The Baptism of Jesus

In the early 1980s during Ronald Reagan's presidency, there was a challenging situation that emerged in America in the automotive industry.

There was a proliferation of Japanese imports, and the quality of the Japanese cars far exceeded that of the American cars on the whole.

And this was creating a real tension.

And it was, I guess, an obvious example was in General Motors in one of their plants in Fremont, California.

The quality and the productivity became so bad that they actually shut down the plant completely and laid off the entire workforce.

Toyota in Japan heard about this, and they thought they would love to do a joint venture with GM in Fremont.

And so they actually negotiated to take all of the staff who were fired and take them to Japan and teach them what was called the Kaizen philosophy of manufacturing.

And it was this Japanese philosophy that allowed them through, you know, in a summarized version, through team effort to raise the standard of every car being created.

And so they took over the plant, they decided to do a joint venture, they would create a car and badge it with different badges.

Interestingly, under the Kaizen philosophy of doing business and manufacturing, in within two years, the GM plant in Vermont, California, became the highest quality GM plant in the world.

Isn't that interesting?

Utter transformation in under two years.

Mark is writing a Gospel account which is outlining a new way of living, a new way for society to function.

It's called the Kingdom of God.

And like the Japanese Kaizen philosophy which revolutionized many businesses in the 1980s, the way of Christianity, in other words, the Kingdom Come revolutionized life itself, not just business.

The Kingdom Come is what changes everything.

And Mark wants us to know that in Christ, in the Kingdom which has come and is coming, there is a new beginning available for humanity.

And this is good news because God has become a human being.

He has in Christ lived a perfect life, and he has died and risen again, conquering the grave.

He is the saviour of the world.

And this good news is a new Kingdom and a new beginning for all who would believe.

This morning is our second message in the book of Mark.

We're going to work our way through verse by verse.

It's entitled, The Kingdom Come, part one.

Part two will be tonight, we're starting, we're hoping to pull it off, the practice of having two different messages, morning and night.

So tonight will be different.

It will be chapter one, verse 14 and 15.

The Kingdom Come involves identification, impartation, affirmation and confrontation.

And I know that sounds like a lot of illiteration for the sake of it, but it's not for the sake of it.

Those four words are so powerful as you look at this text.

Identification.

Verse 9 tells us, In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

From the crowds coming from all over the place, in verses 1 to 8, to come to John to be baptized in the Jordan.

We now focus in Mark's retelling of the Gospel.

We focus in on one who comes from Galilee.

This is Jesus.

Mark tells us nothing about when this occurs, nothing about Jesus' background, pedigree, or birth, miraculous or otherwise.

Contrast this to Matthew and Luke.

Nothing about heavenly announcements like we find in John.

In those days, he says.

Other translations say it came to pass in those days.

because that line, it came to pass, is used throughout the Old Testament.

And after you say that set up, you talk about someone really important.

Judges 19 once says, now it came about in those days when there was no king in Israel and then sort of explained something significant.

Not here.

Mark tells us right up front the main character in the story is from Nazareth.

Did you know Nazareth doesn't get any mention in the Old Testament?

Not once.

It is such a backwater, no one comes from here type mountain village that's important.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Mark doesn't tell us what I read before in those baptism scriptures about John protesting, about baptizing someone so special.

He just tells us that Jesus was baptized.

The baptism of Jesus is the beginning of his identification with sinful Israel, even though he has never sinned.

Why was he getting baptized?

because he is identifying with Israel.

Israel were meant to be the son of God, the perfect and faithful son of God.

They failed.

Jesus is come and he is going to be faithful Israel.

So he needs to do what Israel were meant to do.

So he goes through the waters of baptism, mirroring when they went through the Red Sea before the deliverance and into the promised land.

He says, it is right and proper that I do this to fulfill all righteousness.

Baptism for Jesus was a profound act of humility.

Would you agree?

Are you noticing in Philippians 2, that's the key?

Philippians 2, 5 to 11.

In your relationships, your mindset should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped.

He gave it all up in immense unfathomable humility.

He became a human being and went to the cross in obedience to the call that God had given him.

Jesus is a humble king, amen?

Beyond comprehension is his humility.

