Redeemed from the Wilderness

[00:00:00] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:08] This hymn would be worth praying every day. [00:00:13] It takes us through the struggle of the Christian faith, the struggle to deal with doubt, with temptation, with fear, struggle to look to God in the face of death. [00:00:32] And it points to a wonderful comfort, baptism. [00:00:41] I mean, not just baptism like as the act that happened to you if you were baptized where you were washed with water, but what happens in it, which is that we are baptized into Christ, and that's all that really, that's what really counts there. [00:01:02] Paul tells us this in our reading from Romans 6. He says, you know you were baptized into something. Don't you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. So we were buried with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. We've been united to Jesus through baptism, in his death and in his resurrection, so that we would walk in newness of life, united with him in his perfect life, in his obedience, in his righteousness. We've been joined to Christ so that we share in all of this in Him. [00:01:55] Alright, so with that in mind, we're going to turn to the gospel reading for this morning. [00:02:05] And I want to start off by just pointing out some of the images that are happening here. [00:02:13] All right, so first of all, like, the setting, they're out in the wilderness. [00:02:19] And I'm going to ask for a little bit of participation here. [00:02:22] What's characteristic of the wilderness? [00:02:26] What does the wilderness in Israel make you think of? Dry. It's dry. It's dry. Thank you, Pastor Hesse. [00:02:37] Next time we'll say no, pastors can answer. No, I'm just kidding. No, no, it's dry. Exactly. And so there are all kinds of passages in the Old Testament that have to do with this. Like the Israelites are out in the wilderness and they don't have any water, so they need water and God gives it to them miraculously, that kind of thing. Or there are prophecies about God giving streams in the wilderness or streams in the desert. It's the same word, actually. Desert, wilderness, they're the same word. So, okay, so the wilderness is dry. [00:03:13] Okay, let's move on to another image. When Jesus is baptized, the heavens are opened. [00:03:21] Now, doesn't that sound like the kind of language that would invite rain? You know, like, like in the Old Testament, you could just imagine, like the heavens were opened and what Happened. You know what happens when the heavens are opened? [00:03:34] Water falls down, right? [00:03:38] So the heavens are opened there in the wilderness. And what comes down? The Holy Spirit. [00:03:44] And, well, the Holy Spirit is tied to water all throughout Scripture. So, for example, in John 7, Jesus. Jesus says that if anybody believes in him, rivers of water, streams of water will flow from his heart. He's talking about the Holy Spirit. [00:04:05] So the Holy Spirit is tied to water. So the heavens open and the Holy Spirit comes. It's like water coming down to give life to the wilderness again. That's an image throughout the. [00:04:20] In fact, it's there in the Garden of Eden that Eden was watering everything else. There was a river that watered the garden, and then it split in four and watered the earth. [00:04:32] And of course, Adam and Eve started out in paradise and they get kicked out into the wilderness. The Israelites are out in the wilderness, and then they go to the promised land. [00:04:43] So the wilderness and paradise. This is a theme throughout Scripture. [00:04:49] Okay, so what happens when water comes down and waters the wilderness? [00:04:54] Things grow. [00:04:57] Things grow. [00:05:00] What happens when you have a fruit tree out in the wilderness and it doesn't get out in the desert, it doesn't get enough water. It's not going to bear good fruit. [00:05:09] But if it receives good water, it's going to bear good fruit, that kind of thing. John the Baptist is teaching that any tree that doesn't bear fruit is going to get cut down. [00:05:23] Well, how do you bear good fruit? [00:05:26] By receiving water, by receiving the Spirit from above. When the heavens open. [00:05:35] Once again, the agricultural imagery continues with the wheat and the chaff. You could say, although, I don't know, it fits in a little differently, but it doesn't. It's like the wilderness that gets watered, produces wheat. [00:05:57] But in that image, Jesus is going to be judging and saying the kernel that something is. Is going to be kept. And the chaff, which is basically nothing, it's going to get thrown in the air and the chaff is going to get separated out because it's not substantial. It's not really anything. It just kind of floats away. [00:06:15] But the wheat has been. [00:06:18] Well, it's a seed. It's something. [00:06:22] We'll kind of set that aside. [00:06:26] All right, so there they are out in the wilderness. And. And John has been baptizing with a baptism of repentance, right? [00:06:35] It's not the baptism that we. That we received, right? Or that Jesus was telling his disciples to go out and do when he sent out his apostles and said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Right. This is different. And the difference comes through Jesus own baptism. It's not like just anybody was baptized. And the Holy Spirit came down, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit came down. And God said from heaven, you are my beloved son. With you I'm well pleased. [00:07:11] That only happened for one guy. [00:07:14] Jesus, the Son of God, come down from heaven. [00:07:19] There's a passage in Isaiah that says, oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. Like, that's exactly what's happened. [00:07:26] Jesus has come down from heaven and become one of us, to restore us. [00:07:33] So for Jesus, he gets this commendation from God, you are my beloved Son. He receives the Spirit, the water that we had closed ourselves off from. [00:07:46] Because, see, we weren't always a wilderness. [00:07:49] This is the key to the wilderness. John the Baptist is out in