Baptism in the Water ~ Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Mark 1:8-15
Mark 1:8-15
How is everyone? Prayer Requests? Praise Reports?
Let’s Pray…
Okay, please turn in your bibles to Mark Chapter 1. Tonight we are going to tackle a big issue in the Church, the issue of Baptism.
And the main way I want to discuss it from the text is to ask, what is the difference between baptism in the water by John the Baptist and Baptism in the Holy Spirit by Jesus?
Last week we looked at John the Baptist and talked about how he wanted to make it clear to everyone that he wasn’t the big deal.
Does everybody remember the key verse that we went to in John 3:30? We repeated it like 20 times so we would remember it.
He must increase, and I must decrease.
That’s incredibly important. Remember, the gospel is all about Jesus. Are we all tracking on that point?
Tonight we are going to see another key distinction that John the Baptist is going to make.
Last week he made difference between his status and Jesus’ status clear. This week we are going to see how John the Baptist also makes a clear distinction between the baptism that he offers compared to the baptism that Jesus came to give us.
And what I want to emphasize is that this is a seismic shift in the way people interacted with God and how God interacts with us It is a shift that happens right here in that point of history that we are going to read about tonight. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Please stand and let’s go to the text. Mark 1:8…
Just to set it up, after John the Baptist says that he is not worthy to even untie the sandals of the messiah – Jesus, he adds this in verse 8:
Now that’s the key to where we are going tonight – we are going to try to answer what the difference is between what John was doing and what Jesus came to do – but let’s keep reading because I think you need to see another piece in the context of this Gospel to really grasp verse 8. At least I had to see it, let’s continue…
Now tune in here:
Let’s pray…Please be seated
We read all of that because I am going to tie verse 8 to verses 14-15 tonight. In the weeks to come we’ll tackle all of that middle section, alright? In the next few weeks we’ll answer why did Jesus need to be baptized. And later we’ll answer why the Spirit sent him out to be tempted by Satan. Those are big questions with awesome answers. But tonight I want you to zero in on vv. 8, 14-15. Now let me set up verse 8, by talking about something that recently happened.
I was talking to a dear friend the other day, a person that has recently gotten connected to a church and has been excited about the energy of the church, has been encouraged by the preaching, has been happy to be a part of SOMETHING important.
And then my friend said something to the effect of, “It is a wonderful place, Ken. But I am not going to join them during communion because there are still some people that I won’t forgive, so I don’t think it is right to take the bread or the cup.”
To which I said, that’s the right answer. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, Paul says:
Listen, when we take communion here, we are quick to say that any Christian from any denomination is welcome at the table, but again we also make it clear that if there is sin in your life, you need to give that over to God, confess and repent before you eat that bread or drink that juice.
But here’s the thing. There’s a deeper issue at hand. You might be asking me, what's communion got to do with baptism? This is how it ties into tonight’s Scripture passage.
My friend prefaced or started their statement about not joining at the Lord’s Supper like this, “I’ve been sprinkled at a Methodist church and I’ve been baptized at another church, but I won’t forgive, so I won’t join in communion.”
With the statement of “I WON’T forgive,” I have to wonder if the baptism was done in an unworthy manner. As Perry Noble and many other pastors like to point out, if you get baptized before you have come to faith, you are just a wet sinner.
You can dunk yourself as many times as you want, without faith, it doesn’t accomplish anything of eternal value.
With that all in mind, we’re going to explore and distinguish A difference between John’s baptism with water and Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit.
I’m careful when I say “A” difference and not “the” difference between the two forms of baptism. There may be more to it than this.
But we are going to explore one difference, based on the text.
I’m going in the direction that we’re going tonight because of the historical context of this passage and because I think that my friend’s idea of baptism is similar to many in the church today, so we need to address it.
Let’s keep going and I’ll show you what I mean. John said:
Then Jesus comes and gets baptized, we get a glimpse of the Trinity, and Jesus is sent out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Again, we’ll get to all of that in the next few weeks. But for now, look and see, after all that, and…
Now we’re really going to get rolling. You might be wondering, what is this big difference? Jesus just said, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
And if you were to look in the Gospel of Matthew, which is more in-depth than Mark’s gospel, we see that John the Baptist said almost the same words as he called people to be baptized.
