Why Baptism Matters

If John did show up and he was in Portland preaching, would you go down to listen to him? Would you be paying attention to his words or would you write him off as some crazy fundamentalist preacher? Would you think that he was courageous or would you think that he was judgmental? Now, be honest, be honest about how you would appraise John in your mind if that was to happen. Because remember, Jesus said that John was the greatest man to ever live.

That was how Jesus appraised John. That’s good to keep in mind as we look at this passage. John was an oddball, but the guy spoke the truth. He, honestly, if John showed up today, people would have a hard time categorizing him. I don’t think that any political party would platform him because he wouldn’t follow the party lines.

They’d be like, no, that’s not what we say. You say this. And he would say, no, I speak the truth. And then, you know, no movie makers would want to work with him because he would just offend everybody on the set. There’d be too many complaints.

But if you had the choice between hearing, John the Baptist, or hearing a sharply dressed guy with great hair who only cares about telling you what you want to hear, I think I would rather listen to John. Because John was fiercely committed to the truth, no matter how badly it hurts. I think if John wrote a book, it would be titled “Brute of Vipers.” And the subtitle would be, “I offend because I care.” God chose John to be his prophet, his mouthpiece.

God chose these prophets from Scripture to be like his voice box, the people who would proclaim his message to the world. And in the Bible, the prophet was a pretty lonely guy. They didn’t get sent out to make friends and influence people. They were not motivational speakers who went around saying, you know, here’s all these ways you can accomplish great things in your life. No, prophets had a specific calling.

They were there to pull the fire alarm. They were there to warn people, judgment is real and it is coming fast. And you are headed for a spiritual train wreck. That’s how prophets spoke. They were the watchmen on the wall who warned people that God has a law.

And it is something that we cannot break without consequences. He would warn about the wrath to come and call people to repentance. So first of all, in your notes, repentance is something we all need. It’s something we all need. No one is exempted.

Everybody needs to repent. Don’t think that they need repentance. Most people, the average person in America, the average person in the world would say repentance is great for all those people out there who have all the problems in life, those people that we don’t always like to talk about. They need repentance. I’m good.

I’m a good person. That’s how most people think. But if that’s your perspective, you’re likely the most in need of repentance. Sometimes we think of repentance as something we already did. You know, that’s what I did when I came to Christ as a child or maybe previous year, I repented.

It’s already done. It’s a one-time thing, right? But the Bible speaks of repentance as a lifestyle. It is something that is ongoing throughout our whole life of following Jesus. And Luke introduces John in that standard way.

The Old Testament always introduces prophets. The word of the Lord came to so-and-so. He says the word of God, verse two, came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Throughout the Bible, God called prophets to do some pretty bizarre things. It’s interesting when you do some research on this.

He says, like for instance, Ezekiel, God called him to lay on his side for 390 days. That sounds really uncomfortable. But it symbolized 390 years that Israel had lived in sin. See, every time they were called to do these somewhat bizarre acts, they were there to call people’s attention to the truth. Now, the Bible says we are by nature truth suppressors.

We don’t want to hear the truth about ourselves or about God, by nature. He would rather be told the lie when it comes to how we’re doing spiritually. But John spoke the truth. He exposed sin with the light of truth. And Luke says John went around proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Now, that doesn’t mean that baptism earns forgiveness. Some people have been brought up in traditions where they were taught that as you go into the water or as you’re sprinkled as a baby or however it’s done, that that is somehow washing away the original sin. The Bible never teaches that. Baptism is not a work that earns forgiveness, but it is connected to repentance. And unless we repent, we can’t be forgiven.

Jesus himself would say that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Everybody needs repentance because we all need to be forgiven. Prophets were called to declare that unpopular truth that nobody else wanted to hear and nobody else was willing to say it. The truth is to ask that question of himself, am I going to declare God’s truth even when it’s unpopular? Even when it’s something that might offend others?

Or am I going to tell people what they want to hear so that I’m well liked? It’s the same with relationships. Truth is the foundation of every healthy relationship. The more you lie or the more you start to tell people only what they want to hear, that relationship is actually suffering because of it. Because truth is what connects people.

