His Beloved Son (Matthew 3:13-17)
Here’s my sermon from Sunday. We had a light crowd due to COVID and weather, so I’m hoping that this message - that I am so passionate about - is able to still get out there electronically. You can check out the audio or video here.
One unfortunate thing about this holiday season is that I didn’t catch more than just a few frames of the classic, A Christmas Story. Now do you remember the opening scene? Ralphie is there, along with a group of kids, crowded in and pressed up against the toy store window. Their eyes are wide. Their mouths are open. They’re together gazing with wonder at what the narrator calls, “mechanized, electronic joy.” And then Ralphie’s eyes glimpse and move to the Christmas present of his dreams, also in that display, the Daisy Red Rider BB gun. And he’s completely mesmerized.
Now as I shared a few weeks ago, in the gospel of Matthew, where we’ll be for - you could say - awhile, after the initial introduction, where we learn who Jesus is and where He’s from, there are five alternating blocks of stories and sermons. Here we’re in the first block of stories. Soon we’ll jump into the Sermon on the Mount. But it would be easy for me here to just share this story of Jesus getting baptized and encourage you to follow in his footsteps and move on.
Now we’ll certainly get there. But I want to go beyond that. I want to speak to more than just your head today. More to your heart - and mine - in our time together. I want you to see what’s here more like Ralphie in that window. Today, I want you to behold the beauty of Jesus and respond boldly to His love. I mentioned this back in chapter two, but we don’t use the word “behold” a lot. But it’s all over Matthew, and it’s a word that describes the response I want to call you to today, and really throughout this series.
Now “behold” is an important Hebrew word - one used over and over in the Old Testament. It calls us not just to see something, but to be struck, to be surprised, by what we see. As we see Jesus getting baptized here, we shouldn’t just observe it. We should be moved by it. And I’m going to work hard today to show you why.
Now, in using words like “behold,” in calling you to be moved by what you see, I’m really calling you to worship. And I want you to come grips with the fact that worship is something you and I are always doing. It’s not a matter of if we’re worshipping but whom or what we’re worshipping. We’re constantly finding joy in things, and through that, giving them glory - whether they deserve that or not. We were made to know God and have our hearts moved by Him, but we’ve given that worship to other things. And the bad news is that those other people, places, or things will never satisfy us. They’ll ultimately disappoint us.
You’ve probably heard of all of those shipping containers stuck off-shore of California, filled with all of those shiny things we’ve been ordering from Amazon. We’ve turned even more toward materialism during this pandemic - trying to fill up this God-sized hole in us with stuff. But no BB gun or electronic device will fill that void. Neither will a new relationship or job. We were made to behold one thing - one person - above all. And I want you to see Him with me here.
The Baptizer Baptized
See Jesus here, first of all, coming to be baptized. Do you remember the scene that Aaron set up well last week? People are coming from Jerusalem and the regions around.
They’re coming to listen to the preaching of this strangely-dressed man, John, and be baptized by Him - there in the Jordan. He’s calling people to repent of their sins. He’s telling them to get ready for the King to come. He’s telling Jews, who thought they had things all figured out, that they didn’t at all. That they needed this coming Redeemer. That they needed to get their hearts ready.
I mentioned the look on Ralphie’s face. I learned something this week. In addition to acting and rapping and showing off his six-pack, Mark Wahlberg has another talent - and that’s making very convincing, extremely confused faces. Check out the montages of those “what?” faces on Youtube and social media. Marky Mark’s got that look down.
Well, King Jesus himself strolls onto the scene in verse 13. He comes from the humble region of Galilee. And He comes to the banks of the Jordan River. And He asks John to baptize Him, to immerse Him. And the Baptizer no doubt gives him a blank stare like that. “Say what?!” And verse 14 says he at least gives thought to trying to shut it down. Remember. John had just told these crowds of people - verse 11 tells us - that he may have been baptizing with water, but another would come who’d baptize with fire, with the Holy Spirit of God. And there He walks up - Jesus - and He’s asking John to baptize Him. “What the what?”
John says, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Remember, John had also said that he wasn’t even worthy to carry His sandals. And Jesus here is wanting him to plunge His whole body down into that water.
Picture Lebron James strolling into the Armory gym downtown. And walking up to a kid, and asking, “You think you could help me with my jump-shot?” Or imagine the Pope approaching the vilest person in the crowd and confessing his sins to that man. Or Bono of U2 going to the leader of their opening act and saying, “Hey, I’d like to ask your band to go last.” Or think about the President coming into your office, and walking over to your cubicle, and asking, “What would you like for me to do today?” You’d see a lot of blank stares from all of these. But this we see here in Matthew is at a whole ‘nother level.
