The Dove - Luke 3

Last week was an incredible service - wasn’t in? For those who may have missed it - we celebrated Easter in a really unique way. We dedicated a new baptism tub. We like our old tub, but it was a little too big to include in our worship space, and we really wanted to be able to have baptism as a part of our worship services. And so what we did, during our last song, was we invited people to come forward and place their hands on the tub and pray for those in our lives who need to be in those waters. People who are living far from Jesus, maybe consumed by shame and beat up by the world - people in our lives who need to hear that God loves them, and in Jesus they are forgiven, given a new life. I had someone tell me afterwards that they got really emotional, because they have small kids and maybe this will be the baptism tub where their kids get baptized. Which got me all emotional too. And that’s all we had planned - was to dedicate the tub. I had towels and t-shirts ready, but I wasn’t expecting anyone to get baptized. To be honest, I didn’t even bother to put the water heaters back in the tub between services - because I thought, “we’re just dedicating, nobody’s going to have to get into that cold water.” But then, at the end of the second service - Alex Simo did an incredibly brave thing, and declared his faith in God before the whole church, and we ended last week with an unexpected baptism. That tub is not just dedicated, it is functional. And a little bit, he did it “cold plunge style.” It was an amazing Sunday - and the family of God got a little bit bigger.  Baptism - it’s kind of one of the best things we do as the people of God. It’s that moment, where you’ve been wrestling with the whole “following God” thing - and you’re ready to declare faith in Jesus in front of other people. It’s a public stand, a moment of beginning, an invitation for the Holy Spirit to come in and radically change your life. And what better way to follow that up than to dive into the story of the baptism of Jesus?

Today we are starting a brand new sermon series called “Not Like Us” - and we’re going to spend the next month or so figuring out the forgotten God of Christianity. Who is the Holy Spirit? What does He do? How does He change our lives? We talk about God all the time - all powerful creator, Father - we have language and mental pictures that help us grasp and understand who God the Father is. And Jesus - well, he had a physical body. It’s easy for us to get our heads around Jesus - because he was a real person. He taught strange things and performed incredible miracles - but he was flesh and blood. Punch me I bleed - it’s easy for us to connect with and relate to Jesus. But when it comes to the Holy Spirit - we struggle. Have you ever felt this? The Holy Spirit is hard to figure out. All throughout the bible we are given a variety of images - fire, water, wind. Sometimes they call Him the Holy Ghost - and that’s really hard for us to understand, for us to grasp and figure out. But here’s the crazy part - the Holy Spirit is actually the part of God that is most intimate to humanity. It is the part of God that lives in us, that transforms our brokenness and gives us a new life. When Jesus left after Easter, he literally said, “I’m leaving, but I’m going to send you a gift. And this gift, this Holy Spirit is going to give you power when you receive it.” And so knowing the Holy Spirit is one of those key pieces to growing as a man or a woman of God. And as many of you know - we are all about growing closer to God here at Center Church. 

So, if you want to grab your bibles, we are going to be in Luke chapter 3. If you don’t know, Luke is towards the back of the bible - in the New Testament. You can look it up in a physical bible, grab one off the back shelf, or even just google it - that works too. Now in Luke chapter 3, the image we use for the Holy Spirit is a dove. Maybe you’ve seen this sort of thing in Christian imagery - there’s this sort of awesome moment when Jesus is getting baptized and the Spirit of God descends on Jesus like a dove. And I don’t want to get ahead of myself, because before we get there - we need to talk about my man, John The Baptist. Luke 3, right at the beginning of the chapter, in verse 3 it says, [read v.3]. John’s goal, his project is to “preach that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.” Then the next couple of verses, 4, 5 and 6 are actually a quote from this book Isaiah, which came hundreds of years before. And so Luke, the writer of this book, he was kind of a historian. Luke is actually my favorite story of Jesus, because he has so much detail. And what he’s doing here is showing us that John’s job is to get people ready to be saved. John’s job was to prepare people for the Holy Spirit. And how - you might ask - how does the great John the Baptist get people ready to be saved? Why, with name-calling and threatening, of course! 

