The Baptism of Jesus
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On a visit to the Beethoven museum in Bonn, a young American student became fascinated by the piano on which Beethoven had composed some of his greatest works. She asked the museum guard if she could play a few bars on it; she accompanied the request with a lavish tip, and the guard agreed. The girl went to the piano and tinkled out the opening of the Moonlight Sonata. As she was leaving she said to the guard, "I suppose all the great pianist who come here want to play on that piano."
The guard shook his head. "Padarewski [the famed Polish pianist] was here a few years ago and he said he wasn't worthy to touch it."
Humility… something in our culture we are seemingly losing. Many time we see the incomprehensible rise in some who do not understand that their is such a thing as their place. We are all so narcissistic these days that seeing that there is a place that you have that we are not worthy to hold is considered rude and outdated. I remember at Calvary we would have meetings in Pastor Barry’s office the senior pastor. I always sat in the chair on the side of his desk when we had meetings in the office. Now even when we had meetings in his office and he was not there I would sit in the side chair as I ran the meetings. One person asked how come I did not sit in his chair during the meeting… I said seemingly joking, I’m not worthy enough to sit there. But I was serious. I don’t sit in the bosses chair.
I was at a pastor’s gathering once and a young newly accepted to seminary assistant youth pastor was there as we were having a table talk about some of the doctrinal concerns in the SBC convention in Hawaii. The whole meeting he kept chiming in and bringing up definitions and terms and illustrations. Some of the more seasoned pastors and professors, kept telling him that we know what these things mean… why do you keep telling us what all of this stuff means. We gotta get to the deeper applications so we can set up policies. He kept going. And showing incoherence on the subject. He kept pressing the issues like he knew. Then the pastor next to him saw that he was looking a wikipedia on his phone. We all thought later… isn’t that something… a person today can read a short article on wikipedia and then speak as if you are an expert. Do young pastors today no the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Or does wisdom even matter anymore?
Jujitsu… when people get humbled.
I do marriage counseling from time to time and one of the things that comes up quite a bit. You don’t need to tell us that…We know what we are doing. I ask why is it that you think you know? Have you been married before? Jeanine and I have been married for over 20 years. I would say I might know a little bit about it. What makes a good man and a good woman … they know. What do your parents think? They think he is not a good person, but they don’t know him like I do. Your parent have had dealing with people for many more years than you did. They have dealt with good and bad people for years. You know better than them because?
I had a young man who recently became a Christian and met with me to say that he felt it was time for him to become a elder or deacon. You guy obviously need my help. I can help with the church and make it better. I see what successful churches do and we don’t do that but I know I can help us do the same things. Lets talk about qualifications? Do you qualify? I did not know there was qualifications… but those would help you build a big church. The Bible teaches that a faithful church is what God desires over a large church. He talked about some of the things he wanted to have us implement and then I showed him in the scriptures where those things were not godly and not biblical. At the end of our conversation, he said… I’m a bit over my head here. I did not know church is supposed to be like that and then I took him to revelation where Christ judges the churches and he just stopped.
We like to throw around that our husband is a narcissist, our wife is a narcissist, your friend has narcissistic behavior. Thats the new buzz word in our culture today. But in reality our culture is narcissistic. Our very nature is narcissistic. Some maybe more than others. Everyone is infected by it and with it. Authority is rejected, submission is rejected, no one tells us what to do, no one tells me what to believe, we decide what is right and wrong for ourselves for we and our emotions and desires are the foundations for our morality. Have we lost the essense of what it is to be humble? Is there any humility left? Is our attitude like that of Christ Jesus… he did not consider equality with God something to be held on to. This is something that the modern evangelical church must recapture. Lets take a good look.
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.
The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever.
Humility
Trinity
The Economic Trinity
The first thing we will look at today is how Christ showed us a great example of humility at the start of His ministry. Second, we will look at the wonderful illustration demonstrating the distinct persons of the godhead. Finally, we will see how it is that the trinity in its economy brings about the salvation for man.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to fall into the lap of personally justified narcissism, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will cause us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us up.
I. Humility
-Did not consider equality with God something to be held on to.
