Jesus' Baptism Mathew 3

With then the

When fears are still, my comforts are, my all in all, here in the love of Christ ourself.

In Christ alone, He took on flesh, bonus of God and helpless faith.

This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save. Till on the cross, as Jesus died, the breath of God was satisfied.

For everything on Him was laid, here in the death of Christ ourself.

Then when the cross His body laid, light of the world by darkness slain,

Then bursting forth in glorious state, up from the grave He rose again. And as He stepped in victory,

Since Christ has lost His people He, for I am His and He is mine, God with the precious God of Christ.

No gifts in life, no fear in death, there's simply power of Christ in me.

From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. The power of God, whose name I'll chant,

I'll never let me forget. Till He returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ ourself.

Alright, it's Tuesday night, whacked out simple stuff. I'm going to take you somewhere briefly in the Bible that you may not have been recently.

We're going to look briefly at the story of Samuel. Does anybody remember Samuel from the Bible?

Okay, somebody tell me something about Samuel. Samuel was not a king, but you're close, you're very close.

Wasn't Samuel, wasn't he a godsman? He was. He was a very, uh, oh, my judge.

Um, yeah, kind of not a judge, yeah, kind of a judge. So Samuel was a priest, he was a high priest, right?

And he's the one who anointed Saul, the first king of Israel, and later David to be king.

When Samuel's parents had not had a child, his mother prayed fervently that she be given a child, and she was.

And she said if she was given a child, she would dedicate that child to the Lord.

That was Samuel, and she dedicated Samuel to the Lord. He went to live in the temple, and he was raised to be a priest, and he was a priest.

And he took over for the priest before him, who was not a very good man, and did some bad things, and his sons especially did some bad things.

So that's just kind of the background story. Now fast forward a long time in the story, and there's a scene that I want to share with you.

Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and had brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and had utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

God told him to completely destroy the Amalekites, and he did, except he didn't, to be brought back to the king, right?

So he didn't destroy the ball, even though he was told to.

Then it says, But the people took some of the spoils, sheep, and oxen, the choices of things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice, to the Lord your God and Yilgoth.

They were also supposed to not do that, and yet they did, and they said they did it for a sacrifice.

Verse 22, Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and the heed is better than the fat of rams.

Alright, what did it say was better? Did you catch it?

To obey, that's right, it said, is not better to obey than to sacrifice? God told them not to take that stuff, and they took it anyway, and they said they were going to take it to sacrifice it to God.

But people do that sometimes, they don't do the things that they're supposed to do, or that God would want them to do, and they make excuses, because they say they're doing something else that God wants them to do.

And this is the important verse, this is what I was headed for, listen closely, all the kids especially, a really super important lesson for your whole life right here.

God's speaking and he says, For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and in subordination, that means not following the directions of those who are in charge of you, is as iniquity, that means sin, or idolatry, that means worshiping some other God.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. So the king was told he was no longer going to be king. Why? Because he disobeyed God.

He said he disobeyed God and brought back the enemy king, and brought back the riches, the spoils, the animals, the stuff to sacrifice them to God, but really what was he doing?

Disobeying.

He was disobeying. He didn't do what God told him to do, God just said go do that, and instead of doing that he kind of did it, and then kind of didn't do it, he stopped short.

And this gets way out of hand. Does anybody know the end of this story?

Saul no longer is king, David becomes king instead. It takes a long time before that happens.

What happens to the guy that he didn't kill? Does anybody know this?

There was a guy that brought back Agag the king of Amalek. Does anybody know what happens with Agag the king of Amalek?

Somebody does, I mean Kate does. Tell me who does Agag the king of Amalek?

Daddy.

Who comes out of his family?

He comes from the descendants of Haman, which is the book of Esther.

Does anybody remember the story of the book of Esther? In the book of Esther, Haman gets the king, he's going to wipe out all of the Jewish people.

He's going to kill them all. And Esther has to go to the king and ask the king please don't do that, don't wipe out my entire people, because Esther was a Jew who had been made queen.

And she was very afraid to do that, to go to the king, because if the king didn't tip his scepter to her, she'd be killed immediately.

You know why? Think about it. Because she'd be disobeying, she's coming into the king's presence without permission, that's disobeying.

So she was going to get the same treatment from the king, then that God has every right to give us, if we disobey him.

He could just destroy us if he wanted to. God doesn't want disobedience.

