First Sunday of Epiphany Baptism of Jesus 1/13/13

First Sunday in Epiphany 1/13/13 Text: Luke 3:15-22 Title: God Has Tabernacled Among Us. In this Epiphany season we joyfully focus on the gift of the incarnate Son of God; Immanuel, Jesus Christ, God with us. Many people ask why did God have to come to us. The answer is actually pretty simple. God had to come to us in our form, our likeness, for we, as hard as we might search for and try to reach cannot find the true God on our own. God created Adam and Eve and all their descendants to walk in fellowship with him. That was his will, still is, and will always remain his will until he comes in glory to restore his creation to the way it was when he created it and said, “It is good.” Because Adam and Eve decided that they really could not trust God to provide for all their needs, even though he had, they sinned against God. God, being the perfect God that he is could not let them get by with that, so he threw them out of the garden, not because God was mean, but because they were sinners and if allowed to eat of the fruit of the tree of eternal life would infect his holy garden with sin. So out they went into the world as we know it today with all of its problems, sickness, and death, as we have seen in our own congregation the last few weeks with the deaths of Jim, Doug, and Margie, as she approaches the end of her life. But God being God would not leave his human creation without hope of forgiveness and restoration. That is why he promised a Messiah that would be the redeemer even before he banned his human creation from the Garden. He did that because he loved what he had created. He wants to restore his creation back to where it was before their rebellion against him, a rebellion that still continues today. That is why he came to be one of us, Immanuel, God with us, Jesus Christ. No one else could redeem us from sin and the power of the devil, for his human creation did not belong to anyone else, it belonged to him alone. That is why, during this season of Epiphany, the manifestation of God, we will see through the reading of God’s Holy Word that Jesus is God. It might be good, at this time to define Epiphany and manifestation, a couple of very important, what I call church words. Epiphany means the sudden appearance or unveiling of God. Jesus did that in his birth. Manifestation means that in this appearance or unveiling of God his power and might are known by human senses, such as sight, hearing, or touch. In other words God who is a spirit shows himself in all his glory and power by becoming Jesus a human being in the flesh while still remaining God. Just a little side note, but an important one, to keep in mind as we study the Gospel of Luke this year, especially during the season of Epiphany. Centuries before Jesus’ coming to be one of us God’s presence was in the temple, specifically the Mercy Seat which covered the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holy’s, the innermost part of the temple. It is there that the High Priest once a year offered a sacrifice for himself and the people. Israel’s life centered around the temple, for in the temple God met his people. Israel’s very existence depended on God’s presence in the temple. That is why every time the temple was destroyed it was rebuilt until the last time is was destroyed in 70 ad. Luke’s purpose in writing his gospel is to show through the events of Jesus’ life that he has recorded for us that Jesus is replacing the temple in which God lived before. John tells us in John 1:14 that Jesus dwelt among us. The Greek says instead of dwelt that he tented or tabernacled among us. That is important for it was in the Tabernacle or Tent of the Meeting that God traveled with his people in the desert and years before the first permanent, as in it being built in Jerusalem, temple was first built. So, since Jesus is now the temple which he told us would be torn down and rebuilt in three days which the disciples found out after his resurrection was not a stone and wood temple, but Jesus. In Jesus who is the truth, the life, and way there is absolutely no need for a manmade temple now or in the future. Maybe that is why the temple has never been able to be rebuilt. We first see this substitution for the temple in the story about Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. You could thus say that Mary’s womb was the Holy of Holies. This does not mean she was sinless, for the word holy means “set apart for God’s use.” but only that her womb was chosen as Jesus residence before his birth. The unfolding of Jesus being the replacement for the temple continues with his arrival in the temple when he was 40 days old and being dedicated to God where Simeon proclaimed him to be the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. It continued with his teaching at the temple where he told his mother and Joseph, “Did you not know that I need to be in my Father’s house.” Then there is this long silence from age 12 until age 30 where we read in our Gospel reading for today about Jesus’ baptism. God the Father in proclaiming that Jesus is his Son declares to all people that Jesus is, even if they did not know it at the time, the Messiah their full and complete substitute. He is God and God is in him. He is the temple. Jesus’ baptism has been discussed and discussed through the centuries as to its meaning. What is important for us today to understand is that when Jesus was baptized, just as he did when he celebrated his last Passover meal before his arrest and death he changed the meaning of Baptism. John’s baptism was, as we are told was a baptism of repentance, where the person being baptized made the decision to be baptized. John called them to repent and then washed them with water, symbolizing their being clean. That is why it is called the baptism of repentance. It is something that they did. Jesus’ baptism on the other hand became a baptism in which God acted in the giving of the Holy Spirit to the one being baptized which had not been done before. It is hard for most Christians to understand that in baptism that the baptism is the work of God and not their own work. This is what I mean. In baptism whether, it does not make any difference, you submerge in water, pour over water, or sprinkle with water you see a person performing a baptism and a person receiving baptism. Thus the logical conclusion is that it is something we do, or at the very least something we are helping God to do. There is the problem, for baptism, as in the Lord’s Supper, is not something we do or add to, although we are saying and doing something; it is entirely God’s doing, for only he can give faith and forgiveness. Let’s see what God’s Word has to say about it. First off, in 1 Peter 3:18-22 we read, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, (that is the saving by water) now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” You can’t get much clearer than that unless you choose not to believe that God’s Word. Baptism saves you. Why is that? It is because it is not the water or how the water is applied that saves. It is the Word of God which is spoken, as commanded by God, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mat 28:19-20 ESV) The Word saves, just as the Word saves without water, because it is only through the Word that you learn of the true God and his saving work on your behalf through Jesus our Lord. There is no greater sure assurance of freedom and relief for troubled, tormented souls than our baptism. There is no greater answer given to the deepest questions that trouble us than the sweet message of peace proclaimed in Jesus through his baptism and cross and resurrection and ascension, for in Jesus God has tabernacled among us. Amen.