“The Baptizer”
Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Matthew 3:11-17
January 11, 2026
We gather today to in this sanctuary to engage in the counter-cultural activity
of ordaining individuals to humble service in the Christian Church.
It has been a long week.
We have seen news reports and videos of an horrific shooting.
We have continued to witness deep divisions in our political conversations.
We have noticed an underlying fear and anxiety that seems to have a grip
upon countless souls on every side of these conversations.
Yet today, we turn our attention to a very different scenario.
Today, with great hopes and humble expectations, we ordain and install a new class of elders.
This sacred moment, this holy act, of laying on hands with prayer is meant to communicate before God
and all the world that what we are doing here today is important, life-changing.
Ordinations, like baptisms, are one of the few things we receive in the church as individuals.
As Presbyterians, so much of our practice is corporate, what we do together,
but baptisms and ordinations are intimate.
We call an individual by name, and we sprinkle water upon their head, or we lay our hands upon them,
very personal and powerful reminders of God’s grace at work in the life of an individual.
It is appropriate on this day of ordination that we remember the baptism of Jesus.
The baptism of Jesus has long been viewed as his ordination of sorts as Jesus began his public ministry.
In Jesus’ baptism, he was claimed as a beloved child of God,
marked with holy water, and gifted with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Hear the Word of God from Matthew 3:11-17.
‘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.’
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.’
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
I love the stories of the baptisms in the New Testament.
Baptism is a reminder that God is with us and for us, that God claims us and loves us as individuals.
The baptism of Jesus, of course, is the first and most significant baptism in the New Testament.
Jesus’ baptism would not only initiate his public ministry,
but would signal that something new altogether had begun.
All four gospels share a similar version of Jesus’ baptism.
All four gospels include baptism by John, the descending of the Holy Spirit,
and the voice from heaven declaring that Jesus is God’s beloved son.
In the Book of Acts, we discover at least eight stories of baptisms, beginning with the day of Pentecost,
when over 3000 persons were baptized! On that fateful day, 50 days after the resurrection,
Peter preached a sermon to thousands gathered in Jerusalem for the festival,
and the people were “cut to the heart”. They asked “what then shall we do?”,
and Peter said, Repent, and be baptized!
And on that day 3000 persons were added to what they called “the Way”,
the group of believers, called to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and prayers.
This group, committed and called to service, represented the beginnings of the early church.
Not long after Pentecost comes the baptism of a bunch of Samaritans by Philip. As Acts 8 claims:
The Samaritans, those who lived in what is now the West Bank, who were of mixed heritage,
believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God.
They believed what he told them about Jesus Christ, and so, as the narrative goes,
they were baptized, both men and women.
Unlike circumcision in the Jewish tradition, this symbol of full inclusion in the family of faith, baptism,
would include both men and women, and would include those who were clearly of mixed ancestry.
And the world took a turn…
Next comes Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
Philip is traveling down the road when he hears an Ethiopian official reading the prophecy of Isaiah.
Philip asks if he understands what he is reading, the official replies,
“How can I unless someone guides me?”
So Philip jumps up into the Ethiopian’s chariot and engages in a Bible study,
and proclaims to him the good news of Jesus. When the chariot rolls past a body of water,
in the middle of nowhere, the official asks to be baptized, which Philip readily agrees to do.
In the timeless story, an educated government official, who had been castrated in order to work
in the Queen’s court, which would have prevented him from full participation in the Jewish Temple,
becomes one of the first Christians of the African continent.
When the good news of Jesus is shared and believed in the Book of Acts, no matter the recipient,
baptism quickly follows. And the world took a turn…
The next story in Acts is related to the conversion of Saul to Paul.
Saul, the great persecutor of the church becomes Paul, the great apostle.
Saul was on the road to Damascus, on the way to throw Christians in jail when a divine light blinded him.
For three days, Saul found himself blind, vulnerable, in the dark, dependent.
A man named Ananias came to Saul and told him that Jesus had been the one to appear to him
and blind him, and that Jesus had sent Ananias to restore his sight.
Then Ananias placed his hands on Saul and something like scales fell from his eyes,
and he could see again. Immediately he was baptized, even before he had anything to eat,
and he ultimately became, as the Scripture claims, “an instrument whom I have chosen
to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” (9:15)
One of my favorite characters in Acts is the Gentile Cornelius, a Centurion in the Italian Cohort.
Cornelius, a righteous and devout believer in God who gave alms generously and prayed constantly,
was also a military leader, responsible for 100 Roman soldiers.
In Chapter 10, we find Peter preaching to Cornelius and his friends and saying:
‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality,
but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to God.”
Peter and the other Jewish believers had been astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit
had been poured out on these Gentiles, so Peter could not help but continue and say:
“Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water,”
for they had already received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Here, like all baptisms, the water itself was symbolic of what God had already done in and for them.
