Baptism of the Lord- Sermon

Matthew 3:1-4:1

Baptism of the Lord

January 7, 2018

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         The baptism of the Lord is a phenomenal event. We tend to think of Jesus as perfect and it is fair to say that He was perfect. If sinless is perfect then He was. However, Jesus was very much a man. He was fully man as well as fully God. He was not fallen man. Nevertheless, He was subject to the frailties of human flesh. He got tired. He was hungry. Jesus had ordinary bodily functions. He was a man down in the messiness of man.

         Our squeamishness about these things reveals at least two things.

         One, it reveals our desire to honor the Lord Jesus and not speak ill of Him in any way. That is good. Jesus was holy. He was sinless. We should honor Him and be careful in our speech about Him.

         Two, it reveals less than a biblical understanding of what it means to be holy. Some things, like bodily functions, we assume are part of the fall and are therefore unholy. We associate them with fallen human nature. However, Jesus was not fallen. He was a perfect sinless man.

         How did Jesus communicate as a baby? If He was hungry, He cried for food. If He had a dirty diaper, He was uncomfortable and cried to have it changed.

         The fact of our bodily functions is not sinful.

Adam and Eve were naked in the garden and they were not ashamed. It is not our bodies that are sinful. Our sin taints us when it brings shame. Adam and Eve sinned and then they hid from God. It was then that they became ashamed of their nakedness. Up until that time, they were fully exposed to God and had no problem with their bodies.

         Incidentally, I am not advocating we should now live in a nudist colony. We live in the fallen world and our sense of shame about our bodies is a good thing. It drives us to Christ who is the one who takes away all shame. That shame about your body is not because your body is wicked or evil. It is not. It was made by God and is therefore good. But when we stand before a holy God, we have the sense of needing to cover up. Why? Because we know that God knows that we have sinned. In fact, covering our bodies is a metaphor for covering our sin. And no matter how much we try to cover up, we are never covered up.

         But God will not have our sin covered in that way. There must be blood. God sacrificed animals instead of killing Adam and Eve. He forgave their sin and then covered their shame.

         John the Baptist did not want to baptize Jesus. John was baptizing others for the remission of sin but realized that he himself was a sinner who needed to be washed. He defers to Jesus who is the greater. And yet Jesus insists on John baptizing Him, washing Him in the waters of remission.

         Why would Jesus submit to baptism? Why would He submit to circumcision? At least in this, that in everything He became as one of us. He identified in our weakness and frailty. Did He need to be circumcised? Did He need to be baptized?

Yes, He needed to in order to fulfill all righteousness. What does this mean? It meant that He was fully subject to the law of God and yet without sin. In this way, He qualified to be the propitiation for all sinners. He became sin on our behalf.

This becoming of sin was apparent even as a baby when He submitted to circumcision. It was again on display when He entered the waters of baptism. Of course, on the cross, the picture is fulfilled and Jesus quite literally becomes a cursed one.

Jesus submitted to the baptism of repentance.  He did not mind being considered a sinner. This is amazing. We often take offense at being considered anything less than upstanding. We want people to think we are better than we actually are. Jesus did not mind people thinking that He was worse than He actually was.

Matthew Henry points out the tremendous humility of the parties involved in this baptism. John Baptist, we are told by Jesus, was the greatest man born of a woman. And yet he saw himself as unfit to baptize Jesus. He knew that he was a sinner and needed washed and he was reluctant, even unwilling to baptize a man who was his better.

         This humility ran in the family and the display of it was the occasion for John being filled with the Holy Spirit. When Mary visited Elizabeth, John Baptist jumped in her womb. Elizabeth exclaimed, Luke 1:43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

         At the very least, one of the lessons we learn from Jesus’s baptism is that we ought not to shy away from being thought in need of being washed. This is, in fact, a pre-requisite for the true washing that regenerates.

         John had already said that the One who comes after him baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John’s baptism is with water and he cannot affect the movement of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit descends and rests upon Jesus. He is the One who can grant the Spirit directly. That baptism is the One that John’s baptism anticipates. John, himself, is in need of that.

         Matthew Henry quote- The best and holiest of men have need of Christ, and the better they are, the more they see of that need.

Paul tells Timothy 1Tim. 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

         Take heed unto yourself first. How are you doing in identifying as a sinner?

         We are in need of identifying this way. In fact, we are in grave danger of not doing so.

         How do we rate as we seek to serve Jesus?

         When we are very young, we get it all wrong. All of our actions are extremely self-centered. We think the world revolves around us. Just ask an 18 month old!

         As a middle schooler, we hit the legalistic stage, think we do it all correctly and compare ourselves to others who fail.

         As a teenager, we can be confused about our faith, how to own it, or even ashamed of being totally Jesus’s man or woman.

         As a 20something, we are in our strength and insist that everyone see the world as we do.

         In our mid-life, we begin to get comfortable in our own skin and trust Jesus fully, but can become complacent and lazy, in danger of not finishing the race.

         In our old age, we can fall back on our laurels, checking out because we think we have already fought the good fight.

         We are getting along but just not quite as fast or as far as we like to humor ourselves. Having started by grace, we are tempted to finish by works. Paul warns the Galatians to start by grace, run  by grace and finish by grace.

