Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2010 : January 10, 2010
Theme: With You God Is Well Pleased
Text: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Church year occasion: Epiphany 1
Two years ago a man from Belgium named Patrick Geryl quit his job after saving up just enough money to last him until December 2012. Why December 2012? He believed some scholars who say that an ancient Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012, which they say means that the world as we know it will come to an end. Movies have been made about it. ABC News, USA Today and the History Channel have all run stories on it. So it must be true, right?
Oh, I should add that other scholars predict that the end of the Mayan calendar will mean that something really good will happen on that day.
And still other scholars, and most normal people, just don't care.
Frankly, with all the "experts" and "scholars" these days making predictions about the H1N1 pandemic or global warming or the Y2K computer disaster 10 years ago, while other experts in the same field say something directly contradictory, or one study that shows all fat is bad and you should avoid it all and another study two months later that says all fat is good and you should eat as much as you can get your hands on, I tend to wonder which "expert" to believe. Some are right; some are wrong; some are a mixture of the two.
Unless that expert is God. God's predictions have been right 100% of the time. So when he tells us about the future, we should listen.
So let's go back to the time when God was about to fulfill many of his predictions. Jesus was now 30 years old, but he hadn't revealed who he was yet. John the Baptist had begun his ministry of baptizing in the desert of Judea, as God had directed him. People knew something big was about to happen, but they didn't know what. But God was about to show them, for the time had now come. We read Luke 3:15-17, 21-22:
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
God had picked John for a specific and important job -- to make God's people ready for the Messiah. To make them ready, he proclaimed a message that no one in that generation had heard before: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But unlike Patrick Geryl from Belgium, who most people today think has a few screws loose, John the Baptist was being taken very seriously. In fact, the Bible says that all Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean countryside went to hear what he had to say.
His preaching was so powerful that some thought that he was the Christ. But John denied it. He knew he was the forerunner, not the Christ himself. He said, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." John realized that he wasn't even worthy to be the lowest of servants to the One who was coming. And although John's baptism certainly worked forgiveness by the power of the Holy Spirit, yet the coming Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit directly. That would happen on the Day of Pentecost when tongues of fire on the disciples heads revealed the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
But that was over three years away, and John didn't even know who the Messiah was yet himself, at least not for sure. But God himself told him, "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit" (John 1:33). So, when Jesus came to John to be baptized, and when he saw Holy Spirit descend from heaven in the form of a dove and remain for a time on Jesus, John knew that the dove was the sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Savior, the Messiah.
But John, like many of us, later would still have some doubts and wondered if Jesus was really the One. But God reminded him of the sign of the dove. And Jesus told him to remember the Scriptures that prophesied the Messiah healing many and preaching the good news. So John's faith was strengthened and he was able to point to Jesus as the Christ for the rest of his life, which would not be too much longer on this earth. John's earthly future was uncertain to him. We know what happened to him. He was eventually beheaded by Herod in prison, but he kept his faith. And so God took him to his certain eternal future in heaven.
John had some doubts, some uncertainties. What doubts or uncertainties do you have about your faith or about your future?
Before you think about any uncertainties, first let's look at some of the certainties. And this isn't what some "experts" say; it's what the Scriptures say, so there is no doubt about it.
Certainty #1 -- Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Savior of the world. We see him anointed by John when John baptized him, but more importantly we see that God anointed him with the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Why did Jesus have to be baptized? Prophets, priests and kings were anointed in the Old Testament to show that they were now installed into that particular office and they had the authority of God behind them. Jesus' anointing when he began his ministry showed he had the authority of God and that he was the Christ, or Messiah, which means, the Anointed One.
John needed a prediction of the dove to assure him that Jesus was the Christ. But we know Jesus is the Christ by what he did. He was the pure Lamb that God had predicted in the Old Testament who would lay down his perfect life in sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. But since he was pure and sinless, why did he have to be baptized? Because Jesus wasn't just "numbered with the transgressors" at the time of his death when he was crucified between two criminals showing that God had laid on him the sins of us all, but he was numbered with the transgressors already at the beginning of his ministry, showing that he also came to live his perfect life for us where we had failed. So Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and the Savior of the world.
Certainty #2 -- Your standing before God through faith is certain. Listen to what God the Father said when he anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit at his baptism: "And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.' " God was perfectly pleased with what his Son was doing and would do. He showed that at the beginning of his ministry by what he said. He showed it after he had completed his mission when he raised his Son from the dead. And through faith in Jesus, God says that he is pleased with you and me as well. But didn't John say he wasn't worthy to untie Jesus' sandals? And if John, whom Jesus said was the greatest of those born to women (Luke 7:28), wasn't worthy to be the lowest of servants to Jesus, then how much more unworthy are we! But that's the whole point! Jesus took our place. Our worthiness doesn't come from ourselves. Our worthiness comes from Christ. Jesus said, "Those who are considered worthy of taking part in [heaven] and in the resurrection from the dead...are God's children." Notice, Jesus doesn't say we are worthy in and of ourselves. He says we "are considered worthy" by God. It's God's judgment that considers us to be worthy through the faith that the Holy Spirit has given us. You mean, even after all the doubts about Jesus we've had? Even after all the sinful, wicked things we said and done and even thought, God still considers us to be worthy of heaven? Yes! That's why Jesus lived and died for you -- to make you worthy in God's eyes. And your faith in Christ makes it possible. With you God is well pleased!
Certainty #3 -- Your eternal future in heaven is certain. That's amazing to hear, especially when John describes what Jesus would do at the end of time. "His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." The picture is of a farmer who takes the stalks of grain from his field and puts them on the threshing floor where the oxen walk on them. Then the farmer rakes away the loose straw. He throws what's left into the air. The chaff around the wheat will be blown away by the wind, leaving the grain alone in the floor. The chaff is then burned up in the fire, and the wheat stored. So Jesus will separate believers from unbelievers on Judgment Day. The unbelievers will go to hell where the torment will never end. But believers will go to heaven to be with the Lord forever. How is this possible, again, after all the sins we've done? Ephesians 2:13 says, "Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." We were far away, as all Gentiles were who never heard the promises of the Savior, because we were enemies of God. But Jesus' blood has brought us near to God. How near? 1 John 1:7 says, "the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." Now our eternal future in heaven is certain because of what the Anointed One did for us. With you God is well pleased.
With all these certainties -- Jesus is the Christ and our Savior, our right standing with God is certain and heaven is certain -- we might wonder what uncertainties there can be. Well, there are plenty. But they all have to do with this world and our future in it. Will it be a relatively easy life or a very difficult one? Will I get along with others at home or at school or at work? Will I ever get married? Will I ever have kids? What can I do with my life? Will I remain healthy? What difficulties will come by this time next year? Will I be strong enough in faith to deal with them? Will I even be around by next year? Will people care about me when I'm old? Will I be pleased with what I've accomplished with my life? How many people will I share my Savior with?
There will be many uncertainties in your earthly life, and some can be painful. But they all can be put in their proper perspective when you look at God's words to Jesus at his baptism: "with you I am well pleased." And through simple faith in Christ, those words now apply to you: "With you God is well pleased." That is God's prediction for you throughout your life, when you face him on Judgment Day, and throughout eternity. And because of it, your life will never be the same.
So serve the Lord with your life, no matter how uncertain parts of your life might be! One thing is certain: with you God is well pleased! Because of Jesus, that's a prediction you can count on. Amen.
