Jesus: The Twice-Baptized Baptizer
Luke-Acts, vol. I: The King of Jubilee
Jesus: The Twice-Baptized Baptizer
Baptism, if applicable
Scripture Readings
OT: Ezekiel 36:22–28
Ps: Psalm 2
NT: Romans 6:3–11
Gospel: Luke 3:15–22; 12:49–53
Our OT Lesson is from Ezekiel, chapter 36. Hear God’s Word and the promises He makes about the day when He will baptize His people.
OT Lesson - Ezekiel 36:22–28
[22] “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. [23] And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. [24] I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. [25] I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. [26] And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. [28] You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Psalm 2
NT Lesson - Romans 6:3–11
Our NT Epistle reading is from Romans, chapter 6, verses 3-11. Hear God’s Word and take heed to what He says happened when you were baptized.
[3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. [7] For one who has died has been set free from sin. [8] Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10] For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11] So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Lesson - Luke 3:15–22, 12:49–53
And our Gospel lesson and sermon text is from Luke chapter 3 and 12 where we see references to two of Jesus’s three baptisms in Luke-Acts. Hear God’s Word.
[15] As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, [16] John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. [17] His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
[18] So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. [19] But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, [20] added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
[21] Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, [22] and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
…
[49] “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! [50] I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! [51] Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. [52] For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. [53] They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Prayer for Illumination
Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, so that in your light we may see light, in your truth find wisdom, and in your will discover your peace. Add Your blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the preaching of Your Word, and grant us all the grace to trust and obey You, and all God’s people said, “Amen.”
For the Kids
Now, this one is for you kids, but it’s not just for you kids. Adults and children, if you have been baptized, raise your hand. If you just raised your hand, I can say, without a doubt, and you should believe, without a doubt, that you are in fact a Christian.
If you did not raise your hand, and you think you are a Christian, or if you think your kid is a Christian but you haven’t brought them to Christ to receive that name, please come talk to me or one of the other elders because the Bible doesn’t have any category for an unbaptized Christian.
Introduction
Now, I realize many of us come from Christian traditions that spend more time talking about what baptism isn’t and what it doesn’t do than what it is and does, and those of us from those traditions have mostly unknowingly adopted a weird, extra biblical and very confusing category called “an unbaptized Christian.”
And in those traditions you find all sorts of anxieties that don’t go away after baptism because they reject the Bible’s way of speaking about these things, ways of speaking that are supposed to bring comfort, not fear.
According to the Bible, you are either a baptized Christian who can trust the promises of God for Christians or you are not a baptized Christian and cannot lay claim to any of those promises.
We have told you these things before, and we will remind you of them often, but listen to some of the Bible’s language which applies only to those who have been baptized.
According to Jesus in Matthew 28, if you have been baptized, you were adopted by God the Father and given the family name when you were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
According to the Apostle Peter, if you have been baptized, you have been saved (1 Peter 3.21).
According to the author of Hebrews, which we’ll discuss again at Communion, if you have been baptized, you can draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith, because your heart has been sprinkled clean and your body has been washed with pure water (Hebrews 10.22).
According to the Apostle Paul, if you have been baptized, you have been born again by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, united to Christ, and clothed with His righteousness (Titus 3.5; Romans 6; Galatians 3.27).
And what’s more, likely drawing directly on Jesus’s words from our Gospel reading, in our Epistle reading, you heard the Apostle Paul say that as many of you have been baptized were baptized into Christ’s death, and what’s more, if you have been united with Christ in a death like His, Paul says you will certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
Those are just a few of God’s promises to those of you who have been baptized. But if you have not been baptized, there is no ordinary biblical reason we can say any of those realities that are tied to baptism apply to you.
Now, next week we will talk about extraordinary situations where we can have confidence that infants who have died in infancy and therefore obviously haven’t been baptized are with Christ, but it’s bad practice to make rules based on exceptions.
