Scripture Matthew 3:1-17
Matthew 3:1-17
In those days John the Baptist came,
preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3 This is he who was spoken
of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the
way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
4 John's clothes were made
of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was
locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and
all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins,
they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of
the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them:
"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit
in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not
think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you
that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and
every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into
the fire. 11 I baptize you
with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than
I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing
fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat
into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
13 Then Jesus came from
Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter
him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you,
and do you come to me?"
15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill
all righteousness." Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was
baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son,
whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Matt 3:15
But Jesus insisted. "Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries,
is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it. (from THE MESSAGE)
dikaiosunh
= righteousness = Jesus acknowledges and affirms the standard of righteousness
as the will of God in His kingdom.
In
other words – there is a right way to live and the standard for that right way
has been set by God and God’s standard for living is found in His instruction
manual called the Bible.
HEAR
THIS: This is not saying there is a better way to live than you are currently
living – that is true; but that is not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying
there is a RIGHT way to live – there is only one set of standards to live by
and those standards are God’s standards. Living by those standards – or in that
righteousness – makes life better. There is not one righteous standard of God
that makes life less enjoyable, yet we all live beneath those standards. That was true in the beginning when Adam and
Eve ate from the fruit tree they were told to leave alone, that is true today
for each one of us.
Just
like the people of that day – we need a fresh one-two punch to remind us of
what is right and best. The first punch was this camel hair wearing, wild honey
and locust eating, living in the desert wilderness guy named John. He came out
of nowhere with a strong declaration and warning – The kingdom of God is
near. Repent! The second punch came with Jesus saying – LOOK standing
before is the standard of righteousness you need to live by.
I can…maybe…repent and not do the
wrong stuff, but to do the right stuff – that is a whole other ball game.
People
see standards and boundaries as constrictive and judgmental. YES, they are! We
are creatures of habit – of bad habits and we rarely get it right when left to
our own way of living. We need boundaries and judgement and I would rather have
God, the one who created me, giving those to me than someone else or even
myself for that matter.
So,
that is the original meaning of the scripture – Jesus announces that he is not
only fulfilling righteousness by letting John baptize him but also that he is
the embodiment of all righteousness so that we are without excuse when we can
see what God’s right way of living looks like in human flesh – Jesus!
Romans
3:21-24 But now a righteousness
from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus
Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
That
is our exegesis of the scripture but there is something more tangible – more
inspirational, more practical taking place at the same time and we see that
when we do some ExeJesus!
When
there is a big football game – how do the teams come onto the field? Do they
saunter out? Are they casual about it? No, they come out together and fog
machines and cheer leaders and bands and break through a Let’s Win banner to
cheering crowds.
What
about a marching band? Have you ever been under the stadium just before the
Ohio State Marching Band does “ramp”? It is filled with excitement and joy and exuberance
(explain)
They don’t just walk onto the
field and take up position – they announce their presence with every step they
take.
We
saw God announce the creation of the world with six marvelous days of “AND GOD
SAID…” Then we heard about God coming in the flesh with Angels proclaiming the
coming of God into the world. Now we have John getting the people pumped up –
getting them ready – letting them know that the world is on the verge of the
most important event in the history of the world. Then Jesus comes, after 30
years of near total silence and says – Here I Am – let’s go! Strike up the
band! Bust open the doors! Let’s get moving, I have a church to build and I am
ready to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Jesus
was not able to do anything He did without the Holy Spirit. Notice the end of
this story that came with his baptism – the Spirit of God was upon Him and gave
him the strength to do all things – to
fulfill all righteousness and build His church! The ONLY way we can fulfill all
righteousness and build His church is by being filled with that exact same Holy
Spirit of God! Jesus didn’t have a
different Spirit – He had the same Spirit available to us who need to strike up
the band, who need to bust through the curtain, who need to get up and get
going.
2 Cor 3:13-14, 16-18
Therefore,
since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would
put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the
radiance was fading away. / But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is
taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are
being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes
from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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