Discover Jesus Series Pt. 5 - Associate Pastor Matt Passmore - January 12, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

If you will, take out your Bibles.

Take out your Bibles.

Open it to Mark.

I'm sorry, Matthew 3.

Matthew 3.

Matthew 3.

And as you're turning to Matthew 3, I got to reset.

Can we pray together?

Dear God, we come before you so grateful for you.

And Lord, I ask you today as we dig into your word, Lord, please speak to our hearts.

Lord, just uh do not let me get in your way.

Do not let me uh stop you from moving here.

Lord, we ask for your words to be shared, your thoughts to be shared, and Lord, just uh help us leave here because you are in the mix different.

Thank you so much for your love.

Bless our time together.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Hey, we have been talking about the life of Jesus.

And uh as we as you think about the life of Jesus, obviously at Christmas we've talked about his birth.

We've been talking a little bit about that, and then last week we talked about and we saw at the age of 12.

So we went from his birth to the age of 12.

Him and his family got and they went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.

Remember that?

And Jesus stayed.

They went back, and when they were coming, he went to Jesus.

What are you doing?

He says, I'm about my father's business.

Okay, then we see that, and as we look to that point, then all of a sudden we don't hear another something until he gets close to the age of 30.

Today we're going to talk about the baptism.

And when you think about that just for a second, there was a stretch from about 12 to about 30.

We don't know a whole lot about Jesus.

I'm willing to think during that time there was some training that was going on.

Obviously, he was learning Scripture.

Now he had a grasp of Scripture.

He was learning many different things.

I assume he was learning how to be a carpenter.

I was assuming that he was learning how to be around people.

Think about this: him being a carpenter.

Now we know he did not sin.

But there were probably things in his life that made him human just like us.

I mean, if he's a carpenter, I'd be willing to gesture that there was probably a time that he missed the nail and hit his thumb.

I will say this, he probably responded to his thumb getting hit a lot better than I respond to my thumb getting hit because he was sinless.

But as he as we build to the point of his baptism, think about this for just a second.

At the age of 12, to it gets to the point that he starts getting into baptism.

We see in Luke, it says, before, this is right at his baptism, before his ministry began at the age of 30.

So we see this in the Bible that his ministry had not quite started, even though he was probably doing ministry his whole life, if you know what I mean.

But his public ministry had not quite started.

And then we see he was baptized, and we're going to talk about that.

And then after his baptism, the Holy Spirit came upon him, and the Lord said, This is my son.

And then we see, and I'm again, I'm kind of just telling the story so we can go back to see where he was at.

Then the Bible says that he went off for 40 days in the wilderness, and he was tempted by Satan.

And then he comes back to Galilee, preaching the gospel.

And then when he comes back there, at that point, then he starts to select the 12 disciples.

Okay, see where we're at.

So many times we can get so bogged into one story we forget what's around it.

Okay, so Jesus had been growing up, he's at the age of about 30, and he comes into an area because John was there now.

John the Baptist.

And remember, let's let's John's involved in the story today, and let's look.

John's involved in the story.

John was sent to be the messenger of Jesus, right?

But we also have to remember John the Baptist was the first prophet since the Old Testament.

400 years.

You see kind of where?

So John's coming.

And think about, listen to what in Mark, listen to this as I read it.

In Mark 1, starting in verse 5 or 4, it says, John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

You know, sometimes we forget the magnitude of what's going on.

If you're in your mind and we hear, oh, John the Baptist was baptizing people, in my mind, I'll be honest, there was a point that I thought, oh, that's just a few people.

They're going around secretly.

Why else would they go out to see John?

But John was different.

John was proclaiming the good news that the Lord had brought into him.

And then listen, did you hear what it said?

It said, the whole Judean countryside and all the people in Jerusalem were going out to him.

There was a stir that started with John the Baptist and the Lord working through him.

And people were coming to the point of realizing they needed a Messiah.

