And I invite you to turn in your copy of God’s Word to the book of Genesis chapter 22. Genesis 22, that’s where we will find our Old Testament reading. It’ll be the first 13 verses. And before I read, I’ll just point out, If you’re looking at an ESV Bible and some other versions as well, there’s an editor’s heading at the beginning of this chapter. And it says, the sacrifice of Isaac. And I think it’s well worth pointing out that our Jewish friends do not refer to this episode in scripture as the sacrificing of Isaac. They refer to it as the binding of Isaac because Isaac wasn’t sacrificed, as we will soon see.
Let’s give careful attention to this. Because this is the very word of God.
After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young man, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together.
And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built there the altar and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you’ve not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering. instead of his son.
And now for our New Testament reading and the text for our sermon this morning, please turn to Luke’s gospel. Chapter three. And our text is verses 21 and 22. Luke 3, 21 and 22.
Now, when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you, I’m well pleased. And that’s the reading of God’s word.
Please pray with me and let’s ask God’s blessing on his word to us. Father in heaven, your word was written for our instruction. Your word is. A lamp unto our feet and light to our path. We pray that your spirit would illumine the pages of your word for us this morning that we might profit from it, that it might be an effectual means of grace. And above all, we pray that our Savior, Jesus Christ, would be exalted. And we pray these things in His name. Amen.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has a few publications. You can find copies of some of them out there in the foyer. There’s New Horizons. It contains articles for the edification of the people of the OPC. And then there’s another one that’s called Ordained Servant. And that, anybody can read it, of course, but it’s written and published particularly for the officers of the church, elders, deacons, ministers.
And every deacon, every elder, every minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church at some point in time was ordained after they went through a period of training, formal training of some kind, but even that training that comes from just life experiences that God providentially gives. Each officer has a date they can mark on the calendar showing when they were ordained to office. And some of you active elders or maybe some of you who are ordained elders but aren’t serving actively on the session, same with deacons, maybe you remember or know in your head the date that you were ordained to serve God in office in his church.
To ordain someone means to invest officially with ministerial authority. It’s a marker. It’s the point from which a person has been given the authority and the commission, we might say, to serve. And so on August 21st, 2012, I was ordained to gospel ministry in the Presbytery of Southeast Alabama of the PCA.
Now, there’s an ordination service that takes place in our text this morning. I call it that because that’s functionally what it was. Luke in his gospel, we’re nearing the end of chapter three, but already in Luke’s gospel, Luke has told us that Jesus is the Son of God. We know that. He’s already told us that Jesus is the Savior. Luke has already made it clear in his gospel, even in these initial chapters, that this one, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is the long-awaited Messiah. We know all these things. If you read chapter one and chapter two, it’s already been told. But here at Christ’s baptism, all of this was formally confirmed.
So Jesus was ordained for ministry. It’s a little bit like, you know, at the end of this academic year, CCA is going to have a commencement ceremony and CCA goes up to eighth grade. And so those who are getting ready to graduate eighth grade are going to have a they’re going to have a commencement ceremony, I would guess. And so by the evening of commencement, they have they will have checked all the blocks and accomplished all the tasks. but then they’re officially recognized as graduates at commencement, and they receive their diploma. Ordination is a little bit like that. And when Jesus was baptized, he was affirmed by God the Father and anointed for ministry by God the Holy Spirit.
So it was like his ordination service. At his baptism, Jesus was affirmed by God the Father and anointed for ministry by God the Holy Spirit.
My apologies, I didn’t have my points ready quite in time for the printing of the bulletin, but here they are. Three points. First of all, Jesus submitted to John’s baptism to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus submitted to John’s baptism to fulfill all righteousness. And quickly, I’ll give you the other two, but I’ll repeat them, of course. Secondly, the Holy Spirit anointed and empowered Jesus to be our Redeemer. And third, God the Father spoke from heaven, declaring his love for his son.
So first, Jesus submitted to John’s baptism to fulfill all righteousness. People will often ask the question, Jesus had no sin, so why did he have to be baptized? Particularly, why did he have to be baptized with the baptism of John, which was a baptism for repentance? If he had no sin to repent of, why did Jesus have to be baptized?
