Why Was Jesus Baptized?

Well, take your Bibles, would you?

And open them to our text, Luke chapter 3.! And whereas I took, I think, about 20 verses last Sunday, we're going to look at two verses this morning.

Two verses. Luke chapter 3, verses 21 and 22. Two relatively short verses. Half of which, maybe one of the verses, just simply some statements of fact.

Statements about a certain event with very little said about them. And then the second of the two verses, of course, another description of an event.

And though just two verses, there is a lot here, I assure you. And I hope that you'll agree with me by the time I'm finished this morning. Luke chapter 3, verses 21 and 22.

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened.

The Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven which said, You are my beloved son. In you, I am well pleased.

Okay? Now, last Sunday, if you were here, and I think most of you were, last Sunday, we looked at the preaching of John the Baptist.

Kind of introduced John the Baptist. Well, he had already been introduced to him. That is his birth. But kind of introduced the person of John the Baptist. And then really focused on his preaching.

His ministry. And so we looked at John the Baptist. And our subject last Sunday, because it was John's subject, was repentance.

True repentance. The preaching of it. The picture of it. That we were given in the text as a quotation from a quotation from the Old Testament.

An Old Testament prophecy. So we had the picture of it. And then the proof of it. The proof of true repentance. That is the fruit. The fruit that points to the reality of repentance.

So we looked at that last Sunday. And the truth revealed in our text about true repentance. Rattled us to our core.

That is, if you were listening, and I think you were. I had several comments after the sermon. Throughout the week. How it kind of shook you.

And maybe even caused a few questions in your heart and mind about true repentance. And maybe you did indeed kind of carry out a little debate within yourself.

You know, about this whole idea of true repentance as it was preached last week. And maybe some of you were asking or maybe even saying, that seems a little too harsh.

This idea of true repentance. The depth of it. The height of it. And what is required. God requires in true repentance.

And maybe that's just a little bit too harsh. Or maybe you might have even asked the question, is that really the kind of repentance that God demands? What was described in this text last week.

What about grace? What about mercy? And you know, that is very typical of our way of thinking as fallen human creatures.

And we're all numbered among that group. We can't help ourselves. Let's just be honest. Let's just be honest. We want grace. Right? Absolutely.

We want grace, but sometimes we want it without repentance. We want forgiveness for sin. Right?

Absolutely. Sometimes we want forgiveness for sin without brokenness over sin. We would rather kind of bypass that. Kind of maybe go around that.

Maybe somehow miss experiencing that part of it. An absolute brokenness and sorrow. And an honest, open acknowledgement of not only our sins, but of our sinfulness before God.

And yet that is what true repentance is. And so by our very nature... What's going on with my microphone? By our very nature, it's fallen human creatures.

We can't resist desiring grace without repentance. I want you to listen to what Hosea the prophet said in Hosea 6.1. Just listen to this very carefully.

This will help us kind of transition from the message of last week to what our text has for us this week. Listen to Hosea 6.1.

Come, this is Hosea the prophet speaking, come and let us return to the Lord. That's repentance. Alright? Very similar to the kind of message that John the Baptist was preaching.

Come, let us return to the Lord. Now listen to this. For He has torn us. Literally torn in pieces.

He has done that. This is God. God has torn us. But He will heal us. He has stricken.

Stricken or wounded us. But He will bind us. Bandage us up, if you will.

So you see, here's the point. The tearing comes before the healing. The wounding, no matter how painful it may be, and admittedly it is painful, the wounding comes before the bandaging.

You don't have the bandage before the wound. You don't have the healing before being torn or torn in pieces. And so, wounding comes before the wound.

And so, wounding comes before bandaging. Tearing comes before healing, according to Hosea the prophet. And so, repentance comes before forgiveness.

You see. And that's why John comes before Jesus. Alright? That brings us back to this text. That's why John is sent before Jesus.

Because the tearing comes before the healing. The wounding before the bandaging. Repentance before the forgiveness. John comes before Jesus. John came to tear.

Oh, yes, he did. He came to tear. So that Jesus could then come to heal. John came to wound.

So that Jesus could come to bind. To bind up. To bandage up. I want you to listen to Luke's record of Jesus' very first sermon.

Luke, by the way, gives us Jesus' very first sermon. And it's recorded for us in Luke chapter 4, verse 18. You can listen to it here. Jesus is going to preach there in the synagogue.

And He chooses for His text the prophet Isaiah. Prophet Isaiah chapter 61. And so He begins to read the passage. He stands before the people.

And He takes the scroll of Isaiah. And He begins to preach from Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news.

The gospel to the poor, He said. And He didn't mean that He's just going to simply preach the gospel exclusively to those who are on the lower economic level.

The gospel is for all people. So what He says here when He says, I have come, or He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He's talking about literally those who have acknowledged their utter poverty of spirit.

And then He went on to read. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted. The brokenhearted. That is those whose hearts are absolutely broken.

Torn to pieces over their utter sinfulness. And then He goes on as He reads the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives.

The captives, who are they? That is those who are captive to their own sinfulness and lostness and rebellion. He goes on to read.

And the recovery of sight to the blind. The blind, who are they? Blind to God's salvation. The way of salvation. To recover sight of the blind.

And then He goes on to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Oppressed by wickedness and unrighteousness. And so Jesus reads Isaiah 61.

And then He sits down. That was the custom. And then He preaches His sermon. And it is essentially one sentence. And He says to them, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

This prophecy is about Me. All these things the prophet said, The Messiah has been anointed to do. I have come to do. I am the Messiah.

Now, I introduced this text for this morning in this way because Last week's message was intended, It was intended to shake each of us to the foundation of our hearts and souls.

And it was intended to do that. And I hope that it hit the mark. This week's message is intended to apply a healing ointment.

A salve. A healing balm. Because last week we met John the Baptist And he came preaching repentance for sin.

And this week we meet Jesus the Christ And He came to take away the sin of the world. First the tearing, then the healing.

And so let's meet Jesus in these two verses. Just these two verses. And really, Luke, he's a historian at heart. And quite often when he's describing some part of the history of Christ, He uses a lot of words.

But here, in this case, Luke uses an economy of words to convey three very exciting, very encouraging truths about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Truths that will give us hope if that's something that is missing right now. Truths that will heal if that is what you need right now.

Now, to engage our minds for the discovery of these three truths, I want to ask and answer three questions. And I didn't just dream up these questions.

You know, to kind of aid in the facilitation and facilitate the message. These questions really come naturally from the text. And if you would read these two verses a number of times, pretty soon you would have these same questions.

And so I want to ask these three questions and answer these three questions with a word, each of them with a word. And when we put it all together, we're going to discover the great healing that can come from this passage and the hope that we can experience from this passage.

All right, here's question number one. Why was Jesus baptized? Have you ever read this text? Or maybe a moment ago when I read the passage, did that question come to your mind?

Why was Jesus baptized? Why did He need to be baptized? Why was He baptized? And here's the answer. It's one word. If you're making notes, just write down that question, why was Jesus baptized?

And write this one word down. Identification. Identification. I'm going to explain that here in just a minute. But I want to share with you that there are a number of reasons that have been suggested by Bible scholars as to why Jesus was baptized.

A number of reasons have been given seeking to answer that very obvious question. I don't know if you've thought of it, but it is an obvious question. Why was Jesus baptized?

And so there are several answers to that or possible answers to that. Let me give you several. Number one, maybe it was to confirm the validity of John's ministry. He had come in the spirit of Elijah, claimed to be the fulfillment of that prophecy, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.

And so John is claiming that for himself. And then he is baptizing and he is preaching the ministry of repentance. And so Jesus came to be baptized by John to validate that, to say that John's claim is true, to validate his prophetic ministry.

