Matthew 3:13-17
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. The GLORY of the King in baptism!
Last week we had made mention of the fact that the first two chapters of Matthew were used to introduce the subject of his gospel: Jesus is the promised King.
Last week we saw how the King’s coming was announced by John the Baptist.
The required response is repentance (3:2).
We really cannot overstate the importance of John the Baptist. Some activities are so routine that we expend no conscious effort on them.
We hardly think at all when we turn on a car radio or reach for a pillow.
By contrast, we think hard when we try to navigate our way through the center of an alien city.
We think a little about other things, such as what to eat as a nighttime snack.
In that spirit, most Christians think a little about baptism,
but Matthew’s account of John’s baptism of Jesus
bids us to give baptism more sustained attention.
The MISSION OF THE GLORIOUS KING.
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. "But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”” ()
We are told that Jesus came all the way ‘from Galilee to the Jordan’ in Judea to be baptized, showing how important this was to him—necessary, as well as ‘proper’ (3:15).
Why, then, did John try to refuse his request?
John says this because he knows who Jesus is—that he is the sinless Messiah and therefore need not repent. Jesus himself will “baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (3:11).
John protests the prospect of baptizing Jesus for three reasons.
First, John is a lesser person. How can he, the lesser, baptize Jesus, the greater?
Second, he offers a lesser baptism.
He offers water, the symbol of purification, but Jesus offers the Holy Spirit and fire.
Fire burns away impurities.
The Spirit indwells believers and empowers them to break with sin.
Third, Jesus has no need of water baptism.
John preaches a baptism of repentance, but Jesus has not sinned and therefore need not repent.
Jesus offers forgiveness (26:28), he does not need it.
Why should John give Jesus a baptism he does not need?
Here’s Jesus’s reply in "Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.” ()
It was not because he knew Jesus was the Messiah, for shows that John only realized this afterwards.
Jesus had to live a life of perfect obedience to God in order to earn righteousness for us.
He had to obey the law for his whole life on our behalf so that the positive merits of his perfect obedience would be counted for us.
Sometimes this is called Christ’s “active obedience,” while his suffering and dying for our sins is called his “passive obedience.”
Paul says his goal is that he may be found in Christ, "...not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.” ()
It is not just moral neutrality that Paul knows he needs from Christ (that is, a clean slate with sins forgiven), but a positive moral righteousness.
And he knows that that cannot come from himself, but must come through faith in Christ.
Similarly, Paul says that Christ has been made “our righteousness” ().
And he quite explicitly says, "For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” ()
This fulfilling all righteousness wasn’t for Jesus’s sake.
He had no need to live and earn this for Himself.
He had shared love and fellowship with the Father for all eternity and was in His own character eternally worthy of the Father’s good pleasure and delight.
He rather had to “fulfill all righteousness” for our sake; that is,
for the sake of the people whom he was representing as their head.
Unless he had done this for us, we would have no record of obedience by which we would merit God’s favor and merit eternal life with him.
Moreover, if Jesus had needed only sinlessness and not also a life of perfect obedience,
he could have died for us when he was a young child rather than when he was thirty-three years old.
It is no accident that the keyword ‘righteousness’ is used.
It is no accident that the keyword ‘righteousness’ is used.
Jesus was not a sinner needing to repent and be cleansed.
Nor was righteousness just a good thing to do and be seen doing.
Receiving baptism was the righteous act of a true Israelite.
The ‘now’ reminds us that the day of the Messiah had arrived and that, therefore, John must set aside his otherwise valid objection.
It was as Messiah that Jesus would undergo baptism.
The use in of the quotation from showed that he was to be regarded as the true Son of God, the true Israel.
So here he identified himself with his people and their sin, making clear that, as
God’s obedient and righteous Servant,
He would do whatever was necessary to provide a righteousness for them and for their salvation.
So I wonder. Who’s life long record of obedience would we rather rely upon for when we stand before God? Christ’s? or our own?
As we look through the life of Christ in Matthew’s gospel, we ought to ask ourselves, was it good enough to deserve God’s approval?
And are we willing to rely upon His record of obedience for our eternal destiny?
His mission was to secure our right standing with God, which He accomplished through His life.
The ANOINTING OF THE GLORIOUS KING.
The ANOINTING OF JESUS.
