Water + Spirit = Creation

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.

John’s Baptism of Repentance in the Jordan

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter 1, verses 4 -11. And so John came baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sin.

They were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message. After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased. In the name of Jesus. All right, if you blink, you're going to miss it. Just like some of the small towns that you drive through on our country roads, if you blink, you'll miss them.

In fact, I love the fact that there are certain towns that the only way you would actually know they're there is because the speed limit drops from somewhere in the 60s down to 45 and you're thinking, I had to slow down for that building?

And then you look at the population sign on there and it's not even triple digits. These are tiny little towns. And of course the saying goes, if you blink, you'll miss it. So that same metaphor kind of applies today.

And you've got to understand the Gospel of Mark. Mark is a gospel of action. It is moving. And in fact, over and again you're reading the Gospel of Mark and immediately and immediately and immediately and immediately.

And the church tradition tells us that this gospel is the gospel that is the preaching notes of the Apostle Peter. So as a fisherman, he got right to the point, got down and got to it. And this is not a big scholarly tome.

I've got to tell you what Jesus did. And man, this boom, boom, bang, right? So it gives us a little bit of a challenge because there's huge theology in this tiny little text, and you have to unpack it.

If you blink, you're going to miss it. So let's take a look at some of the landmarks in this very brief text and see if we can see some of the important buildings. Here's what it says. So John came baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The whole Judean countryside. This was not a couple of people. It was a lot of people. Whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sins. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Now we're talking about hundreds of thousands of sinners. That's probably the number we're looking at. Hundreds of thousands of people coming out to John the Baptist. This is a big deal. Coming to the Jordan, and the tone there is serious.

It's somber. You can hear the words, kind of the first century Jewish equivalent of, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess to you all my sins and iniquities, which is being heard on the lips of those who are waiting to be washed in the Jordan.

And so think of it this way. We don't like to drink water from rivers that are polluted. Not a good thing. You think about what is that sludge coming down the river? What's that coming from? Well, think of the Jordan like that today.

The waters of the Jordan River, they're not being filled with mud and body odor, although I think there's probably body odor being washed away there. I know plenty of the women at that time were thinking, thank God my husband got baptized.

But, yeah, if only for that brief moment. So body odor is going away, but here's the real thing. What's getting gooey into the Jordan River is the stench and the filth of sins being washed away. Think of it in that way.

And so with that in mind, keep this in mind. This is no place for anyone who is righteous, which is why the Pharisees, who were self-deceived into believing that they were righteous before God because of their law-keeping, that's why they refused to be baptized by John the Baptist.

They didn't think they needed. Well, we've already committed ourselves to obeying God. Why do I need to go and be baptized in the Jordan River and have my sins washed away and be united with the likes of those people and that rabble or that prostitute or that tax collector?

No way!

Right?

But the text now begins to prepare us for one of the most unexpected turn of events, the thing that no one saw coming, not even John. Here's what it says. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist.

He ate locust and wild honey. We talked about this during Advent. This was his message. After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I baptize with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So now we're starting to turn. The holy, righteous, promised Messiah is coming, John is telling us. And sinful John, yeah, John is a sinner.

He knows that he's not even worthy to stoop down and untie Jesus' shoelaces. But you see, the anticipation of Jesus' arrival, the build-up for Jesus' coming, that was back in Advent. We're now in Epiphany, which means Jesus is being manifested.

Jesus’ Baptism and the Great Exchange

And so our text continues. And at that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. That is a bombshell of a sentence because how many sins has Jesus committed?

None.

What's John the Baptist's baptism for? Repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What does Jesus need to repent of? What does he need to be forgiven of? Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus is not deceived into believing he's self-righteous.

He actually is.

So there he is in a sinner's baptism? What's going on here, right? So Jesus does the unthinkable. He wades out into the sin-filled waters, and he's baptized. And that's what our text says. So our text says, at that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, was baptized by John in the Jordan, and as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven and said, You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased. There's so much going on here. So he does the unthinkable. He wades out into the muck, sin-filled waters of the Jordan, the holy and righteous Lamb of God.

And in these sin-filled waters, he's baptized as if he were a sinner. But he's not a sinner. So what's going on? Why is Jesus doing this? I like what Norman Nagel, the great theologian from Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, said many years ago in a sermon.

