Humbled and Glorified

Call to Worship: Isaiah 49:13// Prayer

Adoration: through your wisdom + power you have brought us comfort; we were lost in sin, darkness, fear—you gave us a redeemer who has lead us to honor, holiness, light.

Confession: Yet though your Son has lead us into light, we have so often walked back into the shadows: you have proven your love for us, but we have failed to believe it; you have provided all that we need, yet we have spoken bitterly about what we don’t have; you have given us yourself, but we still try to satisfy our hearts with the things of the world. Father, forgive us, for we have sinned against you.

Thanksgiving: But because of the blood of your Son, we come boldly into your throne room. You have delighted to sprinkle us clean; you have adopted us; you have guaranteed your love to us forever. And so, we receive your forgiveness with joy.

Supplication: as we have been declared righteous in Christ, make us righteous in life: in the battle with sin, teach us to cling to you; fill our hearts with love for you + neighbor, as an overflow of your love for us // American church: praise for thousands of congregations holding fast to the gospel… but, so much disease in the American church—when we do not honor you as holy, convict us; when we put our trust in a man/clever human strategies/national prosperity, grant us to turn back to your gospel; when we compromise in the face of pressure, expose our cowardice, that we may receive grace + courage from you // help us preach the gospel to the lost in our country; open their eyes to their emptiness; give us boldness and love to reach them // Brothers + sisters in China: as they are arrested/fined/shamed for your name, please give them love for their gov’t enemies; joy in suffering for your name; help as they struggle with the same false doctrines and spiritual unhealth that we do; protection, daily bread, holiness, boldness // to the word

Family Matters

Jeff—mom + sister continue to improve; current plan: home mid December

John + Denise sign membership book

Benediction

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon

Intro

People love a strongman.

Daniel Ortega, the current president of Nicaragua, entered office in 2007. He is what’s called an ‘Authoritarian Populist’—that is, a ruler after the people’s own heart. A ruler who promised wield expansive personal power to end chaos and injustice they were suffering. And in his first decade, riding a wave of national prosperity, he did do a lot of good for the citizens of his country. But now that the wave of prosperity is over, his expansive power has been turned against them, to keep hold of his high position.

People love a strongman, until they don’t.

Now, I’m picking on Nicaragua, and that’s really not fair. Because this pattern can be found the world over. The people of Israel wanted a king like the kings of the nations—a king with greatness and military power, to defend them from the chaos and injustice they were suffering. A king after their own heart. So God gave them one: Saul. And he was good at first. But by the end he was a disaster.

And we should not think that we are immune from this. In fact, we are all infected with it. The world has been evil and chaotic ever sense the fall. And so our hearts, also infected with evil, begin to say: “We need a strongman—someone with the power to do something about this chaos. To cut a path of greatness through this nonsense, so that we can follow.”

Beloved: the strongman is a lie, and this story about Jesus’ baptism exposes it.

In this story, we meet the only king who can actually redeem us from all this. You could call him a strongman in a sense, I suppose. But not in the worldly sense. He is not a king after our own hearts, but after God’s own heart. And we desperately need to have our souls adjusted on this, because in direct opposition to the strongman model, Jesus pleased the Father by humbling himself to redeem us.

And in this story—Jesus’ baptism by John—we get this unexpected path of humiliation in two steps:

First, the Worthy One—Jesus—humbles himself to be baptized by the unworthy prophet, John.

Second, the heavens open, and the Father says about the humbled Jesus, “This is the one that pleases me.”

The Surprising Humiliation of the Worthy One

[The Baptism of the Worthy by the Unworthy? The Humiliation of Jesus.]

Now, we are used to the idea that Jesus passed through humiliation to redeem us. We’ve heard it so many times that it isn’t strange to our ears anymore. But put yourselves into John the Baptist’s shoes for a moment: there he is, baptizing sinners for repentance. And what did he just preach to all his fellow sinners? (vs. 11)

Matthew 3:11 ESV

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

That’s how he proclaimed the coming king to them: “When this guy shows up, I won’t even be worthy to be his most lowly slave. And my baptism will be totally obsolete.”

