Gods Great Love Pursues Us - Part 3 of 6

In our continuing exploration of Gods Great Love For Us, Jesus, the Son of God is as best we can tell, 30 years of age... What comes next is a determined pure act of love. Jesus would make a decision as both a human servant and as God in the flesh just for us!

(3) Jesus leaves the wood shop, More than a Carpenter!

Please note that some of the content contained within the Reflection Moments depicted here is not recorded in the scriptures. They are merely human attempts to relate and ask some questions of certain aspects of the Son of God, which may help you see the Savior’s human side of His divine life on earth.

click to play

God speaks the following:

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law , that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Gal 4:4-5)

Reflection Moment

It’s a splendid night with all its stars and planets and the millions of heavenly hosts watching in the Judean sky. In the fullness of time this newly created dawn like no other anticipates a great change. For the fabric of the universe is suddenly brought still awaiting His love cry.

Jesus sets His wooden mallet down on the old worn out workbench. He places the wood chisels and drill bits in their resting place for the last time. He does a final sweeping and picking up of the sanding dust on the floor he stood upon with divine feet for over 25 years. Then, for the last time as He peers outside the old wood shop full of furniture and such made with His divine hands, he humbly says, “I am coming Father.” 

With these first steps in all of mankind out of this very special wood shop, Jesus the Son of God begins to place one divine foot in front of the other toward heaven again. He knows he will never return to laugh and converse with customers about their hand made stool or bench he personally made for them. He knows exactly who he is and what his purpose is. That, the tears now flowing down his divine cheeks are tears of suffering and great joy. For the Savior has hung up his tools and sweat band trading them for an eternal crown. With just sandals on his feet and clothing on his back, having no money or provisions, with great love He begins the journey that will save mankind. God Pursue's Us!

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Now in the fifteenth year (29 AD) of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." (Luke 3:1-3)

“Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

John preached about the coming kingdom and the need to repent. The Palestine in which the prophet’s ministry was launched was firmly in the grip of a grossly pagan force, the Roman empire. Edersheim graphically describes the conditions of the time.

“It has been rightly said, that the idea of conscience, as we understand it, was unknown to heathenism. Absolute right did not exist. Might was right. The social relations exhibited, if possible, even deeper corruption. The sanctity of marriage had ceased. Female dissipation and the general dissoluteness led at last to an almost entire cessation of marriage. Abortion, and the exposure and murder of newly-born children, were common and tolerated; unnatural vices, which even the greatest philosophers practiced, if not advocated, attained proportions which defy description.”

Moral corruption had made deep inroads into Judaism as well. It was into this world that John came with his piercing message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3:2; cf. Mk. 1:4).

John’s message of “repentance” entailed a deep consciousness of offense to God within the sinner’s heart, with a required reformation of life. When he saw superficial Hebrews submitting to his immersion, void of any radical change of conduct, he rebuked them: “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of repentance” (Mt. 3:7-8).

Jesus first walk of love for us equaling at least 3 marathons is completed. Once John see's Him coming his way, he says, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" 

The timing was perfect. Jesus pursued us finding John and is now with us never looking back! He is about to be witnessed by His Father, and all the people there on the banks of the Jordan River at Aenon as Gods only Son, the long awaited Messiah! Surely the people would recognize Him? Jesus had arrived at precisely the right time and place to be baptized by John. Lets let God tell us what happened next on this planned day in history.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17)

Reflection Moment

Remember earlier in Luke 3 we are told "the word of God came to John in the wilderness?" A parallel scripture also confirms this:

I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." (John 1:33)

We can be assured considering the whole word of God through harmonizing the scriptures (Psalm 119:160), baptism of repentance for for remission of sins was spoken to John the Baptist as he received Gods plan. Baptism came not from man but from God making it a requirement or condition to salvation (Mark 16:16). This will later be confirmed by Jesus words Himself as He unfolds His plan of salvation during His ministry to the Jews (John 3:26, 4:1).

While the sinless Jesus did not require baptism to remit any sins, God shows us that baptism is associated with the Holy Spirit as well as an action that God approves of, for He spoke it to John (Luke 3:2).

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt 3:11).

Three reasons why Jesus had to be baptized

(1) It was to identify the Lord as the Son of God at the beginning of His ministry. (Luke 1:17)

When Jesus approached, John didn’t have complete knowledge that Jesus was the actual Son of God. The proof of His Sonship didn’t reveal itself to John until he saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus and heard the voice from heaven that Jesus was in fact the Son of God. Now He could testify that, "This is the Son of God, He is the one we have been waiting for.” (John 1:31-34). The Messiah had arrived!

(2) It was a commencement of the total dedication and obedience of Christ in carrying out heavens plan.

Righteousness is associated with the commands of God (Psalm 119:172). To fulfill righteousness is to be obedient to Jehovah. After all as we are noticing, the life of Jesus is all about obedience isn't it. Jesus through David‘s prophetic words a thousand years before His birth affirm, “I delight to do thy will, Oh my God, Yea thy law is in my heart.” (Psalm 40:8) Do we have the law within our hearts, and delightfully so? Jesus is our perfect model for our lives.

(3) It was a visual precursor to the Saviors ultimate death, burial and resurrection.

