His Early Life and Baptism

We are in the life of Christ and we last time we're talking about his birth and early childhood. Tonight we're going to finish up the early childhood of Jesus, just a couple more things to talk about there and then we will get into the baptism of Jesus which is described in all four gospels. Interestingly enough, there are not many events of our Lord's life that are described in all four of the gospels. But this one is, so we'll talk about it in just a moment. We were on the 10th of 11 events described in the gospels about our Lord's early life, his birth and early life and where we will take up tonight is in Luke chapter 2, familiar story of when Jesus visited the temple at 12 years of age. Luke chapter 2 verses 41 to 51, the visit to Jerusalem at 12. Look at verse 41, if you will, every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up to the feast according to the custom. It's interesting that the Bible indicates it was customary for them to go. It was ordinary for them to go. That was their custom. Again, demonstrating that Jesus' parents were God-fearing, righteous, old testament saints. They followed the mosaic law and did what they were supposed to do in that way. When Jesus was 12, this may be the first time that Jesus had actually gone to the Passover with them. We're not sure, but it may have been quite often a Jewish young man would go the year before his Bar Mitzvah. The Bar Mitzvah was a Jewish ceremony where at age 13 he would become a Bar Mitzvah, a son of the covenant. A son of the covenant was one who now was responsible to obey the law. As an adult male, take his place in Israel at age 13, responsible for all the requirements of the law. Jesus, at age 12, goes up to Jerusalem to the Passover. It was customary for many parents to take their sons for all of the Passover and religious feasts at age 12 to prepare them for becoming a young man in the law, son of the covenant. That may be what's happening here. Verse 43, after the feast was over while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. What do you think was going on there? They don't know that Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem. Why? Were they negligent parents? What do you think is happening there? Had a bunch of other kids. That is true. We'll see in just a little while that that is true by this time they did probably have several other children. Okay, all watched out after each other. People did typically go in family groups. And so he could have in their mind been with another family group, a part of the family. What does that demonstrate? If that's the case. The trust relationship there. They knew to trust him at age 12. They knew they could trust him to be where he should be. And they did not have to check on him to make sure he was with them. So you can imagine their shock horror when they get a day's journey away and find out that he's not with them. Verse 44, thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. That kind of clues you into the fact that they would have expected he would have been with some of the other relatives or friends from Nazareth that had gone up to the feast with them. Verse 45, when they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him after three days. Now probably that includes the day of travel, the day back to Jerusalem, and then looking for him one day. I don't think it necessarily means they went back to Jerusalem and looked for him for three days. But in all it was three days before he was found. Verse 46 after three days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Sometimes when you hear this in children's story books and so forth, you get the impression that Jesus was lecturing these rabbis and these doctors of the law and that kind of thing. That's not necessarily the case. He was listening and he was answering questions and asking questions. So he was very respectful. I don't think you should see something out of order for the normal 12-year-old here. Jesus was 12. He was perfect at 12. I think he was beginning to understand humanly his mission here on earth, as we'll see at a moment. But he was listening, very intent, interested in what was being taught and answering, asking questions, verse 46 says. But look at verse 47, everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. So obviously he was also answering other questions that were being discussed about the law and these learned scholars, these teachers of the law were amazed at his knowledge. Now verse 48, when his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. Obviously the normal concern of a mother who is concerned for her son because not being able to find it's been three days. You can imagine how she would feel. Even if a child is utterly trustworthy, three days of not knowing where your child is, it's very hard to deal with. Verse 49, and notice this beautiful, very beautiful combination of humanity and deity here. Why were you searching for me? He asked. That's very, there's a bit of childish naivete, a little bit of childish innocence here on the part of Jesus. Why were you looking for me? Well, a 12 year old might think that, a very responsible 12 year old might think that, but because a 12 year old has not been apparent yet. So there's a very real part of his humanity coming out here. Why would you be looking for me? But then notice the deity also, didn't you know that I had to be in my father's house? On a human level, Jesus is now beginning to grasp his mission here on earth. How much of that he understood at age five would have been what a normal five year old could understand. And this is a mystery. Obviously, Jesus was both God and man, but he did grow, as we've seen in Luke 252. He did grow normally in a human sense intellectually, socially, spiritually, physically. So Jesus, understanding of who he was, what he was sent here to do, even of God's purpose and plan on a human level, that grew as he grew. So at age 12, there's indication here