A. Wait a minute wait a minute…you are now here standing before me and you think I’m gonna baptize you? You are the Messiah… you are the lamb. You are God made flesh. You are the Son of God. May it not be the case … I should not be baptizing you, you should be baptizing me. May it not be. You know what this reminds me of…
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
B. And the response is kinda the same. But here we have once again the one who Jesus is saying that there is no one born of a woman who is greater than John the baptist and now he is saying may it never be… it cannot be the case. Jesus responds…
Hendrickson writes, “As a general rule what you say is true, but at this particular moment in your and my life, when I am about to begin my public ministry, it is proper that I by means of baptism reaffirm my resolution.
C. Jesus humbled himself. He allowed this humiliation to take place so that righteousness would be fulfilled. This was a moment of consecration for Jesus to begin his public ministry.
“Now set the Levites apart from the rest of the people of Israel and make them ceremonially clean. Do this by sprinkling them with the water of purification, and have them shave their entire body and wash their clothing. Then they will be ceremonially clean.
D. It was a moment to validate the ministry of John the baptist. He was the forerunner. His ministry was valid all he said about me is true all that he pointed to is right here. It is all real. It was also a moment for Jesus to fulfil what the Father had ordained of him as he would begin his ministry in being the suffering servant in Isaiah 53.
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
And we see …
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
E. The Lord is calling us to be like that of Christ. As Christians there should be no narcissism. We are supposed to see others as better than ourselves
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
F. May it never be that the people of the World will ever out humility us.
II. Trinity
-The three persons of the Trinity.
A. This passage is not explicitly illustrating the Divinity of all of the persons in the trinity, it is illustrating the reality of the distinct persons of the trinity. It is exposing the 3 in the 3 in one phrase. I know that for many the problem with the trinity is not the persons but the shared divinity. But the persons of the trinity is a crucial piece of the economic trinity.
B. One of the modern day heresies that is not new but truly apparent, is what is called modalism. Modalism is similar to the early church heresy called Sabellianism… in its denial of the persons of the trinity it forces a belief called patripassionaim… the Father suffered and died. Todays unitarians, Pentecostal holiness, TD Jakes, are all proponents of modalism. Anybody today who uses the Pyramid illustration, the water illustration, the husband, father, son … All trinity illustrations are heresies.
C. Here we see the seperations… Christ was baptized in the water. The heavens open. The Holy Spirit descends like a dove not as a dove. And the voice coming from the heavens saying that this is my Son. So clearly we see the distinct persons of the trinity who all share the same nature. The reason why this is important is we need to keep ourselves from positing patripassionism. That the Father suffered and died on the cross… if there is no distinct persons and if the Father, the Son and the Spirit are all the same person with a different mask on. Did the one person of the Trinity then really die on the cross? If God really died on the cross why did not the universe emplode? He holds it all together. So since the universe is still here, then did God really die? If he did not really then was payment for our sins really given? Can we pay our mortgage today with monopoly money? Can payment for our sins be paid with a fake death?
D. This is the beauty of the economic trinity. The covenant of redemption.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
III. The Economic Trinity
-In order to bring salvation to man.
A. We just saw the plan to redeem man. But why the plan. The reason is the same as to why we struggle with humility and are so prone to narcissism. It is the thing called sin and it so easily besets us. It has been a problem since the beginning. Since the fall of man in the garden. We have assume the ability and or right to decide what is right and wrong for ourselves with the knowledge of good and evil. But i don’t think it matters to me… it matters to all of us. Why?
B. Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. We are all by nature children of wrath. If we break even the smallest of commands we are as guilty as one who has broken all of it. So you see we are in trouble. How much trouble?
C. The place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Outer darkness. Eternal darkness. The smoke of torment and anguish never cease. The worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. The place reserved for the devil and his angels. This is the reality and destiny of the effects of sin and the fall of man. But Shane thats kinda messed up. God would never do that… the Bible would beg to differ. How could God do that… that not right. And why would we believe that? Cause we just think so? We say common sense but this is neither common nor is it sense. There is no sense without the God of the Bible. God is the definition of Good. All He does is good. And Jesus said that there is only one who is good.
D. So Shane then I’m in trouble. Can I be saved from this? Yes. Salvation has come and we find it in Christ and in Christ alone. This is the one whom John the Baptist pointed to. He said that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Yes. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Jesus came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
G. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. Confess your sins and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repent and believe the gospel. Repentance that leads to salvation.
H. This is why we can rejoice today. Our mighty God did not always strive and keep his anger, he did not deal with us according to our sins, but deals with us now in accordance with the sacrifice of Christ. All who are in Christ are judged according to the words and works of our living King of kings.
