Sermon Tone Analysis

In the Name of Jesus

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

2 וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

3 וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃

4 וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב

Back all those thousands of years ago, we God has revealed, that the first state of creation was darkness, formlessness and void, in a word “chaos”.

God the Holy Spirit brooded and hovered (hinting at the form of a dove) over the face of the deep, something was about to happen to that chaos and darkness.

Something, unexpected, beautiful, amazing Glorious.

God said, let there be light and there was light.

And God saw that the light was Good.

The sun, moon and stars had not been created, and they wouldn’t be created until the 4th day.

Here we see something interesting about creation.

In begins in chaos and darkness but by the time God is finished with creation on the 6th day the tohu vabohu and the tehom are transformed into paradise earth which is the world of the eternal Sabbath rest.

Each of the six days of creation end with these words, “and there was evening and there was morning on the ___ day”

but of the Sabbath day Genesis 2 states

The chaos is gone, order, sanity, a beautifully ordered, masterfully planned, organized and created universe is in place.

But then our first parents in chapter 3 listen to the voice of the serpent, the adversary of God, and Paradise is lost, the sabbath rest of the God’s creation gives way to the punishment of toil and sweat, and slavery under the dominion of darkness.

The forces of chaos are working to undo, break, pervert and destroy God’s well ordered creation.

Jesus, the light of the world, the light that shines into the darkness of our world, the light that God in genesis 1 was Good, has now suddenly appeared and the place of his appearance, his epiphany is the Jordan river to submit himself to the baptism of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets and the first baptising evangelist.

And Jesus’ actions dont make sense.

Why on earth has the sinless, spotless lamb of God appeared to be baptised into a sinners baptism?

John is the one born in the darkness and chaos of sin, John is not the light, he’s been bearing witness to the light.

The true light has come into the world and was now standing before him and presenting Himself to be baptized.

John needed desperately to be baptized by Jesus and he would have prevented Jesus from being baptized but Jesus speaks, “let it be so, for now.

for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, othe heavens were opened to him,3 and he psaw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, qa voice from heaven said, r“This is my beloved Son,4 with whom I am well pleased.”

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב

And God saw that the light was good

And just like in Genesis the Holy Spirit of God, appears like a Dove, brooding over the face of the waters and descends and alights on the Son of God and now the Father now speaks and says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד

Jesus shows up in the darkness and chaos of sin and in the waters God begins the work of the New Creation.

Jesus is the New Adam

HILARY: In Jesus Christ we behold a complete man.

Thus in obedience to the Holy Spirit the body he assumed fulfilled in him every sacrament of our salvation.

He came therefore to John,5 born of a woman,6 bound to the law and made flesh through the Word.7 Therefore there was no need for him to be baptized, because it was said of him: “He committed no sin.”8

And where there is no sin, the remission of it is superfluous.

It was not because Christ had a need that he took a body and a name from our creation.

He had no need for baptism.

Rather, through him the cleansing act was sanctified to become the waters of our immersion.

John the Baptist is NOT the one who Baptizes with the Holy Spirit, Jesus is and we see here an amazing thing happen.

The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus and the Father declares Jesus to be his Son, in whom He is well please.

And since then Christ completed his course, lived His life sinless, and went to the cross, as the sinless, spotless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, your sin and mine.

He suffered for our sins in the darkness on the sixth day of the week.

He bled and died for your sins and mine and then on the seventh day of the week He rested in the tomb and on the first day of a brand new week he rose victorious from the grave.

The first-born of the new creation.

And He has sent forth His holy apostles, His emissaries to proclaim this good news to us, who were born in darkness and the chaos, tohu vabohu of sin.

And having heard the good news that

In the Name of Jesus