The Baptism of Our Lord Service

The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Let us then confess our sins to God our Father.

Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.

We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by

what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment.

For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and

walk in your ways.

To the glory of your holy name, amen.

Almighty God in his mercy has given his Son to die for you and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins.

As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Psalm tone A.

Behold the Lord, the ruler has come.

I have found David my servant.

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever.

He shall cry to me, you are my father

and I will make him the firstborn.

My steadfast love I will keep for him forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now

and will be forever.

Amen.

Behold the Lord, the ruler has come.

I found David my servant.

In peace let us pray to the Lord.

For the peace from above and for our salvation, let us pray

to the Lord.

For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the Church of God,

and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.

For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and

praise, let us pray to the Lord.

Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.

This is the feast of victory for our

God.

Hallelujah.

The

Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, you proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed

him with the Holy Spirit.

Make all who are baptized in his name faithful in their calling as your children and inheritors with him

of everlasting life.

Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and

forever.

Amen.

You may be seated.

The Old Testament reading for the baptism of our Lord is taken from the book of Joshua chapter 3.

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from

Shittim and they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed

over.

At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, as soon as you see the Ark of the

Covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and

follow it.

The Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all of Israel, that they may know that as I

was with Moses so I will be with you.

And as for you, command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, when you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan you shall stand

still in the Jordan.

And when the souls of the feet of the priests bearing the Ark of the Lord and the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of

the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming down from above shall stand in

one heap.

So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant

before the people, and as soon as those bearing the Ark had come as far as the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing

the Ark were dipped in the brink of the water, now the Jordan overflows all of its banks throughout the time of its

harvest, the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam,

the city that is beside Zarethan, and the those flowing down toward the sea of the Ereba,

the salt sea, were completely cut off.

And the people passed over opposite Jericho, now the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood

firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground

until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

This is the Word of the Lord.

We'll speak the gradual together.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.

Blessed be his glorious name forever.

The epistle is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

For consider your calling, brothers, not many of you were wise according to

worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of knowable birth, but God chose

what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,

so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our

righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

This is the Word of the Lord.

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.

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.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

You may be

seated.

In

the

name

of

Jesus.

So

in

our

gospel

text,

you'll

note

there's

something

pretty amazing happening, and it, well, it defies

all the logic of those who would deny that God is doing anything in baptism.

Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and they've said, listen, baptism is the thing that you

do to show the world that you've asked Jesus into your heart?

Well, I would note that's not what Jesus is doing.

He's not showing the world that he's asked himself into his heart.

That's not what's going on there.

And then when you talk to some people that say, listen, baptism is merely a symbol.

God doesn't do anything in it.

We do it purely out of stark, naked obedience to the precepts and

commands of God.

And you sit there and go, huh, well, I know a fellow who received the Holy Spirit when he

was baptized.

Well, who would that be?

You know, Jesus, right?

You'll note there's so much going on here, and we'll also note this.

It is odd that Jesus is getting baptized.

It truly is, because John the Baptist's baptism was a baptism for sinners, a baptism for

sinners and repentance.

And did Jesus ever sin?

Not once.

Did he ever need to repent of anything that he had done wrong?

Not even one thing.

So what's going on there?

Well, more than meets the eye for sure.

And so I thought, just to be obstinate, because, you know, I like teaching lots of Bible, I thought maybe what we could do is

do a little bit of a study of Noah's Ark.

You'll note that throughout the Old Testament, there are notable water rescue stories, Noah's Ark

being one of them.

And then you have the crossing of the Red Sea, and then our Old Testament text that invokes the crossing

of the Red Sea from Joshua 3 today.

So much going on.

So by way of reminder, in the book of Genesis chapter 1, we are told

that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void.

If you know a little bit of Hebrew, then everybody talks about what's called the Tohu Vabohu, right?

And that's the formlessness, the void of God.

If you were to think when God created the heavens and the earth, he didn't start with everything being ordered.

In fact, there was chaos, and there was a deep, and there was a Tahom, and you had the Holy Spirit

brooding over, merikapheding, it's a bird verb, over the deep, of the waters

of the deep.