So, this morning, 1) because it’s the first Sunday after the Epiphany when part of the Church commemorates Christ’s baptism, and 2) because Pastor Brewer is sick and I didn’t have time to write a whole new sermon, we are going to review some of what we talked about last year on this Sunday and revisit Jesus’s three baptisms in Luke’s two volume work Luke-Acts so that we might all walk away being reminded of and refreshed by the objective realities that we don’t always realize are true when we don’t use the Bible’s language about baptism.
Now, I think it’s fair to say that many Christians base their theology of baptism on 3 or 4 main passages in the New Testament.
Romans 6, which we read in our Epistle Reading, is often appealed to for why some churches practice baptism by immersion. Acts 2 and Peter’s command to repent, believe, and be baptized is appealed to as a reason why only people willing and able to repent should be baptized, and Jesus’s baptism as an adult in Matthew 3, Mark 1, and Luke 4 is used to supposedly solidify that claim.
So, if you see those passages as proving your view of baptism, then it’s easy to see why you would end up believing that only people with credible professions of faith should be baptized and only immersion counts.
But for most of Church history, Christians have taken a different view of baptism, both in mode and in persons who should receive the sacrament because they, and we, believe that the New Testament theology of baptism didn’t start with the New Testament.
We believe the Apostles got their theology from their Bibles, which was the Old Testament, and then, like Jesus taught them to, they filtered their OT through the lens of Jesus. So we see baptism being alluded to, not just when John the Baptizer shows up, but from Genesis to Malachi.
We see the 31 Old Testament references to sprinkling and 179 references to pouring as being far more prevalent and appropriate baptism imagery, so we follow that pattern into the New Testament and believe baptism should be done by pouring or sprinkling with water from above.
For that same reason, Old Testament precedent, we believe believers and their children should be baptized in the New Covenant because they were all baptized in the Old.
So you see, we do not see John’s baptism of Jesus in the Gospels as the lone or even primary place to go for our understanding of baptism in the Bible.
Instruction
After all, Jesus’s first baptism is different from every other baptism, even those performed by John.
“In the Gospels, the heavens did not open up for any other recipient. No one else had the Spirit descend upon them in the likeness of a dove, and no one else had the Father speak to them from the sky for all to hear” (Adam Mcintosh).
We’ve gone over these themes several times in this series, so we’re not going to make the case all over again, but in Matthew, Jesus is Faithful Israel, the Son God called out of Egypt, baptized, and then takes into the wilderness to faithfully endure the temptations that unfaithful Israel failed to.
In Mark, Jesus is baptized and anointed as the new Davidic King who immediately goes into the wilderness where the wild animals are and defeats Satan.
In Luke Jesus is anointed by God, ordained to the priesthood, and empowered by the Spirit to do the specific, Elisha-like work of the ministry that He alone came to perform.
Those things are not true of anyone else John baptized, and what’s more it’s only of Jesus that John says:
Luke 3:16
“I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
The Apostles apparently took that literally and think Jesus is going to do this fire-bringing during His earthly ministry because when they face opposition from the Jews in Luke 9, James and John ask Jesus if He wants them to call down fire from heaven and consume their enemies, but Jesus rebukes them, and in Luke 12 He makes clear that kind of baptism isn’t going to come until after another baptism He has to endure.
Now, unless you were here last year and have a great memory, it might come as a surprise to hear that Jesus was baptized a second time, but in our Gospel reading we heard Jesus use that baptism and fire imagery to refer to what He must undergo at the Cross and what He would do afterward.
Remember, in explaining to his disciples what must take place before He pours out His fire, Jesus said,
Luke 12:49–50
“I did come to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! [But] I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!”
If we can pull these threads together, the threads of Jesus’s first baptism by John and His reference of His second baptism at the Cross, what we find is that we have the bookends of the Holy Spirit’s time with Jesus.
At his first baptism, in Luke 3, God the Father poured out the Spirit from above upon Jesus, and in Luke 23, at His second baptism, Jesus gave the Spirit back with His last breath, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”
And it’s that second baptism, His crucifixion, not the first, that Paul says is the baptism Christians have been baptized with.