And here, once again, defying Jewish law, the circle of the early church continued to expand.
And once again, the world took a turn…
Then we have Lydia from Philippi in Acts 16.
Lydia was a worshiper of God and a dealer in purple cloth.
After she had opened her heart to Paul’s message, along with others at the riverside place of worship,
she and the members of her household were baptized.
Then Lydia prevailed upon Paul and the others to stay at her home,
and the house church that began there in Lydia’s home would be the first on European soil.
Next comes the Philippian jailer – the wonderful story of Paul and Silas sitting in jail
singing spiritual songs when an earthquake released them from the chains on their ankles.
Even the prison doors were opened by the quake.
If the prisoners had escaped, the jailer, whose home was above the jail, may have been executed.
So when the jailer saw the prison door open, he was ready to kill himself.
But Paul and Silas called out to him. They had been waiting patiently, praying.
The jailer, greatly relieved, listened to the word of the Lord proclaimed by Paul that very hour.
The jailer was filled with joy and immediately came to some measure of belief.
So that night, the jailer and all his household were baptized.
Our eighth baptism story in the Book of Acts, from chapter 19,
recalls the baptism of twelve disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus.
Paul’s encounter with them let them know that John’s baptism was well and good,
but it was a baptism of repentance, not necessarily a baptism of the Holy Spirit.
They responded that they did not even know there was a Holy Spirit.
Paul pointed out to them that John had told them to believe in the One who was coming after him,
Jesus, so that day about twelve of John’s disciples believed and were baptized by Paul.
They received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in tongues and prophesy.
Do you see a pattern?
This baptism with water, this outward sign of invisible grace,
which calls individuals by name and calls them to Christian fellowship and service,
was clearly available to both men and women,
to African government officials, to well-educated young men who had persecuted the Church,
to mature Roman military officers and their friends, to European business women and their households,
to men like the Philippian jailer and his family, and, to come full circle,
to committed Jewish disciples who do not yet know Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
The pattern reveals an ever-broadening circle of a diverse group of people
from widely divergent religious and ethnic backgrounds,
many of whom had formerly been considered outsiders, all claimed and called by God in baptism.
The narrative of the Book of Acts is clear – the Church of Jesus Christ was going to be inclusive,
inclusive of all people who would open their heart to hear good news
and who would respond with belief and the readiness to be baptized.
In these wonderful biblical stories of baptism, the good news of the gospel is proclaimed,
a relatively low bar of belief is present, whole households are baptized together,
and the Church of Jesus Christ continues to expand.
Ordination to elder in the Presbyterian Church is similar to baptism.
Ordination is an affirmation of the worth and dignity of individuals who have been elected.
Ordination is an affirmation that an individual is being set aside for Christian service.
Our Book of Order, the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church,
makes it clear that ordination is not an honor conferred for being a leader in the wider community.
Ordination is not a reward for doing well in the business world or for being a terrific volunteer.
Ordination is not a recognition that someone has been generous in their giving.
Ordination is a call to humble service, a call to fulfill an important task,
a call to a critical role focused not on the upbuilding of oneself,
but on the care and up-building of a congregation.
Just as the baptismal water reminds us all of our need to be cleansed from sin,
so the ordination prayer today, with kneeling and laying on of hands,
will remind these elders of their need for constant help.
All those who would serve the Church in any role need the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
What I would hope for all of us today, and especially for this new class of elders,
is that we would remember our baptism and keep it holy,
that we would remember that we have received God’s affirmation, God’s blessing,
that we would remember and take to heart that we are accepted and loved unconditionally by God
and we are called to serve for the sake of and in the manner of Jesus Christ.
Friends, each of you, by virtue of your baptism, is a “beloved one” with whom God is pleased.
And though we are not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals,
yet we too receive the baptism of Holy Spirit and fire.
It has been a long week.
We have seen news reports and videos of an horrific shooting.
We have continued to witness deep divisions in our political conversations.
We have noticed an underlying fear and anxiety that seems to have a grip
upon countless souls on every side of these conversations.
And yet here we are, turning our attention to a very different scenario.
What we do here today reminds me of those 19 monks who are still walking towards Washington, DC.
Those Buddhist monks have been walking since October.
And they are “waging peace” as one of them stated.
The humble monk claimed that “there can be no world peace before there is inner peace.”
Here in Decatur last week, he encouraged everyone who would listen to seek first inner peace.
And then he encouraged those who would seek peace in the world to be as intentional and persevering
in their efforts to wage peace as those who very intentionally wage war.
In our efforts to wage peace in our own hearts and in the world,
the end of the Gospel of Mathew comes to mind.
Matthew ends with the Great Commission:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything
that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’*
May it be so. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
