Friday, January 19, 2018

"What Does Baptism Do?" Sermon: Matthew 3:13-17



“What Does Baptism Do?”
[Matthew 3:13-17]
January 14, 2018, Second Reformed Church
            This Sunday, we remember the baptism of our Lord.  Jesus is about thirty years old when He goes to John the Baptist at the Jordan and asks John to baptize Him.
            Just prior to Jesus ascending back to His throne at the Right Hand of the Father, we read, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:16-20, ESV).
            Why did Jesus instruct them – and all believers – to baptize and be baptized?  Does baptism do something?
            I wonder what answers we would hear if we went around the congregation.
            People have said, “We baptize our children because it’s kind of like we’re dedicating them to the Lord, like Samuel, so He will care for them.”
            “We baptize our children because it is a way to get the church to see them and teach them how to be moral – how to be good people – by the time we come back to church for them around their thirteenth birthday.”
            “We baptize our children because that’s how God saves them.”
            No.
            When I was in seminary, I took a class that had about ten of us in it:  eight Methodists, a Nazarene, and me.  And whenever anything debatable came up in class, the eight Methodists would sit back and watch the Nazarene and me debate.
            You may not know that Nazarene doctrine states that, in baptism, the infant receives salvation.
            So, when we were talking about what baptism does, the Nazarene guy argued that an infant that is baptized receives salvation and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and should he renounce Christ later in life, he would lose his salvation.
            I disagreed and said that salvation cannot be lost, so that is not what happens when an infant is baptized who later renounces Christ.
            So, he asked me what happens to an infant in baptism if he eventually renounces Christ.
            I gave him the wrong answer.  It was a funny answer – I said, he gets wet.  But that’s not the right answer.
            Baptism does one thing relative to the infant who never savingly believes in Jesus Alone, and it does two things relative to the infant who does savingly believe in Jesus Alone.
            In our Thursday night study this week, we saw Paul comfort the Thessalonians by saying if you believe the Gospel – Who Jesus is and what He did to accomplish salvation – you are one of the people given to Jesus for salvation, you are one of the elect, you are really and truly, forever the property of Jesus.
            So, what does baptism do?
            Let’s begin by asking what John the Baptist was doing.
            John the Baptist was baptizing repentant people for the forgiveness of their sins.
            Matthew tells us in the text just prior to the one we read this morning:
[John the Baptist said,]  “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11-12, ESV).
John says he baptizes those who come to him repenting of their sins.  John explains that just as water washes away dirt, the waters of baptism symbolize – they are a sign – that forgiveness – salvation – is only found through confession and repentance of your sins to God.
Baptism is a sign of the Gospel.  Baptism symbolizes that all humans are sinners and in need of forgiveness – of being made clean.  It symbolizes that forgiveness of our sins is not something we can do – we must go to Someone Else Who is sinless to have our sins washed away.  We must go to the One Savior that God has provided to repent of our sins – to ask for forgiveness and promise to turn around – to not commit those sins again – and that Savior – Who we know is Jesus – and He Alone – grants us forgiveness through His work, His Merit, His Authority, His death, and His resurrection.
This is what baptism does for every person who is baptized – even the person who never savingly believes – baptism puts the sign on them and before all those who witness it – that you cannot forgive your own sins – you cannot make yourself clean.  Someone Else has to cleanse you of your sins.  And no one who has received this sign can remove it.
In the TV show, “All in the Family,” Mike says to his father-in-law, Archie, that he renounced his baptism years ago, and Archie responds, “Try renouncing your bellybutton.”  In other words, Archie rightly says just as you cannot renounce your bellybutton, you cannot renounce the sign of baptism once it has been placed upon you.  All who have been baptized bear the sign of the need for a Savior.
But, you can bear the sign and not believe.  Being baptized does not cause you to believe in Jesus savingly.
Now, we turn back to this morning’s Scripture, as we notice that John the Baptist doesn’t think it is right for Jesus to be baptized by him:
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.  And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’.”
