Fairhaven Sermon 1-11-2026

Well, today, this Sunday, I don't know about you, but I'm still kind of feeling Christmassy at this point. I appreciate Kathy's wearing Christmas trees. Thank you. Yes.

So in my family, we all work a lot around Christmas time. So we finally celebrated Christmas on the first Saturday of January, right? Our tree is still up. We still have Christmas cookies. The wise men were here only a few days ago.

So it's a little bit jarring to come to today's gospel lesson and read about Jesus as an adult So... already.

It's like, whoa, going to the River Jordan to be baptized. It seems a little bit too soon. But here we are. Before I dive into the gospel lesson, I did want to touch on the other readings for today because all of the readings actually have a bearing in.

either on Jesus' baptism or on our understanding of baptism. So the other scripture readings for today, by the way, I'm looking at all four. All of you are aware that we have four readings every Sunday, but we only read three of them. So all four of them apply.

So I'm going to look at all four today. So that's Psalm 29, which we read a moment ago, Acts 10, which is the additional reading, and Matthew chapter 3. And so we're looking at all those guys. So starting, I'm going to do this in chronological order, okay, starting with Psalm 29, which focuses on the power of God.

The psalmist talks about seeing God's power in nature, in the sound of a mighty waterfall, or in the rough housing of calves and oxen in the fields. And the psalmist says that all of this power and more exists. is in God's hands because everything we see in nature is created by God and given life by God, and God's power includes the power to heal diseases, including the disease of human sin. And by doing away with sin, God offers peace and wholeness and healing to God's people.

So, that's just a few of the things we can take from the psalm. Then, turning to the New Testament, the alternate reading from Acts chapter 10 includes a statement that's important for us as we think about baptism. The Apostle Peter says, I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. And everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

So, these verses are important because all the other teachings and readings that we have for today are written as a part of the Jewish faith, which is fantastic, except that, to the best of my knowledge, none of us here today is Jewish. The apostles were Jewish, Jesus was Jewish, Israel was Jewish, in fact, our whole faith is rooted in the Jewish scriptures and the Jewish prophets, but with the coming of Jesus, The door was opened for non-Jewish people to be worshipers of God, to become a part of God's family of faith. And that's why this reading from Acts is important to us today. And also, I want to be clear that when I talk about the Jewish faith, I'm talking about Judaism today.

that is, Jewish prophets and Jewish scriptures, not the contemporary nation of Israel. Those are two different things. The message of the New Testament is that the Old Testament, which is the Jewish faith, has now been opened to the Gentiles, that is, to us, and we have been adopted into God's family of faith. And that's one of the most important messages about the book of Acts, that the book of Acts brings us.

Moving on then to our reading from Isaiah chapter 42, this is a prophecy of the Messiah. And God says through Isaiah that God's servant, the Messiah, chosen by God, will have God's Spirit on him and will bring justice to the nations. And again, we see the inclusion of all the nations, not just the one. Isaiah says about the Messiah, The Messiah will bring into our lives kindness and tenderness and a restoration of life and health.

And Isaiah says that this Messiah will be faithful to bring justice. And after the events of this past week, I think that's a message we all want to hear. We can be encouraged. that justice is coming because our God is a God of justice, and God gives sight to the blind and freedom to those in prison, whether that prison is a dungeon or a darkness or a lack of truth or an act of violence.

God brings freedom to those in prison and light to those in darkness. There can be no doubt that Isaiah is talking about Jesus, the Messiah, who was born on Christmas Day. So given all of this, all these scripture passages as background, sort of as scaffolding, telling us about the power and justice of Jesus the Christ, why would Jesus need to be baptized? Because for us as Christians, baptism begins with renouncing sin. and Why? You remember that service in the hymnal that we have done whenever we have babies, babies to baptize.

We renounce sin and profess faith. And in the Jewish faith, baptism is also a ritual cleansing, representing being made pure. But Jesus doesn't need to do any of these things. Jesus has no sin to renounce, and Jesus has no impurities to wash away.

Amen. And John the Baptist says so in our Gospel reading for today. Matthew writes, Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, so Jesus traveled from northern Israel to Israel. to the Jordan River, east of Jerusalem.

So he's kind of going southeast. It's a good journey. That walk is further than from here to Altoona, for example. Yeah, good long walk.

Anyway, so he does some walking. Now he comes down to John at the Jordan, and John would have prevented him from being baptized. He said, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? And Jesus' cousin John says this because John is an imperfect person like all of us, but Jesus never sinned. So it makes sense for the sinless one to baptize the sinner, for Jesus to baptize John, but God's plan for Jesus' life is not.

is for Jesus to experience everything that we as sinful, mortal human beings experience. Jesus and God want to be in sympathy with us, in empathy with us. They want to meet us where we are in every way that means anything to us as human beings. Jesus wants to know us completely so that he can love us completely.

