“Baptized For Us”
Matthew 3:13-17

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
The Baptism of Our Lord—January 8, 2017

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

This morning we begin observing the season after Epiphany with The Baptism of Our Lord.  The Festival of Epiphany occurs every year in the church calendar on January 6th, which was this past Friday.  Epiphany marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas which began on December 25th, and Epiphany commemorates the final chapter of the Christmas story, the Wise Men from the East coming to worship and offer precious gifts to the Christ Child at Bethlehem. 

The word “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word meaning a revelation or an appearance.  Each year during the Epiphany season, in January and February, we remember events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth when he was revealed to be the Christ, the divine Son of God, beginning with the pilgrimage of the Wise Men, led by a star to Bethlehem.  Other Epiphany events are the miracles of our Lord, when he revealed his divine power; the Transfiguration, observed on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, when Jesus showed forth his heavenly glory; and, on the First Sunday after the Epiphany, The Baptism of Our Lord, which we are commemorating today, when God the Father proclaims: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

As we remember The Baptism of Our Lord this morning, we ask three questions:

Why was Jesus baptized? 

What does Jesus’ baptism mean for you? 

What does your own baptism mean?

Matthew reports that John the Baptist thought it all wrong that Jesus should even want to be baptized.  For John preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  You and I are sinners who need the spiritual cleansing of baptism. But, John understands that his cousin Jesus has no need to be baptized, for he has no sin of which to be cleansed, because he is the Messiah, the divine Son of God.  “John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ ‘Let it be so now,’ Jesus replied. ‘It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’”  Why was Jesus baptized?  He was “Baptized for Us,” “to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus’ baptism is a step on the road to Calvary.  For “the Lamb of God” who by his sacrifice “takes away the sin of the world” must be perfect, holy, blameless in every way, as Peter says of him, “a lamb without blemish or defect.”  That’s what Jesus means when he tells John, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” 

Though by his holiness he is exempt from the need for baptism, yet for our sakes he humbles himself, “to fulfill all righteousness,” and like a lowly sinner he is baptized by John.  And, like a lowly sinner, he hung on Calvary’s cross.  Enduring God’s punishment in your place, bearing “our sins in his body,” suffering for your salvation, dying for your life.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  What does Jesus’ baptism mean for you?  His baptism is part of being the perfect, holy, blameless sacrifice which God the Father was well-pleased to accept as payment for the sins of the world, including your sins.  God the Father was “well-pleased” with the sacrifice of his Son.  As Paul says in Romans, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement.”  What does Jesus’ baptism mean for you?  Jesus’ baptism is part of the perfect life he lived for your salvation.

“Go and make disciples of all nations,” Christ commanded, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  So, Baptism is not just a rite of passage, or a social custom, or an entrenched tradition.  It is truly HOLY Baptism, a Christian Sacrament, given to us by the Lord himself.

What does your own baptism mean?  Paul says in Romans, “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.”  Through baptism, God grants you the atoning merits of Christ’s life, death and resurrection.  Paul describes baptism in Titus as, “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”  Through baptism, God made you “born again,” as his child.  Peter says in Acts, “Be baptized, and wash away your sins. . . And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Through baptism, “the washing of rebirth,” God cleanses your soul, washes away your sins, and gives you his Holy Spirit to create and strengthen saving faith in your heart. 

To put it in one word, baptism is a means by which Jesus makes you his DISCIPLE.  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” 

In baptism, you enter a covenant with God.  Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? . . . And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  And in Romans, “We were therefore buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Why was Jesus baptized?  He was “Baptized for Us,” “to fulfill all righteousness.” 

What does Jesus’ baptism mean for you?  His baptism means YOUR salvation, for it was part of the perfect, holy, blameless life he lived for you, making him a worthy sacrifice to pay for your sins.

What does your own baptism mean?  Jesus says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. . .  You must be born again.”  Through this Sacrament, which Paul describes as “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” you are actually “born again” as a child of God, and made Jesus’ disciple.  As Paul says in Ephesians, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.”