Main Idea: Jesus is righteous.
Key Verse: Matthew 3:17
Reading Assignment: Matthew 3:13-4:11
Matthew shows us Jesus is righteous in three ways:
1. Testimony of John: John pointed out that he needs to be baptized by Jesus and not the other way around. John noticed something about Jesus, perhaps the fact that He had no sins to confess.
2. Testimony of God: The Father speaks from heaven and confirms that Jesus is pleasing to Him as His beloved Son. The Holy Spirit remains on Jesus to confirm that He is deserving of the Holy Spirit.
3. Jesus’ Resistance to Temptation: Even though Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus never once gave in. He continued to live according to the Bible. He continued to trust in His Father, never once doubting or testing Him. And He continued to worship and serve the Father only. He never once put anything above God.
Prayer Suggestions:
1. Tell Jesus He is righteous and I am not.
2. Thank Jesus for coming to save me, to be in the waters with me and to be crucified for me.
3. Ask Jesus for help of His Holy Spirit to make me more like Him, a man who is also committed to living by the Bible, who trusts in God, and who worships and serves God alone.
Transcript
Let me pray for us and we'll get started with our next installment. Let's pray.
God, thank You that we can call out to You this morning. Thank You for Your faithfulness to all who call upon You. Your lovingkindness never changes. You welcome us and You receive us, because Jesus, Your Son, came to be our Savior. Thank You so much for Him. Thank You that out of Your great love, You sent Him who alone can save us from our sins and give us new life. We depend on You and we seek You to ask of You for Your blessing on this time to be an encouragement and a source of strength for everyone here. In Your Son's precious name we pray, Amen.
The next passage to be read for these next two days is Matthew 3:13-4:11. I'm breaking up the section this way, kind of midway through Chapter 3 and then midway through Chapter 4, because the central idea shifts in the middle of the chapter, hence, the passage for these next two days is Matthew 3:13-4:11. The central idea in this passage is that Jesus is righteous. Jesus is righteous. Not only is this the main idea of this passage, it is also the truth that we can chew on for these next couple of days. There are some strong implications that come from this that we'll be thinking about today. The key verse for today is 3:17, where God the Father says to Jesus at His baptism, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Again, this is what the Father said to Jesus, His Son, at Jesus's baptism. Now, baptism for Jesus is the most peculiar thing, because when you read the first half of the chapter, you learn that baptism was for sinners who needed to confess their sins and repent of them. But of course, Jesus was no sinner. So, the question comes up, “Why did Jesus get baptized if He wasn’t a sinner?” The answer that we get from the rest of the Bible is this: Jesus got baptized, not because He was a sinner, not because He needed to repent of sin; but He got baptized to show solidarity with sinners. He got baptized to become one with us. If you would, He got baptized to become our Savior. Think of it this way. Think about a heroic firefighter who runs into the fire to rescue those who were trapped in a burning house. This is what Jesus does. In His baptism, He plunges into the waters to save those who were in those waters screaming for help. That's Jesus. He's not the kind of Savior who throws in a lifeline into the raging current of the river, trying to save someone from the comforts of the shore. Instead, He dives into the water, and He grabs a hold of us and brings us to safety. That's the kind the Savior Jesus is. And so why did Jesus get baptized? Not because He was a sinner, but because He was becoming one with us to save us from our sins.
Jesus actually uses the metaphor of baptism to describe His crucifixion in Luke 12:50. It's a long way from where we are in Matthew and perhaps God willing, we will get there at some point, but He uses baptism as a picture for His crucifixion. Well, what's the parallel between His baptism and His crucifixion? Here's the parallel: In the same way, Jesus didn't need to get baptized because He was no sinner. Jesus also didn't need to die because He was no sinner. You see, only sinners get baptized, because only sinners need to repent. And only sinners die, because as the Bible tells us, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). So then, Jesus got baptized for sinners’ sake. And He was also crucified, put to death, for sinners’ sake. The reason why Jesus got baptized was to signify this solidarity with sinners. He went under the waters of baptism so that He can be one with us. And that He would lay down His life for our sins and rescue us from our sins.
Now, we all know this, because the rest of the Bible tells us that Jesus is righteous, that He was no sinner. But in this scene in Matthew 3, both for John and perhaps other onlookers in that scene, they would not have known with certainty that Jesus was righteous. John seems to have had an inkling of this and you'll read about it in this passage. But at this point in the Book of Matthew, we were never told that Jesus was righteous. Not yet. This is the part where Matthew demonstrates for us that Jesus was truly righteous and sinless.
