The Baptism of Jesus

We have your Bibles with you today. Turn with me, if you would, to the Gospel of Mark. We're in chapter 1, and I'm going to be looking at verses 9 through 11 this morning. You are my beloved Son.

With you, I am well pleased. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we are studying the subject of the baptism of Jesus today. The world looks at this passage and says, so what? What does a man in a river in a mid-eastern country 2,000 years ago have to do with me today?

Your answer to the world is everything. Jesus' baptism points us to His priesthood. And how glorious it is to realize that even as we worship here at Grace today, O Lord Jesus, you sit at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us. Every Christian here today is totally dependent on the blood of Jesus to wash away our sins, to impute the righteousness of Christ to us, but we are just as dependent on our Lord's precious intercession. Jesus did not, Jesus not only did you die for us, but Lord you only, you also pray for us daily. May we be wowed by that intercession, and may we love you deeply for it. For it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Before we get into the subject of the baptism of Jesus, I want to look at the man, just say a couple things about him who baptized Jesus, and that man being John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a man of God.

The scripture tells us that he was filled with the Spirit of God in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth. He was a man who was sold out to the Lord. He was a man who had committed his life to holiness. He was a man who was utterly separated from this world. Today the modern professing Christian will look down their nose at John the Baptist, accusing him of legalism, fanaticism, and rabid fundamentalism. They would say his zealousness for God is a turn off, and he just needs to lighten up, calm down, and get a grip. Let's know what Jesus had to say about this man in Matthew chapter 11, verse 7 through 11.

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing?

Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you. And more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.

Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. In this same chapter, a few verses down, in verse 15 we are told that the people were so impressed with John the Baptist that they asked the question, is this the Messiah? They thought that John might be the Christ, and he might be the Messiah himself.

Now why would they think that? Well, John was a prophet. And they had never heard preaching like this before. When John preached, the truth of God penetrated their heart, and they had no recourse but to listen.

They knew that John was not manipulating them. They knew that John was just proclaiming truth, and that truth brought great conviction. Unlike the religious leaders of their day, John was not a hypocrite.

John was preaching things that he knew were not politically correct, and he knew that there would be people who would not like what he had to say, and he preached it anyway, because all he was concerned about was pleasing God. About 12 years ago, on the front page of the Charlotte Observer, there was a scathing article that was written about an action that Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, one of our sister PCA churches, about an action that they had taken. And at that time, Christ Covenant was supporting, in their church, a Boy Scout troop. And there was a young boy in that troop who was a Mormon. And his father and his mother requested that they become leaders in that troop. And Christ Covenant says, no, you can't do that. Your son is welcome to participate in the troop, but you as a Mormon cannot do that because you cannot teach because Mormons are not true Christians.

Wow! That was a pretty rigid stance that Christ Covenant took. Why would they do that? Because God's Word is just as rigid. Are there not good-hearted, family-loving, kind, just moral and ethical people that are in the Mormon faith? Absolutely there are. But can they be considered to be true Christians?

And the answer to that is no. The Mormons do not believe in the Trinity. They deny that very crucial and important doctrine. They believe in extra-biblical revelation. They believe that the Book of Mormon is on par with the rest of the Scripture. They believe that when a Mormon dies, that he becomes a god himself. They believe that Jesus was married.

And not just married to one, but to many. One of them being Mary Magdalene, and then Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. And so this woman was being interviewed by the Charlotte Observer, this mother, this Mormon mom. And she said, what do you mean we're not Christians? She said, my goodness, we've got a picture of Jesus hanging up on our wall in our living room. Look, so the Observer was trying to portray Christ Covenant as an incompassionate, unloving, just bigoted church.

I want you to know they are not. They simply told the truth about Mormonism and said to a Mormon family, we would love the opportunity to minister to you. We hope you will give us that, but you cannot teach things that are lies about our God and things that will do damage to the Christian faith. Folks, that was a John the Baptist reaction that Christ Covenant took. And I praise God for the stance that they took. It was a stance that like John the Baptist would take. And I praise God for John the Baptist's courage. Our current woke culture is doing all it can to cancel out the John the Baptist of our day.

They don't like that. And what they want to say to us is, don't worry about that which is called truth. And if you call that which is truth, if you call it something wrong with it, then that's okay. But if you say that this truth is the way it's supposed to be, that it is important, that it is God's truth, then that is seen to be unloving and very unkind.