That's one possibility. Maybe Jesus was baptized by John so that their ministries could be connected together. Some have suggested that. To connect the ministry of John, this ministry of baptism of repentance, to connect that ministry with Jesus.

John being the forerunner and Jesus being the conclusion of that, the ultimate end of that. Possibly that is it. Or maybe it is to mark, some have suggested, to mark the actual beginning point of Jesus' earthly ministry.

Kind of a divine inauguration of his ministry there at his baptism because then he went out and was tempted and went on with his ministry.

Maybe it's that. Maybe that's why Jesus was baptized. A fourth possibility was to provide a symbolic illustration through the baptism of Jesus' future death and burial and resurrection.

The symbol and the picture of baptism. So really that's all there was to it. He was baptized so that we could get from that point on the picture right. The death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Another possibility is to declare the reality of the Holy Trinity. We're going to see a little bit later and I think this is a valid consideration that all three members of the Trinity are involved in these two verses.

Or maybe it is to mark the birth, some have suggested, mark the birth of the New Testament church. That the New Testament church didn't actually begin at Pentecost, that it actually began at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so there was the birth of the New Testament church. Some have suggested that. I don't think they're right, but that's one suggestion. And then there's one final one that I think we can throw out altogether, but I'll mention it to you anyway.

Some have suggested that the baptism of Jesus and consequently the coming down of the Holy Spirit to dwell upon Him was to allow the, quote, Christ Spirit to come and indwell the man, the completely human Jesus Christ, and therefore mark the beginning of His deity.

That He was not God before, but at His baptism when the Holy Spirit came upon Him, that He became man plus God at that point. We can throw that out altogether.

But I mention it, just to make sure you get a well-rounded education about the suggestions concerning the baptism of Jesus. Now, I do think that there's some worthy consideration for a number of these.

We can certainly exclude the last one. But if there's a consideration to be given to some of these reasons that have been suggested for the baptism of Jesus, then they are really only secondary consideration.

Because clearly, the primary reason Jesus had to submit Himself to the baptism, John's baptism of repentance, the primary reason was identification.

Identification. That is, dear people, to identify with sinners. That's why. To identify with the ones for whom He came to save.

That's you. And me. Jesus was baptized to identify, to number Himself with sinners. Now, of course, Jesus did not need to repent.

Did He? No. I mean, if there's a need to repent, that presupposes the existence of sin to repent of.

And Jesus had no sin. And so there was no need for Him to repent, no need for Him to acknowledge His sinfulness, and then to submit Himself to baptism as a symbol, an outward symbol, of that repentance.

No need for that, because Jesus had no sin whatsoever. And Jesus did not need to prepare Himself for the coming of the Lord, as John said, because Jesus is the Lord.

Okay? He didn't have to prepare Himself for His coming. He is the Lord. And so why was Jesus baptized? Why did Jesus insist upon it? And He did, by the way.

Well, that was John's question, by the way. John the Baptist's question. Now, we don't have that question here in Luke chapter 3, because again, Luke just gives us just a few words about the baptism. But we do have it in Matthew's Gospel.

We read part of that in our Scripture reading earlier. In Matthew's Gospel, we are provided a good deal more information about the baptism of Jesus.

And in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 14, listen to what the Bible says. It says that John, quote, John tried to prevent Him. That is, prevent Jesus from being baptized.

He tried to prevent Him. And this is what He said to Him. He said, I need to be baptized by You. That would be somewhat of a natural thing to say, of course, but there was more to it than just a kind of natural, polite response.

John saw no need for Jesus to be baptized. He didn't understand that. He said, I need to be baptized by You. And are You coming to Me? John asked. And so the question really is, John is asking the question, why do you need to be baptized?

The same question that we're asking. But now Jesus gives a response to John. And His response gives us a clue as to why He insisted upon being baptized by John.

