Sunday 12th January 2025. The Baptism of Our Lord.

Pastor Pete Myers explains Matthew 3:13-17.

How can I belong?

How can I belong?

How can I belong?

We all want to belong to something, feel part of something bigger, and have that sense of “home” and “community”.

Is creating that feeling the primary aim of a church? Some churches certainly believe that. And so everything is focused on the tone, the feel, the style. In other words: different ways of creating a certain experience.

And just like going to the cinema to see a movie, different churches try to craft different experiences. One church might go for… …reverence, awe and sacred tradition. Another church pitches for… …energetic, relational and accessible. Yet another church aims at… …intimate, raw and activist.

And so it’s possible for different churches to have radically different tone and feel, and, yet, their belief of what is truly important is actually the same: the idea that the thing that what a church is for, is to craft experiences and feelings.

Different churches can differ on what experiences they’re aiming to craft, by what they agree on is that the church is, essentially, a form of theatre, cinema or concert.

But, here’s what God’s Word has to say to us today: Crafting shared experiences is not truly “belonging”. No matter how accepting or secure those moments feel, we all know what it feels like later when they subside.

Instead, as we look together at Jesus’ Baptism, Matthew has two things to say to us:

Stop trying to make yourself belong.

Because, In baptism, God makes you belong.

Stop trying to make yourself belong

So, Matthew’s first point, Stop trying to make yourself belong.

Please look again at v. 13:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him.

Very simply: Jesus comes to John. He is the one who takes action toward us.

A natural human feeling that all of us experience sooner or later is isolation, loneliness, a sense of not having friends or community.

Why do you feel that way? And what do we learn from it? The Prophet Isaiah explains this in chapter 59 verse 2:

but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Every human being has, in our nature, turned away from God and toward ourselves, and one sign of that in our lives and experience, is that we feel lonely, because we feel separated from him.

But the solution to that is not to create a sense of belonging yourself.

God is able to bridge this gap. As Isaiah 59:1 says:

Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

Jesus comes to us to solve this problem.

And the way Jesus does that emerges from v. 14:

John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?”

John struggles with the idea of baptising Jesus, because John recognises that Jesus does not need to be baptised.

John has been baptising people for the forgiveness of their sins. But Jesus does not need forgiveness. Instead, John recognises, that he himself needs forgiveness.

So Jesus has come to John, and by being baptised has deliberately chosen to be treated like a sinner.

So, all of us feel a sense of isolation, loneliness, separation. That is because all of us are sinners, separated from God. We don’t need to and can’t do anything to resolve that, instead Jesus comes to John, and he comes to John to be baptised, which means to identify with us as sinners, to take our place.

This is why when Jesus is baptised, he stands in our place. And when we are baptised, we stand in Jesus’ place. The Apostle Paul teaches exactly this in Romans 6:3:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?

In baptism: Jesus identifies with us, and we identify with Jesus. And Matthew goes on, v. 15:

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

Jesus comes to us, swaps places with us, and deals with our separation, isolation and loneliness. And he does this by fulfilling the Law.

God’s Law is that we should love God and others, and Deuteronomy 27:26 warns us:

 “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

None of us love God and others as we should, so the prophet Daniel recognises in 9:11:

All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice.

For this reason, the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:10:

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

So, in baptism Jesus takes our place, 2 Corinthians 5:21:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And so Galatians 3:13 describes how Jesus fulfils all righteousness:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

This is why you should Stop trying to make yourself belong. That feeling of loneliness, of wanting to belong, of separation: exists because we are separated from God by sin. Trying to solve it by our own effort is to double down on the curse of the Law.

Jeremiah 17:5 tells us:

Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.

What does it look like to trust yourself, not God, to solve this problem that comes from our sin?