Folks, that is a lie that is deeply believed by this so-called woke culture, and it is deeply deceiving. Let's get to the text. People from all over the country of Israel had come to hear John the Baptist preach. John was preaching.

His sermons were very convicting. People were coming, confessing their sins, and they were being baptized. This brings us to the point of Jesus' baptism. And I've got two questions about His baptism that I want to ask today. The first question is this, what did the baptism of Jesus accomplish? And the second question is, who did the baptism of Jesus please? First of all, what did the baptism of Jesus accomplish? And we see that in verse 9.

Look at that with me. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Why did Jesus need to be baptized? John's baptism was a baptism of repentance.

John was out at the River Jordan. He was preaching to these thousands of people. They would hear the truth.

They'd get deeply convicted of that truth. They would come, they would confess their sins, and then John would baptize them as a sign, as a statement to the rest of the world that this person had genuinely repented of his sins and that this person was now following the Lord. If that's what John the baptism was all about, why did Jesus need to get baptized? Jesus had never sinned. He was absolutely sinless.

There was no need for Him to repent. Some have explained it this way. They say that Jesus was going to be baptized with a baptism of repentance in order that He could identify Himself with sinners. I do not buy that. I don't buy that a bit. And I think Matthew's account of the baptism of Jesus explains what his baptism was all about.

Now hear me out and listen carefully. Jesus' baptism was not a baptism of repentance. All these others that John was baptizing, that was a baptism of repentance. His baptism was not. Neither was it a Christian baptism like you and I would experience today. It was different.

What was it? It was part of the ceremonial ordination into the priesthood. I'm going to prove that and share with you why I think that is true from the Gospel of Matthew. I want you to go back and turn to Matthew chapter 3 verses 8, 13 through 17.

And I want us to look at this because we have a lot more detail here. You remember who Matthew is writing to? He's primarily writing to the Jews. He is portraying Jesus to us as the Messiah. Proving to us that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

He's the one that we're looking for. Alright, Matthew chapter 3 verse 13 through 17 says this. 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 until 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. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water. Behold, the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, coming to rest on Him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Now remember as I said, Matthew is writing specifically to Jewish people proclaiming Jesus and portraying Him as King and as the Messiah.

Let me ask you this. What were the three offices of the Messiah? They were prophet, priest, and king.

Did Jesus fit all those three offices? Was He a prophet? Boy, was He ever a prophet. You remember Moses prophesied that there was one coming that would be this great prophet in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15? Moses said this, When Jesus preached, people began to just wake up and they said, wow, this man preaches with authority.

Not like the scribes and the rabbis of our day. He preaches with authority. When Jesus got rejected by His own people in His hometown, He said a prophet is not honored in His own country.

Jesus was a prophet, absolutely He was a prophet. What about king? Was He really a king?

Yes, He was. And folks, Jesus was born in the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Judah is the kingly tribe. Not only was He born in the tribe of Judah, but He was born in the direct bloodline of King David. His mother, Mary. You trace her ancestry all the way up, it goes right to King David. His earthly father was Joseph. You trace his lineage and his ancestry and it goes right up to David. Jesus was a legal heir to the throne of David. He was a legal heir to the throne of Israel. What about the priest?

Now that's the problem. The priest came from the tribe of Levi. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah.

So how could Jesus be a priest if He came from the tribe of Judah? In Matthew's account of the baptism of Jesus, we see John baptizing all these people. They've come, they've confessed their sins to John.

They've confessed that what they'd been doing was wrong. They needed to repent. And then at that point in time, John baptized them. Jesus steps down into the water after all these people have been baptized, and He's kind of in a line. He steps down into the water and He looks at John and He says, Baptize Me. What did John do? John recalled.

He stepped back and said, Whoa, wait a minute. I can't baptize you because I'm the one with the dirty heart, not you. Lord, your heart is perfectly clean. You've never sinned.

I can't baptize you because you have absolutely no need of repentance. So Jesus understands that. He understands why John is confused. And so He explains the situation to John. And when He does, John says, Oh, if that's the case, I'll be more than glad to baptize you.

What does Jesus share with Him? He shares three things that are necessary for His baptism. Number one, He says, John, I must be baptized by you. Number two, He says, I must be baptized by you now. And number three, I must be baptized by you now in order to fulfill all righteousness. These three things tell us why His baptism is a ceremonial ordination into the priesthood.

