To Fulfill All Righteousness

Context

Baptism of the Lord Sunday

Last week. The Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. Left off with Joseph and Mary raising Jesus in Nazareth.

Now we skip forward in time. Jesus is 30 years old, the traditional age when a rabbi would begin his ministry.

Jesus is ready to begin his ministry as the Christ.

At that time John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness. He preached to the crowds to make ready the way of the Lord. And everyone came out to him confessing their sins, being baptized, and hoping to be ready for the kingdom of God that the Christ would bring.

Text

Matthew 3:13–17 “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, 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.””

Introduction

Welcome to 2026.

Every new year: A traditional time to put behind us the failures or frustrations of the past and set new goals for the future.

I’ve made a resolution or two.

Maybe you have also. Work out more. Better diet, better sleep.

But really, if I could make and keep any resolution, I would want it to be one that improves my relationship with the God.

To have a better spiritual life.

In Bible language, to fulfill all righteousness. I would love to feel right with God.

Maybe — since you are here at church — you also desire that.

Is it possible? Can we be right with God?

According to that question is Yes…but not because of the power of our resolutions…but because of what Jesus does for us.

That is what our lesson is about today.

EXEGESIS 1: Jesus comes to the Jordan to be baptized

John has been preaching to the crowds to repent of sin and make themselves ready for the Christ.

They are responding by being baptized.

Baptism an ancient sign of repentance from sin.

Down into the water: Cleansing from ‘dirt’ of the past

Up from the water: Beginning a new life of purpose and purity.

John is preaching and baptizing. One sinner after another comes forward.

Then John sees Jesus.

John: baptize in fire and spirit!

But Jesus has not come in judgment. He has come as if he were one of the multitude of sinners.

He he enters the water and comes to John to be baptized.

John is confused.

He knows Jesus is no sinner.

In fact, he has been preaching of Jesus: One greater than I is coming: I’m not worthy to carry his sandals,

So he protests: I cannot baptize you. You should baptize me!

Jesus insists: “Let it be so now to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus commands John to baptize him — Not to fulfill HIS OWN righteousness.

To fulfill ALL righteousness.

Jesus hints to John that it is precisely because he himself does not need to be baptized that he has come to the water.

He wants to be baptized on behalf of all God’s people. All God’s people who fall into sin, repent, only to fall again.

He has come, as the perfect one, to repent once and for all.

Jesus commands John to baptize him at the start of his ministry as a symbol of the real baptism that he will undergo at the end of his ministry. The baptism of his death and resurrection.

Precisely because Jesus has no sin of his own, he can at the cross bear the sins of others and die for them and rise again to give them new life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

John cannot understand it at the moment but…he can trust and obey…

John lowers him into the water, as Jesus will later be placed in the grave for others. Brings him up from the water, as Jesus will be raised from the dead with a new life for others.

APPLICATION 1: Let Christ fulfill righteousness

Like the crowds we long to be right with God. At new year especially.

The good news of the gospel is that getting right with God is not dependent on the strength of our resolutions.

Thank God for that!

Bad track record of resolutions.

The Lord’s baptism reminds us that a right relationship with God springs from what Christ has done for us.

Jesus being baptized in the Jordan was an event for a day…Jesus baptism on the cross was forever.

Romans 6:10 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.”

That means; Jesus’ baptism of death and resurrection stands forever and is available to us today to make us right with God.

We don’t understand it fully…but we can have faith. When we place our FAITH in Christ, WE OURSELVES are placed “in” Christ.

Romans 6:3–4 “…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? …in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

We are made right with God by trusting in what Jesus has done for us.

The only resolution we need to make is to keep turning to Jesus.

Like John, we switch the narrative from: I am not worthy…I truth you Jesus you are worthy to take my sins and give me your new life.

Pray to God always:

Forgive my sins, O Lord — forgive me the sins of my present and the sins of my past, the sins of my soul and the sins of my body; the sins which I have done to please myself and the sins which I have done to please others. Forgive me my wanton and idle sins, forgive me my serious and deliberate sins, forgive me those sins which I know and those which I know not, the sins which I have labored so to hide from others that I have hid them from my own memory. Forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all. Of thy great mercy let me be absolved, and of thy bountiful goodness let me be delivered from the bonds of all that by my frailty I have committed. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen. (by Thomas Wilson, Sacra Privata, as found in Minister’s Prayer Book by Doberstein, p. 33).

That is exactly what God will do.

