Epiphany IV B [Mark 1:21-28] (28-Jan-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and form our Lord Jesus Christ.

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Last week, we read about a specific message and a particular word that Jesus was preaching, where he said: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Today we read: They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath [Jesus] entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

In our reading today, we don’t read about what Jesus was saying. The text simply says that he was teaching. But we do read the kind of effect that it had on people, and why it had this effect. We read: They were astonished at his teaching. But why were they astonished? We read: for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. Jesus was teaching not with simply human authority, like the scribes that the people were so used to. It is one thing to be a scribe, and to check and double-check words and grammar—this is a good thing. But it is another thing to teach. When Jesus teaches, he is not simply teaching empty words, or rhetoric. He is not saying a beautiful or a clever or a funny way of putting things. He is not showing off his ability to communicate, or his skills in giving a speech. This is all human authority. But Jesus’ teaching has authority, because he is not only a human being, but he is also true God at the same time, in one person. And so Jesus’ teaching is crystal clear, it is completely and totally true, and there are no half-truths. Sometimes people say things in a clever way so as to say two opposite things at the same time, and they end up saying nothing. In actual fact, they just want to say something to keep people happy, and to be politically correct, or to be diplomatic. But this is not how Jesus speaks: every word that he teaches is God’s word. Proverbs 30 says: Every word of God proves true. Jesus prays to his Father: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. He also says that the Scripture cannot be broken. St Paul also writes to Titus that God never lies. And because of this, we read in Hebrews that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And so when Jesus teaches, the people are astonished, they recognise the divine authority of Jesus, they recognise that there is something different about what he says that no one else has said to them before. They recognise that no-one has called them to repentance in the sharp, clear way that he has, and no-one has comforted them with the divine comfort of heaven in the way that he has.

But then, in the middle of Jesus’ teaching, something very strange happens. We read: Immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”

First of all here, we are told that there was a man with an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit is another name for a demon, or sometimes it is called an evil spirit. Now what is an unclean spirit? One of things we often forget when we read the bible is that creation includes things that we can’t see. In the Nicene Creed, we confess: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, or seen and unseen. The visible creation is what we see around us, and the creation of these things is describes right at the beginning of the bible, in Genesis chapter 1. Visible things include light, water, the sky, the earth, land, the sea, plants, trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the solar systems and galaxies, birds, fish, animals, reptiles, insects, and also, of course, humans. But then there are also certain things that God creates that are invisible: this includes heaven and hell, and also angels. Angels are spiritual beings, spirits that are created by God, that don’t have bodies, don’t have flesh and blood. However, like human beings, angels also were created with a free will. God commanded human beings to love him and serve him, and he created the angels to do the same. Loving and serving God means that we do it willingly—God does not have us like puppets on a string, making us love him by force. That wouldn’t be love.

And so, we also believe that the devil decided to use his free will not for God and in service of God, but in hatred towards God, and in rebellion against him, and for evil. Then Satan tempted the first people into sin, and the human race became sinful too, because they listened to the voice of the devil instead of God, and also chose evil over good. But also, we read that the devil was not the only angel who fell into sin, but there was a large number, who form a kind of army with the devil as the leader.

In our reading today, we read that an unclean spirit had entered into a man. Now, in our culture, something has happened in the last two or three hundred years, which is called the Scientific Enlightenment. From this time onwards people have made all kinds of advances in science, which has been a very good thing. However, at the same time, people started to reject things in the bible that weren’t able to be proven by science, or weren’t measurable by science. People started to deny that there’s anything that exists that you can’t see. We can see this today, where many people don’t believe in the existence of heaven or hell, angels or demons, the devil, or even God himself. They look at the world with a set of rules that just completely does away with anything that they can’t measure or prove with science.

Many people in the church too have often read passages such as the one in our reading today in a scientific—or we might say a “rationalistic”—way. This isn’t to say that we don’t use our brains when we read the bible. Of course, we do.  But we shouldn’t use our brain and our reason to try and make the bible say something that it doesn’t say. Especially we shouldn’t try and make the bible say the opposite of what it doesn’t say! This is exactly what the devil did when he tempted Eve: God had said that if they ate the fruit, that they would surely die. What does the devil do? He interprets God’s word in such a way as to make it say the exact opposite of what God actually said. The devil says: You will not surely die.

And so, it is common for people to read a passage like this in our reading today and to say that this man didn’t have an unclean spirit, but that he had a mental illness. However, this is not what the text says. Mental illness does exist, and sometimes there are certain mental illnesses that have symptoms which look similar to demon possessions. But they are not the same thing. Later in chapter 1 of Mark, we read that Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. There are two things here: Jesus was healing people who were sick, and he was casting out demons. They were not always the same thing. So there are two mistakes that people make: sometimes they think that there is no such thing as demon possession, and that everything is mental illness. Sometimes people think that there is no such thing as mental illness and everything is demon possession. Both of these things are wrong. Sometimes a person can go to a doctor or a psychiatrist and be treated for their mental illness—no problem. However, there are also situations where medical treatment can’t help—the reason is that the person is not really mentally ill, but are spiritually troubled.

