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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

It was first recorded by Matthew in the language of the Greeks, reading eis to onoma tou patros kai tou uiou kai tou agiou pneumatos. Of course it was translated later on in Latin, the language of the Holy Roman Empire, and it sounded like this: In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. And then Luther translated the Greek and the Hebrew into German, and it sounded like this: Im Namen des Vaters und des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes. And now we say, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

I could not have asked for a better object lesson than the baptism of Hayden this morning for that is the very words that you heard poured over him by God's Holy Spirit, working through that Word and water together to present to him Christ Jesus, not a spiritual abstract thing, but fleshly Christ Jesus, for he is flesh, that is Hayden, and his Lord is flesh, and they too shall both live forever in flesh in heaven.

We are marked by that same name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And having been marked by that name, we are reminded that it is God Father who has created us, and Him alone. Not by evolution or any other thing. It is God's Son who has redeemed us. It is God's Holy Spirit that has sanctified us and has poured out upon us the gifts of faith. And it is the triune God who alone has revealed Himself to us only, only in God in the flesh, Jesus, not in the sunrises and sunsets, or the amazing miraculous birth of a child, but only in Christ Jesus who is God in the flesh.

Peter makes this very clear in his sermon from the second reading from the book of Acts. It's a preacher's dream. Three thousand brought from death to life. Three thousand hearts that were dead and damned brought to life and saved by God's Holy Spirit working through that preached Word. And can you imagine how long that baptismal service of 3,000 people would have lasted? A far cry longer than our service this morning, I grant you that very quickly.

Peter reminded the people...and these were the same people in Jerusalem that had heard about Jesus, that may have caught a glimpse of Him, that had seen possibly one of His miracles. Changing water into wine, or maybe the healing of the man let down through the ceiling. The raising of Jairus' daughter. The widow's son at Nain maybe raised from the dead.

He reminded them that this God in the flesh was attested to you all by fulfilling the prophecies made about Him hundreds of years, if not thousands, before He ever was born by the prophets, by the psalmists, saying to them there would be this One who would die. There would be this One who would be raised from the dead, and this One would be God in the flesh.

Notice what he says. He was attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him. He was delivered up according to God's plan, not because He got caught, but because He willingly went in obedience to the Father's will for your flesh to be raised from the dead, to endure the pangs of hell, and to be raised from the dead in flesh that your flesh may dwell secure as was proclaimed about Him by the psalmist. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

David the psalmist wrote this: "My flesh will also dwell in hope. You will not abandon your Holy One to hell and you will not let your Holy One see corruption." If it applied to your Lord and you were baptized into that Lord, it applies to you.

There is no spiritual poppycock or falderal going on here. This is fleshly Christianity, not abstract concepts. Yes, abstract concepts are used to explain the mystery that's found there, but the mystery you witnessed this morning with your own fleshly eyes to a fleshly child, brought from death to life, brought from kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God, and eternally brought as a brother in Christ who cannot even say to you, "I believe in Jesus," and yet he does. And in fact his faith is probably stronger...or less filled with doubts would be a better way to say it...than yours and mine because as he grows older, as you and I have grown from then, what are we plagued with? With this flesh and this mass of material between our ears that brings all kinds of thoughts into conflict with what God has revealed.

Peter ended it by saying, "God has made Him..." this One who was crucified for you, and this One who was raised for you. "God has made Him both Lord and Christ." But He did not make Him an abstract spiritual Lord or an abstract spiritual Messiah. He declared that flesh and blood, that bone, that Person of Jesus who is God and Man, to be your Lord and your Messiah.

This is the faith of the triune God that you've been given. Now in the confession of the Apostles' Creed which we just read at Hayden's baptism, which by the way the whole history of the Apostles' Creed is that it was in a sense the very simplistic confession of faith in God Father, God Son, and God Holy Spirit.

But when we compare it to the Nicene Creed that we speak at Communion services, it's much longer. And what section of that article is longer? The first one about God the Father? A little bit, but not much. The Holy Spirit? Yeah, a little bit more, but not much. It's about the Son, where the triune God revealed to you and to me Himself. "God of God, Light of Light...begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven" and became flesh because He has to redeem your soul and your flesh.

And then our Lord's words in the gospel reading when He makes it very clear to the Jews the religion of which He had already been a part since the creation of the world as the preincarnate Son who stands before them as God in the flesh says to them, "If you honor Me, you honor the Father." Very clearly, "If you keep My word, you keep the Father's word. In being joined to Me, the Father and the Holy Spirit," as He says so clearly, "you will never taste or see death."

The hardest part for you and for me to witness is someone who was so vibrant in life, and we see sin ravage their physical capabilities almost to the point where we out of pride can't look at them anymore almost because of how sin has completely rendered them from what they were. Before a beloved saint of our church died, many people said, "I wish you could have seen him before." That is how we always want it, isn't it? I wish you could have seen me before sin had its way.

But sin has always had its way since Adam and Eve began. And the sin that has had its way has shown itself so clearly in our flesh...the flesh that we look at and see change in the mirror. The flesh that we feel. The flesh that changes. That's the flesh that Christ has redeemed with His flesh and blood...God's flesh and blood.

And the faith of which we believe and in which Hayden has been baptized says, "This God, who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as God in the flesh, died in the flesh." That completely is illogical. And the same God who revealed Himself in the flesh and died in the flesh is the same God who was raised from the dead in the flesh. And it does not make sense.

When we close our eyes in death, it will make perfect sense, and we will say, "Amen, Lord." And He will say, "Enter into that which I have prepared since the foundation of the world. And enter into it not as a spirit, but as flesh and blood person." That is the faith of the triune God that Hayden has been given and you have been given.

When Jesus said, "Before Abraham, I am," He was making the penultimate statement. Why do you think the Jews tried to stone Him? Because He was claiming Himself to be God, which they thought to be blasphemous, but which you and I say, "Amen and Amen" to. Yea, yea, it shall be so, and is so.

Isn't it interesting that this One who wants to make it very clear that He is God in the flesh, dies in the flesh, rises from the dead in the flesh, comes to you again in the flesh, and says, "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father has set His seal." In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.