Verse 7, [read it]. I… would love to see John join the welcome team at our church. You snakes! Who warned you that you need to get your butts in here? But this next verse is so important, [read v.8]. Now to really understand that, what you need to know is that there were people in Jesus’ time that were claiming, “i’ve been a member of this church my whole life. My great, great, great, whatever built this church. Abraham, THE Abraham is my ancestor - so, I’ve got the “in” with God. So my religion is all set - we’re good here. And John is just standing there destroying that argument. John says, “I don’t care who your ancestor is. I don’t care how long you’ve been sitting in the seats of this church. I don’t care that you got plenty of church when you were a kid. What did he say? Prove by the way you live. You have to live your life differently after you bring God into your world. And then, just in case you missed it, he repeats himself. Verse 9, [read it]. And I don’t want you to miss this. John is handing out threats. He’s telling people - look you can’t keep living a life that spits out poisoned fruits. Because if that’s all you’ve got to offer - bad fruit, or no fruit - your tree gets cut down. Now to recap - John starts talking in verse 7, and so far he has 1.) Called them a bunch of snakes (“vipers”) 2.) highlights that they are running from the wrath of God, and finally 3.) compared them to a tree that God is about to cut down with an axe. It’s almost like John’s goal here is to freak people out. He’s TRYING to make people uncomfortable, by taking away their security and false arguments. He’s lighting a fire under their butts. That, actually, that’s probably a better job description for John the Baptist - he should put that on his business cards. John The Baptist - he’s a guy who lights a fire under your butt. 

And the crowd responds. They say, “alright man, we get it. We’re listening. You told us we’re in trouble, our lives have no fruit, God’s wrath is coming, we’re about to get chopped down like a tree with an axe - what do we do? And then in verse 11, [read v.11-14]. Do you notice something about his response? It’s clear, concrete, practical advice. When you come to God, when you turn away from the world, away from our selfish desires and we choose to give our lives over to God - it changes how we live our lives. In clear, practical, concrete ways. Notice the format. John didn’t say, “well - you just say a magic prayer and you and God are all set forever.” John didn’t say, “Well let’s see your attendance record, make sure you’ve got a Christian bumper sticker on your car, and make sure you vote a certain way.” He didn’t say any of that - he said, “if you have two coats, share with someone who has none.” Anybody in this room have two or more coats? I know I do. He tells people who have extra, people who have abundance in their life - give it away. He tells tax collectors and soldiers - be honest, particularly with money. In fact, John highlights two main things about living God’s way - honesty in your work and generosity in your finances. And it’s incredible - because sometimes I think America’s culture in general is built to fight against both of those. That’s why we tithe! Right? That’s why we give in this church - because it is a practice that creates a generous heart. And you’re not going to get that from the world. 

This is sort of the main thing I want you to realize from John’s ministry - the first work of the Holy Spirit is to empty you of sin. Sometimes people will say, “the first time I felt God’s presence in my life - it was just so amazing. I felt his comforting presence and I felt peace and love and blah, blah, blah” But for a lot of us - the first time we encounter the Holy Spirit - it’s through conviction. It’s when we are challenged - we look at our life, and we look at what God is teaching, and they don’t line up. And we feel shame, and we feel guilt. The first work of the Holy Spirit is to empty you of sin. DL Moody once put it like this, and I love this quote - so let’s put that on the screen “I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, this is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled.” We must be emptied of sin before God can fill us up with his presence. [maybe do the dirty water illustration].

So John has laid it out for them - he has prepared the people. He lit a fire under their butts, he inspired them, and then he gave them clear, concrete, practical steps to live a life that bears fruit. And so some of them start to wonder - wait, are you the guy? Are you the one who will lead us and teach us and save us? Because, I’ll admit, I like these practical steps - this “how-to” approach John is giving out. Are you the guy? Are you the messiah? And John responds in verse 16, [read v.16-17]. Imagine this with me for a second. Close your eyes, really imagine this. John the Baptist, he’s been living in the wilderness, so he’s probably unkempt, dirty, maybe looks a little crazy. But he speaks with passion and conviction, and people are listening. And he talks about the wrath of God that’s coming, and how you can be saved through forgiveness of your sins. He’s down by the river, and the crowds are all around him. He’s knee deep in the water, and he’s calling out to you. Imagine the sun shining on the water. It’s a hot day, and so the water feels cool and amazing. And you come to John, and you say - I want a life that bears fruit. I want my sins to be washed away. And John puts his hand behind you, plunges you under the water, but his arms are strong and he pulls you back up out of the water. You rise out of that water a new person, and it’s an incredible experience and you’re drenched in water, and you wonder - is this it? Is this the transformation we were talking about? Is this the life that bears fruit? And you turn to John with a question in your eyes and he says, “oh no, this is just the prequel. The real messiah does this with fire.” 

