The Baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3:13-17

Immanuel – 11/19/23

Matthew has been building anticipation for this moment. Jesus has the royal lineage, the prophecies point to Him, His history qualifies Him, and John the Baptist has prepared the way for Him. Now He is here: the Son of David, the Messiah, the hope of Israel.

For the first time in Matthew, we see the man, Jesus of Nazareth; and for the first time we hear Him speak.

Purpose

1. The greatest revelation of Jesus is that He is the beloved Son of God.

2. Jesus has identified Himself with us.

Remember John the Baptist’s primary message from verse 2: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John was proclaiming to the Jews that they were the privileged generation, the ones who would see the coming of the kingdom of God. The kingdom was coming so soon that the need for repentance was urgent, was immediate.

John’s baptism was a sign, or a symbol, of this repentance. It was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4).

As I said last week, God used John the Baptist to spark an absolute revival among the Jews. They were coming from all over Palestine, some traveling nearly 100 miles to see John. In fact, Diaspora Jews were coming from across the Roman Empire. We know that Jews as far as Alexandria (Egypt) and Ephesus (Western Turkey) had received John’s baptism (Acts 18:24-25; 19:1-3). And very likely, Jews from even farther came to the banks of the Jordan to hear this prophet.

We can never know how great the revival was, but we do know that the throngs of Jews flocking to the Jordan made all the political and religious leaders extremely nervous. But despite their fears, and suspicions, the Jews were effectively converting: repenting of their godless lives and devoting themselves to a covenantal relationship with God.

God was using John to prepare the Jews for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

Among the masses that have come to John, is just another ordinary Jewish face in the crowd. Nothing in His appearance sets Him apart. He has journeyed more than 60 miles to come to this place – to come to this moment.

Read vs 13

Fulfilling Righteousness

Do you hear the singular purpose in that sentence? Jesus has come from Galilee (likely from Nazareth) not to hear John, but to be baptized by John.

I get the sense that Jesus has listened to John for a while, like everyone else present, and then John gives some signal, some call, for the repentant to come forward and be baptized.

And then steps an entirely unremarkable Galilean into the water. Yet the last thing He is, is unremarkable. He is so much more than what anyone standing by the Jordan understands – even John. He is the humble King clothed in the unseen glories of heaven.

Read vs 14

Certainly, John recognized Jesus when He stepped forward into the water. They were cousins. And whether God revealed it in that moment or some time before, John knew that his cousin was the Messiah. So, when it becomes clear that Jesus intends to get baptized, John immediately objects.

And it’s not because John is trying to thwart the plans of Jesus. It’s because John understands that he is far, far inferior to the Christ. This is why he said, back in verse 11, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

There in the water, John effectively rebuffs the approaching Messiah with, “I need your Spirit-and-fire baptism, not you my water baptism. Who am I to baptize you?”

You can be sure that every single Jew on the banks of the Jordan had their eyes on Jesus. Who in the world is this man that John objects to baptizing; that John says needs to baptize him? And then the man speaks.

Read vs 15

These are Jesus’ first words in the New Testament. It is wonderfully fitting that these words are simple on the surface, but as you dig into them you begin to see how incredibly deep and complex they are. Guess what, we’re going digging.

It’s such a simple statement when Jesus says, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Yes, it is fitting. And you can move on understanding that when Jesus was baptized, it was part of a process where He was fulfilling all righteousness. Such an understanding is entirely true. It is adequate. It is enough.

Even the simple faith of a child is enough to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Though a childlike faith and a simple understanding is enough, let us always strive to go deeper, to understand more, to exercise our minds that we might know our Savior all the more! There is no end to the depth of our God, and He created us to be enlivened, impassioned, overjoyed, in His glorious depths.

Though it’s a simple statement, with just a moment of reflection you realize that Jesus says a very strange thing. It’s so strange that Christian scholars have been debating its meaning for millennia. Jesus was perfect, sinless, completely righteous. He had no need for repentance. And yet, getting baptized for repentance and the forgiveness of sins was part of Jesus fulfilling righteousness.

This whole scene forces you to ask, “How does receiving John’s baptism of repentance help Jesus fulfill all righteousness?”

I believe there are two ways to answer this question.

