“The Case for Christ - Jesus’ Baptism”

Turn in your Bibles to John 1:32-34 and read along with me - John 1:32-34: ‘And John bare record, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ‘Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.’ And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.’

And, then, turn to Mt 3:16-17 - Mt 3, verses 16-17: ‘And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway from the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him; and, lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased’.’ 

Now, let us go over to Luke 3:21-22 - Luke chapter 3, verses 21-22, and there we read: ‘Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.’

In a short synopsis of these readings, we find John giving evidence that He saw the Spirit in the form of a dove light upon Jesus. 

Jesus had been mostly in obscurity for thirty years and when He appeared among all of the throngs who came to John, John just baptized Him along with the others.

Shortly after, he said of Jesus, ‘I knew Him not’. More than likely, he knew Him as Jesus since they were relatives. 
(Lu 1:36)

And, he may have known Him as the Messiah, also. But - one of his functions was to reveal Him as the Messiah to Israel in conjunction with his baptizing ministry. 

When this sign of the descending dove came upon Jesus, God was giving John His consent to complete that function.

So, when he saw the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus, and heard God’s voice of confirmation, then he knew that Jesus was now to be revealed as the Messiah: now he could testify of Him as the Son of God; now he could publish it to all Judea!

Then - in Matthew and Luke, the scene that followed the baptism of Jesus is given in detail. The people had been baptized, and Jesus was counted among them.

After He walked up from the waters, perhaps already on the bank of the river or walking toward it, He was praying when the Spirit of God descended, the heavens opened, and the divine declaration was heard.

We do not know who saw and heard this amazing marvel but it appears that only John and Jesus were aware of what was happening, and John just testified about it as it is recorded in John chapter one.

All this time, from the time of the birth of Jesus to this very moment, there had been almost complete silence about Him.

He is thirty years old when we see Him on the banks of the Jordan - the spotless, sinless Son of God as man, in perfect union with the will of God, assuming responsibility for sinful men and identifying with them in the baptism of repentance.

And God, as He saw His Son set His face toward the Cross - toward His sin-bearing work ahead - broke heaven’s silence about Him and said: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased’.   

What was the message contained in God’s declaration? Why was it so important? What does it mean to us now?

First, let me say, that the Spirit’s descent upon Jesus and the Father’s declaration of Him was not just a feature of His baptism that we can take lightly with a shrug of the shoulder!

‘The heavens were opened’ - that means that heavenly glory - heavenly glory and all that heavenly glory is - was present there at that moment - and THAT IS NO SMALL THING!

That fact alone should tell us something of its seriousness - should it not!

This was nothing less than the clearest, loudest witness of Christ’s miraculous origin - the clearest, loudest witness of Deity submissive to sacrifice for men’s salvation - the clearest, loudest witness of God anointing Him with power for that work - and the clearest, loudest witness of ‘Christ...Who, through the Eternal Spirit, was offering Himself without blemish to God’! (Heb 9:14)

It was nothing less than glory through and through!

The announcement deals with God’s Son as Incarnate in Jesus Who is now entering His Messianic work.

It said so plainly: ‘This is no ordinary man - this is not a ‘mere’ son of some man living upon this earth!

Oh no! True - He has been born of human flesh, but He is also Son of the infinite, eternal God and I, God the Father, and I, God the Holy Spirit, am well pleased with Him - with Him, Jesus, son of man, and God, the Son Incarnate!’  

Do you realize what was happening?

Something too great and too Eternal was being revealed! This was the message He was declaring: this mighty fact of the Son Who now stands Incarnate at the Jordan is being announced!

And God was ratifying the divine involvement of the Trinity - that of God, the Father, that of God, the Son, and that of God, the Holy Spirit - three Divine Persons engaged in our redemption and salvation - the fullness of the Trinity was in that message!

The Father was speaking from heaven - the Son was standing Incarnate at the Jordan - the Holy Spirit as a dove was descending and remaining upon the Son!

The stamp of the authority of the Triune God was there - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were making it all divinely authentic! 

Why was this announcement so important? Why was it so momentous?

Jesus did not now receive the Spirit for the first time: the permanent relation between Jesus and the Spirit existed before birth - we know that, do we not?

He was, in a sense in which no one ever was nor ever can be, born of the Holy Ghost. His development and His protection was always under the control of the Spirit of God. 

The Father’s hand was upon Him, even as a Babe, and  then, the Spirit’s influence was over Him as a young boy.

When He came to baptism, He was a Man of the Spirit of God, living in perpetual communion with the Spirit of God, His whole life dominated by the Spirit of God - He willed, thought, lived under the Spirit’s power, illumination, and impulse. But all that was concealed from the world’s eyes. 