All Righteousness is fulfilled when we entrust ourselves to Christ.

EXEGESIS 2: Jesus comes up out of the water and the heavens are opened.

John consents.

Jesus lowered into the water and then raised up.

When Jesus comes up out of the water, he sees the heavens parted.

Matthew 3:16 “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, …

He sees not just the sky…he sees the realm of God.

The heavens are normally closed off to humankind because of sin. Holy, Holy, Holy: The eye of sinful man thy glory shall not see…

As long as he has been incarnated, sharing in the experience of sinners, Jesus the Son of God has been deprived of that vision. He has not seen his true home for 30 years.

But in this moment he gets to see it.

His heavenly father grants him a vision of what Christ will accomplish for all.

For by his death and resurrection, Christ will remove the problem of sin, which bars humanity from heaven. He will open the way to heaven.

He himself will ascend to heaven.

And all who place their faith in him will be able one day to see heaven.

I go ahead of you, to prepare a place for you. So we may be together.

The desire for heaven to enter it himself and to open it for all, motivates him throughout the ministry ahead of him.

I have a baptism to complete and I am eager to complete it.

Not looking forward to the pain of death…looking forward to the joy of entering heaven and opening heaven up to all.

APPLICATION 2: Aim for Heaven

Just as we are united to Christ in his death and new life, we share in his destination.

Colossians 3:1–2 “Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

To be baptized in Christ is to share in his great desire…join Jesus and all God’s people in heaven.

Example: big swim event with my daughter. 100x100. It was good to train up for the event. Get in shape. Real pay off: being with my daughter.

There is nothing better to be purposeful about than Christ and going to heaven.

So, at the new year we can commit again to do things spiritual things:

Daily Bible reading (I like to buy a new Bible each year…)

Daily prayer

Coming to Church

Yet let us keep the goal in view. The spiritual life does not consist in those preparatory activities. They are helps to get us ready for heaven.

All righteousness fulfilled: when we our goal is just to be with Jesus.

EXEGESIS 3: The Father and The HS affirm Jesus

While Jesus is looking into heaven…

Matthew 3:16–17 “… 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.””

Visible HS, Audible Father, Tangible Son.

Revelation of the Trinity. The three persons of God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Later this morning, In the Apostle’s Creed. F, S, HS. One God, three persons.

Son who redeems, the Father who sent him, the Spirit who empowers.

This is an incredible moment in the gospel story: Jesus hears the voice of the Father, sees the dove of the Spirit, to assure him (and everyone) at the very beginning of his ministry that he is loved, accepted, empowered, approved.

When Jesus faces adversity, he will not doubt that God loves him.

When he is assailed by temptation, he will cling to God’s commands.

When he encounters people who are suffering or in bondage to evil, he will heal them by the power of the Spirit.

In short: Jesus, knowing the Father and Spirit are with him, lets nothing stop him from living out the full righteousness of God for the sake of others.

APPLICATION 3: You are beloved of God.

Just as we are united to Christ death and resurrection, share in his goal of heaven, we are right now God’s children.

When we are baptized into Christ, we are made sons and daughters of God.

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God and that is what we are.

In relation to our heavenly father, we don’t have to earn his love, he just have to trust it, like Jesus did.

You are a Good, Good, Father: That is who you are, ... And I am loved by you…that is who I am.

Since God loves me, what shall I say and do…

Baptized into Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit to empower our life.

So that we can love God and love others.

Fulfilled righteousness: I am loved and I am going to be be who God says that I am.

CONCLUSION

All kinds of great resolutions.

Most earnest one: to be right with God.

Fulfill all righteousness.

By trusting in Christ

By aiming to join him in heaven

living for him as his beloved child right now.

Blessing God, you drowned evil in the waters of the flood and promised a covenant of faithfulness with a rainbow in the sky.

In baptism you caused us to die to sin and raised us to new life in Christ. Trusting in your promises for earth and all people, we bring you our prayers for the world.

We pray for your church with its kaleidoscopic views of baptism, that it may meet the needs of all types of people in the world.

We pray for the world, that all people— and all creation— may know they are your beloved. We pray for those who suffer, that they will know your love for them, and we may be bearers of comfort.

We pray for your creation, that it may stay healthy and continue to nourish and nurture us.

We remember those who have gone before us and pray for those nearing death, that they may be at peace in your love for them.

In one baptism with Christ and blessed by your Holy Spirit, we praise and give you thanks, Holy One, for giving us spirit and breath. Amen.