He says rebellion is like a sin of witchcraft. So Saul saves the king, saves Agang the king of Amalek, and his descendant becomes Haman, and the Jewish people almost get totally wiped out because of that.

But Esther goes and petitions the king, and the king says you know what, I can't take it back. I already made the law, but on that day everybody can wipe out the Jews, I can't take it out, I can't take it back.

And she says well we've got to do something, and he says okay here's what I'll do, I'll make a law that says that they can defend themselves.

And they do defend themselves, and they prosper, and God defends them, works on their behalf, and they prosper, and ultimately it works out for their good.

But none of that would have happened if Saul had not disobeyed God. Sometimes this is what we do, we disobey, we think won't this be fun?

Won't this be better? What if I do this instead? I know better than my parents, I know better than God, I know better than what the Bible says, I can see what's right before me.

And you do something that normally might not be sin, but because it's rebellion to God, it's sin, and the long lasting effects of that can be very bad.

Classic example, your parents try to teach you to eat healthy, eat fruits and vegetables, eat healthy, and maybe you don't feel like you want to eat healthy right?

Because those foods don't taste as good as those other foods. Well guess what? When you don't eat healthy you're killing your brain cells.

You're making it harder for you to breathe when you're 30 or 40 or 50 years old. You're messing up your whole life because you don't like something.

And that's the way it is. We can't do that. And this is what Samuel is saying to Saul, that he would no longer be king because of this. Why?

Because he said rebellion is just like the sin of divination, which is trying to know the future without God's help.

And insubordination, that means not following the direction of the people in charge of you, is as sin and is as idolatry, following false gods.

And because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he said he would be rejected as being king. God wants to be able to tell you what to do and he wants you to do it.

I submit to you that the more you are willing for him to tell you what to do and then you'll do it, the more he'll tell you what to do.

He's going to give you great ideas and great plans and great creativity above and beyond what you already have. He's got so much good in store for you.

But if you rebel against him, even if you have a good excuse, if you rebel against him, he's not going to be able to do those wonderful things like he has for you.

Just like if mom or dad, like we're planning on taking our kids out later somewhere fancy to a restaurant, go on vacation or something, and then the kids are acting up.

Now we can't take them because that would be rewarding their bad behavior and say, well, we wanted to get we wanted to go.

So we get a babysitter and we go to the babysitter or we'll stay home and we'll give up the fun that we would have had too because we can't take our kids to go do that thing because they weren't obeying.

They weren't being responsible. God is the same way. He wants to take you somewhere amazing. He's got a plan to take you somewhere amazing.

And to do that, he needs you to obey, not to make excuses and rebel.

All right. That's our Wacked Out Simple Stuff for today. We're going to pray, do one more song and then let the children and their leaders go to the side.

One more song. We did one, do one more, and then we go. Hold on. That's the order. OK. That'll be all right, won't it?

You like the music. Miracle likes the music. So all right. Well, let's pray together. And that's the plan.

Father in heaven, I thank you so much that you know better than we do. And in every situation when we think we have it figured out, when we don't think we have it figured out,

when we're facing difficulty or things are soaring along easily, in every situation it would pay dividends beyond dividends.

It would be a great investment. It would always turn out best if we would just remember that you know.

You have a plan. You control the resources. You set kings on the throne and cast them down.

You build up countries and destroy them. You have wiped nations off the face of the earth because of their rebellion.

And they just literally are no longer existing. There's places where they can't even find even a record or any like a fossil or any piece of old pot or anything,

because you wiped that nation out completely. Other historical references perhaps, but nothing left of them.

And we don't want to be like that. We want to be your people. We don't want to rebel. We want to be obedient.

And obedient sounds boring, but it isn't because it is letting you do that amazing thing that you want to do.

And so far, every time that I've ever been obedient in 28 years, whatever it's been that I've been a Christian, Lord, you've almost done amazing things.

When I've not been obedient, I've suffered the price. Not that I lose my salvation, but that it just doesn't go the way I want it to go.

And so Lord, I pray that we will remember that we are a people of obedience to the God of heaven who knows and who can.

God bless you as we sing praises to you in Jesus name. Amen.

My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my God.

My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my God.

When I feel afraid and I think I've lost my way, send your lamp right beside me.

Nothing will I fear as long as you are near, please be near me unto the end. My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my God.