But let’s pretend that the man in our reading does have a mental illness. Let’s listen then to what the man says. He says: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God. What kind of mental illness is able to recognise Jesus, and to speak hidden things about him that other people wouldn’t otherwise know? Also look at what Jesus does in return. We read: But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”

When we’re dealing with mental illness, we’re dealing with a person who is sick, and who needs treatment. And when anyone is sick, whether they have a physically debilitating illness or are mentally ill, we should pray for them, and they should go and seek treatment. And we pray that Jesus would bring healing to the person, either in a natural way through treatment or through medicine as God provides through a doctor, or in a supernatural way through a special miracle of God. We know that in this life, God may or may not give a miraculous healing. But we do know that for those who believe in Jesus, that he will heal us completely and totally in the next life and completely transform and glorify our bodies so that we will completely free of all of our sickness and troubles.

Sometimes people—especially some charismatics or Pentecostals—make the mistake of believing that when people become Christians, they become sinless. So every time they see and recognise sin at work in them, they think it must be an evil spirit. Now, it is true that because our heart is sinful, the devil has a close ally inside of us. But some people make the mistake of always wanting exorcism, when in actual fact, they need absolution, and forgiveness. They need to hear the words that Jesus has died and paid for each and every single sin and their whole sinful heart and their whole sinful condition, and even in the church today we can hear the words of forgiveness from God himself spoken to us. When we hear the words: I forgive you all your sins, the devil has no more power to make accusations. Jesus has pulled his teeth out, and the devil can’t bite us anymore! As St Paul says in Romans: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When we’re talking about demon possession, we’re talking about two beings: one is a human being, a man or a woman like you and me, and the other is an invisible being, a demon or unclean spirit, who has entered in and joined itself to the person. This unclean spirit can take control of the person, like in our reading, where it uses the person to speak its own words. In our reading the unclean spirit uses the person and says: What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us? The unclean spirit even gives the person a special insight into hidden things that the person otherwise wouldn’t know. In our reading the unclean spirit says: I know who you are—the Holy One of God. Notice here that the demon tells something that is true, but the means of know that truth is not right. The words are true, but the authority is not right.

And so we might ask the question: how did this man end up like this? Well the text doesn’t actually tell us. However, Jesus does say to his disciples: I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me. We know that outside of Jesus and his kingdom, life is a dangerous mess, and people are open and susceptible to all kinds of spiritual danger. However, in our reading, when Jesus is present there in the synagogue, and begins to teach, the unclean spirit is exposed.

Now, we read in the Scripture where God the Father’s voice comes down from heaven and says: This is my beloved Son: listen to him. This happens at the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ face and clothes began to shine with bright, white light. In the Old Testament, Moses had already spoken about the coming Messiah, and said: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. All throughout the New Testament, we read various passages that confirms this prophet to be Jesus, and even God the Father says: listen to him. Moses had said centuries before: It is to him you shall listen. But on the other hand, in the same passage, Moses says some other things. He says: There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

So, do you hear that the nations listened to fortune-tellers and diviners, and lists a whole lot of occult practices that people did. All through the history of Israel and the kinds, we see that the Jewish people often mixed in the practices of the nations with God’s law. And so, what this passage teaches us is that fortune-tellers and diviners are not speaking with the voice of Jesus. Jesus does not use fortune-tellers and diviners to speak, but they use a different spiritual power. Moses says: Don’t listen to fortune-tellers and diviners. But God the Father says about Jesus: Listen to him.

In our culture, many people recognise that there’s more to life than what we can see. But then the mistake that people often make is that they think that everything spiritual is good. That’s not true. The truth is that the greatest good is spiritual good, but the greatest evil is spiritual evil. You can’t make use of a fortune-teller, or a psychic, or a clairvoyant, or a medium, and think that this is the Holy Spirit—it’s not. God has specifically said in his word that listening to Jesus Christ and listening to fortune-tellers and diviners are mutually exclusive things. And so when people open themselves up to these kinds of false ideas and false practices, and particularly occult practices, they also open themselves up to unclean spirits.

In the bible, an unclean spirit is also called an evil spirit or a demon. The bible speaks very negatively about them. But outside of the church, people use positive-sounding ways of speaking about them. People might say: I have an angel who speaks to me. Or: I have a spirit guide. Or: I try to hear what the universe is trying to say to me. Or: I communicate with my higher self. Even sometimes people can be mistaken and deceived for thinking that they are talking directly with God or the Holy Spirit, even when they reject and go against what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Scriptures. All these things are examples of people trying to make contact with the unclean spiritual realm.

Now, the amazing thing about our reading today is that Jesus deals with this man very simply. We read: Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” The word “be silent” means to “get muzzled”. Jesus speaks to the unclean spirit like a noisy dog. And we read: The unclean spirit, convulsing him and was crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. Even in Luke it says that the man was done no harm. Jesus, being true God and true man in one person, knows exactly how to separate an unclean spirit from the person standing in front of him. And with his powerful and authoritative word, he simply casts the unclean spirit out.

And we read: And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” And at one his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

What is important here is Jesus’ words, and his authority. There is no spiritual wrestling match that goes on. Jesus is not addressing the unclean spirits as equals. He has complete and absolute authority over them.

In the church, Jesus has spoken his same authoritative word of power to you when you were baptised. And when we are baptised, we make a clear statement against the devil and say: I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. We confess the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and we renounce the devil. This is who we are as Christians, and our whole life is a lesson in renouncing the devil and confessing Jesus Christ. In ancient times, when a person was baptised, they would rebuke the unclean spirit, and this excellent practice has been reintroduced into our churches in recent years to emphasise the power of Christ’s work against Satan in baptism. It’s no accident that as less people in our society are baptised, spiritual and demonic trouble have increased for people. In baptism, our Lord Jesus with his powerful word forgives us our sin, rescues us from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who believe this. Baptism is a wonderful defence and shield against all the attacks of the evil one, because we can continually look to Jesus and his promise to defend us from all evil. And when we are bothered and attacked by the evil one, we can simply say: Be silent! Get out of here! You don’t belong here!

