Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Hebrews

The Significance of Jesus’ Baptism

Mark 1:9–11

 

Mark 1:9-11

 

I find it interesting how Mark begins his account of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is not with His ancestry, not with angelic announcements, not with a genealogy or any mention of His birth.

 

There are no shepherds, no angels, no wise men. He says nothing about Joseph or Mary, nothing about Jesus' childhood and nothing about his youth.  We have no Old Testament prophecies that are directly about the Messiah.

 

Instead Mark jumps into the history of Jesus at His first public appearance which is His baptism.  And by this time, according to Luke 3:23, Jesus is about 30 years of age. So Mark leaves untouched the first 30 years of His life and begins with the public ministry of the Lord.

 

By the time the Lord arrived for His baptism, John the Baptist had been preaching for about six months, as best we can discern. Moving up and down the Jordan valley, from the north to the south, John was preaching a message of repentance that was publicly expressed through a water baptism by immersion.

 

His message was a message of judgment and the only way to escape that judgment was to embrace the kingdom of God that was coming with the Messiah.

 

And one day, while he is preaching and baptizing, among the crowd is his cousin, Jesus. This is the only time in the New Testament we ever see Jesus and John together.  But this meeting has significance that is sweeping and far-reaching because on this occasion of their meeting, the long-awaited King shows up and John is called upon to baptize Him.

 

Have you ever wondered why Jesus was baptized?  We often try to rush on by that and just say something like He was providing an example.  But there is much more to it than that.  I don’t believe Jesus ever did anything that was non-essential or unimportant.  His days on earth are too valuable and too limited to not make the most of every moment of every day.  And that is obviously true with His baptism.

 

I think it important also, to keep in mind, for John the Baptist to baptize Jesus was not just strange, it was offensive and maybe even embarrassing because John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.  Think about early Christians trying to make sense of why a sinless, perfect Messiah would submit Himself to a baptism of repentance.

 

It seems to me if you want to establish your credibility that is the last thing you would want to do.  After all, if Jesus submits to John the Baptist’s baptism would imply he had sins to confess so He could get His life right and not come under judgment from God.

 

But in truth, it actually does just the opposite of what we might think.  Let me show you what I mean.

If the New Testament is just a made-up fable that presents a Jewish peasant Who claimed to be the Messiah, then why is something included in all four gospels that would make Him appear to be less than He was?

 

It seems to me, if someone were making up the story of Jesus, they wouldn’t put anything in unless somehow it attributed to Christ something that made Him more than He was.  But here we have this record of His baptism that makes it appear He was less than He really was. 

 

So the critics have a hard time with this one.  It's impossible that anybody would invent this story that says the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy one, the Son of God was baptized by a Jewish prophet with a baptism related to sin, repentance, confession, forgiveness.  That's really hard to explain.

 

Matthew 3 tells us Jesus shows up one day for the express purpose of being baptized and John tries to talk Him out of it. He doesn’t want to do it.  It didn't make sense to him.  Why?  It was because John knew Jesus and knew about Jesus.

 

Why would Jesus want to be baptized and especially the why would He submit to the baptism of John?  History records all kinds of reasons.  Some say Jesus came to be baptized to please His mother.  The Gnostics said Jesus was purely human until His baptism and at His baptism the deity element was infused into Him.

 

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Some say, “He was just going through an initiatory life for priests.” That's not supportable. Some say, “It was proselyte baptism so He could identify with Gentiles.” No indication that that was in His mind. Some say, “He was just letting John do his thing and this would validate John.” Some say it was a vicarious act like the cross in which He actually purchased righteousness and pardon for believers.” Obviously neither of those theories are correct, but it all seemed bizarre. It all seemed somehow wrong

 

So why was Jesus baptized and in particular why was He baptized with the baptism of John?

 

First let’s see the

 

 

Verse 1

 

 Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee.  Let’s stop right there for a moment.

 

Keep in mind Mark is writing from Rome to Romans.  That means his audience is mostly Gentiles.  Now obviously their ears would have perked up when they heard this reference to Galilee because Galilee is Galilee of the Gentiles.

 

It was originally part of the land conquered by Joshua around the eighth century. It was eventually invaded by the Assyrians and by the time of the ministry of John the Baptist, it was primarily a Gentile population and the area was hated by the Jews.

 

 

If you will remember when Peter was messing around outside the area where Jesus was being interrogated before the crucifixion, they called him a “Galilean” and you can almost hear the disgust in their voices.

 

There was nothing but scorn for Galilee. In fact, the further you were from Jerusalem, the more disdain they had for you. And this was a long, long way from Jerusalem.  It was out on the fringes where unclean people and outcasts lived.  That’s why when Jesus showed up and some believed He was the Messiah,m others said, “Surely the Christ isn't going to come from Galilee.” It would be unthinkable for the Messiah to come from Galilee.

 

Obviously they had forgotten the prophecy of

 

Isaiah 9:1-2

 

That's a direct prophecy that the Messiah would come from Galilee of the Gentiles.  And in particular, He would come from Nazareth.  Mark couldn’t just say He was from Nazareth because no one would have known what he was taling about.  It had to be identified by Galilee because it was so insignificant.

 

There is no place in any existing ancient Jewish literature where Nazareth is ever mentioned. It's not in Josephus. It's not in the Talmud.  It's not in the Old Testament.  It’s nothing. And for the Jews, proximity to Jerusalem is everything. The assumption was Messiah would come from Jerusalem. But the prophet said He would come from the fringes. 

 

 

And one day, out of the fringes, out fo the outskirts, from among the castaways and nobodies, He stepped on to the stage of history and we are told He was baptized in the Jordan River.