My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my God.

I will ever again show love to me and yet my love forever is one thing. Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side and God will allow you unto the end.

My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my God.

At this time we'll release the children and their leaders to the classroom.

I will ever again show love to me and yet my love forever is one thing. Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side and God will allow you unto the end.

Always looking around and never looking up, oh so never minded. I'm trying not to save a dirty hand but my heart's divided.

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, oh fill our hearts to the one who can get our heart's finding finger. Let our hearts be led by mercy, help us reach with open heart to hope and joy.

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours.

Jesus, friend of sinners, who's riding in the sand, may the righteous turn away and the souls walk on their hands. Help us to remember we are all needs of these.

Let the memory of your mercy bring our peoples you and me. Nobody knows what will fall and what will against what we've done so long ago.

Only if we look down on our sides, cross over the lines of love like you did. Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, open our hearts to the world at the end of our heart's finding finger.

Let our hearts be led by mercy, help us reach with open heart to hope and joy.

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours. You're reverent in those past, you reach for the outcast, for the leper and the lame.

You're the reason that you came to what I was never lost, and I was never found. But you died for sinners just like me, a grave forever at your feet.

Cause you are good, you are good, and your love endures forever.

You are good, you are good, and your love endures forever.

You are good, you are good, and your love endures forever.

Jesus, friend of sinners, open our hearts to the world at the end of our heart's finding finger. Let our hearts be led by mercy, help us reach with open heart to hope and joy.

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours.

And I was the lost cause, and I was the outcast. And you, you died for sinners just like me, a grave forever at your feet.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Okay, while the worksheets are coming around, I want to just kind of do a couple of housekeeping things just so we make sure we're on the same page. So we started doing these worksheets quite a while back now, and every Tuesday is a unique, pretty much hand drawn, I think I did one that I kind of copied and pasted together, pretty much hand drawn worksheet each week.

And we provided binders, so if you have your binder, you can keep track of your worksheets, and we have extra binders if anybody doesn't have one, and so there's that.

And then we are also doing kind of like a little reward system, and so when you have eight, which if you kept your binder from the beginning and you've been here every week, today would be your eighth Tuesday in your binder, correct RJ?

Yes. He's going to double check, yes sir.

I'm going to talk about that in a second. So just let me finish my spiel. I'll get you. Okay, and so if you were in this room, and you got a worksheet every week and you filled it out every week, you would have eight.

Okay, and so that means I have prizes for those who have eight. Now, as Jason so astutely pointed out, those of our children's workers, they cannot do that. They cannot be here because they have that. Now they can do the worksheets on their own, and we're building a better system for people to be able to do that.

So if you're not here, we posted the tonight's worksheet has already been posted on Facebook, and then we're still debating. I'm not sure we're going to post a completed worksheet or what we might do is post a completed worksheet quite a bit later because we don't want to ruin it for people who want to do the worksheet on their own.

And they'll be very, it's very hard not to look at the answers in the back of the book kind of thing. So what we've decided to do is if it's a children's worker, and so you're out every other week or however often your your sheets will be worth 1.5.

The regular count. So if you are out every other week, you will not have you still will not make it up because you don't get to per. So if you want to have as much somebody else, you'll have to get some worksheets at least and do them. But if you do get the worksheets and do that, you'll actually be ahead.

So if you're getting 1.5 per worksheet and you do a worksheet every single week and you're a children's worker, then you're getting an extra half a worksheet every single week and you'll go faster than anybody else. So the fastest, the very fastest progress to be made on the number of worksheets would be to be in here every week you possibly can and do the worksheet every week.

And then if you go once or say every other week to go to child care, then on that week you still go online, get the worksheet and complete it. And in two weeks you will get three worksheets where everyone else will get two. That makes sense? You understand? Yes, sir.

1.5, very good. So he'll be at eight. So that's good. So and for those who had them from before we got the binders, some people have been keeping them for a lot longer than that. If you have them like you have some, you know, just kind of scrabble with them or you have a few or whatever, go ahead and put them in your binder and count them. Right?

Because we're counting that towards your total. So we have one person who, if they're not able to be here tonight, that's Chris McCrory. He couldn't be here tonight because Amazon did not give him his PTO and he's using PTO to be able to come to Bible study.

So they blamed it on the solar flare and said that the PTO was not on there because of the solar flare. So he couldn't take the two hours off to come to Bible study, which is just comical to me. But that's what they said.

