Baptism of Jesus – 1/28/24

Here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to jump right into Matthew 3. I don’t have a big, long story at the beginning or anything. My introduction to my sermon was the building update, so we’re going to jump right into Matthew 3.

If you’ve been in church for some time, the passage of Scripture that we come to today is probably familiar to you, which describes the baptism of Jesus. It’s interesting to note what things the gospels include and what they don’t. For example, only two Gospels include the birth of Jesus, but all four Gospels include his crucifixion, his resurrection, and all four include his baptism. And so, if you’ve heard or read any of the gospels, if you’ve listened to them, had someone preach through them, even one of them, you’ve heard this story of the baptism of Jesus. I think it makes sense that the dominance of some of these stories that we read in the life of Jesus implies that they are very important for us to pay attention to. I think this is one of those.

Here’s how I’d like us to look at it that I hope will be helpful. I’m going to read the section again and comment on it as I do. That sounds quick, but I’ll actually take time to comment on each verse and hopefully point out some things. Then we’ll stop, we’ll step back, and look at three implications of this story that I hope will be helpful and spirit-led. So, let’s look back then. If you have a Bible, Matthew 3:13. It will be on the screens as well, or you can look in your Bible. Let’s look back.

Verse 13 says,

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.”

The context here is the baptism that John is practicing. John Cruice, last Sunday, unpacked this for us. John the Baptist—not John the Apostle who walked with Jesus, the brother of James who wrote the Gospel of John. Different John. Lots of guys named John in the New Testament. That’s the other John. This is John the Baptist—is the first one to practice baptism in this way, connecting it to the call of repentance from sin. Matthew loves the word “then,” which is the first word in verse 13. I’m going to come back to that later. He uses it a lot to connect to previous material, and this material is connected obviously to the previous material. So, Jesus shows up to be baptized by John.

Verse 14,

“John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”

John objects, and the personal pronouns in the original language are emphatic. He says, “I need to be baptized by you, not you by me.” This is backward. I need to be there, not you here. A couple of observations:

It seems, first of all, it might go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: it seems that John the Baptist recognized who Jesus was (the Messiah) in that moment. In John’s gospel, John the Baptist says when Jesus shows up,

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

And then it says in John’s gospel that John the Baptist says,

“I myself did not know him,”

did not know him before. It seems that he did not know who Jesus was as the Messiah before that moment, and recognized him, calling out

“the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,”

the Messiah.

In recognizing who Jesus is, and then Jesus says, baptize me, he says no, essentially. “That’s not right. That’s not how this is supposed to work. The Messiah doesn’t have sin. He does not need to submit to the waters of baptism as the one who has no sin.” Instead, he says, “I need to do that. You’re the one, the Messiah who needs to baptize me.” Jesus comes and says, “baptize me,” and John understandably says, “Why would I be in your place and you in my place?” That’s backward. That’s reversed.

Verse 15,

“But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.”

So, John consents. Jesus must have said something that was like, okay, whatever you said, I’m in. And here’s what Jesus said:

This is the first time Jesus speaks in Matthew 3, first time he speaks in the Bible, and the only thing he says in Matthew 3. Jesus’ response is an imperative command. It’s an imperative. It’s a command. He says,

“let it be so.”

“It must be reversed,” “let it be reversed,” that’s my interpretation to Jesus’s response to John’s objection. This reversal is necessary. He says, “it’s necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” Let’s take a second to understand what’s going on here.

Jesus uses the word “righteousness.” When we hear Jesus talk about righteousness, he uses it differently than, say, Paul does when he talks about righteousness in places like Romans. Paul uses it in the sense of positional righteousness. Jesus uses it in the sense of practical. It’s practical for Jesus, not positional. Paul uses it like being justified by grace through faith. That is positional righteousness. You stand righteous before God. That’s what Paul talks about over and over again in Romans, and that’s the sense in which he uses it. But Jesus uses it in Matthew in the sense of doing God’s will practically — that’s what I mean by practical — doing God’s will. For example, in Matthew 5:6, Jesus says,

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst [for doing God’s will.]”

And Matthew 5:10. He says,

“Blessed are those who are persecuted [for doing God’s will],”

for following God, for obeying what God has to say. Not for doing stupid stuff, but for following God’s will. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says,

“For I tell you, unless [you’re practicing God’s will or obeying God] exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not see the kingdom of heaven.”

