Rev. Matthew Versemann

                                                                                      St. John Lutheran Church

                                                                                      Waverly, Iowa

                                                                                      The Baptism Of Our Lord

                                                                                      January 9th, 2011

 

“The Day Heaven Was Ripped Open”

 

God’s PEACE is ALWAYS YOURS in Jesus!

 

Hear the Word of God from Matthew 3 and Mark 1,

 

“John came baptizing in the wilderness, and proclaiming a baptism of repentance unto the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside, and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptizing by him in the Jordan River……

 

At that time, Jesus came from Galilee, to the Jordan, to be baptized by John. But John tried to stop Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?’ Jesus said, ‘Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented.

 

As soon as Jesus was baptized, He came out of the water. At that moment heaven was torn open; and he (John) saw the Spirit of God descending on Him (Jesus) like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased.’

 

 

DEAR FRIENDS IN CHRIST,

 

 

 

 

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As Jesus was ‘coming up’ from the Jordan River, after being Baptized, there was at that moment a ‘coming down’ of heaven to us. We’re told, ‘at that moment, heaven was split open, the Spirit of God descended on Jesus, like a dove, and the Father’s voice said, ‘This is My Son, Whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” Today I want you to think about “The Day That Heaven Split Open”.

 

Isaiah 64 says, “Oh that You, O Lord, would rend the heavens open and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence.” The prophet understood that only God can break the heavens open, and come down to us.

 

Before Jesus’ Baptism, or God opening up heaven, means anything to us; you must realize that it was our sin that closed heaven. After Adam and Eve sinned, Genesis 3 says, “The Lord banished them from the Garden…..and after He drove them out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim with a flaming sword, guarding the way to the Tree of Life.”  Our sins bolted heaven’s doors shut. You may think “that’s not fair”. But then you’re not living in reality. Sinner cannot live with a Holy God, while they’re still in their sins. Revelation 22 says, “Nothing sinful will ever enter (heaven) – (now that’s referring to those who are still sinful in their unrepentance. It’s not referring to sinners who are forgiven) – Nothing sinful will ever enter heaven, nor anyone who keeps on doing what is shameful (ie. the unrepentant).  But only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”  So the first point is that our sins slammed heaven’s doors shut.

 

Secondly, it is beyond our power to open heaven’s doors. Revelation 3:7 says, “What God shuts, no one can open (except God Himself).” We can’t pry it open by our Performance! Romans 3, “By the works of the Law, no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight.”  We want to go to heaven; but if the truth be told, we don’t want to let go of sins that close heaven. We think it’s unfair that God won’t let us into heaven with our sins. But let me ask you this: “How many sins did it take to ruin God’s first paradise?”  Just One! And look at the mess of this world now! And you want God to let us into heaven, with our sins? It would be the end of heaven, and He won’t do it! He will have HIS HEAVEN, where forgiven sinners, made new again in dead and risen Jesus, will live forever, with God, paradise. But you cannot pry heaven open by your own performance, to get in.  Page   2

Nor can we pave our own path or build our own bridge to heaven. Remember the people who tried to build the Tower of Babel in Genesus 11? They said, “Come, let us make bricks, and build for ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches into the heavens,…….but the Lord came down to see the city, and the tower that the men were building. (the Lord had to ‘come down to see their tower’ shows how ‘puny’ man’s works are.) So the Lord confused their language, and scattered them over the face of the earth.” Because of sin, you can’t build your own bridge, elevator to heaven.  In fact, you may have never thought of this, but it’s actually good that God doesn’t let us into heaven with our sins. If God let us into His heaven with our sins, we’d be toast. The Bible says, “No one can see God (in their sin) and yet live.”

 

This brings us to the purpose of Jesus’ Baptism. What’s going on in Jesus’ Baptism, Luther says, is “A Sweet Swap”. Jesus is being baptized into our sin, so that we can be baptized into His righteousness, Galatians 3. He’s baptized into our death, so that we can be baptized into His resurrection, I Peter 3. He’s baptized into our hell, so that we can be baptized into His kingdom, John 3. Think of it like this: ‘If the only thing that slams heaven’s door shut is our sins; when Jesus takes away our sins, by forgiving them, He’s actually opening up heaven for us. So as Jesus comes to be baptized, He is being baptized into the office of: “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,” which means He’s being baptized into the role of “opening up heaven”, by becoming sins’ payment. And now, when we’re baptized into Jesus; God reckons, or counts the sinner in us as dead, because He already sees it dead in Jesus; even though the nails went through Him. You might say: “Jesus can’t do that in Baptism!” Don’t tell Him how He can or can’t forgive you!

