“Baptism: It’s a Miracle!”

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Author: Pastor Horton

Date: January 12, 2025

Passage: Titus 3:4-7

            “Eleven seconds, you got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now.  Five seconds left in the game! Do you believe in miracles?  Yes!” exclaimed ABC sports commentator, Al Michaels.  And then the patriotic celebration ensued as the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team staged the biggest upset in Olympic history beating the heavily favored Soviet team.  On February 22, 1980, over 1,100 athletes from 37 countries participated in the Winter Games, but the ones people most remember are a bunch of college kids (their average age 22) who beat the unbeatable Russians.  It was an unlikely miracle in sports history.  The Disney movie about it is simply called “Miracle.”

            This morning, we are reminded how unlikely miracles still happen.  The improbable takes place every time we witness a baptism.  Now a baptism may not seem like it packs the same punch as the human drama and emotion of a great sports upset, yet, it is none-the-less a mind-boggling event.  This miracle of God shows us is his love and mercy.  So today as we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, we can quote a phrase from Al Michaels, “Do you believe in miracles?  Yes!”  Because “Baptism!  It’s a Miracle!”

            In his letter to Titus, Paul was writing to a fellow pastor about the work that needed to be done on the island of Crete.  Paul reminded Titus that he needed to teach his congregation sound Bible teachings, and to encourage them, in light of Jesus’ love, to do what is good.  And in order to understand what they had become in Christ, the people first needed to know what they were without Christ: disobedient, foolish, and enslaved by their desire for pleasure.  At one time, it was unlikely, and downright improbable that they’d ever be one with God.  They were steeped in sin: which a holy God has no part of.  They needed saving.  They needed a restored relationship with God.  And they needed to know how this was accomplished for them.

            And this is a need all people have.  A need which wasn’t needed in the very beginning.  Can you imagine being created in the image of God?  Having righteousness and holiness?  Being able to enjoy a perfect relationship with your Creator?  It’s hard to imagine because we have fallen so far into sin.  That reality is so far above us we can’t even begin to picture that reality.  And now from generation to generation we are unable to pass down that status with God, but rather with sin we pass down the reality of death.  That broken relationship is your birthright.  The psalmist David tells us, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  We had need.  Need for help.  Everyone of us.  Need for God to do something otherwise death and eternal death awaited.  It doesn’t matter our age….

            There is a story of a little girl who once noticed that her mother, with a full head of brunette hair, had several strands of rogue white hair sticking out.  “Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?” she asks.  Her mother replied with a motherly replied: “Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.”  The little girl contemplated that for a few seconds and asked, “So how come ALL of Grandma’s hair is white?”  The painful truth is that we like to think we’re not that bad but our sins stand as a sign that say differently.  We sin against God and each other, and it shows.  We have not kept one commandment perfectly.  Our sin shows itself when our minds drift away during prayer, when we are not willing to sacrifice our living for God’s sake.  And our sin could even cause us to despair, thinking, “maybe I’m a hopeless case.” 

            But Paul tells us: “when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”  And in baptism, that love of God for us unlovable people appeared.  Paul tells us how God restores our relationship, he writes: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”  Through this miracle of baptism, the Holy Spirit does the unthinkable.  In our baptism He enters dead hearts, these unclean temples, and he performs this most improbable miracle – he washes and renews.  In our baptism He cleans up our hearts steeped in sin and turns them into throne rooms of Jesus.  In our baptism the Holy Spirit comes to us and creates saving faith in our hearts.  In our baptism we are reborn into a new relationship with God.

            It is almost unthinkable!  Yet think of it like this, Peter did in his first epistle: In the flood, God destroyed all life on this earth with the exception of the occupants in the ark.  The whole world was totally submerged under water.  Everyone and everything was dead, rotting, and decaying.  And yet above, lifted not only by the water but also by the protective hand of God, the ark floated safely.  Above was life, but beneath the water the earth was a worldwide graveyard.  Can you imagine such a thing?  Then the waters receded after washing clean all that death completely away.  The earth was reborn in newness.  In the same way, our baptismal waters have washed away the decay of death and sin from us; returning us to that right relationship with God.  It’s a miracle!

