JOHN066 - Well That Settles That. Clearly You Were Right and I Was Wrong.

John 1:29-34

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Music by Jeff Foote

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. And I was watching this YouTube video or something on the internet where these people were driving in a car, they're hesitating because to their left, there's this big rock wall. The ground looks a little weird. It's raining real hard, and it just looks like it's a little mushy. And the one person in the car is like, I think we're fine. Let's go. And the person driving the car is obviously they're slowing down and they're balking a little bit. I don't know. And then the whole side of the mountain gives out, and there's this massive landside mudslide, and you know, they start yelling swears and stuff and throw it in reverse. That's one of those things where sometimes you're sitting with somebody and you're like, all right, you see it this way, I see it this way. Maybe we ought to do this. Well, maybe we ought to do this. And then something immediately happens and it just confirms for everybody. Oh, uh, okay, well, now we know who was right. We get a scene like that in Matthew chapter three here, where we get a little debate between Jesus and John the Baptist as to whether or not John the Baptist should be baptizing Jesus. Jesus shows up and is like, Well, I'm here to be baptized. John's gonna be like, I don't think that's the right order of things. I think you should probably baptize me. And Jesus is gonna be like, Nope. You're the baptizer, and this is what you're supposed to do to fulfill all righteousness. And then right after John concedes and is like, Okay, I mean, you're the Messiah, I'll do it. Right after that, then this incredible thing occurs that absolutely vindicates Jesus and causes John the Baptist and Jesus and everybody else there to be like, Oh, okay, well, yeah, in light of that, you were right, I was wrong. Clearly, I was supposed to baptize you. Also, dang, that was pretty amazing. So here's the scene I'm talking about. We're in Matthew chapter three, and you've got, you know, really serious tension in Matthew's account of the baptism of Jesus and the stuff surrounding that. Whereas in John, you get a much gentler treatment of scenes like this. Whereas Matthew is willing to let you, the reader, feel the tension between these parties at every single turn. Three. So it's very, very tense through the first 12 verses of the baptism scene in Matthew, but then Jesus shows up and everything changes. And all of a sudden, we can kind of reimagine the scene as you know, two people driving in a car, and here's a situation in front of them. Well, what's the right thing to do? What ought we to do here? Verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? Okay, I get it. I think I'm team John the Baptist here. If Jesus walked up and say, This is what needs to happen, I think I would be like, I mean, I've already been baptized, but if we're doing baptisms, would it be so bad if we did one more? I'd like to be baptized by Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God, God in the flesh, co-equal God of gods, God from time eternal, the Alpha and Omega. Yeah, that's a list of titles that you know, if somebody should probably be doing some baptizing and stuff. Whereas I am Matt of Rapid City, Dweller of a Shed, mower of lawns, and occasional watcher of long-form television programs on streaming services. It's not a good list of titles. I shouldn't be baptizing you. So, yeah, good on John for knowing his place. And I mean, I think he was absolutely right to balk at this. This isn't a bad disagreement between the two parties. They're just, you know, to stretch my metaphor a little bit, there's you know, there are two guys sitting in a car looking at the same situation from a different perspective, and they're seeing slightly different things, and so they're coming at it in ways that make sense to them. John's like, I shouldn't baptize you. This is reminiscent of how Peter responds to the idea of Jesus washing his feet in John chapter 13, which, you know, we're gonna get there someday in the next decade or so in real time. John 13, Jesus starts washing the disciples' feet, and they're like, What is going on? But Peter, he's always the one who will yap about it and say what's maybe in everybody's mind. And so in verse 6 of John 13, Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you gonna wash my feet? Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Oh. Well then, Lord Simon Peter replied, Not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. Peter, you know, he always goes big. You gotta give him that. Also, I gotta give him that I would be with him there as well. Why I should be washing your feet. What are we doing here? Well, Jesus' kingdom is upside down, the values are backwards from how we think of pecking orders and how things work in this world and everything about what Jesus taught and did, undergirds at it, highlights at it, draws attention to that. So John is in the car, he looks at the unfolding situation in front of him. He's like, Yeah, I'm not, I'm not gonna do that. That ain't right. Jesus is also in the car. He looks at the situation unfolding in front of him, and he says, verse 15, Matthew 3, let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. Then John consented. When in you know, a couple chapters later on here, right at the is it at the end of seven or the beginning of eight? I think it's the very last thing in seven. Yeah, right at the end of Matthew 7, after Jesus just gets done giving the Sermon on the Mount, it says, when Jesus had finished saying these things, the