Whatever God Says He Does
Genesis 1:1-5
7 January 2018 – Redeemer
When God speaks – whatever He says happens. Nothing is made something. Light shines in the darkness. Jesus is revealed as His Son. Saint Cloud tap water is made a holy water that washes away your sins. A mean spirited rebel who loves sin with all his heart dies while a righteous child who loves His Father is raised to new life in Christ. When God speaks, whatever He says happens.
When you speak – well, that doesn’t mean anything will happen. You’ve said, “I’m telling the truth” when you weren’t. You exclaimed, “I’ll change” and you didn’t. You promised, “Next week I will…” and you won’t.
That is why we are here this morning – our words are as weak and feeble as we are. 24 hour news, phones where we can be reached anytime, the internet which allows any of us to share our opinion about anything – for all our words we haven’t made the world or our lives better? In this technological age we have produced a mountain of words and they haven’t made a molehill of a difference. God’s Word is not weak and by His Word He makes something out of nothing. He makes you, a dead sinner, into a living saint through baptism into Christ.
In the beginning there was nothing. The world was without form and void, darkness was over the face of the deep. But God was there. His Spirit was hovering over the waters. He said “Let there be light” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. You don’t have to tell anyone in Minnesota that light is good. We’re the people who look on December 22 as the beginning of Spring – the days are getting longer. Light is good. It helps us see our neighbor and our work and our many blessings. Hard to see all of that in the dark. On the fourth day God spoke the Sun into existence to govern the day. It too is good. Bringing us warmth, enabling the earth to bear fruit, granting a climate in which we can live. The light and the sun were both created by God’s Word.
God spoke everything into existence by His Word, with the exception of one creature, where He did more than speak. God got down in the dirt, in the matter of His creation and formed this creature Himself. God made Adam from the dust of the ground and He fashioned Eve from Adam’s rib. Male and female – God’s highest creatures – were not only spoken into existence, but they were formed and fashioned by Him. If you are male – that is God’s greatest gift to you – it is good. If you are female – that is God’s greatest gift to you. When God made man – male and female – He says that His creation was very good.
We cannot say that about creation today – it is not good. The darkness of evil is overshadowing God’s goodness. Even the highest gift of male and female is no longer regarded as a good gift. God tells us why. God’s Word is good. God’s Word gives life and bestows goodness upon you. If anyone promises you good apart from God’s Word, contrary to God’s Word – he is a liar. The father of all lies, the Devil, tempted Adam and Eve to listen to his sermons instead of God’s Word. It really wasn’t about that forbidden fruit in the garden – it was about God’s Word. The Devil promised good apart from God and all of creation went bad – immediately – Adam hid from God and blamed his wife. Men today often do the same thing. They enjoy the darkness more than the light.
Saint Mark’s Gospel begins like the very beginning. God’s voice speaks in the middle of nowhere. Mark doesn’t give us any details about Jesus’ birth – no Virgin Mary, no Joseph, shepherds, Bethlehem. He begins his Gospel like Genesis. God opens His His mouth in the middle of nowhere. John the Baptist proclaims God’s Word in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John the Baptist was preaching, “Let there be light” in this dark world. Let there be light in your dark life. That light is the forgiveness for your sins. That light is Jesus. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus changes the world more than the light invading the darkness on day one of creation because Jesus changes you. He changes you by taking your place in the darkness.
If you know who Jesus is the very first question you should have asked yourself today is, “Why is Jesus being baptized?” He has no sin. He was born of a Virgin. He never sinned. Only sinners need baptism. Jesus is being baptized because He has come to be sin for us. He is going to go where sinners go – the Lamb of God is taking our place as the sacrifice for sin. He is numbered with sinners in the Jordan because He will be reckoned as every sinner, as all sinners, at the cross. The cross is the antitheses of creation. At creation light entered in the darkness. At the cross the light of the world went out – three hours of darkness as Jesus hung between heaven and earth. At creation God spoke again and again, delivering every good gift. At the cross there was no Word from the Father. Jesus cried out, but the Father did not answer. That’s what our sins deserve – no Word, no love, no answer, no good from God. That’s what Jesus endured for you and it changed everything.
Dead men live – Jesus did three days later. Sinners are made saints. Rebels are born again as children. Lovers of sin are redeemed to be lovers of God. Light can dawn in the darkness of your own soul and you who despair of your sin can hope and see good in yourself and you can do good to others, because you are forgiven. God’s greatest creatures, you, are already being changed – from the moment of your baptism you are changed and being changed. You must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Once, before your baptism, before you were given faith in Jesus, you were living in sin and dead to God. Now you are dead to sin and alive to God – because Christ Jesus died for you and rose again three days later.
God’s Word has worked this visible change in you – the Word of Christ, the Word tied to the Water of your baptism, to the word of absolution, to His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. You were dying, now you’re living forever. You were bound to sin, now you are free from sin. You used to love sin, now you would never go on sinning. Why would you walk back into the darkness from which God has delivered you or jump back into the grave from which He has raised you? Now there is light in the darkness and there is life for the dying. God says so and what God says He does for you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.