Recognizing Jesus - [Luke 3:15-22]

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by faith in scripture. Everything about the passage in Luke 3 is going to be about recognizing who
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Jesus is. No mistaken identity here. Understanding the
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Lord and Messiah by faith in the scriptures. We've been marching through Luke, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
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We're in chapter three. If you're a visitor, we've learned that in chapter one, it really sets the tone for all of the book.
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You don't understand Luke unless you know what his purpose is. Like any other book or letter, in the
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Bible or outside the Bible. And Luke wants to make sure you're certain about who Jesus is.
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And he's writing to a man named Theophilus, and then for all of us who would ever be Bible God lovers, he wants us,
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Luke wants us to know that you have a certain Jesus, the right Jesus, because eternity is at stake.
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Having mistaken identity or the wrong facial recognition, as it were, of Jesus is an eternal mistake.
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And so this letter is compiled like a doctor would, since Luke is a doctor. And he compiles this in such a way that it's very systematic, that it's very scientific, that it's very empirical.
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And he wants to make sure that everyone who reads the book of Luke says, this is the right Jesus, I recognize him.
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Now you might be saying to yourself, we're going through the gospel of Luke and we get a lot about Jesus, but we're kind of a practical people and we like things to do.
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I just want you to remember, for those of us who might be more Martha than Mary, remember
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Martha and Mary? And who was commended for what? Listen to what Luke 10 says, and now they went on their way,
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Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called
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Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving.
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And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.
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But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.
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Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Of course, it's good to serve.
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Of course, it's good to do the right thing and to love other people and minister to the body.
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But there's something more important than as learning who Jesus is, and as it were sitting at his feet.
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And that's what we get to do in the gospel of Luke is to sit at the feet of Jesus, learn, recognize him, believe in him, and trust in him.
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And one of the things that maybe you don't know, but I know as a pastor, that when you hear the good news of Christ Jesus, you hear about the
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Lord Jesus, it strengthens you. That's exactly what Romans 16 says. The word strengthen is to establish you.
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It's where we get our word steroids, where it helps you resist temptation. It helps you face trials better.
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Learning about who Jesus is week by week does something to you that you might not even know. And that's why our theme verse here at the church is
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Colossians 1 .28, him we what? Proclaim, because it presents every person mature in Christ Jesus.
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So we are back in the gospel of Luke. And in this section here in chapter three, there's all kinds of recognition of Jesus.
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John the Baptist recognizes Jesus. The Holy Spirit recognizes Jesus. God the Father recognizes
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Jesus. The genealogy recognizes Jesus. And the temptation of Jesus shows us who he is.
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And so this whole section in chapter three at the end and early chapter four is about understanding who
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Jesus is. And since John recognizes Jesus, the Holy Spirit does, the Father does, the genealogy does.
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You need to recognize Jesus as well. And I know most of you do because you're here, you're members, but this is reinforcement to understand who
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Jesus is. Now today we're gonna look especially at John the
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Baptist recognizing Jesus. And if you want an outline, it's super simple. We're gonna see
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John recognize Jesus as five important things. Five important things that John the
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Baptist notices about Jesus that I want you to notice too. I want you to recognize what
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John recognizes because that's what Luke wants you to do. Luke is showing you the greatest man that ever lived, short of Jesus, recognizes
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Jesus to be the Messiah, to be the forerunner, to be the only savior of sinners.
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And so we come to the scene in chapter three, verse 15. And it says in the
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Bible, as the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the
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Christ. John is pretty famous. He's well -known. People know about him, poor people, old people, young people, rich people.
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They hear about John. And finally, there's somebody who's arriving to the scene who's godly, who's important, who's saying the right things.
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Maybe this is the Messiah. It's been hundreds of years since God has spoken. And even in the book of Malachi, at the very end of the
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Old Testament, we're looking forward to someone that might be a forerunner, that might be a precursor. And some of the people were so anxious for the
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Messiah to come that they thought, well, maybe John, maybe John the Baptist is the Messiah.
