Jesus Revealed at Baptism
Matthew 3:13-17
Many different groups have had different ideas over the years about Baptism. There is a wide variety of methods and meanings for Baptism in different denominations. Some believe baptism saves you and is therefore absolutely essential from infancy on. Others believe baptism is a means of obtaining God’s grace. And still others see baptism as witness and an act of obedience resulting from a changed heart. Some baptize through full immersion and others simply sprinkle the head. Last week we looked at the Baptism of John. His was a baptism of repentance, of confession of sins, and of purification for God.
Our baptism is based upon the finished work of Christ on the cross. Because He has fulfilled all righteousness and because He has born the penalty of our sins within His body, we are forgiven and cleansed by faith. Water does not wash us clean, or save us.
But through baptism we identify ourselves as belonging to Christ, as forgiven and clean individuals, now consecrated unto Him and for His service. We identify with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection through the waters of baptism. We are dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are new creations. We are born again.
To us, believer’s baptism by way of immersion when physically possible is the best representation of this new beginning in Christ.
Believing that baptism in some way saves a person has led some groups to extreme measures. Perhaps the strangest practice of all is the practice of the Mormon sect to be baptized in the place of the dead. Several years ago, a wealthy lady from the East Coast made several trips to Salt Lake City so that she could be baptized over and over again for those who were dead. This grew out of a belief that baptism saves you. She was baptized over 30,000 times for relatives, friends, and former world leaders like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon. One Mormon elder went so far as to say: “I believe that this lady, in the day of judgment, through being baptized for the dead has saved more souls that Jesus.”
It is important that we understand what baptism is and what it isn’t. Does baptism save us? Is it necessary? Are there reasons to be baptized?
This morning I won’t be answering all of these questions, but I do want to look at the remarkable event of Jesus being baptized by John. Though this is a very unique incident, and we cannot compare our baptism with the baptism of Jesus which was a very unique event, I do believe there are some very important lessons we can learn from this example.
Turn with me to Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
1. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness.
Psalm 15:1-2 asks the question:
“Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?” And the answer given is “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous . . .”
This presents a huge problem for us. God is Holy and righteous, and we are not. We are full of sin.
Paul boldly declares in Romans 3:10-11
‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”
And so we basically are at a stalemate. We can’t approach God because of our sin, and no one gets to see God if they have sin in their life.
In to this crisis steps Jesus, the Son of God. God’s Son emptied Himself, took on the human flesh and became one of us in all of our temptation and trials. He experienced the pull of this fallen world just like we do. He had to live and walk as a man on this earth just like we do. He was God, but He put aside His rights as God and depended fully upon the Holy Spirit to enable Him to walk a life of obedience to the Father.
And so this man, Jesus comes to John the Baptist to be baptized by him. He declares that this baptism should occur so that all righteousness could be fulfilled.
Why did Jesus submit to baptism?
First, let’s talk about what this baptism wasn’t:
- It wasn’t done as a formality. Jesus did not live a life of formality. In fact He was constantly getting in trouble with the religious people of the day because He didn’t follow the ‘formal’ patterns. He ate with sinners, and healed people on the Sabbath. He walked through fields and let his disciples pick and eat grain when the religious people looked at him and thought: “How couth, how unrefined. If this man were a true man of God He would know how to conduct Himself!” Jesus wasn’t big on formality! Baptism is not to fulfill some ‘religious ritual’.
- It wasn’t done for show, as an example for us. Again, Jesus didn’t do anything as a superior looking down on inferior man in an attempt to show us little children how to do things right. Jesus went to be baptized for Jesus, not for show as an example for us to follow.
- It also wasn’t to cleanse Himself from sin. The people of Judea came out to John to confess their sins. They felt that the water in some way washed away their sins and made them pure and clean again for God and for His use. Jesus was already clean. He was without sin.
So why did He want to be baptized?
Let’s talk about the why?
- John had declared that He was sent to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. After Him would come one who was more powerful. One who would baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to John to demonstrate to John and to those gathered around John that day, that He was in fact the promised Messiah. It was a declaration of His Messianic Calling.
- It was also an act of self-consecration to the ministry the Father had given Him. Baptism was often used to consecrate the priests for their service. It was an outward symbol of an inner consecration of a person to God. Jesus was closing the door on the past and opening the door on the future. Up until now He had lived in obscurity and had lived a private life as a carpenter’s son. Now He would live His life publicly as the Messiah. This marked the beginning of His ministry.
- It was also in keeping with the righteous requirements of the law. Jesus was setting Himself for God’s service. He was purifying His body and clothes for the Work of the Lord. His spirit was already clean. In this Jesus demonstrated a heart to obey God the Father in everything. He alone would fulfill all righteousness. And because He fulfilled the law on our behalf, we have now been set free from the law of sin and death. We are now free to obey God as well!
What are you doing to fulfill the call of God upon your life? Are you willing to follow the Lord in complete and full obedience? Have you consecrated yourself to the Lord and to His Work? Baptism is a first step in this consecration process.
If you have trusted in Christ as your Savior, you are forgiven. God has wiped your sin away. You can’t do anything else to be more forgiven than you already are, because Jesus has paid the price for your sins. We are saved by faith, not by works. It is a gift of God.
Baptism is an expression of a heart that is clean, and a heart that is now surrendered to God. Consecrate your heart to the Lord. Give Him all of your heart. Follow Him in complete obedience. And part of that obedience is to be baptized, to demonstrate your commitment to follow Christ.
