GRAVITATE TO JESUS

Introduction

-{Matthew 3}

-2024 saw an immense increase on new scientific research about black holes. For example, astronomers found a black hole that is so large it consumes the equivalent mass of one sun per day, making it one of the fastest growing black holes ever observed. Scientists also discovered the first of what they call a black hole triple. They had previously seen binary systems of a black hole and a secondary object in tight orbit. But now they found a black hole that had two suns orbiting around it, expanding their understanding on the gravitational power and pull of black holes.

~And that’s what black holes are--they are a giant gravitational field created by the death of a sun. The gravitational power of a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape it, and it is believed that it even causes time to slow down around its event horizon. Anything coming close to a black hole is overpowered and has no choice but to gravitate toward it.

-While black holes are physical phenomena that have the power of gravitation, we also use similar terms to talk about people or earthly objects. We might say that a certain sports team has such winning potential that sports fans just seem to gravitate toward them. Or we might talk about how someone’s personality and charisma are so powerful that people have a tendency to gravitate toward that person.

-There really are a lot of things that have a gravitational pull. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. So, we have to be really careful who or what we gravitate towards, because if we take up orbit around the wrong kind of people or the wrong kind of teachings or the wrong kind of morals, it will take us down a path that can do us some serious harm.

-And that is why it is best for us to orbit around those people and things that will point us to the ultimate good in our life, and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus is ultimately who we need to gravitate toward every day. And the influences we want in our life are those influences that will push us toward Christ.

-As I continue my study in Matthew, we are looking at the second half of the chapter that talks about John the Baptist’s ministry. He was given a ministry to prepare the hearts of the people to receive their Messiah. In this part of the passage, the time has come for John’s ministry to be fulfilled. We see John prepare people for Jesus, and then we see John being a part of commissioning Jesus to begin Christ’s great ministry.

-And what we find in this preparation and commissioning are the rationale we need for us drawing close and submitting to Him in every way possible. I want you to gravitate toward Jesus and submit to Jesus, motivated by the picture given to us in this passage.

Matthew 3:11-17

Matthew 3:11–17 LSB

11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 13 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. 16 And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him, 17 and behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

-{pray}

-It was prophesied of John that he would make ready the way of the Lord. John prepared people to recognize and receive the Messiah through a call to a true heart repentance that leads to a lifestyle of repentance. Such a change in a person’s heart and life was symbolized by baptism in water accompanied by confession of sin.

-Now, beginning in v. 11, John tells the people about the One for whom he made all this preparation. He describes the character, attributes, and actions that would mark the One to whom he (and all of history) had been pointing. He is trying to cause people to gravitate toward this One, for He is our only hope.

-Then the time came for this One to be publically commissioned for the ministry for which He had been sent—a ministry prepared for Him before the foundation of the world. The events surrounding this commissioning indicate even more reasons and motivations that this is the One to whom all of humanity must gravitate. From this passage I want to describe the lessons given on how we can gravitate to Jesus, the One who alone can change our lives for the good not only on earth, but for all eternity. How do we gravitate to Jesus? First, we:

1) Recognize His eternal worth (v. 11)

-In v. 11, John the Baptist describes for his listeners the One for whom all this preparation is taking place. He says that the One who is coming after him (the One whose ministry would supersede his own ministry) is mightier, stronger, more powerful than he is. Here is John the Baptist, dressed like a prophet, speaking with boldness and clarity like a prophet, who many probably saw as a powerful and influential figure. And John says the One who would follow would be even more powerful than him.

-John is pointing to the superiority of the One for whom he was making preparation. This Messiah, this Chosen One of God, is superior to John, and is superior to anything and anyone else. As is recorded in the gospel of John, the baptizer John said of this One HE WHO COMES AFTER ME HAS BEEN AHEAD OF ME FOR HE EXISTED BEFORE ME. The Messiah would be mightier in power, mightier in spirit, and mightier in character because He is the One who has existed for all eternity.

-And to make sure that the people understood this superiority, John said, I AM NOT FIT TO REMOVE HIS SANDALS. If a household was rich enough to have servants, the lowliest task that a servant could have is to remove the sandals of the house owners and their guests. You don’t have cars and such, and so you are walking along unpaved streets where animals also walk. So, it’s a low, dirty, menial task. In fact, a Jewish house owner wouldn’t allow his Jewish servants to do the task, but leave it for the foreigner, the Gentile. It was a low, nasty job.

-And here is John the Baptist saying that he isn’t even worthy to the dirtiest job for the Messiah, much less anything else. John is pointing to the eternal, unmatched worth of Jesus. It’s so hard to describe the contrast between Jesus’ worth against everything else that exists because nothing can even come close. It’s beyond the difference between the worth of the smallest one-celled amoeba compared to the grandest monarch who ever lived.