He said to John, permit it to be so now. For thus, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

That's the answer. To fulfill all righteousness. Or let me give you a paraphrase of that. It must be done, John, Jesus said, because we must do everything that is right before God, righteous before God, according to His plan of redemption.

That's basically what He is saying. And so the righteousness of God demanded that Jesus number Himself among the sinners or with sinners.

And that, by the way, is a fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah 53, verse 12. Just listen to it. 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.

This is a Messianic prophecy. He poured out His soul unto death. He was, listen to this, numbered with transgressors. Numbered with them. Not because He was a sinner or a transgressor, because He identified with them.

He numbered, He was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

And so this baptism of Jesus, and this thing that Jesus said to John, we must fulfill the righteousness of God, this is in direct fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 53, verse 12.

He identified with sinners. He identified Himself with you, with me. He numbered Himself among us as sinners.

Now listen, Jesus did a number of things during His time on this earth that as the Son of God, He didn't have to do. Not just simply this baptism, but He did a number of other things.

Let me give you another example. Jesus participated in the Passover. He did throughout His life as a good Jew. Obedient Jew.

Obedient to the law. Given to the Jews. He observed the Passover. He did at least three times, maybe four times during His earthly ministry. Conducting the Passover Himself, you remember, and then making a crossover from the Passover to the institution of the Lord's Supper.

But Jesus participated in the Passover. What was the Passover a picture of? It was a picture, a clear picture, of the deliverance of God, of His people, from the bondage of sin.

That's what the Passover pictures and Jesus, but Jesus had no sin. And yet He participated in the Passover every time it rolled around.

But there's an even better clue, I think, that Jesus was baptized in order to identify with sinners. And it's found in John's Gospel. In John 1, verse 29, the Bible says, and you're familiar with this passage, it says that John saw Jesus coming toward Him, remember?

And He said, Behold, or look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now that is a key clue for us.

That Jesus, being baptized, He did so to identify with sinners. He is the Lamb of God who does what?

Takes away the sin of the world. Now how did Jesus do that, by the way? Take away the sin of the world? By identifying with us. By taking our sin upon Himself.

By becoming, literally becoming, sin for us. And that's what He did at the cross, remember? 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Now, folks, that's the truth Luke presents for us here in these two verses. Well, in verse 21 for sure. Look at it. Verse 21. When, just get what He's saying here.

When all the people were baptized, not after they were all baptized, but when they were baptized, really the grammar suggests that this was an ongoing thing, as this was ongoing.

When all the people were baptized, at that time and period when John was baptizing people, when the throngs of people were coming to John the Baptist and they were repenting of their sins and they were acknowledging their sins and they were submitting to baptism, when all the real sinners were doing that, Jesus also came and was baptized.

Do you get it? I tell you, Luke uses so few words to describe this, but the implication really is quite clear when you see it. While all the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized.

That's why John said to the people, look there. There He is. There is the One who is going to take away all the sins of the world.

That's why He said. And so Jesus submits to the same symbol that all the other true sinners are submitting to, not because He needs forgiveness for sin, but because He is going, He is very shortly going to provide for them the only way for the forgiveness of sins they now know they need.

That's why He did it. I want you to listen, and I was listening actually to a sermon this past week by J. Ligon Duncan, a great preacher.

I was listening to his sermon out of this very text, and I want you to listen to what he said, how he brings this home to us. See if this will resonate with you.

He started out by asking a question. Now listen very carefully. Do you think that it would be a help to you to know how much Jesus is for you in your struggle against sin?

Now think about that question. Do you think that would be a help to you? To know how much Jesus is for you in your struggle against sin.

He goes on. To know just how closely He has identified Himself with you in your struggle against sin. Think that might help?

Think that might help in those dark hours of conflict in the soul when you're wrestling with sins committed that you hate?

Hate with a passion? Sins committed that were they ever uncovered and discovered they would lead to your utter shame and humiliation.

Think that might help? Or when you're struggling to resist a habitual sin that has captured you for so long? Do you think it might help you if you felt that He was so closely identified with you and so near to you that it was as if He were inside of you when you were fighting against that sin?

