Audio recording Sermon manuscript: For the question from the catechism that we will be considering tonight it is helpful to know the question that comes before it: “What benefits does baptism give?” Answer: “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this as the words and promises of God declare.” Think about what is being claimed here about baptism. It forgives sins. It rescues from death and the devil. It gives eternal salvation. These are not small things.So our question tonight naturally flows from that: “How can water do such great things?” Baptism is such a simple thing that it appears that it is not even very good at washing the body, much less being capable of forgiving sin, rescuing from death and the devil, or giving eternal salvation. Such grand things seem like they should require grand efforts on our part, or at least a grand ritual. Baptism doesn’t seem to fit the bill. So how can water do such great things?The answer is extremely simple. It can’t. Water certainly can’t do these things. But remember the definition of baptism that was given with the first question in the catechism: “What is baptism.” Answer: “Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word.” Baptism isn’t plain water. It is a wordy water. God’s word has been stuck into it. It is God’s word in baptism that makes it do what it does, together with the faith the trusts this word of God in the water.So let’s take a moment and consider this “active ingredient,” if you will, that is in baptism. How did God create the heavens and the earth? Did he get out a mixing bowl, put in the ingredients, mix it together, and stick it in the oven? No. He spoke the world into existence. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. When God speaks, things happen. This is a power that human beings do not have. I can say, “Let there be light,” until the cows come home but no light is going to be created.Unless, of course, God commanded me to do such a thing. Suppose that God said I should say, “Let there be light,” and he promised that light would come about as a result. That would be an entirely different thing. This is how the miracles generally happen in the Scriptures. God told Moses to stretch out his staff over the waters and that he would divide the Red Sea in two by doing so. A person could ask the question, “How can stretching out a staff over the waters do such great things?” The answer would be: “It can’t.” But when God tells you to do something and promises that it will produce results, then that’s an entirely different matter.With this line of reasoning you can understand something important about our sacraments. If God did not command baptism, if God did not promise that it saves, and if were just something that Christians decided to do on their own, then it would be an empty and powerless thing. That would be like Moses deciding on his own that he is going to hang out his arm with a staff in it. Without God’s Word Moses could have stretched his staff out over the water until his arm fell off. It wouldn’t have divided in two. But if God tells you to do something and says what it will accomplish certain results, then we should be absolutely certain about that. So with baptism God says we should apply water with the words, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He also speaks to the benefits when he says, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,” and he says, “Baptism now saves you.” Since this is what God clearly says, he’d have to be a liar for that not to take place.The same thinking also applies to the sacrament of the altar. Without God’s Word the bread would remain bread alone and the wine would remain wine alone. But when Jesus says, “This bread is my body,” then what used to be merely bread is most assuredly also Christ’s body. Furthermore Jesus tells us what th