Matthew shows us this in this passage in three ways.
First, he shows us John's testimony. He shows us at Jesus's baptism that John recognized that the table should be turned. That Jesus should baptize him, and not the other way around.
Second, we hear God's testimony. The Father speaks from the heavens, and He confirms that Jesus was pleasing to Him. To be pleasing to the righteous God, you must be righteous. Jesus was righteous because He was pleasing to God. We also get the testimony of the Holy Spirit, who comes down out of heaven and remains on Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the holy presence of God. And He rests upon Jesus because Jesus was a holy person who deserved the holy presence of God.
Thirdly, Jesus is righteous in his resistance to temptation. This comes up in chapter 4. There are altogether 3 temptations that are recorded for us where Satan tempts Jesus to sin against God. The temptations are kind of interesting because they're not the kind of things that most people today would say they struggle with. However, they are areas in which everyone fails to live up to God's standard, hence, relevant. These temptations don't deal with money, they don't deal with sex, they don't deal with pride. They don't deal with the things that are more fundamental to man’s existence. They are deeper concerns, not that those other issues aren't important, but these are the undercurrent from which many of these other vices arise. These three temptations revolve around God's will for man. These are first, that we live according to the Bible, and Jesus always lived according to the Bible. Second is that we trust in God. People do not want to trust in God, but Jesus demonstrated that He always trusted in God, and so he refuses to test God. And then thirdly. Jesus lived worshipfully. He always worshiped and served God the Father. In spite of the temptations of the Devil, He remains totally committed to living according to the Bible, living dependently upon God, and living worshipfully, always seeking to honor God. Jesus never once compromised living this way, living that life that was pleasing to God.
Unlike Jesus, however, humans fail in these regards. People don't seek God. They don't seek to understand what God said, let alone live by it. People depend on themselves on their own skills, their money, their power, maybe even their country, but they don't depend on God. They don't wholly lean on God for everything in life, but Jesus shows us that He did, because He was a true man of God. Thirdly, people do not worship and serve God singularly as Jesus does. They worship and serve a bunch of other things. They set their own self-interest and happiness above everything else. They set their desire for materialism or wealth above everything else, or their desire for comfort, security, or their own glory or self-exaltation. These are the things that they serve. These are the things that rule over their lives. But Jesus shows that He is committed to God, that He is a man who is singularly focused on worshiping and serving God alone. And so in all these areas, Jesus proves to be the true man of God, a man who maintained perfect integrity before God, a man of true righteousness.
So in light of this, how might we respond to Jesus in prayer? I think we ought to confess to Jesus that He is righteous and that we are not. We should humbly confess that I am a sinful person. We also should thank Jesus, that though He is righteous, He did not stand aloof from me, a sinner. But He embraced me. If you would, He plunged into the waters with me to identify with me. He's the Son of God from heaven who is always pleasing to the Father, but He came to be one with me, to rescue me from my sins. And we can thank Jesus for that. We can also ask Jesus to teach us and to train us to be like Him, that we, too, might be men of God. And so with that, perhaps a prayer like this would be appropriate.
Jesus, You are righteous. There was never a time when You did anything wrong or sinful in the sight of the Father. You always lived Your life according to the Bible, You always trusted in Your Father, never once doubting Him, and You always worshiped and served Him and Him alone. I don't always do these things, but I thank You that You came to save a sinner like me. You didn't come to save me from a distance; You plunged into the waters, as it were. You became one with me and You died for me. You died the death that I should have died to save me from my sins. I thank You. I also pray that You would help me, that by Your Spirit, You would give me strength and encouragement and Your truth to guide my thoughts and my life, so that I would become a man of God, a man much like You. So I ask for Your help. Your word says You came to give the Holy Spirit to those who repent. And Jesus, I look to you with a heart of repentance and humble myself before You, seeking change and seeking help. Amen.
If you would call upon the Lord this way, I know He will hear you, and I hope that even through these past first weeks of doing devotions in this fashion, you've already begun to see the work of Jesus in your life, because when you call upon Him, He hears you. This is why He came to Earth, because you need Him, and He is the only Savior we have. He is the most wonderful Savior who came to be one with us sinners, to rescue us and to give us new life. So that's the reading for these next two days, Matthew 3:13 through 4:11. I look forward to meeting with all of you again next time on Wednesday, and until then, Lord Bless you and we are done for today. Bye.