I. A New Year 00:00
Lord Jesus, we thank you that we can stand firm in your love: that no matter what’s going on in our life, what baggage we bring, you took it all for us, Lord. And you have placed us on a firm foundation. We thank you for this. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, happy new year. The first weeks of the new year are always a little bit disorienting, because you launch out of the holidays and back into all of your life, everything that’s going on. And so if you’re like me, it can take some time to get back into rhythm, or back into your disciplines. Or maybe you’re looking around and looking for disciplines to take on. You’re making resolutions. You’re thinking about last year, and you’re approaching this year either with some excitement (“Oh, 2026 is going to be a great year”), or maybe with a desperate hope that it won’t be as bad as last year.
Wherever you’re at on that spectrum, I want to just welcome you today: God has a plan for you this year, in 2026. And whatever your expectation for 2026 is, it must include… you should cultivate an expectation of God’s presence this year. He is going to show up in your life in mighty ways this year, in 2026. And so look for him. Calculate that in as you’re thinking about your resolutions: “I’m going to do ten burpees a day.” I know, that’s something I heard somebody say. “I’m going to do all these things. I’m going to read the Bible more. I’m going to pray more.” Really, ultimately and truly, our focus should be, “I’m going to spend more time with Jesus.” That doesn’t just mean in your quiet time or your hours, but bringing him with you into your life. Invite him more into your life.
II. Recentering and Refocusing on Jesus 01:42
Today we’re going to talk about the promises and purposes of God, under the heading of discipleship. This is the Baptism of our Lord. That’s what we celebrate today; that’s why the reading was about that. Obviously, we have our icon of the baptism.
How do discipleship and the promises and purposes of God affect us? How do they move in our life? What should we be expecting? How does that change our perception of this coming year? All of these things are about recentering and refocusing on Jesus. Now, recentering, just as a side note, is like having the proper orientation. This is the image I got when I was thinking about this. Because if you aren’t already doing this as you launch into 2026, if you aren’t already looking for how your life is going to be different this year, how your life is going to change, this is your invitation to do so. It is good to reflect. It’s good to make plans and have expectations. But ultimately, it has to be centered on Jesus.
And if you think about it, the Earth rotates around the sun. We live in a heliocentric solar system here. And if you think about what that means, to center on the sun: well, there are many scientists who have done all the math, all the calculations, and if we were not centered around the sun, if we were even so far as a centimeter out of orbit, our whole planet would be lifeless. Because a little change in what is your gravitational center means long changes over the lifetime of a planet. And in the same way, if we are not constantly recentering on Christ, if we get off just a little bit and we start putting something else in the center, our entire pull, the entire gravitational pull of our life, can lead us to inhospitable locations, to places you don’t want to go. That’s why they say the wages of sin are death: because they pull you out of orbit. They pull you into other orbits. There are a bunch of people competing for your attention, your time, and your effort. But it has to be centered on Jesus.
Now, the good thing is, that doesn’t mean you have to leave now and go join a monastery. Centering Jesus in your life doesn’t mean just praying more, or reading your Bible more, or doing holy activities as you might perceive them. In fact, it means your entire life, your work, your marriage, your family, your friendships, everything, is centered on Christ, and you get to be an icon in the world of who he is.
So, keeping that in mind: the other thing I said is that we’re about refocusing. So you recenter on Jesus, you refocus on Jesus. And focus is this interesting thing. You can see it with your eyes. If I was asked to count the number of people sitting in the back pew, and I focused solely on this front pew right here, I actually can’t count the people in the back pew. My focal distance is wrong. But Jesus is… I’m going to say this because Bishop Jones uses this term a lot: he’s magical. Maybe you have a lot of different associations, but he’s miraculous. He’s magical. When you focus on Jesus, everything else comes into proper focus. And you can play this game with your eyesight. You can look at something close, and everything far away disappears. Look at something far away, and everything close disappears. When you focus on Jesus, you get the proper perspective.
So recenter Jesus in your life this year, and refocus on him, and everything else that you desire, all your hopes, dreams, ambitions, and plans, will find their proper focus, their proper distance, their proper pull on your life. That’s what Father Ed was preaching last week: seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you (Matt 6.33).
III. The Promise: Sons and Daughters of God 05:36
So when we think about the promises and purposes of God, I’m going to start with the promise. And the most fundamental promise of our life, of the Christian life, is that you are adopted as sons and daughters of God, and you are like Christ. It’s an insane promise. You can’t explain it. You can’t justify it: that God, in his perfection and his abundance, without any need, said, “I want these flawed, stubborn, idiotic (I could go on) people to be co-heirs with me. I want them in my family.” He looked at you and said, “I want you in my family with me,” for a little while? No, for eternity. It is mind-blowing. Why would God want that? We’ll find out. I don’t have an answer for you. It only gets better as we go; that’s all I know.