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And they were wondering in their hearts, could this be the Messiah? And it wasn't because John the
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Baptist was doing miracles. He did none. It wasn't because John the Baptist was from the line of David.
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He wasn't. But maybe they had heard about his special supernatural birth.
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Maybe they heard about what he said and his preaching. And they're thinking, maybe this is the one.
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Maybe he's not a forerunner. John chapter one gives us a little more insight.
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The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask John, who are you? I'm not the
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Christ. Well, then what? Are you Elijah? I am not. Are you the prophet? No. Who are you?
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You need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.
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Make straight the way of the Lord. The first thing John recognizes about Jesus that I want you to recognize is that Jesus is greater than John.
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As great as John was, Jesus is greater. It's found in verse 16. He's mighty, he's greater with this greater baptism.
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John answered them all. I baptize you with water externally, but he who is mightier than I is coming the strap of whose sandals
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I am not worthy to untie. I'm just a forerunner.
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I'm just a candle to the sun and the sky. Now, what would happen back in those days is the rabbis and the teachers would have disciples that would follow them.
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And instead of paying for tuition, you just had to do whatever your teacher wanted you to do, except untie the sandals.
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That would be for a non -Jewish slave. You would never have a teacher, a rabbi, and do that.
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By the way, since it's in the Bible and it's in history of the church, I was thinking, you know, my discipleship class, this might work out pretty well with the men.
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They just have to do whatever I ask. They just don't have to tie my shoes. That would work out really well.
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I mean, I don't charge them tuition anyway. We're on the right path. They had to do everything for their teacher, for their rabbi, for their master, except that lowly, humbling, groveling, get on your knees and wash somebody's feet.
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No, it wasn't washing feet here, but we're gonna learn about washing feet. To untie their sandals.
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He said, with humility, I'm not even fit to do that. I can't do that. Yeah, I might have a miraculous birth.
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I might have a lot of followers. I might have a lot of things going on, but I can't measure up to the
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Lord Jesus. Remember what John the Baptist said? Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.
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You think I'm the Messiah? I can't even get down and untie his sandals. By the way, just as a practical note, everything about John the
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Baptist, the greatest man who ever lived, was about serving the Lord Jesus. That's the ultimate. That's the ultimate.
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We get to serve the Lord Jesus. The greatest opportunity we have is to serve the Lord Jesus. And secondly, as I think about practical things, what was the only thing that mattered to John the
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Baptist? Was pointing people to the Lord Jesus. Any kind of praise he received, any kind of honor, it was immediately reflected in saying,
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I wanna honor and exalt the Lord Jesus. That's the only thing that matters to me.
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And that's the only thing that matters to this church. When you give family Bible time, when you listen to the sermons online.
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It's not just for John the Baptist. It's not just for preachers. This is what we do. There's a man named Zinzendorf, and he had a phrase that I like.
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He said, if you're a pastor, you need to preach Christ, die, and be forgotten.
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Pointing to the Lord Jesus. Not just good advice for pastors, but for everyone.
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And then when I read about the Lord Jesus, if John the Baptist says, I can't even untie his sandal, then what about the
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Lord Jesus, the ultimate servant? When, of course, on that day, he gets down on his knees and he washes the feet.
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He poured water into a basin, John 13, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
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And he came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, what
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I'm doing, you do not understand, but afterward, you will understand. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet if I do not wash you, you have no share in me.
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Simon Peter said to him, he got it, Lord, not my feet also, but my hands and my head. And then
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Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.
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Can you imagine the love of Jesus for his disciples and the humility? Jesus, the one who serves.
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If I had to ask you a question, what does Jesus come to do? He could come to be served because he's the
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King of Kings, the eternal Son who has humanity, but instead he comes to serve. That's the theme of Jesus, right?
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Mark chapter 10, verse 45. The Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give us what?
