THOSE WHO WOULD CHOOSE Christ must be willing to follow in His footsteps.
This was part of a passionate sermon preached by Reverend Michael Charles to his congregants at Hawthorn Methodist Church last week Sunday during the 6:30 a.m. service.
He spoke of Jesus’ need to be baptised by John The Baptist and as recorded in Matthew 3, His love for sinners and His obedience to His Father’s will.
“Jesus came into the world to do one thing, and that was to identify with sinners. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He didn’t come to just teach. He didn’t come just to set an example. He didn’t come to be a moralist. He didn’t come to be a revolutionary. He came to identify with sinners, and He was numbered with the transgressors,” Charles declared.
The preacher said that in order for Jesus to fulfil all of God’s righteousness and to purchase righteousness for mankind, He first had to identify with sinners.
“He who had no sin took His place among those who had no righteousness. He who was without sin went down into a baptism that was only for sinners, and He was saying as loud and clear as ever He could say, ‘I take My place with sinners’.”
The cleric added that Jesus was the child of Mary, who was a sinner; that in His death He identified with sinners, and He bore the sins of every sinner who ever lived.
“In order to bring sinners to righteousness, He had to go to the depths of the waters of death. He had to bear sin. He had to identify with sinners. There was no other way to fulfil all righteousness.”
Charles said Jesus waited 30 years in obscurity for the Father’s timing, to be baptised by John The Baptist. He added that the voice of John the Baptist rang out in Galilee as a sign of hope.
“The people needed hope. They needed to know that God had not abandoned them to suffer at the hands of Rome and the religious burdens of a corrupt priesthood. They needed to know that the heavens were not shut up as in the days of exile.
In the midst of their bleak midwinter, we are told that Jesus came to John. He steps out of the obscurity of Nazareth, walks maybe as much as 60 miles, and makes His public appearance, initiating His ministry.”
Charles noted that as one looked at the world today, it might seem as if the heavens were closed.
“Some of you may be saying God must be so far away that the affairs of the world and human suffering are of little importance to Him. Some may even suggest that God is asleep. We see no sign of God’s presence; we hear no definitive word from God. It’s as if the heavens are shut, for if they were open, God would do something about the mess our world is in.”
He added, however: “We may feel as though God is absent, but because of Christ, God is present as we battle the storms and dangers that come our way. God comes to us and offers us support in our struggles, comfort in our grief, assurance in His grace and mercy.
God challenges us to deal with certain aspects of our lives and to respond with faith and obedience. In Jesus, God answers the cry of the prophet in Isaiah 64:1 to tear open the heavens and to pour out a blessing.”
Charles said that amidst the harsh realities of life, the struggles of relationships, the discrimination and hatred, and the verbal and physical persecutions people might experience, “we are able to experience transformation”. God loves you and forgives you and renews the image of God in you. Indeed, Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is not like one of the others. He was baptised alongside the poor, the hungry, the marginalised, the sinners, the crippled, the disfigured, but His purpose in coming was to die so that we can live.”
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