Jesus must be baptized, first of all, by a priest. Now, was John a priest? Absolutely he was. Who was his dad? His dad was Zechariah.

You remember what Zechariah did? He was a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. For twenty years he was a priest. He was born in the tribe of Levi. He was a Levitical priest. And so when he and Elizabeth had a child, that child was John, and John was born into the tribe of Levi, John was a priest. And so when Jesus chose a priest to baptize Him, He wanted to choose His own cousin. And He chose John as a priest to do the baptism. Secondly, Jesus said it has to be done now. Now why was that important? Why was the timing important? Numbers 4, verses 1-3, we're given the instruction for when a priest could serve.

Listen to this. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans and their fathers' houses, from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who can come on duty to do the work of the tent of meeting. The priests were to be ordained at age thirty. Very interesting, in Luke's Gospel, you read in chapter 4, verse 23, right after Jesus had been baptized, Luke makes this statement that Jesus had just turned to age thirty.

That's very interesting. There are only two times in the Bible that mention Jesus' age. One when he was twelve years old, going into the temple with his parents, and then this time, that Luke mentions it, when he's just reached age thirty. Why does that matter? Because the priest could only be ordained when they reached age thirty. So what's going on here? Jesus is being baptized for a purpose.

Those are the first two things. He was baptized by John, who was a priest, at age thirty. Now remember, John's six months older than Jesus. And so, John is a priest, and so six months before this, John had gone through all of this himself. He had gone through the ceremonial ordination of the priesthood, and it's very fresh on his mind. But then Jesus says, there's one more thing that needs to happen. I must be baptized by you, John, at this time at age thirty, in order to fulfill all righteousness.

Now what does that mean? Deuteronomy chapter six, verse twenty-five, says this, And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us. Righteousness was fulfilled by obeying a command or the law of God.

Folks, this is important. The baptism of repentance that John was doing was not the fulfilling of any law at all. They came to John voluntarily. They confessed their sins to John. They asked to be baptized by baptism of repentance. It was totally voluntary. There was no law that was being fulfilled at all. But Jesus says that His baptism would fulfill a law.

Why? Because His baptism was the final step in the ceremonial ordination of the priest. Three things a priest had to do to enter the priesthood. Number one, he had to be thirty years old. That was accomplished.

Number two, he had to be called. As we've already said, the priest came from the tribe of Levi. This is a problem because Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. He can't come from both tribes. He came from the tribe of Judah. The priestly tribe was the tribe of Levi. So how is it that Jesus from the tribe of Judah can be a priest? It was prophesied that He would. In Psalm chapter 10 verse 4, it tells us how this is accomplished.

Listen to this carefully. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now who was Melchizedek? Melchizedek was a priest who lived before Levi had ever been born. There was no Levitical priesthood at the time that Melchizedek was living and being a priest here on this earth. And in Genesis chapter 14, we read about Melchizedek meeting Abraham on the road and he was his priest. And the scripture tells us that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. And he bowed down before him and Melchizedek blessed him as his priest.

Now listen to this carefully. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 10. The scripture says that Jesus was designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. So Jesus had just reached age 30. He was called by God to be a priest of a higher order than the Levitical priesthood of the Melchizedek priesthood. So he had one more thing that had to happen.

What was that? We see that in Numbers chapter 8 verse 7. It tells us this. Thus you shall do to the priest to ceremonially cleanse them sprinkle the water of purification upon them. The baptism here, notice the mode of it, it is sprinkling.

So picture this. Jesus walks down to the river, steps into the water with John, tells John to baptize him. John recoils and says, Oh no, I can't do that! Because he knows that Jesus is sinless.

He says, I can't do that. And then Jesus says, wait a minute. I must be baptized by you, a priest, at this time age 30 in order to fulfill all righteousness. And he knew what that meant was that he needed to be sprinkled with water all over his body in order that he might become the priest.

John had just gone through this six months before. John knew exactly what Jesus was asking for and John baptized him there to ordain him as a priest. One more passage that I believe that proves this. We'll find this in Matthew chapter 21 verses 23 through 27. This is where Jesus cleansed the temple. And you remember after he cleansed the temple that religious leaders got mad at him? And they said, you can't do this.

