Let's turn to Luke chapter 3, verse 21. My outline, as usual, was very optimistic. I decided to be a pessimist today because there's some good stuff in here. We're going to talk about Jesus' baptism, and we're going to talk about His genealogy. will not promise to not spend a lot of time on that, because I don't want to make promises I don't keep. Because you know I can talk about all the weird things in Scripture forever. But what we are going to be going through here, we're going to talk about the Trinity. We're going to talk about the Trinity that's at work in Christ's baptism. I hope that we'll see what it means that God approved of Jesus. Anyway, let's get going here. So somebody, if you could, read verses, just verses 21 and 22. Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened. All right. So, here we are at the Jordan. This is where we were last time, remember? Because John's down there baptizing. And he's been calling on people to repent. Remember? He's preaching a gospel of repentance. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And people need to repent. And who in all the world does not need to hear that message? There is, in fact, just one person. And he's the one who shows up that day. Jesus who has never and will never do anything that he repents of. He is not sorry because he has never done anything wrong and he will never do anything wrong. And here he is at the Jordan with the sinners, with the dregs, the people that The people who would go out and listen to some guy dressed in camel hair out in the middle of the desert would be. There he is with them, standing in line, I suspect. At this point, nobody knows who this guy is. If anybody recognizes him, they're like, wait a minute, you live in Galilee. Just passing through, just curious like us. What are you doing here? Who are you? But I wonder if John had family out there, which honestly, by this time, I assume he's parentless because his parents were old when he was born. So I don't know how much of John's family was there. I don't know how much of John's family was very excited about his ministry, honestly. We're a good family. of our guys is down there dressed in camel hair and eating bugs and preaching to people in the middle of the Jordan River. And, you know, he'll talk to anybody. I'm guessing George Johnson's family either wasn't in attendance or they were out there going, will you please get back in here and stop embarrassing us? You're Zechariah's son. That poor man, you know, he went for nine months without talking for you. Can you stop talking and get in here? Anyway, there's Jesus in line, walking down to the river. John sees him. John knows who he is because John knew who he was through the walls of his mother's womb. He recognized his mother, remember? He leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb. So yeah, the Holy Spirit in John is just like, oh, there he is. Some of the other Gospels tell us what he says when he sees him. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Luke doesn't go into that. Luke doesn't go into any of the conversations with them, actually. That's okay. Someday we'll end with the Gospel, God willing, and I ever get through this one. And then we'll talk about it then. But, uh... There he is, in the water with John. He's been baptized, dunked him under. We're Baptists, and John's a Baptist. Maybe not exactly the same kind of Baptist, but this is what baptizing means. Again, I refer you back to Don's two N4Cs ago, where he talked about this. But he doesn't need repentance, but he's standing there with repentant sinners, identifying with them. which is what he does for the rest of eternity. Isn't that nice? That's his ministry, then and now. He stands with us as repentant sinners. You know, we walk out there hoping that God will accept us. And there by our side is the one who God accepts. He's vouching for us. He's saying, yeah, Him and me, we're here together. I said, oh, boy. You know, when you have been baptized, have you considered that being baptized into Christ is kind of like being baptized along with Him? Next to Him, kind of, in a way? I mean, with all the other things it means. It means this, too, that He's in the water with you. that He's saying, you know, for His sake, I'll go under and I don't need to. And He with me, you can see us together as being the righteous Son of God. He doesn't need repentance. He identifies with humanity. He's been baptizing tax collectors religious people when they decide to come down and put up with the fact that he calls them snakes. And he gets down there and while they were praying, I like that John prayed whenever he baptized. While they were praying, the heavens were open, we're told. And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form. You probably have a picture in your mind, because a lot of us went to Sunday school, and a lot of us have seen the paintings. And I'm not taking away from any of that. They're not terrible paintings, honestly. Because it says, he was like a dove. We assume that it looked like a dove. Fairly majestic dove, I assume that it was a dove. But the remarkable thing to me is, When has the Holy Spirit appeared in bodily form? What? Well, that's a good question. You know, I feel like Pentecost is a almost there moment. Yeah, that is the only, in fact, other reference I could find to such a thing. The effects of the Holy Spirit are seen a little bit more often physically. The Lord breathed into Adam and he became a living soul. His spirit, ruach, the spirit hovered over the surface of the water in creation. But we're not told whether that's anything like a physical manifestation. There weren't people there to see it. There is only God witnessing this. So can't reach much into that. But at no other point Anywhere in Scripture, Genesis to Revelation, is the Holy Spirit definitively described in any bodily form. Just here. Why? I mean, God is a spirit. We're told that no man has seen the Father. That's one person. The Holy Spirit is another person. Their spirit. So that's the technical reason