Please turn with me in the Word of God to Matthew chapter 3, where we read Matthew's account of the institution of holy baptism, and Matthew chapter 3 will be the foundation of our sermon this morning. Matthew chapter 3, beginning the reading at verse 1, let us hear God's own Word. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. So far the reading of God's Word. Well, I thought it would be good to reflect on baptism today, on a day in which we have a baptism. Baptism is important in the Scripture. Baptism has been important in the life of the Christian church. Baptism has been seen as essential and foundational to the life of the Christian church. When Jesus, at the end of Matthew's Gospel, gives his great commission to go into the world and make disciples, he really gives us two elements of disciple-making. First, baptizing, and then teaching. So that baptism is seen as vitally important and foundational, And so we give a special place and moment in our worship service to baptism. And we make parents come forward. And that's always maybe a little uncomfortable to be quite so prominently displayed. And when grandfathers have to perform baptisms, they feel all the pressure of the importance of the moment. And I have no idea what name I gave the child. But since no one gasped, it appears that I got it right. And it's a wonderful moment. It's an important moment. But where does this baptism come from? We sometimes become so familiar with activities in the life of the church that we don't really pause to ask, where do they come from? And here we see in Matthew's Gospel, as we could see in other Gospels, That baptism is a rite, a ceremony, an activity initiated by John who becomes so identified with this activity of baptism that he's called John the Baptist. He's John the Baptizer. He's John who's famous for having introduced in Israel the ceremony of baptism. And while there were in Israel a history of washings, particularly for Gentile converts to Judaism, part of what is distinctive about John's ministry and John's baptism is his insistence that it is for all. That everyone, Jew and Gentile, needs to be baptized. And so this important activity of the church has its roots in John's ministry and in Jesus' approval of that ministry, indeed in Jesus' submission to that ministry. And so what is exactly the meaning of baptism? What is baptism really all about? The great church father, St. Augustine, said that the sacraments of the church are visible words. And I think that's a remarkably helpful statement. A baptism is a visible word. It is the word of God brought to us through a physical object, in the case of baptism water. The water of baptism speaks to us. It declares to us what God says also in His Word. And so I thought, looking at Matthew chapter 3 this morning, we might consider, what does baptism say to us? What does baptism continue to say to us? Because all of us need to bear in mind that baptism is not just a moment. Baptism is not just something that happens once and then fades into the past. Baptism is the continuing reality, in a profound sense, the continuing self-definition that we have as Christians. Who are you as a Christian? And part of the answer, one of the answers is, I am baptized. So what does that answer mean? What does it mean that you are a baptized person? Not that you were baptized, but that you are baptized. You have entered into the state of being a baptized person. And what does that mean? What is baptism saying to us? What is the visible word of baptism declaring and showing to us? Well, the first thing it says is that we are sinners. Baptism is a ritual, amongst other things, of washing. It says that we are dirty and that sin must be washed away. And that, of course, is a message that not everyone wants to hear. It's not an easy message. It's not an automatic message to accept. We live in a culture where most people, when they look at a little baby, are inclined to say, Oh, how cute and how innocent. And the scriptures say, well, he may be cute, but he's not innocent. He comes into this world like all of us, contaminated with sin, needing to be cleansed. And so holy baptism says to us, says to little William Lee, but says to every one of us, We are sinners in need of cleansing. And it says that not just at the beginning of our Christian experience, but throughout our whole Christian life. I have bad news for you. I have good news too, but we'll come to that in a minute. I have bad news for you. You're still sinners. You still need to be reminded of that reality. You are still in need of the mercy and grace and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. and Holy Baptism says that to us, speaks that to us, reminds us of that and it's a very serious business because John the Baptist is saying here in Matthew chapter 3 over and over again there's a judgment coming on sinners it's another theme that's not popular in our world that there is a judgment coming but that's the truth A holy God promises that one day he will come in judgment and there'll be a great separation. The wheat from the chaff, as it's spoken of here in this text. And so the business of recognizing that we're sinners, recognizing that we are subject to a judgment to come, recognizing that we need to change if we're to