Word of Salvation – Vol. 18 No.15 - April 1972

The Experience Of Jesus At The Jordan

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk, Th.Grad. on Matthew 3:13-17

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 42:1-9

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Our text for this morning is not a very difficult text to follow.  Anyone who reads these verses can see what they deal with.  Two events are reported by Matthew in quite a straightforward, simple manner.

They are: Jesus' baptism by John, and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus.  The coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus is often spoken of as the anointing of Jesus.  You may remember that the Old Testament prophets, priests and kings were sometimes anointed into their office.  Some expensive oil was poured out over them which was a symbol of God equipping them for their work.

Well, Jesus here had the Holy Spirit poured out over Him thus equipping Him for His work as Saviour.  And hence we can call this event His anointing.  Some even like to speak of it as Jesus' baptism in the Spirit and that would also be quite correct.

Our text speaks then about two events, two experiences which Jesus had at the Jordan: His baptism in the river Jordan by John the Baptist and His anointing or His baptism in the Spirit.  Now it is important for us to see these two happenings of Jesus as two different and separate events.  There is of course a very close connection between them, yet, for a clear understanding we shall have to look at them separately.

As said already, our text describes the two events of Jesus' baptism and His anointing, in quite a simple, straight- forward manner.  There is no difficulty there.  But things do become difficult when we try to interpret our text and try to come to a proper understanding of the meaning and purpose of these events.  A child can read this text and realize that it speaks about Jesus being baptized in the Jordan and that the heavens were then opened, and the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus, and that a voice was heard from heaven.  But what do you answer when your child turns to you for an explanation?  You will not find it easy to give a precise explanation of what took place here regarding Jesus.  But some will ask "if this text is so difficult to interpret, why preach on it then?"  "Why not preach on more practical issues, on matters relating to our daily lives?"

Well, of course, that should be done also and is done, for that is important too.  Yet this text here is also important.  There is first of all the fact that we spent much time on the importance of Jesus' birth.  Well, instead of going straight on to His suffering and death, we should also know what He did and what happened to Him immediately after His birth, and before His death and resurrection.  Furthermore, if we believe Jesus to be our Saviour from sin and eternal death, then we should also be interested to know all about Him.

Questions such as: "How was Jesus able to carry out His saving work?  From where did He receive the strength?  And what light does Jesus' baptism and anointing throw on our Christian baptism?" are all answered in part or in whole by our text here.  So you can see that it will be profitable to look closely at this text.  In fact, we cannot and must not avoid it, even if it was only for the fact that this text is used by some as one of the proof texts for a baptism in the Holy Spirit AFTER conversion.  It is not that we want to split hairs or quarrel about certain doctrines, but we are challenged by such to study this text to see what it really says.  And an appeal to God's Word should always be taken seriously, for it is our basis for truth.

We deal with our text then under the heading:

            THE EXPERIENCE OF JESUS AT THE JORDAN.

            1.  His Baptism by John.

            2.  His Anointing by the Spirit.

Firstly then, let us look at the first event that Jesus experienced here at the Jordan river.  We are told that Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, to the place where John the Baptist was preaching grace and judgement and baptizing those who truly repented of their sin.  Jesus' purpose in coming to John was to be baptized by him too.  But, as we can well understand, John was reluctant to do this!  Not so very long ago John had pointed to Jesus and told the people, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."  Well, this Jesus, who would take away the sin of the world – which He could only do if He Himself was sinless – was He now coming to John in order to be baptized by him?  John's baptism was given to sinners who truly repented of sin.  But surely, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, would not need this baptism!  And John told Jesus so too, 'Lord, how can you come to me wanting to be baptized?  You, the perfect, sinless One coming to me a sinner!  No, Lord, I should come to you.  It should be the other way round.  Not the sinless One to the sinner, but the sinner to the sinless One.'

