#004 In Good Company

Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus walks sixty miles from Galilee to Jordan, just to be baptized by John the Baptist. He must think baptism is something pretty important!



But John has a problem to solve. Till now he has been telling people to repent of their sins and be baptized. Now what to do with Jesus? How can John, a sinner, baptize the sinless Son of God? What can Jesus possibly repent of?

Nothing. Jesus had nothing to repent of, but he wants to go in side by side with those who had much to repent of. Have you ever had a major situation in your life when someone decided to go along with you, to stay on your side? Then you know what I am talking about.

Jesus is willing to go along with the sinner into something that is a symbol of death. Three years later, he faces alone the deep sea of God´s judgment with its waves of terror, dying on a cross. But he does not stay in the grave. God raises him, so you do not have to be judged... if you trust.

When Jesus clues John in to the fact that in doing so he is fulfilling all righteousness, John agrees to baptize him.

This is where we have one of the most sublime scenes of the entire Bible. Emerging from the water, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove. Then the Father's voice echoes in the skies:

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Here is where the skeptics engage in lengthy discussions to try to deny the one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They argue that the Trinity makes no sense. Of course it does not make sense! If the essence of God - the very nature of the infinite God - made sense to the finite human mind, he would not be God!

The voice is God's, the Father; the dove is an assumed form of God, the Holy Spirit; and God, the Son, is the one being baptized. Do you understand now why in the book of Genesis you find God saying "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness"? That's why.

But the most important issue here is this: Can God say that he is pleased in me or in you? He is well pleased in his Son, Jesus, the only perfect Man who walked this world. What about in you and me?

Well, we must be “in Jesus” if we are to please God. There are places where you can not enter if you are not in the company of the right person. Heaven is like that.

In the next 3 minutes you will learn where to find the right answers.