If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything.
(Motto of the
Fountain of Life)
SPS: To explore the baptism
of Jesus by John; to show that prophecy is functional for understandingscripture, to emphasize that the vicarious humanity of Jesus is efficacious for salvation; to address the fear and doubt of human repentance.
Guiding Thought: The Gospel
is not the story of the power of God.
The Gospel is the power of God.
Scripture: Matthew 3:1,
15. “And in those days came John the
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea…It is proper for us to fulfill
all righteousness.”
PROPHECY: Type – Antitype
We begin with Matt. 2:15: He quotes Hos. 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called
my son.” Beloved in Christ, let us remember
that all of Israel was called out of Egypt; then well over 1,200 years after
this event, Matthew declares that Jesus Himself fulfilled this prophecy.
Through the Old Testament God declares
Israel, all of Israel to be His first born.
Through the New Testament God declares that Jesus is His first born; the
first born of many brethren. As God’s
first born Israel entered into the water of the Jordan as the prophetic type fulfilling
the promises of the Old Covenant.
As
God’s first born, Jesus entered into the water of the Jordan as the prophetic
antitype of fulfilling the promises of the New Covenant. The location of that ford in the River Jordan
had symbolic significance. The baptism of
Jesus occurred at or near the location where the children of Israel crossed
over the Jordan into the Promised Land.
Matthew Henry talks about the
wilderness of Judea of Matthew 3:1. “It
was not an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country not so thickly peopled
as other parts were; it was such a wilderness as had six cities and their
villages in it. In these cities and
villages John preached, for thereabouts he had hitherto lived.”
Bethany or Bethbara? Different translations of John 1:28 use
either town. They most likely were the
same location. Judges 7:24 identifies
Bethabara as the “house of the ford.” It
was possibly the chief ford of the district and is possibly the Bethabara where
John baptized according to Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Bethabara is mentioned in Joshua 16:21 and
John 1:28 NKJV with the meaning house of the wilderness/desert; it was one of
the six Judean cities located in the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Some translations say Bethany (John
1:28): According to Smith’s Bible
Dictionary Bethany was probably an obscure village near Bethabara, and in time
its name faded out and was replaced by the larger and more important
Bethabara.
In Judges 6 million crossed
the Jordan. If only one tribe crossed at
a time, the ford must have been wide to accommodate them. John baptized only one at a time and his
preaching was heard from those on the banks of the river. That location must have been smaller than
Joshua’s. As mentioned above, the
baptism of Jesus occurred if not exactly at the location of Joshua’s crossing,
it occurred so near to it that the location loses no symbolic
significance.
PROPHECY: Priest and Sacrifice
The life of Jesus was not a
one-time event in history. Jesus life
and work today continues in many roles.
He is king forever. He is savior
forever. He is High Priest forever. He is the sacrifice forever. The Old Testament priests and sacrifices were
types which were fulfilled by Jesus. Let
us look at the function of priest and sacrifice through prophecy.
Why did Jesus get baptized? He committed no sins. Jesus gives the reason in Matthew 3:15-16 when
He says it is, “To fulfill all righteousness.”
And as soon as He was baptized…the spirit of God descended upon Him.
There are several scriptures that
identify Jesus as the sacrifice and priest.
Lev. 24:8…This is the blood of
the covenant that the Lord has made with you.
Mark 14:24...This is my blood of
the new covenant.
Lev. 17:11:
It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Heb. 9:22: without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness.
Lev. 1:3: he is to offer a male without defect
Hebrews 4:14: Jesus is our High Priest.
Activities initiated
by John and Jesus at the River Jordan.
Preparation of the sacrifice
Preparation of the priest
Transfer of the priesthood
Preparation of the sacrifice
Lev. 1:9: He is to wash the inner parts and the legs
with water. John acting as priest,
submerged Jesus, the sacrifice into the washing waters. The sacrifice was to
have no blemish. Jesus was the perfect
sacrifice.
Preparation of the priest
Lev. 8: 7-9: Priests were clothed with priestly
garments. Jesus was clothed with the
Holy Spirit and with righteousness. This
is most evident when the Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon Jesus at the
Jordan.
Ex. 30:30: “Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate
them so they may serve me as priests.
This is to be my sacred anointing oil.”
Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Jesus at the
Jordan.
Lev. 21:18…no man who has any
defect may [as a priest] come near.
Jesus is the perfect man.
Lev. 8:6: Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons and he
washed them with water.
Lev. 8:12: He poured some of the anointing oil on
Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him. John, the Aaronic priest prepared the way for
Jesus, John placed Jesus the priest into the water. The Lord anointed Him with the Holy Spirit.
Transfer of the priesthood.
Ex. 28:1…Have Aaron and his sons
serve me as priests.
Luke 1:5…There was a priest named
Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth of the daughters of Aaron. Luke 1:60:
but he shall be called John. (Aaronic Priest)
John the priest of the order of
Aaron ministered to Jesus the High Priest (Hebrews 5:10) of the eternal order
of Melchizedek.
Lev. 1:5: The priests shall bring the blood and
sprinkle it against the altar on all sides.
Jesus as our priest and sacrifice fulfilled this when His blood fell on
all sides of the altar of the cross.
VICARIOUS HUMANITY OF JESUS
Its importance for salvation
Brethren, although prophecy is
important and very interesting to both Christians and non-Christians alike prophecy
is not salvation. The function of
prophecy is to disclose the will of God.