However, John was no doubt aware of a great difference between himself and his cousin, sufficient to persuade him that the roles should be reversed.
Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (pp. 570–571). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
The ANOINTING OF JESUS.
Jesus persuaded him to go ahead with the baptism ‘now’ and so ‘fulfil all righteousness’ (3:15).
What does this mean?
The ANOINTING OF JESUS.
"When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.” ()
Jesus was not a sinner needing to repent and be cleansed.
Nor was righteousness just a good thing to do and be seen doing.
Receiving baptism was the righteous act of a true Israelite.
The ‘now’ reminds us that the day of the Messiah had arrived and that, therefore, John must set aside his otherwise valid objection.
It was as Messiah that Jesus would undergo baptism.
The use in of the quotation from showed that he was to be regarded as the true Son of God, the true Israel.
So here he identified himself with his people and their sin, making clear that, as God’s obedient and righteous Servant, he would do whatever was necessary to provide a righteousness for them and for their salvation.
The descent of the ‘Spirit of God … like a dove’ and the ‘voice from heaven’ are clearly the consequence of His submitting to baptism.
In fact, we have here all three persons of the Trinity involved in a significant stage in the work of salvation.
Anointing with oil in the Old Testament had the double significance of setting apart and also equipping for the service of God.
The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, anointing him as God’s Servant in fulfilment of and 61:1 and endowing him with all the necessary gifts for his work (; ).
‘He saw’ in verse 16 refers to Jesus, who was thus given assurance of all this before entering on His ministry, and especially before the temptations,
but John also was assured that this was truly
the one whom he had come to herald,
the one who would baptize with the Spirit and fire (3:11; cf. ).
the one who would baptize with the Spirit and fire (3:11; cf. ).
The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus to empower him for ministry.
Life ebbs and flows.
We stumble through one day and soar through the next.
One day we can hardly tumble out of bed, the next we leap to the floor and grab a pen to write down all the answers that came while we slept.
I doubt that Jesus experienced swings like ours, but even for him, one day differed from the next.
The Gospels say things like,
“One day as he was teaching … the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick” (; cf. 4:14, 18).
The Spirit was no static presence in Jesus’ life.
He led Jesus from place to place () and empowered Jesus for his work,
especially in its high points (12:18, 28).
Above all, “through the eternal Spirit” Jesus “offered himself unblemished to God.”
That is how he cleansed us “from acts that lead to death” ().
The same ANOINTING Spirit who empowered Jesus now strengthens his disciples to live for him.
There is little Old Testament background to the idea, but does refer to Israel as a dove, and
it may be that once again Jesus is being pointed to as the true Israel.
The CONFIRMATION OF THE GLORIOUS KING.
Further, the words of (‘as innocent as doves’) may be relevant here:
Jesus is identified with sinful Israel, but is not himself sinful at all.
The CONFIRMATION OF JESUS
Perhaps even more important are the words of God’s voice from heaven CONFIRMING His Son:
"And a voice from heaven said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”” ()
These words are a combination of (‘You are my Son’) and , which Matthew later quotes as ‘Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight’ (12:18).
In the light of this, ‘love’ must include the idea of ‘chosen’.
The Father chose the Son before the foundation of the world to be his Servant, ‘a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles’ ().
While the basic idea of sonship in is that of the Messianic kingship, we can never exclude the eternal sonship from our thoughts.
Christ does not become the Son because He is the Servant, but is eminently suited to be the Servant because he is God’s beloved Son. (slow)
Since Mount Sinai, and the giving of the law, there hasn’t been a voice from Heaven.
It seems good to our heavenly Father in heaven to mark both with peculiar honor.
So it’s at the introduction of both the law and the gospel, He Himself speaks.
So here’s the voice of God heard from heaven. Let me show you why this is supremely important for us.
Let’s hold our place in Matthew and run over quickly to and the true Lord’s prayer.
We’ve just read that God is happy and well pleased with His Son and at the end of this great prayer we read, "I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”” ()
He made God known so that God’s pleasure in His Son might be in us and become our pleasure.
There’s coming a day when God’s delight in His Son will be in us and it will be ours.
And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends.
Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
So as we come back to our passage, make a pit stop in .
In this chapter Jesus’ glory is revealed to his inner circle of Peter, James, and John.
This comes on the heels of 16:21 where He (again) reveals that it’s necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and be raised on the third day.