 

At His Baptism, Jesus is stepping into our sins. What the Lord is doing in Jesus’ Baptism, is what He promised to do in Isaiah 53, “the Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all, and by His stripes we are healed.” Having borrowed our sins in His Baptism, He then borrows our death, and pays for them at Calvary. In doing so, He has opened Heaven. Luther once said, “Even if God were to love you as much as He does in Christ, if Jesus doesn’t go to the cross, then He’d still have to send you to hell; because He is just, and must punish sin. That’s why Christ is being Baptized, because God in His love, could not bring Himself to shut us out of heaven for all eternity.                                              Page   3

Which is why it should NOT come as a surprise that our text says, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He came out of the water. And at that moment heaven was torn open.” This is big folks! The Greek Word for ‘torn open’ is “schizomenoi” – it means “tear open” or “rip open”. It’s the same Greek Word that is used on Good Friday – when the very moment that Christ died, we’re told that the curtain in the temple that separated priests and people from the presence of God, was torn in two, from top to bottom – from heaven to earth.

 

At Jesus’ Baptism, “Heaven was torn open” as God circles out the One, Whose sacrifice would forgive sinners, and thus tear open heavens doors for us. Hebrews tells us that the Job Jesus sat out to do at His Baptism – to open up heaven – HE GOT THE JOB DONE! Hebrews 10 says, “Therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place (Heaven itself), by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way OPENED for us, through the curtain which is His body.”

 

And then another significant thing happens in our text. We’re told “and the Spirit of God descended on Him (Jesus) like a dove.” The Spirit descends bodily on Jesus to visibly mark Him out. He’s the One! But there’s one more significant point about the Spirit coming down as a dove. Do you remember that it was a dove that returned to Noah’s Ark, with a live twig in its mouth? Only this time, the twig of that brings us life, which the dove is carrying to Jesus, is the cross. In the waters of Christ’s baptism, our cross is being laid on Jesus’ back, every bit as much as when Pilate’s soldiers laid the wooden beam on Christ shoulders three years later. In His Baptism, Jesus is heroically stepping into our death. When John sees Jesus in Rev. 19, we’re told that Jesus is “wearing a robe, that has been baptized in blood.” Do you get it? Jesus’ water baptism is singling Him out for His bloody baptism on Calvary!

 

But the blood that He spilt was so pure, and so precious to His Father, that it has forgiven every sin that made God mad at us, and every sin that would keep us out of heaven; which is why, which is WHY His death has opened heaven.

 

 

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And now Jesus gives us the benefits of His death in our Baptism. Just as God poured out His Spirit on Christ at His Baptism, He pours out on you in your Baptism. Acts 2 says, “Repent, and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit came down on Jesus at His Baptism, marking Him as the Savior.  The Holy Spirit comes down on us and our children in our Baptism marking us as the saved. You might say: “Pastor, I have a hard time believing that simple water can do such great things!” Luther said, “It is not simple water only that does such great things, but the Word of God, in and with the water that does them.”

 

You see, even if you can’t figure out how God could do it, He simply spoke the Word and He created sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, and planets. He said to the blind, ‘SEE’, and they saw. He said to the deaf “HEAR”, and they heard. He said to the lame, “WALK” and they walked. He even said to the dead, “RISE”, and they rose. And believe me, those people couldn’t understand how simple words could do such great things. But they SAW, HEARD, WALKED, and ROSE from the dead.

And if Christ says that you, and your children (which is what is says in Acts 2), even a little baby – like Quinn Kyle Anderson – is forgiven all their sins, united with Christ in His resurrection, and risen to die no more as we are connected to Christ. Then He means it!  Don’t argue about it. Take Him up on it!

 

And finally, do you know that the same Word God used of His own Son, “With Him I am WELL-PLEASED”, He now uses of you and me? Colossians 1, “God was PLEASED (same Greek Word) to reconcile all things to Himself, by making peace through Christ’s blood, shed on the cross.” Because of Jesus’ water baptism where our cross was laid on Him, and because of His bloody baptism on Calvary’s cross; the gates of heaven are flung open wide for you; and all who take Him up on it – all who believe and are baptized into Christ – He now says of you, what He said of His Son, “This is My beloved child, with whom I am well-pleased!” Amen.

 

And now, may the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds in the one true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.