So yeah, that's Amazon. We love you, Amazon, but we also wish you would change and be more like Jesus. OK, all right. So anyway, the point is, if he gets his worksheet and does it for tonight, he's got 24 worksheets.

So that gives us a good idea because he's kept them from the very beginning. And then we have somebody else who what?

He told me he told me that he told me last week would be 24. So it'd be 25 today then. Sorry. Yeah. OK. So anyway, just so you know, that's going on.

And I do have the eight gifts. The 13 is a meal with me. Either we prepare it or we'll go out to eat or whatever. And we have some people who are already there.

And then the 26 is a meal with me again, but also something additional on top of that to be yet named because we don't know what that is yet. And we've got somebody approaching that. So we'll have to figure that out pretty soon.

OK, so I just want to let you know that's what it's at. This is a fair. This is a fairly well known story that we're going to look at here.

Anybody by looking at the page, can you tell me what the story is? Tell me what it is. That's right. So baptism of Jesus. Very good.

So we're going to look at the baptism of Jesus. It's not not a particularly complicating story, but then there are a couple of things that this story does for us that are very valuable.

OK, so we're going to talk about those at the end. The story itself will go by pretty quickly.

And you might even be able to help. We're going to let you try to take a stab at the various things. All right. So we're starting in the upper left hand corner.

It does jump around. We go by numbers. So the number one is in the upper left hand corner. And does anybody know the reference?

Anybody can get the book. It's in all four Gospels to some extent, but looking at this. OK, so you guessed and you're wrong. Good guess, though.

Say it again. It is Matthew. Yes, that we said to you. Yeah. So it's Matthew. So the book is Matthew.

All right. Now, if I tell you this, the temptation begins in Matthew, chapter four, verse one. So what chapter is this?

He's getting baptized. No, Matthew, four, one is the temptation city. Three is three because the last thing after he goes into the temptation is he's baptized.

He baptized. Holy Spirit comes and settles up. And by the way, who takes him into the wilderness to be baptized or to be tempted?

Who takes him into the wilderness? The spirit, right? So the spirit settles on him at his baptism and then immediately right after takes him into the wilderness.

So we know it's Matthew, chapter three. And I'll give you the verse just so you don't have to look at it. It's 13. Starts in 13.

Now, the whole passage could be a little longer if you wanted to. Right. But the key of where Jesus.

So the first set up there is just the description of 13. So I'm going to read verse 13. And by the time I do that, you'll be you could probably fill in all the blanks.

It says, then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him.

So the first one starts with a J. So that's probably Jesus. Say it again. OK. Yeah, I know. Jesus came or went.

Where to? I skipped the Jordan to John, right? To be baptized. Yep. But you're right. In the verse, it was the Jordan.

OK, so Jesus went to John to be baptized. That right there says a whole heck of a lot. All right.

That Jesus, the son of God, need to be baptized. All right. And he went to a human.

But kind of flawed human at that, because later he questions whether or not Jesus was the one.

And Jesus says, well, John the Baptist is the greatest man born of women.

But all of you who are born in the Kingdom of God are greater than he was.

That's pretty extreme. Kind of like laying it out. Who's where? Right.

So Jesus went to John the Baptist to be baptized. Jump over to number two. It's on the bottom right hand there. See number two.

Now, this is a J and it's not Jesus. And it's John. That's right. So what did John do? Let's see.

It says, but John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me?

That's verse 14. OK. And so that's verse 14. John what? Fill in the blanks. Tried or tried to prevent him.

John tried to prevent him. OK. John tried to prevent him.

And you can word it any way you want as long as you get the summary of verse 14 in five blanks or make your extra blanks if you really want to.

That's fine. OK. Jumping to the left. Number three.

So this is verse 15. It says, but Jesus answering said to him, permit it at this time.

For in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he, that's John, permitted him.

OK. So what would you say? The first one starts with a P. I already gave you the P.

Permit it or permit this. And those are like fancy quotation marks. Permit this.

Because those are actually the words of Jesus. Permit it or permit this.

That's a T there which means it can be, it's a neuter something.

Permit it, permit this. Either way it works. Right. Permit this. It's. OK.

Fulfilling is there but there's something else first. Say it again. Fitting. And then fulfill or fulfilling. Right.

