Baptism of our Lord January 7, 2018
Baptism of our Lord
Matthew 3:13-17 & Romans 6:1-11
January 7, 2018
“I Am Baptized Into Christ!”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
You would hardly ever say, “I was born in America.” That is, unless you moved out of this country. But instead, you say, ‘I am an American.” “I’m an American!” Yes, it’s a historical fact for most of you that you were born in America. Maybe you were born down in Bloomington, IL 53 years ago or something like that. That’s the historical reality. But you don’t say, “I was an American,” you say, “I’m an American.”
If somebody asks you what Church you go to, you don’t say, “Well, I was a Lutheran.” Sure, it’s a historical fact that at some point you became a member of the Lutheran Church. But you say, “I am a Lutheran.”
Now we don’t seem to always make that same connection with Holy Baptism. We say, “I was baptized.” Well, yes, that’s true. But what about right now?
There are two historical facts that we certainly know when it comes to Holy Baptism. The first fact is that approximately 1,988 years ago, in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. There were many witnesses and the Father even spoke from heaven.
The 2nd historical fact is that a certain number of years ago you and I were baptized. For me, it was just over 37 years ago. Just like many of you, I can tell you where I was baptized, who baptized me, and who my sponsors were. Why? Because I have a certificate. See, we take the historical part seriously. We record the Baptisms in big church record books and we make out certificates. This is a big deal.
So Jesus was baptized. And you were baptized. But what about right now? Those historical facts tell you something about you and your soul right now. The fact is, that Jesus not only was baptized as your Substitute but He is your Substitute. Right now. He is your Savior. Right now. And the fact is, that not only were you baptized into Jesus, but you are baptized into Jesus. So just as we would declare, “I’m an American,” or “I’m a Lutheran,” so we say, “I’m baptized into Christ!”
That’s our refrain. One of our mottos, if you will. I told you a few weeks ago John the Baptist’s motto and ours as well, “I’m a Christ-ian!” Well, here’s another. “I’m baptized into Christ!” And we have this beautiful hymn we’re going to learn all this year that uses those very words as our refrain, “I am baptized into Christ!” [Sing:] God’s own child, I gladly say it: I am baptized into Christ! And I won’t be shy about telling you that I hope this hymn becomes one of your favorites and I hope you sing it until the day you are brought into your heavenly home.
Now you’ll want to notice how this hymn is structured. The first and last verses declare how invaluable is the gift of Baptism. For instance, verse 1 asks, “Do I need earth’s treasures many? I have one worth more than any…” We don’t need big money or big fame or big anything else. We’ve got a treasure worth the weight of heaven. Our Baptism. The last verse is similar, “There is nothing worth comparing To this lifelong comfort sure!”
But the middle three verses all address an enemy of ours. And I mean address as in we actually talk to sin, Satan, and death. We have something to say to them. In verse 2 we say to sin, “Yo sin, I am baptized into Christ!” Verse 3 we say to Satan, “Yo Satan, I am baptized into Christ!” And Verse 4 we say to death, “Yo death, you can’t end my gladness, I am baptized into Christ!”
So you get what we’re doing? We’re talking to our enemies. Paul loves to use that kind of language like he does today in the Epistle from Romans 6. “What shall we say then?” He does it again in Romans 8, “What then shall we say to these things?” [v. 31]. What shall we say to our sin? What shall we to the devil? What shall we say to death? We shall say, “I am baptized into Christ! You cannot hurt me!”
Now that’s always what we say, though, is it? No, we have many other things we say to our sin that just don’t work very well. When we have sins that are disturbing our soul and seizing our conscience, what shall we say? Shall we say, “Oh, that was really horrible what I did and God must be very angry with me, but I’ll make up for it from now on by doing better!” Is that what we say to our sin? I’ll do better? Nice try. That doesn’t ease a guilty conscience.
Or when we have a sin just gnawing away at our soul, one that we have tried and tried and tried to deal with—shall we say, “Oh, you’re really not that big of a deal. Tons of other people do it as well.” Shall we try to defend it, explain why it wasn’t our fault, or just plain ignore it? That might work for a little while. But not for long.
Here’s what we will say to the sins of our past that seize our conscience—we shall say, “I am baptized into Christ! Ha! Take that! You, sin, have already been paid for. You, sin, were taken from me by Someone much greater and stronger than me! I belong to Jesus. He’s my Substitute. I won’t sit here miserable under your guilt any longer. I am forgiven. I’m baptized. So get away from me.”
And what about verse 3? Satan? What shall we say to Satan? Shall we just act like he doesn’t exist like so many Christians today do? Shall we say, “Oh, Satan, you’re just the guy who wants us to have fun”? Shall we act like he’s harmless? Like we can just play around in his house and nothing will happen to us? Shall we let him entice us into gossiping? Into skipping Church? Into watching junk on TV and Internet that’s full of language and sex? Entice us into wasting our time away when we should be loving our spouse and our family? And then will we say to him, “Oh, it’s no big deal.”
No, we will not. We will say to that filthy animal, “No, Satan. I am baptized into Christ. Drop your accusations, guy! I’m not enticed by you. You don’t have any power over me. I have Jesus. Jesus, who gives me more joy and pleasure than any of those worthless sins you will offer me. Jesus, who beat you down when you tried to entice Him from going to the cross for me! No, Satan, I will not listen to you. I’m baptized into Christ!”
And, finally, what will we say to that ugly enemy death? “Death, you cannot end my gladness: I am baptized into Christ!” Shall we say, “Death, I’m scared of you?” Shall we say, “Death, I’ll deal with you later. I’m busy living right now”? Shall we say, “Death, you are the answer to our problems?” And so we kill babies in the womb and kill the elderly and the sick whose lives we deem aren’t worth living anymore or do as they do in Europe and make sure to abort any babies who have Down Syndrome? Is that what we say to Death? “Oh death, you’re our friend?”
No, we tell that enemy what Jesus has to say about it. Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” We say, “Death, you are nothing to me, because I am baptized into Christ! I will not die, but I will live and recount the deeds of the Lord!” Or as Paul says, “Do you not know that all of who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?’ You’ve already died with Jesus. And, Paul says, “if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” Amen! There it is! “I’m baptized, death, so you can just move on.”
What say you? What say you, Christians, to your enemies? Will we say what the rest of the world says? Will we say that sin is just something made up by religious people to make us all feel guilty? Will we say that nothing is really sinful but it’s only what you make of it? Really? As if we don’t all know deep in our conscience that there’s something wrong with us and much of what we do? Or will we say that Satan is just a figment of our imagination? And that death is just our friend when we don’t want to live anymore? What a bunch of lies! We can’t run from the truth. These are real enemies and we need a real answer for them.
And we have one—in our Baptism into Christ. What say you? Say, “I am baptized into Christ! Sin of mine, you’re forgiven and paid for by Christ. Satan, I won’t be enticed by you anymore. I’m living with Jesus. And death, I’m not scared of you. I’ve already died with Jesus and I’m going to live with Him forever. I am baptized into Christ!”
Our Synod put out a great Bible Study about five years ago on Holy Baptism for one of our conventions. And the author started out by asking, “Why do we start Church by saying, ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’”? That’s an incomplete sentence, right? What kind of bad grammar are we using here? We just abruptly start, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?” What “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?” Where’s the subject and the object? All we get is a long series of prepositional phrases?
Well, no. The first part of that sentence happened at your Baptism. And my Baptism. And at the Baptism of every single Christian. When God said, “I baptize you…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” So every time we start with those words, what are we remembering? What are we saying? That we are baptized. “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…what? I am baptized!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.