EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2026
6:42 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The
Son’s Baptism”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
3:21
Message of the verse: “Now when all the people were
baptized, Jesus was also baptized and while He was praying, heaven opened,”
When I began looking at the gospel
of Luke I learned that 40% of Luke’s gospel was not in the other three gospels,
and yet there are some things missing from his gospel that are important to
know and understand, and so I suppose that is why God put four gospels in His
Bible.
When Jesus baptized it was not some
kind of private affair as some think that it was: “when all the people were
baptized, Jesus was also baptized. Jesus’
thirty years in obscurity were over, and the time had come for Him to publicly
launch His ministry. Now all does
not refer the entire nation of Israel,
or even to all who came out to hear John.
So not everyone heard John’s message repented; in 7:30, Luke notes that “the
Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having
been baptized by John.” But all those who responded to John’s preaching were
baptized.
Now at the height of Jon’s ministry
Jesus came along with the crowds to be baptized. Now there really was nothing to distinguish Him; He had done no miracles,
there was not halo around His head, His divine glory was veiled, and He wore no
special messianic vestments. This is how
God had planned for this to happen, and so we must not read anything into these
verses that is not there. Even John did
not recognize Him at first (John 1:31; although they were cousins, the had
lived in different regions: John is in the Judean wilderness (Luke 1:80) and
Jesus in Galilee. There is not
indication in Scripture that they had ever met before this incident, which
would in fact be their only meeting, and this is speculation because the Bible
does not confirm it. John’s ministry
would continue only for about another six months before his imprisonment and
execution as we have already written about this truth.
MacArthur writes “Matthew’s account
relates that John was extremely reluctant to baptize Jesus (the verb translated
‘to prevent’ in Matthew 3:14 is an intense, compound verb, and the imperfect
tense suggests a dialogue between John and Jesus), and exclaimed, ‘I have need
to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’ (Matt. 3:14). John’s baptism involved a public confession
of sin and repentance… John was
unwilling to baptize Jesus because he knew that He was the holy Son of God, and
thus did not need to undergo John’s baptism of repentance. John may have been concerned that people not
draw the wrong conclusion about Jesus and assume He was acknowledging Himself
to be a sinner. John’s defensiveness was
groundless, as would shortly become evident.
“Jesus had a specific purpose for
being baptized. It was not, as the apocryphal
Gospel According to the Hebrews claimed, to pleas His mother and brothers. Still less was it so that the ‘Christ spirit’
could indwell the purely human Jesus, as the Gnostics falsely taught. Nor was it to affirm John’s ministry, or to
act as though He was a sinner to preview His work of sin-bearing on the
cross. Jesus plainly stated His purpose
in being baptized when He said to John, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this
way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).
“According to John 1:33, God
commanded John the Baptist to baptize. Therefore,
He wanted people to be baptized, and it was incumbent on the righteous to do
so. And whatever God required the
righteous to do, Jesus did—even things He personally did not need to do. For example, Jesus faithfully participated in
the Passover celebration, which pictured God’s deliverance of His people from
sin. Yet He had no sin to be delivered
from (Matthew 17:24-27 provides another illustration:
“24 ¶ When they came to Capernaum, the collectors
of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay
the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he
came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think,
Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or
from others?” 26 And when he said,
"From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.
27 However, not to give offense to them,
go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when
you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me
and for yourself.’”
“As the
Son of God, Jesus was exempt from paying the temple tax. But to do what righteous people do, He paid
it anyway.”
Lord
willing I will finish this section tomorrow morning.
4/30/2026
7:24 PM
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