Matthew 3:13-17

We will consider the subject this morning, verses 13 to 17.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

And John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming

to me?

But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for

us to fulfill all righteousness.

And he allowed him, and when he, that is our Lord, had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately

from the water.

And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like

a dove and alighting upon him.

And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well

pleased.

Let's pray.

Father, show us Christ this morning.

Show us your Son and we will be satisfied.

He is the Son in whom you are pleased.

And not just pleased, but well pleased, perfectly pleased.

Lord this moment I do feel is that we're standing on holy ground when we consider the baptism

of the Son of God.

Lord help us, Lord, would you remove any distractions?

Remove our minds from distractions and the things that will take place later.

Father, give us a focus to hear from heaven.

Not to hear from a man, not to hear from a pastor, but to hear from God himself this morning,

Lord, as you speak to your people through your word.

Lord would you give us listening ears and circumcise our hearts that we may receive

it and that we would find a fruitful place and Lord bring forth a fruit for your glory.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

Okay, yeah, someone, you said Gail got sick.

Okay, let's pray for Gail.

We'll do that.

We'll check on her.

Okay, thank you.

So we're in the book of Matthew and up to this point Matthew has introduced us to a

waiting nation who's also a wayward nation.

Of course this is Israel.

We have seen a desert prophet, that's John.

We've been introduced to a sinful people.

There are some proud religious leaders.

We've heard a powerful message of repentance and yet surprisingly we have not yet formally

met the main character of Matthew's gospel.

We have not yet met the one who is coming who is greater than John and we know him as

John the Baptist.

In fact this coming one is so great that John the Baptist is not even worthy to be his slave

and is not even worthy to carry his sandals.

This one is the one who will baptize his people not with water but with the spirit and with

fire.

We are told that he is the son of David.

We know that he's also the son of Abraham.

We know him as the virgin born son of Mary.

We know that King Herod tried to kill him in his infancy but yet we have not been formally

introduced to him.

Not formally, that is until today.

Today actually marks the formal introduction of God's promised Messiah to Israel.

Today is Christ's manifestation to the world.

Now in the Orthodox Church tradition this day is celebrated the day of Christ's baptism

on January 6th they call it Epiphany other churches celebrate the arrival of the wise

men on that day.

But the Orthodox Church celebrates January 6th as the baptism of Christ.

And Epiphany simply means manifestation from above.

That's literally what it means.

So this is Christ's manifestation publicly to Israel and really to all the world.

His baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry.

But I'd also like to say his baptism shows his willingness to identify with sinful people.

Now look at the text, verse 13.

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

Now we're talking about an 80 mile trek here and about an 80 mile trip from Galilee specifically

to the Jordan River specifically to be baptized.

Why would our Lord do that?

Now earlier we were told that the crowds in Jerusalem, Judea, and in the Jordan Valley

they all went out to John and they were all baptized by him because it was a baptism of

repentance and they began to confess their sins and they showed that by submitting to

water baptism.

We're also told that the religious leaders who were stationed in Jerusalem, that is the

Pharisees and the Sadducees, they also went out to the desert, out into the Jordan River

to investigate what was taking place and to see what John the Baptist's ministry was really

all about.

Now these religious leaders were not at all going to be baptized by John.

In fact, they felt they had nothing to repent of.

So it's a great irony this morning.

The sinless son of God came all the way from Galilee for the very precise purpose of submitting

to John's baptism, verse 14.

John then tries to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized you and are you coming to me?

So you can see there's an discomfort here or discomfort.

John is extremely uncomfortable about the prospect of baptizing Jesus and by the way

he should have been.

I mean John's exactly right here.

Now John didn't understand everything.

John was not a perfect man, but he was given by God the ability to recognize who Jesus

was.

Now we see that actually more clearly in John, the Apostle John's gospel in chapter one.

The next day John, that is the Baptist, saw Jesus coming toward him and he said, behold

the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That's the very first thing John says about him.

This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me.

Before he was before me.

That's speaking of his eternality.

John's actually six months older than Jesus.

I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.

Therefore I came baptizing with water.

John's like, this is the reason I'm here.

So it had been revealed to John by God that Jesus, when he saw him, this is the Messiah.

This is the one who is to come.

But John also was given a revelation that this was the sinless one.

I mean, what does John say when he sees Jesus for the first time, he says, behold the Lamb

of God is going to take away the sin of the world.

