The Mighty One put Himself in your baptism.

 

Sermon for Baptism of Jesus, January 12, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22  ¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might be the Christ.  ¹⁶John answered them all, “I baptize you with water.  But someone mightier than I is coming.  I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  ¹⁷His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor.  He will gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”… ²¹When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.  While he was praying, heaven was opened, ²²and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love.  I am well pleased with you.” (EHV)

The Mighty One put Himself in your baptism.

Dear friends waiting for Christ,

            There is an interesting contrast between the two main people in our text.  First, you have a unique individual with an unusual lifestyle who the crowds want to elevate to celebrity status for his powerful preaching, and at the same time, you have the One who John was sent to serve, the Son of God who humbled himself in such a way that the crowd doesn’t yet recognize Him.

Just as God had planned, John came out of the wilderness, where his diet consisted of honey and wild locusts, and he was dressed in camel hair clothing.  Normally, nothing about that should have attracted the crowds, but John came preaching a powerful message of repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sin in preparation for meeting the Messiah.  The Jewish authorities didn’t know what to make of John.  They questioned his right to do what he was doing, but John continued to treat people like the sinners in need of salvation that they and all people truly are.

Jesus, however, was walking undetected among the crowds.  The Son who came down from heaven to rescue people from sin and death humbled Himself to appear as an ordinary person.  He hadn’t yet begun to preach, nor to demonstrate His true power among the masses, but here in Luke’s Gospel, we see Jesus begin His mission as The Mighty One put Himself in your baptism.

Amazed by his preaching, the crowds began to wonder if John the Baptist was the Christ God had long promised to send.  He fit some of the prophecies and his preaching was having a powerful effect on the crowds.  Thus, those expecting the Savior questioned whether John was the one they were seeking.  In humble response, John immediately rejected their imaginations and set the record straight: “I baptize you with water.  But someone mightier than I is coming.  I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  Informed by the Holy Spirit, John had no misconceptions about his role.  He was the servant sent ahead.  His task was to make people aware of their need for the Savior.  John righty recognized that he also was a sinner who had no right to claim anything more than being the lowliest servant to the King.

John’s attitude is one we would rightly follow.  None of us is worthy to be elevated into a position of glory.  Whether we might be great at what God assigns us to do, or not, we don’t measure up to the perfection God demands to inhabit His house of glory in heaven.  To people living ordinary lives just like you and me John warned, “His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor.  He will gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  John’s preaching shows that sin and rejection of God’s promised Savior will not be tolerated, because God in His mercy was sending the solution to our guilt.

On the other hand, we meet Jesus, born of Mary, but not of a human father.  Rather, Mary became pregnant as the Holy Spirit came over her and the Son of God entered human flesh to live in our humble condition in such a way that we could be counted righteous and holy before God.  Thus, the One Man who is true God, with all God’s power, authority, and glory, appeared to those coming to John as an ordinary resident of Nazareth—a carpenter’s son, following in Joseph’s trade.

In this text, though, we see what is really going on with Jesus.  When Matthew reported on Jesus’ baptism, he tells us that John protested Jesus coming to him to be baptized.  John recognized his own need for salvation, even as he also recognized that Jesus didn’t need to repent.  However, you and I needed Jesus to be baptized.  You see, if Jesus isn’t connected with Baptism, our baptisms would have no effect for us.  Therefore, for you and me, The Mighty One put Himself in your baptism.

“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.”  In being baptized, Jesus wasn’t repenting of any guilt for He had none for which to repent.  However, Jesus goes to John to be baptized so that our sins, and all the sin of the world, would transfer to Jesus.  By entering into the Baptism covenant, Jesus is exchanging His righteousness for our guilt. 

It is exactly what the Father in heaven planned for Jesus to do.  Of course, not just to be baptized.  God’s plan for Jesus includes so much more.  God gave His Son into human flesh so that Jesus could live for you and me, so that Jesus would experience the harsh effects of sin in the world, so that Jesus would experience all the terrible temptations that so trap us into guilt yet remain without any sin, nor any rebellion against God’s will and plan for mankind, and so that Jesus would know the rejection of man even after displaying the power of God.

In all of this, Jesus was doing precisely as His heavenly Father sent Him to do.  Unlike you and me, Jesus entered into His ministry without ever once sinning.  At the same time, He is willingly giving His holiness into our need and taking upon Himself all the guilt of our sinfulness, our broken promises and forgotten good intentions, and our rebellion against what God desires for His people.  The holiness Jesus was transferring to His people is confirmed for us in the words God the Father spoke from heaven.  While he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love.  I am well pleased with you.”

