Pleasing God on The Road to the Cross

 

Today I want to share a word about pleasing God on the road to the cross as I comment on Matthew 3:13-17. 

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 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.”

Introduction:

My mother was an excellent cook. She was very efficient, and she had learned how to not spend hours in the kitchen, while still producing wonderful meals. She did have one peculiar habit, however.

Often, as the rest of our family enjoyed her cooking, maybe it was oven fried chicken served with mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables, she would sit and pick at her food. Then, she’d say, “I am just not satisfied.”

Next, she would go to the refrigerator and get a couple of slices of bologna, the kind that had the red casing around it that you removed before you ate it. She’d place the bologna on a slice of white bread and administer a healthy dose of tabasco sauce on it. She’d fold the bread and bologna in half and then return to the table.

While we were enjoying all the good food she’d prepared for us, she would sit there and enjoy her half-sandwich of bologna and tabasco sauce. She knew what pleased her, and she didn’t really care what we thought of her awkward food choices.

Baptism is a vital rite of the Christian church, and it is universally celebrated as a special occasion in the life of a congregation. Of course, that does not mean that every baptismal service is flawlessly conducted. Awkward moments can occur.

For example, we have all probably seen the on-line video of the child who does a cannonball into the baptistry, resulting in a tidal wave of water cascading onto the choir sitting below.

On another occasion, a pastor who was baptizing a man much taller than he was smashed the man's head into the side of the pool during the baptism. The new believer came to the surface sputtering words more suitable for his former way of life than for church.

These incidents demonstrate that even the most sacred of our church rites can sometimes become awkward moments. One might say this almost occurred during the baptism of Jesus as well, but the actual outcome pleased His Heavenly Father. Let's look at that together.

Jesus Pleased His Father by His Humility:

Few who read the account of the ministry of John the Baptist would doubt that his was a powerful ministry. He preached captivating sermons which touched many lives. He confronted evil and sin without hesitation. 

Masses of people came to him to repent of their sins and be baptized. Yet, despite all of this, he knew that one was coming who would be far greater than he.

Like John, Jesus had a powerful ministry. He, too, preached captivating sermons which touch many lives. He confronted evil and sin without hesitation. Masses of people came to him to repent of their sin but also to be healed of their diseases and be fed with physical bread as well as the Bread of Life. 

Jesus was a prophet, like John, but unlike John He was God incarnate, who raised the dead and who defeated death and hell on the Cross. John had no doubt that Jesus was superior to himself, and we should have no doubts about that also.

Despite Jesus's obvious superiority to John, Jesus humbly submitted to baptism by him. Jesus's humility began even before the primitive circumstances of His birth, but in Heaven, when He humbled Himself to be born in the form of a man so that He could be the Savior of the world as Paul taught us in Philippians 2:5-11,

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This humility on the part of His Son pleased God the Father, and when His people choose humility today it pleases Him as well. Consider the Biblical record about humility:

In Exodus 10:3-4, Pharaoh was told,

Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country . . .

2 Samuel 22:28 tells us,

You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

2 Chronicles 7:14 reminds us, 

. . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Psalm 147:6 says,

The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.

Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 23:11-12,

The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Finally, James told the church in Jerusalem that,

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:6-10)

Taking the path of humility on the part of a child of God is never a bad choice for it pleases the Father.

Jesus Pleased His Father by His Desire for Righteousness:

The humility exhibited by Christ was only part of what pleases His Father. Humility, by putting God before our own desires, leads to righteousness, as we find in Micah 6:6-8,

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

God is perfect, which, among other factors, means that He has perfect balance all the time in all His attributes and all His actions. Righteousness is a key attribute of God, which balances other qualities like benevolence.

Dr. Fisher Humphreys, a retired professor of theology, has taught for years that God is both good and loving, that is, "We can trust in One who does what is right, in One who loves and is concerned about us."

Part of this goodness, to my way of thinking, is the characteristic of righteousness. Jesus the Son, cared about upholding righteousness, and this pleased His Father in Heaven.

Why is upholding righteousness important? Some people's concept of God is that He forgives all people all sin without any standards at all. In Romans 6:1-2 Paul rebukes that thought strongly, saying 

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

The Scriptures are clear: although God is Love, He also clearly hates sin! How then can we find a way out of this conundrum? Through Christ!

Jesus is the One who fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. It was He who came to fulfill the Law. As Paul went on to say in Romans 6:5-11, 

"For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

The righteousness of Jesus has provided for our salvation. The children of God please Him when they live out the righteous life given to us at such great cost to Him.

Jesus Pleased His Father by His Baptism:

In the present day we are proud of our use of audio-visual techniques to share the Gospel and to worship God. We project hymns onto screens, and we frequently show promotional or motivating videos as well. We incorporate drama, dance, and even puppets into church services. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and the whole galaxy of social media outlets are viewed as vital, and even indispensable, tools for ministry. Yet, we are not the innovators that we think we are.

Centuries before we were even born God was using audio-visual means to declare His presence and His plan for us. 

• He used pillars of smoke and fire to guide the Israelites in the wilderness and assure them of His presence. 
• The Ark was a physical reminder of His covenant with them.
• The fire from Heaven on Mt. Carmel demonstrated His power.
• The star over Bethlehem and the Spirit descending as a dove graphically illustrated God's engagement with humanity. 
• The Lord's Supper is not only audio-visual, but it is also palatable, tactile, and olfactory as well. 

God was way ahead of us in using these techniques to communicate His love and truth to us. This should not surprise us since God is Creator and we are His creation, and we should approach the use of these tools with humility.

Baptism, of course, is a powerful audio-visual sermon which testifies to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the transforming effect that this has on the lives of His people. In the case of Jesus, it was a prophecy of what was yet to come. 

Remember we are on the road to the Cross with Jesus. Everything that we read, everything that we see Jesus teach and do will all point us to that most important point in the history of the human relationship with God.

In the case of a believer, it is a testimony of what Jesus has done for them and a declaration of their trust in faith in Christ. As Romans 6:4 says, 

"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

When a child of God is baptized, they are preaching a powerful sermon about redemption and God's love for us. This also pleases the Father.

Conclusion:

My mom would cook great meals with the purpose of pleasing her family, not herself. In that way she was humbling herself, putting us first, and having the attitude of a servant.

The task of servants is to please their master. As servants of God, we should always endeavor to please Him. How can we do that? Our passage for today gives us some concrete ways.

As we live humble, righteous lives, and as we obediently follow the commands of Christ our Savior to be witnesses for Him (including following Him in baptism), we please our Lord. 

May we all live so that we meet Him in person we will hear our Lord say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Every Blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt