So If I asked you the question, what is the Christian Spirit, what would your answer be? Would it be being good, humble? How about powerful, submissive, or even sinless. I want to emphasize here during this Sunday on the Lord's Baptism that each of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ has something amongst us so powerful that the world could never hold a flame to it. And I would go further to say, no one on earth can ever fully understand or comprehend it all. The Christian Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is God's Spirit!
From the beginning in the Book of Genesis, we find a very distinctive point where God made man in his own image. And when you really think about it, what changed? Yes sin entered the world by a decision with deception and choice, but what really did change to cause us to separate ourselves from the Living God? Its us being separated from Gods spirit. The alternative solution is being one in the Spirit! Scripture tells us there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. One Spirit of the Living God that we each need to gain and hold on to. But guess what? Since sin entered the world, that same Spirit is still present, but its us that has moved, not God.
So in reviewing the Christian Spirit, lets read from the Gospel of Luke and we are seeing up to this point, John the Baptist is at the River Jordan, and hosts of people have come to listen and be baptized. And from this testimony of work, John is proclaiming the words as a witness, a disciple; so let's listen to what is said. "Now while the people were in a state of expectation and they all were thinking carefully in their hearts about John, whether he himself perhaps was the Christ, John responded to them all, saying, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but He is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the straps of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
So I want to emphasize an important point here. The Holy Spirit is something the jewish people know existed especially in their ancestry all the way back to the beginning. But up to this point in time, God was silent approx.. 400 years. So there was people eagerly wanting to hear from God, thirsting for his word, and then here came from what some would call out of nowhere, an outdoorsman that wore an animal tunic and ate locus and honey and jabbering on about the kingdom of God is at hand, repent, repent, repent! This obviously gained lots of attention.
But in the reading, I want you to hear an important point again, "while the people were in a state of expectation and they all were thinking carefully in their hearts about John, where he himself was the Christ."
So when we think about expectations, what usually comes to mind is our understanding of an event or circumstance that we hope becomes favorable into our imagination. Some Jewish leaders expected the Messiah to come with glory from the heavens and shine with majesty and power, not an infant child! So hearing a new testimony from lost lips was a new welcomed scene I believe many people needed and wanted. You see, God always has a reason for things. In being silent for 400 years, its quite possible this was a time to help prepare mans hearts to hear the true Gospel, the good news, that was here for all people to experience. John was a testimony to that, except he himself was not the good news, but the precursor for the anointed one, the Christ.
So when we talk about the Christian Spirit, what would it take for us, his children, to be ready? John directly emphasized repenting in many ways; in Greek, its called metanoia, a change of mind, change in the inner man. So it wasn't enough just to believe in God, its not enough to assign the title of being Good, Holy, Pure. The sinful Spirit that each of us possesses needs to be renewed. This is a clear indication that just being ourselves, being who we are as an individual, isn’t enough. We have to put on something to become part of Gods people then.
Suppose we faced the truth about who we really are in what the world teaches us today in an unofficial official sanctioned creed verses what God says we are to be: "I am self-fabricated, autonomous, my personal property, the sum of my astute choices and my heroic acts of detachment from anyone more important than me. I bow to no claim other than that I have freely consented to. I'm the captain of my fate, master of my soul, author of the story that is me."
Does this not sound narcissistic, self-center, and a genuine worldly view of self? Parker Palmers I think said it best, "Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am."
Who we are friends, is just as important as what we do! The old saying, you are what you eat has some merit.
John is making a real statement here! Not only is he preparing the way for Jesus, "A voice in the wilderness," but if a Wildman that people remarked about him can have a purpose and plan for God, so can we! But, something has to change; otherwise, John coming to prepare the way would not have been necessary! If you think about it, John tells us to prepare our hearts to receive Christ! The same Christ that even John stated was unworthy to untie his shoes. This preparation is a straightforward but demanding word called 'repentance.'
Attempting to help you understand the Christian Spirit, lets read from the Gospel of Matthew and hear Matthews account on Jesus, "Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have the need to be baptized by You, and yet You are coming to me?” But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. After He was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on Him, and behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
In reading this, we find a very significant role Jesus played in John’s claims of repentance and His determined way to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. Jesus comes on the scene to deliver himself unto Johns's care, administer his baptism, and then start his ministry to the world; but for those around him, some probably wondered who this man is to where we hear a voice from heaven! Then maybe have questions like Why is this spirit thing important? Is not Jesus sinless, why does he need baptized?
The God whom had the brilliant idea to breathe life into mud and dirt loans breath, but only for as long as He allows! The Spirit of God is the one thing that will Never leave his children, those who are amongst his adopted children. For we, whom are flesh and blood, can not please God in the body, but only in Spirit. The Gospel of John tells us “But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
You see, no matter what we think or know, worshipping God must be in the Spirit! Say that with me “Worshipping God must be in the Spirit.”
Jesus, being baptized, gave us a tremendous example that even him, sinless and God, must also live the example to worship the father in Spirit. To start the journey as a Christian, we each are to be Baptized in the Spirit. It’s a very mysterious act to freely come to God with a heart of repentance, acceptance and Love, to then as the Book of Romans calls it ‘sealed’ by the Holy Spirit that you are now, and adopted child of the Living God. Does not scripture tell us, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Christian Spirit! A very real and mesmerizing thing that is not designed for us to fully understand but accept and receive freely and faithfully.
A young Canadian man once explained to his Pastor and said “I am so glad I was baptized today. After all these years in trying to find myself, have others tell me what type of person I was, I now know who I really am. I am well pleased in knowing I have a vocation, a calling by God, to do his will by the same Spirit I received today, that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” What a statement.
In closing friends, I want you to leave here today, with a better understanding that living the Christian life isn’t designed to be easy, pain free or even sinless. Its design for us, who we are in Christ, to live with Christ in us by way of the Holy Spirit no matter what we are doing or what we are going through. That in all things, we have a helper, a guide to lead us correctly and justly into a divine direction that God’s best plan is waiting for us to receive. But, to do this, we must have the Spirit of God in us, and to do that, the only way is by the way of Jesus, to do so boldly as the Hymn tells us ‘to trust and obey, for there's no other way.” Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION