Father, send your Holy Spirit to once again
illumine our hearts so that we can hear
the living word of God in the scriptures
this morning.
May the words of my mouth and the
meditations and thoughts of my heart be acceptable
in your sight.
Oh, Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
Amen.
You may be seated.
We're going to begin with the gospel reading
and we're going to talk today about household
baptism.
Receiving the promise of the father, that would
be a subtitle, receiving the promise of the
father.
We heard in Luke's gospel account this morning
where Jesus appears to his disciples after the
resurrection and he's explaining once again what is
found throughout the Old Testament.
He said that it's written that the Messiah
is to suffer and to rise from the
dead on the third day.
Verse forty nine.
And see, I am sending upon you what
my father promised.
So stay here in the city until you
have been clothed with power from on high.
What is the promise of the father and
the context here is actually Jesus unfolding the
old covenant in light of his death and
resurrection.
So we have to keep that in mind
until Christ explained himself throughout the Old Testament.
No one really saw this.
And so he had to explain it to
his disciples.
And also the gospel of Luke and the
acts of the apostles, or we could actually
call it the acts of the Holy Spirit,
it wouldn't be wrong to call it that
they were written together to provide continuity.
So Luke wrote both the gospel and acts
and they were to provide continuity between the
ministry of Jesus and his church, his body,
his ongoing life in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
And so acts one carries through with this
theme that we're left with in Luke twenty
four.
I'm sending upon you what my father promised.
He's saying in verse one of Acts chapter
one in the first book, Theophilus, I wrote
about all that Jesus began to do and
teach from the beginning until the day that
he was taken up to heaven after giving
instructions through the Holy Spirit.
I love that passage.
Jesus gave instructions through the Holy Spirit to
the apostles whom he had chosen.
And after his suffering, he presented himself alive
to them by many convincing proofs appearing to
them during 40 days and speaking about the
kingdom of God.
I just wish they had made a podcast.
That would have been awesome.
That would have been the most, you know,
iTunes would have just exploded with downloads, too
many.
While staying with them, he ordered them not
to leave Jerusalem, but to here it is
again.
Wait, wait there for the promise of the
father.
This, he said, is what you have heard
from me in talking about the promise of
the father.
Those 40 days, that podcast, it's been lost.
It's been talking about the promise of the
father, the kingdom of God, which is righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit is
one definition in Romans 14, 17.
Now he's tying it in with baptism for
John, baptized with water.
But you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from now.
We recall that Jesus is preparing his disciples
for his departure, his ascension.
Don't worry, I won't leave you as orphans.
I'm going to send you the promise of
the father.
I'm going to send you the comforter, the
Holy Spirit.
He will be with you and in you.
And then we looked at Acts two today.
We sort of piggybacked Acts, Acts one and
Acts two together in the readings this morning
where the Holy Spirit is poured out.
Actually, on the day of Pentecost, the promise
of the father actually is in motion now.
And then in verse thirty seven through thirty
eight of Acts two, it says now when
they heard this, they were cut to the
heart and said to Peter and to the
other apostles, brothers, what are we going to
do about this?
Yes, we believe we kill the Messiah.
We're cut to the heart.
We're under conviction now under the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
What are we going to do about it?
It's basically the question.
Peter said to them, repent, metanoia, change your
mind, change your way of thinking and change
your way of living right now and be
baptized every one of you.
Don't forget that every one of you.
Right.
There's women and there's children here standing here
on the day of Pentecost.
It's just not a bunch of guys.
Right.
Every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be
forgiven and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit, be baptized and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And then Jesus is tying in the gift
of the Holy Spirit coming through baptism with
the promise of the father saying, for the
promise is for you.
The promise is for you this morning, the
promise of the father is for us, but
it's not only for us, Jesus says, but
the promise is for you and for your
adult children.
Doesn't say that, does it?
This is for your children.
The promise is for you and for your
children and not only for them, but all
who are far away in the Gentile mission
go into all the world and make the
sign beyond the Jewish pedigree.
Now the Holy Spirit is being poured out
on all flesh, all nations, all of us.
And we're, in a sense, this morning a
witness to this truth.
We're here this morning enjoying the promise of
the father is celebrating the promise of the
father and ministry, the promise of the father,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to
him.
That's who the promise is for.
Where does the promise originate?
It's the next question.
We don't have time to go through the
book of Genesis, but, you know, it starts
with Genesis 12, really, in the call of
Abraham, a pagan, pagan guy out there, probably
most likely an idolater, you know.
I mean, you know, the Jewish nation has
been formed through faith, not ethnicity.
Right.
It comes through Abraham, the father of faith.