So, yes, it was necessary for Jesus to come to John and unite Himself to the OC people of God in His first baptism so that they might be united to Him in His second baptism, His crucifixion, and it is likewise necessary for us to be baptized so that we might also be united to Him, again not in His first baptism but in His second, and it’s only in being united to Jesus’s second baptism that we can trust that all those who have been baptized receive the benefits He promised to give in His third baptism when He poured out the Spirit again on the New Covenant believers and their children like He promised He would in our OT reading from Ezekiel.
Isn’t that how Paul connects the dots?
Romans 6:3–4
[3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Sure, Jesus’s first baptism was a foreshadowing of Christian baptism, and our reception of the Holy Spirit mirrors His, but true Christian baptism wasn’t John’s baptism. If it was, then the men in Acts who had been baptized by John wouldn’t need to get baptized again but this time into Christ.
Remember, John himself said the One coming after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, and that’s exactly what we see happening in volume II of Luke-Acts when Jesus does what John said He would do.
You see, it’s not until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit and fire fell on the disciples of Jesus that Christian baptism in its fullness began to be realized.
Luke writes in Acts that his Gospel was about the things Jesus began to do and teach, and Acts is about what Jesus continued to do through His Spirit filled Church.
In Acts 1, after forty days of speaking with them about the kingdom of God and giving them the lens through which to interpret their Old Testaments, just before His ascension, Jesus told His Apostles not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, for, Jesus said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
And true to His word, ten days later, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came down from heaven a sound like a whirlwind and divided tongues of fire rested over each one of them, and they were filled with the HS.
After the Apostles receive the Spirit of Christ, they go and preach the gospel. Peter declared that the people of God were living in the last days of the Old Covenant. He says that Jesus had poured out His Spirit on them, just like God promised He would in the last days, and the time was coming when God would judge them for crucifying and killing this Jesus, whom God raised from the dead.
When they heard this, that God was going to judge them for their sins, they were cut to the heart and asked, “What shall we do to be saved?”
To which Peter brings the Old Testament promises about God pouring out His Spirit in the New Covenant fulfillment of water baptism, “Repent and be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and your children and all who are afar off.”
And that promise from Jesus through Peter that those who are baptized into Christ receive the Holy Spirit is again not a promise realized by those who were baptized by John, something Luke goes out of his way to highlight in Acts 19.
There, Paul comes to Ephesus and finds some disciples of Apollos, who Luke says had only known the baptism of John, and though they believed in Jesus, they had not yet received the HS.
Acts 19:2–6
[2] And Paul said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” [3] And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?”
They said, “Into John’s baptism.” [4] And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” [5] So on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. [6] And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them...
So you see, the baptism of Jesus by John in Luke 3 is not the model for New Covenant baptism but rather is just another Old Covenant foreshadowing of baptism that only partially informs our New Covenant theology of baptism.
Now, I realize some of that may have felt like a whirlwind, and it’s okay if your head is swimming, pun intended; that’s one of the reasons we have Q&A after every service.
If you walk away with nothing else from today, walk away being thankful for Jesus’s first, second, and third baptism, and for all the promises He extends to you in yours. Walk away being reminded that all of God’s promises are “Yes and Amen” in Christ for all of those baptized into Him.
You and your baptized children can lay claim to all of the truths you heard declared about those who have been baptized both in the Old and New Covenant.
Like Adam, in being baptized into Jesus, you have been filled with the Spirit of God, turned from a hunk of lifeless clay into a living, breathing, image bearer of Christ.
Like Noah’s family, in being baptized into Jesus, you and your family have been saved by being placed in the ark, which is Christ.
Like Israel, in being baptized into Jesus, you have been delivered from your enemies, Satan, sin, and death, and you have been given what you need to conquer the world.
Like Aaron and Elisha, in being baptized into Jesus, you have been clothed with Christ and are now a kingdom of priests who are called to prophetically proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
And, in being baptized into Jesus, you and your children have been given what Jesus and His Apostles promised, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Some folks wonder why we talk about baptism so much, but we talk about baptism so much because the Bible does, from cover to cover, and in doing it again this morning, we’re joining with so many of our brothers and sisters all over the world in talking about baptism because in the objective fact of your baptism, so many subjective realities can be grabbed hold of.
