Epiphany III (Year A) [Matthew 4:12-25] (26-Jan-2020)

This sermon was preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Semaphore, 8.45am, and Good News Lutheran Church, Albert Park, 10.30am.

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

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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

Today our reading is taken from the second half of Matthew chapter 4, and tells us about what Jesus was doing early on in his ministry. But before we look at our text today, let’s go back and have a look at what comes just before. A couple of weeks ago, our reading was about Jesus being baptised. We read about how Jesus came to John at the River Jordan and the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” This is an incredible event in the life of Jesus, where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are so clearly presented to us.

Immediately after the baptism of Jesus, we read at the beginning of Matthew chapter 4, how Jesus went was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. We read about how Jesus was fasting for 40 days and nights our in the wilderness, and how the devil came and tempted Jesus to prove that he was the Son of God, by turning stones into bread, and jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. Also, the devil tempted Jesus to worship him, in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. However, in each case, Jesus overcomes the temptations with a simple word of the Scripture, where Jesus says, “It is written…”, “it is written…”, “it is written…” And at the end of this passage, we read: Then the devil left [Jesus], and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

You can see, then, that there were many incredible things happening before the events in our reading today. Especially, we see the Father, Son and Holy Spirit revealed clearly and powerfully at the baptism of Jesus. And we see Jesus, the powerful Son of God, in all his weakness, overcoming the devil, and being ministered to by the angels.

Now, we come to our reading for today, which says: Now when [Jesus] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. We read here that John the Baptist was arrested. John had been preaching and baptising there at the River Jordan—but it seems as though, when Jesus comes along, that he is immediately taken out of the picture. In John’s Gospel we read that John the Baptist said: He must increase, but I must decrease. John had baptised Jesus, and in a sense, John’s earthly work was now done. He is arrested by King Herod, and kept in prison until that time when he is executed at the time of the king’s birthday party.

When Jesus hears about John’s arrest, Jesus decides to move to Galilee. Now, this is a very interesting thing. Why does Jesus move? Is he scared of what might happen to him? No--there’s no indication in our reading that he does anything out of fear or because he was frightened or scared or frightened. It’s simply that it is not the time for Jesus to be arrested too. That will happen later. It also shows us that Jesus does not purposely put himself in harm’s way. This is important for us too. Sometimes Christians find themselves attacked or persecuted or arrested or even killed for their faith, depending on which part of the world they live in. Jesus speaks many encouraging words to his people for situations like this. But at the same time, we shouldn’t go looking for persecution, or putting ourselves purposely in harm’s way, but instead should quietly go about doing the work which God has given us to do. So let’s say, that you have someone you work with, or in your family, who attacks you because of your Christian faith. That doesn’t mean that every time you see them, you should provoke them, or tease them, so that they make some anti-Christian remark. Just quietly do what you need to do, and let them find you out. That’s the kind of attitude which we see in Jesus in our reading—he is not aggressive or confrontational. He simply has work to do, he simply goes about and does it, and when the time for attack or persecution and even his death comes, then he deals with it at the proper time.

So we read: When [Jesus] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’

We read in the Gospels that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but most of his childhood and early adult life, he lived and grew up in Nazareth. You might remember that after Jesus was born, his family had to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod’s ruling that all the baby boys in Bethlehem should be killed. After they returned home from Egypt, they settled in Nazareth. And Nazareth was such a significant place, that Jesus came to be associated with Nazareth, and identified with this place. Even on the cross, Pontius Pilate put a note above his head which said, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Now, in our reading, we read that Jesus began his ministry in Capernaum, which was a fishing village near the Sea of Galilee.

Now, we read here about Zebulun and Naphtali… If we go right back to the Old Testament, we read in the book of Genesis about the patriarch Jacob. Jacob was the one who received a blessing from his old father Isaac in place of his brother Esau. He was also given a new name by God—Israel, and had twelve sons, including his favourite son, Joseph, to whom he gave a special coat. Jacob, together with his twelve sons, all moved to Egypt, and then after Jacob died, his sons and their families were the people who were rescued out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and eventually these families entered into the promised land. Two of Jacob’s sons were Zebulun and Naphtali—we don’t read much about them, and they don’t show up as very prominent characters in the book of Genesis. But when the Israelites came to the promised land, the families of Zebulun and Naphtali were given as their land this particular area near north of Jerusalem called Galilee.