Fulfill or fulfilling what? Righteousness. Righteousness. Correct.

OK. So let's hang here for just a second because there's something we need to see here.

Where do we get our righteousness from as Christians? God by.

How does he do it? Kind of. Yeah.

Holy Spirit seals, regenerates, cleanses, does all of that.

He is righteous. He never stopped being righteous.

So we come to him. We don't know how far we're going. But if we trust in Jesus, he gives us his righteousness.

OK. So that's the word I'm looking for. He gives us his righteousness. Right.

He imputes his righteousness. Did Jesus deserve to be crucified? Did Jesus ever sin?

Never. OK. We know the Bible says Jesus never sinned. Right. Not even in ignorance.

He never sinned. Therefore, he did not deserve to be crucified.

But he was he was crucified, which is kind of an image of a sinner's death, if you will.

So did Jesus need righteousness? No. OK.

So the lesson to be learned here is that a person who has righteousness still might need to do something

that God would want done or a way that God would want something done in order to what?

Fulfill righteousness.

So if you have righteousness, you have it because it was imputed or bestowed, but from Jesus.

It's really Jesus's righteousness. Now, if you go ahead and do like lie or cheat or steal or adultery or lust or whatever.

Right. That does not fulfill that righteousness. Right.

So when we think fulfill. What does it mean to fulfill something?

OK. So what does it mean? Let's break it down. That's what Josh would tell us. Let's break it down.

Kind of. Yeah. So what does it mean to fill something?

Put the stuff in it. Right. Put the good in it. Or what? Fill a bucket. Bucket's got whatever you put in it. Right.

So a bucket can hold stuff. And if you put stuff in it until it can't hold any more than it's filled. Right.

And to fulfill the purpose of a bucket would be to put something in it.

But let's say you don't put anything in it. Let's say you turn it over and you stand on it as a ladder.

Did you fulfill the purpose of the bucket? No. You did not fulfill the purpose of the bucket.

Buckets are not made for standing on. Now you can use it for that. And you do. Right. And you stand on it.

And so purpose is accomplished because you can change the light bulb or reach the spice on the top shelf or whatever.

So you accomplished something. But you did not fulfill the purpose of the bucket. Right.

But let me ask you this. When is a bucket empty? Never. It's always got air in it.

Unless you make a perfect vacuum in it. Which scientists have actually not really figured out how to make a perfect vacuum inside the atmosphere.

They can get really close. And now they debate whether there is a perfect vacuum in space. That's debatable.

So if that's possible that there is no such thing as a perfect vacuum. Possibly.

Josh, did you want to add something there that I run past what you were going to say?

Yeah. So you could take it out of space and you'd get as close as mankind can get to a vacuum inside the bucket. Right.

But even then they know there are stray particles and there's theories about what outer space actually is. Blah blah blah.

But that doesn't matter. The point is the bucket is filled with air when the bucket is filled with nothing else.

But was a bucket made to carry air? No. I mean you can use it for that. I mean there could be a time.

Let's say you're about to go underwater. And you're going to go underwater.

You know you're going to be underwater longer than you would think. And you have a bucket.

You'd be smart to flip the bucket over and bring it down with you. Bring down a bucket of air.

And then you could breathe that air while you're underwater. And you could stay down there a lot longer. Right.

It's not easy. You could do it. Especially if you had weight. And you get the weight on the bucket to hold it down.

And you could do that. People would do that in the hulls of ships when the ship flips over.

And it's a pocket of air and they stay there for hours. Right. And it happens.

So there could be some advantage to having a bucket of air. But that is not the purpose of a bucket.

So now take that back to righteousness. What is the purpose of righteousness?

Be good. Okay. That's really close.

So why does Jesus give mankind his righteousness? What is accomplished when he does that?

That gets glorified. Yeah. But more.

If you die and you do not have Jesus' righteousness, what happens to you?

You go to hell. Right. So Jesus' righteousness returns the ability for man to have a proper relationship with God.

It renews or recreates that. So the purpose of righteousness in that sense then is to give man the ability to have the right relationship with God.

Right. Otherwise we'd still be in our sin. If you're not in righteousness with Jesus, you're still in your sin.

And you're dead to God. You're going to go to hell. Right. You're never going to be with him unless you eventually have the righteousness.

So in that sense, the purpose of righteousness, follow my logic, the purpose of righteousness is to restore the relationship between man and God or to make that possible.

