This passage marks the inauguration of Jesus’s ministry. His baptism was the marker for its commencement because it included the significant occasion of revealing His role as Messiah to the nation of Israel via His commendation by His Father.
I. He Was Purposed
What we notice first in this passage is that He was purposed in coming to John. Verse 13 says, “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him.” Jesus was clear in His intention. He was coming to be baptized. I see a twofold purpose for Jesus’s coming to be baptized.
Baptism is an identification. It is an acknowledgement that I belong with something or someone. Jesus had two purposes in coming to identify Himself with John’s baptism. First, He was identifying with John’s message of repentance in preparation for the Messiah. Now, Jesus, was not coming to repent. Obviously, He had no need to repent, for He had never sinned (He was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin, as the Scripture says in Hebrews 4:15.). He was identifying with John’s message because Jesus Himself was the fulfillment of it.
For Jesus to claim to be the Messiah but have nothing to do with John’s baptism would be to reject the authenticity of John’s message. The apostle John writes in his gospel (1:31) John the Baptist’s words: “‘So that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.’” Again, the reason for John’s baptism was to bring attention to the coming Messiah and in this sense present Him to the nation of Israel. So He came to identify with and approve John’s message.
The second purpose for which Jesus came to be baptized by John was to identify with sinners. He was receiving this baptism for sinners though He Himself was not a sinner. We already said that Jesus never sinned and John alludes to this in the next verse, but Jesus came to be baptized because He who had no sin became sin for us. His identification in this baptism was with the sinner. Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Jesus’s critics complained that “He ate with sinners” and called Him a friend of sinners.
Yes, this was His identification with sinners. This baptism pictured His death for sinners upon the cross. He can be called the friend of sinners (in the right sense) because this is why He came. He would identify with them in His baptism, but most importantly He identified with the sinner on the cross. This is why John the Baptist exclaimed, when He saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Now understand that because Jesus identified with you and me, it does not mean that you have identified with Him. Recognize that because He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in order for Him to remove your sin, you must identify with Him. How do you do that? In the Old Testament, the person who brought a lamb as a sin offering to the priest had to place his hand upon the head of the lamb. This signified a transfer of sin from the worshipper to the lamb. Jesus may have died for your sin but you must personally make the transfer of your sin to Him. The apostle John speaks of this at the beginning of His gospel: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” You must receive Him as your Savior. You need to call upon Him. He identified with you, but have you ever identified with Him?
II. He Was Prevented
What we see next in this passage of the commencement of Jesus’s ministry is that He was prevented. In verse 14 we read, “But John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’” John misunderstood the purpose for Jesus’s coming to be baptized. He saw himself as unworthy to baptize the Messiah. His misunderstanding is seen in his emphatic response. This verse literally reads, “I, I have need to be baptized by You.” John was incredulous. He asked, “Do You come to me?”
John was well-intentioned in seeking to hinder Jesus from being baptized, not realizing that this was exactly what needed to take place. Simply because John was a prophet did not mean he always had everything right. Later in the gospel, after John has been imprisoned, he had doubts about whether Jesus was even the Messiah. He had to ask for further assurance of that truth.
John had mistaken worthiness for a task with being set apart for a task. Was John worthy to be the forerunner of the Messiah and baptize Him in preparation for His ministry to the nation of Israel? No, absolutely not. Did God set him apart to accomplish that task? Had John set himself apart for the service of God to accomplish whatever God wanted him to do? Yes. Was He adequate for such a task? Yes, only because he was filled with Holy Spirit. He didn’t seek to accomplish this in his own strength. He wasn’t preaching and calling people to repentance from his own strength. He allowed the power of the Holy Spirit to direct him in his ministry. Apart from that he would be inadequate for any task to which God called him.
When we look Jesus in the face (not physically like John did) we see ourselves (rightfully so) as unworthy for anything that we would do for Him. The point is not whether you are worthy, but whether you are called to service. To serve Him you have to be saved. God saves people from their sin so they can serve Him. You can’t serve God in the right manner (out of love and not fear) if you are not saved. Before I was saved I tried to serve God but it was only out of fear. I feared that if I did not serve Him I would go to hell. I feared that if I did not serve Him enough I would go to hell. I served with the wrong motivation. But when I received Jesus Christ as my Savior and understood that He received me as I am, I was empowered with that understanding to serve Him out of love for His salvation that He already provided.
But you also have to set yourself apart to serve Him. You may never know how God wants to use you for His service until you set yourself apart for Him. You need to tell the Lord, “I don’t know how you want to use me, but I will set myself apart for your service.” Now that small prayer opens the door for God to begin to direct you as to how He wants to allow you to serve Him. But along with that prayer begins God’s call to ask certain things of you. He may want your Saturdays, He may want you to give up certain things in your life that are hindering you in a certain way. When you set yourself apart for His service, you are yielding yourself for Him to direct you to be used. Think with me for a minute. If you went to your boss and said, “I can do any part of the operation that you think will be helpful,” and he says, “I need you to clean the bathrooms,” you need to humble yourself to clean the bathrooms. Or if he says, “I want you to work the most important machine in the shop but you’ll have to go to night school while you work during the day,” then you are committed to that if your intention was true to do anything. When you set yourself apart for the Lord, expect that there may be things you need to do to ready yourself for His service. There may be things you need to give up. There may be things you need to add to your schedule. Now let me tell you from experience that when you do set yourself apart for Him, Satan will attempt to get in and tell you “you’re going to miss such and such” or “it’s not worth the sacrifice.” I have gone through things like that. But I tell you on the other side of that surrender to God’s direction there is freedom. Don’t believe Satan’s lies that God wants to withhold something from you. No, God wants to fill you, not leave you empty. Satan wants to leave you empty, God wants to fill you FULL.
