Matthew 3:16-17

In no other subject is error more dangerous or inquiry more laborious or the discovery of truth more profitable.

So with that being said, let's turn our attention now to the text for this evening. Look with me at Matthew 3, 16 through 17. God's word says this,

and when Jesus was baptized, Immediately, he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were open 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.

This is the word of the Lord. In 2022, Ligonier Ministries asked thousands of Americans the most important question they will ever hear in their lives. Who is Jesus Christ? Now, I'm sure many of you are familiar with this survey, but I just wanted to point out the most concerning statistic, which was among evangelicals. The survey found that 43% of evangelicals agreed with the statement that

Jesus was a great teacher, but not God.

an increase from 30% just two years prior. I wonder how you would answer that. Because really, as I mentioned before, this is the most important question you could possibly answer in your life. Your answer to this question, who is Jesus, will determine everything else in your life. It'll determine what you think about God, how you understand the Bible, why you think you're on this earth, and every other aspect of your worldview. Who is Jesus? Is he a prophet, a great teacher, a moral leader, a political and social revolutionary? Is he God? This evening, this passage that we have before us is a testimony from the scriptures, specifically from God himself to tell us who is Jesus. And you'll notice that all three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, are present to testify to this truth. In fact, this is the first time in our Bibles where we actually physically see and hear the Trinity, all three persons of the Trinity working distinctly at the same time and in the same place in human history. You see, up till now, we've had hints of the Trinity. I mentioned before that the Trinity was the undercurrent of the Old Testament. But within the first three chapters of the New Testament, the Trinity is for the first time on full display, and it is to answer this question. Who is Jesus? The first time all three persons of the Trinity is present before humanity. It is to affirm this very testimony of who Jesus is and that is that Jesus is the sinless son of God who has come to save sinners. That's the significance of this Trinitarian testimony. Matthew 3 16 to 17 wants us to know that we know that we know that Jesus is the sinless son of God come to save sinners. So. Let's look at this passage a little bit more in depth. We'll look at it through the threefold witness of God, and we're going to take each one as they come up. So first, we see Jesus's appointment. Jesus's appointment. Look down at the first part of verse 16. It says,

and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water.

The baptism of Jesus is one of the most significant events in his life and ministry. It marks the beginning of his public ministry, and yet it's considered one of the more confusing events in terms of its significance. And so I think it's worth asking, so why did Jesus get baptized? And I wanna start by giving a wrong answer. Here's the wrong answer, ready? Because Jesus sinned. That is completely wrong. Over and over and over, the scriptures attest to the truth that Jesus was sinless. Rather, if you'll remember from Keith's sermon, which, by the way, Keith gave a great sermon on this very passage just a couple months ago, so I don't feel the need to re-explain everything. If you have any questions, I'll recommend you go listen to that sermon. If you remember from the sermon, Jesus, who is the sinless one, was baptized to identify with sinners. It was to identify with you. And this is the idea of corporate solidarity. That's just the theological term to speak of a very common concept that we use in everyday life of an individual being so united to, so identified with a group or community of people that he is appointed to represent them. and act on their behalf. So, for instance, we do this in politics. When an individual is so united with a country, he is appointed to represent them and act on their behalf. We do this in sports. When a captain is identified and united to a team that he is appointed to act on their behalf. And here we have the sinless one who was so willing to submit to a sinner's baptism so that in that act he could be counted as a sinner. He could be numbered among the sinners. He could be so united to sinners that he acts for us on our behalf to do what we can't and bring us to God. And so as Jesus identifies with sinners in his baptism, his ministry that follows then is entirely tied up with this fact that he's acting on behalf of sinners. It's pointing forward to the fact that in his ministry, he's gonna fulfill all righteousness on our behalf, and he'll ultimately bear our sins as he's plunged into death, so that by his death, he could offer forgiveness to all who trust in him. That's Jesus's appointment. But Jesus's appointment is further affirmed by what we see next in our text. Look with me at the rest of verse 16.

And behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

So here we see the Spirit's anointment, the Spirit's anointment. You'll notice the Apostle Matthew is directing our attention to two things that we can see, the heaven's opening and the spirit descending. And these are dramatic phrases. All throughout the scriptures, whenever we see the heaven's opening, it's always in reference to a supernatural event whereby God is breaking into a moment of time to reveal something about himself in this dramatic way. And the second phrase, the spirit descending in the Old Testament, when God came upon someone for a special purpose, usually in the context of like an office. So think. prophet, priest, or king, the scriptures would use this phrase, that the Spirit of God descended on him. We see this, for example, with King David, or with the prophet Ezekiel, or with Zechariah the priest, or with some of the judges. And so when the people of God were anticipating the promised Messiah, which by the way means anointed one, this is the king who would sit on David's throne to rule over all of creation, forever and ever. The great high priest who would reconcile to God completely and finally the people of God. The great prophet who would reveal the very glory of God reflecting him fully and truly when the people of God were anticipating this individual. they would not have been confused by this sign. They would have recognized something of its significance. These events, the heavens opening and the Spirit descending, they would have seen this as a sign from God that Jesus was chosen for a special purpose, so that everything Jesus said, who he said he was, and why he came, and the message he brought, and everything Jesus did, it's being given the stamp of approval by the Spirit of God. Here, the Spirit is affirming Jesus's appointment by anointing him as the promised Messiah who will save his people. So we have the Son's appointment and the Spirit's anointment. And finally, we have the Father's announcement, the Father's announcement. Look down at verse 17.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

