INTRO.- Ways you know you’re from Arkansas:
- "Vacation" means driving to Hot Springs or maybe even Branson.
- Up North to you means Missouri.
- You know several people who have hit a deer.
- Your school classes were canceled because of cold.
- Your school classes were canceled because of heat.
- You’ve had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
- You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.
- You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example:"Where’s my car at?"
- You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
- You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, catfish, and Sweet Tea.
- You eat dinner at noon and supper at night.
- You think that "deer season" is a National Holiday.
- You know what time to be home for curfew -- not because of the law, but because of the mosquitoes!
- You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer and Football.
- You know that Bill Clinton, Billy Bob Thornton, and John Grisham are all from Arkansas.
- You think a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
- You know what "Wooooo Pig Sooie" means.
If you were born and raised in Arkansas would really ever want to move, say to Minnesota? I seriously doubt it. You might want to go visit MN, or perhaps of the Mall of America but I doubt that you would want to move there.
When you live in what you consider to be one of the best states, why would you want to live anywhere else? Why would you leave a good place or location for a lesser location?
Worse than moving to some other place in the US would be moving to another country, especially a country that has little to offer and where they worship foreign gods.
ILL.- One family in the LifeSpring Christian Church of Cincinnati, OH, recently visited Thailand and here is what they found. Thailand is 95% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, and only .05% Christian. The wife said, “I feel like I am having such a strange week. The heat alone is overwhelming. The whole language barrier and being a minority are socially overwhelming. And I feel like I am in a whole other world spiritually speaking.”
Now, how would you like to move to Thailand to live? It would take some powerful motivation to move from where you’ve been born and raised to move somewhere extremely different, unsettled and insecure.
And that’s exactly what Jesus did. He left his glorious home for this sinful world. It’s almost hard to understand why He would do that, that is, until you know His heart and the heart of His father.
John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
Thank God that Jesus came to earth! Jesus left His father, His home, His heaven, His friends, His followers and all for earth, for us.
PROP.- In this sermon I want us to think about Jesus’ initial mission on earth.
1- Jesus sought and John baptized
2- Jesus submitted and God spoke
I. JESUS SOUGHT AND JOHN BAPTIZED
Matt. 3:13 “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.”
In a sense, Jesus was a seeker. All people are seekers in some form or another. That is, all people seek after something but not necessary the truth about God and Christ.
ILL.- Last Tuesday night on Larry King Live his guest was Jane Fonda. Many people don’t think too highly of Jane Fonda because of her “Hanoi Jane” reputation. However, in her recent years she’s changed. She readily admits that she, too, has been seeking something in life and really didn’t know what it was. She’s still against war but she’s been open to the Lord in her life. In fact, she now claims to be a Christian after being raised by her atheist father, Henry Fonda.
I think Jane Fonda found herself disillusioned with life, marriage, Hollywood, etc., which made her open to the Lord.
And I’ve heard various stories about her conversion, the first of which came from newsman Cal Thomas. I truly hope that Jane Fonda has found the Lord. Why? Because the Lord wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Often, it takes difficulty and hardship in life to make people seek the Lord. People have to go down before they ever go up.
ILL.- I remember a young married couple in Missouri many years ago. They had only one child; a three-and-a-half year old boy. The boy got very sick and they took him to the hospital in Columbia, MO. The next day the boy died. They were devastated.
They didn’t go to church but the father had an uncle in our church and asked if I would preach the boy’s funeral. I did and pointed them to Christ as the only way to see their son again as David of old said, “He cannot return to me but I can go to him.” I continued to call on this young couple and encouraged them to give their lives to Christ and they did. I was thrilled to baptize them into Christ.
To this day, they still attend the church where I ministered. And some time later, they also adopted a little boy.
They had to go down before they could go up. They had to experience a great tragedy in life before they sought the Lord for mercy, help, and forgiveness.
It seems that many people will never darken the door of the church or seek the Lord until they face difficulties in life that they can’t handle by themselves.
Jesus was a seeker. Jesus sought out John the baptizer. Why? This was God’s will for Him. Jesus was humble before His Father and He was willing to humble Himself before this man of God.
If Jesus was a seeker then we, too, should be willing seekers. We should seek to hear what the Lord wants of us. We should seek on our own through study and prayer. We should seek at church by being willing listeners and learners.
If you’ve been in church most of your life, you may think you’ve heard it all and know what the Lord wants. However, I have discovered that a person never stops learning and when it comes to the Lord we should never seeking! We need fine-tuning all our lives!
