First the victory, then comes the Fight

In Revelation 15, John hears and sees the new Israel standing on the sea of glass with harps singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty!” Notice that the new Israel is standing on the sea of glass. In the Old Covenant, God parted the sea so that Israel might walk on dry land, but in the New Covenant, our Greater Moses, the Lord Jesus walked on the sea as though it was dry land. And in Christ, the new Israel learns to walk on the sea as though it were covered in a sheet of glass. This new Israel is walking across the sea, over the tops of sea monsters, and the wind and waves cannot harm them. No storm can shake them because their eyes are fixed on Jesus.

But the story seems a little backwards in Revelation: this new Israel stands on the sea and sings the song of Moses and the Lamb, and after that, John sees seven angels going out with seven bowls full of seven plagues to pour out the wrath of God upon the earth. In other words, in this new exodus story in Revelation, the song of Moses comes first and then the plagues. First is the victory and then comes the fight.

But this is exactly right because the greatest and most marvelous work has already been done. There is nothing greater, no creative act more marvelous than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the cross of Jesus, every pharaoh was disarmed and all their chariots were thrown into the sea. In the cross of Christ, sinners were forgiven. In the cross of Christ, Jesus was exalted and proven to be the rightful king and heir of the world. In the cross of Christ, all the rival gods were triumphed over. In the cross of Jesus, a new and living way was opened for the world, a way back into the presence of God, a way to restore peace and justice, a way to put this world back together. In the cross of Jesus, God was revealed as a warrior, a man of war. And therefore, on this side of Easter, we celebrate the victory first and then comes the fight. We stand on the sea and sing our song of victory and then comes the battle.

And this has at least two implications for our celebration of baptism. First, this is one way to explain why we baptize babies. The objection that is frequently offered, that they are too young, that we do not know if they believe, that they may not be among the elect, -- these are all objections that would have made better sense in the Old Covenant in some ways, back when the victory was still shadowy and faint and ahead of us. But now the victory has been won. First is the victory then comes the fight. So first we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus for our children and mark them with His name and in His blood, and then we teach them to join the battle.

Finally, if Paul can point back to the crossing of the Red Sea as a baptism of the old Israel, as He does in 1 Corinthians 10, then it doesn’t seem odd to imagine this new Israel in Revelation standing on the sea as another picture of baptism. In the first instance, Yahweh displayed His rule over creation, bending the sea in two for His beloved saints to pass through, but in the new Covenant He invites us to share in that rule, in that dominion over creation. And so while we sprinkle a few drops of water on the forehead of a baby, we ought to see the power of God protecting and equipping another daughter of Eve to rule this world in wisdom. All the strength of Pharaoh, all the terrors of sin, all the might of Satan – it has all been disarmed and thrown down and rendered powerless and harmless. All the ragings of the sea are but a few drops of water on a baby’s forehead because Yahweh is a man of war. And Jesus is His name.

CJ and Lisa, teach your daughter these things. Teach her that the victory comes first and then comes the battle. Teach her that she was united to that victory in her baptism, and teach her to rule over the lusts and passions that war in her flesh and to subdue all of her fears and worries. Remind her that she is called to walk on top of the sea with her eyes fixed on Jesus.

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The Perpetual Virginity of the Church

Matthew says that the birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of Matthew’s prophecy of the virgin giving birth to a son whose name will be Immanuel. In the context of Isaiah, the birth of Immanuel is given as a sign to King Ahaz that the military plots against Judah will not stand. If Ahaz fears that the two kings are going to conquer Jerusalem and depose him, he must be assured by God’s word that the city will continue to stand in stability because a son will be born to a young woman in safety. But when Matthew quotes this passage at the birth of Jesus, only verses later we learn that there is a king plotting against this son. Herod wants to track this Child King down and destroy Him, and before it’s all over, a great slaughter of sons has occurred in Bethlehem. Bethlehem has become an Egypt and Herod is Pharaoh killing the male children perceived as a threat to his kingdom. And ironically, Joseph is hiding with his wife and newborn son in Egypt.

While God’s word to Ahaz was ‘stand still, be quiet, and do nothing,’ God’s word to Joseph is to get his family out of Judah and to run. So then, how is the virgin birth comforting? How is the birth of Immanuel a sign of safety if the holy family is immediately on the run? But let me connect these questions to baptism as well. If the Church is the virgin bride of Christ, the pure and chaste bride betrothed to Jesus, her husband, then there is some sense in which every conversion, every baptism is a virgin birth. Of course none are quite so spectacular as God born in human flesh, but something very similar is always happening. When a man, woman, or child is born again into the family of Jesus, it is the pure and undefiled virgin Church giving birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, and what is born is not born of blood or flesh or the will of man but the new life that is conceived here in the womb of the Church is of the Holy Spirit. No conversion makes human sense. No rebirth into the life of the Trinity is humanly possible. In this sense, as Protestants, we would deny the perpetual virginity of Mary, but we might be willing to speak of the perpetual virginity of the Church or at least the temporary, perpetual virginity of the Church: the chastity and purity of the Church as she awaits the consummation, the final Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when we finally are fully and completely united to the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the mean time, every new birth in the Church is the sign of Immanuel, the sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power to make God with Us, to be God with Us.

But this means that every baptism is the sign of Ahaz. Every baptism is the sign of Immanuel. Every baptism echoes the birth of God in the manger. Every baptism is a miniature Christmas. But how are we to be comforted with this sign in the face of threats? How are we to be comforted with this sign when the first virgin birth was followed by a slaughter of babies and a family on the run? Let me only suggest one possible answer: We might notice that after Joseph’s family is scattered, the disciples are scatted when Jesus is arrested in the garden and later crucified, then later, after Stephen’s stoning, the disciples are scattered again. But each time, the scattered ones have grown in numbers and responsibility. A remnant is always preserved, a seed is always saved. Whenever the word is scattered it brings forth a harvest. Our comfort and trust is always in the word of God, our safety is in His provision, but it is His wisdom to establish His kingdom through weakness and death. For unless a seed goes into the ground and dies, it will bear no fruit, and here is the seed of the Spirit, the miraculous conception of the life of God in human flesh.

So the charge for you, Jayson and Hannah, is to place your hope and trust in the Word of God, the Word of God made flesh, the Word of God in a manger in Bethlehem. The Word of God is the seed of the Spirit sown in our hearts for the life of the world. Teach your son to love this Word, teach your son to eat this Word, to be comforted by this Word, but ultimately teach him to die like this Word. Teach him to become seed that goes down into the ground and dies so that by the power of the Spirit his life might be scattered abroad and bring forth a great harvest of 30, 60, and 100 fold.

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Jude Carnahan

“And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy – everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering.” (Is. 3:3-5)

Pastor Leithart has already described how God is coming to strip away all the pseudo-priestly ornaments and costumes of idolatrous Israel, and the result is that they will be restored to holiness, washed clean, sprinkled with blood, and the Spirit will hover over them in the cloud and the fire. This is all priestly language: the sons of Aaron were set apart as holy to God, they were washed in water and blood was placed on their ears, thumbs, and big toes, and they were anointed with oil that made them glow like the fire of the Spirit. In other words, God is planning to judge Israel, and in the judgment He will restore them, He will remake them and re-establish them as a true priesthood.

And we see that this is exactly what happens at Pentecost. At Pentecost the Spirit is poured out on the apostles who have been washed in baptism and cleansed by faith in the blood of Christ, and then flames of fire appear over them. They become priests, anointed by the oil of the Spirit, living sacrifices for the world. And this is described in short hand by Peter when the crowds ask, ‘What shall we do?’ And Peter says, “Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39). What Isaiah promised began to occur at Pentecost, and it continues to happen at every baptism.

It’s no accident that in the early church, baptisms were frequently performed with the person stripping completely naked before being sprinkled with water. Just as Isaiah foretold, God strips us bare and then invites us to be washed and cleansed and purged and then anoints us with His Spirit, and His Spirit is our covering. But this should also remind us of the Garden of Eden. When God strips us bare and calls us holy and cleanses us and covers us with the glory of His Spirit, this means that we are being ushered back into the Garden of Eden. We are laid bare before God, and we are unashamed because His Glory-Spirit is our covering. The righteousness of Christ is our clothing.

But we quickly over-spiritualize this frequently, and we forget Christ’s very concrete commands about trusting God to provide for all of our needs. Being a priest in the Old Covenant meant that you had no inheritance in the Promised Land. The tabernacle and the worship of God was the provision of the Levites, it was their inheritance. In the Garden of Eden, it was the same: to be under the covering of the Glory-Spirit is for God to be our Husband, the one who provides our food and clothing. To be anointed as priests in the New Covenant is to be married to God, who promises to cover us, to provide for all our needs, He promises to be our inheritance.

Today, Jude is being ordained into this priesthood. He is being stripped bare of all the accoutrements of the world, all the ways in which Mammon seeks to provide for us, like a sleazy man trying to woo us away from our husband. Today, Jude is joined to the Bride and married to Christ, and this means that God promises to cover Jude with His Glory-Spirit. God promises to provide for Jude and protect Him. But this provision and protection is not a bare minimum. God does not promise to get Jude by. He promises a rich inheritance, the inheritance of Eden, the inheritance of a thousand Promised Lands, all the riches of the world and more. But if this is true, then Jude and every baptized Christian is called to live generously and frivolously. Your Father in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and He will never run out.

So Ben and Abra as you raise your son, teach him not to worry about what he will eat or wear. Teach him instead that he is a priest, an Adam in a garden full of food and the Spirit is His clothing, His covering. Teach him and model for him how to live like this is true: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, befriend the lonely, give yourselves away to one another and to those around you, and teach him to do the same because he has an inheritance that will never run out, grace that will never dry up.

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Deep Glory

In our sermon text today, the Lord promises to come in great glory and terror and judgment. The day of the Lord will come and men flee and tremble. The earth shakes mightily, and the glory of the majesty of the Lord shines forth in splendor casting down all the high things, all the pride and haughtiness of men. When God draws near there are thunders and lightening and earthquakes and great terrors.

But then God draws near in Jesus, and He’s a baby lying in a manger. Then he’s itinerate preacher rabbi like many others, and then he’s crucified on a Roman cross like thousands of other Jewish men in the first century. Of course, we can point to a number of rather extraordinary things about the life of Christ as well. There were angels announcing his birth, a voice from heaven at his baptism, numerous miracles, and of most importantly his resurrection from the dead. There were thunders and earthquakes at various points throughout His life and ministry. But it is not hard to imagine many Jews being perplexed looking at the descriptions in the prophets and then back at the Jewish carpenter in front of them saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…” And “do not resist an evil man…” And “bless those who curse you….”And “love your enemies…”

Hebrews says that this New Covenant shaking in Jesus is a fulfillment of Haggai, another prophet who speaks of the Lord shaking the earth. He writes: For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations,’ and I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. (Hag. 2:6-9)

The covenant is the greater glory that Haggai foretold. But greater glory isn’t necessarily bigger and more obnoxious sound effects. This greater glory is a deeper and more intense glory. And it does shake heaven and earth, but part of the glory is in the wonder of it all. In one sense, someone might have seen a little baby in a manger 2000 years ago and been a little disappointed comparing that scene to the descriptions of the prophets, though we know there were plenty of other indicators. But from our vantage, we can look back and unmistakable see the explosion that was detonated in that Bethlehem manger. What looked like an ordinary child, a nondescript man, another Roman crucifixion has in fact turned the world upside down. That spark has burst into a blaze that has begun to fill the world.

And all of this may seem rather unrelated to baptism, but the point is exactly the same. God loves to take ordinary looking things and reveal His glory in and through them. He takes weak things and displays His power. And so here this morning, we sprinkle a little water on this little baby’s head, and though it looks ordinary and small and weak, we see God shaking heaven and earth, we see God pulling down the proud and the arrogant, and raising up the humble and weak. We see the terror of God’s majesty shining forth. So Toby and Emily, as you raise David Wallace, the exhortation is twofold: first, believe the gospel, the story of God come for us in deep glory, the glory of a child, the glory of weakness, the glory of humility to save us all. And then teach your son that kind of glory. Model that glory for him in your love and care for one another, in your love and discipline of him. And raise him to love that kind of glory.

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The God Who Saves Us So That We Might Know Him

In our sermon text Yahweh emphasizes His name to Moses. And we noted that God’s name is all bound up with who God is and what He does. And when God makes His name known to the people of Israel, He will simultaneously rescue them from their slavery in Egypt and redeem them with His mighty outstretched arm and great judgments. And when Yahweh does this, He will take Israel as His own people and be their God, and then they will know that Yahweh their God is the one who brings them out from the bondage of Egypt.

Notice several things about this passage. First, notice that God is determined to save His people despite what they think. When Moses goes and tells the people again what God has promised to do, they do not listen to Moses. Yahweh is content to save His people despite what they think or believe. But this really isn’t surprising since the act of salvation is itself a manifestation, a display of who God is. After He rescues them, after He redeems them, then they will know that He is Yahweh their God.

Notice also the order of events. First, God is the one who keeps His promises. He remembers His covenant with the fathers, then He keeps covenant with the children in bondage, then He saves the children in bondage, and He makes them His people and He calls Himself their God. And it’s only then, after God has done all of this, that God says they will know Him. We love Him; because He first loved us. We know Him; because He first knew us. We serve a God who comes for His people even when they resist Him, even before they know Him, before they want Him to. And this is what it means for God to be Yahweh for Israel. He is God for them, the God who saves.

But all of this becomes even more glorious in the New Covenant. The God who was revealed in the Exodus has drawn even more near to His people. And there is a new name, a name that is above every name, the name Jesus which means Savior. And this Jesus came for us while were still enemies of God. This Savior always comes for His people. He remembers His promises to our fathers, to be our God, to forgive our sins, and to raise this entire world to new life.

And the pattern is still the same. God remembers the children of His people. Like the slaves in Egypt, all children are born enslaved to sin and death, but God comes to us with promises. And He says to us, I will bring your children out of bondage. I will bring your little ones out with my outstretched arm. I will redeem you with great judgments. And the only question is: do you believe this. Do we believe that the promise is to us and to our children? Dan and Amy, you are called to believe this today and all the days God gives you teaching, training, and loving Isaiah.

This God’s way: He promises and remembers us and our little ones. And then rescues us and our children, and He makes us as His people and He calls Himself our God. And the pattern is that after God has claimed us, after God has called us His people, then we come to know Him. Then we come to know His name as the God who saves, the God who rescues, the God who comes for His people. And every infant baptism is a picture of this glory. Here Isaiah is a son of Adam who needs to be rescued from the old world of sin and darkness and be joined to the life of the Kingdom of the Son. And God does this by placing His name on our children, making them part of His people, and calling Himself their God. In this baptism, God calls Himself the God of Isaiah Bakken. And as God does this, we are to look in faith to God believing that Isaiah will come to know this God who saves Him.

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The Wisdom and Magic of Love

The fruit of the Spirit is love. God is love. “Greater love has no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends.” “By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Love dies for the benefit of others. But this looks foolish. Love looks like it’s losing what it desires. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not appear to the disciples or to most folks like he was conquering sin and death and entering into His glory. He was mocked as the king of the Jews, but it didn’t appear to most that He was actually in the process of becoming the king of the world. Because love dies, love looks foolish, and love looks like it’s turning away from the very thing it’s seeking. And this is the wisdom of love.

Love is not a mere feeling, a heart throbbing, an emotional pleasure. Love is a kind of wisdom, a way of knowing, a way of understanding the world rightly. Love knows that God has made the world like a poem, like a riddle. God has made the world for children, children who love games and puzzles, and love to find that things are not exactly as they seem.

Baptism, Paul says, is burial. Baptism is a death. The Spirit is the love song of God, the music of the Trinity. And the Spirit wants to teach us to sing the song of the Father and the Son. He wants us to learn their love. St. Augustine said that the Spirit was their bond of love. And so we begin our Christian lives in the Spirit’s song of love by dying, by being drawn into the death of Jesus. But the death of Jesus is not suicide. This is no cult. The grave of Jesus was not as it seemed. The tomb of Christ was empty on the third day.