He sets a high standard for following God. So that’s the idea that he uses. It’s good works. It’s doing God’s will. It’s doing what God tells you to do. It’s walking in obedience to God. “Fulfill all righteousness” is related to doing God’s will, especially for Jesus when it comes to acting in salvation history, following what God says when he’s acting in the history of salvation. Jesus knows God’s will for him in salvation. He walks in obedience to that will in his life, in death and resurrection.

Let me make another observation here about Jesus’s interaction with John, when John objects and Jesus pushes through. Jesus is often willing to listen to what people ask him and is often willing to go along. Throughout his life, people will request for him to go here or there, or to meet a need, or to perform a miracle. And he does. He goes in response. He often does it. He’ll respond to what people ask him to do. However, when Jesus is acting in salvation history and someone tries to divert him, you can’t stop him. He will not stop. It happens where people try to divert him. Luke uses this phrase when Jesus knew that his time was drawing near for him to go to the cross, Luke says that

“he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

Set like a flint to go to Jerusalem. In other words, nothing was going to stop him. He looked at his goal. He looked at where he was going, and nothing was going to stop him from getting there. That’s how Luke uses it.

It’s interesting also to note that it’s often the people that are closest to Jesus who try to divert him. Unknowingly, I assume, but still do. Peter infamously does it twice.

The first example is in Matthew 16, the same gospel. Jesus is talking to his followers. He predicts his betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection. And you know what Peter does? Peter rebukes him. Peter says,

“[Jesus,] this shall never happen to you!”

Remember what Jesus says back?

“Get behind me, Satan … For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Jesus says, “I’m going to the cross.” Peter says, “that ain’t going to happen.” Jesus says, “You’re Satan. Get behind me.” Because nothing will stop him when he’s acting in salvation history.

Another one is John 13, the night before his arrest. Jesus is eating with his followers. He takes a basin and a towel and begins to wash their feet. He gets to Peter, and Peter says, “you’re not going to wash my feet.” And Jesus says, “well, then you won’t have a part of me in the kingdom of heaven.” You remember what Peter says? “Wash all of me.” Peter goes to the extreme one way or the other. When he’s on, he’s on. When he’s off, he’s off. Jesus is doing something in that moment in the upper room the night before he’s betrayed that is so important to his message of salvation to his people. Peter essentially responds like John does: you’re the Messiah. The Messiah doesn’t wash feet. The Messiah isn’t a servant. This is reversed. And Jesus says, “if you will not be served by me, you will not be in heaven, so remember that.”

John the Baptist does the same thing. Maybe a little less dramatically, but John the Baptist does the same thing. He objects to the reversal and Jesus doesn’t let him, which means bigger things are going on here than John perhaps even knows. So, he hears what Jesus says, fulfilling all righteousness, and he says, let’s go.

Verse 16,

“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”

This event happens as Jesus is baptized and comes out of the water. I kind of look at it from two perspectives: perspective from man and perspective from God, perspective from earth and perspective from heaven.

Here’s the perspective from earth: who saw and heard? Who saw and heard what’s going on here? At least Jesus saw it. Matthew says that the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God. But John tells us, in John 1:32, that John the Baptist also saw what was going on and heard. And possibly the crowd heard what was going on, and that’s just because of the way Matthew says it. In the other three gospel accounts, they record God saying,

“You are my beloved Son”

In Matthew’s account, he says,

“This is my beloved son.”

It seems that Matthew might be indicating that God is talking to people. “Look at him, this is my beloved son,” and that they would have heard. So, definitely Jesus, definitely John, possibly everyone standing there.

The other great thing is you have the Trinitarian Godhead all appearing at once together. You have Jesus, the Son of God, coming out of the water. He’s God’s son. The heavens crack open in apocalyptic style, and God the Father speaks and says, “That’s my son,” and the Holy Spirit descends on him. All three members of the Trinity are present at once. True Christianity, what we believe, believes that we have one God eternally existing in three persons, an infinite, all-knowing in spirit, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s the Godhead, the Trinity, and there they are all together. That’s what’s going on on earth, and now from God’s perspective.