He said this, It is most certainly true that where sin was is where Jesus was. Think about it. God, Jesus, in human flesh, He's where sin is. But why did He draw near to sin? Well, He came to join us in our sin so that He could bear it, so that He could fulfill all righteousness.

He came and comes to sin and to sinners so that He could and can make righteous ours. Righteousness ours. He wants to make us righteousness. In exchange for our sewer of sin, Jesus gives us the fountain of life.

This means that where His righteousness is is where we are. His righteousness is as surely ours as our sins are surely His. We are righteous with His righteousness, and in that, God has His delight. Now, what Norman Nagel was picking up on when he preached that sermon is what exactly is said in 2 Corinthians 5.

Listen to these words. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, those are big words. If you are in Christ, He is a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. All of this is from God. Who is it from? It's from God.

Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them, and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God Himself were making His appeal through us. So we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

So already we begin to see in Jesus' baptism that workings of that great exchange, the holy, righteous, sinless One identifies Himself with sinners. Because why? He's taken our sins upon Him. So even now in His baptism, the sinless One is baptized in a sinner's baptism, but here's the thing.

Jesus, in His baptism, He joins us in our sin, but when we were baptized, we were joined with Christ in His righteousness. You see how that works? Think of two different baptisms. Jesus is baptized in a sinner's baptism.

We're baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is identified with our sin. We, in our baptisms, are made righteous in Christ. So there's kind of a parallel thing going on. One going one direction and the other going the other.

Jesus becomes the sinner on the cross, and God punishes the whole sins of the world in Christ. That's the important thing. So, when we were baptized, we're joined with Christ in His righteousness, we were joined with His death, and we were joined in His resurrection.

This is why Paul, in our epistle text, or actually in the text that I just quoted from 2 Corinthians 5, says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. And you'll notice something here, by way of contrast, that our Old Testament text, it seems like it has nothing to do with baptism, but it has everything to do with baptism.

It says in our Old Testament text, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And it says that the Spirit was brooding over the waters. There's that avian verb in the Hebrew. And keep in mind, where the Spirit and the water are together, in Scripture there's creation.

Where Spirit and water appear together, there's creation. So at the very beginning of the creation of our world, there the Spirit is brooding over the waters, and then God says, let there be light, and there was light.

So this is creation talk. So let me read it. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was form and void. Darkness was over the face of the home, over the deep, and the Spirit of God was brooding over the face of the waters.

God said, let there be light, and there was light, and there's creation. When Noah released the dove to see if the waters of the flood had subsided, the dove hovered, brooded over the waters of the flood, representing the beginning of a new creation, so to speak.

And when Jesus is baptized, notice this, the Spirit again appears with water, and this should clue us into the fact that creation is happening. Jesus is called the second Adam, the firstborn of a new creation.

And when you were baptized, it may have been in this font, when you were baptized, the Spirit was also present, and you were born anew, born from above, born again by water and the Word, and you were buried into Christ's death and resurrection.

Your sins were washed away, and because you are now in Christ, you are a new creation. And the reality of the fact is this is not some symbol, this is a reality that changes everything. We are a new creation.

We have been baptized, we have been washed, we have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection. All of this by water and the Spirit combined together, and the promises of God and His promises are true and certain, which then is why Paul in our epistle text this morning asks this important question.

Since we have been forgiven by what Christ has done, our sins not held against us, does this mean that we should go on sinning so that grace may increase?

What a silly question.

What a ridiculous question that is. And here's what he says, and notice how he talks about baptism. By no means we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?

You think, when did I die to sin?

Well, listen to what Paul says. Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.

Listen to that.

Paul's not talking about baptism as something in the past, in the rearview mirror, that happened way back when and that has no implications on your life today. He's talking about your baptism as if it has some super real impact and as if it's some super kryptonite against super sin.

This is the way he's talking. If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in the resurrection, for we know, listen to this, our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin may be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

How many of you still have your baptismal certificate sitting somewhere in a dusty room or maybe in a lockbox somewhere? I don't know if people keep them in a lockbox. But I want you to think of it this way.

