The Baptism Of Our Lord / Epiphany 1
Devotional
Pause Before The Pulpit
Personal Reflections For Pastors On The Lectionary Readings
Mark 1:4-11
There are many events in the Bible that I wish I could have witnessed firsthand, and this is one of them! What an awesome scene! I'm sure it was a moving time for John, as he tried to grasp the significance of what was going on. Clearly he didn't fully understand it all, for we read in Matthew's Gospel that John thought it more appropriate for Jesus to baptize him rather than for him to baptize Jesus. However, Jesus insisted that John baptize him, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 4:15).
So this marvelous scene unfolded, where Jesus and John went down into the Jordan River where our Lord was baptized. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. It is not clear from the gospels whether anyone else saw this, but if others did, we can only imagine that it must have been a powerful experience! We have all seen some pretty amazing cloud formations, especially before or after a violent storm, but one can barely conceive what it would have looked like to see the heavens torn apart! To be sure, it was an awesome display of God's power being exercised over his creation.
Added to this magnificent scene was the descent of the Spirit of God upon Jesus in the likeness of a dove. Many artists have tried to capture this scene on canvas or paper, but the best imaginations and the most artistic abilities will always fall short of being able to capture the true awesomeness of this event.
Perhaps the most awesome part of this scene was when God spoke from heaven. What did that sound like? How would we have reacted to this? Would we have fallen on our faces, gotten chills down our spine, and goose bumps on our arms? Would we have understood the words or just heard a mighty sound? Perhaps I think too much, but I like to put myself in some of these situations, for it helps me get a better feel for what God might want me to hear, see, and experience from the text.
This much we can experience: to hear again what the Father said to the Son: You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. Wow! What powerful words of affirmation! Notice that this statement came at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, which means God was pleased as to how Jesus had conducted himself during the first thirty-some years of his life. His life had been largely private up to that point (at least private from the pages of scripture). God was also pleased, no doubt, that his Son was obediently and submissively beginning his ministry in accordance with God's timing, will, and plan for his life. And certainly God was pleased with his Son as he looked ahead to the future, knowing Jesus would carry out every detail of his will exactly the way he had planned it.
As ambassadors for Christ, God would certainly like to say the same of us as well. Could he say to you, "With you I am well pleased"? How have you lived your life up to this point? Did you go into active, parish ministry for the right reasons? Are you serving him, or self? Are you ministering according to his timing, will, and plan for your life? Are you determined (as best you are able) to carry out God's perfect will for your life in the future?
These are hard questions that remind us we fall short of God's will at times, and that we will never be as pleasing to God as Jesus was. But thank God for his grace that forgives our sins and enables us to be more and more like his perfect Son.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for sending your Son to carry out your good and perfect work of atonement on my behalf. Thank you, Jesus, for being well pleasing in your Father's eyes. Please forgive me for all the times I have fallen short of your perfect will for me. Help me, Lord, to more and more live my life, and carry out my ministry, in a way that is well pleasing to you. Thank you. Amen.
Acts 19:1-7
I think it would have been fascinating (yet exhausting!) to have traveled with the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys. Imagine spending day after day on foot, in the Middle Eastern and the Northern Mediterranean regions, trying to keep up with Paul! Or worse yet, sailing in the ships of his day in the midst of storms to the point of actual shipwreck, and still walking away from it without having lost our vision and purpose for what we were doing. That was Paul, a first-century missionary.
In this lesson we read that he had arrived in Ephesus where he found some followers of Christ. These people had not been converted by Paul, or by any of Christ's disciples who had been through the Pentecost experience that we read about in Acts 2. If they had come to faith in Christ through the teaching of one of them, they would have been fully aware of the Holy Spirit and been baptized in the name of Jesus. Instead, we read that they had been baptized into John's baptism and had no clue who, or what, the Holy Spirit was. So Paul brought them up to speed; explaining to them The Trinity and baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus.
