Mark 1:9-11: Why Was Jesus Baptized by John?

[0:00] Let's see if there's any other announcements. I don't think, I think we covered everything. I did have one thing I wanted to share. We got a lot of literature out on actually several different tables out there. This one I looked at this morning and I thought I'd share this.

[0:18] This was on the little table out in the back when you first come in the back door. Anyway, this is titled, Doesn't Carbon Dating Disprove the Bible? Doesn't Carbon Dating Disprove the Bible?

[0:34] And so, well, why would we have something about science, you know, at a church? Well, you know, a lot of people have never considered the message of the Bible, the message about, you know, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what that's done for not just us, but everyone in the world. And one of the primary reasons many people don't consider that message, you don't even think about it, is because, well, science has proved that the Bible is false.

[1:04] So, it's not a trustworthy book. And so, there are ministries out there and their whole focus is to try to show, well, actually, the Bible is a reliable source of truth. And so, addressing things like this.

[1:19] And so, this is just a short little booklet. If this is something that's interesting to you or if you think there's somebody in your life that might find this interesting. The interesting thing about carbon dating, and did anybody learn about carbon dating in high school or something, a few?

[1:37] Yeah, it's too long ago before, yeah, they didn't talk about it. You know, I, when I went to high school 25 years ago, we definitely did. But carbon dating is this way that you date rocks and other things. And it looks at the half-life of different elements. And if you look at carbon 14, that's supposed to show you how old something is by its half-life. You know, what was it before? And now that there's so much carbon 14 left, it tells you how old it is. But there are some assumptions in there that they don't necessarily always talk about that speak to that. But one of the interesting things I find about carbon dating is that carbon dating can only show you, specifically with carbon 14, if something is, they will tell you, in the tens of thousands of years old. Because if something is more than, let's say 50,000 years old, then it shouldn't have any carbon 14 at all. And so carbon 14 is used to use to date things that are fairly young. And when you're talking about millions of years, if you have something that's millions of years old, you wouldn't find any carbon 14 at all, it would all be gone. Yet, when you look in the earth, everywhere you go, there's carbon 14 everywhere. Even in something like diamonds, right? You open up a diamond and you inspect it for carbon 14, and it's full of carbon 14. And if those diamonds, which is generally understood in the scientific community, you'd be millions and millions and millions of years old, then you wouldn't find any. But we, it turns out we find lots of it everywhere, all throughout the earth.

[3:32] So, it just kind of undermines, you know, the, the secular story, which a lot of it is, you know, not as scientific as it really should be. And we're big fans of science, but it needs to be accurate types of science. So, if that's something you're interested in, we have, I don't know, about 10 copies of this out there. If you want to read it for yourself or give it away, check that out.

[3:56] Okay, you guys ready to jump back into the book of Mark? All right, let's do it. So, we've been going through the Gospel of Mark. And we did, our first message was really on just how to read the Gospels.

[4:12] And one of the important things in reading the Gospels is kind of knowing the context. The Gospel of Mark is all about the life of Jesus. But there's a specific verse that we focused on.

[4:27] We'll look at it again this week. And Paul says in one of his letters, he said, we have known Christ according to the flesh, but we know him thus no longer. We don't know him according to the flesh any longer. So, as we read through about the life of Jesus, we have to read it according to its context and what was going on at the time and understanding our Christian life in light of not necessarily his earthly ministry, but in light of his death and what he accomplished for us. So, we're actually going to be talking about that topic in more depth today. But today, we're going to focus on last, I guess two weeks ago, because we had, or actually, I think it was three weeks because we had Easter last week and then the week before that, we had communion. But we looked at the baptism of John. And John was, he was a prophet of God, he went out into the wilderness and he was calling people to repent and turn to God. And he had a ritual, a water ritual that he would do called baptism. And he would, whether it's sprinkle or pour or dunk people, I don't think it matters, but wanted people to submit to this ritual of baptism as a sign of their repentance. And repentance is just a word that means to turn around, to change your mind, to go the other direction, really to turn towards God.

[6:04] And now we're going to get into the baptism of Jesus. So, John the Baptist is out there in the wilderness. All these people are coming out from Israel to be baptized by John. A lot of these people realize that he's a prophet or they hope he's a prophet or they think maybe he is. And they go out to be baptized by him. And then this man named Jesus comes on the scene. So, if you're in the book of Mark, we're still in chapter one and turn to verse nine. And we'll read a few, we'll just read three verses here. It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming out from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son in whom

[7:07] I am well pleased. So, this passage is Mark, as we've mentioned before, is a fairly truncated gospel. And so, we have the four gospels and a lot of them overlap as far as the content, the stories that they tell, the details that they share. Of all four of the gospels, Mark is the shortest. And so, that's the case here in this description of the baptism of Jesus. It's fairly short and sweet. So, we'll actually look a little bit at Matthew and some of the details that he provides. But the first thing I want to point out is that it says, it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Jesus was from a place called Nazareth, in the bigger part called Galilee.

[8:03] And that's where he grew up. He wasn't born there, though that's where his family was from. That's where his parents were from. But if you remember the story of Jesus' birth, they went out because of a census and he was born in Bethlehem, just as the prophets foretold. And then he spent a short stint in Egypt because of the danger to babies at the time because they heard that the king of kings or a king was born. And so, they escaped to Egypt for a little while. And once he was old enough and safe from that danger, he came back and he lived and grew up in Nazareth in Galilee. And Nazareth wasn't a place that was of high prominence. He was just kind of a country boy, if you might think of it today, right? Lived out in the country, wasn't really a part of a big city like Jerusalem or some other big city. He was in an unknown place. And so, people didn't know who he was. In fact, we read later on, Jesus, after his ministry becomes somewhat popular and people learn who he is, he goes back to Nazareth. And what's the response when he goes to Nazareth?

[9:19] Well, wait, isn't this that Jesus that grew up around here? You know, he's some kind of a prophet or what? You know, this was just the kid that ran around here, you know, playing with sticks and and all kinds of stuff. And so, and then Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country. You know, when you go back home, people are familiar with you.

[9:43] So, but this is, this is the start of Jesus's ministry, his three-year ministry on the earth. Now, so, and Jesus is about 30 years old at this point, the Bible tells us elsewhere. And he spends about three years from this point until his death. So, Jesus had this three years of active ministry where he taught, he healed, and then ultimately, he was crucified, dead, buried, and then rose from the dead.

[10:20] Amen. So, this is short and sweet here. It says he came to be baptized by John. Came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. So, John was out in the wilderness at the Jordan River, and Jesus came and he was baptized by him. Now, that's all that Mark tells us. There's not any further details here, but there are some details in Matthew that we'll look at. So, the first question that I want to ask and try to answer though is, why was Jesus baptized? John's baptism, he said, and we find out later, is called specifically a baptism of repentance. It's a baptism where you're, you're showing that I want to be washed clean with water as a way to symbolize I'm turning to God. And so, the Bible tells us in other places that Jesus was without sin, right? So, why would Jesus go to be baptized by John if if he wasn't sinful? We're going to look at Matthew's account of this just briefly. So, if you turn back just one book, Matthew chapter 3 is where this account is in the book of Matthew.

[11:44] And so, there's a little bit of detail on why Jesus was baptized. So, Matthew chapter 3, verse 14, we'll start with verse 13, then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

[12:00] And John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you and you're coming to me. But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And then he allowed him. And so, the answer that Jesus gave was, this is to fulfill righteousness. John was thinking, this is a baptism of repentance and, you know, I have things that I need to repent of. So, you should be baptizing me, but it doesn't seem right that I should baptize you. Now, this whole concept of Jesus doing this to fulfill all righteousness, what does that mean?

[12:50] I mean, that's a bit of an obscure description to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness means just things that are right or just. Justice is actually another synonym, if you will, of righteousness.

[13:06] And so, it seems to me that the reason Jesus came to be baptized was, one, because this is what God wanted him to do. This was part of this whole scenario that got set up was John the Baptist was, it says, a harbinger or someone who was prepared to make the way for the Lord. And so, John was doing this with the Jewish people to prepare them for the coming of this Messiah. But he was calling all of Israel to come to be baptized. And so, Jesus was a part of Israel, right? And so, as part of Israel, as a Jew himself, he came to submit to this thing that the prophet of God had come to call people to.

[13:59] And so, I think in that way, Jesus was, he was just doing what God was doing among the people. He was coming to submit to that same baptism that all the other people were coming to submit to.

[14:19] Another thing I think to consider is, one of the things the Bible tells us about Jesus's ministry, and specifically what he did on the cross, is that Jesus identified himself with us, right?

[14:34] He came to, he became a man. God, the Son, came down to earth to become a man and he identified with us. And not just in appearance, but in his experience. And there are scripture verses. For example, 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says this, For he made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

[15:06] Jesus was made to be like a sinner. He wasn't a sinner, but he became like one so that he could make us righteous. There's also a verse in Isaiah 53 that's talking about the death of Christ. And it says this in Isaiah 53, 12.

[15:24] Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors, or for the sinners.

[15:46] So Jesus was numbered among the sinners. When he died on that cross, he died with other criminals. And so he was numbered as if he was one of us, a sinner, though he wasn't.