In virtually every NT letter there is an explicit reference to baptism, so that the people of God, adults and children included, can take comfort from the fact that they have been baptized.
We’ve heard Paul’s reference to the Romans, but when the Galatian church was in danger of falling away and running back to Judaism, Paul used their baptisms to remind them that they were children of the promise and that as many of them had been baptized into Christ had put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
When the Corinthian church was arguing over their spirituality, indulging in sin, and creating ungodly divisions in the church, Paul reminded them that they and their children were holy; they were all baptized into one body and were all made to drink of the one Spirit, so they must live like it. After all, as he told the Ephesians, there is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and in all and through all.
1 Corinthians 12:13
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Ephesians 4:4–6
[4] There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—[5] one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
And to remind the Colossians of the gift they received, Paul reminded them that the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead was also in them because they had been buried with Christ in baptism, in which they were also raised, and he exhorted the church, parents, and children to relate to one another accordingly.
Colossians 2:11–15
[11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Exhortation
So, one of the reasons we’re so eager to get people, particularly children, baptized is in part because we want to be able to see you and relate to you and talk to you and your children, not in the way invented by some post Reformation Christians but in the way the Apostles and virtually all of the Reformers did.
In using the BIble’s language about baptism, we want to give you the joy and peace and comfort God wants you to have in giving you the gift of baptism and the realities He ties to it.
From now on, when you read your Bibles, keep an eye out for all the references and allusions to baptism, and then rejoice that as baptized Christians, you and your children really are experiencing the promised God’s people had waited so long for.
And then, being reminded of those blessings, strive to draw on God’s means of grace to you, so that you can not only receive but improve on your baptism.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of thy word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the OT and for revealing Him as the fulfillment of all of these things in the New.
We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life. We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his fellowship those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, Amen.
Give us your Spirit that we might understand these words and the fulness of your truth as you have revealed Him to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Communion
Our communion meditation is from Hebrews, chapter 10, which we alluded to in our sermon. Hear God’s Word.
Hebrews 10:19–27
[19] Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, [20] by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, [21] and since we have a great priest over the house of God, [22] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. [23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Now, I realize that for many of us, what you heard today was not new and hopefully warmed your heart to remember, but I also realize that what may have been heartwarming for some may have caused heartburn for some of you that are from traditions who don’t take advantage of the language God has given us to speak about these things.
Take for example what’s happening right now.
For the traditions that tell you what doesn’t happen in baptism, the Table that is supposed to be a joyful feast where all baptized Christians who have been forgiven of their sins get to eat with Jesus, gets turned into a Table of fear and doubt and trepidation.
You see, if you don’t believe that Hebrews 10 is talking about your baptism and that and in your baptism you were sprinkled clean and forgiven, and if you don't believe that when the pastor reminded you of that when He declared, “Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for your sins and to be raised for your justification; and for His sake forgives you all your sins,” well, then it makes sense you’d come to the Table doubting whether or not you’re really forgiven, really saved, really worthy to eat and drink with Jesus.
But when you trust God’s Word and the promises He attaches to it, particularly the promises He attaches to your baptism, then you need not come to this table with fear and trembling.
One of the reasons we’re so insistent on using God’s actual words about these things isn’t just because we’re theological sticklers, but it’s because when you don’t use God’s actual Words you don’t get to rest in the actual promises He extends in it.
Beloved, when you came in that door, burdened by your sins and grieved that yet again you have sinned against the God who loves you and gave His Son to die for you, you confessed your sins, and because God says you have been united to Christ in your baptism, and He says that when you confess your sins He is faithful and just to forgive you all your sins and to cleanse you yet again of all your unrighteousness, you can know that’s true for you.
And when you know that; when you know that God loves you and wants to forgive you and does forgive you and all those references to baptism apply to you, well then you can actually enjoy the gifts of grace He has for you, which is nowhere better offered than in His giving you yet again His body and blood in this bread and wine.
So, baptized Christian, as the officers bring you the bread of life and the cup of the new covenant in Christ’s blood, receive them and believe without a shadow of a doubt that Christ lived, died, and rose again for you, for His glory and the life of the World. Amen?
Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us keep the feast!