 

The Jordan River is 105 miles long, end to end, ten feet deep at the deepest spot, 100 feet across at its widest.  And it was there, away from Jerusalem in the wilderness, where John was baptizing and where Jesus came to be baptized.

 

Let’s move from the setting to

 

 

Now the easy answer to why Jesus was baptized is because God had commanded everybody to be baptized.  Jesus was a man and He would fulfill all righteousness.  But I think to really find the significance, you’ve got to dig deeper than that and the true significance is found in the symbolism of baptism.

 

We have all the pictures that we normally have in mind when we witness a baptism.  We do it in remembrance.  He did it prophetically.  He would one day go to the cross, die and be buried and rise in eternal, glorified body.

 

And there we see this beautiful picture play out symbolically of what would eventually become reality in horrific detail.

 

To add some detail, we need to turn to

 

Luke 3:21-22

 

This scene is one of the great Trinitarian texts in Scripture and as He comes up out of the water, the coronation takes place and all of the Godhead is present.  God the Son is there in the flesh.  God the Spirit makes a visible appearance and God the Father speaks.

 

Let’s take a look at those two aspects.

 

First we have

 

 

Mark 1:10b

 

According to Juke 3:21, the heavens opened. This is not a vision.  According to John 1:32, John says he saw the heavens open and the Spirit descending like a dove.  There's no reason to believe that others didn't see it as well. It's not a vision, it's a visible reality.  This is God breaking into time and space. This is a huge event.

 

Remember, God hasn't spoken in 400 years. A couple of visits have been made to Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph, but none of that is public.  The heavens have been closed for 400 years and now they split open for everyone to see. In fact, Mark uses a verb that Matthew and Luke do not use.

 

He says the heavens rip open. Whatever is happening is dramatic and big and overwhelming.  IN fact, that particular verb is only used in one other place in the New Testament and that’s when the veil of the temple is ripped from top to bottom at the death of Christ.

 

And if you think God isn’t consistent, just read Isaiah 64:1 which says, “O that You would rip the heavens and come down.” The Jews were waiting for the day when God would rip open the heavens and come down and make His name known.

 

This is anticipation of Messiah. The day is going to come when the silent heavens are going to rip open and God is going to come. And that is exactly what happens at the baptism of Jesus.

 

And then something interesting happens.  When the heavens rip open, you would think something violent is about to happen.  But that’s not what happens at all.  Instead, the Spirit of God descends like a dove. 

 

And notice, verse 22 of John 3 says it took place in bodily form.  And the important thing to notice is not that the Spirit of God is a dove.  That’s not what it’s telling us.  Instead the question to answer is, “How does a dove descend?”

 

A dove doesn't come crashing down. The dove is the gentlest of the birds. It comes down lightly, delicately, and rests in its place. That's how the Holy Spirit came. That's what we are seeing here.

 

A dove is a very gentle, beautiful, delicate bird and the Spirit came down in some visible form with the same kind of gentleness and beauty which is displayed when a little dove softly lands.

 

And without going into all that it means, suffice it to say, here was a divine,, visual affirmation of the Kingship of Jesus through the Spirit’s visual presence.

 

Secondly, you have

 

 

Mark 1:11

 

No prophet ever heard that. The prophet was called friend of God like Abraham. Prophets were called Man of God, they were called servants of God but no prophet was ever called a Son of God. That is a direct fulfillment of Psalm 2:7. The Messiah will be the Son of God. This is at the very center of the reality of the person of Jesus Christ and over 50 times in the gospels He's called Son of God.

 

What does it mean? It means that He's one in essence with God, that He has the same nature as God. That's what it means to be a Son. It pertains to His being co-equal, co-eternal. He is, in the language of Hebrews 1, the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of God's nature.

 

He is not only God’s beloved Son, but in Him God is absolutely pleased.  That is the ultimate testimony to the sinless, holy, perfection of the Messiah, the Son of God.

 

And with that, the King is crowned and His earthly ministry begins.  Now just to underscore the significance of His baptism, I want to close with one final thing found in Mark 11.

 

We are now closing in on His final days.  In verse 27, the leaders of Israel find Him in the temple and in verse 28, they ask Him from where His authority comes.

 

Mark 11:28

 

He’s been healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, teaching with authority and they want to know who authorized it.  Who told You You would do this?”

 

Notice how Jesus responds.

 

Verse 29

 

In other words, I’ll answer you if you will answer Me.  Then HE takes them all the way back to His baptism.

 

Verse 30

 

It was at the baptism where His authority was established. It was there that the Spirit of God came anointing Him. It was there that the Father affirmed Him verbally. It was there that He received full authority to act, authority to forgive sins, authority to heal the sick, authority to raise the dead, authority over demons, authority to determine truth and destiny. So you tell Me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

 

I’ll guarantee you that remembered the baptism of John the Baptist and specifically happened the day the skies ripped open and the Spirit of God descended to rest on Jesus.  I believe that day was talked about quite a lot.  And Jesus asks, “What do you think?  Was that a legitimate experience?”

 

Verses 31-33

 

 

 

 

In so many words, Jesus said to them, “If you don't recognize My coronation, if you don't recognize the significance of My baptism, the discussion is over.  I have nothing else to say to you. If you will not admit that John was a prophet of God, if you will not acknowledge that what happened at His baptism, the descent of the Spirit of God and the voice of God from heaven affirming Me, if you will not acknowledge that, there is nothing I can say about where My authority comes from.'”

 

 That's how critical the baptism is. It started there and for the rest of His earthly ministry, that authority would be tested, beginning with Satan himself as we will see next week.

 

Let's pray