In Jesus Holy Name January 12, 2025
Luke 3:21-22
“Baptism is More Than Fire Insurance”
100 mile an hour winds …Burning homes. Burning business. Thousands of people fleeing Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena, parts of Malibu… we are told that thousands of homes and buildings have been destroyed by Wildfires ripping through neighborhoods. Every few hours another 30 thousand people are told to evacuate. Some neighborhoods only had one road in and out, hundreds of cars were abandoned as people fled with only their clothes on their backs. Many water hydrants ran out of water, people have lost everything, many without insurance. The heat they say is like the fires of Hell. How can one grasp the loss of thousands of acres, thousands homeless, overwhelming.
One owner posted a video from his home kitchen through the glass windows ou could see fire on all sides, no where to run as the flames licked up every living thing. Some how, he and his dog made it out. The fires are hot, ceaseless. No containment. Fear, loss, some will never recover.
The burning fires can only help you imagine the eternal fires of Hell if you are not connected to Jesus.
In our Sunday worship today it is exciting to experience the baptism of Tong Xiong into the eternal family of Jesus. Like many in who ran from their homes to the waters of the ocean to save their lives, Tong has left the depression of false gods and fled to the waters of baptism in Jesus. God has been working in his heart and we are privileged to see God at work in our congregation. Haven’t I always said that if a visitor comes it is because God is sending them to be under our spiritual care. Next month Tong will be returning to Thailand to work in a Lutheran orphanage with Christ in Mission.
Ever so often we receive a call from an individual or family that wants to have their children baptized. People are concerned about their child’s eternal destiny or they are responding to a request from Christian grandparents.
When the opportunity arrives we talk about the “why”…. in order to seek a greater understanding of the benefits and power that comes with a “baptism” event, but I often remind then that this is not “fire insurance”, but a moment when they bury the past and embrace a life committed to following Jesus. In the action of baptism God promises to work with the baptized, saving them from the eternal consequences of sin, death and the devil, and filling them with His Holy Spirit.
This past fall the movement “Unite Us” held numerous events on various college
campuses: Auburn, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida & South Carolina. Over 70,000 students attended these events at more than 400 Universities. This evangelistic movement was marked by worship, preaching the Word followed by commitments to Jesus and over 2000 baptisms.
One student, Kaden said: “I was in the biggest fraternity on campus and fully in the world.” “I loved it. I was about to be our pledge marshal and I was going to run for president. I was selling drugs. I was doing a lot of drugs. I was living in the world, doing what the world tells you to do.”
Kaden then shared with Jennie Allen, United US speaker, “You preached your message and it was on what it means to truly be a Christian. “I remember like wow. Sins have held me down for so long. I feel miserable. I have everything the world has to offer. Yet, I still feel awful. I still feel depressed and I’m anxious and I’m sad.” It was the Holy Spirit that changed his life and the lives of other students who were baptized. (Decision Magazine November 2024)
Baptism means burial. It means the burial of the old life and be beginning of the new. This is exactly why Kaden was baptized. This is exactly why Tong Xiong was baptized today, here at Redeemer. The old life he lived was dead the moment he was baptized. And His new life is refreshed when he committed to follow Jesus. Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 6:3-4 (read)
The 1st century writer Luke tells us that John was standing in the middle of the Jordan River baptizing people, calling them to repent of their broken commandments. Suddenly John sees his cousin standing in line waiting for His turn to be baptized. He was surprised. Luke tells us that Jesus was around thirty years old. This was the age when the priests of Israel could begin to be ordained.
