Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #13 John Baptizes Jesus- Matthew 3

 

Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #13 John Baptizes Jesus- Matthew 3

 Introduction: 

I told you I’ve been having trouble sleeping, haven’t I well keep praying about that, I would appreciate it. I only got about 4 hours last night, but I tell you, I feel great. I feel great. I may start speaking in tongue in moment, but I FEEL GREAT. We had a lot going on the past week and this weekend a lot was and is happening. We had a family reunion up in Arlington, drove back last night and it’s someone’s birthday as well. I don’t remember whose but we have to celebrate that as well. But I feel great.

Today our theme is baptism and we as Baptists love to talk about baptism. We love to tell jokes about it as well, so let me tell you one, if I can remember it. “I could have been a Methodist.”

Now let’s talk about John the Baptist. Now we didn’t take our name from John, but both John and Baptists got there name from the same place. Do I have to tell you where that was?.... John was the Baptist because God told him to baptize and we are Baptist because the Lord told us to baptize.

John was a monumental figure needed to close the old Testament and open the New Testament. How great was John the Baptist? Well John’s birth was one of only three announced by an angel, Samson, John and Jesus. His name means Jehovah gives gracious gifts, or God give grace.

John’s ministry was foretold in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.
Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Even Johns way of dressing in camel’s hair with a leather girdle was in keeping with this office of the last Old Testament Prophet, it is similar to Elijah’s clothing and was often the usual dress of the prophets. His food, locusts and wild honey, also marks him as a man of the wilderness, an outsider come into the nation of Israel to call them into the wilderness there to Repent for the Kingdom was at hand. To repent and then to be baptized.

 John The Preparer - Matthew 3:1– 6

1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

John’s Work

John’s work was to preach and not exactly what would be called the Gospel or the Good News. John’s work of preaching centered around his prophetic office, like the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah and all the others that were sent by God to warn His people. The gift of prophecy is first a ministry of warning of God’s judgement against sin. It sometimes foretells events but the greatest part of prophecy is forthtelling. It is speaking with force and forthwith, speaking out, speaking up and telling the lost, the sinners and the rebellious that God will judge sin and He will hold the guilty responsible for their sin and unwillingness to repent.

The words of Ezekiel could have been preached by John, Ezekiel 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Or Isaiah in Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

John’s message, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” has an added power and impetus to it because it is being preached just before the coming of the Messiah, the future King of Israel. And Israel, though no longer worshipping idols, is a sinful nation full of pride, legalism and iniquity and John is calling out to them and calling them out, “Repent, your king is coming and your judgment as a nation and as people comes with Him.”

Imagine you live in the area around Jerusalem or travel the main road for commerce that runs from Jerusalem to the Jordan valley and into your camp, or village one day walks this rough looking man and he calls out in a loud voice, because prophets must always have the gift of a big voice, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.” It was a short message, but the people of Israel knew exactly what it meant.

To repent literally means “to change the mind,” but it carries much more weight and responsibility in this context, just as it does today. We are not talking about repent in the sense of seeing you were wrong about who won the 1998 World Series, or who was the 10th president of the United States. No, this is you being wrong in your relationship to your creator, wrong in your spiritual connection to the one who is your God and who will be your judge.

Repent here means a complete change of mind and heart when it comes to sin and to God. That change is emotional as well as intellectual and it should be accompanied by sorrow for my sin and a true desire to change, else it was not true repentance.

Israel as a nation and the people of Israel as individual needed repentance in order to be ready for the coming Kingdom and with that they also needed baptism as an outward sign, a symbol of their repentance and their commitment to the coming King.

John was the Messiah’s forerunner, he was the catalyst that started a spiritual chain reaction that would explode when Jesus appeared on the scene in first century Jerusalem and openly declared himself as Messiah and as the Son of God.

The Message Updated

It must have been exciting times to hear and see John preach. To hear that powerful message, to feel the call to repent and then to watch day by day with the expectation of the coming of the long-awaited Messiah, the King who would sit upon the throne of David and free God’s people.

When you think about it, isn’t that pretty much the same message we preach and hear today. It has been updated and filled in with a fuller revelation of Jesus as Creator, Savior Lord and King, but the elements of that simple message still should have their effect in our hearts today as they did in the hearts of the Israelites listening to John at the dawn of the New Testament.

Yes! We still need to repent.

Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Today and then, it is still the same, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven, unless you are willing to bow in repentance before its King, Jesus Christ. That part of the message hasn’t changed at all.