What happened next makes many of us in the Christian church uneasy, as we more than likely don't practice this in our own church traditions and are often skeptical of those who do. Luke described the activity this way: When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied....
What makes us uneasy is the part about these twelve people speaking in tongues and prophesying. I believe we need to be very careful not to develop formulas as to how God works in and through the lives of believers, whether they are new believers or people who have believed in Christ for a long time. Churches who have developed their theological positions, their doctrines, their traditions, and their rituals around formulas, end up implying (if not outright teaching) that everything has to happen a certain way (especially when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit) or else one is not truly saved.
If we were to do a careful study of the book of Acts, we would find that the Holy Spirit came upon various individuals and groups of people in various ways, and the manifestation of his presence in that individual or group of people varied as well. In other words, is everyone who is baptized able to speak in tongues and prophesy? If we can't do either, does that mean we have not truly received the Holy Spirit? Some would say, "Yes," but the Apostle Paul would say, "No," for he made it clear that speaking in tongues and prophesying are gifts that the Spirit gives to some people, but not everyone (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
So why did the Holy Spirit come upon these people when Paul laid his hands on them? Because that is the way God chose to enter them at that time. Why did they speak in tongues and prophesy? Because that is the way God chose to manifest himself to them and to give them a visible sign of his invisible presence.
"But," we might wonder, "Why doesn't he do that today? Why doesn't he do that through me?" God seems to still choose when and how he is going to come upon those who believe. I have laid hands on people and prayed for them, whether at their baptism, or while anointing them with oil for healing, or for some other occasion of prayer, yet none of them ever spoke in tongues or prophesied. Does that mean that the Holy Spirit was not present or at work? No. It just means that he was doing his work in a different, yet equally effective, way.
If you believe in Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life, know that the Holy Spirit is in you. We don't need an emotional experience with a special anointing or laying on of hands for that to be true.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for your Spirit who comes to us, not only in baptism, but in other ways and at other times, primarily through your word. Please manifest yourself to me, and through me, with the gifts you have given me now and those you reveal to me in the future. Amen.
There are many events in the Bible that I wish I could have witnessed firsthand, and this is one of them! What an awesome scene! I'm sure it was a moving time for John, as he tried to grasp the significance of what was going on. Clearly he didn't fully understand it all, for we read in Matthew's Gospel that John thought it more appropriate for Jesus to baptize him rather than for him to baptize Jesus. However, Jesus insisted that John baptize him, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 4:15).
So this marvelous scene unfolded, where Jesus and John went down into the Jordan River where our Lord was baptized. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. It is not clear from the gospels whether anyone else saw this, but if others did, we can only imagine that it must have been a powerful experience! We have all seen some pretty amazing cloud formations, especially before or after a violent storm, but one can barely conceive what it would have looked like to see the heavens torn apart! To be sure, it was an awesome display of God's power being exercised over his creation.
Added to this magnificent scene was the descent of the Spirit of God upon Jesus in the likeness of a dove. Many artists have tried to capture this scene on canvas or paper, but the best imaginations and the most artistic abilities will always fall short of being able to capture the true awesomeness of this event.
Perhaps the most awesome part of this scene was when God spoke from heaven. What did that sound like? How would we have reacted to this? Would we have fallen on our faces, gotten chills down our spine, and goose bumps on our arms? Would we have understood the words or just heard a mighty sound? Perhaps I think too much, but I like to put myself in some of these situations, for it helps me get a better feel for what God might want me to hear, see, and experience from the text.
This much we can experience: to hear again what the Father said to the Son: You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. Wow! What powerful words of affirmation! Notice that this statement came at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, which means God was pleased as to how Jesus had conducted himself during the first thirty-some years of his life. His life had been largely private up to that point (at least private from the pages of scripture). God was also pleased, no doubt, that his Son was obediently and submissively beginning his ministry in accordance with God's timing, will, and plan for his life. And certainly God was pleased with his Son as he looked ahead to the future, knowing Jesus would carry out every detail of his will exactly the way he had planned it.
