Download Luke 3.22 Whose Words Define You

WHOSE WORDS DEFINE YOU?
Luke 3:15-17,21-22
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be
the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I
will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire.
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven
was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from
heaven: “You are my Son, I love you; I am proud of you!”
WHOSE WORDS DEFINE YOU?
When I was six or seven I thought my school teacher looked a bit like a witch.
I wondered if she rode a broom to school.
She had a thin little wrinkly face, eyes that twinkled, and a pointy nose.
She had a high wheezy voice and she wore old fashioned clothes.
She used a ruler like a wand,
And she would whack your desk with it if you made too much noise.
To be fair, that teacher probably was not much like I describe,
But this is how we kids saw her.
I do not actually remember any words that Ms Witchy ever said.
Except for one sentence.
“Matthew is not a good reader.”
I can’t recall a single thing she ever said about anything ever,
Except those six words.
“Matthew is not a good reader.”
I thought I was a good reader.
I had trouble with mixing up “d” and “b”.
But I read and read.
I tried very hard.
When I protested that I could read she scared me.
Forty years later all I can remember of that teacher Ms Witchy is just one sentence.
Words burned deeply into my brain; I almost fell into believing them.
For a time I accepted that I was indeed “Mathew is not a good reader.”
This one sentence almost ended up defining me.
Whose words have defined you?
Who told you that you were dumb, or ugly?
Who said that you were unloveable?
Who called you a mistake, a bitch, or stupid?
Whose words have you let define you?
Who called you illegitimate, a waste-of-space, or a loser?
Whose words have have defined you?
Often it’s just one sentence,
Just one line that we remember,
But all of us have a collection of powerful words stored up,
Words that we have let define us.
I’ll never forget my year three teacher.
Miss Obst.
One day early in the school year she said,
“This is absolutely marvellous. Matthew, you are creative!”
Those words sunk deeply into my soul.
And I said to my self “Yep! I’m creative!”
I started to constantly build things, design things, and make contraptions.
I made my own muppet puppets and wrote plays.
Because I wanted to hear those words again.
I think Miss Obst said those words maybe five or six times that year,
But that one sentence she spoke made me come alive.
I never forgot those words “Matthew, you are creative!”
.
Miss Obst noticed something in that eight year old boy,
Almost forty years later her words still have power.
Her words blessed and created a path for me.
I often feel that if she hadn’t told me I was creative that I might not be creative!
Whose words have defined you?
Can you remember some specific words?
Perhaps you can’t even remember the exact words,
But over and over a message was given that somehow came to define you?
PARENTS WORDS DEFINING US.
And what about the words of parents?
If any words from authority figures end up defining our identity, it is most often our parents.
The great psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung
both felt that what our parents say does much to define us.
In the early twentieth century,
There was a big joke about therapists,
That all they did was make you lie down on a couch and talk about your childhood and parents.
Because what parents say often ends up defining us.
What sorts of words said by parents end up defining us?
Can you name some phrases parents say that define children in powerful and negative ways?
“I'll do it myself, you're too slow"
“My child never does wrong.”
“You’re stupid.”
“You’re ugly.”
“You’re useless.”
“I regret having you.”
“Don’t bother me.”
“Get me another beer.”
“You are the smartest kid in Australia.”
If you could boil down your parent’s words to you in just one sentence what would it be?
Just one line – what did they say to define you?
Hmmm.
DEFINING WORDS DIRECT FROM GOD?
And now we get to today’s Bible reading.
This Bible reading is almost unique in the entire New Testament,
(The second part of the Bible that is about Jesus).
As far as I can find,
There are only three places in the entire New Testament,
Where the “voice” of God is actually heard speaking out loud for everyone to hear.
We see Jesus speak,
We see people prophesy and speak for God,
We have people hear God in visions,
We have people hear God in dreams,
We have people receive a word from God in their hearts or heads,
But in the entire New Testament,
There are only a few points where a “voice” of God is actually heard by a bunch of people.
So words ‘direct from God’ to people are pretty rare in the New Testament.
Can you find them?
The first one is here at the start of the story in the Baptism of Jesus.
Everyone hears God speak:
“You are my Son, I love you, I am proud of you!” - Matt 3:17 / Mark 1:17 / Luke 3:22
Then there is another time.
When Jesus goes up on a mountain to prepare for his death in Jerusalem.
He is transfigured, changed, his glory shown.
And the disciples miss the entire point of it all, so the voice of God is heard.