And then we hear, let there be light.

And so you'll note there's a big theme in Scripture, and that is that things start off in

chaos and then end in complete order.

God taking the chaos and getting rid of that and bringing order and reason and things to this.

This is why when you think about the book of Revelation, and it talks about before the throne of Christ, there is this

glassy sea, right?

That glassy sea is a, if you would, a symbol of the fact that Christ has conquered the

chaos, the Tohu Vabohu, and once and for all gotten rid of it.

And so when human beings fell into sin, it was a reversal of the

order that God had made, and a reintroduction of chaos.

I think we can all say about our lives that chaos seems to be a thing that it invades

with some frequency in our lives, right?

We call it drama, right?

And other people, they've had so much chaos and drama, they have PTSD, and other people, they've legitimately suffered

traumas as a result of the chaos in their life.

And this is all brought on by sin.

And so in Genesis chapter 6, it begins, it says, when man began to multiply in the face of the

land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.

This, by the way, is not talking about interracial marriage between angels and human beings.

It's talking about interreligious marriages.

People who believed in God abandoned marrying other people who believed in God, and instead

married people who were, well, very carnal and focused on the temporal things of this

world.

And so they took any wives they chose, and then says this, then Yahweh said, my spirit shall not abide in man

forever, for he is flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

In verse 5 then goes on to say, Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and

that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

I remember pointing this verse out to an emergent fellow decades ago who denied that man was born

with original sin.

I would say, well, it says right here that the intentions of man's and thoughts of man's heart were only

evil continually.

And there's a follow -up verse we'll get to at the end of our pericope that talks about that being from our youth.

Have you noticed that sin is a constant companion?

In fact, sin is a part of all of our earliest memories.

Whether it be your own sin, or your parents' sin, or the sin of a relative, sin is a constant

companion in our life.

And this is a sure sign that we are under the chaos, under the tohu vobohu.

And we need to experience, if you would, a regenesising.

Now, I know that word is not in the dictionary, and I appreciate the latitude that you give me in, like,

creating new words.

But regenesising is a good way to think about baptism.

And we'll talk about that as we go.

So it goes on to say that Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

So one of the things we know about the world before the flood is that one of the predominant sins

that, well, caused God to act in judgment was the

violence that was on the earth.

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt.

All flesh had corrupted their way on earth.

And God then said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence

through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you are to make it.

The length of the ark is 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.

Make a roof for the ark, finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side.

Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breadth of life under

heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

Now you'll note here that God didn't really bring a full

end to the creation.

This was a kind of a reboot, but it's a reboot with a system that still corrupted with a

virus of sin.

And so bringing humanity down to just a few souls, and God did not make an end of the

animals.

Instead, he tucked humanity and all of the animals inside of this tidy little ark.

And you'll note when you take a look at how the ark is depicted in artwork, it oftentimes looks like

one big coffin, which is not a bad way to depict the ark, if

you think about it.

It's not a bad way altogether.

And of course, it's got a door right there in the center of one of its sides.

And the church fathers, they recognized that this flood account is a type and

shadow of a judgment of God that is coming.

Not a judgment of God that was final, because you'll note that at the end of all of this,

there isn't a new heavens and a new earth.

There isn't a time where sin is not present with us.

It still is.

And so we are to learn from this, that God's intention in Christ in the waters of

baptism is to re -genesis us.

And we always say in the Creed that Christ is returning in glory to judge both the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

That kingdom will visibly arrive when Christ arrives, and on that day, God

will act in judgment.

But he will not destroy the earth with water on that day.

Instead, he will destroy the earth with fire.

And so you'll note this is a type and shadow of that, even though water and fire are very much opposites.

The point here is that if you want to be saved through water, then there's something going on here.

And Peter himself points this out in 1st Peter chapter 3.

Here's what it says in verse 18.

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the

unrighteous.

Let's make sure we understand who's who with the sentence.

You and I are the unrighteous.

Christ is the righteous one, and he's the one who suffered once for your sins.