He was living somewhere in modern day what
we know to be Iraq.
OK, and the Lord just knocks on his
door one day and says, hey, you're the
guy.
I'm too old and all this, all these
excuses, you know, start happening.
But you're the guy.
No, you're the guy.
And then we follow Genesis 12, where God
is making a covenant with Abraham and he's
expanding on that covenant and expounding on the
covenant is growing in its illumination to Abraham.
In chapter 15, he reiterates the promises of
this covenant.
And then chapter 17, he starts talking about
the C word circumcision as the sign of
the covenant.
Genesis 17, nine says this, God said, Abraham,
as for you, you shall keep my covenant,
you and your children, your offspring, your seed
after you throughout their generations.
This is my covenant, which you shall keep
between me and you and your children after
you, your offspring, your seed.
This is my covenant.
Here it is.
Every male.
Here's the sign of it.
Every male among you shall be circumcised, you
shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and
it shall be a sign of the covenant
between me and you.
Now we have to fast forward, OK?
The sign of the covenant became the most
controversial topic in the New Testament.
Paul going out into the Gentiles, into those
who were not of Jewish descent.
Preaching the gospel.
And then we saw in Galatians this summer
how Judaizers would come in and say, no,
you need Jesus plus you need Jesus plus
circumcision to make you full members of the
people of God, of the one people of
God.
These were Christian Judaizers, though they were born
again, baptized, circumcised Jewish believers who are saying
that there's you must become Jewish.
And this was a big controversy right throughout
Galatians and Romans and Colossians we heard this
morning.
And so how is the promise fulfilled?
How is the promise of Abraham fulfilled?
When I say fulfillment, Christ didn't come to
abolish the law, but he came to.
Fulfill it, right, he came to fulfill it.
Christ is the tell us the end of
the law, the fulfillment of the law, the
fullness of the law.
Well, Peter is telling us in Acts two
that the promise is the Holy Spirit where
we read in the Old Testament it was
the land.
It's being reinterpreted in the New Testament to
be beyond the land, but the Holy Spirit,
the promise is the Holy Spirit.
The promise is for you and your children
and for all of those who are far
off the Holy Spirit.
And the sign of the covenant is now
what?
What's the sign of the covenant now?
What are baptism, household baptism?
I, you know, I was talking to some
brothers this week and we were geeking out
theologically over coffee and it was a great
time.
And, you know, I just I just thought,
you know what, I don't believe in infant
baptism.
I believe in household baptism.
And I want to work with that idea.
Because we don't baptize any infant, right, there
has to be qualifications in the household.
Right, just like in Ephesians six, talking to
fathers, Paul says, fathers, raise your children in
the fear and admonition of the Lord, raise
up your children.
That's not happening.
We don't need to be doing infant baptism.
And so household baptism is the household faith
baptism, the sign of the covenant no longer
being circumcised on the eighth day.
You see, these were infants, male infants circumcised
on the eighth day.
Baptism replaces that.
OK, we're going to work with that a
little bit.
Paul picks up on this in Galatians 3,
13.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us, for
it is a written curse.
It is everyone who hangs on a tree.
Jesus took the curse in order that in
Christ Jesus, here it is, in order that
in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might
come to the Gentiles so that we might
receive the promise of the spirit.
You see, you see how Paul is tying
in.
This is a good Jewish Pharisee teaching us
here.
He's just had an encounter with the risen
Christ, and he's reinterpreting the Old Testament now
in light of Jesus, just the way Jesus
was doing with the apostles in Luke 24,
because that's not apparent when you read Genesis,
you see, it seems like it's all about
the land.
And yet Paul himself, Peter himself, the apostles
are reinterpreting the land as the Holy Spirit
in the New Testament.
In order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing
of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles so
that we might receive the promise, we might
receive the promise of the spirit through faith.
Talking about households of faith today, verse 26
in Galatians 3, for in Christ Jesus, you
are all children of God, sons of God
is the literal word there, but children is
a better translation.
For in Christ Jesus, you are all children
of God through faith.
As many of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ, there is
no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer
male and female, not male or female, male
and female, for all of you are one
in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you
are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
And so circumcision definitely is being replaced by
water baptism.
Colossians 2, we heard this today, there was
a problem in Colossi, the church in Colossi
with this controversy over Judaizers coming in, just
like in the churches of Galatia, who were
saying and demanding that, yes, Jesus, but Jesus
plus circumcision.
OK, and Paul is responding to that with
this phrase in him.
Also, you were circumcised, New RSV says, with
a spiritual circumcision.
The literal word is what we heard this
morning by a circumcision not made with human
hands.
