CHRIST CHURCH
January 11 2009
Mark 1:4-8

And so John came baptising on the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judaean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptised in the river Jordan.
John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt round his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: 'After me one more powerful than I, the thongs 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'.

I want to concentrate this morning on the opening verses of the reading from Mark's Gospel, and particularly on the issue it raises of baptism- a theme also taken up in this morning's reading from the Acts.

But before I go on to that just note John's total humility before Jesus; the one to come after him, and really John's only mission was to prepare for Jesus. I'm not worthy, he says, even to untie the laces of his sandals. Let's just realise what John is saying. In that society, when a guest of honour arrived in a house, the first thing to be done, and the most menial was to take off the sandals from the feet of the guest after a journey along the dusty roads. I'M NOT WORTHY EVEN OF THAT MOST MENIAL OF TASKS!. That's a huge statement that John makes, and it invites us to examine our attitude in the service of Jesus.

John's whole raison d'etre was to prepare the way for Jesus. He was the one foretold in the Old Testament prophecies. He was the the voice of one calling in the wilderness as in Isaiah chapter 40. And to prepare the people for their coming Messiah, he baptises them in the river Jordan. They are baptised after they had repented their sins.
Baptism in water was actually no innovation by John. It was seen, and still is, as a washing, water being the necessity for cleansing. Even in the Old Testament, people were told to wash themselves clean from their sins. The cry of David in Psalm 51 is wash me and I will be clean. Proselytes- converts, to Judaism were deemed to need the cleansing of baptism before they could be counted fit to be admitted. John is in effect saying that they needed to be cleansed because One greater than he was coming after him. So- people came to John, they confessed their sins, and then they were baptised.
By repentance, the people would understand the need to 'turn', or to 'turn back' This was a constant theme of the prophets, and they meant not just a change of attitude but a total commitment to God's service.


If John spoke of Jesus as one greater, more powerful than himself, then he follows this up by contrasting the water baptism which he had ministered and the baptism which Jesus would bring. Jesus, he said, will baptise you with the Holy Spirit'. This would be something totally new, totally different to the water baptism of repentance which John had brought.

So, what was, what is the difference?.
Well for one the baptism of John was a human initiative. The call to baptism was by John (as God's messenger) who in many ways stood in the line of the Old Testament prophets. Spirit baptism was something done by Jesus and part of God's timing and plan. We do not plan or effect our own Spirit baptism.
The Old Testament prophets had included prophecies of Spirit baptism. We read for example in Ezekiel 36:27 I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and to keep my laws. Joel 2:28 speaks of God pouring out his Spirit on all flesh. We see the historical fulfilment of these prophecies and of John's words on the Day of Pentecost; the day commonly seen as the Birthday of the Church.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is an essential part of Christian living. Paul in Ephesians 5:18 says be filled with the Holy Spirit- and that command- and first note it is a command, is grammatically a present continuous; a subtelty that is lost outside the Greek used in the New Testament.
If we sidestep to Acts 19 for a moment we see Paul in Ephesus meeting a group of believers, but when he questions them he discovers the only baptism they knew of was John's. They had repented; they knew of Jesus, but had never gone any further. How easy that can be- to repent, to know about Jesus, but never to go any further!
Paul sees here an immediate need- first to baptise them in he Name of Jesus, and then he laid hands on these men and immediately the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Note this last was God's doing, and his gracious doing.

There has been much contention about Holy Spirit baptism. Let's not miss its importance. And let's just note two final points.
    The command to be baptised is in the plural. The English language's 'you' fails to make the distinction, but in New Testament Greek it is almost invariably plural. We tend to be very individualistic in our thinking, and salvation is a personal thing, so that often all our Christianity becomes centred around 'God and me'.
Let us not forget that on the Day of Pentecost all the believers were baptised simultaneously.
    The word baptise is a transliteration of the Greek word 'baptiz'o'. And it means to immerse. It was a word taken from the dyeing industry. You took a piece of cloth, and if you wanted some red cloth, well then you dipped it into a vat of red dye. The cloth had been dyed, it had been baptised. Verses like Romans 12:5 should shatter our illusions. In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. I just wonder what might happen if we abandoned our hyper-individualitic lifestyles and took that verse seriously and along with it the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit?