Tag: baptism of repentance

practicing presence, light, God, Presence, present, light house, beacon, Spirit, baptism, baptized, baptizer, Holy Spirit

Let there be Light!

Beth - blogger, coach, consultantLeave a comment

Readings:

  • Genesis 1: 2-3

…And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

  • Mark 1:4-11

4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  … 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9  In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

Another version that I read of Mark 1, verse 4 says:

“So, John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, calling for baptism and a change of heart that lead to forgiveness of sins.”

  • Acts 19:1-7

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them

Without the power of the Spirit, there is no light! And without repentance – in other words, “a change of heart”, there is no filling by the Spirit!

I want us to consider two definitions for repentance: first the definition provided by Marcus Borg:  repentance is not how we understand the word now (repentance from sins), but rather a “return from exile”.  To repent is to enter the kingdom of God: we die to the old way of being and we are “born again” into a new way of being.  Matthew uses this same opening: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So once again, we have this message that our relationship with God is changing: God is near to us (not far away) and that we simply have to turn around and return from exile (separation). But this goes hand in hand with the idea of repentance from sins, if we look at it in the following sense.

Repentance is more than simply asking for forgiveness or confessing that we have done something wrong and saying sorry. I read this morning

Saying “I’m sorry” is something anyone can do. Sorry doesn’t require change, only an acknowledgement that you messed up. Sorry is a way out of a problem, not the beginning of a new path.  …Simply saying “I’m sorry” allows that a problem exists, but does nothing to bring about a genuine change of heart.

The idea of metanoia, which has been translated as repentance, is one of admission to God of our deep sorrow for the pain and hurt caused by our actions and sins, and a resolve to change our way of being and life to act correctly in the future.  It is adopting a new way of life, a new way of being.

A little bit like trying to lose weight and get fit, as many of us do at the beginning of every year: but the reality is that it isn’t enough to go on a diet. We need to change our lifestyle and adopt a new lifestyle that allows us to be healthy and fit. It is a complete changing of our ways: adopting new eating habits, adopting a new morning routine, perhaps starting each morning with warm lemon water.  And the first weeks and months of this new way of life are a struggle: you feel like you are on a diet, rather than adopting a new lifestyle.  But you also are aware that if you go back to your “normal habits” you will go back to that weight and that body that you were trying to improve.

David admits: He  struggles with addiction. He is determined to beat his habit but gives in, feels bad, intends to make a change, but ends up slipping time and again. When he does, it deeply hurts his wife and children. He sees the pain in their faces and feels bad that he has hurt them. David is remorseful but not repentant.

Regret and remorse have consequences, but do not necessarily address the wrong-doing of those consequences. People get caught and can feel remorse because there are consequences to their actions. For example, you can speed down the highway, get caught and feel remorse. But you may not feel repentant over the speeding. You have remorse because you received a ticket. The ticket temporarily slows you down, but eventually you creep back up to that speeding level.

Repentance would be sticking to the speed limit, rather than speeding. Repentance for alcoholism is getting into rehab, and then once out changing the lifestyle he has so that he has more human connection and less need to give into the addiction. Repentance would be living a new way of life, in spite of his weakness and addiction.

The same is true spiritually for us. It is not enough for us to be sorry or feel guilty for our sins. This feeling of guilt or remorse achieves nothing for us! Being sorry or feeling remorse is not enough either. To repent is not simply an emotional act, but rather requires a change of moral purpose, and requires regret of the past and pursuit of a new direction.

2 Corinthians 7:10 explains this as follows:

For godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly sorrow produces death.

The Message explains this a little better:

Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.

It’s not enough to regret what you did. Repentance is about turning things around and living life a completely new way! Repentance is adopting a new way of thinking, it is a change of mind, transformation of your mind and thoughts, deciding to live your life with a new purpose.  It is interesting that baptism is an immersion to complete saturation: it can just as well be immersion in a transformed mind and way of thinking, and not simply immersion in water.  Water is simply symbolic of this immersion to change.  The purpose of baptism by John was repentance: to bring about a change of mind, a change of way of being.  The water baptism symbolizes a cleansing process, the letting go of the old way of being.

The fundamental idea with this repentance is not sorrow or remorse: it is change. But profound and deep change: not just a change superficially of our actions to follow the rules, but rather as Jesus taught us, a profound change of being.  There’s a reason that Jesus spoke of forgiveness being not 7 times, but rather 7 times 70 (7X70) times (490) – because you need to be sorry and forgive yourself this many times in order to truly change your way of thinking and being regarding a certain situation or action.  This repentance is the first step in the realization of Truth and knowing God. The Word (Jesus) dissolves, breaks up and washes away all thoughts of the material world.  And it leaves us as spiritual beings that need and hunger to be connected with Spirit.

We all want light in our lives, we all know that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Light. We all know that after the baptism of repentance, we make room for the baptism of Spirit. But are you willing to pay the cost for this power and light – filling of the Spirit?

What am I talking about? Why am I talking about paying the cost? Isn’t this a free gift? Yes, the indwelling Spirit of God is a gift: but throughout the Gospels, Jesus would say to the sick or the blind or the lepers that he healed: “Go and sin no more.” The healing that took place was a physical and spiritual healing: and this required a new way of life and being! And you: have you had this transformation? Are you working out your salvation with fear and trembling?

… for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

And so, we are told as children of God to do everything without grumbling, murmuring, complaining, arguing, hesitation or disputing. (Philippians 2:14) Everything. What does this “everything” refer to? God’s will and God’s work for God’s good pleasure: because it is God who works in you to will and to work.  THEN you will shine like stars, a bright light in this world, full of Spirit, and showing to all the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.

Every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit, but every Christian does not heed the direction and instruction of the Spirit in their lives. Some Christians are still caught up listening to their material needs, their fears, their ego, their selfish ways. But those guided by the Spirit can rest in the assurance that God’s good will be done. Those who are spiritual “live by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16), that is, they walk, or live their life, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God says in Genesis 1 –  “Let there be light” – and Jesus says to us in Matthew 5: 14

You are the light of the world.

Not Jesus – YOU! A city on a hill cannot be hidden. And if the Spirit fills you, that light cannot be hidden!  So – let your light, of a changed way of being, of thinking, of speaking, of acting be the beacon of light that draws others to God.

Sermon: Baptism, is it of Repentance or of the Holy Spirit?

Beth - blogger, coach, consultantLeave a comment

All of us who have grown up in the church are accustomed to the ritual of baptism and the meaning that the Church has given to this tradition.

While there may be debate about whether baptism should be by immersion or by sprinkling, and when and where baptism should be undertaken, we find they centre on the following debates: is it too important? Or unimportant? Should we deify baptism? Or trivialise?

While the Baptist Church may say, “I’m saved because I’m baptized.” The Church of Christ says, “I’m baptized because I’m saved.”

Does any scholar, or even saint, fully appreciate what this moment means in heaven? Any words on baptism, including mine, are simply a human effort to explain a holy event. In our churches, debates about the essentiality of baptism have been common—yet serious discussions about baptism’s essence are very rare.

In our readings today from Matthew and Acts we find 2 types of Baptism mentioned: the baptism of repentance and baptism by the Holy Spirit.

I’ve never really understood why Jesus went to John to be baptised… I’ve always thought that the focus should be on heaven opening and the dove – where God proclaims that this is my son in whom I am well pleased…

Like John, I have been often perplexed… why does Jesus need a baptism of repentance?

At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River and wanted John to baptize him. But John tried to stop him, saying, “Why do you come to me to be baptized? I need to be baptized by you!”

After all, John had been “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” and Jesus was the spotless Lamb of God.

There are a number of ways we can look at Jesus’ baptism by John… and possibly not the only explanations:

The first way of looking at this baptism is as Jesus descended into the water, he was coming down to our level. He was identifying himself with sinners. Baptism was for the immoral, the impure, the liars, adulterers and thieves, and yet Jesus willingly plunged into the water as if to say, “I’m with them!” Jesus cast his lot with humanity. He came to the river because we are sinners. He was washed because we were not clean. He did what was right because we, so often, do what is wrong. He became like us so that we could become like him.

And the second way we can view this baptism is how baptisms were undertaken in the Old Testament. For the Jewish community there was another group of people, not the sinners and repentant who underwent a different type of baptism – the priests. The Law dictated that especially the High Priest was to “washed with water.”

In Leviticus 8:6 we’re told that – by the instruction of God – “Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water.” Later, during that ceremony Moses “poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.” Leviticus 8:12 They began their priesthood and were empowered to make sacrifices and handle holy things as God’s representatives. At that point, God put His mark of approval on the ministry of Aaron and his sons.

The Bible tell us that Jesus’ ministry began with His baptism by John. After His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the Father loudly declared: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17 This was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as our High Priest.

There is, as always, another way that we could also see baptism: which was also prevalent at the time – identification. Converts to Judaism who couldn’t be circumcised (such as women or eunuchs) were baptized. The purpose? To identify with Judaism. These people were baptized into the faith of the Jews. And so, for many, this has become the meaning of baptism – you are identified as being a Christian.

Did you hear about the man who wanted to become a member of a church?

The pastor explained that the only requirements were those of becoming a Christian: he had to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God; he had to acknowledge that he was a sinner and repent of his past sins; he had to confess Jesus as his Lord and Master; and he had to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

He groaned: “Oh, not again – I’ve been baptized 4 times now!” Puzzled, I asked him why? He explained that 1st time, he’d been sprinkled as an infant. Then when he wanted to join another church, they said that his baptism was invalid and he needed to be immersed into their church. The next church refused to accept that congregation’s baptism and baptized him again into their church. And again, another church did the same. But they all explained the same thing – he was being baptized into their church, not into Christ.

Somehow, churches have lost the message that we are to baptised in the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit… it’s nothing to do with church membership! It’s about identification with Christ.

So, I want to give my final thoughts to looking at what it means to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. I realise that for some, this means speaking in tongues and prophesying, as we read in Acts. There are many days that I wish that the fullness of the Holy Spirit invoked this response from me.

But, for me, it’s more about the daily choices and transformation in my life and relationships with those around me – easily summarised in Galatians 5 – the Fruit of the Spirit is

  • Love
  • Joy
  • Peace
  • Patience
  • Kindness
  • Goodness
  • Faithfulness
  • Humility
  • Self-Control

A lot of Spirit Filled Christians, can tell you the day and the hour, they received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, but ask them when the last time they exercised it, or were full of the fruit of the Spirit for a whole day, treating everyone that crossed their path as Christ would have them in a Spirit-filled life, (pause)
That’s right, there would probably be a long pause.

You speak about repentance? You want to speak about being full of the Holy Spirit? The fruit of your actions, of the words of your mouth, of your attitudes… they are the true colours shining through that say whether or not there has been true change and repentance.

  • Choosing to love (as an action, not a feeling).
  • Choosing to be joyful, even when you are sad.
  • Choosing to be at peace, even when you have trouble.
  • Choosing to be patient, for the 10th time…
  • Choosing to be kind, even when you don’t think they deserve it.
  • Choosing goodness over judgment.
  • Choosing faithfulness to God and others, even if others have turned their backs on you and you can’t feel that God is near.
  • Choosing humility, even when you KNOW you’re right.
  • And choosing self-control, when you’d like to let it all fly…

This is where the rubber meets the road – here’s where we go beyond lip-service to real-life application that actually has an impact on who we are and how we live.

They say that Baptism is the symbol of rebirth – you will be happy to know to that today is the first day of the rest of your life! The Scriptures are clear ….. that if we are in Christ …..We will become…. a new creation. The old will be gone. The new will …..have come.

Let us pray:

“Creator God,

We need You, we hunger and thirst for a more vital relationship with You, one where You are in control of our lives, rather than Me, Myself and I.

Father, we recognize our need for Your power to live this new life. Please fill us with Your Holy Spirit. By faith, we receive a fresh outpouring of His power! Thank You for Your baptism in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.

By faith we invite You to fill us with the Holy Spirit as You commanded us to be filled. You promised to fill us if we ask according to Your will. We know that we’ve been born of the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That why we ask you for a fresh work of the Spirit in our lives.

We thank you for what you are doing in each one of our lives.

In Jesus’ name,

AMEN.