So when you look at this and you think about the greatest promise, it’s that you’ll be like Jesus, and you are a part of his family already. You’re already in. And you might be thinking, “Wait, okay, you got me going with the promises. That’s a boring promise. I’m thinking of houses and cars and jobs and spouses and children and family and life. What about all the promises related to that?”
I will say two things on this. First of all, let me remind you: seek first the kingdom of God, and then all these things. That “all these things” is really important. But it starts with Jesus. And so we need to open our mind: this promise is not boring at all. It actually is world-changing, being in the family of God. You know, the guy who created every atom in the universe? If you’re in his family, you don’t think he can provide a house or a car or a spouse or children or whatever else he has put in your heart? You can steward your desires and his promises with him, specially, because you’re his child and he wants to give you good things. But also, secondly, the process of becoming like Jesus is the process of obtaining the promises of God, including provision, your daily bread, the job that you need. All of those things are in the process of becoming like him.
IV. Jesus Baptized the Baptism 08:05
So, keeping that in mind, let’s look at the baptism of our Lord that we just read in our gospel:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. Matt 3.13–15
This is a great moment. You imagine John the prophet, the one who is to announce Jesus and prepare the way, and then Jesus comes to his baptism of repentance. He’s telling people, “You’re a wicked sinner, and you need to change in order to enter the kingdom of God. Let me dip you in this water, and repent.” And then Jesus comes, and he goes, “I got nothing. What do you mean, you’re coming to me? You don’t need to repent.”
First of all, how amazing is it that John recognized that? How could you know? Only by the Holy Spirit. John was moving at the behest of the Holy Spirit. He recognized who Jesus was. It’s amazing. He even recognized him in utero (Luke 1.44).
John’s baptism was for repentance. Jesus had nothing to repent of. So what was Jesus doing in the water? He was baptizing the baptism. He was making the baptism into a participation in his death and resurrection. He was sanctifying the water, unlike what the water does to us, which is sanctify us. He was the seed of the meaning, of the purpose, and of the function of baptism. He was going down into the primordial waters of chaos, and he was rising. And now baptism has life beyond. Baptism has the power now to save, the power to equip, the power to sanctify, the power to invite you into relationship as sons and daughters of God, because he entered into it.
And so when you’re baptized, or when your baby’s baptized, when we’re baptizing people here, they are joining Jesus in his baptism. Actually, not metaphorically, not symbolically: they are entering into his baptism, his death, his resurrection. And that’s why I know each one of you here is already being made like Christ, is already adopted, is already living in him. Okay? We could go on all day about that, but we’re going to continue here.
V. My Beloved Son, with Whom I Am Well Pleased 11:19
And let’s go to verse 16:
16 And when Jesus was baptized, 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; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matt 3.16–17
And because he did that, when we enter into our baptism, the same voice declares, “This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter, in whom I’m well pleased.”
Now, part of the whole making-resolutions-for-New-Year’s thing is often a catalog of your sins: “Oh, I’m going to be less this this year. I’m going to be less that this year. I’m going to work on this thing. These are all the ways I’ve fallen short.” And maybe you don’t feel like God is very pleased with you. I’m here today to tell you he is, because he’s pleased with Jesus. And we find our worth, our value, our righteousness, by being in Jesus. And so God can say to you right now, today (yes, you), “I am pleased with you.” And pleased is almost too small of a word. He takes delight in you. He loves you. He wants to be with you forever.
It’s something that we have to realize in our life. In fact, the more you realize your position in Christ, God’s love for you, the more like him you will be. That’s why later John writes, “When we see him, we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3.2). The more you see Christ, the more you understand the way he loves you. It’s the love that actually created the universe. It’s not a feeling. It’s not an emotion. It’s the overflow of love. By the overflow of love, God declared, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Gen 1.3).
It’s a little esoteric; let me bring it down. You should every day remind yourself how much God loves you, and think about it, and invite the Holy Spirit to teach you what that means. Because there is nothing more transformative than how… And when I say “the more you realize,” I use the word realize intentionally: the more you make it real in your life. Well, “making it real” is also incorrect. It’s like, the more you enter into the reality that God loves you, the more like him you will become. It seems overly simplistic, and it’s unbelievably difficult to live as though you are adored, loved by your Father in heaven, by God. It has to do with him rewriting who you are as a part of his story, and you figuring out who he really is. It’s a journey that will take eternity. We won’t get it all here, but we can get closer.