Are you catching the them of, like, violent metaphors? First an axe, about cut town our tree. Then a cleansing fire, that will surround us and burn off all the useless stuff, and then the winnowing fork on the threshing floor. Now, just in case you weren’t born a thousand years ago, let me explain what that is. Back in the day, they would gather in all the grain, all the wheat, into the granary. And then they would basically just beat the grain. Like, wail on it in a place called the “threshing floor.” Thresh, kind of like thrash. They would thrash the grain, until all the good stuff was separate from the garbage. Then they take all the good stuff and they keep it, and they take the garbage, called chaff, and they burn it. And what I hope you’re getting from all of this is that Jesus is not going to be gentle with the sin in your life. 

Now here’s the tricky part, the way we think about our sin, affects whether it’s good news or not. Because when we are brutally honest with ourselves - some of us like our sins. We’re pretty cozy with the things in life that God says separate us from him. Pride, eny, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath - if we view these things as a friend. If we think of sin as our buddy, our fun little friend who just wants to have a good time. The idea of the Holy Spirit coming in with consuming fire and chopping things down with an axe - that seems unreasonable. Seems like God is over-reacting. Woah, calm down dude, it’s just sin. If you think sin is your buddy, this passage doesn’t seem like good news. But if you understand sin as your slave master, sin as the monster that is controlling your life and keeping you far away from the God who wants to save you, if that’s how you understand sin - then the image of the Holy Spirit coming in and freeing you, beating your sin to a pulp and burning it down to nothing so that it is gone forever and it’s never coming back to control your life ever again - that’s very good news. The picture of Jesus coming in and baptizing people with fire - that’s good news, if you hate your sin. This is something I have picked up from my ministry with addicts in my life. People who have dealt with addictions, or abuse survivors, who have faced true evil in our world and fought and lost and grappled and struggled and they understand what it is to hate something that is controlling their life - those people often have such a great understanding of grace. Because they see what Jesus has done, what it means to have that cleansing fire wipe out an evil from their lives. It’s good news, if you hate your sin. If you want to be free of your sin. Some of us like our sins a lot, but I want you to understand that your sin is keeping you captive. Your sin is keeping you away from a life of purpose. Your sin is keeping your life from bearing real fruit. You have such potential to do incredible things fo the Kingdom of God, but not if you’re still love your sin. Like Moody’s quote - we have to empty ourselves of all that sin, if we want the Holy Spirit to come in and fill our lives with something better. 

Verse 21, we finally get to the dove - the actual baptism of Jesus. [read v.21-22]. This is such an incredible moment, and I don’t want you to miss it - this is one of the only moments in scripture that describes all three pieces of God at the same time. In church sometimes we talk about this thing called “Trinity” - one God in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And the moment that Jesus is baptized, the HOly Spirit comes down from the Father into his Life and we hear the voice of the Father. It’s a beautiful picture, and it is a mirror of what happens to each of us when we accept Jesus into our lives. We ask for forgiveness, we hate our sin, we want God’s glory instead - so we ask for forgiveness, we ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and transform our hearts - and God sends the Holy Spirit. 

So there’s two parts to this baptism thing - like Moody was talking about. First we empty our sins, and then we refill with the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus didn’t have any sins to empty, but he was definitely filled with the Holy Spirit. It says the “Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove.” And what’s amazing about that is that that exact phrase, ‘like a dove’ is used in every version of the Jesus story. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - the four books of the bible that tell the story of Jesus - all of them say the same thing. “Like a dove” - and that imagery is found all over the bible. Literally, from the very first page of the bible. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, [read it]. That word “hovering” in the original Hebrew is “rachaph” is often translated in reference to the fluttering of a birds’ wings. In the modern world we might think of alien movies or helicopters - but they didn’t have any of that. The best reference they had for  “Hovering” was the fluttering of a bird. In fact, in the Aramaic translation of this passage - the opening verses are translated, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, like a dove.” And the important thing in Genesis 1 is that the dove has nowhere to land because of the chaos before creation. 

One more - because it’s SO good. Genesis 8. Maybe you remember the story of Noah. If you’ve never heard of Noah, here’s the cliffnotes version. God told a guy Noah, build a boat, put all the animals inside - I’m going to flood the earth. The rains fall, the earth gets flooded, then the rain stops. Everybody’s hanging out in the boat, waiting for the water to go down. And so Noah sends out a dove to see if she can find land. First time - she comes right back. No resting place. Some scholars say that represents the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, before Jesus - not present in the earth. Then Noah sends out the dove a second time. This time she came back with an olive leaf. She found a resting place, but did not stay. And the scholars get all geeked out and say that represents the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus. Here on this earth, but didn’t stay. The third time Noah sent out the Dove it did not return. The dove found a new place to live. Just like Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is present in our time - hanging out with humanity ever since Jesus finished his work on this earth. The God who dwells everywhere is looking to dwell somewhere. When we talk about the Holy Spirit as a dove - we are talking about the Spirit of God that is looking for a place to set up shop. If we empty ourselves with confession, with repentance - then we can fill ourselves back up with the Holy Spirit. 