Matthew 3:1-2:
I said earlier tonight, that in this small section of Scripture, we see seismic shift in the way people interacted with God and how God interacts with us. But, if you look at John the Baptist and you look at Jesus, they both were telling people that the Kingdom of God was near and told the people to repent.
And John said there was a difference in the baptisms, but what is it, what is the difference.
I think one of the main differences is that, while both told their people to repent and that the Kingdom of God was near, Jesus didn’t stop there. He told the people Repent, AND believe the Good News.
And listen. Believing was always required. I'm not saying faith wasn't an issue before Jesus came on the scene. We’re told that it is by faith that Abraham was declared righteous. If you read Hebrews 11 you see that believing was the most important thing. So, why am I making such a big deal out of it here?
Why am I trying to say that this is such a big deal that Jesus says “believe the good news” and John the Baptist doesn’t?
I think it is because Jesus wasn’t just saying believe the Good News will happen…someday. It was more like, look. LOOK! I’m Here!
Jesus was telling those who had ears to hear. The time has come, now believe it!
Before Jesus came it was action heavy, but with Jesus things are getting flipped all around.
In John 6:28-29 this crowd said to Jesus,
And so when I say that there was a seismic shift in history - seen in this small passage of Mark - am I making that up?
No, what I did was look through the rest of the Scriptures until I found an answer to my questions in the Word of God.
And just as a side note - that is what I want to urge you to do as a first step when you get to a troublesome text. Compare it with Scriptures. That is a key, a foundational tool in bible study. In college they have pounded this into us. They say, “Let Scripture interpret Scripture.”
In other words, if you get to a troublesome passage, start exploring the Word of God in prayer and say, “Okay, what more can we learn here?”
When studying this passage, I looked at all the other areas where we see John the Baptist and Jesus in the same proximity – whether that be other accounts of the baptism of Jesus, or Jesus sending a report back to John, when John was in prison – I just kept searching for all the connections and then I finally saw Jesus unpack the idea that we have to keep clear.
It’s the Big Idea for tonight: John was the last – THE LAST – of the old time prophets and Jesus was bringing in a completely new deal. In fact Jesus said it like this:
(Luke 16:16 ESV)
Here’s the deal. From Genesis on, we have seen history play out according to the design of our Sovereign Lord.
And everything. EVERYTHING points to His glory.
He created the heavens and earth and everything contained within. Pointing to His glory by demonstrating His awesome power, mind blowing creativity, and infinite love for us. He created this wonder of creation and then made us in His image so that we might take it all in, enjoy it, delight in it, experience it to it’s fullest and in all of that - praise Him and share fellowship with Him. It was a gift to demonstrate His glory.
Then the story continued and we see that before long we wrecked things in rebellion against Him. And at that moment He would have been able to show His Glory in the way of His perfect Justice by wiping the human race out. He promised death and His glory would have been revealed in our just punishment.
But instead He demonstrated His glory by showing us His perfect Mercy and Grace. All the while revealing more and more about Himself.
And we can go on for eternity talking about this, but we’ll hold off on that, let me hit a few highlights.
As God revealed His mercy from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac and on and on through the generations, He also began giving us a sketch of what his Master plan looked like.
And that’s what we see throughout the Old Testament. The promises of the prophets for a coming King who would make everything right. That was a line drawing of what was to come.
And the ceremonial laws and sacrificial systems for the Nation of Israel pointed out the serious and disgusting nature of humanity’s sin and the need for a substitute to take the punishment for our sin. That was a foreshadowing of something greater than the animal sacrifices.
And the Law – just look at the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 – they showed us God’s glory in his love for us by saying – This is how you are to live if you are to live according to your design. But even the law was only a one-dimensional picture.
Then Jesus came onto the scene. The God of the Universe with skin on, In Him we see the nature of God it it’s fullness.
It’s like everything before Christ was a coloring book that hadn’t been filled in. There was sketch, but no color.
Jesus said clearly, that He didn’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.
So with all of that said, let’s look again at Baptism.
What’s the difference between the baptism in water by John the Baptist and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit from Jesus.
