PowerPoint

Jack Graham: It was Simon Peter under the revelation of the Holy Spirit who said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And that is the true confession of every true believer and follower of Jesus.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about the sonship of Jesus Christ. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, "Beloved Son."

Jack Graham: Today's message is called "The Beloved Son" and is taken from Matthew chapter 3, verses 13 through 17. This is a majestic text that we find in our Bibles. It is a story about Jesus that is recorded in all four of the gospel accounts. All four saw this as noteworthy and a milestone, a marker in the life of Jesus because it speaks of Jesus launching His mission of redemption on the earth. And He does it with a beautiful and prayerful act of personal devotion and with the promise and the approval of the Heavenly Father.

So read with me beginning at verse 13. "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John." This is John the Baptist, "to be baptized by him." So this would have been a walk of 60, perhaps 80 miles. It was very important for Jesus that He would be baptized. So He walked 60 to 80 miles from His hometown of Nazareth to be baptized somewhere on the Jordan River by John the Baptist.

And 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." Mark those words. 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."

The question that everyone must answer is, "Who is Jesus?" There are many answers. The devil makes sure that people have a lot of different answers as to who is Jesus. Some would say a messenger from God. Others would say a miracle worker. Others would say a great moral teacher. Others would say a mystic of some kind. Some would say a madman, a lunatic who thought he was God and wasn't. Some would say a prophet.

But Jesus would say to His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" And just as the disciples must answer that question, so must you. We answer the question, who is Jesus? Is He more than a man? It was Simon Peter under the revelation of the Holy Spirit who said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." And that is the true confession of every true believer and follower of Jesus. You are the Christ, the son of the living God.

Now, when we speak of the divine sonship of Jesus, to say that Jesus is the Son of God, it means that He is the second person of the Godhead in the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So Jesus takes the role of sonship, and in eternity past in the counsels of the deity, Jesus took this role, the Son of God, to be the savior of the world.

Now, I know a lot of people get worked up trying to figure out the Trinity. Paul said, "Great is the mystery of godliness, that God would be manifest in the flesh." So it is a mystery. It is a sacred mystery and a supernatural miracle that God would become the Son, that the Son is God. And when we say that He is the Son of God, it does not in any way diminish the deity of Jesus.

Because Jesus is just as much God as if He were not man at all and just as much man as if He were not God at all. He is 100 percent God, 100 percent man, very God of very God. Someone said regarding the Trinity, "Don't try to understand it or explain it because you would lose your mind. And then don't try to explain it away or you would lose your soul."

The fact is the Trinity—God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son—appear often in Scripture, as in the case is right here at the baptism of Jesus. You have God the Son who is baptized. You have God the Spirit who descends upon Him, anointing and appointing Him, filling Him in all the fullness of God. This is the anointing of Jesus for His ministry. And you hear the voice of God the Father. So God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, right here in this one superlative passage of Scripture.

So it is vital that you as a Christian make this confession. What makes you a Christian, a follower of Jesus, is that you are confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and your Savior and Lord. Have you made that confession? This is the confession of the New Testament. It's the confession of the early church. And as you roll through the centuries of the early days of the church, some heresies began to rise, some controversies regarding the nature, the person of Christ. Who is He?

And about 325 AD, one of these controversies was in full bloom. It's known as Arianism. A man by the name of Arius began to teach in the church that Jesus was made by the Father, that He is not one with the Father, but that He was created by God the Father. So there's all kinds of controversy in the church in the early centuries regarding this controversy, or at least in this century.

And so what did the church do? The church decided to get together. They put 300 leaders together of the church from around the world. They all went to a place called Nicaea, which is modern-day Turkey, and about 1500 to 2000 guests joined them from the churches. And they had this conference, and the debate ensued as to who is Jesus. It's always the question, isn't it? Who is Jesus?

And so the leaders of the church, led by the Spirit of God, came up with the Nicene Creed. This creed is important. That was given in 325 AD. This creed is important because it is among the most ancient documents of the Christian faith. It shows us what the early Christians believed about Jesus and affirming that Jesus is not only man, but that He is God. So here it is, and I wanted to bring it to you today because it expresses it well.

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things, visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father. Light of light, very God of very God, that is, truly God, truly God. Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate and was made man."

"And He suffered, and the third day He rose again, ascended to heaven. From thence, or there, He comes to judge the living and the dead and in the Holy Ghost." So this is a great creed of Christendom. And it is truly the confession of a believer and follower of Jesus. So Jesus is God. He reveals Himself as the second person of the Trinity.

