Scripture: Luke 3:15-17; Luke 3:21-22; Romans 3:23; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; Micah 6:8 Series: 2022
Preached in the ‘Freedom’ series, this Baptism of the Lord sermon argues that we cannot understand baptism or redemption until we recover the biblical meaning of sin. Sin is not merely breaking ethical or sexual norms (a secularized, paganized notion) but missing the mark and a wrong direction away from God. Baptism is therefore not about making us good people but about being washed of original sin, incorporated into the body of Christ, and freed by grace from slavery to sin. Through three composite character stories (Joe, Frank, Noelle), the preacher shows that an encounter with the risen Christ transforms the inner life without necessarily changing outward circumstances. Grounded in Jesus’ own baptism in Luke 3, where the sinless Christ entered the waters for our sake, the sermon ends by inviting the congregation to remember their baptism, touch the water, and claim the freedom and sacred worth God gives.
Illustrations: dabbling-mandarin-chinese, baptism-easter-bunny, holier-than-thou, joe-encounter-changed-life, frank-porn-addiction, noelle-fifteen-hypocrites, jordan-river-water-bottles, theologian-christ-stood-with-sinners
Jan 9
The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.” Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 CEB
I’ve dabbled with learning Mandarin Chinese a little bit over the last year. And I heavily emphasize ‘dabbled.’ I can say the two words that I could say before I started learning: Nǐ hǎo and Xièxiè, hello and thank you. I vaguely have some understanding of a few pictograms. I can count a little bit, but I just dabble. One of the interesting things about getting into a language and non European language, inflected language and pictogram language is just, you have new ways of misunderstanding and not knowing what is going on. And then there’s this level of difference where you have languages like Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, which have the same alphabet, but the pictograms are pronounced completely different. In Mandarin, it is hanzi, in Japanese it is kanji. They just have similar pictures. For instance, chéng in Mandarin Chinese but makoto in Japanese for the same character. I was thinking about Japanese and Chinese concerning the issue of sin. it’s a word. It’s a phrase that has a kind of common understanding in contemporary America, especially in the contemporary south, but the sin often described in movies, TV shows, or with TV preachers, or online preachers, it’s not quite the sin of the Bible. If we don’t understand sin, we can’t understand baptism. If we look at the idea of sin and we see one thing, when God says it’s something different, we’ll not understand redemption. My friends, we’re continuing our series called freedom that pastor Matt ably began last week. Last week, we focused on the covenant prayer and the covenant God offered to us, that even in our brokenness, we can receive from God. We have the freedom to claim God. This week, we are continuing that search into what true freedom is. We are looking at the freedom from sin in Christ. We are free not to sin as well as we are free from sin through the waters of baptism. But again, what is sin? Hamartia in Greek and חטאה (hhatah) in Hebrew. First, it’s a term in archery for missing the mark. In some ways, in Hebrew, it’s a failure to do the good, to not perform a good deed when you are able to do it is an actual affront to God. In both biblical languages, iIt’s a directional term. Where are you going? Latin went ahead and screwed the pooch on this one, which is a technical linguistic term. The roman’s had a number of legal practices and sin fit into this line of thinking. If we look at our contemporary cultural understanding, sin is almost universally about ethical norms, usually something to do with either current laws on the books or sexual practices. Those are the ways we understand sin. Culturally, sin has become completely secularized. It’s not about God anymore. It’s about what you do or don’t do. There is no need for baptism and it’s an empty gesture. Sprinkling magical water with a wink and a nod. It is like the Easter bunny of Christian practices. The goal in life is to be a little less wrong. You’ll be good. And then at the end of your life, as long as you have more rights than wrong, you’ll be good. That’s fine. That’s not Christianity. It’s really just a distorted kind of paganism. You can’t make it on your own. I can’t make it on my, own. The heart of the gospel is not do a little more good than bad and you’ll be fine. It is for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And yet we’re glad that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not die, but have everlasting life. By grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. Baptism is not about making us good people. It is about washing us clean from the separations we have made from God. This is about washing us clean of original sin. It is about incorporating us into the life of the body of Christ. It is about being buried in Christ’s death and rising in Christ’s life. It is grace all the way down. We may sin after baptism, but you are free not to do it. Apart from grace, we are all slaves to sin. Apart from grace, we all missed the mark. Sure, there are good people outside of the Christian faith. God works in mysterious ways. God works in the hearts of all people, even those who have never heard the Christian witness, but to do a good deed does not make you righteous. To do a good deed does not make you free. Grace lets us freely seek what is good. Grace lets us freely want a life of holiness. Holiness is another word that has a lot of cultural baggage, especially in the south. We have this cute phrase, holier than thou, that we have distorted what is good by God. Who made turned holiness into something that is undesirable? “Oh, she’s a little bit holier than