Now the Lamb of God is actually a reference to what took place on the day of atonement.

On the day of atonement you would have an unblemished lamb and it would be substituted

for the nation.

The nation's sins would be confessed over that lamb and then that lamb would be killed

as the one bearing the sins of the people.

Now, the lamb that was used on the day of atonement had to be an unblemished lamb, meaning

it had to be perfect.

If any blemish, any slight imperfection were found in it at all, then that lamb could not

be chosen.

Why?

Well, the lamb had to be unblemished because it was a foreshadowing of the sinless lamb

of the Lord who would come millennia later.

So John here, John the Baptist calling Jesus, Lamb of God, it is a reference to his sinlessness,

to his holiness.

Jesus was the lamb sent from God.

He was the unblemished, the perfect lamb who would also be sacrificed for his sinful people.

Except Jesus, he is the sin bearer who did not only cover but he actually removed the

sins of his people.

Now, John sees it and he attempts to stop him from being baptized.

I mean, he even confesses, if anyone, he says, I need to be baptized by you.

That's an undeniably true statement.

That's exactly what should have taken, well, not what should have taken place, but John

understood the role.

Now, John the Baptist, you have to understand, he is a great man.

Born of woman, Jesus said there's none greater.

He was a holy man, righteous, an undeniably great prophet.

But even John, a man as great as he, recognized his own sinfulness in the presence of Christ,

who was a sinless one, the holy one.

Now, John, you don't find discomfort at all when he's baptizing all other Israelites.

He's perfectly fine doing that.

But not this man.

He was not comfortable.

For John knew that Jesus did not need his baptism.

Rather, he said, I need to be baptized by you.

In verse 11, we see why Jesus did not need John's baptism.

Because his baptism was unto repentance.

So here's the John the Baptist job.

This is what he was commissioned to do.

He was a herald.

He was to prepare the people for the king who was coming.

That is his job description.

Well, how would he prepare them?

Well, a holy king is coming.

So he called the people to confess their sins and then demonstrate, show, prove the reality

of the repentance by submitting to his baptism, which we talked last week would have been

scandalous to Jews because only Gentiles needed to do that.

Not a Jew.

But here you have Christ.

Christ comes 80 miles down from Galilee and he has nothing to confess.

There was nothing in him to repent of.

Not a bad moment.

Not even a slight mix up on one day.

Never disobedient to his parents.

There's no sin in him.

There's no unrighteousness.

There's no blemish whatsoever in him.

Well, then why in the world did he get baptized?

Because this baptism is under repentance.

Verse 15.

That Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now.

He's understanding, John, I understand you're uncomfortable with this, but allow it.

For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

And John allowed him then.

So you have the Baptist.

He's very reluctant to baptize Jesus, yet he finally relents.

And when we see our Lord submitting to baptism, this was not an any admission of guilt.

There was no need of sin or something he needed to repent of.

Instead, and this is what's great about this, our Lord's identification in baptism of repentance

was a foreshadowing of what would take place later in a greater way at the cross of Calvary.

It is a sign of his accepting the responsibility for sins he did not commit.

So we start to see the beginning of a picture being filled in.

We see the picture of an innocent man being taken and guilty ones will be set free.

So from the very beginning, friends, from the very outset, from day one of his public

ministry, the Lord Jesus is identifying with his sinful wayward people.

And later he's going to more fully identify with them, not by being baptized, but rather

by being put to death for sins he did not commit.

So what we see, we see his willingness to take on the role of the sin bearing substitute

for his people.

That means the cross was not an afterthought.

This is three years before the cross.

Jesus comes and he initiates the process.

John the Baptist came as a herald, the one who would prepare the way for a king.

And that's what he did.

He's announcing the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now every faithful Israelite should have prepared for this king by listening to John, understanding

the message, and then confess their sins in baptism.

That's why every Israelite should have done.

And here we have our Lord.

Don't miss the significance of this.

He comes as the true Israel, the true Israelite, doing all that they should have done.

So you have the one without sin is submitting to a baptism for sinners.

Why?

He's the true Israel.

He's identifying with them.

The Lord Jesus comes as the second Adam, the last man.

So in order to fulfill this mission, he's going to have to do some things.

He had to obey the requirements that God had laid upon Israel in the law, and he had to

obey the requirements that God had laid upon Adam in mankind.

He had to fully dispose and fulfill those obligations.