As ambassadors for Christ, God would certainly like to say the same of us as well. Could he say to you, "With you I am well pleased"? How have you lived your life up to this point? Did you go into active, parish ministry for the right reasons? Are you serving him, or self? Are you ministering according to his timing, will, and plan for your life? Are you determined (as best you are able) to carry out God's perfect will for your life in the future?
These are hard questions that remind us we fall short of God's will at times, and that we will never be as pleasing to God as Jesus was. But thank God for his grace that forgives our sins and enables us to be more and more like his perfect Son.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for sending your Son to carry out your good and perfect work of atonement on my behalf. Thank you, Jesus, for being well pleasing in your Father's eyes. Please forgive me for all the times I have fallen short of your perfect will for me. Help me, Lord, to more and more live my life, and carry out my ministry, in a way that is well pleasing to you. Thank you. Amen.
Acts 19:1-7
I think it would have been fascinating (yet exhausting!) to have traveled with the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys. Imagine spending day after day on foot, in the Middle Eastern and the Northern Mediterranean regions, trying to keep up with Paul! Or worse yet, sailing in the ships of his day in the midst of storms to the point of actual shipwreck, and still walking away from it without having lost our vision and purpose for what we were doing. That was Paul, a first-century missionary.
In this lesson we read that he had arrived in Ephesus where he found some followers of Christ. These people had not been converted by Paul, or by any of Christ's disciples who had been through the Pentecost experience that we read about in Acts 2. If they had come to faith in Christ through the teaching of one of them, they would have been fully aware of the Holy Spirit and been baptized in the name of Jesus. Instead, we read that they had been baptized into John's baptism and had no clue who, or what, the Holy Spirit was. So Paul brought them up to speed; explaining to them The Trinity and baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus.
What happened next makes many of us in the Christian church uneasy, as we more than likely don't practice this in our own church traditions and are often skeptical of those who do. Luke described the activity this way: When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied....
What makes us uneasy is the part about these twelve people speaking in tongues and prophesying. I believe we need to be very careful not to develop formulas as to how God works in and through the lives of believers, whether they are new believers or people who have believed in Christ for a long time. Churches who have developed their theological positions, their doctrines, their traditions, and their rituals around formulas, end up implying (if not outright teaching) that everything has to happen a certain way (especially when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit) or else one is not truly saved.
If we were to do a careful study of the book of Acts, we would find that the Holy Spirit came upon various individuals and groups of people in various ways, and the manifestation of his presence in that individual or group of people varied as well. In other words, is everyone who is baptized able to speak in tongues and prophesy? If we can't do either, does that mean we have not truly received the Holy Spirit? Some would say, "Yes," but the Apostle Paul would say, "No," for he made it clear that speaking in tongues and prophesying are gifts that the Spirit gives to some people, but not everyone (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
So why did the Holy Spirit come upon these people when Paul laid his hands on them? Because that is the way God chose to enter them at that time. Why did they speak in tongues and prophesy? Because that is the way God chose to manifest himself to them and to give them a visible sign of his invisible presence.
"But," we might wonder, "Why doesn't he do that today? Why doesn't he do that through me?" God seems to still choose when and how he is going to come upon those who believe. I have laid hands on people and prayed for them, whether at their baptism, or while anointing them with oil for healing, or for some other occasion of prayer, yet none of them ever spoke in tongues or prophesied. Does that mean that the Holy Spirit was not present or at work? No. It just means that he was doing his work in a different, yet equally effective, way.
If you believe in Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life, know that the Holy Spirit is in you. We don't need an emotional experience with a special anointing or laying on of hands for that to be true.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for your Spirit who comes to us, not only in baptism, but in other ways and at other times, primarily through your word. Please manifest yourself to me, and through me, with the gifts you have given me now and those you reveal to me in the future. Amen.
