Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:1-21
Sermon Title: Jesus’ Baptism: The Father’s Endorsement
and the Spirit’s Empowerment
Introduction
The focus of this passage is the sharp transition from
John the Baptist’s ministry to the ministry of Jesus. John the Baptist is
imprisoned by Herod for condemning Herod’s marriage to Herodias, his brother’s
wife. John’s imprisonment and Jesus’ baptism mark the
transition. Christology is the study of the person and deeds of
Christ. Christology is the doctrine defining who Christ was/is.
The event of Jesus’ baptism is one of the most
Christologically significant in Luke’s gospel account because it presents the
initiation to Jesus’ ministry seen here in His baptism where He receives the
Father’s endorsement and the Spirit’s empowerment.
This morning we will endeavor to know, love, and obey
Christ more by answering the following questions:
- Why was Jesus baptized?
- What can we learn from the mention of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
- Is there special significance regarding the Holy Spirit’s descent?
- Why did the Holy Spirit appear like a dove?
- Why does Luke, unique from Matthew, Mark, and John, note that Jesus was praying as the Spirit descended?
- Jesus submitted himself to the Father’s will by dependence on the Holy Spirit by praying. What does that mean to me?
Why did Jesus come to be baptized, since John's baptism was
a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (3:3), and
Jesus was without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15)?
Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.
In His role as the Messiah, “born under the law”
(Galatians 4:4), Jesus had to submit to all God’s requirements for Israel.
Matthew’s account of the same event gives us an answer, “Then Jesus came from
Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented
him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus
answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.’ Then he consented” (Matthew 3:13-15).
Other examples of Jesus fulfilling the Law can be found
in our prior studies on Joseph and Mary (Luke 2). Also, He had no sin, yet
participated in Passover (Luke 22:15). As the Son of God, Jesus was exempt from
paying the temple tax, but He paid it anyway (Matthew 17:24-27). Why?
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say
to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass
from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the
least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called
least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-20).
Jesus’ life and death have equal significance for the
believer. Jesus bore the wrath of God on the Cross in His death, taking Hell
for us. However, Jesus lived the perfect life in our stead (2 Corinthians 5:21),
fulfilling every iota and dot of the Law so that God could look down upon us as
He did at His Son’s baptism and say, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am
well pleased” (Luke 3:22). Because of Jesus’ death, God’s just wrath is
pardoned on our behalf and because of Jesus’ life we are perfectly and
perpetually accepted into the love of God.
What can
we learn from the mention of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
This passage is one of the most significant Trinitarian
texts in the New Testament, as the Father speaks, the Holy Spirit descends, and
Jesus is baptized. That all appear simultaneously refutes the heresy known as
modalism. Modalism views God as one person, the Father, who also manifests
himself at various times as the Holy Spirit, and on other occasions as the
Son.[2]
Modalism is a damnable heresy because it greatly distorts
the essence of who God is. Theology is like a paint brush: it paints an image.
Your theology paints a picture of an image you worship. This matters because
what you believe about God is what you perceive to behold and the Scripture
teaches that people become like what they worship (2 Corinthians 3:18; Psalm
115:8; Jeremiah 2:5).
Is there
special significance regarding the Holy Spirit’s descent?
The Holy Spirit’s ministry is associated primarily with
empowerment.
Much of this significance is developed by Luke in Acts
10:36-38 and Luke 24:29, where the Spirit’s anointing of Jesus is associated
with power.
“As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good
news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know
what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism
that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit
and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:36-38).
“And behold, I (Jesus) am sending the promise of my
Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on
high” (Luke 24:49). Luke later specifies this “power” Jesus is speaking of is
the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). We know that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are
eternally inseparable. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s descent signifies the
Father’s special enablement at the outset of Jesus’ ministry.
Why did
the Holy Spirit appear like a dove?
Notice, Luke says, “Like a dove.” The Greek adverb means,
“as though; as; like as; as it were.”
