The Baptism of God s Beloved Son (Matthew 3:13-17)

CFCW-02/09/2014 The Baptism of God s Beloved Son (Matthew 3:13-17) Introduction Growing up in the church, I heard many different illustrations about the sacrifice of God the Father in sending His Son to die on the cross. One illustration stands out in my memory. I am not sure who first used this story, but I think it will be familiar to many of you here this morning. The story is told of a father who took his son with him to work. This father worked on the railroad and his particular responsibility was for a part of the track that was suspended over a river. His job was to operate the draw bridge so that ships could pass under the tracks. When the father brought the son into his office, he warned him not to go near the huge gears that opened the draw bridge because they could crush him. The day got busy and eventually the father lost sight of his son. He had an opening scheduled for an approaching ship and so he lifted the draw bridge. As the ship safely passed under the bridge, the father noticed an unexpected train coming towards the bridge. He would need to lower the bridge immediately to keep the train from crashing into the river. But to his horror he looked and saw his son with his shirt caught in the gears of the drawbridge. The Father knew that if he flipped the lever to lower the bridge his son would be crushed in the gears. But he also knew that if he didn t flip the lever, the train and all its passengers would crash into the river. With tears in his eyes, the father flipped the lever to lower the draw bridge. It s clear that the father in the story represents God. The son represents Jesus. And the people on the train represent the men and women of this world who are headed towards destruction. Just as the father in the story sacrificed his son to save the men and women on the train, so God the Father sacrificed His Son to save sinners from their sins. Now obviously this is an emotional illustration. And where the illustration succeeds is that it points out the sorrow God the Father felt in sacrificing His Son Jesus on the cross. But the illustration utterly fails in at least two ways: First, it makes God the Father reluctant to sacrifice His Son. But, astoundingly, the prophet Isaiah said that it was the will of the Lord to crush Jesus (Isaiah 53:10). Second, it makes the son an unwilling victim. But the Lord Jesus was not an unwilling victim of the cross. Jesus came to earth in order to die on the cross. Jesus spent His entire life perfectly obeying the Law of God and preparing to die in behalf of sinners. And as we will see in our passage this morning, God the Father was well pleased with His obedient Son. Background Since January, we have been studying the Gospel of Matthew at Christ Fellowship. A gospel is an account of the life of Jesus Christ that explains his life, death, and resurrection and invites people to put their faith in Him for salvation. As a church plant, our motivation in studying Matthew is to grow in our love for Jesus Christ so that we can make much of Him in Williamsburg. We have seen some wonderful truths since we began this study. We saw that the birth of Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of ancient promises to Abraham and King David. We saw that when Joseph adopted Jesus as his son, Jesus legally became heir to the throne of King David. Even in his infancy, we 1

saw that Jesus life fulfilled OT prophecies. Last week, we studied the ministry of John the Baptist. John had been sent by God as a herald to prepare the hearts of the people of Israel for King Jesus. This morning, we begin to study the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus ministry will be the focus of the rest of Matthew s gospel (Matthew 3:13-28:20). This morning, we are going to be looking at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. We will see that Jesus was actively at work in fulfilling all righteousness so that His people might be saved from their sins. This morning, I want us to do three things: 1. I want us to look at the obedience of Jesus. 2. I want us to look at heaven s response to Jesus obedience. 3. I want us to meditate on the reality that our Heavenly Father is well-pleased with us because we are perfectly righteous in Christ. MIM: Just as God the Father was well-pleased with His obedient Son, Jesus, so God the Father is wellpleased with all who are in Christ Jesus. I. The Obedience of the Son of God (vv.13-15) Matthew 3:13-15- Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? 15 But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. A. It is striking to realize how little we know about the thirty years that Jesus obeyed His parents, worked as (we think) a carpenter, and quietly and perfectly fulfilled the Law of God. What must it has been like to parent the Lord? What must it have been like to have Jesus as your older brother? But, in God s wisdom, we have precious few details. I think this is proof of the truthfulness of Scripture. Had the writers of the New Testament been making up stories about Jesus life, as some believe they did, they certainly would have made up details from His childhood and young adulthood that would have been miraculous. But they didn t. We will talk about the only picture we have of Jesus childhood later in this sermon. B. In 3:13, Jesus comes on purpose from Galilee to the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. Jesus comes there on purpose, to be baptized by John. In 3:14, John responds to Jesus request to be baptized in a way we would expect him to. John would have prevented him. The Greek indicates that John repeatedly sought to prevent Jesus from being baptized. John did not want to baptize Jesus for exactly the opposite reason he did not want to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees in 3:7. The Pharisees and Sadducees were not worthy of John s baptism because they had not truly repented. But John did not want to baptize Jesus because he, John, did not feel worthy to baptize Jesus. He says, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? We should notice that John recognized his own need of repentance, but understood that Jesus was sinless and had no need to repent. 2