And really, it started in baptism.

That's why John the Baptist was like, I can't do this.

We said, no, it's proper.

I am going to identify with sinful humanity and a day will come when I will be clothed in their sin.

On the cross, even though I'm not sinful in any way, but I'm going to be the saviour of the world.

And this is part of that identification process.

And as I was saying before, it's a right of initiation.

And in God's creative wisdom, baptism humbles everyone with a great hairdo.

Everyone who's enjoyed putting on makeup for the day.

It's going to humble you.

It's going to run your mascara.

It's going to make you look, as my mum and dad used to say, like a drowned rat.

There's nothing but humility in being baptized.

But for us, we identify with Christ.

He was baptized because he was identifying with sinful humanity.

But we are identifying with the sinless son of God who died for us and rose again.

So we go under the waters of baptism, dying with him, and we come out symbolizing by faith what has happened to us.

We rise again to new life.

You know, baptism is required of followers of Jesus, and that's what it's all about.

Followship, not discipleship.

Sometimes we get that wrong.

We think, if I know enough, some of us have been Christians for years, we think, I'll get baptized when I can recite, you know, half of the Gospel of Mark, because baptism is for discipleship, the elite.

No, it's not at all.

It's not at all.

Philip, Philip was talking to the Ethiopian eunuch, and he got saved, and he said, can I get baptized now?

There's water there, and he said, yeah, let's do it.

There was no written on Microsoft Word testimony.

It was just time to get baptized, because it is a symbol of the faith that I have just expressed, amen?

So, it's for discipleship, for followership, not discipleship.

Now, we have a baptismal pool here.

I don't know if you've ever seen it.

You might be new to the church.

This is Gary's brilliant design.

The first design didn't have a baptismal pool, and then I made a big fuss and said, Baptist Church, we have to have a baptismal pool, but the architectural and engineering challenge of carrying a tonne of water was quite significant, so they had to reinforce it all.

Oh, did I tell you?

That's full of water in there, now.

That's full of water.

I filled it up last night.

because I want to give you the opportunity today to be baptized, if you want to.

We're ready to go, and how would you do it?

You'd be wet, soaking clothes.

Oh, we have Lian in Virginia.

We'll be after the sermon out there.

We have shorts, t-shirts, swimmers, undies, cosy-type tops.

We have everything we need for about seven people to be baptized, if we had that many.

One would be great, or none, but that's okay.

But so we're going to make that available.

As you might remember, our theme for the year is Go 24.

So there are some things that it's best to respond in faith and not think about it too much, if you know it's the right thing to do.

So I'll leave that with you, and if you're the one that God's talking to, your heart will be pounding harder for the rest of the next 20 minutes, but that'll be a good thing.

I'll just leave that.

We're going to come back to that at the end.

And you're not going to have to do a quick testimony if you do want to be baptized.

We'll just ask you, do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour?

Upon your confession, we will baptize you by full immersion, and then we would love to hear your testimony next week or the week after, or if you don't want to give a testimony like that, that's okay too.

Does that make sense?

We'd love to hear your testimony, but not today, just I believe.

The Kingdom Come involves identification, and it involves impartation.

Verse 10, immediately coming out of the water, he saw the heavens opening, and the spirit like a dove descending upon him.

The opening of the heavens occurs in the calling of Ezekiel in exile.

It says, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

Ezekiel 1, verse 1.

Heaven's opening is a sign that God is about to speak or act.

Interestingly, Mark doesn't use the Greek word for open.

He uses the Greek word for torn, as you'd imagine a lightning bolt tearing open fabric.

What is opened can be closed.

What is torn, what is ripped, is harder to put back to its state, original state.

So when Jesus comes out of the water in baptism, Mark says, the heavens are torn and God is on the loose.

In the Old Testament, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha all part the Jordan River as a symbol of their power.

Do you remember?

Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, they all part the Jordan.

Jesus parts the heavens.

Hallelujah.

That's authority.

That's power.

And on the first reading of it, you would sort of think, okay, so the heavens are being torn open so that we can access God.

But the vibe is more that God can access us, that God is on the loose.

And that's the theme of Mark's Gospel.

God is on the loose and his power and authority is coming to set captives free.

