identified with sinners: Luke 3:21,22

If you are a regular member of our services, then you will know that we study the Bible verse by verse here at the Beach Fellowship.  And we have been going through the book of Luke for a couple of months or so now.  Today we find ourselves at a very significant passage of scripture, which is the story of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist at the Jordan River.

I’m sure most of you are very familiar with this story and perhaps have seen it acted out on film or seen pictures or paintings of this event which may have influenced your perception of it to some degree.  But today, I would like to take you a bit deeper than just the obvious storyline, and delve into the doctrinal implications of Jesus’ baptism.

As I began to study this passage, I found myself asking a similar question that John asked in the parallel  account of  Matthew chapter 3: 14, 15; “But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?"
But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he  permitted Him.”

John was confused why Jesus would come to be baptized, after all, the baptism of John was a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” it says in our text.  And so rightly John objects to baptizing Jesus, because he knows that Jesus is without sin, the Holy One of God.  And that prompts my question as well – why did Jesus become baptized?  He couldn’t have been a sinner.  The author of Hebrews said in chapter 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”  Peter also attested to his sinlessness in 1Peter 2:22 “WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH.”  So did the Apostle John in 1John 3:5 “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”

So then if He wasn’t baptized in  repentance for the forgiveness of sins, then why was He baptized?  Jesus answered John’s question “permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness.”  And I believe that we can take that verse two headings which will help us answer the question why.  Number one, it was fitting and number two, it fulfilled righteousness.

Let’s consider why it was fitting for Jesus to be baptized first of all.  If you think about all that has been presented by the author of Luke up to this point, you notice that there is one example after another of witnesses and testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ.  Testimony that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Son of God.  He states this in the very beginning of the book; chapter 1: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”

See, what Luke has been doing is presenting eye witness accounts and testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ.  He started with the old priest Zacharias and Elizabeth, and recounted all the wonderful events that transpired in their lives and their testimony about Jesus who was yet to be born.  He then presented the testimony of the angel Gabriel to Mary and Gabriel testifies that Jesus is the Holy Child, the Son of God.  Then there is the testimony of Elizabeth who called Jesus her Lord while He was yet in Mary’s womb.  Zacharias testimony is next that Jesus would be the Sunrise from on high, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi that the Sun would rise with healing in his wings, speaking of the Messiah.  Then Luke records the testimony of the angels who appeared to the shepherds, announcing that Jesus would be the Savior, the Christ, or Messiah.  Then Luke presents the testimony of Simeon, an old man serving the temple in Jerusalem who had been promised by God that he would not die until he had seen the Lord, and when he saw the baby Jesus called out, “I am ready to die now Lord, for my eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord.”  And then Luke records the testimony of an elderly widow named Anna who had faithfully served the temple up to the age of 84, and her testimony of the Lord as her Redeemer.

So all of Luke’s testament up to now is one account after another of reliable witnesses to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the coming Messiah.  And so next he presents then the witness of John the Baptist, as John began his ministry preaching a gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and crying out, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make your hearts right before the coming of the Messiah.”  He said, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming who will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire.

Now, the parallel account found in the Gospel of John, the Apostle John, records the fact that though John knew about Jesus, and was preaching about the Messiah,  he had not yet met Jesus.  And so it is fitting that Jesus comes to be baptized by John so that John can give testimony that this Jesus was in fact the Coming One, the Messiah that he had been sent to prepare the people’s hearts to receive.  John says in John 1:33, “"I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.  I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God."

So it was important that Luke records that John the Baptist testified that Jesus was the Son of God.  It is fitting in the long list of testimonies that Luke has given, that John’s testimony is also recorded, and it happened as a result of Jesus being baptized and fulfilling a heavenly directive that John would know He was the Messiah by the fact that the Spirit would descend and remain upon Him.  And Luke records that that happened just as God told John it would.  So we have then the full testimony of John the Baptist.

