Date: January 9/12, 2020
Text: Matthew 3:13-17
I didn’t know much about the process of adoption before we started the process that led to our daughter. I could go into detail about everything we went through and our circumstances were different than what other families go through. From the beginning of the process until we were matched up with Libby was over a year. Then after we were matched with Libby we had to go to California. Then it took about a week to get permission to bring her back to Minnesota. Even then, the process wasn’t finalized. For that we had to go to court and go before a judge. That was several months after bringing her home. That is an interesting part of the process. You have to promise before a judge that you will raise your child. It is a little intimidating but also joyful. The judge said she really likes adoptions compared to other cases. We took pictures with her after it was done. I mention this because we are talking about baptism today. Our baptism can be compared to adoption. Before we talk about our baptism however, we focus on the baptism of Jesus. God announced that he was pleased with Jesus. Today let’s think about this, “Is God Pleased With Us?”
Part 1: If we look to ourselves we would say “No”
When John the Baptist carried out his mission, he understood the need for Jesus. In his day, as it has been ever since the Fall into Sin, people were born sinful. Everyone needs a Savior. We all sin every day throughout our entire lives. Many people don’t recognize their need for a Savior. Even if we do recognize our need for a Savior, our conscience still needs reminders of our sin because our sinful nature and the devil are doing everything they can to convince us that we are good people because of our own merits. That is why we see a strong law proclamation from John the Baptist.
Earlier in chapter 3, John the Baptist said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:7-10). We focus on the message of repentance because that is a key part of the life of a believer. Because of sin, God is not pleased with us. But when we are repentant, we are focused on the one way God becomes pleased with us.
John knew that many people were focused on the wrong path of salvation. Many people weren’t taking their sin seriously. They either thought that it wasn’t significant enough for God to condemn them or they thought that they could simply do some good works to make up for those sins. Both of those ideas are wrong. Any sin can lead to eternal condemnation. None of our good actions can make up for our sins. That is not the one way for God to be pleased with us. People at John’s time focused on their heritage as a source of comfort. Because they were the people of Israel, because they were descended from Abraham, they had the false belief that they had a free ticket to heaven.
Because John recognized human sinfulness, he recognized the sinfulness of his own heart. That was a big part of the reason that he didn’t understand why Jesus would come to him for Baptism. He knew that Jesus was without sin. He knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who was going to take away the sin of the Word. And yet, Jesus came to him for a Baptism. John’s reaction makes sense. He said, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14). John was the sinner who needed the salvation that Jesus was going to win. And yet, Jesus’ baptism was an important part of his work as our substitute. He was beginning his public ministry to save us from our sins.
Certainly everyone needs the message of Christ. Everyone needs a Savior from sin. But for those of us who are sitting here, there is at least a part of us that recognizes the need to be here. Hopefully we are here for the right reasons but our sinful nature can make us come to worship for the wrong reasons. There may be times that we come simply to make our parents or our spouse happy. There may be times that we come simply because we feel like we have to because it is the right thing to do. There may be times that we come because if we come a certain number of times each year, then we don’t have to worry about the elders noticing that we missed worship too many times.
Some of these motivations may not seem too terrible but they are still ways that our sinful nature is leading us to focus on the wrong kinds of motivations. There might even be ways that people fall into the trap of the Israelites. People might look to their heritage for comfort rather than looking to Christ. People might stay away from church for a long time and then if they are asked about it, their response is to point to how many generations their family has been members of the church. Just because grandpa and grandma believed the truth, that doesn’t guarantee that the current generation believes the truth.
Since we all sin, it is important to specify between repentant sin and unrepentant sin. Repentance is the attitude of the believer. We know that we have sinned and we know that we are going to sin but we certainly don’t want to sin. When we do sin, we turn to Jesus for forgiveness and we pray for his strength to avoid that sin in the future. This doesn’t guarantee that we will never commit that sin again but if we remain in repentance, we will follow the same procedure if we commit that sin again. If we are unaware of a specific sin but then learn we are sinning from God’s Word, we will then take steps to avoid that sinful behavior. The repentant Christian wants to listen to God’s Word and learn from God’s Word.
John encouraged repentance because even Christians can be tempted toward unrepentant sin. Even if we sit in church week after week, there is a chance that we can be living with unrepentant sin. It doesn’t matter what the sin is, it is severely dangerous if we are unrepentant over it. The unrepentant heart is putting that particular sin as a higher priority than following God. That is a huge problem. Nothing should be more important to us than our God. If we learn that a fellow Christian is living in sin, God wants us to encourage them to turn away from it. If a person remains in sin and is unrepentant, that is not pleasing to God.
Part 2: Through Jesus, we can say “Yes”
Because our sin makes us displeasing to God, we need that one solution which will lead God to be pleased with us. We are fortunate that we have that solution in Jesus. We see this solution in the awesome event of Jesus baptism. This is one of the places in Scripture when we see the Triune God presented quite clearly. It is also one of the events that I would have loved to have witnessed. The Son of God being baptized while the Holy Spirit descends like a dove and the Father speaks from heaven, that must have been absolutely incredible.
What God the Father says is packed with meaning. He says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” First, it is a clear identifier that Jesus truly is the Son of God. Then it shows the love between the Father and the Son. It is a pure love and it is a love that will be carried out in action. God the Father loves his Son but he loves us also and he sent his beloved Son to suffer and die in our place. He is well pleased with Jesus because Jesus is doing everything necessary to save us from our sins. He is perfect for all the times that we have sinned.
The Isaiah passage talks about more reasons that the Father is pleased with the Son. It says, “In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope” (Isaiah 42:3-4). Jesus was faithful in bringing forth the justice that was necessary for our salvation. He was resolute in carrying out his task. He was not discouraged. It is easy for us to become discouraged as we live our faith but we see Jesus was not discouraged as he saved us from our sin.
When God saves us, he doesn’t favor one person over another. Acts said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” He doesn’t favor a pastor over a preschool child. He doesn’t favor a church president over a factory worker. He creates faith in the hearts of his people and he leads us to heaven through what Jesus has done to save us. He motivates us to live in repentance. He motivates us to flee from sin because we see the love of Christ.
The baptism of Jesus reminds us of our baptism. Through our baptism we are adopted as God’s Children. I like how it says it in Ephesians 1, “He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5) All Christians are God’s children. I like that it says “sonship” because we receive the blessings of the “Son” – Jesus Christ. Jesus won us salvation. He was perfect for us.
I also like the term adoption. It certainly has special significance for me as an adoptive parent. I like the emphasis of choice on the part of the parent. God chose us. And he didn’t choose us based on anything we had done. He chose us simply out of his love. His loves us even though we were unlovable because of sin. He didn’t chose us because we were so great. He chose us because he is so great and he wanted to save us from eternal condemnation. Through this adoption into his family, we have the hope of heaven.
Conclusion
Because of Jesus’ Baptism and Jesus’ work to save us, it is possible for us to be adopted into God’s Family. Our adoption into God’s family makes me think about the adoption process with our daughter. You can certainly say that we chose our daughter and that we loved her even before we met her in person. In a similar manner, God chose us and loved us before we were created. God promises to be there for us. May he continue to keep us strong in his Word and help us live in repentance. We give thanks for the salvation won for us by Jesus.