February 16, 27 A.D. Sabbath (Saturday) In the Jordan River -The Year of the Lord’s Favor #11

Week 1 The Baptism of Jesus, part 2 –

Matthew 3: 13-17—Mark 1: 9-11—Luke 3: 21-22

In our first discussion (If you missed it: The Year of the Lord’s Favor #1), we discussed how all the prophets, after the exile in Babylon, looked forward to a time when God would come as he promised. Remember this scripture we discussed?

Mal. 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 

We have seen the messenger come as John the Baptist. He has prepared the way by preaching on the coming Kingdom of Heaven and the need to repent and bring fruit. Then, Jesus showed up and requested baptism by John. Last time, we looked at the why of Jesus’ baptism. Now, we will look at what happened at the time of his baptism.

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

As Jesus emerges from the water, “behold, the heavens were opened to him.” We need to understand what this moment meant to John. At this point, John is sure  400+ years of prayer are being answered because he knows the words of the prophets. Isaiah 64:1 is another of the passages, like Malachi 3:1 above, that looked forward to the time when the Lord would return.  

“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.”  Isaiah 64:1

Isaiah is looking backward to the time when God descended at Sinai, and the mountains quaked, “when you did awesome things” (Isaiah 64:3). He is looking forward to the time when God would come and do extraordinary things again. At this revelation to John, he sees the wish of the people voiced by Isaiah come to pass. He sees the heavens open, and God’s Spirit descends. And Jesus will certainly do awesome things, but the earthquake will only come when his sacrifice for us is complete (Matthew 27:51).

Then John “saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him [Jesus].”¹ Have you ever watched as a bird lands or feeds their young, that for a moment they hover? The second verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:2, says, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” That Hebrew word for ‘hovering’ is “merachafet,” which means ‘fluttering’ or, as the rabbis describe it, “even as a dove hovers over its nest,” linking it to the dove that heralds the re-creation of the world after the flood in Genesis 6 (a de-creation and re-creation event). So it is appropriate for John to describe the Spirit of God descending like a dove on Jesus, for his baptism heralds that God is about to do something new again. At this point, John is sure that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, as he later relates:

John 1:33   I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

Then, a voice with a message hyperlinks to three Old Testament scriptures.

1. “This is my son” – This phrase is a reference to the third stanza of Psalm 2. The end of the second stanza of Psalm 2 introduces the Davidic king, the Messiah, who speaks in verse 7:

 “I will tell of the decree: The LORD [Yehovah] said to me [the messiah], “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Psalm 2:7

2. “with whom I am well pleased” – This is from another known messianic passage in Isaiah.

 Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

3. “my beloved son” – Though in the days of Jesus, this was not recognized as a messianic illusion,  looking back, we now readily connect this story to the crucifixion of Jesus. God asked Abraham to be willing to “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love” and sacrifice him. Arriving at the site of the sacrifice, Isaac asks his father. “Where is the lamb? and Abraham answers, “God will provide the lamb.” The willingness of Abraham to give up his beloved son, Issac’s desire to be obedient to his father and lie down on the altar to be bound², and the divine provision of a lamb to be a substitute sacrifice for Isaac — these three things shout to us a foreshadowing of God providing his beloved son as a substitutionary sacrifice for us. John sees Jesus as that sacrificial lamb as he later says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)  

God had already fulfilled the sign of the Messiah that he had given John at his calling. Then to confirm it, God speaks the words known to refer to the Messiah. There can be no doubt in John’s mind that before him is the long-awaited one.³  

Luke sees this baptism as his anointing to begin his ministry, and Jesus says as much, reading from the Isaiah scroll in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me…” Remember that ‘Messiah’ (which the Greek translates as ‘Christos’ or Christ) means ‘the anointed one’. Jesus, as the anointed one, must have a time of anointing, and many see his baptism as his anointing for service. Near the end of his ministry, we will speak of another anointing (April 23 of next year).⁴ 

From this point on, readers of the Gospels must be sure of Jesus’ position as the Messiah. John the Baptist is also sure, though he will ask his disciples to seek further evidence when he is imprisoned. Other people in the first century will come to this conclusion slowly over the next year, and sadly, many will reject Jesus as the Messiah.

Today is a good day to remember your baptism. I pray you have entered the waters of repentance with Jesus and have risen as a new creation. This morning, I pray for you. I look over the list of 50 subscribers to this blog and pray that God will open the heavens for you and show you His glory as he did at Sinai, as he did for John on this day, 1997 years ago. I read Isaiah 64:1 and hear the people begging God to “rend the heavens and come down.” God promises he will open the windows of heaven for us if we are his obedient children (See the rest of Malachi chapter 3 that we quoted the first verse of above. And don’t think it is all about tithing — read all of Malachi— you can’t buy God’s favor —it is about obedience.) And if you don’t know Vertical Worship’s song from 2012, “Open Up the Heavens,” then pull it up and let that be your prayer and worship this morning (link below).⁵ Jesus is still on the mission that he began 1997 years ago on a Sabbath in the river Jordan — a mission to fulfill our righteousness and reconcile us to the Father. “Show us your glory, Lord.”

David

1.    Who saw the heavens open and Spirit descend, and who heard the voice from heaven? John bears witness that he saw it in John 1:32. Other than that, we do not know. Luke tells us that others were baptized before Jesus but did not specify who saw the heavens open and heard the voice. Matthew is not specific.

2.    Despite the Sunday School pictures of Isaac as a young child at the time of this story, he was already a grown man and could have easily overpowered his over 100-year-old father if he wanted to. But Isaac allowed himself to be bound and placed on the altar. The rabbis have emphasized Isaac’s obedience, and this section is often titled “The Binding of Isaac.”

3.    Though John is convinced of Jesus as the Messiah here, we will see him have some questions (doubts?) when Jesus’ ministry does not align with exactly what everyone in that day pictured the Messiah would be.

4.    There is much precedence for multiple anointings in the Old Testament. David was anointed on three occasions (1 Samuel 16:13, 2 Samuel 2:4, and 2 Samuel 5:3).

5.    “Open Up the Heavens” https://www.youtube.com/