Hi, this is the Human Proclaim podcast. These are the messages of John Fonville. you're listening to season five called two keys to spiritual growth. Here's message number twelve called The Centrality of Baptism. Trinitarian.
Baptism is Trinitarian. Have you guys ever thought about the Trinity? Have you guys ever understood the Trinity completely? Have you ever had to preach on the Trinity in 25 or 30 minutes? Oh, Lord help us, right?
Baptism is Trinitarian, and why this is important because today is actually Trinity Sunday. And so, churches all over the world are celebrating the doctrine of the Trinity, and so it's appropriate for us to consider the Trinitarian nature of baptism on Trinity Sunday. Let me just say a couple words about the Trinity to get us thinking, because we're going to see this as central. The Trinity is central in baptism. To know God, and everybody wants to know God, and so to know God is to know Him as He has revealed Himself in Scripture.
And how has He revealed Himself to us in Scripture? The Bible teaches us that He has revealed Himself to us. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus will teach us here, you'll see in the Great Commission, that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is God's full name. It is his complete and full disclosure to us.
And so to know the Trinity is to know God. Because God has revealed Himself in His Word as these three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are the one true eternal God. You get that right? Yeah.
So how important is the Trinity? Let me give you some historical reference to that. The Athanasian Creed, I sent it out. By the way, if you're not on Facebook in Paramount Church, you've got to get on Facebook because our whole church has a Facebook page and I'm constantly communicating to you. And it is an amazing tool to just immediately give you information.
So if you're on our Facebook page, you saw this week the Athanasian Creed that I posted for you to be thinking about. How many of you saw the Athanasian Creed that I posted? Good, good, good, good.
So I hope you read it, but the Athanasian Creed, which dates back no farther than the sixth century, confesses, listen very carefully, that the Trinity is essential to salvation and the foundation of our worship. And so listen to this. It starts like this: it says, Whosoever will be saved. Before all things, it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. That is the universal faith that has been believed across all times and all places.
In other words, we're not a false religion. We're not a cult. We believe what the Bible teaches, and the Bible teaches that God has revealed himself as Trinity, and this is essential to salvation. And then the Creed goes on to say, it says, With which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. These are what the churches have confessed throughout the centuries.
And then it goes on to say this, and it says, And this Catholic faith is this: that we worship, you hear that? That we worship one God in Trinity. and Trinity in unity.
So this ancient creed, the church. The universal church has confessed throughout time that what makes the Christian faith utterly distinct from every world religion, every cult, every sect, What makes it utterly unique is the true identity of God. who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It says, we worship one God in Trinity and in unity. And it says, and without this faith, a man believes faithfully, he cannot be saved.
Because that is who God is. And so the doctrine of God, the Trinity, this creed rightly teaches us, stands before all other doctrines of the Christian faith. This is Christianity 101. And so as Christians, we confess the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be the one object of our faith, the one object of our hope, and the one object of our love. If you recall in the worship service this morning, that all of our prayers end with a Trinitarian conclusion.
We begin the worship service with this acclamation of praise that blessed be God, and then we say, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and blessed be his kingdom now and forevermore. Amen. That is not simply an acclamation of praise, but that is a powerful declaration. To the world, that this is the God who we worship and serve. And so when we come in corporate worship and make this acclamation, that is a radical, if you like that word, countercultural declaration that out of all the gods there are in this world, blessed be God who, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And so the Trinity is the bedrock of our faith. It is the governing center of our Christian belief, and it shapes all that we believe. I believe in God the Son. If there is a Son, there must be what? And so if you believe the gospel, then you must be Trinitarian explicitly.
So with that little introduction about the Trinity, as we consider baptism, one of the principal truths about baptism is that it's Trinitarian. Look what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28. Look at verse 19. But of course, the Great Commission begins in verse 18, no authority has been given to me, the great announcement, the good news, the gospel. But he says in verse 19, in light of this good news, Go therefore, and look what he says: go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, that's fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant.