that he has a good grasp of a special relationship with his father. Okay? That's very interesting. And verse 50, they did not understand what he was saying to them. Verse 51, then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. Isn't that another great insight into his perfect humanity? In childlike innocence, he doesn't understand why they're so concerned. He's really about his father's business now. He's in his father's house doing what he knows he should be doing, even at age 12. But once he realizes what's going on, then he goes back to Nazareth with them. And is submissive to them as a normal 12-year-old should be. Yes? They knew, you know, that is interesting. Margaret is asking, why did they not understand what was happening? Obviously, they had the word of the angel as to his birth and who he would be. And Mary knew that, but how all that would play out. I'm sure there was a lot of mystery to it. And things like this that would happen because they obviously saw him as a child too. And so there were no doubt many questions in their mind about how all this fit together. I mean, we can't figure it out still today. And even with them living there with him, I'm sure it's difficult for them to put it all together. And so they did not grasp what he was saying in terms of, I have to be in my father's house. I think they probably understood a unique relationship with the father that he's the king of Israel, he's the son of God. But why did he have to be at age 12 in the father's house? There were some things about that they didn't understand, I'm sure. But he does go back with them, he's obedient to them, but then noticed the next statement which ties into what Margaret's asking. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. I think everything that would happen like this, and we don't know how many things there would have been in his childhood, but everything that would happen like this that would give her another glimpse into who he was, she would then take it to heart and think about it. And dwell on it and process it, try to figure it out. There's so much that we would like to know, someone was speaking to me on the way in tonight about all of these gaps and empty spaces in our Lord's life, childhood and early manhood, and how much we would love to know of what it was like. And this is one of those things that you just wonder what it was like to be his mother, to have the son of God, the Messiah growing up in your home, and watching him grow and develop and come to a greater understanding of what his purpose was, just fascinating thing to think about. But this is the one event that we know between age two or approximately age two and age 30. This is the one thing we know. It's like one snapshot of your child between age two and 30. You'd like to know a little more, wouldn't you? Certainly, we would, but it wasn't the Lord's purpose to give us more. Whether she ever had to tell him to clean his room. Well, you know, I think he probably kept his room clean. If she had an expectation of something that needed to be done, I know this. He did it without talking back. And he did it without any hesitancy, whatever he was asked to do or told to do. Yes. Yeah. Can you imagine what it would be like, Tommy's asking what would be like for his brothers and sisters. And we'll see a little bit later, he did have brothers and sisters that were born to Mary and Joseph later. What would have been like for them to grow up with a perfect brother? Only my sisters were here. I could get some mileage out of that one, but it wouldn't last very long. I'll tell you. I'd hear about it for a month. It must have been quite an interesting home life, really, for them. Well, let's end the questions or comments there about this wonderful snapshot of Jesus, boyhood. Yes. Susan's asking a great question about, you know, since he was perfect and Mary knew that, did he receive more concentrated training in the law? Or did he automatically know those things? It's hard to know how the family operated whether or not Jesus received more attention, more training. I think this much we know he did not automatically know everything in the law. He did grow in knowledge. And again, that's difficult to understand because he's God. But the way theologians typically phrase this is that, you know, Philippians 2 talks about Jesus laying aside his equality with God. He didn't lay aside his deity. He laid aside the outward expression of the glory of God to come down to earth and be a real man. And the way theologians describe it is that he voluntarily gave up the independent use of his attributes, of his divine attributes. Now those words are chosen very carefully. He voluntarily gave this up when he came down to earth, voluntarily gave up the independent use of his attributes. Whenever he needed to flex divine muscle, he did. We know that as an adult in his ministry when he performed miracles, when he walked on water, when he calls the blind to see all of those things were evidences of divine power. But he never did anything even in his ministry that was not in line with the father's will and the father's purpose for his life and ministry. So he never just did miracles to be showing off or to show how much power he had. He always did it with a purpose to fulfill the father's will. He voluntarily laid aside or gave up the independent use of his divine attributes. So in growing up, he learned he gained new knowledge, humanly speaking. There's a verse in the Gospels that say where Jesus himself said, no one knows the coming of the Son of Man, not even the Son of Man. While he was here on earth, voluntarily gave up the right to know even when his second coming was going to be. Yes. To really live a normal human life and be fully human, I had to do that. And there's still a lot of mystery here. How the human and divine operated together. I think we can say this much, Jesus was not schizophrenic. He was not one day a man in the next day. I'm not saying, no, I'm