And the more you lie, the more you’re putting up this side and it’s a fake relationship. There’s nothing genuine happening there. The soothing lie is always worse than the painful truth because whatever happiness a lie brings is always temporary. But the truth lasts forever. A mentor of mine once taught me that one of the goals of preaching is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I think that’s true. And it can only be true if we preach the truth and grace. We need both. Not one for the expense of the other, but both of them are needed. John’s wild appearance and camel skin jacket stood in contrast to the long flowing robes of the Pharisees and the religious leaders.

Camel skin, by the way, was really uncomfortable. It was this coarse material. It was not fun to wear. And so even as he’s wearing this, he is symbolizing this need to strip away that self-righteous pretension. Strip away all that and be right before God.

Be in his presence. And this is what baptism represented. By going down into the water, we’re identifying with Christ with his burial, with his death. And by coming up out of the water, we’re identifying with Christ in his resurrection. One of the reasons Jesus calls us to be baptized is he wants us to publicly identify with him.

To show the world, I am with Jesus now. I am immersed in him. I belong to him. And we’re portraying the gospel in our faith and Him and the cleansing He gives us. Now, obviously, at this point, Jesus hadn’t yet gone to the cross.

And so what John is doing is he’s baptizing, but it’s a foreshadowing of the baptism that we practice today. Because at that point, all that was showing is you need to repent and you need cleansing. And today, we know where that cleansing comes from. Baptism had long been a practice for Gentiles who wanted to join the Jewish faith. They would bring in people from all over, and they would baptize them right there in the Jordan River.

And that was their way of saying, I am now a follower of Yahweh. But John offended all the Jewish leaders because he said, you also need to be baptized. And they would say, no, no, we are Jewish. We are Abraham’s descendants. We don’t need to repent and be baptized.

We’re already in the group. We’re already part of God’s people. But John said in verse eight, don’t tell yourself you’re fine because you’re Abraham’s descendants. For I tell you, God is able from these stones who raise up children for Abraham. In the same way, John would warn churchgoers today.

Don’t assume that you’re okay because you were raised by Christian parents or because you were raised with Christian values. Don’t assume that you’re doing okay. See, our problem is that we read the Gospels and we think, wow, those Pharisees were so self-righteous. And we assume that we don’t struggle with that same problem. If repentance doesn’t seem like a big need for your life, you’re thinking like a Pharisee.

That’s how they thought. In your notes, when we repent in our baptized, we model Christ for the world. See, John offended many people. And basically, he followed the same pattern we see all through the Old Testament. The prophets would get up and they would speak the truth.

And people would get upset with them and angry with them. But they would keep speaking the truth. And then people would say, you know what, we got to silence this guy. We got to imprison him. We got to shackle him.

And eventually, they often killed the prophet. Prophets. That would eventually happen to John the Baptist. Hebrews 11, what’s often called the Hall of Faith passage, we read about these faithful prophets. Hebrews 11 verse 35 says, And Luke tells us that John was one of them.

And Isaiah illustrated repentance by talking about this massive public works project. Verse five says, That’s why they feel comfortable saying, you know, those people over there are wicked and that they’re willing to condemn certain people but be confident of their own goodness. It’s rooted in pride. Today, we have something called pride parades. But pride is not something to celebrate.

It’s not something to have a parade for. God actively opposes the prayer. That’s what the Bible says. We tend to think that there’s good people and there’s bad people. Of course, we like to put ourselves in the good people category.

It’s more accurate to say there’s humble people and there’s proud people. None of us fit into the good people category according to the Bible. None is righteous. No, not one. But the question is, will you be humble or proud?

Will you tell yourself, I don’t need God and be in that group that God actively opposes? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in that group because God actively opposes. I want to be among those who God shows favor. The Bible says God shows favor to the humble. And he says, every valley shall be filled.

In other words, the broken hearted need to have their hearts filled with the love of God. It’s not enough just to level the pride and blow up those mountains of pride in our heart. We need to be filled with something else. We need to be filled with the love of God to know that we are wanted by Him. Jesus, who will say things like you who are evil, talking about us, and say things like no one is good, but God alone, He’s also the one who laid down His life for us, who bore our sin in our place.