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A life of ransom for many. John here in Luke 3 .16,
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I baptize you with water, but there's a mightier one coming, a greater one who's coming, and I can't even take the strap of his sandals and untie it.
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I could baptize in water, but I can't do anything internally to people, right?
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I might be able to dunk people, I might be able to take people into the Jordan River and baptize them, but what
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Jesus does is far beyond what I could do. David Gooding said, John could put repentant people in the water.
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In a sense, anybody could. Only one who is God could put people in the Holy Spirit or the
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Holy Spirit in people. And so John is saying,
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I am not the Messiah. There's a greater one, there's one more worthy.
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And of course, Luke wants you to notice that, that he is, Jesus is greater than John. Not only that, number two, he's a purifier or a sanctifier.
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John recognizes Jesus as this. We wanna recognize Jesus as this as well. He's mighty and greater, yes, but number two, he's a purifier or a sanctifier.
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See what it says in the bottom of verse 16. He, Jesus, will baptize you with the
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Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
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Would you like to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire? You're like,
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I don't know, you're the pastor, tell me. It all depends. So what's happening here is, if you're a believer in God, the
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Holy Spirit and fire is going to purify you, sanctify you, help you, purge out the sins.
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But if you're not a believer, the Holy Spirit and fire is judgment, eternal judgment.
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And similarly, what I just read in verse 17, with chaff and with the kernels, he's showing there's a division here, that the
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Holy Spirit comes and baptizes with fire. There's two sides, a positive side and a negative side.
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Let's talk about the positive side first, the purifier. It is
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Jesus and Jesus alone who purifies saints, who cleanses saints, who gives them a new life and a new vitality.
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Either himself directly or through the Holy Spirit, taking our pollution away, taking our unrighteousness away.
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But on the negative side, John recognizes that Jesus is greater. He's a purifier, but he's also the judge.
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Baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire. And when you look at the Gospel of Luke, you'll see the metaphor
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Luke as judgment. And so the Spirit of God will either sanctify you, cleanse you, glorify you, or he will judge you.
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John the Baptist can't do that. No one can do that. That's a prerogative of Jesus and Jesus alone. Luke 9 says, and when his disciples,
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James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Those who don't believe in the
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Lord Jesus, fire. I think maybe even the newest Bible student understands the idea of fire as a metaphor for divine judgment is real.
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Jesus said in Luke 12, I came to cast fire on earth and that it was already kindled. Jesus purifies the righteous, that's true, but he ultimately purges the ungodly.
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And you can see there's a little hint here toward Pentecost for the purification and for eternal judgment, the punishment.
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One writer said, either we shall gladly accept the purging fire of the spirit which burns sin out of us, or we have to meet the punitive fire which burns us up and our sins together.
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Look at verse 17 a little bit. You see the positive, the negatives right here. His winnowing fork is in his hand, right?
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So what you would do, this is an agricultural illustration that John the Baptist is using, and you'd get some grain or some barley or some wheat, and you'd put it out on the threshing floor and the oxen would go over it with a sled and the kernels of grain would be separated, but there's still something clinging to the kernels.
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And so you have to pick up your winnowing fork and you throw it up and the Mediterranean wind blows the chaff away and the kernels fall down.
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It's a means of separation. To clear his threshing floor and to gather, here's the positive, wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
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So John the Baptist comes, he's greater than Jesus, and he says, of course I'm, what did I just say?
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Don't you hate autocorrect on your phone? I need that when I preach. You know what I meant though, even if I said the wrong thing.
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John the Baptist knew that he was not greater than Jesus, Jesus was greater, because I can only do things with water and I can't separate people unto heaven and unto hell, that's beyond me,
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I can't do that. How's John the Baptist just a man going to send people to heaven or send people to hell?
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There's one who's greater than John and it's Jesus. I mean, what kind of language is this?
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It's so comforting to the Christian, you just look at it, to the believer. Gathers the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire.