So that he, Christ, might bring us to God, and being put to death in the flesh, but made

alive in the Spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not

obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah.

You'll note here, talking about proclaiming to the spirits in prison, this is Christ's descent into hell.

A lot of evangelicals are completely unaware of this, and so when they run into it in the Apostles' Creed, they sit there and go,

wait, what?

Christ descended into hell?

And then you got guys like Ken Copeland, who are aware that Christ descended into hell, and then

falsely teach that Christ went to hell in order to continue suffering for our sins, and that he was born again in hell,

and that's what caused him to be spring from the clink.

This is just nonsense.

Christ, it says here, went to proclaim, to preach, to basically preach his victory to the

spirits who were in prison, and that is in Sheol, because formerly they did not obey when God's

patience waited in the days of Noah.

Important for us to note here, God's patience continues to wait in the days of today,

in the days of Chris Rosebro, in the days of Dwayne Clevin, and Stephen Elliott, and

all of you.

In these days, God's patience still continues to wait while Christ's

return is being prepared.

You get the idea here?

So while formerly they did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared,

in which, in the ark, a few, that is only eight persons, were brought safely through

water.

And then Peter says these words, baptism, which is the anti -tupon, which is the anti

-type of the flood, think of types and shadows.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

Always cracks me up when somebody sits there and goes, you Lutherans, you believe that baptism saves?

It's like, well of course we do, it says it right here in 1st Peter chapter 3.

Baptism, nominative noun, now, noon, saves, sozo, who's it

save?

Y 'all, it saves you all, right?

It says it right here.

Well, it doesn't mean that.

What does it mean?

Well, it doesn't mean that he saves us through baptism, and it's like, where did you go to

seminary?

It's like, how does that sentence not mean what it says?

Baptism, which corresponds to this, which corresponds to the flood, now saves you.

Not as an appeal, removal of dirt from the body, by the way, that's called a bath, but as an appeal to God for a

good conscience through the resurrection of Christ.

And the reason why baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience is because in our baptisms we are

united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, and all of this is then connected to what?

His suffering, bleeding, and dying on the cross for your sins and mine.

Is it any wonder that Paul says that in our baptisms we are buried with Christ, who

bled and died for our sins?

Good stuff when you think about it here.

Coming back to Noah and the flood, God says that he's determined to make an end to all flesh, the earth is filled with

violence, and so he commands Noah to make an ark, but he says

to Noah, he then says, behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of

life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth will die, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall

come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, your sons' wives with you, and of every living thing

of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.

They shall be male and female, of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their

kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort

shall come to you to keep them alive, and also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and

store it up.

It shall serve as food for you and for them.

Noah did this, he did all that God had commanded him.

Sometimes think about the time when the emergent church was still a thing.

It's a little bit on my mind lately, but I remember emergent church leaders really taking issue with the fact that

Christian parents would dare, and I mean dare, to put artwork depicting the ark or

buy an ark toy set for their children.

You know, you got an ark and then you got Noah and his family, and then you got two lions and two elephants and two

ostriches and two of these things, and they think it's inappropriate because the ark is a symbol of

God's judgment, a symbol of God's wrath.

But is it?

Is it?

It's a symbol of God's salvation.

It's a symbol of Christ.

It is only a symbol of God's wrath if you are persisting in sin and unbelief.

I find it interesting that the emergent church hates the ark.

It kind of tells me that you don't see the cross in there, you don't see this connected to Christ.

Even the church fathers, the little door on the side of the ark, they saw that as a depiction of Christ's pierced

side when he was on the cross.

And so God himself tucks Noah and his family, and it's through the ark that we are still here

because we are all descendants of Noah and his family.

So Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.

Noah and his wife and his sons and wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of

the flood.

Of the clean animals and of the animals that are not clean and of the birds and of everything that creeps on the ground, two

and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah as God had commanded him.

And when it talks about everything that creeps on the ground, that's talking about the creepy crawly things, the bugs and the millipedes.

And I kind of wish the spiders hadn't made it, but oh well.

Yeah, alas, they did.