God. It wasn't like the two natures were completely there in one person and they were perfectly operating together. But how is really difficult to know? It's one of those mysteries that you can't figure out logically. Why nobody recorded anything from ages 12 to 30? We just don't know except that it was not the focus of God's purpose for us to know that. I mean, one very good reporter. Well, you know, I think God wanted us, obviously the important thing for us to know from Jesus is his ministry, the fulfillment of the Old Testament through his ministry and then his death. And that's the important thing for us to know about Christ. His teachings, his ministry, his proving that he was the Messiah, how Israel rejected him and how he came. And he went to the cross. Obviously for our salvation, for our understanding of God's purpose and plan and human history, that's what's important. It's not important for us to know what ages started shaving. That's not important, right? I mean, we'd like to know curiosity. We'd just like to know, but that's not really important for the telling of the story. And I think that's the reason why there's such a gap here. There's no information. He did. When he was in the garden, and that's the cup that's running? Yes. Jesus displayed the normal human emotions, feelings. He was fully a man. Now, he did not sin. And we'll talk about that when we talk about the temptation, but that's a couple of weeks off. But he was fully a man. Full range of human feelings, emotions and experiences. He got tired. He got exhausted. You know, got hungry. It's one of the great mysteries of theology is how the deity and the humanity of Christ, what it looked like in the same person, what it came out. Mary? Mary is asking about, did other writers like Josephus and others write stories about Jesus? Were there any historical basis for that? I think I'm getting the gist of the question there. And really, there were lots of other stories written about Jesus. There were other gospels written, probably the most famous of which is the gospel of Thomas. And there were several of these. If you're familiar with Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code and the movie, you may have heard references to the Gospels. And there were Gospels that were around, but they were very quickly proven by the early church to be fakes. There was no historical truth to them, no factual basis for them. They certainly had errors in them and very early on the church discarded all of those. Now Josephus, who was a legitimate historian, really has very little to say about Jesus. But there were other gospels written that made fantastic claims. Some of them said that Jesus as a little boy made pigeons out of clay and then breathed life into them and they flew off and got mad at a play made in struck and blind. You know, there are stories like that. And they're just obviously way out and left feel. Okay. Any other questions? Okay, great. The hidden years in Nazareth. I mean, not great that we don't have any other questions. They were great questions. Oh, I'm sorry I forgot the map, Greg. I'm really throwing you off tonight. The map is basically just to remind you of the visit and the route from Nazareth to Jerusalem and down the river Jordan and then across to Jerusalem. Okay, the hidden years in Nazareth, Luke 252. Again, this is all we know about his growing up years. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Statements that Jesus grew in all four areas of normal human development. He grew in wisdom. That's intellectual. He grew mentally. He grew in stature. He grew physically. In other words, thirdly, he grew in favor with God. He grew spiritually. And that's the one that's hard to grasp and understand. Certainly doesn't mean that you have to overcome any sin because you never sinned. But it does mean that he grew in his understanding of the word of God. He grew in his understanding of his relationship with God. His relationship with God as his father grew and developed as he grew. Humanly because he had a normal human progress of growth and then he also grew in favor with men. He grew socially. And so in those four areas of life, he developed as a normal human being would develop, but he developed perfectly. In other words, he had perfect knowledge for a 12-year-old, a 15-year-old, an 18-year-old, a 21-year-old. He developed perfectly in every area, but he did develop. He did grow. And not just physically in all other areas as well. Now, the important thing to know about these 18 years between the one account we have when he's age 12 and where the gospels then pick up at age 30, the important thing to recognize is that during those silent years, those hidden years, Jesus is learning what the Scriptures say to be a faithful and merciful high priest. Look at these verses in Hebrews. I think they're on the screen for you. Yes, Hebrews 2, verse 17. For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way. This is talking about the need for Jesus to be fully human. He had to have a human body, human life experience. In order of that, he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make a tonement for the sins of the people. Now, it's important for Jesus to experience human life as a normal human being so that he might be a merciful high priest. In other words, we have a high priest in heaven who understands what human life is like. He understands what physical exhaustion is like. He understands what rejection by even family is like because none of Jesus family, except with the exception of Mary, believed in him until after the resurrection. His brothers didn't. John 7 makes that clear. And so he knows what it's like to be misunderstood and rejected even by family. So doing this growing up years, he experiences human life and comes to understand what it's what it is like to live as a human being and and thus in our in heaven now as he prays for us, he is a merciful high priest. So he knows what it feels like. Mercy