Sermon for Sunday, November 10, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament reading:
[Isaiah 42:1-9 ESV] 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. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. 5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
New Testament reading:
[1 Peter 2:18-25 ESV] 18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Gospel reading:
[John 1:29-34 ESV] 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! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 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.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
Sermon Text:
[Matthew 3:13-17 ESV] 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Introduction
There days in our life that are of great important.
One of those important days is the day we are baptized. Maybe that is the 4th most important day in our life. A tombstone usually lists just a persons date of birth and date of death. The next most commonly recorded date for a person is their marriage. And then, often in the records, you’ll find a persons date of baptism. Sometimes the state records don’t exist, but the church records do and so you can find a persons date of baptism, and give an educated guess that they were born shortly before that. Well, you might say that your date of baptism is the 4th most commonly recorded date, but maybe it is of more important than any other date, for it is the day in which the sign and seal of God’s covenant of Grace is administered to you.
Well, another important day (though seldom recorded for posterity) is the day your begin your career, or are commissioned to your work. Many jobs, of courses, don’t have a formal commission. But some do. I was, on the 5th of November 2017, ordained to the Gospel ministry. And politicians, judges, police officers, officials of all sorts are commissioned to their work, given the approval of an authority above them, whether they are selected by is an elected official or themselves voted in.
These are two important days. Baptism and your commissioning to the work you are called to do.
Now here in Matthew’s Gospel we have, for Jesus, those two days combined into one.
Here Jesus is BAPTIZED (to fulfill all righteousness) AND, with that baptism, he is ANOINTED to his CALLING as the promised messiah.
That is our main point that I’ll elaborate upon in this sermon, so I’ll say it again: Jesus is baptized (to fulfill all righteousness) and anointed to his calling as the promised messiah.
Setting:
We find Jesus now on the scene as an adult for the first time in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus, like his cousin John, is about 30 years old now. (Luke 3:23) This delay in each starting their ministries may be related to the Old Testament priesthood requirement in Numbers 4:30 that a priest must be 30 years old.
Jesus is now ready to go unto the world. His days of carpentry have passed. His preaching is about to begin. He comes to John the Baptist. And he comes of his own accord, and presumably traveling alone, to be baptized by John. That is his purpose. He doesn’t just happen upon John in the wilderness. He travels there to be baptized.
But we immediately run into a problem. And John recognizes too. Jesus IS SINLESS. How can John, who proclaims a baptism of repentance of sins, how can he baptize Jesus who DOES NOT sin? What is the point of washing something that is already clean?
Do you have put clean clothes in the wash machine?
Do you put clean dishes in the dishwasher?
Of course not.
John comes to the same conclusion and so he says: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” The text says he tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized. Matthew tells us “John would have prevented him.”
Jesus had to persuade John to baptized him. While John is trying to persuade everyone else (the regular people as well as the Pharisees and Sadducees) of the need for a baptism of repentance, he is taking (at first) the opposite position with Jesus. John refuses to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees because they are totally unworthy of it. Now he is almost equally reluctant to baptize Jesus, because Jesus is too worthy for it.
So Jesus says to John: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” And we read of John, “Then he consented.”
So Jesus is baptized. But WHY was Jesus baptized?
I. Why was Jesus baptized?
We know that it couldn’t be a “baptism of repentance” in the same sense that others are being baptized, for Jesus had no sin.
So why is he baptized?
I’ve going to note 5 reasons. The first is explicit in the text. Then reasons 2, 3, and 4 are secondary purposes which most can easily agree with. And finally, the fifth reason I think is of perhaps the greatest importance, not to be overlooked.
These five reasons are:
(A) To fulfill all righteousness.
(B) To identify with man
(C) As part of Christ’s humiliation
(D) To provide an example
(E) To be anointed to his ministry.
A. To fulfill all righteousness.
To fulfill all righteousness. This is the one that is explicit in the text.
But that doesn’t mean that is is the only reason Jesus is baptized. I think of a parallel with communion. Jesus says “do this in remembrance of me” and indeed we remember Jesus when we have communion. But it doesn’t stop there. We believe, and the Scriptures back this up, that communion is also a means of grace, and a sign and seal of God’s covenant of grace. So we remember Jesus and are blessed by the Lord in communion.
Likewise, there are multiple reasons for Jesus’s baptism. And we’ll get to those other reasons, but we start first with the explicit one, in the text. “To fulfill all righteousness.”
What does this mean?
I found A LOT of different answers on this subject. People are all over the map. And maybe there is a broadness to the idea of “fulfilling all righteousness.” Indeed, in EVERYTHING Jesus does, He fulfills righteousness.”
Usually in Matthew when he uses the word “fulfill” (Greek: pleroo) it is in reference to Old Testament prophecy. Some eleven times Matthew says the phrase “this took place to fulfill what was spoken of by the prophet” and then he quotes from the Old Testament.
But here with Jesus’s baptism, he neither repeats that phrase nor quotes from an Old Testament text.
It seems that Matthew could be referring not to prophecy being fulfilled, but the law being fulfilled.
Jesus, we know, fulfills the law of the Old Testament. He says in Matthew 5:17 [Matthew 5:17 ESV] 17 “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.”
But there isn’t any Old Testament commanded that a person be baptized. So, in saying he must be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” he isn’t referencing some Old Testament law.
But the God speaking through the prophets didn’t end with the Old Testament. John the Baptist is a prophet of God. And speaking through John, God is now calling everyone to be baptized.
In the Gospel of John 1:31 we find John the Baptist referring to God as “he who sent me to baptize with water.” So God has commanded John to baptize, and presumably that includes the command for everyone else to be baptized.