Some of these worship songs that come out, the words, can bring you to a place where you have a realization of how God loves you, or how you love God. And that’s what poetry can do for us. That’s what music can do for us. That’s what meditating on the Scripture can do for us: it can make us realize who we are and who he is. So this year, in 2026, remember that the promise of God is that you are a part of his family. You are in Christ. You are like him, and he loves you. That’s the promise that’s being realized in your life. All the other promises flow from that one. Everything else flows from that.
VI. The Purpose of God 14:43
So, in the midst of this, what are the purposes of God? In the midst of all this talk, we can get lost in the tragedy of our life, the difficulty of our life: “Oh man, our life is hard. It is suffering.” What is the line? “Life is pain. Anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.” It’s true that life is pain. That’s a fundamental reality: we live in a world that is suffering and pain. And you can get distracted. That’s where the recentering and the refocusing come in. When you put Jesus in the center, everything else comes into focus properly. Our pain can pull our focus, can make us think that all there is is pain, or we can be despairing, or we can lose hope. I’m here to tell you: don’t lose hope. He is in the middle of it.
Or think about this: the glitz and glamour of life is equally as distracting as the pain of life. The pleasure and the suffering: these two poles can pull you out of alignment with Christ. Pleasure and suffering are incidental. They matter, but they are not important. They’re not the center. They matter, but they’re not central. They’re not the highest thing. They aren’t the most important thing. They aren’t the central thing. You can look at the world and you can see the pleasure and how it leads people to destruction. You can see the pain and how it leads people to despair. And you can get pulled either way.
VII. The Glory to Be Revealed 16:17
So what’s the answer here? What’s the purpose inside of the promise? Well, Paul has the answer for us in Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 18. He says:
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Rom 8.18
He could easily have said, “the sufferings and the pleasures of this present time.” Now, he was pretty concerned with the sufferings: the guy who was stoned and whipped and chained until he was finally murdered. Yeah, he was concerned with the sufferings. But if he looked at us, I bet you he would have changed that: “For I consider that the pleasures of this present life are nothing compared with the glory.” So many of us live the high life. We live so well, better than kings: air conditioning, heat, clean water, some of the best whiskey that’s ever been made, or whatever your thing is, TV, movies, music. We have so much, we can get pulled out of that central focus on Jesus and our purpose.
And maybe you read that line and you think, “The sufferings are not worth comparing with some glory? What are we, like Viking warriors looking to Valhalla?” “Don’t worry, you’re going to suffer and die in these battles, but if you suffer and die, you’ll go to the fields where you can drink mead with your buddies and kill people all the time.” That’s not the kind of glory we’re talking about. It’s also not the glory of the jihadist that says if you go blow up a bunch of infidels, you get to have your 26 virgins, or whatever the promises are. That’s not what we’re talking about here.
What are we talking about? We’re talking about bringing heaven to earth. We’re not talking about some future, abstract imagination of man about what could be so good. In fact, if you try to imagine the glory, I promise you will fall short. There’s something so much better. And it’s not just for then; it’s for now. And that’s what Paul continues to write. Because, you know what? These people were being killed, hunted, beaten, ostracized. So he couldn’t just say, “Well, don’t worry, heaven gets better.” It’s just not compelling, and it’s also not true. He was concerned with what was going on here and now. And that’s why he continues:
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope Rom 8.19–20
Okay, I’m going to pause for a second here, because maybe we got lost on that one. That one’s a little bit… “The creation was subjected to futility.” What he’s saying is, we live in a broken, fallen world because of Adam’s sin and all of humanity’s sin afterwards. Because we were given stewardship of the whole world, of everything that God created, our sin actually affected the whole world, everything that God created. And so we live with natural disasters and war and disease and evil and suffering, and all of creation is subjected to it. But it’s in hope. For what?
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Rom 8.21
Don’t those children-of-God people sound amazing? That’s you. The glory of the children of God will set creation free from corruption and bondage.
VIII. Become Like Jesus and Save the World 20:14
So what’s the purpose of God? For you to be like Jesus and save the world. It’s Pinky and the Brain in reverse. So what are we doing today, Pinky? Trying to take over the world… It’s trying to save the world. That’s the answer. Every day, we’re trying to save the world. What an incredible promise and purpose. This will result when you become more like him.
Okay, this is where we fall into the already-not-yet language. You are in Christ. You have access to all of his grace. God is pleased with you. And there’s so much more. It’s both. You also should be so much better, because it is so much better when you are. When you become more like Jesus, the whole world gets saved. It’s amazing.
It becomes clear when you look at the lives of the saints. They follow a familiar pattern. If you read the lives of the saints, it can even sometimes get boring, because it’s basically the same thing over and over again. A person is in a corrupt and evil situation. His family, his town, his area, or the church nearby, is corrupt and evil. He decides to give his life to Jesus, and by doing so he saves his town, his family, his country, his church. That’s what the saints do, because they become icons of Christ. And when you do that, everyone around you is impacted. Everyone around you is healed, saved, invited. Everyone around you is lifted up by your willingness to take up your cross and follow him.
