Sunshine pierced the small space—casting its light on the tools he had learned to use so effectively. He smelled the sawdust and looked around the room—(so many memories). • He had played over in that corner (on the days His daddy would let Him go to work with him).
• He rubbed His head as He remembered smacking it on that corner over there--(His mom never let Him forget that by the way—He still felt her concern when, even at 30, she would kiss the little scar on His forehead and whisper “Be careful today.”)
• He walked over to the table and softly ran His fingers over the tools of the trade—some new, but none older that He really was.
• His knee bumped His sawhorse—the one He had made with His dad. He sure missed that man.
• He looked at the old sign—“4 Js Carpentry Shop—nobody does it better.” Now there were only “3 Js” working there and today another one was leaving, He and his little brothers had already talked about it—Today His brothers would take over running the business--James would handle the books and Jude would handle customer service.
It was time. With a tear on His cheek and a determined look in His eye, He took off His apron and hung it up in the same nail He had for years—but today He really noticed the nail. The heavy door creaked when He opened it.
When Jesus gently closed the door to His carpentry shop for the last time, He knew exactly where to go. With firm footsteps and quiet determination He set off directly to see John. He made His way from the hill country of Nazareth into the burning heat of the desert. Edging His way through the crowd, Jesus silently slipped off His sandals and eased into the murky river. He came to be baptized.
Matthew 3:13-17 (NIV) “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”
There is a lot to learn from these 5 vereses!
HIS BAPTISM PUZZLED SOME
1. John tried to stop it.
Matthew 3:13-15 (NIV) “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.”
Do you see the irony in this? Until this moment, John’s existence had been for the sole purpose of clearing the way for Jesus but now John is blocking the way.
Can you recall another incident in Scripture where an ardent disciple will stand in the way of Jesus?
Matthew 16:22-23 (NIV) “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
But, don't you know, it will happen again and again AFTER Peter too? Who will later attempt to stand in God’s way? You and me! We stand in His way sometimes. We have an idea of how something should be done and when God’s way are is not our way—we cross our arms and pout. When He bypasses our plan we sit down!
One of the things we need to learn from the Authentic Jesus is that He is not predictable!
2. The crowd didn’t understand it.
Remember!--Isaiah 53:2b (NIV) “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”
The crowd didn’t know who Jesus was. To them John’s reluctance to baptize Him must have been confusing. You see, they had seen this man go toe-to-toe with the religious heavyweights of the day--but now this camel hair wearing prophet is trembling in reverence before an unknown carpenter?—It didn’t make sense.
John was not afraid to tell it like he saw it and when He saw Jesus he didn’t get it and the crowd didn’t get him.
HIS BAPTISM OPENED HEAVEN
Matthew 3:16a (NIV) “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened…”
Luke describes the same scene but adds an element that Matt left out—as Jesus emerged from the water, He was talking to His Father. He saw the heavens open as His eyes were lifted up in prayer: Luke 3:21b (NIV) “...as He was praying, heaven was opened”
I wonder who else got to see into heaven! Did the crowd get a peek?
Others have gotten to see into heaven. I am reminded of Acts 7:55, ”But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
Paul tells us in 2 Cor 12:2-4 NIV) “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.”
It is important for us to understand something about the time in which the apostle wrote those words. Paul was a Jew. The Jews of the first century believed in three heavens.
1) The first heaven was where the birds fly and the clouds float.
2) The second heaven was where the sun and moon and the stars are.
3) The third heaven (Paul’s “paradise”) was where God is.
We see the first by day, the second by night, and the third by faith.
An elderly Christian woman was grief-stricken after the death of her daughter. To adjust, she boarded a ship from England to New York City to visit her other daughter. While at sea a severe storm struck. Passengers frantically raced for lifeboats. The elderly Christian lady showed no signs of panic. A young man excitedly said, “Lady, don’t you know we may sink and all die!” “Young man,” she quietly replied, “I have a daughter in heaven and a daughter in New York City, and it doesn’t make me any difference which one I go to see.”
HIS BAPTISM INTRODUCED HIM
Matthew 3:16-17 (NIV) “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”
Again, Luke gives us a little more than Matt does: Luke 3:22a (NIV) “...the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove.”
The dove was not merely a symbol of the Holy Spirit but was actually the Holy Spirit in bodily form, a theophany! The Trinity had shown up!
I love how Beth Moore put it: “… they were confessing their sins because they weren’t being baptized unto salvation. John was baptizing them unto repentance, preparing them to encounter the Savior, the only One who could bring them salvation. In all likelihood they were crying out these confessions— weeping over their sins. Then came Christ.”
GOD JOINED IN THE FESTIVITIES OF REPENTANT HEARTS. (God likes doing that! He throws parties for people like that!)
God had shown up!
• The Holy Spirit showed up and landed on the Son!
• God the Father spoke up to validate the Son!—Words He would repeat later when He interupts Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration: Matthew 17:5 (NIV) “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”
Again, Picture the scene as only Beth Moore can paint it: “Jesus was not coming to be baptized unto repentance. He was the spotless Lamb of God. Complete perfection. He had no confessing to do in those waters...God was baptizing His Son into ministry. The representation of the death, the burial, and the resurrection. BUT ...also see something else precious: “They had confessed their sins standing in those waters and then were baptized. Christ comes after they’ve made this confession. He is baptized—drenched in the same waters where they had confessed their sins....you almost see Him wearing the sins they had confessed in those waters!"
Their sins. Your sins. My sins. All of our sins were on Him!
2 Cor 5:21 (NIV) “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
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