Chaos and Darkness Undone by the Second Adam

The Baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according.

To St. Matthew, the third chapter. 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 open 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. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. I gotta confess, I way nerded out on this sermon. Really, really nerded out.

All of that being said, I'm going to try a slightly different style today.

If I can.

Sermons should be proclamational, but I'm going to do this a little more didactically. A little bit more like a Sunday school lesson because well, I nerded out. Note here, in our Old Testament text, you'll note that for the Old Testament text for the baptism of our Lord, which is like a big deal this is the season of epiphany right now, the big revealing of Christ.

The unmasking of the mystery the revealing of the mystery hidden for ages and so we have this great proclamation from God the Father who Jesus is, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. But you'll note that in the Old Testament text, there's a, well, a Genesis theme.

Thus says God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and the spirit to those who walk in it. There's a little bit of a theme here regarding Genesis.

And of course, the question always comes up, why on earth would Jesus the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, why would he submit himself to a sinner's baptism when he's not a sinner?

Creation, Chaos, and the Spirit Hovering over the Deep

Oh man, there's so much going on here. So with that, I'm going to do something I really don't normally do. I'm going to speak in tongues. We're going to go to Genesis 1, I'm going to speak in tongues, I'll translate, don't worry, I'm not going full Pentecostal on you, this is actually Hebrew.

But the Hebrew here, I'm going to keep it in front of me for a very specific reason. I want to keep referring back to it because the Hebrew is way better than the English. But the English is good, but the Hebrew is way better.

So the first three and a half verses of the Bible in Hebrew, and I apologize, I'm going to butcher this a little bit. It reads thus in Hebrew, It's kind of an important part there. Trust me on this one.

It's so good. It really is good. I'll unpack this for you. Trust me on this one. It has everything to do with this and it's just... So, English translation, good one is the ESV. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Notice it says heavens plural. The earth was, and here's where the Hebrew is helpful, the earth was tohu vabohu. Tohu, you could say chaos. I know that it might translate it without form or formless. But tohu is total chaos.

That's a good translation of tohu. And then the Hebrew word va means and. So tohu, va, chaos and bohu, void. Just a mess. A good way to think of it is kind of like this. Well, at one moment there were no moments.

There was no time and space. You've got to get this. There was no time and space and then, and this is a wrong way of talking about it, all of a sudden there was time and space. And I don't know how time works in eternity because that kind of doesn't make sense either.

So we don't really wrap our heads around it. So when we talk about the creation, we talk about God creating ex nihilo. Ex nihilo, out of nothing. One moment there was nothing and then the next moment there's everything.

But here's the problem. We know that from science that matter is neither created nor destroyed, at least once it's in place. So let me give you an analogy. So any of you into Legos? Okay. I know some of you are into Legos.

Now, if you ever get one of those really huge Lego kits, like the Millennium Falcon, which is a worthy Lego kit to have. I mean the ginormous one. Okay, you can open it up and look inside of it. Okay, you get the box and there's this beautiful picture of the finished Millennium Falcon on the cover and you open up the box and it's.

Tohu fabohu.

Some assembly required, the box says. This is a lie. It is not some. It is a lot of assembly required. So when, in the first sentence of the Bible, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, it's like a dump truck of matter came up and went, deep, deep, deep.

Okay, and you just got this. Okay, there's water there because there's a tahom, there's the deep and it's bleh. Okay, and so there's darkness, there's tohu fabohu, there's water and a deep. This is just a mess.

And so you kind of get the idea. Earth was formless, void, darkness was over the face of the tahom, and here we've got this interesting, interesting verb. So the spirit of God, the ruach elohim was, merakafet, was, well this is a bird verb.

Okay, hovering, fluttering. This is my bird impersonation. Fluttering over the bleh. Right, in the darkness. And then interesting words, and this is really fun. Va yomer elohim yehi or. God.

Said, be light.

Va yehi or, and there was light. Okay, and this is where it gets interesting. Now, I'm going to give you a cross reference on this. I'm going to have you follow along on the cross reference, but I want to kind of put this out there.

So God said, let there be light. There was light. And God saw. Va yar elohim eth ha or. God saw the light. Kitov. That it was good. Now, I'm going to pull a verse out of context, but don't worry, I'll prove my point.

Who's the light? Notice. I said who. Because, you know, remember that question that fellow asked Jesus. Jesus, Lord, good teacher, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus' first response into, why do you call me good?

No one's good except for God. When we look at the cross reference in this, and we'll see this in the Gospel of John chapter 1, and you can cross reference this further into like Revelation 21. Christ is the light.

Christ is the light. So we're going to note something here. Kind of foundational thought as I didactically teach this text, pulling out the themes from Genesis. Is that there's something going on in the baptism of Jesus that has.