“This is my Son, I love him, I am proud of him. Listen to him!” – Matt 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35
Notice it’s the same words.
The second time there is a command added!
But the only times we hear God somehow speak directly in the New Testament,
Are all about the identity of Jesus.
There’s one more in John 12:28 and those words again affirm the identity of Jesus.
( Perhaps there might be some other words from Jesus to Paul in Acts 9,
but they’re not really God the Father’s voice to a group of people. )
But let’s go back to today’s reading - the baptism of Jesus.
One sentence that defines Jesus.
One sentence from the greatest authority – defining words - direct from God.
Really, if you take the baptism of Jesus, and the repeated words again when Jesus is transfigured,
Then Matthew, Mark and Luke all give us just one sentence direct from God.
One direct word of authority from heaven,
And that one word defines who Jesus is.
Of all the possible words and things that could have been spoken,
Of all the things to remember,
The New Testament writers remember just this one sentence direct from heaven about Jesus.
For me these words have become more and more defining in my life.
These are some of my most favourite words in the entire Bible.
It’s my prayer that these words will end up defining not just Jesus, but you too!
I preached on these words once five years ago,
And these words constantly bubble up in my prayer life,
Because they are words that are gradually defining me!
Would you say them with me?
“You are my Son, I love you, I am proud of you!” - Matthew 3:17 / Mark 1:17 / Luke 3:22
Of all the things we could ever hear from an authority figure,
These are the most important and most profound.
Greater wisdom is here in these words than all the psychologists and gurus of the world.
God knows that these words, this one sentence,
Is the most important words to define Jesus.
YOU ARE MY CHILD.
In the Bible these words are about Jesus being King and Messiah.
But even deeper than that,
These words identify Jesus as God’s very own DNA and family.
God’s son.
There’s something special about saying these words.
I love to hug my own children tight and just say, “my son” or “my daughter”.
Many of us have heard a parent say,
“You’re not my son.”
“I don’t have a daughter.”
But those recently married here can tell us how strange and meaningful and wonderful it was,
To first call their partner “my husband or my wife”.
But these are words of profound acceptance.
To call someone “my”.
These are words of belonging.
There’s nothing better than to be called “my” by someone you love.
To be called “my son, my daughter, my lover, my husband, my dad, my friend.”
For people who feel like they don’t belong,
There is nothing more amazing than to be called “my” by someone you love.
And especially to be called “my own family, my own child.”
Words of identity, meaning, belonging.
These are words we all need to hear and be defined by.
Secondly,
WHO I LOVE.
Some of the most important words we could ever hear:
“I love you.”
The actual word here in the ancient language is “my beloved.”
This is what we all need to hear.
“I love you.”
That we are worth loving, that we are valued.
Others may call us ugly, or stupid, or evil, or wrong, or even unloveable.
But we need to hear these words “I love you.”
When we come and trust Jesus,
Then God says to us “you are my child who I love.”
No matter what other people say,
No matter if you feel hated, misunderstood, betrayed or if you don’t belong elsewhere.
When you trust Jesus,
These words of God define you,
And God says to you what he said to Jesus, “you are my child who I love…”
And finally
I AM PROUD OF YOU.
The actual word here is hard to translate.
It basically means “I think good of you!”
It’s often translated “I enjoy or delight in you.”
Perhaps at his baptism,
Which was around age 30, the start of Jesus’ saving work,
Perhaps at this moment he actually needed these words.
These words from God that define him!
Certainly everyone else needed to hear who Jesus was,
And God chose to define him with one powerful sentence.
These are the words God spoke of Jesus at the start of his journey to the cross.
You are my child, I love you, I am proud of you.
WHOSE WORDS DEFINE YOU?
Some of us here are still being defined by words spoken to us 5, 10, 30, 60 years ago.
We were told, “you don’t deserve to be loved.”
Or “work hard or else you’re worthless.”
“You’re dirty, ugly, dumb.”
And the world keeps on defining and defining our worth,
Based on our age, our gender, our IQ, our colour,
The world very quickly discards people as worthless.
But the whole point of Jesus is that he came so we can be defined as God’s own children!
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Gal 3:26-27
Jesus is different.
He came, so that we might hear a new word from God to define us.
Jesus came to share with us his place before God.
He came with some new words to define us forever.
He came to share with us what God said to him.
Trust Jesus,
And hear God say to you:
You are my child, I love you, I am proud of you.
During communion today.
Ask servers of bread to bless people.
God says, “You are my child, I love you, I am proud of you.”