Now, later in the reading today, we read about Peter and Andrew, James and John, who would have come from these tribes. Also, this region had a lot of Gentiles living there. And the people in Jerusalem, then, looked down and were a bit snobbish towards people from Galilee, because they had a lot more to do with Gentiles, people outside the Jewish faith.

And so we read: And leaving Nazareth, [Jesus] went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

You can see here that God doesn’t reject the people from Galilee, but it is a very special thing that Jesus goes and lives there and spends time there. Even though they live in darkness, Jesus is the light of the world, and he comes and brings us light.

And this a great comfort for us too… we are also a people who live in darkness. Many people all throughout the world are not open to the Christian faith, or listening to the words of Jesus. They only listen to their own sinful hearts, and do whatever they like. They think they know everything, but in actual fact, they don’t know anything. When they come across something in the Christian faith or in the words of Jesus that upset them or annoy them, they want to silence Christians and the bible. Maybe you think that over your lifetime, Australia has become more of a godless nation than it once was—that’s an interesting thing to consider on Australia Day! However, we also need to realise that this attitude that we see in people like this is the same attitude that is at work in us, because we have the same sinful hearts as they do. How often Jesus shines his light into our lives, and we so often want to cling to the darkness!

However, Jesus does not reject people just because they live in darkness. Instead, he comes and lives right in the middle of it all. He went and lived among the Galileans, and he also comes and visits his church all throughout the world today, wherever there are two or three people gathered in his name. He even meets us today in his word and sacrament—we hear the living and active word of God, and we come here to receive the body and blood of Christ. And even in the midst of our dark world, in the region of shadow of death, Christ comes and shines his light on us. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

So, what does Jesus do that shines such a great light in the region of Galilee? We read: From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

First of all, let’s take notice of the fact that Jesus is preaching. Jesus actually says stuff, and speaks, and talks. He’s not a dumb puppet who says nothing, he’s not a cardboard cut-out, and he’s not a stone brick. He’s a real living person, with a mouth, and he talks. The reason why I say this is that many want to have Jesus, but they want to hold onto the darkness. They do this when they have a silent Jesus. They say things like: I respect Jesus as a great teacher, but they have no interest in what he actually says. Or people might have a picture of Jesus in their own minds, but they don’t actually read about how the bible describes him, or how Jesus even talks about himself. Or they might say—and this is a really fuzzy one--“The Words of Jesus are not important, because Jesus is the Word. It’s not important to listen to what he says, but only to have a relationship with him.” Can you imagine a student going to school and saying to their teacher, “Teacher, I’m not interested in learning any maths or English from you; I just want to have a relationship with you.” To the Principal’s Office! Or can you imagine if a husband says to his wife, “Darling, I don’t want to listen to you. I just want to have a relationship with you!” Slap! You can’t have a relationship with Jesus without listening to his preaching and his teaching. If we fashion our own silent pretend Jesus in our own hearts, then all we do is create an idol, a dead god, a golden calf. Then, we end up staying in the darkness, and the light doesn’t shine on us.

Bus also, let’s look at what Jesus actually says. He says: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Let’s take those words especially to heart: Repent! Repent means to change your mind, to turn your heart around. It means: You’re walking in the wrong direction. Walk in the right direction. One of the main differences between Christianity and other religions is this whole teaching about repentance. For example, in many Buddhist countries, you see all kinds of local customs and spiritual practices that have nothing to do with Buddhism. Even here in Australia—let’s say you meet a Buddhist from Malaysia. What’s something that you’ll probably see in their home? They’ll usually have a photograph of their dead relatives on a shelf with offerings in front of it. Now worshipping ancestors—as far as I can tell—doesn’t really have much to do with the central teachings of Buddhism. I suspect too, that before Buddhism came, people probably already worshipped their ancestors. But when Buddhism came, it simply took this practice under their wing, and made it their own thing. However, when Christianity comes to a place, new Christians turn away from their old practices. They can keep their family and cultural traditions, as long as they don’t conflict with Jesus’ words and teaching.

However, today, many people even in the church don’t want to listen to the message of repentance. And when this happens, the church stops being the beacon of light, and instead, it just collapses into the darkness around them. Every time there has ever been a great movement in the church of life and vitality, it has always had at its heart the message of repentance. Just think, for example, of the Reformation. What was the thing that started off the Reformation? We often think about it as Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517. But what was the first of those 95 Theses? It was about our reading today. “When our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Repent”, he meant that the whole of our life should be one of repentance.” The Reformation was a call to repentance. Our whole life should be one of repentance. Of course, our whole life should be, because every time we look to Jesus we should see how perfect he is, and how imperfect we are! He is the true vine, and we are the cheap plonk. His holiness shines light, our hearts are full of darkness. And so, every day should be a day of searching our hearts, and bringing our sin to Jesus, and placing it on his shoulders.