They were looking at this point, they were, for all these years, they were looking for the Messiah.

The Messiah.

Because they knew they needed the Messiah.

They did not know how they needed the Messiah.

Because you remember, we hear that they were looking for the Messiah to do what?

Come wipe out the Romans.

They thought they knew what the Messiah should do.

Isn't that funny sometimes?

Isn't that what we do?

Hey God, I got a better plan for you.

Listen, I'm really good at sending God and praying with God and saying, Hey God, if you did it this way, it might work a little better.

And how foolish I am.

But we can see that in the religious leaders.

That's why they did not accept this because they thought they had figured out what they thought the Messiah should do and look like.

But there was a stirring going around.

Because we see why Jesus had to come.

Jesus did not come to take over the Roman government.

There's a bigger problem than the Roman government.

And we see that too in our own lives.

There's a bigger problem than the things going on around us.

The problem that he was talking about, that we see that he preached was what?

The repentance and the forgiveness of sin.

It's our sin.

Why Jesus had to come.

It wasn't the Roman government.

It was the sin that we needed a Savior.

It was the sin that brought John the Baptist in front of Jesus to start what?

Preparing their hearts.

And what a picture of the last part of that.

They were coming to be baptized, confessing their sins.

When was the last time you sat down and you felt guilty of your sins?

Just last night, as I was preparing for this.

There's deals in my areas in my life and things that have started running so fast, and things that I that I had to say, Lord, I am sorry.

In order for me to bring this message, I gotta get right with the Lord.

Get right with you.

Isn't that the picture that He's preaching here?

Sometimes we forget that our sins stop us from a relationship from that holy God that wants a relationship with us.

We see that John the Baptist came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin.

So that brings me to the thought for today.

I've never thought of this before, but in the preparation of this, it's kind of just gone this route.

John the Baptist was coming and speaking into repentance of sin.

And so people were getting baptized as a picture of this, but listen to this.

Jesus walks up to John the Baptist to get baptized.

What?

Think about John the Baptist's baptisms.

Was because of sin.

Jesus.

Perfect.

Sinless.

Why would he need to be baptized?

So let's look.

So as we as we look through this scripture, this is where we're getting to our main passage now, Matthew 3.

Why was Jesus baptized?

Think about it just for a second.

Before I read that, just something I just Jesus' ministry was for three years.

His public ministry.

Thirty, and he died at thirty-three, right?

Why the birth of Jesus?

We don't know a whole lot to the age of thirty to do his ministry.

Isn't that exactly what the Lord does?

So many times we want all the answers.

I mean, again, if I was God, why would it take 30 years to get Jesus to come here and do what he needed to do in three?

You see what I'm saying?

But I think during this time, we see that Jesus took time to be a man.

Not man, but how to be around people.

I was reading just in my quiet time on Friday, and it was talking about Jesus, he was healing people, and through the time of him healing people, it would say he had compassion for them.

When he fed the 5,000, it says actually he was trying to get away and be by himself, and the multitude started coming, and the Bible says this he had compassion for them.

Do you think that 30 years of being a man and growing and seeing the hurts, the hits on the thumb, that he learned what it was like?

Now I know he was God, he knows all things.

Be careful with what I'm saying.

This is me talking.

But through those 30 years, what he learned how to have compassion and how hard it might be to be human.

You see, you see.

So then let's look in.

So we're building up to this.

John is baptizing, and so here we go.

In Matthew 3, starting in verse 13.

Read with me.

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

But John tried to stop him, saying, I need to be baptized yet by you, and yet you come to me.

Jesus answered him, Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then John allowed him to be baptized.

When Jesus was baptized, he came up immediately from the water.

Picture is baptized.

He comes up out of the water.

The heaven suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove and come down on him.

And the voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son, whom I am well pleased.

What was the question?

Why did Jesus have to be baptized?

Well, we see in verse 15, Jesus answers the question.

