{"id":1729,"date":"2022-09-25T13:18:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-25T12:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2022-09-25T13:18:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-25T12:18:54","slug":"the-baptism-of-jesus-and-our-own-matthew-31-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1729","title":{"rendered":"The baptism of Jesus and our own Matthew 3:1-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

It had been 30 years since Jesus had been born in a stable and laid in a manger. 28 years since the family had returned from exile in Egypt to their home in Nazareth. 18 years since the boy Jesus had gone missing only to be found in the Temple in Jerusalem \u2013 His Father\u2019s house. Jesus had spent 30 years preparing for the day when God\u2019s salvation would be revealed. Also in anticipation of that day, God had sent John the Baptist to prepare the way
\nMatthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.\u2019 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
\n\u2018A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
\n\u201cPrepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.\u201d \u2019
\nJohn the Baptist had begun his revival meetings on the bank of the Jordan.
\nMatthew 3 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the River Jordan.
\nSo Jesus also came to be baptised by John because the time had come for Jesus to begin His ministry. It was the beginning of three momentous years \u2013 the beginning of the road to the cross of Calvary. Jesus’s baptism was unique, But at the same time Jesus’s baptism was the pattern for all baptisms of all Christians. So as we look at Matthew\u2019s account of how Jesus was baptised by John we can also understand what baptism as believers means for us. And the first thing to say is:
\nBaptism is A NEW BEGINNING
\nA new beginning for Jesus:
\nA few weeks ago we thought about the way Jesus grew from being a baby.
\nLuke 2 40 \u2026 The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
\nWe saw Jesus at the age of 12 remaining in Jerusalem after his family had left, listening to the teachers and asking them questions in the Temple, which he called \u201cmy Father\u2019s house\u201d. After that incident we read,
\nLuke 2 52 \u2026 Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
\nSo Jesus grew until the age of 30 when John the Baptist began his \u201cget right with God\u201d campaign. The time had come for Jesus to leave his trade as the carpenter\u2019s apprentice in Nazareth. That was the right time for Jesus to take up his destiny and begin his own ministry of preaching and healing and driving out demons. When Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan that marked a new beginning in Jesus\u2019s life.
\nFor us too \u2013 baptism is a new beginning
\nBeliever\u2019s baptism marks the beginning of the Christian life. It is a declaration that a believer has been saved. Some people think that a person has to achieve a certain level of holiness or Christian maturity before they can be baptised as believers. That view is mistaken. Christian baptism is the mark of the BEGINNING of the life of faith and discipleship. As soon as a person puts their faith in Christ they are ready to be baptised. This was the case for the first Christians on day of Pentecost and the pattern for the Ethiopian Official who met Philip the evangelist in the desert. Jesus himself defined baptism as the sign that people were becoming his disciples.
\nMatthew 28: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising 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.\u201d
\nMake disciples and baptise them. Being baptized is the outward sign which Jesus himself has commanded which shows that a person has become a disciple of Jesus.
\nBaptism is confirmation of God\u2019s love
\nFor Jesus
\n16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, \u2018This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.\u2019
\nLuke\u2019s recording of the voice from heaven is even more glorious. \u201cYou are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.\u201d
\nWe talked a few weeks ago about how Jesus grew up to know more and more that he was actually the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us. The words God spoke when Jesus was baptized confirmed to Jesus and to those who were watching that he was truly the Son of God. \u201cYou are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.\u201d
\nFor all Christians
\nBaptism is the confirmation of God\u2019s love as well. As they are baptized as believers some Christians experience a new depth of God\u2019s love, or discover more of God\u2019s joy, or receive a new sense of God\u2019s peace.
\nBaptism is EMPOWERING FOR SERVICE
\nEmpowering for Jesus
\n16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, \u2018This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.\u2019
\nThe Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the image of a dove and landed on him. This was a visible sign that God was empowering Jesus for his ministry. John the Baptist had said this about the ministry of Jesus.
\nMatthew 3 11 \u2018I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
\nJesus the Messiah came to bring cleansing to Israel, in the power of the Holy Spirit and of fire. Jesus himself explained that he did not work all his amazing miracles of healing and deliverance in his own strength but by the the power of the Holy Spirit.
\nMatthew 12 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
\nWhen the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism it was to equip him for his ministry.
\nEmpowering for service for all Christians
\nSomeone has said, \u201cbaptism is ordination to the principal order of ministry\u201d. In other words, baptism commissions and empowers every Christian to serve God in the church and the world. And that is for EVERY Christian! Many Christians find that when they are baptized God fills them with the Holy Spirit in all kinds of ways equipping them to serve God in the church and the world. It is the Holy Spirit who transforms us to be like Jesus and Who gives us power to be witnesses for Jesus.
\nBaptism is also identification with God’s people
\nIn Jesus\u2019s baptism He identified himself with the nation of Israel as their Messiah.