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He's gonna gather us to be with him, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 .8, that's the way for believers to be home with the
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Lord, to live as Christ and to die as gain. Paul says, not even dying separates me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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J .C. Ryle, believers and unbelievers, holy and unholy, converted and unconverted, are now mingled in every congregation and often sit side by side.
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It passes the power of man to separate them. False profession is so often true and grace is so often weak and feeble that in many cases, the right discernment of a character is an impossibility.
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The wheat and chaff will continue until the Lord comes, but then there will be an awful separation.
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Jesus, not just the Savior, but also the judge. And you see what the text says again at the end of verse 17?
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Will burn the chaff, the unbelievers, with unquenchable fire.
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When was the last time you ever heard a sermon on eternal judgment? A sermon on hell?
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People don't want to hear about hell. They want to have pep talks on Sunday morning, but it's important for us to realize what does the
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Bible teach about hell? It's not rude, it's not vulgar, it's not uncouth to talk about it. It's biblical.
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And while some say, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that hell is an odious conception and blasphemous,
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Richard Dawkins said, if hell were plausible, it would only have to be moderately unpleasant in order to deter.
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Given that it is so unlikely to be true, it has to be advertised as something very, very scary indeed.
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Or even the writer H .L. Mencken said, what is the function that a clergyman performs in the world? Answer, he gets his living by assuring idiots that he can save them from imaginary hell.
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And if you're not ashamed of hell, it's a business almost indistinguishable from that of a seller of snake oil. But the
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Lord Jesus, of course he talked about forgiveness and reconciliation and divine love, but he also talked about hell, right?
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Even more than heaven, as you know. And of course, John the Baptist wasn't ashamed of hell.
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I could ask you the question, are you ashamed of hell? Are you ashamed if somebody came to you and said, do you really believe there's an eternal hell?
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The answer is, well, maybe there's something in us that wants to be ashamed, but we must not be ashamed. We submit to the
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Scriptures and what the Scripture teaches, we teach. And if we, if I, if the elders don't talk about hell, then what does that say about all
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Scripture as God breathed and it's profitable for everything? We don't want to hold anything back to the Spirit of God, make a mistake when it talked about eternal judgment, unquenchable fire, the worm that dies not.
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Of course, there's no mistake in the Scripture. There's no mistake in the Scripture. Jesus Himself, love incarnate, grace incarnate, the gospel incarnate, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
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Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in, there's a real hell.
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And for us as Christians who trust in the risen Savior and His work, we don't go there. And we realize that if anything proves hell, it's what happened to the
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Lord Jesus on Calvary. And we realize that when we go to Calvary, when it's like an eternity of hell is compressed into three hours and the wrath of God is poured out, not on us, but on our
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Savior. And He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And you say, well, hell seems so unfair.
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It seems cruel and unusual punishment. Well, cruel and unusual punishment is usually punishing people more severely or harshly than the crime.
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And of course, God never judges any innocent person. He judges sinners and sin is an atrocity to God.
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It's a contagion, it's lawlessness, it's like murder. It's repulsive to God and God therefore punishes because He's holy.
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So I'm just reminded here again, even John the Baptist as he comes, it's a merciful thing to warn people of the wrath to come.
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It's not mean, it's not rude, it's not uncouth. It's merciful, it's kind to tell them there's an alarm here, there's a fire.
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You'd warn people if somebody was in a house with fire, but what about the unquenchable fire that's their end?
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Jesus said in Matthew 25, and these will go away into eternal punishment and the righteous into eternal life.
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Herman Bavick said, for Christ in truth bore unspeakable distress, sorrow, horror and hellish torment on the cross in order that He might redeem us from them.
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And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, if God the Father didn't spare His sinless
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Son as He was a sin bearer, He certainly won't spare you. So Mike, can you give us some good news?
