[Mark 9:2-9] … And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out
of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”
A Voice to Hear, A People to Be
A voice to hear and a people to be.
Peter, James, and John, were led up a high mountain by Jesus. Who
is He? Upon that mountain, Jesus is transfigured – His appearance morphs
– who He is shines through: “His clothes became radiant, intensely
white, as no one on earth could bleach them” – “and his face shone
like the sun” [Mark 9:3; Matthew 17:2].
There appeared also Elijah and Moses, speaking with Jesus.
Then “a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the
cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” And then, lifting up their
eyes, Peter, James, and John looked around, and “they no longer saw
anyone with them but Jesus only.”
“This is my Son; listen to Him”, said God the Father about Jesus.
Listen to Him.
Whether a young man – a few months old, a newborn – or a child or
an older youth – or an older man or woman, yet still tossed to and fro by the
wind and waves – you daily enter a world with a hundred voices and a
hundred messages about who you should be.
Am I my education? Am I my ancestry? Am I my achievements? Am I
my politics or my cause? Am I my emotions? Am I in a group? Do I pick? Or
am I picked? What is good? How do I know?
With whom I will identify, and which voice I must follow, are
burdensome questions when there’s a hundred voices and a hundred
groups – or even when there’s just a couple bad options.
The young ones newly entering the world – and you older ones re-
entering the world every day – are pulled by many voices, either wanting
you to buy something or buy into some idea.
What is Jesus doing in the Transfiguration? He is showing His
disciples – and you – that in Himself, in this one Man, God has entered our
world as the one, final, and accessible option. His is the voice to hear. He
makes you a people to be.
In being a disciple of Jesus, you know what Word to listen to, to trust
in, to be guided by.
In being a disciple of Jesus, you know what new people you are, who
you identify as.
You have a Teacher and are a people.
Today, just minutes ago, you witnessed – with your own eyes – the
means by which we become disciples, students, of Jesus: Baptism in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
What is baptism? Baptism is not a church tradition, a family custom, or
just a special day. Baptism comes from the Lord’s own command.
After His death and resurrection – by which He won our redemption –
Jesus, before ascending into heaven, commanded His disciples: “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Matthew
28:19].
A “disciple” is someone who learns, a student. Baptism is the means
by which Jesus took you away from being a student of this world’s many
voices and made you a student of His voice. By baptism, you became a
disciple of Jesus. Listen to Him.
The voice of Jesus is found in His Word, which is the Bible. Scripture,
the Bible, says of itself, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness” – for knowing the truth and being trained in the good.
Breathed out by God. [2 Timothy 3:16]
The disciple Peter, who was on the mountain and witnessed the
Transfiguration of Jesus, wrote about the Transfiguration (after Christ’s
resurrection) in 2 Peter 1:16-21. In the same passage in which he writes of
the Transfiguration, he also writes about Scripture, saying – about the
writing of the books of the Bible – that “men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Peter also says, in the same passage, that the Word of God is “more
fully confirmed” in Scripture than in the Transfiguration itself [2 Peter 1:19-
21]. And Jesus said, “Scripture cannot be broken”, and, “Heaven and
earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” [John 10:35;
Mark 13:31].
After His resurrection, Jesus taught about Himself from all of
Scripture: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He
interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself” [Luke 24:27]. And Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me” – “they know his voice. A stranger
they will not follow.” [John 10:4-5,27]
As His baptized, believing people, you have no veil over your hearts
when you hear the Scriptures. You listen to Him. This young baby baptized
today has now been given a life with the voice of his Shepherd leading him
through the Scriptures.
The other side of the coin in Baptism is teaching. Jesus’ whole
command is this: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you.” [Matthew 28:19-20]
When God’s baptized people are not a people of the Scriptures, their
baptism becomes no more helpful than one of those empty ceremonies. We
are baptized. We have a voice to be hearing.
Baptism is water and the Word of God together – Jesus presents the
church to Himself, “having cleansed her by the washing of water with
the word” [Ephesians 5:26-27].
Baptism saves. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will
be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” [Mark
16:16]. And Peter said, in Scripture, “Baptism now saves you” [1 Peter
3:21].
Baptism is “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit” [Titus 3:5].
Baptism dresses you in Jesus to cover all your sin: “For as many of
you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” [Galatians 3:27].
Baptism unites you to the death and resurrection of Jesus: “Having
been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with
him through faith” [Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3-5].
It is Baptism that makes you the people you are – a new nation, a new
people in Christ. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus.” [Galatians 3:26-29]
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
[1 Peter 2:9-10]
Lastly, who is this for? Baptism is for both the youngest and the oldest
and those in between – because Jesus is the redeemer of all people. The
New Testament compares Baptism to circumcision [Colossians 2:11-12] –
which was for infants, newborns, and for older converts to become God’s
people. (Jesus compares Baptism to birth, which is definitely for newborns!
John 3:5)
We make disciples of the whole nation [Matthew 28:19], from
youngest to oldest.
On the day of Pentecost, after the disciple Peter received the Holy
Spirit, he told the crowds, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for
your children.” [Acts 2:38-39]
And, lastly, Jesus said: “Let the children come to me and do not
hinder them” [Luke 18:15-16]. Bringing our infants and young children to
Baptism is rooted in the clearly written Biblical truth that infants and even
children in the womb are capable of faith in Jesus – in the same way we
are, by the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus cleansed the Temple, children cried out, “Hosanna to
the Son of David!” When some objected to this, Jesus responded, “Have
you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You
[God] have prepared praise’?” [Matthew 21:15-16]
And, famously – recorded in Scripture, Luke’s Gospel – John the
Baptist, while in his mother’s womb, leaped for joy at the presence of Jesus
in His mother’s womb when Mary approached Elizabeth [Luke 1:39-44].
Let us leap with great joy within our hearts that this child here today is
not lost to the many voices of this world but has been baptized into Christ to
be God’s own child. Amen.
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