[16:00] But he bore our sin as if he was one. And so I think maybe that might be part of this baptism here, too, that he was numbered with us, even though he didn't need that symbolic representation of being cleansed from sin.

[16:16] The other thing I wanted to talk about is this whole concept of water baptism for believers today. We talked about that a few weeks ago.

[16:27] But some people say, well, the reason it's important for believers today, if you're a Christian believer, to be baptized in water is because we want to follow Jesus in baptism.

[16:41] Jesus was baptized in water, and so we ought to do the same thing. In fact, I was just talking to somebody earlier this week. I was having a discussion with somebody, and this topic of water baptism came up, and that's the phrase that he used, following Jesus in baptism.

[17:01] But I want to ask, you know, and I think there are different arguments. And like we talked about a few weeks ago, this is a fairly hotly debated topic about water baptism, and should we do it, should we not do it, what kind of mode should it be, sprinkling or immersion or pouring, and how old do you have to be, and all those different kinds of questions.

[17:24] So there are lots of, I think, points that people can point to as far as why it might be a good idea for a Christian to become water baptized, but I don't think, I think this is probably one of the least compelling to me anyway, that Jesus was baptized.

[17:39] There's lots of things that Jesus experienced that I don't think that we necessarily should do ourselves. But for him specifically to say that the reason I'm doing this is to fulfill all righteousness.

[17:54] Do we need to fulfill any righteousness, much less all righteousness? You know, the Bible says about Jesus that, you know, he fulfilled the law.

[18:12] Jesus was without sin. And so he did fulfill all righteousness. He went through all, went through his life, and he didn't commit any sin like we do.

[18:24] He was innocent. So when he died on that cross, he died unfairly as an innocent man. But you know that the Bible teaches that as believers, for those of us who have trusted in him, that his righteousness, that the righteousness of God is already fulfilled in us.

[18:46] It's already complete. We already read that verse in 2 Corinthians 5.21 that says this. I'll read it again. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

[19:06] In Christ, for those of us who trust in him, we are considered righteous. 100% righteous.

[19:17] Completely righteous. And so there is nothing for us to do to complete a righteousness, to fulfill a righteousness. It's already complete.

[19:30] There's another verse here in 1 Corinthians 1.30 that says this. But of him you are in Christ, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

[19:51] So Jesus Christ became for us, on our behalf, he became wisdom, it says, from God. We won't look at that. But it also says, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

[20:05] He became righteousness for us. And so as believers, the Bible says that we are in him. We are identified with him.

[20:16] And so there is no righteousness for us to fulfill. Any righteousness that we do doesn't really add anything to our identification, our positional righteousness that we have.

[20:32] And so we ought to do righteous things, but none of those righteous things adds to our position of being 100% righteous before him. But I would like to say that I do think it is appropriate to say that we should follow Jesus in his baptism.

[20:55] But a different baptism. Did you know that Jesus was baptized twice? Anybody know that? Jesus was baptized twice. We're reading about his first baptism.

[21:07] But there's another baptism that he talks about that I think is the most important one for us as believers today. In Luke chapter 12, verse 50, Jesus said this, but I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am until it is accomplished.

[21:32] I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am until it's accomplished. Why would Jesus be stressed or de-stressed about being dunked or poured or sprinkled with water?

[21:47] Well, he was distressed because it wasn't the type of baptism that includes water. It's a different kind. If you look at Mark chapter 10, he speaks about this in further detail.

[22:05] And I'll read this. Mark chapter 10, verse 32. Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was going before them and they were amazed.

[22:19] And as they followed, they were afraid. Then he took the 12 aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to him. He was trying to prepare them for what was to happen here soon.

[22:33] He says this in verse 33. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes. And they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles.

[22:47] And they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and they'll kill him. And the third day he will rise again. And then this conversation ensued after that.

[23:00] It says, Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Don't you like it when somebody asks you that question?

[23:12] Will you do for me whatever we ask? Well, maybe if you tell me what it is you want me to do. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us that we may sit on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory.

[23:27] They were talking about when Jesus establishes his kingdom on the earth. Will you put one of us on your right hand and the other one on your left, a place of prominence?

[23:39] But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

[23:51] And they said to him, We are able. So Jesus said to them, Well, actually, you will indeed drink the cup that I drink. And with the baptism I am baptized. You, with you, will also be baptized.

[24:06] But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but for those for whom it's prepared. So ultimately, he denied their request. But this is a reference, again, to this baptism that I'm about to be baptized with.

[24:20] And what was that baptism? Jesus was baptized, or as we talked about before, that word baptism, which we actually created for English out of a Greek word.

