Baptism of the Lord
Sermon for January 9, 2005
1. Good Morning. Let’s pray – O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: Today Christians all over the world who follow the lectionary are reflecting upon the Baptism of our Lord. It’s interesting to note here that the Eastern Church – the Eastern Orthodox church, see this event as that which revealed Jesus to the world whereas the Western Church, the Roman Catholic Church, sees the Epiphany, which we celebrated last Sunday, when the Magi came to worship and give gifts to our Lord, as the pivotal event in our Lord’s life when He was revealed to the world.
In either case this event – the Baptism of our Lord, was a pivotal time in the life of our Lord for it was after this simple yet profound event that His ministry “went public” as it were.
Before this event we know very little about our Lord’s life. Think about it for a moment – what do we know about Jesus’ life before His baptism?
Very very little. After all He was 30 years old – and very little which is noteworthy is recorded of His life prior to this event. Don’t you find this rather curious? He was God incarnate for goodness sake! Don’t you think that there were many people watching Him wondering what He was going to do one of these days. There must have been some who because of the strange and miraculous conditions surrounding His conception were watching and waiting for Him to reveal His divinity. But 30 years is a long time – 30 years of apparent silence – 30 years bereft of anything noteworthy! What was happening in these 30 years?
All we know is that
“Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and
men.” (Luke 2:52) – That’s it!
So all seems quiet up until this point and
then all heaven and hell broke loose – after His Baptism!
THERE MUST BE SOMETHING IN THIS BAPTISM THEN
DON’T YOU THINK? BUT
WHAT? AND WHAT MEANING MIGHT THIS
HAVE FOR OUR OWN BAPTISM?
These are the weighty issues that stand before
us this morning.
Now it also needs to be noted here that Jew’s – adult Jews - didn’t usually get
baptized. Indeed the whole idea of being
baptized would have been an insult to the average Jew of that time – that was
only for the “proselyte” – the adult incoming person who was not born a
Jew. So John’s baptism was a new
idea. It wasn’t completely novel
though. John’s baptism was a baptism of
repentance. The washing with water was a
sign of ritual cleansing.
Some at
that time recognized that the Jewish nation had fallen upon hard and depraved
times and was desperately in need of repentance and cleansing before their God
would do anything on their behalf.
Remember though that John was the Forerunner – the one who was to go
before Jesus to prepare the way.
Luke 3:4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.
So this baptizing was preparation
– a getting ready – for the coming of the Lord. The nation of
So what was John doing? Here are some Scripture passages that tell us what John’s baptism was all about:
Mark 1:4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 3:3 He went into
all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins.
Acts 13:24 Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and
baptism to all the people of
Acts 19:4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
John’s baptism was all about
“repentance” – so why then did Jesus come to be baptized – He was neither a
non-Jewish proselyte nor was He in need of repentance – for after all He was
God incarnate?
Let’s turn then to our Scripture references with these questions in our minds shall we:
3. Now our first
reading from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah
prophesied the coming of Jesus – listen to the key words once again:
“Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street,. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.” (Isaiah 42:1-4)
Now this
tells us that the Messiah was coming not only for the Jewish nation but for ALL nations and that He probably wouldn’t
look like the normal conqueror on a mighty war horse for it read – He will come
“not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench . . .
“
This might
have given some listening holy person a hint that the coming Messiah would look
and feel a lot like the gentle Jesus born in the backwater town of
O how we today want our churches to look great and our preachers to look and feel mighty when our own Savior was a poor carpenter – a most unlikely revolutionary!
4. Now turn with me to our New Testament reading in Acts 10:34-38:
Acts 10:34 Then Peter
began to speak: “I now realize how true
it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every
nation who fear him and do what is right.
36 You know the message God sent to the people of
Clearly this passage is telling us that Jesus didn’t only come for the Jewish nation but rather for all! – He showed no favoritism! But accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right! Ah! That’s you and me! Thank God that He shows no favoritism!
Now what happened at Jesus’ baptism? Look at verse 37:
37 You know what has
happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John
preached — 38 how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing
good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was
with him.
Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power!
Ah! Power! John baptized Jesus with water BUT GOD BAPTIZED HIM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH POWER!
THIS WAS THE LAUNCHING PAD OF JESUS’ MINISTRY.
5. Now turn with me to the Gospel reading – Matthew 3:13-17:
Matt. 3:13 Then Jesus
came from Galilee to the
Can you hear echoes from our reading in Isaiah? - “Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased,” (Isaiah 42:1)
Why did Jesus need to be baptized? - we’re told – “it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Ah! In this act Jesus was fully identifying with humanity – He identified with their sin and their desperate need for cleansing!
This act of identification was perfectly in harmony with everything else that our Lord had done – He humbled Himself and became man, In the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians Paul wrote:
Phil. 2:5 Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God,
didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a
man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a
cross! 9 Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Ah! Can you see it now? Jesus’ coming to
John the Baptist was simply one more act of identification with us!
It wasn’t the
final one – that would happen on the Cross
at
But this act of identification was pivotal for it was here that God recognized Him before the
watching world - “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” And it was here that Jesus was baptized with
the Holy Spirit and with fire!
Power flooded in upon Jesus in this sublime act of humility
and identification and Jesus’ public ministry was launched!
Now let’s stop for a minute and try to grasp what this
meant to Jesus and to the unsuspecting world.
Jesus, who had been hidden for the last 30 years was suddenly revealed for who He was – God incarnate! In John’s own words:
John 1:29 The
next day (after His baptism), John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!
And now for the next 3 years Jesus would be waging war in
enemy territory against overwhelming odds with 12 unsteady companions!
Suddenly He was performing miracles – healing the sick, the
lame, the blind and the deaf. He even
raised the dead and delivered the possessed from their tormenting demons!
Jesus could no longer hide!
He was being revealed for who He was – God incarnate and He had a
mission – to reconcile
fallen humankind to God the Father – and He could do this in one way and one
way only – by His own death!
All of this
because of His Baptism!
Power! Focused
ministry! Impossible supernatural
miracles! Thousands clambering after him
– begging Him for a word a touch!
This all from the waters of Baptism!
6. What is God saying to us at TCC this morning!
This power is
yours and mine for the asking – in fact we really can’t do a whole heck of a
lot without it except get ourselves into a mess or trouble – as they say!
What God is
saying is this: “This power – these miracles – this calling – these trials . .
. are yours as you bend your knee and join with My Son as He identifies through
you with the least of these!
Ah! The key is “our identification” isn’t it!
Our willingness
to join with our Lord is identifying with the lost – to receive His Baptism of
repentance – and His baptism of the Holy Spirit and power – to the end that we
would continue His work of drawing the lost to the bosom of His Father.
Are you beginning
to see it yet?
God is asking us
to love the lost so much that we’re willing to go to them – where they are – to
identify with them – and preach the Good News that the God of this universe is
with them – comes to them in the mess and murk of their sinfulness – loves them
and is not made at them - and desires to love them out of their sins and into
the light of His love!
You see the real challenge
here is to ask Jesus for His heart of love for the lost in this world. Are you willing to ask for that? For it’s that that we need if we are going to
become His faithful and trusted Disciples!
Do I hear an Amen out there?
…………