The hope of Isaiah in chapter 64 verse one said, Oh, that you would rend the heavens.

Isn't that a great verse?

And come down that the mountains would tremble before you.

That's what has happened in the Baptism of Jesus.

Mark says the spirit like a dove descending upon him.

He doesn't say as a dove.

He says like a dove.

The spirit is not a dove.

Mark is suggesting that the same spirit that once hovered, Genesis 1 and 2, some of us just read this, hovered over the unformed chaotic waters and brought order, brought creation.

The same spirit is now hovering over, not the waters, but over a human being and is about to unleash a new creation.

The spirit is hovering in the same way as the spirit hovered in Genesis 1 verse 2.

Jesus began his ministry by receiving an impartation from God, the Father.

The spirit came upon him and that is so significant.

We can't do anything without the Holy Spirit's empowerment, amen.

You know, we can do things in the flesh.

You can do things, but it will be impotent.

It will be sterile.

It won't produce a hundredfold blessing.

The fruit that we could expect from that which is birthed in the spirit.

Romans 8 tells us we need to have our minds controlled by the spirit.

We need to be filled with the spirit.

When the kingdom comes, which means the reign of the king is manifest on earth, it will always involve the impartation and empowering and guidance of the spirit.

The kingdom come involves identification, impartation and affirmation.

A voice from heaven spoke when he was baptized.

You are my beloved son in you I am well pleased.

The voice of God is not verbally audible to everyone else.

We're told through Peter to Mark, the testimony that Jesus heard it.

The father affirms his son.

For what?

He hasn't really done that much yet.

He says, I'm proud of you.

I'm proud of you.

I love you.

He's proud of his son for living a sinless life for 30 years.

Hallelujah.

He's proud of the fact that this is the promise of the father being fulfilled.

This is about to become salvation and new creation because of what Jesus will accomplish.

And the father is so thrilled.

And you might have heard this before, but those three things and in other versions of this event, we hear it a bit more clearly where the father says, this is my son, I love you, you are good at, and I'm proud of you.

And if you want three things to tell your kids, that's a good start.

I love you, you are good at, because I know you, you're bent, I know what you like, I know you're good at this, and I am proud of you.

It's what Jesus received.

Do you feel the weight of that truth in your soul?

Jesus needed to be affirmed by his father before he kicked off his ministry.

Isn't that weighty?

He needed his father to say, I'm with you, you're my boy.

And we need the affirmation of knowing our identity is in Christ.

I didn't have any conversation with Sam, but I thought it was fascinating that the Spirit moved Sam to talk a lot about affirmation and identity in his prayers, the way the Spirit works.

He prompts different people in the same direction.

We need the affirmation of John 1.12.

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, God gave the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent or of a human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

We need to know that, that we're a child of God, by faith in Christ.

We don't earn it in any way.

So we can't lose it.

It's our right that we can be named a child of God when we put our faith in Christ.

Romans 8 verse 16 tells us, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Deep within us, the Spirit says, you need to know that you know, you belong.

And it's all by the grace of God in Christ.

We need the affirmation of our identity deep within us because most of the time, all of us find our identity somewhere else, don't we?

Has anyone found their identity in other places?

Of course, we all do.

And it's completely normal and natural that along the way, our career, our daily vocation, whatever that is, defines and fashions and shapes our identity.

For some of us, it's our appearance, our status, our wealth, our health, our name.

But all these things can be taken away.

And so we need to lock in the importance of the affirmation of God by His grace in Jesus that we are a child of God.

Amen?

Jesus needed it.

The Kingdom Come involves identification, impartation and affirmation, and it involves confrontation.

Immediately, the Spirit impelled him to go out to the wilderness.

So he's baptized, and then immediately, the Spirit takes him to the wilderness.

And he's in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

And he was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to him.

So after being empowered by the Spirit at his baptism, immediately, he is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

There is less detail here as is typical for Mark, isn't there?

In the other Gospels, we find out something about the fight that went on.

Mark begins his Gospel account in the wilderness.

This is really important.

Where did Luke begin his Gospel account?

The temple in the holy city, Jerusalem.

Where does John begin his Gospel account?