We see here that John felt himself to be too UNWORTHY and INFERIOR to baptise Jesus.  How could he possibly do it?  It was so illogical and absurd for John to baptise Jesus.  It would be much better the other way round: Jesus baptising John.  There is this one thing about John the Baptist, congregation, that should never fail to have an impact upon us.  It is his humility.  John, you must understand, was the last great prophet of the Old Testament period.  He, in fact, was called the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and that because he was the forerunner of Christ.  His task was to prepare the way of the Lord.  Well, the history of the Church can tell us of those who claimed to be messengers of Christ and heralds of the good news of salvation, but who regarded themselves as more important than the very Lord they claimed to serve.  But not so John!  He always knew his place, was never conceited, never inflated with feelings of superiority and self-importance.  "He, Jesus, must increase, and I, John, must decrease!"  That was John's motto, and how great an example it is for us.

Now this humble John could not really understand why Jesus, the Lamb of God, came to him to be baptised.  John himself was preaching that he was only baptising with water, but Jesus who came after him was to baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  So John said to Jesus, ‘Lord, you do not have to come to me to be baptised with water.  Let it be the other way round, you baptising me.  And then of course not with water but with the Holy Spirit.’

Well, Jesus did not grant John his humble request but told him instead, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.”  This answer from Jesus, the meaning of which we shall presently see, satisfied John completely and he proceeded to baptise Jesus.  John could do nothing else but baptise Jesus.  He did not want to refuse anymore.  If the Son of God requested baptism, then who was John to refuse that request?  As the lesser over against the greater, John humbly obeyed and baptised Jesus.

Now in order to have a proper understanding of Jesus' baptism by John, we may first have to point out what it was not.  Some have thought Jesus' baptism by John to be a SPECIAL kind of baptism because Jesus is special.  But our text does not as much as hint at that.  John the Baptist administered only one kind of baptism: the baptism with water for repentance.  Sinners who sincerely repented of their sins were baptised in the river Jordan.  Their baptism was with water which symbolised the washing away of their sins.  The water itself could not of course wash away their sins; only Jesus' blood can do that.  Nor did the amount of water signify anything.  'To baptise' could either mean total or partial immersion.  We could not build a case for total immersion or partial immersion on this text alone.  But the point is NOT the amount of water used but that the water itself was a symbol of sins having been washed away by Christ's blood, which He was to shed on the cross for sinners.  John's baptism, therefore, had grace connected with it.  The grace was not in the baptism itself but in what God wrought through baptism.  We should even say that the Holy Spirit was at work here, for no sinner comes to feel truly sorry for his sins unless the Holy Spirit convinces him of his sinfulness.

Yet, it was still the Spirit of God as He worked in the Old Testament period, which is, in a way, different to His way of working in the New Testament.  As to what this difference is, is not easy to say.  But we at least can say that it was only with Pentecost that the Spirit was poured out upon the Church in FULNESS and REMAINED poured out.

Now the baptism that John gave to repentant sinners was also the one Jesus received.  John did not have one kind of baptism for sinners and another kind for Jesus.  It was the SAME baptism.  But of course, we have to add immediately that Jesus had no sin, and therefore there was no need for Jesus to repent of sin.  Jesus is the sinless Son of God and, in a way He did not need this baptism with water for repentance, for He had no sin to repent of.

What then was the real purpose of Jesus being baptised by John?  Well, for the answer to the KEY question we have to look to the whole of Jesus' work as a Saviour.  And in that saving work of our Lord there is one aspect that stands out very clearly.  It is Jesus IDENTIFYING Himself with sinners.  In order to save sinners Jesus came among them to be ONE WITH them.  Not one OF them, for He Himself was no sinner, but one WITH them.

Christ, the Son of God, became man in order to save men.  He shared man's birth, men's childhood, man's whole life.  Yes, from babyhood to death Christ shared our life in order to redeem us.  Our weaknesses, our suffering, our being open to temptation, He shared it all.  But of course, as the perfect, sinless, Son of God, He identified Himself with sinners.  And that identification with sinners meant that He was also to receive John's baptism, because it was for all men.