means to have compassion and pity to share that with someone else. And so Jesus knows that. He knows that by experience the other verse he brews for for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet was without sin. Now the temptation of Christ and how all that works will get into later, but he did experience human life. He knows what weaknesses like. He knows what human frailty is. He knows what loneliness is. He knows all of those feelings of human emotion. And so we have one in heaven who is praying for us who understands what we go through. And a lot of that was learned in those years, those hidden years. God was developing him, putting him through life experiences where he would understand fully what it's like to be a 21 year old and a 30 year old. And we do know a little bit about Jesus from one verse and we'll put this one on the screen to mark six verse three. This is when Jesus starts his ministry goes back to Nazareth, his hometown, the preach in the synagogue. And here's the response of people in the synagogue. Where did this man get these things? They asked. What's this wisdom he's been given that he even does miracles. Now notice these next words. Isn't this the carpenter or this hold it right there for just a second? Isn't this the carpenter? Now that's a very interesting insight into Jesus these hidden years. His human father, not biological father, but as the Bible talks about the one who was supposed by others to be his father, Joseph, Joseph was a carpenter. Evidently, he taught that trade to Jesus. And by the time Jesus enters his ministry at age 30, Jesus is known as the carpenter, the carpenter of Nazareth. And that tells us that probably by this time Joseph has passed away. Joseph is dead. I mean, we're surmising that. But just the way it's phrased, Jesus is known as the carpenter in Nazareth now. And so probably Joseph had died. Now notice what the rest of the verse says. Isn't this Mary's son? Again, another indication probably Joseph had died by now. Every time he's mentioned in the birth narratives, the idea is that people supposed he was Joseph or Jesus father. But now he's just Mary's son is how he's recognized. And notice he's the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. And so, the poor brothers aren't his sisters plural here with us. So we know he had at least two sisters, maybe more. And they took offense at him. Okay, that's seen him grow up. And now he's preaching. He's claiming to be the Messiah. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. I'm the king. I'm doing these miracles. And they just can't handle that. No, no, where did he get this from? He's the carpenter. And we know he's four brothers and he's got some sisters around here. And so they took offense. They were offended at him and did not accepting in Nazareth. But it is an interesting little insight into those hidden years. We know that Mary and Joseph had other children. At least four boys and at least two girls. And we know that Jesus had brothers and sisters growing up. And we know that he took over as the carpenter in Nazareth. And so you can fill in a little bit of the blanks that way. Can't you? It's not completely absent. You can fill in a little bit of the blanks. Jesus, if his if Joseph had died, Jesus was the eldest in the family. He would have taken over financial responsibilities. He would have been the spiritual leader of the family. Just think about all the dynamics of this of Jesus in his twenties providing leadership to his family, understanding what it's like to count the shackles at night to make sure you've got enough to put food on the table from the carpentry work you're doing. And Jesus knows about that. He's done that. Okay, so this just gives us a little bit of a glimpse into what human life was like for Jesus in those growing up years. Okay. Any questions or comments before we move on to the first event of his adult life that's described in the Gospels, the Baptist? I'm not sure. Kissie is asking traditionally what his brothers have been trained in the same trade. I'm not I'm not sure about that. That would be an interesting thing to follow up on study some of the background. In Jewish families, whether or not every son would learn the same trade or maybe the oldest son would learn the trade of the father and then others could choose their own. I'm not sure. Not sure how that worked. Okay. Any others? Other questions? Okay, let's let's move on to the baptism and we're going to kind of rotate around between four different passages. I mentioned that the baptism is mentioned in all four Gospels. You've got them listed there for you. Matthew 3, 13 to 17, Mark 1, 9 to 11, Luke 3, 21, 22. Those are the three that describe the baptism. John in John 1, 28, 34, John doesn't really describe the baptism as such, but he describes as he's telling others that Jesus is the Lamb of God. He describes how he came to that knowledge and it was at the baptism and we'll see that later that that John came into that awareness of who Jesus was for sure who he was. Okay, let's the time of the baptism. Luke chapter 3. Let's look at that. Luke 3, verse 23, verses 21 and 22 describe the baptism and the very next statement in verse 23. Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. Okay, so we're saying he's 30. We don't know exact date, month, so forth, but about 30 years old when he began his ministry. So the time of the baptism probably at around age 30 when he's going to enter his ministry and based on when we saw that his birth was, we're probably talking somewhere around AD 26 or something like that. Now that's not very crucial that you know that date, but he was about 30 years old. Okay, the place of the baptism in John's gospel, it tells us where John was baptizing. John chapter 1 verse 28 says, all this happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptizing. And that Bethany is also known as Bethabra. It's known by two names. There was a Bethany close to Jerusalem. Remember that's where Lazarus and Mary and Martha lived. That's a little suburb of Jerusalem about two miles out, but that's probably not where this Bethany is. This Bethany is probably in the northern part of Israel in Galilee. You can see here's an azure and this arrow points to the place where possibly the baptism happened. Many believe that it took place on the other side of Jordan or the east side of Jordan would be over here. Many would believe it was, you know, a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee. We can't pinpoint it exactly, but probably along the Jordan River, a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee. There are those who take the place of John's baptizing further south down near Jericho, near the Dead Sea, but most would say it's up here. Okay. The action of the baptism. Here's something very interesting. Let's look at Matthew 3 for this. Matthew 3 verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. The point here is that Jesus took the initiative. It's not that Jesus was just walking by one day, looked over and saw a bunch of people being baptized and said, you know, that looks like a good idea. Now Jesus left Galilee to go to the Jordan River where John was with the specific intention of being baptized by John. He initiated that baptism for that express purpose. He comes to be baptized. And look at verse 14. But John tried to deter him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? John is reluctant to baptize Jesus because he recognizes that Jesus is superior to him. Now I don't think Jesus or I don't think John, I know John does not yet have confirmed to him that Jesus is the Messiah. Now that will happen after he baptizes him. John himself will tell us that in John chapter 1. But he does know that Jesus is superior to him. He does know that just from knowing about Jesus and knowing who he is, he knows that Jesus is superior to him. He should be baptized by Jesus not the other way around. So he does not want to baptize Jesus at first, but Jesus insists that he do it and we'll see why in a moment. Any question before we talk about the accompaniments of the baptism? What accompaniment the baptism? No, not really. The Hebrew meaning Yeshua is or Yahashua, Jehovah saves is that's the meaning of the word. Jesus was a very common name in this time. Yes, yes. That's the closest Greek rendering of the Hebrew name. Many say that many Jewish mothers named their sons Jesus or Yeshua because they hoped he would be the Messiah. And obviously the angel told Mary to name Him Jesus where he will save his people from their sins. What accompaniment the baptism? Very interesting things happen at the time of the baptism. First of all, the open heavens in Matthew chapter 3. We'll come back to verse 15 in a moment where Jesus replies to John. Let it be so for now or let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness than John consented. Now look at verse 16. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened. I think sometimes we kind of slide right over that because we want to get to the dove part. But there's something very significant here about heaven opening. Look at this cross reference. It's on the screen. I believe in Mark 15 verse 38. It happens at the death of Christ. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to bottom. The word torn here is the same Greek word as the word opened in Matthew 3. Literally, and one of the translations, I believe maybe it's either New American standard or ESV translates it torn. The heaven was torn open at Jesus baptism. Now think about the significance of that. This is the time when Jesus died. What did that signify? Access to God. Who's access to God? Everybody, us because of Jesus perfect death. It makes possible our access to God no longer does God meet with people through a high priest once a year behind a thick veil. The way is open now for anybody to come into the presence of God. We have access because of the perfect death of Jesus. Something very similar is happening here. The heaven is rent open showing that Jesus has perfect access to the father. And that's because of his perfect life. Because of his perfect life, not his perfect death, that's what happens at the cross. But because of his perfect life that he's lived up to age 30, he has uninterrupted perfect continual access himself to the father. His perfect life gave him access to the father. His perfect death gives us access to the father. The same thing is happening here. It's just that the heavens are rent open and then you're going to see the father speak in a moment or here the father speak in a moment. Fascinating little tidbit of information in the gospels that we can easily slide over. But the heavens were torn open when Jesus was baptized showing his access to the father by his perfect life. The second thing that happens is the descending spirit. At that moment heaven was opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. The holy spirit descends like a dove and rests on Jesus. Now there is a good deal of controversy. He's not really the right word, but a good deal of discussion about did it really look like this? Let's back it up just again there Greg. This picture. Did the Holy Spirit actually take on the form of a dove or does this mean that he descended like a dove would descend and land on something? Did the Holy Spirit actually look like a bird in this case or was the movement of the spirit like that of a dove? It's not really easy to tell it could go either way from what the text says, but my point is this we shouldn't be too fast to jump to the symbol of a dove and say that the Holy Spirit looks like a dove or the Holy Spirit took on the bodily form of a dove that may have happened, but the text is not that clear about that. It just says that the Spirit of God descended like a dove. Maybe it was the descent that was like a dove and not the bodily appearance. So all the signs on church signs and all could be wrong. That's not that