This is the mighty One, God Himself, not some stud athlete, joining in with those who are weak. The Pope is just a dude - and a sinner like us. And Jesus alone is the Holy One. Who’s never sinned - submitting to this baptism of repentance. Jesus isn’t just the leader of the country. He’s the King of the world. And He’s bigger than the biggest rockstar that’s ever lived. He’s the real King - the point of it all. The One who’ll be on the stage taking curtain calls and encores forever and ever.
It’s no wonder John is so shocked. And that he’s inclined to say, “No way.” On the surface, it doesn’t seem to make sense. Jesus responds with these odd words, in verse 15: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Huh? Does John know what He means? We’re not sure. We’ll get into what it probably means in a bit. But just as John had earlier leapt in the womb at the sound of Jesus, here His Lord says jump, and he sure does. But it’s the Lord here who’s really doing the submitting. And there’s something about this that just doesn’t feel right.
But maybe that’s part of the point. There’s an aspect of Christianity that is very upside-down. That turns the values and expectations of the world on their heads. Jesus doesn’t come in or go out kicking butt and taking names. He comes humbly, asking a guy who’d probably cause us to switch sides of the street, to lower Him down into the dirty water. And things are just starting to get weird.
Jesus goes down into the water. And yes, that’s what it means. He’s immersed. He’s dunked. The only reason it says “baptized” is because translators are hesitant to really translate the word and cause problems. But as Christ comes up and out of those waters, verse 16 says this: “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.” There’s that word again - “behold.”
You see this? Are you blown away by this? The heavens split open. There’s this vision. And in the form of a dove, the Holy Spirit comes to rest on Jesus. We’re not sure who all there saw it. Jesus sure did. And John 1:32 says that the Baptizer here at least did. The Spirit descends on Him. Verse 16 also says it rests on Him. But that’s not all that happens.
There’s a voice, says verse 17. “Behold” again! From heaven. It says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Don’t miss what’s happening here. After all those years, where God had seemed to be silent, the clouds are being pulled back. There’s this voice from the sky. And the Father says, “This One here is something special. Something new and awesome is about to happen.”
Behold the Beauty of Jesus
So that’s what takes place here. I want us to turn now to thinking about what it all means. What is this passage saying to us about who Jesus is and what Christ has done? Let’s take first, who Jesus is.
Jesus is being anointed right? Here with the Holy Spirit. Kings were anointed back in the Old Testament. With oil. Set apart for God’s purposes. David, and all the rest. And Jesus is the King of Kings. He’s the Messiah. The Anointed One. That’s what the word means. Who’d bring in His new Kingdom that would make everything that had gone wrong in the world right again. David pointed to Him. What’s John learning here? And us with Him? The Son of David is here. The long-awaited King.
But He’s not just that - but also a Servant. The language here hearkens back to Isaiah 42:1, where the prophet says this: “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.” The One here being baptized will one day rule the world. But to get there, He’ll serve the world. Jesus here, humbly submitting to baptism, kicks off that ministry.
He’s the King. And the Servant. But also the Son. We’ve talked already in Matthew how Israel is referred to as God’s Son. And Jesus is the One who’d come and obey and do all the Father desires. Unlike that nation. But this means even more than that. Jesus is God the Son. He is the eternal Son. Here we see the Trinity, don’t we? One God. Three persons. Each equally God.
The Son submitting to baptism. The Father showering upon Him His approval. The Spirit of God anointing Him for the ministry ahead. This is the Servant-King, the Son of God, who has lived in community with Father and Spirit from all eternity. This baptism tells us so much about who Jesus is. Behold Him!
But let’s, second, move from that to what He would come to do. We come back to those puzzling words in verse 15 - that the baptism is to “fulfill all righteousness.” What’s going on? Jesus it seems, looks at John and saying, “This is God’s will. It’s the first step on this path of righteousness I came to walk.” Well, what does Jesus do? What does His walk on earth look like?
He first identities with us, His people. Sinful people like you and me. Those He came to save. He may not be a sinner, but He goes into the waters just like us. It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5:21, where Paul says this: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” He became like us - becoming a human being, identifying with sinful human beings. Living life in this cruel world. Tempted in every way just like us, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). He became like us so we could become like Him. He identifies with us. Even at the start. In baptism. He didn’t need it. But in another sense, He did.
I love the way Leon Morris puts it:
“Jesus might well have been up there in front standing with John and calling on sinners to repent. Instead he was down there with the sinners, affirming his solidarity with them, making himself one with them in the process of the salvation that he would in due course accomplish.” (Leon Morris)
But second, then, He achieves our salvation. He will obediently go to the cross and die a cruel death on our behalf. And He’ll rise again to give victory over sin. And this baptism pictures that. It previews that. Of Him going into the grave. And coming up and out again. All of that so we could be forgiven, so that we could be seen as righteous by our Father again. He identifies with us. And He achieves our salvation.