Then, the king shows up, and says, “John, baptize me”

How does John react? (vs. 14)

Matthew 3:14 ESV

John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Notice: John is trying to stop Jesus, but Jesus doesn’t scold him.

Vs. 15, Jesus says, “let it be so now,” or you could say, “permit it this time”—basically, “Yes. You’re right. You baptizing me is flipping things upside-down. I am the Worthy One, whose way you’ve been preparing, whose sandals you are not worthy to carry. But baptize me anyway.”

So apparently, when the true king shows up, his first public act is to humiliate himself—to give himself to be baptized by someone who is far inferior. And not with fanfare or a show, either. But with a simple instruction: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

So then, this is what a true king does, when he shows up to redeem his people—he humbles himself.

[Fulfilling All Righteousness: Jesus Identifying with His People’s Sin]

But brothers and sisters: this was not a random act of humility—a simple act of lowliness, with no point to it.

Notice: Jesus gives a reason in vs. 15: “thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”—But what does that mean?

From one angle, we need to remember that the baptism of John was for sinners—it was a baptism of repentance. For those who did it, it marked a turn from sin to God. But Jesus had no need to repent. He was the sinless savior! So what did this baptism do for Jesus?

It identified him with all those repentant sinners. It symbolized how he joined himself to them—to us, his people.

It was a way of saying, “Though I am pure; though my worth cannot be measured; yet, I declare: I am one of these.”

In this way, he joined himself to his people, so that his righteousness might fulfill all righteousness for us, who have no righteousness of our own.

Think of everyone who came to be baptized: respectable neighbors with hidden sins, prostitutes, tax collectors—every kind of person—many genuinely repenting and longing for salvation. But who would save them? The King who would become one of them, to save them on the basis of his own righteousness.

From another angle, it’s helpful know that this passage focuses on two identities for Jesus: Beloved Son and Suffering Servant. And we’ll see that in a moment in vs. 17. But here, both identities give us a similar picture—

As the ‘Beloved Son’, Jesus is the true and better Isaac—Isaac was the beloved son of Abraham. And like Isaac, Jesus was the son who climbed the fearful mountain to be offered as a sacrifice by the Father

But then the ‘Suffering Servant’ identity takes this a step further. As Isaiah explains about this Servant in 53:10, “it was the will of the Lord to crush him…” and also, “his soul makes an offering for guilt…” And Isaiah explains the result of this in the next verse:

Isaiah 53:11 “...by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

So, Isaiah explained that this Suffering Servant would fulfill all righteousness… how? Joined with his people, he would take their sin on himself, and give them the record of his righteousness in exchange.

So then, this is what the true king did, when he showed up to redeem his people—he humiliated himself by joining himself to us, for our salvation.

[Application/gospel]

BTW: this is important for us to remember as we go through the gospel of Matthew—Jesus will have much to say to us on how to live righteously. And we’ll need to hear and obey his words. But already we can already see that all of the righteousness that Jesus will command us, he will then fulfill for us, by the ‘baptism’ of his death on our behalf. And it is only then—accounted righteous on the basis of his death, and joined to him by the Spirit he gives—already accepted by the Father—that we can begin to learn obedience.

But for some of you, your heart is going to fight to put this out of order. You’re going to try to ‘fulfill all righteousness’ for yourself, to earn your way to God.

Maybe you’re already a believer: but when you sin, you think: “I can’t go back to God quite yet. I need to fulfill a little righteousness by myself before I go back to God.”

Or maybe you’re not a believer, and when you think of Jesus, you think, “Here are all the rules Jesus gave—I need to follow them so that I can become righteous. If I follow them long enough and well enough, maybe then I’ll be counted as righteous, and accepted by God.” Friend, you’ll never make it. You need to be joined to Jesus in faith, counted as though you were righteous, because of his righteous record is gifted to you.

In the end, it’s a matter of reverence: John the Baptist had the reverence to see it—when Jesus showed up he said (vs. 14) “I need to be baptized by you.” He knew that he could not fulfill his own righteousness. But do you have the reverence to see it? There is salvation and acceptance by God in no other name, but the name of Jesus, because Jesus is the King who humiliated himself for our salvation!