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With pleasure. Number four, John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as mighty, as purifier, as separator and as the
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Savior. As greater, as a sanctifier, as a judge and now as the good news
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Savior. Chapter three, verse 18. So with many other exhortations,
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John the Baptist preached good news to the people. In the midst of bad news, and of course the good news isn't really that good until you realize how bad the bad news is.
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And if you rescued from unquenchable fire in eternity and now you're in God's presence for eternity, sinless, tears wiped away, then you really appreciate how good the good news is.
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And John the Baptist didn't only say to people, repent. He didn't only say, flee from the wrath to come.
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He didn't only say, who warned you of the wrath to come, you brood of vipers. He didn't only talk about judgment.
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Here, it tells us just in summary form, he preached the gospel. He preached good news with many other exhortations.
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To talk about the one that could forgive sins. And you think about how awful the Pharisees were, how awful the hypocrites were, how awful the
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Sadducees were. And he's offering the free offer of the gospel with good news as the forerunner.
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The one is coming behind me and I'm just letting you know ahead of time, he's coming and he doesn't just come to purge people into hell, he's coming as a
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Savior. He's coming to save the Savior. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And so here, John the
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Baptist, we're told just is preaching the good news of the Savior. The gospel of grace and grace alone.
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You don't have to stand before God on your own righteousness because you have none. I have none. But the
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Lord Jesus is perfectly righteous and he gives you his righteousness by faith. Yes, he talked about the unquenchable fire, but he also talked about the one who is gonna come and die on Calvary and be raised from the dead.
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John the Baptist, can you imagine? The greatest man who ever lived is talking about the
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Lord Jesus. And there's hope for all of us. And we look back as Christians and we say, oh,
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I'm so thankful to be rescued from that. When was the last time you said that? Lord, thank you that I don't have to pay for my own sins.
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Jesus, the just, died for me, the unjust. Thank you. He himself bore my sins.
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He became a curse for me. When was the last time you said that? With John the Baptist looking at Jesus.
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Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. With many other exhortations,
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John the Baptist is preaching the gospel. Jesus is here. And he didn't just say, well, you better watch out what you're going to do.
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He's here to tell other people this is what Jesus came to do. And fifthly,
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John recognizes Jesus even if it'll cost him his head. Even though there's persecution.
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Luke is writing this and he wants you to see that John the Baptist says, I recognize Jesus. He's coming.
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He's greater. He purifies. He purges. He saves. And I will recognize him to the point of death, willing to die for Jesus.
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Verse 19, but Herod... By the way, there's a bunch of Herods and they're all awful.
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Seminary, you have to know them all. What's a tetrarch? Which Herod is this, that, or the other? If you want to just skip to the end of the test, they're all wicked.
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They're all related. They're all wicked. When we go to Israel and visit, oh, this is
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Herod's palace. This is Herod's Herodium. This is Herod's this, that, and the other. I'm just thinking I can't keep all these
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Herods straight, so I've just relegated them all to my old age as they're all bad. But Herod the tetrarch is ruling kind of a fourth of a region, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife.
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You know that story and just the incest and just the sleazy dancing and everything else.
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John the Baptist is going to lose his head for reproving people for sexual sin.
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I see that in the future of America coming soon too. For all the evil things that Herod had done, not just with this weird marriage thing, but for all the evil, he rebukes.
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Added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison. I'm going to rebuke you for your sins, but also
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I'm going to rebuke you because you're marrying a woman who had been married to your brother. You're going to divorce your wife in order to marry your sister -in -law?
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Wrecking not one marriage, but two marriages? Listen to what Mark says. For it was
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Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.
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For John had been saying over and over and over, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, but she could not.
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For Herod feared John, knowing he was a righteous and holy man and kept him safe. But an opportunity came when
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Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and leading men of Galilee. And when
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Herodias' daughter came in and danced, this wasn't swing dancing, this was awful dancing.
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She pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, ask me whatever you wish and I'll give it to you.
