What is
Baptism, Burial, Revelation
Sermon on Biblical Baptism & False Prophets from Rev. Seifferlein
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The basis of our meditation today is Jesus’ words about false prophets from the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 7, hear especially verse 15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Sermons sometimes are clear to the preacher but not to the hearer. The flow of the sermon may make logical sense to me, but not to you. Further, there are many distractions whereby the devil does not wish us to take the message to heart, so it is easy to find oneself becoming alert only to see that the boat has gone too far down the river to catch up. So the outline, so you know where I am going, is twofold. I’d like to speak a bit about baptism, what God did for me there, and then I want to relate it to false prophets. My point really is to say that of myself I am not really inclined to care about bad preaching, religious lies, or my own participation in that, but God, through Word, Spirit, and Baptism, enlivens me to care about it, but of myself, I could not nor would not care about these things. So, Part 1—Baptism, Part 2—False Prophets. Let’s go.
Some time ago I followed a video series from one of our seminary professors, Art Just. It was on baptism. I was intrigued as he stood by a baptismal font that was from the early church. Imagine a stone church floor, except in the floor were steps going down, and then up, all in the shape of a cross, entering and exiting, several feet deep. Though I was not baptized in such a font, it has given me the opportunity to think about baptism and the treasure of what God did for me there. Yet it also reminds me of the story of Linda, a rather large, mostly wheelchair bound lady at the nursing home who requested baptism, grew up in a church that had baptism but she never done it and now she wanted to, but she asked the question of immersion that was the practice of her church growing up. When I explained to her that I was happy to arrange a full immersion baptism in the Brethren Village pool, she said, “I think sprinkling will be just fine!”
The symbols of baptism, though, can teach us something. You see in the ancient baptismal fonts people would enter on one side and step to the other side. They came out on the other side, like the children who went through the Red Sea, Noah whose boat stopped to a new world, or the people who crossed the Jordan making it finally to the land flowing with milk and honey. Baptism and water marked transition from one reality to another, from one way of living to a new life. In addition, people were baptized without their clothes on, but really the point there is that you take off the clothes on the one side and leave them there, and on the other side a new garment would be put on their bodies. This entry and exit, this putting off and putting on, is the very thing of how I put on Christ in those waters, or, you could say, He puts Himself on me, all of what He did. All that was old and deathly, all that was of me, was left there, all of Adam and his crappy desires, was laid on the one side. Who wants to go back over, to travel over? Baptism is to take up my new life, God gives me, the life of His Son. Oh, to have a new life! And yet I am given one. I am who I was not before. Christ lives in me. I am that old Chris no more, full of death and Satan, I have been through the waters where all of me was washed down the bank. On that day in Detroit so long ago, God gave Me His Son. It is not a new me, a new Chris, no, God forbid, we don’t need more of him, but less, I take up the life of Christ, the life that I live I live by faith in the Son of God. I am baptized. What grows in Me is the life of Jesus, more of Him, less of Me! Let me be drowned, let Christ be raised!
But Pr Foelber’s sermon hit me last week. Wow! Baptism is execution, he said. The sign of roman execution, the means by which they killed people is received. Imagine if we signed people with the sign of an electric chair, both on the forehead or on the heart, or said, we now make the sign of the noose, upon your neck, but that is effectually what it is. You died and your new life is now hidden with Christ and will appear when He comes again! Romans 6 says, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live and walk in newness of life.” We bear the mark that we have died, and if we have died we have been raised, we live a new life.
But more than baptism as transition and resurrection, baptism too is illumination. All the candles we give may seem a little cheesy, but the practice goes back long before Americans were lighting candles on their birthday cake. The light is given to express that in darkness you can’t see. I once was in darkness, but now I can see. Because God’s Spirit in me I begin to see.