In other words, love is a kind of exegesis. When Jesus talked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He rebuked them for being so slow to believe all that the Scriptures taught concerning the Messiah who was to suffer and then rise again. The disciples had read their Bibles too woodenly. They read their Bibles like someone who doesn’t get a joke. They heard the words, they read the words, but they didn’t see the point, they didn’t get it. And this is fundamentally a failure of love.

Love is like faith in that sees more than merely what is there to be seen. Love sees what is unseen. Love knows, love understands in deeper ways than simple facts. Love lays down its life. Love is God the Son dying for us. Love is losing in order to win. Love is serving in order to rule. Love is dying in order to live. If death and resurrection is the theme, the climax, the chiastic center of all time and space, then everything else echoes that theme. Things are not as they seem. Words are more than they say.

And the whole world turns into a poem and a riddle. The whole world becomes magical. Stars are not just stars; they are rulers and angels and powers. And trees are figures of men and women, blessed and fruitful or old, bitter, and gnarled. And water might become wine. It might cleanse lepers. It might hold you up if you step out onto it. It teems with life and healing and salvation.

So, Joel and Mary, as you raise up Louella. Teach her about the magic of the world, and most importantly, the magic of love, how love dies in order to live. But teach her about how love sees the world, and sees the love of God in everything in the world. Teach her to see Jesus in the sunsets, see Jesus in the stars, see Jesus in kangaroos and teeth and starfish. Teach her to see His grace in everything so that she gets the joke, so that she can laugh in hope, and face every pain in faith. One of the most important ways you teach children to love, is by loving them and setting an example of love. Your love for one another is huge. Your love of God’s word, God’s creation, God’s people, and your love of the gifts God has given you – all of these loves are opportunities to walk in love so that Louella will grow up never knowing anything different, so that she will grow up in the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

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Baptismal Meditation: Becoming Children Again

“Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (Jn. 3:3-5)

One of the reasons we baptize babies is because Jesus told us to let the little children come to Him. And the reason the little children are to come to Jesus is not because they are cute and cuddly, but because they are the model citizens of the Kingdom. Jesus says that in the first instance it is not the children and infants who must grow up and learn to believe and have faith like grownups, but just the opposite: we must somehow figure out how to become young again and become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.

But even here, when we say this and believe this, we can still end up like Nicodemus, trying to figure out exactly how we are supposed to get back into our mother’s womb.
What exactly does Jesus mean? How do we become like little children?

Perhaps the greatest story that illustrates what Jesus means is Israel after the Exodus in the wilderness. God had promised Israel a glorious inheritance in the land of Canaan. He promised to go before His people and drive out the occupying nations, and to give His people cities and vineyards and blessings on every side. But Israel, seeing the giants in the land told God that He could not give the land to them. They are too big, we are too small. It’s just not possible, they said.

And so God said that since they did not believe His promises, since they did not believe His Word to them, He would not give them the land. Instead of bestowing the promised land on the generation that came out of Egypt, God said they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years until a new generation had grown up and the old generation had died away. And this is what happened: over the course of 40 years Israel became children again. And the children inherited the land of promise. The children believed the word of God and crossed the Jordan. And they took Jericho like children, marching around the city until it fell down.

And this means at least two things. First, every generation is a death and resurrection. Every child is the human race reborn. Every new child is a family reborn. Every new child is parents reborn. The centrality of children in the kingdom of Jesus has to do with the centrality of the resurrection. The only way to get into the promised land is to find some way to cross generations. The only way to escape dying in the wilderness under the curse of God is to find a way to re-generate.

The problem is that even children grow old. In the flesh that we have inherited from Adam, even the new generation eventually becomes the old generation. And so we come back to the question of Nicodemus. How can we become like children forever? How can we stay in the regeneration? How can we stay young?

The answer is believing the Word of God. The difference between the first generation and the second generation was faith. The second generation believed the promises of God. They saw the giants and the fortified cities, but they place their faith in God’s promises to their fathers. It was not their faith that gave them the land of Canaan it was God’s grace and might. But they believed God’s word and crossed the Jordan and headed toward Jericho. It’s not that their faith was great. It was that they believed the Word of God and knew that their God was great.

And so James and Alberta, this is not an exhortation to try harder or to hold your breath or bear down. The exhortation is to believe God’s promises that the salvation of offered in Jesus is here solemnly promised and sealed to you and to your son by the Almighty God. And it’s pictured wonderfully in the baptism of an infant. How could this infant possibly save himself? He can’t. At this point, he is completely at the mercy of God. If this child is going to inherit the land of promise, God will have to carry Him in and give it to Him. And Jesus says: exactly. And He calls to believe.

So believe these promises, looking not to faith which is not great, but to the God who is great. And model this faith before Charles, teaching him to look to this same Great God who is giving Him life and forgiveness and the world in King Jesus.

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Baptismal Mediation: The Kingdom as Gift

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life… For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:4, 23)

Paul seems to be summing up at least part of his point here at the end of chapter 6. As we have already noted today in the sermon, Paul is drawing off of a number of Exodus categories in this passage, and similarly, we noticed that Paul is calling Christians to offer their bodies as weapons of righteousness, calling Christians to embrace their vocation as the armies of God. When Israel marched out of Egypt they plundered them. They marched out of Egypt as triumphant victors. The slaves and peasants marched out of Egypt having destroyed the greatest civilization in the world at that time.

How did this great army carry out this conquest? How was Egypt destroyed by these hosts? They slaughtered lambs, smeared the blood on their doorposts, and ate this sacrificial meal dressed for travel. And these unconventional battle tactics were preceded by the Israelites watching an old man with a stick take on the great Pharaoh of Egypt. How was freedom won? How was this victory secured? It was given as a gift.

Paul is still thinking about the Exodus when he says that the wages of sin is death. He has contrasted slavery to sin and service in the army of Christ repeatedly, and he uses the word wages here to describe slavery to Pharaoh. The word for wages is literally the rations of a soldier. Remember John the Baptist exhorted the soldiers that came for baptism to be content with their wages, and the word is used widely outside of Scripture specifically in military contexts.

The question for Paul has everything to do with armies and warfare. Who’s your Lord? Which army are you in? Recall that the Israelites arrived in the wilderness and promptly started longing for the wages of Egypt, the food in Egypt, the rations of slaves. But what has happened to Egypt? What has happened to the Egyptians? They have died. The wages of Egypt is death. The rations of a slave-master like Pharaoh are death.

And notice the sharp contrast: You can slave away for Pharaoh and his empire and end up dead under a pile of hail or at the bottom of the Red Sea. Or you can watch and see the deliverance of God and march out of the land as a victorious army. The gift of God is life and freedom and glory forever. You can watch and see how frogs infest the enemy land, how darkness falls on the enemy, listen and hear the cries of the bereaved, those who have lost their firstborn in the land of the Egypt: all given, all gifts of life. You can slave for one master and die or you can make dinner with a lamb and cover your house with his blood. The rations of Pharaoh are death; but the spoils of Yahweh are life and glory and freedom forever.

John, you mentioned to me that you have named your son very purposefully. In addition to having family significance for you, the meaning of his name is significant. Jonathan means “God’s gracious gift” and Reich means “kingdom.” As you well know, these two ideas and themes go so well together, and the Exodus is one example of that. But Paul insists that this is what baptism means. Baptism is our Greater Exodus in the death and resurrection of Jesus. If Israel marching out of Egypt through the sea was a great deliverance and salvation, Paul says baptism is more so. If Pharaoh and Egypt were shattered in the Exodus, in the death and resurrection of Jesus sin and death and Satan were overthrown and undone.

And that is what Easter is all about. That is what the gospel is all about. Freedom and forgiveness and new life is not earned or manufactured in any way. It’s all gift, it’s all grace. And as the Israelites were told to look and see God’s great deliverance, so too, you must teach your son to see Jesus and His death and resurrection as salvation and freedom and life. This season of Easter is a time of reveling in this victory, and every baptism is a mini-Easter, a Great Exodus. God is here freeing your son from service to the enemy and enlisting him in the hosts of King Jesus. Jack is being given the gifts of life and glory and freedom. And therefore, John and Beth, remind him of this continually. Remind him that he is a soldier of the kingdom of God. He is to renounce all allegiance to every Pharaoh and leave Egypt far behind. And teach him about the joys of the Promised Land. Teach him how to find the biggest, juiciest grapes and how to take down the greatest giants in the land, three at a time.

