Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
Sunday June 02, 2024
Father, please help me to not be afraid to share my faith publicly. Please give me opportunities to do so and to faithfully share how Jesus has saved a wretched man like me from my sin and rebellion. Father, if Jesus needed to pray to do the work You sent Him to do, how much more do I need to pray for the work You have asked me to do? Please transform me so that I become a man of prayer, asking You for provision, protection, and direction in all that I do to advance the gospel. Father, I ask that the Holy Spirit make me a new creation. Give me a new heart that loves You and desires to please You in all that I do and say. Father, I ask that, with each passing day, my life will increasingly bear witness to the fact that I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Father, please forgive me for my unbelief. Help me to believe, at all times and in all situations, that Jesus is the Son of God. I ask that such belief will transform my heart and my mind. Amen.
Father, in our look at “The Genealogy of Jesus: Mary”, I noted that Numbers 4:2-3 states that the minimum age for a priest to work in the tent of meeting was thirty. I also noted that in Hebrews 4:14, Jesus is described as the great High Priest. It seems logical, therefore, to conclude that Jesus, understanding who He was and what His mission in life was, and given His vast knowledge of what we know to be the Old Testament, understood that His ministry was not to begin until that age.
What was Jesus doing throughout His twenties? Your Word does not tell us. However, we can conclude that Jesus was doing carpentry work (Mark 6:3) . We can conclude that He was a loving son to His parents, a loving oldest brother to His siblings, and a good neighbor to everyone else. We can also conclude that Jesus continued to study the scriptures and interact with the teachers in the synagogue (Luke 2:21-42).
Jesus no doubt prayerfully made the decision to begin His ministry. What had to be done first? Why was Jesus baptized?
These objectives could be achieved by being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus walked to the Jordan River, leaving His family and carpentry business behind Him, to the location where John the Baptist was baptizing others. He emerged from crowd and was recognized by John.
Father, a few pages back I noted how John stated he was not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals because Jesus is the Son of God. His feet are too holy to come near. John is the same man who, as a child in Elizabeth’s womb, recognized the deity of Jesus’ when Jesus was in Mary’s womb. I believe it was the holiness of Jesus that was on John’s mind as Jesus approached him and asked to be baptized.
“How can I baptize You, Jesus? You are the Son of God. I am a sinner. We may have talked about my baptizing You before, but I can’t go through with it. You are holy! You need to baptize me!” (paraphrased).
For the reasons shared above, and others, Jesus reassured John that it was right and proper for Jesus to be baptized by John. He needed John to do this for Him. John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. What an incredible sight that must have been! This was no doubt the talk of the region for a long time as the two most “well-known” men of God in the region had come together for a baptism.
Jesus’ ministry had officially begun. What is the first thing Jesus does? He prays to You for help. As fully human (and fully God), He knows He cannot do the work You have sent Him to do by His own strength. Miracles? Teaching crowds? Suffering persecution? Being crucified on the cross? Jesus, identifying with His humanity, needs Your power in His life to be effective in ministry. The very same “advocate” (NIV) whom You will send to each believer, to teach them all the things that Jesus taught (John 14:26), is needed in Jesus’ life to comfort Him, inspire Him, and guide Him in His ministry.
Jesus looked up and saw heaven torn open and the Holy Spirit descend upon Him like a dove. The question for us is whether the Holy Spirit “looked” like a dove or “acted” like a dove. Was it the movement of the Holy Spirit back and forth that reminded Jesus of a dove?
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2 (NIV)
Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” Isaiah 31:5
Father, we see in the first passage that the Holy Spirit was associated with movement in flight. In the second passage, we see that the Lord Almighty moves like a bird over Jerusalem. I believe it is reasonable to conclude that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:2 like a bird. The Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters like a “dove”, so to speak, when You created the world. The Holy Spirit now descends like a “dove”, with respect to movement, at the launch of Jesus’ ministry where He will create the church and bring about the re-creation of the hearts of believers. I believe the descending of the Holy Spirit like a “dove” is a blessing upon Jesus for the work of re-creation that He will do as men and women across the world place their faith in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The crowds didn’t see the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus. However, they did hear a voice. Matthew 3:17 informs us that the voice said:
“This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. (NIV)”
In other words, You are telling everyone present that Jesus is the Son of God and that You are well pleased with Him. Such a message would be directed at those who would deny Jesus’ authority as He begins His ministry. This would certainly be an appropriate message for the doubting Thomas-es of the world to hear.
However, Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 3:21-23 state that the voice was spoken directly to Jesus:
“You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased. (NIV)”
Father, in this case it would seem the message is a word of encouragement from You to Jesus as He is about to step into a ministry where He will be hated, persecuted, and made to suffer an excruciating death on the cross. You are telling Him that, even in His darkest hour (Matthew 26:36-46; Matthew 27:46), when even Your love seems absent, He is to remember that He is loved and that You are pleased with Him.
While Mark and Luke may be accurate about the actual spoken words, I believe Matthew is also accurate in the message that the people heard. The people heard that Jesus has the authority of God the Father, and that Jesus is to be feared as the Son of God, loved by the Father.
This passage in Luke concludes with an interesting statement:
“Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, ” Luke 3:23 (NIV)
Father, I think what Luke is telling us here is that, despite all that the people just witnessed, including hearing Your voice from heaven, telling the people that Jesus is Your Son, they walked away thinking He was just a man, the mere son of Joseph of Nazareth. Father, we are a stubborn people, refusing to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, despite all of the evidence available to us. We would rather cut Jesus down to something we can deal with, a mere man who is a lowly carpenter. I believe Luke is revealing to us the spiritual blindness of many in the crowd at the scene, especially the religious leaders who were determined that Jesus would never be accepted by the public as the Son of God. Amen.
64. Jesus must have had an incredible reputation for excellence as a carpenter. Can you imagine Him, the One who taught us to love our neighbors selflessly (Matthew 22:39), the One who taught us to go the extra mile for someone who asks (Matthew 5:40-42), and the One who taught us about integrity (Exodus 20:16, Matthew 5:17), not giving His 100% to do an outstanding job for His clients? Jesus’ decision to put aside His carpentry work and move into full-time ministry must have come with the temptation from Satan to remain a carpenter and “make a lot of money. Jesus, You can build a huge carpentry business and have many employees and do work for the religious and political elite in the region.” I can imagine Jesus responded as He did with Peter in Matthew 16:23: “Get behind me Satan. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
65. John and Jesus most likely had an established relationship, given they had met when they were both in their mother’s wombs (Luke 1). Their mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, most likely continued to be close friends and brought their children with them when they got together from time to time. It is probable that the two young men, perhaps in their teens or in their twenties, who both knew the key role each was to play in the gospel story, discussed their future ministry. It is not inconceivable that they discussed that Jesus would come to be baptized by John at the start of His ministry. Therefore, I conclude that John the Baptist was not surprised at Jesus’ arrival; he had expected it.
66. People were flocking into the wilderness to hear John preach. There were also rumors circulating that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who was born of a virgin and that Herod had tried to kill Him when He was a toddler.
67. It is no minor event when the triune God comes to earth. It is explosive, of earth-shattering consequence for humanity. Imagine the Holy Spirit bursting through the gate of heaven with strength, power, might, and determination, a warrior come to earth to protect the Son of God throughout His ministry on earth.
68. Therefore, I believe the Holy Spirit did not appear in the form of a dove but behaved similar to a dove with respect to movement.