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Sermon for Advent 4
Philippians 4:4-7 + John 1:19-28
Prepare for the coming of the King! We’ll celebrate His birth on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll see Him coming again with the clouds sometime soon. And God is determined to make us ready for His coming. As we’ve talked about throughout this Advent season, John the Baptist was God’s original preparer of God’s people. Last week we heard Jesus apply Malachi’s prophecy to John the Baptist: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” In today’s Gospel, we hear John identifying himself in the same way from a similar prophecy found in the book of Isaiah: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD!” On this, our final Sunday of the Advent season, we turn to John the Baptist once more, examining his ministry to see how he prepared the people of Israel for Jesus’ first coming. Because the same preparations are necessary for us, including the preparation of understanding how preaching, baptism, faith, and the Holy Spirit are all connected in God’s great plan of preparation.
Let’s start with John the Baptist himself. John’s role in God’s plan of salvation was unique. As Jesus later said about John, John was more than a prophet. He was THE prophet, the messenger who was to hold the door open, as it were, for the Messiah, as the herald of His arrival, and as the one who was to prepare people for His arrival. And he began to perform that service even before he was born!
As we saw on Wednesday, John was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and it was the “preaching” or at least the word of Mary that prompted that unborn believer in the Lord Jesus to leap for joy in his mother’s womb in the presence of God his Savior, showing that he already had the indwelling Holy Spirit, and faith in the Son of God, even though his tiny body and his developing heart were not yet fully formed. Already we see the combination of preaching, the Holy Spirit, and faith.
Now, for John, that gift of the Spirit never led to a single miracle performed by him. What did it lead to? It led to John being able to recognize Jesus, to rejoice in Jesus, and then to preach the Word of God that pointed to Jesus, which, in turn, led many people in Israel to repentance and to faith, and to baptism and the forgiveness of their sins. It produced in them hearts that were ready to receive the Messiah.
Here’s a sample of his preaching: “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. A strong warning to repent, to turn away from their sins before the Lord comes in judgment. But also strong comfort in this new Sacrament called “baptism,” which God had directly sent John (and only John) to administer. And then, John’s message was also a strong warning to believers not to go on sinning after receiving God’s forgiveness, but to mend their ways and bear fruit consistent with repentance. The same preaching goes out still today, even to you.
After preaching for many months to sinners who needed to repent and receive God’s forgiveness, John was surprised to see Jesus finally step forward to be baptized Himself—the only man in history who had no need of repentance or of forgiveness. (We’ll hear about that in a few weeks, during the Epiphany season.) After He was baptized, Jesus disappeared for the next 40 days to face the devil’s temptations alone in the wilderness. The events of our Gospel apparently took place just as those 40 days were coming to an end, as Jesus was just about to return and start gathering His first disciples.
Well, the scribes and Pharisees (the religious leaders in Jerusalem) hadn’t yet heard of this “Jesus.” But they had heard a lot about John and were nervous about his popularity with the people of Judea. So they sent to ask him who he was and by whose authority he was preaching and baptizing—because they certainly hadn’t authorized it! As you heard in today’s Gospel, John didn’t for a moment claim to be more than he was. In fact, he came right out and denied being the Christ. But what he claimed about himself was still extremely important. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD!… I baptize with water. But there stands among you one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, who is already ahead of me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie.” John had said something similar earlier, Yes, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Let’s talk about this “water baptism” vs. “Spirit baptism.” John baptized with water. So did Jesus’ apostles, under Jesus’ supervision, after Jesus began His ministry. And then, after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus specifically commissioned His apostles to go and preach to all nations and baptize them in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That was still referring to “baptism with water.” But notice that, even there, Jesus connects water baptism with the name of the Spirit, and the Father, and the Son. Water baptism has God’s name attached to it, together with His command and promise. It’s not just plain water, but the washing with water by the Word, the water that washes away sins before God because God says it does. It’s the water that saves a person from eternal death, that clothes a person with Christ, that unites a person with Jesus’ own death, burial, and resurrection, that grants a person new life, and the new status of “child of God.” Baptism with water, in the name of the triune God, does all that, according to Scripture. So don’t let anyone ever convince you that “water baptism” is unimportant or inferior to any other baptism. It gives the most important gifts of all.
Of course, it gives all this to those who believe. If a person doesn’t want God’s salvation through Christ, or God’s forgiveness, or God’s adoption, or God’s eternal life, or if a person doesn’t believe that God gives these things in Baptism, as He promises to do, then such a person shouldn’t be baptized in the first place. Such a person rejects God’s gift of faith along with God’s gift of baptism. Faith comes by hearing the preaching of God’s word, both by itself and as it’s preached in connection with the water of baptism. But not all who hear believe. John didn’t baptize the unbelieving Pharisees (or their messengers who came to him), because they made it clear they didn’t believe, whereas the crowds who came to him for baptism, he baptized, just as Peter and the apostles baptized (with water!) some 3,000 people on the Day of Pentecost.
But that brings us to “Spirit baptism,” or “baptism with the Holy Spirit.” It’s true, John’s baptism didn’t include it; it isn’t the same thing as water baptism, but, ever since the Day of Pentecost, it’s connected with it. After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus explained to His apostles exactly what “Spirit baptism” referred to: For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. He was referring to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the believers on the day of Pentecost—the Spirit who emboldened the believers, fortified their faith, and enabled the apostles to preach boldly, the Spirit who made His presence known with outward signs of fire and sound and speaking in foreign languages. And then, after Peter had been baptized with the Holy Spirit in that way, he preached about Jesus, and then connected His preaching to repentance and faith and baptism and the Holy Spirit, all at once. Repent, he preached, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! The promise is for you and for your children, for as many as the Lord our God will call.
Oh, and that baptizing with fire that John talked about? Here’s what Jesus had to say about that: I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! He’s referring to how He would send forth His Gospel into the world after the Day of Pentecost, a Gospel that would spread like wildfire as the Holy Spirit accompanies the Word of God and works through it to spread the kingdom of God. So the baptism with fire is really nothing else than what we’ve been talking about. It’s Jesus, after His resurrection, sending forth His Gospel, in Word and Sacrament, and sending His Holy Spirit with it, as He promised, to convert, enlighten, and sanctify a Christian Church on earth, to prepare people for the coming of the King.
John’s ministry prepared the people of Israel to receive their King in repentance, in faith, and in joy. His preaching prepares the way for us, too. “Christ is coming,” John declares. He’s almost here! It’s time to wake up from the daily routine that so easily lulls us to sleep. It’s time to hear the Word of God and truly pay attention to it. It’s time to recognize sin for the deadly snare that it is. It’s time to repent and, either be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, as little Joseph Waid was yesterday morning, or cling to the promise God made to you when you were baptized, because Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father to save the fallen world, including you. He is the Lamb of God who took the sins of the world upon Himself and suffered for them on the cross, and who now holds out the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit to all the baptized. And, Christians, it’s time to bear fruit consistent with repentance, to live each day as the children of God, as the Christians you proclaim yourselves to be, because Christ is coming soon in judgment against the sinful world, and He’s given you this time before His coming to prepare, so that you may escape the judgment and go with Him, rejoicing, into a new and glorious world. This preaching, this message, combined with baptism and faith and pointing ahead to the gift of the Holy Spirit, is how John the Baptist prepared the people of Israel for the Lord’s first coming. May it also serve to prepare you, so that you may be a people ready to receive the Lord on the Last Day, and before then, a people ready to celebrate His birth. Amen.
