{"id":573,"date":"2020-01-13T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=573"},"modified":"2020-01-13T14:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T14:58:00","slug":"baptism-of-our-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2020\/01\/13\/baptism-of-our-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptism of Our Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matthew 3:13-17                                           John the Baptist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shalom, may God\u2019s peace be with you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\na changed man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All it took (laugh<\/em>),\n<\/em>All it took was an event of unimagined importance; change does not come\neasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\nme tell you a bit of my story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents were older\nwhen they had me and there was a kind of miracle involved with my birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother was believed to\nhave been barren and my father, a priest, when he was told by an angel that he\nand my mother would have a son, made the mistake of asking the angel for some proof.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Well) He got his proof;\nmy father was struck mute; he couldn\u2019t speak until after I was born; his voice\nwas returned to him only after the elders of the community challenged my mother\nabout the name given me by God, John; in time most people came to know me, not\nonly as John, but as John the Baptist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents, Elizabeth and\nZechariah, were loving parents and faithful Jews; my father taught me the\nScriptures and what it meant to be a child of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time of my teens\nmy parents had gone to be with the Lord and I was left by myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extended family members offered\nme love and a place to stay, but I was ready to move out on my own; I felt\ncalled to move out into the wilderness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found a community of\nfaithful Jews out there, men dedicated to God and to the ritual cleansing of\nthe body and spirit; as a member of this community I did this regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\ncalling, though, was not satisfied by my life there, but before I moved on, the\ncommunity taught me the importance of baptism, repentance and absolution and I\nlearned the ways of surviving in the wilderness, eating foods like locusts and\nwild honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locusts, they\u2019re not so\nbad, and who doesn\u2019t like honey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nmore important, my calling now took me towards Jerusalem, the heart of the\nfaith of my people Israel, but my calling was not to the Temple of our Lord, my\ncalling took me to a part of the wilderness near Jerusalem and to the Jordan\nRiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There I preached to\nwhoever would listen, and baptized those who felt moved to repent of their\nsins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was not a loveable\npreacher; I was known to call people out for their sin; I was heard calling\nsome respected men of our faith \u201ca brood of vipers\u201d, asking them \u201cwho warned\nthem to flee from the wrath to come\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That gets me to what\nthere was in my life that was so very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\ncalling was not just to call people to repent and cleanse them through baptism;\nmy calling was to prepare the way for the Messiah of God, which meant preparing\nthe masses to receive the Messiah, by first purifying them of their filth,\ntheir sin with a baptism of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day-in and day-out, I\nstood waste deep in the Jordan river, condemning sin and calling everyone to\nrepent and be baptized, warning them of the coming of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You would call a preacher\nlike me a \u201cfire and brimstone\u201d type preacher; I was a good one<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often wondered why so\nmany people came back, again and again, so that I could beat them up with my\nwords again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nseems that they knew that they needed to hear what I was saying, but then my\ncalling was to come to a quick end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one for whom I was to\nprepare the way was standing right in front of me, asking me to baptize him,\nhow could I, how could I not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t seem right; but\nJesus the Messiah of God assured me that this was what God intended, that by\nbaptizing him I was fulfilling all righteousness, fulfilling the Scriptures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I baptized the Messiah of\nGod, knowing full well that he had not a single sin for which to repent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could he have been\nrepenting for the sins of others? I did not fully understand, but Jesus told me\nthat it was to \u201cfulfill all righteousness\u201d and so who was I to argue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in awe, and as Jesus\ncame up out of the water I was struck with wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never\nbefore had I seen the heavens open as they did, never before had I seen the\nSpirit of the Lord descend and never before had I heard the voice of God the Almighty\nspeak!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had received word of my\ncalling and direction for my ministry from the Lord, but never in such a clear\nand wonderful and public way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        And now the Messiah of God had begun his ministry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways my ministry\ncontinued as before; I had always pointed to the coming Messiah, but now I knew\nexactly who to point them to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I called for repentance\nas always, I baptized as always, but then I sent them to Jesus who would\nbaptize them with the Holy Spirit; I even sent my own disciples to follow and\nhelp Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said earlier, I was\na changed man; my preaching, while more urgent than ever before, as I learned\nmore and more of Jesus\u2019 ministry, as I realized that God loved us more than he\nhated our sin, softened, from outright condemnation and judgment to that of a\nsincere and heartfelt invitation to God\u2019s love in Jesus Christ through baptism.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\njust a matter of months, after the Lord, the Messiah, Jesus submitted to being\nbaptized by me, my new and much gentler ministry, quickly came to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was arrested and as you\nprobably know I was later beheaded; well, we all die, but what is death to God and\nas you can see God has rewarded me, giving to me a new life and a place in\nGod\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meaning of baptism\nchanged with Jesus, though I did not then understand how it was changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jesus was baptized\nonly once, so it was that a onetime baptism would become the tradition for all\nwho would follow Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baptism was still for the\nforgiveness of sin, but it was a once and for all time thing, and baptism would\nnow mark all those who were baptized as children of God, offering to them gifts\nof the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        That was never a thought in my baptisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still,\nI am pleased to have been given a part in God\u2019s plan, of preparing the way for\nJesus, small as it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am pleased to stand\nhere today before you, letting you know that Jesus came not to judge and\ncondemn, but to forgive and to offer God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And remind you that\nbaptism is important; it is a gift, much like a door, through which all that Jesus\npromised will come to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter whether\nyou are baptized as an infant, a child, a teen or an adult, the Holy Spirit\nshowers the Spirits gifts upon you, because of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See\nhow much I have changed, I have preached to you for the past 10-12 minutes and\nI did not once raise my voice, I did not once threaten you with God\u2019s\ncondemnation and my message centered on God\u2019s love in Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Shalom, God\u2019s blessings and peace be\nwith you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 3:13-17                                           John the Baptist Shalom, may God\u2019s peace be with you! I\u2019m a changed man. All it took (laugh), All it took was an event of unimagined importance; change does not come easy. Let me tell you a bit of my story. My parents were older when they had Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}