            While reborn, our sinful nature is still lingering in us.  To keep us from losing what we have the Holy Spirit continually renews us.  With His help we are to daily we are to throw off our sinful nature.  No, not snuggle up to or cater to or carefully hide our sinful nature but throw it off and drown it in our baptism so that our new life in Christ can, with the Spirit’s help, be watered, grow, and bear new fruit.  That takes a miracle – for that takes God at personal work in us.

            Throughout history people have considered Holy Baptism to be unlikely.  Why?  Just like salvation, baptism defies human reasoning; and just like the Lord’s Supper the saving gospel is connected to something tangible in front of our eyes.  People have a hard time with it.  But Scripture explains how baptism gives us new live because it joins us to Jesus.  God’s plan of salvation was always focused in Jesus Christ.  Paul tells us, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Jesus shed his innocent blood on the cross, sacrificing himself, as payment for our sin.  Our sin was transferred onto Jesus, the perfect sin offering, the Lamb of God, without defect or sin.  And, with no sin of His own, but to live under the law for us, Jesus even carried out his Father’s will by being baptized.  This agreed with the good will of our Father in heaven.  Luke writes for us, “And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  

            However, a day would come when the Father would not seem so pleased.  That day was Good Friday.  On the cross, God was silent.  Jesus was undergoing our punishment.  Suffering our death for the sins we commit.  There was no voice from heaven, no cry of approval.  Only the words “My God, my God!  Why have you forsaken me?” under the weight of your sins, my sins, and the sins of the whole world.  

            But the Father was pleased with the sacrifice!  So pleased he raised Jesus from the dead.  So pleased he declared the world no longer guilty for its sin.  Paul tells us in the last verse of our text, “that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”  Did you hear Paul?  We!  We have life in Jesus.  We are no longer dead in sin.  Because of what Jesus has done, we are free from sin, death, and the devil.  Paul tells us, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  In baptism our sinful flesh was buried with Jesus.  In baptism we rise to new life in Jesus. 

            What an incredible miracle found there in the water and the Word of baptism!  What a personal pledge of forgiveness given to you!  What a great reminder that we are no longer our own, but that our new lives are as God’s children!  God has done it all.  He saved us.  He cleansed us.  And He inspires us.  Death and hell have indeed lost their sting, because as Peter proclaims: “baptism now saves you!”  In baptism God has opened the doors of heaven to you.

            So, to once again quote the sportscaster, Al Michaels, “Do you believe in miracle?” We can answer in confidence with a resounding, “Yes!”  Baptism!  It’s a miracle!  Watch God do what seems impossible!  And live in your baptism grace! Amen.

“Jesus’ Christmas Card”

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Passage: Hebrews 10:5-10

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Author: Pastor Horton

Date: December 22, 2024

Christmas Cards.  I’m willing to guess you have sent yours out by now and have had a few trickle into your mailbox at home.  Some Christmas cards still have Christian imagery and a Bible verse – although those seem to be a bit more scares this year depending on where you shop.  Some include a family picture or a photo montage made by Snapfish.  And yet others list, family member by family member the joys, blessings, and accomplishments which happened over this past year. 

This morning as we near the festival of Christmas, we get to open up a Christmas card from God within the pages of his Holy Word.  And what do we find?  Good tidings of great joy – our salvation arriving in Christ Jesus!  But a closer examination might have to ask why such a message is needed to be announced in the first place?

After all, if we are talking lists of accomplishments, the writer to the Hebrews reminds us that God’s Old Testament people and their priestly system had a very long list of accomplishments which they did.  By the time of Jesus, there were so many priests that each only served two weeks out of the year at the temple.  But centuries earlier, at the beginning, when Aaron and his two sons were Israel’s only priests, they were there at the temple making sacrifices 365 days a year, every year.  Every morning.  Every evening.  Every day!  And then don’t forget to add in Sabbath sacrifices, New Moon sacrifices, sacrifices for Israel’s religious feasts, sacrifices brought by individuals, and then there was the Passover with its thousands of lambs all sacrificed on the same afternoon.  That’s a lot of work.  That’s a long list of accomplishing what God had asked of his people.

