The Life of Christ
Psalm 13 Song
Call to Worship:
Pastor Andrew Loginow
Zech 9.9
Historical Reading:
Pastor Zachary McGuire
Westminster Confession of Faith 8.5
Song:
The Solid Rock
Confession & Pardon
Pastor Brett Eckel
Doxology
Song:
Christ the Sure & Steady Anchor
Sermon:
Pastor Michael Champoux
Matt 3.13-17
Read Matthew 3:13-17 (This is the Word of the Lord) Let’s pray. (Book of Common Prayer) - “Grant, O Lord, that by your holy word which will be read and preached in this place, and by your Holy Spirit grafting it inwardly in the heart, the hearers of it may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and have power and strength to fulfill the same. Amen.”
● I remember my first day. My first day in the landscape industry. It was April of 2009. I was 21 years old and I had been pursuing a career in the horticulture world for 2 years by this time. I was driving in on that Monday morning in my 1996 Sebring Convertible. Sweet ride, I know. I walked into the shop of my new employment, Three C’s Landscaping. I sat down in a room with a group of other landscapers, some new, some experienced. And wouldn’t you know it, it was downpouring that entire morning. Heavy storms, some lightning. I sat in that room from 7am to 8:30am. One of my managers came by and said it was a “rain day”; we were told we could go home. Needless to say, I did not do any gardening that day, but I did the next. That was the beginning of what is now my 13 year career as a horticulturist. Since that day, I have lived occupationally as a gardener. And working as a horticulturist means that I’ve been engaging in distinct practices such as garden maintenance, planting, plant health care, pruning, listening to people use poor horticultural terminology, etc. I’ve even helped many in this room with their horticulture needs, and from what I’m learning, I’ve even intimidated a few as well. I apologize for being right.
● We began our series on The Person and Work of Christ last week with Pastor Bobby Owens preaching on the pre-existence, the preeminence of Christ. That Christ has always been; he has always existed; he is superior to all things. All things were made by him and through him. So we continue this morning in Matthew chapter 3 where we see the baptism of Jesus and we’ll see how imperative it is to his life and ministry. The baptism of Christ is immense in the life of Jesus because it is the inauguration of his mission and ministry which then culminates in his death on the cross, and is equally important and necessary. So, I want to read the text again and then we’ll break it down. For those of you taking notes, I have 3 points. These are truly not exhaustive. (lol) These three main points are three questions that we’re going to answer. Number 1) Why did Jesus have to be baptized? Again, why did Jesus have to be baptized? Number 2) What does his baptism mean for his life and ministry? What does his baptism mean for his life and ministry? And Number 3) What does his baptism mean for us? What does his baptism mean for us?
● So, before we dive into the text again and answer these three questions, I want us to take a look back in the OT and see some parallels. It’s so important that we as believers see the events of Christ in the New Testament and read the OT in light of these events and who Jesus is. We have to be able to read the OT and NT and connect the dots. It is too dangerous for believers to unhitch themselves from the OT. In light of what we’re learning currently through the book of Exodus, I want us to see that
Matthew 3:13-17 echoes Moses delivering the nation of Israel from Egypt. First century Jews would’ve read Matthew and wouldn’t have known any different. And remember, Matthew is writing to a group that is predominantly Jewish and the theme of his book is that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah; He is the promised King. They anticipated the messiah by believing the promises of Yahweh and seeing the archetype redeemer through the men that Yahweh used in the covenants. They would read about Moses and see the Messiah. Before John the Baptizer prophecies about the coming of Jesus in Matthew 3, there is a 400 year period of prophetic silence, that is, that Yahweh is not speaking through any prophet for 400 years. From Malachi to Matthew, dead silence. Then John appears in Matthew 3, and he’s proclaiming something very radical; that Israel needs to repent and be baptized by water. When we look at Exodus and the nation of Israel, they’re in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Dead silence from Yahweh. Then Moses comes on the scene. Yahweh speaks to Israel through Moses and ultimately delivers them from slavery. John the Baptizer is prophesying that the redeemer is coming and all need to repent and be baptized, we need to repent so we can be delivered from our slavery to sin. So after 400 years, John prophecies, and Jesus arrives at the Jordan and desires to be baptized. And just as Israel went through the Red Sea, Christ who is the True Israel, goes through the waters of baptism.