C. In 3:15, Jesus gives John the reason why he was seeking to be baptized by John. He said, Let it be so, now, for this it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. While Jesus was not sinful, he had come to save sinful men and women. Thus, it was fitting or proper for Him to identify with those he was coming to save. It was God s will for Jesus to be baptized by John, and Jesus always did the will of His Father in Heaven (John 8:29). This was another step of obedience by Jesus. Let s take some time to think about the obedience of Jesus: 1. Jesus obedience was life-long. In Matthew 3:13-15, while Matthew does not go into the details of exactly how Jesus knew this, Jesus clearly understand that it was the will of God the Father that He should be baptized by John. And so, he comes from Galilee to John expressly to fulfill the will of God. This was part of Jesus work to fulfill all righteousness (Matt. 3:15). But we need to understand that Jesus had ALWAYS obeyed the will of His Father in Heaven. Illustration: Let me illustrate this from Jesus life. Other than the accounts we have in Matthew chapter 2, the only other record we have of Jesus childhood is found in Luke 2:41-52. There we find the account of Jesus as a twelve year old boy being taken by His parents to the Jewish festival of Passover. As the family ended their time in Jerusalem, they left in a large group thinking Jesus was with them. When they realized that He wasn t with them, they returned to Jerusalem and found Jesus listening to the teachers of the Law and asking them questions and amazing them by their insights. Luke continues: Luke 2:48-52- And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. 49 And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father s house? 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. By the age of twelve Jesus knew He was the Son of God. Still, He was submissive to his sinful, earthly parents. He faithfully obeyed not only His parents but all of the Law of God for the nearly thirty years that He lived in Galilee. 2. Jesus Obedience was purposeful. As you read through the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, you will never see Him lack direction. Everything Jesus did was purposeful. He was on a mission. We see this in 3:13, where it says Jesus came to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. Jesus understood it was God s will that he be baptized by John. It was a part of fulfilling all righteousness (3:15). But behind the baptism was a greater purpose. He was identifying Himself with those He was coming to save. By being baptized Jesus was also signaling His willingness to fulfill the plan of God by dying for sinners. 3

Baptism as a symbol of death We discussed baptism last week, but we need to do so again this week. John the Baptist s ministry was one of preparation. He was preparing the hearts of the people for their Messiah. Those coming out to be baptized by John were acknowledging that they were sinful (3:6). John s was a baptism of repentance. It symbolized the need to be cleansed from one s sins. But John s baptism also symbolized death. Baptism is a picture of the destruction of the old way of life (cf. Rom. 6:3-4). 1 When Jesus was baptized by John, he was publically announcing His willingness to die in behalf of sinners. Jesus makes it clear that He understood baptism to be a symbol for death in Mark 10:35-38, which takes place immediately after Jesus announced to His disciples that He was going to die in Jerusalem. Mark 10:35-38- And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. 36 And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? 37 And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. 38 Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? Jesus baptism was an important preview of the cross where Jesus would most fully identify with sinners by taking their sin upon Himself and dying in their place. 2 3. Jesus obedience never wavered. As we will see throughout our study of Matthew, Jesus obedience never wavered. During His childhood, as a young man in Galilee, at His baptism, and throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus never sinned. He always perfectly obeyed. He always perfectly kept the Greatest Commandment. Jesus always loved the Lord His God with all His heart, soul, and might (cf. Deut. 6:4-5; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, when faced with the suffering of the cross, Jesus prayed: Matthew 26:39b- My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Matthew 3:13-15 demonstrates that Jesus was always obedient to the will of His Heavenly Father. His whole life was one of fulfilling all righteousness (3:15). II. The Response of Heaven to Jesus Obedience(vv.16-17) Matthew 3:16-17- And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. 1 Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew in PNTC (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1992), 56. 2 MacArthur, Matthew 1-7, 78. 4