How do we make disciples? Where does discipleship begin? How does the church fulfill the Great Commission? Look, look, right here. Go make disciples by means of baptizing.
Baptism, as we said, is the beginning line, it is the starting line of discipleship. And he says, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. Look, baptizing them, how? In the name Singular. Of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
That is the Trinity right there. front and center. And so what I want to do this morning for the next couple minutes is just point out three really important observations to you about what Jesus says in terms of the Trinitarian nature of baptism, particularly from Matthew's Gospel, which is where we get this from.
So here's the first one. It's important to observe that Jesus not only prescribes how to make disciples by means of baptizing. He says, but in the Great Commission, he tells us How to administer that baptism? And this is important because a lot of people struggle with this. Have I really, truly received a valid baptism?
And I cannot tell you how many people have contacted me over the years, even in this own church, in tears, asking me, was my baptism valid? Struggling with this. Jesus teaches us what a valid baptism is in this Trinitarian formula. Listen carefully. He teaches us that baptism takes place in the sphere of the revelation of the triune God.
All right, and so literally, Jesus says we are baptized into a Trinitarian life of discipleship. Baptizing them, look, how? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so for ages, the Church Universal. Has never recognized, has not recognized as valid any other form of baptism.
Other than baptism administered in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because that is Jesus' words of institution. That is what he commands baptism to be administered in. Listen to the great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, right? He makes this very clear about Trinitarian baptism in this quote.
He says, Let me take you to the baptismal font where believers put on the name of the Lord Jesus. And he says, and you shall hear me pronounce the solemn words, I baptize thee in the name. He says, mark in the name, not names. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He says that everyone who is baptized according to the true form laid down in Scripture, this Trinitarian formula.
He says, is truly baptized, otherwise his baptism is a farce, it is a lie, and he himself is found a deceiver and a hypocrite before God. In other words, he's not received Christian baptism. And so to maintain the pure administration of baptism, Jesus teaches us clearly that the sacrament is to be administered with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that's a valid baptism. Second, Note what Jesus does here is that he tells us that baptism is a naming ceremony. It is a naming ceremony.
Look carefully at this Greek word. He said the name. As we've already pointed out, this word is in the singular. It's not plural. It's not names, it's named.
Baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This denotes that there is one God. You see that? There's one God in the name of singular. But Jesus identifies in the Great Commission this one God as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But there are not three gods, there's one god with one name. Does everybody get that?
Okay. Jesus' victorious declaration in verse 18 has already intimated the fact that God is his being, his Trinity. But what was implied in verse 18 is made crystal clear in verse 19. The trying God's name reveals who He is, and who is this name of God? Who is He?
He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is God's full name. He is one God, yet he exists in three persons, but he's not three gods, he's one God. And to speak of God's full name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which are words so common to us, listen carefully in this first-century Jewish context because Matthew was writing his gospel to Jews. to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Matthew 1.1.
When they heard this for the first time, it would have been initially blasphemous to every Jew in the first century to hear Jesus say this. Listen carefully because this is the context. Did you get the import of what Jesus is teaching? Nothing was more fundamental to the faith of the Jews than the well-known confession in Deuteronomy chapter 6 called the Shema. Which is this?
Hear O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Yahweh, God's name is one. Bible scholars teach us that Israel's neighbors were all polytheistic. They had a God for absolutely everything you could imagine.
Let me give you an example. They had gods who are over all the seasons. They had gods of war, they had gods of peace. They had gods of vegetation and harvest. They had gods of the elements.
They had gods of money and sex. In each one of these neighbors, neighboring countries, Each one of these gods manage one little piece of the pie corner of their universe. And in contrast, Israel was distinguished by his confession in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, that they had one God who was the creator of heaven and earth, and therefore he is the greatest over all. And so Israel's God, Yahweh, was the sovereign God of nature. He's the sovereign God of creation.