So to sustain the disciples during those horrible events of His coming passion, Jesus discloses Himself and His glory.
Jesus takes them high upon a mountain and when they’re alone something utterly astonishing happens.
Suddenly God pulls back the curtain of the incarnation and lets the kingly glory of the Son of God shine through.
"He was transfigured in front of them, and his face shone like the sun; his clothes became as white as the light.” ()
Then these words..."While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!”” ()
At the end of his life, this is what Peter wrote about this incident: "For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” "We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.” ()
When God declares openly that he loves and delights in his Son, he gives a visual demonstration of the Son’s unimaginable glory.
His face shown like the sun, his garments became translucent with light, and the disciples fell on their faces ().
The point is not merely that humans should stand in awe of such a glory, but that God himself takes full pleasure in the radiance of his Son.
He reveals Him in blinding light, and then says, “This is my delight!”
Then back at our text. We come back to those words of endearment and delight from the Father concerning His Son.
"When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. "And a voice from heaven said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”” ()
The image is very different. Not a flaming sun of intolerable brightness,
but a soft, quiet, vulnerable dove—
the kind of animal poor people offered for sacrifices in the temple.
God’s pleasure in his Son comes not only from the brightness of His majesty but from the beauty of His meekness.
The Father delights in His Son’s supremacy and in His servanthood.
Listen to the supremacy of Christ in these words: "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.” ()
Listen to the servant heartedness of Christ in these words: "“This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him...” ()
Matthew quotes this Old Testament testimony of the Father’s joy and connects it with the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the meekness of Jesus’ ministry.
"Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. "He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear his voice in the streets. "He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, until he has led justice to victory.” ()
Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, p. 29). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.
The Father’s very soul exults with joy over the servant-like meekness and compassion of his Son.
The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, p. 29). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.
When a reed is bent and about to break, the Servant will tenderly hold it upright until it heals.
When a wick is smoldering and has scarcely any heat left,
the Servant will not pinch it off, but cup his hand and blow gently until it burns again.
Thus the Father cries, “Behold, my Servant in whom my soul delights!”
The worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty, nor just from his meekness, but from the way these mingle in perfect proportion.
I want to show you this balance in one other place. Turn to Revelation chapter 5.
Here’s angel cries out: "I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”” ()
Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, p. 29). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.
And look at the answer that comes back: "Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”” ()
God loves the strength of the Lion of Judah.
"Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”” ()
This is why he is worthy in God’s eyes to open the scrolls of history and unfold the last days.
But the picture is not complete.
How did the Lion conquer?
The next verse describes his appearance:"Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders....” ()
Jesus is worthy of the Father’s delight not only as the Lion of Judah, but also as the slain Lamb.
The Scriptures show how the glory of Christ is his combining of attributes that would seem to be utterly incompatible in one Person.
In Jesus Christ, meet infinite highness and
infinite condescension;
Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, pp. 29–30). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.
infinite justice and
infinite grace;
infinite glory and
lowest humility;
infinite majesty and
transcendent meekness;
deepest reverence toward God and
equality with God;
worthiness of good and
the greatest patience under the suffering of evil;
a great spirit of obedience and
supreme dominion over heaven and earth;
absolute sovereignty and
perfect submission;
self-sufficiency and an
entire trust and reliance on God.
In all the universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ.
That is how precious He should be to us. And with what infinite energy does the Father love the Son!
That is the greatness to which we are moving in our delight in the Son.
Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, p. 30). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.
O Christian, join the Father in this greatest of all loves!
If you are born of God, see Jesus with the eyes of God. “To you who believe, He is precious.”
The baptism of Jesus is too often ignored, apart from debates about Christian baptism.
The baptism of Jesus is too often ignored, apart from debates about Christian baptism.
It was clearly of great importance for him, giving assurance at the outset of his ministry.
Our Saviour is fully able to save; he has every gift and ability that is necessary for our salvation.
He gives the Spirit to his people to cleanse and purify and set apart for his service.
If we ignore this we miss out on much strength and assurance of his help for our times of trial.
Equally, however, we must not presume upon his mercy.
The kingdom and the King still require our heartfelt and thorough repentance.
If you claim to belong to the kingdom of heaven, do you display the appropriate fruit, the works that match repentance?
Does your life demonstrate the power of the Spirit of God and reflect the purity and innocence of the Savior?