But, now, in what happened here at the Jordan, we have one of the clearest and most complete revelations of the Trinity working together, involved in the entire process of salvation history.

That day, the Trinity avowed its taking part as Three in One in the salvation work of man and was preaching the Good News of this blessed Person of Jesus having come from the Divine Throne to do a job only the Divine can do! 

Nothing and no one could take on such a tremendous feat for the salvation of man - only the corporate Divine Trinity 
would even dare to consider it! 

‘For scarcly for a righteous man will one die...even dare to die...but God...but God...’! (Rom 5:7-8)

Who else could take on the sin of the whole world for all time, I ask you?

Do you catch how much good news the Good News really was and is?

The glory of Christ - the full, wonderful Splendor and Majesty of the Son, with the mutual participation of the Father and the Holy Spirit - was deeply - very deeply - embedded in that gracious announcement from God! 

It was such good news that God said of Him: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased!’

Listen - the Gospel is never preached unless the person of God’s Son is shown to man - without Him, there is no good news!

The attraction lies in Him because the real power to save lies only in Him! If He is not the main attraction of all our entire salvation life, we have nothing - we really have nothing - we have nothing outside of Him! 

Oh - I say again - it was good news when God said of Him: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased!’ 

What the people at Jordan needed, what you and I need, is a Savior Who could stand for them, and for us, before God, a Savior Who could fulfill every jot and tittle of the law, Who could conquer and be victorious over every speck of sin this world has ever known and will know. 

When John spoke of Him as the Lamb of God, he was speaking of Jesus as the expiating sacrifice that could satisfy every single demand sin puts upon man.

And this scene at the Jordan opened the heavens to the fulfillment of that hope!

Now - what does this all mean to us now? What does it say to the sinner? What does it mean to the saint of God?

It is because of this very Gospel of the Divine Trinity participating in it that God Who is well pleased with His Son can now look upon those who are indwelled by Him.

As He looks upon men, He is well pleased with all who are in Christ. 

If I, a sinner, enter by faith into Christ, then I can be assured that He is well pleased with me.

If I, as His child who has entered into Christ by faith, come to Him, and by that living faith link my life with His life, the life of the Person of Christ, He is also well pleased. 

He is not well pleased with me as I am as a sinner, if or when I refuse his salvation. He is not well pleased with me when I, as His child, refuse to appropriate this life of Christ in daily living.

There is enough about either one - either saint or sinner - to justify God’s wrath and His displeasure, if it were not for what Christ has done and now is to us - we are all well aware of that, I am sure.

But, as sinner, if I am in Christ by faith, God is well pleased because His Son’s work of atonement has me covered.

And, as His child, with all my weaknesses, stumblings, and imperfections, since I live as one with Christ in that eternal and vital union with Him, God is well pleased.

When we actually see how much He has done, what He has done, and how perfectly He identified with us as sinners to cover us and make us pleasing to God in Himself, then we really will shout and sing with joyful hearts forever and forever! 

Oh - how gladly we then desire to identify ourselves with Him in the waters of baptism, to be baptized into His death, as Rom 6:3 says.

Rom 6:3: ‘Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death.’

We are ‘buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead.’ (Col 2:12)

So - our baptism is not a matter of ‘since Jesus was baptized, we should be, too’. 

Oh, no! We willingly identify with Christ, expressing our delight in Him. We are well pleased - very well pleased with Him! 

We are letting all know that we are His children, relating with Him so completely that we can say of Him: ‘I am on the Lord’s side! I am His child and I belong to none other! I am thankful for what He has done in His atoning work, I am eternally grateful for Him and cannot do otherwise than to identify myself with Him!’

So - in summary - the Triune God bore witness of the salvation plan as the historical fact - it is not some figment of the imagination!

By baptism, Jesus gave Himself to the work of sinbearing; by the anointing and the voice from heaven, the Father anointed Him with the Holy Spirit for this work and, because of the Triune God in it all, God accepts each who will come to Him through Christ.

Do not doubt this truth: accept the Savior, for God declared He is well pleased with Him.    

And do not be stirred by the emotion of the moment alone - instead, be stirred by the Spirit of God within the innermost being. And, if that is the kind of stirring going on inside, I strongly encourage you not to refuse it - let it do its work!   

Hear Him with profound reverence: hear Him once again declare, ‘This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased!’ 

So be it! Let us pray.

PRAY

Now - take these thoughts with you this week and ponder them before the Lord - He will be well pleased with that! And He will bless you with a triumphant week in Him!

Amen!