“Baptized For Us”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. This morning we begin observing the season after Epiphany with The
Baptism of Our Lord. The Festival of Epiphany occurs every year in the
church calendar on January 6th, which was this past Friday. Epiphany marks
the end of the 12 days of Christmas which began on December 25th, and Epiphany
commemorates the final chapter of the Christmas story, the Wise Men from the
East coming to worship and offer precious gifts to the Christ Child at
Bethlehem. The word “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word meaning a revelation or
an appearance. Each year during the Epiphany season, in January and
February, we remember events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth when he was
revealed to be the Christ, the divine Son of God, beginning with the pilgrimage
of the Wise Men, led by a star to Bethlehem. Other Epiphany events are the
miracles of our Lord, when he revealed his divine power; the Transfiguration,
observed on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, when Jesus showed forth his
heavenly glory; and, on the First Sunday after the Epiphany, The Baptism of Our
Lord, which we are commemorating today, when God the Father proclaims: “This is
my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” As we remember The Baptism of Our Lord this morning, we ask three
questions: Why was Jesus baptized? What does Jesus’ baptism mean for you? What does your own baptism mean? Matthew reports that John the Baptist thought it all wrong that Jesus
should even want to be baptized. For John preached “a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” You and I are sinners who need
the spiritual cleansing of baptism. But, John understands that his cousin Jesus
has no need to be baptized, for he has no sin of which to be cleansed, because
he is the Messiah, the divine Son of God. “John tried to deter him,
saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ ‘Let it be so
now,’ Jesus replied. ‘It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all
righteousness.’” Why was Jesus baptized? He was “Baptized for Us,”
“to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus’ baptism is a step on the road to Calvary. For “the Lamb of
God” who by his sacrifice “takes away the sin of the world” must be perfect,
holy, blameless in every way, as Peter says of him, “a lamb without blemish or
defect.” That’s what Jesus means when he tells John, “It is proper for us
to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Though by his holiness he is exempt from the need for baptism, yet for
our sakes he humbles himself, “to fulfill all righteousness,” and like a lowly
sinner he is baptized by John. And, like a lowly sinner, he hung on
Calvary’s cross. Enduring God’s punishment in your place, bearing “our
sins in his body,” suffering for your salvation, dying for your life. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” What does
Jesus’ baptism mean for you? His baptism is part of being the perfect,
holy, blameless sacrifice which God the Father was well-pleased to accept as
payment for the sins of the world, including your sins. God the Father was
“well-pleased” with the sacrifice of his Son. As Paul says in Romans, “God
presented him as a sacrifice of atonement.” What does Jesus’ baptism mean
for you? Jesus’ baptism is part of the perfect life he lived for your
salvation. “Go and make disciples of all nations,” Christ commanded, “baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” So, Baptism is not
just a rite of passage, or a social custom, or an entrenched tradition. It
is truly HOLY Baptism, a Christian Sacrament, given to us by the Lord himself. What does your own baptism mean? Paul says in Romans, “All of us
who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” Through
baptism, God grants you the atoning merits of Christ’s life, death and
resurrection. Paul describes baptism in Titus as, “the washing of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Through baptism, God made you “born
again,” as his child. Peter says in Acts, “Be baptized, and wash away your
sins. . . And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Through
baptism, “the washing of rebirth,” God cleanses your soul, washes away your
sins, and gives you his Holy Spirit to create and strengthen saving faith in
your heart. To put it in one word, baptism is a means by which Jesus makes you his
DISCIPLE. “Therefore go 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 I have commanded you.” In baptism, you enter a covenant with God. Paul says in 1st
Corinthians, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of
God? . . . And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.” And in Romans, “We were therefore buried with Christ
through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Why was Jesus baptized? He was “Baptized for Us,” “to fulfill all
righteousness.” What does Jesus’ baptism mean for you? His baptism means YOUR
salvation, for it was part of the perfect, holy, blameless life he lived for
you, making him a worthy sacrifice to pay for your sins. What does your own baptism mean? Jesus says, “No one can enter
the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. . . You must
be born again.” Through this Sacrament, which Paul describes as “the
washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” you are actually “born
again” as a child of God, and made Jesus’ disciple. As Paul says in
Ephesians, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her
holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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