● So we look at John’s proclamation and it brings us to our first question and point; Why did Jesus have to be baptized? If John is calling Gentiles and Jews to repent and be baptized, then why did Jesus go through it?
● Let’s read the text again. (read Matthew 3:13-17) We see our answer in verse 15. Jesus says in verse 15, “let it be so now, for this it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Earlier in the chapter, John is proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and all must repent and be baptized. So since we know that Jesus is sinless (Hebrews 4:15 tempted in every way yet without sin) and does not need to be baptized for repentance of sin, then what does “fulfill all righteousness mean”? I want to give a few meanings for this, so sit tight. To fulfill all righteous means this;
■ Jesus is fulfilling all righteousness by being 100% obedient to the will of the Father. This is what we would call his active
obedience. When we study theology, we want to distinguish the passive obedience of Christ and his active obedience. His passive obedience was his willingness to go to the Cross and submit to the wrath that God would place on him at the cross. Again, his active obedience was his whole life of obeying the Law of God. That in order for the righteousness of Christ to be completely fulfilled, it was necessary for Jesus to live a perfect life according to the Law. God the Father could have sent
Christ to Earth to immediately go to the Cross for our sin and we would stand guiltless before a Holy God but we would not
be righteous. The righteousness of Christ consists of a perfect sinless life and a substitutionary death. Everything that Yahweh required from Israel, Jesus had to do perfectly. Jesus had to be what we couldn’t be and had to do what we failed to do. Where Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Israel had failed, Jesus was victorious. I like how Jonathon Pennington defines “to fulfill all righteousness.” This excerpt is from an article he wrote for TGC. Dr. Pennington writes, “Jesus is fulfilling his role as the obedient Son of God by practicing the required righteousness of submitting to God’s will to repent (i.e. to live in the world wholeheartedly devoted to God).
■ Secondly, by being fully obedient to law and fulfilling the prophecies, it was necessary for Jesus to submit to the ministry of John the Baptizer. John had a very unique role, that he would fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 40, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.” In verse 1 of Matthew 3 it reads, “In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea..” Now the new command for all was to repent and be baptized. Since Jesus did not have sin to repent of, He still had to obey the law and prophets by going through the waters of baptism. It was essential that Jesus submit to the prophet John.
■ And now I want to add a third point to this, to why Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. This stems from my last point regarding Jesus being sinless. I want us to sink a little bit deeper. Right? Just like when you’re stretching, all you work out gurus, take that deep breath and stretch it out, sink a little deeper. Christ is the final Adam, or the last Adam as Paul refers to him in 1 Corinthians 15:45. Adam is the federal head of all humanity, and we are all born into sin because of Adam, so apart from Christ we are in Adam. Because we are in Adam, we need to repent of our sins and believe the promises of God in order to stand justified before the Father. Remember, our sin puts us at war with God. Jesus is the final Adam, the firstborn of new creation. Christ did not have to be baptized for
repentance, but we need to repent, so Christ is going before us and he’s doing it for our repentance. In order for us to be in Christ, He needs to do first all of the righteous things that we need to do.
○ Number 2, second main point, for all you note takers - What does his baptism mean for his life and ministry? What’s most profound in this text about his baptism as it pertains to his life is the Trinitarian work that is taking place. When we look back at verse 16, it says (read 16 and 17), we see the heavens opening up, the holy spirit descends and the Father speaks. This is a great character reference as to who
Jesus is. We have John, the greatest man that ever lived and the other two members of the Holy Trinity. We see the divine nature of the love that the Father and Son share, that they have shared for all eternity. The spirit here is anointing Jesus as the Messianic King, the long awaited King and the Father is commissioning him in his mission, ministry, and servanthood to preach the good news of salvation of himself, and to go to the cross and die a substitutionary death for the elect. And we see this trinitarian work in our own lives when we come to salvation. The Father elects or foreloves; Jesus the Son secures our salvation, our righteousness before the Father in his life and death; and we are baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit who also sanctifies us by his Word. (Acts 1:5 read)
○ His baptism is also a picture of his death. For us, we need to be baptized with true repentance and the washing of water is a symbol of our death and sin being washed away for all eternity. That we are being buried with Christ, our sin is being put to death. But what’s taking place for Jesus is the opposite. In his baptism, it is a picture of him taking on our sin for our repentance. Jesus had no sin to be washed of, so he’s fulfilling all righteousness by being baptized for our sake, for our repentance. We see a great exchange beginning to take place here. Our sin is being imputed to him, at the cross he will die for it, and we receive his righteousness so that we can stand before the Father guiltless and righteous. RC Sproul says in his
book, The Work of Christ, “What did Jesus do? He obeyed the law perfectly, so he earned the blessing and not the curse. At the cross, our sin was transferred to His account and was laid upon Him. That meant he received the curse, not the blessing. But in our redemption, His righteousness is imputed to us, so we receive the blessing and not the curse we deserve.” It’s interesting to note that Jesus’ active obedience is bookended with his baptism and the Eucharist. These are things that God has given the church as a means of grace so that we can follow Him in obedience but also it’s how he identifies with his people. Jesus did all of these things so that he can identify with his people.
