INTRODUCTION:

One day over Christmas break we drove up to the state border to see Ruby Falls, a 145’ waterfall deep inside a cave inside Lookout Mountain.  For all the tourist trap kinds of things that are up there, it still is a rather impressive site, and the brochures try to dress it up even more.  There’s a couple arm in arm gazing at the waterfall that is illuminated with different colored spotlights.  The pictures give the impression that people come from far away and stand in awe and amazement before this magnificent natural wonder.

Epiphany is like that.  You walk through a long channel that finally opens up into a big room and there he is, Jesus Christ, God’s gift to the world, being unwrapped before our eyes.  The spotlight is on him.  The fact that his is the only name under heaven that saves people from hell is the glorious fact that is put on display at this time of year.  The more we see and hear of him, the more magnificent he appears to be, the more we stand in awe and amazement before him. 

That’s never truer than when we look at Jesus’ baptism, the first scenic view in the Epiphany season.  It almost looks like the metal railings needs to be repainted – so many people over the years have stopped and seen this tremendous site.  But it’s breathtaking every time we’re here.  Jesus is standing not beside the waterfall at Lover’s Leap at Rock City, not beside Ruby Falls inside Lookout Mountain, not beside Niagara Falls in New York, not beside the majestic Victoria Falls in Zambia, Africa, but beside a rugged looking individual named John in a less than impressive river called Jordan. 

And here we stand again in early January, mouths open wide and mystified to see what we see – John baptized the Lamb of God.  For God the Father to have ripped a hole in the sky to say what he said – this has to be an impressive place and a magnificent event.  It is!  It’s -

A Day To Talk About Baptism

John’s baptism, Jesus’ baptism, our baptism – magnificent stuff!

Churches like ours have talked for decades about what to do to bring people in.  I finally figured it out – we should relocate away from the suburbs to land that the state has condemned, where no houses or stores can ever be built, and [in the heat of the summer] we should invite people to come out from Gwinnett and the greater metro area [to a non-air-conditioned outdoor event], and we should tell them that they’re all wicked and that they deserve to have the almighty Lord do away with them.  That oughtta make us the biggest mega-church in Georgia, eh?

With one very important thing left out, that was John’s ministry and people poured out of Jerusalem to go hear him preach to them in the desert.  It was a powerful message that drew all those people out to the wastelands around the Jordan River, and it went like this: Have I got a deal for you!  You’re broken and you can’t fix it.  You are cursed and condemned and it’s your own grievous fault and you can’t change it.  Completely on his own, God took matters into his own hands.  He sent his Son to be a substitute for you.  Stop kidding yourselves – God knows who you are.  Change your mind.  Confess your sins and watch God wash them away with water and his Word!  God does it all – the substitute you need, the repentance in your heart, the forgiveness of your sins, the cleansing of your baptism – he does it all.  Have I got a deal for you!  God’s giving out free forgiveness through baptism.

And that worked!... And it works today!  No sugar-coating: We are wicked to the core.  A thousand bible passages say so.  We have earned the torturous agony of being shut out from God’s presence forever.  We are wicked to the core, and God is gracious to a fault.  Ten thousand Bible passages say so.  Our sins were placed on Jesus and he endured for us the torturous agony of being shut out from God’s presence.  We are counted pure and holy.  In your baptism, God individualizes and personalizes the pardon he has granted to the whole world as he says, “The water on your head and the words that are spoken – I pardon you!”  Would you walk a hundred miles to hear that?  If you haven’t been baptized I hope you’ll walk a hundred feet up to that office and schedule a baptism.  Does the Lord have a deal for you!  Peace with God through Jesus; forgiveness from God through baptism.

It’s a day to talk about baptism, so what kind of hush would fall over this room if Jesus Christ walked up the center aisle, pulled out the dowel to open the font, and requested to be baptized.  What would happen (after we all regained consciousness and the photography team from the AJC was all set up and ready)?  I would look around Jesus at all of you, and you’d all be shaking your heads, “No, don’t do it.  He doesn’t have any sins to be washed away.”  But had we been at the Jordan River, we’d see Jesus shaking his head, assuring John “Yes, this is how it needs to be.” 

This is the breathtaking part.  Baptized as a sinner though not a sinner at all.  This is no tourist trap.  This is a sinner’s paradise.  Cross your arms and set them on the metal railing and stare for a while at the man baptized by John.  Baptized as a sinner though not a sinner at all.  Do you hear what he’s telling you through his baptism – “I’ve placed myself among the sinners, right down in the dirt with them, right there in the Jordan River with them, because that’s why I came.  This is what I’m all about – willingly joining sinners to live in their place without any vice, to die in their place to pay their price.  Father, I came to do what you wanted – reclaim, redeem, ransom your people by being their replacement.  Here I am, doing just what we planned.”  What unspeakable pleasure do you take from seeing him there taking your place?

His Father took great pleasure from it.  He split the sky and said so.  He sent Jesus the Holy Spirit to powerfully equip him for the daunting task that lay ahead.  “Now go on to glory through difficulty and suffering.  Do my will in their behalf.  Die under my curse in their behalf.  Defeat the devil in their behalf.  Conquer death in their behalf.  Rise to live and to reign and to intercede in their behalf.”     With his Father’s voice thundering from above and the Spirit flying down from above, Jesus came up out of the river silently saying, “I’m on my way.” 

The view here at the Jordan River on the day of Jesus’ baptism is breathtaking. Take it all in!  Has God sent a Savior for you!  We’ll have to come here again soon!

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