Later we will see these words from Apostle Paul that demonstrate the need for Jesus to be baptized by John. Paul says, “Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel… that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He hath been raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures." (1 Cor. 15:1-4) The death of Jesus, as the key ingredient in Gods plan of redemption, was in the mind of God before the foundation of the world (1 Pet 1:19). I can’t help but wonder at what point in Jesus mental maturity did he become aware of His ultimate destiny on the cross? We know that by the age of 12 he was cognizant of His unique status as the Son of God. And it seems clear now at the waters of His baptism at the hands of John, He knew of His appointment with the cross, and likely long before that.

The Temptations

After Jesus was immersed by John, He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil (Matt. 4:1; Mk. 1:12; Lk. 4:1). The exact location of the temptation scene is unknown. What is significant is that the Lord was alone, fasting, tempted, and tested. Jesus’ total submission to the will of God was tried from the very beginning of his ministry. How necessary this must have been for the difficult years of ministry toward the cross that lay before him (Luke 12:50).

Reflection Moment

How could the Holy Spirit lead Christ into temptation (Matt. 4:1)? The Holy Spirit did not lead Jesus into temptation. He led him into the wilderness. God knew that the devil, a willing villain, would utilize this moment of Jesus’ physical weakness and exhaustion to tempt him. Satan would consider this “an opportune time,” and he would look for other “seasons” as well. The devil did the tempting.

God sent his Son into a world of trials and temptation in which difficulties are a part of being in the flesh. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit tempted Jesus to do evil, for God never tempts any one (James. 1:13). The devil was the direct agent through which the temptation came.

The Holy Spirit did lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, but this is no more alarming than the fact that God sent Christ into the world to die. His redemptive mission involved a sacrificial death, and the road to Calvary was paved with suffering, testing, and temptation, through which Jesus was perfected, or qualified, to serve as high priest for humanity (Heb. 2:10).

From the temptations of the devil, we realize that he is a liar. Temptations are deceptive. Temptations cannot provide what they offer — choices without consequences. Temptations are tailored to our vulnerabilities. We must, like Christ, rely upon the word of God to teach us. We must dedicate ourselves, beforehand, to be completely obedient to the will of God, for He alone has our good in mind. And praise be to God, that Jesus never sinned — He never succumbed to temptation. For we do, and we desperately need his merit. His perfect sacrifice!

For our benefit, Jesus makes His first proclamation in front of the devil that He is God! He says to him after being told to throw Himself off the mountain (Luke 4:9). And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” (Luke 4:12) The battle was over, “Away with you Satan! “…he departed from Him until an opportune time” meaning, the devil will be back. (Luke 4:13)

Jesus Begins His Galilean Ministry

From this tumultuous spiritual battle between forces, Jesus returns to Galilee and begins to teach in the synagogues of various towns and villages in the area. But curiously, He waits until John the Baptist is imprisoned by Herod Antipas to begin preaching publicly. One speculation is, Jesus knew the ultimate outcome of John being in prison, and a horrible death by beheading awaited him. So, He chose this transition period to allow for His preaching and teaching of the people to be presented in full without conflicting with Johns preaching. He wanted all eyes upon Him. Jesus the Christ is now fully vested to set the heavenly plan of redemption into play.

The official message from the God-man to man of His ministry begins in His hometown, Nazareth. He reads out loud part of a well known Messianic prophecy of His work in Israel. That scripture is Isaiah 61:1-2.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God;”

Then he closes the scroll and simply tells the hearers and us today, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:21-22)

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

Reflection Moment

When John had finished his ministry, Jesus began His ministry. This is a critical and very short transition period of history when God intercedes and takes over again. Thus the last Old Testament prophet, John prepared the way for Jesus’ New Testament ministry (Luke 16:16). Jesus’ ministry was one of fulfillment. Part of John’s preparation was to preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. And, as soon as Jesus started His ministry after John was imprisoned, as we will see, He went about “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."

As a testament of Johns work paving the way for the Christ, these seven words by him fulfills his joy before he was executed. He exalts Christ by saying, "He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). After having the attention of thousands of people coming to him to be baptized, what a fantastic attitude of service to God to be able to say, "not my will, but Gods will." This statement by John the Baptist was clearly motivated and understood by knowing the Lamb of God had arrived, and the reminder, "the Word of Gad came to John in the wilderness" early in the story prior to baptizing Jesus. John was to himself prepared having some knowledge to his end. We have no idea the specifics God shared with John one on one in the wilderness in this regard, but I think we can rest assured paradise awaited him. There is a great lesson for us from John in these words in that we too must get out of Gods way and let Him have His way with us towards our cross.

So, this proclamation of Jesus was not good news in that synagogue and the Jewish community for they fully expect the kingdom to be reestablished in Jerusalem. “What is this gospel speak He is saying to us? There is no mention of ‘gospel’ in the scriptures!” Jesus was saying that the kingdom of God was, at that time, coming. Certainly, this was good news in their midst though they recognized it not! Here is their reaction to Jesus proclamation.

"So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way." (Luke 4:28-30)

It should be good news to us because the kingdom of God is still here! You are living in the time of the kingdom of God right now. Yes, Jesus was Josephs son. He has just struck the first official blow to mankind that He is the long awaited Messiah! The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Everlasting to Everlasting. Now we begin to see and hear about God’s great love in that he thrust Himself upon mankind in spite of its sinful and disobedient nature upon this beautiful planet He Himself created for us. You could truly say, we have been visited by someone not of this world. Someone who being God, became a man and a carpenter. But now He is more than a carpenter, He is the Son of God – The Savior of mankind.

Next week we will speak to – The God-man Fellowships with His Creation.

Blessings

1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6

Click #1 to begin this study