Jesus Wants to Baptize You With The Holy Spirit

JESUS WANTS TO BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

· Today, our Gospel reading is the account of the baptism of our Lord from Mark’s Gospel.
· Mark was the nephew of St. Peter, and most believe Mark was in fact the scribe of Peter, and that this Gospel of action written to people who did not grow up in the Church of the Old Testament. >>> How many here had no church background as a kid?
· While some of the Gospels start off with the Christmas story telling us about how Jesus humbled himself to leave heaven be born as a baby to a poor Jewish family in the manger, Mark begins when Jesus humbles himself again as he appears at 30 years old to begin his ministry.
· Mark gets right to the point—let’s get right to the whole purpose why Jesus was born at Christmas.
· Jesus came to baptize people not with water like John, but with the Holy Spirit.
· In Acts, Luke tells us that baptism was the doorway to enter into a ministry of preaching, doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil after the Spirit descended on him.

SO WHY DID JESUS NEED TO BE BAPTIZED?

· Like John the Baptist, as Christians, we are sent by God to go out and prepare the way for Jesus to come into people’s lives. This new baptism was not a sacrament of the Temple—it was a new move of God outside the control of the leaders of the OT Church.
· As the sinless Son of God, Jesus was the perfect man. He had no sin, and no need for baptism to wash away his sins. Yet he came to be baptized—why? For us.
· Jesus humbled himself in baptism to be one of us, to set an example that all of us would need to humble ourselves and be baptized by another for the remission of our sins.
· And, Jesus needed to be baptized so that the Father would anoint him with the Spirit and power for the ministry God called him to.
· Jesus needed to be baptized with the Holy Spirit to release him into his life purpose and into the ministry of preaching; healing; performing signs, wonders and miracles.
· Before I go further here, I want to also point out that when Jesus humbled himself to be baptized, John also humbled himself to be the baptizer.
Mark 1:7-11 7And he preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
· In fact, John thought he needed to be baptized by Jesus and was not worth to be the baptizer.
· The attitude of John the Baptist as the Forerunner preparing the way for Jesus is humility.
· Who am I to be worthy of serving the most important person in the universe? I am not worthy to even tie and untie his shoes.
· That should be our attitude! Mercy Me sings about humility--Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth, should care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt? Humility.
8I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
· So John the Baptist, like pastors, was called to baptize people with water so Jesus could baptize them with the Holy Spirit. So now we turn to the Spirit baptism.
9It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
· As soon as Jesus came up out of the water of baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him.
· When he became man, he chose to not rely on his divine power while on earth, but as a human being relying totally on God the Father to work through him.
· When Jesus obeyed the Father’s plan to be the humble Savior and totally depend on him, God publically declared Jesus as His Son and He was So Proud of Him!
· At the very moment Jesus was baptized and the Father declared him His One and Only Son, the Holy Spirit descended upon him.
· He was empowered to enter into his ministry of preaching, miracles, and good works of healing the sick, releasing the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, and eventually totally forgiving the sin of the world.

HOW DOES ALL RELATE TO US?

· You might be thinking, I did not come here for a theology lesson! I came here today hoping to hear God speak to me. What does all this stuff have to do with me?
1. God wants all of us to know that we are his beloved children and he is well pleased with us when we obey him. Sometimes our earthly parents never give us this blessing of approval, but God does! We can please God and make him proud be being humble and submitting to his plan.

2. Both Jesus and John teach us how important it is to be humble in order for God to use us. If we surrender our lives to Jesus, God can use us to do great things like John and Jesus. How many would like to have God use for great things? ***Lay it all down—agendas, plans—thy will be done.

3. The lesson of Jesus’ baptism is that humility and obedience to do what God asks us are what release the power of the Holy Spirit on us to energize God’s purposes in and through us.

