Baptized Into the Son of God

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. Luke chapter 3 verses 15 through 22.

As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John the

Baptist whether he might be the Christ. John answered them all saying, I baptize you with water but he who is mightier than I is coming the strap of whose sandals

I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people but Herod the Tetrarch who had been reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife and for all the evil things that Herod had done added this to them all he locked up John in prison.

Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying the heavens were opened the

Holy Spirit descended on him in a bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven you are my beloved son with you

I am well pleased this is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus the baptism of Christ there's so much going on here it takes multiple sermons to kind of look at all of the different facets so we're going to start by considering a few things from the

Old Testament remembering that the Old Testament is type and shadow all the substance is pointing to Jesus and so if you remember in our study as we've been working our way through the book of Exodus in our

Sunday school we noted that when Moses was up on Mount Sinai gone for 40 days in the presence of God and God communicating to him all of the instructions on how to build the tabernacle all of the utensils in the are the altar the the lampstand there was also an interesting portion of Exodus where God gave

Moses recipes recipes for fascinating things like incense and another one of the recipes was a recipe for anointing oil and according to God anything anointed with this oil is made holy end of story that's quite an anointing oil if you think about it well fast forward a little bit into the book of 1st

Samuel and in 1st Samuel 16 we come to the account of the anointing of King David if you remember the story

Saul was not a good King he was a fellow who disobeyed the word of the Lord he did not have faith in fact he was somewhat crazed in his sin and oftentimes would try to pin

David to the wall with a spear which I think would not have worked out very well for David had he succeeded but all of that being said the

Lord ends up rejecting Saul as King and send Samuel the prophet to anoint

David as King keep this in mind in the Old Testament those who were anointed were either priests they were either prophets or they were either

Kings and a little bit of another note one who is anointed according to the

Hebrew the way the Hebrew language works they are considered a Messiah that's the word for an anointed one all that being said let's look at the account highlight some sentences along the way before we get back into our gospel 1st

Samuel 16 verse 1 Yahweh said to Samuel how long will you grieve over Saul since I've rejected him from being king over Israel fill your horn with oil and go

I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided for myself a king among his son's

I seem to remember that Jesus is a Bethlehemite you know

I'm just saying and so I see the sentence here I have provided for myself a king among his sons just makes me wonder if God the father's not sitting there going yeah let's kind of look all the way through Jesse to David all the way back to Christ because I'm pretty sure among sons of Jesse God himself has provided a king so you kind of see what's going on here so Samuel said well how can

I go if Saul hears of it he'll kill me and so Yahweh said take a heifer with you and say I've come to sacrifice to Yahweh invite

Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do and you shall anoint for me him whom

I declare to you him whom I declare to you

I seem to recall something about God declaring something about Jesus in our gospel text

I feel like I'm playing blues clues today I'm about to get ready to get on my thinking chair and put these all together but there's still some more clues for us to consider

Samuel did what Yahweh commanded came to Bethlehem the elders of the city came to meet him trembling and they said do you come peaceably and he said well peaceably

I have come to sacrifice Yahweh so consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice and he consecrated

Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice and when they came he looked on Eliab Eliab the firstborn of Jesse's son and here's a fascinating sentence in the

Greek not the Greek but the Hebrew surely the Lord's Messiah is before him that's how it reads in the

Hebrew surely the Lord's Messiah is before him interesting wordplay but Yahweh said to Samuel don't look on his appearance or the or the height of his stature because I've rejected him for the

Lord sees not as a man sees man looks on the outward appearance but Yahweh looks on the heart so then

Jesse called Abinadab made him pass before Samuel and he said well neither has the

Lord chosen this one and then Jesse made Shammah pass by and he said yeah neither has the

Lord chosen this one now consider this little parade if you would because this kind of comes into play as we look at our gospel text think of it this way we heard the voice of the father saying about Jesus and when he was baptized you are my beloved son in whom

I am well pleased the Lord declaring Jesus to be the beloved son of God it's almost as if God had this little parade that we see going on here with David's anointing and all of us were caused to come before the

Lord and the Lord said yeah no you know no and then pastor Chris went and oh no way next right and and it's like he's rejecting everybody and then he comes to Jesus and he says ah you you you are my beloved son in whom

