Bill's Bible Blog

In the previous blog, I showed some of the ways that Jesus embodied the five characteristics of the Messiah from Isaiah 9:6, except that He didn’t set up His eternal kingdom of peace. During His trial, Jesus indicated His kingdom was not of THIS world (yet.)

WE who have believed are members of this spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ. In addition to fulfilling prophecies and demonstrating signs of God’s anointing, there were three times when God Himself spoke in affirmation of Jesus. I’ll look at those three events in the next three blogs.

1. BAPTISM: The first heavenly affirmation was when Jesus was baptized by the prophet John ‘the Baptizer.’ John thought it should be the other way around, that Jesus should be baptizing John. But Jesus told him it was necessary, so John baptized Him. When Jesus came out of the water, the heavens opened…

The Mark and Luke versions of the baptism personalize the message from God, as though it is assurance from God to Jesus. The Matthew version presents the message as more of an announcement to those who are there.

John does not specifically cover the baptism of Jesus, but refers to it after the fact. (For more on why the gospels are different, see the upcoming blog, C11 – Origins of the Gospels.)

That is, later when Jesus is passing by, possibly after returning from His 40 days of fasting and temptation, John the Baptist declares,

The two disciples who were with John the Baptist at that time were Andrew, Simon Peter’s older brother, and the younger John,  the writer of this gospel. They left from following John the Baptist and became the first followers of Jesus.

TAKEAWAY

As I was studying the four passages about Jesus’ baptism, I noticed there were a lot of moving parts associated with just this one event–the baptism of Jesus by John.

Many of these events were obviously put into motion and shepherded by God–but I’m sure there were many more than we actuality see recorded in the Bible. Let’s look just at at those surrounding the Baptism:

1. John was sent a mission by God to point out Jesus as being the Messiah and prepare the hearts of the Israelites to accept and believe in Him.

2. John was given a method to identify the Messiah. “I myself did not know Him, but…

3. God spoke an affirmation from heaven when John baptized Jesus that was heard by those present, including John himself, although to others it was only the sound of thunder.

4. And God provided a sign John was told to look out for, the Spirit of God coming upon Jesus in His fullness:

This all kicked off Jesus’ ministry, gave Jesus His first two disciples–Andrew and John.  Andrew, the older of the two, used his experience as John’s disciples to became Jesus’ “major domo” and kept things running smoothly around Jesus. Young John became Jesus’ longest living Apostle. They both went and brought their brothers, testifying they had found the Messiah…, and so on and so on.

The point is, God had a plan and was intervening as needed to keep the plan in motion and on the right track. Does that mean everything was always ‘roses and champagne’? NO! There was opposition. That opposition was actually expected and figured into God’s plan.

WE are a part of God’s continuing plan to bring salvation through Jesus Christ to the entire world. Should we expect things to go smoothly? NO! Quite the contrary. What we CAN expect is that God is actively involved in moving His plan along–often out of our sight, behind the scenes, even in ways we can’t understand–and we need to keep forging ahead in our trust in Him and obedience to His commands.

Here’s a worship song that encourages me to believe in that. I hope that it encourages you too.

Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working…”

Is that easy for you to do? It certainly IS NOT for me!  But we need to encourage each other to forge ahead. My blog is my way of trying to help you. I have brothers and sisters in the faith around me who keep me encouraged. I hope you have some of those around you too.