escape that judgment is foundational to the message of baptism and crucial for the life that we are all called to lead. John came preaching repentance. What is repentance? Repentance is a change. A change of heart, a change of mind, a change of life. We need to be different people, John is saying. And that's part of the great message of baptism. But not only do we recognize that we are sinners, that there's a judgment coming that we need to change, but baptism also says in a profound way to us, we cannot change ourselves. In the washings of Judaism that preceded the ministry of John the Baptist, people washed themselves. And part of what is unique about the ministry of John, what is unique about the sacrament of baptism, is we do not baptize ourselves. we are baptized to be baptized someone else has to baptize you you cannot do it for yourself you cannot do it to yourself and that's part of what baptism preaches before God in your sin you're really helpless unless someone else comes to help and so baptism in the first place teaches us, shows us, speaks to us, preaches to us that we are sinners. And then baptism speaks to us about who Jesus is. And the great good news is that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. That's what baptism says at its very heart, at its very center. That God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. That's our hope. That's our confidence. That's what baptism preaches to us. He can be a Savior because he's Lord. John declares that he's preparing the way for one mightier than he. John the Baptist can't save you. We need someone mightier than John the Baptist. And Matthew quotes from Isaiah, doesn't he? Isaiah 40. and says that John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord to come. And that citation from Isaiah is not just Lord in the sense of a powerful ruler, but it's Lord in that sense of the divine name for God in the Old Testament. John came preaching to prepare the way for the coming of God into their presence, and that is who Jesus is. He is our Lord. He is our God among us. He has come as God to save us. And he has come as the Son of the Father to save us. That's his identification here in this text. He's the eternal Son who has become a man to dwell among us to save us. And it's intriguing that God bears such powerful witness to Jesus in his baptism. The Spirit descends to show his approval. And then the Father speaks to show his approval. And the Father says, this is my Son, the Beloved One. That's how it literally reads. This is my Son, the Beloved One, in whom I am well pleased. That's the good news. God is not pleased with you and yourself, left on your own. But he is pleased with his Son, the Mighty One who has come to save, the Mighty One who does all things well, the Mighty One who is beloved of the Father, and therefore guarantees that all in him will also be loved by the Father. That's our hope. That's our confidence. That's why Jesus is our Savior. And that's what John recognizes, isn't it? He sees Jesus coming, he says, that's the one. That's the one mightier than I am. That's the one, I'm not even worthy of carrying his sandals. The Jews used to say, a disciple must do everything for his master except carry his sandals. He doesn't have to do that. That's too humiliating for even a disciple to have to do. And John is saying here, I am utterly his slave because he is the one who will do for me what I cannot do for myself. John could come with water that preached, but only Jesus could come with the Holy Spirit that saves. You notice how John draws a contrast between the water baptism that he brings and the spirit baptism that Jesus brings. The water points to the Spirit, but only Jesus can give the Spirit. And that's what Matthew is teaching us here. Jesus has come to bring salvation to all who look to him, who hope in him, who trust in him. Jesus has come to fulfill all righteousness. That's what he says to John. There is no righteousness left unfulfilled. Jesus has done it all. Jesus has accomplished it all. And he's done it for sinners. That's why he submitted to John's baptism. He didn't need to repent. He didn't need to be washed clean. But he came saying, I have come to identify with sinners, to take their sin on myself, and I show that in submitting to John's baptism. He fulfills all righteousness for us. And that's why holy baptism draws us to Jesus, points us to Jesus, speaks to us about Jesus as the one in whom we are to hope. And therefore, baptism not only teaches us who we are and not only teaches us who Jesus is, but holy baptism also teaches us what Jesus gives, what Jesus gives. And the first thing we see here about what Jesus gives is that he gives a serious call to come to himself. This isn't a game, Matthew is saying. That's why our forum, I think, is so powerful when it says to parents, don't present your children for baptism out of custom or superstition. Don't present them because everybody else does it. Don't present them because you think something magical is happening there. But present them out of true faith, looking to Christ alone for salvation. That's what baptism shows us. That's what baptism calls to us. John's baptism, for a while, seems to become the thing to do, the fad, the cool thing. Cool things change, don't