"He Will Save His People"

 

"At that moment heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.' "

 

            What does it mean to be loved by God, and to live a life that is well pleasing to him? Perhaps we can find some insight in the baptism of Jesus, the one in whom God is well pleased. The baptism of Jesus is the beginning of the manifestation of Jesus to the world. It is the starting point of understanding the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. So, in Acts chapter 10, when Peter begins to speak to Cornelius and his family, he says, "You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached – how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

            The baptism of Jesus begins with the preaching of John the Baptist in the wilderness. He called the people to "repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." So the proclamation of the kingdom of God is heard through repentance. And the people repent by confessing their sins. They did not read a confession of sin together. They did not try to think of what they might have recently done wrong. I believe they responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They came to understand what their sin really was, and they agreed with that internal voice. So they simply confessed that out loud, what they knew to be true.

That is not the end of the story. Confession of sin brings a sense of renewal and freedom, but it is preparation for something greater. The people who repented were ready to receive Jesus and listen to him.

            Then John the Baptist says that through Jesus they will receive the Holy Spirit, and fire. That happens at Pentecost some years later. And John says that Jesus is the Judge, and his judgment will be both a time of gathering and of burning. But what happens next is neither receiving the Holy Spirit nor being judged, but rather what happens is that Jesus is baptized and then "he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil." Jesus does not arrive on the scene and immediately give the Holy Spirit to all who have repented. Jesus gets baptized. What that means is that he is obedient to his mission. He is not baptized as a sign of his own cleansing from sin, but for the sins of others. His baptism points to the cross.

Sin is not something just to be confessed. Sin must be paid for. Confession is important, but it is the cross of Christ that redeems us, that sets us free. We sometimes struggle with the holiness of God and his will to gather us. Both are held together at the cross. John talks about the wheat being gathered at the Judgment and the chaff being burned. You don't just become wheat by good fortune or clean living or self-esteem. That is the reason for the cross, why the cross is necessary in binding together the holiness of God and the heart of God for our salvation.

            It is after the baptism of Jesus that the voice of God speaks, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." These words come after this act of obedience, this acceptance of the mission by Jesus. He will go to the cross and he will not avoid it.

            There is one more part to the baptism. Jesus does not come out of the water and go directly to the cross. The sinless one does not give his life immediately following his baptism. Instead, he lives. He goes about doing good and healing those under the power of the devil. He lives as "God with us." So he sets a pattern for our living.

            Here is what we see. We need to confess our sins as we are convicted by the Holy Spirit. We need to trust in the power of the cross to set us free. We need to be guided by the Holy Spirit. We need to be healed by Jesus. This is a process, and we need to see it through. Our tendency is to stop short of the whole process. We may confess some of our sins, but not others. We may trust in the power of the cross but resist the longer-term healing Christ desires for us. We might be unsure of the Holy Spirit or keep parts of our lives cut off from the Spirit's influence. We need to complete the whole process.

            The NFL has a funny rule that a receiver needs to complete the whole process of a catch in order for it to be considered complete. I was watching a Bears game this fall, and one of the Detroit Lions made a catch in the end zone, and then fell down, and then spun around to get up and laid the ball down. The pass was ruled incomplete because the ref said even though he clearly caught the ball, he did not complete the process of the catch. It was certainly a mysterious ruling, but I like the general principle. Too often we stop short. We don't allow God to complete what he has begun in us.

            This week I was shown an article in the Harvard Business Review. It was written by Clayton Christensen, who is a professor at the Harvard Business School. He wrote, "Over the years I've watched the fates of my Harvard Business classmates from 1979 unfold; I've seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn't keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents and energy."

            He goes on to talk about when he was a student he made a commitment to spend one hour each night reading and thinking and praying about why God put him on this earth. He stuck with it faithfully, and ultimately figured out the purpose of his life. I would add that an understanding of purpose also needs a willingness to allow God to save, renew and heal us in every area of our lives.

            Then he writes, "When people who have a high need for achievement have an extra half-hour of time, they'll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. And our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we're moving forward. In contrast, investing time and energy in your relationship with your spouse and children [note: and I would again add, your relationship with God] typically doesn't offer that same immediate sense of achievement. You can neglect your relationship with your spouse, and on a day to day basis, it doesn't seem as if things are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers." And I think this drive to excel also causes us to underinvest in our relationship with God.

            What can we do about this? On the first page of the Covenant's Prayer Week guide, there is a quotation by Annie Dillar:. "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." The prayer guide gives instructions about how to develop a "Rule of Life," which is "a pattern of Spiritual practices that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness." We will talk more about that at our prayer gathering tonight. But for now I would like to give you an assignment. I don't think I have ever given an assignment in a sermon before. But I feel very strongly about this. I want to assign you to read this piece, "Devoted: Praying our Way to a Rule of Life." Then we can talk about where we go from here.

            "How we spend our days is, our course, how we spend our lives."

            Jesus made clear how he would spend his days at his baptism. There is a pattern given to us in his baptism. Confessing our sins by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, trusting in the power of the cross for salvation, submitting to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, welcoming the healing presence of Jesus in every part of life, and living by the example of Jesus.

            Amen.