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Baptism as Revolution

“" Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion," Says the LORD of hosts. " Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones. And it shall come to pass in all the land," Says the LORD, "That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one- third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, 'This is My people'; And each one will say, 'The LORD is my God.’” (Zech. 13:7-9)

Here Zechariah is in the middle of declaring that God is planning to bring a great crisis, a great revolution upon Israel which will have a number of results. At the center of the crisis is God Himself acting and being acted upon. He says that He will judge the nations in this revolution, and at the same time, they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and mourn. He says he will cut off all the idols from the land, and that He will cause a great fire to burn that devours the wicked and refines the gold. Then the subject shifts from the first person who is pierced to a third person referent: “Awake O Sword against my Shepherd, against the Man who is my companion, ‘ says the Lord of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered…” And Matthew says that this Shepherd is Jesus. So the crisis, the revolution has a narrow and wide focus. There is a center to the crisis which focuses on this One who is pierced, who is struck, but more broadly you have the images of nations being destroyed, idols being cast down, enemies devoured in fire, and a remnant saved through the fire and refined as gold. And the gospels insist that this great Revolution that Zechariah prophesied occurred in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the great Crisis centered on a Man who was pierced and struck, but this crisis has global implications, the casting down of nations and idols, the devouring of God’s enemies in fires of judgment, and the salvation of many through the refining fires.

The New Testament repeatedly tells us that baptism is the death and resurrection of Jesus applied to people. In baptism we are buried with Jesus and raised to newness of life. In baptism, we are crucified with Jesus and reborn to resurrection life. This means that baptism is the continuation of the great Revolution. It is itself part of the ongoing wide lens view of that original act. Jesus died and rose again 2000 years ago, and we’re still feeling the aftershocks. It’s still echoing throughout the world. But we can also view each individual baptism itself as the Great Revolution begun again. In baptism, God Himself comes to an individual, and promises to be their God, to forgive their sins, and makes that individual His child, His companion. The old man is crucified with Christ, and a new man is put on through faith in Christ. This child is no long a child born of Adam, no longer an individual outside the household of faith, but now a child and an heir of the promises of the covenant, a recipient of grace. That’s the Revolution in miniature. But if that’s the narrow view, there is also the global and wide view. Every baptism declares and some way joins in the judgment and destruction of nations, the fires of destruction for the wicked, idols being torn down, and the salvation and purification of God’s people. Every baptism is another instance of this Great Revolution, this Great Crisis. And we must believe that this simple act of a little water sprinkled on a baby is weakness and foolishness to the world, but it is the wisdom and power of God to cast down the wicked and the proud, to raise up the humble and the meek.

In this way, the gospel Revolution, the Great Gospel Crisis which began in the death and resurrection of Jesus was like the first boulder setting off an enormous landslide. Every echo multiplies exponentially its effects and after effects. And here we are 2000 years later amidst the great roar, the great thundering roll of God’s grace growing and filling the earth. When the Shepherd was struck, He began a great landslide in which His grace struck others and they have struck others and still others. We are the great revolution, the great crisis, and baptism is our entry into the Storm, into that Great Revolution, and here God promises to bestow on His people His Spirit, His refining fire. And here God speaks and says, “This is My people,” and we respond and say, "The Lord is my God."

So Peter and Claire, as you raise up young Peter, as He grows up, teach Him about the Great Revolution. Remind Him that when He was baptized He was struck by the Shepherd who was struck. And He must embrace the calling to carry on this Revolution, repenting of sin, welcoming the refining fires of the Spirit in His life, and working to extend the justice and mercy of our God to the ends of the earth. Remind Him that here God claimed Him as a member of His people, and teach him to respond in faith saying, The Lord is my God.

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Welcoming the Wind

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

We’ve pointed out before that the word for Spirit is the same word for wind and breath. It comes as little surprise when the presence of God leads Israel out of Egypt in the form of a storm cloud, and the same storm settles on Sinai for a while as God’s people make covenant with the Lord there. The same glory cloud fills the tabernacle at its dedication at the end of Exodus. The Spirit is not pictured as a gentle breeze. The Spirit is a storm, a hurricane, a tornado, a great wind that blows as it pleases. It’s that great wind that hovers over the face of the deep in the beginning in Genesis, the same wind howls over the great flood waters and dries the face of the earth for Noah and his family. The same wind blows and drives back the waters of the Red Sea, revealing dry ground for the children of Israel to cross over. The wind turns and the seas close back in drowning Pharaoh’s might.

The Spirit drives, the Spirit moves, the Spirit pushes, the Spirit is a powerful storm. We see this vividly portrayed in the book of Judges. The Spirit came upon Othniel and he went out to war against Cushan-Rishathaim, King of Mesopotamia. The Spirit came upon Gideon and he called Israel to battle. The Spirit came upon Jephthah and he attacked the people Ammon and there was a very great slaughter. The Spirit came mightily upon Samson, and he tore a lion apart with his hands. Later the Spirit came upon him again, and he killed thirty men of Ashkelon and stole their clothes. Samson tore apart ropes again when the Spirit descended. When Saul was anointed king, Samuel said that the Spirit would come upon him and he would become another man. And when the Spirit came upon him, he suddenly began prophesying with the other prophets. Later when he was hunting down David, the Spirit came upon him again and he stripped off his clothes and laid down naked, prophesying some more. When the Wind of God fills a man, he becomes another man. He takes up arms, he marches to battle, he tears lions apart, kills men, bursts ropes, he does and says strange things. When the Wind of God fills a man, he becomes the storm of God’s presence. He becomes the place where the wind of God roars. He runs and fights and tears and speaks and struggles as the Wind of God. He is driven by the Spirit and becomes a new man. He is carried along by the storm of the Spirit.

We see the same thing in Jesus. When He was baptized in the Jordan River by John, as He came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. And while he may have a harmless appearance, Mark’s gospel makes the role of the Spirit explicit: as soon as the Spirit comes upon Jesus, it drives Him into the wilderness to do battle with Satan. Like the judges of old, the Spirit comes upon Jesus for war. But the implication is that the Spirit is the one driving and empowering Jesus now. The Wind of God has filled Jesus, and He is now the center of the storm cloud. After Satan is overcome, Jesus goes to Galilee and begins preaching, he begins doing battle with other evil spirits, he begins waging war against sickness and death. And it is the Spirit driving Him, the Spirit empowering Him, the Storm cloud of God filling Him and pushing Him on. And ultimately the Spirit drives Him to the cross, blowing him to His death, the Wind of God beats against Jesus, and drives life completely out of Him. But it is the same Wind, the same Storm that howls over the horror of death. It is the same Wind that hovers over the tomb and the grave. It is that Holy Storm that rolls away the stone and raises Jesus on the third day.

And what is rather startling and even unnerving is the fact that this Wind was unleashed at Pentecost. One of the striking transitions from the Old Testament to the New Testament is this promise of the Holy Spirit for everyone who repents and is baptized. God has become promiscuous with the Holy Spirit. One might say it’s a bit irresponsible. Sort of like letting five year old boys run the world. God pours out the Spirit rather recklessly in the New Testament whereas he was a lot more conservative and careful in the Old Testament. But it’s that same Spirit Wind that comes roaring through the upper room at Pentecost, and the same electrical storm breaks out on the heads of all disciples gathered together. And then Peter has the guts to tell everyone listening to his sermon that they too can have the storm. Repent and be baptized and you will be filled with this same rushing, uncontrollable wind.

Of course we have been considering Job the last number of weeks, and we have pointed out a number of times the regular references to wind. It all started with the “great wind” that broke down the house where Job’s children were feasting, but it didn’t stop there. The storm has only grown. The words of the rhetorical combatants are repeatedly referred to as wind. The great wind has continued to blow. But if we have learned anything we know that the Wind of God is behind all the wind and the Wind of God is blowing somewhere; the wind is driving Job toward something or someone. Just as the Wind of God filled Jesus and drove Him into the wilderness to do battle with Satan and later drove him around Israel, delivering its final blow on the cross, so too Job has been taken up into the Wind. Job’s life is not the same; he has been turned into another man. And even his friends and family do not recognize him.

