Christ is supreme over all nations. His mission is never “too light a thing” to restore only Israel, but to shine as a light to the ends of the earth, taking away the sin of the whole world. We grasp this supremacy only through divine illumination via the better baptism of the Holy Spirit, which graciously remakes us as new creations—objectively superior in standing—for God’s vast, eternal global purpose.
Epiphany 2
Psalm 40:1-12; Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
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I.
We can all relate to these words in this morning’s reading from Isaiah 49:4, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.”
Professionally, personally, politically, we’ve all “been there.”
It should offer us some immediate comfort to hear that the servant of God, the “sharp sword” and “polished arrow” has also experienced futility.
One way to meet this need by ignoring God’s will is: But instead of acknowledging that this frustration is heaven-sent, part of the divine plan, right there in the prophetic word, we are apt to give in to despair. It is inconceivable to us that failure should be part of God’s plan.
Thus we fail to see that God’s word is sufficient for every situation, moreover, that God’s word is the author of every situation in which we find ourselves, even those moments of futility and therefore God’s incarnate Word, Jesus Christ is Lord of every moment of our lives.
The good news is we are not alone in failing to miss God in moments of failure or short sightedness.
John the Baptist himself twice confesses to this very thing in today’s gospel reading.
In John 1:31 and 33 he says, “I myself did not know him.” I was too busy trying to purify Israel, baptizing them with water, when the one who sent me to do these things was already here.
John was too preoccupied with Israel’s failure, with calling it to moral repentance, to see that the one who could deal with Israel’s sin — indeed the sins of the whole world — was already at work. This proves that no one — not even John the Baptist — can grasp Christ’s supremacy apart from divine illumination.
The immediate consequence for John is the end of his ministry and the departure of two of his disciples to go and follow Jesus.
Christ is supreme! John has said as much. It’s no surprise to him then that his disciples should stop following him and start following Jesus.
When God is done with us, He is done with us! Did John have any reason to complain? No, and neither do we.
He says, “This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’”
II.
Paul writes of the supremacy of Christ in today’s epistle reading to the Corinthians: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”
There is no confusion, no doubt in Paul’s words about who Jesus is. Jesus is “their Lord and ours.” He is the Lord of the Jews. He is the Lord of the Gentiles.
Does not Isaiah say the same thing in this morning’s reading?
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
In this prophecy, God is enlarging the scope of the coming Messiah’s mission, something that thankfully dawns on John the Baptist before it is too late.
Just as the Messiah’s mission is greater than restoring Israel, so is Jesus’ baptism greater than John’s.
John sees Jesus coming towards him. This is the great handoff, between the old covenant and the new, between prophecy and fulfillment.
John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John quickly realizes how preoccupied he’s been preparing Israel, baptizing them, purifying them, that he’s missed how important Jesus really is.
John the Baptist was aware of his own special calling from his mother’s womb, how God had made his mouth like a sharp sword — this was a man unafraid to call the Jerusalem authorities a “brood of vipers”!
He knew he was a polished arrow, hidden away in the quiver of the desert.
John knew that “for this [he] came baptizing with water, that [Jesus] might be revealed to Israel.”
But for all this he missed that his ministry was “too light a thing” that he should be only a servant to Israel.
“Behold, the Lamb of God,” John finally says, “who takes away the sin of the world!”
Now John has completed his work. The scope of Christ’s mission is fully defined.
Jesus did not come simply to bring Jacob back and to gather Israel, but to offer hope for all mankind, to reign supreme over all men, to be “both their Lord and ours.”
John realizes this before it’s too late, before he pushes his ministry further than it should go.
That is why he stops himself and says, “This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’”
God’s original plan was never to call and restore a single nation, but to establish an eternal covenant of friendship with all mankind.
It turns out that the foundation for the covenant — the rock — was never Adam. It was always Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
“After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.”
That means there are implications for those of us who join this covenant. If we say with Andrew, “We have found the Messiah,” then we need to be prepared to live with what that means.
It can only mean living as God originally intended for us to live, as new creations in Christ, not fallen men in Adam.
III.
But this is absolutely impossible unless we receive that better baptism of which John speaks. Every other baptism can only cleanse the outer man. They are rituals of purification. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit gets to work on the inner man. That is because recreation is one and the same as the work of creation.