A. In 3:16-7, we see Jesus immediately come up from the Jordan River after His baptism and then we see the responses of the Holy Spirit and God the Father to Jesus. a. In 3:16, we see the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, descend upon Jesus in order to empower Him for ministry. As we will see next week, although Jesus was the Son of God, when He became Man, He gave up the independent use of His divine power (cf. Phil. 2:5-11). Instead, He submitted Himself to the will of God and trusted wholly in the Holy Spirit to empower Him for ministry. The prophet Isaiah had prophesied that the Spirit of God would empower the Messiah for Ministry in Isaiah 61:1-3: Isaiah 61:1-3- The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. 1. From His baptism onward, Jesus would go forth to fulfill His mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we will see beginning next week, the Spirit will guide Jesus from place to place so that He can fulfill His ministry (cf. Matt. 4:1). Jesus would heal many people in through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Matt. 12:22-32). Most importantly, Jesus would be empowered to endure the pain and suffering of the cross through the power of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:13-14). b. And in 3:17, we see the response of God the Father to His Son. Matthew 3:17- And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. a. This is the high point of this passage (Matt. 3:13-17) what Matthew is driving at. It had been 400 years since God had spoken to His people through the prophet Malachi. 400 years of silence in heaven. But at the baptism of Christ, beholding the perfect and submissive obedience of Jesus, God the Father breaks forth with a proud declaration: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Jesus was the very Son of God, who came to earth in obedience to His Father s will so that He might save sinners from their sins. And the Father was well-pleased with His beloved, obedient Son (3:17). At Jesus baptism, God the Father publically gives testimony that He is PERFECTLY pleased with the obedience of His beloved Son. 5

The Gospel: Christ s Righteousness Credited to Us If you are here and you aren t a Christian, you might be wondering why we are making such a big deal about the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. If that is you this morning, we want you to understand that Christians rejoice in the perfect obedience of Jesus because we understand our salvation to depend upon it. You see, the message of the Bible is that all of us have sinned against a perfectly Holy God. God created us to love Him and worship Him, but we have all rejected Him and instead, we have lived for ourselves and lived for this world. We have failed to love God with all our hearts, souls, and might. The Bible condemns all of us when it declares: Romans 3:23- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23a- For the wages of sin is death. Left to ourselves, none of us could stand before a holy God. We would all be justly damned for our sins. But there is good news: Romans 6:23b- but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God has made a way for us to be saved through Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are clear that Jesus is God. As God, He had no need to establish a righteousness of His own. From all eternity He was the righteous One. But Jesus, the Son of God became Man in order to rescue men and women from their sins. Jesus s life of obedience was lived not for Himself, but for those He was coming to save because the plan of God was that Jesus perfect life would be credited to all who believe in Him. Theologians call this Imputed Righteousness. Jesus came to perfectly fulfill the Law of God in behalf of sinners. A good way to summarize this is: Jesus lived the kind of life we should have lived, but have failed to live. But then the Bible tells us that Jesus died on the cross. The sinless One who had always obeyed the will of His Father was murdered upon a cross. More shocking is the reality that Jesus was fully aware that He was going to die in this way. Mark 10:32-34- And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise. But amazingly, Jesus marched triumphantly into Jerusalem knowing that it would cost Him His life. Why? Because Jesus mission was to die in behalf of sinners. He had a baptism of death to be baptized with (cf. Luke 12:50). The cross was Jesus greatest act of obedience (cf. Romans 5:17-19). Jesus came to die a sacrificial substitute in the place of sinners. He came to pay the penalty for the sins of sinners. 6