○ Number 3, our last point, what does the baptism of Christ mean for us? Matthew chapter 3 is one of the most explicit calls to the gospel. Matthew tells us in chapter 3 verse 2 that we need to repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It means that we need to repent of our sin and be baptized in the likeness of Christ’s death so that we can live with him for all eternity, because the flipside is not so joyous. You cannot expect a life of eternity if you do not have faith in Jesus Christ, if you do not believe the Promises of God which all have their Yes in Jesus. Matthew 7:21-23 says “Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and do many mighty works
in your name? And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” It’s not enough to go to church, to attend bible hour, to be a kind neighbor. One must have genuine faith. Your works apart from regeneration are as filthy rags and you need to repent and believe. You must take Christ by faith. So what is faith? Faith consists of 3 things; knowledge, ascent and trust. You must have knowledge of who Jesus is and what he did. That Jesus came as a ransom for many. That Jesus lived a sinless life, that he went to the cross to bear the wrath of the Father, that he was buried and there was silence on that saturday, but then he rose again on that Easter morning and crushed the head of the serpent. You must ascent to the validity of these claims about Jesus. You must actually think they’re true. And finally, you must put your trust in Christ alone. If you do place your trust in Christ, he will sanctify you and the Holy Spirit will cause you to walk in obedience. So if anything this morning, if you are not trusting the Person and Work of Christ to save you, then please, take Christ this morning. Romans 10:9 says “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Confess your sins to God, and He will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins. And this message of repentance and baptism is not exclusive to John. We see this reiterated in other areas of the NT. Let’s turn to Acts 2:37-41. At pentecost, the Apostles
are preaching the Gospel, being accused of drunkenness, and Peter lays out the gospel in one incredible sermon. And those that mocked them had asked, what shall we do? Peter says repent and be baptized.
○ Maybe you’re sitting here and you’ve confessed of your sins, you’ve placed your trust in the work of Christ and you haven’t been baptized yet. I encourage you to walk in obedience and be baptized. Jesus was baptized for your sake and your repentance, so we should do likewise. We can see this urgency for baptism in Acts 8:26-38. After hearing the gospel explained, the Ethiopian man believed and desired to be baptized by water. The baptism of Christ is monumental for the believer. It distinctly sets us apart from all other religions because Christ has gone before us to do the work perfectly. After regeneration, we respond by faith to walk in obedience and mimic his life. So don’t wait, don’t hesitate. Walk in obedience and be baptized. And for the rest of us, those of us who have faith, who have been baptized; be refreshed this morning because you can rest. You can rest in the perfect work of Christ, in his life and death, he has gone before you to secure your life for all eternity and you can sit at his table this morning and say Thank you and be reminded that one day he will return to crush sin and death once and for all and will make all things new.
○ As said before, I’ve been a practicing horticulturist for 13 years now and I have many more years ahead of me. I haven’t been perfect by any means, but my life won’t be defined by trade skills. None of it will matter. What matters is that I am in Christ, and how I live my life according to the Gospel. And I won’t do that perfectly either, but Jesus already did. He fulfilled it for your sake and mine. And we can rejoice because Christ has died, Christ has risen and Christ will come again. Take heart, believer. Our King is coming. Let’s pray.
○ “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Church, rise and go to the Table.