As a man Jesus was under the law of God like anyone else.  And when the Lord said to John, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us TO FULFIL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS", then Jesus meant to fulfil God's will, for that is what 'righteousness' means here.  If it was fitting for sinners to fulfil God's will, then it was even more fitting for Jesus to do so.  And John's baptism was OF GOD.  John was commanded by God to preach, and to baptise those who repented under that preaching.  We should not see this baptism by John as something about which the individual could make up his own mind.  We should see it as a duty to demand of everyone.  In fact, John's baptism unto repentance was a national duty to which Israel had to submit.  Nothing less than that.  ALL were to receive John's baptism for ALL had sinned and should repent of their sin.  As Christian baptism is a command of God that should be obeyed by all, so also was John's baptism.  Not to see baptism as a must implies that somehow one denies his utter sinfulness.  That many COULD NOT be baptised because there was no repentance is nothing less than disobeying God's CALL to repent of sins.  And such disobedience to God's call only intensifies one's guilt before God.  But now Jesus was baptised by John because He wanted to be ONE with sinners in all things, sin excepted, in order to save them.  The Lord did not need to be circumcised either, but He was because He wanted to be IDENTIFIED with sinners.  So also with the baptism by John.  The Lord did not need it, as He was without sin, but He regarded it as His duty to have it.  It was FITTING for the Saviour who came down to the level of sinful man; to IDENTIFY Himself with them in order to save them.

* * * * *

But then, secondly, there is this other event of which our text speaks: the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, or His anointing.  This our Lord also experienced at the Jordan.  After Jesus was baptised and had left the water, behold, the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended upon Him and God's voice was heard from heaven.

The first thing that we should notice here is that Jesus' baptism in the Spirit, His anointing, closely followed His baptism by John.  So there is a close connection between the two events.  Yet, it would be wrong to roll both these happenings into the one event.  In John's baptism Jesus wanted to identify Himself with sinners, to be one with sinners on their level.  But through His baptism in the Spirit, Jesus was made ready and equipped to carry out His saving ministry.  We should not over- look the fact that up till now Jesus had not yet started upon His public ministry.  His anointing by the Holy Spirit marked the beginning of that.  But the CONNECTION of this event, His anointing, with the foregoing event, the baptism by John lies in this: Jesus submitted to John's baptism and thereby showed that He was really willing to fulfil His saving work which would lead Him on a road of suffering and death.  He was born in the world for the purpose of saving sinners from their sin, and when He allowed Himself to be baptised by John the Lord showed His readiness and preparedness to carry on in His work of salvation.

Now it was the willing attitude of Jesus to be the scapegoat for our sins that pleased the Father in heaven.  It was not so much the baptism of Jesus by John that pleased the Father, but Jesus' willing attitude in identifying Himself with sinners.  Jesus WANTED to be the Saviour; this is what the Father approved, and therefore the Spirit came upon the Son to enable Him to carry out His saving ministry.

Now the Pentecostals – and remember congregation, we should speak of them in Christian love – look upon this baptism of Jesus in the Spirit as a further proof of their claim that after regeneration and conversion the Christian should be further endowed with the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  For, they say, Jesus was born of God already in His supernatural birth, and now here at the age of thirty, at a later stage, He received the fullness of the Spirit.  Here then, they say, we have a perfect example in Jesus.  What happened to Him should happen to us too.

