Dear children of God, embrace the love of God the Father, accept the redemption of God the Son, and receive the faith of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mark 1:4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶ John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸ I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." ⁹ At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Dear heavenly Father, your Son was commissioned by you at the Jordan River to begin his ministry of salvation. Your Son was anointed by the Holy Spirit to carry on his work of redemption. We thank you today, O God, that Jesus has come to open our eyes that have been blinded by sin. He has freed us who have been taken captive through the traps of the devil. And he has purchased and released us from the eternal darkness of the dungeon of hell. To our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be praise now and through all eternity. Amen.

There are a lot of different subjects our children learn in school – music, art, science, and the best, Phy Ed. When the kids get older they study things like philosophy, biology, logic, and French.

It’s important for students to learn about civil rights or the stars or even how to play a tambourine, but children must first and foremost learn the basics. Learning and mastering the basics help build a strong foundation for a child’s future. I remember learning these basics way back in Mrs. Smith’s first grade classroom. They are the three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic.

But have you ever noticed that only one of those actually begins with an R? I always thought that the person who came up with that one needed to go back and learn the basics.

As Christians, we would all do well to remember that the Christian life is also composed of basics. That is why, when Mark chose to open his Gospel, he does so with the Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan. Learning the basics of baptism is important for our future as Christians. Pay close attention this morning, just as if you were back in Mrs. Smith’s classroom. Today we will be studying God’s three R’s of baptism: Repentance, rebirth, and renewal.

1. Repentance _____________________

The first R in the God’s R’s of baptism is repentance. John came to the Jordan River area preaching a message of repentance and baptism for forgiveness of sins. John’s ministry was to prepare the way for immediate arrival of the Messiah. In order to receive Christ properly, the people were to focus inwardly on themselves and repent of their sins. John’s stern call for repentance still speaks to us today.

I think that repentance is probably the most neglected area of our personal lives. I think that sometimes we ignore the pain of our guilt and hope it just goes away. In order to calm our burdened conscience we may say a quick, "I’m sorry" to God in our prayers before we start giving him our wish list of things we want him to do for us. Sometimes we may even neglect to ask forgiveness and unconsciously save up all our sins so we dump them before the Lord’s altar on a Sunday morning.

John’s message at the Jordan was "Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is near!" (Matthew 3:2) John was pleading with his audience to repent of their sins and be baptized to receive the Lord’s forgiveness. Many of you have already been baptized, maybe even a long time ago. Even though you have been baptized and received the promise of Christ’s forgiveness, you still need to daily and repeatedly repent of your sins. Every time you ask for God’s forgiveness it is as if you are renewing your baptism. You are once again having your sins washed away through Christ’s sacrifice. You are announcing to God that you truly want to be the child of God that he made you through your baptism.

Every time you repent of your sins it is as you are drowning your Old Adam, your sinful nature, in your baptismal waters. However, your old Adam is a very good swimmer. He keeps coming back to haunt you. That means you need to keep repenting.

True repentance isn’t just saying, "I’m sorry." It isn’t just merely being afraid of the penalty for your sin. It truly hates the sin. The sin is repulsive and repugnant, and you never want to do it again. You hate the sin because it destroys the relationship of love that Jesus worked so hard to establish.

Repentance signifies a change of heart and mind. Sincere repentance is a necessary preparation of the heart for receiving Christ. Repentance means that your heart turns away from that sin, loathes it, and wishes to be rid of it. Repentance also involves the desire to make amends wherever possible for wrongs committed against a fellow human being. John the Baptist told his hearers, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Luke 3:8) A number of years ago newspapers carried the story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had participated in when he was nineteen years old. Because the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession. And he even voluntarily repaid his share of the stolen money! That is the first R of our baptism. It is daily repentance.

The next R of God’s baptism is rebirth. The Bible reminds us that we are all dead in our transgressions and sins. (Ephesians 2:1) The apostle Paul tells us in Titus 3:5: ________________________

"[God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit …"

Again the Bible reminds us of our sinful condition when it says, "the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." (Romans 8:7) So in your natural, sinful state, you are an enemy to God and hostile to his way of life. Yet Paul tells us that our baptism causes us to be reborn. He says again in Galatians 3:26-27: "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." We are born sinful and born as children of Satan. But in baptism God washes away our sins and we are reborn as children of our heavenly Father. We are made different than what we once were.

