Preparing for Worship - January 12, 2025

This Sunday is the First Sunday in the Epiphany season and remembers The Baptism of our Lord, a clear showing forth or manifestation of Jesus, who He is, and what he has come to do for us.

The Psalm is Psalm 29,  a psalm of David. David calls upon the heavenly beings, the angels, and all people to give the LORD the glory due His Name for His holiness and strength. This psalm is sometimes called the psalm of “thunder,” with the picture image of God’s power being like a thunderstorm coming from the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. His voice in the thunder is majestic and powerful. His thunderous voice in a storm can shake and break the mighty cedars of Lebanon and strip leaves bare and disturb animals, with lightning and winds. (See similar passages like Isaiah 2:12ff. and Job 37:1-5 and Jeremiah 10:12-13.) The Lord is enthroned as King forever. He can bring judgment, as with the worldwide flood in Genesis. David prays that the Lord, in His might, will now also give strength to His people and bless them with peace. Martin Luther saw this psalm as a prophecy of the coming of the Gospel, in Christ as Savior, with the flood, the water of His Word and baptism, doing good, spreading not just to Jews but all over the world to bring people peace in forgiveness and new life in Jesus. See John 14:25-27 as an example of the peace that Christ came to give, different from the world’s peace.

The Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 43:1-7, also speaks of the Lord’s great care for His Old Testament people, but also for all people from the ends of the earth, drawn to Him through the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus. The Lord had formed His people and redeemed them and called them by name. They should not fear, though they pass through waters and fires. The Lord would be with them, and they would not be consumed, though they would be threatened by many, including the Babylonians, during a time of captivity. The Lord would be their Savior and ransom them, and other peoples would be attacked instead of them, including Egyptians, people of Cush and Seba, and Chaldeans of Babylon. (More details of this are revealed in later passages in Isaiah, as Cyrus and the Persians rise to power and conquer other peoples and allow God’s people to return to their homeland. See Isaiah 43:14, 44:28-45:6,14, etc.) God still loved His people. They were precious in His eyes, and eventually, through an Offspring of God’s people, our Lord Jesus would gather followers from east and west and north and south, from the ends of the earth, who would be called by the name of Christ to believe in Him. (The waters mentioned in v.2 could refer to the gift of baptism in the New Testament, where the Lord is with people in a saving way, even though there would be times of trial and testing. See the reference in the Gospel lesson, Luke 3:16-17, to Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire, through the cleansing and purifying waters of Baptism and judgment for those apart from the Lord.)

In that Gospel lesson, Luke 3:15-22, we hear of John the Baptist, preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. He was not the Christ and was not worthy, he said, even to untie His sandals, but had the great privilege of baptizing Jesus. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him, and the voice of God the Father came from heaven saying of Jesus, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” This could be said of no one else on earth because of the reality of everyone being a sinner other than Jesus. (See Psalm 14:2-3 and Romans 3:23 and Hebrews 4:15.) Jesus had no sin to be forgiven but was baptized for us to fulfill all righteousness for us (Matthew 3:15 and 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus lived a perfect life in our place and then paid the penalty for all of our sins by His suffering and death on the cross. That is how He could be our Savior, and that is what He did for us and for the world.

The Epistle lesson for this week, Romans 6:1-11, reminds us that we received personally the benefit of what Christ Jesus did for us, in our own baptism, as a gift from God through the Holy Spirit. We were connected to Christ and died to our old, sinful life, and were raised to newness of life and have the promise of eternal life and resurrection, even though we die. We no longer are enslaved to sin and its absolute dominion over us. As we remember our baptism, we remember that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. That is the way that God now looks at us. We still struggle with sin and temptation because of our sinful nature,  but we are under grace, with the Triune God to help us with our battles and forgive us when we fail. We no longer are eager to want to continue in sin, and we ask the Lord to help us, day by day, with His mercy and strength. (See Romans 7:15-25, for example.) Our victory is through Jesus Christ our Lord, and we keep listening to His Word, which shows us our sins, but above all, our Savior (Romans 3:19-24).

One more important related comment. Some churches and groups emphasize that it is our repentance and decision for Christ that really saves us, and then God acts with His blessings for us. They point to Acts 2:38, where Peter says, “Repent and be baptized.” Being baptized is then just our expression of our faith to God and others. It does nothing special for us. The context of this passage says the opposite. Peter had already preached the Word of God about Jesus to the crowds at Pentecost and shown them their sins in rejecting Jesus and calling for His crucifixion. They were “cut to the heart” and knew that they had done wrong but did not know what to do about that. They already were feeling repentant through the Holy Spirit, working through the Word. Peter then calls them to the gift of baptism and forgiveness, also through the Holy Spirit. Peter calls this the promise of God for them and their children and all whom the Lord calls. It is a promise for all since God wants all to be saved (Matthew 28:18-20 and 1 Timothy 2:3-4).

In Acts 2:40, some translations have Peter saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” This contradicts other Scriptures, which say that we cannot save ourselves. (Ephesians 2:8-9 says, for example, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”) In Greek, the word in Acts 2:40 is also in passive form, better translated, “Be saved from this crooked generation.” And Acts 2:41 simply says, “Those who received the Word brought by Peter were baptized, and about three thousand souls were added to the believers.” Acts 2:47 says that the Lord added more and more to their number, those who were being saved by Him. It is His doing, not ours that we are saved. When we read on, in Acts 5:31, when Peter and the other apostles were witnessing to fellow Jews, Peter said, “God exalted Jesus at His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

We don’t produce repentance first on our own. God gives repentance, also, as His gift. Later on, when Peter was witnessing to non-Jews, Gentiles, and some believed and were baptized, through the Word and baptism, those Jews already believers glorified God and said, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted (given) repentance that leads to life.” Even repentance is enabled in people as God’s gift. He does the saving work from beginning to end. Our confidence is in Him and His fulfilled promises, in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit.

We could look at more examples from Acts 16, also. In Acts 16:14-15, “The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul, and she and her household were soon baptized, by the grace of God. She did not open her own heart. Later in Acts 16, Paul and Silas are arrested and thrown in prison, unjustly, and were praying and singing hymns, when a great earthquake came. The prison doors were opened, and the bonds on all the prisoners were unfastened. The jailer assumed that all the prisoners had escaped and was about to kill himself rather than be tortured for letting them escape. Paul cried out, “Don’t harm yourself. We are all here.” The jailer must have been listening to Paul and Silas himself, and seeing that they had saved him from taking his own life, he asked what he had to do to be saved, to have what they had. Paul simply said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The jailer was already prepared by the Lord through the witness of Paul and Silas. Paul then taught him and his family the Word of God, and they, too, were baptized. The whole family then rejoiced that they had believed in the one true God. Again, it was what God had done, working through the Word of God and songs and baptism to bring this family to faith.

And that is still how God works to this very day. How important the Word of God and Baptism are as the means by which God’s Holy Spirit still works to bring the gifts of repentance and faith to others, as He has done for us. Keep rejoicing in these great gifts and remembering who and what you now are through Jesus and your Baptism.