Jesus is the one who has power over all spirits, and all the authority belong to him. We have access to his great authority because we have his authoritative word, which is a word of power. We are weak, but the word we speak is the word of Jesus. St Paul says: My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So every time we speak the word of God in its truth and purity, and preach it, and sing it, and read it, the devil is cleared out. The devil knows his time is short when the word is in play, because these words are the words of the living God and the living Jesus who has risen from the dead. We cannot do anything in our power and authority—Jesus is the only exorcist. We pray to him, and ask him to work together with us, and to use us where he sends us. As the people say in our reading today: He even commands the unclean spirits and they obey him. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for your word of authority and power. Protect us from all the power of the evil one. Amen.

Epiphany III B [Mark 1:14-20] (21-Jan-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

There’s a place in John’s Gospel where we read that John the Baptist has been baptising, and some of John’s disciples come up to him and tell him that many people have stopped following him and now they are following Jesus instead. It’s almost like they think that John would be annoyed by it—John has been pointing to Jesus and preaching about him, and now people are following Jesus and not listening to John anymore. But John is not upset by this, and he tells them that he is only the friend of the bridegroom, but Jesus is the bridegroom himself. And he says: He must increase, but I must decrease.

It’s as if we were at a wedding reception, and everyone is waiting for the bride and groom to arrive, and in the meantime the MC—the Master of Ceremonies—is talking, and then all of sudden, they arrive. And the MC tells everyone to stand up and welcome the wedding party and the bride and groom. The MC is not the important person anymore, the bride and groom are. When we remember back on our life, and think about all the weddings we might have been to, we eventually forget who the MCs were at the weddings, we might even forget who the best man was and the matron of honour. But we don’t forget who is was that actually got married! And so John the Baptist uses the same picture. He says to them that he is only the bridegroom’s friend, like the MC or the best man. But Jesus himself is the bridegroom.

And so in our reading today we read that Jesus begins his ministry of preaching the Gospel. Jesus has been baptised, and straight after that he went out into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. But now he comes back, and he begins his ministry. But the reading says: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God. It says that John was arrested. John had had a very fruitful ministry, and he got into trouble for it, and so he was arrested. And it’s at this time, when John was arrested, that Jesus begins his ministry. John has done his job in the whole scheme of things, and now Jesus takes over. In fact, John the Baptist is completely taken out of the picture.

And so Jesus says: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Jesus says: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. It’s as if he’s telling people that everything has now happened in the right order, and everything that has taken place has taken place. John has prepared the way of the Lord, he has been a voice crying in the wilderness, but now his ministry is finished. Now the time is right, and your Messiah is here. It’s also as if Jesus also says: There won’t be another Messiah, or another Saviour, sometime later in history. If you miss me, you won’t get another one. Here I am, now is the right time, and the God’s kingdom is right here with you because I am with you. So listen to me, and pay attention to what I have to say.

And so what does Jesus say? He says: Repent and believe the Gospel. These words that Jesus says here give a little summary of everything that Jesus says, and also a kind of summary of everything in the bible. Jesus speaks to us two words, two messages that go together. He tells people to repent. And also he tells them to believe. And he doesn’t simply tell them to believe anything, or simply to believe in him, but to believe a particular word that he is speaking to them. He calls them to believe the Gospel.

What Jesus is doing here is preaching the Law of God, and the Gospel of God. God’s law is God’s holy word and the Gospel is God’s holy word. The law of God is good, and the Gospel is also good. When Jesus says: Repent, this is a great and wonderful thing. When he says: Believe the gospel, this is also a great and wonderful thing.

But the law and the Gospel do completely different things, and they have a completely different effect on us. The Law of God is God’s perfect will, and it teaches us what God expects of us, and what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. We could summarise God’s law with the 10 Commandments. God’s law tells us to love God with all our heart and all our mind and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It’s a wonderful message and a powerful message.

But we human beings fell into sin, and we read that each of us are sinners and we are conceived and born in sin. What this means is that when we hear the preaching of the law, we realise that we have already broken it. Even though God’s law is a wonderful message which shows us how we should lead our lives and how the world and society should work, we realise that it condemns us. When the law is preached, it kills us and leads us to despair.

And so Jesus says: Repent. “Repent” means to turn around or change our mind. It’s as if Jesus comes to us and whatever stage of life we are at, whether we are young or old, and he says to us: Whatever life you have been leading until this point is simply not good enough. You must live your life at a higher standard that what you have been living previously. What you have done before has been bad, and you must now do good. If you think you have done good, you must do better. Whatever a kind of life you live now, you need to know that you must change, and you must become a completely different person to what you are now, and you must act completely differently, you must speak differently, you must think differently. Everything must change. This is what Jesus says when he says: Repent.

God says in Jeremiah: Is not my word like a fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? When Jesus goes out and preaches repentance, he is pouring fire out on the people’s hearts, he is smashing their stony hearts. Because what God’s law expects of us is not the same thing as what we might expect of ourselves, or our parents expected of us. God’s law is completely above and beyond our tiniest ability or capacity to fulfil, because it is so perfect, and we are not even the slightest bit close to perfect. Even our individual thoughts are all completely corrupted by sin, and before we have even tried to fulfil God’s word, we have already failed, and we have already done less what than what God’s expects of us.

