Sermon Tone Analysis

Pre-Introduction:

At this time, we invite any children who desire to join my dear wife for a children’s service to follow her where you can hear a wonderful bible lesson and sing some uplifting songs about Jesus.

For those joining us outside this gathering, you’re listening to the Services of the Broomfield Baptist Church.

This is the Pastor bringing the Sunday Morning message entitled “John & Jesus at Jordan.”

We invite you to follow along with us in your Bible in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 3, and verses 13-17.

I draw you attention particularly to verse number 15.

For our guests and church family gathering with us today, I don’t want it to catch you off-guard, but in about 35mins or so, I’m going to ask you to do something.

I’ll be asking you to make a decision based on the information in today’s sermon.

At the end of the service, I’ll invite you to come if you will and kneel if you’re able at the front as a token of God working in your life.

Those who are able to counsel at the altar, I ask you to be attentive to the needs that might present, and be ready to help if needed at that time.

Introduction:

[Start Low]

A. Get Attention-

Pre-qualification- This sermon is not intended to be a discourse on what Believer’s Baptism is, for further help understanding that aspect of the Christian walk, please see one of our Discipler’s for a more in-depth treatment of what that is.

Please do not confuse Jesus’ Baptism by John here with Believer’s Baptism as administered by Jesus’ duly ordained ministers within His local churches, while there are many similarities, there are some nuances unique to each that serve different capacities of identification.

Also, allow me to state up front that as a church, we believe and teach that Baptism is a picture, and in no means was ever meant to carry sacramental power, namely of washing sin away; the only way to have your sins forgiven and washed away before God is by grace through faith in Jesus’ substitutionary death for you on the cross.

B. Raise Need-

Illustration- May I see your I.D. Please?

Baptism was Christ’s Identification.

Baptism is now the Christian’s Identification.

C. State Purpose- to exhort identification with Jesus

D. Orient Theme- The Baptism of Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, anointed Him for ministry, and found favor with God.

Main Thought: When the fuller picture of Christ’s baptism comes into focus in all of its facets, it moves you to admire His wonderful love and power to save, and inspires you to disdain the old life in the flesh, to then step out in faith to follow Him fully.

Sub-introduction: Give the context of the Baptism of John, and how it related to fruit meet for repentance for some that had come.

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Too often in our days the ax is laid to the fruit of the tree.

But it is the root that is wrong.

There must be a new man if there would be fruit for God.

To lay the ax to the root of the tree implies the utter condemnation of the natural man and suggests the positive need of new birth.

[H. A. Ironside, Expository Notes on the Gospel of Matthew.

(Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1948), 28.]

Body:

I. Moving Toward the Baptismal Waters (Matt.

3:13-15)

[Go Slow]

Note - Jesus Presents Himself for John's Baptism

A. Hindrances to Baptism (Matt.

13:13-14)

Note - Jesus' Arrival to the Jordan River from Galilee (Mt.

3:13) Brings An Understandable Hindrance (Mt.

3:14)

Note - Describe the geography of Jordan and what it would have taken Jesus to get there, on purpose.

Note - “forbad”

John contrasts himself with Jesus (the emphatic pronouns I and you bring this out).

There is a certain irony in John’s difficulty baptizing the leaders because they were not worthy of baptism, while here he has difficulty allowing Jesus to be baptized because John is not worthy of him.5 [5 Carson, “Matthew,” 107.] [Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, vol. 1, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 122.]

B. Helps for the Candidate (Mt.

3:15)

Note - Jesus' Answer to John's Concern Puts Forth An Imperative Allowance (Mt.

3:15)

Note - “Suffer” is imperative, from the root meaning “forgive” and has the sense of “to allow” or “to permit” here.

Note - “now”

God’s will for the present is for Jesus to begin his messianic ministry with baptism.

The time is “now,” not later.

[Osborne, 123.]

Note - “Fulfill all righteousness” (cf.

Mt. 5:17, to fulfill…)

An important prerequisite to understanding Jesus’ words is an understanding of the meaning of “righteousness.”

Matthew’s use of this word is different from Paul’s.

Paul used it mainly to describe a right standing before God, positional righteousness.

Matthew used it to describe conformity to God’s will, ethical righteousness.165

Ethical righteousness is the display of conduct in one’s actions that is right in God’s eyes.

It does not deal with getting saved but responding to God’s grace.

In Matthew a righteous person is one who lives in harmony with the will of God (cf.

1:19).

Ethical righteousness is a major theme of the Old Testament, and it was a matter that concerned the Jews in Jesus’ day, especially the Pharisees.

[165 165.

Benno Przybylski, Righteousness in Matthew and His World of Thought, pp.

91–94.]

[Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Mt 3:15.]

Righteousness from God

I. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness.

3:15.

II.

Believers should thirst after righteousness.

5:6.

III.

Being persecuted for righteousness is blessed.

5:10.

IV.

Believers’ righteousness must exceed that of Pharisees.

5:20.

V. Righteous deeds should be done for God alone.

6:1.

VI.

Believers should seek God’s righteousness.

6:33.

VII.

John came in the way of righteousness.

21:32.

[Stewart Custer, The Gospel of the King : A Commentary on Matthew (Greenville, S.C.: BJU Press, 2005), 43.]

Note - “Then he suffered him”

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

(2 Corinthians 5:21, KJV 1900)

He was baptized that he might assume the sinner’s guilt, standing with him and for him and identifying himself with his lot.

Then he was anointed by the Spirit, and attested by the Father’s voice.

[F.

B. Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day: A Devotional Commentary, vol. 5 (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1914–1918), 17.]

Application: Sometimes, even well-meaning, we can also be hindered from following the Lord in Baptism.

For me, it was many years after my profession of salvation that I came to fully confess Christ openly and identify with Him fully in Baptism.

Think of your own experience, what all had to occur in your life to move you toward those baptismal waters?

Jesus went out of His way for us in so many aspects, have you moved toward Him yet?

are you helping others move toward Him for salvation and then baptism?

Setting aside the traditions of religion and the reasonings of men, leaving the practices of various Christian denominations, forgetting about the influence of personal feelings and family background or ties, and basing our decision entirely within the context of Scripture, the only honest conclusion concerning baptism is that baptism is the one time rite or act of immersion in water exclusively intended for the believer, the child or God, whereby that believer personally and publicly identifies himself or herself with both his or her Lord and Saviour and with the local New Testament church by whose authority the baptism was administered.

THE ONE QUESTION FACING ALL BELIEVERS.

Have you been baptized since you were saved?

Yes_____ No_____

If your answer is yes, you may skip over this next question; but if your answer is "no," please read this next passage slowly and carefully.

THE ONE QUESTION FOR THOSE WHO ARE SAVED,

BUT WHO HAVE NOT BEEN BAPTIZED

Why is it that you have not followed the Lord Jesus in believer's baptism in obedience to His command?

Maybe you did not know you were supposed to be baptized.

Maybe you have not had an opportunity.

Maybe you have never before been shown the truth about baptism.

Maybe you realize that you listened to some person rather than the Lord.

Maybe you were misguided or even taught wrongly about baptism.