And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventh day of the month, on that day all the fountains

of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened, and the rain fell down upon

the earth forty days, forty nights.

Isn't it interesting that the children of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness?

You kind of get the idea.

There's something to this number.

On that very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them,

entered the ark.

They and every beast according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing

that creeps on the earth according to its kind, every bird according to its kind, every winged creature, they

all went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life.

And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and Yahweh

shut him in.

It was God himself who shut the door.

The flood continued for forty days on the earth.

The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.

The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters, and the waters

prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.

This is not a regional flood.

I want to make that very clear.

You know, when we talk about like the epic of Gilgamesh or something like that, you'll note that there are a lot of so -called biblical

scholars today who just sit there and go, well, you know, we don't really believe that the flood covered the

whole earth.

It's like, do you guys even watch the Discovery Channel?

And, you know, or any of the science channels?

Because I find it so fascinating that we have atheist scientists who are

interviewed about the earth and things that took place in the past, and they readily say there have been

notable extinction events in the history of our planet.

Right!

I can think of a pretty notable extinction event that took place called the flood, right?

And think of it this way, where do you think that all these fossils came from?

Just kind of work that out.

I mean, you deer hunters out here, have you ever struck a deer and killed it by

accident?

Thank God I haven't done that yet.

But, you know, I'll note that as the winter drags on that it's not uncommon to see dead deer in the ditch.

When spring comes, do the fossilize?

No!

The bald eagles and the other creatures come and eat up those carcasses, and then

what's left of them pretty much falls apart, right?

So how does one make a fossil?

You have to bury that animal at the moment of death, not just

underground, but there also has to be water present.

You'll note that water needs to be present in order to make fossils, because what happens in the fossilization process is you have the

minerals from the soil getting put into the carcass of the animal.

This is where this all takes place.

There has to be some kind of a medium for the transfer of these things.

And so I would note that we have great scientific evidence of an extinction event

that took place, and it's global, not just regional.

This took place on all of the earth.

Christ himself makes this clear.

But the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep.

All flesh died that moved on the earth.

Birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all of mankind,

everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died.

He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animal, creeping things and birds

of the heavens.

They were blotted out from the earth.

Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark, and the waters prevailed on the earth

for 150 days.

Important to note in saying that all human beings and all creatures died, whatever

humanity's progress was in technology up to that point came to an abrupt end.

All the cities of mankind were destroyed, every single one of them.

But then we hear these words, God remembered Noah.

Good thing.

That's an important thing.

Remember the prayer while Christ was on the cross that one of the thieves said to Jesus, Jesus remember me

when you come into your kingdom?

And Christ does remember us.

And it's important to note that not only does Christ remember us, he remembers us even if we were to perish

before his return.

Let's say something awful happened to you, and you were crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a ship, and that

ship sank, and you perished at sea, and your body becomes fish food for those

creatures in the Atlantic.

Do not worry, your body will be raised.

Christ will remember even you.

It's not like when Jesus returns in glory to just living in the dead, he's going to go, you know, there was this guy,

what was his name, Nate Gnarvich?

You know, and like he forgot him.

No, he remembers each and every one of us.

He knows us by names.

Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Noah's is as well.

And God, even when he acts in his wrath, he remembers his saints and those who are righteous by

faith.

So God remembered Noah.

He remembered all the beasts, all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind to blow over the earth,

and the waters subsided.

It's interesting to note the Hebrew word for wind is also the same word for spirit.

He caused a ruach to blow over the earth, and the water subsided.

The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed.

The rain from the heavens was restrained.

The waters receded from the earth continually.

At the end of a hundred and fifty days, the waters had abated.

In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, this doesn't sound like a legend, does it?

It sounds like a history, because it is.

The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, and the waters continued to abate until the tenth month.

And on the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven.

It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth, and then he sent forth a dove from him.

Note here, when Christ was baptized in our Gospel text,

the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove upon Christ and remained on him, and

the voice of the Father was heard saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

You'll note we can make a direct line with these data points.

From Genesis 1, where the Holy Spirit is merica -fetting, again, bird verb,

hovering over the deep of the waters.