So we see here Jesus completely innocent, completely free of sin, yet he is baptized

in repentance, showing a corporate solidarity with his sinful people.

So what does that mean?

He's doing exactly what Israel should have done.

He's doing exactly what Adam should have done.

Christ was fulfilling all righteousness because that's what we lacked.

R.C. Sproul said, fulfilling all righteousness for a Jew would have meant that every jot

and tittle of the law of God had to be fulfilled.

Everything.

God's standard is perfection.

Where to be holy, even as God is holy.

In order that Jesus be the lamb that takes away the sin of the world, he, that is Jesus,

had to obey every jot, every tittle of the law.

So his baptism, it marks the beginning of this mission to redeem his people.

His birth in Bethlehem, his exodus out of Egypt, his childhood in Nazareth, they're

all behind him now.

From this point forward, this point here, you will see the Lord Jesus setting his face

like a flint to head to the cross where he would be slain as the true and final lamb

of God.

Now John the Baptist had served very well his commission to be the herald.

He had faithfully announced the coming of the King.

He had prepared the way for him.

Now we see Jesus.

After an eternity in heaven, after some 30 years in obscurity, the King had arrived.

And now he's going to be formally presented to the world.

Friends, this is an amazing section of scripture.

Verse 16, when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold,

the heavens were open to him.

And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him.

I said this earlier and I mean this.

What holy ground we are standing upon.

Here we read at the end and we see the blessed Trinity present.

There's not a lot of times in scripture you're going to read this.

I wonder, can you see what was happening there?

I mean do you, here's, so Jesus is baptized.

He comes out of the water and it says immediately the heavens were open.

Heaven was breaking in on the muddy banks of the Jordan River.

That's what was happening.

John baptized Jesus and then something wonderful and miraculous occurred.

Jesus comes, the heavens were open.

Now that phrase, there's only a handful of times that you will read in scripture that

the heavens were open.

I'll give you one in Acts chapter 7 verse 56.

Acts 7:56

Do you remember Stephen, the first martyr?

As he was being stoned to death, we are told that the heavens were opened.

And Stephen looks and he saw the glory of God and the Lord Jesus standing at the right

hand of God.

The heavens were open to Stephen.

And here we see another event.

Here at this Jordan River is another instance where we see that the heavens were opened.

The Spirit of God descended like a dove and light upon our, didn't say it was a dove,

but like a dove.

Now some speculate that the Spirit of God descending like a dove showed the gentleness

of our Lord and the peace that he would bring through sacrifice.

See in the Jewish thought of that day, if you came from a rich family, you would offer

a bull for a sacrifice.

If you came from a middle class family, you would offer a lamb.

And if you came from a poor family, then you would offer a dove, like a turtle dove would

be offered.

So the dove in Jewish mind was a thought of sacrifice, sacrifice for a poor family.

But the dove also in scripture is a sign of gentleness.

Do you remember when Jesus sends out his disciples, he tells them be wise as serpents, but what?

Harmless as doves.

So you have a sign of sacrifice, you have a sign of gentleness, but the dove was also

a sign of peace.

You go back to Genesis 6 in the account of Noah.

You remember the floodwaters had covered the earth and they had been upon the earth for

quite some days and Noah's wanted to check, is there any dry land out there at all?

So he sends out a dove from the ark.

And eventually that dove comes back with what?

An olive branch in its beak.

So from that time forward, the olive branch has been a symbol of peace.

We even use the expression what?

To extend an olive branch.

We have it here.

So now get this, this is good.

The dove in Noah's time, Genesis 6, represented the spirit of God bringing Noah the good news

of peace.

God's wrath had been abated, had been satisfied, and a new beginning had begun.

Now we go to Jesus' baptism.

And we also have a picture, a picture of sacrifice, a picture of gentleness, and a picture of

peace.

By a gentle Savior who had bring peace to mankind by means of a sacrifice that marked

out a new beginning.

It's fantastic there, what God is doing.

Now moreover, the Holy Spirit's descent was also our Lord's anointing, anointing for His

mission given to him by the Father.

This is a fafoma of Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 61 verse 1.

Isaiah 61:1

It says the Spirit of God is upon me.

The Lord would later, Luke 4, actually take this Isaiah passage, quote it, and he'd say

that refers to me by the way.

So what does it mean?

The Lord Jesus was anointed by the Father with the Spirit of God fully in order to fulfill

His work of redemption.

