Dr. Rodney Plunket

The Dove Descended
a topical sermon on
 baptism & the Holy Spirit
November 1, 1998

This morning we begin a series of four sermons on Christian baptism. I hope all of us are ready to learn more about this wonderful experience granted as a gift to us by our holy God.

I read the Gospels for years before I noticed it. I’m embarrassed that it took me so long. It’s not a mystery. It’s not hidden. And it is found in everyone of the NT’s four Gospels.

What it took me so long to see was the fact that all four Gospels reveal a highly significant and explicit connection between the baptism from Jesus and the giving of the Holy Spirit. In fact, all four Gospels make clear that the reality which makes the baptism of Jesus distinctive is the giving of the Spirit.

Let’s look at the way in which each of the Gospels reveal this connection. Let’s go first to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Their relevant accounts are so similar that it is appropriate to view them together. Look with me at their reports of John the Baptist’s perspective on the baptism from Jesus. Matthew 3:5-6 is reporting on John the Baptist’s ministry when it says, "Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins". Mark’s account is very similar, but it points out that John the Baptist’s baptism was "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mk 1:4). Matthew’s account implies that forgiveness took place when it reports that the people were baptized "confessing their sins", but Mark’s account is more explicit with regard to that forgiveness. Now let’s look at Mt 3:11-12 which is quite similar to Mk 1:7-8. Matthew 3:11-12 reports these words from John the Baptist,

I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

Let me begin by telling you that the text of both Matthew and Mark will make clear that the coming one of whom John speaks is, in fact, Jesus; and John here is saying that this coming one will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now baptism with fire is John’s way of referring to an event that will take place at judgment. That judgment will entail both the final removal of all evil and the ingathering of God’s people. John the Baptist compares the final removal of all evil to the burning of chaff after the threshing of wheat; that fiery removal of all evil is the baptism of fire which John says the coming one will administer. And John compares the ingathering of God’s people to the end goal of threshing; that is, the gathering together of the grains of wheat. But look further at what Matthew and Mark tell us with regard to the Holy Spirit and baptism.

Look at Mt 3:13-17. In those verses Matthew reports the baptism in water of Jesus by John the Baptist. Matthew 3:13-17 reads as follows:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism by John is longer than the account from Mark which served as our Scripture reading this morning, but two identical features of those different accounts should be noted. First, in both Matthew and Mark, the report of the baptism experienced by Jesus immediately follows the report of John the Baptist saying that one would come after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Second, in both Matthew and Mark, as well as in Luke, we have a report of the descending of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus right after his baptism by John in water.

Scholars commonly debate the reason for Jesus’ baptism by John. Since baptism is associated with the purification from sins and since Jesus was sinless, why did He need to be baptized? they ask. It seems to me that one answer is suggested by the way that the Gospels of Matthew and Mark report that baptism. Jesus is not baptized immediately after the report of a sermon by John on human sinfulness. No, Jesus is baptized immediately after the report of comments from John the Baptist concerning the more powerful one who was coming, the more powerful one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Please take special note. The context of Jesus’ baptism is created by a declaration by John the Baptist concerning the coming one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. It is right after those comments that Jesus is baptized in water; the Holy Spirit then descends upon Him, and the voice is heard which declares Jesus to be God’s beloved Son.

Here is a truth which I believe the accounts in Matthew and Mark are seeking to convey. These two Gospels, I think, are trying to communicate to us that the baptism which Jesus experienced contains all that makes the baptism which Jesus imparts distinctive from all other baptisms which were experienced in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day. You see all other baptisms among the Jews of Jesus’ day were exclusively focused upon purification, that is, on things like repentance and forgiveness of sins. Later NT passages will make very clear that the baptism from Jesus is also connected to repentance and forgiveness or purification from sins. But those realities are not distinctive; the baptism of John was also connected to those realities as was the baptism of the Jewish sect known as the Essenes. I believe the way that Matthew and Mark report Jesus’ baptism by John is to confirm that what John the Baptist says about the baptism from Jesus was demonstrated by what Jesus experienced when He was baptized.