Whereas the vicarious humanity of Jesus is the power of the Incarnation;
it is the power of salvation; it is the transforming Word of God. This transformation is the result of Jesus assuming
our human flesh. Grace Communion
International teaches the vicarious Humanity of Jesus. This is based upon scriptures such as 2
Corinthians 5:21. “God made him who had
no sin to be sin. Jesus became sin for
us.”
A fact of life is that the Church
exists in, and is influenced by the human culture which surrounds it. The danger is that the culture is not
reliable. The culture can provide the inspiration
to use the bible to fight against something, such as slavery in the 19th
century. The culture can provide the
inspiration to use the bible to defend something, such as slavery in the 19th
century. We filter all our experiences
as human beings through the culture in which we live.
That applies to our understanding
of grace. Humanly speaking we hear about
grace but deep in our secret thoughts we don’t understand it. As 21st century North Americans we
are predisposed to disbelieve grace. Our
cultural on the one hand teaches that the main point in life is what we can
do for our country and by extension what we can do for ourselves; we pull
ourselves up by our own bootstraps and we honor those who can and do this. A popular song summed it up with these
lyrics, “I did it my way.” A familiar
maxim is “God helps those who help themselves.”
This is success.
On the other hand our culture
teaches that the important point is what our country can do for us, and
by extension many of us expect or depend upon organizations. But there is an irony here, because even in
our helplessness it is our personal effort in seeking help that is most
important. We intuitively understand
that we must seek out the help, we must fill out the forms; we must file the
claims. If we don’t act, there is nobody
to help; no one to fill out the forms for us.
If we don’t reapply the funding ceases.
This is survival.
We see in this human life only
these two solutions, and both, in the final analysis depend upon our own
efforts. Generally our thought processes
are geared to apply only these two solutions to all issues. But this is the problem. Philosophically it is a false dilemma.
Christian righteousness does not depend upon either of these two options. For us Christ fulfills all
righteousness. There are no bootstraps
for us to pull. We cannot do it for
ourselves. There are no forms for us to
fill out. The state does not do it for
us.
So often the church doesn’t have
a concept of Christ’s vicarious humanity in its total substitutionary work. We
are conditioned by the culture to think that somewhere, somehow there’s
something that we must contribute to our salvation. Maybe it’s repentance, or
faith, or self-denial, or obedience, or contrition, or absolution or
penance. And whenever we make something
a necessary contribution to our faith – anytime there’s something that we
insert into the economy of salvation apart from Christ – that something
becomes the weak point in our suit of righteous armor. When we believe this
way, our belief becomes the missing link that allows the shield to fail in time
of battle. That belief means the shield
needs constant repair. Constant repair becomes
our contribution because we sin daily. The
result is that Jesus is not enough. In
this case Pastor Todd Couch teaches that we erroneously augment Christ’s
humanity or we diminish His divinity in order to add our part to our salvation.
We do this because we know we are
imperfect and we find ourselves wondering when spiritual disaster will befall
us. We wonder will our armor hold. Are we really safe? We ask that question because, deep down we
know we don’t have the kind of faith that we need, the kind of obedience, the
kind of sacrifice to keep our armor constantly ready. We try to keep it ready, but we don’t. But
brethren, that’s not what the Christian life is all about. It is not about our
faithfulness to Jesus and Christian morality.
It’s about Christ’s faithfulness.
But we are normal 21st century North Americans and despite of
our intellectual knowledge of grace our feelings tells us that we had better
contribute something – even if it’s our self-loathing and associated repentance.
 |
| Theologian Elmer Colyer |
Brethren
remember Galatians 2:20. “I live by the
faith of the Son of God.” We do not
stand or fall on the strength or weakness of our own faith. We live by Jesus Christ’s faith.
We are one with the body of Christ, therefore His faith is attributed to us. And by it we live. In like manner let us consider our repentance.
We are one with the body of Christ, therefore His faith is attributed to us. And by it we live. In like manner let us consider our repentance.
Little
Flock. Have no Fear.
 |
| Theologian Thomas Torrance |
He is our big brother who does it all for us in our
place. Jesus even confesses our sins correctly
and righteously, because we can’t even do that right. Colyer says, “So all of these wallowing in
our guilt and everything that we often times do as Christians, we don’t
even do that right. We can’t even repent. We don’t even feel sorry
for our sins in the right way. Even Jesus has to step into the Jordan. Think of
it, the Son of God stepping into the Jordan, confessing all of our sins once
for all in a perfect way so that we don’t always have to be worried, ‘did
we confess it enough?’ you know, are we sorry enough? That simply cuts the
ground out from underneath it. Christ has already done that, in our place, in
our behalf, in our place – he invites us then to simply say; Lord I screwed up
again, but thanks be to God you identified with me in my brokenness, you
already know it, you’ve already confessed it, you offer me, your new life once
again on the basis of what you’ve done there on the Jordan confessing my sins.”
 |
| Gary Deddo |
CLOSING: Brethren, Jesus is
the beginning and the end. We began each
discussion with the motto of the Fountain of Life. Let’s also close with it. If it is not about Jesus, it is not about
anything.’ This is far more than a
motto. This is salvation.
Friends,
may the grace, peace and love of our Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus be with
you all.Amen
Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor,
Fountain of Life Church
2021 Old National Pike,
Washington, Pa 15301
A congregation of Grace Communion
International
No comments:
Post a Comment