Tag Archives: baptise

God Breaks The Silence

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GOD BREAKS THE SILENCE

And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptise you with water, but He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1: 7-8).

Was this the message that captivated the crowds so that they came from far and near to hear this wild prophet? God had been silent for 400 years. Oh yes, there were many who acted in His name. Through the turmoil of those four centuries, when Israel was caught between rival empires and tossed back and forth like a volley ball in a beach match, God was not inactive. Silent, but at work, orchestrating circumstances and events to prepare the way for the arrival of His Messiah, God moved each nation into position.

Suddenly, out of the blue, God speaks again through the mouth of a man who seemed to materialise out of nowhere. Not many would have remembered his miraculous birth thirty years before, to an elderly couple from a priestly clan who were long past childbearing years. How would they, when he did not even have his father’s name?

Not only was his appearance out of nowhere and his wild look and wild ways riveting, but also his message was nothing like the message of any other prophet before him. Messiah was no longer a vague and mysterious figure of the future but He was here, about to make His appearance among them, and he, John, was His forerunner. Where was He and why was his Herald not appropriately dressed and riding ahead of Him on a fine steed and blowing a trumpet to announce His presence?

Everything was so different from what they expected. This “Messiah” was no ordinary monarch, arriving on the scene with pomp and ceremony to take over the kingdom and drive out the occupying Romans. His birth, too, thirty years previously, was hardly remembered. A few shepherds on a hillside outside Bethlehem, were summoned to greet Him. Some might have remembered the horrifying slaughter of infant boys because the despotic and neurotic Herod ordered it. Most of those who remembered did not even know why.

John made it clear that he knew his place with this man. He was no more than a voice to announce His arrival and a servant who did as he was told. He took no credit for his task. He was appointed to do it and he did it with passion, shouting to all who would listen that it was time for them to stop living as they pleased and return to the way of the Lord.

His message was short and to the point. “I am not the one. He is coming after me. I immerse you in water as a symbol of cleansing and setting you apart for a new life. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit.” What was that all about? They thought Messiah was coming to set up God’s kingdom in Israel once again – free from Roman oppression, to enjoy the bounty of God’s provision and protection from all their enemies.

What was this about the Holy Spirit? Who or what was this Holy Spirit? What did He or it have to do with Messiah and what they expected Him to do? Mark’s version of John’s message is a summary which is expanded by Matthew and Luke.

I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3: 11-12).

What was he getting at? Was he talking about separating believers from unbelievers and sending the unbelievers to hell? Hardly! Since the chaff is part of the wheat grains but inedible, the process of winnowing was to separate the chaff from the wheat so that the edible part could be gathered up and the worthless part burned. Is this not speaking about removing from people’s lives that which was useless so that their lives would be purified and become worthwhile and profitable as God’s people?

Messiah did not come to get rid of the Romans. He came to deal with sin, once and for all, and to return the Holy Spirit to the lives of His people so that He would continue the work of cleansing His people by separating out the “chaff” in their lives and consigning it to the “fire”.  John’s work was to make the people aware of the identity of Messiah, and to pave the way for His atoning work on the cross.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Baptising

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BAPTISING

“After this, Jesus and His disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them, and baptised. Now John was also baptising at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptised, (This was before John was put in prison).” John 3:22-24.

What was all this baptising about? Who were Jesus and John baptising and why? Were they sprinkling water on people’s heads or were they dunking them under the water?

Baptism, or ritual washing, was an ancient and common practice in Israel. It was carried out in obedience to the Law of Moses for many different reasons. It was also the way of ritual cleansing and initiation into an office e.g., the priesthood, or a movement.

John was a rabbi who had a following of disciples and a “yoke”, an interpretation of the Torah and a lifestyle that he adhered to and placed upon his followers as did Jesus. As he taught about the Messiah, preparing the way for His coming, people wanted to show that they accepted and identified with what John was teaching and the way to do it publicly was through ritual washing.