But it is this same Spirit that is promised to all those who repent and are baptized. The same wind that carved the original creation from nothing, the same wind that howled through the desert and came upon men for war. The same Wind hovers over the waters of baptism. The same Wind promises to fill you, Timothy and Roman, the same Wind promises to turn you into other men and drive you throughout this life toward the life of Jesus, driving you ever nearer to the presence of God.

So the exhortation to you Timothy is to welcome the Wind and do not be afraid of the Storm. It is after all, the storm of God’s goodness. Likewise, Levi and Jodi, teach Roman to love the Wind. To learn to walk in the Spirit and to let the Spirit drive him wherever it blows. And always remember that today, Timothy and Roman, you are new men. You are young; you are reborn by the water and the Spirit.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

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Through Water and Fire

“But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you, for I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Is. 43:1-3)

Anne, you may know that your name means grace. Grace is one of those words that we say frequently, but sometimes we don’t stop to remember what it means. Grace means kindness, favor, mercy. Grace is goodness shown to particular people in particular places at particular times. Like many names that Christian fathers and mothers choose, it not only sounds lovely, but it is also a declaration of faith regarding you. To name you grace is to say that you are grace to them and to your family, and that God has shown his kindness and favor and goodness to them by giving you to them. But it is also a declaration of faith regarding what they believe God will be doing in you. Not only are you a gift of grace, but you are also grace on display. Your life is a stage, a story, a play in which God has begun displaying his grace, his goodness, his mercy.

The passage from Isaiah that I’ve just read goes on to describe how God intends to bring all of his people back out of exile. His sons and daughters who have been driven away from the promised land, he promises to being back. And the exhortation is to ‘feat not’ because God will see them all the way back into his presence. He will see them through the waters, through the rivers, and through the fire. God has redeemed them and called them by name, so though the waters come up over them, they will not be harmed, though they walk through fire, they will not be burned. The reason is because Yahweh is their God, and he is the Holy One of Israel, their Savior.

You may also know what the name Jesus means. Jesus is a slightly different form of the name Joshua, and it comes from the Hebrew root which means “he saves.” Remember when the angel announced to Joseph that Mary was carrying a son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, the angel told Joseph to name him Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means Savior. What Isaiah was principally looking forward to and prophesying was the promise that the God of Israel would come finally and fully to be with his people, to be their Savior, so that nothing could harm them anymore, so that they might come home to God and not be estranged from him or his people anymore.

Remember also, Anne, that the beginning of the passage starts with God saying that he created and formed Israel. The basis for God’s claim is creation. He created in the beginning and named his creation. And then he created people and named them man. God also has a habit of re-naming people when he is re-making them. Remember he renamed Abram and called him Abraham. Sarai became Sarah. Jacob was renamed Israel. And frequently, when God is calling someone from birth, he gives them their name before they are even born. God names Isaac before he’s born. John the baptist likewise is given a name by the angel before he’s born. These names declare God’s intentions to do particular things in and through these particular people. They name our callings, our vocations, our jobs in life.

In a moment, you are going to receive a new name. God calls you by your name, and he adds his own name to yours. You know that one day you will probably be married, and you will take a new last name, you’ll take the name of your husband in marriage. But the wonderful thing is that God does the same thing in baptism. When we are baptized God gives us his name too. He promises to be our Lord, our husband, our Savior. He promises to bring us through the deep waters of life and the fires that threaten us. And the proof of that begins in baptism. We actually symbolize that reality by putting water on someone or dipping them into water. We enact the reality that God promises. We’re going to go down into this water, and God promises to bring you through it. Likewise, God promises you His Holy Spirit, and it is not an accident that when the Holy Spirit first came upon the disciples of Jesus it is pictured as fire. After you are baptized, I will lay my hands on you and pray that the fullness of God’s presence rest upon you just as the apostles did a number of times in the book of Acts. The fullness of God’s presence comes by the Holy Spirit, and our God is a consuming fire. But the promise of God to you is that he will bring you through the waters, and bring you through the fire unharmed, and this promise follows you for the rest of your life.

Whether you are sick, or scared, or worried, or discouraged, or you have sinned and you are facing the consequences of your actions, remember this day, Anne. Remember what God promises you. God has created you, he calls you by name, and now he gives you his own name and promises to be your Savior, your Husband. And he will be bring you through the waters and through the fire, and your life will be more and more a picture of grace, a story of God’s favor. So do not fear, Anne, only believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus today and tomorrow and all of your days. Amen!

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A New Past and A New Future

“When your son asks you in a time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” (Dt. 6:20-21)

“Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ So He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.’ (Mt. 20:22-23)

This passage in Deuteronomy is really very striking. We know that nearly 40 years have elapsed since the Exodus and a new generation has arisen, and yet Moses says that this new generation must own the events of the exodus as their own. They must tell their children, ‘we were slaves in Egypt and God brought us up and commanded us to keep these statutes and commandments.’ Moses says that they are all responsible to live as though they have lived through it all. And the first person plural includes their children. The parents must teach their sons and daughters that they were slaves in Egypt, even though were only born a couple of years ago. And the implication is that this is an ongoing requirement of all subsequent generations. A significant part of the faithfulness of every generation is this act claiming the story of the Exodus as their own and then teaching their children that it belongs to them too. The covenant means that God identifies his people together. And of course this is precisely what God first promised Abraham. Wound through the covenant that God made with Abraham were promises to Abraham’s children, promises of land, of inheritance, of blessing, of rule in the earth. And this is why the covenant is made not only with Abraham but also with his descendents even before there were any (Gen. 17:10).

And so we see covenant identification going in both ways. God can make covenants with people and their descendents who are not yet alive, and God likewise instructs parents to teach their children that their story, their own lives in important ways stretch back before they were born. In other words, God instructs his people to teach their children that they have a past and a future that does not necessarily correspond to the appearances of reality. The righteousness that is credited to Abraham is for faith. He believed God. He didn’t know how it was all going to work, and all the indicators were actually quite the opposite of the promises of God. He was old and his wife was barren, and he was far from home and family. But he believed the promises of God. He trusted and obeyed, despite all the appearances.
But this is what grace always does. God’s grace interrupts our lives; God’s grace changes our stories. God comes to families, to individuals and gives them a new history, a new future. And this is why we baptize our covenant children. We baptize them because God has given them a new past. Most Christians affirm that the past for all people is that they are descended from Adam. We have common ancestry, and that ancestry is fallen. Our common history is one of sin and death. But when claims families, he changes that past. He changes their history, and gives them new stories. They were once slaves in Egypt, but God brought them out with a mighty hand. They were once in darkness, but they have been brought into the light. They were once dead in trespasses and sins, but God has made them alive. The story of salvation is their story, and Moses instructs us to tell them that.

When Jesus asks James and John if they are able to be baptized with the baptism that he will be baptized with, he is of course speaking of his impending death. And that is why Paul associates baptism with death in his letters. “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3) “[B]uried with him in baptism, in which you were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Col. 2:2) Jesus tells James and John that they will be baptized with his baptism, and he appears to be speaking about how they will literally die, but the point remains true for the baptism of all Christians. Baptism signifies the death of Christ. Baptism makes present for us an event that took place two thousand years ago. In other words, when our children ask us what does baptism mean, Dad? Why was I baptized? You ought to say to them, we were slaves in Egypt, son, and God brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. We were all dead, son, we were crucified and buried with the Lord Jesus because of our sins, but God brought us up out of the grave and made us alive. The story of Israel is our story; the story of Christ is also our story.

