John's Face to Face with Jesus

Hey Calvary, welcome, we’re continuing a series that we started last week called Face to Face with Jesus. The series focuses on encounters and conversations that people have with Jesus.

It seeks to shed light on how encounters with Jesus are transformational, both in the encounters that we’re going to see and in our lives today. […]

We’re doing this by looking at each encounter with the following questions in mind:

1. What does this encounter tell us of who Jesus is? […]

2. What does this encounter reveal about humanity? […]

3. What is transformed in this encounter with Jesus? […]

Last week we looked at the woman with prolonged bleeding who reached out and touched Jesus while he was on his way to heal someone else.

We looked at how after she was healed Jesus stopped and listened to her, that Jesus wanted to heal more than just her bleeding but he wanted to give her back everything she lost, to restore her dignity and to celebrate her. […]

Today we’re going to look at a very different encounter that Jesus has but one that is equally transformational. We’re going to look at –

(Kevin looks in awe and silence at the figure he realizes is waiting for him to speak. It is Jesus)

Kevin: Hey...wait, oh my gosh, wow, this is incredible, He’s here. Jesus!

No! Like it is ACTUALLY Jesus. It's Jesus. This is the guy that I'm supposed to be telling you about.

Wow I am so underqualified here. I mean, who am I to tell you about any of this stuff when...I mean, it’s You.

(Kevin gets a great idea and slowly looks back toward Jesus)

Jesus, you have to come preach the sermon.

Neil: No, no, it's ok.

Kevin: WHAT?! Haha, come on! You are kidding me, there is no WAY I can preach in front of you. You are the SON! Right Calvary? Don't you guys want to see Jesus preach the sermon?

(crowd reaction)

Do you want to see Jesus preach the sermon?

(crowd reaction)

I said, DO YOU WANT TO SEE JESUS PREACH THE SERMON?!

(Bigger crowd reaction)

Neil: Kevin. I would love to hear you share the story. I want to be able to be with everyone else and receive what you want to share today.

Kevin: No! No way, I won't just let you NOT. You're here and I can't, how could I, now?! I mean, I'm talking to people about you. I'm pretty sure we all know you're more qualified.

Neil: Kevin, I’m here today like everyone else, I’m not here to preach today. It’s not about who’s more qualified. I’m here to be with my brothers and sisters and to turn my heart to my Father just like them. I want to hear what He’s shared with you about this story.

Kevin: Ok, Jesus…

So, I’m not sure if you were able to guess it or not yet but what we’re talking about today is Jesus’ interaction with John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism.

[Slide 2]

This encounter is featured in each of the four gospels although it’s framed a little differently in each but each time it kicks off Jesus’ adult ministry. It serves as Jesus’ official anointing and commissioning for ministry by God the Father and the Holy Spirit with God the Father affirming him as his dearly loved son.

This was one of those passages that preparing for this sermon was so tough because there is so much crammed in here. This passage is so rich that I feel like I could preach the whole day on it and still just skim the surface of how good it is. But I know there’s a young adults lunch after this so I’ll get cut off by the sound of stomachs grumbling at some point. […]

I want to look at our questions for this series a little out of order today, because I think it lines up with how the passage flows a little better. I want to start by looking at what the encounter says about humanity, then what it says about Jesus and land on what it transforms.

Let’s start by reading God’s word.

3 In those days John started to preach in the wilderness of Judea, “Turn back to God, for the kingdom of heaven is coming now.” John is the one who Isaiah talked about when he said,

“The one who calls out in the wilderness:

‘Get ready for God’s arrival;

Prepare for him to come quickly.’”

John wore clothes made out of camel’s hair with a leather belt, he ate locusts and honey. The people of Jerusalem and Judea and everywhere around the Jordan went to see him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when John saw Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptised too, he told them, “You snakes! Who told you to run away from the judgement that’s coming?

Bear fruit that comes from repentance. Don’t tell yourselves, ‘We’re ok because we descended from Abraham.’

I’m telling you, God could make these rocks Abraham’s children if he wanted to. Right now, the axe is ready to cut the tree down. If the tree doesn’t start bearing that fruit coming from repentance then it will be chopped up and tossed in the fire.

“I’m baptizing you with water to show repentance, but the One who comes next is greater than me. I’m not even worthy to pick up his shoes.

He’s going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He will sift you like wheat, he’ll collect the good seeds and get rid of the useless husks.”

Then Jesus came to John, to be baptized too. John wanted to stop him, he said, “You should be baptizing me, why are you coming to be baptized by me?”

But Jesus responded, “This is how it has to be, it is necessary for me to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John accepted it.

And when he’d baptized Jesus, as Jesus came out of the water, heaven opened up to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove and resting on him; and then, God spoke and said, “This is my beloved Son, with Him I am very pleased.”

Humanity

What does the encounter say about Humanity?

What I’ve learned about this passage in my preparation for this sermon is that this passage says a LOT about humanity. Too much. If I were to open this question up to all of you I’m sure we could all give an answer that would be different … and transformational … and right.

So, I want to be able to share with you guys what I kept seeing about humanity when I read this passage. I kept seeing a theme that humanity is waiting for Jesus to show up and intersect with our lives.

But not only do I think we’re waiting for Jesus to intersect our lives I think this passage points out that there are two expectations that we place on Jesus for how he should intersect our lives.

One, we want him to change our circumstances, […] and two, we want him to change us. […]

We want Jesus to change our circumstances.

Well, how was Israel waiting for Jesus to change their circumstances? Well, John the Baptist and Jesus are coming at exactly the right time in history where Israel is not only waiting for a Messiah, they’re expecting it.

Israel has been through a period of seeming silence from God for 480 years since Malachi, the last book of the old testament, was written. They’ve been conquered by the Romans for almost 100 years, and by the Greeks before that for another 270 years.

Preparing for this week’s sermon this point was probably one of the easiest points for me to draw out of this passage. There is so much going on here in this passage in terms of what Israel was waiting for, and what they were expecting to change and why, that I could spend the whole message talking about it.

And while I was doing prep I’d pretty much written a whole sermon on this one point before I realized that wasn’t really the main point of the passage.

But looking into some of this I’m sure how you can see how I got carried away. I mean, the passage is chalk full of symbolism.

Right out of the gate, the very first three words “In those days…” that was a flashback to what the prophets would say about coming times.

“In those days there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That kind of thing. By starting out “In those days” but not following it up with a prophecy, Matthew is implying that the time of fulfillment is NOW. […]

John’s words about “the kingdom of heaven” coming now is a flashback to Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s dream where he sees 4 different kingdoms which rule the earth and in the last one the kingdoms get destroyed and God sets up His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven which will last forever!

The people of Israel were counting the kingdoms that had conquered them and were thinking THIS COULD BE THE TIME!

So, they’re primed and they’re ready for the Messiah to show up, to free them from their Roman masters. But before the Messiah can show up, the book of Malachi, that book from 480 years ago that was the last they heard from God, says that before the Messiah comes Elijah is going to come back.

John shows up on the scene and his crazy clothes are EXACTLY like the ones ELIJAH WORE.

What this all boils down to is that we are excited to see God intersect our lives but we’re excited for him to intersect our lives because of what he can change and do for us. We want him to intersect our lives on our own terms. […]

We’re looking for a God who will help us to throw off our suffering, who will help us to prosper, and who will get rid of our enemies and any presidents we don’t like. We want God to tear down the things we don’t like and to build us up.

I think John get’s this, at least about some of us, and so I think that’s why he calls the Pharisees out. I think he realizes what they’re ultimately looking for is to be built up, … to be affirmed for how good they are … and to see what God can do for them rather than for being truly repentant.

Like Israel we’re in a time of waiting. Waiting for the world to be made right. Not everyone would be willing to say that they’re waiting for God. But I think most everyone is willing to accept that not everything is as it should be and we’re longing for something to come and to turn things right again.

