Listen here.

Matthew 3:13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John the Baptizer tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized, but it wasn’t the first time that John had the inclination to not baptize. A few verses before our text (Mt. 3:5-10), Matthew tells us that all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were being baptized by John. But, when many of the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming to John to be baptized, John sees them and says, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” The text doesn’t explicitly say it, but it appears as though John refused to baptize at least some of the Pharisees and Sadducees. But why? Why do they get a tongue-lashing and no baptism?

To get to an answer, we need to have a little background. First of all, we have to understand a little more about what baptism is because baptism isn’t something John invented on his own. The most basic meaning of the Greek word βαπτίζω (which gets translated ‘baptize’) is to wash something either by immersing it in or sprinkling it with water.[1] In the Old Testament, God had given lots of instructions to people who had become unclean to go and ceremonially wash themselves before going to the priest to be declared clean (like when a person had contact with a corpse Lev. 11:25, had a skin disease Lev. 13:6, the person who led the scapegoat into the wilderness Lev. 16:26, etc.). After becoming unclean by contact with what was unclean, that person was to wash and be declared clean, and this is the background of the baptisms going on in John’s day. They were further washings that weren’t commanded or forbidden in Scripture. Things that are neither commanded or forbidden in Scripture can be either good or bad. Scripture doesn’t command us to celebrate Christmas, but it is good and even necessary to do so. But we can make celebrating Christmas such a big deal that it becomes the only day that people come to church, which is bad.

We don’t have a lot of information about the history, but we do know that people who wanted to become part of the Jewish people would be baptized (though, these mainly appear after Christ’s ascension into heaven). But there are records outside of Scripture where baptisms did happen and were somewhat common during the time of the Old Testament and between the Testaments. However, these baptisms were all self-washings. They were a way of physically confessing your sins, turning over a new leaf, recommitting yourself to God, and making a better life for yourself. In other words, those baptisms were something people did forGod.

Now, we can’t say for sure, because Scripture doesn’t explicitly say it, but this is possibly why some of the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming to John to be baptized by him. Their thinking possibly went like this, “It is good to commit your life to God, and maybe people who are more sinful than I am will follow my example and commit their lives to God.” But here’s the problem with this attitude of the Pharisees and Sadducees, if that is correct, they weren’t coming in repentance to receive the forgiveness of their sins. And Scripture does say that John was baptizing unto repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mk. 1:4).[2]

John was baptizing unto repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but the Pharisees in particular didn’t see themselves as having sins to confess. Remember Jesus’ parable about the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not like that rotten sinful tax collector (Lk. 18:11).

So, it is possible that these Pharisees and Sadducees who are denied baptism by John are not coming to be baptized because they have sins that need to be washed away. They are stuck in a way of thinking that they could do enough things for God that God would be pleased with how holy they were. They thought getting baptized was something more they could do to earn favor with God, so John refuses to baptize them because they aren’t repentant. The sad thing is that many Christians today have this type of view of Christian Baptism. They view Baptism as something they do for God once they have come to faith. But this is not the picture of Baptism that Jesus and the rest of the New Testament gives. Not at all!

Now we come to our text. John is baptizing all these people. A thief comes confessing his stealing, an adulterer confesses his adultery, a liar confesses her sin, and John absolves and baptizes them. But then to the front of the line comes Jesus, and John knows Him (Lk. 1:39-45). They’re related to each other. John knows what the angel Gabriel told Mary, that this Jesus would be Son of the Most High, that He would reign over the house of God, and that His kingdom would have no end (Lk. 1:26-38). John knows the angel Gabriel told Joseph that Jesus would be the One to save His people from their sins (Mt. 1:18-25). John knows that Jesus is the sinless God in the flesh. And here He is coming to be baptized unto repentance for the forgiveness of sins? This shouldn’t be!

John recognizes that he is the sinner who needs to confess his sins and be baptized by Jesus. “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”

But Jesus reassures John, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” So, John consents and baptizes Jesus. The heavens are opened. The Holy Spirit descends like a dove and rests on Christ. And God the Father says from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Such a beautiful picture of each Person of the Holy Trinity there at our Lord’s Baptism.