And then we see a little baby, a child who is descended from Adam. And we don’t see much evidence of faith. He can’t articulate very clearly his thoughts on the matter, and he may even give us a squawk of disapproval before it’s all said and done. But the bottom line is always the word of God, the promises of God, and what will we do with them. The Lord comes to us, and he says you are mine, and I want all of you. I claim your past, I claim your future, I claim your family, I claim your job, I claim your children. I claim everything. And I am going to tell a new story. Patrick is no longer descended from Adam, he is now a child and heir of the Lord Jesus. And because this is true, I promise to make Patrick an heir of the world. I promise Patrick life and forgiveness; I promise him an inheritance that is too good to be true. I promise joy and gladness that will never fade. And the only question remaining for us is: how will we respond. Will we believe? Will we trust?

Daniel and Amy, you have already made a significant step of faith coming to this point. But the exhortation to you is this: believe the promises of God. Believe the Word of God. God comes to you today and declares that he has brought Patrick out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He has delivered him from slavery and bondage and brought him into the land of promise. God renews his covenant with you in Christ and says that this covenant is not only with you but with your descendents. And the charge is to keep believing this, and to teach your son with this faith. Teach your son that God brought him out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Teach Patrick that he was once a slave in Egypt, but he has been delivered. He was once dead, and God has made him alive. He once had a different story, but God is retelling it for good.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

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Beginning with Nothing

The story of Ruth opens with death. The beginning of Ruth is the story of a dying family, barren women, and famine. The land is dead. Wombs are dead. And the family is dying and falling apart. The story of Ruth opens in darkness, hopelessness, and emptiness. That is the beginning of the story of Ruth. Naomi returns to Bethlehem at the beginning of the story in this state, at the beginning of the barley harvest. In the beginning there was death. In the beginning there was famine. In the beginning there was emptiness. And of course all of this should remind us of the first beginning, the ‘in the beginning’ that precedes all ‘beginnings.’

In an important sense beginnings always come from brokenness. The first beginning, the beginning of the world there was nothingness, but once God began to speak worlds into existence, all other beginnings come from the reshaping and reforming of what has come previously. God divides light from darkness and begins the cycle of days and nights. God divides waters and creates the sky. God divides a rib from Adam and creates a woman. God divides the sea, and his people walk through on dry ground, a new people, a new nation. God says that sons must leave their father and mother and be joined to their wife and become one with her. The disintegration of the family line of Seth through sin and wickedness made way for Noah and the new world after the flood. The burdens of Pharaoh and his policies of population control made way for Moses and the new world after the Exodus. And even the chaos and instability of the period of the judges made way for the monarcy, the new world under the Kings. Beginnings after the first beginning mimic the original beginning. Just as there was darkness and formlessness and emptiness in the first beginning, there is now some degree of brokenness, darkness, death, and emptiness involved in every new beginning. There is a sort of nothingness that precedes the beginning of something new. And all of this is the glory of God because he delights to do the impossible. He delights to speak light into darkness, to speak worlds from nothings.

And this is true of baptism, and it is particularly evident in infant baptism. When we bring an infant to be baptized we bring a person who has only just begun to be formed. We bring a child who has only recently broken out of their mother’s womb which involves pain and bloodshed. The birth of a child is always a certain kind of death. But even more than that what we say about infant baptism is fairly amazing. We say that these children are about to be formally engrafted into the Lord Jesus. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins, and therefore this baptism is their baptism for the remission of sins. We believe the promise of Peter at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit hovers over these waters and promises to fill these new members of the body of Christ. And so it’s not surprising that Christians have often tried to tame the Scriptures, downplaying what baptism actually means and often simply limiting it to older children or adults who show more signs of being fully formed into Christians. But what this does is get the creation story backwards. These well intentioned brothers and sisters want to have a world first and then the words ‘let there be light.’ They want to see the Red Sea mostly divided and then they’ll permit Moses to declare to Israel, “Stand still! And see the salvation of the Lord, which he will perform for you today.” To insist upon adult baptism is to insist that we must see God perform his work before we will believe his words. But this is not faith.

And so when we bring an infant to be baptized, the objection is, look he/she is really cute and all, but we don’t know if he/she believes, we don’t know what they will become, there’s nothing there yet. She’s formless, she’s only just begun, there’s not enough there to work with, not enough to go on. And our faith-filled answer needs to be: exactly. You are exactly right. There is nothing here but too helpless infants. They cannot do anything for themselves. They cannot speak, their thoughts and actions and desires are still hardly formed. There is hardly anything here, and that is just how our God likes it. He comes to us in our brokenness. He comes to us in our emptiness. He comes to us in our death, in our helplessness, in our inability to do anything. And he says, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” While there was still darkness, God said, “Let there be light.” While there was still a Red Sea and charging chariots and horsemen, God said, “Watch this.” While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And therefore, why would it be surprising in the slightest that God would take babies, infants into his arms and bless them and say, I have saved you. I have forgiven you. I have washed you clean. You are mine, and you will do great things in my kingdom. Of course that’s what God does because God delights to begin with nothing. He begins with death. He begins with helplessness. He begins with a widow and her barren daughter in-law in the midst of famine. He begins at the beginning of barley harvest, and he visits his people.

That’s all that matters. If God visits his people then we are saved. We are completely and unalterably dependent on him. If God is far off then we are to be pitied, and we have no reason for hope. But if God is near; if he visits his people, then we have every reason to believe, every reason to hope. We serve the God of beginnings. We serve the Lord Jesus who is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. He who begins good works in us completes them to the day of Christ Jesus.

Therefore, Aaron and Emily, Nate and Alexis, as you bring your children up, do so in this faith. And particularly as they face the challenges of life, the brokenness of sin and death, the trials and temptations of growing up in the Church, teach them to remember how God began with them. He declared their forgiveness ahead of time, he promised them the world at the beginning, he promised them life and glory even while they were tiny babies in their mothers’ arms. And teach them to believe that God delights to accomplish what he has spoken. Teach them that death and brokenness and emptiness is always the beginning of the story. Teach them to believe that life and resurrection always lie ahead. And live this out with one another. Amen!

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Washing Away Sins

“For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:15-16)

Here we have an instance in Scripture where Ananias , a devout disciple of Jesus calls upon the newly converted Saul to be baptized that his sins might be washed away. Similarly, in the prayer that we just prayed a moment ago, we asked God to drown the sins of the one about to be baptized just like he drowned Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea so many centuries ago. Of course there has been controversy over the centuries in the church concerning how this can be true. Is there something powerful in the water? How does a little water with a few words wash away sins? But some of the confusion regarding this may be based on our misunderstanding of what forgiveness means. Forgiveness is not first and foremost the removal of sin. If sin is like a bad paint job, forgiveness is not the action of scraping all that ugly paint off. Forgiveness is not primarily the removal of sin. So in that sense, baptism for the remission of sins does not mean that you are covered in sin like a bad paint job, and this water is some kind of supernatural paint thinner: you pour it on and the sin comes off.

Forgiveness is the refusal to hold existing sin against someone. Forgiveness is the whole-hearted determination to begin again, to start over with someone. Remember Jesus on the cross asking the Father to forgive his enemies while they were carrying out their crimes against him. Jesus was asking the Father to not hold this grievous evil against them. He was praying that the Father would treat them as though they had not killed him, as though they had not wronged him. In other words, forgiveness is a legal declaration. When the judge declares a verdict, his verdict always creates a new beginning, either the beginning of not-guilty existence of the accused or the beginning of the guilty existence of the accused. Of course in our case, as the accused, we are most certainly guilty. And our children share in that guilt which we have inherited from Adam together with all the sins we have added of our own. And this is why we call on the name of the Lord. We call on Christ to be our advocate, to be our defender, to rise up and save us and deliver us from what we deserve.

And this begins to get at how baptism can wash away sins, how baptism can be used by God to declare forgiveness. Baptism doesn’t wash away sins like a paint thinner; it washes away sins like the Red Sea washed away the sins of Israel. Baptism cleanses us from sin like Jesus and the woman caught in adultery when Jesus asked her, where are your accusers? Go and sin no more. The point is that baptism is an adoption ceremony, the place where God places his name on us, washes us (quite literally), and calls us his son or daughter, claiming us and all our faults, all our failures, and then he looks up at us and says, where are your accusers? Where are those chariots and horses that were chasing you only minutes ago? In other words, this is a baptism for the remission of sins because God has vowed to make this sacrament a sacrament of new beginnings, this is where we begin again. Here, God declares a verdict over us and over our children, and the verdict is not-guilty because we call upon the name of the Lord, because we put our trust in the perfect Son and in his work on our behalf.

