SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/25/2020
10:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Baptism
of the Son”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
3:13-15
Message of the verses: “13 Then Jesus arrived
from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But
John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and
do You come to me?" 15 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.
Before
we get started on these verses I wanted to mention that in verse fifteen we see
the first words spoken by Jesus since He was twelve years old found in the book
of Luke when He told his parents that He had to be about His Father’s business.
Now
we have been talking about John’s reluctances to baptize Jesus in our last SD
and we want to continue with that subject.
John knows of the sinlessness of Jesus as we can be sure that his mother
told him about who Jesus was when he was a young boy, and so he tells Jesus
that he has need to be baptized by Him.
John is saying something like “I am only a prophet, and a sinful prophet
at that, but You are the Son of God and You are sinless. I know you are not a sinner and my baptism is
for sinners, that is why God sent me out here.”
I realize that John did not know what the writer of Hebrews had to say
when he wrote in 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize
with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are,
yet without sin,” however this is what John was saying. MacArthur writes “So even in his reluctance
to baptize Christ, John was fulfilling the role of a herald and the office of a
prophet by proclaiming the perfection of the Savior.”
A
question comes up about why would Jesus want to be baptized by John when He was
certainly aware of His own sinlessness, as He was more aware of this than John,
yet He wanted John to baptize Him. We
went over some reasons as to why Jesus wanted to be baptized in an earlier SD
so I see no need to go over them again.
The fact remains that Jesus desired for John to baptize Him and we will
see what the best reason is for His request as Jesus Himself tells John why there
was a need from His baptism when he states “Permit it at this time; for in this
way it is fitting for us
to fulfill all
righteousness.”
Jesus
is saying to John to permit it as this time and this was an idiom meaning
according to MacArthur “that the act of His baptism, though not seemingly
appropriate, was indeed appropriate for this special ‘time.’ Jesus understood John’s reluctance and knew
that it came from deep spiritual commitment and sincerity. He gave permission for John to do what, without
divine instruction, he would never have been willing to do. He assured the prophet that ‘in this way it
is fitting,’ and went on to explain to John that His baptism was important for
both of their ministries, ‘for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ For God’s plan to be perfectly fulfilled, it
was necessary for Jesus to be baptized and to be baptized specifically by John.” So now we see the answer to the question as
to why Jesus was to be baptized by John, “to fulfill all righteousness,” but
now we have to figure out exactly what that means.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Sometimes
we really don’t understand why things happen, and I have to believe that John
was put into that position when it came to baptizing Jesus. I have been looking at the 9th
chapter of Daniel as I am putting those Spiritual Diaries onto my other blog
and at the end of the one I posted today I found a quote from Warren Wiersbe
who quotes Dr. Robert A. Cook who used
to say, ‘If you can explain what’s going on in your ministry, God didn’t do
it.” I think that is certainly applies
to John the Baptist, and I have to say that it also applies to me in writing
these Spiritual Diaries that are a part of my ministry to the Lord, and what He
is doing with them I certainly can’t explain, but I trust Him to use them to
bring glory to the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to fight the fight, continue to
trust the Lord to give me victories, and to continue to pray that God will
continue to teach me humility and bring joy to me as I study His Word. I trust that the Lord will work in my heart
as I go over my Sunday school lesson for tomorrow that it too will bring honor
to the Lord.
1/25/2020 10:47 AM
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