Two Baptisms | Sunday, April 6, 2025

Now, as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." ... But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by John concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison. (Luke 3:15–20)

Everyone wants the world to change—but John the Baptist announces that real change starts with you, and a King is coming who baptizes with the Spirit and with fire.

A World in Uncertain Expectation

It has been an eventful and newsworthy week. In the last ninety-six hours or so, American and global markets have been thrown into chaos following a complete reshuffling of American foreign trade and economic policy—a historic reversal of nearly eighty years of trade practice. Ever since the election in November there has been uncertainty, anticipation, and questions about what would come. The views being promoted are considered heterodox and untested in our modern global situation, so no one has been sure what the result would be.

Looking at all this alongside the text of Luke, I think the sentiment in first-century Judea was very similar to the uncertain expectation in our own culture. The opening verse says it plainly: "Now, as the people were in expectation." Uncertainty and expectation go together. Something is coming, and it could be very good or very bad—but you don't know.

Something Has to Change

This was the case in the world around the year AD 29. There was a frenzied hysteria in Judea. The people knew something was happening, and they wanted something to change. By this time Israel had been under the occupation of a foreign invading force, the Romans, for nearly a century. The mindset among the people was simple: something has to change. The world as they experienced it was no longer workable.

The authoritarian rule of Rome was not tenable. These were a resistant, revolutionary people—it did not take much to stir them into what we would call an insurrection, which is why no one wanted the post of governor of Judea held by Pontius Pilate. The people also despised the immoral, greedy gang of the Herods, set over them though they were not even Jewish. And all of Jewish life revolved around the temple in Jerusalem, run by a priesthood—Annas and Caiaphas—given to excess, indulgence, and power. The religious establishment was no longer bearable. The sentiment everywhere was: something has to change.

A Wild Preacher Who Preaches Change

Into that mix steps a wild preacher in the wilderness. Matthew tells us he wore a coat of camel hair and a leather belt and ate locusts and wild honey. People were leaving the safety and comfort of their homes to track him down, because word about John the Baptist was spreading fast. Why were they coming? Because they were seeking for change, and they were always looking for someone to lead the change.

There was an expectation among Jewish people that one was coming who would lead this change—the Messiah, the anointed one, of whom their prophets had spoken for centuries. They expected him to establish a kingdom seated in Jerusalem, get rid of the corrupt priesthood, depose Herod, and then go on to deal with Rome. A number of would-be messiahs and false Christs had already risen up, amassed followers, led mob insurrections—and been immediately smashed by Rome.

So the people go out to John, and what is he preaching? Change. But not the change they expected. They wanted Jerusalem, Galilee, and Rome to change. John said, "We don't just need a change. We need you to change." That is not what they wanted to hear. He called them to leave their greed, their desire to take more than they ought, their intimidation and lies, and instead to give, to share, to be content. As a sign of that change—the word he uses is repent—he called them down into the water to be baptized, immersed, declaring publicly their commitment to be changed.

If You Want Change, You Change First

John did not refuse to speak against power. The very last verse I read shows him rebuking Herod, and it cost him: he was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually beheaded for calling out Herod's immorality. But to the people his message was personal.

Everyone was seeking a revolutionary transformation, just as people do in every age. They want change in Sacramento, in Washington, on Wall Street, at the UN, in Beijing. And what we really want is for the other person to change. If you're married, you know exactly what I mean—the thought that everything would be better if they would just change. None of us likes John's point, but here it is: if you want change, you change first. Fundamentally, John's call for repentance was a call to personal responsibility—a volitional decision that you must make.

The Kingdom Is at Hand

It is easy for charismatic figures to seize that universal desire for change. Even when things are good, we say it could be better; we want more. Many false Christs tapped into this in the first century, and many do today. Then John shows up and says, "We don't need a change—you need to change."