You almost have to wonder if the priests, knife in hand and dripping red, ever thought, “Here we go again.  How many animals do we need to slaughter?” Or “Surely, all this meticulous minding of every single letter of the law must amount to something before God?  He must see our good deeds and praise us or reward us.”  To be fair, there was a thick river of blood and mountains of dead animals used for sacrifice, lining Israel’s path through history.  When is enough, enough?  Could the Old Testament people write a card to God and say “here – look at all you asked and look at all we accomplished!?”

No.  Our God understood that temptation and his Word disproves such a thinking.  Right before our reading, Hebrews chapter 10 reflected, “It (the law) will never be able to make perfect those who continually offer the same sacrifices year after year.  Instead, these sacrifices reminded them of their sins year after year.  The fact is that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.”  Sacrificing animals was an endlessly repetitive task, and an unpleasant one at that, and at the end of it all, it didn’t actually take away any sin!  At the time of Jesus, it had been going on for 1,400 years, that’s half a million days!  Half a million!  What a long list of accomplishments!  And yet what was the point of those Old Testament sacrifices?  “In fact, the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the actual realization of those things.”

This is where Hebrews is so special.  The whole book wrestles with the question: How do the Old Testament and New Testament fit together?  How does the covenant made on Mt. Sinai mesh with the covenant made in Jesus’ blood on Mt. Calvary?  Hebrews spends a lot of time showing how that old way of doing things compares with the new way of doing things in Jesus Christ.  In every case, Jesus is the superior answer.  As our reading puts it: “He does away with the first in order to establish the second.”

And while the priests back then could write up a list of all the sacrifices they made each year – and turn them into God– those sacrifices were not the answer to humanity’s sin problem.  They were commanded by God.  Insufficient when it came to forgiveness, but important in their purpose.  When the many animals were slaughtered, people became aware of how serious sin is before God.  Sin doesn’t sound so serious when you just talk about it.  But when you actually go out to your flock, pick one of the best animals, and care for it as you transport it to the temple, only to have it killed and sacrificed and burnt up – one begins to understand how our sins are a stench in God’s nostrils.  It’s not just an issue of being on a “naughty” list.  Our sins offend God.  And sacrifices directed people to trust God’s mercy, not their own holiness.  It was a system that led souls to realize that they needed a substitute for their sin.  It was “a shadow of the good things to come” in Christ Jesus.

You and I need that reminder as well, don’t we?  We need the reminder that Christ alone accomplished our salvation.  We need that reminder because in each of our hands is a Christmas card to God with a list of our accomplishments – vain though they may be – making a case for why we should be on his “nice list.”  Our hearts, naturally create such a list.  It’s filled with big boasts and proud promotions about all the good we have done before God, not to his glory but to our own.  We try to excuse the deathly damage our sin creates.  We try to justify our not perfect selves rather than hear and see the perfect justification won for us on the cross of Jesus.  We cling to our list as if our eternal lives depend on it – yet those lists of our accomplishments have a way of disintegrating right before our eyes. 

It kind of like those cards one can buy off of that joker greeting website.  They sell actual Christmas cards that play music (annoying music) or have an animal barking along.  Only once the card is open, the music doesn’t shut down until the battery runs out of energy.  Think you can outsmart it by ripping the card open to destroy the battery?  The interior is filled with messy Christmas glitter.  It really takes the right kind of person to receive such a card (maybe spare grandpa and grandma that one).  In the end one is left with a card ripped to shreds, smashed battery, and a giant mess that’s hard to clean up.  That’s symbolic of our lives of sin and the best we can do before God.