John is asking people to step into the Jordan and be buried under the water. Why the Jordan River? The Jordan stands for the death of the old world and the new promises of God. Every one knew that it was at the Jordan that the ancient Israelites passed from the “death” in the wilderness to a new beginning in the promised land. (Joshua 3)
John called people to repent and be baptized. Baptism means burial. It means the burial of the old life and the beginning of the new. What about Jesus? What sin did Jesus have to be cleansed of? What sins did He need to confess? What in His life needed to be buried? The answer is nothing. (Jesus a Theography Leonard Sweet p.113)
Jesus had no transgressions which needed forgiving. He chooses to be baptized. It was a sign of His identity and mission. The words of the angel to Joseph will soon be fulfilled. “You shall name the child of Mary, Jesus, for He is conceived by the Holy Spirit, and He will save God’s people from their sins.”
To be baptized by John meant that you were being purified from your sins. You were being freed from your past broken commandments and you were starting all over again, you are returning to a right relationship with God.
But when Jesus, the perfect Son of God, came forward and asked to be baptized, John hesitated and expressed his reluctance to take Jesus down into the water. Jesus walks right into the river Jordan with John, not because He needed “forgiveness” but because it was God’s initiation into the final episode in His plan to defeat Satan.
John and every Jew who had gathered at the river to be baptized, knew this ancient history. When Jesus came, John knew He was the Messiah and he did not want to baptize Him, for John knew Jesus would be the One who remove from the eyes of God the broken commandments in people’s lives. Jesus was beginning His ministry by stepping into the shoes of every sinner. He was anticipating the cross. (from Jesus a Theography by Leonard Sweet p. 113)
With water dripping from His body, the heaven opened and the Spirit of God descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. Both John and Jesus heard the Voice of God from Heaven. “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” John saw the Son being baptized, the Spirit anointing and the Father speaking. John then said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
The battle for the promised redemption of humanity promised to Adam and Eve was about to explode in the wilderness temptations. The Holy Spirit was always within Jesus from the moment of His conception, now the Holy Spirit would empower Jesus for healing all who were under the power of the devil… destroying the devil’s power over people’s lives.
When Peter was in the home of Cornelius he said: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.. He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38)
God's perfect Son who was baptized for you, also accepted the betraying kiss of a disciple; He stood silent when lies were told about Him; declined to defend Himself when He was beaten, when He was spit upon, when He was crowned with thorns, and when a whip tore His back to ribbons. The same love which took Jesus into the sin-laden waters of the Jordan also kept Him upon the cross of Calvary.
You and I could not, have withstood the indignity, the suffering, the agony and pain, but He did. He suffered all this so your soul might be washed, completely and forever, of the broken commandments which stains it;, so your troubled conscience might be given a permanent peace. (Ibid Rev. Ken Klaas)
Knowing all this would come upon His Son, the Father rightly announced from heaven, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Knowing the sacrifice the Savior would make, John was inspired to call out: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).
At Bethlehem, God showed us His Son for the first time; at the Jordan, God blessed the holy commitment of the Christ; on Calvary, Jesus became the sacrificial atonement for our sins. And then, on the third day, at the empty tomb, a living Lord Jesus has shown His sacrifice is accepted and death itself has been defeated. Because of what Christ has done, all those who believe on Him
Recently my son Ryan said: “I’ve never seen anyone get so excited over a person being baptized than you and mom.” Well, there is a reason. When a person is baptized it is the work of God’s Holy Spirit. It is no different than the mystery of God’s Spirit creating the infant Jesus in the womb of Mary or John in the womb of Elizabeth.
Martin Luther’s definition to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed explains the work of the Holy Spirit, who first creates faith in a person’s heart and mind, then forgives sins, provides spiritual gifts and will raise each believer from the dead.
“I believe that I can not by my own reason of strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls and gathers… and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth….In this Christian church he daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.
On the Last day He will raise me and all the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.” (Romans 8:11
“The Christian life is life in the Spirit,” John Stott writes. “It would be impossible to be a Christian, let alone to live and grow as a Christian, without the ministry of the gracious Spirit of God. All we have and are as Christians we owe to him.” The Holy Spirit continues to be at work around the world, as numerous renewal movements verified by the recent College revivals. This is the mystery of the Gospel and the message of the Bible.
