Matthew 3:13-17: I HAVE COME TO DO IT ALL
In the name of Jesus, who was baptized as part of his plan to fulfill all righteousness for you, for me, and for the whole world. Dear Friends.
Isn’t it frustrating, sometimes, when you’re not able to get everything done that you want to do? There’s always something that should have been done, but you just didn’t have the time or energy to do it. Life is like a juggling act, and you’re always dropping something. You have to work, you want to spend time with your family, it’s good to exercise, you’re supposed to keep up your home, you would like to be a good neighbor to people, maybe get involved in the community somehow, you know that God wants you to spend time in his Word, and spend time praying to him, and you’re also supposed to fit into your life somewhere some rest and recreation.
And when you look back on the day, or the week, you can always find something that you didn’t do, that you should have done. There’s always another phone call that you should have made, or another person that you should have visited, or another event you should have attended, another errand you should have run. Who has time to do it all? Trying to do everything is like coming home with 10 bags of groceries, and you try to fit them all onto one little TV tray – not everything fits.
And the same thing is true about life. And the same thing is true about Christianity. As Christians, there is so much more that we would like to do, and that we really ought to do, for God. But how do you do it all? We all want to glorify him. We all want to grow in our understanding of his Word, and our understanding of what his will is for our lives. We all would like to become more and more Christ-like in our lives. We all would like to witness more. But once again, who has time to do it all? And who has the ability to do it all well? It’s easy, as Christians, to look back on our lives and feel pressure to do more, and then you feel guilty because you didn’t do enough, or you didn’t do it well enough.
This morning, we’re going to look at a moment in the life of Jesus, and see how that moment can bring you and me a great deal of comfort and encouragement in our lives as Christians. Thank God that Jesus, our Savior, came, and he came to do it all, and he did it all, very well, for us. Let’s look at Matthew chapter 3.
It must have been very surprising for John to see Jesus come around the corner and asked to be baptized at the Jordan River. It was a normal day for John the Baptist, as he did his work, preaching and baptizing, until Jesus arrived. From John’s point of view, Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. After all, he was the Son of God, he was the Christ. He was without sin. What did he need baptism for? John even said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me?” If anyone needs to be baptized, John said, it was me. I’m the sinner. I’m the one that needs salvation. Why don’t you baptize me, Jesus?
But look at Jesus’ answer in verse 15: “Let it be so now; it is proper to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. John didn’t realize what a big moment this was, in God’s plan of salvation. Jesus’ baptism was the official beginning of his public life, and his public work on behalf of all mankind. Before his baptism, Jesus lived privately. He kept a low profile. He wasn’t out, preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and confronting the Pharisees. But now, the time had come to do his work. And his baptism marked the beginning.
And what a great way to mark the beginning of his public ministry! He received what he wanted every Christian to receive, and that’s baptism. In a sense, Jesus started his ministry by saying, “I’m one of you. I’m human like you. I live on this earth like you. And now, I have been baptized, like you.” Jesus identifies with you here. He was baptized, like you.
And notice how Jesus describes his baptism: “It is proper to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” In other words, if you can think of all the righteous things that God wants people to do while they’re on this earth, I, Jesus says, I have come to do it all, and that includes being baptized. I have come to do everything.
Just think of all the things that Jesus would have to do over the next three years to fulfill all righteousness. He could not leave any stone unturned. He would have to be a man of prayer, and do that perfectly. He would have to be a man of love, and he did that too, as we see from the way he treated his disciples and the crowds that followed him. He would have to be a man of humble service, and we see that in his healing and in his teaching. He would have to be a man of sacrifice, as he gave up everything, even his own life, to pay for the sins of all mankind. And he would have to do all these things perfectly, flawlessly. He would have to do it all – he couldn’t leave anything undone. He had come to fulfill all righteousness. What a difficult job description!
Where did he get the strength to do it all? From his baptism. Look at verse 16: “As 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.” Every time a baptism takes place, the Spirit of God descends on a person. At your baptism, the Spirit of God descended on you in an invisible way. And that’s when the Holy Spirit changed you, and caused you to be reborn as a Christian. And if you were already a Christian when you were baptized, that’s when the Holy Spirit strengthened your bond with God. That’s when the Holy Spirit gave you special gifts that you didn’t have before, gifts you could use to glorify God in your life.
At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit came in a visible way. He looked like a dove, landing on Jesus. Now Jesus didn’t need to be reborn like we do. But Jesus did need to be strengthened. He had come to do it all, as the Savior of the world, and that was no small task. The Holy Spirit descended on him to equip him with strength, and with determination, and with intensity and resolve to be the Savior of all mankind. 3 years worth of strength was given to Christ at his baptism. That’s how he was able to do it all, to glorify his Heavenly Father the way he did.
And that’s when God the Father spoke. You see, God the Father could see the future. He could see what Jesus would do over the next three years. He could see whether or not Jesus would be able to do it all – the praying, the acts of love, the teaching, the serving, the humility, the suffering for the sins of all mankind. God could see the future. He could see what Jesus would do. And listen to the grade the Father gives to his Son in advance: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” He will do it all, the Father said. And he will do it all very very well. With him, I am already well pleased.
What a great beginning to Jesus’ public life and public ministry on your behalf. He identifies with you. He gets strengthened by the Holy Spirit. He recieves approval from the Heavenly Father. And now, he begins his work of doing it all. What a great beginning!
And what a great source of comfort and encouragement this is for you. Do you know why he came to do it all? It’s because you and I could never do it all. No matter how hard we try, we can’t be perfect people of prayer, and people who are always perfectly growing in our relationship with God, and people who are always loving and serving others perfectly, and people who are always perfectly witnessing our faith. We can’t do it all. When you take those spiritual things and then try to combine them with the pressure of every day life – working and family and taking care of your home and being a good neighbor and everything else – and try to do all that perfectly - we can’t do it all.
Jesus came to do what you could not do. I don’t want you to get punished for your sins, Jesus says to you. I don’t want you to get punished for all the things you didn’t do in your life, that you should have done. Or what about all those things you did do in your life, but they were done poorly. I don’t want you to get punished, Jesus says, so I will come, and I will do it all, for you. I will fulfill all righteousness. I will be your substitute. I will give you the credit for everything I do. That’s why Jesus came.
Do you know what that means? That means that the pressure is off. You don’t have to feel afraid that you haven’t done enough to please God in your life. You don’t have to feel that sense of despair, because it’s too hard to do it all. You don’t have to feel guilty that you haven’t done enough for God. Jesus has done it all, and he’s done it all for you. You are a forgiven child of God, because of Jesus. You have faith in him. And when God sees you, he doesn’t see a sinner who hasn’t done enough. He sees a Christian, who has been made righteous by Christ, who has done everything for you.
And this is what gives us strength and motivation to try to do great things for God in our lives. At your baptism, God gave you his Spirit. And at your baptism, God gave you strength and desire and the ability to serve Him, and to glorify Him with your life. You’ll never be able to do it all. But Christ has set you free to do as much as you can to praise God, and to serve him, and to witness him to others with the gifts and abilities that he gave to you at your baptism. May God bless you as you use your life to glorify the One who has done it all, for you. Amen.