Everything to do with this.

From Genesis 1. And I'll pull it out. So let me lay the foundation this way. So back all those years, thousands of years, God revealed that the first state of creation was darkness, formlessness, void, in a word, tohu, chaos.

And God the Holy Spirit brooded, hovered, hinting at the form of a dove over the face of the tohum, over the deep. Something was about to happen to that chaos, darkness, something unexpected, something beautiful, something amazing, something glorious.

God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was tov, good. The sun, the moon, the stars, by the way, had not been created, and they would not be created until the fourth day.

Here we see something interesting about creation. It begins in chaos, darkness. But by the time God is finished with creation on the sixth day of Friday, the tohu vabohu and the tohum are transformed into paradise earth, which is the world of the eternal Sabbath rest.

I'm going to kind of fill this theme out. So think of it this way. Each of the six days of creation end with these words, and there was evening and there was morning the first day. There was evening and there was morning the second day.

There was evening and there was morning on to the sixth day. But when we get to the Sabbath day in Genesis 2, it says this, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all of the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation. The chaos is gone, order, sanity, beauty, well master planned creation, organized, and it is now in place that God has done.

He's taken the tohu vabohu and just made it amazing. Best way to put it. But we all know how the story goes. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, who are also created by God, in chapter 3 rather than listening to the voice of God, they listen to the voice of the serpent, who is the adversary of God.

And paradise is lost. And yeah, I'm making reference to Chaucer here, because Chaucer was making reference to what happened. Paradise was lost. And the Sabbath rest of God's creation gave way to the punishment of toilsome sweat.

And slavery under the dominion of darkness. The forces of chaos are working then to undo, to break, to pervert, to destroy God's well-ordered creation. This is a major theme in Scripture. So then when we come to a cross-reference, and I would like you to turn with me on this one, take a look at the Gospel of John chapter 1.

And you'll note that there are some really interesting parallels in John chapter 1 to what we just read in Genesis chapter 1. In fact, many scholars have referred to John chapter 1 as the Genesis 1 of the New Testament.

And there's a good reason here. And you're going to note that in this text, you have these references back to Genesis 1, and who appears on the scene? John the Baptist. That all plays into this. It's all kind of squished together.

Here's what it says, "...in the beginning was the Word, and arke en ha-lagos.". Jesus is the Lagos. If you've ever heard that phrase, Lagos means the Word. "...in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.".

He was in the beginning with God. And in the beginning, that's the very, very first two words of the Bible. Bereshit. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about what?

The light. That all might believe through Him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.

He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And you'll note there in verse 9 chapter 1, it makes it very clear that Jesus is the light.

When God said,.

Yehior, be light,.

Vayahior, there was light, and the light was kitov, good. Jesus is the light. Now you'll note, everything here, it's like, it has connections back to Genesis. What's going on? So that's our foundational thought.

It's not complete. We'll fill it out with our Gospel text and see what we can find here. So our Gospel text in Matthew 3 begins with these words, 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 to fulfill all righteousness. So then he consented.

See, Jesus is the light of the world, the light that shines into the darkness of our world, the light that God in Genesis 1 said was good. And He's now suddenly appeared, and the place of His appearance, His epiphany, is the Jordan River, to submit Himself to the baptism of John the Baptist, who is the last of the Old Testament prophets and the first baptizing evangelist.

Jesus' actions on their face do not make sense. Why on earth has the sinless, spotless Lamb of God appeared to be baptized into a sinner's baptism? See, John the Baptist, he was born in the darkness and chaos of sin.

John is not the light. He's been bearing witness to the light. The true light has come into the world and is now standing before Him and presenting Himself to be baptized. John needed desperately to be baptized by Jesus, and he would have prevented Jesus from being baptized, but Jesus speaks, Let it be so for now, for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness.

The text continues, So 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, the Ruach Elohim, 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. I hear echoes of Genesis 1. And Vayar Elohim, God said, that the light is good. You can hear the echoes. So, just like in Genesis, the Holy Spirit of God appears in avian, bird form, brooding over the face of Jesus' baptismal waters, and descends and alights on the Son of God.

And the Father now speaks and says, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And God, at this point, is saying that My Son is very good. So Jesus shows up in the darkness, in the chaos of sin, and in the waters, God begins the work of the new creation.

And we see with Jesus' baptism that Jesus is the new Adam. That's really what's going on here. It's a very fascinating thing. 1 Corinthians, by the way, kind of bears this out. Chapter 15, it says, For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. So what does this mean then? So here you have this interesting picture. Jesus shows up in the darkness. That's what John says. He is the light.

