First St Johns Lutheran Church

This is a prayer by Johann Gerhard: “Omnipotent, merciful God, I thank You for wonderfully preserving me from the earliest days of my life…
To you, the creator and preserver of all things, be glory and honor forever. Without You the true sun, I would vanish like a shadow. Without You, the true light, I would be destroyed immediately. Without You, the true being, I would be brought to nothing instantly. To You alone do I owe my being, my living and my moving. Therefore, I will live for You and depend only on You for eternity.” We make our beginning in the Name of the Father and in the Name of the Son and in the Name of the Holy Spirit and all God’s people said. Amen.
When I’m out there shaking babies and kissing hands for Jesus, one argument I always hear is: “Well Jesus never said He was God.” Yea, He really did, in the context of the times, He made it very clear who He is. John 8 is full of Messianic claims that Jesus made. When He confronted the Pharisees and the scribes on the Mount of Olives Jesus said before Abraham was, “I AM”. Abraham lived thousands of years before Jesus and Jesus is telling them that even that long ago “I AM”. God told Moses that His Name is “I AM”, so Jesus is making a direct relationship between Himself and His divinity, His being God, the same God who spoke to both Moses and Abraham. When He says “before Abraham was, I am”, He didn’t say “I was”, He said it in the present tense of Abraham and the implication is that not only am I now in the present with you, I was in the present with Abraham and the phrase further implies I always was and always will be. The people he was speaking to understood exactly what He was saying and there response was to pick up stones to kill Him for blasphemy since He was saying that He was the same God who talked to Abraham thousands of years ago, and then Moses hundreds of years later.
In our reading today, there is another clear demonstration of His divinity. Now I was just a few years younger then Jesus when I was baptized. I was baptized at 25 years old, it’s generally accepted that Jesus was baptized when He was 30 years old. I know for a fact that upon my baptism that the heavens were not torn open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove did not descend upon me and there certainly was no voice from heaven saying: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” I’d certainly like to think that the Holy Spirit was well pleased with the fact that I had been baptized, but since I am not God the Son, God the Father is not making a public declaration. By the fact that He brought me to His church and enabled me to be baptized, as He has done with each of you, that is in itself a public declaration that I am His adopted Son and by enabling me to be baptized He is well pleased.
Baptism in the Lutheran church is one of our two sacraments, baptism is a sine qua non, Wikipedia defines that as an indispensable essential action, condition or ingredient. It is a Latin legal term which means that it is a condition that unless it happens, there can be nothing. If we are not baptized, then we simply cannot be in the Kingdom. It is not, as many churches claim, some sort of an initiation, a public demonstration of our commitment. It is a very real change made in us by the Holy Spirit. It takes the “old man”, the person that is here as the result of physical birth and changes that person from the physical being and turns Him into the spiritual being who has been cleansed of sin and who has been accepted into the Kingdom of God. That person has been saved, as Peter teaches us: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (1 Pet 3:21). Paul tells us in Colossians that we have been buried with Christ in baptism, in a sense the water of baptism buries us, kills the “old man” and then Paul tells us that through baptism we are raised with Jesus through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Jesus from the dead.
It is God’s work on us that brings us to baptism, it is God’s work on us that saves us, that destroys the old person, the person that is only in the flesh, that is only sinful and worldly, who cannot know anything other than the world and being that completely debased, evil person. When that person is destroyed, we are raised again in the spirit. We are certainly still fleshly human beings, and we are certainly still subject to sin. We are never going to be perfect in this life, but we are now God’s adopted child. When His Son was baptized, the Son that was begotten of the Father was baptized, then the Father declared to all those present that Jesus was His only begotten Son. In the flesh we are creations of God, we are not children of God. If we create something, make something through our own efforts we have not created a child, we have created an item; built a chair, assembled a motor vehicle, created something but not a child. That may sound insensitive, but until we are baptized, we are not sons and daughters, we are creations of God. Until we are baptized we do not have the same nature as God the Father. We never will be the same nature in terms of being God, but in terms of being indwelt of the Holy Spirit, in terms of being that new creation in God, that new spiritual being, that man, woman or child that is now saved and cleansed in baptism and then saved and righteous because of what Jesus did for us, that Jesus, by His sacrifice made us sinless, made us pure, made us holy, then we are truly accepted as being those spiritual people who are as Jesus said “grafted into the vine”. We are not actually part of the vine, but the Holy Spirit, through baptism, makes us part of that vine, takes us from our physical, sinful, decaying, dying lives and makes us to be like Jesus, and therefore enables us to be saved in Jesus. Despite what you hear from the world, that is what God did for us in Christ to save us. There is simply no other way and when we rely on what the world tells us in order to be saved, in order to be declared sinless, sanctified, righteous and holy, we are lost. God revealed to us in His Word, that baptism is required, that salvation is in Jesus and that when we are baptized in the Name of the Trinity, in the Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are truly saved. We are adopted sons and daughters of the Father, we are adopted through baptism and the saving works of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some people here aren’t going to like that, many people in the word will tell you how intolerant and arrogant that is, that God would only have one way to salvation. It’s not like I’m making it up, the world makes up their own version and deludes itself into believing that God should somehow just accommodate them in what they believe, but I’m showing you right here, in God’s Word, through God’s Son Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life, that salvation is only through baptism in the Name of the Trinity and through the works of Jesus Christ. If you have a problem with that, if you think that’s intolerant, if you think that your way is the way for God to go, well all I can say is good luck with that. I know what God has revealed, I have the assurance of God’s promises and I know that through my baptism into God’s family and into the salvation of Jesus Christ that I have life eternal, that I have life and have it more abundantly. For those who think otherwise, well let me know how that works out for you.
