Are you nervous in the presence of celebrities? Would you feel awkward if President Bush came to your house for lunch today? Are there people around whom you are very self -conscious?
There is a famous story about a woman who goes into an ice cream store. Suddenly she recognizes that Robert Redford is also buying ice cream in that store. The woman is on the verge of swooning with ecstasy, but she is determined to remain calm. She does not want to disgrace herself or invade her favorite movie star's privacy.
So she buys a cone and departs without saying anything. Gaining her composure outside the store she realizes that, while she has her change, she's missing her ice-cream cone.
She goes back in to claim what is rightly hers. "I didn't get my ice-cream cone," she says with as much dignity as she can muster. "I'm sure I gave it to you," said the man behind the counter. Finally Redford, licking his own cone, speaks up. "You'll find it in your purse, Ma'am," he says, "right where you put it." So much for dignity and grace. Being in the presence of some people does that sort of thing to us.
Think how uncomfortable John the Baptist must have felt when the Son of God came to him to be baptized. Matthew tells us, "John would have prevented him, saying, `I need to be baptized of you, and do you come to me?'" "What's going on here?" John wondered. "I'm not ready for this. I am but a prophet. This is the Christ!"
It is easy to guess what went through John's mind. I wonder, though, what Jesus was thinking? Why would he, the sinless Son of God, submit to baptism by John the Baptist? There are some likely possibilities.
HE WANTED TO IDENTIFY WITH THE MINISTRY AND MESSAGE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
The respect Jesus had for John's message is equally impressive. John came preaching, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mt. 3:2)
Interesting. According to Matthew 4:17, Jesus' first sermon was "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The same message. This is important. There are those who would portray John as hard on sin and Jesus as soft. Check the Gospels. Jesus' teachings were as uncompromising as John's. Jesus was compassionate with sinners, but not with sin.
Jesus, having the heart of the Father, understood in a way John could not just why sin must be rooted out of our lives. Sin destroys. That is why it is the enemy.
I want to say something to you this morning that is as true as any statement that you will ever hear, but some people would rather die than believe it. STRAIGHT PEOPLE HAVE MORE FUN. Everything you see and hear in the world tells you exactly the opposite, but it is true. People who seek to live according to the way of Christ have more fun.
Watch a group of deeply devoted people together. They laugh more. And it is not the dumb, almost desperate kind of laughter you will hear at a "beer bust" or at a cocktail party. You know what I mean: "Let's see how outrageous I can act so I can tell myself that I am having fun." How pathetic. Genuine Christian folks don't have to lose their inhibitions to have a good time. They don't have to get outside themselves.
They don't have to have chemicals to give them a high. They have a great time just being together.
Even more interesting are the studies that show that deeply religious people enjoy the sexual side of their lives more. Particularly women. That's true and I want our young adults to know it. The more deeply religious a woman is, the more pleasure she derives from physical love. That's what the studies show.
Television is the medium of the swinging single, but surveys indicate that sex within the context of a Christian marriage is far more satifying. Look at the faces of the beautiful people on TV soap operas. There are two things you will never see: authentic Christian faith and real joy. The 2 fit hand -in-glove. If one is missing, the other is missing as well. People with no values really don't know what fun is!
Jesus understood this. This is why he was not as quick as John the Baptist to condemn sinners. He felt sorry for them. Sinners simply do not know what they are missing. Jesus identified with the ministry and the message of John the Baptist. That is probably one reason he came to John to be baptized.
A SECOND REASON WAS THAT THIS WAS HIS WAY OF INITIATING HIS OWN MINISTRY.
United Press International sometime back carried an unusual story about a bank official who became a hero in a most unusual way.
Andrew Parker's family, along with many others was on a ferry, sinking in the turbulent English Channel. Between the sinking ship & a small island of metal was a 6' wide cascade of water, which "was too big for people to jump across." So, in Parker's words, "I just made a sort of a bridge." He stretched his 6' 3" frame across the gap to become a human bridge in order to allow 20 persons to reach safety.
His wife Eleanor was the first to try out the human structure. She said, "I stepped on his back and I was petrified!"
All of the people made it across. Once across, all of them clung to the small island until rescuers could throw a rope. Parker helped everyone climb the rope.
"People were screaming, and my daughter thought she was going to die," Eleanor Parker declared. "She said, `Mommy, if I did something wrong, I didn't mean to do it.'"
In the midst of all the confusion and pandemonium, hero Andrew became himself a vital link to safety.
Now go back 2,000 years. A humble carpenter of Nazareth set out not only to BUILD a bridge between God and humanity, but to BECOME that bridge. It began here on the banks of the Jordan when he chose to initiate his ministry at the hands of John the Baptist. He was baptized as an act of identification with John's message and ministry and as a means of initiating his own ministry.
AT THE SAME TIME, HE INDICATED TO US THE PATH WE ARE TO TAKE IN OUR DISCIPLESHIP. WE, TOO, ARE TO SUBMIT TO BAPTISM AS AN ACT OF IDENTIFICATION WITH HIS MESSAGE AND MINISTRY AND WITH HIS HELP, WE, TOO, ARE TO INITIATE A NEW LIFE.
There ought to be a row of used tombstones lining the altar of every church. We have found new life in Christ and we signify that by submitting to Christian baptism.
As we begin this New Year, there may be someone in our fellowship who has never taken this essential step.
Those of you who can remember the McCarthy years of the 1950s, when we were looking for Communists under every bed, can remember the term "fellow traveller." This was a term for persons who were not card-carrying members of the Communist Party, but were supporters of the Communist cause, none the less.
The church today has many fellow travellers--people who support the church, even love the church. They have never made that ultimate commitment, though, of having the water of Christian baptism applied to their lives. They are like people who court all their lives but never make it to the altar to be wed. If you should be one of these fellow travellers, I hope that you will prayerfully consider taking this vital step of discipleship.
It doesn't mean all your problems in your life in the New Year will be solved. Life has its ironic twists and turns. There is an O. Henry story entitled, "The Cop and the Anthem." In this story a New York bum named Soapy sets out to get arrested so that he can spend the winter months warm and well-fed in jail.
At every misdemeanor Soapy commits, fate steps in and prevents his arrest. Finally, in disgust, Soapy is returning to his park bench when he hears beautiful organ music coming from a church. As he listens to the music, old memories flood in, and he begins to plan and resolve to change his life's direction.
At that moment a police officer steps up and arrests him for loitering, and he is sentenced to spend the next 3 months in jail.
Life has its funny twists and turns. Baptism will not solve all your problems, but it will settle the most important issue in your life--to Whom do you owe your primary allegiance? Most of us will submit that our first allegiance is to Christ and his kingdom. Our baptism is our statement to the world where we stand.
In a Peanut's comic strip, Lucy is walking along the road with Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown asks her: "Lucy, are you going to make any New Year's resolutions?" Lucy hollers back at him, knocking him off his feet: "What? What for? What's wrong with me now? I like myself the way I am! Why should I change? What in the world is the matter with you, Charlie Brown? I'm all right the way I am! I don't have to improve. How could I improve? How, I ask you? How?"
Most of us know ways in which we can change. With Christ's help we want to initiate a new life. We want to be identified with his message and his ministry. Thus we embrace the way he has indicated. We accept the sacrament of baptism. Why? Because he did and he is the Lord of our life.
