Baptism by Fire and Spirit

Luke 3:15-22

Today we look at the passage of scripture where Jesus was baptized. Baptism is an important rite in the Christian church. It is done differently in various Christian traditions. We have a lot of different denominational backgrounds represented in the Federated Church. Officially we are related to Methodists and Baptists, but we have just as many Congregationalists and Presbyterians here. You are  also Lutherans and Episcopalians and just about every other mainline denomination we can think of. Most the Protestant traditions baptize infants. If you were baptized as an infant you don’t remember your baptism. It was something done on your behalf by your parents, and sometime later you confirmed that baptism for yourself later in life. Baptists, on the other hand, baptize only those old enough to make a decision for themselves to be baptized. Also Baptists baptize by immersion. We baptize both ways in this Federated Church. In our gospel lesson for today we see Jesus baptized as an adult by John the Baptist.

Jesus’ baptism at the age of thirty was a very important event in his life. In all four gospels it is recorded as the beginning of his public ministry. As I read the story of Jesus’ baptism, I try to get into the head and heart of Jesus. I think that his baptism was a very powerful experience for Jesus. It completely transformed his life from that of an ordinary carpenter in the sleepy town of Nazareth in Galilee into one of a powerful preacher in Israel. And this was the moment in his life when Jesus’ life changed. Jesus fully realized who he was at this point. I am sure he had some understanding of his identity previously. We see it some in the story of Jesus at the age of 12 in the temple talking with the teachers (which I preached on a couple of weeks ago.) We see there the beginnings of his emerging self-awareness as the Son of God. But it was not yet complete. I think that over the years Jesus while he was in this teens and his twenties he gradually understood who he was as the Son of God. His baptism was the culmination of this process. I am tempted to call it his conversion, but he did not need to be converted in the way that we do. But it was still a very powerful spiritual experience for Jesus, and it transformed his life. Let’s look at Jesus’ baptism and our baptism this morning.

I. First our passage talks about baptism in water. In the simplest respect baptism is an outward ritual. For some people it does not mean much. I have met a lot of people during my ministry who were baptized when they were little, and it means nothing to them now. Some people even resent being baptized. I read about a debaptizing ceremony conducted by some atheists these days where people ceremonially undo their baptism. They use a hair-dryer and a ritual to symbolically undo what was done to them without their permission when they were infants. Even Baptists can reject their baptism which may have happened when they were 10, 11, 12 or 13 years old. They look back on it and say that they really didn’t know what they were doing at that age, or they just went through the motions for the sake of their parents. Or they were just going along with it because all their peers were going through it. I know that was true of confirmation for me when I was 13 years old in the Congregational Church. I didn’t believe any of it. Everybody in my Sunday School class was going through it, and I was expected by my parents to go through it. And so I was confirmed and joined the Maple Street Congregational Church and Danvers, Mass. But I did not believe in Jesus. I am not even sure I believed in God.

People can go through religious rites and rituals and not believe in their meaning. People can partake of communion each month and not believe. We can be members of a church and not believe. It can be just an outward observance without the inward meaning. That is why John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He stressed the need to make it personal. He stressed how each individual who came to him had to genuinely repent. This is the prerequisite of Christian baptism as well. There needs to be the intention that things will be different. But Christians understand Jesus’ baptism to be a bit different because Jesus is understood to be sinless and not in need of repentance. The Letter to the Hebrews says Jesus “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Yet we are not sinless. No matter how good our intentions, we know we fall short. I read recently that 50% of all New Year’s resolutions are broken by the end of January and 80% will not make it past February. Good intentions are not enough. The outward ritual, even if accompanied by the best of intentions is not enough. That is why more is needed. John himself saw that more was needed than his baptism by water. John says in our passage in verse 16 “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”

II. This brings me to my second point, which is baptism in fire. John said he could not administer baptism in fire. All he could do was water baptism and hope that the people who came to him for baptism were coming with the right intention. That is all that any preacher can do. That is all that I can do. I do not have any control of the sincerity of the people in this church or in any church I have ever served. I have no control over what goes on in your inner spiritual life. That is entirely up to you and God. I can preach and teach and exhort and counsel and advise and try to set an example, but when it comes down to it, it is up to you. You spiritual life and your relationship to God is in your hands. No one really knows what is going on in your heart and soul but you. John also knew that his baptism was, in the end, just water. More was needed. The Messiah and his transforming power was needed. John says that the Messiah “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” I will get to the Holy Spirit later, but now let me focus on the other aspects.

John speaks about winnowing. “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”   Threshing is the process of separating the edible grain or seeds from the inedible husks and straw. It was done on a threshing floor, which was a flat stony area usually located in an elevated place. It is interesting, and symbolically significant, that the high spot in Jerusalem where Solomon built the temple was originally a threshing floor, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite procured by David. Threshing floors were often located on hills so there would be a breeze available for the next step in the process, which was the winnowing. The grain was threshed - loosened from the stalks by beating them with a flail on the threshing floor. After the grain was loosened from the stalks, then winnowing removed the chaff from the grain. The most basic form of winnowing in the first century was simply throwing the material up in the air using a winnowing fan or winnowing fork, which was a like a wide basket or a rake. People would throw the mixture in the air and the wind would blow away the lighter chaff off to one side while the heavier grain would fall to the ground. This throwing upwards of the grain and chaff would be done over and over again until only the pure grain remained. The grain would be collected and stored in barns. Then the threshing floor would be swept, and all the worthless chaff collected and burned.