Everyone is waiting for something new, for something to change. In the words of John Mayer “We keep waiting, waiting, waiting on the world to change.”

So, John (the Baptist, not Mayer), shows up on the scene in the midst of all these expectations and he brings a message and the message is simple: get ready. […]

Which brings us to our next point about humanity:

We want Jesus to change us.

John’s message of prepare the way of the Lord prompts a response. A response that earns him his nickname of Baptist.

Even though it wasn’t the main focus of his ministry what John does here is unique. People would come to John and he would dunk them into the Jordan river.

The closest thing at this time to what John is doing would be when a non-jew converted to Judaism they would dunk themselves in water as a ritual of purification.

With John we have Jews coming in this act of purification and conversion. They were essentially recognizing that just like converts from other lands they too needed to turn to God and be purified before him.

In Luke’s gospel we read that the people that are coming to John are crowds, tax collectors and soldiers. The tax collectors and soldiers seem to be singled out because they’re the people that others would have seen as sinful or corrupt.

But each of them comes asking the question “What should we do?” All of them here this call that the Kingdom of Heaven and the Messiah are coming and their response is “We need to change how can we do it?”

As we saw in the first point some of us come to God because of what we think we can get from him but some of us come to God because we want to be forgiven.

Not only do we recognize that the world is not as it should be we also recognize that we’re not as we should be. Some of us are far too aware of our own short comings.

In Israel’s past what had prompted their defeats and oppression by other nations was their rebellion and how they had turned away from God. In coming and confessing their sins these people were acknowledging their part in that and were hoping that this act would prompt God to forgive them and to act on their behalf.

That God would come step into reality and not only make the world well again but that he’d make them well again. The scriptures are full of examples of regular, sinful men and women who when God stepped into their lives saw drastic change as they were empowered by his Spirit. Like Moses going from stuttering murderer to prophet and leader of a nation, or Gideon going from a trembling coward to a mighty warrior.

How many of us long to be transformed in the blink of an eye but feel like we get caught in the same old ruts? How many times have we confessed our sins only to come back and feel like we’re confessing the same ones over again. Or how often do we feel like the same weaknesses are pulling us down?

When I was preparing for this sermon I was really confident, I felt golden and ready and I thought I was going to be ready a week in advance. Then I had a meeting about it with Phil and got some really good feedback but I realized that I was trying to go too wide and I didn’t have a really coherent place to land.

So, this week I had made plans to take a retreat and do some reflection but I wasn’t finished my sermon like I planned so I brought it along with me and I had one day where I was supposed to work on the sermon and I was just blank. I had no clue how to go about it and I couldn’t bring myself to write.

I have a tendency to place really high expectations on myself and I’ve had lots of experiences where the weight of those expectations on myself just seizes me up with fear. I feel paralyzed with anxiety and just don’t know how to break that rut.

So, I was trying to write this sermon and just feeling “Why do I always have to struggle with these things? Why can’t Jesus just help me get over it. It doesn’t seem like it would be that much effort for him to just help me not to seize up but I find myself struggling through the same thing over and over again.

So, we all have these expectations of Jesus, that he’ll either come and change what we’re going through or he’ll change us. It’s against the backdrop of all of these expectations that Jesus first shows up on the scene.

Jesus

What does the encounter say about Jesus?

The one that all these prophecies point to and the one who is going to usher in this new everlasting kingdom. And the first act of his adult ministry…is to submit to someone else’s ministry. The guy which all of our expectations rested on puts himself under some other guy. […]

When I was going over this sermon with Phil I told him that I found it pretty tough to identify or see the humanity in John. I mean he’s the guy that Jesus describes as the best man ever born from a woman.

I find it pretty tough to identify with eating locusts and wearing camel’s hair, I mean the honey sounds nice. But I think John is just as mystified as the rest of us when Jesus asks to be baptized by him.

I think John also doesn’t get it. As much credit as Jesus gives John, John is no Jesus and he knows it. It’s like our dramatization at the front showed.