important is it. He did come in the form of a dove. Could very well be that the motion of the spirit dwelling on him was like that of a dove landing. But there's an interesting thing going on here and I keep saying it's interesting. It is the media. I don't know if it is to you or not. But in John 1, John chapter 1, we know that this is how John recognized Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. In John chapter 1, verse 29, next stage, John saw Jesus coming toward him. This is after the baptism now. Jesus coming toward him said, look the Lamb of God, it takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I meant when I said a man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. John had been already preaching that. There's one coming after me. The Messiah is coming. The king is coming. There's one coming after me. I'm not really qualified to even tie his laces of his sandal. That doesn't mean John knew exactly who it was. He knew one was coming. And when Jesus came to be baptized, he knew enough about Jesus to know that he was superior to him. But notice he goes on to explain himself. Verse 31, I myself did not know him. But the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel. So we're going to see part of the reason for the baptism was the revealing of Christ Israel. Can I say it this way, the coming out of Jesus publicly to start his ministry is the baptism. Now look at verse 32. Then John gave this testimony. I saw the spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me the man on whom you see the spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the son of God pretty clear, isn't it? That even though John knew who Jesus was as far as his humanity and knew that he was far superior to him, he did not understand exactly who Jesus was that Jesus was the coming king was the Messiah was the lamb of God until he got that sign from God. And that was the dove coming down and resting on Jesus at the baptism. That's when it clicked with John because God had told him the person that you see that happened to that's the Messiah. That's the lamb of God. And so John says I saw that happen and that's how I knew I did not know who he was before that. He knew he was Jesus. I mean there were relatives, right? Mary and Elizabeth, they were relatives. He knew who Jesus was but did not grasp that Jesus was the promised one, the promised Messiah until he baptized him and saw the Holy Spirit coming on him. So this was the sign. This also this baptism of Jesus and the Holy Spirit coming on him at the time of the baptism was also what we might call an anointing and anointing with power for Jesus to begin his mission. Jesus to begin his ministry. Acts 10, 37 and 38 look at the screen again these verses are up here for you. Peter is preaching in the household of Cornelius and he says you know what happened throughout Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. Now, I think that's the sequence of stuff here after the baptism baptism that John preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. Now the sequence of their sequence there I think is important. John is baptizing and then Jesus is anointed with power to do miracles and he goes about doing his ministry then. That anointing is probably what took place with the Holy Spirit coming on him at the baptism anointing him with power to begin his ministry. I think of it. Jesus has all of his life to this point from the age of about two been living in Nazareth. There's no record in the scriptures of any miracles taking place. There's no record of any divine power being exercised through Jesus. He is living a normal human life growing up as a young man learning the carpenter's trade becoming the well known carpenter of Nazareth living at home. Now all of a sudden he goes to begin his ministry and this is kind of the public annunciation to the nation that Jesus is the Lamb of God. And the Holy Spirit comes on him to anoint him with power to now do his ministry which by the way you say that he need power from the Holy Spirit to do his miracles. And Jesus isn't a God. Again Jesus voluntarily gives up the independent use of his divine attributes because he is fully human too. And so yes Jesus did depend upon the power of the Holy Spirit to do his miracles. Again that combination of humanity and deity. The anointing of the Spirit though. This is where the power to do his ministry begins. And then there's one other interesting feature here and oh my the clock is. That thing speeds up when I get up here in the front. I know it does. The Bible says in Luke 3.23 that Jesus Luke 3.22 that Jesus was praying. And as he was praying the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove. Luke's gospel emphasizes the humanity of Christ. We've already seen that there is more about the prayer life of Jesus in Luke's gospel than all the other gospels put together. There's more emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit on Jesus in Luke's gospel. Jesus as a human being prayed and the power of the Holy Spirit came upon him to do his ministry. Now that's very human. But Jesus was a man and he did depend upon the power of the Spirit. He prayed God's Spirit came upon him to do what he had for him to do. Those are some of the accompaniments of the baptism. There's one more which may be the most fascinating of all and that is the voice from heaven but we'll have to wait till next week to get that. The voice that speaks from heaven. All right. I know you're itching to go get your children. So let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for the marvel of your word and the marvel of the life of our Lord to be able to see what you've revealed to us about him and to study it to to revel in it. To be blessed by it, to be challenged by it, to grow by it. What a privilege you've given us. And so we thank you for your word and giving us what you've given us about the life of your son. May we grow as we look at his life in Jesus name we pray. Amen.