From God’s perspective, God quotes two Old Testament passages of Scripture when he speaks. The first is in Psalm 2, “This is my beloved son.” One of my favorite scenes in The Chosen—I’m sure you’ve all seen it in—is in the first season when Nicodemus is starting to realize who Jesus is. There’s this scene where they’re on a porch or patio or something, and Nicodemus, the lights are starting to come on, and he comes to Jesus, and he bows down before him, and he quotes Psalm 2. He says,

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way.”

And Jesus responds with the end of that verse, Psalm 2:12, which says,

“Blessed are those who take refuge in him.”

I got goosebumps when I was watching. I was like, “Ohhh.” You have a guy who knows the law, knows the Old Testament very well, and he starts to click, “This is the Messiah.” He quotes a messianic psalm to him, “kiss the Son,” the king who is a son. Jesus responds with the end of that, identifying himself that way. It’s really beautiful. That’s the same psalm that God quotes, Psalm 2. God the Father identifies Jesus as the king of Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is about an earthly king that prefigures a future, heavenly, ultimate king, and God identifies Jesus as that king. The king of Psalm 2 is a son and king. In Psalm 2:7 it says,

“You are my Son; today I have begotten you,”

and God appears or speaks from heaven and says, that’s him, that’s my son.

The rest of the psalm says that he will rule and own the nations as king, that they are his. At the end of the Psalm it says,

“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

God quotes and identifies Jesus as his son, the son of Psalm 2.

Then God references a second scripture, which is Isaiah 42:1. Isaiah 42 is known as one of the servant songs of Isaiah, describing God’s suffering servant. Isaiah 42:1 says,

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”

That phrase is the exact phrase that’s in Matthew 3,

“in whom I am well pleased,”

“in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

He says, “this is the one!” And guess what? The Spirit comes on him! Isaiah prophesies about a servant who would come, who suffers, and God the Father declares that this one who’s coming up from the water, Jesus, is both the King of Psalm 2 and the suffering servant of Isaiah 42. This is no ordinary baptism. Something spectacular is happening here.

Those are the verses, and now I want to—after walking through the passage—want to give you three implications that we want to ask the Spirit to apply to our hearts. They are substitution, baptism, and affliction.

First of all, substitution. Christ identifies with us. This is the big one. The primary action in this passage is Jesus identifying with us. This is what’s happening in the reversal to which John objects. He says, “you are in my place and I am in your place. This is not how it’s supposed to be. It’s reversed.” But that’s what’s happening. He says,

“Behold the Lamb of God, [the Messiah.]”

“I see who you are. No, I will not baptize you. Because you don’t have anything to repent of. I need to repent, not you. You need to baptize me. Not me, you. It’s reversed. The places are switched.” And Jesus says, “in effect, it must be reversed.” Why? To fulfill all righteousness, that is, to follow God’s plan. God’s plan in salvation history is that it would be reversed, that Jesus would walk in our place, and we would be in his. The innocent Jesus becomes the repentant. He identifies with guilty people in order to make the guilty clean by faith. In the Messiah’s substitutionary work, his perfect life and atoning death. That is the key in fulfilling all righteousness. It’s substitutionary atonement. He lived the perfect life that we could not live and died a death for sin, and in our place for sins that he did not commit, satisfying God’s wrath and purchased, redeemed a people for himself. He is the second Adam who succeeded where Adam failed in perfectly following God’s will. He is the new Israel, God’s people representing us before God perfectly and without fail. That’s who he is. And he comes on the scene and says, “I must substitute to fulfill God’s plan to follow what God has.”

Let me just draw three little points on that. One, this is not a little point; this is a big point, God identified Jesus as the substitute. Now, it doesn’t seem like in the first century, when people were reading their Bibles, that they understood that the suffering servant of Isaiah was the Messiah. When people in the Old Testament times—the scholars, the scribes, and the Pharisees—when they were reading the servant songs of Isaiah, it doesn’t seem like they were like, yeah, that’s the Messiah. Because when Jesus comes on the scene, they’re like, the Messiah is not supposed to suffer. That’s not how this goes. The Messiah is supposed to rule. But it was God who said, this is the suffering servant of Isaiah. The one who is the Messiah is the suffering servant. When God identified Jesus as the suffering servant of Isaiah, that means all of Isaiah’s prophecies about the suffering servant go with Jesus, including Isaiah 53. I just want to read a section of Isaiah 53 because it has that “he for us” language, that language of substitution. God said, this is the servant. Isaiah said, he will be a substitute. It says this, listen to the “he for us.”