What was visible was not a dove, but rather what was seen is compared to
a dove, as “like” is an adverb of manner.[3]
“Luke’s likening the Holy Spirit to a dove is the topic
of much loose theological speculation. There are six popular and contrary
speculations as to what this means. These attempts to make a theological symbol
out of the dove seem flawed. It seems best to leave the figure of the dove as a
simple metaphor without theological significance” (Darrell Bock).[3]
After reading six popular, distinct, and contrasting
attempts to answer this question (Why “like” a Dove?), I agreed with Darrell
Bock. I agreed with him until I read this (although not absolute, it is worthy
of consideration):
"Why Does the Spirit Come in the Form of a Dove?" By John
Piper
The way the Spirit comes gives a direction for how its power is to be used. The word "dove" occurs on Jesus' lips one time in the gospels, namely, Matthew 10:16: "Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." The dove suggests Jesus purity, meekness, and innocence. It was not majestic like the eagle or fierce like the hawk or flamboyant like the cardinal. It was simple, common, innocent, the kind of bird poor people could offer for a sacrifice (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:8). This was a directive to Jesus from the Father: the Spirit with which I anoint you is not for ostentation or for earthly battle. What is it for?
An answer comes from Isaiah 42:1–4. This text is relevant because this is where the words of God the Father come from which follow the giving of the Spirit: "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. He will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law." The beauty of this picture is that he has the power to bring forth justice to the nations, but he will not use it to "break a bruised reed or quench a dimly burning wick." That is, he will be tender with the weak and failing. He will be dove-like not hawk-like. So when God anoints Jesus with the Spirit in the form of a dove, he directs him to use his power in meekness and tenderness and love. Which Jesus does: "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest . . . for I am meek and lowly"—I have the Spirit of a dove not a hawk. He says in Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor"—the bruised reeds of the world and the smoldering wicks. To these he comes with his dove-like Spirit and heals and fans into flame.
The significance of the Spirit descending and abiding was not that Jesus was being filled with the Spirit for the first time but that He was being marked as the bearer of the Spirit who would later give the Spirit to quicken and enable.
Why does
Luke, unique from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, note that Jesus was praying as the
Spirit descended?
It is VITAL to understand the correlation between the
believer’s responsibility to pray and the Holy Spirit’s ministry to empower.
Let me preface my following comments with this: I am
certainly not limiting what God can do. However, my goal is to point of Jesus’
model of God’s design.
Jesus’ life illustrates a monumental principle: Truth
isn’t enough. Think about it: Jesus is truth. Jesus is omniscient. Yet, Jesus
found it necessary to pray. The question has been raised, “If Jesus was God,
why did He pray?” If God knows everything and has an unshakeable will, why
should I pray?
We are going to see in this gospel that Luke loves to
picture Jesus in prayer. He shows him praying at all the crucial turning points
of his life: here at the baptism, at the selection of the twelve apostles
(6:12), at Peter's confession (9:18), at the transfiguration (9:28), after the
return of the seventy (10:21), before giving the Lord’s Prayer (11:1), in
Gethsemane (22:41), for Peter (22:31-32), on the cross (23:34), with the
disciples He encountered on the road to Emmaus (24:30), and at the ascension
(24:50-51). He tells us that Jesus went repeatedly to the wilderness to pray
(5:16) and that he spent whole nights in prayer (6:12).
“If the beloved Son communes with God through prayer as
He pursues His direction in life, how much more should we!” (Darrell Bock).[4]
Outside Luke we see Jesus praying during His first
preaching tour (Mark 1:35), before feeding the 5,000 (Matthew 14:19), after
feeding the 5,000 (Matthew 14:23), before feeding the 4,000 (Matthew 15:36),
for some children brought to Him (Matthew 19:13), before raising Lazarus from
the dead (John 11:41-42), as He faced the reality of the Cross (John 12:28), at
the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26-27), and masterfully in His high priestly prayer
(John 17).
The point of all this must be to show that even in Jesus'
life there is a correlation between earnest prayer and the empowerment of God.
Remember our study on the hypostatic union (incarnation):
Jesus was fully God and fully man. The Son emptied himself (Philippians 2:7) of
the independent use of His divine attributes and chose to submit to the will of
the Father under power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit
empowered a submitted and dependent Jesus by mediating between his human and
divine attributes as the Father willed.
Although His human nature was sinlessly perfect, it
nevertheless did not have supernatural power. Brethren, although forgiven, we
live in fallen sinful flesh. How much more dependent must we be!
Prayer is the fountain of grace.
Jesus
submitted himself to the Father’s will by dependence on the Holy Spirit by
praying. What does that mean to me? Prayer is to the soul what breathing is to
the body.
- Knowledge isn’t enough. Dependence on the Holy Spirit must be done through prayer: 1 Peter 5:5-7
- Dependence through prayer on the Holy Spirit is the chief evidence of true regeneration: Romans 8:1-11, especially vv. 6-9
- Dependence through prayer on the Holy Spirit requires perpetual renewal: Ephesians 5:15-21
Encouraging Bonus Material
There were seven main feasts Israel observed and
celebrated under God’s loving command.
