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Psalm 2:6-8 6 “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
Matthew 3:1-17 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'” 4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
This Is My Son, the Beloved
Let’s picture that scene in our minds. Jesus has just been baptized by John, inaugurating His ministry. While He is still dripping wet God speaks from heaven. This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Wow! What marvelous affirmation! Before Jesus even begins His ministry God is putting His stamp of approval on His Son. It doesn’t come after Jesus accomplished something but right here at the very beginning. God spoke to the identity of Jesus. God named Him His Son. Not only His Son but the Beloved. God spoke beautiful words of acceptance and gave the blessings of identity, worth, and unwavering love. God said He is pleased with Him. This pleasure comes before any accomplishment; God is pleased just because Jesus is. It isn’t something Jesus had to earn but was freely given.
This is my Son, the Beloved. Jesus is the Beloved of God. God loves Him. He is precious, treasured, prized, cherished. God announced His love for all to hear. Love is about the most powerful force in the universe. Paul ended 1 Corinthians 13, the passage that is read so often at weddings with this, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Did you know that babies raised in orphanages without the cuddling most babies get don’t thrive and sometimes even die because they don’t receive enough love? Humans need love. We need acceptance. We need a sense of belonging.
Jesus is the Beloved. Through Him in the power of the Holy Spirit WE are the Beloved of God. Baptism is the sign and seal of incorporation into Christ. In baptism we become part of Christ’s body. Paul writes that “for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13) and that “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Baptism proclaims that we are all adopted into God’s family; we are insiders in the circle of God’s grace. Nothing we do can cancel the grace of God.
Think of the story of the prodigal son that Jesus told. When the prodigal son ask for his inheritance while his father was still alive basically he was saying, “I wish you were dead” to his father. He rejected his identity as a son and walked away from his family. Then he wasted his inheritance and he totally messed up his life. How did the father treat him when he came back? He welcomed him; put the best robe on him, a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. He killed the fatted calf and had a feast all because his beloved son had come home. Jesus told this story so we would know how much it means to God when we turn back to Him.
If we want to know God’s love we need to first know Jesus, deeply and intimately. And in order to know Jesus, in order to trust Him, in order to grow in our relationship with Him, we need to know that He loves us. This is the first step to take in becoming more intimate with God. Whenever we want to grow in our faith, no matter how long we’ve been a Christian, we go back to growing closer to God. Christianity isn’t about following the right rules. It isn’t about memorizing scripture verses or having the correct theology. It’s about knowing God, trusting Him, letting Him into our hearts, learning how to hear His voice, allowing Him to love us. God never forces anyone to accept His love, He simply offers it. Despite what it cost God, the death of His Son on the cross, God offers His love freely to us.
What will result from our loving God? In John 14 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15) This isn’t an order. I went back to the original Greek and the word translated “will keep” is in the future indicative tense. That means it’s a statement of fact, of what will happen in the future. When we truly love God then out of our love, our desire, we will want to follow. Jesus didn’t say prove your love by obeying me. He was telling us the outcome of loving Him. When we truly love God, love Jesus; that love will fill us and spill over onto those around us. We love because He first loved us.
We heard that God affirmed Jesus’ identity as His Son. Let’s talk about our own identity a bit. It is important to us to know who we are. It is far more than knowing our names. Look how many people research their genealogy or take those home DNA tests. All of it says something about who we are. It’s a basic human need to know that we have worth, value as an individual. The deepest wounds most of us have are wounds to our identity. It doesn’t matter how far back the wounds occurred, they remain.
Most of marketing is based around this. Advertisements tell us we need to be younger, prettier or more handsome, we need the right car, the right clothes, and so on. They play on our fear of not measuring up to others. It’s competition based on fear. We have to be better than, we are frightened of being less than. It’s like a hamster running on one of those wheels, no matter how fast we run, we can’t get there.
Even as adults our identity can be challenged. We have an awful tendency to compare ourselves to others and think we just don’t measure up, we aren’t good enough.
