Sunday Sermon Matthew 3:13-17

Today, is communion Sunday and here at FCC it is our heart that this would not be a meaningless ritual, but that each time we take of the cup and eat of the bread we draw closer to Jesus and that we might understand the depths of the cross.

Everyone is welcome to the table who has confessed Jesus as Lord, so please come to the table.

I will pray us in and during our time of prayer church, I will pause so we can all allow the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts so we take communion in a worthy manner.

After this short pause, I will close us in prayer and then as the Spirit leads, please come to the table, pickup your elements and go back to your seat.

Here at FCC we like to take together as a family.

Let us pray.

Communion

Prayer

Lord Heavenly Father, we thank you! We thanks you that when we are faithless, you are still faithful! We thank you for sending your only begotten Son Jesus to die for our sins upon the Old Rugged Cross. Lord God, we desire to understand the depths of the Cross in new light every time we partake of communion together. So Lord, would you please search our hearts now, so that we can follow your command to take of the cup and bread in a worthy manner.

PAUSE

Lord, thanks you for conviction and correction and for you loving us the way you do! Thank you God that our realtionship with you is not based upon performance, because that is not love, but rather it is based upon the finished work upon the Cross and its implications. Please help our communion services to never ever be meaningless, but rather may they draw us into a deeper relationship with you. Thank you for your broken body and poured out love. Help us O Lord, understand the depths of your love toward us. Our hearts beat for more of your O God!

IJN We Love you, Amen.

COME TO THE TABLE

Mark 14:22–26 NKJV

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Here we see Jesus transforming the Passover of the Old Covenant, into the Lord’s Supper of the New Covenant, creating a new feast to remember God’s deliverance from sin.

It is important for us to remember that the shedding of blood in sacrifice was always God’s requirement in establishing a new covenant.

When Jesus said, I will no longer drink of the fruit vine he was declaring that this is the last Passover and meal with them.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for communion and the hope that only you can give. Thank you for each person here today both in the sanctuary and online. We have come with expectation Father desiring to hear from you, thank you for preparing our hearts with meekness so that we can receive your implanted Word that is able to save our souls. Please God help us to behold wondrous nuggets from your Word today. Please and always help us to exult Jesus and apply your Word each and everyday of our lives. Lord, set the captives free, heal the broken hearted and sick, and encourage, correct, and rebuke if you must so that we can all be like Jesus more today, than yesterday. Please God light a fire deep in our souls for you and make us a people of the Book!

IJN we love You, Amen

We have come as far as verse 13 in Matthew chapter 3

Read Matthew 3:13-17

Review

As we dive back in today, I wanted to remind you that Matthew is introduces us to the King of whom we know is Jesus.

We have talked about over the last few weeks that when a King was coming into aa city that he would always have aa forerunner, someone that we not only make the way clear and straight, but that would make a public proclamation or herald that the King is coming.

Jesus forerunner is John the Baptist of whom Jesus said was the greatest man that ever lived.

There had been 400 years of silence and then in due time, God sent John with a word to those who would listen:

Matthew 3:1–2 NKJV

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

The first words that the Lord spoke to the nation Israel and others who would listen was Repent. This means a change of heart, a change of mind, and a change of direction. It is a turning away from sin to holiness. It literally could mean, “GET CONVERTED!”

As John was baptizing the multitudes, the religious leaders got wind and came. And last week we learned that John was a truth teller to them and called them out .

John was bold and yet like God that none would perish, but that all would repent and come to ever lasting life.

John spoke hard truths to the Pharisees and Sadducees that they needed to hear. And the truth is we all need to hear hard truth sometimes.

Do you have any truth tellers in your life? Do you have people that will boldly speak the truth to you as the Spirit leads?

The bottom line is the ax is laid to the root of the trees and this is Israel. Israel had been rebellious for years and yet God who is rich in mercy is reaching out to them saying, “Come Back, Come Back, Come Back my beloved!”

And he is saying this to us today!

Sadly the leaders of this nation did not repent and within 40 years of this moment the Temple would be destroyed in 70 AD in Jerusalem.

Matthew 3:13 NKJV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

So after John deals with and speaks truth to the religious leaders at the revival meeting he was holding the Father sends the Son.

King Jesus shows up on the seen for his coronation which would be the beginning of his public ministry.

We all have private and public ministries church, just as we all have private and public behaviors and attitudes.

The question that I would pose would be, “Are we the same in private as we are in public?

All the great revivals that have happened in the church have happened because someone repented, thus the church repented.

So we see that Jesus got on a plane and he traveled down to the area around Jericho.

Oh, there was no planes, no cars, no busses, no Ubers, there was only his feet.

It is important for us to realize that Jesus traveled 60 miles to get to the revival at the the Jordan

Jesus traveled 60 miles to step into God’s perfect will for his life.

Jesus traveled 60 miles to be baptized by John in the Jordan church.

Jesus traveled 60 miles to hear the voice of His Heavenly Father say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

How far are you willing to travel? Are you willing to travel 60 miles to be baptized? Are you willing to travel 60 miles to hear the Word of God or the voice of the Father speak to you?

How far are you willing to be healed, to be made whole, to be set free , to be delivered?

Are we allowing our current circumstances to stop us? Is our current situation in life holding us hostage?

Jesus allowed no distractions into his life church and he removed all the obstacles

Are we willing to remove the things in our lives that distract us or stop us form worshipping God whole heartedly like Jesus?

Lord, You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you! ~Augustine~

So, the Spirit prompted Jesus to leave Galilee where he was in seclusion for 30 years.

And we do not know much about these 30 years of family life and carpentry, but we do know that when Jesus was 12 and went to the Temple during Passover that he amazed the scholars in the synagogue with his wisdom. And he got lost for three days in the crowd on his way home with his parents and when confronted by Joseph and Mary, Jesus responded:

Luke 2:49 NKJV

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

Jesus comes on the seen church because he is about His Fathers business.

Are you about your Fathers business? Or are you about your own agenda?

Jesus was not coming to join the social gathering or because he wanted to be like everyone else, he came because of His Father’s agenda and church we must be about our Father’s business...

Matthew 3:14 NKJV

And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

So Jesus shows up to be baptized by John his cousin who attempts to prevent Him.

John in turn says that he needs to be baptized by Jesus because He know he is a sinner.

What are those things in our lives that are preventing us from being baptized and truly walking our faith out? What are the things that stop us from worshipping God whole heartedly?

Baptized-baptizo-to be baptized (state) v. — to be or become momentarily immersed in water as a cleansing, ceremonial, and initiatory rite. It means to plunge or drown.

There are a couple of points I wanted to make here church.

Biblical baptism means to immerse, not sprinkle

The Priest had to be 30 when they entered the ministry:

Numbers 4:1–3 NKJV

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: “Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the children of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ house, from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting.

Church, Jesus was thirty here.

Not only did the Priest enter the ministry at 30, but there was an anointing ceremony when they were called and there was also a ritual cleansing church that they went through along with other things.

The Bible always interprets the Bible!

Is God calling you into the ministry? What ministry?

Being in ministry takes walking by faith and not by sight because where God guides God provides.

But remember he does not call the equipped, but rather equips the called!

He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise!

But why would Jesus need to be baptized when he is not a sinner church?

Matthew 3:15 NKJV

But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

So Jesus was going to be fully immersed in the Jordan by John, so that he could fulfill all righteousness.

Notice that Jesus gave him a command and John submitted to his authority even though Jesus was his cousin.

Could you imagine?

Some scholars have written that John did not know his cousin was the Messiah until he came to the Jordan...

Church, Jesus was not baptized because He was a repentant sinner.

Even John tried to stop Jesus, but the Lord knew it was His Father’s will.

Why was Jesus baptized? First, His baptism gave approval to John’s ministry.

Second, He identified Himself with publicans and sinners, the very people He came to save.

But mainly, His baptism pictured His future baptism on the cross (Matt. 20:22; Luke 12:50) when all the “waves and billows” of God’s judgment would go over Him (Ps. 42:7; Jonah 2:3).

Romans 6:4 NKJV

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

When Jesus was baptized and fulfilled all righteousness, he was doing the Father’s will.

Jesus baptism was a foreshadowing or a picture of The Cross, his death, his burial, and his resurrection church.

But most importantly, Jesus identified here with sinners, but is preparing to exchange our sin for his righteousness so that we would be justified...

Therefore, his perfect righteousness is imputed to us (2 Cor 5:21)

Here he secures righteousness for sinners like you and me.

Here he marks the first declaration of the sins he would bear church

And finally, it was also the public affirmation of him being the Messiah.