And actually I promised to give you A difference, not the difference.
So here it is: A difference that we MUST SEE is this: John’s form of baptism gave a person hope in a future promise.
Let me repeat that, John’s form of baptism gave a person hope in a future promise. Which is what we saw again and again throughout the Old Testament – Hope in a future Promise.
But that ended with John, or more truly it blossomed from the time of John when Jesus came onto the scene.
Instead of simply or only giving a hope in a future promise, Jesus’ form of baptism, baptism in the Holy Spirit gave hope for the future to be sure! But also: POWER in the present.
That’s what my friend didn’t understand about baptism in the Christian life. Yes we hope for the future, Yes we keep looking in hopeful anticipation for the return of the King, but if that is all we have, what more do we have than the Old Testament saints?
When John baptized the people, it was similar to the rest of the ceremonial Law. It was an act of repentance where the people cleansed themselves in anticipation of the Messiah.
And we have been given so much more!
When we come to faith and we are baptized – in that order – We join Christ in His death. What do I mean?
The first part of the baptism is a symbol that declares how we join Jesus in His death. When we are put under the water - it’s a burial.
It is not merely a cleansing like the baptism from John. We don’t look forward hoping that He will someday cleanse us. No! We acknowledge that the cleansing has already been accomplished in Him.
And when we rise up out of the water, it’s a symbol of us joining Christ in the Resurrection. Even though our physical bodies have not been resurrected yet, Paul says it is as good as done. Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection to come. And we can live by that power NOW!
We don’t have to wait for the Power. If we are believers we are in Christ and the Holy Spirit is IN us - NOW!
So we no longer have to rely on our strength, we can rely on God’s strength We have power Now.
We don’t have to seek revenge, we can allow God to be our vindicator. We have that power to forgive Now!
We don’t live in the weakness of those who say, I CAN’T succeed, I CAN’T endure, I CAN’T fight the temptations. We don’t live in the weakness or stubbornness that declares I CAN’T forgive, like my friend who won’t share in communion at their church.
No we have the Power of the resurrection. We have the Holy Spirit, we are empowered by Christ to do the Will of the father – Our Father. We have the Power to believe Him and walk in that faith.
We are more than conquerors because we have not simply been baptized with water, but we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
We have gone public with a demonstration, an outward sign, an ordinance of the Church. That makes clear what God has done in our hearts.
He has made us new. So yes. We share in a hope for the future because we know that the Kingdom will come in all of its glory and we will soon be face to face with Jesus the returning King.
But! We also share in POWER right NOW to push the KINGDOM MISSION in our time and in our place. To push it boldly and without fear.
Now listen, this is something that excites me tremendously. I believe that you absolutely NEED Christ. We want you to receive what He has purchased for YOU at the cross. It starts with believing. If that is where you are tonight and you are ready to take hold of Christ as He takes hold of you and delivers you out of Hell and into the family of God than praise His name.
But once you are there, we don’t make you take a bunch of classes before you get baptized. The church that we see in the New Testament, the Christ followers didn’t make people recite a catechism before they baptized them. The person believed the good news, the repented of their sins and they were baptized that very day.
If you are there if you have believed, we see no reason why you shouldn’t be baptized tonight. And that’s how we roll. You come to one of us and tell us that you are in and you are ready to be baptized that you are ready to go public with your faith, we are blessed to usher you through this act of obedience.
(Acts 2:38-41; 8:12-13; 8:36-38; 16)
If this is you, get with me as soon as we are done here and we’ll make it happen. Amen?
And listen if you have been baptized, but it was simply a work that you did. If you only saw it as some sort of action something where you just were going through the motions, then I am calling you as the Word of God would instruct me to do, I am calling you to be baptized in faith, not merely repentance, but faith.
I’m calling you to a baptism that doesn’t just cleanse, but a baptism that symbolizes the truth that you have died to yourself and have been raised again in Christ.
And here’s where I’m getting that. We’re almost done, but turn with me to
Acts 19:1-5
Likewise, if you have merely been baptized in a baptism of repentance, if it was not a baptism of faith, with your heart set on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then don’t just be a wet sinner, fulfill Jesus’ will for you once and for all time.
Let’s pray…