He says, Allow uh Jesus answered him, allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill righteousness.

The New King James says, Permit it for now.

The ESV says, let it be so.

Let it be.

Because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.

So my first point of why Jesus would be baptized, need to be baptized, it was because of this.

Jesus' baptism fulfilled all righteousness.

It's important, a prerequisite to understand Jesus' words as he speaks about the word righteousness.

You know, righteous is the state of being or doing right.

Now I want to go a little further with this.

When I was in children's pastor, I told the kids that righteous was a God word.

Now I want to be careful with that.

Listen to me.

Righteous is a God word.

Because no one is righteous.

And I would tell them a quick definition is being right in God's eyes.

Think about that word just for a minute.

Because this is the way for us to fulfill righteousness.

Think about the word righteous.

We see in 1 Corinthians 6.9, it says this don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom?

This means that those who are not right in the sight of God should not expect to be with God.

But then we see in Romans 3.10, it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one.

Uh-oh.

Do you see the picture of righteousness again?

And how extremely grateful we are for grace.

Because this righteousness puts a word on us that we cannot do.

We cannot be right in God's eyes on our own.

That leads us to the gospel.

Listen to one of the verses that is a great picture of the gospel.

There's many of them, but listen to what 2 Corinthians 5.21 says.

In submitting to John's baptism, Jesus is pointing to the people's needs.

Matthew pictures Jesus as dedicating himself to the task of making sinners righteous.

Do you see the picture of Jesus fulfilling righteousness?

Takes us back to the whole reason he came.

Then I think another picture of the baptism of why Jesus was baptized.

Jesus' baptism provided a public display and a declaration of his connection with the Father.

Well, you say, what do you mean by that?

Well, John the Baptist, up to this point, knew he was related to Jesus.

He knew a lot about Jesus.

Jesus was doing a lot to kind of get his attention, you know.

But did he really know that Jesus was the Messiah?

You know, he's a man still.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, but listen to this.

Listen to what John 1.29 says.

Listen, just listen, you can hear this.

The next day after the baptism, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is the one I told you about.

After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he exists before me.

I don't know him.

Listen, listen, he says, I don't know him, but I came baptizing him with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.

And then verse 32 says this.

And John testified.

Okay?

John testifies.

John what's the word testify?

I saw it.

I'm a witness, right?

So it says, and John testified.

I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him.

Then listen, it continues.

I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me.

God told him, the one you see the Spirit descend and rest on, he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

I have seen, John says, I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.

Through Jesus being baptized, the witnesses there saw what?

The Holy Spirit come down, rest on Jesus, and then they heard God.

And what did God say?

This is my son, whom I'm well pleased.

If you think about it, the whole Trinity is right there, and we see it all in Scripture.

And can you imagine being there?

John went from what?

Knowing Jesus and knowing about Jesus to what?

Knowing Jesus and who he was.

Because why?

Because he witnessed the Holy Spirit pointing him out.

It reminds me when I was coaching, we had this eighth-grade boy that was a lot taller than everyone.

He was just a great athlete.

He was a quarterback, and our quarterback on our ninth grade team was not any, it wasn't very good.

So we decided to bring up this eighth grader to be the quarterback on our ninth grade football team.

So he comes up, he's really good, he's got the skills, everything's going well.

The problem was for two games, the ninth graders did not quite like the eighth grader.

So it just wasn't going well.

You know, it was like he would get in the huddle, no one would listen.

It just he was not the leader like he needed to be, and the guys did not respond to him.

So after a couple games, our head coach gets everyone together after the game, and he says, guys, whether you like it or not, this is our ninth grade quarterback.

It's the eighth grade kid.

This is our ninth grade quarterback.

And from this moment on, you're going to respect him like you respect me.

He's the leader of this team.

And everything's going to run through him.

So we practice.

Next game, all of a sudden, we see a change.

And it's kind of the same picture I want to say here.

It was the idea of what?