the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law. So unlike the video I saw with the two guys in the car, where yeah, we're kind of equal, but I guess I'm the one who is hands on the wheel, so I guess I'll make the decision. Here, I sense that authority is on display. Hey, John, you know who I am well enough to single me out. You know who I am well enough to balk at the idea of you baptizing me. Well, whatever I say next is going to be authoritative, and it is. He doesn't speak as somebody who's involved in a religious debate, he speaks as one who has authority. Jesus replied, Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. Then John consented. That's it. So then we do a baptism. And as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water, and this is where this is the equivalent of the landslide moment in the video. This is where the debate is settled. Who was right? Should Jesus have done the baptizing? Should John have done the baptizing? Well, yeah, here's the big giant, unmissable thing that answers the question and causes everybody to be like, oh, okay, you were right. Jesus was right. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him, and a voice from heaven said, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. A little later on in Matthew, in chapter 17, we get another affirmation verbally from God. This is my son, listen to him. That's at the transfiguration. But in this moment, there really is a it's kind of like an Elijah to Elisha passing of the mantle of authority. In this movement, John has been the biggest deal, the hottest story for a really long time. People are walking a long ways and enduring significant expense and inconvenience to go out to this music festival-like setting in a not that desirable part of below sea level bad lands. And you know, why? Because he commands, I mean he's authoritative, he's a huge deal. But in just one quick little, uh, I think we should do this. Actually, we're gonna do this kind of exchange. Everything changes. Not just because John baptizes Jesus and John identifies Jesus as the Christ, that gets highlighted more heavily in the Gospel of John, where John the Baptist does sort of the identifying. Here it's God Himself, who Matthew highlights as doing the identifying. And in this moment, anybody who was there to see would be like, uh Okay. That guy has the mantle of authority, and John really is operating in service of him and his work, whatever that might be. But everybody shows up, the whole Trinity shows up to affirm Jesus in this moment. This is sort of the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. He's gonna be in front of everybody for the next three years, and he's gonna go to the cross, and he's gonna be raised in front of a whole bunch of people, and I mean there's a lot ahead here. And in a way, it's uh it's a triple uh not incarnation, but manifestation. Only the Son takes on flesh, human flesh, but God is present here. There's a physical manifestation of God in a way that's pretty consistent. If you remember when we talked about the physical presence of God in the Old Testament, we did like a three-day side quest or whatever on that. Yeah, the presence of God here is in keeping with what we've seen of the presence of God from the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit shows up, distinct from that presence of God, the presence of God the Father that we've seen. And the Holy Spirit is a physical manifestation as well as a dove. And Jesus, of course, has taken on human flesh. So here God is tabernacling among us, dwelling among us. He's back for the 400 years prior to this, really more than 400 years, for almost 600 years prior to this moment. There'd been some serious questions about where does God live now? Where is his presence? Wow, this is a very powerful moment. In Matthew 3, everybody there would have known what that meant. Everybody there would have figured out pretty quick that this is the presence of God. This is a pretty big deal. The argument is settled, right? Like this is more than the equivalent of should we drive past that? Should we not? Is it safe? Landslide. I guess it wasn't safe. Let's get out of here. Yeah, yeah, no, this is uh even more overt than that. Like, this is the sign that from time to time, you know, when I talk with people about struggling with belief, this is the sign that people want. They're like, why doesn't God just open the heavens and like do miracles like in the Bible or in Monty Python and just you know say who he is and spell it out so I can have no more doubts. Well, it doesn't happen that often, but here's an occasion so important that it did. And imagine being John the Baptist in that moment. You're pretty humbled if you're the guy in the car who's like, I think we could drive past it, I think we could make it. And then there's a giant landslide. This is humbling in a different way to be the guy who's like, I don't think we should go about this baptism this way. And then you do, and then the whole thing is affirmed like this. I mean, just a multi-level affirmation here. John is affirmed. John's confrontation with the religious leaders is affirmed. John baptizing Jesus is affirmed. The act of baptism is affirmed, and most of all, Jesus is affirmed. All right, we got to look at Mark and Luke a little bit as well. I think we can knock that out tomorrow. To me, it's pretty clear that John assumes his readers have some sense of what's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So from time to time, us filling that in as well, I think is important. So we're on the same page with John. Okay, moving forward next time. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.