Read the relevant passages from all four Gospels concerning the Baptism of Jesus (Matthew
Sunday, September 23, 2007
TOPIC 2: Jesus' Baptism
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Read the relevant passages from all four Gospels concerning the Baptism of Jesus (Matthew
3 comments:
Response: The first thing I saw when I read these passages was that it completely destroyed the argument against the Title Son of Man meaning plainly “Human being.” What I mean by this is that between the three accounts of this event, one of the consistencies is God saying, in what I understand to be an audible voice, “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” Stein shows us later in chapter 7 that the dissimilarity applies and strengthens this argument. My opinion is that God was showing his approval with Jesus’ Public Testimony through baptism of water and at that point Jesus was also showing his commitment to his greatest purpose being his death, so we might be baptized through the blood of Christ.
In this passage we get to see the Trinity really for the first time. Jesus is in bodily form being baptized, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove so the people might see him and the voice of God is heard from heaven. So now we are able to substantiate what we have only been able to have faith in up to this point in scripture. We also see in this that even though the Trinity is made of ONE God that all parts are in submission to the father and work as a cooperative unit. When Jesus is obedient, to the Father, in baptism the Holy Spirit is obedient by being present to fulfill what God had told John would happen as to confirm Jesus’ Messiah-ness.
The importance of the passages is understood when we see what happens next in the life of Christ. After he is baptized he is then driven into the dessert for 40 days by the same spirit that had been upon him in the form of the dove. We read of his temptation and victory and these events mark the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. So keeping with the theme of obedience these passages are important for us to realize the sovereignty of God’s plan no matter how humbling or nasty it might seem to be. If he required complete obedience of his Son, why not us?
When we consider the questions from the previous question we are able to dig deeper and start to “unpack” all the details of this seemingly simple event. The ability to keep these simple questions in the fore ground of our thinking aids us in understanding the details or maybe some of the “behind the scenes” things that might be easily overlooked. The skill of exegesis and exegeting passages is the door in which God opens and welcomes us into his realm and his presence as we worship in our studies.
These passages are a declaration to the world that the Savior has come! He is the chosen one, the Son of God. The one that was promised is among you. He is “beloved” to show His greatness in the Father’s eyes and for the mission at hand. When jesus refers to a beloved son in Mark12, the father is fierce in his response to those who killed his son. He not only destroys them, but set up what they stored up for their future to go to others and thus cease the furthering of their plight. The son of god came to seek and to dave that which is lost and to go and prepare a place for those who believe. There is a great mission, a great event and grand hope for the world tide up in this man. The son of god. It had to be the son of god.
Could the world have been saved by the sending of another? Could there be another save the son of god who could accomplish what god had for this world?
The presentation that occurred in these passages with the declaration of the son of god, involved the God head. This is a great event! The world is not only being introduced to the son of god, they are witnessing a great father and the wonder of the holy spirit. They are important to reveal the greatness(not to be redundent) and importance of this event of jesus’ transfiguration through baptism into this world mission.
steve, you wrote:
"When Jesus is obedient, to the Father, in baptism the Holy Spirit is obedient by being present to fulfill what God had told John would happen as to confirm Jesus’ Messiah-ness. "
WOW! that is great!
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