So baptism is enlightenment and further and even more baptism is revelation. Baptism is where we see a new vision for our lives how God made us to be. Baptism is where we learn to hate the former self and love the Lord. Baptism is where we begin to be turned outward from the self. Where we want more God and less us. That light is the light of God and His Word given to us, His Spirit that is taught to us in the Word which is present any time a Bible is read or the Scripture is given. I have a new light of my life, the light of Jesus. I am new, but sometimes I go back to the old ways. Sometimes I think and dream like the old ways. All this is pictured by the children of Israel who went through the Red Sea. On the one side they gained their freedom, had their enemies float away, and were transferred from the gods of Egypt to the one living and true God. But how often did they want to go back. They made molded gods. They gave way to their fears. They turned back and hurt themselves. They turned from each other. How do we reconcile these things? Born in sin we are born as creatures of wrath. Born in baptism we are born anew. Yet old Adam in this life is a pretty good swimmer. He never wants to let go. He is always not far behind. You hate it, but it does not mean that you are not a Christian. It just means that you need a daily baptism, to drown him yet again who you were. You are a Christian. And the sign that you hate that old Man, is a sign that the new man is working in you. The blessing of the Lutheran doctrine of simul ustes et peccattor, at the same time, sinner and saint, is that God does not impute you with that sin or count it against you, but it was counted against Christ. This is the blessing that I will see sin and death in myself and can be both a sinner and a Christian. Luther wrestled with this about himself. How can I call myself one of Christ’s own. Yet, Christ has claimed me. I must pick up my cross. That is the daily life, that I must pick that up too, to see my nature, but put him down again and to trust in Christ. We daily return to those waters and wash. I see and believe that Christ died for sinners. He died for me.
Baptism is the great equalizer. Our new sister Nora is with us in the ranks. She is a Christian. I remember in my first church I had to defend myself from a public accusation that the flag should not be draped on the casket of a man who had served in WWII but instead a white blanket should be put over the casket. You see whether decorated soldier or forgiven cheat.
Whether people are lining up to say lots of things, or no one has anything good to say, we all stand before our Lord the same. We all stand the same, as we with Nora. Sinners in need of God’s forgiveness, yet those who have been justified by Christ and are His. Young and old. All that is old and sinful. Was drowned. We were saved. Galatians 3 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are
Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Christ is born in to her today. And the confession of infant baptism, which is hard for us to understand, accept and believe, is that even now she is a saint, has been given faith by God, and lives the new life. The teaching of God’s Word does not have to wait but is happening now.
Through the teaching and patient catechesis of her parents every day she is shown the right and turned from the wrong. She is corrected and rebuked. She is chastened and disciplined. She is forgiven and loved. She sheds tears, I am sure of it, as all that is old and sinful is daily crucified.
The Lord said, Go baptize and teach. Make followers of Me and My life. And her parents are doing that every day, following the Lord’s command and what He said, teaching her to know in this world of sin and death, the truth. I’ve gone on too long and I haven’t even got to Part 2. My point is simply this. We don’t really by nature care about false doctrine. Our pluralistic society leads us to say false doctrine doesn’t hurt, everybody is fine. We are fine living in the nuclear waste.
My point is that God’s awakening and the spirit turn us and work in us new desires. God enlivens me in baptism to a new way of thinking. That his word matters. He teaches me to love His commandments and ways. He teaches me to be concerned about false prophecy. In love we speak these things even if there are doctrinal disagreements. It matters to Jesus and so it matters to us. We need to take these matters seriously, Jesus says false doctrine kills the soul. We need to hold our pastors to account. We need to hold each other to account. It matters because false doctrine can’t help us it, leads to death.
Sometimes as a pastor I want to say things to please the people. I want to be liked. These words condemn me. God forgives me today. God’s word also sees that this desire is very weak in me. So God gives me His Lord’s Prayer. Hallowed be Thy name. Help me. Help me to do this. In baptism we laid hands on Nora. We said the Lord’s Prayer over her. We were imparting this gift to her. Baptized in the name of the Father, given the gift of the Spirit, through the Son she can now cry out to. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. We cry out as children, Abba Father, dear dad, help
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The peace of God which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus.