It would seem that Jesus was initiating His own disciples into Himself and His teaching as well, so that they would become different people while John was baptising people who were willing to change their minds and accept what John was teaching them about the Messiah. The act of washing in running water was symbolic of washing away who they were and giving them a new beginning in a new understanding and way of life according to what their rabbi had taught them.

Were John and Jesus in competition, each drawing a following and initiating their disciples into their teaching and way of life? For a while they were both teaching and baptising, but John in no way acted like a rival. In fact, John, the author of this gospel, records John the Baptist’s purpose, more than once, of pointing people to Jesus. He did not object when some of his disciples left him to follow Jesus.

“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God.’ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.” John 1:35-37.

When his disciples questioned John about Jesus’ popularity, he responded that he was only the friend of the bridegroom, not the bridegroom. His job was to attend to bridegroom and announce His arrival. He concluded, “He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:30.

God had a drastic and unusual way of solving this problem. John did not disappear back into the wilderness. He was forcefully removed by Herod who had him thrown in prison at the instigation of his unscrupulous wife, Herodias. Why did God allow that to happen?

I cannot presume to understand all God’s ways, but it seems to me that John’s work was done. It was his task to prepare the way for Messiah, to announce His arrival and to point out who He was to those who heard him. Did he fulfil his calling? Yes, he did. There was no reason for him to continue because he would actually be in Jesus’ way.

His removal seems cruel but we have to ask, “Would it have been better for him to languish in a dungeon for years, never seeing the light of day and living in a hope that was never fulfilled?” It was through God’s mercy that he was taken out suddenly and drastically, leaving Jesus to fulfil His mission without a rival. The people no longer needed John’s message or John’s baptism because the Messiah was among them. John’s work was preparatory and complete.

We cannot always discern the wisdom and ways of the Lord. We know that He is good and always does what is best for us. His ways, Paul said, are “past finding out”. He asks us to trust Him when we cannot see the way ahead.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Soaked In The Spirit

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SOAKED IN THE SPIRI 

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man comes after me who has surpassed me because He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptising 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. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.'” John 1:29-34 (NIV)

There you have it, straight from John’s mouth! It seems that John and Jesus, although they were relatives, had no connection with one another until this moment. Jesus grew up in the northern province of Galilee and John in Judea in the south. There were no motor vehicles to make the trip to Galilee or Judea easy for a family holiday, and besides that, John’s parents were elderly and probably not given to travelling around.

Naturally John knew about Jesus — had his father not prophesied over him at his birth that he would be a prophet and forerunner of the Messiah? Had he himself not leapt for joy in his mother’s womb when she came face to face with Mary, mother of the Messiah? Would his parents not have thoroughly prepared him for the day when he would begin his role as priest-prophet in Israel, the first after 400 years of prophetic silence?

And what about the time he spent in the wilderness with God, soaking up the Word he had studied and memorised during his years of preparation to be a rabbi? Of course John was a rabbi! Only rabbis had disciples — and John had his disciples as did Jesus. So crucial was John’s ministry to be that God would not have left his first meeting with Jesus to chance.

God gave John a clear sign to identify Jesus as the Messiah from among the many Jewish men he would encounter in his ministry. How would he recognise Him? Would He be wearing special clothing, have a distinguishing mark on His face or on His body, have a specific hair style, wear a name tag on His chest? Of course not! Nothing as silly as that!

The Spirit! The Holy Spirit was the key, but how would John know that the Holy Spirit was on Him? God told him that he would see the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Jesus and that would be the sign that He was the Messiah. And it happened!

This was the first and only time in Scripture that the Holy Spirit was visible to human eyes. Matthew and Mark wrote that Jesus saw the Spirit descending while Luke simply related the fact that the Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove. That must have been visible to someone who either wrote it down or told Luke about it.

But John saw the Holy Spirit and to him this was a sign of great significance because it showed him exactly who the Messiah was. From that moment he used every opportunity to point out to those who followed him or came to listen to him that Jesus of Nazareth was God’s Chosen One. That was his job and he did it with great delight and with all his heart.