Well the answer can be found in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give an account of the actual baptism of Jesus. John in his Gospel speaks to it, but you don’t actually have an account of the baptism itself. But if we compare Scripture with Scripture and look at some of the different things that different Gospel writers share with us, we find that when When Jesus came to be baptized, John tried to stop him. You know, you’re familiar. He said, I need to be baptized by you. And are you coming to me? And Jesus assures John and said, let it be so for now. And he says these words. This is how we’ll fulfill all righteousness.
What does that mean? for Jesus to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. What was he talking about there? Jesus, as our substitute, as our mediator, as our paschal lamb, he had to do everything a righteous person ought to do. Maybe you’ve heard it said that Jesus came to be the true Israelite because there was never an Israelite in history that lived up to that name, lived up to the expectations, lived up to the commandments of God. They all fell short and Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness in that sense, to be the true Israelite.
And if we look at the text, honestly, we have to see that the emphasis really isn’t on the fact that Jesus was baptized. The emphasis is on the fact that as he was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him. That’s really the important thing here.
But when it comes to this issue of, well, Jesus was sinless, why did he have to be baptized? That issue is really no different, to be honest, than it is with his circumcision. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, just like every Hebrew boy was. He had no sin, so he didn’t need circumcision. Actually, we could go on. Jesus observed the Passover, didn’t he? Did he need to offer the Passover lamb? Did he need to observe that ordinance? He was sinless. He didn’t really need to do the Passover. Or offer any of the other sacrifices, which doubtless he did offer.
To fulfill all righteousness. He came to do his father’s will. The scripture says that he loved to do his father’s will. And that meant he had to come and live a perfectly holy life. To live a life without sin. And we’re told in Philippians that he humbled himself. He humbled himself and he became obedient. He became obedient even to the point of death.
So Jesus didn’t need what John’s baptism symbolized. It symbolized repentance and Jesus had no sin of which to repent. So he didn’t need what John’s baptism symbolized, but he lived a righteous life within the covenant community of God and everyone within the covenant community of God who was living as a believer, as a faithful Jew, went to John and submitted to his baptism. So therefore, Jesus did the same. He in that sense, he also identified with us. He’s our representative. And as our mediator, he had to become like us in every way. So he participated in the life of the covenant community, he had to identify with those whom he came to save. Another thing that’s important for us to note, as we see Jesus submitting to John’s baptism, is that while he was baptized, or after he was baptized, and Luke’s the only gospel writer who mentions this, but it says he was praying. We see this snapshot of the Lord Jesus praying on the occasion of his baptism. So to Jesus, baptism wasn’t this empty ritual. It wasn’t just a box to check, just another thing he had to do to fulfill all righteousness. It wasn’t like that at all for him. For Jesus, this was not a mere formality, but he made diligent spiritual use of the ordinance. He prayed in conjunction with his baptism.
So Jesus, again is the true Israelite. He was baptized as an act of obedience and part of his perfect life of obedience was to be baptized by John. And in that sense, R.C. Sproul makes a very earnest point of this. In that sense, it was necessary for your salvation and for mine, for Jesus to be baptized by John. If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have fulfilled all righteousness. That’s why he did it. He submitted to John’s baptism.
Secondly, the Holy Spirit anointed and empowered Jesus to be our Redeemer. The Holy Spirit anointed and empowered Jesus to be our Redeemer. Look with me again at the beginning of verse 22. It says the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Now, I mentioned already John’s Gospel does not give an account of Jesus’ baptism, but it gives us some very important information in connection with it. And so, in John 1, verses 32 and 33, it says, John bore witness, John the Baptist bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. He goes on to say, I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
So John was able to observe the spirit descending on Jesus. and not only descending on him, but remaining on him. And so the descent of the Holy Spirit, particularly in the form of a dove that comes and remains on Jesus, this is emblematic of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. There were certain offices under the old covenant for which a person would be ordained by the anointing of oil. They’d pour anointing oil on their head, and that oil would stay on them. Priests were ordained, and the books of Moses contain elaborate instructions about how to ordain a priest for the office so that he can serve as a priest. Kings were ordained. We read of how the prophet Samuel ordained Saul. He anointed him with oil. Later he then anointed David because David would become king in place of Saul. And so that anointing oil is poured on the the ordinand and it stays on them. Even prophets were ordained. There’s no specific instruction in scripture about that, but we do read of instructions that God gave to the prophet Elijah when his ministry was about to come to an end, when he was getting ready to be taken up into heaven, and God told Elijah to go and anoint Elisha. Go and anoint Elisha as prophet in your place.