We call Him the Messiah or the Christ, Christas.

Christas or Christ simply means the anointed one.

Anointed with what?

Not with oil, but with the Holy Spirit of God.

Now some of you might be running ahead and you're like, well if Jesus was God, then why

did He need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit?

That's a good question.

Now the scriptures are clear.

Our Lord never ever lost His deity.

He is and was truly God in every way.

So in the incarnation, He did not set aside, He did not lose His deity.

He is still God.

He assumed humanity is the language there.

So in His deity, our Lord needed nothing, but He came as a man taking upon Himself,

assuming true humanity.

That's the mystery that we confess, the hypostatic union.

Jesus, two natures.

He is fully God, He is fully man.

He is yet both.

How do you explain it?

We don't.

We believe it.

Just like the blessed Trinity.

But now in His humanity, our Lord was anointed for His appointed task and He was given the

strength to accomplish it.

So what does that mean?

It means as He lived upon on this earth as a man, He did not use His divine power.

Instead, He would be subject to life as a true man, the God man.

He would become hungry and thirsty and tired and even weak.

In His humanity, He did need the power of God's Spirit to do what?

To do all that God had called Him to do.

If He's going to cast out demons, He's going to do it by the Spirit of God.

If He's going to heal the sick, He's going to do it by the Spirit of God.

Now that's enough to say, but does the Bible even teach that?

Yes, look in Matthew 12, 28.

Jesus said, if I cast out demons and notice He qualifies it by the Spirit of God, surely

the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Do you see what He's saying?

He's the anointed one.

He's given the Spirit.

In Luke 4, when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases

brought them to Jesus.

Good place to bring them.

And He laid His hands on every one of them and He healed them.

Jesus also came out of many crying out and saying, basically, I know who you are.

You are the Christ.

You're the anointed one, the Son of God.

And He rebuked them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ,

the Christas, the anointed one.

So you say, how did our Lord do this?

How did He cast out demons?

How did He heal the sick?

The Spirit of God was upon Him.

He had been anointed by the Spirit of God for this task at His baptism, and it is a

wonderful sign that the kingdom of God was breaking in.

Why?

The King was standing right there.

The King had come.

Now additionally, there's so much symbolism here that it's hard to unpack it, but it gets

exciting to me here.

Jesus being anointed by the Spirit was also pointing to His kingship.

All Israelite kings were anointed as they were coronated and took their royal position.

Go back and read the Chronicles and Kings.

They were anointed.

Do you remember what John the Baptist came preaching?

He said, the kingdom of God is near.

It's at hand.

How?

The King was coming.

John was the herald.

Now do you see what His baptism?

The true King of Israel had arrived and He's anointed, not by man, not by a prophet, but

by God Himself.

But you say, hey, but I thought if I read my Old Testament correctly, it's not just

kings who were anointed.

Right.

Prophets and priests were also anointed, right?

Our Lord comes as all three.

He is the prophet like Moses, but greater than Moses.

He is the great high priest, but Hebrews tells us He's greater than Aaron.

And He is the King greater than David.

He is the anointed prophet, priest, and King of His people.

And you see it here at His baptism.

Verse 17, and suddenly a voice from heaven came saying, this is my beloved Son in whom

I am well pleased, for further confirmation or further attestation, God the Father gave

the definitive word concerning His Son.

A voice from heaven comes and it's the Father speaking and He's speaking a blessing over

His Son.

This one in the muddy water of the Jordan here, it's my beloved Son.

It's not Adam, it's not Israel, it's not an angel, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the true

and only begotten Son of God.

He is the one in whom the Father delights and takes pleasure in.

In the scriptures, we do read Adam is referred to as a Son of God.

Sometimes angels were referred to as sons of God.

Israel, in Exodus, was referred to as the Son of God.

Adam failed, the angels failed, Satan was an exalted angel, the nation Israel has failed,

but not this Son.

This Son standing in the waters there at that Jordan River had not failed and would not

fail and could not fail.

The beloved Son was the one in whom God was not just pleased, friends, but He was well

pleased.

He was perfectly pleased with this one here.

The full revelation of our Lord's identity is now revealed.

There's no doubt.

He is the Son of David.

He is the Son of Abraham.

He is the one conceived by the Holy Spirit.

He is Emmanuel, God with us.

