Sermons

Matthew 3:13-17 – Jesus Goes Public

Christianity is public. 

• Being a Christian is public.
• Believers are supposed to stand out to a watching world.

Perhaps we are beginning to feel more pressure to shrink back from making our profession of faith public. 

• To keep our faith private and personal.
• Real temptations can breed from this extended period of isolation.

Habits to view church online not for any other reason but to avoid the public nature of gathering. 

• When you gather you are accountable to others.
• People who expect you to be there will eventually notice your conspicuous absence. When you gather, you make yourself vulnerable to others. 
• People will ask you about your life and as well they should.
• Real ministry in fact is this kind of encouragement to keep going in the Christian life, the Christian race.
• We lift each other up when we see each other.
• Singing together, praying together, giving together, hearing together, serving together, and bearing life together.
• This comes from gathering in public.

I admit this is easier for some personalities than others but for the believer, mutual encouragement within the Body of Christ is essential for spiritual health. 

Of course, I understand when gathering might be prohibited. 

• Those suffering from sickness or are aged or even imprisoned.
• These are the exceptions.
• Still, the intention is to make your faith public.

Scripture teaches that our public confession is how we reach others for Christ. 

• We are called to let our light shine before men.
• To not be children of the darkness but lights, holding forth the Word of life.
• We are ambassadors of the Gospel.

You say, “This seems very intolerant!” 

• Our culture says it is inclusive and tolerant but it really is not in the least!
• Identity politics always raise one group or agenda up to the detriment of another.

Your Christian witness says your identity is of another world. 

• Our allegiance is to Christ our King.
• He created all of us!
• Through our going public, Christ offers a new creation to all of us!

Matthew 3 is marked by the theme of baptism. 

• The word Baptist, Baptize, or Baptism is used 8 times in 17 verses.
• It should have our attention.
• What does it mean to be baptized?
• Do you need to follow the Lord in public Baptism?
• Why did Jesus need to be baptized?

Understanding why Jesus had to be baptized answers why you need to be baptized. 

Baptism is your ultimate public profession of faith in the Gospel! 

 

Jesus makes a public profession to reveal himself and his mission to save

1. Jesus’ public profession (vv. 13-15)

Verses 13-14 on the face simply describes Jesus coming for baptism and John trying to prevent it in any way possible. 

• Important to understand that Jesus comes public out of obscurity.
• This is intentional and deliberate where Jesus is making a statement.
• Jesus made a 70-mile trek down from Galilee to where John was stationed in the wilderness, baptizing people in the Jordan River.
• People coming from Galilee would have been rare as most were coming from the religious center, namely Jerusalem.
• His arrival was striking.
• The Gospels describe both Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s background as both growing up in obscurity.

Luke’s account of John speaks to his parents, Zechariah, and Elizabeth. 

• Both advanced in years.
• Elizabeth barren and stigmatized in that culture for it.
• Zechariah, a priest, goes into the temple, Gabriel standing next to the altar of incense, telling him his prayer has been answered, she shall bear a son, John, who will undergo the Nazarite vow.
• He would be a great preacher as a forerunner of the Messiah.
• Zechariah is struck mute until John’s birth because he doubted the plan.
• Elizabeth being older hides for five months.
• Meanwhile, Mary, Elizabeth’s cousin is pregnant with Jesus, takes a 100 mile trip from Galilee along the Jordan Valley passing Jerusalem to “the hill country” where Zechariah and Elizabeth lives.
• Coming into Elizabeth’s presence, John who is filled by the Holy Spirit even in the womb (cf. Luke 1:15) leaps (cf. Luke 1:41).
• Suffice it to say, both Mary and Elizabeth through what had been revealed to both through prophecies (through angels, Zechariah, and directly), knew their children were incomprehensibly significant to reveal God’s kingdom!
• Luke 1:80 summarizes John’s grow up plan!

^ESV  Luke 1:80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

• This similar to Jesus who grew up in Nazareth.
• Luke on either side of Jesus’ visit to the Temple at Passover summarizes his childhood:

^ESV  Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

 

^ESV  Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

 

• Otherwise, all we know about Jesus’ upbringing was being part of a big family with half-brothers and sisters as a carpenter’s son.

^ESV  Matthew 13:55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?  And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”

• Tyng together, the two and their growing up years they did not know each other.

^ESV  John 1:33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

 

• So the first time John actually saw Jesus it was an event (cf. John 1:29).

 

^ESV  John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

 

This provides a backdrop to the drama and passion surrounding the first thing Jesus is trying to do! 

