Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

1. Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed.

Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith.

May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen .

Our Old Testament Reading today shows us the dynamic, active power of God’s Word in its divine declaration:

There was darkness, and then God spoke, and darkness was compelled to give place to light.

So powerful is the Word of God that it causes simple water to become the means of our being united with Christ in His death and resurrection, as it is written in today’s Epistle Reading:

John was, simultaneously Old Testament Prophet - a 2nd Elijah - and New Testament Herald.

The garments are old - Camel’s hair for a robe and leather for a belt.

The message is new - a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

By means of that Word of God (Luke 3:2) - “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” () - the people of Judea, Jerusalem and the area surrounding the Jordan were drawn out of their comfort zones, drawn out of their ease, and pulled forward into a washing of water that worked repentance in their hearts and wrought confession from their lips.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Mark does not dwell on John’s ministry, for John is he who prepares for Another, for the mightier One.

The people were stirred by the novelty of forgiveness from water, and today, many are perplexed by the idea that “Baptism now saves you” ().

3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

The living power of God’s Word cannot be denied.

says:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

There is a false “Word of God” that goes forth from many so-called pulpits.

It does not come in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and Power.

and declare that the “Helper,” the “Spirit of truth,” when He comes, “will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

As Confessional Evangelical Christians, Lutherans have declared since the time of the Reformation, “[1] To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments.

[2] Through these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit who produces faith, where and when he wills, in those who hear the gospel.”

(AC V:1-2).

make his paths straight.’

”

4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 40.

This false “Word” does not convict of sin, instead, it brings people into bondage to demonic teachings that offer no salvation, as they seek for an earthly utopia and no longer “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” ().

These false prophets entice their audiences to “establish the Kingdom,” claiming that it is God’s Kingdom that they are “enlarging,” but they lie.

Only Christ can establish the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Bible declares to those who seek to establish the Kingdom without the King:

My charge today, however, is not to those who indulge this spiritual poison to the loss of their souls.

For them, I pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

God’s Word today is for those who have been given the Deposit of the pure Gospel, who, like the foolish servant, treat it like something to be buried, rather than something to be traded so that the Master’s goods may increase.

We are guilty, when we celebrate in our Lutheran holy huddle, the marvelous gift of the Reformation, the preaching of the Pure Gospel, which is able to save the sin-sick soul, but say nothing to those who are being led astray by a Jesus who cares not for their salvation, but only for their pockets, or a Jesus who sounds more like a disciple of Karl Marx than the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

We are guilty, when we look at the Pure Gospel, and the corrupt perversions of it, as being one and the same, when we say nothing to those who are in error, because we “loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” ().

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

It cannot be that the Reformation preaching of Christ who comes to us in Word and Sacrament, and the proclamation of those who deny that He does so, can be the same.

When we buy their books, watch their programs, and encourage others to trust in those “lying prophets” of , we are denying the Truth that delivered us from the condemnation of the Law, we are rejecting the glorious liberty of the Sons of God.

We are trading our inheritance for Jacob’s “red stew” ().

John was a faithful herald.

He refused to step out of his lane, he rejected the fiery darts that sought to lure him with the glory of men.

When they said, “Come on, be somebody!

Claim a status!

Become a celebrity!”

John said, “By the grace of God, I am simply “one who cries in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight”” ().

John was a faithful herald.

He refused to step out of his lane, he rejected the fiery darts that sought to lure him with the glory of men.

When they said, “Come on, be somebody!

Claim a status!

Become a celebrity!”

John said, “

The same God who told Jeremiah “I am watching over My Word to perform it” (), sent His Son from Nazareth, at the appointed time to fulfill all righteousness.

says:

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but Jesus knew no sin.

John’s baptism was to prepare the people for the coming of the King, but Jesus was the King.

Jesus had no need of repentance, but He chose to identify with His people.

Jesus went down into the water, not to be cleansed, but to identify with those who needed to be so.

declares

The Baptism of Jesus

The Baptism of Jesus

Jesus went down into the water, so that He could be lifted up on the Cross, to bear our sins.

proclaims,

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

We can get back up again today.

We can do our first works over.

We can, as we remember our baptism, “with joy draw water from the wells of salvation” ().

We can do this because Jesus did that.

We get to live, because Jesus came to die.

We can go to sleep in peace, because Jesus got up from the war.

Even death now serves us, because Jesus suffered death for us.

That’s what makes us bold to testify - the only true testimony, the only testimony that has power - Christ died for you!

It’s not about fancy cars, fine houses, political power, or the world’s acclaim.

It’s about a Kingdom that cannot be shaken - that’s what Christ came to secure for us.

I don’t care about a mansion on top of a hill, I don’t need the world with a shallow thrill!

“Just give me Jesus - my life He can hold.

I’d rather have Jesus, than silver and gold.”

(Kirk Franklin, “Silver and Gold.”

Capitol Christian Music Group, Brentwood, TN, 1993)

Five hundred years ago, God gave His Word to a German priest who dared to believe that God would keep His promise to save those who believe and are baptized.

He accepted the rejection of the world, for the sake of the Divine Call.

He endured affliction, because, in the words of one of his spiritual heirs, “Both the Law and the Gospel must be preached, the one in its sternness, the other in its sweetness.”

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, William Herman Theodore Dau, and Ernest Eckhardt, The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel: 39 Evening Lectures, electronic ed.

(Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000), 326.

In your baptism, in the Blessed Sacrament that you will soon receive, and in the preaching of the Gospel in your hearing, God has given you that same Word.

We might not be able to say it in fluent German, but that is our heritage, because that is the heritage of the Church of Jesus Christ, a heritage that goes back, not 500 years, but 2000 years.

It’s the truth, because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, William Herman Theodore Dau, and Ernest Eckhardt, The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel: 39 Evening Lectures, electronic ed.

(Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000), 326.

I might not be able to say it in fluent German, but that is my heritage, because that is the heritage of the Church of Jesus Christ, a heritage that goes back, not 500 years, but 2000 years.

It’s the truth, because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Here I stand, God help me.

Will you stand with me?