But thankfully through the Word, we get to read Jesus’ Christmas card to God the Father today.  It’s how our reading began, “Therefore when he entered the world, Christ said.”  It feels like, almost as if we are hearing Jesus setting aside heaven and leaving a Christmas note for the Father before taking up residence in a womb and then be born in a stable and laid in a manger.  “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me.”  Our reading, for the sake of us time-bound people, puts the eternal God in the moment before the first Christmas.  The Son of God is about to give us the one accomplishment we need on our list: payment for sin.  Old Testament prophecies are lining up according to God’s direction as our readings today focus our eyes to humble Bethlehem and a virgin named Mary.  All is prepared for our Savior.

You can almost picture Jesus writing to the Father, “Here I am.  I have come to do your will, God.  In the scroll of the book it is written about me.”   The Word about to be made flesh.  That will be his entire life’s mission.  He would give up a list of potential worldly accomplishments.  He would give up personal freedom, subject himself to suffering, and even die his death on someone else’s terms.  Yet he looks forward to it.  He’s determined.  Everything and every scroll inspired and written in God’s Holy Word centers upon Jesus.  He would come to obey God perfectly.  He would come to live every moment for others.  He would come to win eternal life for you.

And so in these days before Christmas we eagerly wait for what all creation had been waiting for and for what God himself was planning!  Not a gift under a Christmas tree or a family gathering or small flood of Christmas cards in the mail (though those all are to be counted as blessings), but something bigger.  It is about God’s fix to what the endless repetitive sacrifice of animals could not do.  It is about God’s fix to our sin – something no amount of human bartering or human sorrow or human efforts could do.  Here comes Jesus.  He will do it all, once for all.

“By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.”   That makes for a pretty good Christmas card message to embrace by faith.  We’re a few days away!  Here comes Jesus to be our Savior!  Amen. 

Rejoice! Our Lord Does

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Do you have a favorite hymn?  During Grandparents Day here at the school that question was asked and there were so many answers we could have had a second Grandparents Day just to sing through all the many favorite hymns.  And that’s a good thing.  Maybe you have one that you’ve always loved since you were a small child.  Or one that brings a tear to the eye because you think instantly of singing it at a loved one’s funeral.  Or maybe you have a rotation of favorites – a personal Top 10 List – one which changes depending on the season we’re celebrating in the church year.  And that’s okay.  Hymns are like different flavors of ice cream – you are allowed to have more than one favorite.  Or maybe your musical ability isn’t where you’d like it to be, but you have a deep thankfulness when it comes to appreciating those musicians gifted and willing to make a joyful noise to the Lord.

Favorite hymns and joyful noises will be sung one day in heaven.  And the Final Day may be today for all we know.  That’s a clear reminder in the book of Zephaniah.  With an uncertain future for God’s people, the prophet directs their gaze to the living God and gives them reason to Rejoice! For our Lord Does!

Truth be told, as a pastor I’m not often paging around in the book of Zephaniah (it is only 3 chapters).  I’ve never done a Bible study on it.  According to my digital files I preached a New Year’s devotion on it once about 5 years ago.  And if it’s not all too familiar to me, I don’t want to assume it’s all that familiar to you.

We don’t know much about Zephaniah.  We don’t know where he lived or served.  We do know that Zephaniah was a prophet who preached to Israel in a time of religious reformation.  This reformation had to take place because of the rampant corruption of godliness amongst the people.  And that’s why much of his book involves stern words about God’s judgment.  And yet here, in the last half of a page or so, Zephaniah unwraps a pretty great gift of God’s grace for those who are meek and humble before the Lord.  Our reading takes place right as we shift from shivers of judgment to songs of joy. 

But first, the warning cry to be obeyed.  The opening chapters of his book are hard-hitting.  God says, “make no mistake: judgment is coming.”  Judgement is coming to Jerusalem.  “Woe to the filthy, foul city, the city of oppressors.  She does not listen.  She does not accept correction.”  Judgment is coming to the wicked surrounding nations.  “I will bring distress upon all people…blood will be poured out like dust, and their bowels will be spread like manure.”  Judgment is coming to all people.  “The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of his jealousy, because he will make an end—yes, a terrifying end of all who dwell on the earth.”  Merry Christmas?  So far, this is the exact opposite of rejoicing and singing.