Thing about the significance of going through water in God’s word. The Lord leads Moses and Israel through the Red Sea to their salvation. Joshua leads the people of Israel through the Jordan - God parts the waters again - so they can enter the Promised Land. Here Jesus is - again in the Jordan. And He’s doing something in and through the waters for us.
There’s something else interesting going on here. Where else do we hear of God the Spirit descending like a dove? Genesis 1:2 tells us that, at the beginning, in creation “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Tim Keller points out how the translation of the Bible that the Jews in Christ’s day would have read adds something here. The word “hovering” really means “fluttering.” And the rabbis, trying to help readers understand, inserted an illustration there, saying, in Aramaic, “The Spirit of God fluttered above the face of the waters like a dove, and God spoke: ‘Let there be light.’”
So what does all of this mean? Mark here, inspired by the Spirit, is trying to get us to understand this. Just as back in creation, you have Father, Son, and Spirit working together, you have that Triune God - Father, Son, and Spirit - working together here to redeem that fallen creation. And through the waters. But why church? All out of love. And it’s there I want to turn now.
Respond Boldly to His Love
I want to encourage you to respond boldly to His love. First, bask in it - that love. Second, be baptized into it.
Let me take the first: bask in His love. Before we get to thinking about what God has done again, let’s go back into something even more basic - who He is again. Think about what we’re seeing here in this passage. Don’t we see the Trinity again? And within Father, Son, and Spirit, we see love. Right? The Father’s affection for His Son. And this is something that’s been going on from eternity past.
In Christ’s famous “High Priestly Prayer” in the gospel of John, just before His death, Jesus prays, in verse 24, and He tells us this. He speaks to His Father, saying, “You loved me before the foundation of the world.” Just before that, in verse 23, Jesus asks this: “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
What’s going on here? The love we see here in Matthew 3, at Christ’s baptism, Jesus is praying that we’d be caught up in it. One with the Triune God. Loved by that same God. And did you catch those words? “You loved them even as you loved me.” Seriously? Caught up in the same kind of love that the Father has for His Son? You and me! That’s what the Lord wants us to understand. And Jesus says He wants the whole world to know!
Now think about how that Triune God worked to bring us into that love! The Father coming up with the plan. Jesus willingly submitting to it - starting here with His baptism. The Spirit applying it to our lives. We were alienated from His love due to our sin. But Christ’s life, death, and resurrection brought us forgiveness. And now we can approach God’s throne once again. What love! As Romans 5:8 puts it, “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
But there’s more. What’s the result of that salvation? God’s not just like a cop who comes in and rescues us from danger. And then he drives back to his precinct. And sends us home. No, He takes us into His home. We’re now made sons and daughters of God! No, we’re not a son in exactly the same way as Jesus. We’re not added in to the Trinity. But we’re still adopted by God and brought into His family. And now these words from God the Father to the Son also ring true for us. If we trust in Him, He looks at us and says these same words: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” It’s true. Hear these powerful words from Michael Reeves:
“When the Spirit rested upon the Son at his baptism, Jesus heard the Father declare from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ But now that the same Spirit of sonship rests on me, the same words apply to me: in Christ my high priest I am an adopted, beloved, Spirit-anointed son. As Jesus says to the Father in John 17:23, you ‘have loved them even as you have loved me.’ And so, as the Son brings me before his Father, with their Spirit in me I can boldly cry, ‘Abba,’ for their fellowship I now freely share: the Most High my Father, the Son my great brother, the Spirit no longer Jesus' Comforter alone, but mine.” (Michael Reeves)
We are brought into God’s love. Through Jesus’s salvation. And now we’re sons. Do you realize that? Are you reveling in that? I love the way J.I. Packer puts it:
“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.” (J. I. Packer)
It reminds me of 1 John 3:1. “See” - BEHOLD - what kind of love - that we should be called children of God!” Church, respond boldly to His love. Bask in it with me.
But second, be baptized into it. Baptism is one of two ordinances or sacraments Jesus gave the church. The Lord’s Supper, or communion, is one we do regularly, to continually remember the gospel. Baptism is something we do once as we come to embrace the gospel for the first time. And yes, biblically, it’s done by immersion - as we see here. And also, it’s done by people who can understand what they’re doing.
Hear me: baptism doesn’t save us. As Christians, we’re brought near to God again by faith. How can you display faith? One way is to pray. Right? And so we invented this thing in the church called the “sinner’s prayer.” You say these magic words, and “bam,” you’re saved. It gives us something to do. But the Bible has already given us that. It’s not chanting some magic formula. It’s what Jared Wilson calls the “biblical sinner’s prayer.” It’s a prayer we act out. I want to call you to behold. And then do the biblical response, if you haven’t yet, and be baptized.
Well, what do we do in baptism? What are we saying? We first embrace His salvation. It’s in baptism that we embrace what Jesus has done - His death, His resurrection. Baptism also pictures those things. As we go into the watery grave, and come out of it again, alive.
