Hydrate: For Baptism (Matthew 3:13-17)

The Hydration of Baptism

We are going to take a few moments to talk about what has happened this morning in baptism. And I want to say this right up front: there are some of you who need to hear this, right now, this morning. I know this because I need to hear it. All of life’s meaning is bound up in what God has done here this morning.

I used to not believe this, but God in his grace has removed the scales from my own eyes: Baptism imagery is everywhere in the Bible. And it begins in the garden, with one river of life providing the water for the garden. We’re in our series, Hydrate: For all of life. And this morning we are seeing divine Hydration in Taylia’s baptism. God waters his garden, his people in the baptismal waters. In baptism he hydrates us.

This morning we have two questions in front of us as we pause for a moment to consider the baptism of Jesus himself. The first question is the one that confront us this morning:

What have we just witnessed here?

What happens in our baptism? What is God doing for us and to us in our baptism?

The other is the question prompted by the baptism of Jesus:

What does it mean to have God’s favor?

We are going to answer those two questions here in the next few minutes.

John the Baptizer

The story that Yuridia just read is from the New Testament book of Matthew, the very first book of the New Testament. This book is actually a letter written by Matthew to some people who were gathering together much like we are doing this morning. And those gatherings of people in the first century want to know whether or not this Jesus in whom they have come to believe really is the Promised King of Israel that had been promised in the Old Testament.

And Matthew writes his letter to them as an account of what he knew to be true about Jesus. Matthew is a first hand eyewitness, someone who spent three years with Jesus. A former tax collector… someone who made his living by extorting his fellow Jews. Jesus changes his life and Matthew becomes one of Jesus closest friends.

Among the stories that Matthew relates to these gatherings is the one we heard moments ago: Jesus’s cousin John is preaching and baptizing at the Jordan river. John is a weird guy… he hangs out with the animals in the desert, has a camel-hair get-up with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. (Just the kind of a guy that Taylia will marry someday, I’m sure.) John is a rock star. He has created quite a bit of buzz at the Jordan River, crowds are flocking to hear him speak about the coming of God’s kingdom to earth and the need to have sins forgiven. Among those who are responding positively to John’s message are those who are just like Matthew, the worst of the worst who are known as the sinners and low-lifes. They are having their sins forgiven as they are baptized into faith and repentance. Which is why John is known as The Baptizer

Jesus baptized by John

Jesus shows up to where John is preaching and baptizing, and the shock of the story is that Jesus wants to be baptized by John. And if you know anything about Jesus, you have the same response as John: Whaaaaaaaat? Jesus is the one who came into the world to save His people from their sins. Jesus has no need to be baptized. He’s not a sinner. He’s never sinned. He has no need to confess his sins or convert from unbelief to faith. John is stunned… he tries to talk Jesus out of it, and says “you should be the one baptizing me”.

Think about this… here are two people who know each other very, very well. They are cousins. John knows Jesus and Jesus knows John. They are having this conversation in front of crowds who are there to see the spectacle of John preaching and baptizing in a dirty river. John is well known, but who is this guy? And why is he controlling the conversation? Where’d he come from?

This one who is unknown is asking John to be baptized and John balks. That’s a new one. John is a great speaker with fiery words for the proud and sarcastic who could use some humility. John has been appealing to people to be baptized. Repent and be baptized. And here he is, taken aback at the request of the stranger who just shows up. Jesus tells John to do it anyway.

Matthew 3:15 “Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.”

Jesus’ words here are a reminder to John that there’s a bigger plan involved. Jesus basically says, “yeah, John, you’re right. I have no need to confess sin. I don’t need to convert from unbelief to faith. But I’ve come to save my people from their sins.” The very reason Jesus came into the world is why he is now on the bank of the Jordan River asking to be baptized along with sinners. It is necessary for Jesus to be baptized as if he is a sinner, because this is how he is going to save them from their sin. He is going to be among the sinners, take the place of sinners, and do for them what they cannot do for themselves: have their sins forgiven and make them right with God.

Jesus fulfills all righteousness FOR YOU

John gives in and baptizes Jesus. As John baptizes Jesus, Jesus is fulfilling all righteousness. Literally. This isn’t symbolic. Way too often this is presented as if Jesus was a supreme example of obedience in doing what we’re supposed to do in baptism. That’s not what the text says. This isn’t Jesus saying, I need to be an example of righteousness. No, he is fulfilling, he is accomplishing righteousness for His people. In that moment. In His baptism, Jesus is saving his people from their sins, people for whom he will eventually die on the cross. You see, if Jesus is not baptized in the Jordan that day, there is no baptism for the forgiveness of sins as John the Baptist had promised. Water alone does not accomplish God’s salvation for his people. Christ accomplishes salvation for us. Jesus and his substitutionary baptism, life, and death, and resurrection for his people is what accomplishes that salvation. If Jesus is not baptized that day, there is no baptism for Taylia this morning. No forgiveness of sins. No being welcomed into God’s family.

