The Incredible Baptism of Jesus
Text: Mark 1: 9-12
Proposition: The Baptism of Jesus was a greater unveiling of the plan of God than either His conception or His birth was, it proclaimed Him as the sacrifice of God for man’s sin, beginning the Messianic age.
Introduction: There are times when there is a convergence of factors that make what might appear to be a small event turn into a monumental event. I remember going the post office when we were graduating from Bible college. It had cost us everything to be there for the three plus years and we were broke. I picked up this small letter from the government that looked like a tax notice and took it home and threw it down on the coffee table. It wasn’t until later when we opened it up that we discovered it was a cheque for more than $200 as a union pay dispute was just settled, a union that that I had worked for three years earlier. In the next week another two letters arrived and in the end the amount totaled more than $2500, all that we would need to relocate from school to our first church. God’s timing and supply are perfect, He knows exactly what we need and at exactly the right time He provides according to His wisdom and grace. In the account in Mark that we are going to look at today we are going to see something that happened at just the right moment to meet exactly what was needed and it set in motion the beginning of something wonderful.. At the time it did not look like much but as the event took place it was marked by all of Who God is as He signaled the beginning of the Messianic Age. Have a look at this with me in Mark 1:9-12; Matthew 3:13:17; ; Luke 3:18,22; John 1:29-34.
I. It Began With the Unexpected Revival of an Unexpected People.
Last week we talked about how John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Messiah by baptizing people in the Jordan river as a sign of repentance from their sin. Listen to what William Barclay a well know theologian wrote on this,
“It is the fact that never in all history before this had any Jew submitted to being baptized. The Jews knew and used baptism, but only for proselytes who came into Judaism from some other faith… Baptism was for sinners, and no Jew ever conceived of himself as a sinner shut out from God… Never before had there been such a unique national movement of penitence and of search for God."
For months people had been experiencing this revival that made them so acutely aware of their sin that would now go and do what they had never done before. Revival is like that, it seems to come out of nowhere as God stirs people’s hearts, people who never before would have admitted such a thing as sin now see their sin and their lives are changed forever. Even the Roman soldiers experienced this and to some degree even the Pharisees. So it was an unexpected revival, as all revivals are, and it brought an unexpected people. But perhaps the most unexpected of all is seen in Matthews account, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (Matt 3). The baptism that John was doing was for the confession of sin and a demonstrated desire to repent from that sin, so why was Jesus coming to be baptized in this manner? Jesus answer was both brief and enigmatic, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” What this response tells us is that Jesus wanted to be baptized in this great revival movement not as one who needed to get right with God but as an act of pointing the way to how all can be made right with God. His baptism was was going to be two things: 1. An act of identifying Himself with mankind, the man Christ Jesus, both of them and for them. 2. An act of identifying Himself to all mankind, the identified Son of God, the Saviour, the way to righteousness. It was an unexpected revival with unexpected people. Even John did not see it coming, did you see that part in John’s gospel, “This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me. I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” So John then says, ““I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” It’s probable that John knew Jesus as his cousin and they had met many times over the years and that he knew Jesus as being a righteous man to the point that he tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized. At the same if we are to harmonize this with the account in the Gospel of John it is clear that John knew and respected Jesus (therefore didn’t need baptism) yet John did not yet understand the deity of Jesus as the Christ. In this sense John did not know Him, it was greatly unexpected by John. The simple point is that it was an unexpected revival with unexpected people.
When the revival that Peter preached about in Acts 2 comes in its fullness, when God pours out His Spirit in the last days as he has been doing but I believe will do in even greater measure, it will be unexpected and it will touch the hearts of people we never expected it would. People will come to know a Jesus that is radically different than they expected. Be ready, know the Word, be yielded to the Holy Spirit, proclaim Him in an unmistakable way, be baptized in His name.
II. The Unveiling of the Messianic Age Begins With the Baptism of Jesus.
Today when we do get together at a Baptism what is pictured is not the washing away of sin but rather a statement of something that has already happened. Baptism pictures death, burial and resurrection. It’s a death to the way it’s no longer I who live but Christ now lives in me, it’s a burial that identifies with the burial of Jesus, being now buried with Him in His death in the sense that what was my life is no longer what I cling to. My sin is what led to His death, my sin is now paid for in full. It is a picture of the rising up, the complete forgiveness of sin to a new life. It’s taking hold of the promise that the spirit and soul and even my very body will be raised up and changed into a non-corruptible state. That’s what Baptism means today but on this day Jesus who had walked the earth for 30 years as a man from Nazareth was being revealed for the truth of Who He actually is. He has come to fulfill all righteousness and it will require His death and burial and resurrection. John immerses Jesus in the murky waters of the Jordan and according to Luke as Jesus is lifted up Jesus is praying, likely much like He was at Gethsemane. The Messiah is being revealed and several things happen as Jesus breathes in His first breath of the Messianic Age. Mark, Matthew, and Luke put it like this, “coming up from the water He saw the heavens parting…”, “heavens were opened”, “the heaven was opened”. It’s the Greek word ‘schizo’ meaning ‘to split or tear open’. What one moment could not be seen was for a few moments seen, heavens glory was revealed. In the next moment a Theophany occurred, the Holy Spirit in form and manner like a dove descended down and settled upon Jesus. The dove was the only bird approved in Leviticus for the use of sacrifice for those too poor to be able to afford anything else. The dove was also the symbol of the end of judgment as Noah sent one out and it returned with an olive twig in its beak. You see bumper stickers of the Christian dove but know that what the dove pictures is sacrifice for the poor and the end of God’s judgment. This is the beginning of the Messianic age and to further authenticate this moment God the Father speaks aloud from heaven. He declares this Jesus to be His Son and He declares His pleasure on Jesus who was baptized at the Fathers will, in obedience to Him to inaugurate this Messianic Age. In a particular sense it was the Father pronouncing the sacrifice as pure, without blemish as they would pronounce the lamb without blemish the ready sacrifice. Certainly a day later this is what was on John’s mind as he again sees Jesus by the Jordan, a day after the baptism of Jesus and John points to Him and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” All of Who God is, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are present to mark this event because it is such a transitional moment, Jesus Messiah, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world … has come!