He's the sovereign God of history. He's the sovereign God of redemption. And he had no junior apprentice demigods. Helping him govern a corner of the universe. He's it.
And then here's Jesus. In this context, telling you Yahweh's full name. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that would have just been shocking. to a first century Jewish audience.
He is the one, Jesus says, the one true eternal God, yet existing in three distinct persons. And Jesus is teaching us that we are baptized into each name, each person of the Trinity. This underscores that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the same substance of being. They're not lesser or they're not subordinate to one another. They're all co-equal and co-eternal and co-powerful together.
But yet Listen, they're distinct. But they're one, they're three, one in essence. And so, this mystery of God's being, this. of this one essence in three persons, no human mind will ever fathom this. Does anybody right now just feel like you're going, wow?
This kind of feels like drinking from a hose pipe at full power from the fire department. Right? But even though God's being is a mystery, He has revealed Himself to us like this in His Word, and we can know Him as Trinity. We can't fully grasp it or exhaust it, but we can know it. And why is this important?
Because as the Creed teaches us, we don't have exhaustive knowledge, but listen, it leads us to worship. This is a God of mystery who we do not control, who controls us. And thank goodness he is good and faithful and kind and full of mercy and grace, right? And so, as we heard in the words of the Athamation Creed, we worship this one God in Trinity. And so, being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a naming ceremony.
This is how one Bible teacher says it. He says, the baptized person is given a name. He's not given a name, or she's not given a name on a baptismal certificate, but the name of the triune God. Baptism gives Christians their family name. Listen, the name they bear is those called the children of God.
And so this preposition in can also be translated into. And so, like last week, when we had that wonderful baptismal service, I got to baptize little Alexandria Puffer. You know, it was a wonderful time. And we had the baptismal service, and everybody was present. We were all here watching it.
I didn't baptize any of those baptismal candidates, I didn't baptize them on behalf of the Trinity. You understand that. I'm not baptizing on behalf of the Trinity. We, as a church, baptize them into communion with the Triune God. And so, as a naming ceremony, baptism signifies and seals, it guarantees to us that we are baptized into union and communion with the triune God through faith alone.
By grace through faith in Christ alone. And so baptism powerfully signifies and seals. It's a visible sign that you can see, and it is sealing, it's a guarantee. That you have been brought into Christ. You've been brought into union and communion with Christ.
Romans chapter 6, verse 3. Listen, it says, Paul says, Do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus? We have been baptized into his death. And because we have been baptized into Christ, and because Christ is part of the Trinity, that means that we also, listen, abide in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit abides in us, and we abide in the Father, and the Father abides in us. Listen carefully to what the scriptures say concerning the Holy Spirit, John 14, 17.
The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.
So you're baptized into the Holy Spirit. You're baptized into God the Father. John 14, verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Literally, we will come to him and we will take up our dwelling place with him.
And so when you are baptized, you receive this sign and seal, this mark forever with the name of the triune God. You see how powerful this is? You see how amazing this is? You see, this is why, and I said this a couple weeks ago, so I just want to revisit it just briefly this morning to help you. This is why when I was talking about prayer gestures in church.
You know, lifting your hands. And we went through all the things, and we were, you know, having fun with it and talking about the spread eagle and the high five and the fist pump and the. We have all these prayer gestures that we do. And so the sign of the cross, because baptism marks us forever with the name of the triune God, this is why, since the third century, or even perhaps before the third century, and there's good evidence that it probably was. That believers have marked themselves with the sign of the cross.
It's just a prayer gesture. It's not superstition, it's not It's just a prayer gesture. And so upon entering the church, believers for centuries upon centuries and centuries, as they pass by the baptismal font, they dip their hand into the water and they make the sign of the cross and they mark themselves. As a remembrance of whose name they now bear forevermore. This prayer gesture just simply reminds the baptized believer of the triune nature of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I'm Trinitarian, I'm a Christian, I am baptized, march forever with God's name over me, and He's in me. I have been invited by the triune God to come into this relationship with Him who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and have His eternal love pour over me forever. That's all that means. That's all that prayer gesture means.
