Series: Mark, #1
April 15, 2007
BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
Mark 1:1-13
Mark 1:1-13
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[2] It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way"--
[3] "a voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' "
[4] And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. [6] John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. [7] And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
[9] At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. [10] As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
[12] At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, [13] and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
I.
Prepare the Way for the Lord
A Repent! Mark 1:2-4; Habakkuk 1:13; Isaiah 59:1-2; 2 Cor. 7:10-11
It had been 400 years since a true prophet of God had been in Israel. The people continued to hope and pray for Messiah, but it looked more and more like a lost cause. God seemed to have abandoned them. Then a man named John, a relative of Jesus, who was about 30 years old, suddenly showed up in the desert region preaching and baptizing people. On this map, the area where John was most likely working was east of Jerusalem, and north of the Dead Sea. There is another place much further north, just south of the Sea of Galilee, where tourists get baptized, but Mark tells us John was in the desert region, and that description fits the southern Jordan River Valley better. The Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level, and the whole Jordan River valley is well below sea level. That means it is extremely hot and dry and barren. The perfect place for a prophet!
John wore really rustic clothing—camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist—and he ate locusts and honey. His appearance alone was enough to draw attention to him—not just because it was so strange, but because it reminded people of the great prophet Elijah who dressed like that (2 Kings 1:8; see also Zech. 13:4). Was this a true prophet? Had God sent them a man to speak for Him?
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all saw John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Mark 1:2, “It is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way—a voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’”
John’s job was to call the people to prepare for the coming of Jesus, the Lord. He told them to make Jesus’ paths straight—i.e. make it easy for Him to come to them. How could they do that? They had to repent of their sins. Because sin is an obstacle, a barrier between God and us. Habakkuk 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” Isaiah 59:1-2, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. [2] But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
It’s the same for us. Our sin separates us from the holy God, so that we can’t have fellowship with Him. If you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved? So what can we do about that? Repent, just as John the Baptist told his hearers 2,000 years ago.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul gives us a good description of what genuine repentance looks and feels like. 2 Cor. 7:10-11, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. [11] See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done...” True repentance, that motivated by godly sorrow, will grip our hearts. We become willing to do anything, to make any change necessary. It’s not just a perfunctory, “I’m sorry,” like siblings will say under pressure from their parents. It’s not just being sorry for the consequences of our sin. It’s a deep, sincere regret that results in changed behavior. The word repent in Greek literally means “to change one’s mind” (metanoeo). We come to the place where we see ourselves for who we are; we see our behavior as God sees it, and are repulsed by it. Is your heart broken by your sin? Are you desperate to make it right? If not, you haven’t repented in the biblical sense.
Repentance might be felt in the heart, but it is shown in our behavior. Matthew 3:7-8 elaborates a bit on John’s ministry out there in the Jordan River valley. “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? [8] Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.’” There’s a story about a crooked house painter who would sometimes thin the paint he put on the house. One time as he was working on a house, he realized that he was not going to have enough paint to cover it, so rather than buy more paint, he added a little water to it and kept going. Soon he realized he still was not going to have enough, so he added more water. He was almost to the end of that wall, but it wasn’t quite going to make it, so he added still more water, and finished it up. Just as he finished the last little bit, he heard thunder, and then the rain started, slowly at first, but then it became a downpour. As he stood there in the rain, he watched the rain wash all the thinned paint right off the house. In desperation, he fell to his knees and cried out, “O God! What should I do?!” And a voice came from heaven in the thunder, “Repaint, and thin no more!” But that’s it: repentance will lead us to go back, do it right, and not do it wrong again. Fruit in keeping with repentance is changed behavior.
B. How can we prepare the way for Him?
We can play a similar role to that of John the Baptist in the lives of our friends. How can we prepare the way for Christ to come to them? Unfortunately, all too often, we are obstacles in their way, rather than people who smooth the path. Someone has said that the primary reason people become Christians is other Christians, and the main reason people do not become Christians is other Christians. So if we were to see ourselves as preparers of the way, what would we do?
· We’d live lives that reflect well on Jesus, and we’d be honest and authentic when we fail.
· We’d give Him the credit when we do something well and people congratulate us.
· We’d pray for our friends and relatives to know Jesus and His love and grace.
· We’d look for ways to serve people, to meet their needs, to share Christ’s love with them.
· We’d look for opportunities to talk about what a difference He has made in our lives.
Every one of us has people in our lives who are important to us who do not yet know the love, the joy, the peace, the wholeness that Jesus can bring them. Let’s be thinking all the time of how we could be like John the Baptist and prepare the way for Christ to come into their lives.
II. John’s Baptism and Christian Baptism Mark 1:4; Matt 28:19,20
John was calling people to repent, and if they were serious about it, he would baptize them as a sign of their repentance and of God’s forgiveness. The water symbolized God’s cleansing from their sin, and the fact that they were starting over with a clean slate.
