1.Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly
Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. This week is a turning
point on our journey through Lent. Luther begins the section on Baptism in the
Large Catechism by saying we’ve now finished 3 Chief Parts of Christian
Doctrine—the 10 Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. And
then he says, “Every Christian also ought
to have at least an ordinary, brief instruction about the Sacraments, because
without them he cannot be a Christian” (LC IV 1). Those are strong words,
and I hope by the time we’re finished you’ll understand them and agree.
2.To begin, I’d like to say that I’m not a plumber. But, you probably knew that. If you need a
plumber, don’t call me! You’d be better off leaving your plumbing
problem alone rather than letting me tackle it. But, God has given me the
privilege in this congregation to work with water, the water of Baptism. Why
have so many of you trusted your children to me to baptize them? In Baptism,
I’m no better than I am a plumber. Unfortunately,
some people think Baptism is something that people do, that it’s the work of
the pastor or the person being baptized. This is a misunderstanding of Baptism.
If you’ve this idea about Baptism, then you’ve had a terrible plumber wash your
child. Baptism is God’s work, not our work.
3.Luther points out, “In the first place, we must above all things know well the words on
which Baptism is founded” (LC IV 3). Then he quotes Mt 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.” He also includes Mk 16:16: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not
believe will be condemned.” The
Church didn’t invent Baptism. It’s not a human institution. We should never
have any doubt that Baptism is divine. Since it’s divine, it’s not something
that I do or you do. It’s something that God does. Baptism isn’t a human plaything, although
some people look at it that way. Some “regard
Baptism,” Luther says, “as a silly
matter, like putting on a new red coat” (LC IV 6). He goes on to say that
there are many religious groups in the world who argue “that Baptism is an outward thing and that outward things are of no
benefit” (LC IV 7). But Luther reminds us, “What God institutes and commands cannot be an empty thing” (LC IV
8). “To be baptized in God’s name is to
be baptized not by men, but by God Himself. . . . Although it is performed by
human hands, it is still truly God’s own work” (LC IV 10). In these religious groups, there are many
people who believe that Baptism is just something we do; that it’s a symbol;
that it’s nice, but it’s really not important. Often nondenominational Bible
studies simply ignore Baptism because they know there’s a controversy
concerning it. But by ignoring it, we give the impression that it’s
unimportant.
4.Here’s a story to illustrate this. Many years ago a
Lutheran pastor in Ignace, Ontario had a good friend who was an Anglican priest
in town. A little girl in his congregation died in a car accident. She was 5
years old. The town was so small that they didn’t have a funeral home, and the
nearest one was 75 miles away. The custom was for the visitation to take place
the night before in the church. It was
winter, and the Anglican church had furnace problems. So the Anglican priest
asked if they could use the Lutheran church for the funeral. The Lutheran
pastor said, “Sure, that’ll be fine.” The evening came, and the Lutheran pastor
opened the church and turned on the lights and heat. The funeral director
arrived. How sad it was to see a 5 year-old girl in that casket! Many people began to arrive. Then came a
woman who was well known in the town. The Lutheran pastor happened to meet her
on the steps as she was leaving the church.
For some reason, she decided this was the time to debate the theology of
Baptism. She’d been an Anglican but then joined a church that denied infant
Baptism. She said to the Lutheran pastor, “You
don’t think saying magic words in Baptism over that little girl did anything,
do you?” Can you imagine being
confronted in that situation by this woman? But God gave the Lutheran pastor
the presence of mind to say, “No, I don’t
believe that saying magic words over that little girl in Baptism did anything.
But they were not ‘magic words.’ They were God’s Word! And God’s Word does what
he says it will do!” Human beings
with human eyes may doubt. Human beings may see a poor plumber with a little
water dripping, stumbling over his words, and think, What can there be to this? But Christian people know that it’s God who
is doing the baptizing. That it’s God’s Word that has the promise.
5.This is what our Old Testament Reading says in Isaiah:
“For as the rain and the snow come down
from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth
and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall
not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall
succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (55:10–11). That’s what God does
in Baptism. He does the things he’s promised to do. In the
Large Catechism, Luther says, “It is pure wickedness and blasphemy of the
devil when our ‘new spirits’ mock Baptism, leaving God’s Word and institution
out of it. They look at Baptism in no other way than as water that is taken
from the well” (LC IV 15). (Of course, we would have said “faucet.”)
