I.
How does God make a Christian?
The answer: You can never quite know. You’ll never suspect it or see it coming. That’s because God works in secret. His work remains hidden until it’s ready.
Until you’re ready.
Today’s reading from Isaiah speaks twice of the secrecy of the womb: “while I was in my mother’s womb he named me” and of he “who formed me in the womb to be his servant.”
But despite God’s plan for him, the servant admits he is a failure. He says, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing.”
Every Christian will get to this point eventually.
This is the baptism that all true believers must undergo in their walk with God. They may walk to church every Sunday of their lives, but until they reach this breaking point, they are not Christians.
God hasn’t finished making them yet.
II.
Today we read about the calling of the first disciples. John the Baptist is the catalyst. We read:
“The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.”
John was a popular preacher with a large following. John says, “Stop following me. Go follow him!” Have you ever heard of a leader who said that? Maybe it happens, but it’s rare, and when it does happen, it shows the integrity of that leader.
“My work is done,” John is saying. “I’ve lead you to the Messiah, to the Christ. Now, go, follow Him.”
Would that we had more leaders who would show their followers Christ.
But John didn’t recognize Jesus as the Christ right away. Twice we read John say, “I myself did not know him.”
Jesus was in plain sight yet hiding in plain sight. This is a clue as to how Christians get made, in secret and hidden from view. All the ingredients (if you will) are there, but John’s realization that Jesus is the Christ does not happen until it’s time.
The same is true for us. Something has to happen in our hearts.
Christians become Christians in God’s time.
III.
For John that moment came when he baptized one man.
John became a Christian when he could say:
“I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”
And from then on, John did what every Christian must do, point out to others who Jesus is:
“The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’”
Are you doing this?
John the Baptist did not give up his ministry. He gave it to you.
IV.
Now you might wonder why John would undermine his own ministry and cannibalize his own following.
I would answer that it’s because once God had made him a Christian, John had no choice but to start acting like one.
This is the difference between the two baptisms we read about today.
John’s baptism, the baptism of water, which the church continues to use to this day when we baptize infants and adults with water, is only an outward sign of something that remains secret and hidden until it’s ready.
The second baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, belongs to Jesus. It is His alone to give. But when He gives it, there is no hiding it.
This second baptism calls us to be saints. This second baptism makes a church a church.
You see, a church is not a building, it’s not a budget, it’s not a sacrament, it’s not a directory or list of members, it is those who, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, are:
“sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”
V.
So, where does that leave us? Are we Christians or not?
Well, I am not going to answer that. I may be many things, but one thing I am not is in a position to judge your hearts. Only God knows the contents of that secret chamber.
However, I did say, didn’t I, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit — when it happens — is something no one can miss?
Just as there is evidence somewhere of your water baptism, a baptismal certificate, a photograph in your baby book, your name recorded in a parish register, so too does Christ’s appearance in your life leave evidence.
And it’s not just an individual thing either, when Jesus Christ visits a place He leaves a pile of collective evidence as well.
Faith becomes no longer a hidden, private, secret affair, but a public declaration of love, like a marriage.
That’s because He’s done courting us, He’s done preparing us, and now it’s time for us to make our profession, speak our vows, and follow Him in public.
What does that public marriage of bridegroom and bride, of Jesus and His Church, look like?
Excitement about the wedding is an important sign. You may have seen a reluctant bride or groom. I once told a man he shouldn’t get married given all the misgivings he was describing to me about it.
A church that is not excited is certainly saying how it feels about this marriage to Jesus. Maybe it all feels too arranged, too formal.
But what should the church be excited about?
About pointing to Jesus.
Every church and every member of every church should be excited to say, “Look! Look at who I’ve found!”
John the Baptist was clearly excited. He’s nearly beside himself when he sees Jesus coming and says, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
This Lamb is the end of guilt and punishment, which is more evidence that Christ has visited a church, that He has come to a people and baptized them with His Spirit.
Our guilt is gone, our shame is gone, and we are at liberty.
After meeting Jesus, Andrew runs to his brother, Simon Peter, and says, “We have found the Messiah!” So, here’s some more evidence: confidence.
Andrew is confident that Jesus is the Christ and Andrew’s confidence immediately wins over his brother Peter. Peter is so confident that Jesus immediately nicknames him The Rock.
How confident are you?
Perhaps you are thinking, “I haven’t experienced any of this. I am still not sure about this relationship with God, certainly not ready for marriage, still burdened by guilt (my own or whatever my neighbor happens to be throwing at me today), and I am not particularly confident that any of this is true.”
If that’s the case, then please listen to me. There are no do-overs in life. That is one of life’s hard lessons. But for God’s people, life’s struggles reveal our friendship with God through Jesus Christ.
This Friend hides at first. But when things do not go according to plan, He steps out from the corners and into the centers of our lives.
He will, that is, only if we stop standing there ourselves.
To me that’s a great comfort. All of the missteps, all of the mistakes I made, were not for nothing.
Painful though they were, each one of them knocked me off my center long enough to realize Jesus should be the one standing there.
Even after I knew Jesus as the Christ, I still wrestled with Him. I fell many more times and I will fall again.
That is why the water baptism of John is so important. That is why coming to church is so important. That is why receiving the Lord’s Supper after having made a good, honest confession is so important.
We argue about whether you need to be baptized before you receive communion. I don’t really care about whether somebody threw water on you once.
I don’t care if you’re a Roman Catholic, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, or a Jew.
What I care about is this: have you been knocked off your center, and, when you reached for help, did you recognize that the hand reaching out to help you was the hand of Jesus Christ?
If you can say, “Here is the Lamb of God!” then, by all means, come to His table. (Stop by the font first and I will baptize you.)
People say church is boring. How could this struggle be boring?
One last bit of evidence that you are one who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit is that you are busy every moment of every day getting right with God and with your neighbor — and that you are committed to getting right with them both — as many times as you have to.
As many times as you fall, you get back up, with the Lord’s help. That is baptism in the Spirit.
Holiness is not an afterthought for you. Justice is not an afterthought for you. You take this seriously. You have accepted Jesus’ invitation to come and see where He lives, and you’ve discovered that He lives in you.
That is how Christians are made. Amen.
Preached at St. Peter’s, Lithgow, on January 15, 2023.
Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42