Genesis 1:2 tells in the beginning “the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters,” creating. Christ appropriates that creative symbolism when He receives John’s water baptism.
The water baptism the Church uses to this day now symbolizes the recreative work Christ does in us, but only if we understand that this isn’t about fixing our lives and getting on the straight and narrow. That would be “too little a thing.”
This is about making us sharp swords and polished arrows to be hidden away in the Lord’s quiver until He needs us.
In other words, Christianity isn’t about getting sober, getting clean, or even getting forgiven. It’s not about feeling better about ourselves. These are too little things.
Rather, it’s about becoming useful to God to execute His much greater vision and purpose.
“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Anyone who has been baptized with the better baptism carries that light within him and is commissioned to go to the ends of the earth.
Nothing is off limits to the Spirit-filled Christian.
IV.
Too many of us have experienced that laboring in vain, that spending of our “strength for nothing and vanity” of which Isaiah spoke.
The good news is that so did Christ. Even His own ministry faced a hard limit: His death on the cross.
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Christ’s failure was proclaimed by John at the very beginning of His ministry, at the very moment when John handed off the old covenant to the keeper of the new.
On the cross, the Lamb did not labor in vain. His death was the precise means by which sin was taken away for the world.
There is no need then for us to deal with sin. It has been taken care of, the remedy applied on the cross, its power broken.
It is possible for us to have direct experience of God through our relationship with Jesus Christ.
No sacrifice for sins remains, no baptism for cleansing is necessary. We are new creations.
V.
This is where I have to stop and repeat something I said last week. I can’t have this experience for you. No one can.
Part of this better baptism is discovering Christ for yourself, of hearing Him say, “What do you seek?” and replying in your heart, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” and then to hear Him say, “Come and see.”
Unlike the teachers of other religions, this Rabbi is also the Son of God. That means He is no mere guide for the perplexed, a sherpa, or a guru. He is Lord of all. Or, as Andrew put it, He is the Messiah, the Christ.
Seeing Him as your Christ, as I heard one bishop put it once, “Jesus is Christ, for me,” is too little a thing. That is the old baptism speaking, the one that can only deal with external dirt.
That bishop, and all who speak that way, have not been baptized by the Holy Spirit. They have not understood the universality of Christ. They have not yet learned to call Him “both their Lord and ours.”
You must learn to call Jesus Lord of all. If we are to live as God originally intended for us to live — as His covenant friends through our relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ — then we must determine to live out the implications of this better baptism in the Holy Spirit.
First, we will acknowledge that there is only one altar, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Other religions are simply not true. That means they are rivals to God and must be dealt with as such.
Second, one altar means one throne. Andrew’s declaration “We have found the Messiah” is a political statement. All governments derive their legitimacy from Christ’s throne. Any human government that does not acknowledge Christ sets itself up against God.
Third, only those who are baptized by the Holy Spirit have their sins taken away and are admitted to Christ’s kingdom. Everyone else is an enemy of God.
If this sounds like I am saying Christians are better than everyone else you are hearing me correctly.
We are not called to become better. Rather, we have been graciously remade, and are objectively better than the rest of the world.
We have a better baptism, live in a better creation. We call on the better name of Jesus, both their Lord and ours.
How do things change when it begins to dawn on you that your life is objectively better than the lives everyone else is living?
First, you will grow weary of the world. You will find yourself saying with Paul, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:23).
Second, you will grow impatient with vice and sin, especially when it lingers in your side.
Again, Paul writes, “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.”
This is the reason why Christian depression is very different from worldly depression. Christian depression is used by God to keep us here longer so that we can keep speaking those sharp words and shoot those sharp arrows at sinners.
Finally, because your nature is objectively better, because you belong to the new creation — you are literally from the future — you realize that people act differently around you.
Today’s psalm tells us they are acting out of fear: “And many who behold how good / The Lord has been to me / Shall learn to fear, and in His Name / Their trust henceforth shall be.”
This is why Christians need to stick around and the world needs them to stay. There isn’t any hope without us.
Preached on January 18, 2026, at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut (https://www.firstchurchwoodbury.org).