 

• What is that? Be baptized!  By John!
• John is confused and more importantly, conflicted!

 

The reasons John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized are reasonable. 

Let me explain:

• John knew he was a sinner and that Jesus was the sacrifice for sin.
• John knew he baptized people with water and Jesus baptized hearts with the Holy Spirit and fire.
• John knew his mission was to elevate Christ and to subordinate himself.
• Finally, and practically, John knew he offered a baptism of repentance and that Jesus did not need to repent.
• He had just declared the Pharisees and Sadducees as unfit for baptism and now he declares himself as unfit to baptize Jesus! (cf. v. 14).

 

Why did Jesus have to be baptized? 

 

Here are 2 reasons: 

     a. Jesus came to solve your sin (vv. 13-14)

To grasp what Jesus was doing by undergoing baptism you have to recognize that to be baptized or immersed means to identify with something.

Jesus identifies with Israel coming to redeem the nation from sin. 

• First, remember who was being baptized.
• Verse 5 says, “Jerusalem, Judea” which means the Jews.
• Jesus first came to his people.
• To Israel.

Matthew’s gospel draws clear parallel lines between Israel and Jesus. 

• Remember how Jesus escaped Herod’s wrath, fleeing to Egypt? (cf. 2:15 “Out of Egypt I called my son” cf. Hos. 11:1).
• Israel was captive in Egypt and fled Egypt.

Also, Herod’s infant slaughter was compared to the “weeping in Ramah” quoted from Jeremiah 31:15; Ramah (place of Rachel’s tomb) was Israel’s prison camp outside Jerusalem, Babylonian’s deporting station. 

• Judgment and weeping represented sin’s consequences for rebellion.
• Jesus is the new Moses, come to redeem Israel forever, transforming hearts.
• Israel going out to John in the wilderness had come to repent and their Redeemer meets them in their repentance!
• He enters the waters of sin and shame with the Jews.
• There were no baptisteries in the temples.
• The only baptism was for Gentiles converting (proselytizing) to Judaism.
• This is a new day, a new beginning for the masses.       

“John would have prevented [would have kept preventing] him” (v. 14) and the reason was his unworthiness. 

• Jesus was not the problem, John was.
• John knew he needed what Jesus could give, not Jesus who needed what he could give.

People have always been confused about why Jesus was baptized! 

The apocryphal book “The Gospel of Hebrews” cited by the early church father, Jerome where it blames Jesus’ mother for why Jesus is there to be baptized. 

• Jesus was there with his mother and half-brothers because of their ignorance of Jesus’ sinlessness.
• Jesus’ mother says, “John the Baptist baptizes for the remission of sins; let us go to be baptized by him.”
• Jesus replies, “What sin have I committed, that I should go and be baptized by him? Except perchance this very thing that I have said in ignorance.” 

John knew where the sin problem sourced and it was not Jesus. 

• “I need to be baptized by you” meaning John was the one in need of repentance.
• John knew Jesus’ baptized with Holy Spirit and fire (cf. Ez. 36:27-28).

John asked, “…and do you come to me?” (v. 14). 

 

This brings me to the second reason Jesus had to be baptized.

      b. Jesus came to make you whole (v. 15)

Jesus’ response acknowledges John’s logic but refutes it in view of his timing.  “Let it be so now…” (v. 15). 

• Your point is valid but Jesus’ arrival has to do with his mission.
• Jesus has come not to repent but to redeem! “…for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (v. 15). 

What does Jesus mean “fulfill all righteousness?” 

• Here Jesus speaks to the complete and finished work of grace that comes to every true believer.
• Isaiah 53 has been called the Romans of the Old Testament.
• When someone is saved they are counted righteous meaning in the eyes of God, Christ’s righteousness counts on that person’s behalf!
• Christ is the despised, rejected, smitten, crushed, pierced lamb led to the slaughter.
• His sacrifice makes for the great exchange – our sin for his righteousness!

^ESV  Isaiah 53:11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

^ESV  2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

^ESV  1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit

 

• Jesus’ identification in baptism begins his full commitment to undergo the cross!
• Jesus’ solidarity with sin, guilt, and shame was his promise to undergo the great exchange!

 

John got a glimpse of this when Jesus said this and “Then he consented” [aphiemi – “he let it go”] (v. 15). 

 

• As if to say, oh your baptism is part of the greater plan!
• John certainly understands something of this by his public statement about him.

 

^ESV  John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

 

• Repeated the next day!

