Dave's Diary

I had the privilege of preaching at the Laubscher Park Chapel this afternoon. These are the sermon notes – which as usual were added to and adapted as I went along.

Luke 3:15-17 & 21-22

If I were to go around the congregation today and ask each of you this question: “Who are you?” you would each give a very different answer, of course. It would take far too long to do that, but it would be a very interesting exercise. Probably, we would all take our lead from whoever went first. If I said: “I am Dave Howard, the new Methodist minister at Walmer Methodist Church” and thereby defined myself by my name and occupation, the rest of the circle would probably do the same. E.g., “I’m Brian Stewart, retired metallurgist and farmer.”

It would be especially interesting if I followed up with this question by saying, “Sure, but who are you really?” Truth be told, we could drill down very deeply into that by simply asking that question repeatedly. Well, I’m Dave, son of Ken and Moyra Howard … I’m Dave, husband of Gerrida Howard… I’m Dave, father to Joshua and Hester Howard … I’m Dave, 50 year old man, slightly balding… I’m Dave, I love to play the guitar and sing praises to the Lord. The more you asked me that question, the deeper I would have to dig down to try to define who I am.

And all humans really do need to figure this out: At the deepest level of my identity, who am I?

I suspect that by the time we get to Luke 3, Jesus has been doing a lot of work figuring out the answer to this question.

In Luke 2:41-52 we have that lovely account of Jesus remaining behind at the Temple when His parents were already returning to Nazareth. And when they eventually found Him there, debating with the religious leaders, Jesus says to them: “Why were you worried? Why were you searching? Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s House?”

Jesus was already realizing that He had a unique relationship to God, as God’s Son. One can only imagine that this was part of a long process of wrestling for the young Jesus. Who am I:

• Am I just an illegitimate child born before my parents were married, and of uncertain parentage?
• Am I just the village carpenter’s son?
• After Joseph’s death … am I just the eldest son of a widow and thus her breadwinner?
• And later, as he approached 30, am I a Jewish teacher in the local synagogue?

It appears that as Jesus approached that age of 30, at which Jewish males were old enough to be acknowledged as rabbis, He arrived at the full and final understanding of His identity and of God the Father’s calling on His life.

Jesus then chose … at that point … to go out in to the wilderness surrounding the Jordan River in order to be baptised by John the Baptist. That’s the scene we read from Luke 3.

I’d like to dig in to that passage and reflect on it in light of 3 questions – which I hope I’ll also answer for us:

1. What was Jesus doing here?
2. What was God the Father doing here?
3. What does this mean for us today?

What was Jesus doing here?

Let’s remember what John’s ministry was. John was out in the wilderness presenting people with a choice to turn away from their sinful ways … and turn back to living a life pleasing to God. That is what repentance means, and that was the gist of John’s preaching ministry: Turn away from sin and turn back to God!

But then he also called people to symbolise that repentance by being baptised. Now baptism was a well know symbol and rite of passage in Jewish religion. It was used t different times … to symbolise different things … but most commonly it was used whenever. Gentile sought to convert to Judaism. As part of the conversion there would be a symbolic baptism, in which the candidate would walk through the river of baptism and on the one bank of the River they would declare their Gentile name: “I am Julius”, for example. When they came out on the other ban they would proclaim, “I am Bartholomew”, or whatever the Jewish name was that they had been given.

So baptism was well known as a rite of passage from one life to another life. The symbolism was that the old person stood in the water … they then died to that old life as they went under the water … and as they rose up out of the water … they rose to their new life.

For those who responded to John’s preaching, their baptism symbolised that they were dying to their old life of sinful living and rising to their new life of serving God with a righteous lifestyle.

But then we have to wonder, why did Jesus go there? The Bible makes it clear to us that although Jesus was tempted throughout His life in every way as we are … He was without sin.

(e.g., Hebrews 4:14, 1 Peter 2:22, 2 Corinthian 5:21, 1 John 3:5, and John 8:29)

These verses all point to this great truth. Jesus had nothing of which to repent.

So why did He go to be baptised?

Jesus went to baptised to signal His decision that he had come to an end and to a beginning. Jesus had decided to follow the call of God into public mission and ministry. He was choosing to die to His old life as the village carpenter … and to rise to His new life on His God-given mission as the Messiah – the Saviour of humanity.  