This was not the same as the baptism that Jesus instituted, but it had some similarities. To begin with, repentance was a prerequisite for both. And the water symbolized cleansing from sin in both. But Christian baptism has some other aspects to it.
When a person puts their trust in Christ as Savior and Lord, God does a number of things for that person immediately. We call baptism a sacrament, a sacred ceremony, that means four things about a person, all of which are true because of their faith and trust in Christ.
A. Baptism means that you are
1. United with Christ. You are baptized in, or into, the Name of God. (Mt. 28:19) This means that you are united with Him by faith. You are now "in Christ", and all the promises in the Bible that apply to those who are truly Christians are now true of you.
2. Forgiven. The water is a symbol of cleansing—a spiritual cleansing that God has done in your hearts. No matter how hard we scrub the outside of our bodies, there is nothing we can do to clean ourselves from sin. But God can! The water is a sign that He has forgiven you all of your sin because of your trust in Christ.
3. You are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 says, "Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." This water is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit, who was poured out by God at Pentecost.
4. Your baptism into Christ identifies you with Him in certain elements of His experience. The Scripture says you are buried with Him in baptism, and become dead to sin, so that sin need no longer dominate your life. You are now raised with Christ to new life, to serve God. Immersion pictures this best, as we go down under the water, and then are raised up out of it.
So baptism is an outward sign of these inward works of God in our lives. He does these things for us simply because we trust Him as our Lord and Savior.
Baptism also means that the one being baptized is saying some things to the world.
B. Baptism is your way of saying
1. You repent of your sin. You are admitting that you are a sinner in God's sight, and that you need His cleansing and forgiveness. You are leaving behind--turning your back on--any way of life that is disobedient to Jesus Christ. This is repentance.
2. You are committing yourself to obey Jesus Christ. You are saying that you are determined to live as He wants you to, in every area of your life, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. You belong to Christ. You are publicly stating that you are a Christian. You cannot hide that fact from anyone. In other countries that is less a cause for celebration than it is a reason to be afraid, because millions of people are severely persecuted for their faith. But that’s what baptism is: a statement to the world that you belong to Christ.
If you can’t say these things, then you shouldn’t be baptized.
III. Jesus’ Baptism Mark 1:9-11; cf. Mark 9:7
So John was out there in the desert, preaching what we might call “hell-fire and damnation” sermons, calling people to repent of their sins and to be baptized. And then here comes Jesus. Mark 1:9, “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. [10] As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus was not baptized by John because He was a sinner who needed to repent. His baptism marked the beginning of His public ministry, and the empowering of the Holy Spirit for that ministry. He sees the Spirit descending on Him like a dove (by the way, this is why the Holy Spirit is often represented by a dove in art) and He hears the Father speak to Him: You are my Son. I love you. I am well pleased with you. The road Jesus was starting on that day was going to be long and hard—far harder than anything we will ever do. What an encouragement to hear from His Father that day in that way.
If you were about to begin some difficult work for God, and you weren’t sure if you could pull it off, or see it through, wouldn’t you love to hear these words from the Father? “You are my son/daughter. I love you. I am well pleased with you.” Wow! We need that kind of encouragement, don’t we? We especially need it when we are struggling with life, when we don’t seem to be doing well, when we are taking two steps backwards. Some people spend their whole lives striving to deserve this word from God—working hard, trying to do it all right, trying to keep all the rules, hoping against hope to hear Jesus say these words to them. Friends, I have good news for you. If you are in Christ today, this is exactly what God is saying to you: “You are my son/daughter. I love you. I am well pleased with you.” You think you have to measure up, to earn that, but you don’t. Because if you are in Christ, then God does not see your sin, He sees the righteousness of Christ. You are His son, His daughter. He does love you more than you can imagine. And, unbelievable as it sounds, He is well pleased with what He has done in you, with the righteousness of Christ that He has given you. And I think that God is pleased with our efforts to please Him, no matter how feeble they may be. He knows our situation; He knows our family history; He knows all the circumstances of our lives that make it hard for us to obey Him. So even when we fail, He appreciates the effort. God is pleased with you. Let that assurance motivate you to please Him even more.
John tells the people, Mark 1:8, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
IV. Baptism with the Holy Spirit
A. Jesus is the Baptizer Mark 1:8
We refer to John as “the Baptist” to distinguish him from John the Apostle, but Jesus is the Baptizer, the one who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. Just as John baptized people with water, Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit.
When does He do that, and for whom?
B. For all Christians 1 Cor 12:13; Rom 8:9b
Some churches teach that baptism with the Holy Spirit (they usually say “in” the Spirit) is a second work of grace in our lives, an experience that comes after our salvation, which some Christians have but not all. Perhaps you have been asked by some well-meaning brother or sister in the Lord if you have been baptized in the Spirit. They typically believe that this experience is accompanied, or evidenced by speaking in tongues.