Isaiah 53,

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

This is the servant-substitute. Number two, not only did God say it, the other thing we see about substitution is that Jesus identifies with us first. Christ identified with us before we ever thought of identifying with him. This is the emphasis of Romans 5:8 where Paul says,

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Before you ever had a thought of choosing Jesus, he chose you. Before you ever decided to ask him to save, he provided salvation. He did it. When we were still saying, we don’t want that and we definitely don’t want a messiah like that, he said, I’m taking you. His identification with us was the plan of God for all time, and Jesus walked in obedience to that plan.

Number three, Jesus identifies with us still. Jesus continues to identify us throughout his life and, after his ascension, continues to identify with his people. Let me give you two examples from Scripture. Matthew 25, Jesus is talking about the return of the Son of Man, the King himself. He’s talking about the king who will return to earth. When he talks about that and he’s bringing people into the kingdom, they’re saying, “why do I get to come into the kingdom?” And he says, “because when You saw that I had needs, you fed me and clothed me and gave me something to drink.” Confused, his people say, when did we do that to you? And Jesus says in verse 40,

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Jesus, even after his ascension, continues to identify with his people so much so that when you serve others, Jesus says, you’re doing it to me. He identifies.

Another place we see this as in Acts 9. Acts 9 is the conversion of Saul who would become Paul and write most of the New Testament, but Saul is still Saul at the time. Stephen was martyred in Acts 7, I think, and when you get to Acts 9, Saul is on his way to Damascus and a blinding light knocks him down and he says, essentially, “what’s going on here?” The light speaks and says,

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

After he’s been killing Christians, he could have said, “I’m not persecuting you, Lord. I’m persecuting these crazy Christians.” But he says,

“Who are you?”

And the voice identifies himself, he says,

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

After his ascension, Jesus continued to identify with his church to the point that when people would say, “I’m killing Christians,” Jesus said, “yeah, you’re persecuting me.” He continues to identify. This was God’s plan. Jesus identified with us first, and he continues to identify with us now. That’s substitution, Jesus Christ identifies with us.

The second implication is baptism; we identify with Christ. In Matthew 3, baptism is Christ’s identification with us in repentance. He becomes the repentor on our behalf. Baptism is our identification with him. John the Baptist preaches to Israel, calling them to repent and be baptized. They have, and you have to think through this a little bit. He’s preaching to people who have the Old Testament mark of the covenant, namely circumcision for the men. They have said, I am part of the covenant. I am Abraham’s son, if you will, and daughter. So, they are part of God’s people, at least physically. John is preaching to them, these people who are already part of God’s people, Israel, and he’s saying to them, you need to be repent. You need to repent and be baptized. He anticipates their objection in the verses we looked at last week when he says,

“Don’t say, ‘We have Abraham as our Father’”

Don’t say just because you were born right and that you have the mark of the covenant, that you’re okay. He says, you’re the ones that need to repent. John tells them, Israel, God’s Old Testament people, that they are under wrath. He uses apocalyptic, eschatological language about the wrath that is coming upon him. So, when a Jewish person who already has the mark of the covenant submits themselves to the waters of baptism, it was a radical act of commitment to and identification with the true people of God, based not on birth but on repentance and faith. They’re saying, I’m identifying with the New Testament people of God, even though they didn’t know everything they were saying at the time. It was a radical act. Then Jesus comes, who is also Jewish and bears the mark of the covenant, who’s part of God’s Old Testament people of the tribe of Judah. Jesus comes, and he submits himself to the waters of baptism on our behalf. The New Testament writers picked up on the ramifications of this. Here are two ramifications:

One, physical connection isn’t our identification with the New Covenant. Let all the Gentiles say, Amen. You don’t have to be born a Jew or convert to Judaism to be part of the New Covenant that Jesus sets up through his blood, establishes through his blood. Rather, it is by repentance and faith. It has nothing to do with birth. Jesus indicates this in Matthew 12 when Jesus is told that his mom and brothers— He’s in somebody’s house, he’s told that his mom and brothers are waiting outside for him, and Jesus responds,

“Who is my mom and my brothers?”