It would be like Jesus coming and just listening to me preach, I’m no Jesus and I know it. It doesn’t make any sense. If Jesus is in the room he should be taking the reigns, right?

If Jesus is supposed to be the messiah and is supposed to be establishing this everlasting kingdom what business does he have of submitting himself to anyone else’s authority. I mean put yourself in John’s shoes. How do you think he felt to know that he’s responsible for an act of purification for the one guy who doesn’t need one?

Why would Jesus, a sinless man and the only Son of God need to participate in a baptism that’s supposed to be for repentance? What could Jesus possibly have to repent of? […]

Well, the simple answer is nothing. Jesus didn’t have anything that he personally needed to repent of. But in stepping into this baptism of repentance Jesus was identifying himself with us, with the worst that we had to offer. Jesus was identifying with us in our sin. […]

Jesus didn’t just come to change our circumstances but to meet us and share with us in them. And he does change us, but not in the way we wanted or expected.

He doesn’t get rid of everything that’s wrong with us but he comes and identifies with us in the one place that we thought was off limits to him. […]

We were expecting to throw off our weaknesses so Jesus could make us great, but Jesus threw off his greatness to meet us in our weakness. […]

It’s at this point as Jesus identifies with us in baptism that God affirms him as his dearly loved Son. He’s anointed by God the Father and the Holy Spirit as a commissioning for the work that he’s about to do.

Before Jesus has really done anything, God says “this is my beloved Son, with him I’m very pleased.”

Very pleased because in this act he not only identifies with us but he points ahead to the extent that he is willing to go to fulfill that identification and love for us. His descent into the water and rise back out of it points ahead to his ultimate end of death and resurrection for our sake. […]

Transformation

What is transformed by this encounter?

What is transformed is that we don’t have a God who is distant and far off. Our God is close and intimate and he knows what it is like. He has experienced the circumstances we’re going through.

He knows what it means to suffer. And he knows what it is like to be tempted. It means that even in our greatest brokenness that Jesus is with us and identifies with us. We are not alone. The great wait for God to intersect our reality… is over. […]

What we wanted to change was our circumstances and we wanted to change our brokenness. But what has changed is that God meets us in our brokenness and loves us in it. He isn’t dismayed by us struggling over and over again. […]

Hebrews 4:15-16 says “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

But there’s more. We’ve had a look at Jesus’ baptism but as we consider our own baptism there’s more good news. If Jesus in his baptism identified with us in our sin then we in our baptism identify with Jesus!

Baptism isn’t about being ready or prepared for Jesus, we can’t prepare enough to be worthy of Jesus. […]

As Jesus’ baptism pointed to his death and resurrection ours signifies a death to ourselves and new life with Jesus. We’re saying that who I was, my old identity is dead, my new identity is in Jesus.

Galatians 3:27 says “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

When we enter into that relationship where we recognize like John says later in life “I must become less and he must become more.” Then everything we have seen Jesus accomplish in this baptism is bestowed on us.

Like the Spirit descends on Jesus so he descends on us and like the Father says to Jesus “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” So God says that about US!

That is so big, let me repeat it. Like the Spirit descends on Jesus so he descends on us and like the Father says to Jesus “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” So God says that about US!

In other words, not only did God intersect our reality to be with us and identify with us in Jesus but now his Spirit is with us so we never have to be alone. God is not just one of us anymore he’s with us and in us.

God identifies with us in our brokenness and he brings healing and new life.

We’re going to have a baptism class coming up in a few weeks. If you haven’t been baptized but you follow Jesus I want to encourage you to take this step and identify yourself with Jesus in baptism.

As we closed last week I want us to be closing similarly, and think about how Jesus has shown himself to you.

1. What does your encounter with Jesus reveal about him? […] Have you invited him to enter your place of weakness? […]

2. What does your encounter with Jesus reveal about you? […] Are you waiting for him to change you or your circumstances? […]

3. What has been or is being transformed through your encounter with Jesus? […] Have you recognized his invitation to experience love and grace? […]

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