And so we might say the same thing that Isaiah said when he saw his wonderful vision of the Son of God sitting on the throne and the angels singing all around. He said: Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the LORD of hosts! And so we say to God: I was wrong, and you are right.

But now, Jesus has a completely different message to speak. It is so different to the law, that if we never heard the Gospel, we would never have imagined that such a thing were possible. Every religion has laws and rules and commandments, and basically tells people what they should do or not do. Jesus all tells people what they should do or not do, but he sharpens the standard in such a way that we can’t escape, and we can’t excuse ourselves, we can’t rely on scholars or good lawyers to get ourselves out of trouble. We must completely despair of ourselves of any hope to save ourselves. And so this is where the second thing comes in: and this is called the Gospel. Jesus says: Repent, and believe the Gospel.

The Gospel does not show us what we should do or not do, but it shows us our Saviour who has done everything for us. Jesus, the Son of God, has entered into the world, he has taken on human flesh, he has lived a human life like us. And now, Jesus will suffer and die for the sin of the world, he will make an atonement and a payment with his own blood for every single sin that has ever been imagined, so that when we simply look at him and believe in him, all our failures in keeping the law are completely washed over, our bill has been paid in full, the victory has been won over Satan so that he can’t accuse us anymore, we are completely free from the chains of failure and despair and disappointment, because we have a Saviour who has entered the world, a Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who has died for us, risen for us, and loves us.

This is the Gospel, and this is the message that is completely different from the first message that Jesus preaches. When Jesus preaches repentance, or when he preaches God’s law, it is like a laser beam which searches us out and finds us. The Law doesn’t make us sinners, but it finds sinners, and when it does, it kills us. But then he says: Believe the Gospel. This is a completely different message, because it creates something completely new. The Gospel doesn’t find any saints, but it makes and creates people into holy people, not because they have earned it, or deserved it, but because Jesus has done everything for them, and now they slate has been completely wiped clean. They are completely pure and holy, not because they are pure and holy because of what they have done, but because of what Jesus has done for them. When God looks at us, all of sudden there is Jesus standing with us, with his hand around our shoulder and he says: It’s OK. This person is with me. Jesus’ blood and his righteousness and his holiness completely cover us over, and it covers over all our sin and shame and failure. This is good news! And that’s what the word “gospel” means: it means good news.

Now, these words of Jesus, Repent and believe in the Gospel, are so incredibly helpful, because the whole bible could be divided up into these two things. When Jesus went out preaching, there’s a sense in which Mark is saying that Jesus was preaching all kinds of things, and speaking about all kinds of things from Moses and the prophets before him. But he was dividing up everything in a very sharp way, and focussing everything, so that things very intensely clear. And so when we read the bible, we should ask ourselves the question: Is this passage law or Gospel? If it is law, then where is this passage calling me to repent? Where is it calling me to acknowledge what I have done wrong? How is this passage calling me to change my life? But then there is another message in the bible: the gospel. So we should then ask: Does this passage show me my Saviour? What is this passage calling me as a lost sinner to believe?

You see, when Jesus calls us to faith, just as he does in our reading today, that faith is always a faith in God’s word. Some people might say: but it’s not faith in God’s word that saves us, but faith in Jesus that saves us. But that’s only half true. Sure, Jesus is our Saviour, and he is the one who has done everything for us in history to save us from sin, from hell and from the devil, and to bring us to eternal life with him. But how do we know this? And how would we know it if Jesus hadn’t said anything? Jesus is not a Saviour who keeps his mouth shut. He is a Saviour who speaks, who calls, who invites, who preaches, who blesses. And so in our reading, our Saviour speaks. And as our Saviour he gives us a wonderful gift: he gives us the gift of the Gospel, the completely free forgiveness of every single on our sins. But the way in which he gives it to us is by speaking it to us, and when we believe this word, we receive this gift from him completely and totally freely, without anything that we have done or anything that can contribute. He calls us to trust in his word, and particularly to believe in the Gospel.

Now, we might also say: When Jesus tells us to believe, isn’t he also expecting something of us again? Isn’t he telling us to do something? Isn’t he telling us to use our own efforts to believe in him and to trust in him? Not at all. That would be like as if someone gave someone else a Christmas present, and they were about to open it and they said: Hang on—you can only have this present on one condition… that you take it and open it! Of course, the person would take it and open it! What’s the point of having a present, if you can’t take it? But then it would be like the person going to their friend and says: Thanks for the present, and also I’d like to thank myself for making the effort of taking it from you and opening it. The person giving the present would think their friend was mad!

But also, remember Jesus went to a deaf person and said: Be opened! And they were opened! The deaf person made no effort, but as soon as Jesus spoke this word to them, they could hear! Jesus went to Lazarus when he was dead in the tomb for four days. And Jesus said to him: Lazarus, come out! The word of Jesus was powerful to raise him from the dead. Lazarus didn’t make any contribution! He was dead.

So you can see, when Jesus says: Repent, he knows us flat, his word lays us in the dust of death. But then Jesus has another word, just for dead people, and only for dead people. He says: Believe the gospel. And this word has all the power in it to make us alive. Nothing depends on us, everything depends on him.