Now, first of all, I have siblings. I have an older brother, an older sister. You know how siblings are. Siblings are always at each other, right? Always trying to get an advantage over the other, especially boys. I have two boys. They’re constantly wrestling and then dying laughing and then punching each other, crying, and then laughing. It’s awesome. I have an older brother. I remember one time when my brother and I were fighting about something, I had a friend over who was an only child. We were probably fighting over something as significant as cake. Something like that. A slice of cake. And we were fighting and arguing and my friend’s like, “this is so stupid.” And I remember looking at him thinking, “you have no idea what’s at stake here. This is not about cake. This is about bigger principles that really matter. And by the way, you think it’s dumb because you always get the cake.” That’s how siblings are. So, I imagine his siblings, Jesus’s brothers, when they’re like, “Hey, your mom and brothers are outside,” and he’s like, “Who is my mom and brothers?” His brothers are like, oh, great, here we go. Does everything have to have a spiritual application? We’re just out here waiting for you. This is what my kids say to me. They’re like, “dad, you make everything spiritual.” I’m like, “exactly. Trying to be like Jesus.” Okay, anyway.

Jesus says, “Who are my mom and my brothers?” Those who hear the word of God and do it. What is he doing? He’s detaching that blood family and calling it a faith family. Those who hear the Word of God and do it, that’s my family. Paul says the same thing and even ties it to the image of the children of Abraham in Galatians 3:7 when he says,

“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”

So, that’s the first thing.

The second thing is, baptism is our identification. Not physical descent, but baptism is our identification with the New covenant. I know of no New Testament example of an unbaptized believer except the thief on the cross, and we might give him a pass. Not only did Jesus submit himself to baptism, but also Jesus continued baptizing in John 4 and commanded the church to keep on baptizing in Matthew 28, and the New Testament church did just that. They made disciples and baptized those disciples.

A great example is at the very beginning of the formation of the New Testament Church in Acts 2. Peter preaches the gospel, he’s preaching the gospel, goes through the whole thing and at the end the people respond to him. They hear it. The Holy Spirit’s got them. It says,

“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’”

In verse 38, Peter says to them,

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Peter and the rest of the church continue to call people to baptism. “Make disciples and baptize them,” Jesus said, and Peter and the apostles did just that. I think these two emphases in this passage of substitution and baptism are really good because they go together. Jesus identifies with us; we identify with him.

If you don’t know Jesus, friends, if you don’t know Jesus, you’ve never known and believed that Jesus is your substitute and you feel the Spirit tugging at your heart today because Jesus loved you and is drawing you to himself in repentance and faith, today can be your day of salvation. Or, if you have turned in faith and repentance but haven’t been baptized, the Spirit calls you to identify with him in baptism to identify with the one who identifies with you. I asked them to put this slide up to tell you how you can learn more about baptism. We have a baptism service coming up at the end of March. If you haven’t been baptized, follow the Lord in that way. Identify with him through the waters of baptism. You can get more information and sign up there with a QR code or on our website.

So, substitution, baptism, and then lastly affliction. Christ walks with us. This last point is foreshadowing what happens next in Matthew, and it connects those two events together. The chapter breaks in the Bible, Matthew did not write the chapter breaks in. He was writing and we added the chapter breaks later to help us with references and try to find things. So, the story continues, and they’re connected together. Matthew uses the word “then” at the beginning of Matthew 4. The next event in this book is the temptation of Jesus, that begins in Matthew 4:1. At the beginning of Matthew 4 he says “then.” Matthew loves “then.” Mark loves “immediately.” If you read the gospel of Mark, everything happens “immediately.” Matthew uses the word “then,” often using it to connect what is about to happen to what previously happened. The reason this goes together is because the two events together connected by “then” is the activity of the Holy Spirit. At the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descends, and then it says, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. So, the Holy Spirit connects these things through the “then,” if you will, into the wilderness.

Isn’t that the way it goes? A spiritual high is followed by a spiritual low. Isn’t that the way it goes? Spirit baptism is often followed by spirit battle. A voice from heaven is often followed by a voice from hell. Water is followed by desert. You even see that in the Old Testament. God’s people pass through the waters of the Red Sea and into the wilderness. Jesus passes through the waters of baptism and into the wilderness. Here’s my point: the story of the water helps us when we’re living in the story of the wilderness. It helps us. It’s very easy to see God’s attitude towards us through our circumstances, to look at our circumstances and interpret God’s attitude based on those things. So, when my circumstances are good, God must be happy with me. And when my circumstances are bad, what did I do to make God mad? We begin to interpret God’s affection towards us, or God’s attitude towards us, or God’s Spirit towards us, little us, based on our circumstances that we’re living in in that moment. Then we begin to question whether or not God really does love us or what God’s thinking because of our circumstances. But that can’t be true. It wasn’t true for Jesus.