· All of us have a purpose in God. When we humble ourselves to enter into God’s will, and say “Jesus use me however you want. I submit. I humble myself. I will obey whatever you want,” God releases Holy Spirit power into His purposes for His glory.
· This is how Jesus ministered on earth. He did not minister out of the power of his divine nature. He ministered as a human being filled with the Spirit.
· This is how God wants to bless you as your fulfill his purposes in your life.
· Whether his will is for you to be a stay at home Mom, a teacher, a business person, or to suffer a cross like Joni Erickson Tada living a disabled life, accepting God’s will results in the Holy Spirit’s ministry of power flowing through you.
· The same power that created the world starts creating through you. The same power that parted the Red Sea when God’s enemies attacked Israel begins working to give you victory over the enemies that come to thwart God’s will in your life.
· The same Spirit that came on Jesus at his baptism, and that descended on the disciples in the upper room on the day of Pentecost descends on you and gives you power to accomplish God’s good works in your life.
· Today, where do you need Jesus to immerse you with the power of the Holy Spirit?
o Where do you feel most powerless and out of control today? This is where you need the power of the Spirit to fill you most.
o When you feel empty, you have two choices:

1.) Try can take control of your life and fill that emptiness with the means of your own power—this results in people usually filling it with sin, or

2.) You can do what I have taught you today—Humble yourself and submit to God’s plan, and at that moment Jesus will send the Spirit to fill you with power from on high.

· I would like to close with a testimony of a regular person like us named Paula Panttaja who attends a church in Santa Ana California shares about her experience of yielding control to Jesus at her point of weakness, and how Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fill her with power for living a victorious Christian life:
I was raised in and out of church. My dad owned a business and was also a gospel singer. The only thing I really remember about church was that Dad sang and we went on Wednesday and Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night.
I was never a happy person. I remember having stomach aches when I was a child, stomach aches that I now know were anxiety attacks. The last ten years of my life was nothing but a roller coaster ride with radical mood swings to match. I smoked, drank, and continued in a downward spiral of depression in spite of the anti-depression drugs that I was also taking.That led me to try seeing a psychiatrist on a weekly basis. His answer was Prozac and between him and the Prozac -- and no health insurance -- it was costing me $200.00 a week!
Then a friend told me how she had instantly been delivered from marijuana and then she invited me to a Bible study that was being taught by a pastor who had prayed for her deliverance. I accepted her invitation and met the pastor. He reminded me of a compassionate grandfather and I immediately bonded with his beautiful spirit. I had so much baggage that I had been carrying around all my life -- confusion, anger, even hatred. It wasn't hurting anybody but myself, and it was destroying me.
When the pastor first prayed for me I still felt a heaviness, but we didn't give up. He continued to pray with me and it finally lifted. Praise God! I felt free as a bird and clean, like I had taken a shower on the inside, in my heart. Later, I realized that I had been instantly delivered from all the chains that had bound me for so long. Pastor gave all the glory to God, and so do I, knowing that the Lord used him as an instrument of my deliverance.
How does a person change after receiving Baptism in the Holy Spirit?The Holy Spirit is here to help us grow spiritually. Some of the common fruits you will develop are:• a new hunger and thirst for prayer• a hunger to study the Scripture• a new sense of Jesus’ love, a sense of God as our Loving Father who loves us and wants what is best for us• a greater power over temptation and sin. Many of our chains with sin are broken when we received the Baptism in the Spirit.• a strong desire to detach from things of the world and a greater joy of the things of the Spirit, eg, prayer, fellowship and Christian reading etc.• A new appreciation of the Church’s sacraments and devotions• A deeper understanding of worship and a longing for the Eucharist
o I wonder how many of you today are willing to be humble like John and Jesus.
o I wonder how many are willing to surrender to God’s will and purposes for you, and ask Jesus to come and fill you at the points in your life where you feel weakest and most empty.
o I wonder how many of you would like to receive a fresh outpouring of the Spirit’s power for living so you can have victory over sin, and experience the joy of the Lord your strength?