It has been said that one cannot really understand the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ without being aware of the significance of Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist. At first glance it seems like a passing historical incident, but the event is touched on by all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, though a little indirectly in John’s Gospel). Needless to say Jesus’ baptism was and is extremely important to our salvation and for our confidence in the grace of God for our lives. Why? This is what the sermon is about tomorrow. I shared the sermon this afternoon while visiting Pastor Herb Geisler (as he rehabilitates) and while I was doing so a gentleman by the name of “Frank” came into the room and listened. At the conclusion of the sermon, Frank wiped away tears and enthusiastically introduced himself to me. We talked about God’s free grace, but our launching pad was Jesus’ baptism!

There is a lot packed into our Lord’s baptism. Among other things it solidifies and guarantees our new identity because what the  Father says of Jesus, the Father says of you. Again, this will be thoroughly explained tomorrow.

The Holy Supper of our Savior will also be served and you will once again receive Christ for you for a new day, to strengthen you and to keep you in the forgiveness of sins and the love of God as Jesus will say to you, “Take and eat, this is my body…take and drink, this is my blood.”

Tomorrow includes:

9:30 am: Children’s Sermon during the Service.

10:45 am: Fellowship and Refreshments.

11:00 am: Bible Study and Sunday School.

12:00 pm: Parish Council Meeting in the Cafe.

1:30 pm: 7th and 8th grade Confirmation at my residence.

I hope to see you tomorrow in God’s house!

In Christ,

Pastor

p.s. Our next Voter’s Assembly meeting is Sunday, January 27th, 2013

p.s.s. Our next New Member Sunday is February 10th, 2013

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:

“With You God Is Well-Pleased”

(Luke 3:21-22)

Pastor Espinosa

 

“²¹Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, ²²and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”

 

Introduction: There Are Many Ways to Approach Life

 

A. In the multitude of ways in which you strive by your own standard or righteousness OR by approaching life in accord with God’s standard and righteousness.

B. If we choose our standard or righteousness, we enter into a sinful maze that leads to disaster as we try to follow the vast-array of “god-substitutes”: (from Keller’s The Reason for God, 290-291)

1. If you center your life and identity on your spouse or partner, you will be emotionally dependent, jealous, and                  controlling. The other person’s problems will be overwhelming to you.

2. If you center your life and identity on your family and children, you will try to live your life through your children until they resent you or have no self of their own. At worst, you may abuse them when they displease you.

3.  If you center your life and identity on your work and career, you will be a driven workaholic and a boring, shallow person. At worst you will lose family and friends and, if your career goes poorly, develop deep depression.

4. If you center your life and identity on money and possessions, you’ll be eaten up by worry or jealousy about money. You’ll be willing to do unethical things to maintain your lifestyle, which will eventually blow up your life.

5. If you center your life and identity on pleasure, gratification, and comfort, you will find yourself getting addicted to something. You will become chained to the “escape strategies” by which you avoid the hardness of life.

6. If you center your life and identity on relationships and approval, you will be constantly overly hurt by criticism and thus always losing friends. You will fear confronting others and therefore will be a useless friend.

7. If you center your life and identity on a “noble cause,” you will divide the world into “good” and “bad” and demonize your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose.

8. If you center your life and identity on religion and morality, you will, if you are living up to your moral standards, be proud, self-righteous, and cruel. If you don’t live up to your standards, your guilt will be utterly devastating.

 

OR you can put all of the man-made systems of righteousness aside and go with God’s plan…

C. But here’s the rub (the impossible challenge in one respect at least), God’s plan is the “righteousness of God.”

1. This teaching in God’s Word has multiple facets. It has the facet of God’s saving righteousness, esp. as we know it in St. Paul’s “righteousness of God (Rom 21f.),” but it is a concept that is also alongside of God’s justice. (Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Volume II, 195-197)

2. It had a very precise sense, however, when in a parallel to our Gospel in Luke 3 this morning – in Matthew 3 – Jesus said as he approached John the Baptist (who is practically beside himself and aghast at the idea that Jesus would come to him for baptism):

 

Matthew 3:15: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

D. At Jesus’ baptism Jesus is touching on that aspect of the “righteousness of God” that expresses itself in “the right conduct of man which follows the will of God and is pleasing to Him, for rectitude of life before God, for uprightness before His judgment. (Kittel, 198)”

1. In other words, “the righteousness of God” includes the idea of doing what is pleasing to God.

2. And at this juncture in which the righteousness of God might be isolated in accord with this biblical and legitimate definition, we find ourselves still in a mess.

3. All of the man-made systems of righteousness only lead to satanic confusion and sinful addictions, so we try to do the right thing and turn to God’s way…

4. That is, the effort to do what is pleasing to God; to live in the righteousness of God.

a. We try to think the right way, but our thoughts betray God’s righteousness.

b. We try to desire the right things, but our hearts are found to be corrupt in light of God’s righteousness.

c. We try to commit ourselves to right ways, but our sin keeps rearing its ugly head, and we fail in accord with the                                 standard of God’s righteousness.

d. God knows how His righteousness in our lives should be expressed: we should love Him with all of our hearts (with all that we desire); with all of our souls (with all that we commit to); and with all our minds (with all that we permit to characterize our thought-lives), but we fall-short. In sin, we love ourselves more than God…our own desires, our own commitments, and our own thought-lives betray God…for all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Ro 3:23).

 

Part 1: All of These Reasons Are Why Jesus’ Baptism Was Vital for Our Being Rescued from These Terrible Circumstances!

 

[The rest of this sermon explains the power of Christ’s baptism for us!]