#22 Lu.
3:21-22; THE
BAPTISM OF JESUS
Introduction:
In our text last Sunday John the Baptist was arrested and put
into prison by Herod the
tetrarch. In out text today John
baptized
Jesus in the River
this text happened before John
was arrested. Luke did not follow an
exact
time sequence at this point in his writings.
Rather he
rearranged
the order slightly in order to temporarily close out what
he had to say about John and
in order to begin his account of the
ministry
of Jesus. Later Luke will come back to
the John and tell us
about
John's death. But for the time being he
turns his attention to
the ministry of Jesus. The first event in the ministry of Jesus was
the baptism of Jesus. Oddly enough, Luke says nothing about John
being
the one who baptized Him.
I. Jesus coming to John for baptism
V. 21, "Now
when all the people were baptized..."
The idea is
large
numbers of people were coming to John the Baptist to be
baptized
of him. First they came and heard John
preach and
professed
to believe the message that he was preaching about the
Christ.
Then they expressed a desire to be baptized by John and John
baptized
them.
When John had finished baptizing all who came for baptism on this
particular
occasion, then there stepped forth one additional man who
also expressed a desire to be
baptized by John. This man was Jesus.
Coming after all the others were baptized
seems to indicate that the
crowd
may have already dispersed before Jesus approached John asking
to be baptized. Jesus had walked all the way from the city of
preaching
and baptizing. Depending on exactly
where John was located
on the river, Jesus had walked
fifty or sixty miles to be baptized of
John.
(V. 21), "...it came to pass, that Jesus also being
baptized..."
Now the question just might naturally
come, "Why would Jesus want to
be baptized? And why would He walk all that distance to
John to be
baptized
of John?" Let me remind you to
start with that there was no
sin whatsoever in Jesus. John preached repentance, but Jesus had not
come to John to repent of
sin. He certainly did not need to be
saved
and so He did not think that
getting baptized would help get Him into
heaven.
The answer is that Jesus came to get baptized because He knew
that this was what God the
Father wanted Him to do. He wanted to
get
baptized
simply because He wanted to do the Father's will. Whatever
it took to do the Father's
will, that is what He wanted to do. That
is a pretty good reason for
anyone who is saved to get baptized. Get
baptized
simply because it will please God for you to do so.
And why did He walk all that distance to John to get John to do
the baptizing? Why did He not get somebody to baptize Him in
the Sea
of
somebody
close by who could put Him under the water and lift Him back
up again. Why did He walk all the way to
answer
is that John was the one whom God had authorized to baptize.
God had specifically planned that John
would baptize Him and then
would
announce to the people of
Christ.
II. Jesus praying at His baptismal service
(V. 21), "...and praying..."
Luke tells us that Jesus engaged in
prayer
at the time of His baptism. This also
raises a question in
our minds: "Why would
Jesus need to pray?" First the
question was,
"Why would He want to be
baptized?" Now the question is,
"Why would
He need to
pray?" Let me say that Jesus here
sets a good example
that we should follow. We, too, should pray. We should follow the
example
that Jesus has set in being baptized and we should follow His
example
in prayer. We should frequently pray.
But that is not the reason that Jesus prayed on this occasion.
Jesus did not pray just to set us a good
example that we might
follow. Jesus prayed because He felt the need in His
own life to
pray. Now why would Jesus Christ, the Son of God
feel the need to
pray? Why would One who is
a part of the Holy Trinity need to pray?
Why would One who
is God in human flesh feel the need to pray?
And the answer is: Jesus felt the
need to pray because He did
need to pray. Even though He is Deity God yet as a human
being, He
needed
to pray. He needed to pray because He
now lives in human
flesh. In becoming a man, Jesus took upon Himself
the weaknesses of
a man. It is true that He still has all might and all
power. But He
never
used His own might and power for His own personal benefit. As
a human being, He would
depend entirely upon God the Father and God
the Holy Spirit to render the
aid He needed.
In view of His dependency upon God, it was needful for Him to
pray on this special occasion
particularly. His baptism was the
first
act of His public ministry. It was the
starting point of His
public
ministry. It was a turning point of His
life. He was no
longer
just Jesus the carpenter; He was Jesus
the Christ. So He
felt His need of God's help in
His life and He prayed unto God the
Father to lead Him and guide Him and bless
Him and to empower Him.
III. The Holy Spirit coming down on Jesus
at His baptism
(V. 21), "...the heaven was opened." In answer to the prayer of
Jesus to God the Heavenly Father the
heaven was opened. It was as if
a window was opened up to
heaven and the Holy Spirit of God came down
to Jesus through that open window. V. 22, "And the Holy Ghost
descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him..."
Now this statement leads to many questions. Was this a literal
dove which merely represented or
symbolized the Holy Spirit? And the
answer
to that question is, "No."
This is not a dove which came upon
Him. It was the Holy Spirit in the bodily form of
a dove.
This, then in turn leads to other questions. If, as some people
say the Holy Spirit did not
come into the world until Pentecost
following
the resurrection, what is He doing in the world at this
time? The answer to that question is the Holy
Spirit did not come
into the world on Pentecost
following the Resurrection. He came upon
the church on that
Pentecost. There is a lot of difference
in coming
into the world and coming upon
the church.
The Holy Spirit was in the world a long time before the Pentecost
following
the resurrection. He was in the world in
Old Testament
times. If He were not, then the Old Testament
prophets were not
called
of God and they did not speak the word of God as they claimed.