And He replaces our self-righteousness with His righteousness. And the result Isaiah says is that all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Here’s what he means. If every Christian was to forsake self-righteousness and practice repentance, the world would be transformed. Just recently I heard the hard news about another famous Christian author who fell into a moral failure.

And it always hurts to hear that news because we think, you know, that’s a way of besmirching Jesus because if we belong to Jesus, then we’re His and we’re to honor Him with body and soul, everything. But just think of what it would mean if every Christian made repentance their way of life. They lived with brokenhearted humility, confessing sin, refusing to live like the world. What would that do? How would that change the way people think of Christianity and think of the church?

In Isaiah’s words, all flesh would see the salvation of God. Because everybody would look at the church and say, look at the difference that Jesus Christ can make in a life. Look how He makes those people who are proud once, humble and acknowledge they need a savior. It can’t happen without repentance. And honestly, even though repentance can seem like an old fashioned word, it’s actually a very beautiful thing.

Hardly anyone, or hardly anything, I should say, commends Christianity to the world like repentant Christians, humble, self-righteous, forsaking Christians. So how do we repent? Many people struggle to understand it. People wonder why is it that I still struggle with the same old sinful habits. Why can’t I be free of this thing that I know does not honor God?

And I just wish it wasn’t a part of my life. Many people ask that question. We resonate with the Apostle Paul when he says, “For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” That’s Romans 7, 15. In your notes, repentance is about seeing our sin as God sees it.

Seeing our sin as God sees it. And again, the biggest reason most Christians don’t practice repentance on a regular basis is we don’t think we need it. We think that’s something that applies to other people. We’ve given our lives to Jesus. We’ve trusted in His cross and resurrection.

That’s all that’s needed, right? Now, I do want to be clear about something. Repentance does not earn salvation. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from our sin. There’s nothing we could do to earn forgiveness, but repentance is necessary because apart from repentance, we don’t see our need for a Savior.

That’s why John was there. He’s preparing people’s hearts. He’s breaking up. He’s tilling up the ground of people’s hearts, saying, “You need to be ready for the Savior.” Jesus will later say, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

And it’s through repentance that we become like Jesus each day. You know you’re beginning to practice repentance. If you see your sin in a new light. If your sin is no longer just that thing that annoys you and aggravates you, no, if your sin is something you hate. Not hating yourself, but hating your sin.

And not just hating the consequences of sin. Nobody likes that, but hating the sin itself because you recognize that this is rebellion against my Creator. And I hate it because of that. This is why John used such shocking language. We need John the Baptist in our lives.

People who are willing to shake us awake. Tell us the truth. Let us know when we’re being inconsistent or when we have double standards. We need people who are willing to remind us that sin is not something to joke about. It’s what put Jesus on the cross.

After King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then committed murder to cover up that sin, he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, who told him a parable. And when David heard the parable, he thought, you know, something like that deserves to die. And Nathan said, you are the man. It’s you, David. That’s, that’s who you’re talking about.

Once again, it was a prophet that spoke truth to power, but David repented. And we have his psalm of repentance, Psalm 51, where he says to God, against you, you only have I sinned. And that’s the first step of repentance. Do you have a sinned or sinful addiction or habit that you’re longing to be free from? Well, first see your sin as something done in his sight.

Not something first done in the sight of your parents or your friends and colleagues. Not something that’s sinful in the eyes of the culture, but sinful in the eyes of a holy God. See it as something done in his presence first. Many people try to deal with their guilt by turning to substances, to numb it. I just want to think about that.

I read an article recently about a TV show producer who was criticized for her poor taste in mocking gay people in the show she previously produced. The article noted that she’s sorry for her mistakes. And it added that she has since given millions of dollars to nonprofits. And the point was clear. She was guilty, but at least she’s a Tony.

For her past. But see no amount of penance, whether it’s religious penance or secular penance, no penance can clear us of our guilt. The reason we need to see our sin as an affront to God is because only God can be that standard, that transcendent standard of right and wrong. Only he can show us his law where we’ve truly sinned. What the article failed to note is that the standards of the culture have shifted since the time that show was produced.

