Sermon - Baptism of Christ - Matthew 3:13-17 - 2018

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” Paul originally spoke those words to the Christians in Corinth, and those same words could easily be spoken about us American Christians, us Iowa Christians, today. Now I highly suspect that the church at Corinth didn’t take too kindly to these words of admonition. 

Afterall, Paul just called them unwise, unpowerful, and of ignoble birth. Then I just said the same thing to you. Those words are kind of offensive, aren’t they. Who says we’re not wise according to worldly standards? Statistically speaking, American Christians are mostly middle to upper middle-class, which means we’re better educated and make wiser financial decisions than the average person. Who says we’re not powerful? We have influence and power over our local governments! Who says we are of ignoble birth? We’re Americans! We the people are noble simply by that fact that we’re American citizens! 

What pride, what ego we have! We think so highly of ourselves that we consider ourselves wise, we assume ourselves powerful, and we declare our nobility. But we’re not! The world sees us Christians are morons, backwards thinking fools! We have no power or influence on anything of any substance, if we did our nation wouldn’t be murdering babies, giving marriage licenses to two men or two women, or trying to legalize assisted suicide right here in Iowa! We aren’t of noble birth, because if we were do you think we’d be hanging around a bunch of nobodies in this church?

The cold hard truth, the fact of the matter is that we are nobodies. That’s what makes today’s gospel so beautiful and comforting: We who are nobodies are made children of God when Jesus brings us through the waters of baptism with Him. Yes, God chose us who are foolish, God chose us who are weak, God chose us who are low and despised “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” God chose us to be His beloved children.

About 3,400 years ago God foreshadowed our baptism, God foreshadowed Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, God brought Joshua and the Israelites into the promised land through the river Jordan. When God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, He brought them through the Red Sea, yet because of their faithlessness He caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, with Moses at their helm.

The Israelites were nobodies in Egypt. They were slaves. They weren’t wise in the eyes of Pharaoh, they weren’t powerful, and their birth was far from noble. Yet the Lord made them somebodies, He made them His people as He brought them through the Red Sea and killed their enemies. 

But in the wilderness the Israelites once again proved themselves to be foolish, powerless, and ignoble. But the Lord still chose His people and declared that they were His people as He brought them into the promised land by crossing the Jordan River. When Moses, God’s chosen mouthpiece, had died, the Lord publicly chose Joshua to lead the people. 

“The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”” In the waters of the Jordan River the Lord declared to all people that Joshua was His chosen servant and that he is with the Lord just as Moses was with the Lord. Crossing the Jordan river was the turning point at which Joshua became the Lord’s anointed to speak on behalf of God to the people and on behalf of the people to God. 

In the same Jordan River, the second Joshua, Jesus was baptized by John and in these waters was publicly exalted by the Father as the Son of God. From that moment forward Jesus began His public ministry, teaching and healing, and making His way to the cross. When Jesus entered into those waters, He told John “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” In Jesus’ baptism He fulfills our justification, our righteousness. 

Just as with Old Testament Israel, the first to enter the Jordan River were the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord whose presence dwelt upon the Ark first entered those waters and sanctified them, making them a safe haven for the people to tread. Yet in the Red Sea and Jordan River, the people passed over on dry ground. 

1,400 years later “when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”” Jesus was the first to enter these new waters of baptism, and therein He sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin.

When Jesus entered into those baptismal waters two things took place simultaneously. Firstly He took upon Himself like a sponge all of the sins of the earth. He took our foolishness which masquerades as earthly wisdom, He took our weakness which is incapable of true love, and He took our low and despised birth, our birth into sin, the most ignoble birth.

Secondly, He “became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Jesus gave us His heavenly, holy, divine wisdom so that we may set our eyes on things above. Our weakness has been traded for the power of righteousness that grants us a new heavenly birth. No longer are we born of sinful flesh, but our baptism sanctifies and redeems us from that old sinful, ignoble birth and gives us a new birth, a birth worthy of being called a child of God.

So when Jesus said that His baptism was necessary for Him to fulfill all righteousness, it most certainly was! Because when the Father said “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” He was exalted before the world to the place of the most high God. He is not like Moses or Joshua who merely spoke with God, but Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God who is God Himself. Jesus is not only a mediator between God and man, but He is the one who justifies and declares us righteous.

Because Jesus is the Son of God, His work upon the cross is a valid sacrifice for the sins of all people. This is no mere mortal, this is no poor carpenter’s boy, but this is God who goes forward in your place, this is the Ark of the Covenant who stepped foot in the waters to let you pass into the new promised land. Jesus, He is God, just as God the Father declares Him to be. To Jesus is given all authority on heaven and earth, and Jesus uses this authority to forgive sins, to save a bunch of nobodies like us.

Jesus uses this authority to instruct and command us to baptize people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Israelites who passed over the Red Sea and the Jordan River, Jesus who was baptized by John in the Jordan, all of that points ahead to your baptism that takes place in a simple little font.

Your baptism is the fruit of Jesus’ baptism, your baptism is the righteousness that Jesus’ baptism fulfilled. Jesus’ baptism foreshadowed your baptism, by which the Holy Spirit would descend upon you, the Word would be placed upon you, and the Father would declare “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” Because when you’re baptized, the Father doesn’t see a nobody, but He sees Jesus, He sees Christ in you place.

Yeah, we have nothing to boast in, we’re a bunch of nobodies who live in small-town Iowa. But then again, everyone thought Jesus was a nobody who lived in a small town in Galilee, yet Jesus is declared to be the Son of God. So we together are declared in our baptism to be God’s beloved children.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I know that our egos take a hit when we are called nobodies. It might even make you feel small and insignificant; so it should. This is something we always need to practice: humility. Because the less we consider ourselves, the more time we have to consider the Christ who makes us children of God with Him through baptism. Jesus is your new identity. Jesus makes you a somebody.