The Baptism of Our Lord; Epiphany 1 “Into the Water with Jesus”
January 12, 2025 Luke 3:15-22
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Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

We are in the Epiphany season, the season of the church year between Christmas & Lent. It seems a bit odd that we so quickly jump between Jesus’ birth, to him being 12 yrs old, and all of a sudden he’s 30 yrs old & being baptized. But that’s all we’re told as Jesus grows up. It is world-changing thing that the 2nd person of the Trinity was born of Mary with human flesh & dwelt among us. But until today’s event at the River Jordan, we must be satisfied with the one general verse we heard last week: ‘and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.’ …for 30 yrs.

The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘manifestation’ or ‘shining forth.’ It’s the celebration that God’s Son =the Light of the World= has been revealed, to shine God’s mercy upon undeserving sinners, & on a creation -separated from God- by the disobedience that caused all of us to be unholy. The main event for Epiphany is the visit of the Magi; they were scholarly star-gazers, who saw that one-time unique moving-star, which God had put in the sky as a sign that the fulfillment of the ages had come: the long-promised successor of King David was born.

By searching God’s OT Spirit-filled Word, those Magi had been given the gift of faith; they traveled a long way to humbly bow before this particular King of the Jews. They were not of Jewish birth, but by the same Word & Spirit, they shared the Hebrew Faith; which went all the way back thru the prophets, thru David & Moses, & thru Abraham. The One True God had promised to use His chosen people, the Israelites, to bring the Savior into the world, & to redeem all mankind.

This was always God’s promise: whether Jew or Gentile, His mercy would extend to
all who feared & acknowledged Yahweh, and who shared the faith of Abraham, & lived by that faith. God’s Savior would be for all people; whoever would believe in God’s Messiah would be saved. That star was a temporary miracle; a sign to call the gentiles to the Savior.

Just as with the Israelites, so for the gentiles in the OT who believed God’s promise thru Abraham, the sign of God’s favor for the father & his household, was the command of ‘circumcision.’ This command carried with it God’s promise of being brought into His covenant people. Circumcision was the sign of the righteousness of faith in the coming Savior.
It was a peculiar sign as a reminder that thru Israel, the Messiah would come as a child, born of a woman, just as the Genesis-promise said. The world had been waiting 4,000 yrs.

And then it happened. And now at the Jordan River, to show that the Messiah had finally arrived, God institutes a new sign for those that belong to Him, who are brought under His covenant of favor; it’s a better sign for ALL to receive, both male & female: Baptism.
What has God commanded as the sign that YOU have been brought under His grace, & forgiveness, & salvation, & that you belong to His household? From now, until He comes again in glory on the Last Day, your sign of connection to the world’s Savior Jesus is Baptism.
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Before we look at Jesus’ Baptism, and what it means for us, let me summarize an event from Acts 8. (26-40)

A servant of the queen of Ethiopia had been up to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. He’s in his chariot, riding home, reading from the scroll of Isaiah, and he’s puzzling over something in chapter 53 = about God’s servant, the lamb that is silent before its shearers, whose life is taken away from him. The Holy Spirit sends Philip to run alongside and ask him if he understands what he is reading.
‘How can I,’ the man replies, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’ And beginning from that passage, Philip proclaimed Jesus to him. We don’t know all the things Philip included in his teaching; but we do know that as soon as that Ethiopian man saw some water, he said to Philip: ‘Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’

So, Philip preached Jesus to this dark-skinned Gentile from Africa in such a way that he immediately saw his need for God’s gifts thru Baptism. It’s not magic; but it’s a physical way for God to apply His invisible favor on a person. Jesus and Baptism; they go hand-in-hand. Thru Baptism is how Jesus gives Himself & His salvation to Ethiopians, to Jews, to Gentiles, and to you & me.
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Now let’s go back to Luke 3. There Jesus stands in the Jordan. John applies the water to this sinless man, and things begin to happen. The Holy Trinity is revealed to the world in a brand-new way. 1st, the heavens are opened; the Greek word says that the heavens are ‘ripped open’ above Jesus & John. 2nd, the Father’s voice speaks, claiming Jesus as His child: ‘You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.’
And, 3rd, down comes the Holy Spirit, like a feathery-mist, like a gentle dove, anointing Jesus as The Christ.
Matthew reports that John-the-Baptizer paused & pointed out that it should be the other way around: Jesus didn’t need John’s baptism, but John needed His. And that was true.

To Jesus, heaven was already open; He was already the beloved Son of God; & the Spirit was already resting upon Him from eternity. So, why the Baptism? Jesus tells John: ‘In order to fulfill all righteousness.’ ‘All’, which includes our righteousness. In this NT time, we all need this water-connected-promise with Jesus. Why? Well, this connection reminds us that, according to the Law of God, there is a horrible disconnect from God that needs to be fixed.