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And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I'll give it to you, up to half of my kingdom. And she went out and said to her mother, what should
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I ask? The head of John the Baptist. Immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring
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John's head. And he went and beheaded him in prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
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And the girl gave it to her. Jesus is so great.
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I'm not the Messiah, John says, Jesus is the Messiah. And I'm willing to die for the truth that Jesus is the
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Messiah. And to tell people about sin. Verse 20 of our passage today in Luke 3, added this to them all, that He locked
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John up in prison. Jesus was recognized by John and we recognize
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Jesus. Here by Luke's words. But not only did
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John recognize Jesus, the Holy Spirit recognizes Jesus. Look at verses 21 and 22.
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Yes, even more, not just the Holy Spirit, but the Father recognizes Jesus. Everything is written so that we recognize
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Jesus by faith so that you believe. And that when you're going through a hard time, you keep believing. Luke 3, 21.
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Now, when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized, I mean, there's a flurry of people getting baptized and Jesus was baptized.
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Kind of making it separate. A bunch of people got baptized and Jesus got baptized. Why is there a separation?
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Why does it say Jesus and all the people got baptized? I think Luke is trying to let us know all these people got baptized, they were baptized because they were sinners and they knew it.
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And Jesus is going to get baptized. He's not a sinner and He knows it and He's going to get baptized to represent other people as an identification.
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But back to the text. And when Jesus had also been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the
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Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven.
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You are my beloved Son. I am one with You. I am well pleased. Did you know when the
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Bible teaches that the heavens are going to open like I read in Revelation 19 to start the service, there's going to be a divine manifestation of glory.
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Something wonderful and awesome and incredible is going to happen. The heavens are opened and then what's going to happen?
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Here Jesus, the friend of sinners who represents sinners before God, is going to be identified with sinners by baptizing to fulfill all righteousness.
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Remember in Matthew, John the Baptist is like, I'm not going to baptize you. You should baptize me. Why did John say that?
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I'm a sinner, John the Baptist says, and I'm supposed to be baptized as a sinner and I can't baptize you.
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You're not sinful. It's almost like Peter back with the washing of the feet. I can't wash your feet. I mean, you can't wash my feet.
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I should wash your feet. Jesus joining with sinners as it were as an act of solidarity.
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It's almost like John the Baptist shows us with this passage that Luke has.
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The baptism, yes, he got baptized, but who's the one who gets baptized? And how does the Father recognize the one getting baptized?
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And how does the Holy Spirit recognize the one that gets baptized? Let's interest it in the baptism itself, although that's important.
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And by the way, for those of you who somehow don't want to believe in the Trinity, here you see, do you not, the
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Father, the Spirit, and the Son.
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Just look at the baptism of Jesus and you're going to see Trinitarian theology. This is my beloved
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Son whom I am well pleased. I mean, there's the
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Holy Spirit. There's the Father. They recognize Jesus. Matthew 3 .15,
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but Jesus answering John the Baptist said, permitted at this time for it is in this way fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
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Then he permitted him. And now Jesus identifies with sinners.
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He's dunked under the water and he comes up out of the water and Mark 1 says, he looked into the heavens.
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He saw up into the heavens, skies ripped open. And verse 22, very interestingly, that the
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Spirit of God descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And then the voice comes from heaven.
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I mean, we see on the back of cars, a dove, sometimes a symbol of the Holy Spirit, it's a dove.
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You think it was really a real dove flying down? I mean, what's a dove symbolize?
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Mildness, gentleness, sacrifice, right?
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If you don't have a lamb, you could sacrifice two doves. But it doesn't say bodily, it says like a dove.
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I like what Calvin said, and Calvin's always good for this. Another question more curious than useful has been put, was this a dove, a solidly body or appearance of one?
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Though the words of Luke seem to intimate that it was not substance of a body, but only a bodily appearance. Yet less
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I should afford to any man an occasion of wrangling, I leave the matter unsettled. I mean, was it some kind of theophany?