If Jesus did that, then when you get into Matthew 4, things look bad. I mean, it’s a bad situation. At least he’s being tempted by the devil. So, we may equate the baptism of the spirit with peace and prosperity and power, and if we think—and a lot of preachers preach it—that if you have the Spirit, what follows is peace and prosperity and power. So, if we aren’t experiencing peace and prosperity and power, then we may go, what happened? Did the Spirit leave? We got the Spirit and the Spirit’s gone because our circumstances are difficult, they’re rough, they’re harsh. What’s God doing? But the story of the water helps us when we’re in the wilderness because it reminds us of God’s faithful delight in us, regardless of our circumstances. After God pours His Spirit on you, you often experience strife. Strife comes. We see that in the life of Jesus. It’s so easy, isn’t it, Church? To try to connect the things that we do to, well, God must be unhappy with me. What did I do? My circumstances are bad. But actually, as God pours His Spirit in you, bad things happen sometimes. That’s true for Jesus. Jesus never made God mad, but he was killed. He received ultimate injustice.

When Jesus identified with us though, Church, when Jesus identified himself with us, he took the bad and gave us all the good. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

That’s Paul writing, saying that we got all the good, that Jesus bought the righteousness of God. And because, Paul says in Romans 8, that we are adopted as sons and daughters, that means we also get that standing as sons and daughters. We get his righteousness, and we get that standing as a son. What does God say to his son? My soul delights in you. You are my son, in whom I am well pleased. I delight in you. That means, brothers and sisters, if you are God’s child, he delights in you. Not because of you, but because of Christ. He loves you even when your circumstances are bad. God’s delight is not dependent on our performance. If it’s dependent on our performance, we’re toast. God’s delight is dependent on His son, and all those who are found in Christ receive the delight of God as well. It’s so easy to think the opposite, and yet we must preach the gospel to ourselves. I am not saved by my works. I’m saved by Jesus’s perfect life and atoning death. When Jesus went into the wilderness for spiritual battle (which we’re not even getting into, that’s next week), God hadn’t removed his delight from his son. When we wrestle with affliction, whatever it is, God’s delight is still with his people. So, we don’t need to ask, “Are you mad at me, God?” But rather, God is with us. He doesn’t promise freedom from affliction. He promises to walk with us through it. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He doesn’t promise that he’s not going to lead us through affliction. Actually, he promises that he will. He promises that you will go through affliction and that he’ll go through it with you. One of those places is in Isaiah 43, and I want to end with this.

As I was praying through this passage in the sermon, Isaiah 43 came to mind. I was like, oh yeah. Remember that beautiful image from Isaiah 43? It’s this promise that Jesus is walking through, that God will keep being with him as delight is on him, and that we have through him. So, let me read Isaiah 43, these three verses, and listen with New Testament ears, knowing that Jesus is the Redeemer. He is the Savior who bought us, who paid the ransom.

Isaiah 43 says,

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters”

Not, hey, by the way, you’re not going to pass through the waters. When you pass through the waters,

“I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

The one who redeemed you is your Savior, and in Christ we partake all his benefits, and we suffer as those who have hope and as those who have received God’s delight all because Christ identified with us. Let’s pray.

God, I just ask that you would use the weakness of me speaking to not get in the way of what you want people to apply to their hearts as we seek to walk in your will. I ask, Lord, that these beautiful truths that I’ve tried to communicate would be on our hearts as we worship you, as we sing songs about your substitutionary work, that you would encourage your people who are walking in affliction. I looked at faces as I was talking, faces of people I know who are facing affliction right now, who are in it. Spirit, would you remind us that you are with us in that affliction, that God’s delight through Jesus Christ is given to your sons and daughters who are adopted into your family because of Christ, and that you walk with us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there you are with us. I pray for my brothers and sisters. I ask you to give this grace, and even more so, more than that, from your word. Spirit, dwell with us as we worship. In Jesus name, Amen.