I am sure that you recall reading in the
Old Testament that the
prophets
of old would say, "Thus saith the Lord." But if the Holy
Spirit were not here in the world, they
had no word from God.
If the Holy Spirit was not in the world until Pentecost following
the resurrection of Jesus the
Old Testament is not inspired of God.
If that be true then the writings of Peter
and Paul were not inspired
of God, , because both these
men said that the Old Testament
prophets
wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
In fact if the Holy Spirit did not come into the world until
Pentecost following the resurrection, then
Jesus Himself could not be
the virgin born Son of God,
because the Scripture says that the Holy
Spirit of God overshadowed Mary and
conceived the Christ child within
her womb.
So the Holy Spirit did not come into the world on the day of
Pentecost following the resurrection of
Jesus.
Neither did He come
into the world at the baptism of
Jesus. He came upon the church on
Pentecost and He came upon Jesus at His
baptism.
IV. The voice of the God the Father
speaking from heaven
(V. 22), "...and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art
my beloved Son; in thee I am
well pleased." We see here a clear
cut
declaration
of the Deity of Jesus. God the Heavenly
Father spoke
from heaven and declared Jesus
to be His Son. This is the equivalent
to John
Everyone who is saved in a son of God, but
Jesus is the only person
who was ever been conceived in
human flesh by the Spirit of God. He
is the only One to be a son of
God from the time of His physical
birth. He is the only physically begotten Son of
God. In that sense
He is "The Son of God, the only
begotten Son of God."
This is also a clear cut example of the Holy Trinity. God the
Son was here on earth being baptized. God the Holy Spirit came down
in the form of a dove and lit upon
God the Son. God the Father spoke
form Heaven in an audible
voice. I am not sure just who all may
have
heard
God speak from Heaven. Jesus most
certainly heard God the
Father when He spoke from heaven. Matthew, in his account, makes it
clear
that John the Baptist heard. Whether or
not anybody else heard
is not clear to me. But all three of the Trinity are clearly seen as
being
distinct Persons or Personalities. One
is baptized. A second
is in the form of a dove. The third speaks from heaven.
In some mysterious way these Three make up the Godhead. They
make up the Godhead in such a
way that there is but One God. Yet
there
are three distinct persons in the Godhead.
Now it is not that each One is a part of God. The Scriptures
repeatedly
call the Father "God." He is
not a part of God. He is
God. Likewise Jesus is not a part of God. He is God.
The same is
true of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a part of God. The
Holy Spirit is God. Yet in some mysterious way there are not
three
Gods. There is but one God. I do not profess to understand all
about
it. I just know that it is so because
that is what the Bible
teaches. Who knows?
Perhaps in eternity we will understand it. For
the time being I do not need to
understand it. All I need to know is
that this is what the Bible
teaches.
Our eternal destiny depends on the accuracy of the statement
which
God the Father made about Him.. If Jesus
is not the Son of God
then we have no Savior. If He is not the Son of God then He had the
same sinful nature that all
other human beings inherited from Adam.
If He is not the Son of God, then He did
not live a sinless life. If
He is not the Son of God, the He, too, is
a sinner and He, too,
stands
in need of a Savior. If He is not the
Son of God then He
could
not pay the sin debt for us and provide salvation for our
souls.
But the fact of the matter is that He is the Son of God. God,
Himself,
said so. And because He is the Son of
God we do have a
Savior. He did not inherit the sin nature from Adam
and He did live
a sinless life. He does not need a Savior; He is the
Savior. When
He died on
and He offers salvation to all
men. Now He calls upon all men to
repent
of their sin and to trust in Him and be saved.
He said that
the Son of Man came into the
world to seek and to save that which was
lost. He said, "Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden
and I will give you
rest." He said, "Take my yoke
upon you and learn
of me for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light and I will give you
rest unto your souls." He said, "He that cometh unto me I will
in no
wise cast out." He said, "He that believeth in me though
he were
dead yet shall he
live." He said, "For God so
loved the world that
He gave His only Begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting
life."
V.
What Jesus has done for me
Let me tell you one thing. I
believe with all my heart and soul
that Jesus is the very Christ of
God, the very Son of God, the Savior
of the world. I believe that when I was sixteen years of
age sitting
in a little church in
Christ and asked Him to save my soul that
Jesus saved me. I believe
that every human being who has
ever lived who has called on Jesus and
trusted
in Him to save them from their sin that Jesus has saved them.
Furthermore, I believe that if there is
anybody here under the sound
of my voice who will call on
Jesus and trust in Him for salvation
that Jesus will save that
person. Even right now Jesus will save
anyone
who will call on Him and trust in Him for salvation. I
believe
that if you will call on Jesus and put your faith in Him to
save you and keep you out of the
fires of hell that Jesus will save
you.
Conclusion:
Now if you believe that, too, I am going to ask you right here
right
now to call on Jesus and get saved.
Won't you do that right
now? We are going to have an invitation hymn and
while this
congregation
sings that song won't you just slip out into the aisle
and come forward trusting Jesus
Christ as your Savior?
Now there may be Christians here this morning who
need to come
forward
also. It may be that you are saved but
you do not have
scriptural
baptism. If that is your case, come
right now and present
yourself
to this church for scriptural baptism.
If you are saved and
have scriptural baptism and you
feel that it is God's will for you to
place
your membership here and serve Him, won't you come while we
sing?