Be baptised!

Matthew 3:13-17

 The scene is set in the preceding passage, which Brian spoke about last week. People were coming to John to be baptised in preparation for the coming Messiah. Their baptism was a sign of repentance and they may well have confessed their sins as they were baptised.

 

 But step back a bit and get an even bigger picture.

READ Luke 1:35-45.

I want you to note that Elizabeth was a relative of Mary. So the events we have just read about were part of the family story.  John would have known about Jesus from his mother.

 

Now as we read this story we have the entry of Jesus into his public ministry. Up to now he is family, a few people have noted the exceptional nativity story, but his baptism launched him into the headlines. John the Baptist saw to that.

 

 Jesus was in Nazareth we are told by Mark and he hears of John’s preaching and baptising so he goes to see and be part of the action.  In that sense this is nothing more than evidence of Jesus’ interest. A bit like Paul McCartney meeting John Lennon at a church fete. What followed was anything but normal.

 

First John knew Jesus was special. He is floored by Jesus asking him to baptise him. John protests that it should be the other way round. Surely this special relation was what mum had described as ‘my Lord’  although in John’s gospel  -John 1:32-34- it is clear John the Baptist did not really know Jesus true identity or did not connect it with his own ministry.

 

 Jesus’ reply tells us a lot “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.”

 

 First that this act was a team effort. John and Jesus fulfilled all righteousness together. Whatever else you make of baptism it is a two person act. One baptizes another is baptized. John baptizes Jesus.

 Secondly, John is not superior to Jesus by baptizing him. He knows he is the servant doing his job. (see 1Cor.1:14)

 Thirdly, Jesus is not confessing his sins – he was sinless. He is identifying himself with sinners. This act is the second step of Jesus placing himself in your shoes. He has been born into a family, he now accepts baptism. He will next be tempted in all points just as we are. Jesus knows what it is to be human. So he deliberately takes the part of a penitent sinner to be the sin bearer.

 Fourthly, Jesus did not associate baptism with Jewish rites of passage. He was circumcised on the eight day, he attended the temple at 12 years of age which was the equivalent of Bar-Mitzvah. So his baptism is saying rites of passage are not the whole story. Being Jewish is not enough to get to heaven. Being born in a Christian family and doing all the Christian rites of passage does not make you a Christian. The fact that baptism became a Christian rite of passage does not distract us from the fact that it is meant to stand as different.

 

Between verse 15 and 16 Jesus is baptised. The act itself is not as significant as what follows. But note that in Luke’s gospel Luke 3:21–22 we read that Jesus was praying after his baptism. So we don’t know whether he was immersed, water poured over him, pushed in head first, or laid on his back or what he was wearing. Such things are not the substance of the Word of God. We can speculate and make petty distinctions. What we do know is that he was baptized.

  The verse for the year is

Be imitators of God as dearly loved children, live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ, he offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God

Ephesians 5:1-2

So are you imitating Jesus?  What is it about this event that you should copy?

 

 Baptism has become the universal recognized event that identifies you with the followers of Jesus. Your brother and sisters worldwide are baptized in every country even when such acts bring persecution. It is only recently that the law was changed in Nepal, for example. Before that a pastor baptizing a new Christian was routinely charged and imprisoned. It is the most common trigger of persecution. And yet Christians are being baptized in spite of persecution. Following Jesus means being baptised. In fact in Matthew 28:19we are commanded by Jesus to baptise disciples of Jesus.

 ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Are you a follower of Jesus. Have you been baptised? If not, then apply here! We long to baptise you.

 

 Jesus identified himself with us in Baptism.  We identify ourselves with him in baptism. He chose to be a human being but without sin. He chose to be the sacrifice for sins so that you could live.

 

This is the first time Jesus publically steps out to be obedient to the Father. It leads to endless conscious decisions to stay the course for your salvation and mine. To imitate God we are called to step out to make the same endless choices to follow his way not ours. Baptism was the result of Jesus leaving Nazareth to see John baptising in Jordan. Baptism for us was a choice made after having made that choice to put our faith in him for salvation.

 

 In Romans 6: 3-4 Paul draws out what is demonstrates: ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

 

 John’s Baptism was for forgiveness of sins.  It reflected ritual washing for being clean. Acts 22: 16 Ananias says to Paul: ¹⁶ And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

Jesus died for our sins on the cross. His blood washes away our sins. Because of his sacrifice we receive forgiveness of sins. So when we are baptised we identify publically that we are sinners forgiven because Jesus took the punishment for our sins.

 

 

 What happens next is deeply significant.

At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

 

The metaphorical expression “the heavens were opened,” is not uncommon in the OT (Ezek 1:1; Isa 64:1) and refers (as here) to key episodes of revelation and provision (cf. Acts 7:56; 10:11; John 1:51). God is understood as the opener. As far as John is concerned it confirms that the family story about Jesus was true, he was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But its deeper message is that Jesus is Messiah or Christ. The Hebrew and Greek terms mean anointed one. In this sentence we see that God anoints his Son by his Holy Spirit, thereby proclaiming him Messiah or Christ.

This is not the Holy Spirit coming on Jesus. Jesus was God, He, Father and Holy Spirit were one, indivisible, except at the cross. The Holy Spirit is here revealing the identity of Jesus as Messiah. The voice of the Father is declaring him his loved Son. And in addition ‘in whom I am well-pleased’. In this verse God reveals himself more fully than ever before. Father, Son and Holy Spirit being and working as one. The Father sending, The Son being obedient, the Holy Spirit being God present. This is a Messiah that none could have predicted. God himself comes into our world, to stand alongside us and be our substitute. His anointed not with traditional aromatic oils but by the Holy Spirit. The rescue plan is in action. Now we know who the Messiah is. The rest of the book fills in the detail.

 

And God is well pleased with Jesus!

This may seem straightforward approval at first sight but God is speaking about a man. At the dawn of time God created and , we are told in Genesis 1 :31

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. 

 

That delight was turned to the curse as Adam and Eve sinned. And each one of us throughout the generations has reinforced the curse by our sin. There were a few who were identifies as righteous but even they had their failings. But when Jesus was born , he was sinless. He was about his Father’s business. And God has a man he can say “with him I am well pleased."

 

God’s approval of us humans comes from this statement. It is those of us who are ‘in Christ’ who have relieved the forgiveness of sins who have the new life he gives; It is to those God is pleased.  Returning again to Ephesians 5:1-2

a pleasing aroma to God

 

The central theme of the manual for life is Jesus. It is his teaching we are to follow; it is his character thanking and lifestyle we are to imitate. Because he is the one God loves; he is the one God approves of.

 

If you want a relationship with God it comes being ‘in Christ’ in every sense of that expression. Your salvation is by receiving what he has done, your strength today from receiving the Holy Spirit that he sends; your status is that you are seated with him in the heavens; your future will be with him for eternity.  The marvel of the gospel is God makes a way that we can be joined to that most precious and intimate of relations Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But it requires us to life out our daily lives according to his example, his pattern whether in baptism or the temptations to come, or in sacrificial love for God and each other and even our enemies.

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