Okay. So now if you're going to fulfill, now we're back here, if you're going to fulfill righteousness, if we're going to fulfill righteousness, what do we do?

The purpose of righteousness is so that man can have a right relationship with God.

Then what do you do in your life to fulfill the purpose of righteousness?

Right purpose by having a relationship with God. Exactly.

So it is fitting that we do X to have a right relationship with God. Now you don't have to do that.

That's why you don't get saved by worshiping God. You don't get saved by praying. You don't get saved by giving.

All of the spiritual disciplines, even if you did them all perfectly, you still wouldn't get saved because we have the effect of original sin and the effect on us and our sinful nature.

Right. So we wouldn't get saved. So we need Jesus's righteousness imputed. Now it's been imputed. So what do you do?

You practice a right relationship with God. Now that may mean spits and sputters and stumbles and falls and figuring it out.

You're going to go, okay, I have Jesus's righteousness so now I know how to do everything perfectly all of a sudden.

Actually, I think that's why Jesus likens it to be born again. Born again because you basically have to learn how to do everything over again.

Right. And then as you do, like a toddler, you learn to walk for Jesus, then you fall on your face.

You go, okay, that was not the good part of walking. I don't like that part of walking.

Right. So you go back to walking for Jesus and trying not to fall on your face the same way you did before.

So we learn and grow and I would submit to you then this is where Reaching New Heights and Jesus comes in

because there is a time at which you do what you're next doing to fulfill the purpose of righteousness or to fulfill righteousness.

Okay. Jesus did not need righteousness. He already had it. Yet he said he needed it back.

Someone will argue, I'm going to tell you right now, a lot of theologians will say to you that Jesus was only baptized

to institute baptism in the church so that we could show that we needed to be baptized. Right.

But even if that's true, there's more to that because he said it's fitting to fulfill righteousness.

So what he was saying was I have righteousness and yet even though I have righteousness,

it's fitting for me to be baptized to fulfill righteousness, to give a public show of the fact

that I am living solely and only for God. Even though his old man wasn't dying per se,

he didn't have to do that part of it, right? His old man didn't have to die for him to be saved

because he wasn't being saved but he was still demonstrating the fact that he was walking in righteousness, following God.

And someone would argue perhaps that it's a picture of his death, burial, and resurrection before that ever even happened.

Right. So you could say this, you could say that it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness

that he would go through with the crucifixion, which without that we wouldn't be able to have his righteousness.

You follow? So the baptism then could be a picture of the crucifixion which is coming

and that is why it's fitting to fulfill righteousness. But the bottom line is for you, for me, for us,

what we need to walk away with is yes, you have Jesus' righteousness.

Now having Jesus' righteousness, hear these words. It is fitting to do,

put in there whatever God is telling you to do. The spiritual disciplines, worship, prayer, serve, give, love,

especially love, right? That's huge. Those kinds of things. It is fitting to fulfill righteousness.

It's not going to kill it. It's not a problem to stand on a bucket. If it works, it can be a problem

because you twist your ankle, fall off, whatever. But if it works, it's not a problem.

But it does not fulfill the purpose of the bucket. So those who say, well I can lie now because I'm saved,

they are at the minimum, at the least, not doing what is fitting to fulfill the righteousness.

That makes sense? Okay. Alright. That was three. Now four. Okay. Well it's down to the right hand side.

As you might expect, if you know what's coming next, he said, permitted this time from this way,

it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted him. Then he permitted him.

So one word goes in the blank, starts with a P and it is? Permitted.

Hang your hat on the word permitted for one second because John the Baptist just permitted the Son of God to be baptized.

After being entreated to him that he do this because it's fitting to fulfill righteousness, he permitted it.

What do you have to do to fulfill righteousness in any given situation? All you really have to do is permit it.

It's really all you have to do. God entreats you and says, come on, give and I'll take care of it.

Just permit it. Just do what God is telling you to do. Just permit it. He's going to empower it.

He's going to make it possible. He's going to make it work. All that.

So we take that for what it's worth, but he permitted Jesus to be baptized.

And I submit to you, if John the Baptist had refused, John would have been in trouble,

but Jesus wouldn't have been baptized because it was fitting to fulfill all righteousness that John the Baptist baptized Jesus.

OK, then five up to the left hand side. Five up on the left.