Do you think it might help you? Well then this message from Jesus is for you. It's for you.

Because the baptism of Jesus is about His identification with you in your personal struggle against sin.

Here's a second question. Not only why was Jesus baptized but now the question is why did Jesus pray after His baptism?

I mean there's very little said about it just that He prayed. Why did Jesus pray after His baptism?

And the answer intercession intercession just jot that word down intercession Luke wrote in verse 21 when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized and while He prayed so Luke says He prayed.

I think we're to understand that this is happening almost suddenly right after He's baptized Jesus prayed.

You know you can make a pretty good case from Scripture that Jesus was the perfect model of praying without ceasing.

He certainly models that. I mean all you have to do is just search the Scripture and find out that Jesus was in constant communion with the Father. Such an example to us.

In fact I counted 19 references direct references to Jesus praying throughout the Gospels. And there are others that are certainly implied and I think we can take the whole of that and assume correctly that there were many many other times that Jesus prayed.

He was in constant communion with the Father. I mean all the way from His baptism here in Luke 3 and the beginning of His ministry all the way to the end of His earthly ministry and His death upon the cross.

He's praying even there and everywhere in between. And we even have a number of times after His resurrection and before His ascension it seems that Jesus throughout the Gospel is always getting off alone by Himself to pray to the Father.

In fact only one time was His communion with the Father broken. Do you know when that was? It was on the cross.

For that short little moment while Jesus hung upon the cross and yet though in our time real time a short moment but in eternity it represented in eternity when Jesus prayed my God my God why have you forsaken me?

Only time that His communication with the Father was broken and it was broken then for us because He had become sin for us.

But Jesus all other times Jesus was in constant communication with the Father constant and listen God the Father always hears His prayers.

Jesus said that. Jesus told us that in John 11 42 when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead remember that story and Jesus had finally come and Jesus prayed to the Father in John 11 42 He said and I know you always hear me.

That's an incredible thing. And Jesus went on to say I say that not because I needed to confirm it but because everybody else needs to hear that and believe. You always hear me He said to the Father.

How would you like to have that kind of prayer life? And so He says you always hear me and then the next thing we know Jesus is shouting out Lazarus come forth and the Bible says he that was dead came forth.

What a prayer. And what an answer to prayer. And then here in Luke chapter 3 verse 21 the Bible says He prayed He prayed and we don't know what He prayed.

That is Luke doesn't give us any particulars about it any actual words that were quoted from His prayer. He doesn't tell us that. But we do know what happened next. Don't we? What happened next?

The heavens opened. The Holy Spirit came down, manifested in the form of a dove. And a voice from heaven spoke.

That's the voice of God the Father. What a demonstration there. Not only of the importance of prayer and being in constant communion with the Father, we can learn that secondary lesson from Jesus and it's an important one.

And not only do we have a model for us, a demonstration of the importance of being in constant communication with God the Father, but we also have the power of prayer demonstrated here in this event.

But even more important, I think, based upon what happens next, I think we have an indication of what Jesus prayed. that He actually had us in mind when He prayed.

He was interceding for us, even at that point. And it's a prayer that continues on. It was as if He was saying to the Father, Father, I have identified with sinners.

That's why I've come. And I am the only hope for sinners. The only hope. Would You, Father, give them a sign to confirm that?

And God always hears Jesus' prayers. And the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended and the Father spoke. You are my beloved Son.

In You I am pleased. Well pleased. Jesus interceded. Why was Jesus baptized? Identification. To identify with sinners.

To number Himself among us so that He could be our only adequate sacrifice upon the cross. He identified with us. Why did Jesus pray at His baptism?

Intercession. He was interceding for us and He continues to do that. Then one more question. Why did God the Father speak from heaven?

I've already answered a part of that. And here is a one word answer. Confirmation. Confirmation.