But see God’s law isn’t that way. It doesn’t shift as time goes on. It’s always the same. His standard remains exactly what it always was. The reason so many people continue to struggle with sinful habits is that they haven’t truly taken responsibility for it.

Rather than confessing like David, I have sinned. It’s me. I’m the one who sinned. They’re more like Adam who said things like it was the woman who gave me the fruit. We humans are masters at avoiding responsibility.

We tell ourselves, yes, I sinned, but really it’s the people around me who influenced me. The way I was raised is my parents’ fault really that I did that. Or we say things like, I mistreated that person, but you should have seen how they had it coming. Yes, I was short with my wife, but I’ve been lacking sleep. We come up with all kinds of excuses, rationalizations for why we do things, but we need to remember circumstances are not the cause of our sin.

It comes from our own heart. And unless we assume full responsibility, we’ll never truly repent. We have to take it all on. You can think of someone who’s trying to move a log in the forest. You can’t just move a log and throw it away by grabbing one end.

It’s too heavy. You have to pick it up from the middle, take it all on to yourself, and then you can throw it away. And it’s the same with repentance until you first bear the weight. In other words, take the responsibility for that sin fully on yourself, then you can cast it all away on to Christ. And he will gladly bear it away.

But we first have to own it. We first have to say it was me who sinned. It wasn’t caused by anybody else. It was me. The true prayer of repentance is, Lord, I have sinned not merely against other people or against society.

I have sinned against you, against my faithful Savior and friend, the one who loved and loved me and bought me with your own blood. And when you begin to personalize it and see that it was done against Jesus, and you see how it grieves him, then you’ll grieve as well. Repentance in your notes always results in a transformed life. This is without exception. It always results in a transformed life.

That’s why John can say that each person must not only repent, but bear fruits in keeping with repentance. Not everyone accepted John’s baptism. The Pharisees and scribes would be too proud to go out down into the water. They didn’t need that, they said. Even those who were despised in society like tax collectors and Roman soldiers, they were the ones who were seen going down to the Jordan River.

The people that you didn’t want to associate with, they were going down and they said, we need to repent. We need to be cleansed. And they said to John, what shall we do? How are we to live now? Verse 11, and he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”

See, it doesn’t work to just talk about repentance in the abstract and this theoretical realm as something we need to do. It has to work out in your life practically. That’s why John gives some examples of bearing fruit consistent with repentance. True repentance always results in that transformed life. Jesus said you will recognize them by their fruits.

And James said faith without works is dead. And notice in John’s examples, it all comes down to how you treat others. Do you show them consideration? Do you put the needs of others before yourself? Are you generous with your money?

Do you look for ways to serve? He tells the tax collectors, collect no more than you’re authorized. And the soldiers, he doesn’t tell them to quit the army. He says, no, do not extort money from anyone by threats and with your wages. One of the best indicators for how we’re doing spiritually is how we spend our money.

Now money itself is morally neutral, but it’s a really good indicator. When you look at how you relate to money, that’s something that tells you how you’re doing spiritually. How do you relate to Jesus? Is Jesus the Lord of your finances? Is Jesus the one who has full reign over all you own, all your wealth, possessions?

Those who are truly converted will be recognized. They’ll be changed from the inside out. This is why John’s message about the coming day of judgment wasn’t just a old message from a bygone era. His message of repentance is desperately needed in our modern world. It used to be that Christians were accused of always talking about sin and judgment and stuck in the past or whatever.

But when you think about it, the same themes show up in our secular society today. Now they might not call it sin, but they call it injustice and inequality and a whole host of other things. We call things wrong. They might not call it judgment day, but they still warn about a day of reckoning that is coming. Whether it’s the looming threat of nuclear war, another pandemic, climate change, AI taking over, or some other global catastrophe, there’s all kinds of voices warning that this day of reckoning is coming.

So John’s warnings about the wrath to come and the need for repentance aren’t so old fashioned after all. The big difference is that John’s warnings have God at the center. See, many people get fired up about all the evils and injustice they see in the world, but they lack a rational basis for their moral indignation. It’s like they’re whistling in the dark. And here’s what I mean.