We don't know a lot, hardly anything, about the childhood of Jesus. You no doubt are familiar with the birth stories of Jesus, how Jesus was born of a virgin. But then come the silent years because for the most part, Jesus lives in total obscurity in a place called Nazareth, a little town of about 400 people with His mother Mary and with Joseph the carpenter.

And He apparently worked in Joseph's carpenter shop. He was known as a Galilean, and He never showed His face for almost three decades. There is one instance when Jesus appears as a 12-year-old boy with his parents in Jerusalem, and He confounds the theologians and the doctors of the law with His answers. And even then, Jesus was aware of His divine mission.

He said, "Must I not be about My Father's business?" Jesus said, "I am the son of the Father. Must I not be about My Father's mission, My Father's work?" But that's pretty much it. What we do know about His childhood is that He grew in wisdom. And this is the Scripture, that He grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. He was well-rounded. He grew in wisdom intellectually. He grew in stature physically.

We don't know what He looked like. We don't know how tall He was, how much He weighed. But He grew physically from a baby to a little boy. And then He just disappears for all of these decades. He disappears. But it was 30 years, three decades of preparation for what He would do. And that's when He burst on the scene at the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

John was a fiery preacher. He was known as John the Baptist. And he was a powerful preacher. Many would not like John because he was a hellfire and damnation kind of preacher. He was preaching in the desert, repentance and righteousness with warnings of judgment that is to come. But it wasn't all judgment. There was the promise of Jesus, there was the promise of a Messiah would come.

Some thought John the Baptist was the Messiah, but he clearly said, "I am not." He said, "I'm not worthy to unlash the shoes of the Messiah." He ultimately pointed to Jesus and said, "Look, there's the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He was a great man. Jesus said greatest man born of woman, greatest human ever born, John the Baptist.

He had a big crowd, he had a big following. He was a first-century rock star. So many people were going out and being baptized and repenting of their sin and baptized in the baptism of repentance. It was said of John that he was a voice, he said of himself, a voice shouting in the wilderness for all who would hear. And so many would hear and many were running out to the desert to hear John the Baptist preach and to be baptized.

And then one day, Jesus got in line to be baptized. Apparently, He was alone. There's no evidence that He came with anyone. And He says, "John, I want you to baptize me." Now, think about this. He's asking John. The Son of God is asking John the Baptist, His first cousin, to baptize Him. And John is thinking, "Are you serious? You should be baptizing me."

But Jesus insisted. And so Jesus was baptized. It was a memorable milestone event in the life of the Lord. And it was a miraculous experience. Jesus was praying. So this was an act of emotion and devotion for Christ. He's praying. He's always praying to the Father throughout the Scriptures. How silly it is if the Son of God prayed to the Father that we don't pray like we ought to pray. It's foolish when we don't pray, we are powerless. Jesus knew the power of prayer.

And so He's praying here as He's walking into the water. This is an act of worship. And as He's coming up out of the water, the heavens open. And a dove descends like a dove. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus, anointing and appointing Him and filling Him for His mission. And then the Father speaks from heaven.

The first two miracles had to do with something visual: heaven opening, the Holy Spirit via this dove descending. But now it becomes audible. God is speaking. And says, "This is My beloved Son." He's introducing Jesus to the world. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." So the Father spoke of the Son, Jesus.

And we wonder, why was Jesus baptized? If this was a baptism for repentance, Jesus never sinned according to the Scripture. So why would Jesus choose to be baptized by John? Why would He make this such a huge deal in His life at the very outset, again recorded by all four gospel writers? What is the importance and the significance of the baptism of Jesus?

I have four brief things I want to say about that because they all apply to Jesus and they all apply to you and me. Number one, He says to fulfill all righteousness. That's why. So how do we fulfill all righteousness? It was an act of accreditation. And by that, I mean there is the approval of John the Baptist and his mission and his ministry as the forerunner of Christ.

Very important because the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the Old Testament promised a forerunner, one that would run in front of the Messiah announcing His arrival. So John is the forerunner. John is the last prophet. John is the baptizer. And he's preaching this message of the Kingdom of Heaven and how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and he's baptizing all of these people.

So when Jesus submits to the hands of John for this baptism, He is accrediting, authenticating the mission of John himself. He is saying what this man has been preaching is true and I am the one who will follow. He was showing solidarity with John the Baptist. So it was an act of accreditation.

In this sense, when you are baptized as a believer and follower of Jesus, you are accrediting the message. You are coalescing with the church, now the hands of Christ to baptize. So it is an accreditation. I say this often to people who ask me questions about baptism. When you are baptized, it does a multiple of things, but it is also an affirmation. It is an accreditation of the people of God in the family of God.