But also, there is another word that Jesus says. He says: Repent. But he also says, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is here, because the king is here! The king enters his palace, and let’s the citizens of his kingdom come and meet him! But sometimes when we hear the message of repentance, we think: because my heart is sinful, I can’t enter that kingdom. Yes, you’re right, you are sinful, and you can’t enter it because of anything you have done or whatever. But you can enter it, because of Jesus and because of what he has done. He is the Saviour of the World, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has won for you the forgiveness of sins, and that forgiveness is the door which lets you enter into this kingdom. So when Jesus says: The kingdom of heaven is at hand, he is saying, “I am the door for the sheep! I am the way, the truth and the life! I am opening this door for you right now. I will let you in through the forgiveness of sins.”

Sometimes, we might think—but hang on, doesn’t Jesus forgive us without conditions? Why do we need to repent? Isn’t that earning salvation by our works? Well, no it’s not. Just think about how Jesus raises people from the dead—he does this apart from anything that they have done. Nobody contributes to their own rising from the dead—Jesus does it completely by himself. But if you are going to be risen, there is a prerequisite—you need to be dead! And yet, it’s not as if being dead makes you risen or contributes to it. The same with repentance… Repentance is simply the acknowledgement that spiritually you are dead. Sometimes, people think that repentance is cleaning up your act. No—repentance is when you want to clean up your act, but you realise that you don’t even know where to start! It is the killing off of your prideful sinful self. And so, the fact that Jesus forgives you has nothing to do with you, it has everything to do with him. And yet, there’s no forgiveness of sin for you, if you don’t believe you have any sin. If you’re not a sinner, why would you even want forgiveness? So Jesus says: Repent, because he wants you to wake up to yourself and despair of yourself and your own abilities and your own heart. But then he says: For the kingdom of heaven is at hand, because he wants to comfort you and point you to himself, the Lamb of God, who has died for you and forgives you, and bring you into the wonderful kingdom.

Now, we look at our reading again, and we see Jesus doing just that. He brings people into his kingdom. First, he brings in Peter, Andrew, James and John, as his apostles, and calls them to fish for people. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And after this, we see Jesus going around the whole of Galilee and preaching, and teaching, and healing people from all their diseases, afflictions and problems.

But there’s something very interesting about Jesus’ words: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Let’s come back to John the Baptist, who we were thinking about earlier, because we read that he was arrested. What do you think he was arrested for? Actually, we read that he was also preaching: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He even told the King that he should repent too, because he was living with his brother’s wife. And so they arrested him to silence him. And then, we read that once John is arrested, Jesus goes around saying the same thing. If John has been arrested, what do you think will happen to Jesus? Yes, he’s going to be arrested too, and he was arrested when Judas betrayed him with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. If John has been killed, what do you think will happen to Jesus? Yes, he will be killed too, he will be crucified, and die for the sins of the world.

How do you think the first apostles are going to fish for people, how do you think they are going be fishers of men? Jesus told them after he rose from the dead, that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. And many people are not going to like it—and will kill these apostles too. But instead of the church dying, the church grows and grows over the centuries, because we have a living Jesus, who is risen from the dead.

So let’s commend ourselves with all our troubles and sins, our weakness, our failings to our Lord Jesus. He has called us to repent, to change our minds and to turn around from wherever we were walking and follow him. He calls you even by your name, even today. And yet, he also comes and opens the door of his kingdom for us today, and forgives us all our sins, and shines his light into our darkness. Let’s leave all of our nets, and follow him, because nobody in the whole world shines brighter than him, no kingdom is more glorious than his, and there is no Saviour who is as trustworthy, loving and faithful than him.

Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light! We thank you for calling us to repentance, and calling us to live in your kingdom. Send us your Holy Spirit, so that we may repent and turn to you each day, and rejoice in your living words of forgiveness and peace. Amen.

Baptism of our Lord (Year A) [Matthew 3:13-17] (12-Jan-2019)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Ferryden Park, 10.30am.

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

Behold, the heavens were opened, and [Jesus] 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.”