His message is given in Matthew 3:2: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." A change of mind, heart, and direction—because a new rule is coming. A King is coming, and He is bringing a kingdom fundamentally different from the kingdoms of this world, a kingdom not of this world. This is far bigger than a new world order; it is a total transformation of the cosmos. The King of kings and His kingdom are coming.

Therefore, if you don't change, everything will change and you will be burnt. Change is coming. Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Turn from indulgence, greed, immorality, selfishness, and carnality—everything opposed to the nature of God—and turn to walk in His way. If you are found in opposition to His kingdom, you will be burnt.

"Is He the One?"

As the repentant, baptized multitudes listened, an undercurrent ran through their conversations: maybe he is the one. They reasoned in their hearts whether John was the Christ—the anointed one, Christos in Greek, Messiah in Hebrew. Every Jewish person knew how much was contained in that concept. Maybe this crazy-looking man in the camel-hair tunic was the anointed one.

So John answers them: "I am not the one." Explicitly in John's Gospel, and here he says, "I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Now we have two more baptisms beyond John's water baptism. John's baptism makes people wet; it is a sign and outward demonstration of repentance. It does nothing metaphysical—it declares the turning that has already taken place in the heart. John says, "My work is only to ready you for Him."

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

When you piece the Scriptures together, the baptism of the Holy Spirit becomes clear. It is what Ezekiel foresaw in Ezekiel 36:26:

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them."

There is a turning from carnality to God, and in that turning—in faith and repentance—God does something transformative. He gives a new heart and a new spirit. This is the same thing Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3: "Unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God... That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." This born-again, born-of-the-Spirit experience is connected to the work Jesus does when you trust Him: He immerses you in His Spirit, and you become the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3 and 6).

I believe all Christians, when they trust in God, are baptized in the Spirit into Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit." This is a salvation work. John's water does not save you; it readies you. But when you receive the One mightier than John, by His grace He immerses you with His Spirit, and you are now His. If you are not regenerated in this way, you are not immersed in His Holy Spirit—but if you turn to Him in faith, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

The Baptism of Fire

But John also says He will baptize you with fire. You might think you want a baptism of fire—not so fast. The obvious question is, what is it? John anticipated your question two thousand years ago and answered it in the very next sentence: "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor."

This is hard for us because there are no wheat farmers here today. But in Judea two thousand years ago this made total sense. At harvest the farmer cut the wheat at the stalk with a sickle, bundled it into sheaves, and broke up the heads on a rock threshing floor. That left the grain mixed with the husks—the chaff—which is useless. To separate them, he used a winnowing fan, fanning or tossing the grain into the wind so the lighter chaff blew away while the heavier grain fell and was collected.

The grain goes to the barn; the chaff is burned. "He will gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." That fire baptism is judgment. So we have two new baptisms: Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit—the good one, salvation—and with fire—unquenchable, consuming judgment. The Messiah is coming to harvest, to separate the wheat from the chaff. Elsewhere we read He gathers fruit, but every unfruitful branch He cuts off and casts into the fire. He gathers the wheat and the fruit; He casts the chaff and unfruitful branches into the fire to be consumed.

If You Change, You Will Be Blessed

So if you do change, when everything changes, you will be blessed. Two baptisms—and one of them is not water. One is the baptism of the Holy Spirit by Christ, which is salvation; the other is the baptism by fire, which is judgment. Remember, John said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." If you repent, then when the kingdom comes, you will be blessed. If you do not, there will be a consuming fire of judgment.

This is sobering even for the most religious. To Nicodemus—the most goody-two-shoes, self-righteous, religious person—Jesus said, "Unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God." Even that person, unless born again, will be cast out as chaff to be burned. That is the bad news. But always with the bad news is the good news—that is what we call gospel.

Jesus Is Baptized

What was the response? "When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him." Maybe you had a children's Bible with a dove perched on His shoulder—that's not what happened. I don't know exactly what it looked like, but I'd love to have seen it.