Secondly it was fitting that Jesus was baptized so that we might receive the testimony of the Holy Spirit.  It’s important to understand that Jesus was not devoid of the Holy Spirit prior to His baptism.  Go back to Gabriel’s testimony to Mary and you will find that he announced that Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit.  Gabriel said to Mary, “"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”  Jesus was indwelled by the Spirit of God from before His birth.  What you have here at this baptism is nothing less than the divine inauguration of Jesus Christ to begin His ministry.  We have inaugurations in our culture today, don’t we?  We elect a president and when he is ready to begin his term he is inaugurated.  For a king, it’s called a coronation.  And we could call this event either of those things.  But the main point is that this is the testimony of the third person of the Godhead – the Holy Spirit.  This is a great illustration, by the way, of the trinity, one of the core doctrines of Christianity.  That God is one in three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 1John 5:7 says,  “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” And here in this place we see all three at one time, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Father all distinctly working in one place, at one time, establishing the truth of the doctrine of the trinity.

So at the baptism of Jesus then we see the Holy Spirit come down from heaven in the form of a dove and lighting upon Jesus and remaining upon Him.  Another term that aptly defines this coronation is the word ordination.  This is the ordination of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ ministry here on earth. John says the Spirit remained upon Him.  Now the Bible does not explain why the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove.  But we can speculate that there are at least two reasons.  One is that a dove was the approved sacrifice of the poor.  If you remember in chapter 2, Joseph and Mary could not afford the lamb for the required sacrifice for a first born son so because they were poor they were allowed to bring two doves.  So we have a picture there of a dove as a sacrifice.  And secondly, the dove was a picture of peace with God.  Noah, if you remember, sent out a dove three times from the ark to see if God’s wrath was finished upon the earth and the water had receded.  The dove symbolized man having peace with God.  And so we see that the dove indicated that God would come as our sacrifice in the form of a man, that man might have peace with God.

By the way, verse 23 says that Jesus was 30 years old when He began his ministry following his baptism.  A priest could not begin his service in the temple until he was 30 years old.  And there was an ordination service for the priests, just as we have ordination services for pastors today.  There is a confirmation, a laying on of hands as other preachers attest to the call of God upon the young pastor’s life, and they publicly confirm him to the call to ministry.  And I believe that is the significance of the Holy Spirit coming in bodily form and lighting upon Jesus. The Holy Spirit laid hands upon Him, if you will.  This is the only time in the Bible that the Holy Spirit comes in bodily form as a the third member of the trinity.  And that was simply so that John might recognize Him.   Because you can’t see a spirit.

The third reason it was fitting for Jesus to be baptized was so that we might receive the confirmation and testimony of God the Father.  Vs. 22; “a voice came out of heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased."  This is the last great testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ.  God the Father himself opens heaven and speaks in an audible voice confirming that Jesus is His Son, that He is sinless, and that He is pleased with Him.  There can be no greater testimony than that.  God audibly speaks again at the transfiguration to Peter and John, but this is significant because it is the ordination of Christ’s ministry.

Furthermore, it was a direct fulfillment of scriptural prophecy found in Isaiah 42:1 where God says, "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

So the baptism of Jesus was fitting because it was the coronation of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the ordination of our Great High Priest and the beginning of his ministry here on earth.  It was fitting so that a complete record of eyewitness testimonies might be made complete for us here today, from Zacharias all the way to the Holy Spirit and God the Father.

And the second phrase from Jesus answer to John was that it was necessary for Him to be baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness.  Now what does that mean?  Well, it means that Christ had to be made in all points as we are yet without sin, as it says in Hebrews 4:15.  Christ came to identify with sinners, that He suffer all that we have to suffer, yet without sin, fulfilling all the requirements of righteousness.  As I said a couple of weeks ago, another reason Christ did not begin his ministry until the age of 30 was He had to live a full righteous life to exchange for our sinful lives.  He had to live a full life, going through all that we have to go through, and yet do so without sin.  That was why God’s testimony “I am well pleased” was so significant.  He had lived through 30 years without even the smallest sin, and would continue in that sinlessness for another 3 years until He was crucified.

But I want to illustrate John’s baptism so that you can relate to it perhaps a little better, and understand what Jesus was doing that day. John the Baptist came preaching that the world was populated by sinners and that as sinners we needed to repent that we were sinners, that we might receive forgiveness of our sins in order to be accepted by God in preparation to receive the Messiah.