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

Today, on this particular Sunday, we remember the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Now this part of the church year is called Epiphany, and this word Epiphany means, “showing”—it’s a time when we particularly think about the fact that God shows himself to the world in Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes when we have a difficult time in our life, we might think to ourselves, “Where is God in all of this?” “Why has he hidden his face from me?” “Why doesn’t he open the heavens and show himself?” People think like this particularly when some tragedy happens in their life, or some terrible, traumatic, sad event. I could only imagine that many people who have been caught up in the bushfires in our country at the moment must feel something like this.

I think we all know what it’s like to wish that God would just come out from behind the clouds and make everything right. We know very well what it’s like to ask questions like this. God’s answer is what this time of Epiphany is all about: God actually sends his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, who shows himself to us. So, last week, we focussed on the Three Wise Men coming to visit the baby Jesus. God shows himself to these foreigners, these strange people with their strange gifts—he reaches out to them, and leads them to Jesus, through an amazing star and through the words of the Bible which send them from Jerusalem to the small town of Bethlehem. At this time of the year, we sometimes also remember that occasion where Mary and Joseph couldn’t find Jesus, when he was twelve years old, and they end up finding him in the temple. He says: “Did you know that I would be in my Father’s house?” Jesus shows to Mary and Joseph, that Joseph is not his true father, but that God the Father is. And also, at this time of year, we often think about when Jesus turned the water into wine, and performed his first miracle at a wedding in the town called Cana. Jesus shows his glory to his disciples and they believed in him. Today, we read about the Baptism of Jesus, where we read, 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.”

Now, this event is just such an amazing, wonderful thing. This event is no fairy-tale—the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, make a special point to let you know that what happened on that day is true, that it is a fact of history, that is really happened, just as truly as you walked in here into this church this morning. And in all those times, when we long for God to tear open the heavens and come down, we can remember this event, and say to ourselves, “Yes, God has come down—he is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—he has baptised me, I am his beloved child together with my Lord, Jesus Christ, and he will never let me down.”

At the beginning of our reading today, it says: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him. Now, let’s just think for a minute about this person John. It’s amazing when we think about John the Baptist, and what kind of a person he was. There was a miracle at the time of his birth—his parents were old, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the Angel Gabriel came and told Zechariah that his wife would be pregnant at the time when he was serving as a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. Because Zechariah didn’t believe the angel, he became dumb, and wasn’t able to speak until the time when John was born. John then when he was older, went out into the desert, into the wilderness—maybe his parents died when he was young, and he had to go out fend for himself. He had to feed himself on what we call bush-tucker—he only ate locusts, and wild honey. He wore a shirt of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. He was a pretty wild-looking fellow! A real bush-whacker!

We also read in the Gospels that he preached fiery, wild sermons, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near! You brood of vipers! Flee from the wrath to come! Today, if we met a preacher like this, we might think he were a bit of a crazy-man! But this aspect to John’s life has a very powerful message for us. When we hear the word of God, we never know who God will send to speak it—and we should always be careful not to reject the Word, because we reject the person. Perhaps, we are posh—and we think that all the good preachers in the world need to be posh too. Or perhaps, we’re rough as guts—and we want a down-to-earth preacher. Never mind—many times God sends us his Word, through someone who is nothing like us—a complete foreigner, someone who has had a completely different life from our life. If this happens, and they speak the word of God, and a particular word of God that we don’t necessarily like, we need to be careful, that we don’t reject the word, because we don’t like the preacher. God chose to send a rough-as-bags, scruffy, bug-eating man to carry out this duty in our reading today—the most holy duty ever to be performed: the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in our reading today, it says that Jesus came to the Jordan. Let’s just have a think for a moment what’s significant about this place, the Jordan. We all know that Aboriginal people here in Australia like to think about the significance of a particular place. This place, the Jordan, was also a significant place. It had a history. The Jordan is a river. And all throughout the world, rivers often form a boundary between two countries or something like that. For example, in Australia, if you cross from Victoria into New South Wales, you have to cross the River Murray. The Murray River forms the boundary between those two states. Now, also, the River Jordan forms the boundary between the promises land of Israel, God’s chosen people, and the land of the Gentile people. Many years before John the Baptist and Jesus were there, the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan into the promised land with Joshua. In fact, the priests stood with the Ark of the Covenant in the middle of the river, and the water stopped on either side, so that God’s people walked through on the dry ground. So, we can see, that the River Jordan was a very special, significant place. In fact, it’s almost like, when people were coming to John to be baptised, they were entering the promised land all over again—not the land of Israel, but a new, heavenly country—Paradise, Heaven, the New Jerusalem. And when Jesus is baptised, we get a picture of this, because it’s not the water that splits apart here, it’s the heavens, the sky, the clouds, that split apart, showing us that when we are baptised, we don’t enter the promised land, but we enter into the promise of heaven and eternal life.