Once again the Bible reminds us that we are born with the sins our parents upon us, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." (Psalms 51:5) The apostle Peter also tells us, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38) John told the crowds, "I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." When we were baptized we obtained the forgiveness of sins and we received the gift of salvation faith through the working of the Holy Spirit.

But how can water do such great things as to make us reborn children of God who have the gift of saving faith and forgiveness of sins? It isn’t the water. It is the power of the Word connected with the water that gives baptism its saving power.

I am reminded of this awesome power every time that I perform a baptism here at our baptismal font, but especially when I have a baptism in the hospital for a newborn baby. A number of years ago I received a call from a family in my previous congregation that their twin boys had been born three months prematurely. The babies were healthy, yet the parents wanted their boys baptized right away so they would have the assurance of God’s grace and forgiveness upon their new children. I rushed to the hospital, talked to the mom and dad, and then I put on a surgical gown, mask, and gloves to go see the babies in their little warmers. One of the nurses even gave me sterile water for the baptism. In my rush to get to the hospital I had forgotten my little book of special prayers and services that had the baptismal rite in it for an emergency baptism. So I kind of made it up.

I went over to the baby, sprinkled water on his head and said, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It was at that moment that I realized how powerful those few words really were. In our baptismal rite in the front of the hymnal we sing a baptismal hymn, have a confession of sins, and have promises made by the congregation. It takes several minutes. All of that is great and important, but what I realized at the hospital at that moment was that I didn’t need to say one more thing to that child. With the words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit", that little boy had been pulled out of the hands of the devil and placed into the loving hands of the Triune God. He had been born a little heathen, but he was miraculously changed into a child of God with faith and love for his heavenly Parent.

That is exactly what happened to each of us when we were baptized so long ago. And it doesn’t matter whether we were baptized as adult or children or if we were sprinkled or immersed. What matters is that we were reborn into God’s holy and blessed family. How great is that?

There is one final R in learning the basics of God’s baptism and that is the R of renewal. "We were therefore buried with [Christ] through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;…" (Romans 6:4;13) Basically Paul is saying that once we have been baptized we have been changed. We are to live differently than we did before when we were unbelievers.

After soccer practice one day, a 10 year-old boy in the congregation named Cameron, walked into the pastor’s office and said he needed to talk to him. "I’d like to be baptized," he said. "We were learning about Jesus’ baptism in Sunday School. The teacher asked the class who was baptized, and all the other kids raised their hands. I want to be baptized too." Using his best pastoral tone of voice, he said, "Cameron, do you really want to be baptized because everyone else is?" His freckles winked up at him and he replied, "No. I want to be baptized because it means I belong to God."

He was touched by his understanding. "Well, then," he said, "How about this Sunday?" His smile turned to concern and he asked, "Do I have to be baptized in front of all those people in the church? Can’t I just have a friend baptize me in the river? He asked where he came up with that idea. "Well, Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in a river, wasn’t he?"

Caught off guard, he conceded, "You have a point. But, if a friend baptized you in the river, how would the church recognize it?" Realizing this was a teachable moment, he climbed up on his footstool to reach for his book of worship rites and orders that was located on the highest shelf. But before he placed his hand on the book, Cameron replied, "I guess by my new way of living."

The pastor nearly fell off the footstool and left the book on the shelf. Cameron’s understanding was neither childish nor simple. It was profound. Baptism calls us to a new way of living. It is renewal. It is a new way of life lived to the glory of God. It is the same new life that you want to live as a baptized child of God.

Jesus was baptized by his second cousin, John in the Jordan River. However, he obviously didn’t need to be baptized for forgiveness like we do. Instead, by submitting to baptism, Jesus was showing his solidarity with sinners. Though he was sinless, he was identifying himself with sinners by giving himself over to the work of bearing our sins. At his baptism, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Messiah and he was inaugurated by the Father to carry on the working of being our Savior. In his baptism, Jesus was also demonstrating that we are to follow his example of beginning our individual ministries as Christians once we are baptized. When we have really learned the basics of God’s baptism of repentance, rebirth, and renewal, then we are really living, and we are really living for Christ. Amen.

_______________________

Baptized children of God, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Amen.