To confirm a significant truth. A vital truth. verse. This may be the most important part of these two verses.

You say Jesus' baptism wasn't important. Well, certainly. But not of most importance in this text. You say, what about Him praying?

Is that important? Well, certainly. that was not Luke's primary purpose. I mean, Luke gives us a total of four words about Jesus' baptism.

That is four in the English. I didn't go back and look at the original text and see how many words it took there. Probably four or less. Usually it takes more English to translate the Greek. But just in our English text, and that's what we're going by here, Luke gives us four words about the baptism of Jesus.

No description about it. No commentary on its significance or anything like that. Just a statement of fact. That's all. Jesus also was baptized.

That's it. And Luke tells us, He prayed. He prayed. No details about the prayer. No, nothing about its content or intent.

What its intent was. I think we can learn something by what comes next. But, nothing in his description of the prayer. Nothing. He just prayed. Just a statement of fact.

He prayed. Now, these do have meaning, as we've already, I've already mentioned. But clearly, Luke's primary concern is something other than Jesus' baptism and prayer.

The Holy Spirit's going to let Matthew give us the information we need about the baptism. Alright. So we're not coming behind on anything. Luke is inspired just to focus on something else.

And what is it that he's focusing on? He's focusing on the result of the baptism and prayer of Jesus. That's what he's focusing on.

It is everything that happens after these words and while he prayed. That's Luke's focus. That's where he's leading us. That's what he wants us to get. Everything that follows after that.

While Jesus prayed. What happened next? Must have been something to see. Now, we don't know how many saw it. We know John saw it.

In one of the other Gospels we have the testimony of John that he saw. It was part of the confirmation. Saw and heard the voice of the Father. I really think we're open to understanding that those who were there at the time also saw and heard.

Whether they understood it or not, that's another matter. It would have been something to see and something to hear, wouldn't it? to see the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove coming down upon Jesus and then hearing a voice from heaven not to mention just what it might have looked at for heaven to be open.

Looked like for heaven to be open. What? That had been something to see. Look at what verse 21 says.

I want to read it in the New American Standard this time. And while he was praying heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him came down upon him in bodily form.

That is the Holy Spirit being spirit not flesh and blood took on a form. Visible form. Bodily form. like a dove.

That's what it looked like. And a voice came out of heaven. You are my beloved son. In you I'm well pleased.

What what an event to witness. Tremendous. Jesus prayed. Here's what we ought to understand initially and then more.

Jesus prayed and every member of the Holy Trinity showed up. That's what we get here. Now Jesus God the Son was already there.

But then we have God the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven and then we have God the Father speaking from heaven. All three members of the Trinity. This is a supernatural event.

And before it is anything else it is the Trinity displaying its absolute unity and love for one another each member of the Trinity.

But more importantly for us is that this was a confirmation of a number of significant realities concerning Jesus.

Things that we must know about Him that we should already know. three or several significant realities about Jesus.

Now the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus is a confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah. That's important to know. That's what John was needing to know.

And God accommodated him and not only John but apparently others around were privy to this confirmation that Jesus was not just some man born in Bethlehem coming out of Nazareth not just some carpenter's son not just someone who was a great preacher or anything like that.

But this man Jesus is the Messiah. That's what the Holy Spirit confirmed. He confirmed the fulfillment of by the way Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 1 through 4.

I want you to listen to it. Behold my servant whom I uphold my elect one in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him.