You know what though? God says we are good enough. God doesn’t compare us to others. God loves us despite our faults and weaknesses, despite our sin. God forgives us again and again. He speaks into our identity and calls us His children. We are His beloved too. He isn’t pleased when we sin but God doesn’t withdraw His love, He loves us in spite of faults, short-comings, and yes, even despite our sin. We only know the sin we have already committed. God already knows that plus He knows every sin we will commit in the future. And yet He still loves us. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
Now does this mean we should go out and sin as much as we like since God will forgive us? Paul dealt with that question a long time ago. In Romans chapter 6 he said, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” We have been set free, why would we want to continue to sin? It separates us from God.
This morning we are going to reaffirm our baptisms. Probably most of us were baptized as infants and don’t remember it. But through the years we’ve seen children and adults baptized. The pastor says, “Through baptism we enter the covenant God has established. Within this covenant God gives us new life, guards us from evil, and nurtures us in love.” This is one of the unique things about Presbyterians; we stress the idea of entering into the shared covenant of all Christians. Baptism marks the beginning of our life in Christ. We see it as when we are adopted into the covenant family. Through Christ we are welcomed into the fellowship of believers.
We are God’s children because God adopts us in baptism. Baptism is God’s declaration to us, not our promise to him.
Think of it this way, when a child is adopted he or she doesn’t take any oaths about being faithful to the new family. The child doesn’t pay any legal fees to join the family. The adopting parents make that oath of love and faithfulness to their adopted child and they pay the legal fees to seal the adoption. Whenever we find ourselves doubting, judging ourselves, thinking we are not good enough, we don’t measure up in some way we just need to look back on our baptism and remind ourselves of what happened there. The Holy Spirit came to us, and God the Father said with certainty: “You are my child!” The Father makes that declaration because his Son, Jesus, paid for our adoption at the cross.
On this Baptism of the Lord Sunday, we turn our eyes to the Jordan River, where Jesus steps into the water and is baptized by John. Jesus’ baptism is not about repentance. John said, “I need to be baptized by you.” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus had no sins that need forgiveness but He had come to earth to die on behalf of the sins of humanity. Baptism identified Him with that sacrificial role and symbolized His coming death and resurrection. It is about Jesus identifying Himself with us—with sinners, with the broken, with those in need of grace.
In a Presbyterian church baptism is viewed as a sign of God’s covenant and grace. The one baptized is welcomed into the family of God, they become God’s beloved son or daughter. Today we are holding a reaffirmation of baptism. One thing needs to be very clear here. Reaffirmation is not a re-baptism; rather, it is a reaffirmation of the significance of our original baptism and our faith journey. We were entered into the family of God and received God’s grace at our own baptism. That cannot be repeated. Think of it this way, have you ever seen a married couple renew their vows? They don’t retake their original vows, the renew those vows. Reaffirmation of baptism works the same way.
Reaffirming our baptism this morning reminds us that we are baptized because Christ was baptized for us.” Our baptism does not stand on its own. It is joined to Christ’s. Reaffirmation emphasizes the ongoing nature of faith and our response to God’s promises. It is a renewed embrace of God’s covenant promises.
Just as baptism is always done before the congregation we reaffirm our baptism as a congregation. Why? Jesus is baptized publicly, among the people. Likewise, reaffirmation is not a private spiritual exercise alone. It reminds us that we belong to Christ and we belong to one another.
On this Sunday, the church stands together and confesses: “We are a baptized people, living by grace.” This strengthens our shared identity and mutual care.
Reaffirmation says: As Christ goes forward in obedience, we follow.”
“As Jesus enters the water, we remember who we are.”
At the Jordan, the Father declares: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” In baptism, that same promise is spoken over us in Christ.
When we reaffirm our baptism we are reminding ourselves of God’s promise that was spoken over us at our baptism: “You belong to Me, you are held by grace, you are mine.”
So remember your baptism, live from it and walk in the assurance that you belong to Christ.