01/10/2026
DATE: January 11, 2026
OCCASION: The Baptism of Our Lord
HYMNS: 80, 84, 236
READINGS: Isaiah 42:1-7
Acts 10:34-38
Matthew 3:13-17
TEXT: Matthew 3:13-17
THEME: Fulfilling All Righteousness
PARTS: 1) Jesus’ active obedience (vv.13-15)
2) Anointing in the Father’s approval (vv.16,17)
Pastor Jim Heffner
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, our Rock and our Redeemer, Amen.
This morning our sermon text comes to us from the Holy Gospel appointed for the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany, traditionally known as the Baptism of our Lord, Matthew chapter 3 reading verse 15:
Dear friends, as our Jesus is revealed as the Anointed One,
There are all kinds of things in our lives that we can either do actively or passively. Usually when we speak of actively doing something it is something that we really want to do. And when we do it we are hoping that it is successful. If we are doing something passively we are letting things happen as they will but we might not be happy with the results. But how upset can we be if we didn’t really actively pursue whatever the goal was? Sometimes things that we are not actively involved in are done to us.
I have been actively taking chemotherapy treatments but I am passively receiving intense punishment. Monday I could not eat or drink anything with intense pain. Gradually things got a little better but now, writing this sermon, I have intense intestinal pain. Obviously blockage is again a real concern since it happened before and right now we have no idea what the tumor is doing. I signed up to be healed and helped, not beat up again. There is an army of people praying for me so I guess I can take my licks for a while longer.
What we see in today’s text is Jesus’ active obedience. And we will see this right on into Lent. Jesus is not abolishing God’s laws and commandments but he is actively fulfilling them. Everything that was necessary to earn salvation Jesus is able to accomplish. Every single commandment or rule or regulation, as it is laid out in God’s Word, Jesus is fulfilling. In our place, Jesus is keeping the law perfectly. This is his active obedience and is necessary for our salvation.
When Jesus goes to the cross we receive the righteousness that he earned and he receives the punishment that we deserve. When Jesus was arrested he passively let them do everything that they wanted to do to make him suffer. Unknowingly, they fulfilled the Lord’s plan of salvation but knowing what lies ahead is really tough. At times I am suffering hell on earth but think about Jesus. He endured eternal hell for all sins of all time, including ours and even the sins of those who punished him.
Today we not only see Jesus as the Anointed One but we also see all three Persons of the Trinity actively beginning a ministry of helping and healing, and of sacrifice and punishment.
This text provides an opportunity to explain how someone with no sin fulfills all righteousness by being baptized. As the Messiah, Jesus stands in the place of sinful human beings, first at the font and then at the cross. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is revealed as the Son of God. When we are baptized, we are also revealed as children of God, connected to the death and resurrection of Christ.
We are not told how old Jesus is but 30 is a logical guess. Because the person who numbered the years did it wrong, Jesus was born in 4 B.C. This is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John has come and now it is time for Jesus. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We know that Jesus is sinless because of the Father’s words in verse 17. Only one who is sinless can please God.
When John speaks he literally says, “I have a need.” John is needy. He knows the deficiency of being a human being. Everything we do is tainted with sin. John knows that what he lacks is something that only Jesus can give. If everything is tainted by sin, that includes good works. The good works we do out of thankfulness are accepted because Jesus lives in our hearts. We need to remember while Jesus appears simple here, he is still Almighty God.
This is all part of Jesus’ active obedience. He is fulfilling every part of the law perfectly, actively. Jesus’ passive obedience is being led to the cross. Both his active obedience and his passive obedience is required for our salvation. Jesus has to keep these laws in our place. Had Jesus only been a man he could have saved himself by obeying God at all times in every way, but how could a mere man ever do that? We are finishing up the 10 Commandments in Catechism and we know that they are God’s will for our lives. But when we fail at any Commandment the answer is always the same – Jesus has kept that Commandment perfectly for us and has suffered the punishment we deserve for breaking it.
When it says that Jesus came up out of the water this does NOT prove immersion. Luther did believe in immersion because of the beautiful picture it creates. You go down in the water a condemned object of God’s wrath and you come up out of the water a redeemed child of God. The reason we don’t practice immersion is because Christians insist on it. Let us remember that John is also down in the water. How could he speak under the water? Also, geographically speaking, in the Book of Acts, various baptisms took place that would not have allowed for immersion.
While we will never find the word “Trinity” in the Bible we clearly see the Trinity in this text. We have Jesus here in human flesh, known in the Old Testament most commonly as the Angel of the LORD. We would call him the Second Person of the Trinity as the Angel of the LORD often makes comments that can only be the LORD, he has the characteristics of God and sometimes he swears by himself which only God can do. The Council of Nicea in 325 is where we get the Nicene Creed which explains the Person of Christ even more clearly than the Apostles’ Creed.
As Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove and remains on him. Because this is what happens in baptism, this is one of the reasons we baptize babies. We baptize because they are part of a nation, as Jesus instructs, they are sinful because we know that sometimes babies die, most of them before they are born, and they are able to believe in Jesus, as he also says clearly. The Holy Spirit descends on a baby in the water and the Word and creates saving faith. Scripture is on our side when it comes to baptizing babies.
Finally as we are talking about the Trinity we have to talk about the Father’s voice. All three Persons of the Trinity are clearly here. This fulfills the prophecy that we heard in Isaiah. We would expect a quote from Matthew here but anyone who has read Isaiah would make this connection right away.
When the Father voices his approval on Jesus and his life, he is voicing his approval up to this point in time. For about 30 years Jesus has never done anything wrong – he never sinned. The Father has been watching as he always does and now his plan is set in motion. As Almighty God Jesus has been in total control of his life and consciously obeyed God’s Word. We will hear the Father’s approval in a few weeks again at the Transfiguration. Jesus has fulfilled his ministry at that time and when he leaves the Mount of Transfiguration the cross looms large. It is only Jesus who pleases God because only Jesus is perfectly sinless.
As we go through life we want to actively proclaim our Savior. We teach our children, we tell our friends. When the opportunity presents itself to our neighbors or friends, we will actively give the reason for the hope that we have. But let us not forget that we can passively testify for Christ as well. When we don’t go along with the crowd, when we openly thank God for something that has happened, when we carry ourselves in a way that reflects Christ, we are still testifying about our Savior.
So in these next few weeks we will have clear examples of Jesus fulfilling prophecy so that we have no doubt that Jesus is the Lord’s Anointed, the Promised Savior. May we always see him as this and trust in him for everything, AMEN.
Now may the peace of God that transcends all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