The good news that we get from God’s word this morning is that God baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The good news is that the Holy Spirit is looking for somewhere to dwell. First we see that Jesus is not going to be gentle with our sins. John the Baptist used some pretty intense metaphors, and I’ll give you a sneak peak - it’s not going to lighten up later. If it seems intense, it’s because that’s how God is when it comes to sin in your life. Sin is not a small thing, sin is not our buddy - it’s a slave master we need to be free of. We’ve all got darkness in our lives, we’ve all got things that keep us far away from God - and we need a powerful savior who can destroy is, wipe out the darkness and set us free. God baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and fire - he washes away your darkness, so that you can live free in the light. How many of you this morning, I won’t ask you to raise your hands, but how many of you have been living in darkness? These last couple of months - you’ve been living in the valley between the mountains, you can’t even see the sun anymore. Normally, you’re a pretty happy person, normally you’ve got it all together. But the campaign slogan of 2025 in your life seems to be “pile it on” - and it has been one thing after another, and it wears on us. Some of us living in darkness - or maybe you’ve been living in the light, following Jesus best you can, but it feels like the darkness has been creeping in lately. Feels like the enemy of God is trying to reclaim some of the ground he lost when you first gave your life to Jesus. Or maybe you don’t know - you figure ignorance is bliss, and so instead of inviting God to show you your sin, you’re plugging your ears and figuring “if I can’t hear him, he can’t get mad at me for my sins.” But the first work of the Holy Spirit is to empty you of sin. Got to take out the garbage, before we can pour in the good stuff.

So I have two challenges for you to take with you this morning. First - I want you to remember your baptism. For some of you, it’s been six days. For some it’s been decades - but I don’t mean remember as a memory. Baptism is a symbolic moment with we give our lives over to Jesus and promise to live his way and not my way. We empty ourselves of the world, so that the HOly Spirit can fill our lives - give us purpose, help us to bear fruit with our lives, help us to thrive in the light. So what I want you to remember is - remember how you emptied yourself, how you gave up all your sin, all your darkness, all your burdens, you gave it all to Jesus. Open yourself up so that the HOly Spirit can come into your life and transform you into a child of God. Remember where you began. Remember your baptism. And if you’re in here this morning, and you’ve never been baptized, you’ve never taken that step and God was nudging you last week, but you held off. Nah, I’m not going to do it. I’m not ready. But the truth is, there are moments in life you’ll never be ready for. Like your wedding day, the day your kids are born, the day you give your life to Jesus. I wasn’t ready for everything God has done in my life - but God is ready, and as long as he is ready - that’s all you’ll ever really need. If you want to take that step, we’ve got cards in the lobby for you to fill out - or you can even just scan the QR code on the seat in front of you, click the “baptism” box - and we’ll set that up. If you cannot remember your baptism, it may be time to make that memory.

My first challenge - remember your baptism, empty yourself. My second challenge? Bear fruit with your life. Make space for the Holy Spirit to fill you up. John the Baptist went super practical with it. If you really mean it when you say, “I want the darkness gone, and I want to live in the light” - if you really mean that, it should show up in your life. Honesty in your work. Generosity in your finances. Make sure your life is bearing fruit, do some self-reflection. First - ask yourself - when God came into your life - what chaff has been burned away? What sins did you have to give up? What darkness in your life needed the light? Did you give up an addiction? Did you change the way you talk - no more gossip, no more lying, no more abusing people with your words? Are there apps on your phone or habits in your life that encourage lust or pride or envy. Do you have racism or sexism in your heart? What’s the chaff of your life that needs to get burned away? Identify the garbage and commit to burning it out of your life. Figure out where the poison is coming from, find the toxins in your life - and then call on the God who baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit. First ask, “what chaff has been burned away? Second, what fruit has grown because of your connection with Jesus? What can you do in your life to grow in the way of Jesus? And if you can’t think of anything - maybe your prayer this morning needs to be, “Holy Spirit, dwell in me. I want to create a resting place for the dove in my heart.” Ask Jesus to send His Spirit to come set up shop in your life - let’s pray.