He shows up in the darkness. John the Baptist has been bearing witness to the light, pointing people to the light so that people would believe in the light. The light shows up, and the first thing he does, he's baptized into a sinner's baptism in the world of darkness and chaos and sin.

And God says of the light, the light is good. Something's going on here. It's kind of big. Now, what does this mean then regarding our baptism? Why did Jesus do this? Well, this is where one of the church fathers helps us.

One of the church fathers who is known as the second Athanasius, a fellow who fought the Arian heresy quite valiantly, was a church father by the name of Hilary of Poitiers. And in one of his homilies on this text, he says this, It was not because Jesus had a need that he took a body and a name from our creation.

He had no need for baptism. Rather, through him, the cleansing act of baptism was sanctified to become the waters of our immersion, of our regeneration. You see, you'll note this, that John the Baptist, he's not the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

He's not. One who comes after me, he will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist is not the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. But in Jesus' baptism, here we see an amazing thing.

The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus. The Father declares Jesus to be his Son, in whom he is well pleased. And since then, Christ has completed his course in this life. He lived his life sinlessly, went to the cross as the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, that's your sin and mine.

And he suffered for our sins, listen to this, in the darkness on the sixth day. He bled and died for your sins and mine, and then on the seventh day of the week, Jesus rested in the tomb. Perfect Sabbath rest for Jesus.

Slept the whole day. I'd like to do that sometime. And then on the first day of a brand new week, Jesus rose victorious from the grave. He is the firstborn of the new creation. And here's the thing, he's sent forth, Jesus has sent forth his holy apostles, which are his emissaries, to proclaim this good news to us, who were born in darkness and the chaos, the tohu vabohu of sin.

And having heard the good news that God raised Jesus from the grave, has exalted him to the right hand of the Father, that he has sent the Holy Spirit, and that he is the one who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, knowing that we, all of us, are guilty of crucifying him, we are called now in the darkness to repent of our sins, and to be baptized.

So a good way to think of it is here, let me look in here, so there's James, the DeBoer clan is here, I see Brenda, and I see, oh yes, I see Deanna, all of you I've baptized. So a good way to think of our baptisms is this.

You guys remember, there was a little aquatic ceremony that we had up here, you all got your heads wet, it was very important. But a good way to think about it is this, is that before you were baptized, before you were baptized, you were under the dominion of darkness, you were still in your sins, and that when you came to the waters of baptism, you too, then, were adopted into the family of Christ.

Your sins were washed away, it's the new creation all over again, and there in the darkness of sin, in the tohu vobohu, the chaos of sin, the Holy Spirit comes to you, you are given the Holy Spirit, your sins are washed away, you're united with Christ in his death and resurrection, and now God the Father says of you, this is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.

That's what happened to you in your baptism. You see, Jesus' baptism is the first true Christian baptism. The appearance of the Holy Spirit makes that very clear. And this is exactly what Peter says on the day of Pentecost.

Remember, people were saying, brothers, what shall we do after the great sermon on Pentecost? And so they were cut to the heart in Acts 2, and Peter said to the rest, and they said, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said, repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises for you and for your children and all who are far off.

Galatians 4 puts it this way, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Now watch the baptismal language here. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. When did he do that? When you were baptized. And so because of this you are no longer a slave, but you are a son, you are a child, and if you are a son, then you are an heir through God.

Is it any wonder then that the Apostle Paul, dealing with the slander that was spoken about him in the Gospel message that he preached, by the way, you go out there and you let out, you talk to some people and say, listen, salvation is by grace, through faith, alone, apart from works.

And somebody, some yahoo is going to say this to you, so you're saying, we can just go out and just sin all we want. Oy, what is wrong with you? Do you not understand that sin is slavery, that sin is darkness, that sin is chaos?

That sin is demonic. Right? So note what Paul says in our Epistle text. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, we 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 Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Why? Because you are. You, brothers and sisters, you are the children already of the new creation. The eighth day has already arrived.

We're just waiting for the consummation of time. You are already declared to be a child of God with whom the Father is well pleased. You see, when you pull all the pieces together of Jesus' baptism, you realize there is a lot going on there.

A lot going on there that proclaims and exalts Jesus. Shows us who He really is. And then in our baptisms we recognize that we are connected to Him and we recognize then the old has passed, the new has come.

Is it any wonder that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, therefore if anyone is in Christ, baptismal language by the way, He is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And all of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So brothers and sisters, as we consider our Lord's baptism today, we recognize that His baptism means everything. And the fact that we have been baptized means everything. Is it any wonder that Peter says in his epistle that baptism now saves you?

So it's almost like Christmas in the middle of January. So, Merry Baptism of Our Lord Day. It's a good way to start Epiphany. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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