When Jesus comes to be baptized, John protests in a way that reveals that Jesus does not need this baptism in the sense that others do. Nothing is side relative to Jesus’ baptism about repentance, forgiveness, or cleansing. The focus is upon the coming of the Holy Spirit. Since the giving of the Holy Spirit is distinctive of the baptism from Jesus, it is also distinctive of Jesus’ own experience of baptism, and we are prepared to see that distinctive by the inspired comments made by John the Baptist just before Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.

If we look at Luke’s Gospel, the picture is very similar to that of Matthew and Mark. Luke, like Mark, is very explicit that the baptism of John the Baptist was "for the forgiveness of sins". You can see that in Lk 3:3. Luke three verses fifteen through seventeen, like the relevant verses in Matthew, also refer to the fact that the baptism of the more powerful one to come would be a baptism with the Spirit and fire; and, as in Matthew, Luke’s Gospel makes clear that the fire is the fire of judgment which will consume all evil. One significant difference between the first two Gospels and Luke is that Luke explicitly reveals that the more powerful one to come and to baptize with the Spirit and fire is the Messiah, the Christ. Another difference is that Luke has a short break in the story, a break of only three verses between John’s comments about baptism with the Spirit and the actual report of Jesus being baptized. But Luke still makes clear that John the Baptist knew that one of the distinctive hallmarks of the baptism from the more powerful one to come would be the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Now look at the Gospel of John. In Jn 1 we have some of that Gospel’s report concerning the ministry of John the Baptist. In Jn 1:25 John is asked, "Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" John’s response will sound very familiar. In Jn 1:26-27 John the Baptist says, "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal". In these verses John says that he baptizes with water, and, after reading the first three Gospels, we expect him to go on to say that the one who is coming will baptize with the Spirit; but the report of those words from John the Baptist is not found right here. However, look forward just a verse or two. In Jn 1:29 we read of John the Baptist seeing Jesus and saying of Him, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John continues speaking about Jesus, and he says in vv 30-34,

"This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

What we hear is what we have already heard. We again hear John the Baptist confirm that the distinctive hallmark of the baptism administered by Jesus would be the fact that His baptism would be a baptism with the Holy Spirit. And notice another occasion on which Jesus is talking about baptism in the Gospel of John. Listen to Jesus’ words to Nicodemus. Please turn to Jn 3:3-8 and follow along as I read. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and He says,

"Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Notice that Jesus refers to a rebirth that involves both water and Spirit. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke can cause a reader to wonder if the baptism administered by Jesus even involves water. The Gospel of John and the book of Acts make clear that it does, but the emphasis even in those books is on the Spirit; that is what sets Jesus’ baptism apart; it is different; it is special, because it is also a baptism with the Spirit––the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus as a dove.

In light of all that the Gospels say about the Spirit and baptism, it should not surprise us that when Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost he tells his audience to "[r]epent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". And it should not surprise us that Paul in 1 Cor 12:13 writes to the Corinthian Christians, "For with the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit".

Why do we preach baptism? Why do we get so excited that we applaud when someone is baptized? One of the reasons is the joy that comes from knowing that the Spirit of God enters people’s lives when they are born from above through baptism, through water and the Spirit. His Spirit gives us heavenly power to walk with Him, to walk with Him in such a way that the light of His love and the light of His purity shines out from us. And it is not our power that makes that light shine; it is the power of God’s precious and Holy Spirit which He has given us by the baptism with the Holy Spirit administered by Jesus the beloved Son of God.

Please come and receive the baptism from Jesus, the baptism which immerses you not only in water but in the very Holy Spirit of God. Please come and allow God to give you His Spirit and allow His voice to bellow through the heavens saying, ‘This is my beloved child; this is my daughter; this is my son. And because of my unique Son, Jesus the Christ, because of Him I can say that I am well pleased with this new daughter still wet from baptism, because of Jesus my Son I can say that I well pleased with this new son still drenched in the cleansing burial with Christ Jesus’.

Come and receive the Spirit of God. Come let God make you His son or His daughter. Come surrender to God and open up your life to His powerful working. Come right now as we stand and sing.