Jesus did not NEED John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins, but His baptism was His way of signalling … to Himself and to the community:

• I am NOW leaving behind My ordinary village life in Nazareth, and I am marking that “ending” through the “death” that is symbolised when one goes under the waters of baptism.
• I am NOW committing Myself fully to starting a “new life” of ministry and mission as I rise out of the waters of baptism.
• I am dying to My old life as the village carpenter and
• I am rising to my new life as a servant of God.

Baptism … as a symbolic entry into a whole new life … was a perfect start for this phase of Jesus’ mission. That’s why He did it.

What was God the Father doing?

So that is what Jesus was doing as he went through baptism.

What the Father did next is so, so beautiful.

When Jesus came up out of the water, and He was praying (probably right out there in the River, dedicating Himself to this task), v.21-22 tells us, “heaven was opened ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are My Son, whom I love, with You I am well pleased.”

That is so beautiful!

In that moment, God the Father was putting His public stamp of approval on Jesus’ decision and His commitment. But He was also doing so much more. He was affirming Jesus in His identity.

If Jesus had been wrestling ( as I suggested He had) with the question: “Who am I?”, this was God the Father’s answer to the question:

• You are My Son.
• You are My Son whom I love.
• You are My Son whim I love and with whom I am well pleased!

Notice there that only one of those statements has to do with what Jesus did; viz., “I am well pleased with You.”

The other two statements are purely about identity: You are My Son. You are the One Whom I love!

Can you imagine the joy that must have flooded Jesus’ soul when he heard those words?

Equally, can you imagine the joy as the Holy Spirit filled Him?

And, you, know, I really believe that those two things go together. The voice of God’s love and the Holy Spirit. Both God’s Word and God’s Spirit were ministering the same truth to Jesus at the same time:

You are LOVED by God!

You are God’s SON.

God was emphatically ministering to Jesus the absolutely central truth of Who He was in that moment: God’s BELOVED SON.

And we can only imagine the joy of knowing that as an absolute certainty.

• I am not “just” the illegitimate son of a poor couple,
• I am not “just” the village carpenter,
• I am not “just” my widowed mother’s bread-winner.
• I am not even “just” a rabbi or the Messiah for that matter.
• Above and beyond and before anything else: I AM GOD’S BELOVED SON.

What does this mean for us?

This reading has a lot to teach us not only about Jesus but also about ourselves as disciples … because remember … in Luke 3:15-17 John prophesied that Jesus would baptise His followers (that’s us) with the Holy Spirit and fire!

Here’s the heart of it. Every person who comes to Jesus in faith and receives Him as our Saviour and Lord is adopted into the family of God as a beloved child of God … on the basis of the merit of Jesus. (John 1:12)

At that moment, the same love-ministry that Jesus received from the Father by the Spirit at His baptism, we disciples also receive by the Spirit’s ministry to us.

Romans 8:15-16 tells us that the “Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba Father’. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

But, also remember that Romans 5:5 says that God has poured His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit Whom he has given us.

At his baptism it was the Holy Spirit who brought this ministry of the love of God to Jesus. And we are promised that God will pour His love into us by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.

As disciples of Jesus we can confidently expect to receive the Holy Spirit and the message of God’s love that He brings – not only at our conversion and our baptism, but day by day.

What this means for us today is that right at the core of OUR identity, this is the answer to the question “Who are you?”.

When pressed over and over to dig down deeply into the question: “Who am I actually?” you and I ought to get to the point where we are answering: At the very heart of who I am, I am a beloved child of God.

That right there … our identity as forgiven, beloved children of God … is the bedrock out of which the Holy Spirit, the River of our joy, flows.

Some of the questions we could contemplate as we close are:

• Am I looking to my Father God to minister my deepest identity as His beloved to me, or have I slipped into looking to other sources for my identity? In other words am I allowing other sources to tell me who I am or do I believe that I am who HE says I am – the beloved of God?
• How can I be more deliberate about inviting the Holy Spirit to minister the love of God to me daily, so that I may be more firmly established in my identity as God’s beloved?