the wilderness. He's calling people to the wilderness to realize that they're a wilderness and they need to be watered from above by God's word and spirit, by Christ. They need to be watered from above. [00:08:08] The reason we became a wilderness is because we got kicked out of paradise. Why did we get kicked out of paradise? [00:08:15] Because we had. Well, we had become a wilderness. That didn't quite make sense the way I said it, but there we were in paradise, receiving everything from God by faith, looking to him to give us wisdom and to teach us what it means to be human, to give us life. There we were receiving from our Creator, and then we cut ourselves off from the water, cut ourselves off from the spirit. [00:08:46] Eve looked to the serpent, to her own thoughts rather than to the Spirit of God, the word of God, and in doing so, cut herself off from the water and Adam too. Then. So there Adam and Eve were. They had cut themselves off from the source, from God himself, who would give them an inner garden, who would make them paradise by watering them with his word and gifts. [00:09:15] They'd cut themselves off. And so God wasn't just going to leave them in paradise to think everything's just hunky dory. [00:09:21] That's what we do with our children when we find that they are not acting according to the way they should. Let's say they're being disobedient or, or they have sinned in some way. Then we throw them into the wilderness. Time out. Or something else. We take something away from them. [00:09:46] We're throwing them into the wilderness because they need to learn the wilderness that they've created inside themselves by cutting off the word of their parents. [00:09:56] You see how that works. We throw them into the wilderness so that they'll learn that this was a wilderness. That inside, by sinning, by disobeying, by lying, whatever it is, that we are creating a wilderness for ourselves spiritually. [00:10:12] And that's not the place to live. So there's a physical punishment. Well, that's what God did. He kicked Adam and Eve out into the wilderness so that they would learn to look to God and to receive from him life and understanding and everything for their inner life. [00:10:30] So there John the Baptist is. And those who have come to him, they're going out into the wilderness to repent and to receive from the source. [00:10:41] And it's in Jesus that we can receive from the source again. Like you want to receive water from above and life, you want God to take your wilderness of sin and lack of understanding, confusion about what's good. You want to stop just seeking immediate pleasure and giving up responsibility. And whatever it is that you struggle with, that I struggle with. If we want to be watered from above and for God to take this wilderness and make it into a garden, it's only through Jesus Christ that this happens. By looking to him in faith. [00:11:28] Jesus, who himself in baptism, received the Holy Spirit from above as a human being, so that we could receive the Holy Spirit as human beings again, so that united to him we could have the Holy Spirit and his gifts. You know, the Holy Spirit produces fruit, the fruits of the Spirit, our love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Boy, those sound nice. [00:12:03] That's a contrast from what I display in my life frequently. [00:12:09] But in faith, these are ours. Looking to Jesus, he works these in us. [00:12:16] The hymn that we sang, God's own Child, I gladly say it. [00:12:21] It talks about the experience of the wilderness that we experience, the angst of sin, the feeling of our own wretchedness of that wilderness. And it points us to. To where we should look. [00:12:41] Not just baptism in the sense of like, I've passed through this ceremony and so I'm good, or something like that, right? But baptism, in which we were united to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, of whom the Father said, you are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased. And in Jesus. We are children of God, beloved sons and daughters. And God says to you, you are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased. In your baptism, the heavens were opened and the Spirit came down. And you are connected to the source of life again. [00:13:17] You have the Holy Spirit by faith and through baptism. [00:13:24] Now, that's not something to take lightly. [00:13:27] That's why Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will. And it's God. It's the river coming to give you life. Like, don't just thrust that aside like it's nothing. [00:13:44] So how do you remain receptive? How do you not cut that source off? [00:13:49] By faith in Jesus. By repenting of the sins which draw us away from Christ if we choose sin. [00:14:00] That's a whole different mindset. That's why Paul's always saying, set your mind on things above, not on earth. Put to death what's earthly in you. You've been seated in the heavenly places with Christ. It's like, look to Christ to receive that life, that life giving water to create in you a garden. [00:14:19] So it starts with recognizing that we're a wilderness. It starts with going into the wilderness to hear God's word and then receiving Jesus and all that he brings with him. See, Jesus is. He's the guy, the one man about whom God would say, you're my beloved son. I'm well pleased with you. [00:14:44] And in Him, God says the same of us. And God is. You know, there's still. There's a big difference between me and Jesus. Between you and Jesus, right. It's not that all of a sudden my life looks just perfect. [00:15:01] But God does. He is merciful. By his grace, he works in us to will and to work according to good purpose, according to his will. He works in us to want what he wants. [00:15:14] And he, by his grace, is working in us to make us like Jesus, like beloved children who are actually good. You know, he is working in us to will and to work. And when Jesus comes back, he's going to restore us completely. What's earthly in us will be finally put to death. [00:15:37] And we will be restored to be like Jesus. Thanks be to God. In Jesus name, amen.