So John baptizes Jesus and the next remarkable thing happens. Matthew says“the heavens suddenly opened for Jesus”. And there is a voice from heaven, the same voice that thundered from a mountain hundreds of years prior… that thundering voice is now speaking words of love and divine satisfaction:

Matthew 3:17 “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

When Jesus steps into the water and stands in the place of sinners, the one who will eventually bear their sins in his body on the cross, he is doing the very thing he was sent to do: saving his people from their sins. And the Father is absolutely pleased. This is My beloved Son. And His actions today cause Me great delight.

Jesus was baptized FOR YOU

Those words are for Jesus. Those words are for us. The Father speaks those words to us in Jesus’ baptism. And in our own baptism. Jesus does this for us. Jesus does this for Taylia. The Father declares Jesus to be the beloved son. Because Jesus has come to save his people, he is now known as The Beloved. And that’s the answer to our question this morning. What have we just witnessed? We have witnessed the Father bestowing a new identity onto Taylia, a new name…because of the action of His son Jesus. Taylia is now known as a “beloved”. The new name she is given in baptism is the same one Jesus was given and we are given… One who has been loved. This daughter is one who has been loved by God in salvation, in forgiveness. The father uses water to make us every bit a son or daughter of God as Jesus is. And then he declares for all the earth to hear: This is One whom I love. He is saying to Taylia this morning and to every single one of us who have been baptized: you are One who is loved. A beloved child. And because of Jesus, I am very, very pleased with you.

We’ve stuck that into our slogan here at the Table. “Loved by Jesus.” This is our identity. This is who we are in baptism. “Loved by Jesus”. Forever. The Bibles says it can never be taken away from Taylia… or me… or you. We are The Ones who are Loved. That’s our name: beloved. The Table is Loved by Jesus. When we gather, we gather as ones who have been loved by Jesus in his baptism, in His death, in His resurrection… all for us.

God’s Favor on Jesus is Favor on You

God’s favor on Jesus is His favor on you and me. Some of you came here this morning wondering how in the world God could be pleased with you. There’s no way, you’re thinking. No way, God will be pleased with me. If you have been baptized, if you have placed your faith in Jesus, God is pleased with you. Not because of anything you have done, but because of what Jesus has done for you on your behalf. God is always pleased with you because God is always pleased with Jesus. It’s not your works that make God pleased. The Bible says we cannot please God. But Jesus did for us. He pleases God on our behalf. And so God says, in our baptism, you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, and I am very, very pleased with you. We don’t deserve it. Yet he is pleased anyway. Because He is pleased with Jesus.

And that’s the answer to the other question: what does it mean to have The Father’s favor? Having God’s favor has nothing to do with retirement plans, better futures for our kids, getting that better job, having great health. Having the Father’s favor is to be beloved. To be One who is loved. To be loved by Jesus. That is your identity. That is your purpose in life. The chief end of who we are is to be loved by God.

Having God’s favor has everything to do with Jesus, what he has done for us, being baptized on our behalf, dying on our behalf, and then being declared a son or daughter of God because of what Jesus has done. That’s what it means to have God’s favor, to have him always smiling on us. To be divinely hydrated as God watered His garden is to be a baptized child of God, possessing all the promises of salvation in Jesus, including this Spirit that comes to rest on Jesus. To be hydrated is to have Jesus and his salvation and the Holy Spirit living in us and with us all of the time. All given to us in the hydration of baptism.

And in those moments when we are tempted to think we don’t have God’s favor and we don’t have God’s smile on us, we look to our baptism and we tell the devil he’s a liar. Because God has given us His favor in our baptism. Baptism is God pouring out His divine hydration on us. He washes us with Living Water. He regenerates us. He has poured out the Spirit into our lives and he has forgiven our sins because this is exactly what Jesus has done for us. Jesus died for sinners, saving His people from their sins. This is what has happened here this morning. Jesus hydrates. Jesus hydrates us. This is why Taylia has God’s favor and you have God’s favor and we have God’s favor. This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus who gives us His grace and gives us the name: One Who Is Loved.

Let’s pray.

The Table

Do you want to know how you know you are loved? Right here. The font and the Table. Jesus gave us these two Sacraments not only to remind us how much we are loved, but to actually love us in the life and forgiveness that he provides through them. The act of baptism is actually a death. Water always has two purposes in the Bible… to give life and to kill it. The flood is an example. Another example is the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea leaving Egypt. When Jesus was baptized, he showed what he would do for us, he would die for us. The death we deserve, the punishment for sin that we deserve, is given to Jesus and he dies in our place. That death is reenacted in this Table. Jesus body was broken for us and his blood poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. And this is what he does for us in the Table.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24-26

“May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”