Our entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven hasn’t changed but the aspect or application of the Kingdom has. When Jesus came and presented himself as Messiah to Israel, the rightful heir of the throne of David, the nation was presented with a choice. Accept Jesus as King on His terms or reject Him. We all know what happened there were many individuals who believed but the nation and its leaders called out on that fateful day, “We have no King but Caesar!” And they demanded the crucifixion of the Lord and just as John had warned them, judgment fell.

Around 66 AD the spirit of animosity against Rome, blazed into full inferno of rebellion against the invaders of their God-given land. Finally after years of fighting, the rebels were driven into Jerusalem as their last stronghold. Then, in 70 AD, a Roman army of 50,000 battle hardened soldier commanded by the General Titus, broke through the wall of Jerusalem, and the wall surrounding the Temple. 10s of thousands were slaughtered, the women and children, who were not killed or had not starved during the siege, were taken back to Rome and sold as slaves.

The Temple was razed to the ground, just as Jesus had prophesied, not a stone stood atop another stone. The Roman army destroyed the city and with it the nation of Israel and they remained a people without a nation or a home until 1948.

“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” John and Jesus preached, but they did not repent, and millions paid a terrible price. And in many ways they are still paying that price today. They rejected the requirements of the Kingdom and killed their own Messiah. What could have been a kingdom on earth was lost until a future time and the second coming of Jesus as King.

Today, the Kingdom of Heaven for us is not a physical Kingdom in this world. We as children of God in the New Testament are not promised the physical, earthly, land or national promises of Israel or granted the blessing of their Covenants with God. But we still can enter the Kingdom because today and even then, it must be entered spiritually before one day we can enter it physically.

This is what the Sermon on the Mount was all about Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit (the repentant) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Ever beatitude in the sermon on the mount ends with “the kingdom of heaven.”

This is what Jesus had to make Nicodemus understand, John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. A spiritual birth before entrance into that kingdom.

The Kingdom for us today is not of this world but instead is in our hearts and in hope of the kingdom that will come.

John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”

Luke 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

The understanding of the Kingdom has changed but the message has not change and even in the tribulation will be preached by angels in the sky above the cities of the earth, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is come.”

John as the preacher of that message prepared the way for Jesus, but it wasn’t the only message John preached, look at vss 7-12

 John The Prophet - Matthew 3:7– 12

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

John’s Warning

Here we see John fulfilling his office as the first prophet of the New Testament and fulfilling his role as the last prophet of the Old Testament. He prophecies a warning to the Pharisees and the Sadducees who had come out to be a part of and observe the baptism of John.

Now understand that baptism was a rite, a ritual that was already practiced by Jews. The used it when making proselytes, a convert to the Jewish religion. It was also used for remedial and purifying purposes. The outward form of immersion was not something invented by Joh, but under John’s mandate from God, baptism took on a whole new meaning.

John’s baptism, the act that gave him his name, signified repentance and faith in the coming Messiah of Israel. It was a sign of obedience and commitment not to faith in a religion like Judaism, but obedience and faith to a person, the Anointed One of Israel.

John, therefore wanted the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were the religious and secular rulers of the Jewish people, to know what they were trying to appropriate. He told them they had no part in this message or ministry, “You bunch of snakes, who warned you to flee the wrath to come.”

And he addressed them as a generation of vipers, snakes, is there anything worse to call a Jew than to make them part of the same family of creatures that brought sin into the world and the Garden of Eden? John was not playing nice with the high and might of Judah.

He told them Matthew 3:9 think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Your heritage and your family lineage is not even worth the river stones under my feet, John insults them.

And then he warns them, Matthew 3:10-12 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

When the King of Israel comes it will not be a welcome event for them, but instead a terrible judgment. He says the Messiah will be an axe and it will cut down the trees that bear poisonous fruit and set them on fire. The baptism that the Messiah will bring will be two-fold, first a baptism in the Holy Spirit but also a baptism in the fire of judgment. The Messiah will separate the wheat from the chaff, the righteous from the unrighteous, gather the righteous to Himself but the chaff will burn with an unquenchable fire.

The Messiah comes for two purposes to save the repentant and to punish the unrepentant. He comes both as Savior and as Judge. He will also institute two baptisms the first is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which took place on the Day of Pentecost after Jesus had returned to heaven.

Acts 2:1-4 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

On the day of Pentecost these words of John the Prophet were fulfilled as the church was immersed in the Spirit of God in that upper room. Jesus baptized His church and from that day forward every believer in Jesus is given the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God is now not just all around us but He is also in us through the gift of the Spirit. But the second baptism is the judgment of the baptism of unquenchable fire.

Which Jesus are you looking for?

Every person hearing the message of John, as we just did, is in the same situation that the people and the rulers were in that day. Which Messiah, which King, which baptism are you awaiting?