why, but in some way it's an anointing of Jesus. It is. Yeah, I think it is. This is the Holy Spirit rendering to him a huge amount. of glory in the presence of His people, that the unbodied God would have a physical presence in this moment to honor the Son of God who has chosen for eternity to dwell in physical form with His people. This is the Holy Spirit in the most clear and obvious way possible once you read through all this stuff. It's the Holy Spirit doing what the Holy Spirit does, pointing to Jesus, drawing everybody's attention, not to the dove, but to the one the dove is descending on. That's what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit does not want glory for himself. He wants glory for Christ. He puts your eyes there. He takes everything to Jesus. And for him to come to this level for us, and then to glorify to that level, Jesus, if anybody there besides John recognized that this was the Holy Spirit of God that had decided to embody himself for this singular, unique moment in the history of the universe, just to say, hey, this is important. literally depends upon Him. According to Colossians, everything in Him, all things hold together, we are told. This is a majestic moment. And we didn't even get to the words yet. We didn't even get to the pronouncement. But this is a huge, huge moment. I mean, the Spirit whose effects only we see, wind, fire, you know, it's like the wind. I mean, you know, Jesus even tells Nicodemus in John 3, you know, the Spirit is like the wind. You see the effect. You don't see the Spirit. You see the effect of the Spirit. But here, you see the Spirit. Don't mind blown for me. I you know, it's just me but and then and then and Then we get to the statement. I mean Okay, you know so of the three persons of the Trinity one of them has made the loudest clearest statement in the word of God. And now, besides actually inspiring the word of God, and now, we get the voice. A voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. Why is he pleased with them? What did he do? He's chosen this course. I'm sorry? Because Christ had chosen this course. Well, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. He did do that, didn't he? Yes. Yes. Jesus submitted to his father's will and accomplished all this, but he hasn't done anything yet except show up. A few teachers, when he was 12, got maybe a little wowed. But nothing really has happened. No disciples, no miracles, and certainly no death and resurrection. Nothing has taken place yet. Isn't that the point, though? Nothing needs to be done. Christ is already perfectly loved and held in God's sight. It's about his identity. It's not about what he has done. Again, he stands with us in our baptism because our salvation does not depend on what we have done. It depends on who we have identified with. Because we are baptized in Christ, That's what makes it mean. That's why God looks at us and says, oh yes, the righteousness of my son. Of course I recognize that. You have the kingdom. Welcome home, buddy. But anyway, this is the moment when This is the inauguration of that, in some ways, in time. I mean, you know, the Old Testament saints were saved by believing in this future fulfillment that is still just beginning at this point in Luke. But it's early, and they're just getting going. you know, I don't know, before miracles, before teaching ministry, before the cross, His approval is based on His identity, not His performance even. Because that's how God is. He does not love on the basis of what you do. He loves on the basis of who you are to Him. He loves you because He has chosen to set His love upon you. But there's echoes. There's little echoes of this. So much of the Old Testament is rolling in here, but it's deeply under the surface. Some things I say, oh, they'd recognize this immediately. I don't even think that this is something they would have recognized immediately. This is something that shows up later, maybe when they're thinking about it. The voice said, you are my beloved son. I wonder if any of them is thinking of Psalm 2. You are my son, today I have begotten you. I wonder if any of them are thinking of Isaiah 42, part of the beginning of the servant opening in Isaiah. Behold my servant, in whom my soul delights. This is like God sort of repeating what Isaiah said in totally different words, but he's saying the same thing. Hey, he's the one my soul delights in. Israel, you fail. Gentiles, you really would. You don't even know what your problem is. But my son, I am happy about him. He makes me happy. I love him. This is Jesus beginning to step into the role of a servant. Further inaugurated later on when he's in a synagogue, you know, reading from another passage in Isaiah and saying, this is the day that this is fulfilled. I love this. You know, this word that he uses, with you I am well pleased. I'm going to try not to butcher this. My Greek, for some reason, has been terrible the last couple of weeks. But, you know, eodokeia, no, eodokeisa, that's what it is, eodokeisa. So think well. That seems pretty boring, honestly. Oh, I think well of him. Yeah, that's what you'd say about somebody you don't even know. Oh, no, I like him. in the same way that I like somebody I've never met. But I heard about him. He sounds nice. But it means so much more than that. The semantic range here is deeper. It's a deep satisfaction. It's an active delight. I mean, for God's sake, it's the favor that comes from being the object of a covenant, maybe. It's a covenantal favor. It's as deep and deeper than the love in a marriage covenant. It is a sovereign approval. Because again, this is God's fate. He doesn't go back on the things he says. He doesn't take it back. There are no take backs with God. Yeah, no. I love you, but oh, you screwed up. Thank God he doesn't do that. He didn't do it for Israel. He's not doing it for us. Hallelujah. And there's no way he'll ever do it for Jesus. Because Jesus will never fail. But it doesn't even have to do with that. The Trinitarian relationship between Father and Son. For