Whenever you feel tempted to sin, whenever you feel pain or sorrow for the effects of sin in our world, whether that be disease afflicting your body, or death stealing away someone you love, whether it be the things troubling your conscience when you know you have done wrong, done things that hurt others, or just go against God’s law, or when you feel the sting of sin as someone else is causing pain and trouble in your life, know that your Savior has felt those very same troubles and hurts.  Jesus lived in our flesh, walked in our path, and felt the struggle of daily life in a sin-damaged world.  He knows our needs and our pain.  Therefore, Jesus spent His whole earthly life living the perfect selflessness, perfect humility, perfect submission to His Father’s will, and perfect obedience to the law so that we could be counted holy.

Jesus so well-pleased His Father that you and I can remember our baptisms confident in the forgiveness, righteousness, salvation, and eternal life that Jesus has transferred to you and me.  Each time we confess our sins, here in worship, among brothers in faith, or in your home among family members, the Holy Spirit has assured us that through Baptism all your sins were put on Jesus and His righteousness is now credited to you.

However, lest anyone be so foolish as to imagine that we have a get out of eternal prison free card.  This gracious gift is not given to those who continue in their rebellious ways.  Jesus promised us, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6)  At the same time, Jesus confirms the warning John had been preaching, for Jesus said, “I am the Vine; you are the branches.  The one who remains in me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” (John 15:5-6)  A different metaphor than John preached, but the result is the same.  Those who seek salvation in any other place or thing than Jesus Christ will be thrown out into the outer darkness and pain of hell.

Dear friends, because God so loved the world, He gave His own dear Son into suffering and death so that He could offer and give to you the forgiveness, perfect righteousness, and reconciliation we need to live with Him forever.  That was granted to most of us as we were carried to the font as infants.  There, through water and Word, God claimed us as His own dear children.  There, He connected us with Jesus and all He accomplished so that we might be saved.  There, the Holy Spirit entered our lives, washed away our guilt, and began the new life in us that your parents and the Church have been nurturing in you since that day. 

As you return to God’s Word in your worship, Bible classes, daily reading, and prayers be confident in all that God has promised so that you have life and salvation and a Savior who knows what you are going through.  You have a Savior who gladly hears your prayers and answers them.  God continues to do this for you because He never changes, and He never denies Himself.  His Son is exactly the same.  Jesus lived for you—died for you—rose again from the dead to show that He will also raise you from the grave when He returns in full glory on the last day, and He now reigns in majesty for your eternal good.  All this is guaranteed to those who believe, because The Mighty One put Himself in your baptism.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

 

Sermon for Epiphany, January 5, 2025

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Amen.

Acts 13:46-49  ⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas responded fearlessly, “It was necessary that God's word be spoken to you first.  But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look: We are now turning to the Gentiles!  ⁴⁷For this is what the Lord has instructed us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”  ⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they were rejoicing and praising the word of the Lord.  All who had been appointed for eternal life believed.  ⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was being carried through the whole region. (EHV)

Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

Dear blessed of the Father,

            Imagine a family being granted a gift of riches so vast that it would be greater than the wealth of people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet, or perhaps even all three combined, and yet the recipients of the gift refuse to accept that gracious offering because they imagine they can make more money on their own.  Or imagine a prisoner held in the depths of the world’s most notorious prison, only days from his scheduled execution, when that hopeless prisoner is granted a full pardon but he refuses it because he doesn’t like the messenger who brings that decree of freedom to him.

We really don’t have to imagine anything so incredible, because that is shown to us precisely in what Luke reports here in our sermon text, and the same thing continues to happen in our world still today.  People turn down God’s grace: His release from sin’s condemnation, His immense generosity of complete forgiveness of all sin, and His free gift of an eternal home in the mansions of heaven, all rejected for the poorest of reasons, or no reason at all.

Paul and Barnabas were sent to proclaim the Good News of the forgiveness and salvation Jesus has won for all people.  The first week that Paul preached in this town, many Jews believed and were glad to hear more of what Paul had to tell them.  Their gladness poured out to others over the course of that week, and their enthusiasm brought many, many more people to the synagogue to hear Paul speak the next week.  That is where we find them in our sermon text, leading people to Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

Though some of the Jews had gladly received the Gospel, others had decided on a different agenda.  Offended that Paul was teaching free grace in Christ Jesus without the requirement of obeying all the Mosaic and Pharisaical law, they began a near riot and drove Paul and Barnabas out of the synagogue.  In other words, they became zealous for their religion of works and refused to hear how Christ had fulfilled all the law’s demands on their behalf.  These zealous individuals flatly refused to believe that Jesus had accomplished salvation for them, and particularly, they rejected the idea that Gentiles could be saved by God’s Christ without works of law.

As my introduction hinted, they threw away the gift of eternal life in heaven by denying the riches of God’s grace.  They rejected the forgiveness God granted to the world on the basis of Jesus’ life and death in our place.  Paul bluntly stated the outcome of their rebellion, “It was necessary that God's word be spoken to you first.  But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look: We are now turning to the Gentiles!”  By rejecting the Good News of what Jesus has done for the world, those people judged themselves unworthy of God’s mercy.  By their actions, they shouted to the face of God that Jesus isn’t good enough for them.  The end of such foolishness is everlasting torment in the depths of hell.  And like so many places in the centuries since, when God’s precious Gospel is rejected, the Holy Spirit moves on with His lovingkindness to rescue other sinners.