What happens when Jesus is Baptized is both the opposite and the same thing that happens to you in your Baptism. In your Baptism, God washed away your sins (Tit. 3:5-6). But when Jesus was Baptized, the opposite happened. Picture it this way. Those sinners who had been baptized by John in the Jordan came to have their sins washed away. But when Jesus enters those sin-filled waters, He absorbs all those sins into Himself so that He can take them to the cross and die for them.

We say this because it is only after Jesus’ Baptism that John says Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John can say that because of what he saw in Jesus’ Baptism. There, Jesus had all the sins of all people of all time piled upon Him. in Isaiah 53, God says that Jesus would be numbered with the transgressors (Is. 53:12) and that God would lay on Jesus the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:4-6). That happened at Jesus’ Baptism.

You know how you feel when you are caught doing something wrong. You have a physical reaction – maybe you feel a rush of heat and guilt, and you feel the weight of it. Imagine having every sin of every person of all time piled upon you. How crushing would that be for Jesus? But having the weight and burden of the sin of the world put upon Him, Jesus hears the comforting voice of His Father, “You are My Son, with You I am well pleased. You are doing what I have sent You to do.” So, Jesus’ Baptism works the opposite direction of yours. Your Baptism washes away your sins, and Jesus’ Baptism is where Jesus is loaded up with your sins.

But also, the same thing that happens to Jesus in his Baptism happens to you in yours. In your Baptism, you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit and are made God’s beloved child. In your Baptism, God intimately joins you to Jesus, and to His death and resurrection (Ro. 6:3-6).

John’s question in our text, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” can be turned into a confession of faith. “Jesus, I need to be Baptized by You, and You have come and Baptized me.” Jesus does come to Baptize you and make you His disciple (Mt. 28:18-20). God has Baptized you through the hands of whatever pastor did the Baptism. It wasn’t the pastor doing it alone; God was Baptizing you. The pastor was simply God’s instrument to put the water upon you.

I have one final encouragement for you, and it is going to seem to come out of left field but bear with me. In Genesis 15[:1-6], God appears to old Abraham who has no children. God tells Abraham to try counting the stars and says, “So shall your offspring be.” God made a promise to Abraham and connected it to something physical that Abraham could see. And Scripture says, “Abraham believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.”

Now, imagine every night of Abraham’s life after this. I wonder how often he would go out at night with that promise of God echoing in his ears and start counting. Imagine him trying for a while but then having to give up counting because he’d lose track. And yet, Abraham continued to believe God’s promise.

Dear saints, God has given you something even more precious in your Baptism. God connected His promise of mercy, forgiveness, and life to something physical, to water – something that you interact with daily. In your Baptism, God has given you the new birth of water and the Spirit (Jn. 3:5). In your Baptism, God has promised to wash away your sins (Act. 2:38-39), save you (1 Pet. 3:21), make you His child (Mt. 3:17), connect you to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Ro. 6:3-6), clothe you with Christ (Gal. 3:27), and fill you with the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5). So now, whenever wash your hands or take a shower, you can remember that God Himself has washed you clean and made you holy and sacred. Whenever you take a drink, you can remember that, in your Baptism, Jesus has given you to drink of the living water that wells up to eternal life (Jn. 4:10, 14).

You have need to be Baptized by God, and God has done this. Believe these promises of God. Trust them. Don’t leave them. And if you do walk away from the blessings and promises that God has given to you in your Baptism, remember that God hasn’t changed His mind. Those promises are there for you to return to because God is always faithful. He who began a good work in you in your Baptism will be faithful to bring it to completion in the day of Christ (Php. 1:6). Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] In Mark 7:4, Mark mentions that the Pharisees had rituals for baptizing (most translations will simply say ‘washing’) they would baptize cups, pots, copper vessels, and dining couches. Unless you want to ruin it, you don’t immerse a dining couch. So, to say that Scriptures always mean immersing when they speaks about baptism is simply wrong.

[2] Scripture does make a distinction between John’s baptism and Jesus instituting Christian Baptism (especially in Mt. 3:11-12 and Act. 19:1-7). And we could spend a whole bunch of time considering the differences but let me just say this. According the Scripture, John’s baptism is a precursor to Christian Baptism. John would have repentant sinners come to him, confess their sins, and be baptized by him. And it was those very sins that Jesus would die for. So, God was granting forgiveness through John’s baptism.