So RC Sproul says: When John the Baptist came, God was bringing forth a new requirement of His law that goes beyond the requirements He gave through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament, and that new requirement, imposed upon all of Israel, is to be baptized in preparation for the coming of the kingdom of God.
So Jesus fulfills THIS law, the commandment of God to be baptized, which through the prophet John.
That is my best understanding of what “to fulfill all righteousness” means here. But I’m open to other ideas. And I think the other reasons for Jesus’ baptism that I will note; they relate to that idea of “fulfilling all righteousness.”
Well, lets look at those others reasons for why Jesus was baptized.
B. To identify with man.
RC Sproul continues saying “Even though Jesus had no need for baptism, he submitted to this rite as part of His corporate solidarity with His people.”
This is a definite benefit of Jesus’ baptism; so that we share that same experience.
Another commentator says,“Jesus, by submitting to baptism, identifies with humanity’s need for cleansing.” (Bock)
So Jesus identifies with His people who are also called to baptism.
C. A part of Christ’s humiliation.
Similarly, another reason Jesus was baptized is thought be many to be part of his humiliation. The humiliation of Christ is his intentional humbling, stooping down, and experiencing the burdens of man when he took on flesh and suffered in life and in death.
So while Christ didn’t need to baptized, and it even could be seen as insulting him who is perfect to have a “baptism of repentance,” Jesus did it anyways, for his humiliation, and ultimately for our sake.
D. To provide an example.
A fourth (and connected) reason, briefly, for why Jesus was baptized, was to provide an example for us. This one is so simple that we might easily overlook it. He was baptized. We are called to do the same. So Jesus is an example.
But, I want to look at the fifth reason in more depth because it really fits the context of the passage.
E. To be anointed to his ministry.
That is, the fifth reason that Jesus is baptized is to be anointed to his ministry. This is the beginning of his career. He needs a commissioning, and this is it.
He is being identify by God as the messiah; prophet, priest, and king. And he is approved of by God the Father and by the Holy Spirit.
The messiah is being identified, and that is Jesus. This matches what we’ve been seeing in these first chapters of Matthew. It is all about showing that Jesus is the messiah. So we have that message here as well.
The genealogy said it, the place of birth said it, the prophets Micah and Isaiah said it, not God the Father and the Holy Spirit put their stamp of approval on Jesus with a divine endorsement. God speaks from heaven to approve Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes upon Christ anointing him, just like king David was anointed from above (although with oil) in the Old Testament.
This is Christ’s anointing!
It is when and where he is declared to be the messiah.
Christ is “the anointed one.”
When was he anointed, if not here? This is it.
Now, Jesus is anointed to his office of the messiah. But all who hold an office do so BY SOME OTHER AUTHORITY given it to them. Who has given Jesus authority? By what authority did go out into the world with miracles, and preaching, and dying, and rising. It is by the authority of God.
If a person goes about some task without office, he is absurd. You can’t give out parking tickets, unless you are authorized to do so.
So Jesus doesn’t declare himself the Messiah. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit declare it.
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Those are the words of approval from God.
Isaiah 42:1 and other similar prophecies are fulfilled – “I have put my spirit upon him.”
And in those words, the Trinity is assumed. In those words we have Biblical proof of the Trinity.
II. Biblical Proof of the Trinity
In these two verses (a single sentence) we have (1) Jesus (God the Son), (2) God the Father, and (3) God the Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons.
This is an especially effective verse for dismantling Sabeallianism, aka modalism, aka Oneness Pentecostals. There are some people who teach that God is at one point the Father than changes into the Son and then changes into the Holy Spirit. That is a false view of God. In our text all there are there simultaneously. Distinct as persons, but united as divine; as one God.
Matthew is strong on the Trinity. Also in chapter 28. There we have the great commission. Make disciples of all nations, in the name (singular) of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That verse is so Trinitarian that anti-Trinitarians are forced to contend that it is not original in the text. But there is no known copy of the Bible in which the text is any different than what we have. It is the original reading of Matthew. The name (singular) of the three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now the Baptism of Jesus is one of sprinkling or pouring, just as the priests of the Old Testament were baptized. And just as the Holy Spirit came down upon him, so the waters came down upon him.
But the Baptist would point out, “Didn’t Jesus come up from the water”? But this doesn’t mean he went underwater, it means he went down to the river and came up from the river. It is not reference to his posture changing from crouching in the water to mostly out of the water standing, rather it is a reference to his location changing from being down at the riverside to up on higher ground away from the river. Matthew does use the same Greek work (anabaino) for a fisherman taking a fish out of the sea (Matthew 17:27), but he also uses the word for Jesus going up a mountain (Matthew 14:23, 15:29), and going up to Jerusalem (Matthew 20:17). So the word alone doesn’t tell us whether Jesus had a full immersion baptism or merely went up from the river to another place.
Application: A call to humility
This text is a call to humility. Not just a recognition of Christ’s humiliation, but it is something we see in John as well. John has a massive following. But he’s not gathering them up for himself.
Who would give up such a role! John has got it made. It could have followers do everything for him.
“He must increase, I must decrease.” This is humility. The opposite of the Pharisees.
Turn all praise to God. Don’t just turn down flattery, but point it all to Christ. Oh, you liked the food I made; praise God that He provided it to me and for the abilities that he gave me to cook it.
Application: Clearly know that Jesus is the messiah.
Application: Remember your baptism and consider the work set in front of you.
A reminder for us to look to our baptisms and to the work that is set out in front of us; whatever we are called to do.
But above all we must be thankful for the work of Christ. That which he was called to do, he accomplished, for our salvation.