6. So why did God give Baptism? Luther says this: “[To] state it most simply in this way: the
power, work, profit, fruit, and purpose of Baptism is this—to save” (LC IV
24). 1 Pet 3:21 says, “Baptism now saves you.” That’s why God
gave it to you, to give you the blessings of salvation won for you by Christ on
the cross. Martin Luther goes on to say,
“To be saved is nothing other than to be
delivered from sin, death, and the devil . . . to enter into Christ’s kingdom .
. . and to live with Him forever” (LC IV 25). “It makes sense that whoever rejects Baptism rejects God’s Word, faith,
and Christ, who directs us to Baptism and binds us to Baptism” (LC IV 31).
7.Where can you find this in the Bible besides 1 Peter
3? You can read it in Rom 6:3–6. There we learn that Baptism gives us victory
over death and the devil. In Acts 2:38, Peter says that it gives us the
forgiveness of sins. Titus 3:5–6 calls Baptism “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” This is
what God is doing in Baptism. People can
become confused and think that faith makes Baptism. They think a baby must have
faith before it’s baptized; otherwise, the Baptism couldn’t be valid. The other
way of thinking would be that any of our Baptisms might be invalid if our faith
were too weak. Imagine if that was true.
Let me ask you this, Does your faith make Jesus? If you don’t believe, does it
mean that Jesus didn’t die on the cross for the sins of the world? No, your
faith has nothing to do with the objective reality of what God did in Christ.
8.Dear friends, Jesus is real. He really died on the
cross for the sins of the entire world. As John the Baptist declared, he is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world!” (Jn 1:29). My faith doesn’t make that true. My lack of faith can’t change it. But if I
reject it, then it’s not mine. It’s like putting up an umbrella and saying, “I don’t want any of God’s forgiveness raining
on me!” It’s still there and real. So also Baptism is real and valid. But,
if a person doesn’t have faith (if they reject it), it doesn’t change Baptism.
It just changes the result.
9.Some of you are married. Let’s pose a question. If someone were to ask if you are married,
you might respond, “I was married on my
anniversary.” For me that was June 24, 2005. I was married on that day. But if I were to answer, “I was married,”
what would you hear? “But I’m not anymore.” If you really are married, you would
say, “I am married.” That was a wonderful day on June 24, 2005. But
there have been many wonderful days since then. I not only was married,
but I am married. That’s how we’re to think of Baptism. Not that I was
baptized, then fell into sin, and now something else has to come along so that
I’m not baptized any longer. Christians answer, “I am baptized.” I
was baptized on a date some years ago, and I still am baptized today.
10.
Every time
you come to the Lord in repentance, kneel before his cross, and seek
forgiveness, you are returning to your Baptism. Luther says, “Repentance . . . is nothing other than a
return and approach to Baptism” (LC IV 79). Let this be of value to you. The
blessing of being a baptized person is comfort for your soul. When the devil
says to you, “How can such a rotten
scoundrel call himself a Christian?” You answer, “Because I’m baptized and I’m forgiven. I’ve been washed clean of my sin
and have Christ’s robe of righteousness placed on me.”
11.
“If we have received forgiveness of sin once in
Baptism,” Luther says, “it will remain every day, as long as we live” (LC IV 86). In
a few minutes, we’re going to speak together Luther’s Evening Prayer (LSB pg.
266). The genius of Luther’s prayers is that they hit so close to home. In the
morning we pray, “Keep me from sin”
but at night he takes us back to our Baptism, and we seek forgiveness. And
there it is, new every day. When you go to bed tonight, you have no guilt on
your conscience. If you should pray, “Now
I lay me down to sleep” and if you “should
die before you wake,” There Is No
Doubt That Your Sins Have Been Washed Away in Baptism. Though they were like scarlet, they now are
as white as snow (Is 1:18), because you are one of God’s baptized
children. In Jesus’ name. Amen. (Pray Luther’s
Evening prayer pg. 266).
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