-We normally think so highly of ourselves. We think that we are so important and everything is about us. And we may not say it, but we think that we’re so neat and great and special. But were it not for the value and worth that Christ gives to us Himself, we are nothing. And in comparison to Jesus, we are nothing. When confronted by the worth of Jesus, Peter broke down and cried DEPART FROM ME, FOR I AM A SINFUL MAN. When visited by the resurrected Jesus, the apostle John just fell down like he were a dead man. Do you think you can act so nonchalantly toward Jesus?

-But the amazing thing is that the most worthy One who exists makes you an object of His love such that He died for you. But this isn’t something to brag about. This is something that ought to cause you to completely shift your value system and priorities. The One who has ultimate worth dictates to you and me what is truly worthy of our time, effort, and attention. He determines our focus.

-And it also gives us a proper perspective on ourselves. We are not the end all be all. Everything doesn’t exist for us, but we exist for Christ, who is eternally worthy. So, we gravitate toward Christ recognizing this truth. Then, secondly, we:

2) Receive His eternal gift (vv. 11-12)

-In v. 11 John makes a distinction between his baptism and the baptism of the One who was coming after him. John’s baptism was an outward sign of the inward choice of repentance. It was symbolic. This is in comparison to Messiah, Jesus. His baptism would be with the Holy Spirit and fire.

-This is not talking about water baptism, but with what the Messiah would immerse others. The word baptism is related to the idea of immersion, so the Messiah would immerse people with the Holy Spirit and fire. We see the baptism of the Holy Spirit begin in Acts 2. Jesus’ followers received the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit Who would apply Jesus’ salvific work and empower believers for life and ministry. And after Pentecost, anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ would receive the Holy Spirit at the time of their conversion, who would then work in their life to make him or her more like Christ.

-The gift of salvation includes the gift of the Holy Spirit. Unlike what some others teach, there is no second, subsequent baptism of the Holy Spirit that is separated from someone’s conversion. There are those that teach that when you get yourself ready enough or holy enough, you get a second experience of the Holy Spirit that shows itself through charismatic gifts. But that is not the biblical teaching, and it goes against what John is saying here about the baptism given by the Messiah.

-The biblical witness is that when a person believes that Jesus died for them and rose for them, that they are immediately converted, adopted as a child of God, justified before God the Father, and baptised by or indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That does not mean that a person all of a sudden becomes perfect, but is given the agent through whom God works to apply salvation and empower for a great work. This is the indwelling or baptism of the Spirit. This is different from the filling of the Spirit which is something that occurs repeatedly to empower believers to proclaim God’s word boldly. Not every believer is filled all the time, but every believer is baptized and indwelt all the time. But, you must believe in Jesus to receive this baptism.

-John attests to the fact that the Messiah will also baptize with fire. There is debate about what is meant by fire here. Some believe it is talking about the fire of judgment, that I will touch upon here in a minute. Others believe that it is speaking of the refining fires of sanctification--making believers more holy over time. Both of these are a reality. For the believer, the Holy Spirit will work in your life to refine you, to burn away the sin and worldliness and fleshliness that entangle your walk with Christ, freeing you to live for Him. However, the other kind of fire is a reality, and that leads to our third lesson, where we:

3) Remember His eternal judgment (vv. 11-12)

-We are told in v. 12:

Matthew 3:12 LSB

12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

-John the Baptist was using a picture that would be familiar to the agriculturally-based Jews. The threshing floor was a place where farmers would take their wheat and other grains that were still mixed together with the chaff--the husks that contained the wheat or other grain. They didn’t have all the fancy equipment we have now, so they’d have to do everything through manual labor. It would be a pain to try to take each piece of grain out of the husks.

-So, what they would do is take a winnowing fork (think, maybe a pitchfork) and they would toss the harvest into the air. The grain was heavier than the chaff. So, when tossed in the air by the winnowing fork, the grain would fall back down to the ground. Meanwhile, the chaff or husk was very light and the wind would take it and blow it to a different part of the threshing floor. You would keep tossing everything in the air until eventually all you had left in the middle of the floor was the wheat or other grain, and the chaff had blown elsewhere. You would then gather the grain into your barn for use, and the chaff was useless so you would just use it as fuel for fire.

-So, by using this picture, John is proclaiming that the Messiah would make a distinction between people--some would be treated as chaff and others would be treated as wheat. Looking at his own ministry of preparation pointing to the Messiah, this is the distinction. Those who would repent (change their mind and turn from where they were headed in life) and then receive the Messiah (believe in who He was and in what He accomplished) they would be saved. They would be the wheat gathered into the Messiah’s barn--they would forever be a part of Messiah’s Kingdom.

