Lent 1 A
Does Baptism Make You Safe?
Matthew 4:1-11
5 March 2017 – Redeemer
Does your baptism make you safe? Well, how does it go for Jesus? Right after He is baptized he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Does baptism make you safe? If you follow Jesus the answer is “yes and no.” Yes, for in your baptism you were saved. Scripture makes it clear. “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 3:21, ESV) Baptism saves you by delivering to you everything Jesus did for you – His righteous life and sin atoning death. Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who believe God’s promises. In Holy Baptism you are snatched from the devil’s camp by the special and hidden operation of the Holy Spirit in water and the Word. In Holy Baptism, the Father through His Son by the power of the Spirit declares of you what He declared of Jesus – This is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.
So yes, baptism makes you safe – safe in the forgiveness of your sins, saved from death and hell, safely out of the devil’s clutches. But the Devil is a sore loser. He wants you back. He wants to pry you loose from your baptism, from your Father in heaven, from the saving work of Jesus. While your baptism makes you safely a child of God it also marks you clearly as Satan’s enemy. Every temptation for Jesus and for you is against baptism. The Father declared of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son” and the temptations begin, “If you are the Son of God.”
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit led Jesus there. This was all arranged by God Himself for you – that you might know two things. First, that you might know the devil’s ways. Our Lord and Champion Jesus went into the enemy’s camp and got the enemy to reveal his battle plans so that we might know them and be on guard against them. Second, and even more important, Jesus beat the Devil, not only in the wilderness, but all the way to the cross. That victory of Christ is your comfort especially when you don’t beat the devil, but lose to his temptations.
Satan goes after your stomach. Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights. It was Lent for Jesus. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” No big deal for Jesus. He could make water into Cabernet. He could turn five loaves of bread and two fish into an all you can eat fish fry. But His miracles were never for His stomach or His needs. They were for others. Everything He did He did for you. That is why His Father sent Him – not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.
As baptized children of God we regularly pray that we would live in faith toward God and in love toward our neighbor. Baptism has given us life with God so we no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Satan will tempt you through your stomach as he did Jesus – look to your own needs first. God is holding out on you. It’s the same old lie He told Adam and Eve in the garden. Take what God hasn’t given you. Don’t trust Him. You’d better look after yourself.
Jesus answers with God’s own Word. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus is speaking of Himself – for every Word God speaks directs us to the final Word He spoke – the Word made flesh. You can live without bread, but you cannot live without Jesus. Someday you will die whether your cupboards are full or empty, whether you have a fortune or you’re flat broke, whether you have a brand new car in the driveway or you’re nursing a 20 year old clunker. The Devil would distract you with those things –abundance or poverty, filled full or hungry, but God’s Word alone, Jesus alone, will give you life.
Jesus had used God’s Word against Satan so now Satan uses God’s Word against Jesus. You can almost hear Satan sneering when he spoke. Throw yourself down from the temple, for “it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” The Devil knows God’s Word well – better than you. That’s why you’d better check what he says against what God says. The Devil left out four little words when he quoted Psalm 91, “He will command his angels concerning you in all your ways.” That doesn’t mean “whatever way you choose God will bless it.” It means walking in the way the Lord has given you. He hasn’t promised to protect a husband who commits adultery or teenager who decides to text and drive. God does not say, “Keep on sinning so I can forgive you some more.” The Father had given His Son one way to go. The cross has the Father’s blessing. Jumping off the temple does not. Once again Jesus rebuffs Satan with God’s Word, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Satan had tried Jesus’ stomach with hunger and His ears with God’s Word and now He goes right to the heart – “All these things – the whole world – I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Once again Satan goes after Jesus’ Sonship. Will Jesus seek His own power? Will He forfeit His Sonship to gain the world? Jesus has come to win the world not for Himself, but for His Father. How does Jesus save us? By not taking advantage of His divinity, by not exercising His might, but by making Himself nothing, by taking the form of a servant, by dying for us sinners that we might be made alive to our Father in heaven. Right now, Jesus does rule the whole world, not by might, but by grace, governing all things for the sake of His bride the church, that she might receive His forgiveness and bring that forgiveness to the world. Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
So does your baptism make you safe? Yes and no. Yes you are safe. You are most certainly safe by the saving work of the Holy Spirit in your baptism. You are forgiven in Christ. You have eternal life and you will rise again in Christ. You are God’s child in Christ. No, you are not safe from attack. The devil will attack your baptism because of your baptism. He will tempt you to doubt God’s care. He will twist God’s Word. He will seek your heart. He will resurrect your forgiven sins. And sometimes, perhaps often, you will fall into temptation. When that happens remember the most important lesson from the temptation of Christ. Jesus won, every time, three-nothing. He did that for you. He is there on the battlefield for you. The last temptation the Devil threw at Jesus was like the first, “If you are the son of God come down from the cross.” Jesus didn’t. He stayed the course for you – dying for all your sins and in that beating Satan completely for you. You are safe from Satan, because you are forgiven your sin in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
4 March 2017 anno Domini