Jesus sought and John baptized. John baptized people.
Matt. 3:5-6 “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”
Even though John baptized people by immersion (because that’s exactly what the word means in the original language), His baptism was not “Christian” baptism. He was not baptizing people in the name of Christ. He was, however, baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1:4 “John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Also, before John baptized people they confessed their sins. If we had this practice today I don’t think many people would want to be baptized! Jesus simply asks us to confess our faith in Him and be baptized into Him. There is a difference. Besides, if we all had to publicly confess our sins BEFORE we were baptized, we’d be here FOR A VERY LONG TIME! Jesus sought and John baptized.
II. JESUS SUBMITTED AND GOD SPOKE
Matthew 3:13-15 “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.”
ILL.- The young Army recruit turned up his nose at the meal of stew and complained to the sergeant, “Don’t I have any choice here?"
“Certainly,” replied the sergeant, “TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.”
Most of us have a problem when it comes to authority. We like to be our own boss. But we soon learn in life it doesn’t work that way, not if we have loving, caring parents who will teach us and discipline us. And from there, it continues into school, work, etc.
Jesus was submissive to His father. He was submissive in life and in death.
ILL.- In Gethsemane, we have this record. Matthew 26:39 “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Heb. 5:7 “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”
We all need to be reverently submitted to God, our Father. Jesus submitted to His father in being baptized.
John 1:28 “This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”
It’s my understanding that It’s 60 miles as the crow flies from Galilee to Bethany. There was one simple way to get from Galilee to Bethany … walking! That’s a lot submission.
Most people don’t even want to submit to God in baptism, let alone walk 60 miles to do it.
Obviously, Jesus was not baptized for the same reason we might do it. At Pentecost, Peter told the multitude in Acts 2:38, “"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus had no sins for which to be forgiven.
I Pet. 2:22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
Why was Jesus baptized? Jesus answered this question for us.
Matt. 3:15 “Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.”
Jesus wanted to do everything that was righteous or right in His Father’s eyes. God ordained or authorized John’s baptism so Jesus humbled Himself and submitted to John’s baptism.
What about us? One sign of our submission to God is our willingness to be baptized. When we know that God wants us to be baptized, there should be no argument. There should be surrender and obedience.
If Jesus did it then we shouldn’t be too proud to do it.
The way I look at it, baptism is easy compared to many other acts of obedience that should do in life, such as: our daily walk with Him, forgiving others, fully trusting Him in all things, etc. To me, these are a lot harder to obey than baptism.
Jesus submitted and God spoke.
17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
ILL.- It hasn’t been long since Marsha Relyea and her daughter Brigette were here. We thoroughly enjoyed her presentation during the Sunday School hour and her testimony during church. That morning I preached a short sermon entitled, “Missions, Methods and Motivation.” I wanted to emphasize the importance of missions since we have supported Marsha for over 20 years.
I was quite surprised after that service. Marsha told me that my sermon was the best missionary sermon she’d ever heard and that after hearing it she was ready to volunteer for the mission field. You can see why I was quite surprised.
Her words were very encouraging and probably the best I’ve heard in many years, although I’m not into accolades. Her words, as good as they were, are nothing in comparison to these words, “This is my Son, whom I love and with him I am well pleased.”
How would you like to hear words like those? Wouldn’t it be great if we all heard those words or similar words when we were baptized? To receive praise and words of love from the God we love and serve can’t be beat!
And even though we don’t literally hear these words, surely God must smile on us every time we obey Him in this life! What a great goal for us: To make God smile by obeying Him, by being baptized, by loving others, by living for Christ! It doesn’t get any better!
CONCLUSION-----------------------------
ILL.- Pre-Easter week I flew to Mechanicsville, VA, to visit my daughter Holly and the grandchildren: Hope (almost 6 – July 30th) and Caleb (3). I bought both the kids something for their birthdays. Caleb’s 3rd birthday was the 20th. I bought him some Spiderman stuff: a mask and some gloves and when you smack the gloves on anything they make a shooting sound just like Spiderman. So Caleb went around the house making Spiderman sounds and supposedly shooting spider webs.
He thinks Spiderman is it. Spiderman has that “wow” factor for him. Wonder who he’ll be interested in when he’s a teen? Some famous ball player, since his daddy loves baseball?
Wonder who he’ll adore most of all when he’s a man?
Heb. 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him…”
Jesus sought and submitted Himself to His Father. Have we matured to the point where He is our hero?