So we read in the Gospels that all these people were coming out to John to be baptised. And what do we read that they were doing? It says, that they were confessing their sins. Now, along comes Jesus… what sins do you think Jesus had to confess? None. He hadn’t sinned at all, he had no sin, he was sinless, he was completely and totally without any sin, any guilt, any fault, any stain or blot whatsoever. So why does Jesus come to be baptised?

Actually, even John is a bit confused about it all. He says to Jesus: I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me? He is thinking: Hang on a minute! Jesus, you are the sinless one, you are the holy Lamb of God! I am a sinner. Shouldn’t I come in all my sin and be baptised by you, who are totally pure and holy and sinless? Why is it, that you, the perfect one, come to me, an imperfect one? Why is it, that you, the sinless one, come to me, a sinner? Why is it, that you, the holy one, come to me? A wretch like me?

And Jesus says to John: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness. And we read: Then John consented. So how does Jesus and John fulfil all righteousness by doing this? Well, the only people who were allowed to be baptised here were sinners. If you didn’t think you were a sinner, John sent them away. But Jesus, who is not a sinner, wants to come and be with sinners. He wants to show that in baptism, he takes their sin, he takes their impurity, he takes their guilt, and also in baptism, he gives sinners his righteousness, he gives us his forgiveness, his holiness, his purity. We might look at ourselves, even though we are baptised, and think, but I’m not holy or pure! Yes, you’re not, but you’re with Jesus, and he covers over all of that, so that when God looks at you, he doesn’t see your sin, he sees only the holiness and the perfection of Jesus himself, because you are with him.

And so, Jesus takes our sin, and he gives us his righteousness. He fulfils all righteousness. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians: For our sake, [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. When we realise our sin, and when God allows us to see it for what it is, we might just want to pluck some piece of our body out and leave it on the ground somewhere. If only we could get rid of it! If only we could undo the past, and fix it, so that we hadn’t done that thing or that thing. But Jesus stands there in the River Jordan and he says to us: Listen, I know your sin even better than you know it yourself. And when you look at your sin, don’t see your sin anymore there, see me. Because I have died for your sin, and I have risen again from the dead, and now I clothe you with my forgiveness and my righteousness. I have fulfilled all righteousness. That’s what’s happening here in Jesus’ baptism.

Now, we come to the last part of our reading which says: 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.”

This is such an amazing event, which shows to us the three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We see the Father speaking his clear voice from heaven, the Son being baptised in the water, the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove.

Now, in the Christian church, we believe that there is God, but that he has revealed himself as three persons. We believe that there are not three gods, but one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now, when we say “person”, we don’t mean a flesh and blood human being like you and me. Only Jesus, the Son of God, took a human body. The Father and the Holy Spirit are spiritual, divine beings. They are without bodies. But Jesus too is true God, so that he lives and dwells with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one God. Remember how we say at the end of our prayers: We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. That’s a wonderful confession of faith that we make each week, and we shouldn’t take it for granted.

Sometimes, this stuff about the Trinity can sound very complicated, and it can do our head in a bit. And maybe to explain all of this further is a job for another day. But anyway, let’s remember that when God does something, it is always the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who do it together. For example, when God created the world, it is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who created it. When God baptised you in this church or another church somewhere, it was the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who did it.

But at the same time, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have different personalities, and they are not all the same. So, at the baptism of Jesus, we see God the Father speak from heaven, we see Jesus there in the water, and the Holy Spirit come down on Jesus in the form of a dove.

So, what is special about the way in which Jesus, the Son of God is revealed here? He is a man, a human being just like us, who takes on the weight of all the sin of every single human being who has ever lived in the whole history of the world right up until the present time, until this very minute and second, and right up until the end of time. And he fulfils all righteousness by taking human sin on himself and giving us the perfect righteousness and holiness of God as a complete and total free gift. He does this by forgiving our sins, and this forgiveness belongs to us simply because we believe it. We believe it and it is ours. And Jesus delivers this forgiveness right into your lap, and right on top of your head, when he baptised you.

