Up Out of the Water
Mark 1:9-13
INTRODUCTION:
A recent seminary graduate had just
been given his 1st pastorate.
He and his wife went to visit his family. His mother sensed that her daughter-in-law
was unhappy, but not wishing to interfere, she pretended not to notice. As they were leaving, she heard her
daughter-in-law say, “All right, we can go by the church, and you can practice
baptizing me just one more time. But,
remember this—when you have your 1st funeral, you are not going to
practice burying me!”
We are not going to practice today;
we are going to have a real baptism—a down to earth Baptist immersion baptism
with lots of water. Six people are
coming forward today, to be baptized because they love Jesus, and they want to
do what Jesus did, and what he calls us to do.
1st of all, we’ve got to
wonder why Jesus even needed to be baptized.
Isn’t the purpose of baptism to symbolize the washing away of our
sins? What sins did Jesus have? Well, eventually Jesus, who was completely
sinless, had our sins. And, Jesus was
proclaiming his identity with us. In
Matthew’s Gospel, John the Baptist said that Jesus should be baptizing him not
the other way around, and Jesus responded by saying, “It is proper for us to do
this to fulfill all righteousness.” All
righteousness is a reference to God’s plan/purpose for Jesus. And part of that plan was the complete
identification of Jesus with man and his sin.
So, Jesus is being baptized to
identify himself with us. That means
that baptism is really important, doesn’t it?
And, when we come forward in baptism, we are identifying with Jesus, and
that is really important, too.
Now, is the water baptism what saves
us? No, it is the confession of Jesus
Christ as Lord/Savior that saves us.
And, what happens when we confess him?
Jesus does what Mark says above in V.8 from last week’s sermon: “…he
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Wow! That is great, isn’t it? We
confess Jesus, he gives us eternal salvation, AND he fills us with the Holy
Spirit. And, the water baptism that we
are doing today, symbolizes that baptism in the Holy Spirit.
So, according to our passage, today,
what happens when we are baptized? 2
major things that Mark shows us that happened to Jesus, happens to us
also: God affirms us and Satan
acknowledges us.
WE
ARE AFFIRMED BY GOD: (V.10-11)
V.10-11 are beautiful verses, aren’t they? “As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Remember, Jesus left the comforts of
Heaven sitting beside the Father. He
came to earth to live a human life full of pain/suffering. He knew what his mission was—to take the sins
of the world upon himself. But, here now
in this very warm/loving moment he saw the sky being torn open—his heavenly
home that he left was being revealed to him.
The Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. And then he heard it—His Father’s voice! Can’t you just imagine a tear/2 of
homesickness coming upon him?
“You are my Son, whom I live; with
you I am well pleased.” God the loving
Father is affirming His Son at this moment.
He is saying, “I claim you; I love you; I am proud of you.” This is a beautiful story, isn’t it? But, it’s not only beautiful, it’s true! And, it’s not only true for Jesus, it’s true
for us. When we confess Jesus, our
baptism begins and our Father says the very same thing to us. “You are my son/daughter, whom I love; with
you I am well pleased.”
God claims us as His son/daughter;
He loves us like we can’t even imagine; and He is so very proud of us. We belong, we are loved, and we are affirmed
by our Father—Creator of all things.
How can that happen? Of course, Jesus was His Son and was loved
and God was proud of him. But, how can
that ever happen to us. Well, there’s
this thing called grace—God’s amazing grace.
We are no good, dirty rotten through/through—undeserving of anything
from God. But, when we confess Christ
and become baptized in the Holy Spirit, we are totally changed. The waters symbolically wash us clean.
It’s like the little boy who put a
Lost/Found ad in the newspaper—“Lost dog,
brown fur, some missing due to mange, blind in one eye, three legs, slightly
arthritic, goes by the name of Lucky.” We
are just like that old dog—having mange, blind, one leg missing, arthritic—way
less than perfect. But, just call us
Lucky because our Father loves us and is so very proud of us.
WE
ARE ACKNOWLEDGED BY SATAN: (V.12-13)
We are affirmed by God. But, don’t you ever think that we are going
to get through the rest of our earthly lives without being acknowledged by the
Prince of this world—Satan. Look at what
happened to Jesus. Remember, when I told
you last week that Mark was fast paced/action packed? Check out the 1st words of V.12:
“At once…” Immediately Satan
acknowledged him.
Jesus wasn’t even dry from the
waters of the
I can tell you with 100% certainty
that when you become God’s son/daughter, Satan began planning his attacks on
you. And, he will be absolutely relentless
in tempting you throughout you earthly life.
Satan will do anything to get you to buy into his program.
There’s a story about a woman who
bought a very expensive dress. Her
husband asked her why she had to buy one so expensive. She said, “The devil made me buy it.” And her husband asked, “Why didn’t you say
‘get behind me, Satan?’” And, the woman
said, “I did, and he said it looked as good in the behind as it did in the
front, so I bought it!”
Do not think this battle was easy
for Jesus because he could not possibly sin.
As a man, he could suffer hunger and thirst, appreciate power and
wealth, and thus he felt the pressures of these temptations. Nor was it simple for him because he was the
Son of God. Though Jesus during his
ministry often used his almighty power to heal and to bless, he seldom used it
to defend himself. These temptations
were very real. And know, as baptized
Christians, these temptations are very real for you.
CONCLUSION:
Today, is a very important day as
you are immersed in the waters of baptism.
You have all confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord/Savior. And, today, you want this water baptism to
symbolize your decision to follow Christ.
God affirms you in your decision as
His son/daughter—He is very proud of you, today. But, to go with that, Satan acknowledges whom
you have become in Christ. And he will
be out to tempt you in any way he can.
Be baptized and follow Jesus Christ
and Satan will fail!