All of the festivals God established were intended to
call his Old Testament people to celebrate and remember the blessings that he
had already given but also to yearn in faith, to anticipate the fuller
redemption the Messiah would bring. Like the covenants, they had momentary
relevance, but with a greater significance in acting as a “shadow of things to
come, namely Christ” (Colossians 2:17). Thus, each of the festivals served as a
type or shadow, an actual but early taste of that redemption to come.[7]
The first three feasts instituted by the LORD were The
Feast of Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits.
Christ’s fulfillment of the shadow is seen in that He died on Passover as the
atoning sacrifice for our sins, as our justification. He was buried on
Unleavened Bread as our sanctification, putting a gracious end to sin’s
control. And He was resurrected on Firstfruits, His own resurrected body
serving as the first sheaf of grain of the new creation to come. The fourth
feast instituted by the LORD was Pentecost (formerly known as the Feast of
Weeks, which was a harvest festival).
The dating of Israel’s arrival at Sinai (Exodus 19:1)
happened fifty days after Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Exodus 19 relates the
story of her terrified approach: the mountain was covered in smoke, heaving and
quaking violently; lightening flashed and thunder crashed so loudly that all
trembled in dread fear. Israel was to keep her distance upon the threat of
death; only Moses could ascend the mountain to speak with YHWH.[7]
Drawing the parallel between Genesis 11 (confounding
languages), Exodus 19 (the thunder of Sinai), Exodus 32 (Three thousand died by
the sword due to idolatry), and Acts 2 (the Sword of the Spirit was used to
save 3000 men as diverse languages were heard bring unity contrasting the
division in Genesis 11) is helpful to understand the trajectory of God’s plan
to redeem and empower man.
“The Sword of the Spirit would cut even more sharply than
Levitical steel, slicing to the core of every issue and every soul, cutting so
deep as to expose and judge even the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. But
when the Spirit’s sword flashes, life results, not death. In an astonishing
display of divine grace, Sinai was reversed. Precisely three thousand were
saved. Paul explains it simply, “The letter (law – my comment) kills, the
Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Mankind’s unity was frustrated by sin
at Babel and has been fragmented by language, color, economics, and politics
ever since. That unity is being restored in the Christ who overturned Babel’s
curse. All kinds of people –representing diverse cultures and tongues – find
one life, one hope, and one voice in Jesus the Messiah. For He “purchased men
for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” and “made them to
be a kingdom and priests to serve our God” (Revelation 5:9-10).[7]
What is the point?
The following excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian’s blog
post answers the question:
We are not a one word community (law or Gospel), but a two word community (law then Gospel). God uses His law to crush hard hearts and His Gospel to cure broken hearts. The law is God’s first word; the Gospel is God’s final word. And when we rush past God’s first word to get to God’s final word and the law has not yet had a chance to do its deep wrecking work, the gospel is not given a chance to do its deep restorative work. Sinners never experience the freedom that comes from crying “Abba” (gospel) until they first cry “Uncle” (law). I illustrated this point by reminding our church that the Father of the prodigal son in Luke 15 did not fall to his knees and wrap his arms around his sons legs as the son was leaving, but as he was returning. He had been waiting, looking to the horizon in hope. When he saw his son coming home, crushed and humbled, he ran to him. But he didn’t stop him from leaving. He didn’t rescue his son from the pigsty. If we really love people and want to see them truly set free, we have to get out of God’s way and let the law do its crushing work so that the gospel can do its curing work. I’ve seen way too many lives ruined because parents, pastors, families, and friends have cushioned the fall of someone they love–robbing that person from ever experiencing true deliverance because they never experience true desperation. As John Zahl has said, “God’s office is at the end of our rope.” Grace always runs downhill–meeting us at the bottom, not the top.
Closing
Prayer does not change God’s will - it implements it.
Sources
- Sproul, R.C. The Reformation Study Bible. Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005.
- MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 1-5. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009.
- Brock, Darrell. Luke 1:1-9:50. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1994.
- Brock, Darrell. The NIV Application Commentary: Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996.
- Ryle, J.C. Luke. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1997.
- "The Baptism and the Genealogy of Jesus" by John Piper (February 22, 1981). A full manuscript of this sermon can be found at: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/the-baptism-and-the-genealogy-of-jesus. Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org
- Sittema, John. Meeting Jesus at the Feast: Israel’s Festivals and the Gospel. Grandville, MI: Reformed Fellowship Inc. 2010.
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