What is special about the way the Holy Spirit is revealed? He is revealed as a dove—a peaceful, gentle, white bird. It was a dove that showed to Noah that the flood was over, and that everything was now safe and at peace. In the same way, when God sends us the Holy Spirit, we are at peace with God. There is no more flood, no more anger of God, because all is forgiven. And Jesus is the one who sends out the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit comes and lands and stays on him. Jesus breathes out the Holy Spirit, he speaks to us his Spirit-filled words, and sends us the perfect peace of God. And so, at the baptism of Jesus, we see the Holy Spirit revealed in the form of a dove.

And what is special about the way the Father is revealed? He is revealed as a voice from heaven. We don’t see his mouth, we don’t see his face, we don’t see his body. We only hear his voice. And this is a very important lesson for us: we should always remember when we hear God’s voice, we never see his face. The Bible, for example, is God’s Word, God’s living voice, but we don’t see God’s face. When a pastor preaches God’s Word, we hear the living Word of God, but we don’t see God’s face. When we’re baptised, we hear God’s voice, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”,  but we don’t see his face. When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we hear God’s voice, “This is the body of Christ”, but we don’t see God’s voice.

The reality is that God’s face, God’s form, his shape, his figure, what he looks like, is just too much for us. We wouldn’t be able to endure it. Deuteronomy says: Our God is a consuming fire. So if we can’t see God the Father, if we can’t see his eyes, his mouth, his face, his form, how do we know what he thinks about us? How do we know if we are acceptable to him? If he loves us, or hates us? If he wants to destroy us, or if he wants to bless us? How do we know?

He tells us. He tells us. That’s why we have God’s Word! And at the baptism of Jesus, God the Father doesn’t stay silent, he speaks. And he says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. He says what he thinks about Jesus twice. He is not just his Son, but he is beloved, and well-pleased. He says the same thing in two different ways—he loved his Son, and he is pleased with this Son—because he wants us to be doubly sure. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are not three people who live together and bicker all day long. They live together in perfect love and unity.

And so, when we are baptised too, and made part of God’s family, God also shares his love with us. It is because of his love, that he sent his Son into the world as a human being, to die for our sins and to rise again. It is out of love, that he forgives us. And so, when we are baptised, God sends us his Holy Spirit. When we are baptised, we are made children of God together with Jesus Christ his Son. When we are baptised, God says to us: You are my beloved son and daughter, with you I am well pleased. 

People who don’t acknowledge their sin and their sinful life and their sinful condition have no interest in going to Jordan and listening to the preaching of John. They have no interest in meeting the real Jesus there, and seeing his Father and the Holy Spirit. This whole event is of no value to them whatsoever, but is just a joke.

However, if you know your sin, and realise you are completely helpless before God, then run to baptism, be baptised, or comfort yourself with the fact in history that you were baptised at some point in your life. This baptism is God’s gift to you, so that you look to it, and trust that the forgiveness of sins has been poured out on you. Remember that you are baptised together with Jesus, and a swap has occurred. Your sin is on him, and his righteousness and holiness are on you. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been shown to you, revealed to you personally, and Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness. Amen.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful gift of baptism. Send us the power of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly dove, so that we may live as your beloved children on this earth, and finally enter the promised land of Paradise, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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 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.

Advent II B [Mark 1:1-8] (10-Dec-2017)

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

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

After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.

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 speaks about John the Baptist and his ministry. And this comes to us from the very first chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Mark writes: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The word “gospel” means “good news”. And particularly in ancient times, when there were various wars going on, the people of a particular city would have been waiting for some kind of messenger to come galloping on his horse down the road to the city gates to tell the people some news: either good news, or bad news. Bad news would be: “the enemy is coming”, “the king is dead”. But good news would be: “they did it!” “We won!” And all the people would shout, “Hooray!” And then they would prepare to get ready for a wonderful celebration for when their king and the army would return, and have music and dancing and food and celebrating!

In our world today, we are faced with a lot of bad news. There are tremendous things happening around the world: wars, famines, refugees. All these things are bad news. Our parliament this week has approved the marriage of two people of the same sex. This is bad news. Sex and gender are things which God has created in each one of us and are his gift, and taking the distinction of gender out of marriage is a serious thing. People in our country in the last year have wanted even to stop children giving Christian cards at Christmas, shops are discouraged from having nativity scenes, Christian Christmas carols are heard less and less on the radio and TV and in shops. This is bad news. But if we go and look back in the days of the Old Testament, we will see there many generations of kings, where God’s own people worshipped idols, golden calves, burned their own children as offerings to evil spirits, conjured up the dead, performed witchcraft, and all kinds of other crazy things. At one time things were so dark that Elijah the prophet despaired, thinking he was the only believer left in the world. Many Christians are feeling like that more and more today.