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We don't know, but the point is, the Father recognizes the Son by saying, this is my beloved
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Son, and then quoting Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42. The Spirit of God recognizes
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Jesus. I mean, here Jesus is praying, and then we see this Trinitarian thing.
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This is amazing. Puritan Thomas Goodwin said, for a dove is most meek and most innocent of all birds, without gall, without talons, having no fierceness in it, expressing nothing but love and friendship to its mate in all its carriages, and mourning over its mate in all its distresses.
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Accordingly, a dove was most fit emblem of the Spirit that was poured out upon our Savior, when
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He was just about to enter the work of salvation. For as sweetly as doves do converse with doves, so may every sinner and Christ converse together.
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The point is, John not only recognizes Jesus, but the
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Spirit of God does, and then the Father. This is my beloved Son in whom
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I am well pleased. That's right from Psalm 2, verse 7. You are my
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Son, and right from Isaiah chapter 42, as I said, I watched a baptism once, it wasn't here.
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There's all kinds of interesting baptism stories that you can tell people. I remember my brother was helping a disabled person in the water while the pastor was saying a few things, and I remember him telling me, he was a weightlifter at the time, and so he was holding the person in the water, and he saw this huge, big wolf spider coming over, and he was trying to hold this lady, and then get rid of the wolf spider.
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I almost died right up over there in our baptismal in 1999. A bunch of kids were up close as I was baptizing folks, and Carl Larson, who was a member here for a long time, who's now in glory, he didn't want one of these microphone stands to be close, a speaker stand, and he went up to grab it, and the speaker fell into the water, and it was disconnected, and I read the next month, and I thought,
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I'm not somebody who's electrocuted in their own baptismal, and I thought, there are lots of ways to get rid of your pastor, but I baptized, and I saw a video of one man, his son was baptized by the pastor, and he shouts out, this is my beloved son in whom
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I'm well pleased, and I thought, what a goofball. One of the elders needs to go review
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Kim. But you know what, if you're a
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Christian, and you're in Christ, and you're united to Christ, the
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Father's as well pleased with you as he is the Son, and he looks at you with the attitude of, this is my beloved son or daughter in whom
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I'm well, and I know what you're thinking, if you're thinking rightly, yeah, but I sin so much,
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I fall short so much, I know who I am, even my righteous deeds are like filthy rags, but I just want you to know, dear
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Christian, as a Christian, as we look at this passage, you are united with Christ, if you read Ephesians chapter one, in him, in him, in him, in Christ Jesus, in Jesus Christ, the
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Spirit of God dwells in you, and the Father couldn't love you more, and he couldn't love you less, because he loves you as much as he loves the
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Son, that's John 17, and you go, how can that be? I know, that's why we sing songs like, and can it be?
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It's amazing, if you think about that, you go, okay, who really knows me, deep down and inside?
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Well, my spouse knows, I met a guy once, he was over at my house, and he said, I've never sinned, he was like 25, and his wife was there, if I said that to somebody and Kim was there, she'd be going, and his wife,
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I don't know, I maybe compared to her father, he was a good guy, I have no idea, knowing we're sinful, how can it be that what the
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Father says of the Son, the sinless Son, could be said of us? It's because Jesus paid for every single one of us, every single one, do you know all your sins are paid?
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Every single one, Jesus paid it all, and what's our response? All to him I owe, in terms of service and ministry, free to serve, if you don't think you're right with God, you won't spend a lot of time in ministry, because you're gonna be thinking,
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I'm just gonna look at myself, am I saved, am I not, and that just makes you not very useful for God's kingdom.
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He didn't say of Jesus, with you I was well pleased, but then the incarnation happened.
