God’s Public testimony. Luke 3:21-22 Baptism is a symbolic act in which the person being baptized by immersion (going in), submersion (going under), and emergence (coming out) is identified with a Person, principle, or people. Christian baptism testifies to our death to our former life, our resurrection to a new life, and our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. The Supreme Object of a believer’s life is Christ.
In the Bible, we read of five different baptisms, each with a unique purpose. There are comparisons of the different baptisms mentioned in the scriptures that relate to the purpose of the baptism and those who do the baptizing. There is the agent, the one who baptizes; the element in which one is baptized and the object involved in each one. In John’s baptism, he was the agent, water was the element, and Israel’s repentance was the object. In our Lord Jesus’ baptism [Lu.12:50], God was the agent, judgment was the element, and Lordship was the objective. In the baptism of the Holy Spirit [1Cor.12:13], He is the agent, the Body of Christ is the element, and witnessing is the objective. In the baptism of fire, John spoke about in verse sixteen, God is the agent, fire is the element, and judgment is the object. When a Christian believer is baptized, the evangelist or one representing the Gospel that was believed baptizes the believer in water, with the object being a testimony to a new life in Christ.
When John baptized our Lord Jesus Christ, He identified Himself with his own people, the Jews whom He came to save. He had no sin to repent of, but by identifying Himself with John as the forerunner and “His own” people whom He came to save from their sins, He stepped out into public view. At this first appearance, when He began His public ministry, He began by praying to His Father openly.
It must have been impacting all the people there when “heaven was opened!” The sound would have focused everyone's attention on the sign of the Holy Spirit in the bodily form of a dove that they could actually see, come, and sit on Jesus. When the Father spoke with a voice from heaven like the sound of thunder and addressed Jesus personally as “My Beloved Son,” it was clear to all that Jesus, the unknown carpenter from Nazareth, was the Son of God. He had come all the way from Nazareth to where John was baptizing near the Dead Sea, and word of what happened that day was not long in getting around.
God testified openly of His love for His Son and His delight in who the Lord Jesus Christ is in Himself. “God was manifest in the flesh…” “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” “The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He does.”
Many people have tried to define God as Three-in-One, the Trinity, but that fact defies description. If we could define or describe God, He wouldn’t be God. When such things are unmistakable and indescribable, we are wise to accept what is written and see the evidence that is beyond our limited capability to explain. The evidence at the Jordan River was there for all to see. The Holy Spirit came in a bodily form and sat upon the One who the Father audibly said was the Son of God. When things are true, and we see the evidence, the Object of our worship becomes the awe of our soul. That is when things go beyond the limitations of verbal expressions. The Father is pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to know that. Every true believer is pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us, and that is what we show. In those speechless times of worship, we possibly rise to the highest form of worship – silence in the awesome presence of our God!
Thirty years old was a significant age for the priests and Levites of Israel, who had trained for several years to carry out the designated roles they were to fill for twenty years. They would begin to serve publicly at the age of thirty on behalf of the people. That was the age of our Lord when He stepped out publicly, even though He was still supposed by some to be Joseph’s son. Many people today don’t believe the Holy Spirit came on Mary, and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit when she was still a virgin. The Lord Jesus patiently waited and worked where He was until after the word of God came to John to prepare the way of the Lord.
It is possible for us to get overanxious and jump ahead of God’s timing. When we are sure of the next step we are to take, we are to go forward in faith. God knows the right time and will fill willing hands with significant work until He makes it clear to us that He has another work for us to do. The genealogy of Jesus in Luke takes us back to the beginning of humanity rather than the kingly genealogy of Matthew’s Gospel. This genealogy identifies our Lord Jesus with all humanity of all ages. He is truly the Son of Man as Luke portrays Him.
The Gospel of Luke emphasizes the Messianic mission of our Lord that includes all of us in every age who have been blessed by “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is unique in that He is God: He is the Almighty Creator who has stooped to share Himself with us. He was baptized publicly to identify Himself with the Jewish people and went further in this genealogy to identify Himself with every person regardless of nationality, race, or creed. The message of the Gospel of Luke is emphasized – “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
LUKE 4