Now in the second part of our reading. We read that Jesus goes and calls some fishermen. He calls Simon and Andrew who were brothers. And then he also calls James and John, who were also brothers. And we read that they immediately left their nets in the boats, and followed Jesus. And Jesus says to them: Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

It’s an amazing thing that Jesus calls a group of fishermen. He doesn’t go first of all to a university and choose his first disciples from the greatest and brightest minds of the day. By the way, that doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t value intelligent and learned people: after all, he also called Paul to be an apostle, who was a highly educated man. He calls different people for different purposes. But when Paul was called to be an apostle, who were his fellow workers? A bunch of fishermen. And Jesus calls a group of simple hard-working fishermen to show us that the power of God belongs to him, and to the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is for all people, and it is a simple message. And Jesus is happy to have a simple group of fishermen as his preachers, because he wants to show the world that the power of the Gospel is not in human beings, and in grand and lofty talk, but the power of the Gospel comes from the Holy Spirit. So that when one of these fishermen talks, like Peter or John or James or Andrew, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they can lay flat all the wisdom of the world. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says: Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

And so how were these fishermen going to become fishers of men? What did they do that would enable them to catch people? They would do it in exactly the same way that Jesus caught them, by preaching law and Gospel, by preaching repentance and faith, exactly as we were talking about before. And this is exactly what we read about at the end of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus had risen from the dead, and he meets with his disciples, and we read: Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. So what was the thing they had to preach? Jesus said: Repentance, and the forgiveness of sins. This is exactly what Jesus was saying earlier in our reading when he said: Repent and believe in the Gospel. And so here is the net, here’s the means by which people are caught, and drawn out of the wide-open sea, and brought into the kingdom of Jesus. These words are the fishing tools which catch people.

And so it’s a wonderful gift for us that we have been caught. And Jesus continually calls us to repent, and believe the Gospel. And it is also a wonderful thing to be equipped with Jesus’ own tools, so that we as a congregation, and I as a pastor, and all of us as individual Christians living wherever God has placed us in the world, know how it is that Jesus catches people, so that we can also join those fishermen in drawing others to Jesus not by own power, but with Jesus’ words, and with his power and the power of the Holy Spirit. So let’s thank our Saviour, Jesus, for the wonderful gift of the gospel which he has given to us, and which he still speaks to us today, the message of his death and resurrection, and the words which give to us the free forgiveness of every single one of our sins, and promise us the wonderful gift of eternal life with him. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for calling us to repent and to believe the Gospel. Continue to work a wonderful change in our lives, but also keep our eyes fixed on what you have done for us, and in your word of promise. Amen.

Epiphany II B [John 1:43-51] (14-Jan-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our reading today talks about Jesus calling to himself two disciples: Philip and Nathanael. We read: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

There’s not much to this passage! We are told a few things about various places: Jesus was going to Galilee, and Philip, Andrew and Peter were all from Bethsaida. But all we are told about Philip’s conversion is simply that Jesus found him and said to him, “Follow me.” Already Andrew and Peter had followed Jesus. And now, in our reading today we read about two more: Philip and Nathanael.

Here we see a powerful word of God from Jesus himself, where he simply says to Philip: Follow me! This is almost the same thing that we read when Jesus called Matthew the tax collector. It says: Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. In the passage today about Philip, we don’t even read specifically that Philip rose and followed him. We do read that Philip went and spoke about Jesus to Nathanael, so it’s obvious that Philip did follow Jesus. But it’s almost not important that Philip obeyed Jesus, because that’s not the point. The point is that Jesus called him. And all the power of Philip’s conversion didn’t come from Philip, it came from the word of Jesus.

Sometimes we meet some Christians who want to tell everyone about their conversion. And it is a wonderful thing to convert to Christianity, and to come to Christ. But then for many Christians, they were raised in a Christian home by Christian parents, they were baptised as children, and each day has been a day of growth in the Christian faith, but they have had no massive turn-around in their lives. And so sometimes someone might say: “When did you become a Christian?” And we would say, “When I was baptised.” This answer often doesn’t satisfy these people, and so they say something like, “But when did you accept Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Saviour?” Now—here we see a problem. Yes, it’s a wonderful thing to have Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour. Without Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour, we can’t be saved. But they want to put all the focus on the question “when did you accept him?” Our accepting, and our receiving, and our conversion is a very shaky foundation to put our trust in, because our heart is still full of sin, and doubts, and all kinds of things. And so we might say, “How do I know that I really converted, that I am really, genuinely converted, and that it wasn’t all a show?”

Instead of putting your trust in your conversion, put your trust in Christ’s word to you: Follow me. And in each of our lives, there is a wonderful day when Christ said these words to us personally, and that was on the day of our baptism, when he said, I baptised you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When we were baptised, Jesus called us by name, just as he called Philip, he gave to us the forgiveness of sins which he won on the cross, he gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life. All the power of our Christian life comes not from us, and from our response to all these things, but from Jesus, and his words, and his promises.

In the second part of our reading, we read: Now Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Here we see Philip come to his friend Nathanael, and tell him that he has found Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now we know that Jesus wasn’t actually the son of Joseph, but that he was only the Son of Mary and that his mother was a Virgin. And also we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Philip calls him Jesus of Nazareth, because that was the place where he grew up. But there’s something else that we learn from these words about Philip and Nathanael.  Philip says: We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote. What does this tell you? It tells you that Philip and Nathanael were people who read the bible. They must have studied the Scriptures carefully in the synagogue, and they were eager to learn God’s word. They had read or heard the law of Moses and the prophets. And Nathanael asks the question: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Now, it was well known by Jewish people that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem, and Jesus was in fact born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah says very clearly that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem. Nathanael knew this too, and so when he heard from Philip that Jesus was from Nazareth, he asked the question: Can anything good come from Nazareth? And so Philip says to him: Come and see.