In the heavenly court, in the beginning was God.

He's talking about what's happening in the heavens.

John begins his Gospel account at the River Jordan and in the wilderness.

Now, for us, 2,000 years later, we think, oh, River Jordan, wilderness, whatever, same thing.

For a Jew, an Israelite, what do you think they are immediately understanding from Mark's concise and powerful opening?

This is a Gospel of New Beginnings.

because the people of Israel went across the Jordan into the Promised Land.

That's what Jordan and wilderness means for the people of Israel.

They went through the wilderness wanderings to reach the Promised Land through the River Jordan.

This is where they experienced the judgment of God, these places.

Where they were confronted with their fears and their enemies and their doubts and their idols.

And also where they found the grace of God and how to worship him.

Jesus went to the wilderness for 40 days, it's important.

It's a powerful symbolic number in the Bible.

Forty days of the flood, 40 years in the wilderness.

It's a set period of testing.

So Jesus is tested because he's identifying with Israel in his baptism and now in the wilderness wandering.

The wilderness or the desert represents the uncultivated space outside the garden.

First Adam was tempted and then banished.

And so he's dealing with Satan, the antagonist in the great story of salvation.

Here we have Jesus also going to the realm of the desert and being confronted by Satan again.

But this time, Adam 2.0 doesn't give in to temptation.

And the new Adam has the power of heaven at his side, angels in his corner.

And he's with the animals just like the first Adam.

He was with the wild beasts.

So this is how the kingdom comes.

This is the good news.

Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, goes through identification with sinful Israel.

He experiences the impartation of the Spirit, the affirmation from his father, and he has to deal with the confrontation of dealing with the evil one.

You know, it's interesting that in Mark's Gospel, Satan is never mentioned again.

Is that weird?

Lots of demons.

But Satan, it's like Satan's been bound, the strong man's been bound, and Mark's like, now I've dealt with him briefly in chapter one.

I'm going to spend the next 15 chapters telling you about how the power of the Messiah disintegrated and deconstructed all of his domain over demons and health and storms and all sorts of things.

The power and authority of Christ is demonstrated in the Gospel of New Beginnings, the Gospel of Power, which is Mark's Gospel.

So, I don't think it's hard to see the connection with our lives with what we've just read, is it?

We need to identify with the rest of humanity that we're all sinners.

That's the entry point for Christianity.

Yes, Lord, I am a sinner.

I identify, I'm not separate.

I'm not going to get to heaven by good works.

I'm not better than anyone else.

I'm going to identify with sinful humanity.

And I need to go through those waters of baptism as a symbol of what my faith represents.

I need to identify with Jesus, death and resurrection, repentance and new life.

We also need the empowering of the Spirit.

We need the impartation.

And that's what happens.

That's what Pentecost was all about.

You become a Christian, the Spirit of God is given to us, fills us, directs us, cleans us.

We receive the affirmation of the Father.

That's what the Spirit does.

He speaks to our heart.

And then we can expect to encounter our own spiritual confrontation with the enemy.

That is the Christian's journey.

So this baptismal pool in many ways is our River Jordan.

It's the symbol of the new beginning of crossing over between our old life and our new life in Christ.

So I mentioned at the start that we have clothing.

We have a baptismal pool full.

And I also have clothes that I can get changed into.

So our plan is, and as you can appreciate, this is from a leadership perspective, us doing Go24.

Us being prompted, I hope, by the Spirit and investing the money it takes to fill a baptistry pool up.

We'll leave it for tonight as well.

And praying into, Lord, would you prompt those who have maybe been putting it off, or someone who is becoming a Christian today.

Go24 is go in obedience.

It's go with courage.

It's go with forethought yet without hesitation sometimes.

It's go trusting in the Spirit's guidance in your life.

Go, because like the Japanese Kaizen philosophy of business ushered in a whole new way of doing business, the kingdom of God changes everything, and the kingdom has come.

And if you are a Christian, the kingdom has come in your life because the king of the kingdom is in you by faith.

Jesus is the king.

Go, 24.

Whole hearted abandonment to the cause of Christ.

And sometimes the next stage in the journey is after that step of obedience, isn't it?

That is a challenge, but God is with us.

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