When the coach said, This is our man, everyone responded.

Same picture of this.

God says to John and this, Jesus, this is my man.

And you see how it changed?

You see the importance of that at the baptism?

There were eyewitnesses that saw God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus all together.

Okay, so that's the third, I think we see in this baptism.

Well, it even got to the point of John was so in now that we see later on in the book of John, John the Baptist says this.

He, talking about Jesus, he must increase, and I must what?

Decrease.

Remember we talked about earlier the whole region was coming to John to be baptized?

I mean, John had a following.

This was probably a little bit humbling for John.

But John came and he'll say it for this particular purpose.

But then a picture of where John was at in his life as he's in ministry, he said, what?

He must increase and I must decrease.

I think another point of Jesus being baptized was Jesus' baptism serves as an example for us today.

Jesus was baptized.

Does that mean we should be baptized also?

It's certainly true that Jesus came to be an example for us.

We even see that Peter said that the suffering of Christ serves as an example that you should follow his steps.

Isn't that what being a Christian is?

Being Christ-like?

We see in Matthew 3.13, well, I want to read Matthew 3.13 again.

For those who think baptism is not that big a deal, I just not too long ago had someone in my office that was nervous about being baptized.

He thought it wasn't that big a deal.

And he sat in my office and he said, Well, the thief on the cross wasn't baptized.

And so for the people that think baptism's not really that big a deal, I want to reread Matthew 3.13.

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

So many times we think as we go through different things, and there's a lot of people here today that are struggling in some areas.

They've got family.

We had one of our young adults that was doing a tow truck and it got hit.

Thank the Lord he's alive.

I mean, we've got a lot.

And so many times we can look through and say, God, are you even up there?

But when we look at this scripture, Jesus did not come to the Jordan by accident.

In fact, from where Jesus was in Galilee to this point, it was almost about 60 miles.

And this verse of scripture didn't say, oh, Jesus was checking on John and decided to get baptized.

It says, then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized.

Jesus, in my mind, reading what scripture says, he left Galilee with a purpose to be what?

Baptized.

Can you imagine as Jesus was walking, the disciples are saying, why are we going to the Jordan?

What?

So I think that's a picture of how important baptism is to Jesus.

But I think there's another picture of it.

Remember, that was right before his ministry started.

At the very end of his ministry, after he died, he was resurrected.

He was about to go to heaven.

He's with his disciples.

Listen to what Matthew 28, 19 says.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, was baptized.

And then at the very end of his ministry on earth, he said to what?

Go make disciples and baptize.

The primary reason for a believer to be baptized is obedience in Christ.

We here at the church do not believe that that baptism saves you.

You know the question that you, when you're out, many of you shared this with me as you are out witnessing to others.

The question that we used to use and we still can use is if you were standing before God right now, why would he let you into heaven?

Well, I'm just going to tell you this.

If you say, well, I was baptized at first Baptist Church, it's not going to work.

When I was growing up, when I was uh in kindergarten, I walked the aisle, got caught up in a lot of stuff, ended up getting baptized, and um thought that was my salvation experience.

Going to student, different things, doing my own thing, trying to impress the people around me by my dad was a preacher, by impressing them by how good Matt Passmore was.

Oh, he must be a Christian because he was good.

You know, I was living that life that I'll never forget when I was 15 years old.

I was sitting in a winter retreat.

Before the service started, I was ready to go do the evening activities.

I was not really worried about what was taking place in the service.

But that particular service, as soon as the guy started preaching, my heart was changed in a way I cannot describe it.

That day during the service, I realized that my sin of trying to be good, my sin of just being Matt Passmore separated me from a holy, just, perfect God who was righteous.

And I was not.

And I knew that day that I was a sinner.

And that day I gave my life to Christ and said, Lord, I want you to be Lord and center of my life.

And it changed me.

That was my salvation experience.

But for years after that, being the preacher's son, I wanted to revert back to my kindergarten baptism as my baptismal experience.