This becomes really important to you when you have children. At least, that’s what I noticed. All of a sudden, it mattered that I was Christlike, even when I was at home, because there’s a bunch of little infants, these children; they need me to be better than I am. And you feel it when you’re not. I mean, you trust God with them, obviously, but you want to be an icon of Christ to your kids. And if you’re not married, you don’t have kids, you want to be Christlike now, so that you can get married and have kids. Well, you want to be Christlike now so that you can do what God has put in front of you, which for every one of you is to impact those who come after you and everyone who’s around you. You want to be a saint.
Now, on the flip side, you hear the stories all the time of the people in this world nearby. You probably don’t have to go more than a couple of residences away to find someone who has no one in their life who is Christlike to them. Their family is betrayal and anger and resentment. Their job is soulless and pointless to them. Their life is full of those little pleasures, like alcohol and entertainment, or maybe they like to go take pictures of the woods. They find these little pleasures to get by, but their whole existence is alone.
It doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve never lived that way, because I’m in this community. Since I was born (I was baptized right here), I’ve been with people who have saved my life by being icons of Christ to me. I don’t know how people survive without them. I wouldn’t have. And they have these miserable existences, and it’s like the opposite of the lives of the saints. Everything around them crumbles, because they don’t have the central thing, the most important thing. And maybe you see people and they look like they’re doing okay, but they don’t have Jesus. There is no okay without Jesus. There really isn’t.
And so when I say our job is to save the world, I mean our job is to save them. Our job is to be Christ to them, to invite them in, to say, “Hey, you look miserable. Come with me. All these people are happy, joyful.” Not false, not Ned Flanders, but we live life together. I have probably annoyed every one of you in the pews right now at some point in my imperfect life. Some of you more than others. But think about this: in spite of that, we love each other, and we want the best for each other, and we root for each other. There are people all around us who don’t have that. How is that possible? We need to be icons of Christ for them. We need to save the world. All creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Sons and daughters, all of you: the world is waiting for you.
IX. Disciples, Students, Apprentices 24:54
Okay, let’s keep going, so that we can end at some point:
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? Rom 8.22–24
So if you’re sitting here thinking, “That doesn’t look like my life,” Paul’s like, “I’m right there with you.” Amen. I am inwardly groaning for the moment when I will really look the way I know I’m supposed to look, when I will really act like Jesus to those around me, when I will be revealed as the son of God. That’s a lifetime and an eternity of work.
Dallas Willard is a great Christian author, and he writes of our modern era:
“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”
If you’ve been listening, that’s what we’re talking about: becoming disciples of Christ. A disciple is like, “I’m going to be like that guy.” That’s what a disciple is: “I’m going to learn to do what he does.” Apprentice is a great example. I’ve been apprenticed by Sam Mercer. It’s a lovely apprenticeship. You get yelled at a lot. You learn a ton. You better not call a tool the wrong word. But what you do is you learn how to do it the way he does. And he says it all the time. He’s like, “Watch how I do it. Like this.” Then all of a sudden it works. That’s apprenticeship.
And so we look to Jesus, and we watch how he does it. We read the gospels every week. We watch how he does it. Then we do it like him, and all of a sudden, “Oh, that’s how it is. That’s how it works.” That’s discipleship. That’s apprenticeship. Discipleship is becoming like Jesus. The process of becoming like Jesus is discipleship. And so we’re going to be talking about discipleship a lot this year, because all of us need to be like Jesus more and more, because we’ve got to save the world.
So the purpose of God is that we become like Jesus and save the world. The promise of God is that we are sons and daughters and we are in Christ. And that will be realized more and more every day.
X. If God Is for Us 27:54
Okay, we’re going to conclude with this. Our job is to bring Jesus everywhere we go: to be icons of Jesus, to save the world by sharing Jesus with them. He’s the answer. But you might be feeling like, “Oh yeah, but tomorrow’s Monday, and tomorrow I’ve got to work. I’ve got to do these things. It sounds really good now. You’re getting me really excited about this project. But all of 2026? How am I going to keep…?” Well, here’s some encouragement for you from that same chapter, Romans chapter 8:
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Rom 8.32
Right before that, he says:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Rom 8.31
So if he didn’t spare his own Son, but gave him for us, how will he not also graciously give us all things? Is there anything too hard for God? Is there anything outside of his reach? So let’s recenter this year. Let’s refocus this year. And let’s trust God to bring us into all these things that he has for us. Amen.