Here we are led into the triune nature of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all seen at once, presented throughout Scripture as one God in three persons. Jesus is being baptized; heaven opens; the Holy Spirit descends and remains upon Him—an image of the very baptism of the Spirit we have been discussing. And the Father from heaven says, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Here too is the mystery of the nature of Christ, which the early church spent four hundred years working to articulate. Is He God? Yes. Is He man? Yes. Fully God and fully man? Yes. In verse 22 the Father calls Him "My beloved Son," and in the very next verse the genealogy says He was supposed to be the son of Joseph. He is fully man and fully God, and He is the Son of God.

The Baptism from Above Bestows the Father's Love

So we finally meet Jesus, and this baptism scene reveals our fourth point: the baptism from above bestows the love and pleasure of the Father. John says you must turn to God because His kingdom is coming. As you turn to Him and trust Him, He puts His Holy Spirit upon you and in you, you become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Father's love and pleasure come upon you.

Before turning to God in repentance, we are in opposition to the Father, at enmity with God. But when we turn to Him in faith and repentance, He says, "You are My child," and bestows His love. In our culture in 2025, many people are confused about identity, trying to sort out who they are in a broken and chaotic world—and the culture only heaps on more moral confusion and identity chaos. But when you become a Christian and the Holy Spirit comes upon your life, there is a transformation of identity. You are now in Christ.

What does that mean? Paul describes it in Ephesians 1: in Christ you are adopted into His family, chosen and predestined, set apart as holy, given a new nature and an inheritance, blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, redeemed, and forgiven. We are chosen, made holy, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven. That is the good news of the gospel.

The Only True Hope for Change

Whether sitting here in April 2025 or in Judea in AD 29, we look at a broken, fallen world stained by sin and rightly say something has to change. John says a change is coming—the kingdom of heaven. But you must be ready, and the only way to be ready is to turn to God in faith and repentance, receiving His grace and forgiveness. If you do, He pours His Holy Spirit upon you and you receive the pleasure and love of the Father as His son or daughter.

It is easy to point out the immorality and greed of this world—in our leaders, our neighbors, our spouses. Don't worry; they see it in you, too. We feel we must force the change, or find a change agent, and somewhere within us is the unspoken thought: "If I were at the top, everything would be so much better." Yes—better for you, and hell for everyone else. That is not the change we are looking for. There is only one true hope for change: the coming of the kingdom of heaven. That is why Jesus taught His followers to pray, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Where Is the Kingdom?

Our entire culture is working toward this same hope in new words. Silicon Valley says that since November 2022, AI has been unleashed, promising a utopia of abundance where robots and AI take care of everything—everything is awesome. Is that what's coming? I don't think so. It's the same old story. The Scriptures declare the kingdom of heaven is coming.

I understand the objection: this is a two-thousand-year-old text. John said the kingdom is at hand—where is it? Here we are, two thousand years later. Good question. If you are a son or daughter of God, you are already part of His kingdom; your citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and you are an ambassador of His kingdom here and now (2 Corinthians 5). An ambassador represents his kingdom on its behalf until it comes. So we pray, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

And one day God will answer that prayer, and the kingdom of God, His paradise, will come. That opens up so many discussions, and in a couple of weeks we will begin a series on the kingdom of heaven—what it is and how the Scriptures disclose it. In part, that kingdom will answer the deep desire of every human heart for the world as it ought to be. But unless you repent, you will not know that kingdom, for there is a judgment and a baptism of fire. This is the message the church has—not a popular or populist message, but the message we need.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I thank You that You speak with clarity and truth, and that You call us to turn to You in faith. As we turn to You, You are so gracious and good. You pour out Your forgiveness, You redeem us, You set us apart as Your children, You give us a new identity, and You pour Your Spirit upon and in us. You direct us into this world to be a light shining in a dark place. God, I pray this week that You would help us shine a little brighter. Would You produce in our lives the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, and all the other virtues of Your Spirit, that others would see the work of Your grace in our lives. And give us boldness to share the truth of the gospel, the good news of Your grace and forgiveness. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all those who agreed said, "Amen."