All right. The first one is a J and we're going to read a little bit of verse here.

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were opened.

And that's all the further we need to go right this second.

So we've got the J, which is Jesus, and we've got a very little word.

Up. All right. And then when Jesus is up, something happened. What just happened?

Heavens opened. That's right. Now, what exactly that means, I think it would have been really cool to be there to see it.

I've probably been scared to death, but it would have been really cool to be there to see it.

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were opened.

And it says, and he saw it is a little age, not a capital H. So we're talking about if it's not a capital H, that means we're talking about who?

John, not Jesus. Right. John got the little age. Jesus gets the big H.

And he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him.

OK, so right above the eyes and next to the little binoculars there, you can imagine those two words and they are.

He saw. OK. Also, well, we'll just go down, follow it down to the right there.

And you see like in a puddle on this is the river, but there's like in a little circle on the river.

There are two words. And he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him.

And so those little two words in the water is on him.

There's the dove or some kind of rendering of a dove anyway.

And notice the spirit of God. Why did I write it like it's written? Do you think, Jason?

Why is it written like that? Because it's descending. That's right.

He saw the spirit of God descending on him. OK, that puts that whole thing together.

He saw the spirit of God descending on him. He saw the heavens opened and that's the lines going up to the page.

The heavens open up there like that really huge foot on the right. That's all that. OK.

It says he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him. Let's be very clear. Was there a dove?

No, there was no dove. OK, so yeah, like a dove, not or as a dove.

That's that's what's called a simile. So it's like or as right. That's a simile.

Yeah. And so it means it did it that way. So if it says it lighted on him as a dove or like a dove, what does that mean?

What do we think of doves are like when they light on someone or something? Say it again.

I can't hear you. OK, so flew down on like a bird. OK.

Yeah, peacefully doves are very much thought of as peaceful animals. I don't know why that is exactly. But that's a symbol of peace.

Anybody else got something else to add? How else would a dove come down on him?

I'll say because imagery, because sometimes I'd say the whole spirit can't see what it is. So that's why it doesn't look like a dove.

Yeah, it could have. Yeah, but it doesn't it doesn't give us the image that it looked like a dove, really.

I don't know what he saw. No, I'm saying like I'm saying that that's what they saw. Right. So they might have thought.

Yeah, Josh. Yeah, I'm with you. You're what? A joke. OK, we like jokes, but I didn't hear it.

So ha ha. That's for you. All right.

OK, so yeah, like or as a dove, but not an actual dove. Also, and lighting on him.

So lighting is is generally like gently coming down on something. Right. So we have this imagery of the dove peacefully.

I was to you when the heavens open up and send something down on people normally, this is not normally the way it comes down.

Something comes out of the sky on you and it may not be gentle and peaceful.

You know, but for Jesus, it was. So that's kind of cool. Hmm. Yeah, like an asteroid or a lightning bolt.

Anything falling, even heavy rain, the sky opens up and it starts to rain. It hurts. I've been in it.

Right. We've many of us have experienced that hail. Yeah. So not necessarily.

But for him, it was as a dove and it lied on him. And then.

OK, so we're going we're following we're going up to the right there and you see a little pair of binoculars kind of facing up to the right, looking at some words.

And it says there is a blank above that. I don't know if I gave you that word or not. It is behold.

And it says, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, and then you have all the words.

This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And that is essentially verse 17.

So you can memorize verse 17 right now if you want to, because all it says is, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

That's a super easy verse to memorize. Really, the way it makes sense. And behold, just look, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

We're not quite done with our blanks, however, because this first, as I told you, it really does something for us.

That's really important. So there are blanks on the right hand side and there are three persons,

persons with these air quotes, right, that are demonstrated here in God's action.

The first one is F and I'm pointing upwards and so it is the father.

And so the voice of the father is heard as he says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Also, the next one starts with an S, the son. Not only because he says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased,

but because Jesus is literally being baptized, right, so he comes up, Jesus came up out of the water.

We are on the right hand side in the middle, under the cloud, there's a cloud.

It's the only blanks you have left on the whole page. You should have father, F, father, S, son.

And the last one, no big surprise, Holy Spirit. And where was the Holy Spirit?

Descending out of heaven, lighting on Jesus as a dove, right.