[24:32] The literal, very literal meaning is to be overwhelmed, covered, overwhelmed is, I think, the best word.

[24:44] And so, Jesus was about to die. And he was talking about, This is the baptism of my death. death. I'm going to be overwhelmed with death.

[24:57] And so, this death, the death of Christ, that is the baptism that we want to follow Jesus in. Yet, it's not physically like he was talking to his disciples here.

[25:12] Because he was saying, You know what? Many of you will die just like I have. Many at the hands of the Jews. Some at the hands of Romans.

[25:22] But many of his disciples did die. They followed in his death in that way. But I don't think, that's not what I'm talking about when I say that it's important for us to follow Jesus in his death or in his baptism unto death.

[25:40] In Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6, Paul says this, What shall we say then?

[25:51] Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Well, certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

[26:02] He was responding to this idea, well, if God just forgives all of our sins and he's made us righteous, then that means that now that we're identified with him, we should just live however we want.

[26:17] We should just go on sinning now that our identity is in Christ. And he's saying, no, you shouldn't do that. Certainly not.

[26:27] How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Verse 3, Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?

[26:42] He says, don't you know this? That when you became a member of Christ's body, and that's what happens when you trust in him, you become joined to this new entity that the Bible calls the body of Christ.

[26:59] And we share our identity with his identity, with him. As many of us as were baptized into Christ, and the Bible talks elsewhere about when you trust in Christ, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ, into the body of Christ.

[27:18] We're baptized into his death. Verse 4, Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, also, we should walk in newness of life.

[27:34] Jesus submitted to a physical death and a physical resurrection. And, like we celebrated last week, we will experience a physical resurrection in the future.

[27:45] But even right now, as believers in him, we experience that new life of the Spirit. Our old man, it says, died.

[27:59] Our old man died. And we were raised again to walk with him. Verse 5, For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, and that's what happens when we trust in him.

[28:15] We're united together with him. We're joined with him in the likeness of his death. Certainly, we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

[28:37] You see, the most important thing in Christianity and the Christian life is not that we look to material things, the things that we can touch, rituals that we can do, though we might do those things.

[28:54] We even, a couple weeks ago, right, we did a, we did the Lord's Supper, we had the Lord's Supper together, and that's symbolic. But the most important thing is what Christ accomplished for us already, and that we put all of our faith and our trust and our hope in that.

[29:14] Again, that verse that we mentioned at the beginning, 2 Corinthians 5.16, says this, therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, and that's what we're studying, we're studying Christ's earthly ministry, his life according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer.

[29:36] The most important aspect of our relationship with Jesus is not necessarily his, the teachings that he gave or the rituals that he performed, the death that he died and how we are identified with him through that and the new life that we have in him.

[29:55] A few other verses kind of relate. For I determine, this is 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, says this, for I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

[30:11] Of all the things that I could teach you, none of it is important in comparison to Christ crucified, to what Christ did for us on the cross.

[30:25] Everything pales in comparison, I think, is what he's getting at. In Galatians 3, verse 1, Paul says this, he says, O foolish Galatians, they were getting caught up in the ritual of circumcision and he was calling them fools.

[30:42] O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. It's the crucified Lord that makes all the difference.

[30:56] And then later in Galatians, he says this, Galatians 6, 14, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

[31:11] Our Christian life is all wrapped up in a death and a resurrection where we experience a kind of death where we're identified with his death. We die, what?

[31:22] To the world. We die to sin and we raise up to have life with who? With the world? With sin? No, our new life is with God.

[31:34] And we ought to live out our lives based on that reality, based on that spiritual reality. Well, let's go back to Mark and continue on.

[31:48] So, Jesus was baptized in water. John baptized him. Mark chapter 1, verse 10, and immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove.

[32:06] So, Jesus is baptized and he goes up out of the water and as he walks out, this incredible thing happens. The heavens parted and you can imagine if you were there seeing this, it would be quite incredible.

[32:23] And I imagine there were people, right? All these people were coming out to John to be baptized and Jesus was just one among many. So, this was a public event and I'm certain it was public for a reason on purpose because this thing that happened was meant to be witnessed by many, many people.

[32:44] But really, I see this whole event as somewhat of a coronation ceremony. Did you all know that in just a few weeks there's going to be a coronation ceremony in England?

[32:57] There's a new king over England or the British Empire, right? King Charles. And, you know, I didn't know until Sarah told me a few weeks ago that they're going to have this big coronation ceremony.

[33:10] His mother died, passed away, and so he became king but they need to have an official coronation and that's coming up in just a few weeks and I'm sure when that happens it'll be all over the news.

[33:22] In fact, we ordered some special tracts to share with people the gospel that is all about that coronation and kind of ties it in with the gospel. Hopefully we get that in time and we can pass those out and provide people a resource for understanding the gospel based on that event that's coming up.