It’s as if John came out here on the beach this morning and drew a line in the sand and called out, ok, I want all the good people – the God fearing, patriotic American church going, upper middle class people over on this side of the line, and I want all the sorry, good for nothing low lifes to get on this side of the line.  Ok, let’s go.  And there is a mad rush for the good side by all the good upstanding citizens of Sussex County.  They all go over to the good side, elbowing their way, to make sure that they have a predominate spot on the good side.  After all, that’s one of the benefits of being good, is that people get to see you being good and therefore it increases your public standing, in fact, it’s even good for business.

But on the bad side of the line is left this sorry, no good group of low lifes with their heads hanging down, kicking the sand, trying not to stand out too  much.  They are ashamed to be there on the bad side, but they know that they belong there, and they are pretty sure that everyone that knows them realizes that they belong on that side.

So there ends up being a large crowd on the good side, and a few sorry individuals standing rather sheepishly on the bad side feeling like they want to go run and jump in the ocean.  And suddenly, here comes Jesus Christ, walking across the beach, as John would the next day proclaim, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  As God himself proclaimed when Jesus came up from his baptism, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  God in human form comes walking across the sand of the beach, and wonder of wonders, Jesus walked over to the bad side of the line and stood with them.  This sinless man, God in the flesh, identified with sinners, because these were the people that He came to save.  So He got in line with the sinners who needed to be baptized in repentance for the forgiveness of sins, because God was going to place our sins upon Him and His righteousness upon us.

Jesus said in Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."  Jesus didn’t come to save those that think they are righteous. John called that group a brood of vipers, they were of their father the devil.  Outwardly they looked religious, but they didn’t have a converted heart which brought the fruit of righteousness.  They never confessed their sinfulness, so they were still dead in their sins.  But Jesus came to save those that know that they are sinners, who knew they were cut off from God.  The problem is that those that think they are righteous aren’t saved by the righteousness of Jesus, they are attempting to be righteous by their own works.  And their own works will never be enough.  Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  It’s like trying to jump the Grand Canyon.  If everyone here had to jump the Grand Canyon or be put to death, then everyone would line up and get a good running start and jump as hard as they could.  Some would jump just a few feet and fall and some might jump many feet, but still fall short.

Romans 3:20 says “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” And “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Romans 9:16

So Jesus came to be the bridge between God and man, that man might receive the forgiveness of sins, because He became our substitute.  That we might be made righteous, because He has become our sacrifice.  2Cor. 5:21: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

See, baptism is a picture.  It is a picture of repentance first of all.  A recognition that I am sinful and lost and without hope, unable to attain to the standard of God.  And then we are buried in the water with Jesus, as Jesus died for sins, so we too die to our sins, acknowledging that the wages of sin is death, and that I need to die to my sinful desires, crucifying my flesh, and then we are raised into newness of life even as Jesus was raised from the dead in triumph over sin and death, so in our new life we have triumph over sin and over death.

Jesus identified with us that we might identify with him. He consecrated himself so that we might be consecrated to him.  And He received attestation from the Father and the Spirit that we might receive attestation as children of God.

Galatians 4 explains it this way, vs.3, “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.”  Christ found us under the condemnation of the Law, unable to achieve it, and unable to escape it’s condemnation because of our sin nature which was bound to the elemental things of the world. Bound by our lusts and desires of our sinful nature.

Gal. 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”  Christ voluntarily submitted himself to the Law and kept it perfectly, that He might be the spotless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For those that repent and accept Him as Lord of their lives they are credited with His righteousness in exchange for their sins that they might be adopted as children of God.

Then Gal. 4:6 “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”

See, because Jesus identified with sinners, because He offered himself as our substitute and became our sacrifice, we too are given the Holy Spirit in our bodily form, that we might have new life through Him.  Through the indwelling of the Spirit, He gives us new desires, a new hunger for the Word as He leads us in the Word, and the strength to live the life He has called us to live.  And because the Holy Spirit has given us new life, we too can be called the sons and daughters of God, “in whom He is well pleased.”  Because we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. Isaiah 53:5 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”