There is a strong reality here for us regarding sin.  Sin brings about the opposite of peace on earth and a peace between God and man.  Leading up to our words we are reminded about our God’s status.  “The Lord in her midst is just.  He does no wrong.  Every morning he brings his justice to light.  He does not fail.”  God is perfect, holy, and righteous.  He does not have any fellowship with anything remotely or even slightly wrong.  God is also just.  More than that, he carries out perfect justice.  He must put an end to any and all wickedness.  It is who he is.

 And knowing that, we may become a bit uneasy.  Because we know that we have sinned.  We know that we have qualified ourselves for something far worse than a lump of coal – an eternity of death – and the eternal separation from the love of our God.  Think for a moment about the times when we have not rejoiced over what God had to say to us because our sinful flesh wanted to live for itself.  Or about the times you have not rejoiced over being in his house and worshipping him because we had other things we wanted to do and other things in this life to worship.  Think about the times when we’ve not rejoiced over our God but resented him, acting only out of obligation as if we were contractually forced – making him into some merciless dictator.  Our sin drains our hearts of joy.  Our sin should make our hearts fearful of the future in light of God’s judgment.

And yet not only is God perfect, holy, righteous, and just; God is also love.  And at this time of year, we are preparing our hearts to celebrate and sing once again about God’s great plan of love.  We find God’s love with that little baby in a manger who had a greater purpose than being a cute story.  That child came to save every child belonging to God by faith.  That little one came for the cross.  As our reading describes: he would be as verse 17 says, “a hero who will save you.”  That little one would grow up to singlehandedly defeat our greatest enemies of terror: sin, death, and the devil.  This Savior, Jesus, paid for your place in hell, and opened up a place for you now in heaven. 

Our reading tells us the gospel as well!  That, “The Lord has removed the judgment against you…Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!  You no longer need to fear disaster.  In that day Jerusalem will be told, “Do not be afraid, O Zion.  Do not give up.”   There was an intensity to his battle – a dashing into action.  And a total cleaning of sin and its judgement.  At this time of year, we might have unexpected visitors all the while there are still baking pans scattered about in the kitchen or gift-wrapping supplies on our tables, if company arrives, we dash into action to sweep away all the mess.  That is what our Savior King Jesus has done for us at his cross.  Jesus swept away the mess of our sins.  We need not fear or give up, since he has secured our salvation and remains in control in our lives.

Verse 17 sheds even more light on his current reign, “The Lord your God is with you as a hero who will save you.  He takes great delight in you.  He will quiet you with his love.”  Jesus comes to us in love through Word and Sacrament.  He is not a petty earthly ruler in it for himself.  He is “with you,” “delights in you,” and “he will quiet you.”  Sounds more like a loving parent giving us his attention and care!  Behold the heart of your God who works with each of us in very personal ways so that we might one day be in heaven with him.

It is what he wants and celebrates.  Today we also find Zephaniah sweeping out the sanctuary, dusting off the instruments, setting up the sheet music, and raising the church banners of the eternal gospel.  For verse 17 tells us: “He (the Lord) will rejoice over you with singing.”  God singing about us?  We come here to church and to sing, especially at this time of year, our praises to God for his plan of salvation in Jesus.  That is rightly so.  But the picture of rejoicing extends into heaven itself.  Our God also sings celebration songs.  His gospel plan was not only a good one, but one that was carried out perfectly by Jesus.  And his kingdom advances as the gospel continues to win souls.  And you and I get to be a part of that, and our God rejoices.

Picture this passage, as our eternal King on his throne of heaven, standing and singing as he leads the music we make (even singing Christmas hymns) with a thunderous voice and pure joy in his heart.  His plan to save us worked perfectly.  God would be with us in that little baby so that we would be with God one day in heaven.  And now our king on heaven’s throne leads our congregation in singing.  What an awesome Christmas party!  Fear not, your sins are removed by Jesus!  Heaven is yours today!  Rejoice!  Your Lord Does!  Amen. 

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