First, and most simply, it was the Father’s will that Jesus be baptized by John. Therefore, getting baptized was an act of obedience. Conversely, if Jesus failed to get baptized it would have been sinful. So, getting baptized was fulfilling all righteousness in that Jesus was submitting to the Father’s plan. Any deviation from that plan and righteousness would have been broken.

But why did the Father plan for Jesus to be baptized? That get takes us deeper and gets us to the second reason.

The second reason Jesus received the baptism of repentance was to identify Himself with sinners. I’ve said it already in this sermon series, Jesus will again and again take up the history of Israel. We’ll see a powerful demonstration of this in the very next chapter.

Jesus was taking up Israel’s history because He is Israel in a single man. He is the only one who every truly lived out the God’s Law, He is the only Israelite to ever be completely righteous. Thus, as the foremost of all descendants of Abraham, Jesus is Israel.

You read through the Old Testament, and it becomes glaringly obvious that Israel failed again and again. They continually fell under judgment for rejecting God and choosing to chase after their own selfish and arrogant ways. Sin destroyed any chance at righteousness – and not just for Israel, but for all humanity. The consequence of our sin is to be forever separated from our righteous God, eternally condemned.

So, Jesus enters the water to be what Israel could not be. Everyone who received John’s baptism of repentance would sin again. But Jesus would never sin. He would do what no man could do. He would live the sinless life that is meant to follow repentance, the life of a new creation, and He would do it for everyone who could not.

Jesus received the baptism of repentance for the same reason He received the cross: to do it in our place, to do what we could not. His life for our life. His righteousness in place of our sinfulness. He would be the one, as Isaiah prophesied, to carry our sorrows, bear our iniquity, and make many righteous (Isaiah 53:4,6,11).

Could there be a more righteous fulfilment of…

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. -Leviticus 19:18

What stunning love waded into the water that day!

Likely, John didn’t know all that Jesus meant when He said, “Let me be baptized, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” But John got the message and he consented. The Baptizer deferred to the will of the mightier one, placed his hands on the perfectly righteous Messiah, and plunged him beneath the water.

Read vs 16a

The Heavens are Opened

Matthew tells us something incredible began to happen after Jesus was out of the water. I wonder, once Jesus steps back on dry ground, does the crowd part, form a semi-circle around Him? Do they marvel at the man who is mightier than John?

If they were not marveling yet, you can bet they were thunderstruck when all of the sudden, the heavens were rent.

For in their midst stood Jesus, righteous before the Father, the fulness of what God had always intended Israel to be. Finally, a holy human. He is the perfect Son.

Read vs 16-17

Though the crowds most certainly experienced something supernatural, Matthew narrates entirely from Jesus’ perspective: the heavens were opened to Him…He saw the Spirit of God descending. Then, when the Father speaks, and says This is my beloved Son, this is spoken in the hearing of the crowd. So, the people experience something supernatural, but what Matthew wants us to see, what is most important, is that this was an experience for Jesus, a gift, an affirmation.

This is the most raw, unmediated declaration of God’s own view of Jesus. The Father looks upon Jesus and He sees the apple of His eye, His one and only precious Son. And He cannot help but to express His love to His Son.

We cannot fathom the flood of love and satisfaction and purpose that must of went rushing through Christ’s heart in this moment. All the glories of heaven were brimming in that extraordinary Galilean. The kingdom of heaven was in Him.

And the Spirit of God was resting upon Him. The Spirit of God was always upon Him, from the moment He was conceived by the Spirit. But the dove descending is something like the official sign, the announcement, that Jesus of Nazareth is imbued with the Holy Spirit. The one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit is Himself filled with the Spirit.

The Spirit like a dove is significant too – like the Spirit brooding over the waters before creation, like the dove sent from the ark to find a cleansed land - something new was beginning, a new creation was dawning. The kingdom of heaven was about to break upon the earth. And the one that would bring heaven to earth is the beloved Son of God.

But Son of God means so much more than begotten by the Father. It is also reveals that Jesus is the rightful heir of David.

When Ben Osenbach preached from 2 Samuel 12, we saw the terrible fall-out from David’s adultery and murder. But tucked into 2 Samuel 12 is the birth of Solomon, the son that God had appointed to take David’s throne.

