Sermon prepared by the Holy Spirit

And Pastor Andrew T. Okai

First Sunday of Epiphany

January 8, 2017

Sermon text: Romans 6:1-11

Sermon theme: Living in the Meaning of My Baptism

Introduction

Grace, mercy, and peace…

Today we begin the celebration of the season of Epiphany… This is a season that is known as the time of revealing… the time when Jesus revealed himself as the son of God by the miracles he did…

Why is this season important in the history of the church, one may ask… This season is important because this is the moment that legitimized that Jesus was truly God in human flesh—because his works were completely miraculous… Today’s emphasis is on his baptism…

Well, just for the record let it be known that our Lord was not sinful and so had to be baptized… 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

So this baptism is to fulfill all righteousness… (Even John the Baptist saw that it was ludicrous for Jesus to be baptized…)

Matthew 3:15 Jesus replied, Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. Then John consented.

But today we want to focus our attention not on the baptism of our Lord, but rather on the meaning of our individual baptisms this morning.

Since we are in the season of revealing, it is important that we become enlightened on how meaningful our baptism is… (Many of us Christians see it as no more than a ritual… and some do not think it’s necessary…)

The great commission: Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

So from our second reading this morning, found in the book of Romans chapter 6, the Apostle Paul explains to us the meaning of our baptism…

You will come to notice that he uses the finished work of our Lord as the object of his explanation...

And so I individualized the sermon point this morning to make it personal...

My Baptism explains my dying

Romans 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

At our baptism, by faith, our selfish old sinful nature was buried… (Living by self now, is like a dead person who refuses to accept that he’s dead...)

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

You may be saying I don’t feel crucified (it is not a knowledge of feeling, but rather a knowledge of faith)... Look at the phrase “Don’t you know.”

Illustration: a married man who did not know that his old life had just past away...

My baptism explains my rising

Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

In our baptism, we are raised from the dead… (spiritual death) Look at the phrase “Just as Christ…”

Jesus in his death became nothing but a hopeless object to his followers—a picture of our spiritual state when we were dead… we were objects of hopelessness… (We had no eternal hope…)

God gave a vision to Ezekiel the prophet regarding the condition of our hopelessness - Ezekiel 37:1-14

My baptism explains my living  

Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

I want us to pay close attention to the phrase in this text “We too may live a new life”—this tells us that the finished work of our Lord accomplished God’s objective: new life....  

Now: Ephesians 4:24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Eternal: John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

One of the questions that mankind have tried to find answers to is this: what is the meaning of life?

I am pleased to announced that I’ve found it… Jesus is the answer to life...