The Baptism of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Peter 3:18-22

In Christ Jesus, who was baptized into our sin, so we would be baptized into His righteousness, dear fellow redeemed:

The ark that Noah built was a very big boat! It was longer than a football field and about as tall as football goalposts from the ground to the tip of the posts. (If you have visited the “Ark Encounter” in Kentucky, you have gotten a sense at how big the ark probably was.) It was large enough to hold Noah and his family, two of every kind of animal, and the food and provisions they needed for the time they spent on the ark, which totaled about a year.

When the waters began to recede after completely covering the whole earth, Genesis 8 says that “the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (v. 4). Where exactly that is has been the focus of a good deal of research and a lot of expeditions that have failed to produce any evidence of the ark. As neat as it would be to find a big boat buried in the ice on top of some mountain, I think it would be better if Noah’s ark is never found. Why? Mainly for these two reasons: First, we don’t need physical evidence of the ark to prove that what the Bible says is true. And second, people would be tempted to view the ark as a sacred relic that possessed some kind of holy power.

This has happened all through human history. Churches around the world have tiny bones of the apostles and famous saints on display, which supposedly give spiritual benefits to those who visit them. Many places display pieces of Jesus’ cross (so many pieces said Luther in his day, that they could build a church with them!). Even in Old Testament times, the godly king Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses had made at God’s command some seven hundred years earlier, because the Israelites were worshiping it (2Ki. 18:4).

The ark that God told Noah to build served its purpose. It brought His chosen people safely through water. Our churches have a sort of connection to the ark. The main part of the church where all of you sit is called the “nave.” It comes from the Latin word navis, which means “ship.” The Youth Convention theme some years back was semper in navi—“always in the ship.”

You are brought into the ship of the Church through water. You became a member of the holy Christian Church through the water and Word of Holy Baptism. This is what today’s reading from St. Peter’s First Epistle describes. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he ties together the salvation of Noah’s family through water, with your salvation through water.

Where you were baptized is not the most important thing, just as where the ark is now is not important. You can imagine how a family could attach too much importance to a church building or to a particular font, where parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were baptized, so that those things become more important than the power and promises of God through His Word.

It is not where you were baptized that is so important, but how you were baptized. If you were baptized with water “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mat. 28:19), you received all the magnificent gifts of God in Christ. What gifts are those? Today’s reading says that Baptism is not “a removal of dirt from the body.” It is not about outward cleansing. You know as well as I do how quickly children get dirty again after they have been washed.

We can see the physical part of Baptism—the application of water. But we can’t see the spiritual part, which is “an appeal to God for a good conscience.” That is an interesting description of what Baptism does. Jesus instituted Baptism as an appeal for God the Father to give the baptized what Jesus won. This is something like a super rich person sharing his bank account information and telling you to go ahead and take it all!

Baptism gives you the goods—the best goods. It is an appeal for God to cleanse your guilty conscience and give you a good conscience. But why should He do that for you? Today’s reading says why: “Baptism… now saves you… as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” We make the claim that Baptism saves, and we have confidence that Baptism saves, because Jesus rose from the dead.

First, He “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.” He had to exchange His righteous life for our sinful lives and die in our place to pay for those sins. Without the shedding of His holy blood to atone for our sins, we would still have to answer for them. We would have to answer for every unholy thought, every mean word, every un-Christian action. But He did shed His blood to reconcile us with God.

God the Father showed that His Son’s sacrifice was sufficient for us by raising Him from the dead. Jesus came back to life on the third day, and before anything else, He descended into hell. He did not go there to suffer. His suffering was already complete, as He said on the cross, “It is finished.” Today’s reading says that “He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison” who “formerly did not obey.” Some have speculated that Jesus went to free the spirits from hell. But that would be inconsistent with the rest of the Bible, which says that there is no escape, no coming back, for the souls in hell.

About as much as we can say is that Jesus descended into hell to proclaim His victory over sin, devil, and death. Those “spirits in prison” now knew exactly who and what it was they had rejected, “when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” They ignored Noah’s preaching. They laughed at Noah’s ark. And they were all consumed by the waters of the flood and condemned to everlasting torment.

After His descent into hell, Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to many of His disciples. In one of those meetings, He told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mat. 28:18-20a). Jesus was using His authority as the Conqueror of sin and death to send out His disciples to distribute His gifts.

Jesus still has that authority, and He still calls servants in the Church to distribute His gifts. Where His Word is purely preached and His Sacraments are rightly administered, Jesus promises to be present with His grace. He told those first disciples, and all the Church who would follow them, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (v. 20b).

Jesus is here now, right here, today. He is here to bless you and comfort you with His gifts. Are you worthy of His presence? Are you worthy to have Him come to you? If your thought is “yes,” because you have been pretty good, that is pride. The proud have no need for a Savior, because they think they are fine on their own.

If your thought is “no, I am not worthy,” that could lead to despair. You might think about the harsh words you said to the people closest to you, the harm you have done to them. You might think of the bad choices you made, the things you have done in secret that burn your conscience, things you wish you could take back. You might think of how selfish you have been, how weak in faith, how you have ignored the needs of your neighbor.

In that state of mind, you might forget something very important, which is that you are baptized! As unworthy as you may feel, and as much as you have fallen short of the glory of God, He chose you. He sent His only Son for you. When He looks at you, all He can see is the righteousness of His Son that covers you. He sees the blood of His Son that cleansed you of all sin.

These gifts were poured over you at your Baptism, and they remain yours by faith in Jesus. You stay in your Baptism by repenting of your sins, even the ones you are stuck in, day after day. You hand your sins over to the Father and cry, “Forgive me, Lord! I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mar. 9:24). And He does forgive you, every day. As He said to His Son on His Baptism day, so He says to you today, “You are My beloved Son, with you I am well pleased” (Mar. 1:11).

Like the flood that washed away the wicked and lifted Noah and his family to safety, your Baptism has done that for you—washed away your sin and brought you salvation from God. The hymn the children just sang says it so well, “Sins, disturb my soul no longer; / I am baptized into Christ. / I have comfort even stronger: / Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice. / Should a guilty conscience seize me / Since my Baptism did release me / In a dear forgiving flood, / Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood?” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary 246, v. 2).

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

+  +  +

(picture from stained glass at Saude Lutheran Church)