And this brings us to the aspect of adequacy. I don’t care what it is that God would have you do. To proclaim God’s Word (like John), to teach (like Barnabas), to share the gospel (like Timothy), to make garments (like Tabitha): it doesn’t matter. You will not be adequate for the job unless you are relying on the Holy Spirit to increase what you are doing. You may be doing well enough; you may be the most creative, the hardest working, the most diligent, but if the Spirit is not taking that and bringing fruit from it, you will not be adequate for the task. Perhaps from the human perspective you will be. Everyone may take notice of you and applaud you, but if you are not empowered by the Spirit, you will not accomplish lasting results.
III. He Was Permitted
Thirdly, notice that Jesus was permitted. In verse 15 we read, “But Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he permitted Him.” Jesus’s explanation to John shows that what Jesus was doing in being baptized was in line with the Old Testament Scripture. This is why He said, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Within the 16 times that Matthew uses the word “fulfilled,” a dozen times he clearly uses it to describe the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Jesus was declaring to John that this baptism was necessary for them to accomplish everything the Old Testament spoke of concerning Himself.
In Luke 24, Luke writes, “[Jesus] said to them…‘Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ I think the clearest passage that speaks of this “baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, one in which the chaff will be burned up and the wheat gathered into His barn,” is the third and fourth chapters of Malachi. The passage speaks of John the Baptist as the coming Elijah. In 4:1-2, it speaks of Jesus fulfilling all righteousness (called there “the sun of righteousness”). “For behold the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff (wasn’t this John’s message from verses 10-12?)… But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” This, in Malachi 3-4, is in context with both Elijah and His baptism. Jesus is mentioned in the mix. It is fitting for the sun of righteousness to fulfill all righteousness by accomplishing everything the Old Testament spoke of concerning Himself.
IV. He Was Promoted
Finally, in this passage showing the commencement of Jesus’ ministry, we notice that He was promoted. In verses 16-17, Matthew says, “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’”
Now when I say that Jesus was promoted, I don’t mean at all that He became greater or better or somehow received anything He had not had before. By promotion I mean that he received open endorsement for His work from the other members of the Trinity. In His presentation to the nation of Israel He was promoted by the Father and the Holy Spirit to show that He was their promised Messiah. The Messiah had come to deliver them from their sin and to rule over them as their King. No Israelite seeing this event could misunderstand the import of it. This was a double announcement of His Messianic authority.
The first announcement of His authority and the promotion of who He was is seen in the Messianic anointing. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism. This declared to everyone that Jesus was their King. The Israelites were ruled by kings appointed by the Lord, and the Lord declared His choice of that particular king by anointing him with the Holy Spirit. Normally a prophet was sent by the Lord to anoint the king with oil as a visible symbol of the Holy Spirit filling that person. We see the work of this anointing most clearly in the lives of David and Saul. In 1 Samuel 16 we read in verse 13, “Then Samuel took the horn of the oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward… Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.” God had removed both Saul’s authority and his ability to rule effectively. In Jesus’s case, the Holy Spirit visibly appeared in the form of a dove. There was no need for any other visible sign. The Holy Spirit’s anointing was necessary for Him to carry out His ministry effectively. It had nothing to do with salvation.
The Holy Spirit’s anointing was to fulfill His ministry as the Messiah, as He was to carry it out through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was not to rely upon Himself: though He was God, He emptied Himself of His prerogative to use His own divine power. He needed to submit to the will of the Father and be led by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s anointing was given to Jesus to carry out His ministry to the nation of Israel.
The second announcement of His authority and the promotion of who He was is seen in the Messianic declaration. In verse 17 we read, “And behold a voice out of heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’” This Messianic declaration brings us (and any Jew who was there at the baptism) back to Psalm 2, a clear presentation from the Scripture of Jesus. In verse 2 it says, “The kings of the earth take their stand… against the Lord and against His Anointed.” In verse 6 the Lord declares, “I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” In verse 7, he notes, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” This is the declaration that the Lord is making. “You are My beloved Son.” From this passage of Scripture and the Old Testament context, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind who Jesus is. Some say He was only a good teacher. They are wrong. He is more than that. Some say that He was a prophet. They are wrong. He is more than that. He is the Messiah to the nation of Israel and to the world. He is Lord of lords and King of kings. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world through His death and resurrection. And He is the Son of God, God who has come in the flesh according to the writings of all the prophets.
I want to close with one more very important observation from this passage. It is the Father’s closing remark: “in whom I am well-pleased.” This statement has very important implications for all of us. You see the verb tense denotes that the Father has been fully pleased with Him, is fully pleased with Him, and will continue to be fully pleased with Him. This statement concerns your status before God. Let me ask this question. Is God fully pleased with you? Is He completely pleased? Is there anything over which He is not pleased with you? If that is true, then you cannot go to heaven. He must look on you and be fully pleased. If not, you will perish. How can you be fully pleasing in His sight? The end of Psalm 2 tells us. It reads, “Kiss the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way… How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” All those who kiss the Son (that is, acknowledge a onetime act of submission to receive Him as their Savior) take refuge in Him. They are placed into the Messiah. Because of this action where Jesus saves you and places you into Himself, the Father no longer looks at your sin. Because you have taken refuge in the Messiah, He sees His Son’s righteousness and says of you, “This TOO is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
God feels this way about EVERYONE who has received His Son. There is no distinction. It is not based on your track record, on how well you do from day to day, but on the righteousness of Christ that is now applied to your account. So don’t stand under God’s displeasure. Come to Christ and stand under His “well-pleasure.” On account of His Son Jesus, let Him say about you, “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased.”