So, I'm not saying everybody now has to walk into Paramount Church in the back of the baptism font and do this. You don't have to make the sign of the cross. That's not what I'm saying. Just as you don't have to do any prayer gesture at all when you come here, but just standing in church, as I've taught you many times. is a prayer gesture.
Just standing like this. That is a sign in scripture of resurrection.
So, you don't have to do prayer gestures, just let me easy with that. There's no pressure. Yeah.
You don't have to, but you can if you want to. And some of you do already do this. That's fine. But it's just a prayer gesture. Third.
Here's the third observation. We have to take note that this Trinitarian nature of baptism is the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. We have to take note concerning the Trinitarian nature of baptism because that is the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 28. Matthew wants his readers To recall the baptism of Jesus in Matthew chapter 3 by John the Baptist. Because the last time we've heard a Trinitarian formula in relationship to baptism was in Matthew chapter 3.
Now, I want you to listen carefully as we finish right here because this is really good news when you start to see what happens in this gospel. In Matthew chapter 3, turn there with me. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. And so listen to Matthew chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, because Matthew tells us that when John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the Jordan, listen to what Matthew writes, verse 16. It says, The heavens were open to him that is open to Jesus, and he saw the Spirit of God.
Descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, and behold, a voice from heaven. Said, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. You have all three members of the Trinity present at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. You have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us clearly that the sacrament is to be administered with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that's a valid baptism.
Second. Note what Jesus does here is that he tells us that baptism is a naming ceremony. It is a naming ceremony. Look carefully at this Greek word. He said the name.
As we've already pointed out, this word is in the singular. It's not plural. It's not names, it's names. Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This denotes that there is one God.
In the name of singular. But Jesus identifies in the Great Commission this one God as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But they're not three gods, there's one god with one name. Does everybody get that?
Okay. Jesus' victorious declaration in verse 18 has already intimated the fact that God is his being, his trinity. But what was implied in verse 18 is made crystal clear in verse 19. The triune God's name reveals who He is and who is this name of God. Who is He?
He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is God's full name. He is one God, yet he exists in three persons, but he's not three gods, he's one God. And to speak of God's full name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which are words so common to us, listen carefully in this first century Jewish context, because Matthew was writing his gospel to Jews. to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Matthew 1.1.
When they heard this for the first time, It would have been initially blasphemous to every Jew in the first century to hear Jesus say this. Listen carefully, because this is the context. You get the import of what Jesus is teaching. Nothing was more fundamental to the faith of the Jews than the well-known confession in Deuteronomy chapter 6 called the Shema, which is this: Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Yahweh, God's name, is one. Bible scholars teach us that Israel's neighbors were all polytheistic. They had a God for absolutely everything you could imagine. Let me give you an example. They had gods who are over all the seasons.
They had gods of war, they had gods of peace. They had gods of vegetation and harvest. They had gods of the elements. They had gods of money and sex. And each one of these neighbors, neighboring countries, Each one of these gods manage one little piece of the pie corner of their universe.
And in contrast, Israel was distinguished by his confession in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, that they had one God who is the creator of heaven and earth, and therefore he is the greatest over all. And so Israel's God, Yahweh, was the sovereign God of nature. He's the sovereign God of creation. He's the sovereign God of history. He's the sovereign God of redemption.
And he had no junior apprentice demigods. Helping him govern a corner of the universe. He's it. And then here's Jesus. In this context, telling you Yahweh's full name Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And that would have just been shocking to a first-century Jewish audience. He is the one, Jesus says, the one true eternal God, yet existing in three distinct persons. And Jesus is teaching us that we are baptized into each name, each person of the Trinity. This underscores that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the same substance of being. They're not lesser or they're not subordinate to one another.