[33:43] But this is kind of a coronation ceremony. Jesus is getting ready to start this ministry. He is the king of the Jews and so this event happens in a public setting.

[33:54] Just this morning we're reading about Saul and Saul was coronated and then later on David, King David was coronated and so this was something that happened especially among the Jews with kings.

[34:13] But the heavens parted and when you think about especially spiritual things when you think about the heavens what are up in the heavens? Or should I say who?

[34:25] Right? That's where God is, right? You look up to the heavens and what about in the earth beneath? What's down there? Is that where the Bible describes God as in the earth beneath?

[34:37] No, though the Bible does say that God is everywhere, right? But down in the earth that's where evil is. Death, hell talks about in the scriptures.

[34:50] So the heavens open and the heavens part and it says the spirit descended upon him like a dove.

[35:02] And so this dove comes flying down and it rests upon Jesus. So what's up with the dove? Why is there a dove coming down?

[35:15] Well, I want to look at a at a another scripture and this is in Acts chapter 10 and this is just a reference that Peter gives when Peter went to the house of Cornelius.

[35:25] If you're familiar with that story in the book of Acts, he describes this event and I think he uses some extra detail here that will help us.

[35:35] Acts chapter 10 verse 37. We'll just read two verses. Peter says to the house of Cornelius, he says, that word you know which was proclaimed throughout all Judea.

[35:47] He said, I'm sure you've heard about this guy Jesus. And it began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him.

[36:08] And so as when Peter mentions this event, this baptism event, he mentions he mentions it using the word anointed.

[36:18] God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. Now typically with kings, we just read about this this morning, what was a king anointed with?

[36:31] Oil. They would take a flask of oil, in fact, this happened with Saul, and pour it over their head. And we talked about how messy that was. And you might think, oh, I just take a dropper and put a few drops on their head.

[36:45] I'm sure that's not what happened. They poured a whole thing of oil and you'd get it all over. In fact, in the Psalms we read how it described oil getting into your beard. So it was a messy event, it would be memorable, wouldn't it?

[37:00] And so typically for a king, you would anoint the king with oil and that would represent what for the Jews? That the spirit of God was on his life. And so this was another kind of anointing ceremony.

[37:15] But this is one done, was it by the prophet Samuel? Was this anointing done by John the Baptist who was a prophet?

[37:27] No. Who's the one that did this anointing? The heavens parted, the heavens opened, and there were no human hands involved, were there? Because the spirit came down as a dove and rested upon him.

[37:42] So this was like a coronation or an anointing ceremony with Jesus. In fact, Jesus, we call him Christ, Christ the Lord, Jesus Christ.

[37:55] And what does Christ mean? Christ simply means the anointed one. That is his name. And so there are prophecies in the Old Testament that talk about one who is the anointed one who is coming.

[38:11] And that's talking about the Messiah. The other thing I wanted to point out with the Holy Spirit, it says that in Acts here that he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.

[38:25] And one of the things to notice here, it wasn't until after this event that Jesus started doing his miracles. And he did his miracles not on his own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[38:41] It was the Holy Spirit that descended upon him that he did his miracles. And we know that there were miracles done in the Old Testament, right? Jesus wasn't the only one in the Bible who did miracles, but other prophets of old also accomplished miracles.

[38:56] And how did they do miracles? Through the same means, through the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 12, 28, he says, but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of heaven has come upon you.

[39:13] He was saying, listen, when I cast out demons, I'm doing it by the power of God's Spirit, by the Spirit of God. And then finally, we'll go to verse 11.

[39:28] It says, a voice came from heaven and said this, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

[39:39] So you have the heavens part, a dove comes down, it rests on Jesus, and then there's a voice that evidently everyone heard.

[39:53] And it said this, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. It must have been shocking to the people who were standing around.

[40:05] But one interesting thing that I've actually really never noticed before with this event is that this was a coronation ceremony. I think it was meant to be public.

[40:18] But when the father speaks, he could have said, and in fact, in another place, he does say, this is my beloved son.

[40:29] He's speaking to all the people that are watching. But if you read here, who is it that the father is speaking to? He's speaking to Jesus.

[40:41] He doesn't say, this is my beloved son. He says, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And as I read and contemplated on that, I thought, isn't that incredible?

[40:57] You know, Jesus is about to embark on a three-year ministry that is unlike any ministry that I think any person has ever experienced. It was going to be intense.

[41:11] There was going to be, did Jesus have any enemies or did everybody just love him? He had enemies, people who were trying to kill him all three years and ultimately succeeded.