Nathanael is testing everything according to the Scripture. And when Nathanael comes to Jesus, Jesus says: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! Jesus praises Nathanael. Jesus knows that Nathanael is not being a smart-aleck, or being cynical, as if nothing of any worth can come from a small place like Nazareth! Many things of great worth can come from small places—small places even like Maryborough or Childers! No, Jesus knows that Nathanael is testing everything according to the Scripture, and Jesus praises and commends him for it. Jesus recognises that Nathanael is not being deceitful, but that he is honestly trying to work things out from the Scripture.

Now this is a very important thing, which we should stop and think about for a while. One of the greatest issues amongst Christians today is this one question: What is our attitude towards the Scripture? There are many things going on in the world, many things going on in the church, but they all seem to come back to one thing: Do we hold the Scripture, the bible, as the Word of God? Is the bible our authority? When we read something in the bible that doesn’t sit well with us, do we try to change the bible, or do we let the bible change us? Do we treat the bible as the word of men, or do we consider it the word of God?

In the last year, we have been celebrating the 500^th year of the Reformation. And one of the greatest achievements of Martin Luther was translating the bible into German, so that the people of Germany could understand it and believe it. Also, from that time, the bible has been translated into many different languages, and there are many different versions in English—probably far too many versions! In some parts of the world, especially in new mission fields, translating the bible is what gave the opportunity for people to write down their language for the first time. In some places, the only significant book that is published is the bible, which means that if people wanted to learn how to read, the only reason for doing that was so that they could read the bible.

So let me encourage you: we have been so incredibly blessed to be able to have great access to the bible, and the ability to read it. If you don’t have time to read it, remember that there are people in the world who are saving up every last cent they have just so that they can put their hands on one and read it every day. If you don’t feel as though you understand it all, don’t worry: just give it a go, and remember that there are a lot more people around the world who have a lot less education than you that try to read the bible constantly, even one word at a time.

I wonder whether one of the reasons why the Reformation was even able to happen 500 years ago is because people generally still believed that the bible was the word of God. Today in our country, there is no way that anything like that could happen so long as people say: That’s your opinion, I’ll have my opinion. When we realise just what it means to say: Thus says the Lord, then things are completely different, because everything we say comes with all the power and authority of God himself. We need leaders in the church today. We need a strong church. But we won’t have one, and we won’t have good leaders in the church if we don’t seek to learn the bible as best as we can. One of my seminary lecturers said to us students once that it is our duty as future pastors of the church to seek to be experts of the bible. But wouldn’t it be a great thing if not only our pastors would study the bible thoroughly, but also all the people in the church? What a church that would be! The Lutheran Church always used to be known as a church of the word. What about today?

Now, none of us are the people of the word that we should be. Jesus died for all our failures to learn his word too. And yet, that wonderful word teaches us and shows us our Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth, our Messiah, our Lord. The Scripture tells us of his wonderful work for us, his resurrection, our salvation.

And so we take notice of the wonderful example of Philip and Nathanael, as they study and learn the Scriptures, and seek to discern from the Scriptures whether Jesus is the Messiah. We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Now, we come to a part in our reading about the conversation between Jesus and Nathanael. We read: Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Now, this is a very strange conversation. First of all, Jesus compliments him on his respect and regard from the Scripture. Jesus calls him an Israelite indeed, not an Israelite in name and nationality only, but an Israelite who respected and regarded the word of God. But also remember, that Jesus wasn’t there when Philip and Nathanael were talking about this. And so Nathanael is puzzled by this compliment from Jesus. He says to him: How do you know me? Jesus says to him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now, this is amazing. Jesus first of all knew, before Philip or Nathanael had said anything to him, that Philip had encouraged Nathanael to come and meet him. Also, Jesus knew who Nathanael was before he knew him, when he was standing under a certain fig tree. Nathanael knew that Jesus wasn’t there when he had the conversation with Philip, he knew that Jesus wasn’t there when he was under the fig tree, and yet Jesus says: I saw you.

This is an amazing thing. Here we see Jesus having a conversation with Nathanael, just like they have been old friends for many years. Jesus is so friendly and gentle with Nathanael. And yet, Jesus tells Nathanael about the miraculous way in which he saw him, even when he wasn’t there. And so, Nathanael is completely overwhelmed, and from this little detail he makes a wonderful confession of faith: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!

Now, how is it that Jesus was able to see Nathanael even when he wasn’t there? You see, Jesus wasn’t simply a man like any other man. He was both true man and true God at the same time. Earlier in the chapter we read: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And this man, Jesus, had a true human body and a true human soul, just like us in every way, except without sin. And at the same time, this man was also true God, so that his body and his soul were united inseparably with his divine nature. Sometimes in wonderful ways, we see Jesus’ human body transformed and glorified in such a way that it takes on particular powers above and beyond the normal laws of nature because he is also true God. And so, at the Transfiguration, Jesus’ face and clothes shone with the wonderful divine light that belonged to him. After his resurrection, he walked through closed doors to visit his disciples. We read that he walked on water, calmed the storm with his word, raised the dead, healed the sick, and so on. Even in the church today, Jesus’ lets his body and blood take on a supernatural ability to be present for us in the church in the Lord’s Supper so that we can eat and drink it. This all happens because Jesus is also true God, or as we say in the creed: God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. Here in our reading we see how Jesus’ eyes and soul and heart could look straight into the heart and mind of someone far away and knew everything that was going on with him, and could hear all of his personal conversations. Normally, this is not possible for us human beings. But it is possible with this man Jesus, because he is also true God.