That's what we have here happening there at the Jordan River. I have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles he will not cry out nor raise his voice he's not going to be some front line in your face out there kind of leader and preacher he's not going to be like that he's come meek and mild nor cause his voice to be heard in the street he's not going to be holding these mass crusade evangelistic events and so forth he's going to be kind of behind the scenes in a sense a bruised reed he will not break he's not coming as a great warrior a smoking flax he will not quench and you just kind of visualize a little wisp of smoke and him passing by would not even disturb that smoke he'll come in this way not as a lion but as a lamb and he or as a dove really and he will bring forth justice for truth he will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth this is a fulfillment of the prophecy here in

Luke chapter 2 this is what Luke is testifying to and what the Holy Spirit is confirming as he comes and lights upon sets upon the Lord Jesus Christ in God the Father's words from heaven confirm at least two things first of all that Jesus is God the Son and in so doing he is confirming the deity of Christ this is important he's confirming the deity of Christ you are my beloved son my beloved son did you know that there are two other times in the gospels where we have that same affirmation making a total of three clear affirmations of the deity of Christ using this phrase Son of God the Son of God we have it here in Luke chapter 3 verse!

22 and it's the father speaking of course and he's speaking directly to Jesus and he says you Jesus are my beloved son in you I'm well pleased and then if you look in Luke chapter 9 verse 35 at this time and this time it's the father again speaking and he's speaking to Peter John and James on the Mount of Transfiguration remember that story and he says to them directly to them this is my beloved son hear time is in Mark what's actually given to us in all of the gospels but Mark gives the clear statement of it in Mark 15 39 this time it's not the father speaking not the Holy Spirit doing anything it is a Gentile speaking and he is a centurion a Roman centurion who has just witnessed the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ indeed probably carried and he also witnessed the darkness in the middle of the day and the

Bible says that he said he gave testimony truly this man is what the son of God three affirmations of the deity of Christ two times by the father speaking directly and this last time by a sinner who is now a believer in fact Luke 3 22 you could say that for John and those who were present at the time the message was know this man as the son of God he is the son of God and then in Luke chapter 9 verse 35 when he's speaking to Peter and James and John and for us as well the idea is listen to the son of God he's the very son of God and then in Mark chapter 15 verse 39 for the centurion and for all those who will hear Jesus it is believe believe on the son of God but all three are affirmations of the deity of Christ he is

God incarnate God of very God he's son of God there's one other thing the father confirms concerning Jesus that is so important to us he confirms that he loves him you say is that a big deal absolutely that God the father loves God the son he said you are my beloved son in you I am well pleased and that's one word in the Greek language and it means you are my desire and perfect pleasure that's the kind of relationship between God the father God the son God the holy spirit they had that relationship with one another though one one

God three persons I don't understand that but they had this love and God the father confirmed his love for the son and here is where all of this comes together for our undeserved benefit here's where we put it all together Jesus baptism Jesus prayer life and the love of the father for Jesus they all come together these all apply to us these all apply to us these all of them are for our benefit don't miss this Jesus has identified with us as sinners so that when you will acknowledge your sin and repent of your sin and put your trust in him you will be forgiven and then brought into a new relationship with

God the father praise the lord and because of that all of his riches in glory are transferred to you to me to us they are graced to us they are gifted to us and what do you suppose is the greatest of these gifts the love of the father the unconditional everlasting absolute love of the father for you for me Jesus by the way prayed for that he did he prayed for that I don't know if he was praying for it then but we do know he was praying for it a little bit later near the end of his ministry in John 17 26 we have Jesus prayer and he said father

I desire that the love with which you loved me may be in them praise the Lord and this is this is what Jesus is praying now I really believe that you would know the love of the father he said well I know he loves me do you really know that do you know that and experience that and not just acknowledge it but that knowledge of his love makes a difference in your life he's praying that you will know the love of the father that you would realize that you have now listen to this you have the same love of the father that the father has for the son have you thought about that would it make any difference to you then if you knew that the

Lord Jesus Christ identifies with you in your struggle against sin that is unless you don't struggle with sin huh we all do it make any difference to you if you knew that Jesus identifies with you in your struggle that he is so with you and for you that he's there in you in your struggle against sin make any difference it should can't make any difference to you if you knew that Jesus always praying for you and that God always hears his prayers would make any difference to you in your life if you knew that God the Father will never never never love you less than he loves his only begotten son it would make any difference you bet

Thank you.