Right.
So it is in a sense of spiritual
circumcision that he's talking about.
And this is this is not just the
New Testament concept.
This is an Old Testament, Deuteronomy 10, circumcise
your hearts and not just your foreskin.
This is what's taking place.
Paul is saying now in baptism, you were
circumcised with a circumcision not made with human
hands, with a spiritual circumcision by putting off
the body of the flesh in the circumcision
of Christ.
Christ himself is doing the circumcision now in
baptism.
He's the rabbi who shows up with the
scaffold in the heart and he's cutting away
that which none of us could ever get
to.
And he's bringing renewal and regeneration and redemption
and adoption and all of the benefits of
Jesus in the spirit.
When you were buried with him in baptism.
Right, when you were buried with him in
baptism, you were also raised with him through
faith in the power of God who raised
him from the dead.
So a moving fast.
So why baptize the children of believers?
Why do we do that?
In the Old Testament, God made promises to
believers, the Jewish nation and their children.
OK, got to get that and gave a
sign of those promises that was to be
given to believers and their children, which was
circumcision.
In the New Testament, he reiterated those same
promises.
OK, we have the blessing of Abraham.
We're sons and daughters of Abraham.
And so we're in we've been grafted in
to that.
Now we're a royal priesthood, a holy nation
of people belonging to God, the one people
of God, Jew and Gentile.
OK, that's what that's saying.
In the New Testament, he reiterated those same
promises to believers and their children.
Here's the key part to believers and their
children.
Just like in the Old Testament, children were
a part of the nation through circumcision.
Now children are a part of the church
through the circumcision made without hands.
Baptism.
Believers and their children are brought into the
one people of God.
You see the same parallels here.
In the New Testament, he reiterated those same
promises to believers and their children.
Therefore, the sign of those promises should be
given to believers and their children.
And this constitutes who is the church, brothers
and sisters, is it just believers and not
your children?
Or is it believers and your children being
raised in the household of God?
Now, it was only until after the 1500
years that this ever became a question.
Household baptism took place throughout the Book of
Acts and for 1500 years before somebody woke
up and started contesting.
And the church is not made up of
believers and their children.
The church is made up of believers.
And when their children get intellectual enough to
decide, they can become a part of the
church.
So we're saved by intellect in that model.
That is so anti what the church for
1500 years practiced and taught even before Christ.
You have to go back to the nation
of Israel.
How did you become a part of the
one people of God through circumcision?
Male and female receive that sign.
That's that's the upgrade that we get in
Jesus Christ.
In closing, for some, water baptism is a
sign of one's commitment to Jesus.
But we believe, at least I believe, that
water baptism is a sign of God's covenant
faithfulness.
It's not a sign of my faithfulness.
It's a sign of his faithfulness.
And that's two different ecclesiologies, you guys.
That's two different ways of looking at the
church.
There's only a few branches of the precious
church out there that contend with this, and
we love them.
My first pastor was a Baptist pastor, and
it took me so long to get what
I'm sharing with you today.
It took me so long to get it
because I couldn't couldn't receive it.
I couldn't get beyond that.
I must make my decision.
I make a lot of bad decisions.
I'm glad I'm glad he decided for me
faith is important for everybody.
And so as you know, my son and
my daughter, they were raised in the faith
and they weren't baptized as infants because I
was an Anglican then.
But they never really had that come to
Jesus, I was that I was in darkness
and I was this great sinner deal because
they were raised in a household of faith.
Right.
And so my daughter says, I don't remember
when I was converted.
I've always been, in a sense.
And in a sense, that's true, she was
praying as soon as she could talk, you
know, she's got journals that high, just walking
with God and my son.
Yeah, the same thing.
While some of us, you know, we raise
our kids and we do everything right and
they do everything wrong, you know, I mean,
it's just like it's really, really there's no
formula here that I'm putting out here.
Right.
It's the grace of God that I can
say what I just said.
I don't take it for granted, but it's
that overemphasis on this revivalistic style of Christianity
that can push us into devaluing what the
church is, you know, for fifteen hundred years
has believed and taught.
Right.
And I had to work through this myself.
I struggled and struggled and struggled with it.
And so today we're getting ready to baptize
a precious daughter in a household of faith.
Yeah.
Jason and Annalise and little Jubilee.
Yeah.
Born in the year of Jubilee, born in
a jubilee year, what Pope Francis deems the
year of mercy.
This is a day that we've anticipated.
Amen.
And so let's turn to page five as
the family and the sponsors are coming forward.
The candidate for holy baptism will now be
presented.
