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THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORDJanuary 7, 2024Pastor Tom SteersChrist the Saviour Lutheran Church, TorontoDivine Service III – Pages 184-202Lutheran Service Book Hymn of Praise: 601 “All Who Believe and Are Baptized” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i97isfeih0 The Invocation Confession and Absolution Page 184-185 Opening Versicles P: This is the day which the Lord has made.C: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.P: From the rising of the sun to its setting.C: The name of the Lord is to be praised.P: Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.C: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.P: Make me to know Your ways, O Lord.C: Teach me Your paths.P: Sanctify us in Your truth.C: Your Word is truth.P: From the rising of the sun to its setting.C: The name of the Lord is to be praised.(All) Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Collect Prayer: 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 and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.Our Bible Readings –First Reading Genesis 1:1-5 Psalm 29 Epistle Reading Romans 6: 1-11 Gospel Reading Matthew 1:4-11THE NICENE CREED Page 191 HYMN OF THE DAY: 406 “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmDzL03cs_E THE SERMONBrothers and sisters, peace, grace and mercy be to you through God our Father, and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.It’s been a difficult few weeks as we’ve watched events unfold in the Middle East and Ukraine.A far lesser known but deeply tragic situation occurred in Nigeria during Christmas, when Muslim extremist groups attacked some 20 Christian communities.According to journalists more than 200 people, men, women, and children were killed Christmas Eve and Christmas day, many of them while attending Church services. In our time, Christians around the world continue to suffer for the faith, and evil does not take a holiday. One of the key beliefs of Islam, in fact, the key tenet, is the denial of Jesus Christ as the Saviour sent by God, the Messiah who is both true God and true man, and that Christ died on the cross for our sins, and rose for our justification.This morning in our Gospel passage from Mark we find a very important text –for we see Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, together in one scene, at the Baptism of Jesus.And this is important, because it shows us a key concept of the Christian faith, the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We see God as the one who is acting and sending the Holy Spirit down upon His only Som.In our Baptism it’s the same; God is the one who is acting through the Holy Spirit, and the means of grace: God’s Word, and the Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.Sacraments instituted, and commanded, by Christ Himself.There are some today, Martin Luther called them the ‘enthusiasts,’ later known as Anabaptists or simply Baptists, who say that Baptism is just a human act, where we ‘choose’ God.Jesus Himself disabused the disciples of that notion when He said in John 15:16: you didn’t choose me, I chose you.” It is God in human flesh, Christ, who came down to earth and lived the perfect life, who did the seeking and the choosing. As God’s children, we can only accept His free gift, or refuse it.But we see something that may strike us as unusual in today’s passage from Mark. We see Jesus being baptized by John.The Bible tells us that John’s was a Baptism of repentance for sins. It wasn’t the same kind of Baptism as that of the disciples of Jesus, or the later Christian Church.We learn of this in the Book of Acts, Chapter 19, when Paul is in Ephesus.Paul asked a group of men: “Into what then were you baptized?”They said, “Into John's baptism.” Paul replied, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Bible text tells us that, “when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them . . . . ”God, through the power of the Holy Spirit was the actor, in the name of Jesus Christ.But here in Mark we have Jesus repenting of sins in the Baptism of John and we could ask, “why.”The Bible tells us, and as Christians we believe, that Christ was without sin, the unblemished Lamb of God.Who is Jesus really repenting for?He’s repenting for us.It is hard for human beings to admit we have a problem – sin. Jesus, in His Baptism, identifies with us, with His beloved and broken humanity, and He takes our sins upon Himself.Why does he do that? So He could make payment for them on the cross. Humankind has a terrible problem. Our newspapers and televisions help remind us of that.At its core, humanity has a God problem.We like to think we’re largely OK, that our life may need some cleaning up around the edges, but that it’s relatively sound. Other religions, outside of Christianity say it’s possible to save ourselves by ‘good behaviour’ and following certain rituals. But here is Jesus acting as a repentant sinner in the waters of the Jordan River. And He is there out of love because we cannot get this repentance thing right. There’s always the Old Adam, within us, the sinful nature, regretting our penitent words even as we speak them. And so, Jesus must bear that for us too. The effect of our condition inherited from our first parents Adam and Eve so serious that God’s solution has to be pure, and complete. There is no part of our lives that doesn’t need Christ’s redemption.That is why He stands in the waters of repentance in our place, and why He bore that cross and suffered the crucifixion in our place on Good Friday.But there’s more to the story. The Jesus who stood on behalf of sinners, who descended and rose in the waters of His Baptism, has died and risen to new life with us as well. He has empowered our life with His goodness. In our Baptism He has given us what He won and paid for on the cross. The old Adam in us would taint even our best deeds – but Jesus has redeemed them all. Now, Christians stand before God as truly forgiven children, and when God looks at us, as believers, He sees not our sins but the perfection of His only Son, Jesus.And because Baptism is God’s way of bringing us salvation, infants and children need this Sacrament as well.The Apostle Peter told people on the Day of Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children . . . everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”The Devil can hurl his accusations at us, but they won’t stick. Evil can destroy our bodies through disease, or accident, or even terrorism, but we will not die eternally.The world can point to the sin which still clings to us, but they will miss the real solution which is at work in our lives. Yet, all this did not start with a ‘decision’ on my part or yours, or some act of our will . . . but started when water and God’s Word introduced us to the solution, when we were helpless sinners.That was the day Christ took hold of you to work His solution to our problems with His love, and purity. A work of redemption completed on the cross.A work of sanctification, of making us more like Him that’s in progress even today, and that the Apostle Paul told us Christ will finish on the day He returns again.As Christians we’ve been given a precious gift. The gift of Christ’s love and salvation.May that gift lighten the darkness of this world, and fill you with the peace and reassurance of our resurrected Saviour, and the hope of eternal life through Him. Amen. PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Post Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 CLOSING HYMN 398 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKTRkJqz-GE