[41:27] He had, the Bible says, no place to lay his head. Most of the time or a lot of the time, we don't know how much of the time, Jesus slept outside in the dirt on the ground.

[41:40] There were times where people put him up, but a lot of the time they were just sleeping outside him and his disciples. In fact, when he called his disciples to come follow him, he says, just so you know, you're not always going to have a bed to sleep in.

[41:52] Are you willing to go with me? There were constant demands on his time and attention. Anybody ever had that? Especially, I know this with raising kids.

[42:04] You know, you have lots of demands on your time and attention. And sometimes it seems like, ah, can I ever get a break? Do you think that Jesus ever felt like that over that three years? In fact, there were times where the disciples were like, where'd Jesus go?

[42:17] And it turns up, early in the morning, he got up to go pray to get some time alone. Because there were constant demands on his, time.

[42:30] And then, and we'll talk about probably next week, the temptations that he faced, right? He faced intense temptation out there in the wilderness. But then I think the greatest weight on his shoulders was, it was his job to die for the sins of the world.

[42:51] world. The future of humanity was on his shoulders. And, you know, I think we, and we've talked about this in the past, you know, Jesus is God the Son.

[43:07] And we put a lot of emphasis on his divinity. Jesus is God. God. But I think sometimes we do too much to downplay Jesus' humanity.

[43:19] Jesus became a man. He became like us. And do you think that there was difficulty that he suffered, not just on the cross, but he suffered in life with the demands that were placed on him?

[43:33] with the weight that he felt of the responsibility that he had to die for the sins of the world? And so with all that in mind, I think here is a father speaking to his son.

[43:51] And there's two parts to his message. You are my beloved son. The first part of his message was, I love you.

[44:03] That word beloved is a Greek word, the root of that Greek word is agape, which just means love. It's a tender-hearted type of love. I love you.

[44:16] And I want you to know that I love you. And you might think, well, I'm sure that Jesus already knew that. Did Jesus know that the father loved him? Yeah, I'm sure he did.

[44:32] But I'm sure he also needed to know again. Right? Just like with us. Right? Sometimes you know that your wife loves you, that your husband loves you.

[44:44] We know. But sometimes we need to know again. Jesus shared in our weaknesses.

[44:55] in fact, the Bible says that he experienced all of our weaknesses. And I think it's important for us to remember that.

[45:10] You know, if you look at psychology and things going on in the world, psychologists will say that a father's love, love, the love of a father, is one of the most significant factors in a child's life.

[45:29] And there's so much brokenness in our culture and our society. So many people grow up without a father or maybe a father that left. And it's caused so much pain and suffering and misery and leads to instability in a person's life when you grow up without a father.

[45:53] And there's things that have to be overcome and you can, to a certain degree, overcome them. And you know, I think about Jesus and Jesus had an earthly father, didn't he? What was his name, Isabella?

[46:05] Jesus' father? His name was Joseph. Jesus had an earthly father whose name was Joseph. But, you know, we know that when Jesus was 12 years old, right, they went on a trip to Jerusalem and Joseph and Mary were both there.

[46:23] But then, after that, we don't hear about Joseph anymore. And so, I wonder, maybe he passed away. Maybe Jesus lost his father at a younger age.

[46:36] We don't know for sure, but that's a possibility. But here is his heavenly father saying, you are my beloved son. And then the next thing he says, in whom I am well pleased.

[46:51] I want you to know that I love you and that I'm pleased with you. I'm happy with you. I'm proud of you.

[47:04] So, he received the approval of the father. And I think this is another weakness that Jesus almost certainly experienced.

[47:15] This weakness that I think we all feel in life. Am I doing a good job? Am I doing okay? Am I doing life in a way that would make my father happy?

[47:34] And you know, another aspect of human psychology, kids crave the approval of their father. You know, one of the most common things you'll hear from a child's mouth I've experienced is, dad, look.

[47:52] If you've ever been a father, how many times have you heard that from a little one? Dad, look at me. Dad, watch this. And children want, especially, it goes to mothers too, but it seems more times to fathers.

[48:08] look at me, watch what I'm doing. I'm doing something amazing. I'm doing something cool. What do you think? Right? And I think this event was helping prepare the way for a difficult ministry that Jesus was about to embark on.

[48:30] God the father started it off with, I'm sending you out, but first I want you to know that I love you and I'm proud of you.

[48:44] Now go, go for it. Go do it. You know, one of the lessons I've learned from my wife, and I've learned many over the years, is that, and I think this is maybe a weakness of fathers.

[49:00] We can, you know, we want to see our kids be tough and we want to see them accomplish things and we can, you know, lay down the expectations. But sometimes and many times, a word of encouragement is ten times more valuable than a, let's get it done.