They're all co-equal and co-eternal and co-powerful together. But yet, listen, they're distinct. But they're one. They're three, one in essence. And so this mystery of God's being, this.
Of this one essence in three persons, no human mind will ever fathom this. Does anybody right now just feel like you're going, wow? This kind of feels like drinking from a hose pipe at full power from the fire department. Yeah, right? But even though God's being is a mystery, He has revealed Himself to us like this in His Word, and we can know Him as Trinity.
We can't fully grasp it or exhaust it, but we can know it. And why is this important? Because as the Creed teaches us, we don't have exhaustive knowledge, but listen, it leads us to worship. This is a God of mystery who we do not control, who controls us. And thank goodness he is good and faithful and kind and full of mercy and grace, right?
And so, as we heard in the words of the Athenacian Creed, we worship this one God in Trinity. And so being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a naming ceremony. This is how one Bible teacher says it. He says, the baptized person is given a name. He's not given a name, or she's not given a name on a baptismal certificate, but the name of the triune God.
Baptism gives Christians their family name. Listen, the name they bear is those called the children of God. And so this preposition in can also be translated into. And so, like last week, we had that wonderful baptismal service. I got to baptize little Alexandria Puffer.
You know, it was a wonderful time. And we had the baptismal service, and everybody was present. We were all here watching it. I didn't baptize any of those baptismal candidates, I didn't baptize them on behalf of the Trinity. You understand that?
I'm not baptizing on behalf of the Trinity. We, as a church, baptize them into communion with the Triune God. And so, as a naming ceremony, baptism signifies and seals and guarantees to us that we are baptized into communion and communion with the triune God through faith alone. By grace through faith in Christ alone. And so baptism powerfully signifies and seals.
It's a visible sign that you can see, and it is sealing, it's a guarantee. That you have been brought into Christ. You've been brought into union and communion with Christ. Romans chapter 6, verse 3. Listen, it says, Paul says, Do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus?
We have been baptized into his death. And because we have been baptized into Christ and because Christ is part of the Trinity, that means that we also, listen, abide in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit abides in us, and we abide in the Father, and the Father abides in us. Listen carefully to what the scriptures say concerning the Holy Spirit, John 14, 17. The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him. because he abides with you and will be in you.
So you're baptized into the Holy Spirit. You're baptized into God the Father. John 14, verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Literally, we will come to him and we will take up our dwelling place with him.
And so, when you are baptized, you receive this sign and seal, this mark forever with the name of the triune God. You see how powerful this is? You said how amazing this is. You see, this is why, and I said this a couple weeks ago, so I just want to revisit it just briefly this morning to help you. This is why when I was talking about prayer gestures in church.
You know, lifting your hands. And we went through all the things, and we were having fun with it and talking about the spread eagle and the high-five and the fist pump and the. We have all these prayer gestures that we do. And so the sign of the cross, because baptism marks us forever with the name of the triune God, this is why, since the third century, or even perhaps before the third century, and there's good evidence that it probably was. That believers have marked themselves with the sign of the cross.
It's just a prayer gesture. It's not superstition, it's not. It's just a prayer gesture. And so upon entering the church, believers for centuries upon centuries and centuries, as they pass by the baptismal font, they dip their hand into the water and they make the sign of the cross and they mark themselves. As a remembrance of whose name they now bear forevermore.
This prayer gesture just simply reminds the baptized believer of the triune nature of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm Trinitarian, I'm a Christian, I am baptized, march forever with God's name over me, and He's in me. I have been invited by the triune God to come into this relationship with Him who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and have His eternal love pour over me forever. That's all that means. That's all that prayer gesture means.
So, I'm not saying everybody now has to walk into Paramount Church in the back of the baptism and do this. You don't have to make the sign of the cross. That's not what I'm saying. Just as you don't have to do any prayer gesture at all when you come here, but just standing in church. As I've taught you many times, is a prayer gesture.