When the Gospel was first preached on the island of Barbados, several accepted the invitation to be baptized. When they arrived at the water for the baptismal service the women were dressed in nightgowns and the men in pajamas. The missionaries were afraid that the meaning of baptism may be misunderstood so they tried to urge the candidates to change their clothing, but they refused.
The missionaries proceeded with the baptism service, but they determined that they had better do more teaching on the topic of baptism so that the islanders weren’t confused. But before they could get around to it, one of the people on the Island died.
When they attended the funeral service they noticed that the corpse was dressed in pajamas. And so the missionaries asked one of the Island Christians to explain. It was explained: “We believe when a person dies, he does to sleep, so we are buried in our sleep wear.”
Suddenly the missionary understood and he wasn’t worried anymore about what the candidates wore to baptism. They saw baptism as a burial of the old man of sin and the beginning of a new life in Jesus, so why not wear your sleep wear?
Jesus fulfilled all righteousness for you and for me. How will we follow Him?
2. Jesus demonstrated a humble, servant heart.
Notice that when Jesus approached John with this request, John did not want to baptize Jesus. They had grown up in different worlds. John had lived in the desert as a holy man of God. Jesus had lived in the small town of Nazareth as a carpenter’s son. They were cousins, but they probably had had little contact with one another over the years.
John did not fully recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, but He did understand that Jesus was a righteous and a holy man. In fact, John felt that Jesus was more righteous than he and that Jesus should be the one to baptize John and not the other way around.
This is another one of the reasons why I have such confidence in the Gospels. If we were writing a myth about a hero of our religion, we would not have him submit in this way. Jesus would have baptized John if this book were written by men. But instead we have the story of Jesus asking John to baptize Him.
John’s experience was that the closer He got to Jesus, the more unworthy He felt. His understanding of this led him later to say: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” You can’t help come into the presence of Jesus with a feeling of complete unworthiness. He truly is Holy. To approach Jesus as some sort of buddy or genie is to demean Him in all of His glory.
But what is also amazing in this story is that Jesus allows John to bless Him. What an awesome moment for John to hold the body of Jesus in His arms and to place Him underneath the waters of the Jordan River. We can minister to our Lord. We can bless the Lord. We can serve the Lord. These are awesome truths because Jesus does not need our blessing. He doesn’t need our service. But we are given the privilege of serving and blessing Him.
John obeyed God in that moment. Some times our pride gets in the way too much. We think. I can’t do that. I’m not worthy. But the truly humble heart does not turn down the opportunity to bless and serve God. Some times people will say to me, no I could never do X. I’m not worthy to serve in that position. But a humble hearted person would say, if I can be of service to my King I will do whatever is asked of me.
To be a part of the Lord, we must be willing to humble ourselves and become a servant just as He is a servant. Some times that means that we are the one’s doing the ministering. John baptized Jesus. At other times it may mean that we are the one’s receiving the ministry.
Jesus went to wash Peter’s feet, but Peter refused. “You shall not wash my feet, Lord.” Peter thought he was being humble, but really He was being proud. Jesus said: “If you don’t submit yourself to this, then you are not of mine.”
The king of Kings and Lord of Lord’s submitted Himself to the waters of John’s baptism. Are we too proud to submit ourselves to an act of service or obedience the Lord is calling us to make? Do we have a heart to please the Lord, to serve Him in everything?
General William Nelson, a Union General in the Civil War, was mortally shot in a battle in Kentucky. With his last breaths the General urged his soldiers to send for a clergyman. His request: ‘I want to be baptized.” He had been too proud or too busy as a young man before to be baptized. He had been in many battles, but he had never taken the time to humble himself before God until this moment of his death. But now when faced with his own mortality, now he was prepared to come and seek God’s grace and mercy. His priorities were different now. 30 minutes later he was dead.
Jesus demonstrates for us a heart of submission and humility.
Do we have a heart to follow after our Lord?
3. Jesus was anointed for ministry.
When Jesus was baptized, Matthew records that the heavens were opened and a dove descended. The dove was symbol of deliverance from the time of Noah (Genesis 8:8) and of purity from the time of Moses (Leviticus 5:7).
The dove has also come to represent the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus as fully man was fully dependant upon the Holy Spirit to accomplish the ministry He had been called to. This was Jesus’ anointing for ministry.
If Jesus would depend upon the Holy Spirit to accomplish the Father’s will, how can we be any less dependant upon the Holy Spirit’s direction and power in our lives? We can do nothing apart from the Spirit of God. We need the Spirit of God to do anything that pleases God.
A voice accompanied this vision that probably only Jesus and John saw. The voice declared: “This is my beloved Son, my only Son. I love Him. And He pleases me.”
Isaiah 42:1-4 we read the prophecy of the Messiah:
"Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. 4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law."
God, the Father with the Holy Spirit was declaring that this was God, the Son, the Messiah. God would speak again about Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John wanted to honor Jesus as another prophet like Elijah and Moses. In Matthew 17:5 we read:
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
The message for us is that our lives are to be centered on Jesus. We should not think that we can do anything apart from Him. We desperately need His Holy Spirit to fill us and to use us for His glory.
Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness. He lived a life of submission and service. He was anointed of God to save us from our sins. Will we follow Him now in humble submission and service, honoring Him with our decisions? Will we seek to live a life of righteousness and truth? Will we follow Jesus?
How does God want you to apply this message today?
- Is it time for you to follow the Lord in baptism?
- Is it time for you to humble yourself in service to Him?
- Have you committed your life fully to the Lord, and are you depending upon Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit?