The apostle John, with hindsight after decades of contemplation, weighing up the evidence of John’s ministry and his years with Jesus, recognised in John the qualities that made him a truly great prophet. After His baptism when John the Baptist knew who the Messiah was by the visible presence of the Holy Spirit coming upon Him, he used every opportunity to point Him out to the people. ‘Look, there’s the One I keep telling you about, God’s Lamb who is to be sacrificed for the world’s sin.’

John was not intent on drawing attention to Jesus to make Him popular but to introduce Him in His true role as God’s sacrificial Lamb, not just for the sin of Israel alone but for the sin of the world. Jesus cautioned those who were healed not to speak about it because He did not want to be known as the miracle-worker who did things for people. That was evidence of the real reason why He came, to take away the sin of the world so that God’s wayward sons and daughters could return home to the Father.

The Holy Spirit was crucial to Jesus who laid aside His deity to live as a man, and He is crucial to every believer. Without the Holy Spirit in us, we are as vulnerable as the Israelites were who failed to keep the covenant God made with them at Sinai. It was His death and resurrection that cleared the way for the Holy Spirit to saturate every believer just as He saturated Jesus and empowered Him to live as a true Son and to lay down His life for us.

Are you drenched in the Holy Spirit?

What’s Your Take?

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WHAT’S YOUR TAKE? 

“Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him. ’Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah nor the Prophet?’ ‘I baptise with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know.

“‘He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptising.” John 1:24-28 (NIV).

Did John, the apostle, ever have an opportunity to chat to John the Baptist? This conversation between John the Baptist and the Pharisees who were sent to interrogate him does not appear in the other gospels. so how did the writer know about it? It was not curiosity or interest that prompted their questions. They wanted to know because they had to report back to the powers-that-be.

Why did John baptise? First of all we need to dissociate baptism from Christianity as an exclusive rite. Baptism was a common practice in Judaism. They practised mikvah, ritual washing, for many different reasons. Before a groom-to-be formally proposed to his bride-to-be, he instructed her to wash (mikvah) which indicated his intention and ritually prepared her for his proposal.

A young priest was initiated into the priesthood in the footsteps of his father by being acknowledged by his father (“This is my son”) and by being baptised into his office.

Why was John baptising? He was initiating people into the new era of Messiah, preparing the way by calling people to repentance and identity with Messiah and what He stood for through baptism. They were “washing away” the old life and taking on a new role, just as a bride-to-be was washing away her single life and taking on the role of the betrothed and soon-to-be wife. Through baptism she was separating herself from all other men to the one man who had chosen her.

Unfortunately, those who “baptise” infants have placed a different meaning on the ritual and have missed the real significance of both John’s and Jesus’ baptism. Baptism is not a new kind of circumcision. God has given us His Spirit as the sign of the New Covenant — the counterpart of circumcision, if you like. “When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 1:13b (NIV).

Just as circumcision was a sign of belonging to Israel and the guarantee of participation in God’s covenant, so also the Holy Spirit is the sign and guarantee that we belong to God, that we are His children and have the right to share in the blessings of the New Covenant.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:13-16 (NIV).

Baptism is also a sign of separation. A young woman separated herself from other men. A priest was separated to his priestly office. A believer is separated from his old life by a ritual dying, to his new life in Christ. Jesus was separated to His Messianic office and finally separated through His baptism of suffering and death to His eternal high priestly office for us.

Baptising babies to include them in the covenant people of God cannot do that because the Holy Spirit takes up residence in those who believe, not those who are sprinkled with water. Paul even made it clear that the children of Abraham are not those who are natural descendants of the patriarch but spiritual descendants who have become part of spiritual Israel because of the their faith.

“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham, ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Galatians 3:7-9 (NIV).

Why was John baptising? There was one coming, right on his heels, to whom he was pointing. He was alerting the Pharisees and religious leaders as well as all who would heed his message, that He was here to usher in the new era of God’s rule in the hearts of His people. If they responded by trusting Him, they would have the privilege of becoming a part of an entirely new way of doing life, God’s way energised by God’s Spirit.

Are you in or out?