But the Scripture is clear that being baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit is an experience that all Christians have had. 1 Cor. 12:13, “For we were all baptized (with) one Spirit into one body…and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” In fact, Paul goes so far as to say in Romans 8:9, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” The most fundamental, objective definition of a true Christian is someone in whom the Holy Spirit of Christ lives, someone who has been baptized by Jesus with the Spirit. Some people know when that happened, because they came to a very clear decision point to give their lives to Christ. Others grew up in Christian homes, going to church all their lives, and they can’t point to a specific time when they stepped into the kingdom of God. But, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” Every true Christian has the Spirit of God living in them. The Bible says that “we were all baptized with one Spirit”. All of us who are truly saved have the Holy Spirit of Christ living in us, empowering us to live the life God wants from us.
C. The power of the Holy Spirit
What kind of power is that, exactly?
1. To be His witnesses Acts 1:8
Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until God sent them the Holy Spirit. He said, Acts 1:8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The power of the Spirit is not the power to do magic tricks and supernatural special effects.
· It is the power to bear witness to Jesus Christ.
· It is the power to sense the doors God opens before us into conversations about the Lord.
· It is the power to remember Bible verses we have learned long ago at the exact right time to share with a seeker.
· It is the power to speak clearly and boldly the wonderful news of the gospel.
· It is the power to love very unlovely people, to accept them with God’s love, even though their behavior may be far from what it should be—to be friends of sinners, as Jesus was.
· It is the power to answer hatred with kindness, short tempers with patience, hostility with forgiveness.
· In short, it is the power to be Christ to people, whatever that may mean in any given situation.
2. To be His people Galatians 5:16,22-23
But that’s not all. The Holy Spirit is also given to us to enable us to become the kinds of people we want to be and that God wants us to be. Galatians 5:16, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control.” There are many other passages that speak of the Spirit’s influence in our lives, but this one seems to summarize them all: As we live under the control and influence of the Holy Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of our sinful nature. We will have the power to say No to temptation and sin. And then He develops these wonderful character qualities of Jesus in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Is there anybody here who would not like to be like that? Of course not; we all would. That’s the kind of person the Holy Spirit can make us into, if we will submit our lives to Him.
D. Not always pleasant Mark 1:12
But notice what happens immediately after Jesus is baptized by John and sees the Spirit coming on Him: Mark 1:12, “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, [13] and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” The country where we think Jesus went for His temptation is along the west side of the Jordan River, just north of the Dead Sea, not far from where John was baptizing. On this map, the area is colored green, but do not be deceived. It is unbelievably hot (it’s over 1,000 feet below sea level), and dry and barren. Nothing green grows out there without irrigation. It’s not a sandy desert, like we first think of, but a very rocky, hard, desolate place, with cliffs rising up from the river flood plain to the east and west. This is where the Spirit led Jesus, immediately after He was baptized and received the visible sign of the Holy Spirit. And He led Him there to be tempted!
So while we may long to be baptized by the Spirit, and it is a very good thing, we should not think that it means we are always going to be led in paths of pleasure. The Spirit will lead us into the exact center of God’s will for us, and sometimes that is into the crucible of suffering and pain. We hate suffering, and tend to think that it cannot be part of God’s perfect plan for us; but if you read the Scripture, all of God’s people suffer, and those He uses the most are not exempt in any way. Certainly, His Son suffered more than anyone. So yes, by all means, pray for more of the Holy Spirit in your life, but don’t think that means life is going to be easy from that point on. It does, however, mean that the Holy Spirit will empower us to cope with the suffering that He leads us into.
E. Ask Luke 11:13; 2 Kings 2:9
In Luke 11, Jesus tells the story about a man who has a friend come visit late at night. He’s out of food, so he runs next door and asks his neighbor for some bread for his visitor. The neighbor is already in bed, and doesn’t want to get up, but the man just continues to pound on the door, and plead with him, and eventually, because of the man’s shameless persistence, the neighbor gets up and gives him the bread. Jesus continues, Luke 11:11-13, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
There are many good things that we can ask from God, but the Holy Spirit is the best of them all. This is to ask for God Himself to come into our lives in a new and powerful way, to take over control, to be the dominating force in our lives.
God is not like the neighbor who only reluctantly gets up to answer the plea for help; He’s much more generous than that. And even though we are evil, we still know how to give good gifts to our children. How much more will God give good gifts to us—including the best gift of all—when we ask. So we should ask. Ask God for more of His Spirit, more of His power and love in your life.
When the prophet Elijah was about to hand over his role in Israel to Elisha, he asked the younger man, 2 Kings 2:9, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha said, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” He knew that the Holy Spirit had moved powerfully in Elijah’s life and ministry, and he wanted more of that. That’s what we should ask for from God: Lord, give us more. We are so grateful that you have baptized us with your own Spirit. We love His presence, His comfort and peace and joy, His guidance, His love and His power. But we want more. We need more. O God! Give us a double portion of Your Spirit!