Here we have another dove, and this dove is not going to be able to find a place to land for a

little bit.

And then we have the dove, the Holy Spirit, descending upon Christ in the waters of baptism.

All of this invokes the great promise that God is making a new heavens and a new earth.

And Christ Jesus himself is the firstborn of the new creation.

He's re -genesis -ed himself there in the waters of his baptism.

And it's important to note this, that we've already noted that it's kind of odd that Christ was baptized.

So what's the point of Christ's baptism?

Well, Christ himself makes it clear that in his baptism it's to fulfill all righteousness.

But there's, like I said, more than meets the eye going on here.

The other part of this is that Christ's baptism is the very first Christian baptism.

It makes sense when you start to think about it, because what does Peter say on the great day of Pentecost, after the

Holy Spirit descends upon the believers in tongues of fire, and they're able to proclaim the wonders of God in

human languages that they had not studied?

Peter delivers his great sermon, and at the end of that sermon it says that the people who were listening to him, they were cut to the

heart, and they cried out, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter responds, repent and be baptized, passive verb, in the name of

Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the

promises for you and for your children and all who are far off and all whom the Lord God will call to himself.

So that being the case, you'll note that Christians also receive the Holy Spirit in baptism.

Peter says so right there in Acts chapter 2.

And so we now must make this connection, that although it is absolutely

true of each and every one of us that we were also conceived and born in sin, just like Noah and his family,

just like all the descendants of Adam before them, that Christ in the waters of baptism has

done something amazing for us.

Paul describes it in Titus chapter 3 as this, when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

he saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but

dia, dia, through the washing of regeneration.

And there's an interesting word there in the Greek, regeneration, the word is polygonesis, and it's only used twice

in the New Testament.

The other time that it is used is in regard to Christ regenerating, regenesising

the world when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

And so we see then that God saved us through the washing of regeneration.

We truly have been regenerated in the waters of baptism, and our faith hangs on

to this reality because it is absolutely true.

And so here we begin to see a picture of the coming genesis that Christ is going

to do here on planet Earth.

It's in the types and shadows here in this chapter of genesis, but will be

fulfilled when Jesus returns.

At the end of the 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, he sent forth a raven, and then he

sent forth a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set her foot.

She returned to him and to the ark.

So there's the dove, merekapheting over the waters of the flood.

Great picture.

He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.

The dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf, a sign of

peace.

Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

In the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried

from the earth.

Can you believe that?

Noah's 601st birthday, that's when all of this took place.

Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.

In the second month, on the 27th day of the month, and the earth had dried up, and then God said to Noah, you go out from the

ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you, bring out with you every living thing that is with you,

of all flesh, birds and animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth and be

fruitful and multiply on the earth, a picture of what's coming in the new earth.

So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him, every beast, every creeping thing, every bird,

everything that moves on the earth went out by families from the ark.

And then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered

burnt offerings on the altar.

And when Yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma, Yahweh said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of

man, for the intention of man's heart is evil, even from his youth.

Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done, while the earth remains, seed

time and harvest cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

And so you'll note that God decides that he's going to lift the curse of the ground despite the fact that the intentions

of man's heart is only evil from his youth.

But I must remind you that although this is a

reboot of the creation, this is not the same as what Christ is going to do when he returns in glory.

When Jesus returns in glory, we will all come out of the ark, which is Christ, because when you were

baptized, you were tucked away inside of him.

And you inside of Christ will survive God's great wrath on the day of judgment, and he will raise

you from the dead.

And when we are finally able to enter into that new earth, the earth that Christ is

creating, the one that has no suffering, the one that has no death, the one that is

promised that God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes, not only will there not be a

curse of the ground, there will no longer be the curse of women burying children in great pain, there will no

longer be the curse of death, and there will never be a time when we have to attend a funeral

ever again.

And so when that happens, you'll note that God will never again curse any of us, for

then, because we are in Christ and raised from the dead, the intention of our hearts will only be

good even from our youth.

Oh, what a wonderful world that is to come.