It also states that we’ll follow Jesus as His disciples. That we’ll die to our own lives. That we’ll make Him our King. As we look ahead to resurrection and glory. That water pictures our sins being washed away. It pledges our desire also to walk away from them.
One objection people have to baptism is that it’s humbling. It’s embarrassing. We’re saying we need to be washed. That part of us needs to die. That we need help. That we can’t save ourselves. And that’s the point. But think about it: Jesus, God the Son - the Messiah Himself - He submitted to this. How could we be above or beyond it?
But what else do we do in baptism? We identify with Him, along with His people. In His baptism, Jesus again identified with us. He was willing to walk in our shoes so He could put us on His shoulders. When we’re baptized, we do the same thing. We say that we belong to Jesus. That we want to follow Him. But we also identify with His people. With the church.
Often people ask if they can be baptized privately. But that goes against a big part of the point. Jesus is baptized out here at the Jordan, with John and everyone else watching. He wasn’t ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. When we go in the waters, we’re telling God we want to be His.
But we’re also telling our new brothers and sisters in Christ that we want to be family with them. And we’re telling the world - those who don’t believe - that we’ve chosen the path of Jesus. That’s also why you should invite EVERYBODY to your baptism. If you’ve already been baptized - and that’s many of you - I want you to remember your baptism - what it means. And I want it to encourage you.
As we’re baptized, we’re not just embracing and enacting Christ’s salvation, we’re linking our identity to Him and to His people - there in front of the world. We’re basking in His love. We’re displaying joy in Him. And there, giving Him glory.
Now there were some people again, there at the Jordan, who weren’t rejoicing. Right? The Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders, that John is calling out. John says here that he’s not worthy to do Jesus’s baptism. Just before, he had said that those wicked leaders aren’t worthy for him to do theirs. Why’s that? Because their hearts are far from God.
I mentioned earlier how Christianity is upside-down. But it also moves inside-out. Those religious leaders thought they could do the right things on the outside, and it would end up making their hearts pure. But that’s not the way things work. It all starts on the inside, as we repent of our sins. As we acknowledge how poor in spirit we are, and we mourn for all the wrongs we’ve done.
And then we turn in faith to who Jesus is - as we see here - and all He’s done for us. It starts in here. As we behold Him for the first time. We then do things with our hands and our feet. We submit to baptism, for starters. We do good works to honor Jesus. We do all that as a response to what He’s done. To His great love.
Behold the Lamb
In the gospel of John, in chapter 1, verse 29, we hear of the same John the Baptist here seeing Jesus come at the beginning of His ministry. And what does John say? “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” That’s what the Baptizer said to the people then. That’s what the Lord here says to us now. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” See Jesus in all of His glory. Ponder what He’s done. Let that move your soul today.
And if you’ve not been baptized, I’m going to invite you to do that, as well. Come talk to me afterward. Identify with God and His people. Embrace what Jesus came to do. This is the way our Father gave us to respond to that. Again, to that love.
Let’s go back to the Trinity again - as we wind down here. In John 17 again, Jesus prays this:
John 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Here in the person of God, you have Father and Son seeking to bring glory to each other and finding deep joy as that comes about. It all starts in Him. But we’re called to join in that, as well. He creates us out of love. He redeems us out of love. All so we can jump back into that eternal dance and give Him glory and live in joy. That’s what we were made for.
Behold Him, Church. Look at Jesus like Ralphie in that window. But it’s weird to tell someone to feel something - even if it’s the only thing that fits with Jesus and His glory. Wonder. Worship. But what we can do is pray that God will do this in us. Only He can change our hearts. We have to ask for renewal. As we try to conform our lives to His word, we ask Him to transform us - into people who don’t just know things, but who feel the gravity of them. Church, behold the beauty of Jesus and respond boldly to His love.
Well, I’ve mentioned inside-out, as well as upside-down. Our faith is both of those things. But there’s a third category that’s so critical to understand about our faith. It’s forward-back. Where else do we see baptism in this gospel up next to the Trinity? Not just at the front of the book. But the back, right? Jesus says this, after His resurrection, in chapter 28.
Matt. 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Matt. 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We’ve seen Jesus here get baptized. I’ve called you to go down into the waters, as well. But Jesus isn’t the only one who’s commissioned, who’s anointed to serve. It’s also us. We’re sent out, with His presence, with His power.
We’re given a mission. We’re to go out. And as we do, make disciples - followers of Jesus - more people like us. And we’re to baptize them and teach them also.
One day, all nations will be gathered around Christ, worshipping at His throne. There will be perfect peace and justice forevermore. Our calling is to grasp a vision of that future, and seek to bring what’s forward-back - that future day into the here and now. Let’s go and reach our city and world together, church. Let’s pray.