thou,” Holiness is not about a comparison, but a profound humility and acceptance of God’s grace. Holiness is not about what you do as much as who you are. Holiness is about a changed life. Here’s an example. So you’ve got a guy named Joe. He lives a normal life. He has a wife and kids. He thinks he is a good person. He tries to do a good job at work. He’s faithful, yet is unfulfilled. There’s a God shaped hole in his life He has some friends that he knows are not good for him, that bring them into bad places, and convince him to say mean things. And when he does things with them, his wife says, oh, boys will be boys. You know how the story goes. And then he had an encounter with the risen Christ, whether that be on a walk on a Sunday morning, with a beer and front yard and conversation about the theology, wherever it may have been. It may be have been a late night text message. He has an encounter with God and his life changes. His inner life changes. He doesn’t change jobs. He doesn’t leave his wife. In fact, he begins to love her more. He’s honest. He loved his children more. He’s more dutiful in his work because he’s doing it out of a love of God and a gratefulness for what God has done for him. And then, as well, he no longer desires those things he used to like. He no longer desires the late nights with his friends. He no longer desires the text messages to his wife from the bar where he’s unsure how much to share. That kind of life is just not interesting. It’s not fun. It’s not who he is in Christ. He is free from that. Or maybe it’s Frank. And just to be clear, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. So we have Frank, again, happily married, three kids, two grandkids. He goes to church. He sees himself as a good person. He loves watching football and thinks that he could coach UT better than any of the past coaches. Yet, he has a porn addiction. And he thinks it’s fine. He’s not proud, but he’s not harming anyone. His wife may even know and just let him have his fun. Then he has an encounter with the risen Christ. He realizes that he is loved and forgiven. He is met right where he is and God offers him something more. And in that the transformation and in that new direction, Frank doesn’t leave his job. Frank doesn’t leave his wife. He loves her more. He loves his kids more. He is grateful for every second of every day and sees it all as a gift. And he no longer seeks out those stimulations online. As well, he is able to humbly confess, not just to a spouse, but to new friends in Christ and ask them to pray for him and lift him up because he does not want that life. Or maybe it is Noelle, who is 15. She grew up in the church. She goes to youth from time to time. She goes to church from time to time. Sometimes she sits in the back or in the sunrise room. She looks around on Sunday morning and sees a bunch of hypocrites. People who say one thing with their words and do another thing with their actions. People who say they believe in God and think God loves them, but then they don’t love their neighbor, they don’t seek justice, they don’t walk humbly. She thinks she’s better off figuring everything out for herself. Then she goes off to college and finds out there among folks with similar circumstances and think they have it all figured out. Then she has an encounter with God. Instead of now suddenly thinking that everything in her family’s church was hunky-dory, she realizes that not only was it un-tasteful, it was sinful. And that she needs to speak up. And she is free to speak up because God offers her the grace to speak the truth, not knowing how it will be received. No matter what, she knows she is of sacred worth, no matter what they say. She is free. That freedom from sin is because of who Jesus is and what he did. We see this in the passage from Luke. Jesus received baptism. Jesus entered the waters that he did not need. Christ knew no sin, he had no need to be washed of sin, but he stood there and received that blessing for us. As a theologian wrote, He stood with all sinners when He awaited John’s baptism, the washing in the Jordan as sign and act of repentance. He did not hold Himself apart and aloof from this evil generation; rather He joined it. Not for his sake. For ours.
We offer the water Christ was baptized in. There is a little bit of the water of the Jordan in each of our baptisms and in each of those bottle we are giving you. Jordan River water is not magical. Baptism is not magical. It is holy. It is set apart. It is sanctified because Christ entered it, received it, and gave it to us. Christ gave us freedom.
We offer this freedom through the waters of baptism. We offer the waters of baptism to all who seek Christ. We offer it to children, to youth, to adults, to the elderly. We offer it once. You cannot be re-baptized because God does not make mistakes.
You may have been baptized in a church you no longer attend or you may not even believe what they say, but God does not make a mistake. You are not a mistake. You are free.
We are free. True Christian freedom is about us. It’s not about me. It could never be about me. It could only be about us. There is no Christian as an individual. There’s only the body of Christ.
Today, I want you to remember your baptism. If you have not been baptized, I would love to talk to you about it. Moreover, if your children have no been baptized, I’d love to talk to you about it.
I want you to take a moment, touch the water, touch your forehead. Say the prayer. “May I remember my baptism and be thankful.” Remember that you are loved. Remember that you are free. Remember that you don’t have to sin. Remember all that you can give. Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, thank you for the freedom of baptism that lets us thrive in ways we could have never imagined. Help us to accept the freedom God has given us to love our neighbors, to love ourselves. In the name of the Father in the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.