The Surprising Vindication of the Humiliated One

But what happened then, after the humiliation of Jesus’ baptism? Vss. 16-17:

Matthew 3:16–17 ESV

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

This is the Father vindicating the Son. He’s saying, “This is the king who pleases me.”

But why? In all of Jesus’ time on earth, why does the Father open heaven and speak his approval in this particular moment?

Well, there seems to be some symbolism here: Jesus was baptized, going down into the waters of humiliation; then he went up from the waters, and the heavens were opened to him—a kind of preview of his death and resurrection to come…

So the picture is this: Jesus humbled himself for our salvation—and the Father’s reaction was to open the heavens to him, send down the Spirit on him, and declare to anyone able to hear, “This king, who just humiliated himself to save his people—he’s my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

And notice: the Father gives his approval of the Son by both action and word.

First: action. The Father opens the heavens to the Son (to him specifically—vs. 16), and then the Son gets to see the Spirit of God descend to him and rest on him. What’s going on there? Well, these are deep waters!

But, it seems to be part of a pattern in Scripture, where the Spirit is closely associated with the Father’s love, or even that the Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. So, although the Son added a human nature to his divine nature, so that he could live as one of us, yet in this moment, the Father pulls back the curtain, and we get a glimpse the Son’s divine glory in his fellowship with the Father.

But in context, the Father is doing this to communicate love to the Son, as if he were saying: “You are the Son I love. And this thing you are doing—humiliating yourself to redeem these people—it give me delight.”

Second: the Father gives his approval by his words. But notice—this is aimed at us: he says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” to anyone able to hear. And in doing so, he has referenced two things from the OT:

First, he has referenced all the ‘Son of God’ or ‘Beloved Son’ figures in the OT—Adam, Isaac, Israel, David, and others—all of these foreshadowed the true Son of God, the beloved Son, the king who would endure humiliation and be offered as a sacrifice for the salvation of God’s people.

Second, he has referenced the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. In Isaiah 42:1, God says:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

And here he is in Matthew, the delight of the Father, anointed by the Spirit to bring justice and salvation to the nations.

So then, the Father’s words tell us this: all shadows and promises of the OT are summed up in this man—the humiliated Savior, in whom the Father’s soul delights.

Conclusion: The King Delightful to God

Compare this King with whoever you like. With Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, or King Herod, or any American President, good or bad. Beloved, there is no comparison. And why is this worth thinking about? Because whatever it is that delights our Father in Heaven, that very thing should also be the delight of our hearts! But that natural and earthly part of us is not inclined to delight in a humiliated Savior.

And the world around us gives us no help! In fact, the world around you lies to you about this, just about every day. What is truly beautiful? What should delight your soul?

Well, election season is coming. And with it, a barrage of voices asking you to entrust your hope to the American political messiah du jour.

Now, it can be dangerous to bring up politics from the pulpit

And please don’t hear me wrong: I’m not saying that Christians should back out of politics. Please, by all means, take your ballot next year and vote according to biblical righteousness and wisdom; in the confusing world of politics, vote as best as you can tell will please the Lord.

But here’s the issue: the world asks you to do more than just vote. It clamors for you to place your hope in one or another presidential candidate, and far too many evangelical Christians allow their hearts to go there—and as an under-shepherd in this congregation, I am jealous for your hearts for Christ.

So understand this: your heart cannot delight in a political strongman, who promises to do great things by the shear weight of his own greatness—and at the same time delight in the king who humiliated himself for your salvation

It will be either one or the other.

But it’s not just in politics that we struggle with this:

If you’re not a believer, the very idea of a humiliated savior may seem absurd to you.

If you are a believer, one potential stumbling block is this: if you acknowledge and delight in a humiliated savior, in a savior who was crushed for your salvation, that will make demands on how you yourself live. When you are deprived of what you love, it will not allow you to sit comfortably in your bitterness—your humiliation is only you walking down the path cut by your humiliated savior.

But here’s the thing: if you belong to him, then he has fulfilled all righteousness for you and brought you to the Father. And so, as you walk the path of humiliation, in union with the Son, the Father also says to you (this shouldn’t be possible, but it is) you are my beloved son, my beloved daughter.