[49:18] Right? Has anybody else experienced that? Just a word of encouragement. You're doing a great job. And what comes from that? Motivation, energy. Let's go get the job done.

[49:28] And I think this was a source of Jesus' confidence in his ministry. He had the approval of the Father. Even though he experienced the weaknesses that we feel of, am I doing this right?

[49:45] Am I accomplishing these things the way that I should? Here's the Father. You're doing a great job. To wrap it up, I think it's important that as believers, we understand the acceptance that we have with the Father.

[50:06] Because we screw up sometimes a lot. We screw up a lot. And so we can kind of wonder, well, is the Father pleased with me?

[50:17] Maybe he's upset. I mean, of course he's pleased with Jesus. Jesus never did anything wrong. But he's probably not pleased with me.

[50:30] In Ephesians 1, verse 6, it says this, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved.

[50:46] By which he made us accepted in the beloved. It was through God's grace, through the cross, that we as believers were made accepted in the beloved.

[50:58] And isn't that a funny way to put it? Who is the beloved? We just read, right? You are my beloved son. We as believers are in Christ and we are completely accepted because we are in him.

[51:16] Because we trust in him, we are completely accepted. We don't have to wonder whether God accepts us. We know for sure because God accepted Jesus as believers who trust in him.

[51:31] We are accepted also in him, in the beloved. And I'll end with this just as a reminder to earthly fathers, no matter how old or young you are, if you're a father, that our children really need this from us.

[51:50] Take the example from God our Father and what he told his son. Two things, I love you and another, I'm well pleased with you.

[52:01] And a reminder, it's not something that I think our kids will ever get tired of hearing. I think there's many times in our lives, there's times in my lives where just a word like that has made so much of an impact.

[52:20] You're doing a great job. I'm proud of you. God's love. I think there's many things that I've ever had that from a father and it means a lot. And some of us have lost fathers, some of us early, some of them just through the natural process of life.

[52:38] But we'd love to hear again from even just our earthly father. You're doing a good job. So a reminder to us as fathers to, for our kids, make sure that they know that we love them.

[52:56] And when they're doing a good job, we don't have to make it up, right? We don't have to make it up. But when they're doing a good job, let them know. Let them know you're doing a good job. I'm well pleased with you. And that will provide a lot of confidence in their life through a life of difficulty that I think we all experienced.

[53:18] Let's close in a word of prayer. And we'll get a microphone ready. We can take questions at the end. Father, we thank you for the cross.

[53:33] We thank you for what Jesus did. We thank you for the example that he gave us and how we ought to live, but also the example that, Father, you gave in this ceremony of sorts that was done before many men.

[53:49] I pray that you would do a work in us today and tomorrow and the day after to continue to grow in Christ, to understand our acceptance in you, to put our faith there, to not ignore the acceptance that we have, to not ignore the righteousness that we have positionally in you, but to hold fast to it, to hold firm to it, to put our confidence there, and that we would grow and grow in our confidence in knowing you, and then also living that out, living that out each and every day.

[54:27] In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right. Are there any thoughts or questions before we end?

[54:39] And we got, it looks like Isabella's going to be our roving mic lady. Okay. Right behind you, darling.

[54:53] Just an observation. I wanted your thoughts on it, but in verse 10 of Mark there, and it says, immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens.

[55:04] So, is that a support for those friends that are partial to submersion? Yeah. It didn't sound like a sprinkle, anyway.

[55:15] Yeah, great question. When we were talking about this, I made the point a few weeks ago when we were talking about John's baptism that I don't think it matters whether the ritual was sprinkling or pouring or submersion.

[55:33] If I had to take a guess, I think it was probably a sprinkling because that was a Jewish way that they kind of accustomed that they did. There was also pouring, and there was lots of things that they did, but usually when you baptized a person or you washed a person, it was with a hyssop branch.

[55:48] It was a branch you'd stick in water, and then you just kind of shake it towards them, their hands. You maybe do that towards their hands or their feet or their face. And so that's what I imagine John probably did.

[55:59] People would come down into the water, and then he would take that hyssop branch and shake it over them, and then they would walk back out. But I will say, as you read through commentaries on these things, it's very common for people to use this as proof that baptism must be by immersion.

[56:20] And I think there's scant evidence that that's the case here. Coming up out of the water, I guess, could mean coming up from underneath the water.

[56:31] But usually when you say coming up out of the water, you're just talking about walking to shore, you know. Walking into the water, you're just walking down into the river or the ocean or whatever it might be.

[56:43] And so that's what I think he's talking about here. Walking down into the water is just wading in, and then coming up out of the water is just wading out.

