Audio recording Sermon manuscript: Last week we considered the question: “What is baptism?” The answer was very simple. It is the application of water together with God’s Words: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The whole process takes less than a minute. With such a simple ceremony we naturally tend to believe that it can’t do very much. This is why it is important that we do not just stick with the thoughts that come naturally to us, but that we be informed by what Jesus and his apostles teach concerning baptism. We can begin with what we have heard from the final chapters of Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels. The last chapters of all four of the Gospels are very important. When Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples he did not talk to them about the weather or merely mundane things. He had just won the victory by his death and resurrection. Now his kingdom is to be extended into the whole world. How? This is what all the endings to the four Gospels address: How is Christ’s kingdom extended? And, as you yourself have heard, baptism plays no small role in the readings that we heard from last week and this week. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says, “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have instructed you, and, behold, I am with you always even to the end of the age.” There are really only two things that specifically get mentioned by Jesus: baptizing and teaching. If baptism were of minor importance, or, of no effect, then how could it be so prominent in these highly important final words? In our reading tonight we hear Jesus instructing the eleven: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.” This is a very simple statement. The Gospel is the good news of great joy that is for all people. The Gospel is the story of Jesus, who is Christ the Lord. The disciples were to preach this wherever and whenever the opportunity to do so might arise. But you might be wondering, “Where’s baptism? What does baptism have to do with this?” That comes immediately after this opening statement. “Go, preach the Gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” The preaching of the Gospel is to result in belief and in baptism. The idea of a message resulting in belief is not surprising. This is what happens with all messages, I suppose. Either they are believed or they are not believed. So the fact that Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,” is deliberate and significant. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to result in being baptized. Why is this? Why isn’t it just left with belief, when that seems to make more sense to us? Other passages from Scripture that speak about baptism help to answer this for us. It is clear from these passages that baptism is not an empty ceremony, or, as Luther puts it in the Catechism, that it is “not just plain water.” Baptism works. It does stuff. It isn’t just an empty sign or symbol. In our reading tonight from Peter’s first epistle, he likens baptism to Noah’s ark. I assure you that Noah and his family were not riding on a sign or a symbol. They were riding on something very substantial that saved them from the waters of destruction. The ark was very real and produced very real results. Peter says, “And corresponding to that—i.e. to the way that the ark saved Noah and his family—baptism now saves you.” So the way that you should think about baptism is that it is something that prevents us from being judged and damned. Those outside of the ark were judged, convicted of sin, and were punished by God with death. Noah and his family were preserved from that judgement by residing in the ark. Likewise all people would be judged and damned as sinners, unless they received the benefits of baptism that change the situation. Peter speaks t