This text makes it very clear that your baptismal certificate is in fact a death certificate. You've died with Christ. That's what this is saying. Now we're just waiting for your body to catch up. You've already been buried with Christ.

You've been raised with Him. And because you have died with Christ in the waters of your baptism, sin no longer has mastery and dominion over you. This is what the text says. So we keep reading. If we've died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, for we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again.

Death no longer has mastery over Him. So the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.

In other words, Christ joined Himself to sinners in His baptism to fulfill all righteousness. You were joined to the Righteous One by the Spirit in the waters of your baptism, and have now been born into the new creation.

Your sin, your guilt, your bondage to the devil has all been broken by the Spirit's working through the waters of your baptism. You are now dead to sin, and you are alive to God in Christ. So you don't have to obey sin.

You don't have to. You can tell it to go take a hike. So when the devil comes knocking on your door and invites you to come and play in his playground of sin, can you come out and play? Yeah? What a sick puppy that guy is, right?

He's got an entire playground of sin, all kinds of wonderful rides, and it's all slavery. So when the devil comes knocking on your door, tell him that you're no longer his slave. You tell the devil, I'm not your slave anymore.

I have died with Christ. In other words, you inform that old devil, I'm baptized. It's the same thing as when, you know, a guy in the office who's married, and there's some lady in the office who's making advances at him, and he just simply says to that lady, you see that right there?

I'm married. Be gone. Right?

When the devil shows up trying to seduce you, you say to him, I'm baptized.

Go away.

I don't have to listen to you anymore. Good way to think about it. No, not you were baptized, I am. I am baptized. All of this water stuff is important. Now, I'm going to end my sermon off with the words of the great hymn, with a great hymn of baptismal defiance.

In fact, we're going to be singing this as our closing hymn today, and I want you to become familiar with its words. But I want you to notice the thread of defiance against the devil in these lyrics. Because when we look at what's going on in baptism, there's so many great promises associated with it.

And these are for you, for your comfort, for your strengthening, to give you a foothold against the devil and everything that he would throw at you, including the doubt of your salvation, including his temptation to sin.

Baptism is this powerful weapon that God has given us against the devil. So listen to these words of this hymn that we will sing later. God's own child, I gladly say it, I am baptized into Christ. He, because I could not pay it, gave my full redemption price.

Do I need earth's treasures many? No, I have one worth more than any that brought me salvation free, lasting to eternity. Sin disturbed my soul no longer. I am baptized into Christ. I have comfort even stronger, Jesus' cleansing sacrifice.

Should a guilty conscience seize me since my baptism did release me in a dear forgiving flood, sprinkling me with Jesus' blood. Satan, hear this proclamation. I am baptized into Christ. Drop your ugly accusation.

I am not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I've traveled, all your might, devil, has come unraveled. And against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me. Think about that for a second. All too often, we do not think of Satan's deceptions and everything that he's up to as tyranny, and that's exactly what it is.

Sin is not freedom, it is slavery. And it's slavery to the ultimate tyrant that has ever existed. He does not entice you with sin in order to be your buddy or your best friend. He entices you with sin in order to be the tyrant lord over you and to drag you into hell.

And Christ, in his mercy, has given us forgiveness of sins and the sure and certain word regarding what he did to us in our baptism to use against the devil's tyranny. We continue. Death. You cannot end my gladness.

I'm baptized into Christ. When I die, I leave all sadness to inherit paradise. Though I lie in dust and ashes, faith's assurance brightly flashes. Baptism has the strength divine to make life immortal mine.

There is nothing worth comparing to this lifelong comfort shore. Open-eyed, my grave is staring. Even there, I'll sleep secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising. I am baptized into Christ.

I am a child of paradise. And when you sing those words and you hear that first person, I am baptized into Christ. I am a child of paradise. That's you speaking. You are proclaiming this defiance. You are proclaiming this promise.

You are proclaiming these things to be true and true for you because Christ has given you penitent faith to believe such great promises done in such humble waters. So in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus unites with us.

In the waters of our baptism, we are united to him. What great news this is. What comforting assurance that we have. What a great weapon to use against the devil. And we thank and praise God for such amazing gifts and such humble packages.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Baptismal Defiance Against Satan and the Gift of New Creation

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