If there is no God, then human beings are just the accidental byproduct of nature. And when you break it down, there’s no reason to think we would have any more value than a stink bug. And yet if secular humanism is true, that’s exactly what it claims. Now, some people might say, well, of course human beings have value. We all know that.

Everybody does. Well, yes, we all intuitively know humans have value. That’s because we’re made in God’s image. But if you look at secular humanism, and that’s the reigning dogma of our culture institutions, there’s no rational basis for believing that humans are special, that there’s no reason to believe that if you take God out of the equation, all those moral categories were so passionate and fired up about they’re meaningless. Christianity, on the other hand, gives us a framework for talking about human rights and evil.

It explains why our hearts cry out for justice. And far from being a fairy tale, Christianity is profoundly realistic about our condition. It doesn’t resort to explaining evil away. We like to do that. It’s just a repressed emotions or just bad social conditions or evolutionary psychology, a whole host of things that we say, that’s what it is.

But the Bible tells us no evil is something that springs from the heart. It comes from within. It’s not something out there first. It’s something in here first. But beyond that Christianity offers us a way to be rescued from that evil that dwells within.

It doesn’t just leave us with this terrible diagnosis of how evil we are. It says, no God, God has loved us and he has taken that evil onto himself on the cross. He’s paid for it completely so that you can be set free. By calling sin what it is, the Bible shows us the real cost Jesus was willing to pay for us on the cross. And this is where we start to see the beauty of true repentance.

Think back to the garden. Adam and Eve, right after they sin, what happened? It says that they recognized were naked and they felt shame. And so they started so together fig leaves and they were doing that to cover their wrongdoing. And then when they heard God coming, they run and hide in the trees.

And that’s exactly what sinners do today. They try to cover up their sin, hide it any way they can and hide from God, flee from his presence. But repentance offers us a way back into a relationship with God. So repent is to stop hiding from God. It’s not to earn God’s acceptance that we repent.

Of hiding. And your notes finally repentance leads to intimacy with our Creator. Repentance is not about cleaning yourself up first. It’s about being who you truly are in the presence of God. No more fig leaves.

No more hiding. Just being who you are and letting God into every area of your life, letting him cleanse you with his grace. To repent is to see your sin as God sees it. It’s to stop pretending that we’re righteous. And admit that we have sinned and to own it.

But what is the goal of repentance? What’s the ultimate goal? It’s joyful fellowship with your Creator. Instead of trying to prove your worth to God, you can let God love you right where you’re at. There’s nothing like experiencing the love, acceptance and affirmation of our Father in heaven.

It’s what every heart here, every heart in the world is longing to know, am I accepted? It can only come through Jesus Christ. He welcomes sinners. He runs out to meet them just like the Father did with a prodigal son. He kisses them and then he throws a feast for them.

He lavishes his grace on all who repent. The Bible says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 who need no repentance. And other than self-righteous pride, that would be the biggest reason. The other reason people don’t repent is that they struggle to believe God could really love them that much. They assume God would never want me back.

Knowing what I’ve done and knowing how I have been that serpent, that brood of vipers, why would he ever want me? But our God is a God of infinite grace. And this is what’s so amazing. God has promised to love us with an unconditional covenantal love. And that means that God by promise has bound himself to us.

And so it doesn’t matter if you are a prodigal that has ran away. If you belong to God, he still loves you. He has covenanted and he will not break his promise. So it doesn’t matter how far you’ve run, he is always there willing to welcome you back. That’s the beauty of repentance.

So I’m gonna ask you to ask yourself this question. What would it look like for me if I made repentance a daily practice in my life? How would that change things? Let’s pray together. Gracious God, we thank you for giving us the gift of repentance.

Thank you that this is not a way to earn salvation. It’s not a way to earn acceptance with you. It is a way to acknowledge we need you. We need that grace we couldn’t earn. We need your cleansing.

Lord, I pray if there’s any person here this morning who’s struggling to believe that, struggling to believe that you could really love them that much. That you would break through their heart. That you would fill the valley with your love. And if there’s any who are thinking to themselves, I’m good, I’m righteous, I’m fine on my own. That you would level out that mountain in their heart.

And that all would see the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. We pray in his mighty name, amen.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 4,941 words.