And when you connect all of these dots, when you read the scripture with the other scriptures in mind,

then you can see that Christ's baptism is super important.

It gives us great hope.

And you'll note that Christ has numbered himself among sinners, although he is not one,

which foreshadows his going to the cross, so that he would bleed and die for your sins and mine, so that we

might live.

Oh, what great promises we have in Christ.

What great promises we have as a result of his baptism.

I remind you again what Peter says, Christ has suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so

that he might bring us to God, and indeed he has already done that.

And being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, he,

God, now continues to show his patience to us and to the world as we await the

glorious appearing of our great God and Savior and the true regenesising of the world.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all

things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father

before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God,

begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were

made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was

incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was

crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and

ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again with glory

to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the

Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the

prophets.

And I believe in one holy Christian apostolic church.

I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and

the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Let us pray for the whole Church of God, in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to their needs.

Heavenly Father, you revealed your Son in the wondrous epiphany in the Jordan, so also you have revealed your name

and blessing to us in holy baptism, declaring us your beloved heirs.

Grant that we may daily die to sin and rise to newness of life, living with joy as your baptized children.

Lord, in your mercy.

Amen.

Lord, we give you thanks for the gift of family.

Bless all parents, especially mothers, that they would joyfully acknowledge your gifts of spouse, children, and home.

Be near to the elderly, the widowed, and the orphaned.

Show forth your grace to them that they would not feel alone.

Lord, in your mercy.

Amen.

Lord of the nations, your eye is on all who fear you.

Grant humility and integrity to our rulers.

Kindle love of neighbor among our citizens.

Bring forth justice according to your will and word.

Lord, in your mercy.

Amen.

Give comfort and relief to those who are sick, depressed, tired, confused.

Or in any need.

Especially today, do we lift before you Elizabeth, Jeremy, Allen, Debbie, Paul, Carrie, Becky,

Jim, Steve, Christopher, Sheila, Ron, Melba, Bill, Michael, Cameron, Troy,

Jim, Chloe, Ellen, Brooks, Gary, Natalie, Deb, Taryn, Candy, Todd,

Bonnie, Brent, Roger, Kevin, Mark, Jeff, Joan, Sarah, Jessica, Josh,

Ryan, Tim, Lori, Mike, Shirley, and Carol.

We pray for Annie and Ethan, Sheila, David, Judy, Linda, Jean, Tom, Dawson, Jim,

Ellen, Pam, Chuck, Charmaine, Robin, Colin, Bill, Colleen, Heather, and Rich.

We also lift up before you Martha, Susan, Una, Dick, Wolfgang, Rosanna, the Lang family,

Danielle, Aubrey, Luke, Justin, Caroline, Jack, Steven, Robert, Hermano, Rich,

Luis, Tim, Cam, Cindy, Barbara, Gloria, Karen, Tara, Robert, Linda, Charita,

Robin, Luis, Patty, Jeff, Marco, Selena, Rachel, Mason, Erin, Ashley, Elizabeth, Sane,

Lou, Robin, Lauren, and Carrie.

We ask that you would watch all overall expectant mothers and their children and that they may have safe

delivery and be brought also to the life -giving waters of baptism.

Lord, in your mercy.

O Lord, in holy baptism, you have opened the heavens to your children.

Grant that all those baptized into your son would worthily receive the heavenly feast of his body and blood for their

salvation.

Lord, in your mercy.

Eternal God, you have made us your own people by baptism and granted us your Holy Spirit to confess Christ

in word and deed.

We remember with thanksgiving those who went before us, who passed the faith onto us, and who now rest in

Christ from all of their labors.

Since we have died with Christ through baptism, grant that we would be raised with him also.

Lord, in your mercy.

O merciful Lord, grant us confidence in the promises of holy baptism and trust that you will answer our

prayers when the last day comes.

Bring us into the joy of your everlasting light and life through the merits and

mercies of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and

forever.

Amen.

Y 'all may be seated.

And if I can have Nancy come up here, and then Carlos and MJ, they'll be online

here in a second.

We'll just need a minute to get everything set up.