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Fired Up For Christ's Other Baptism

          Every once in a while the Lord Jesus smacks us right between the eyes with a message that is nothing short of shocking.  We don’t need to be completely surprised by that.  At times our Lord Jesus used very vivid and intense language in order to get people to pay attention.  For example, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29).  Or how about this, speaking about adults who harm or neglect the spiritual well-being of children, “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).  No less shocking are the words from today’s gospel in Luke chapter twelve, “I have come to bring fire on the earth … do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you but division”.  Jesus had a reason for using such intense language.  You see, he knows our life can be so much same old, same old.  We get up.  We go to work or school.  We put in our time.  Same old routine, same old aches and pains, same old hassles.  We might as well plug in a tape recorder and let it run because we get into the same old arguments with people at work and at home.  No matter how hard we try, we keep falling into the same old bad habits and pet sins.  We tell ourselves, “Today is going to be different!”  Today I’m really going to commit myself to more godly thinking and behavior.”  But when the day is done, we look back and see the same old weaknesses and sin.

          Would you like to clean up your act and live a more godly life?  Would you like to serve God with more excitement and joy?  Would you like to translate your worship today into greater confidence in your relationship with God?  Would you like to inject a little spiritual fire into your life?  Jesus wants that for us, too.  To do that he asks us to take a step back and look at the big picture so that we can see the impact of what he did for us as we move through this life to the next.  That all happens when we get fired up for Christ’s other baptism.

The Baptism Christ Endured

          Do you recall how Jesus began his ministry?  Maybe I should have worded the question differently.  What event served as his inauguration, as his official entrance into his public ministry?  Some of you know that Jesus began his public ministry with his being baptized by John at the Jordan River.  He was age thirty.  As he stood knee deep in the Jordan, his heavenly Father was pouring out the Holy Spirit to equip him for his mission.

          Two and a half years later he said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!”  What is this “other” baptism?  His first baptism was an actual application of water merged with the promises of God’s love as he stood there loaded down with your sins and mine.  This “other” baptism he speaks of is a picture language way of describing the suffering he was about to endure.  Jesus was saying, “Just as water was poured on me at the Jordan, so also in just a few months I will be overwhelmed by waves of suffering.  Sinners deserve to have suffering poured out on them as a payment for their sin.  But as the Substitute for all sinners, all that suffering and punishment is going to be poured out on me!”

          Jesus is the Son of God.  He knew exactly what he was getting into.  He knew the ordeal that lay ahead.  But he was also truly human, and the idea of the crushing blows of God’s anger because of our sin being aimed at him was not pleasant.  But don’t be mistaken.  When Jesus said, “I have a baptism[of suffering]to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed”, he was not running scared.  He was distressed not in the sense of being upset, but in the sense of being propelled by two powerful forces pressing him forward – on the one side God’s plan, the only plan, that would work to rescue sinners, namely, God himself in the person of Jesus Christ giving up his life, and on the other side, his burning compassion for sinners.  Jesus was saying that the thought of suffering hell on the cross was not pleasant, but he was going to hold on course until it was completed.  His willingness to carry out his Father’s will and his love for us jetted him downstream in the direction of the cross like a kayak on the rushing water of a flooded Milwaukee parkway.

          Doesn’t this “other” baptism of Jesus fire you up?  How would you like it if the IRS were hot on your trail because they discovered that for the past ten years you filled out your tax forms incorrectly and now owed a boatload of money, but then someone came along and said, “I’ll pay it for you”?  Would you be fired up?  What if the doctor discovered an inoperable tumor and said, “You’ve got six weeks to live,” but then another physician came up with a cure.  Would you be fired up?  Of course!  Now think of what Jesus did for us in his “other” baptism, and recall that it’s our insolence and laziness that put him in that position.  It’s our selfishness and illicit desires that put him in that position.  It’s our loose lips and sticky fingers that put him in that position.  But he was willing to be overwhelmed with sufferings so we wouldn’t be.  He endured waves of pain in our place.  This “other” baptism set us free to be people of God so that we wouldn’t be crushed by God’s anger but held close in God’s love.  If you want fire and fervor in your spiritual life, here it is!  You’ll find it in the “other” baptism Jesus endured in our place which became our personal possession, applied to our account, through the baptismal water which was poured on us.