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He says, with you I am well pleased. The delight that the Father has for the
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Son has never started and will never end. In every aspect, he's pleased with the
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Son, he's pleased with his birth, he's pleased with his youth, he's pleased with his inauguration into public ministry, he's pleased with everything up to 30 years old, and farther, this is my beloved
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Son in whom I'm well pleased. When you think about sacrifices, even aren't pleasing to God ultimately, it's obedience that's pleasing to God, and here we have
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Jesus, the obedient one, in eternity past, with the Spirit, with the
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Father, Jesus, eternal counsel, to send Jesus to go rescue, and that's exactly what
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Jesus did. The Bible teaches that sacrifice is an offering that means you have not desired, but a body you've prepared for me.
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And Jesus says, I've come to do your will, and the Father says, you are well pleased. Now sometimes when people get ordained, most often in evangelical churches, you lay hands on people, other elders lay hands on that other pastor to say, we're signifying that this pastor is ordained into gospel ministry now.
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And it's kind of a big deal if you're a pastor to be ordained in ministry. Here Jesus is 30 years old, and He's ordained into gospel ministry, not by the laying on of human hands, but the
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Word of the Father and the Spirit descending upon Him. God in three Persons, blessed
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Trinity. Here comes the Messiah. And off to get tempted,
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He's soon going to go. I want you to know that far from God being stoic and removed and unloving, this is the affectionate word, you are my beloved
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Son. Closeness, affection, Trinitarian closeness. By the way, that had always been true on the eternal scale, the
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Father and the Son and the Spirit having a love, loving one another. One of the reasons why we're
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Trinitarian is because there's a one who's lover and one who's loved. That's why we don't believe in Muhammad because how could there be any love in Muhammad when there's no eternal
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Trinitarian love? What was true in heaven is now true still on earth.
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I'm going to come and identify with sinful humans even though I'm not a sinner, and God the Father says, amen, and the
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Spirit of God says, amen. The smile of approval by God and the Spirit of God coming down in the form of a dove.
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I think, dear congregation, it might help you in your Christian life to think about the Father's love for the
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Son and then how he loves you because you're in the Son by faith and by faith alone.
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Like I'm going through a big trial, I've got all these issues. It's the Father loves you. I've told this story many times.
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I remember flying home from Omaha to Los Angeles. I wasn't married at the time, and my mom said, who's picking you up from the airport?
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This is before Uber, before Lyft, before everything else. And I said, I don't know, I have no idea. And my mom started to cry.
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And I thought, Mom, I'll make it somehow. I guess I'll hitchhike. And I said, why are you crying?
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She said, there are 10 million people in Los Angeles and you don't know one of them well enough that they'll come and pick you up from the airport.
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That's probably on me. I probably was a lovable. The only person really that matters if they love you or not, if you're a
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Christian, loves you. All the others are extra. Spouse, extra, kids, extra family, extra parents, extra.
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We're loved by God. This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He said it again at the transfiguration, did the
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Father to the Son. When it comes to recognizing
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Jesus, Luke wants you to recognize Jesus with John. Of course, the greatest man on earth, pointing to Jesus.
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I just baptized with water. He baptizes with the Spirit. He purifies Christians.
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He purges unbelievers. Who has the right to do that but God Himself? He's a
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Savior that all would come to Him by faith. He's such a recognized
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Savior that will even die for Him. But more than John the Baptist, it is the Father and the
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Spirit's commendation of the Lord Jesus. So when you think to yourself,
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I don't know if I really believe in Christianity or I'm having doubts or my assurance is wavering. Maybe there's another way.
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I want you to know there's no other way. Make sure you keep reading your Bible and you'll say to yourself, if the
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Father approves of Jesus and the Spirit approves of Jesus and the greatest man who's ever lived approved of Jesus, I approve of Jesus by faith and by faith alone.
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Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for this Word. I'm thankful that it's only by Your grace that we recognize these things.
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We acknowledge that faith is a gift. We thank
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You for the Lord Jesus. We thank You that He never sinned so He could be our sin bearer. We thank
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You that He was spotless so that He could be raised on the third day. And we're thankful that beyond our imagination, there's a
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Trinitarian love that's now spilled over into us. And You're well pleased with us.