Those 3 things shown that day are 3 things standing against all sinners. #1: To us heaven was closed-up tight, going all the way back to the day when the entrance to the Garden of Eden was closed-up tight. #2: We are not children of God by our birth; whether we are Jew or Gentile. Scripture says that -from our conception- our soul & spirit & will are allied with God’s enemy = the devil. Every one of us comes into this world using that horrible chant: ‘it’s my life & my choice!’ But -by nature- we do not have life; only death.

The sign to prove to us that we are cut off from God is the sign of death. God is the God of life, not death. God is not the source of death; the wages of sin is death. God did not create death & He does not glory in death; death is the opposite of the Living God. There’s no more obvious sign that we are, by our nature, sinful & unclean. Young or old, death proves that we are sinful & separated from the God of life.

The 3rd thing standing against all people: The Holy Spirit of the Living God is absent from all who are cut off from God. For what is born of this fallen flesh is only flesh, says Jesus in John 3. Without being born-again of water & the Spirit, we remain condemned & children of the devil. Man -male & female- were created with that living Spirit-filled, holy relationship with God. But we cut that off with sin. We are dead to God.
This condition was not acceptable to the God of life; and so, The Son comes to rescue the lost, and to cleanse the spiritually unholy. He comes into our flesh to show us there is real hope for our bodies; and He comes into the Jordan River to show us there is real cleansing of our souls.
He comes to us so that we will understand that we don’t have the power to come to Him.

Jesus comes to make an exchange; theologians like to call this ‘the sweet swap.’ And where does this sweet-swap happen? In the water = with God’s name applied.

What does this mean? When you get into the water with Jesus, ‘grace’ happens = a miracle happens. In that water with Him, heaven is ripped open to you, and the Father says that you are His beloved child, with whom He is well please. In that water, the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to you. And again, this must be so; because Jesus did 2 things: He was Baptized to join with us; and then in Matt.28, He commands all people to be baptized in the Triune Name to be joined with Him, in His death & resurrection, says Rom.6

With Jesus in Baptism, there is a real physical application of God’s spiritual promise of His Savior. Because Baptism is how Jesus began His journey to Calvary, so our Baptism is the point where we meet Him: ‘he who had no sin – became sin for us’, so that -in Him- you may become the righteousness of God,’ as 2 Cor.5 says. The water poured over Him was a sign that He was the One chosen for that other Baptism at the cross; He called it the Baptism-of-suffering; it was the drinking of the cup of God’s wrath over the world’s sin. At the Jordan, the sweet-swap had begun.

This means that your Baptism has become a most precious thing; it is a pure, undeserved gift & working of the HSp upon you. It is your new birth into true life. That makes it, in fact, the greatest moment of your life. King Louis IX of France understood this. He said: ‘I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom. This [earthly] kingdom I shall lose at death, but the other will be my passport to an everlasting glory.’ This is the same Gospel message to us, which the Spirit calls us to believe; and trusting His promise, we are saved.

So, Luke 3, gives us a solid handle of courage to hold on to; no matter what is going on in our lives. It’s the picture of Jesus with John in the Jordan. It shows us that when God’s name flowed over us with the water, heaven became open, God owned you as His beloved child, and the Holy Spirit was applied to you with His gifts. That’s a moment we will hold on to, and crawl back to, over & over again. That despite our weaknesses, or our failures, God made a firm promise to us to be gracious to us.

At times, when we have turned away from living in this new life as holy children, and fall back again into living as children of this disobedient world, we might fear that God will wash His hands of us. But no = He will never cancel His promise. He calls us to return to His promise for cleansing forgiveness.

That means that door of heaven stays open for us; each day & every week, here in His church, He calls us to return, to come back home, to believe again in our adoption-rights as children of God. It IS possible for a person who has once believed to run away from God and never return. But the Spirit of God is always calling us to return, and to trust in the promise He made – to connect us with the Savior with water.

Going back to the man from Ethiopia, now we know what Philip must’ve explained to him so simply that day. As it says in Mark’s gospel: ‘Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.’ That’s the Gospel, in another nutshell. And so, at the first sign of water, the man was ready to stop everything, and take the plunge. He went into the water as a child born of fallen flesh, disconnected from God, and destined for the eternal grave.

But in the water was Jesus. So he came out of the water a reborn child of God; to live as a new creation, filled with the Spirit of God, and destined for eternal heaven.

That is the good news of the Gospel, which God’s faithful Church proclaims in all the world: Come; get into the water with Jesus. He who took all your sin & death to the cross will wash you with all the righteousness that belongs to Him. His gift is forgiveness; with life now & a life-future.

Remember the font and the water of God’s promise. For there you receive those 3 things shown in Luke 3: heaven torn open, the new birth as a child of God, and the Holy Spirit to work in you for right living now, and the life that will never end.
Amen