Bible Passage: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: January 9, 2022

Bulletin January 9, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

All the people were being baptized.  And well they should!  They had heard the preaching of the Baptist.  They had heard his call to repent.  They had heard him preach about the Coming One, the Lord.  They felt the sense of sin and shame.  They wanted forgiveness.

And here it was…being offered to them in John’s baptism!  We are told John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4)  For the penitent, John’s baptism offered, gave, and sealed forgiveness of sins.  And so the people were baptized.  The greedy and the discontent.  The short-tempered and the mean-spirited.  Those who coveted and those who stole.  Those who used bad language and those who lusted.  It was a constant stream of people who did not love God with heart, soul, strength and mind, and did not love their neighbor.  John’s baptism was exactly what these sinners needed!  They needed a bath…a bath of forgiveness.

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.  Jesus was baptized too?  Why?  What would be the point?  This was a baptism for sinners.  This was a baptism of repentance.  Why would the holy Jesus, who had no sin and no need to repent, submit to baptism?  Friends, if we will consider this carefully, we will see there are a number of reasons it is important that Jesus was Baptized Too.

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might be the Christ (v. 15).  The people were waiting for the “Christ.”  Christ means “anointed one.” The Hebrew word for “anointed one” is Messiah.  The people were waiting for the Messiah.  In the Old Testament, prophets, high priests, and kings were anointed with special oil to show they had been chosen by God for very special work.  The people at John’s time were waiting for the one who would wrap the offices of Prophet, High Priest, and King into the ultimate “Anointed One”!  The Anointed One who would do the work of prophet, high priest, and king and save sinners from death and damnation.  Now they are wondering if John might be the guy!

But notice how John defers and deflects.  Someone mightier than I is coming! (v. 16)  And then, one day, the Mightier One came.  Jesus came to him at the river Jordan to be baptized.  At first John protests baptizing Jesus!  He even suggests they ought to reverse roles; John says Jesus should baptize him.  John senses baptizing Jesus for forgiveness doesn’t seem to fit.  But there was another reason to do it.  Later on John would tell the story of the day he baptized Jesus, and this is what he would say:  I saw the Spirit descend like a dove from heaven and remain on him.  I myself did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” (John 1:32-34)

The baptizing of Jesus identified him as the Christ!  The coming down of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and landing on Jesus, and REMAINING on Jesus, marked Jesus as the Anointed One.  Some years later, Peter would be in the living room of a man named Cornelius, and he would say this in his sermon:  God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. (Acts 10:38)

And not only is this God’s demonstration that Jesus is the Anointed One, Jesus’ baptism shows his willingness to be the Messiah.  Notice, Jesus comes to John; he seeks John out.  He “goes toward” the work.  What a blessed thing to see in our Savior!  Often people try to separate themselves from “bad company.”  They don’t want to be seen with “bad people.”  They don’t want others to think that they are like “those kind of people.”  Look at Jesus!  He is willing to get close to, to identify with, every one of those sinners who came for baptism!  It is the same willingness we see in Jesus when he hangs on the cross as the substitute for every one of those sinners.

It makes us think of one of the “anointeds” in the Old Testament that foreshadowed Jesus.  I am thinking of the high priest.  The high priest served as representative of the people.  This was communicated in the clothes the high priest wore.  He had stones in a gold setting fastened on his shoulders.  Six stones on the right and six on the left.  On each of these stones was carved the name of one of the tribes of Israel.  The high priest also wore a breastplate over his chest that had twelve stones arranged on it.  And each stone had the name of one of the tribes.  The symbolism was clear:  the high priest carried the people on his heart and on his back as he did his work.  At his baptism, Jesus showed his willingness to carry you in his heart, and to “shoulder” your sins, as he did his work!

It was work Jesus would now do publicly in the power of the Holy Spirit.  In the moments after his baptism, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven:  “You are my Son, whom I love.  I am well-pleased with you.” (v. 22)  This a mysterious and profound thing that happens!  The God/Man Jesus is given the Holy Spirit.  This will be important!  Jesus had told John that he needed to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).  Jesus needs to live a holy life on behalf of a world of sinners.  No small feat!  At his baptism, the Holy Spirit, using the form of that animal that is a symbol of innocence, comes upon him, remains on him, to empower him to be the Innocent One for us all!  And the Father says approvingly from a crack in the heavens, “You are my son.  I am so pleased with you.”

Did you know the same thing happens to you in your baptism?  Now of course, at our baptism the Holy Spirit does not come upon us to empower us to be Savior.  That work was done by Jesus.  But in Holy Baptism the Holy Spirit, that blessed Dove, washes our sins away and gives us Jesus’ own innocence.  Not only that, but the Holy Dove remains with us, to empower us to live renewed lives, in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  You are not going it alone in this world!  The heavenly Dove remains with you!  And the heavens open, and – for the sake of the baptized, crucified, and risen Jesus –  you hear your Father’s voice, “You are my child.  I am so pleased with you!”

Amen.

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