Doing Church 5 - Commune (Mark 1:1-11)

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Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20) 

Baptism is part of the journey of the believer: coming to faith in Christ, becoming baptized, and then continuing on in that life of learning.  

In Acts chapter 2, Peter says to the people in Jerusalem:

“Repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

He's not saying that if you are baptized, you will be forgiven. He's saying, ‘Be baptized because you have been forgiven.’ 

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8-10) 

I'm not saved because I got baptized. I'm not saved because my parents had me baptized. I'm saved because of the work of Christ, and because I have said yes to the work of Christ. Baptism is His gift to us, our opportunity to express who we are. Baptism is an act of loving obedience. It is an act of participation in the Church.  

Sometimes people come to baptism in the spirit of repentance. And that's fine. Baptism can demonstrate to ourselves, and to the people around us, a change of heart, a choice we have made, a direction we are going. 

The water in the baptismal tank—the pastor or the deacon in the baptismal tank—has no intrinsic actual power except insofar as they are part of the expression of a surrendered life. A loving heart. A listening mind. 

 
Baptism is an 'ordinance.' The debate between the sacramental view and the ordinance view, that tug-of-war has unfortunately been at the root of a tremendous amount of division between our Church traditions—which is just wrong. Because these are the two ordinances—the two sacraments—that are most intended to draw us together. 

Baptism, regardless of your view, is a moment in a lifetime of faith. It is a turning point of commitment. It declares your identity as part of Christ's family. Communion, regardless of your view, is a rhythm of movements in a lifetime of faith, touch-points of commitment to your identity as part of Christ's family. Actions by which we individually express our commitment to Christ's family. By which we say, “This is who I am. This is whose I am. This is where I belong.”  
 

This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: 
“Behold, I will send my messenger ahead of you, Who will prepare your way.” 
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, 
Make straight paths for Him.’ ”  

John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People went out to him from all of Jerusalem and the countryside of Judea. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan river. 

John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. And he began to proclaim: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (Mark 1:1-9) 

John was a prophet: the ultimate prophet. Gospel writers Luke and John both refer to John the Baptizer by quoting another great prophet, Isaiah. They describe John the Baptizer as being the one who would prepare the path for the Kingdom of God. The Baptizer’s task was to declare, “The Messiah is coming. You are going to see Him. The world is going to be turned inside out.”

John's teaching to the people in Israel was what we call ‘eschatological,’ which refers to the ‘end times:’ to the fulfillment of God's plan for creation. What did it look like for the people who were there? John was calling people into the wilderness, and through the water. Out of the city, into the wilderness, and through the water.

What John was recreating—what he was participating in, what he was living—was a big-picture thing. He was calling people to participate in the journey of the nation of Israel itself. 

 
When the people of Israel had escaped slavery in Egypt, they had come out of the city, gone through the water, and on into the desert.

Decades later when they reached the borders of the promised land they came out of the wilderness, through the water, and on into God's plan for them in that land.

More than once they had turned their backs on the past, turned their faces toward God, gone through the water, and kept on walking the way God was leading.  

When Jesus stood in the river at His baptism He wasn't there to be baptized because He was in need of salvation. He was there representing Israel itself. Throughout the Old Testament, God describes Israel as ‘My son.’

Just as the nation of Israel went through the Red Sea and into their 40 years of following God in the desert; just as the nation went through the Jordan River and into their promised future of trusting and following God—in the same way Jesus went through the water and beyond. Into the 40 days of testing in the desert. Into His life of trusting and following God.  

As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water and suddenly the heavens were opened and He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:10-11) 

When we choose to be baptized, we take our place on that same journey. Out of the old, through the waters, and into the new.  

Several of Jesus’ own apostles were baptized in the water by John. They went on to baptize others. Who went on to baptize others, and one of those others baptized a man named Ananias, who baptized the apostle Paul, who went on to baptize other people. And other people. And other people. And other people, and on down through the generations. And one of those people baptized Bill Rowe, and he baptized me. This is our place in the family. This is our place in the story that we live and live and live as Christ's followers.  

The apostle Paul describes it as being: 

... buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3) 

We as a church do acknowledge the value and the meaning of some of the rites of passage practiced by some other Church traditions. But we hold that baptism by immersion—surrendering our whole bodies to the trusted hands of another believer, performed in community—is the best, and the closest to what was established by our first brothers and sisters in the Church. 

 
Baptism is a cleansing of the body, yes. But it is a sign that we have chosen to join the family called out from within families. To join the nation called out from among nations, to live according to law of the Kingdom of Christ.  

Baptism is a moment of commitment in a lifetime of faith. Baptism is an act of loving obedience. 

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