-But those who did not repent, those who did not believe in and receive Messiah, would be like chaff thrown into an unquenchable fire. This is a picture of eternal judgment--not annihilation, but conscious torment of God’s wrath. But it would not have to be this way. Repent and believe in the Messiah--Jesus. Gravitate toward Him for He is worthy and He gifts those who come to Him. But know that if you refuse, judgment is the outcome. The reality of this judgment ought to cause us to seek Him, gravitate to Him, to receive His mercies. A fourth way to gravitate is to:

4) Resemble His eternal faithfulness (vv. 13-15)

-The time had arrived for Messiah to be revealed and to begin His ministry. John had been paving the way, and so it was only natural that John would be involved in the commissioning of the Messiah. So, our passage tells us that Jesus came down from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

-We are not told exactly how John knew that Jesus was the One for whom he was making preparation, but he recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Later on, when he was in prison, he had moments of doubt. However, Jesus assures him of His identity.

-Jesus wanted to be baptized by John, but John recognized that Jesus had no need for this baptism. Again, John earlier said that his baptism was a baptism of water for repentance. John preached repentance--a return to God, a turning from sin, a change of lifestyle, a concentration on holiness. In some form or fashion, every human needs to repent. John recognized this even in himself. But John also recognized that Jesus did not need this. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized by John because Jesus didn’t have anything to repent of. Jesus is perfect and sinless and always walked in obedience.

-John knew that Jesus was sinless, that He was mightier than John, that this is the One whose sandal he was not worthy to remove. So, it seemed the most absurd thing for John to baptize Jesus. Jesus is the One who ought to baptize John. John is just a sinful human who needs forgiveness and mercy--Jesus is the One who offers forgiveness and mercy.

-But Jesus says PERMIT IT AT THIS TIME; FOR IN THIS WAY IT IS FITTING FOR US TO FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS. There is a lot of debate on what exactly Jesus meant. I believe there a couple of meanings that Jesus was referencing.

-First, if Jesus were to provide righteousness to sinners, He needed to identify with the sinners whom He would save. Second, by submitting to this baptism, Jesus demonstrated humility and obedience to God’s will, setting a precedent for His followers to follow the righteous path that God had set before them.

-No, Jesus was not a sinner needing repentance. But, according to Scripture, Jesus who knew no sin would become sin in order to then pass along His righteousness to those who would believe. This was the eternal plan of the Father, and Jesus would follow and obey. As Paul says in Philippians, Jesus took on the form of humanity and became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross. Jesus would be faithful to His part of God’s plan of redemption, and if we would gravitate toward Him, we ought to have a heart that would seek faithfulness to the part of the plan that God the Father has for us. Finally and quickly, a final lesson, to:

5) Respect His eternal character (vv. 16-17)

-After Jesus is baptized, Jesus comes up from the water and the heavens were opened, and John sees the Spirit of God in a visible manifestation come upon Jesus. This is in fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies about Jesus; for example:

Isaiah 42:1 LSB

1 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul is well-pleased. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

-This manifestation of the Spirit is accompanied by the voice of the Father identifying exactly who Jesus is: THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL-PLEASED.

-Here we have each member of the Trinity demonstrating that the work that Jesus would take up was anointed and appointed by the Godhead for all of eternity, and it would be something that they would do together. We might could say that the Father planned redemption, the Son accomplished redemption, and the Spirit applies redemption.

-But this was also a supernatural testimony to Jesus’ identity and the work for which He was sent. Jesus is the Son of God, meaning that Jesus shares in the divine nature and essence. And at the same time He is human, identifying with sinful humanity and providing for humanity’s salvation from sin.

-If we are to draw near to Jesus, we need to know Him for who He is. He has eternal worth because He is the eternal God. He is able to save and give us the Holy Spirit because He is the eternal God. He is able to sit in the eternal courtroom and judge humanity because He is the eternal God. This shouldn’t repel us from Him, but draw us to Him. The God who has always existed so loved you that He took on humanity to reach to you, to forgive you, to change you. He stretches out His hand to you, calling you to Himself. Will you gravitate toward Him, or will you place the orbit of your life around something that is so much less?

Conclusion

-In science, gravity is a force that almost every discipline has to deal with. Gravity affects geology, affecting how things function on earth, like the strength of tides. Gravity affects astronomy, because it is gravity that keeps planets revolving around suns, and solar systems revolving in their galaxies, and galaxies revolving in the whole universe. Theologically, we know that God holds things together. But scientifically, it’s gravity that holds the universe together.

-We are all pulled to gravitate toward something. Where does the orbit of your life normally center?

-Christian, if your life normally gravitates toward the things of the world or the flesh, come to the altar and pray that God would change your orbit, to move you closer to Christ. Or maybe you know someone who gravitates to the wrong things, come and pray for them.

-But if you have never believed in Jesus, your life orbits around yourself, and you are headed to the black hole of judgment. But if you believe in Jesus, you become a child of God, forgiven of sin, granted eternal life...