The Baptism Christians Go Through

          The laws of physics tell us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  That means if you take a stick, swing it, and hit a piñata, the piñata is going to swing, too, and probably burst.  If you drop a stone in sand, it will produce a little crater.  If you throw a rock into the river, it will produce rings of little waves.

            Jesus’ action of enduring the “other” baptism, the waves of suffering, produces a reaction that flows over us.  He said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth”.  Our first question needs to be, “Is that good or bad?”  Normally, in modern society, we don’t think of fire as being something good.  In our culture we spend a good deal of time and effort avoiding fire.  We teach kids not to play with matches or lighters.  Human resource departments teach employees fire safety.  The fire inspector makes sure that hospitals, office buildings, and churches have exit signs, access to the exits, and strategically placed fire extinguishers.  Fire departments work at improving equipment and technique in combating fire.  If the grease from the brats drips on hot coals, you better have lengthy barbecue tongs, or you’ll singe the hair right off your arms.  In our culture fire is generally seen as dangerous.

            But one hundred years ago people could tell you about the importance of fire.  Just as in Bible times, people who lived a century or more ago needed fire to cook, to heat their homes, and to provide light.  One other important use for fire which still exists today is that it serves to refine and purify raw ore.  If you want to have pure iron or silver or gold, it has to be refined.  It has to pass through fire so that it is valuable and useful.

          What is the fire Jesus intended to bring on the earth?  We get the answer in his own words.  “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but division”.  A very wealthy man heard about two orphaned children who were living on the street and nearing starvation.  He fed them, clothed them cared for them, loved them, adopted them.  But that kind and generous man also had some enemies in town.  They were jealous of his position and power.  Since they couldn’t get at him, they made sure that their children tried to pick on his adopted children.  One day they said to their dear father, “If you had not adopted us, we wouldn’t be getting picked on in school.”  He replied, “That may be true, but if I had not adopted you, you would be starving and probably dead.”

            Because of Jesus’ “other” baptism God has adopted sinners like us into his family.  Satan is jealous of God’s position and power.  He knows he can’t get at him so he tries to make life difficult for God’s adopted children.  That’s the fire Christians go through.  Jesus is talking about the flack that Christians get just because they are Christians.  Loyalty to Christ and his word often brings tension and trouble.  It can even happen that there will be flack within a family.  Jesus said, “There will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law”.

          You and I believe there is such a thing as right and wrong even though there are plenty of people who would say, “Do what you want!”  The reason we believe that is because we take seriously everything God gives us as guidelines for godly living.  After all, he is the God who owns us twice over – he made us, and he bought us with the blood of his Son.  So, when you tell your daughter that it is not right to move in with her boyfriend, and she says, “Mind your own business,” that’s the fire Jesus brought into the world.  When you tell a co-worker that his behavior with a secretary is inappropriate, and he says, “Jump in the lake,” that’s the fire Jesus brought into the world.  When you say that you simply aren’t going to have one more for the road at the company party, and people make fun of you for being a goodie-two-shoes, that’s the fire Jesus brought into the world.  When you are committed to abstain from sex because you are single, and people think you’re a prude, that’s the fire Jesus brought into the world.  When the college professor states that religion is irrelevant, and you stand up to her though it hurts your standing in class, that’s the fire Jesus brought into the world.   

          There are times when we might become frustrated and think, “Lord, if you had not adopted me, there would be a lot less static in my life!”  The Lord responds, “That may be true, but if I had not adopted you, your soul would starve to death and die.  The fire you are experiencing now just because you are a Christian is my way of refining you.”  That’s why Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”. He was eager to complete his work so that Christians could be Christians.  But when Christians act like Christians, the fire of flack gets kindled.  So, Christ’s “other” baptism gets us fired up in two ways – fired up with excitement because heaven is ours, and fired by the refining process that draws us closer to our Lord.

          Sooner or later you will experience some kind of pressure just because of your link to Jesus.  Sooner or later you will go through fire if you haven’t already.  Sooner or later your loyalty to Jesus will be tested.  When that happens, recall these words of Jesus from Luke chapter twelve, and then open your Bible to First Peter chapter four, and read what the Holy Spirit caused one of Jesus’ first disciples to write, “Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed … If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name” (1 Peter 4:12,16).  Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on August 22, 2010

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Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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