You can't do this. You have no right to cleanse the temple because you're not a priest. You're not a priest. Folks, only the priests could cleanse the temple. They were the only ones that had authority to do so.

So let me read this to you. When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority? Jesus answered them.

I also will ask you one question and if you tell me the answer then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John. From where did it come? From heaven or from man? And they disgusted among themselves saying, If we say from heaven, he will say to us, Why then do you not believe him? But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, We don't know. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The religious leaders were saying to Jesus, What right do you have to cleanse this temple like this? This is the right only of the priests. You can't be a priest because you are not from the tribe of Levi. What did Jesus do? He immediately pointed them to his baptism by John. He said, I was baptized by John and essentially he was telling them that was part of my ceremonial ordination into the priesthood. Do you believe that? And they would not answer.

They would not answer. Folks, Jesus was saying, I want you to know that I am a high priest. I'm not just a priest. I'm not just a high priest. I am the high priest.

And he says, I have all authority. Folks, who is this Jesus? This Jesus is the great prophet and we are to listen to him. He is the high priest and we are to pray to him. And he is King of kings and Lord of lords and we are to bow to him. This is the Jesus you serve. This is the Jesus that you treasure.

Folks, let me ask you something. Is this Jesus your everything? So what did the baptism of Jesus accomplish? It was part of his ceremonial ordination into the priesthood. All right, second question I want to ask is, who did the baptism of Jesus please?

And the answer to that is God the Father. verses 10 through 11, Mark chapter 1. When he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. I think we too often read this passage, we get caught up in the theology, the Christology, the pneumatology of the passage and it's almost like we forget to be absolutely amazed at what has happened here.

Folks, this is not just another day on planet earth. Jesus is getting ready to start his ministry. Jesus has just been baptized. John poured the water over Jesus' head. And after that, after the water just flowed down all over his body, Jesus starts to step out of the river. Now Luke tells us that as he was stepping out that Jesus was actually praying.

It's very interesting though what Mark tells us. Mark tells us that the heavens, the heavens were torn open. It's a very interesting word for torn open here. It's used just a couple of times in the Scriptures.

And it's the Greek word schizo. And it means to tear apart, to tear. Other time that this is used is when Jesus died on the cross. And the Scripture says that the veil of the temple was rent. It was torn apart.

This was a six inch thick veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. And it was torn from the top to the bottom when Jesus died. It was like God just reached down from heaven and just ripped it from the top to the bottom.

Folks, this is what's happening in the heavens at this point in time at Jesus' baptism. All of a sudden it's probably a cloudy day and then all of a sudden the sky just rips open. It's like there's a hole in the sky. A schizo, a hole right there in the sky.

I want you to know there's going to be another time when there's going to be a schizo, a hole in the sky. And that is when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, the sky is going to open.

It's going to be torn open. You're going to see every eye will behold Him. Jesus will speak the word.

All of His enemies will fall. And it's going to be a glorious, glorious, glorious time. In both of those events, the baptism of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus, there's a tearing open of the heavens. But when Jesus returns, it's going to be loud and it's going to be powerful and it's going to be frightening for the lost and it's going to be joyful for those who are saved. But if the baptism of Jesus, when the skies were torn open, it was a hushed, reverent silence.

Not loud, not noisy, not frightening, but just absolutely peaceful. And when Jesus stepped up, what happened? The Scripture says that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and rested upon Him. Now don't think that the Holy Spirit is a bird because He's not. The Scripture says He descended upon Him like a dove. Not a dove, but like a dove. A lot of times you see pictures of the Holy Spirit, it's always a picture of a bird.

Get that out of your mind. It's the way that He came down that's being described here. The Holy Spirit's presence fluttered down to rest upon the Lord Jesus. So what did the Holy Spirit look like if they could see it?

Because they did see it. I believe that the Holy Spirit came in the Shekinah glory cloud. You remember when the children of Israel were being led in the wilderness?

They were being led in the wilderness, how were they led? By a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night? That was the Shekinah glory of God cloud. Remember on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go into the temple, he would go back behind the veil, and he would go over to the Ark of the Covenant. He would take the blood, a basin of blood in one hand, he would dip the hyssop, branch of hyssop into it, he would sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and then the Scripture says that the glory of God, the cloud of God would come and hover between the wings of the cherubim. Brothers and sisters, that's what happened here at the baptism of Jesus. The Holy Spirit came down, fluttered down, and rested upon Jesus.

