The Time Has Come—Matthew 3

Now we skip forward about thirty years. The Bible doesn't say anything about Jesus doing miracles during this time. For all we know, it was thirty years of normal life: losing baby teeth, catching colds, playing with friends, working in the shop with Joseph. Did Joseph ever wonder again, Was this boy really virgin-born? Well, there was the fact that he never did anything wrong. But even that could be confusing and frustrating at times. (Read Luke 2 for that.)

But now everything changes. John the baptist shows up in the wilderness and says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus goes out to him to get baptized, and when he does, God speaks to him, and calls him his Son, and the Holy Spirit descends on him. From here on he will be preaching and doing miracles. He is carpenter no more: he is the coming king.

Everything changed for Jesus that day, but what I want you to see is that everything changed for you. When Jesus was baptized, your world was rocked and remade. We live in a different age than the people who died before the baptism of Jesus. It's not BC anymore, it's AD. I don’t gripe about the people who use CE and BCE. If you aren't a Christian, why should you center your calendar around Jesus? But if you get what the Bible is saying here, you will understand that it is totally different to live in the AD years than the BC years.

It is time to turn from sin, because the Son of God has come to be king.

Turning from Sin

First, I want to see what this passage tells us about turning from sin. Here is John's awesome one-liner: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Notice that he doesn't say, "Repent, because you have done very bad things." I'm sure you have, but that's not what he says. It's assumed, but it's not the point. Notice that he doesn't say, "Repent, because God is very holy." God is indeed very holy, and that is immensely important, but it's not the news that John's audience needs to hear. What John says is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In other words, repent, not just because you are wicked and God is holy, which are timeless truths that spell the death of sinners, but because God is doing something, because he is bringing his kingdom, and the point is that God's kingdom spells salvation for everyone who turns from sin. Repent, because there is a hope: God's kingdom has come, the hope of salvation is now, and it is now or never. Repent, because God has come to fight and to save.

John doesn't just tell us why we should turn from sin. He also tells us what it looks like to do so. Repentance must not be fruitless, as though we don't need to change, and it must not be presumptuous, as though we don't need forgiveness. This is what he tells the Pharisees and Sadducees. First, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." In other words, so you say you repent? Then act like you repent. John is not telling them to earn forgiveness. The Bible never tells anyone that. No one can earn forgiveness. It comes only through the grace of God. But John is saying that true repentance is not about going through mere religious motions like a baptism. Repentance is a change of heart which results in a change of action. If you don't have a change of heart, you can be sure you aren't repentant. Second, "And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'" You can imagine these Pharisees and Sadducees watching the crowds get baptized by John, and deciding whether to get baptized themselves. "Maybe I will," one Pharisee says to another, "but it doesn't really matter. God will accept me either way, because I am a child of Abraham." John says, do not presume. It's wonderful to be a child of Abraham, but don't think you don't need repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The kingdom is at hand, and God will fill it, but he can fill it without you. He will fill it with people who repent.

The Son of God

Second, I want to see what this passage tells us about the Son of God. Jesus comes out to be baptized by John, and has a funny conversation with him. I'll get back to that. First, I'll talk about what happened when Jesus was baptized. The heavens were opened, and Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, and the voice of God the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." What does this mean?

Well, it means, first of all, that the Father acknowledged Jesus as his Son. Matthew has already told us that Jesus is the Son of God, but don't think it was a small thing for Jesus himself to hear, as a man, the voice of God his Father, and to receive this confirmation that everything he had learned about himself from his parents and the Scriptures was true.

But it means, secondly, that Jesus was equipped for the task before him. As David received the Holy Spirit when he was anointed with oil, Jesus received the Holy Spirit when he was baptized with water. The word "Christ" means "Anointed." This was his anointing, being anointed with the Holy Spirit. In a sense, this was the moment Jesus became Christ: not the moment he became God, which he was and is through all eternity, but the moment that his limited human body and mind were filled with the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit for the specific task that lay before him, the task of saving sinners.

He is the Son of God -- he is God -- he is Christ. And yet, he was baptized like one of us. Let's turn back to that funny conversation with John. John naturally did not think it was proper for him to baptize his infinite superior. But Jesus said, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Why? Why should this sinless Son of God get washed with the Jordan water? For the forgiveness of his sins? He had none. He did not sin like us, and yet he became like us. He went through the things we go through, and as we are baptized into him, he was baptized along with us, because he is one of us. And being one of us, he became our representative, and he represented us with a life of perfect obedience to God, a life we could never live. And then he represented us in a death on the cross, a flawless sacrifice, a death we could never die. And finally, he represented us, he went before us, in his resurrection in glory from the tomb. And if he rose for you, then you will rise to. If he passed through the waters for you, you will pass through the waters too.

So turn from your sin -- not just because you have sinned badly, although you have, and not just because God is holy, although he is, and hallelujah forever for his infinite holiness. But turn from sin because God loved sinners and sent Jesus Christ as a Savior-King, to forgive and to rescue everyone who turns to him.

Pastor Nate Jeffries