This is John’s metaphor for the baptism that Jesus baptizes us with. It means that our lives have to undergo purification by Christ. Human lives are a mixture of good and bad. We all can see that in our own lives and other people’s lives. In some people there is a lot of good, and in some people a lot of bad, but every life has both. And the bad infects the whole like a rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. Good and evil needs to be separated in our lives. Good and evil needs to be identified. That means we must call sin what it is. There is right and wrong, good and evil, sin and righteousness. It is important that we are clear in this matter and not downplay the presence and power of sin in our lives. What if a farmer refused to distinguish between wheat and chaff? What if he said it was too judgmental to make that type of distinction? What if the flour we bought at Heath’s Supermarket was filled with the husks and stalks? Nothing good can be made of that type of product. It is the same in our lives. We have to differentiate between the two. Then the two have to be separated. The worthless stuff in our lives needs to be collected and disposed of. This is what Christ does. That is the baptism of fire that Christ baptizes us with. He does in us what we cannot do for ourselves. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. He will winnow our lives. He will use the good for his purposes and burn up the chaff. That is Jesus’ baptism by fire. It is not an outward ritual; it is the internal spiritual work of Jesus Christ in our hearts and souls.

III. The third type of baptism mentioned in this passage is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some interpreters combine fire and Spirit as referring to the same thing, referring to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostle in tongues of fire. I am distinguishing between fire and Spirit. John said, ““I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” The passage goes on to describe Jesus’ baptism, which is an example of this baptism of the Holy Spirit but not fire. Jesus was baptized in water by John, but he was also baptized in the Holy Spirit by his Heavenly Father. The story says, “it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

There are several elements in these verses that need to be mentioned. The first is prayer. “it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed…” The baptism of the Holy Spirit begins with prayer. Prayer is an inner intention to connect with God. It can take different forms, from thanksgiving to petition to praise to thanksgiving and confession and many other types of prayer. But what they all have in common is a personal inner intent to connect with God. We have to desire and ask the Holy Spirit to consume and fill our lives. God will not force himself on us. If we do not want God to control of our lives, then God honors that choice. And our lives will exhibit the consequences. But if we want to be immersed in the Spirit of God, like we are immersed in water when we go swimming in Squam Lake, then we have to ask. Jesus prayed.

Then it says that heaven opened, “while He prayed, the heaven was opened.” Heaven descended to earth in the Holy Spirit in the baptism of Jesus. After a thunderstorm we sometimes see clouds part and rays of light break through. If we are driving on the highway or live on a hill with a nice view of the mountains, this parting of the clouds and rays of sun breaking through can be a dramatic sight. That is what happened in Jesus’ baptism. Except we are talking about spiritual heaven and not a physical one. Heaven is not up in the sky somewhere beyond the solar system of the Milky Way. Heaven is an omnipresent spiritual realm. The Kingdom of God is right here right now. But we are closed to it. We are unaware of its presence. At his baptism Jesus was powerfully aware of the opening of heaven in that spot. In the OT there is the famous story of Jacob’s ladder. Jacob was alone in the wilderness and fell asleep using a rock as a pillow – not very comfortable. He had a dream of heaven opening and a ladder erected between heaven and earth with angels ascending and descending the stairway. When he awoke he declared, “Surely God is in this place and I did not know it! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven!” That is what happened at Jesus’ baptism.

Heaven opens in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is seen as present here and now. Not somewhere in outer space or simply something experienced after we die (although that is true also.) But wherever the Holy Spirit is present, there is God. There is eternal life. There is eternity now. There are Pentecostal and charismatic churches and denominations that will say the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience of speaking in tongues or falling to the ground (slain in the Spirit, they call it). I don’t hold to that view. I think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is being immersed in the Holy Spirit of God, an awareness of God present in us, through us, around us.

In the story of Jesus’ baptism it says that the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove. The dove is a symbol of gentle peace. This baptism was both a powerful and also a gentle experience for Jesus. Some people want a dramatic emotional spiritual experiences to confirm their faith. That is not necessary. Jesus’ baptism in the Holy Spirit was a gentle awakening to the presence of God. This is an awareness that is open not only to Jesus but to every one of us who follows Jesus. God is just as presence here and now as he was at the Jordan River two thousand years ago. God has not changed. Christ has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Kingdom of God is powerfully present here today in this place, just as it was present during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit here today is the same Spirit. The only difference is whether we are open to the Spirit.

The final part of Jesus’ baptism is the voice. Verse 22 says, “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” This is an expression of Jesus’ self-awareness as the Son of God. And a proclamation to others of Jesus unique status as God’s Son. We are not divine Sons or Daughters of God like Jesus was and is. He was the only begotten Son of God. But we can become children of God. John’s gospel says, “12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The apostle Paul says that we are adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus was the Son of God. That is what baptism means. It means that by faith in this one who was baptized in water by John and in the Spirit by the Father, we also are spiritually baptized. A baptism of fire of the cleansing from sin and guilt. A baptism in Spirit as we open our hearts and souls unreservedly to God’s Holy Spirit to have control of our lives. And a baptism in water as an outward sign to represent that inner transformation. Baptism in water, in fire, and in the Holy Spirit.