\nFor all Christians our baptism is identification with the church. Every Christian is a member of the church \u2013 part of God\u2019s family, a member of the body of Christ. It is good to express that by being identified with a local expression of the church and having your name on the membership list of the church. But whether we choose to join the church in that way or not, every Christian IS a part of the body of Christ and being baptized marks that joining of the church.
\nBaptism is a witness to the world
\nFor Jesus
\nWe read this about John the Baptist in John\u2019s Gospel.
\nJohn 1 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, \u201cLook, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, \u2018A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.\u2019 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.\u201d
\nGod had sent John to prepare the way for Jesus and he had told John what to expect.
\n32 Then John gave this testimony: \u201cI saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, \u2018The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.\u2019 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.\u201d
\nGod had told John in advance about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove. And God had declared that this person would indeed be the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This was how John the Baptist would know who Jesus was, and this was the message John declared to his followers. In this way, Jesus\u2019s baptism demonstrated who Jesus was.
\nBapsism is a witness to the world for all Christians
\nWhen a person is baptized as a believer they confess their faith in Jesus as saviour and Lord. These words of testimony, and the act of being baptized, are their witness to the world of the saving power of Jesus.
\nJesus’s baptism was the pattern for all baptisms of all Christians. Believer\u2019s baptism marks a new beginning. It is a sign of God\u2019s love and at the same time an empowering for service. Baptism is identifying with God\u2019s people and it is a powerful witness to the world. Jesus’s baptism was the pattern for all baptisms. And at the same time the baptism of Jesus was unique.
\nBaptism marks the forgiveness of sins \u2013 for everybody except Jesus
\nThe baptism John the Baptist brought marked forgiveness of sins for the people of Israel.
\nMatthew 3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.\u201d
\nluke3:5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River.
\nThe act of baptism symbolised washing and cleansing and forgiveness. In the same way
\nBeliever\u2019s baptism marks forgiveness of sins for all Christians
\nActs 2:38 Peter replied, \u201cRepent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off\u2014for all whom the Lord our God will call.\u201d
\n40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, \u201cSave yourselves from this corrupt generation.\u201d 41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
\nBeliever\u2019s baptism is God\u2019s appointed outward sign of the inward reality that a person\u2019s sins have been forgiven and they have been born again to eternal life.
\nBaptism signifies FORGIVENESS OF SINS \u2013 FOR EVERYBODY ELSE BUT NOT FOR JESUS
\nJesus was without sin. He never once did anything wrong or said anything wrong or even thought anything wrong. The apostle Peter said about Jesus \u201cHe committed no sin.\u201d
\nHebrews 4: 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are\u2014yet was without sin.
\nJesus was not baptized for the forgiveness of his own sins \u2013 he had no sin. Instead Jesus identified himself with the sins of every other human being. Three years later, on the cross Jesus took all the sins of the whole world on his shoulders. By being baptized, Jesus was identifying with all the lost sinners he came to save.
\nSo Jesus did not need to be baptized as a mark of forgiveness of sins, why then was Jesus baptized?
\n\u201cTo fulfil all righteousness\u201d
\n13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, \u201cI need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?\u201d
\n15 Jesus replied, \u201cLet it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.\u201d Then John consented.
\nJesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. In other words. Jesus was baptised because it was the right thing to do. Because God had commanded it. Baptism for Jesus was supremely an act of obedience to his Father. In the same way, Christians are baptized as believers because it is the right thing to do.
\nMay I share my own experience of believer\u2019s baptism. Growing up with no contact with any church, I became a Christian when I was 16. The first church I became involved with was a United Reformed Church and there I became a church member but they didn\u2019t offer believer\u2019s baptism. Soon after I became a teacher and moved to Watford I became a member of Bushey Baptist Church who again welcomed me into church membership without raising the question of being baptized because I had been a church member with the URC. After a couple of years, I had become a Home Group leader and also a lay-preacher around Baptist churches in Hertfordshire, and I first began to consider the possibility of training to become a minister. At that point the minister asked me whether I would like to be baptized as a believer. I had been a Christian for 8 years. But then that was the time when it seemed right for me to be baptized. For me, my baptism was not so much to show that I had become a Christian, but more as a preparation for the next stage of Christian service. Being baptised as a believer just seemed to be the right thing to do at that time. That is my story.
\nSo what could Believer\u2019s Baptism mean for you?
\nA new beginning \u2013 start of Christian life
\nConfirmation of God\u2019s love
\nEmpowering for Service
\nIdentification with God\u2019s people
\nA witness to the world.
\nA mark of the forgiveness of sins
\nJesus didn\u2019t need to be baptized. If anybody ever did not need to be baptized it was Jesus! But
\n15 Jesus replied, \u201cLet it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.\u201d
\nJesus was baptized as an act of obedience to God. Should not we who are his followers, his disciples, do the same!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It had been 30 years since Jesus had been born in a stable and laid in a manger. 28 years since the family had…<\/span><\/p>\n

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