dying to the old ways of darkness. It’s a beautiful thing to choose. You’ve died to sin, you’ve been raised in Christ. Whatever is good and beautiful in the world is worth solemnizing, whatever is good and righteous in the world is worth making official. If you’ve said, “I think evil is evil and I’m dedicating myself to the good.”, if you’ve said, “I think Jesus Christ is the only one who can save the world and me, He’s Lord, He’s God, He’s savior.”: then jump in.
Paul reasons that the Christian cannot live to sin because we’ve made these vows of light and godward goodness when we choose baptism.
Romans 6:1-7
6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
You can either look at Romans 6 as a massive guilt trip or you can look at Romans 6 and go, oh yeah, I’m liberated and alive in Christ Jesus my Lord, let’s go and save the world from itself!
Grace Baptist Church is about the restoration of all that is good in the world through Christ.
The structure of Mark 1 echoes the structure of Genesis[1], the first part of Genesis when it was all Good in God.
When the Lord is baptized the Spirit of God comes down, descending like a dove, like Noah’s dove flying forth from the ark after all that destruction and judgment, looking for a place for humanity to dwell. Back in Genesis 1:2 the spirit of God is hovering over the waters. The world is made. The animals are made. The sea beasts, the land beasts, creeping beasts, the flying beasts, all the beasts, and then God made humanity.
And God saw that it was good.
Here at the Baptism of Jesus, God the Father says, this is my boy. He is Good. God is pleased.
Mark 1:11
11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
A father’s affirmation gives strength to his children. Do we believe Him?
I think the American Church could use some encouragement right now.
Even our Church.
It seems like an impossible mission. We’re supposed to save the world with the Word. We have the message of the Jesus Christ, and people believe through hearing (Romans 10). And it seems like a tough hill to climb, giving up sin and all and turning to repentance in Christ and what not, what with sin feeling good for a time and repentance feeling like a drag.
Repentance is a hard sell, especially in a culture which says the worst thing is being judgmental.
If I could encourage you with the Father’s encouragement I’d remind you that God wants to save people. And that means that we don’t have to trick people into the Kingdom of God, because it’s God’s will to save people.
Mainline denominations change their theology to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ less offensive, but their Churches are still dying and closing.
Evangelicals see a Church growing like a tumor and try to copy it, no matter the cost.
The problem with trying to be cool is that there’s really just a couple of people who are actually cool and everybody else is just doing a poor job of copying them. There’s always two or three cooler Churches in any given town.
There’s always somebody cooler, but salvation is of the Lord. The Mainline change their theology. Baby mega chase relevance and cool factor. But we believe that God both desires salvation and is mighty to save.
How encouraging to know that the God who sends you out to share the Gospel is also the One who enables belief. And if God so encourages us, ought we not also share encouragement with others?
You can’t fool people into the kingdom of God. You can’t make people believe, that’s what God does. He drags you kicking and screaming into the Kingdom.
Never underestimate how important your word of encouragement is.
Encouragement costs you nothing except the humility to not be the star of the narrative for five minutes. You’re the wise old encourager preparing another to take up the sword and slay the dragon. You don’t want that role, you want to be the young protagonist: but you’re giving them fuel for the fight of their lives.
Don’t withhold it.
Every dragon lair has a pile of skeletons outside. It should be a deterrent to the hero, but they’d not be a hero if they turned back at the first pile of would be hero’s bones.
If we were to zoom out and write the story of all the skeletons outside the dragon’s lair, if we were to write the story of all the dead would be heroes outside the dragon’s lair it would go something like this:
Right before the quest to slay the dragon when the wise old mentor is supposed to show up with the magic sword, or the map, or the word of wisdom “Remember to duck” whatever, they turn around and adopt a scarcity mindset and clinch their hand rather than having an abundance mindset with an open hand, they say, “I think I’ll be needing this bit of encouragement for myself, after all, I’m still the hero.” And then the young knight goes off to fight the dragon and gets fried, so that they can star as corpse #9 outside the dragon’s lair on the movie credits.
Can you imagine Daniel LaRusso going to the side of the mat and asking Mr. Miyagi if there were some sort of one legged bird kick a guy could do with one good leg and one bad leg to kick Johnny Lawrence in the face and win The All Valley, and Mr. Miyagi says, “No that’s crazy” because he might want to keep the Crane kick to himself for a rainy day?
But God. He encourages the Lord Jesus to remember what is true.
God is real.
God Loves Him.
When the devil brings up Scripture as to why Jesus ought not stay on course and trust His Father and obey Him, He remembers who His Father is and the devil flees.
The Father encourages His boy at His baptism because He was about to send Him off to the wilderness to do battle.
Jesus, the second Adam, the by one man who will undo all that the 1st Adam did, because love is stronger than hate, and obedience more powerful than sin, hangs out with the wild beasts as Adam did long ago. The Angels minister to Him, for the hunger in the pit of Christ’s stomach was to do the will of His Father in Heaven.
May it be the same with us.
[1] Andrew T. Le Peau “Mark Through Old Testament Eyes” p.37-38
The Liturgy For September 1
The Congregation Singing
The Call To Worship
Psalm 119:9-16
The Call & Response Blue Hymnal #617
The Apostle’s Creed
The Lord’s Prayer
The Offertory
The Congregation Singing
The Proclamation
The Gospel According to St. Mark 1:9-13
“Buried In Goodness”
The Supplication
The Communion
Psalm 146
The Benediction
The Doxology
The Communion
Come, Lord, and use your keys. Open, so we understand. You reveal so much, yet you are not believed. You warn us from the Scriptures, yet are not understood. Where hearts are closed, open and enter in. “Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Open, Lord- yes, open the hearts of those who doubt you.
~ St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D)
The Benediction
Saints, may you go forth into this cold world knowing that Christ was buried in baptism, and buried in the earth so that you might live in Resurrection warmth forevermore. Go forth in peace.
The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith 20.2
This promise of Christ, and salvation by him, is revealed only by the Word of God;3 neither do the works of creation or providence, with the light of nature, make discovery of Christ, or of grace by him, so much as in a general or obscure way;4 much less that men destitute of the revelation of Him by the promise or gospel, should be enabled thereby to attain saving faith or repentance.5
3 Rom. 1;17
4 Rom. 10:14–15,17
5 Prov. 29:18; Isa. 25:7; 60:2–3
“St. George And The Dragon”
Vittore Carpaccio
1502 A.D.
For the record, with age I find that I am increasingly not only content, but longing, to be the wise old mentor who gives the heroes their swords.