Just standing like this. That is a sign in scripture of resurrection.
So, you don't have to do prayer gestures, just let me easy with that. There's no pressure. You don't have to, but you can if you want to. And some of you do already do this. That's fine.
But it's just a prayer gesture. Here's the third observation. We have to take note that this Trinitarian nature of baptism is the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. We have to take note concerning the Trinitarian nature of baptism because that is the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 28. Matthew wants his readers To recall the baptism of Jesus in Matthew chapter 3 by John the Baptist.
Because the last time we've heard a Trinitarian formula in relationship to baptism was in Matthew chapter 3.
Now, I want you to listen carefully as we finish right here because this is really good news when you start to see what happens in this gospel. In Matthew chapter 3, turn there with me. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. And so listen to Matthew chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, because Matthew tells us that when John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the Jordan, listen to what Matthew writes, verse 16. It says, The heavens were open to him that is open to Jesus, and he saw the Spirit of God.
Descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, and behold, a voice from heaven. Said, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. You have all three members of the Trinity present at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. You have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus' baptism, Matthew says, was his assurance of his sonship.
It was the assurance That Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father, with whom the Father is well pleased.
Now we have to remember again the Jewish context to get the import of what we are being taught here by Matthew's gospel. Go all the way back to the Old Testament, Exodus 4, verse 22, Hosea 11, verse 1. God calls the nation of Israel my son. Matthew picks up on this because he quotes Hosea 11 verse 1 and Matthew 2 verse 15 and he applies it to Jesus. In Matthew chapter 2, verse 15, as he cites Hosea 11:1, Matthew is regarding Israel as a type of Messiah who is God's beloved Son.
But listen carefully. When you read the Old Testament story of God's son, was Israel as God's my son, was Israel obedient or disobedient? Israel was God's disobedient son, listen carefully, and whom he was not well pleased. But in contrast, Matthew quotes Hosea 11 verse 1 and he applies it to Jesus and says Hosea is really talking about Jesus. It leads to Jesus and he presents Jesus as the obedient Son, the true Israel, in whom the Father is well pleased.
And so he's showing his Jewish readers and he's showing us how Jesus, the obedient son, is repeating the history of Israel and yet he is faithful and obedient, whereas Israel was disobedient and not faithful. This is why Matthew writes, verse 14, John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? Yet Jesus answered John, saying, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then John allowed him. John is looking at Jesus and saying, You're the sinless Lamb of God.
You don't need to go undergo a baptism of repentance according to anything. I need to be baptized and repent for my sins. You have no sins to repent for. And so, as the Father's obedient son, Jesus' request to undergo John's baptism of repentance. which was not Christian baptism under what we undergo.
Jesus, listen, is affirming his willingness to identify himself with disobedient sons. And what every disobedient son at the Jordan River that day could not do, and what none of us have ever done is perfectly obey God's law and perfectly repent of sin, Jesus did for us on that day for us right there. And so by submitting to John's baptism, Jesus publicly identifies himself not only with all who were present, but with us. He was vicariously substituting his life for us that day, fully identifying with us. Who in here has ever perfectly repented of your sin?
Why is your repentance accepted? Because you have been baptized into Christ, who has repented for you, and that repentance is now accepted. Jesus enters. Listen, Isaiah 53, verse 12, the suffering servant. By submitting to John's baptism, Jesus was, quote, numbered with the transgressors.
He was walking into the waters of judgment in the Jordan River, being counted as a transgressor. He enters the waters of judgment, confessing our sins and repenting for us. And listen, by submitting to John's baptism, Jesus affirms his willingness to take our sins upon himself. This is why in the Gospel of Mark, in Mark chapter 10 verse 39, Jesus calls his crucifixion a baptism. He also says in Luke 12:50 that when he died on the cross, he was baptized.