This is all in the family here: John the Baptist and Jesus the Son of God. So it is an accreditation. Again, solidarity in the message of the Bible. But most importantly is it is an act of identification. He identifies Jesus, identifies with the sinful people who are coming for the baptism of repentance. Now, don't miss this.

Jesus did not need to repent of anything because He had never sinned. But He identifies from the outset with sinful people like you and me. He stepped into the water, which became dirty water as the sins of the people were being confessed and repented of. And Jesus steps into our world and He steps into this baptism, if you will, in order to identify Himself with you and me.

Though He never sinned, He identifies with you and with me. It's an act of identification. Jesus was pointing to the cross because in baptism, this figure, this symbol represents the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. The reason we are baptized now in following Jesus as an act of confession and obedience is to represent this death, this burial, this resurrection that we now identify with Jesus.

It was also an act of submission. An act of accreditation, an act of identification in which Jesus identifies with us and now we identify with Him and an act of submission. Clearly, Jesus is submitting in humility to this baptism. Jesus was powerful and strong and mighty, the Son of God, but when He speaks of Himself in Matthew 11 and verse 29, He says, "I am gentle and humble in heart."

Gentle and humble in heart. And even with the expression of the dove coming down from heaven, fluttering down representing the Holy Spirit, there is this tenderness that we see here. And I see humility. He willingly walked into the water and into the hands of His cousin John for baptism. Submission. When we are baptized, it is an act of humility.

So He is baptized in the same way our baptism humbles us as we willingly obey God. And we die to pride. But while it is humble, it is also beautiful. To me, every baptism—man, woman, boy, or girl—is a beautiful and wonderful experience to behold. But then finally, this is baptism of Jesus, an act of accreditation, identification, an act of submission and is an act of preparation.

Jesus is getting ready to go. Jesus is now stepping into His call. He is the chosen of God, the Messiah, stepping out of the silence. Jesus steps into the water. And He is commended and coronated as king. He's 30 years of age and He's coronated, He's crowned as king. All of the Gospels have a different focus on the person of Christ.

The focus of Matthew, for example, the focus of Luke would be the sonship of Jesus. The focus of Matthew, as we've read the text today, is that Jesus is King. This is the coronation of the King, the public announcement of the King. He's now making public His ministry and setting out on His mission to save the world.

Jesus waited on God the Father's perfect timing. And now it's go time. Jesus on His baptism was saying, "Yes" to you and His mission to fulfill the Father's purpose of His life. Jesus came to earth to show us and to bring us the Father's love. And now because of Jesus, you can hear the Father speak to you, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, "Beloved Son." Did you know that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion? It's a study of God's Word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ, and show you how to navigate the challenges of life.

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That's why this month we want to say thanks for your gift of $10 or more by sending you Dr. Jack Graham's book, "Choices." In this encouraging resource, Dr. Graham shares practical wisdom from God's Word to help you make decisions with confidence, clarity, and faith. To give your gift and request your copy, text AUGUST to 59789. Please limit one per household. Again, text AUGUST to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message, "Beloved Son."

Jack Graham: Jesus claimed to be God as well as man. And if Jesus is not both God and man, then He is a fraud and is not worthy of our faith. But because He is both man and God, He is master of life and He can become all that we need in life. I'm so glad that Jesus was not simply a man come to teach us about God, but that He was God who had come to teach us about life.

And therefore He knows what life is about and how we're to live our lives. His manhood is the fact that Jesus was a real, living, breathing human being that makes it possible for God to relate to us. I know that He's been where I have been. He's been tempted in all points that I am tempted, yet without sin. And He has absolutely touched my life and He transforms your life when you are willing to allow the Savior, the living Lord, to live in your life.

We're not perfect, are we? But Jesus is perfect. And His love, His grace, His presence in our lives makes it possible for us to live life as God desires and as God has designed it. It is so important that Jesus be real to you. The manhood of Jesus makes Jesus real. He's someone that we can love and know.

If you don't know Jesus in a personal way, if He's not real to you, there's nothing more important than allowing Jesus to be real in your life. He's not a statue on the dashboard of your car or a picture on the wall. He can be real in your life. Jesus said, "I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice," that means you. Anyone.

"If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in." Invite Jesus to come into your life right now. And if you're already a Christian, you need to make Jesus real as well by allowing Him to be the Lord of your life, to be the center of your life, and let Him take control. And everything in your life that may be putting you down, weighing you down, and holding you back can be overcome by the power of Jesus living in you.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift of $10 or more, we will send you Dr. Graham's book, "Choices." Just text AUGUST to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about the measures God took to know us on a personal level. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.