All Age Sermon - Baptism of Jesus

All Age Service – 8th January 2012
 Mark 1.4-11 (and Acts 19.1-7) Baptism.

Intro

Today’s subject is baptism and first of all I’d like you to turn to the person next to you and compare your own baptism stories. When, How and Why were you baptized?

(+ offer my story, Billie’s, Martin and Rachel’s as examples…)

… Lots of variety in those stories! Most Christians are agreed that baptism is very important, perhaps the most important ceremony to go through, so why is there such variety in our answers to When, How and Where it should be done?

Because although Jesus and the apostles commanded their followers to do it, they didn’t leave very clear instructions. So churches have discussed it and fought and fallen out about it ever since – which is a real shame!

Perhaps the story of Jesus’s own baptism can help us out, give us some guidelines we can agree on.

Baptism of Jesus

I’m reminded of the story of a little boy who was overheard complaining ‘my mum makes me have a bath every week, even if I’m not dirty!’

ONE way of understanding baptism is our sins being washed away by God, so we can live a new life as a christian. We ALL need this, even if we think we are not dirty. The Bible also teaches that nobody is too dirty for God to make clean, which has to be Good News!

BUT if baptism is about sins being washed away, why did Jesus insist on being baptized by John? In Matthew’s version, even John himself was shocked when Jesus came to be baptized by him. John knew that his cousin was not like other people, that he had come straight from God in a special way, and that there was no badness  or sin in him at all.

You could say Jesus was the only person ever born who did not need a bath! Actually I’m sure he did need an ordinary bath, but not the special bath of baptism. So WHY did he insist on going through with it?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

(elicit reasons for Jesus being baptized and jot them down…)

(say something about each suggestion, then go on to give my suggestions and explain them as below)

SO baptism is not only about sins being washed away, it is also about (your suggestions and…)

Belonging to a family

When Jesus was baptized, God’s voice was heard from heaven saying ‘you are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. A very special moment for Jesus, even though he probably already knew from his mother that he was God’s son. The Bible teaches that our baptism is just as exciting because it is the moment of our adoption as sons or daughters in God’s family.

Looking at it the other way round, Jesus, by insisting on being baptized, showed that he was part of the human family as well as being God’s son. Because J was part of both families, he made it possible for us to be part of God’s family too.

Being equipped to serve God

John the B had predicted that Jesus would be far more powerful than him and the Bible makes it clear that he was given special power by God at his baptism when the Holy Spirit came down to rest on him, looking like a dove. In many churches, including the Anglican church, this part of baptism has been separated into a separate service called confirmation. When we have a confirmation service, the Bishop lays his hands on the heads of the people being confirmed and prays that God will send his Holy Spirit into them, to equip them to do God’s work in new and special ways. Again, Jesus’s baptism sets an example for our baptism and confirmation, so we have faith in God’s power and his desire to equip us for his work.

A Public statement about who we are

The final thing I want to mention about Jesus’s baptism is that it was carried out in a public place, for everyone to see, including the eyewitnesses whose evidence is included in our Bible. God could have baptized J in his own little private ceremony, with nobody watching, but he must have thought it was important to do it in public. We do the same because we think it is important that we make our promises and receive our adoption as God’s children in front of our friends and family and the other members of our church; the people who love us and can help us keep our promises.

Doing this makes a public statement about who we are, who we belong to, and how we intend to live our lives from now on – or how we intend to bring up our children. This might not make things easier for us, but the baptism of J in front of all the crowds at the river Jordan, sets the example for us and he also promises his protection  and his blessing to all who stand up in his name.

Conclusions

I don’t know what you think about your own baptism and your confirmation, if you’ve been confirmed. Perhaps these ceremonies were a long time ago, rites of passage which your parents put you through because of their beliefs, or because it was “tradition” or “the right thing to do”. The baptism of Jesus encourages us all to take baptism seriously and suggests it has at least 4 meanings:-

•    Washing away of sins
•    Belonging to God’s family
•    Being equipped by the Holy Spirit to serve God
•    Making a public statement about who we are and how we intend to live, with God’s help.

We follow the example of Jesus in all these aspects of baptism and we pray for all people who are baptized or confirmed that what we celebrate in these sacraments will truly take place in their lives. Its all about responding to God’s incredibly wide, deep and generous love for us and agreeing to live God’s way.

If you want to know more about being baptized or confirmed, do see me for a chat.

And for all of us my prayer is that the baptism of Jesus will help us understand our own baptism and confirmation in a deeper way, so we can be faithful and fruitful followers of Jesus and so our Father can be well pleased with us too.