January 13, 2008 Baptism of the Lord
Sermon Title: “
Series: None
Text: Matthew 3:13-17, Acts 10:34-35, Isaiah 42:1-9
Dr.
Delivered on January 13, 2008
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Isaiah 42:1
Twenty-four hours ago at this very moment I was downstairs addressing the leaders of NewSong. We hold a once-a-year meeting of all our leaders and yesterday was the day of that meeting. Because is was, I spent the better part of my week last week getting ready for the meeting by reviewing where we’ve been, and thinking about where we hope to go. Each year I look back over scores of documents, spreadsheets, meeting minutes – literally reams of data. And each year when I do I personally get refocused, but it’s a lot of work.
One of the items I delved into a little deeper this year in my meeting preparation was my preaching here at NewSong. Did you realize that I’ve preached over 350 sermons at NewSong? Since the average sermon I preach contains approximately 3000 words and lasts 24 minutes that means in the last seven years and nine months I’ve preached some 1,050,000 words in 140 hours (almost six days) to the good people of NewSong. I know what some of you are thinking “Wow, it seemed a lot longer and painful than that!” J
Seriously, that’s a lot of time and a lot of words spoken by yours truly to try and convey the Good News of Jesus Christ. The focus of our church recently has been to simplify our mission and message. Not simplify in the sense of “dumbing down,” but simplify in the sense of getting to the essence or the core – cutting through the clutter to say “this is what it’s all about.”
Well, these are the kinds of thoughts that have been swirling through my mind and heart as I encountered today’s texts and began preparing my message for this week. I was thinking, “Wow, over 350 sermons, almost one a day for an entire year. 140 hours, or six straight days of preaching! Over a million words!” I began thinking, “When all is said and done, what one word would I want the people of NewSong to remember that sums up all I have to say about the Christian faith?” Some mighty good words came to mind… “Love,” “Forgiveness” and “Peace” for example. But do you know what word I finally selected? The word that sums up what all I’ve been trying to say in over a million words?
It’s the word
The concept of God’s chosen people is certainly a biblical one. It can be found from the very beginning of the Bible to the very end; from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis we read of God choosing and seeking Adam in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:8 says “…the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” God has been choosing, calling and seeking mankind from the very beginning. A little further on in the Old Testament we read where God chose Abraham to be “the father of many nations” (Gen. 17:5) which would turn out to be God’s chosen people. Deuteronomy 7:6 speaks of the descendents of Abraham saying, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (NRSV). But God’s chosen people continually rebelled and so God dispersed them to the four corners of the earth. Deuteronomy 28:64 says, “The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods…” That scattering, known as the Diaspora, led to Judaism and the God of Israel being spread all over the world. Then, in the fullness of time, the promised Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came, and the concept of being the chosen ones of God no longer depended on physical lineage of being a Jew, but upon one’s relationship with the Messiah himself. Paul addressed the Philippian church said, “…just as he [God] chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph. 1:4). And as if to put an exclamation point on this notion of God choosing us through Christ we find this written in the very last book of the Bible, “He [Jesus] is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are called, chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14). Simply put, today, all who follow Christ are the chosen ones; in the words of Peter we are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people…” (1 Peter 2:9)
The notion of being God’s chosen is also a theme running throughout today’s texts. Today is the day in the life of the Church where we remember the baptism of Jesus. Jesus, of course, is God’s Chosen One. You and I are God’s chosen ones (little “c” and plural) Jesus is God’s Chosen One (capital “C” and singular). That’s a distinction we need to make right off the bat, and, quite honestly, one some people struggle with. You and I aren’t the Chosen One – the Messiah. Somebody has already filled that position. We are the chosen ones, followers of the Messiah, the Chosen One. And by the way, it’s easier being a chosen one than the Chosen One! Who would want that job?
The very first sentence of the reading from Isaiah starts us off. Speaking prophetically about the Messiah the prophet writes, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1). Then, several hundred years later the Gospel of Matthew records Jesus’ baptism where a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Jesus was God’s Chosen One – his only begotten Son. Meanwhile, the epistle reading from Acts records the activity of the Chosen One reporting, “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
So, like I said, the one word I want you to hear and grasp is this word “chosen.” But what does it mean to be chosen? Well that’s what I want us to look at and that’s where the texts for today help us out. What does it mean to be the chosen ones? I’m going to share four things it means.