On the face of it, it would seem that our Pentecostal brethren have a good case.  Yet upon a closer look this does not appear to be so.  First of all we should always keep in mind that Jesus was very unique.  True, He is our example and we should follow Him.  But care has to be exercised.  He was also circumcised but because He was, no one would now insist that circumcision is a must for others.  All the things that happened to our Lord need not necessarily happen to us too.  But where the Pentecostal theory really breaks down is in its failure to grasp the fact that here we have to do with an event that is actually a milepost in the history of salvation.  We are here not so much dealing with a new stage in JESUS' life, but with a new stage in the history of salvation.  The experience of Jesus at the Jordan, this coming of the Holy Spirit upon Him, is a most unique moment in history.  Here, at this point, a new time begins.  It is the end-time.  From now on the Old Testament period has been left behind, the new has come.  The age of the new covenant, about which the Old Testament so frequently speaks, has come with the Spirit descending upon Jesus.  It is the age of the Spirit, who after Pentecost will be poured out upon the Church and will remain poured out, to stay with her forever.  John, spoke of a baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Well, here it is!  The Spirit of redemption and the fire of judgment.  They belong to the end-time which is now.  There is the old dispensation and there is the new dispensation.  Well, with Jesus' anointing by the Spirit the new has come.  And Jesus is initiated into this new age.  Jesus, as it were, is put into this new time.  This is what Jesus' baptism in the Spirit essentially means.  It brought in the end-time, the time of the new covenant, the new dispensation.  And the Spirit put Jesus into this new time.  Jesus' birth was still in the old dispensation, under the old covenant, but here He is put into the new.  Therefore, we may note here also that as such the Baptism in the Spirit always has an INITIATING effect.  By it the unconverted are brought into the new covenant.  The baptism with the Spirit happens at regeneration and conversion and never after that at some later time.  It has essentially an initiating purpose.

With the anointing of Jesus being of such great importance as it is, some great things happen: the heavens are opened and God's voice is heard.  These great signs were not merely in the imagination of Jesus and John.  They really took place.  Jesus and John really saw the heavens opening and they distinctly heard the voice of God.  What exactly took place we cannot say with certainty.  We are not told any more than what our text says.  But it was certainly something out of the ordinary and a real indication of God bringing about a great event.

Concerning the Spirit we are told that He came down in the form of a dove.  Again, why in the likeness of a dove, is not known exactly either.  Some say the dove is a picture of gentleness and peace and this serves to portray the nature of the Holy Spirit.  This could be so; we don't really know.  But although the dove-like form was only there for a moment, the stay of the Spirit was for good.  The Spirit would now stay permanently upon Jesus, He would not leave Him ever.  The Spirit was given to Jesus so that He could carry out His saving work, and go about teaching and healing in His ministry as the Messiah.  The prophets of old received the Spirit in brief moments of time.  Whenever they were compelled to speak a message from God, the Spirit took hold of them, and they could say, 'Thus says the Lord'.  After they had spoken on God's behalf the Spirit left them again.  But with Jesus the Spirit stayed for good.

Then, finally, John and Jesus heard God's voice saying, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.  Yes God the Father really confirming Jesus as His Son and as Messiah.  No ordinary person here but God's very own Son whom the Father loves and has given in His love to a sinful world.  A Son with whom the Father is well pleased because He would close the barrier between sinful man and a perfect, holy God.  Yes, God was pleased that His only Son was prepared to go the way of suffering and death.  Yes, God was pleased because it meant that He could reach down to the aid of sinful, rebellious and helpless man.

* * * * *

This then, congregation, is Jesus' experience at the river Jordan.  His baptism by John and His anointing by the Spirit.  Two separate events, but closely connected.  It was not such an easy text to preach on and maybe not such an easy sermon to listen to.  But hearing about the contents of our text has made us richer spiritually for we have seen how Jesus willingly identified Himself with sinful man by sharing everything, even a baptism of repentance which He did not really need.  Yes, for the sinless Jesus it was a great act of love for us sinners.  And we have further seen how He was anointed by the Holy Spirit, which brought in the new covenant, the end-time.  And that Jesus was put into this end time and equipped with the Spirit of God to carry out His ministry of love and salvation to men, women and children, who in themselves are dying from the deadly disease of sin but who through the Saviour are made to live forever through faith in Him.

Yes indeed, God through His Word grants us a deeper insight and a greater love for our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as they are spoken of in this text.  May it all be to the greater glory of our Saviour God.

Amen.