A good way to summarize this is: Jesus died the death that you and I deserve because of our sins. Then Jesus rose from the dead, demonstrating that God had accepted His sacrifice. Now here is the amazing Good News of the Gospel. All who turn from their sins and trust in Christ for salvation will be saved from the Judgment of God that their sins deserve. This is the repentance we talked about last week. If you will turn from your sin this morning and trust in Christ His perfect life and death and resurrection God will credit the perfect life of Jesus to your account. This is imputation. God will treat you just as if you lived Jesus perfect life. And all your sins will be swept away. God will not hold your sins against you because He punished Jesus in your place. This is the great exchange of the Gospel. Jesus gets our sin and punishment, and Christ s perfect righteousness is given to us. Here s how the Apostle Paul summarizes this reality in 2 Corinthians 5:21: 2 Corinthians 5:21- For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is why we celebrate the obedience of Jesus in being baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness (Matt 3:15). Our only hope of salvation is that Christ would cover us with His righteousness. If you have more questions about how you can be saved from your sins and reconciled to God, I would love to talk with you about that after the service this morning. Now, I want us to conclude our time this morning by meditating on this reality: III. If you are a Christian, God is well-pleased with you because you are perfectly righteous in Christ. We just talked about the Gospel. The Gospel is the great exchange. Those who turn away from their sins and trust in Christ will are forgiven all their sins. Christ paid for them on the cross. And instead, they receive the perfect righteousness of Christ credited to their account. But is this Gospel only for the beginning of the Christian life? Is it just how someone gets saved and then we move on to more important things? No! The Gospel is the beginning, middle, and end of the Christian life. As someone has said: The Gospel isn t the A-B-C s of the Christian life, it is the A-Z. Think about our passage this morning. In 3:17, God the Father said this about Jesus: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Christian, do you realize that because you are in IN CHRIST, God is well-pleased with you this morning? Surely, you still sin and struggle and fail, but God looks past all that. God is perfectly aware that you are not actually sinless this morning. But, in Christ, you are perfectly righteous in God s eyes! He looks at you and says: is in Christ. He is my beloved son with whom I am well-pleased. is in Christ. She is my beloved daughter with whom I am well-pleased. Romans 8:1- There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 7

How should this truth affect you in this coming week? A. It should make us humble We have nothing to offer God, but the righteousness of Christ. The Gospel is the most humbling doctrine in the world. I cannot add one thing to the perfect righteousness of Christ. My salvation is all of grace (Eph. 2:8-9) B. It should make us secure Christian, Satan will attack you with your failings. He will first tempt you to sin and then when you give in he will turn on you and say, How can you call yourself a Christian? A Christian would never do that. But when Satan tempts you to despair you can remind yourself that you are accepted with God not because you never sin, but because you are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there Who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God, the Just, is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me. 3 C. It should make us stable Do you ever feel like you are on a performance treadmill with God? When you are reading your Bible and praying regularly you feel great like God approves of you. But when you miss your quiet time in the morning or are unkind to your husband or wife or when you fail to share the Gospel, do you feel like God is angry with you? He s not! Because you are in Christ, God is well-pleased with you! Your Father in Heaven loves you. Illustration: John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim s Progress, battled with despair over his evil, blasphemous thoughts. When Bunyan was wrestling with himself whether or not he has committed the unpardonable sin, assurance of his standing in Christ came to Him in this way as he was meditating on Jeremiah 31:3, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Yet God did bear me out and keep my heart upon this passage, from which I had also for several days obtained very much sweetness and comfortable hopes of pardon. Thus it was made known unto me: I have loved you while you were committing this sin. I loved you before, I love you still, and I will love you forever. 4 D. It should make us joyful Christian, your standing before God is secure! So often our joy goes up and down with our circumstances in life. If we have a good job, money, and health, we are happy. If we lose our job, money, or health we easily loose our joy along with them. But Christian, there is one constant in your life that should always make you joyful You are 3 From Before the Throne of God Above by Charitie L. Bancroft. 4 From Bunyan s spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. 8

covered in the righteousness of Christ. God accepts you in Christ. Your eternal destiny is secure. Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, It is well, with my soul. 5 E. It should make us bold I mean boldness in prayer. Because we are counted righteous in Christ, God is well-pleased with us. He has given us access to the throne of grace in prayer. We can always come to Him bringing our petitions, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy and we are in Him. Hebrews 4:15-16- For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Conclusion In our passage this morning, we have seen the Lord Jesus perfectly obeying the will of His heavenly Father and fulfilling all righteousness in behalf of His people. Brothers and sisters, the righteous of Christ is our only hope. And the righteousness of Christ is our great hope! There is coming a day, sooner than we expect, where we will stand before God actually perfectly righteous because of the great work that Christ has done for us! All our sin will be gone. We will be perfect because of the salvation Jesus has worked in our behalf. As we go out this week, let s praise God for the perfect righteousness of Christ that makes us well-pleasing to God! Let s pray 5 From It is Well With My Soul by Horatio G. Spafford. 9