Matthew 3:1-17 The Baptism of Jesus (Life of Jesus, #2) Jan.17, 2009
Story: In the fifth century AD, St. Patrick baptised King Aengus of Ireland on his request. The saint willingly complied. His courtiers assembled with royal state to assist at the ceremony. St. Patrick carried in his hand, as usual, the Bachall Isu (staff of Jesus); at the end of this crosier there was a sharp iron spike, by which he could plant it firmly in the ground beside him while preaching, or exercising his Episcopal functions. On this occasion, however, he stuck it down into the king's foot, and did not perceive his mistake until—
"The royal foot transfixed, the gushing blood
Enrich'd the pavement with a noble flood."
The ceremony had concluded, and the king had neither moved nor complained of the severe suffering he had endured. When the saint expressed his deep regret for such an occurrence, Aengus merely replied that he believed it to be a part of the ceremony, and did not appear to consider any suffering of consequence at such a moment.
This morning, we are continuing our study of the life of Jesus Christ. We began last week with the account of Jesus being found in the temple, asking and answering questions of the teachers there, being about His Father’s business…
This week, we fast forward 18 years ahead into a fascinating moment in the life of our Lord. The first time we see him as a man, fully grown, walking through the crowds down to the banks of the Jordan River to follow obediently the will of his Father, our Father in Heaven.
Turn in your Bible to the first gospel, the book of Matthew, chapter 3:1-17.
Matthew 3:1-17 (New International Version)
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' "
4John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
The Baptism of Jesus
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Our focus today is the baptism of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. What is the first thing you think about when you read this account? For me, I had to ask myself, ‘Why did JESUS need to be baptized?’ After all, this IS the Messiah, the Creator of the World, the Living Word, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, Emmanuel (God with us)…GOD! Why does God come to a body of water to be dunked by a guy wearing a camel-skin suit? And what does that have to do with me? Let’s consider that shall we?
1. Sign to others of what He believes
2. Beginning of Jesus’ ministry
3. Sets an example for us to follow
1 - A very old priest named Zechariah and his just-as-old, barren wife had a son. Sound miraculous? It was! An angel told him that they would have a son, and that he would be great and would lead many back to the Lord. He couldn’t believe it either, so God took away his ability to speak until the child was born. They named him John, and he grew up to become John the Baptizer, a great preacher who paved the way for the coming of the Messiah. Many people heard his message, repented of their sin, and were baptized by John in the waters of the Jordan River.
They were baptized as a sign of their faith in what John was preaching. He preached repentance, turning from sin and turning back to God. Doing a 180 from where they were heading, and purposefully living for the Living God. And as an outward sign of their faith, they stepped into the water, confessed to John that they were sinners who needed a saviour, and were baptized, literally dipped, or plunged, or immersed in the water, signifying the putting to death of their sin, then rising up out of the water, they rose up to new life, a fresh life, a clean life ready to live for the Lord.
Water; there’s nothing very special about water is there? It’s clear, doesn’t smell like anything, and doesn’t have any special cleaning power (unless mixed with some kind of soap or chemical.) We drink it, we swim in it, and we see it used in baptism. Now, did the water cleanse the people of John’s day from sin? NO! Only God can forgive sin. And what people were doing by being dunked under the water of the Jordan River was that they believed his message, ‘the kingdom of heaven is near, so repent of your sin.’, and to show what they believed, they were baptized so that everyone who witnessed it would know…there’s a believer, there’s a child of God, no matter where they come from, Jew or non-Jew, man, woman or child, everyone can be a believer, be forgiven of sin, and live for God.
Bob Beasley, a pastor in Ontario, Canada, told the following true story: “Our three-year-old daughter, Rena, sat with us during the baptismal service last Sunday night, which was a new experience for her. She exclaimed in surprise, ‘Why did he push that guy in the water; why, Dad, why?’
My wife tried to explain briefly and quietly, but Rena just wouldn’t be satisfied. Later that night we tried to provide an answer that a child’s mind could comprehend. We talked about sin and told Rena that when people decide to live for Jesus and ‘do good’ they want everyone to know. We then explained that water symbolizes Jesus’ washing people from sin; when they come out ‘clean,’ they are going to try to be ‘good.’ A moment later, we realized we’d have to work on our explanation a bit. Rena had immediately responded, ‘Why didn’t the Pastor just spank him?’”