I am well pleased that plays into all of this so Shama passed by so he's not one so Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel and Samuel said to Jesse you always not chosen these and then

Samuel said to Jesse are all your sons here and he said well there remains yet the youngest but behold he's keeping the sheep so Samuel said to Jesse send and get him we're not gonna sit down until he comes here so he said and he brought him in now he was ready had beautiful eyes and was handsome and Yahweh said rise anoint him for this is he then

Samuel took the horn of the oil and he anointed him in the midst of his brothers and listen to these words and the

Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward hmm this is almost like it's a one -to -one type and shadow of baptism there

David is anointed with this anointing oil which God says anything anointed with this is made holy and he was made holy he was anointed put into the office of king and guess what he received the

Holy Spirit and it remained on him the text says this sounds a lot like our gospel text a lot like it so let's turn then to our gospel text in Luke chapter 3 and here's what it says as the people were in expectation this is verse 15 and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John the

Baptist whether he might be the Christ or you Messiah John answered them all saying listen

I baptize you with water but he who is mightier than I is coming the strap of whose sandals

I am not worthy to untie he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor to gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire and now verse 21 now when all the people were baptized and when

Jesus also had been baptized and was praying the heavens were opened the Holy Spirit descended on him bodily like a dove and a voice came from heaven and said you are my beloved son with you

I am well pleased God looking across all of humanity and says there he is that's the one that's the one he's the one in whom

I am well pleased so take note take note Jesus has been declared by God revealed by God to be his beloved son with whom he is well pleased now another facet of this if you think about it is that we know practically nothing almost nothing minuscule amounts of information regarding Jesus's childhood we know that he was born in Bethlehem we know that he was to be named

Jesus or Joshua because he's to be the savior of the world we know that shepherds came and worshiped him we know that the

Magi came and worshiped him and then it gets really silent for a little while and then he pops back up at age 12 and he's in the temple having discussions with the teachers there in the temple and then he disappears again you'll note that Jesus doesn't begin his public ministry until he is placed into the office of Messiah kind of a fascinating thing there's order in the kingdom of God and so this even has implications and regarding the pastor you want people to be rightly called rightly ordained properly installed into the office even

Jesus himself didn't begin his public teaching ministry until he was placed in the office by the last and the greatest of the prophets

John the Baptist kind of a fascinating thing if you consider this but then listen then to John the

Baptist the day after he baptized Christ this is found in the Gospel of John chapter 1 starting at verse 29 so the next day the day after he baptized

Jesus he saw Jesus coming toward him and he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom

I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me

I myself did not know him but for this purpose I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel and so John bore witness

I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him

I myself I did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the

Spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the

Holy Spirit and I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the

Son of God and so John now knowing who the Messiah is having placed him into his office having baptizing him having heard the voice of the

Father having seen the Spirit descend and remain on Christ you'll notice that Jesus received the Holy Spirit in his baptism yeah kind of a fascinating thing if you think about it there are a lot of people today who say baptism is nothing it's just a symbol

God doesn't do anything in it and that nobody can receive the Holy Spirit in baptism that's weird

Jesus did David received the Holy Spirit in his anointing so consider that if you would because good theology good

Christian theology recognizes that when we are baptized we receive the Holy Spirit that's what scripture actually says now all of this is great regarding Jesus he's the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and this is truly good news for us and the reason why this is good news for us is because I don't know if you've noticed this about humanity humanity seems to be a mess somebody was talking to me about Minnesota politics you know and the list of bills that are coming up that things seem to be quite askew humanity is off the rails morally and don't think that this is out there no no no humanities off the rails and that begins with us scripture so clear we are all born dead and trespasses and sins we are all born under the dominion of darkness enslaved to sin death and the devil each and every one of us a cantankerous cranky sinful disobedient lawless bunch you see

God doesn't look at us and go oh you're my beloved son no God looks across a humanity looks at all of us and says you're children of the devil and you are just like him the liar and a deceiver and a murderer you are all just like your father the devil you sit there and go oh that's it doesn't make my self -esteem feel very good well it's not meant to the truth oftentimes hurts it's meant to hurt in order to make you feel sorry and recognize the depth and the magnitude of your sin so that you can repent and be forgiven so the baptism of Christ is very important in this sense and that is is that in a very real way the baptism of Christ is the very first Christian baptism because Jesus receives the