Here the father's voice is heard audibly from heaven and we know of his identity because of what he says about Jesus. This is my son. Now that announcement stands on its own. It's a statement of divinity. Not to repeat too much of what Keith said, but the Jews knew this. The Gospel of John tells us that the Jews sought to kill Jesus because he was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. But I think it becomes richer when we recognize that this announcement is a combination of quotations from the Old Testament. And I just want to point out just three for you here. Beloved son is a reference to Genesis 22 when God tells Abraham,

take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

This is my son is from Psalm 2, which describes this exalted, divine ruler who will rule over the nations and execute God's will. And whom I'm well pleased comes from Isaiah 42, which describes a humble servant who identifies with the lowly and achieves deliverance for the people of God. And I want to particularly zoom in for a sec to see how the father is using these quotes to describe the identity of Jesus. He's using these quotes to announce that this Jesus is of such divine, incredible, lifted, exalted glory. And at the same time, he's of such humble, meek, gentle character that the Father says he has forever pleased me. He's the only one whom I love and in whom my soul, my whole being, my whole divine essence delights. This is quite a person. A person of such status, such glory, such wonder that God himself is well pleased. God himself is satisfied with him. Do you understand the significance of this? I mean, let's think for a moment. God is an eternal, infinite, self existent being. He doesn't grow. He doesn't change. He just is infinite in his breath and his length and his height and his depth. And do you know what this text is saying? There is something that satisfies this self existent, infinite, eternal God forever. I mean, we can think about it from our perspective. Us, we're finite, and yet it doesn't take us too long to realize there's nothing in this world that can satisfy us. We chase after money, status, even other people, and we just find ourselves needing more and more and more, and we're only finite. But here, this text is saying there is something that satisfies this eternal and infinite God forever. And it is the Son for all of eternity, Father and Son, sharing infinite glory, infinite love, overflowing in their abundant joy, glory, delight for one another. And so this in itself is declaring that Jesus is God. Because a self-existent, infinite being cannot be satisfied forever by created and finite things. That would make him dependent on his creation and finite himself. Rather, for the father to be infinitely happy for all time, past, present, future, he must be happy in something that is also existed with him past, present, future, who shares in his very self-existent and infinite nature. This person must be equal to him in glory, majesty, splendor, and thus must be of the same substance and same nature, for God does not share his glory with another. And so in this way, the Father is announcing that Jesus is God. And I just want to take this time and pause for a moment and ask, if this Jesus satisfies the Father, this infinite being finds whole person enjoyment in Jesus. Well, I think we could ask, wouldn't this Jesus satisfy you? Because if you say you're a Christian, then what you are fundamentally confessing is that God has given me Jesus, the son that has infinitely satisfied the soul of God for all time. He has given to me. So as we go through our lives and find discontentment in our hearts, this verse suggests we look to Jesus. He satisfies the father. Surely he will satisfy me. So now that we have Jesus's identity, I want to zoom out now and see if we can't piece together what the father is announcing that this son will do. And if you've taken everything that we've seen so far, what we see is the gospel. This is the gospel. The God of the universe has forever delighted whole person, wholehearted delight in his son. And he chose to give him. and the son of infinite heights and of infinite glory chose to get off of his throne to plunge to infinite depths, to identify with sinful people, to take on your nature so that you could partake of his divine nature, to be your offering so that you could become the righteousness of God, to take on the wrath that you deserve so you could enter into the favor only he deserves, And now he is risen from the dead having offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins and he has taken his rightful place at the right hand of the father on the throne of heaven in this new way this time as the God man waiting for all of his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. And as he waits for that to happen, he offers peace to you. He's saving sinners. He's gaining for himself citizens in his kingdom. This is the gospel. God giving his son who plunges down to enter into this world and identify with you and represent you to bring you to God. So what it means to be a Christian then, is if you place your faith in Jesus and when you become a Christian, your life becomes so identified with Jesus Christ that God can now look at you and see you as joined to Jesus in such a way that this announcement, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, now applies to you. Think of all the favor that the father has forever been infinitely been placing on his son. Now he places on you. All of his favor, all of his love, all of his delight is now fixed on you because you are in his son. All of his promises are yes and amen to you because you are in Jesus. This is the sinless son of God who came to save you. And I think we ought to take this a little further. Because if you are in Jesus, not only does his sinless life, his sonship, his love belong to you, but so does his mission. His mission belongs to you too. And hopefully, as you've seen so far this evening, Jesus's mission is to save sinners from every tribe, tongue, and nation. It's to save his people from every part of the globe. That's Jesus's mission. And now because you're in him, it's yours too. And so let me ask you, when you think about your life practically, what you do, how you speak, when you walk out those doors at the end of the service and get in your car to drive home, what is your mission? When you interact with people in your family or your neighborhood or your workplace, what is your mission? When you make a life decision, big or small, you know, decisions like where to live, what to do, how to use your time and money, what is your mission? Because if you are a Christian, the Savior you worship, an infinite being forever identified with God, who chooses to humbly identify with you, now calls you to partner with him in his divine mission to make his salvation known. This is who Jesus is. He saved you when you were a sinner and has made you a son of God to partake of his divine nature and participate in his divine mission. Behold, this is the son of God. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that you have given us Jesus to bear our sins and to bring us to you, and that in him we can now be called your sons. We pray that your spirit now seal these truths to our hearts, that we would find our joy and our satisfaction in Jesus, and that we would seek to spread his gospel to the world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.