eternity has lived in this close, bound, eternal, infinite, fierce love. basic word for this. I don't even know how to describe this. It's beyond us, honestly. But they both share in this. It's the same root word, this word that's being used here, and you and I are well pleased, it's the same root word as glory. Yeah, they both have the same root word, decao. Decao, I'm sorry. Glorified, glory. It's a subjective divine pleasure. And glory is more objective, but what he feels toward him is very subjective. In other words, it's really all about Jesus. This isn't just something that's out there. This is something that is very directed at him. Again, for the Father to appear in person as much as He can in creation among men, sinful men, with the Holy Spirit there descending as a dove, and God above from His throne in With you, I am well pleased. That's a nice way to start your ministry, isn't it? You are one of the three verses of the Trinity, and the other two actually show up in this place that, I mean, You know, it's kind of scary when the Holy God shows up on earth for anyone. You know, it's a tenuous moment. You feel like if the Father, if God the Father lingered for a moment, he could unmake the world because it is simple in his presence, because of the curse of Adam, because of what men have done. And He risks it, not good risk, it's not risk for him. He knows exactly what it is and he knows what his power can do, but he pushes the envelope really hard here because his son is that important to him. Wow. All that happens because Jesus gets underwater and they pray. Don't ever downgrade baptism. I mean, especially our own baptism. There's nothing like this, I will grant you. But who are you identifying with? That man. When you're under the water, you're under the water with him. There's a connection that supersedes time back to the moment that he was in the water. that the Spirit was out there where everybody could see Him. I always do that. Please forgive me. I always do that. Where everybody could see Him. Where God the Father speaks from Heaven, that of everything in creation, that's the thing that pleases Him. That's the one. He is the crux. which is Latin for cross, by the way. Everything. History turned a corner when God became man. And it will never unturn that corner. He's a man forever. Thank God for this. Thank Jesus that he did this for us. It's a great humility for him. He never had to do this. except that his father's will was to save the wretches that he had made. But he did that for you. They all did all of this for you in the end. Because of their love, all of their love for you. Because the mission is what this is all about in the end, isn't it? Why did he come? He didn't come to show off He didn't come to get into the water with John and have a moment with Dad and the Spirit. That's not why he's there. He's there to begin the work of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The baptism is an awesome passage. There's more God in the baptism, more Trinitarian. beautiful doctrine in here than in so many other passages. It's just overflowing and blazing out to everywhere. Why do we think it's a big deal that we're Trinitarian? I don't expect everybody to understand this the moment they're saved, but I expect everybody to affirm it when they've heard it. If you are saved, but you cannot affirm with us that there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then you're probably not one of us, honestly. I don't understand it. Well, nobody does, okay? We're not built like this. We don't have multiple persons in us. Although it feels like it sometimes, but you know, that's more of a, that's a different, that's a Roman seven thing. We'll get to that next year. Sorry. Anyway, but no, I mean, but this is, this is important and we needed all three of them. Our salvation depends on the Holy Spirit bringing us life, breathing life into us, entering us, changing us, sanctifying us, making us like Jesus. We need Jesus. We need our high priest and we need the ultimate sacrifice for sin. And we need God to have loved us enough to the righteousness of his son unto us legally, because he then says in the end, this day, you are my son, I have begotten you. I'm not making you all God, I'm just saying that legally speaking, that's what he recognizes you as in terms of your righteousness or lack thereof. You have Christ's righteousness if you're a Christian, yes. Do you think John was more bold after this in his... Up to a point, but you know, at the end of his, you know, remember how the end of his ministry was, when he's in jail, and he sends the disciples, and he's like, so you're it, right? Or should we be looking for somebody else? But yeah, except for that, you know, but I don't blame him for a doubt, especially being a prophet. Maybe he kind of knew he wasn't going to get out of this alive. So I don't blame him for having a bad moment about this, but yeah, I think, I mean, Zechariah knew his father, when he could talk at all, that's what he talked about. Jesus, you know, as we've discussed before, 80% of Zechariah's speech about his son is actually Jesus, and he ends it with, oh, and my son, boy, he's gonna be the man of the hour. He's gonna go out and have a go, woo! So yeah, I think John grasped a lot of this, I think. It had to be a blessing to John. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And to be able, you know, and that's what makes him able to happily say, I'm not worthy to untie his sandals. You know, I'm not worthy to touch that man's feet. I'm not the one you're looking for, but he's following me. And as we said last week, he's scary, but you know, he's the one you're looking for. So yeah, I think so. I, you know, this may have been a moment though when he, when it maybe really rolled in on him for the first time, I suspect. You know, I don't know. I think a lot of Jews were kind of shocked out of their theological complacence by the things that happened in the next three, three and a half years. Because this stuff just keeps happening. And do you think Dr. Luke, when he heard this, when he's interviewing the people, he had to interview more than one because this was huge. Yeah, can you tell me what you heard the voice say again? That's exactly what, you know, nobody forgot that line. Everybody remembered it exactly the same as you did. Yeah, I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did, yeah. Anyway, I love the baptism. This is a big deal for us. And it's a big deal in our baptism. Again, yes, yeah. I'm just gonna think about something. I'm glad that he wavered in his faith, because right after that, Jesus tells him what? He says, go back and tell him, and it goes right back to Isaiah 61. And Isaiah 61 says, well, he has the anointing from the Holy Spirit of God to pull his connection together. And then on top of that, after he went, what did he say about John the Baptist? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no man greater boredom moment is greater than what's happening. That's a good point. I forgot about the postscript to that. That is an excellent point. Thank you. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and we and we need these moments of weakness. just to know that God's so merciful, and he loves us so much, and he knows when we're suffering, and he stretches out a little bit more, because he has to stretch. We don't have it in us. You know, when you're hurting, when you're desperate, when you have doubt, when you don't know what you think or what to do, you can't reach out very far, can you? But God, He can reach all the way. He's got a long arm. Anyway, I'm excited. Boy, yeah, that made me feel good. I've had a bad week. All right. So, all right, we only have a couple of minutes. Somebody commented on the fact this week to me that I always say we only have a couple of minutes and then launch into a big thing. But real quick note that Luke goes straight from the father saying this is my son. To the genealogy and Luke's genealogy unlike Matthew's goes from Jesus all the way back to that father. Isn't that cool? Matthew has a point to make, and it is that Jesus is the son of David. And so everything's about the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with David. 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the next guy, 14 to Jesus. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And to get that number, Matthew skips people like mad. Okay, let's be honest. Matthew was not math. Okay, as far as this goes. Tax collector, yes. You know, careful about the numbers here. for Jewish literature, actually, that Matthew, which we're not talking about Matthew, but they want to make a symbolic point, and they'll do it by almost any means necessary. And he wants to point out some things. And I'm not going to get deeply into Matthew right now. But Luke, his arc is different. It's simpler. It's more tuned toward his audience, I think, because Luke, He's invested in God, in Jesus being the son of Abraham and the son of David. But that's not necessarily the main point this time. He takes him all the way back to Adam. He's not just the God of Israel. He is the God, period, right? Yeah, that's right. The God of the world. Yes. So, you know, I mean, if you read through this and we're not going to because we don't have time, but you know, he goes from Jesus working backward. Jesus, the true son of God. and he works backward and he goes to some guy named Eli or Heli, if you're reading it from ESV, because they would enter the H in, because the H is there in Greek. But, you know, whatever. The weird thing, though, is that nobody in the world thinks that that guy is Joseph, the father. It's Jesus, Joseph, Eli, or Heli? Who's that? Because, you know, Matthew, totally different, totally different. Joseph's the son of Jacob. Some guy named Jacob, not THE Jacob. What? What does that mean? Well, in short, there's a lot of different views on this. I'll just hit them real quick. In general, Most people have thought that one of these is Mary's genealogy, and one of these is Joseph's genealogy. Matthew wants to show that in every legal way, Jesus is the son of David. And he follows the patrilineal line of the kings. So Matthew hits Solomon. Matthew goes through the kings of Judah, even the cursed one. the one who God says, no son of yours will ever be on the throne. But he's a king of Judah and Matthew covers it. But Luke, Luke dodges around all these things. Luke has 42 generations as opposed to Matthew's 30 something. And, and, Luke probably is taking us, we think, through Mary. If Mary had no brothers, then Joseph would have been Mary's dad's inheritor, probably. So he's sort of legally adopted, in a sense, by Mary's dad, by his father-in-law. And that makes that okay, that he calls Joseph the son of Eli. But it's interesting because they instead of going through Solomon they go through Nathan a non kingly son of David And they wrap around they come back together at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel and then split off again to we think Joseph family and Mary's family and By the way by bypassing all the kings of Judah you bypass the curse in other words biologically speaking Jesus is not a son of Draconian, the guy who was cursed and whose son would never be on the throne. Weird, huh? There's a lot more to say about this, and we're out of time. So I'm so sorry. I did it to us again, and I, this is me cutting the passage in half that I was gonna cover. All right, next time we'll probably talk about the best temptation, which is fun. Not fun. Well, it's fun for me. Comments, questions, real quick? All right, well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you see us in Christ. We thank you that you are well pleased by Jesus. And we thank you that he is our brother. He is your son. He is the one in whom we find ourselves. Our identity in you is in Christ. Thank you for imputing his righteousness to us, because otherwise we couldn't even talk to you now. Lord, we want to hear your word this morning, so open our ears and open our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.