If Jesus calls out to his Father to forgive those who crucified him, he has in effect declared his willingness to forgiven anyone and everyone. What did you do? Have you stolen, lied, committed adultery? Jesus forgives you. What? Did you kill Jesus? He forgives that too. The point is that while sin always grieves Jesus, it does not deter him; it does not ruin his plan to remake this world. We continue to break covenant, we fail and fall, we are unfaithful, but God remains faithful, he remains true, he does not fail. And he says, I forgive that and that and that other thing over there, yeah that too. And this is the way that God actually cleanses us; He actually cleanses us by declaring that we are clean. He washes us and says we are sinless, go and sin no more. He says you are new, you are born over again, you are my son, my daughter. He declares our forgiveness, and that is how God is actually remaking us. In the same way he always creates; he speaks. He says the word, and the worlds come into existence. He speaks again, and mountains grow out of the sea. He speaks, and the stars burst into the heavens. He speaks again and the sea divides; he speaks again and says, where are your accusers? And he speaks again, and says you have my name, Father-Son-Holy Spirit, you are mine and you are clean. I have washed away your sins.

So Des and Heidi, the charge to you is to raise your son in this faith, in this reality. Teach your son from his earliest days this gospel, this good news that he is forgiven, that his sins have been washed away. Teach your son to revel in this goodness, to believe this goodness, to believe that all his sins have been drowned in the sea, that all his accusers, all his enemies have gone away, and to therefore go and sin no more. And in particular, I exhort you to live this freedom before Andrew in your life together and as a family. Be a family that forgives over and over and over because you have been forgiven much. Do not be accusers toward one another, rather be christs to one another, call out for forgiveness, and remind one another frequently that your accusers have gone, and go and sin no more.

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The Freedom of Being Alive

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?..." (Rom. 6:1-3)

We considered this morning the fact that our culture is busy preaching a false gospel. This false gospel says that if you follow your feelings everything will work out well in the end. Every story has a happy ending, these false evangelists claim. But Paul says that we must not continue in sin; we have died to sin and therefore we cannot live any longer in it. Paul immediately turns to baptism, and insists that baptism is the proof that as many as have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death. Paul says that following our sinful lusts and desires is a form of slavery, but that enslavement ended in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. If we have died with Christ then we have died with him and been freed from sin. Of course the Disney gospel insists that following your heart is a form of freedom. Doing what feels right, what you want, despite everything else is the way to freedom, to happiness, to liberty.

Of course the Christian gospel is quite different. The Christian gospel is an invitation to die. It is an invitation to give up your life. Disciples of Jesus are called to take up their crosses and follow Jesus, not their own heart. And this is not because our hearts do not matter. This is not because God does not like our emotions, our affections, our dreams, and desires. No, it is because God’s freedom is a better freedom than the world offers. It is the freedom of resurrection. It is the freedom of communion with our family and friends. It is the freedom of being forgiven. It is the freedom of honoring and loving our parents, the freedom of being in fellowship with our children. Ultimately, the freedom we want is the living blessing of God. All the freedom in the world is a curse if God is against us. If God is not in it, if God is not there smiling upon our endeavors, what is anything else worth? What profit is it if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Baptism is the sign of our entrance into the death of Christ. It is the point at which God issues us our cross, and says: ‘follow me into the grave, and I promise to bring you back out again.’ It is the point at which we are called to true freedom, the freedom of resurrection, the freedom of communion, the freedom of fellowship, the freedom of forgiveness. This is ultimately the freedom of life. The ultimate slavery is death; ultimate freedom is being alive, fully alive. So Paul says, “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The logic of the gospel is that if you are alive, then live like it. Don’t act like a corpse if you’ve been brought back to life. And this is why the Scriptures are full of warnings to those who act like they prefer the grave, who prefer slavery, who love the darkness, the sadness, the worms. And some of the most terrifying warnings of Scripture are that people who act like they would rather be dead are sometimes given what they ask for. In other words, it simply is not true that if you follow your heart, everything will work out in the end. There will be those on the last day who thought they could sin that grace might abound, and Christ will say to them, ‘depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.’

But God calls us to live. He calls us out of death, out of the grave. He calls us to be alive. And this is salvation: that we begin to live resurrection life here and now, and then after our bodies die, we trust that the seed that goes into the ground will one day burst up out of the ground, a new and glorious body. Our hope is in the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come. And this is the real gospel story. It does have a happy ending, and in the end, God does promise to bless us beyond measure and to give us the desires of our hearts. But the way to life, the way to real life is through the cross and tomb of Jesus. And that’s why we are here. Trusting the promises of God includes not only our lives, but the lives of our children. Dan and Cece, as you bring Ceri, you are called to do so in faith, trusting the God of the resurrection. We are enacting now what Ceri is called to for the rest of her life: dying to sin and living to Christ. This is freedom; this is grace. And teach your daughter to understand this. Teach this to her by living it in your own lives. Teach this to her by encouraging her to give herself away, so that she might find herself, giving up life in order to be given it back again. Teach her to delight herself in the Lord, trusting and believing that he will give her the desires of her heart.

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Looking Through the Resurrection

We considered this morning the example of Christ who humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross as an act of identifying with his people. Paul exhorts us to pursue the same mind, and ultimately the mind of Christ which is willing to even die. Elsewhere, Paul says in Romans that baptism is baptism into the likeness of the death Christ. In baptism we are united to his death, and we are raised up to new creation life. This means living like that’s true. In the early church it’s sometimes almost humorous to read how quickly and almost haphazardly baptisms occurred. The Roman Centurian was baptized at night with his whole household, the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized on the side of the road, and surely it was a wild baptismal service for the three thousand who were baptized at Pentecost. And that exuberance is either really foolish or really faithful, and since these are the apostles Jesus sent into the world to found his church, we have every reason to think that this is nothing but faith. Faith looks at everything in light of the resurrection. Faith is busy trying to see the renewal of the world in everything. See that tree blossoming? That means Jesus conquered death. See that comet? That means Jesus is King of the World. Cell phones? That means sin and death are on the run. Faith sees the world through the resurrection. Everything is evidence of the victory of God.

So the exhortation to you as you raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is twofold: first look at them, teach them, talk about them in light of the resurrection. Look for every opportunity to see the work of Christ in them. Don’t do this because you are doting parents and you’re blind to their flaws and weaknesses. Do it because you believe the promises of God; believe that the promises of the covenant are for them. Believe that they are holy ones, saints, set apart as kings and queens of Christendom. When they’re loud remind each other that Christians are leaders in the world. When they’re wild and energetic remember that we have been given the world to subdue and evangelize, and that’s going to take a lot of energy. And so on. And this should not be understood as an encouragement to go soft on sin, but an encouragement to love them in faith, believing that these little ones will one day be scientists and pastors, governors and explorers, mothers and fathers, and all in service to King Jesus. And this leads to the second exhortation: as you teach them and train them, encourage them to see the world in light of the resurrection. This should mean that they grow in courage. What is there to be afraid of if Christ has conquered death? In Christ, we have been given back the world to rule it, to fill it, to glorify it, and to bless its inhabitants through the gospel. Train your children’s imaginations to dream big, to dig deep, to love the world that God made, and to expect wonderful magic in all the good gifts of our God.