There are so many passages in the prophets—whether it be Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel—where everything looks like all is lost. But God promises to remain faithful—he will always keep a faithful church on earth that holds to his word. You see, when all around us is nothing but sin and shame, we need to realise that the only people who will be part of the church are sinners. God will convert people just as he did to you, and change their hearts, and turn them back to himself. In Isaiah chapter 9 we read that it is not the people who already walk in light that see the great light, but the prophet says: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. And later the prophet says: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. We must remember as we prepare for Christmas that it is precisely to a sinful world with no hope from itself that Jesus our Saviour and our King comes. He comes to no other world than a sinful one, he shines his light on no other world than a dark one, and he brings his joy to no other world than a sad one. And so the angel came at Christmas and said: Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.

And so also in our reading today, we read about the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So how did this gospel begin? How did the good news begin?

Mark begins by quoting from two of the prophets. The first quote comes from Malachi: Behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. The second quote comes from Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ Mark applies these two passages to John the Baptist, so that we understand very clearly that the messenger that God sends is John, and the voice of one crying in the wilderness is also John. John is like the messenger who comes into the city after the battle on horseback, and says: “We’ve won! We did it!” He prepares the way for the king to come in so that the people will celebrate when he arrives. He’s like the MC at a wedding, who gets everyone to stand up, charge their glasses, and prepares them to welcome to bridal couple.

So John is a messenger, and a voice. It is so important for pastors when they preach to believe that it is not their ministry, or their word that they are to speak, but that it is God’s ministry, the ministry of Jesus, and it is his word that they speak. Jesus says to his disciples when he sent them out: The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me. And so John the Baptist is the voice of one crying the wilderness. John is the simply the voice, but it is not him who crying in the wilderness, but God who cries out in the wilderness using John’s voice.

Both of the prophets, Malachi and Isaiah, say that this messenger, this voice— John—is sent to do one thing: Malachi says that he will prepare your way. Isaiah says: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Do you hear this word “prepare”? Can you imagine if an army had won a battle, and the war was ended, but nobody knew about it in advance? Can you imagine if at the end of World War II if all the Australian troops simply came home and marched through the streets without anyone knowing about it? There would be no ticket parade, no celebration, nothing! They needed a man on the radio—a voice!—who says: “The war has ended!” And so he “prepares the way” for the troops!

And so, John also prepares the way for Jesus, so that when he comes, people are expecting him and they recognise him. And so, let’s read about what John was actually doing to prepare people. We read: John appeared, baptising in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

Some of you have told me about your travels out to Queensland’s “wild west”, and some of you might have visited the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service out at Longreach. Earlier this year, I visited the Royal Flying Doctor’s museum in Dubbo. And we watched a video there about all these “bushwackers” in the outback, and how they looked after their health. One man had cut a skin cancer off his own arm with a knife! The interviewer said: “Aren’t there germs on that?” And the man replied, “No, not at all! I once saw a couple of germs on my knife, but not anymore!”

Now, in some sense, this is the kind of person that John the Baptist is. He’s like one of those bushwackers from the outback! There is John, dressed in camel’s hair, a belt made out of home-made leather, and what was his food? Locusts and wild honey. When we think of locusts, we normally think of them as a pest. I’ve never been in a locust plague, but in the book of Exodus, we read that locusts were one of the plagues that God sent over Egypt. The crops would have been completely destroyed. A man once visited me in Victoria, a week after he had been driving through a locust plague. You can imagine the front of this car was just full of splatter!

And yet, in the book of Leviticus, God gave certain foods to the Jewish people as clean, and forbade them from eating certain other foods. You might know that Jewish people even today don’t eat pork. When it came to insects, there were also some that God forbade, and some that God allowed. In Leviticus 11, it says: You may eat… the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind, and the grasshopper of any kind. But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you. Honey was also made by bugs, by bees! And so you can see how John survived in the desert right at the bottom of the food-chain, wonderfully trusting in God’s own hand to provide for him, relying on locusts for food, and bees for honey.

Now, what’s amazing about John is that God sends him (of all people!)—not a respectable, educated man from the city, but a bushwacker from the outback, the kind that has to cut his own skin cancers off with a knife! And so, we learn a powerful message here: When God sends a man to preach, we should take no notice of the man, but of the Word he preaches. Because it is God’s word that saves us, not the preacher. If the preacher offends us because of something about him we don’t like, then we need to be careful that we’re not cutting off from ourselves God’s word.