And I was doing fine.

I was saved.

And then when I was in college, we had a revival.

And on Sunday morning, the pastor talked about being baptized.

Sunday night he talked about being baptized.

Monday he talked about being baptized.

Now I'm sure he talked about other things, but I'm sitting in the pew, and what am I hearing?

Baptism.

Baptism.

So on Wednesday night, the last service, I went forward and I said, you know, I've told him a story, and I have not been biblically baptized, and I need to be baptized.

You know what my student pastor said?

And I was embarrassed.

I was thinking people are going to come up to me and say, Well, you're the pastor's son.

Why are you waiting until you're 19 to be baptized?

I struggle with that because I my pride.

Remember, I told you my whole life I was trying to be good, so people thought I was that perfect Christian.

You know what?

I did not have one person.

Not one person say, Wow, I thought you were already baptized.

Everyone celebrated that I got it right and I was biblically baptized.

My student pastor, I'll never forget this.

My student pastor comes up to me.

He said, I didn't know you.

Because I, you know, I tried to hide.

He goes, I knew there was something missing.

Because what is baptism?

Baptism does not save us, but once we are saved, it tells people who our Lord is.

Jesus' baptism serves as an example for us.

I cannot tell you how many times a kid has come forward in my ministry throughout the years.

And before we baptize them, we talk to their parents.

And the example of the kid being baptized gives me a chance to share the gospel with a mom or dad who does not come to church.

The example of baptism brings families to fill a row to watch someone get baptized.

The importance of baptism is the idea of we are not our own anymore.

We belong to God, and that's what he wants us to do, and that's what?

To be baptized.

And if Jesus did it, and we are to be Christ-like, isn't it something that we should look into also?

Even today.

Pastor is in Little Rock.

His son-in-law is getting biblically baptized today.

He'd been saved for a while, a little bit like my story, and today he's getting biblically baptized, so Pastor wants to go be a part of that.

What a service to talk about baptism.

He's getting to go do that.

So that's a picture of the importance of baptism.

So here's my question as we close today.

I want you to think about this.

I don't want to start with have you been baptized?

My first question is do you realize that you are not righteous and that you need a righteous holy God to forgive you of your sins?

That's number one.

If you can't answer that, yes, be thinking through that.

We'd love to talk to you when church is over.

But then I do want to come to the point of baptism.

Are you biblically baptized?

It is truly the first step of obedience to walking with Christ daily.

And many of you could be sitting just like me pridefully going, Well, I don't want anyone to know I'm not baptized.

I promise you this.

I learned it, the church will just celebrate it.

And then I want to challenge you this.

If you're saved, you've been baptized, biblically baptized, I want to challenge you this.

When was the last time you thought of your salvation experience and your baptism?

The other day a guy was in my office and we were sitting in the office.

I said, tell me about when you were saved.

You know what the first thing he said is?

Wow, that's been a long time since I thought of that.

That's scary.

So I want to challenge you today.

If you haven't thought of it a long time, maybe you need to stop right now and think about it.

Thank the Lord for your salvation experience.

And think about the picture of baptism.

The picture of being buried with Christ and raised again for the fullness of life.

Will you pray with me?

Dear God, I just come before you now, just so uh thankful for your word.

Thank you for the example of Jesus.

And Lord, if there is someone in this room today or someone that's watching online that for the first time they realize that their sin is separating for them from you, Lord, I ask you just to reveal their heart of what they need to do, and that is stop and give their life to you.

Lord, if there's someone in this room that hasn't been baptized, biblically, Lord, I ask you just to stir in their heart to the first step of obedience.

And Lord, just thank you that we have a church that teaches what salvation is and what baptism is, so that we can do, like you said, in the last part of the ministry, and that is to go make disciples and baptize them.

Lord, as we take time, we want to give you this invitation.

We want you to continue to move in the hearts of our people.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.