If you repent and put your faith in Him as Savior and King, then we look for the salvation that He brings now to us personally and one day will bring to the world.

But if you haven’t, won’t or don’t repent and put your faith in Him, then you must look for the King to return with a baptism of unquenchable fire. Instead of being a lamb in the flock of the Great Shepherd we are among those that John said were “a generation of vipers.” Our kinship is not with the Lord who saves from sin but with Satan who brought sin, pain, sorrow, death and destruction into this world.

One Messiah, one Lord, one King but He comes with a two-edged sword, the Bible says, One edge is eternal salvation but the other is eternal judgment.

John preaches this message to the vipers and then the Bible says, “Then cometh Jesus” just like John prophesied, the Messiah is here.

John The Baptizer / Forerunner - Matthew 3:13– 17

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

John’s Reluctance

Jeus came that day to be baptized by John. He was aligning Himself with the ministry and the message of John the baptizer and prophet. He was also there to take the mantle of John’s message upon Himself.

When John sees Him, he forbids him, the word means to remonstrate, to argue in the negate. He says, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” To John this makes no sense, The Messiah needs no baptism but is come to baptize with the Spirit and with fire.

Listen closely to the reason Jesus gives for His own baptism at the hand of John, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” “Let it be so now, permit this at this time, for by doing this it is fitting, it is right, it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” And John then baptizes Jesus, the future King of Israel.

What does that phrase mean? “Thus if becomes us to fulfil all righteousness.” It is vastly important to us today.

Three points of understanding. First, I think it means that Jesus was confirming the call and office of John. His baptism at the hands of John showed that Jesus was accepting John as a called prophet of God, in that role of the prophesied forerunner. It was fitting for Jesus to follow through, to fulfill that act of righteousness.

Secondly, Jesus is telling John, “it is fitting, it fulfils righteousness for both of us. This was about Jesus but it was also John. It was a righteous act, so both John and Jesus needed to fulfill it.

Thirdly, it was a fulfillment of righteousness, not just for Jesus and John, but for all who would follow. Baptism is an act of rightness, which is what righteousness means. It is an act of rightness for all those who repent and believe. It becomes us, you and I and all who come after us, to submit ourselves to the Lord in the act of baptism.

Jesus was giving us an example to follow. If Jesus was baptized that day, submitting himself to the Father’s authority give to John, then how can we justify not being baptized in the same way and for the same reason, to fulfill all righteousness.

So, let’s make sure we understand what that fully means.

Baptism as practiced by John that day meant to be immersed under the water and then brought forth up out of the water. The word is baptizo in the original Greek language and means to dip or immerse. We didn’t even translate it, we transliterated it into our English language. To fulfill all righteousness means to be immersed.

Secondly, Jesus went to John. He didn’t baptize Himself; he went to the one who had been given that authority from God the Father. So, where is that authority today, look in Matthew 28:18-19 All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

The authority to baptize was first given to John the Baptist and then was passed by the authority of Jesus to the church. To fulfill all righteousness, you must be baptized under the authority of the local church. That means you must present yourself, just as Jesus presented himself to John and just as John as God’s authority then, permitted Jesus to be baptized, today the church must permit the baptism of one who comes forward to show they believe in Jesus Christ because they are the Lord’s authority today.

That is fulfilling all righteousness. It is the right, proper and expected by the Lord, thing to do if you are a believer. Your baptism is a symbol of the death, burial and resurrection of your Savior Jesus. It is also a symbol of your own death, burial and resurrection through Him.

Baptism can’t save you, but it brings the seal of authority to your testimony of faith. It’s pretty simple, when you see it right here in the scriptures, isn’t it. If you believe, then be baptized. Fulfill all righteousness.

If Jesue did it and told us to follow Him, why would we even hesitate. We should be like the Ethiopian Eunuch when Phillip shared the Gospel from Isaiah with Him.

Acts 8:36-38 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

Immediately after salvation, we should say to the preacher and the church, “I believe now where is the water? I need to get baptized! I need to fulfill all righteousness beginning with baptism, just like my Savior, Jesus.”

 Conclusion

Fulfil all righteousness. That phrase should be the guiding rule of life for every child of God. Whatever is God’s command, whatever is the Lord’s requirement, whatever is right in service as a Christian then fulfill that righteousness. Do what is right.

But it must begin at baptism, if you won’t submit to baptism as the outward sign of your faith in and obedience to Jesus who you call Lord and savior, then there is no need to talk about Christian growth, or discipleship or all the other steps of walking in the faith.

Fulfill all righteousness begin with baptism.