It’s a call
to SERVANTHOOD.
The first thing it means to be chosen is that it is a call to SERVANTHOOD. The Isaiah text makes that clear where it says, “Here is my servant…” (Is. 42:1). And Jesus said of himself that he, “came to serve, not be served” (Matt. 20:28). That means being chosen by God, even if you’re Jesus (which we’re not) is not a call to a life of privilege and ease, but instead to a life of serving God and others.
A word of caution is in order here however: The call is to servanthood, not to servility. A common misunderstanding of Jesus' teachings is that Christians are to be servile – to never to aspire to greatness, but instead always to think poorly of themselves or to put themselves down. That is a total misunderstanding of Scripture teaches. The call to servanthood we receive at being chosen means that we put the interests of God and others ahead of our own.
Servanthood, then, is about giving rather than getting. It’s about giving ourselves to God and others because of the love of Christ that is within us – the love that has captured us.
The word “Servant” in the Bible denotes someone who is not at his own disposal, but is basically his master's purchased property – his slave. Bought at a price to serve his master's needs, to be at his “beck and call” every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. We all know slavery has gotten a bad reputation in the last several hundred years, but slavery in this sense is good and alive and well in Christianity. That’s because Christian service means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Corinthians. 6:19-20). Better yet, you don’t have to do it with a frown on your face and a feeling of emptiness and want in your heart. That’s because the Holy Spirit can create in us the kind of love toward God that will overflow in this kind of selfless service towards others, and it will be a joy!
At the age of 12 years old a young Albanian girl sensed God calling her to his service, but she struggled with how she could know for certain. She prayed and talked with her mother and sister, but she had no real peace. Then she talked with her Priest and asked him, “How can I be sure?” He answered, “Through your joy. If the idea that God might call you to serve him makes you happy, then this is the evidence that you have a call. The deep inner joy that you feel is the compass that indicates your direction in life.” Thankfully she felt that joy, and because she did, many of the least and last of the world came to know the love of God through Mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa discovered what many others have discovered, serving others produces joy in your heart because you get your mind off yourself and your own petty problems. And so, as Jesus pointed out, it’s only those who “lose their life” in this way, who actually “find it” (Matt. 16:25).
It contains a
promise – The HOLY SPIRIT.
And speaking of
the Holy Spirit producing the joy and power we need to live lives of
servanthood. That’s a second thing to recognize about what it means to be
chosen. Being chosen contains a promise – the HOLY SPIRIT. In Isaiah 42:1 the Lord says, “I have put my
spirit upon him.” In the Acts passage we read, “…how God anointed
Jesus of
The Holy Spirit is God’s promised gift for all who call upon his name. The Holy Spirit provides the power, the guidance, the wisdom, and yes, the joy as we just said, to live the Christian life. It comes with being chosen. It’s a part of the package.
I remember when I was a little boy I wanted more than anything to play little league baseball. I suppose I was a strange child though. I was strange because the main reason I wanted to play Little League was because I wanted to wear a real baseball uniform and hat. I suppose other kids had Major League dreams of hitting a game-winning home run with a 3-2 count in the bottom of the ninth inning. But it was enough for me the day I was put on a team (there were no try-outs) and my dad drove me home from the recreation center where we signed up with my real baseball uniform neatly folded in my lap and my baseball cap perched on my head. Now, as an adult, I see I had it all wrong.
The uniform, you see, was really just an “accent piece” to the package of being a ball player. You’re a ball player first and foremost. You learn the rules of the game, you practice fielding grounders and running down fly balls and batting. You learn to be a ball player, and then you put on the uniform.
I’m afraid some of us have it all wrong when it comes to the Christian life. We are chosen of God and given the gift of His Spirit and then we learn to live by the Spirit. Having the Holy Spirit in your life isn’t an “extra” in the Christian life, it isn’t icing on the cake – it’s the essence of the cake!
The Bible says that once we are chosen – which happens when we choose to follow God – then God calls us to a life of servanthood and he also gives us a gift, the Holy Spirit. Powerless, weak, ineffectual Christianity results if we don’t learn to walk by the Spirit. It’s not about the uniform. But that’s another sermon for another day.
It includes a
call to HOLY LIVING.
A third thing
being chosen of God means is that it includes a call to HOLY LIVING.