 

^ESV  John 1:35-36 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

 

 

Jesus was making his mission public by his words and actions! 

 

However, Jesus was not the only one who would give public testimony that day!

 

 2. God’s public profession (vv. 16-17)

“Jesus was baptized” (v. 16).  

• The act of baptism was important but the emphasis is on what happened immediately after.
• Jesus acts and Heaven reacts!

Jesus was immersed and “immediately he went up from the water” (v. 16) and Matthew says, “…behold” (v. 16). 

• Matthew says pay attention to God’s response!
• The “heavens were opened to him” (v. 16) which literally is like a “mouth opening up” (cf. 1 Cor. 16:9).
• This verse is one of the single greatest expressions of the Trinity.
• God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
• Three individual persons, One God, equal in essence, distinct in their roles.

The “Spirit of God descending like a dove” a graceful descent – climbing down from heaven. 

• I do not believe the point is that the Holy Spirit took the literal appearance as a bird.
• The Spirit [Ruach] in the Old Testament and [Pneuma] in the New Testament is likened to the wind and in Acts 2 represented by fire. 

The earliest reference to the Holy Spirit is at the creation account in Genesis 1:2 as “hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2).   

^ESV  Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

• Still, these personifications should not complete our picture of God the Holy Spirit.
• The point is the movement of “descent” as if to say, as Jesus “went up from the water” – “the Spirit” was coming down from heaven!
• And, “to rest on him” – to affirm him.

Luke’s Gospel accounts the Spirit’s role in Jesus’ mission! 

^ESV  Luke 4:16-20 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

 

• By resting on Jesus, the Holy Spirit establishes Jesus as King.
• He is anointed not to sit but to act!
• Actions that are his mission!
• The King has come and this King is here as Savior.

I want to make a quick point that two heresies crop up from time to time and this verse refutes both. 

• Both heresies focus on and promise a false power to an individual.
• For this reason, they are wildly affirmed.

One is modalism. 

• A redo of Seballianism.
• Pentecostal Oneness groups believe God is only one person of the godhead at a time.
• Functioning as either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit but not at the same time.
• This secret knowledge or corner on God feeds into some kind of special access know which god to call on for what occasion.

The other heresy found in hyper-charismatic groups is called the kenotic heresy. 

• This is a redo of gnostic dualism saying that Jesus who was fully man became fully God when the Spirit lighted upon him.
• This the subset application is Dominionism where people become little gods receiving Jesus-like superpowers by anointing.
• Watch out for Jesus only groups.

The Bible reveals to us the Trinity, operating in individual roles for individual purposes. 

• God the Father who sent his Son to save us from sin and the Holy Spirit who magnifies the Son and empowers us to live for Christ and glorify God!
• We pray to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit!    

God speaks – verse 17! 

It never matters so much what anyone else says about you compared to what God says about you!  God the Father. 

God the Father is represented by his “voice from heaven” (v. 17). 

• God is spirit (cf. John 4:24) meaning he does not have a body but he speaks over his Son who has taken on flesh for all to see!
• The word for “voice” [phwvn] is a loud declaration! Thunderclaps! 
• What all would hear and pay attention to!

The Father affirms Jesus as his Son, the Son of God.

• This One from heaven speaks in terms of love and intimacy! “…my beloved Son” (v. 17). 
• The mission statement of John 3:16 echoes here!
• “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.”

There is no confusion about whether or not this is him! 

• The Father’s public profession is loud and demonstrative!
• God proclaims his love for his Son!
• And then he affirms his mission!

“…with whom I am well pleased” (v. 17). 

• The Father is vested in:
  • Who Jesus is.
  • Why Jesus is there.
  • What Jesus is going to do!

 

• Jesus has identified with sinners.
• With this world and its sin.
• Jesus has initiated his mission to Save.
• And, his Father’s rains down his applause from heaven!         

God’s message is built right out of Psalm 2:7 (Messianic) and Isaiah 42:1.

^ESV  Psalm 2:7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

 

^ESV  Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 

 

This profession was public for all to see and be convinced. 

 

^ESV  John 1:33-34 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” 

 

Christianity is becoming less and less popular but it is still very public. 

• You are supposed to go public with your faith.
• Perhaps a good first step is to be baptized.
• Your public profession is met with God’s affirmation through his church.

God’s applause comes to his children from heaven but it is felt within his church as you identify with God’s people. 

• And then through his people, God identifies you has his own!

We need each other these days. 

• Perhaps more than ever before.
• Identify yourself with God’s people and do so publically.