Holy Spirit in his baptism and scripture so clear that we receive the Holy Spirit in ours he's declared to be the son of God in his baptism and here's kind of the funny thing there's something similar different and yet similar that goes on in our baptism let me explain

Ephesians chapter 1 puts it this way and starting in verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us and listen to the words in Christ have you ever noticed as you're reading especially like through the epistles in the

New Testament like Ephesians or Colossians or first Corinthians or even first Thessalonians how over and again

Paul keeps referring to Christians as those who are in Christ in Christ what does he mean by in Christ actually has everything to do with baptism so we are blessed he's blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him there it is again in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and we should be blameless before him in love he predestined us and listen to the words for adoption into himself adoption you see when somebody is orphaned and they are adopted they are considered the son or the daughter of the man who adopts them so something going on here he's predestined us for adoption into himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved in him there it is again in him we have the redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight consider then what our epistle text says in Romans 6 what shall we say then are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound huh what by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it you see now here's the point 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 the

Father we too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his and so you'll note that one of the great themes of the

Old Testament is the theme of rescue through water one of the major themes we see that drawn out in the stories we see that drawn out it is the story of the flood and I love how the church fathers see the arc as a picture as a type and shadow of Christ himself one church father even going so far as a saying that coffin shaped arc had what had a wound in it and that was the door that you can get in there and they likened the door to the side of Christ which was pierced by the

Roman Centurion's sword and so how then were Noah and his family saved through this great water deluge that destroyed the old and brought forth the new well they were tucked in they were put into the dark by God Jesus is our arc and so when we are baptized we are baptized into him

Jesus being the arc and then through the waters of baptism our old sinful self is deluged and destroyed and the dominion of darkness is broken and the new comes forth the new creation comes forth that's the picture here that we see that Paul is drawing on then in Romans 6 if we have been united with him in a death like his we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his we know that our old self it was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing like the old world before the flood so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin so here's the similarity and the difference if you kind of put all the pieces together we've got all of our clues were ready to sit on our thinking chair and think think think think of it this way

Jesus goes into the waters of baptism sinless he's committed no sin and in the waters of baptism he receives the

Holy Spirit God declares him to be his beloved son in whom he is well please pay attention to that so then as Paul says when we were baptized we were then tucked into Christ we were united with him in his death in his resurrection and so we go in sinner dead in trespasses and sins but it is a washing of regeneration

Titus 3 says and so having been tucked into Christ then we come out of the waters of baptism and God says to you oh my beloved son my beloved daughter in whom

I am well pleased not because you are the son of God but because you are now adopted into the family

God is truly your father the dominion of darkness has been broken you are no longer a child of the devil so do not continue to live as such that's the great mystery of all of this is that Jesus is baptism is so much like ours but it's different in one sense he truly is the eternal son of God and now we are the forgiven and regenerated and renewed adopted children of God and now we can cry out to God ABBA father because he is our father because we are in Christ or as Peter says repent repent of your sins have true sorrow for the evil that you have done and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit and see we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptism and see the promises of this great mercy and grace and adoption and forgiveness that God truly becomes our father again and we are no longer children of the devil these promises that are for you and even for your little children and all who are far off and everyone whom the

Lord God calls to himself so this is a great gift and this is why we

Lutherans like to talk about the need to daily return to our baptism to daily recognize of just how woefully short we have fallen the glory of God and again trust in the great promises of our sinful nature being deluged in the blood of Christ that was mixed in the waters of our baptism that we call out like David called out

Lord do not take your Holy Spirit from me but restore unto me the joy of your salvation this is a returning to our baptism and the promises of this forgiveness and mercy it is for you it is for your children all who are far off everyone whom the

Lord God is calling to himself wow when you put all the clues together baptism isn't a small thing after all is it it's kind of a big thing so big that the promises are too huge to even open in one sermon in the name of Jesus amen if you would like to support the teaching ministry of kungsinger

Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to kungsinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is kungsinger

Lutheran Church 15950 470th