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Smiling at our Enemies

In the New Testament when the apostles try to develop a baptismal theology or explain what baptism means they repeatedly refer to the great events of redemptive history. Paul refers to the Exodus, crossing the Red Sea and the cloud that followed Israel into the wilderness as a picture of baptism in 1 Corinthians 10. Peter refers to the flood and Noah’s ark to describe baptism. But of course those monumental events are merely previews for the greatest redemptive event which we see in the death and resurrection of Jesus; so it’s not too surprising to see Paul referring to that in Romans 6 where he insists that everyone who has been baptized has been joined to that historic event, united to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now while it is certainly true that some people have turned this sacrament into a superstitious magic trick, the problem does not seem to be putting too much emphasis on this sacrament. The problem is not making a big deal about baptism per se, the problem is with making a big deal about the wrong things in baptism. The thing that the apostles point to over and over again is the power of God to deliver his people from all bondage and his sure covenant promises to his people in the face of all their enemies. The apostles say baptism is like being delivered from all the armies of Egypt charging you with hundreds of chariots in full battle array. They say baptism is like being brought safe and sound into an enormous boat while a storm rages outside drowning the wicked and destroying the world. Baptism, Paul says, is like being killed and stuffed into a grave and somehow – wonder of all wonders, even that can’t stop God. Baptism is all about the power and possibilities of God. It means that we serve the God who keeps his promises. We serve the God who is faithful to his covenant, and we serve the Triune God who delivers us and our children from all our enemies. The reason we make a big deal about baptism is because God has promised us big things. We don’t think there’s some magic in the water, and I certainly haven’t been given any superpowers. But God’s Word is sure and powerful, and his promises cannot be broken. Therefore, Kirk and Jennifer, as you bring your son, Jackson, for baptism, I charge you to do so with faith. Do it believing the promises of God. Do it believing that the same God who acted to save Noah and his family, the same God who acted to deliver Israel out Egypt, the same God who delivered our Lord Jesus from the grave, promises to save and deliver your son, Jackson from all his enemies and even death itself at the last day. Your response to these promises must be faith. Believe the Word of God and joyfully raise your son to believe the Word of God. Raise your son to be a fearless disciple of Jesus; raise him to look at floods and laugh. Raise him to see enemies surrounding him and smile. Raise him to face even death itself with full assurance of resurrection. God has spoken; therefore it is so.

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All Baptism is Infant Baptism

I want to direct this meditation in two directions this morning. First, to the saints of Holy Trinity: To some of you, it may seem a little odd to be having a baptism of this gentleman that we have just met a week or two ago. But the lesson that has just been read and others like it record the apostolic pattern of baptism. Paul explained that salvation is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and after speaking the word of the Lord to the jailor, he was baptized at that very hour, in the middle of the night! Jesus sent his apostles and ministers out into the world to make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them. This means that baptism ought not ordinarily to be the culmination of much study and training; rather it is the beginning of a life of discipleship, the enrollment in the school of Jesus. But this fact is actually re-enforced every time we have an infant or small child baptized. It was Jesus who said that “unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Mt. 18:4-5). Jesus says that everyone who enters the kingdom of heaven enters as a child. In other words, every baptism is an infant baptism. Everyone who desires to come to God must come as a little child. This is why baptism comes at the beginning of discipleship and should happen as soon as possible. Whether a person is 2 weeks old or 30 years old or 60 years old when God interrupts a person’s life with his grace, that person enters the kingdom as a child, as an infant, completely new, completely helpless, completely dependent on the kindness and mercy of God. Salvation is all of grace. A forty year old can no more save himself than a two week old.

And it is in this light that I exhort you, Rocky. I call upon you to recognize that you are coming to God as a child. You come in need of forgiveness. You come in need of cleansing. You come in need of wisdom. You come in need of new life. And as a minister of the gospel, I have been authorized to declare to you that all of these things are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I call upon you to believe this. Believe it deep down in your bones. Your salvation, your forgiveness, your justification, all that God promises to give you is a free gift given you for the sake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You cannot earn any of this. All of our best deeds are still filthy rags before the perfect holiness of our God. This baptism is your assurance that God forgives. He promises to remove your sin as far as the east is from the west, and from the moment of your baptism, you must know and believe that you are a beloved son of God and Dayla is a beloved daughter of God. This is the gospel, the good news, Rocky. And it is good news for you. Believe this good news, embrace it, and give thanks.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

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Taking the Name

The Lesson: “But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior… ” (Is. 43:1-3)

In the Christian tradition baptism has always been considered a naming ceremony. In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We of course say the name as we put water on individuals, but this action is a formal way of putting that name on an individual. The name of the Trinity is not merely a decoration or something to say while we do this thing with water. It is actually the ritual of putting water on an individual which applies the name to them. Thus, it is customary to ask what a child’s Christian name is. In other words, we are asking who is this person who will in a moment have another name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Your son’s name is Graceson, and you have indicated to me that you named your son for the grace that God has shown to you. He is your son of grace. And that grace that God has shown you already is continuing today. To be called by name, to be united to the body of Christ, for God to make promises to you and to your son is nothing but the kindness and favor of God. Often people try to make this complicated. They try to figure out how God is uniting people to himself or they make grace into some kind of substance that gets pumped into you like some kind of medicine or a drug. But grace is the free and personal kindness that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit show to individual people and their families.

In our sermon today we are going to consider the third commandment, the requirement to use God’s name honorably, not to take it in vain. One of the central places that God places his name is on us, his people. And he places his name on us in baptism. This means that one of the fundamental ways that we honor the name of God is by wearing it well. Thus, you must teach your son all of his days that he is not first and foremost a Henry; he is first and foremost a Christian. First, he is a son of the covenant, a son of the King, a priest in the house of God. And only secondarily is he a Henry. God takes our children and puts his name on them and then graciously gives them back for us to care for. But we must always remember that they only belong to us because they first belong to God. This is a great and high calling, and you can only fulfill this calling by faith. Believe the promises of God to you and to your children. His word to you is, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior… ” (Is. 43:1-3)

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

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How to Die Without Dying

Baptism is a ritual death. The apostle says that everyone who has been baptized into Christ Jesus has been baptized into His death. We were buried with Him through baptism. When Jesus died, everyone who has been baptized died with him. This is glorious because of course all we have done in baptism is put a little bit of water on the head of someone. If we look back at the story of the Bible from the Garden of Eden and the Sin of Adam and Eve, we will remember that our first parents were excommunicated from the presence of God, sent out of the Garden of Eden and cherubim were stationed at the entrance of the Garden with a flaming sword guarding the way. The only way someone could get back into the presence of God would be by going through that sword. Thus, one way we can tell the story of the rest of Scripture, is that Scripture is the story of trying to figure out some way to die without dying. Actually, God is constantly coming up with ways to show this very mercy and grace to his people. He allows access to his presence through the blood of substitutes; he allows sinners to draw near through covenant representatives. He shows mercy on the children born into covenant households. But Paul says that the ultimate reason why we have died with Christ is so that we can be raised in the likeness of his resurrection, so that we may walk in the newness of life.

Paul goes on to say things somewhat oddly. He says that we are no longer slaves of sin and that he who has died has been freed from sin. Just as death no longer has dominion over Christ so we are to reckon ourselves who have died with him in baptism to be dead to sin. We who were formerly the slaves of sin are no longer slaves but free because we have died with Christ. But then Paul immediately exhorts the Romans not to let sin reign in their bodies. He says not to obey sin (as though it were your master); do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. Rather present yourselves to God as alive from the dead and instruments of righteousness. This sounds odd at first. We are tempted to ask, ‘so which is it, Paul?’ Are we dead to sin or not? But this is the covenantal reality that is hinted at throughout Scripture and realized in the person and work of Christ. The grace of God to us and to our children is that we have found a way back into the presence of God; we have found a way to die without dying. Our covenant head went ahead of us back into the garden and he was killed by the flaming sword of the Cherubim. But God raised him up from the dead, and all who are in him are counted as having died and been raised as well. But this grace, this gift and favor of God must be received with faith and thanksgiving. And this leads to Paul’s exhortation. You cannot receive the gift of death and resurrection and then live as though you haven’t died and rose again. The very nature of this gift is that it must change you and you must change. And these two things are not at odds. Baptism is the promise of forgiveness and cleansing and righteousness. But this promise must be received in faith. This means that you, the parents, and all parents here who have baptized children under their care are responsible to raise their children in this death and resurrection life. This baptism means death and resurrection. And therefore you must teach your son to live like a freeman. He is no slave to sin and unrighteousness, and therefore he must fight sin and wickedness all his days. This is a great gift; this is nothing but the kindness and grace of God. Therefore receive this gift now with faith and thanksgiving, and live like it is true every day of your lives and raise your son in this nurture and admonition: the nurture and admonition of the death and resurrection of the Lord. Do not let sin have dominion over you: for we are under grace.

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