And Jesus doesn't tell John that he's wrong. Jesus just says, Let it be so for now, for it's proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness, In other words, at this point in time, as Jesus is beginning his public ministry, this is the right thing for him to do, to stand where all of us one day needs to stand. for it's proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. So, the baptism that John preached and that he taught to the people was a baptism specifically designed for confessing sin and then repenting of it, that is, having a change of direction in life.

And as this baptism was for adults, it was for adults, it was not for children, being baptized in this way was not an easy thing to do in that culture. which, much like the Middle East is today, is an honor-based culture. And a person who lived there did not easily risk losing face, as they call it. Amen.

As the people came to John to be baptized, they had to confess their sins, actually name them out loud in front of everyone in public, standing in a river where everyone could see and hear them. It was a testament to the power of John's preaching and to the power of the Holy Spirit as so many people came to John willingly to confess and to be baptized. Before I continue with the reading from Matthew, just a side note here. on how baptism has changed over the years, because things have changed since then.

Because people being baptized by John were adults, not babies. And for us today, we mostly baptize babies or children most of the time. John was preaching a baptism of repentance, right? And the people coming to him to be baptized, most of them were already believers in God, and they were members of the local synagogues, and they were being baptized as a sign of cleansing. After Jesus' death and resurrection, people who came to faith in Jesus as the Messiah were baptized into a new life and a new faith— And baptism represented dying to the old life and being raised to a new life.

And for the first few hundred years after Jesus, baptism was for adults for that reason. But after a while, particularly in Europe, because Christianity like took off in Europe, just spread like wildfire, most of the adults who were Christian believers had been baptized by that point. So after a while, baptism became something that was more for children than, Kind of like circumcision in the Jewish faith, it would identify the child as belonging to the family of faith. And that's how baptism has come down to us today.

We now baptize babies based on their parents' faith and then follow it up with confirmation when the child is old enough to speak for him or herself. I point this out because today we live in a world that many people call a post-Christian society. It is no longer assumed that the majority of adults in our culture are Christians. It's no longer assumed that most of the children in our culture have been baptized, which means that we in the Church will likely be seeing in the near future more adults coming to be Today, adults being baptized will be able to answer for themselves the baptismal question, do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin? That's what's in the baptism service in our hymnals.

So, there's a connection between how John baptized and how we baptized. It's not exactly the same, but both are aiming in the same direction. And this is why some churches, not all but some, baptized by immersion, by actually dunking a person in water like they're taking a bath, which is the way John the Baptist did it all those years ago. So, that just kind of gives us a little connection historically from then until now.

So, going back now to the Jordan River... Jesus came to John, and Jesus asked to be baptized.

And after some discussion, John agreed, and Jesus was dumped underwater by his cousin. And in doing this, Jesus identified with us. Jesus learned what it feels like to need to have sin washed away. He learned what a personal thing it is to be baptized, and And for those of us who've had the experience of being baptized as adults, we know that baptism often comes with a feeling of taking one's life in one's hands, a feeling of doing something that's going to change the course of one's life.

which is very true because from that point on, nothing will be the same. And I think Jesus got a taste of that when John baptized him. As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he was joined by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and by God the Father saying out loud so everyone could hear, 'This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.' God gave testimony over Jesus to lead us to the one who we all need to know.

And Jesus represented us to God in a way that we could never do for ourselves. After Jesus' baptism, according to Matthew, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to face temptation and to defeat it. And that's another story for another day. I've been reading that lately.

Amen. I hope we get to preach on that next week. Anyway, for us today, though, here's a few things to take home with us. First off, the Word of God is the power of life for anyone who believes.

Secondly, this applies to anyone from any nation or people on earth. Anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. Third, Jesus has come as Messiah to bring justice on the earth. Amen.

That's the teaching of Isaiah and that's the testimony of God the Father. And fourth, baptism has been given to us by God as a means of renouncing sin and professing faith and becoming a member of the family of God. And if there's anyone here today that's a believer in Jesus and has not yet been baptized, we need to talk, because it's a starting point for new life in Jesus. And if anyone here today is not sure if they've been baptized, I encourage you to have a word with either myself or Pastor Dylan, because most churches keep really good records of baptisms, so we should be able to find out for you.

And if anyone here today is not sure about Jesus, I can tell you that Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the one who gave his life so that you and I can live. Jesus took our sin on himself so that we don't have to try to carry a weight that's too heavy for us to carry. so that we could be forgiven for things that we don't have the ability to undo. Baptism is where that new life starts.

As we remember today Jesus' baptism on our behalf, we give thanks and praise to God for all that Jesus has done for us, for opening the door for us to spend eternity with God. This is the power of God for all people, for all time. Amen.