And so while the imagery of an egg talking about the yolk and the yellow and the shell,

or water in three states talking about water, ice, and steam, and in any other thing you can think of to try to talk about

how God is three persons may break down, these verses will not.

They show the role and the existence of the three, we say persons, but they are the three personalities, personas,

it might be a better way to say it, personas, three characters of one God.

This one God who is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, he is all, alright.

And so you've got Roman numerals there, you have one thing left to do on your worksheet,

that's Roman numeral one, Roman numeral two, Roman numeral three, it's I, I, I, I, I, right.

And I want you to circle the number of personas that are in this passage of scripture.

Now obviously I've already given you the answer, God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit.

So I would circle the Roman numeral three. Now we know that it's one God that's represented,

but there are clearly three distinct individuals in this passage of scripture.

God the father, now I want to beg your forgiveness because I have drawn God the father's foot.

And we are not supposed to make any images of God, so I did not mean anything simple by that,

but you can think of that as Elijah's foot if you want, or somebody else's foot, it doesn't have to be God's foot.

Yeah, okay, well now you know. So that is someone's foot in the heavens,

and if it's God's foot, then realize I was not trying to make any kind of an imagery of God.

God may not have a foot as we think of feet, or he certainly could if he wants to, or whatever, I'm not trying to picture God.

The bottom line is there are three distinct personas pictured here.

You also can see their roles because God the father is still ruling in justice.

And who sets the standard of what is fitting to fulfill righteousness? God the father, no doubt about it.

He has set the standard since the beginning of time. Jesus was there, Holy Spirit is there,

but God the father very much has dealt with his people in righteousness all throughout time.

And who came amongst men and was willing to die for the sins of men and could have saved himself,

but chose not to, and chose to be baptized because it was fitting to fulfill all righteousness?

God the son, definitely, right? Not God the father, not God the Holy Spirit, right?

But are they all God? Yes, they are. I'm not saying they're not, but there's God the father, God the son.

And who came from the heavens and lighted upon Jesus at his baptism and leads him into the wilderness to be tempted?

God the Holy Spirit. There are three distinct individuals, but they are the same God.

And you also see that in the plan here as there's only one thing that's actually being accomplished,

and that is the fulfilling of righteousness. There's not other things, it's all one thing,

the fulfilling of righteousness. And God the father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the son are all participating

to make that happen, to make it clear to us. So if anyone would question, can God be distinctly separate

because the Holy Spirit lighting on him and a person in the water and a person in the heavens speaking,

that is distinctly separate and still be one God, this scripture makes it very clear that they can be distinctly separate

and still be very much one God, okay? Alright, so that's going to conclude our worksheet.

Does anybody have any questions or anything? I'm going to ask a few questions and for candy I have to give you for one second.

I just like your rugged, Jim.

You like my what?

Your rugged, Jim.

Yeah, well, if nothing else, you get to come to church and be entertained by my sprawling scribbles.

Alright, Jason, are you ready? I'm going to ask you a question. Okay, let's see.

Are there words in there?

In the little circle, oh, yes, there's twice, yeah, in the little circle with the O and the H, that's on him.

And then down to the right is John tried to prevent him or prevent Jesus.

No, no, that's just the currents. Yeah, I made him a little too level, I guess.

Be careful about drawing horizontal lines on these worksheets.

It makes it look like they're supposed to be more words.

Okay, how about this one, Jason? And it has almost nothing to do with scripture, but it does have to do with our lesson.

Okay, when you say that something, one thing is like another thing or one thing is as another thing, what kind of speech is that?

Did you catch it? It's not in a blank.

Very good, I'm impressed.

Oh man, that really shotgunned out. I'll try differently on that one. That really flew four shots wide.

Okay, and they're sitting back there together, so they're probably going to share anyway.

Okay, alright, Chris, you ready? You ready?

When Jesus came to John the Baptist and said, baptize me, what was John's response?

No one help him yet, Jason. Give him a second.

How did he respond?

Okay, give him a little help there.

He did something, yeah. What did he do? Did he baptize him right away or was he?

He did baptize him. Did he do anything before that?

Okay, he tried to prevent him. He tried telling him he didn't want to baptize him. Okay, let me try and give you another one.

So when the Spirit of God came down from heaven, where did he go?

Where did the Spirit of God go? That's where it came from. Where did he go when he came down?

Yes, good. I'm going to try and throw them one on top of each other and see if they all scatter.