The Baptism of Our Lord (2025)

Isaiah 42:1-7; Matthew 3:13-17

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ what a wonderful day to first gather together in the Season of Epiphany and hear of that day when our Lord went to the River Jordan and was baptized by John, for there we see the majesty of God, as the Son descends into the waters, the heavens are torn asunder and the Holy Spirit descends upon Him, while the Father in heaven looks down in love and says this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. On this day, Christ descends into the waters of Jordan to fulfill all righteousness for you.

Why was Jesus Baptized?

What sins did Jesus have?

In the wilderness, John was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So what was Jesus of all people doing there, He who is the Son of God, the second person of the trinity and the one through whom all things were made?

This is why John objects.

For John is the forerunner and his job is to point people to Christ, it’s John who cries out behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John acknowledges that He needs to be baptized by Jesus.

Jesus went there for sinners.

That’s who was gathering around John in the wilderness. Sinners who were in need of salvation, and so where else would we expect to find the savior of Sinners, but to do what they could not, fulfill all righteousness that they might be saved.

More Than Just Water

What can water do for my sins?

What’s a handful of water against my sins. How great are the sins that we commit, can it wash away your lies, your betrayals, your greed, your adultery, your murders, the hatred, can it take that stain away from your soul, that you works have been unable to do? When people look at it, they say, what is that font compared with sins like these?

What can Jesus do?

Jesus is the Son of God who was born to be our Savior. Jesus is the one through whom all things were made, and when He made them, God looked and saw that it was very good. So why did the Father send JEsus, because He is the Word through which all things were created good.

Where the Word is, there is life.

Baptism isn’t just about the water. If it were just about the water, then you would be right to question what good can it do for my soul? The little bit of water that we use isn’t enough to even start to cleaning a person. But when the Word of God is added, it becomes a fountain of life.

Bearing Our Sins

This Water is filthy.

For people come there for their sins to be washed away. Now what happens if you have many people all using the same water? For our sins aren’t just small sins, but if our sins were manifested on our flesh as filth, and the water washes them away, how many generations and how many people have been baptized at that font. Have had their sins washed away, and yet they come away pure. That’s because

Jesus’ death makes this water clean.

They are waters that can handle any sins, and remove them from us that we might walk away. Jesus’ death overcomes the corruption of Adam, that had been passed down throughout the generations, that we might live forever. Now in the Old Testament there was something that pointed ahead to this.

Moses threw a tree into water.

The waters were bitter, and no one was able to drink them, even though they were in desperate need, but then God points moses to a tree, and he throws it in and the waters become sweet. This foreshadows what the Cross would do, for the waters of Holy Baptism. Christ came that we might have the waters of everlasting life. This connected with the

The New Creation

Christ came to make things new.

The world as it is has to pass away, for it has been corrupted by sin, and the only way to remove sin from teh world entirely, is through its end, that is why Christ had to die to put an end to your sins which He took upon himself. In Genesis, when God created the heavens and the earth, do you know

What was hovering over the waters?

The Spirit, in Baptism, you have the Father in heaven speaking, the Son in human flesh in the waters, and the spirit descending upon Him. In Baptism we are born again, born from above, but not of the old creation which is passing away, but the new creation that is accomplished through the very same one who made all things good in the beginning. The same

The same Spirit that gave life to clay.

in chapter 2, is poured out upon us in Holy Baptism, that we may no longer be dead in our trespasses and sins, but that we might be brought to life in Christ. That’s why we as joyfully confess...

I am Baptized

To Be Baptized Means God:

gave you His name, (Matt 28:19)

The Father in heaven is your Father, and you are His child. Not based upon what you have done, for we are baptized, it is something that happens to us, like saying I am born, I don’t birth myself. But you belong to God’s family and can approach him in prayer.

washed away your sins, (Acts 22:16)

All of them, not just the little ones or the sins that are known by friends and family members, all of your sins have been washed away in Holy Baptism, and Christ went down into those waters, so that you might come up clean from the font.

United you with Jesus’ death, (Rom 6:3-11)

What power did Death have over Jesus? None! He got out of His tomb on Easter morning victorious, and so if you are united with Christ, if you died with him and are buried with him, for Jesus died for you that you might be raised with Him.

It means that God saved me. (1 Pet 3:21)

Not because of works done by me in righteousness, but because of God’s goodness, and loving kindness, he showed mercy to me a poor miserable sinner and by this washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit brought me out of death to life, that I might be an heir of heaven.

That’s why the hymn says, when nothinig else revives your soul, your baptism stands and makes you whole.

So my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as we rejoice in the Baptism of Jesus today, let us also rejoice in the good gift that God has given us in