John’s baptism is a baptism for sinners who recognize that they are sinners and repent of their sin and want to be forgiven and know they need to look outside of themselves for forgiveness.
So, Jesus comes to His cousin, John, and asks John to baptize Him.  Jesus comes to John, who was filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb and jumped up and down in the womb in pure joy at recognizing Jesus, the Savior, in the womb of Mary.
This is John who exclaims and explains:
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.” I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God’” (John 1:29-34, ESV).
John certainly understood more after Jesus’ baptism, but he understood enough that when Jesus comes to him and asks him to baptize Him, John says, “You are the only One Who doesn’t need to be baptized – You have no sins to forgive – I need You to baptize me.”
How does Jesus respond?
“Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
What does that mean?
What is “righteousness”?
Righteousness is being morally perfect, sinless, having kept all of God’s Law.
How does being baptized by John help Jesus to be morally perfect, sinless, having kept all of God’s Law – remembering that Jesus is sinless, and baptism is only for sinners?
It may help to remember that we read earlier that Jesus said that we are to go out, preaching the Gospel, baptizing in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin explains that there are at least four things happening in Jesus’ baptism – in His fulfilling all righteousness:
First, in being baptized, Jesus fully obeys His Father.
We remember from our study of the Gospel of John that Jesus did not come to do His own will but the Will of the Father.  Jesus came to save the people the Father gave Him by obeying and submitting to everything the Father commands.
Jesus says, “but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. …” (John 14:31a-b, ESV).
Even to the end, Jesus prays, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39b, ESV).
Second, in being baptized, Jesus submits to God’s Law.
As we have already seen, Jesus says we are to be baptized.  Since Jesus has to be like us in every way – excepting sin – to be our Substitute, He also is baptized.
Third, in being baptized, Jesus consecrates and institutes baptism as a sacrament.
This we see in the Great Commission.
And fourth, in being baptized, Jesus makes baptism a seal of the believer’s salvation.
Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4, ESV).
And now we understand the two things that baptism does for the believer:  first, baptism is a sign on and to the believer that Jesus lived a righteous life and died to pay for our sins, and second, baptism is a seal of that salvation of and to the believer.
The Heidelberg Catechism explains what the sacraments are:
66. Q.  What are the sacraments?
A. The sacraments are holy, visible signs and seals.
They were instituted by God
so that by their use
he might the more fully declare and seal to us
the promise of the gospel.
And this is the promise:
that God graciously grants us
forgiveness of sins and everlasting life
because of the one sacrifice of Christ
When Martin Luther was feeling accosted by the devil with temptation, he would respond, “I have been baptized.  I am a Christian.” (https://yinkahdinay.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/luther-baptizatus-sum-i-am-baptized/)
In other words, I have been baptized – I bear the sign of the work of Christ that justifies and makes righteous all those who believe in Him.  And I am a Christian – and that baptism is a seal of my salvation because I am a believer in Jesus Christ Alone for salvation.
What does baptism do?
For everyone who is baptized, it is a sign of what Jesus did – that He lived a perfect life under God’s Law, died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, and physically rose from the dead, and ascended back to His throne.
And for the believer, baptism is that sign as well, but it is also a seal – a confirmation – an assurance – of that salvation.  So we can look back on our baptism and remember, as Paul says in Romans 6, that we who believe savingly in Jesus have been buried with Him through baptism and have now been raised to new life, which can never be lost or stolen away from us.
So let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the sacrament of baptism that Your Son instituted while He was on earth.  We thank You that baptism is a visual representation of the Gospel – it is a sign that says what Jesus did to save His people.  We thank You that it is also a seal of the Gospel – that all we who have believed savingly in Jesus can look back on our baptism and what it symbolizes and be assured of our eternal salvation through the work of You Son.  And we thank You for sending God the Holy Spirit that He would cause us to believe in Jesus Alone for salvation.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

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