  • Seeking approval through people-pleasing: pleasing parents, family, or authority figures to feel valued.
  • Competing to eliminate rivals: diminishing others by harsh criticism, gossip, or exclusion, to elevate ourselves socially or emotionally.
  • Using relationships or sexual intimacy for validation: relying on romantic or physical connections to feel loved and accepted.
  • Acquiring material things to gain acceptance: stealing, cheating, or overworking to gain wealth, status, or possessions.
  • Manipulating the truth to fit in: Telling lies, exaggerating achievements, or conforming dishonestly to others’ expectations.
  • Chasing status through envy: Striving to replicate or surpass others’ accomplishments.
  • Comparing and desiring others’ relationships or roles.

All of these are to trust ourselves instead of God, in order to feel included, approved and belong. And church should not be a place where we encourage this, we should preach against these things!

In baptism, God makes you belong

So, Stop trying to make yourself belong. Because, In baptism, God makes you belong.

Please look again at vv. 16-17:

And when Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said,

If we feel a sense of loneliness, separation and isolation, because our sin separates us from God, then the real way to belong is to be united with God. True belonging is being united to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And that is the purpose of baptism.

At Jesus Baptism, we see all three persons of God working together. The Son identifies with us by being baptised. The Spirit anoints the Son as Christ our saviour. The Father speaks and declares the Son—and so us—to be his beloved child.

This is why when Jesus will tell us to go and make disciples and baptise them, at the end of Matthew he will tell us to baptise them: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus comes to be baptised and identify with you. God the Father opens the heavens in Baptism to meet you. God the Spirit falls on us in Baptism to give you faith.

True belonging is knowing this God who is three persons, as Jesus prays in John 17:3:

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And the reason why knowing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is so wonderful is because of what the Father says to Jesus.

What makes baptism baptism is the Word united to the water. The Apostle Paul shows that clearly in Ephesians 5:26 when he describes what Christ has done for the church:

having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

At our baptism the Word united to water is given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:19:

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

At Jesus’ baptism the Word united to water is what the Father says in v. 17:

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

And the reason we are united to God in Baptism is because we are united to God by his Word.

The Apostle John describes this in 1 John 1:3:

that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed jour fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

It is by hearing God’s Word that he is united to us. And this is why in baptism, God makes you belong.

And think about what the Father’s Word to Jesus means for you. In Baptism, Jesus stands in your place, and you stand in Jesus’ place. So, this Word the Father says to Jesus: in your baptism he says it to you:

 “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

That is how the Father views you. That is how he sees you. That is what he looks you in the eye and says. This is what it means to belong: You have a Father who loves you. You are his beloved child. He is pleased with you. You don’t need to convince him to care for you. You don’t need to persuade him to be pleased with you.

This is what church should be about and is truly about. It is telling one another this truth: You are God’s beloved Son, and he is well pleased with you.

And that is why, when we long to belong, when we are hungry for community, when we are desperate to feel included, the key thing to do is to look to our baptism.

This is what Paul did for the Galatians. A church tempted into heresy, because of a desire to be included.

Paul says in Galatians 6:12 the false teachers wanted to make a good showing in the flesh.

At the beginning of the letter he says in 1:10:

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man?

The issue in Galatia was a desire to belong, and they turned to their own works to try and achieve it.

But the Apostle Paul, being a great pastor, points them in a different direction. Here’s what he writes in Galatians 3:27:

For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ.

Do you want to feel included? Do you want to know you are part of something bigger? Do you want to respond to that feeling of loneliness, isolation, separation?

Follow Paul’s advice, and look to your baptism.

How can I belong?

So, our question: How can I belong?

Matthew’s first response: Stop trying to make yourself belong

In our personal lives, what that looks like is: Seeking approval through people-pleasing. Competing to eliminate rivals. Using relationships or sexual intimacy for validation. Acquiring material things to gain acceptance. Manipulating the truth to fit in. Chasing status through envy.

And here at church we could seek to draw large crowds, by pandering to these feelings.

But all of these have the nature of sin: they are to trust ourselves instead of God, and will only intensify the Law’s curse in our lives.

Instead, remember: In baptism, God makes you belong

True community is knowing God the Father, Son and Spirit. In baptism Jesus identifies with you; you identify with him; and what the Father says to Christ he says to you.

So, How can I belong? Look to your baptism. Receive God’s Word. And hear him say to you, personally:

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”