What was he baptized in? He was baptized into the wrath of God. On our behalf. And then in Romans chapter 6, which I've already read, Paul connects the death of Jesus on the cross with baptism. He says, You have been baptized into the death of Christ.
Jesus' death on the cross was his baptism, but immediately, listen, immediately following his baptism, as he entered the waters of judgment to be counted amongst the transgressors. Listen to the commendation that was given to him. This is my beloved son in whom I'm not well pleased. He's a transgressor. No.
When he came up out of the waters of judgment with all the transgressors around him, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Matthew is teaching us that where Israel failed as a disobedient son, where you and I have miserably failed as disobedient children of God. Listen, Jesus is faithful and he receives the Father's full approval and delight. And so when we enter into the waters of baptism, which are waters of judgment in baptism, we come safely through the waters of judgment because we're in the Ark who is Christ carrying us safely through the waters of judgment. And when we come out of those waters of judgment, we now receive the exact same commendation over our life that Jesus received.
You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased forevermore. That's Christian baptism. And so behind every baptism is a baptism of Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection, which opens up a new creation for us. Jesus was baptized with God's wrath so that we could be baptized with God's grace. You see.
And so, what Jesus is by nature, the eternally only begotten Son of the Father. We are sons by adoption. And whatever commendation Jesus has in relationship with the Father. We now have what the Father. You see, God is love, the Bible says, and God is love because God is a Trinity.
And if God was not a Trinity, He would not be loving because He would be the ultimate selfish God in this universe, loving Himself only. He would have nothing to love. But he, what, what does John say in John 17 that God was doing before this world was created? There was nothing in existence. What was God doing before the world was created?
John 17, Jesus says, Before the world began, you were loving me. God is love because God is a trinity and God as a trinity wants to sweep you up in this relationship of love and just pour this over you forever. And so Jesus is the unique Son of God. the only begotten of the Father. And by grace, we are now his adopted sons with whom the Father says forevermore.
You are my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Do you know how comforting that is? How many of you have sinned this morning? And so what where are you going to go for assurance? Where are you going to hear?
You're my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. You're well pleased with me. Did you see what I thought? Did you see what I did? Did you see how I treated my wife?
Did you see how I treated my kids? Did you see my poor performance at my job this past week with my employer? Did you see how I got mad on the road and cut somebody off and swear at them? Have you seen all the things and failures that I've been doing? Where do you go for the assurance of your faith that it's still okay?
You go to your baptism. And you go back to the baptismal fun. Where the waters have come over you, and you went through those waters of judgment, and you came out. This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Because Christ did it for you first.
That will make you live a holy life. And so listen, in salvation, we all receive a real sonship. And ladies, as I always remind you, don't be offended that the Bible calls you, addresses you as sons. That's not sexist language that needs to be tweaked. Do you understand that in the first century women were less than slaves in a household?
They were just chattel. They weren't even considered human. They had no right. They had nothing. And Paul walks into the church and he says, oh, you're something in Christ.
You are a son of God with a complete inheritance because women had no inheritance back then. If they were abandoned, they were done. And the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 4, writing to men and women in the church both, says to them, when the fullness of time had come. God the Father sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. You have received as a woman the highest privilege that God can afford to anybody, adoption as a beloved Son of God the Father.
That was a radical statement in the first century. And so here is one of the most profound meanings of the Trinitarian nature of baptism. Baptism signifies and seals to us the highest privilege of the gospel, namely, that God the Father now receives us as his well-beloved sons. And he speaks forever over your life. Listen to these words as we finish.
You are my beloved son. with whom I am well pleased. Aren't you grateful for that? Let's pray, Father. We thank you.
We thank you for our baptism of grace. We thank you that for Christ's sake we've been carried through the waters of judgment and brought into newness of life. And as we come of our waters, For Christ's sake, you pronounce over us, you are my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I pray that every person here today could leave with this reality stamped upon their hearts with this great assurance of faith. And so we pray all of this in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Fairmount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