The theme of holiness, or righteousness, runs throughout these texts on being
chosen. For instance in the Isaiah text God says, “I am the Lord, I have
called you in righteousness” (Is. 42:6). And the Acts passage tells
us how Christ himself, “…went about doing good and healing all who
were oppressed by the devil…” (Acts 10:38). And Jesus was obviously concerned about
righteousness. The Bible tells us He was without sin, and yet he came to John
to be baptized in the
The bottom line? Righteousness – Holy living – matters to God. In fact, Holy Living is commanded by God. In Leviticus 20:26 God says, “You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine…” Clearly here God links his choosing us with a call to be holy. But what is Holy living all about? What does that mean?
Holy living is another concept that some folks have twisted to mean nothing like what the Bible depicts it as. We associate holy living with a puritanical list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” But that’s apparently not what God had in mind. We associate it with ritual cleansing and outward signs, while Jesus taught that God wants purity of our hearts and intentions.
We create lists we can live with and we avoid certain things and we feel like if we have, we’re acceptable in God’s eyes. That won’t cut it! We can’t make it that way. That’s why Jesus said if our righteousness doesn’t exceed that of the Pharisees (which was pretty righteous living) we haven’t got a chance.
No…the answer is to let God’s Spirit change us from within so those things which please God become as natural to us as those things which we entertain now in the secret recesses of our heart which don’t please God.
Or else we struggle with it for a while and then we lower the bar and say, “Well….how you live isn’t nearly as important as what is in your heart…” “God will forgive me if I do this…He promises to in the Bible.” And we go on living like the non-believers around us.
No…it doesn’t work that way. Being chosen includes a call to Holy Living, you can’t separate the two. God has really made this clear to me personally the past few months. That’s partly what the “Grow to Be Like Jesus” in our mission is about. We’re going to be talking more about this in the weeks ahead.
It includes a
reminder – You are God’s BELOVED
The last thing I want to mention this morning about what it means to be chosen is that it includes a reminder – You are God’s BELOVED. God delights in you! The other texts allude to this, but it’s the baptism text from Matthew that says it the plainest, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).
I really want you to hear that this morning. I don’t mean I want you to hear me, I want you to hear that voice that speaks from above, and from within that is saying to you, “You are my beloved, and I am pleased with you.” Sadly it’s not easy to hear that voice in our world today. We live in a world filled with voices that shout: “You’re no good, you’re ugly, you’re worthless, you’re incapable, you’re too old, you’re too old, you’re the wrong color, your bank account’s not big enough…” You hear this negative message from a multitude of voices that all want to put you down unless you can prove the opposite. And these negative voices are so loud and so prevalent that it’s easy to believe them.
Listen to me. God loves you with an unquenchable love that has nothing to do with any physical, financial, vocational, or any other kind of worth you may feel like you possess or lack. God loves you simply because you are his “treasured possession” – you are his chosen ones.
I realized something about my own life in writing down these thoughts. In fact I suppose I realized it a while back, but I’d never thought through it. I’ve always known that God loves me. As soon as the concept of “God” registered with me as a little kid I realized, that He loves me.
What I realized recently was that even though I knew God loved me I never thought that His love was enough. I never claimed it as my core truth, the most important truth I could know and live in. I was always looking for someone and something else to go with God in my life to convince me of my belovedness. I hadn’t grasped yet that being God’s beloved was all I need.
It was almost as if I kept refusing to hear the voice that speaks from the very depth of my being saying, “You are my beloved, I am pleased with you.” I was always trying to prove somehow that I was love-worthy by doing something spectacular or wonderful.
This resulted in behavior and thinking you might recognize in yourself. A sort of restless compulsiveness that has kept me running hither and yon, restless, lustful, angry, and never fully satisfied. Busy, but never getting “it” accomplished, whatever “it” was. Wondering if I ever would.
Hear the Good News this morning. You are chosen by God – His beloved. You are intimately loved long before your parents, teachers, spouses, children, co-workers, bosses, fellow church-members, or friends loved you or wounded you.
That’s the truth
I want you to claim as your central truth this morning. That’s what I’ve taken
over a million words of preaching in 350 sermons stretched out over almost 8
years to try and convince you of. Do you hear me this morning? Do you hear Him?
Can you hear Him? He’s saying “I choose YOU – you are my beloved….”
Let’s pray.