[Bathsheba] bore a son, and [David] called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So He called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD. -2 Samuel 12:24-25

David’s name means “beloved.” Taking it up a notch, Jedidiah means “beloved of the Lord.” The rightful heir to the throne was named “beloved of the Lord.” By the Lord, 1000 years later, emerging from the Jordan River, is the truest beloved of the Lord, the Son of God. He has come to claim the throne that has been vacant for so many years.

In Psalm 2, David writes what God speaks:

“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. -Psalm 2:6-8

Jesus is the beloved of the Lord, the Son begotten by the Father. The nations are His heritage and the ends of the earth His possession. Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah, the King of Kings!

But Jesus’ kingship is different from every other king that has come before, or any king that has come since. He is also the Messianic Old Testament figure known as the Suffering Servant.

Read Isaiah 42:1-9

Notice how verse 1 says, My servant, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. When the Father speaks, with whom I am well pleased, He is confirming that Jesus is indeed the Suffering Servant Messiah from Isaiah 42. Now that Jesus has been baptized, identifying with sinners, the former things are passing away, new things are being declared. The kingdom of heaven has come.

It is no coincidence that heaven is opened when Jesus is baptized. And just like the Suffering Servant, the Spirit is upon Jesus.

We cannot miss it, in this single moment the Father is speaking, the Spirit descending, and the Son standing. You will not find the word “trinity” in the Bible, and it is not explicitly taught anywhere, but right here at the baptism is the Trinity for us to behold: Father, Spirit, Son; present and available to the senses.

The doctrine of the Trinity, as stated in our Articles of Faith, is as follows: There is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons; these persons are equal in nature and divine perfection, and they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence, and redemption.

There is one more important theological detail we must consider. Jesus is the Son of God, but the Son of God was never born. Jesus the man was born, but the Son of God was never born.

God the Son existed in eternity past, He was the Word that created the universe, He is the great I AM. And yet Scripture tells us, as we saw in Psalm 2, that the Son is begotten by the Father. In this sense begotten does not mean born from, it means sent forth to image. In other words, the Father has sent forth the Son to perfectly reflect the image of the Father.

This too, is the testimony of Scripture.

[The Son] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. -Hebrews 1:3

God the Son goes forth from the Father to perfectly reflect the image of the Father. And when the Son was sent forth, in happy obedience He took on human flesh, and was born as a man: Jesus of Nazareth.

Indeed, we are in some deep waters here. The Trinity and, as we saw a few weeks ago, the hypostatic union, all come colliding together at the baptism of Jesus. I told you there are some mighty depths compacted into these five short verses. Honestly, we have only scratched the surface.

But now we must pivot. We must consider how Christ’s baptism applies to us.

As we have seen, when Jesus received the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, He did not do it for Himself, He did it for us. He stood in our place. He identified Himself with us sinners. He did the same on the cross when He died in our place, taking the punishment for our sins. When we deserved to be forsaken by the Father, He was forsaken by the Father (Matthew 27:46).

Everywhere we read in the New Testament that when we trust our lives to Christ, putting our faith in Him, we are united to Him. When Jesus was baptized, He identified Himself with us. When we get baptized, we identify ourselves with Him.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

-Galatians 3:27

When you trust in Jesus, the Father indwells you with the Holy Spirit, and you are united to Christ. The whole Trinity at work in your life! And when all three persons work together for your salvation, to worship the true and living God, you become a son of God!

When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” -Galatians 4:4-6

Brothers and sister, by your faith in Jesus Christ, you are sons and daughters of the Most High God! You are the apple of God’s eye, beloved, lavished with His unmerited and overflowing love!

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-Romans 8:35,27-39

Know you are loved, loved without restraint, loved without measure. Nothing can prevent the love of God from spilling upon you; because when the Father looks down upon you he does not see you and all your sinful mess, He sees His beloved Son, with whom He is well pleased! By faith you have been united to Christ and you bear His image. There is nothing that pleases the father more!

That how the waters that baptized Jesus have saturated you. Though, these glories have not come to you through water, they have come to you because Jesus has baptized you with the Holy Spirit and fire.