This baptism of Jesus was an important part of His entering into manhood, the mannishness of man. He submitted himself to the humiliation of a confessor. Though he had no sins to repent of, He publicly does so anyway.

         11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:  12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

John baptizes with water for the washing of sins. Jesus himself institutes baptism for the same reason, the washing of sins to signify forgiveness for the repentant. But John cannot judge the way Jesus can judge. John warns because He is a prophet. Prophets always warn of the judgment to come. But John cannot judge. Jesus can judge. He can bring the fire.

When Jesus judges, the chaff will be burnt. The worthless olive branches will be burned. The tree will be cut down and cast into the fire. We often think of Jesus as a kind and gentle Savior, and indeed He is, to those who call upon Him. But there is a fearsome expectation of the judgment of fire for those who refuse Him.

The Bible teaches that rejecting Jesus is worse than the Old Testament rejection of God. And as such, the judgments are worse. If they refused to hear the prophets of old, that is bad. But if they refuse to hear the Son of God, that is ever so much worse.

13   Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.  14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?  15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Why was Jesus baptized? He said, “To fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus was willing to be baptized like a sinner because He was washed for sinners.

Think about this for a moment. Jesus is the one who never sinned. His wild cousin John is baptizing in the Jordan. John just rebuked the Sadducees and Pharisees for their willingness to come to John’s baptism but their unwillingness to be godly. John was bold in his rebuke.

But now Jesus arrives and John knows that Jesus does not need to wash His sins away and yet Jesus gladly identifies with sinners. He gets in the water just as if He needed to repent and be saved from the wrath to come.

I hope you feel the weight of the contrast. Jesus had no problem being reckoned with sinners and even being thought to be a sinner. He was not a sinner but He did not flee from the accusation.

And many of us flee from the very accusation. Me repent? What for? But if we are honest, we really do not have to look very far.

The real danger in the Christian life is a failure to repent. Fail to repent and miss the Kingdom of God.

On a computer, you have to save often or lose what you have written. The same is true of repentance. Repent often or lose what you have gained.

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:  17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

The Father is pleased with repentance. The Father is pleased with His Son who does not shrink from His calling of identifying with sinners. God is pleased when His people repent. Repentance keeps you from getting stuck in sinful actions and sinful thinking.

Remember that a fail to repent is always a turning away from Jesus and that repentance is always turning from your way to Jesus. Why would you hold on to your sins and keep your back to Jesus?

Repent, all of you, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

         Romans 6: ³ Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 

Matt. 3:1   In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, ² And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ³ For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁴ And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, ⁶ And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

John’s message was to repent and be baptized. What did men need to repent of? Sins. What sorts of sins? Fornication, greed, envy, lust, adultery, murder, blasphemy, idolatry and many other sins. If they repented, they could be washed with the promise of the forgiveness of sins.

If they would not repent of these sins, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, then they are considered a generation of vipers with the expectation of the wrath to come.

         Jesus, himself, identified as a sinner. What kind of a sinner?

         The woman caught in adultery. An adulterer.

         The woman with a bloody issue. A perpetually unclean person.

         The woman at the well who had five husbands and was living with the latest one, unmarried. So, a fornicator and multiple divorcee.

         Nicodemus- a leader of Israel who was foolish, fearful and unable to understand the basic truths about the Messiah.

         Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who had swindled people. So, a thief.

         The thief on the cross. Again, a thief and someone worthy of death.

         Barabbas- a rabble rouser, insurrectionist and murderer.

         Paul- A Pharisee, an accomplice to murder of St. Stephen.

         You- and your sins.

        

Matt. 3:13   Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. ¹⁴ But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? ¹⁵ And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. ¹⁶ And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: ¹⁷ And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

         God, the Father, declares that Jesus is His Son. In our baptisms, we are designated as children of God.

EXHORTATION

Matt. 4:1   Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

After identifying as a sinner and being washed from our sins, we are then ready to battle the devil.

Football Analogy- A Disney version of believe in yourself. If you try hard enough you can succeed. Well and good for a self-help motivational seminar. Awful theology of salvation.

We sometimes act like our faith is this way. We can make it if someone yells at us long enough and loud enough. A yelling Coach, Parent, Pastor, Friend, or Teacher. Jus believe in yourself! And we look up and we have accomplished enough to really be proud of ourselves, and not in the good way. I suppose that is inspiring if the meaning of our faith in Jesus is to get with the program and accomplish this seemingly impossible task.

But the real story is we are doing all these People are Awesome maneuvers and our holy God looks upon laughing. He says, “I knew you couldn’t do it. That’s why I sent my Son!”

I know to the modern self-help, self-esteem crowd this is disconcerting. But for those who understand even an inkling of our Holy God and what it means to fall short, it is the words of grace and life.

Your paltry getting along in life, even if it ever so much more than that lazy Smith over there, is only comparative. You compared to Smith. Try to comparing to Jesus. Try comparing to the Spirit who hovered over the face of the waters. Try comparing to the Father who spoke everything into existence.

Once you do that, you realize that the only inspiring story is a Father who is well pleased in His Son, who grants you His Spirit that you might repent and receive His forgiveness. You are forgiven for all the bad things, all the failures and all the good things you thought would impress God. Impress God? Better get grace.