And so, what was John doing? First of all, he was baptising. But he wasn’t doing it without explaining it, and he wasn’t doing it in silence. The same goes for us in the church: when we baptise a person, it never happens in silence. But it always happens together with God’s word. So when we actually baptise a person, the pastor says: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We use God’s word, and the exact words that Jesus told us to use. But also, we teach people about what baptism does and what it means for us, that baptism works the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Jesus said: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them, but not only baptising, but also teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And so this is also what John was doing. He was preaching the word of God. It says, he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And we see that a wonderful series of mass conversions comes about because of this. Now, today people often think that the Holy Spirit can be manipulated and almost fooled into having revivals and mass conversions. And in our country, mass conversions like this rarely happen. In Africa, or in Asia, we might read about many stories of mass conversions. At the time of Luther, we read about how many, many people turned from the superstitious practices of the middle ages and started listening to the bible and heard the Gospel. One thing though that those people had that many people in our country don’t have is a conviction that the bible is God’s word. John the Baptist could have preached anything from the whole Old Testament Scriptures, because it says that he was preaching repentance for forgiveness of sins. The whole bible can be broken down into these two teachings: repentance and forgiveness, law and Gospel. And so it’s so important for us today to confess clearly that, as St Paul says: All Scripture is God-breathed, or inspired by God. That the writers of the bible were moved by the Holy Spirit, that the Word of God is truth, that the Scripture cannot be broken, as Jesus says. Proverbs 30 says: Every word of God proves true. Our congregation’s constitution says: We believe and accept without reservation the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as a whole and in all their parts, as the divinely inspired, written and inerrant word of God, and as the only infallible source and norm for all matters of faith, doctrine, and life. The reason why it’s so important to hold to this is because when we hear or read something that we don’t agree with, and that shows us our sin, if we don’t believe that this is God’s pure, clear word, then we will always harden our stubborn hearts, and we won’t change our minds and repent when God calls us to, because God’s Word is the only way that he calls us to repentance. There is never a time at any stage of our life when God does not say to us: You need to change, your life is not as it should be, it must be different from what it is now! Until our last breath, we will never be free from sin. And so, this is how John prepares the way for the Lord: he preaches God’s law, and his strict judgment against sin. We don’t prepare ourselves for the Lord through our own works, but the Holy Spirit himself prepares us by convicting us of our sin through his Word. Hebrews 4 says: The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…and no creature is hidden from its sight. And if we don’t believe that the Scripture is God’s perfect word, we will never know our sin, we can never be prepared, and never be ready for Jesus. Who needs a Saviour, when we don’t know what we are being saved from?

But also, when we’re crushed and burdened by the conviction of our sin, even more in those times we need to trust that the bible is God’s word, because the Word of God is the only means by which God applies to us his forgiveness. There is not one single sin that Jesus has not atoned for and died for and sacrificed himself for you for. Jesus is our Lord and our God, our perfect and faithful and trustworthy Saviour.

And so we read how the people went to John the Baptist confessing their sins. It is a daily task of us Christians to confess our sins to Jesus, just as he teaches us to pray: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

But also, John’s baptism is not just to call people to repentance, but it is for the forgiveness of sins. This is the same as our baptism. And why can John say that it is for forgiveness? Because he points to Jesus, and he says: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John himself does not give forgiveness, but he points to Jesus who gives forgiveness. He says: After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.

And so, the same goes for us. Pastors baptise people with water, but because of God’s powerful and inspired word, we trust that Jesus is also here baptising people not just with water, but also with the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said: Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for what?... for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive what?... you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here we can see that the baptism which is performed with water and the word by human hands in the church is the means by which Jesus the Lord of heaven and earth sends us his Holy Spirit. And so, what a wonderful privilege and a gift it is to continually hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in the word of God, through the preaching of repentance and forgiveness, through law and Gospel, to strengthen and ground us in faith until our dying breath.

Jesus is mightier than John, because John is nothing but a voice. John is the messenger, but Jesus is the king who has won the battle and the victory belongs to him! And so Jesus, our Lord and our God, comes into our city and shares with us the spoils of war: he has won the forgiveness of sins, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he is the one who sends and baptises [you] with the Holy Spirit. And that is good news, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the best news that could ever be spoken. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful gift of your Word, the knowledge of our sin, your word of forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.