[56:55] That's what I would imagine. Great question. I just have a thought about this to baptize or not and the heavenly possibility after you die.

[57:07] Okay. So in Luke chapter 23, verse 43, Jesus answered to the thief that wasn't baptized, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.

[57:22] Right. So I was baptized, but it doesn't seem to be a requirement here. Right. Yeah, and that's a great point. And there was a lot of things that that thief on the cross didn't do, right?

[57:35] Water baptism was just one of the things that he didn't do. Yet his trust, his faith in the Savior who was on the cross there seemed to be enough.

[57:51] And so there's lots of rituals that people can do or will do, but really God's willing just based on our faith alone. You know, that guy on the cross, he didn't go back and apologize for all of his sins.

[58:07] He didn't try to get his life right. Even though he might have wanted to, he didn't have the time, right? But just based on his faith, he was accepted. And that, thank you, Polly, for mentioning that.

[58:19] That is the most important thing. That is the fundamental thing, trusting in him. Isabella, you want to come up here? Got another raised hand? Okay. I just wanted to point out that this morning, Ron was talking about Saul getting anointed, and you talked about Jesus anointing.

[58:38] And everybody's probably heard this before, but every verse in the Bible is connected to every verse in the Bible. Yeah. And I thought that was interesting. Yeah.

[58:48] The more you read the Bible, you know, when you're first reading the Bible and becoming familiar with the Bible, you know, sometimes you might pick this and that and read here and there, and it seems kind of disjointed.

[59:02] But the more you become familiar with the Bible, you realize so many things are just tied together. They just fit together. In fact, I've seen there's a chart.

[59:14] I think we might even have one around here that has all the books of the Bible in a circle, and then it has lines where it connects all the different references and both symbolic and where it quotes the prophets or whatever, and it shows all the lines.

[59:30] And there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of lines that all connect. And I'm sure there are more than that chart could even show. Another one.

[59:41] Yeah. You talked about your kids wanting your attention. We kind of remember back when our son was small and things got too quiet.

[59:51] That's when they needed our attention. We had to go see what was going on. The lack of noise and activity meant something.

[60:03] That's a good point. Yeah. When, especially in our house, you know, we have seven children. One's gone now, or he's out of the house, I should say. But when the house gets quiet, I get scared.

[60:17] What is going on? And so having at least a small den of noise provides me comfort. Another one up here? Isabella?

[60:29] All the way up front. So I know Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament. Yeah. He was actually acting under Old Testament law.

[60:41] Yeah. Well, one of the commentaries that I have was pointing to the fact that when Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, and he makes reference to three Old Testament scriptures, two in Exodus and two in Leviticus, that the priests, before they were anointed as priests, were washed first.

[61:00] So that was curious. Yeah. And Jesus is what? Our high priest, it says in Hebrews. Yeah. That's a great point. That was a ritual. If you look in the Law of Moses, somewhere in the Law of Deuteronomy or Exodus, and probably in several of them, it talks about the ritual washings for someone who was going to exercise their priestly duties.

[61:21] And part of that was a cleansing ritual in which you were washed. And so that could also be a reason why Jesus was baptized in water, was as a kind of a way to show initiating him into his priestly office of representing the people towards God.

[61:38] So thank you for bringing that up. Anything else? All right. Back in the back. She's running, too.

[61:50] Good job. I went to Turkey and Greece, and in one of the churches, I can't remember directly where, they had steps before the entrance of the church.

[62:04] And two priests would stand on either side of the steps with five-gallon buckets. I use air quotes, you know, pots of things filled with water. You would step down those steps.

[62:14] The first priest would do the first bucket. And as the end of the first bucket, the next priest would do five-gallons, you would be totally immersed. Then you would walk up the steps and into the sanctuary.

[62:27] So I think they might have done a little bit of immersion as well in Acts to signify. Because once you got saved, you went through that and went right into worship.

[62:39] So that happened to everybody who went into church? Well, when they declared their faith, that was one of the things to go in, that they were accepted within the sanctuary again.

[62:50] That they would be fully emerged by two ten-gallon or five-gallon buckets of water. Ten gallons. That's a lot of water. Yeah. That's why you'd be fully immersed. Yeah. By the time the first gallon, the second.

[63:01] Yeah, and the word, like I said, the very literal meaning of baptism or baptizo in Greek is to overwhelm. And so I think ten gallons of water would definitely overwhelm for sure, right?

[63:14] Anything else? Wrap it up. I'm sure your stomachs are probably rumbling. Mine is too up here. So we'll – but last call. All right.

[63:27] We'll end there. Well, thanks, everybody. I loved all the comments and adding to the message. That was wonderful. But everybody have a great day.