{"id":2075,"date":"2010-09-13T01:00:43","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=2075"},"modified":"2013-03-25T10:28:12","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T17:28:12","slug":"baptism-in-the-ministry-of-jesus-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2010\/09\/13\/baptism-in-the-ministry-of-jesus-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptism in the Ministry of Jesus (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Richard Shin<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Christian form of baptism finds its roots with John the Baptist in the Jordan River (Matt. 3:6). It was prophesied in the Old Testament that a \u201cmessenger\u201d (also, \u201cElijah\u201d) would come to prepare the way for the Messiah (Mal. 3:1; 4:5-6). This messenger\u2019s ministry was validated by Jesus Himself in Matt. 17:11-13. John the Baptist\u2019s specific life purpose was foretold by the angel Gabriel that he will \u201cturn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and go before [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared\u201d (Luke 1:16-17). This is undeniable, Biblical proof that John the Baptist was the prophesied messenger that came before Christ.<\/p>\n<p>So, why is John the Baptist\u2019s ministry of baptism with water so important to our understanding of baptism? John preached \u201cRepent, for the kingdom is at hand\u201d (Matt. 3:2), but he did so while people came to him as they \u201cwere baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins\u201d (Matt. 3:6). His message of repentance and his ministry of baptism came hand in hand. His baptism wasn\u2019t an end in itself, but rather a precursor to Christ (Matt. 3:11). The ultimate stamp of approval for John the Baptist\u2019s legitimacy is the fact that Jesus Himself gives authority to the act of baptism by submitting to it (Matt. 3:13; Mark 1:9-11). <\/p>\n<p>Jesus\u2019 approval of John carried important value for the ministry of Jesus. John\u2019s ministry acted as a launching pad for Jesus to begin His ministry. Indeed, all four Gospels recount the baptism of Jesus prior to His ministry. Jesus\u2019 baptism indicated for Himself, like others, an entire consent of mind and heart to the truth of John\u2019s message that Jesus was \u201cthe Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world\u201d (John 1:29) and that repentance marks the covenant people of God (Luke 13:3). Of course, baptism did not bestow upon Jesus any authority or status that Jesus Himself did not already possess; John himself also recognizes this when He asks Jesus why He is being baptized by someone as lowly as John the Baptist (Matt. 3:13). Unlike us, Jesus did not receive baptism as a testimony to personal salvation, but as confirmation of His personal commitment to effect it for others through his future baptism of suffering and resurrection to glory.  He didn\u2019t need to be baptized in the same fashion as we do because He was sinless; His baptism didn\u2019t indicate repentance, but rather initiation of His ministry on earth. It\u2019s interesting to note here that when Jesus was baptized, all three persons of the Holy Trinity were present with the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove and the Father affirming His Son in an audible voice (Matt. 3:13-17).<\/p>\n<p>We must pay particular attention to the fact that John\u2019s baptism was different in nature than our baptism. We believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins. Our faith is based on something that happened in the past. But Jesus had not been crucified before John the Baptist was beheaded (Matt. 14:1-12). So how could he baptize people for their trust in Christ\u2019s finished work on the cross if it wasn\u2019t finished yet? It\u2019s because John\u2019s message clearly demonstrated his trust in Christ\u2019s atoning work. Every believer is marked by faith in God, pre- or post-Christ. John commanded his disciples to repent for their sins (Matt. 3:1-6), and he condemned the Pharisees and Sadducees for their lack of repentance and faith (Matt. 3:7-10). So, it is clear even from John the Baptist\u2019s example that one had to already have faith for their salvation and therefore baptism. <\/p>\n<p>We see from John 3:22-36 exactly what role John the Baptist played in Jesus\u2019 ministry. Specifically from verse 29, we realize he is the \u201cfriend\u201d of the bridegroom (Christ) who came to wed His bride (the Church). As he says this, he identifies himself as the friend who \u201crejoices greatly\u201d and that that joy is \u201cnow complete\u201d (John 3:29). As he concludes his ministry, he declares that Christ \u201cmust increase, [and he] must decrease\u201d (John 3:30). This verbiage indicated that as John was stepping down from his ministry in baptism of repentance, He was ushering in Christ\u2019s ministry who baptized with the Holy Spirit (John 1:33). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Richard Shin The Christian form of baptism finds its roots with John the Baptist in the Jordan River (Matt. 3:6). It was prophesied in the Old Testament that a \u201cmessenger\u201d (also, \u201cElijah\u201d) would come to prepare the way for the Messiah (Mal. 3:1; 4:5-6). This messenger\u2019s ministry was validated by Jesus Himself in Matt. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel-and-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}