So kings were anointed, priests were anointed, prophets were anointed. Are you seeing a pattern here? These offices which required ordination that was accompanied by anointing with oil. And Christ is our Redeemer executes all those offices. He is the great prophet that was to come the prophet like unto Moses to whom we must all listen. He was the son of David would come and rule over his house forever. He was the great high priest after the order of Melchizedek, not after the order of Levi or of Aaron. And so the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus for these offices, which he then executed in our behalf. His anointing, his coming and descending upon Jesus and abiding on him, ordained Jesus for the offices of prophet, priest, and king.
But not only did he anoint Jesus, he also empowered Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the one who empowered Christ to fulfill his work. And when we get to chapter four, verse one, we’re going to read that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. And you know, of course, that during those days in the wilderness, he neither ate or drank for 40 days. And then he was tempted by the devil, but the Spirit was with him. The Spirit was empowering him. It was the very Spirit who led him into the wilderness in the first place. And then after that temptation by Satan, which he triumphed over in verse 14 of the next chapter of Luke, it says, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.
So as to his human nature, as to the fact that he, just like every one of us, was fully human, in his humanity, Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit for his work as our Redeemer. After 30 years or so of waiting, preparation, Jesus will now officially begin his public ministry, and his baptism was his ordination service. He was ordained to office as our Redeemer.
Well, then thirdly and finally, we see that God the Father speaks from heaven. God the Father spoke from heaven, declaring his love for his son. In the opening words of the letter to the Hebrews, We’re told that God spoke in many ways by the prophets. And what were some of those ways? He’d sometimes communicate to people through dreams. We saw that a lot at the beginning of Luke, an angel of the Lord appearing, speaking God’s word to people, coming to them in their dreams. He would appear to people in visions and various other ways God communicated his will and his word to his people in times past.
There’s only one place I hope I didn’t miss any, but on my count, I can only think of another time in scripture when God himself spoke from heaven in the hearing of people. That was at Mount Sinai. He delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. There they are at the foot of Sinai. God spoke audibly from heaven. And it didn’t happen again. until the occasion of Christ’s baptism. He was the speaker at Christ’s ordination service. Spoke from heaven again. And when he spoke.
At Christ’s baptism, he spoke to communicate two things. He announced that Jesus was his son. And he expressed his love and approval of him. He announced that Jesus was his son. You think of Psalm 2. Verse 7, I will tell the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. So the words that God spoke at Christ’s baptism harken back to Psalm 2. And those words are going to be repeated at the transfiguration. One more time, God is going to speak in man’s hearing from heaven. And so he announces that Jesus is the divine son. God’s only begotten. This one who was just baptized and upon whom the Holy Spirit has descended and remained, he is the word made flesh.
So he announced from heaven that Jesus was his son, but he also expressed his love and approval of him. That’s part of the reason we read Genesis 22 this morning is our Old Testament reading. Because when God came and gave these solemn instructions to Abraham, he said, I want you to take your son, and I want you to offer him up as a burnt offering. But he added material in there. Not just take your son and offer him up. Take your son, Isaac, your only son, whom you love. I know you love him, Abraham. I know you love your son. Go offer him as a burnt offering to me.
And when God said at Christ’s baptism to Jesus, you are my beloved son with you, I’m well pleased. For God to be well pleased with him. Means that Christ was without blemish. He was his sinless son. There was no fault in him. pure and spotless Lamb of God.
So we have these two occasions on which God speaks from heaven. You got Mount Sinai, where he gave the law. He declared his own holiness, and how people who love him are to reflect his holiness, by keeping his law. It reflects his character, And he commands his people to be imitators of that. That revelation, that word that came directly from God out of heaven came from a mountaintop where there was a thick cloud and fire, and there was an earthquake and thunder, and the people were terrified.
God spoke from heaven again at Jesus’ baptism. And on that occasion, He presented Christ, declared Him to be His Son. So that second voice from heaven wasn’t from a mountaintop. In fact, it’s about as opposite you can get. It was at Jesus’ baptism. So they were there in the water. They were at sea level. He came down, not with fire, not with thunder, but with a dove descending. What’s one of the things that doves symbolize universally? Peace. Peace.
