Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19951112.htm

MATTHEW: JESUS AS ISRAEL'S MESSIAH AND HIS MESSIANIC KINGDOM
Part V: Christ's Baptism: Professing The Cross As His Goal At The Start Of Christ's Ministry
(Matthew 3:13-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. Was the cross of Christ really part of God's ORIGINAL plan, or was it an after-thought produced to make progress due to Israel's rejecting Jesus as Her Messiah? To the Jew in Matthew's day, this question would be a reasonable one to b ring up as the Jew expected only a conquering, ruling Messiah to come!
    2. By the same token, we may wonder today if difficult or tragic events in our lives are mistakes which God then takes to make something out of just to salvage something.
    3. However, God's foresight and working out of all things for the good is much deeper and broader than His merely putting bandaids on tragedies. Matthew 3:13-17 proves it to us!
  2. Christ's Baptism: Professing The Corss As His Goal At The Start Of Christ's Ministry, Mtt. 3:13-17.
    1. When Jesus desired to submit to John's baptism, John at first refused to baptize Jesus as John recognized that Jesus, as Messiah, was righteous and John's baptism was one signifying repentance from sin, 3:6,13f.
    2. However, Jesus told John that his baptizing Messiah would, literally, "fulfill all righteousness," Mt. 3:15c.
    3. To grasp what Jesus meant, we look into the context and Hebrew background of this event as follows:
      1. Just before Christ's baptism, John publicly proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God Who would take away the world's sin, Jn. 1:29.
      2. Another animal is pictured in the context: right after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, Matthew 3:16b.
      3. Now, the Jews then understood these two creatures to be sacrificial animals: the lamb was supplied by the Jew of financial means and the dove as the poor man's sacrifice, Morgan, Matt., p. 28, Lv. 5:6-7.
      4. Also, the Hebrew Scriptures prophesied that Messiah would be brought as a "lamb to the slaughter" and that his soul would be made a "sin offering" to "justify many", Isaiah 53:7,10-11.
      5. Additionally, right after this event, the Holy Spirit drove Christ out into the wilderness to be tested and found to be righteous as the adequate Sin Bearer of the world, Mtt. 4:1 with Mark 1:10-11,12.
      6. In effect, then, Christ is viewed just before His baptism by the witness of John and just after it by the Holy Spirit as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and He is certified to be the adequate Sin Bearer by the temptation event that commences on His coming up out of the water.
      7. Thus, His baptism is not one of repentance, but of identifying with Israel's sins as the Sin Bearer via immersion into the very water where the people of Israel had made professions of repentance.
    4. Accordingly, God the Father witnesses at this baptism that Jesus is qualified as the perfect Sin Bearer, for the Father is well-pleased with Christ, Mtt. 3:17. Incidentally, one of the clearest evidences of the Trinity appears in Matthew 3:16-17: God the Son is in the water, God the Holy Spirit is descending between heaven and the Son in the form of a dove, and God the Father's voice come s from heaven above both the Son and the Spirit! All Three members of the Trinity are thus separate, distinct Persons as to identity!
Lesson: When Jesus publicly appeared to Israel at John's baptism, He came as God's Sin Bearer so that not only Israel, but the WHOLE WORLD might be saved through Him and enter the Messianic Kingdom blessings! The cross of Calvary was in the mind o f the TRIUNE GODHEAD as Christ's destiny at His first coming BEFORE He ever BEGAN His earthly ministry!

Application: (1) Sorrowful, bad or tragic events in our lives are not a divine oversight to which God adds band aids to salvage what He CAN. Rather, these "downer" matters are part of the original, permissive will of God to accomplish the very BES T longterm results imaginable! (2) Accordingly, our part in responding to such tragedies and disappointments are to trust the oversight and FOREKNOWLEDGE of Almighty God and keep operating by faith in His perfect wisdom that it will all mak e sense in the life to come! (Romans 8:28ff)