I know that you who are here today understand what I am telling you, but as always, I want you to leave here fully understanding this and being able to relate that to those who you meet in the world. I’m going to warn you right now, if you tell someone that, who does not know Christ as Lord, they are not going to like what you say. They may very well not like you for saying that. But you have done what the Holy Spirit has led you to do. We are not here to worry about what people around us think, what their uninformed opinion is, we are to focus solely on what the Holy Spirit has revealed and on what He moves us to do when He brings others to us. People may not like me, and say mean things about me and cause me trouble, but when we are faithful to Him who saves us, who provides for us, who has adopted us in the family of God, well I am much more concerned with pleasing Him and serving Him then I am worried that other people may not like me.
Baptism is also a form of ordination. As adopted children into the kingdom of heaven, Peter tells us that: “ you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Before you think about storming the pulpit to take over the preaching, baptism may ordain you, but you still have to be called. Nevertheless, as a priest, you will certainly proclaim who it is that you, as a priest, lift up in worship. At baptism, you are ordained into the royal priesthood, how can you not proclaim the things that God has done for you and will do for those that He leads you to, to proclaim your God?
Baptism into the Kingdom of God is an instrument for new beginnings. Our readings today talk about the beginning of creation. You will probably note that the Holy Spirit is cited in Genesis, long before His appearance in Acts, and what is He doing? He is hovering over the face of the waters. What we could take as an early indication of the Trinity of the importance of water.
Lutheran Spirituality explains our baptism as follows: “ Our crucifixion and burial with Christ through Baptism happens in a twofold manner: first by faith in the promise of the Gospel presented in Baptism—this is an instantaneous gift of the Holy Spirit—and then by love, that is, by struggling against sin by the power of the Holy Spirit (see Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20). This struggle is an ongoing process that will not be completed in this life on earth. Christ, now living in us through faith, is also shaping our thoughts, words, and deeds. He is both saving gift and guiding example.…the apostle goes on to explain the function of Baptism. This Means of Grace unites us with Christ in His death and His resurrection.”
In back are slips of paper with Dr Luther’s quote regarding baptism, it is: “Baptism initiates us into this struggle [of sin, death and all misfortune], with the divine promise of victory. This sacrament ’signifies that the old creature in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die through daily contrition and repentance, and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever…” Take this piece of paper, staple it into your journal, maybe right up front so that you see it everyday and make some notes as to what it means that we who are baptized, who are saved in Christ have the “divine promise of victory”. That the “old creature” is to die daily through our contrition and repentance and the “new person” is to rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity…
CFW Walther makes very clear what baptism is: “Baptism is not a mere washing with earthly water, but the Spirit of God, yea, Jesus with His blood, connects with it for the purpose of cleansing my sins. ‘Therefore Ananias says to Saul: ‘Be baptized and wash away thy sins.’ Acts 22; and Jesus says to Nicodemus : ‘Verily, verily I say to you, except a man be born of water of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, John 3.”
Jesus was baptized, not because He had to be cleansed of His sin, or to be put in relationship with Himself. One reason He was baptized was so that His Father could proclaim to the world, that Jesus was His Son, His only begotten Son, His Son who had come to save His people.
For us Baptism is an indispensable act, it cleanses us of our sin and brings us into the family of God. There is no other way to salvation but through Jesus and being baptized in the Name of the Holy Trinity. Furthermore baptism ordains us into that Holy Priesthood, we are priests of our Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of that we are to proclaim that salvation alone is in Jesus and through His baptism. When we leave here today, remember that we are to daily drown that old man in remembrance of our baptism in contrition and repentance and remember that we are a new creation in Jesus Christ.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.