Sermon Matthew 3:13 - 17 To Fulfill All Righteousness

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon Matthew 3:13 - 17 To Fulfill All Righteousness

January 12, 2014

We are now in the season of Epiphany. An epiphany is an appearance of God on earth. We had an Epiphany when Jesus walked on this planet. This year during Epiphany we will follow Jesus through the early stages of his ministry through the eyes of Matthew and John as recorded in their gospels. We begin today with the baptism of Jesus. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Matthew 3:13 - 17 ¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" ¹⁵ Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. ¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

I recently heard a story about a man who had been homeless living on the streets of New York City. He is currently living in a church run shelter and is active in the church. Recently, his church celebrated his 60^th birthday with a dinner at the shelter. A person in the church remarked that he did not look like a 60 year old man. So he opened his wallet and removed two cards. The first, was a drivers license that clearly showed him to be 60. The other was his baptismal card. He had been baptized in an Episcopal church in the city as an infant and had carried this card with him all his life. This card showed that he belonged to the family of God.¹

Like this man, when we were baptized, we were adopted into God's family. And at our baptisms, or later at our confirmations, we pledged to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Jesus began and ended his ministry on earth with baptism. According to Matthew, Jesus went to the Jordan river to be baptized by John to begin his ministry. And at the end of his ministry he took his disciples to a mountain in Galilee where he told them to make other disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

John's baptism was for people experiencing guilt for the sins they had committed. John wanted them to experience God's forgiveness by symbolically washing their sin away and by telling then to repent, to stop sinning and obey God. The last thing Jesus needed was this sort of baptism. We know that Jesus was free from sin. He had no need for repentance and forgiveness. Coming to John for baptism just didn't make any sense at all. So when Jesus arrived for his baptism John argued with him. Something else was going on, but what was it? What might this something else be? Why was Jesus at the Jordan with John?

Jesus answered these questions with this: “it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Does this make any sense to you? I sure have no idea what Jesus is talking about. I'm not sure if John had any idea what Jesus was talking about, but he went ahead and baptized Jesus anyway. What could Jesus have meant when he said that his baptism was “to fulfill all righteousness”? I think the God, his Father, gave us the answer when he shouted down from heaven, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." When God spoke these words he was echoing the words of the Prophet Isaiah which you heard earlier.

^NIV Isaiah 42:1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

Clearly, Isaiah saw the day when Jesus, the Son of God, would be baptized by the Holy Spirit coming down from God, the Father, who would then speak these words. And Isaiah told us that when this happens God will enter into a new covenant with us. Here is what God said to the prophet.

⁶ "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, ⁷ to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

We learn from this that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river by John to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that through Jesus people living in darkness will see the light. Jesus had come, not only to heal the blind, but to bring people from the darkness of unbelief into the light of faith, fulfilling the righteousness of God.

We will see this as we follow Jesus in his early ministry. Through his teaching and healing he will be bringing people into the light of faith. And we are to do the same. As baptized Christians we are to follow his commission and bring others to faith in Jesus Christ making new baptized disciples. This is our ministry, the ministry of the church.

There are people right here in Pocomoke who are living in darkness. They know little or nothing about Jesus. They are slaves to sin. And sin has so stained their lives that they have little hope. The only hope they have is if a follower of Jesus Christ tells them that Jesus can break the yoke of their slavery to sin and offers them new life. This is why it is so important for us to talk about our faith with others. We are comfortable talking about faith with other Christians, but our ministry is to talk about our faith with people outside of the church. We are equipped for this work by our worship, prayers and Bible studies. But this is just the beginning. Our ministry is to get out of the church and proclaim the good news of new life in Christ to people living in darkness, who desperately need to hear it.

One of my great joys in ministry was to baptize a homeless man in Los Angeles. Dirk had been a successful businessman. But his addiction to drugs and alcohol and his failure to pay child support caused him to live on the streets. All he had was a dog for protection. I encouraged Dirk to come to church where he would find a hot meal we prepared every Sunday night. I also encouraged him to attend worship. He became one of our most faithful volunteers. He asked if he could join the church. So, I taught a class to prepare him for baptism. On the night he was baptized the church was packed. It seemed that every homeless person in the community had heard about what was happening and came. It was glorious night as I baptized Dirk into his new life in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Dirk had come from the darkness of homelessness and addiction into the bright light of Jesus Christ.

I found great joy working with Dirk. You too will find this joy when you tell the good news of Jesus to people who need it. So build up your faith by praying every day, and worshiping on Sundays and attending Bible Studies. And then talk with others about a faith that brings light into the darkness. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, in your baptism you entered into a covenant where your disciples would bring the light of faith into the darkness of peoples lives. In our baptisms we accepted this covenant and pledge to grow spiritually to pass on our faith to others. We pledge to make disciples of you baptizing them into this covenant. This we pray in your glorious name. Amen.

1Patricia Calahan, Feasting On the Gospels, ed. Cynthia Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson (Louisville: Westminster - John Knox Press, 2013), 44-46.