Will you be responsible for seeing that Jubilee
is brought up in the Christian faith and
life?
Will you, by your prayers and witness, help
this child to grow into the full stature
of Jesus Christ?
Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual
forces of wickedness that rebel against God?
Do you renounce the evil powers of this
world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of
God?
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw
you from the love of God?
Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept
him as your savior?
Do you put your whole trust in his
grace and love?
Do you promise to follow and obey him
as your Lord?
I'm going to ask the congregation now, will
you who witness these vows do all in
your power to support Jubilee in her life
in Christ?
Let us join this family who are committing
themselves to Christ and renew our baptism covenant.
Let's all stand.
Do you believe in God, the father?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the son
of God, the son of the Holy Spirit?
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died
and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day, he rose again.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at
the right hand of the father.
He will come again to judge the living
and the dead.
You believe in God, the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness
of sins, the resurrection of the body and
the life everlasting.
Will you continue in the apostles teaching and
fellowship in the breaking of bread and in
the prayers?
Will you persevere in resisting evil and whenever
you fall in sin, repent and return to
the Lord?
Will you proclaim by word and example the
good news of God and Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all
persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among
all people and respect the dignity of every
human being?
May almighty God, the father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has given us a new
birth by water and the Holy Spirit and
bestow upon us the forgiveness of sins, keep
us in eternal life by his grace in
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Have Sherry come and lead us in the
prayers this morning.
Lord, hear our prayers.
Grant, oh Lord, that all who are baptized
into the death of Jesus Christ, your son,
may live in the power of his resurrection
and look for him to come again in
glory, who lives and reigns now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord be with you.
Let us give thanks to the Lord, our
God.
We thank you, almighty God, for the gift
of water over it.
The Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of
creation through it.
You led the children of Israel out of
their bondage in Egypt into the land of
promise in it.
Your son, Jesus, received the baptism of John
and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as
the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us through
his death and resurrection from the bondage of
sin into everlasting life.
We thank you, Father, for this water, for
the water of baptism.
It is we who are buried with Christ
in his death.
By it, we share in his resurrection.
Through it, we are reborn by the Holy
Spirit.
Therefore, in joyful obedience to your son, we
bring into his fellowship those who come to
him in faith, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit.
Now, sanctify this water, we pray you, by
the power of your Holy Spirit, that those
who here are cleansed from sin and born
again may continue to live forever in the
risen life of Jesus Christ, our Savior, to
him, to you and to the Holy Spirit,
be all honor and glory now and forever.
Jubilee.
Hi, baby.
Hi, sweetie.
Hi, sweetheart.
I baptize you in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.
Father, Les and I will anoint Jubilee this
morning with oil.
It's called chrismation and this is we call
it holy chrism.
It was blessed by our bishop.
And this is how we this is one
of the signs and symbols of our unity
as a diocese with our bishop.
He is here in spirit because he's blessed
this oil for us.
Yeah, in the top of your head to
the sole of your feet, Jubilee, you are
sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and
marked as Christ's own forever.
Come, Holy Spirit, upon Jubilee and empower her
as your servant in your holy church and
as a witness of Christ's presence in the
world, train her in righteousness and mercy, pour
out all your gifts of grace upon her.
I mean, this is a candle that Jubilee
will have the rest of her life and
we have a little box and it's dated,
but we're going to present this as a
representative of the light of Christ, the very
presence of God dwelling in Jubilee.
May this blessing continue upon you and your
household.
That's yours, baby.
Yeah, let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water
and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon
Jubilee, your child, the forgiveness of sin and
have raised her to the new life of
grace.
Oh, Lord, in your Holy Spirit, give her
an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to
live and to persevere, a spirit to know
and to love you and the gift of
joy and wonder in all your works.
Amen.
Let us welcome Jubilee, the newly baptized and
chrismated into St. Aidan's in this family.
Amen.
Let's pray together, we receive you into the
household of God, confess the faith of Christ
crucified, proclaim his resurrection and share with us
in the eternal priesthood.
Can I hold her?
Oh, hi, baby.
Hey, baby.
Oh, you're such a wonderful girl.
Oh, and I'm going to just walk you
down so that everybody can go.
I want one of these grandmas are saying,
yeah, right, right.
Oh, yeah, isn't she beautiful?
She's beautiful.
Jubilee, you have a radiance and a peace
about you.
And we appreciate that you get to enjoy
that every time we see the countenance of
your face, the peace of God is on
your life.
Really, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can get used
to this, couldn't you?
Right.
There's mommy.
Yeah.
One more round.
Thank you, Lord.
May the peace of the Lord be always
with you.
Let's pass the feet.