This glory cloud just resting upon Him. This is a prophecy being fulfilled from Isaiah 11 verse 2. It says that the Spirit of the Lord would rest on the Messiah. The word Messiah or Christ means the anointed one.

Isaiah 61.1 prophesied that. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to bring liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. John MacArthur said this, The Son of God took on human flesh, humbly submitting Himself to the Father's will and the Holy Spirit's power. At every major point of Jesus' ministry, the Spirit was actively at work. His birth, His baptism, His temptation, His ministry, His miracles, His death, and His resurrection. At every point and in every way, Jesus Christ was perfectly filled with the Holy Spirit. He never resisted, grieved, or quenched the Spirit, but always operated under the Spirit's full control, walking in perfect obedience to the will of His Father.

After the Holy Spirit visibly descended on Jesus, then a booming voice spoke from heaven, not a human voice, but the voice of God the Father, and said, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. What would that event have done to your heart? If you had been there that day watching all this, what do you think it would have done to your heart? I'm not sure that I wouldn't have been doing cartwheels.

If not cartwheels, I would have been laying down on my face, trembling and shaking at the holiness of the Lord Jesus. Folks, we need to quit reading this passage and saying, Oh yeah, I know about that. That's a baptism of Jesus.

Oh yeah, I know about that. That's when Jesus got anointed by the Holy Spirit. Folks, we need to quit being nonchalant about this, and we need to travel back in time as if we were there and understand that this is not a fairy tale for us to smile at. This is not a theological axiom for us to ponder. This was an historical event.

And if this historical event doesn't knock the biscuits off your table, nothing will. Folks, for those who doubt the Trinity, I want you to explain this one to me. If you doubt the Trinity, you explain this. At one time, at the same time, God the Son has been baptized. He's stepping up out of the water. The Holy Spirit descends upon Him and rests upon Him like a dove. And then God the Father speaks, and God the Father says, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

T.D. Jakes is a modalist. He does not believe in the Trinity. He thinks the Trinity is a lie.

He does not believe in it. He says there's only one God, that is Jesus. And Jesus is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. He says sometimes Jesus wears a father hat, sometimes Jesus wears a son hat, sometimes Jesus wears a Holy Spirit hat, but it's all just Jesus. Folks, that is absolutely wrong and the passage that we are looking at today totally refutes that lie.

What's happening here? Jesus is coming out of the water, the Holy Spirit is descending on Jesus like a dove, and the Father is speaking from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Folks, that is the Trinity. It is one God who manifests Himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

They are one in substance and in essence, and they are different in office and function. In other words, modalism is heresy. Modalism is not just an error, it is an absolute heretical lie. And this passage in Mark totally refutes that lie.

Alright, one more quick thing. Another question. Why did Jesus have to be anointed with the Holy Spirit? Does this mean that He was only human at birth and He became God incarnate at His baptism when the Holy Spirit rested upon Him when He reached age 30?

R.C. Sproul said it better than I can, so listen to his words and I'll close with this. Jesus had His divine nature from eternity past. He had it at the moment of His conception, and He will have it on to eternity. What then was the significance of the Holy Spirit's descent on Him? The Spirit anointed the human nature of Jesus. We tend to think that Jesus performed His miracles in His divine nature. Actually, He performed them in His human nature through the power of the Holy Spirit given to Him at His baptism. It was there that God empowered Jesus to fulfill the mission that He has been given.

That is glorious. Jesus is God. He is the perfect God. He has been here for all of eternity, and yet He became man, and was fully God, and was fully man. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, today we have been shown a picture of the Trinity. We see that the Scripture proclaims without apology that there is one God who manifests Himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three persons of the Trinity are the same in substance and in essence, but they are different in office and function. Lord, help us to be thankful for the revelations of that in Your Word.

The Moslems, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Shintoist, and every other religion totally reject the truth of the Trinity. Why do we see it and believe it? Simply, the grace of God. Simply, the plain revelation of our triune God in Scripture. Help us, Lord, not to be arrogant and proud of our revelation of the Trinity, but may we be humbled so that we would share that truth with others. Lord, You called us to the Great Commission. Please empower us to carry it out, for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.