Sometimes there are people who claim to be psychic who try to “read people”, and give them hidden messages about their personality, or their future. They often do this by using astrology, or star-signs. This is not the same thing, because these people have to make use of demonic power in order to do things like this. Remember that the devil said to Eve when he tempted her: you will be like God. Sometimes the devil tries to trick people into giving themselves over to him, and giving them some strange powers and insights. Some psychics are frauds too. But some psychics who strangely know things that other people don’t. But they only know certain things—they don’t know everything. We need to avoid this kind of thing like the plague, and not make use of people like this. There are a lot of people in our society today who are interested in these things, and who try to look for these things. (Only in the last week, I saw prominent advertisements on TV for a large psychic expo in Bundaberg.)

Jesus is not like this at all, and he is not a psychic. He is true God, and he has access to everything and knows everything. He is not a psychic man, but he is true man and true God in one person. And so what Jesus does here is not simply a special superhuman power which he received from somewhere, but all power belongs to him as God. John writes about Jesus: All things were made through him. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And so Nathanael recognises Jesus’ insight and his power, and he says: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel! Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus tells him that he is not just the King of Israel, but also the King of the world. And not only the King of the whole world and the whole earth, but the king of heaven as well. Jesus is the king of angels too. And we see so many times in Jesus life where the angels show up: at his conception, at his birth, when he was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, when he was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the empty tomb, and when Jesus ascended into heaven. And also, in the book of Revelation, we see the angels praising God continually before Jesus, the Lamb that was slain, in heaven. We praise Jesus even in our church today with the angels, the archangels and all the company of heaven. Jesus sends his angels to guard and defend you constantly day by day, because you have been saved by him and his blood, and the angels are ascending and descending on this Jesus, this Saviour, who has pledged and promised himself to you.

And so in our reading today, we have this wonderful simply call of two of Jesus’ disciples: Philip and Nathanael. We see his friendly conversations, one person to another. But we also have this amazing teaching about Jesus’ divinity, the divine insight into people’s hearts that he has, which Jesus uses not to condemn Nathanael, but to call him. Jesus knows our hearts too… he know the sin there, and the dirt, and the shame. But he is our Saviour who has died for us, and as true God he has the power to bring us with him to heaven, knowing that he has paid the price with his blood for us. He is the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Lord of hosts, the King of the angels! Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for calling us to be your people. Send your angels to watch over us and defend us, and keep us strong in your word and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Epiphany I: Baptism of our Lord [Matthew 3:13-17] (7-Jan-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan. And this is a very significant event: The gospels of Matthew and Luke begin by teaching us about the birth of Jesus. But the gospels of Mark and John begin with the baptism of Jesus. This is because Jesus’ baptism is the beginning of his ministry. Before Jesus was baptised, he didn’t go around preaching and healing people yet—but he led a simple life of a humble carpenter in Nazareth.

We sometimes forget about the city of Nazareth. We talk about Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and Jerusalem, where he went to the temple and was later sentenced to death. But Nazareth—which was in the area called Galilee, north of Jerusalem—was the place where Jesus spent his childhood, his teenage years and his life as a young adult.

And at the beginning of our gospel reading today we read: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him.

Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee all the way to the place at the River Jordan where John was. This was a long journey of about 125kms.

But this is not the first time Jesus had made a long journey to visit John. This had happened once before, when his mother Mary was still pregnant with him, and went to visit Elizabeth, when she was still pregnant with John! We know that Mary and Elizabeth were distantly related in some way. And when pregnant Mary came to visit pregnant Elizabeth, the baby John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb.

Here in our Gospel reading today, we read about where Jesus and John meet each other again, but 30 years later as grown men.

Many people in the early church also believed that John was in the wilderness right from when he was a boy. In Luke it says about John: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the days of his public appearance in Israel.

We often assume that he grew up into a man first and then went out into the wilderness, but it is also quite likely that John went there very early in his life. Remember that his parents were both old when he was born, and could have died early in his life. Also, remember that John ended up being dressed in clothes in which any mother would have been embarrassed to send their child outside, and eating certain food that seems as though he wasn’t been looked after properly. We read: John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. John seems like a pretty wild character! His mother and father are probably quite long dead and are not making sure his hair is combed and teeth are cleaned!

So what exactly was John doing?

We read that he was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We also read many people were going out to him, and they were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

John’s baptism had a particular character to it. John was a voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. And in order to prepare, the people were coming to John to be baptised, and to confess their sins.

John’s baptism is slightly different from Christian baptism: Christian baptism is not preparing for Christ’s coming, but happens after Christ has already come in the flesh, and has already suffered, died and rose. As baptised Christians, we are not waiting for Christ to come the first time, but we are waiting for him at the end of the world.

When John baptises people, people come confessing their sins. Everyone who comes to be washed by John is a sinner. Someone who is clean doesn’t need to be washed. Only people who are dirty—not physically dirty, but spiritually dirty—need to be washed.