Praise God that we are the righteousness of God In Christ Jesus church.

The Gospel is all over this section!

Matthew 3:16–17 NKJV

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

John baptizes Jesus and when he came up water the heavens were open and the Spirit was descending like a dove.

Then the Father spoke that he was well pleased with his son.

Note: We see the Trinity in action here: We have the Father that is well pleased, the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus, and The Son being baptized.

Apparently the action of the Spirit of God descending from heaven like a dove was a sign that Jesus was the Messiah and that the age of the Spirit predicted by the prophets was formally beginning (Isaiah 61:1).

Isaiah 61:1 NKJV

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

So Jesus was baptized and so where many others in the Bible and from this I want to draw a few parallels:

Noah’s Baptism

The Lord had come to Noah with instruction to build an Ark, a huge Ark and everyone though he was nuts. God warned him that there was going to be a flood in an area that did not get much rain, if any at all.

The reason for the flood church is that everyman was doing whaat was right in their own eyes and sinning continuously and God was grieved church and sent a flood in judgement to a people that would not listen.

Noah and his family of 7, 8 people total survived this great flood or drowning if you may.

Do you remember the Greek word for baptism can mean drowning?

The world around Noah and his family was drown out in baptism church!

There are some of us here today that need to let the world drown around us. The world has you caught up!

What can the world give you?

1 John 2:15–16 NKJV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

Are you trying to do whatever your flesh is telling you? Are you living in instant gratification?

Baptism has no significance apart from Jesus and the Gospel, and walking by faith If you were baptized and Jesus and the Gospel was not significant and you did not come up in the newness of life and drown out the world, repent, and change direction then guess what? The only thing you did was get wet!!

When you surrender your life to Jesus you rise above the flood like Noah because you enter into the Ark of God church!

What is interesting about Noah is the world as they knew it was drowned, everything that had life except his family and the animals on the Ark died church. Because the wages of sin is death!

The people of Noah’s day, chose death over life. God wishes not one shall perish, but that all should repent and get in the Ark of God!

Like Noah you rise above the flood, you rise above the water because your life his hidden in the Christ church!

Noah and his family were baptized and the world around them drowned. When the flood was over after 40 days and 40 nights, guess what?

They entered into a new world, their old world had died:

Romans 6:4 NKJV

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Noah and the Ark and flood is a picture of repentance, a picture of baptism, a picture of salavation.

He moved from the old world to the new world

Jesus is calling some of you here today out of the world, stop holding onto the world church. Let it go! Surrender You need to let the world drown and you need to rise to a new way of living and that is why baptism is a command That is why the early church baptized new believers, that is why baptism unties believers in a the body of Christ, but baptism has no significance whatsoever apart form Christ, apart form the Gospel, apart from faith. If you don’t know Jesus and your do not love Jesus, if you have never received Jesus and walked by faith, then guess what? All you did was get wet!

The Bible teaches us to change our direction, to have a transformation.

Note:

Matthew 3:16 NKJV

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

Here we see the Dove being a picture of the Holy Spirit

Do you remember when Noah had been in the ARK for 40 days and he released a Raven what happened?

The Raven did not return because there was dead caucuses every where because the wages of sin is death

But when Noah sent a dove it returned to him the first time it came back a descended upon him, but when he sent it out again it did not return because there was dry land church.

-Do you know a man who had a radical baptism and his Hebrew name meant dove?

-Jonah was a prophet who was given the task to proclaim a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. THE WAS A PROBLEM

Jonah despised the Gentiles, but he especially despised the Ninevehites because THEY WOULD COME TO THE NORTHERN PART OF THE KINGDOM AND SLAUGHTER THE PEOPLE WHO Who THERE AND THEY WOULD CUT THIER HEADS OFF AND BUILD A BIG PILE OF SKULLS

It would be like if you found yourself in a Nazi prison camp and the Lord said, to preach the gospel to them! How would your react ??

Jonah knew that God was kind, he knew that if they repented then God would be merciful and spare their lives Jonah decided to run from God and he got on a cruise ship sailing away from Nineveh.

Going in the opposite direction He was eventually thrown overboard and ends up in the belly of a whale or big fish For three days Jonah is in the belly of the whale, In a gastrointestinal hades>

At the end of the 3 days, Jonah was broken and he repents of his arrogance, his disobedience, pride, fleshly pursuits, and guess what after he repents whaat happens>>??