So those two manifestations of God’s voice from heaven exhibit the great divide. And every man, woman and child on earth We’ll approach God through one of those two manifestations, the thundering law, which we can never keep, or the olive branch of peace offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Before we conclude, I just want to make a couple of points of application, mostly by way of instruction. There’s a very, very important Christian doctrine that is highlighted and illustrated for us in this event, and that’s the doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrine of the Trinity, that God is one God, but He exists in three persons, exists eternally in three persons. This is basic to all Christianity. It’s one of the most basic Christian doctrines there are. And it has been the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the history of the Church. And in all of Church history, anyone who denied the doctrine of the Trinity was labeled a heretic. It’s not just that there’s a difference in opinion that’s tolerable. It’s not just semantic. It cuts at the vitals. If you deny the Trinity, you’re denying Christ, you’re denying the Christian faith.
But admittedly, the word Trinity doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible. You can’t turn to chapter and verse and find the word Trinity. And you can’t even really find our doctrine of the Trinity spelled out chapter and verse for us the way you’d find it, for instance, in the Athanasian Creed or even in the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed. It doesn’t lie on the surface in that sense, but it’s so clearly taught in Scripture that it is a fundamental of our faith.
You have to trust in the fact that There are attributes of God that aren’t communicable. What I mean by that is there are attributes of God that we as his creatures can share. God has knowledge, and we share in part in knowledge. God is love, and we are capable of love. God is holy and he calls us to be holy. We can’t be holy to the same degree he is, but we are called and commanded to pursue holiness, to strive for it. So those are what we call communicable attributes because we as human beings and as mere creatures can actually partake of some of these attributes which belong to God.
There are, however, certain attributes of God which we call incommunicable. In other words, he doesn’t share them in any way or to any degree with any of his creatures, including man. And there are incommunicable attributes, which in scripture are attributed to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Spirit. So they are all God. And yet there is only one God. And this little word has been coined to kind of put a handle on that great truth is Trinity. And so I impress upon you the fact that you must believe in the Trinity, and you must embrace and defend the doctrine of the Trinity.
We see it on display here at Christ’s baptism. Jesus the Son being baptized, the Holy Spirit descending in a manifestation, bodily form as a dove, and then the Father speaking from heaven, all three persons of the Trinity present, active participants at Christ’s baptism,
And one other thing that should encourage your hearts today is that all three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all engaged in and participants in and have a tremendous loving interest in your salvation. They’re all active in it. And that should encourage you, especially when you’re feeling hopeless, when you’re discouraged, when your faith burns low, be encouraged by the fact that not just one, but all three persons of the Godhead love you and are acting for your salvation.
I also want to briefly point out the fact that, again, Jesus was praying, it says in verse 21. Luke in his gospel gives particular emphasis to Jesus’ prayer life. He shows us the centrality of prayer in the life of Jesus Christ. And it teaches us the centrality of prayer to Christian living. And brothers and sisters, if Jesus, the perfect man, If Jesus, the God-man, prayed, then how much more should our lives reflect a similar emphasis? William Hendrickson wrote that Jesus not only urged his disciples to pray and even taught them to pray, but lived a life of prayer. Let us follow him in that.
And then finally, I just want to tie this all back to our Old Testament reading. God tested Abraham, commanded him to take his beloved son and offer him up as a sacrifice. And we read what happened. And remember that after the test, after Abraham passed the test, God said to him, now I know that you fear God. But in that moment, it says that Remember, Isaac was bound, he was lying on the wood, Abraham had the fire and he’s reaching out for the knife. He’s in the very process of taking the knife in his hand. And in that moment, Abraham, who has been called in God’s Word, the friend of God, he got just a small taste. Small taste of what God Most High would do for his elect.
It’s always struck me that Abraham raised the knife. He was ready to slaughter Isaac, but God intervened. But when Jesus went to the cross. The knife of divine wrath would be raised to slaughter God’s beloved son. And there wouldn’t be a voice to come. To stop him. There would be no one to call out. I say do no harm to your beloved son. No one intervened at that point because by giving his son up to death, God was intervening for us. He delivered him up for us all.
Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this ministry to which you called and ordained your beloved son, and thank you that he fulfilled it. Thank you that he became obedient even unto death. Lord, may we be filled with love for you and for him. May we be filled with your Holy Spirit. And we pray that just as you empowered Christ for His ministry, that through the Spirit you would empower us to live our lives for you and for your glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.