they? I was talking to my son, Robert, yesterday, and he's speaking at a high school youth retreat this weekend. and, you know, as you get older, you lose touch with what's cool. Now, that didn't happen to me because I was never cool, so there was no loss for me as I've gotten older. That was a good thing. But Robert was sort of cool once, and so he called me because he wanted to quote in one of his lectures a great Dutch theologian, Jodikus van Loewenstein. You all remember him. You probably read him when you were in high school. And Robert wasn't just sure how to pronounce that name, so he called Dad, still useful for a few marginal things. And then Robert, as I pronounced it for him, said, oh, I can refer to this guy as J-Lo. And that'll connect with the high school kids. And then I said, Robert, are you sure that high school kids still know who J-Lo is? And he paused and he said, you may be right. So he called me after the lecture and he said, you were right. Not one of them knew who J-Lo was. So fads come and go. Things change. For a moment, John's baptism was so faddish that all sorts of Pharisees and Sadducees are coming to participate in the to-do. And John, you notice, is not very welcoming. John is not very seeker-sensitive. John confronts them. You're not here out of a sincere sense of your sin. You're not here out of a sincere sense of the need of a Savior. You're here to just participate with the crowd in the latest fad. Don't you do it, he said. And in saying that, he speaks to each of us, doesn't he? We mustn't be here out of a sense of custom or superstition. We have to be here because we have a sincere sense of our need as sinners and a sincere confidence in Christ as the Savior. That's what baptism says to every one of us. It says to us every day. It's not enough to believe one day. We have to believe every day. Resting in Christ. Trusting in Christ. And that word comes with a particular focus to young people here who haven't yet made profession of faith. Profession of faith is a recognition and acceptance and public declaration that we believe the promise is made for us in baptism and therefore is crucial in our Christian life not to be postponed. If we recognize we're sinners, if we love Jesus as our Savior, we should acknowledge that publicly and profess our faith in Christ. Baptism calls us all the days of our life, all of us, to real repentance. and we come to that real repentance only as Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit. That's his baptism. That's his ministry. That Holy Spirit that leads us to rest in Christ and therefore to receive the forgiveness of our sins. Part of what baptism is all about. Luke's account of John's ministry, he says, they were baptized for repentance unto the forgiveness of sins. That's what we're looking for. Mercy in the forgiveness of our sins, and then a new life, a different life. We're different people. We're living differently because we have repented. We are bringing forth the fruit of a new life. The Christian life is real. The Christian life makes us different. Not in order to earn something from God, but because God has made us different. And therefore, we live a life of gratitude and service to him. Joel had prophesied, hadn't he, that when the Holy Spirit is given, then whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And that's our hope. That's our confidence that as we call upon the name of the Lord, which is itself a gift from the Lord, we will be saved. So Jesus gives us not only a serious call to him, gives us not only the Holy Spirit as we call upon him, but he also gives us a wonderful promise of the kingdom of heaven. John came preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That way of thinking directs us to the future that says, life is more than just this life. For many of us, we've had a great life in this life. We've had blessings that many parts of the world don't know. Nevertheless, this life comes to an end. And John is reminding us here that the kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom not only of God, it's a kingdom not only of now, but it's a kingdom of heaven. It's an eternal life, it's an eternal kingdom. And we're called to think about eternal issues. And our baptism speaks to us of that. Our baptism constantly reminds us of that. If there's anyone here today who hasn't been baptized, baptism calls to you to come to Jesus, be his disciple, and be baptized. And for all of us who are baptized here today, Holy baptism calls to us that we should listen and learn that we are sinners, that Jesus is the Savior, and that Jesus alone gives salvation. And then our baptism calls to us, live, live, live from Jesus and for Jesus. May that be true of every one of us here today. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, how good you are to us, sinners. For you have provided for us far beyond our deserving, far beyond our understanding. And we are thankful for the visible word of baptism that speaks to us of your great saving purpose. May the word of baptism dwell in every heart here. And may we all receive from Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit that we might know his mercy and forgiveness and that we might know his new life. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.