Now before Jesus arrived, we read that some of the Sadducees and Pharisees came to be baptised too. These people were the Jewish religious teachers at the time, and they fiercely disagreed about many points of theology. But they were self-righteous, and trusted in their own works and their family trees in order to be saved. They wanted to be righteous, but they just wanted to be baptised just so that they could add another feather to their spiritual caps, and sew another spiritual badge onto their hat.

But John won’t allow this sort of hypocrisy. So he preaches a very strong sermon against them: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

John’s sermon is a very harsh one, a very strong one! He preaches against their hypocrisy, and their trust in their family tree. What’s the point of being part of God’s family, if you act like you’re part of the devil’s family? God doesn’t want pretend sinners coming for baptism, he wants real sinners coming for baptism, sinners that know they have nothing to give God, nothing to show for their lives, no brownie points. And so this is what John preaches about.

So we can see the sort of work that John has been doing: baptizing, preaching, calling people to repentance, hearing the confessions of sin that people were making before God.

And now Jesus comes. And John recognises that Jesus is the only person he has met so far that has absolutely no need for this baptism whatsoever.

We read: John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

John recognises that his ministry has its limits. He recognises that if Jesus himself baptised people, it would be a different kind of baptism altogether—not simply a pouring out of water, but a pouring out of the Holy Spirit! John is simply preparing the way for the Lord, but Jesus is the Lord himself! And John recognises that this is the kind of baptism that he needs!

He knows that Jesus doesn’t need his baptism, because Jesus isn’t a sinner. He has no sin to confess, and he has no need to repent. Also, why would Jesus want John’s baptism? Think of all the people who have come to John to be baptised: all those sinners – isn’t Jesus giving the impression that he’s a sinner too?

But this is precisely what Jesus does. Jesus is happy to be counted as a sinner, and to be mistaken for a sinner! He comes to be baptised just like all the other sinners, and joins in with them.

But Jesus is not a sinner – so what’s going on? The book of Hebrews says: that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin. On the other hand, Jesus takes upon himself our sin—he takes the weight of it all upon his shoulders. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And this is the precise reason why Jesus came—to die for sinners, and to carry and bear their sin.

And so Jesus is happy to dive into the Jordan, without hestitation. And he says to John: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.

Here Jesus fulfils all righteousness. He wants to take our sin upon himself, and share his righteousness with us. He wants to go into the water and take every piece of sinful human filth into his own hands and die for it, so that we can share in every drop of divine eternal joy and live forever.

St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: For our sake [God the Father] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And so we read that John consented.

But just imagine if you were an onlooker and bystander on this occasion: you would have thought that Jesus was simply another sinner just like you! And if that were the case, he would never be able to die for your sin, because it would be an imperfect sacrifice, one that was tainted, and not holy and pure. Jesus needs to be a lamb without blemish.

And so, just at the time when Jesus is baptised—just when Jesus could give the wrong impression that he is actually a sinner—God himself intervenes, and makes sure that all the bystanders and eyewitnesses and all people throughout history won’t make that mistake. So we read: When Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and 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.”

God the Father sits on his judgment throne, and he reveals himself to the whole world before the eyes of all. God reveals himself as the Father, speaking from heaven, as God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with whom his Father is well pleased in the water, and he reveals himself as the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove.

And so, when Jesus ascends into heaven and sends out his disciples to baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, promising to be with them always, we know that when we are baptised too that we are adopted as God’s beloved children, his sons and his daughters, together with Jesus, praying to his Father together with him. We know that we are made the brothers and sisters of Jesus and are with him always. We know that the Holy Spirit is poured out on us, and the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given to us. The door of heaven is opened to us and we can walk in together with Jesus.

And this wonderful manifestation of the Holy Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is given at the very same time when Jesus identifies himself and joins himself with sinners. This happened again later in his life, when Jesus was happy to be mistaken for a criminal, in fact, dying the worst kind of criminal’s death on a cross. He even was happy to be mistaken for a dead, buried failure. But God does not desire that Jesus’ death should be thought of in this way—and he does not keep silent, but raises him from the dead, to show us that what Jesus did on Good Friday was not a failure, but a perfect, holy, acceptable sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.

So also, at Jesus’ baptism, God does not keep silent, but opens up the heavens, and speaks his own voice, so that we would not mistake Jesus for any old sinner like us, but that we would trust in him as our Saviour, God’s beloved Son, filled with the Holy Spirit, to save us and rescue us and bring us to eternal life with him.

And just as Jesus is happy to let himself be mistaken for a sinner, so also he is happy to let us sinners be mistaken for a child of God. But Jesus does not make mistakes—he knows who he baptises, he knows to whom he preaches, and he knows each person to whom he gives his body and blood. And it’s no mistake that we are beloved children of God—because Jesus forgives us. He cancels our debt, wipes our slate clean, and presents us pure and holy and perfect before God, taking all our sin and guilt and punishment that we deserve upon himself. This is no mistake! It is a true and living fact: it is the way that Jesus fulfils all righteousness.

And so, what John says is true: I need to be baptised by you. What a wonderful gift it is to be baptised, not simply by a pastor in the church, but at the same time by the living hands and voice of Jesus Christ himself! Yes, Jesus, I need to be baptised by you, and yes, I have been baptised by you, washed with water and your holy and precious word.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, thank you for the precious gift of baptism, and for making us your beloved children together with your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you for adopting us as children completely freely through baptism. Send us your Holy Spirit continually, that we may always trust in the precious gifts that you have poured out on us through the water and the Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.