To the believing Christian, the actions of that Jewish crowd seem incomprehensible.  Why would anyone throw away such a great, everlasting gift, such a release from the eternal prison prepared to hold the devil and his wicked angels?  What on earth could possibly be so enticing that one would forgo the greatest gifts ever given?

My friends, before we exalt ourselves over those rebellious Jews, we better examine our own hearts.  How often do we forget the great benefits God has granted us through faith in Jesus?  How often do we find His Word not worth our time to hear?  How often do we question God’s plan and care for us?  How often do we judge other people not worthy of our forgiveness, as if we deserved the forgiveness granted to us by the Father?  If we are truly honest with ourselves, the realization of our own selfishness and guilt should lead us to react just like those Gentiles who so gladly heard and believed what Paul preached.

The truth is, Jesus wasn’t sent to save just the Jews, or Americans, or any other nationality or race, so we can rejoice because He gave His life for all people.  Isaiah tells us what God long ago promised His Son, the appointed Savior, “It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant to raise up only the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel, so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations, so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)  When Simeon picked up the Baby Jesus in the temple, he spoke with exultation, “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)  Therefore, moved by the Holy Spirit, Paul confirms this by saying, “We are now turning to the Gentiles!  For this is what the Lord has instructed us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”  By God’s grace, salvation and forgiveness of all our sins has been gifted to you and me so that we are led by the Gospel to Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

God sent His Son to be the Redeemer and Savior of all people of earth.  Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world.  He paid for you and me.  Jesus didn’t ask “Who will be worthy of God’s grace?” because no one who has ever been born from the seed of Adam has been without sin.  We all have been guilty and worthy of everlasting separation from God in the unending torment of hell.

The truth is we didn’t deserve God’s grace.  We didn’t deserve Jesus living and dying for us.  Furthermore, not one person ever made a decision on his own to believe in Jesus.  Not one person ever found forgiveness and salvation apart from the proclamation of the Gospel.  It simply doesn’t and can’t happen, because the Gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, the most one could ever do is fall into the trap of relying on self-righteousness which isn’t righteousness at all, because all people are corrupted body and soul by sin.  This sin comes to us through our natural inheritance from our parents.  Along with that inborn sin comes condemnation before God and a complete lack of ability to please Him.

However, now is the time to Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.  You see, God didn’t ask whether some could work their way to heaven; He knew exactly what had to be done to reconcile us with Him.  So that our relationship with God could be restored, God made the plan, He did the work, He prophesied what we needed to see in a Savior, and He sent His Holy Spirit through the Word and His messengers to tell us how Jesus lived, died, and rose again for our salvation, and through that Good News His Holy Spirit works in us the ability to accept God’s Gospel message and believe it.

Remember how you came to believe in Jesus.  For most of us, we were blessed already as infants to be baptized, through which we were given faith by the power of the Gospel as St. Peter was moved by the Holy Spirit to declare, “Baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the body but the guarantee of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:21)  Naturally, that newly-given faith had to be nurtured by the hearing of the Word of God’s grace so that our faith continued to grow, just as others, such as the Greeks and Romans who heard Paul preach on his missionary journeys, came to believe by hearing the Good News, because “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

“When the Gentiles heard this, they were rejoicing and praising the word of the Lord.  All who had been appointed for eternal life believed.  And the word of the Lord was being carried through the whole region.”  One might ask, how could they not rejoice at such Good News?  Yet, we know many still do not believe.  It is truly incomprehensible to the believing mind that anyone would reject Jesus, but the truth is, we only believe in Jesus because God in His mercy elected us to believe and worked everything so that we hear His Good News, and faith is granted to us through that message of peace.

The doctrine of election is hard for the sinner to accept, because we always want to make ourselves acceptable to God.  That arrogant boast of our own efforts has to be pummeled down by the power of the law.  But if the law is all we knew, we would live every day like we are fighting the heavyweight champion of the world, being continually knocked down by its punishing blows until any hope of life was pounded out of us.

However, God does not save us by Law.  He saves us by the gift and promise of His Savior Son.  We are redeemed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  What is now given to us is the forgiveness of all sins, freedom from punishment and condemnation, and the opportunity to rejoice for the gifts of God’s love and to tell others about what Jesus has done for us all, so that they too can enjoy these precious gifts of forgiveness, salvation, peace with God, and eternal life in heaven.  When we daily keep what Jesus has done for us clearly in focus, we will gladly, willingly, continually through good times and bad, with friend and stranger alike, Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.  Amen.

Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!  Amen.