Jonah is resurrected and the sea creature , the big fish, the whale spits him out of his mouth upon the shore

This is a PICTURE OF baptism

Jonahs was a different baptism, it was not of the drowning of the world around him, but rather a drowning of the rebelliousness and selfishness within him,church!

Jonah had his own agenda church and yet in his repentance he surrenders his agenda and surrenders to Gods agenda, just like Jesus, just like John, just like Peter and Paul, just like Moses, Noah, and Abraham, Anna, Lydia, Peobie, just like Noah, Issac and Jacob church.

Have you surrendered your agenda? Have you stopped building your won kingdom? Are you really pursuing the Lord or are you in the belly of the whale ?

Why do you keep running from God?

What was Jesus’ agenda? What was Jesus trying to do? I must be about my Fathers business!

BOTH

IN Noah there is a drowning or a dying to sin around us and IN Jonah there is a dying to sin within us.

With Noah it rained 40 days and 40 nights church and the world around him died, but shortly after this baptism Noah failed, he sinned and got drunk and his saw him naked.

With Jonah he preached for 40 days church and a revival come to Nineveh and all of this pagan city repented, but after Jonahs baptism he failed, he saw thousands come to Christ became full of self-pity once again, He knew that God was a merciful, kind, and gracious but then he sat under a tree or a large gourd that God provided for him and became depressed because of what God had done, his eyes were not on the Lord, but rather back on his own agenda and he sinned!

Then JESUS was tempted 40 days and 40 nights, but guess what church He did not sin, he did not failed but became sin for us.

He won the victory!

How many of you sinned after baptism, how many of you fell short just this week or even today? Baptism does not perfect you, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, you are perfectly forgiven and he loves you!

We will not be perfected on this side of heaven, that is what glorification is all about. When we all get to heaven what joy that will be!

Matthew 3:17 NKJV

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The Father says he is well pleased with the son and he not only affirms Jesus, but he also is giving Jesus the approval for him to start his ministry, keep in mind Jesus had been somewhat secluded for the last 30 years and we do not know much about this time, but there is great speculations…

Perhaps there are some of you today that are seeking to do something for the Lord. Have you sought his approval?

Do you have any accountability in your life?

The Father likes what Jesus does and the hidden years of his ministry are over. And now he is to go public, from private… Jesus fulfills all the promises of God, Paul writes all his promises are yes and amen, he is not slack with his promises Peter

This is my Son in whom I am well pleased, comes out of Psalm2:7 and Isaiah, Acts

The baptism of Jesus reveal the anointing of the Son of God, by the Spirit of God and then the declaration of the Father who is God You have the Father, Son, and the HS are three in One.

The Son is baptized, the Spirit descends like a dove, The Father speaks from Heaven and affirms Jesus and approves him for ministry!

The baptism of Jesus is an affirmation of Johns ministry, it is and identification with us personally, and a declaration of the Father prophetically, its an illustration of baptism practically and we can find our selves here because we are baptized by Jesus by the HS and become part of the Body of Christ and we identify with Jesus in His death, his burial, and his resurrection.

Have you made this step? Are you ready? Are you sick and tires of being sick and tired?

Have you received the gift of salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit?

Are you ready to take the plunge?

If you have been baptized, maybe it time for you to look at Noah and how the world around him was drown, maybe God is calling you to live differently by faith!

Perhaps now its time for you to be like Jonah and drown out the pride and selfishness that is with in you and to walk in the newness of life.

Maybe he is calling you to proclaim the gospel, but you Failed like Jonah and Noah, like comfort and dove, cry out to God that Jesus didn’t fail, that Jesus succeeds where others fail! Because he wins, you can trust him!!!

If nothings changes, then nothing changes

Prayer

Lord, For the person who is here today and has never cried out to you and accepted you as their lord and Savior, or the person who has accepted you but walked away, or the person who has walked with you a while but their relationship is stale or has even been drowned out by the world, bring us back My Lord and forgive us, bring us back My Lord and light a fire down deep in our souls for Jesus and the Gospel, light a fire within us to be sold out, surrendered ,and zealous for loving you God and other, brings us back to our first love oh Lord our Rock and Redeemer. Bring us back to where you want us to be. Lord were confess that we have struggled and are struggling, we have sinned, but accept Jesus’ finished on work on the cross.

Benediction

1 John 4:7–8 NKJV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!

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