Did Jesus need to be forgiven of sin? Of course not. So why be baptized? Because He wanted to show everyone there, that He too believed John’s message that the kingdom of God was near, in fact, that He was the fulfilment of that message.
I have baptized several people, and have felt a wonderful honour in seeing each of them confess their belief in Christ as their saviour, and their desire to live their lives for Him. And so, on their confessions of faith, I baptized them, young, old(er), men women, and children. But I have never seen someone come up to me and felt the need to say, look, you baptize me first…but look at what John said when Jesus, the Christ, came to the river. John was the first to recognize that the proper thing to do here was to step aside and let Jesus be the One who did the baptizing. But that was not the plan, was it?
Jesus was baptized to fulfill what John was doing in preparing the way for what Jesus had come to do. And so, John baptized the Son of God. And as he did so, as Jesus rose up from the water, the skies opened up, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and a voice comes from heaven, ‘This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ How cool must that have been?! And I believe that everyone who was there saw this happen, heard that voice, and new that this was no ordinary man, this was the Messiah! He has come!
2 – And so began the public ministry years of Jesus’ life. I don’t know if there were 10 people or a thousand people at the side of that river on that day, but I believe that many who witnessed THIS baptism wanted to know more about this man, who he was, and what HIS message was. Talk about an ordination service! For all who witnessed this event in Christ’s life, there was no doubt that he was called to something special, that HE was special. So from this time, Jesus was ready to begin the real work of fulfilling his purpose here on earth, the gathering of his disciples, the teaching about God’s kingdom, the need we all have of a saviour, of the forgiving power of God, and the laying down of His life for ours so that our sin can be forgiven forever.
Now I have not witnessed a voice from heaven calling down to anyone that I have baptized or have seen baptized. But I have seen that after people make a public confession of their faith in God, that God does put a call on their life to do something for Him. Whether that is a call to serve in your local church or off in some distant part of the world, I have seen that people feel called to change from living for themselves to living for God and serving others in some way with whatever gifts or talents they may have in some capacity in order to make a difference for the kingdom of God. And I believe that once we put our faith in God and faithfully live for Him, He will call us to do SOMETHING for Him in our lives that will affect the lives of others who witness the change that we have proclaimed by being baptized.
What is that going to be for us? What can each of us DO for the kingdom? Many things need to be done; there are endless opportunities to share God’s love within our community. The question we must ask ourselves is, ‘what gifts and talents do I have? Now, how can I use those for God?’ Have you asked yourself that question, have you answered it? Are we living it? Do people even know that we are Christians, or are we some kind of covert believer who keeps our faith to ourselves so that no one knows? In other words, does it make any difference in our lives at all that we are believers? If we are, then it should!
3 – Finally, I want to take just a few moments to discuss the example set by Jesus. If Jesus saw that it was right for Him to be baptized, shouldn’t all believers be baptized as well? If Jesus Christ recognized the need to publicly show people that he believed in the message of the kingdom of God, then shouldn’t everyone that believes in Jesus as the fulfilment of the Word of God follow His example and be publicly baptized as an outward sign of their faith?
So I ask you, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died for the forgiveness of your sin, that he was buried in a tomb for three days, but on that third day, He rose from the dead claiming victory over sin and death for all eternity and now sits at the right hand of God the Father and one day will return as the judge of the entire world…if you believe all this, have you been baptized? If the answer is yes, great…are you living for Him? If the answer is ‘no’ then why not?!
In Acts 2 we read Peter’s great gospel message, and to close it off he says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin. Jesus said in Mark 16 that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
All through the book of Acts we read the accounts of people, sometimes thousands of them, putting their faith in Jesus and immediately being baptized. They did not wait for the right time. They didn’t wait till they ‘felt ready’, they did not wait at all. They believed and they were baptized. So when is a good time to be baptized? When we’re old enough and mature enough, when we’re spiritually ready to do something of significance for God? Do we think that we can fool God? I hope not!
If we believe in Jesus, we should be baptized, plain and simple. The examples are found throughout the New Testament. Look them up this week if you want to. But more importantly, consider this, being baptized is not what saves you, it is faith in Jesus, but baptism is a step of obedience to what he commanded us to do…make disciples (lead people to Christ) and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
If you would like to follow the Lord in obedience and be baptized, would you let me know this week? Will you follow His example? Will you follow Him completely?