He is the one who will come to save His people from their sins, but now we have a further

word of confirmation, not by man, but by the Father about Him.

He says, listen, the one standing there in that river, He is the unique and beloved and

only begotten Son of God.

That's Him, so listen to Him.

Friends, it's so important that we understand we see here the Holy Trinity present at such

a significant event.

This is the inauguration of His kingdom.

The Father is speaking a blessing, speaking to the Son.

The Holy Spirit is there anointing the Son, and the Son in humility is there standing

in those muddy waters submitting to a baptism He did not need.

Why?

Because our salvation, your salvation, was designed and accomplished by the one true,

living, eternally existing God in the form of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Now what?

Why is Matthew writing this?

What do we do after we hear this?

There's one other place we're going to turn in the last few minutes here.

It's an interesting and instructive Psalm.

It'll be on the wall behind me.

It gives us much instruction, Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.

Who are they taking counsel against?

Against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us break their bonds and pieces

and cast away their cords from us.

Now the one who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

The Lord shall hold them in duration.

How foolish is it for an earthly king to take counsel against the Lord?

He's going to laugh at them.

And then verse 5, He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure.

Verse 6, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, you are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, He's talking to the son.

And I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.

All the created order belongs to this son given to him by the father.

God has set up His anointed one.

He has set up His Christ.

God has already enthroned His king.

Who is he?

Verse 7, God's own son.

God has a kingdom and He has placed His only son as the chief in this kingdom.

He is the king of this kingdom.

Now the world doesn't know Him.

The nations are raging right now.

They're raging against Him.

That's what the Psalm says.

Verse 1, the nations rage, earthly kings and earthly kingdoms are seeking to live independently

of Him.

They make a mess of things.

Look at the laws, the horrible, abominable laws they enact.

They're enraged.

They're trying to live independently.

And it's a foolish thing to do.

It's a dangerous thing to do.

Because God says if you ignore His king, not only will you not enter the kingdom of God,

but you will invite the wrath of God down upon your own head.

Well, what in the world's a solution?

That's a terrible predicament.

Verse 11 and 12, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling.

Now let me stop there before I get to verse 12.

Friends, we need more fear and trembling.

We do not respect this Holy One as we ought to.

We as a church are in need of great repentance to recover the ability to fear and tremble

before Him.

You serve Him with fear, you rejoice.

There's joy, but it's a respectable joy.

So what do we do?

Well, God placed His Son, verse 7, as the king.

Verse 12 tells you what to do with this king.

You kiss him.

You kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled

but a little.

I'll imagine great wrath, blessed, happy are all those who put their trust in Him.

My message to you today would be kiss him.

Bow down to him.

To kiss the king, it's to prostrate, it's usually to kiss a ring.

Kiss him, bow down to him.

Recognize his right to rule over you is what the psalmist is saying.

He's the king.

You don't make him king, you don't make him Lord.

God has already placed him there.

So put your trust in Him.

Your hope, your confidence must be in Christ and it must be in His atoning work.

You have no righteousness apart from this one.

Come to Him.

So your faith cannot lie in what you can do or what you think you might imagine yourself

to be able to do, but rather you can only rely on what this divine King has done.

If I have any hope at all, it has to be in Him.

That's it.

And the psalmist says, well, listen, if you get that, blessed are you.

You're happy.

All those who trust in the one whom God has sent.

You know why you're happy and blessed?

You will never be put to shame.

You will never be disappointed with this one.

Earthly rulers don't care, Republican, Democrats, they're all going to disappoint you, not this

king.

But to the one who does not trust, the one who will not bow down and kiss the sun, it's

not my warning, it's his.

The Bible says judgment is coming and you will perish as his wrath is kindled even a

little against you.

Friends, there is a warning of impending judgment.

The King is coming again.

The first time is the lamb, the second time is the lion.

First time bringing salvation, the second time bringing judgment.

What is your job?

You kiss him.

You bow down to him.

John tells us, and this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life.

But this life is in the sun.

So if you have the sun, you have that eternal life.

But the one who does not have the sun does not have life.

And he tells us in John 3, but the wrath of God abides upon him.

I would be remiss in my pastoral duties if I did not tell you that this morning.

Kiss the sun, friend, bow down before him.

He is Lord and King that God has set up.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you this morning for this word.

Lord, I praise you, Lord, for your revelation.

Lord, what a rich treasure.

God, that you have given to us your people.