1/13/ 19    Matthew 3:13-17    “You Are Important!”

11 Jan 1/13/ 19    Matthew 3:13-17    “You Are Important!”

As we take a look at today’s Scripture, I would like you to remember some of the baptisms that you have attended.  Or if you were baptized when you were a little older, remember your own baptism.  Do you remember any special God moments during these times?  These are special moments.  I have usually been involved in infant baptisms.  And we all know that God loves the children so these are special times.  But we also have to realize that we are all children of God and that He loves us all like infants.  This makes adult baptism just as special as an infant baptism.  Today I’m not going to get into any of the specifics of baptism, like how to do it or when to do it because it is too controversial.  I would like to say however, that Jesus commands us to baptize.  Therefore we do it whether the person is an infant or adult, or the method is sprinkling or immersion.  Today I would like to talk a little about the baptism of Jesus, how this connects with our stories and what effect our stories have on our faith.

Paul Harvey, the famous radio commentator of days gone by, tells of being in Arizona on a Sunday and decided to attend a church.  As they sat down, they found only 12 in attendance.  Now Paul Harvey was very famous at this time and had already won many awards for his work.  But no matter how many accomplishments he achieved, he felt an emptiness inside.  Mr. Harvey believed in Jesus as he had bowed down in a hotel room years before and asked Jesus into his life.  But he had never come forward to be baptized.

This pastor got up and announced that his sermon was going to be about baptism.  Mr. Harvey yawned and thought that this was going to be a real sleeper.  I hope that you aren’t thinking the same thing because there will be a test!  Anyway as he listened he found himself very interested.  The pastor went on to say that there was nothing special about the water.  What was special was the cleansing that went on inside as you totally yielded yourself to Jesus.

He found himself coming forward when the preacher asked if there was anyone out there who had not been baptized in this way.  Paul Harvey talks of the feeling that swept over him as the water came upon him.  He left that day a completely new person and a very happy man.  Here was a man who had accepted Jesus Christ earlier in his life but he had forgotten to surrender himself to Jesus.

Just about every Sunday you can hear me ask someone to accept Jesus as their Savior and maybe some of you have.  But we have to remember that God works differently in everyone.  Some of you may be like Paul Harvey and have accepted Jesus but forget to surrender to Him.  This is a very important part of the equation.

Today we read about the baptism of Jesus.  But before we begin, I would like to ask a question.  Why did Jesus need to be baptized?  Why in the world did He have to do this?  The purpose of baptism is to cleanse us of our sins.  But Jesus was perfect and sinless so there must be another reason.

This is the beginning of the ministry of Jesus.  God, the Father, has told him that He must be baptized by John.  Jesus tells us that “it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”  In other words He is doing this to be in complete obedience to God.  He must do what is right with the Father.  He is showing us that He is totally surrendered to God the Father.

There might be a lesson here for us and people like Paul Harvey.  We have to be obedient to God in our lives.  In order to do this we must surrender our will to Him.  This is what Paul Harvey forgot.  This is what some of us forget.  This is what all of us forget at one time or another and this definitely includes me.  We are all sinners.  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  There isn’t a person here today that is not a sinner.  We need to be continually coming to Jesus and asking for forgiveness.

As Jesus was walking into this water, He was walking into our pool of sin.  He was in the beginning of the process of taking on all of our sin so that we may be cleansed through our baptism and of confessions to Him.  He was lowering himself from King to one of us as He was being baptized.  This was totally necessary if He was to take on our sins.

Steve Shepherd tells the story of a family that went on a mission trip to Thailand.  This country is 95% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, and only .05% Christian.  The mother said she had such a strange week.  The heat was overwhelming.  There was a language barrier and they were a minority.  She felt like they were in another world.  This has to be something like when Jesus came to this earth.  Have you ever thought about that?  Jesus was the perfect being and He came to this world dominated by Satan and sin.  He came into a foreign world to be one of us.  He came from heaven, which is absolutely perfect, to this broken, broken world.

I would like you to also notice along with being obedient, we are to be seeking.  The reason I bring this up is that Jesus was a seeker in this passage.  Now you may say, “Pastor John, Jesus is the goal and He wasn’t the seeker.”  But in this case He had to seek out John the Baptist.  John was many miles away at the Jordan River.  In order for Jesus to be obedient, He first had to seek and find John.  And even though He didn’t have a radio or a map, God, the ultimate GPS, guided him there.

You are here today because of this ultimate GPS.  Everybody listening today is a seeker.  It would be easy to stay in bed for some people.  It is easy for some to make up some reason why they cannot be here.  Satan is constantly working on people to keep them from worship.  These people only have poor excuses for not being here and not valid reasons!  But you people came here today seeking the truth of God.  And I try to give it to you so that you can go out and have a good week working at your job or doing whatever you do while honoring God.  Haven’t you ever noticed that when you miss your weekly church gathering, you really don’t feel right for the week?  That is because God has seen to it that you need church.  You need your fellow believers.  You need to talk about Jesus amongst yourselves.

Now we read on and as soon as Jesus was baptized and went out of the water, heaven opened up and God said, and this is so important and so good!  He said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  Can you imagine this?  Can you imagine God saying something like this to you?  Well, I think that God has probably said this to all of us but we don’t really like to talk about it that much.  Often times we are so busy that we don’t even hear Jesus telling us this important news.

As we explore this a little further, I would like to talk to you a little bit about the stories of the Bible.  I don’t know if you have really noticed this or not but our Bible is full of stories that form our faith.  Just about all the chief books of the major religions are made up of words of wisdom, sayings and just plain narrative on how to live.  The Bible, however, has a whole series of stories.  And in these stories, God tells us how to live in ways that are pleasing to Him.  This is so important because you are to try to always, always please God in all you do.  If you do, then you will just have a much easier time in life.

And you can see this in Genesis where we have so many stories that helped the early Jews and us to know God.  We have the creation story, the story of the flood, the story of Abraham, and the story of Jacob to mention just a very few of the true stories of the Old Testament.  Jesus also gave us much insight as He used stories to tell us things.  Who can forget the woman at the well in Samaria, or the Good Samaritan, or Mary and Martha, or walking on water.  Today we have the story of His baptism.  As you can see, you are shaped by the story of God.

And as much as you are shaped by these stories, you are shaped even more by your own stories.  Each and every person here today has a story to tell.  Most of us have many stories to tell.  Even the little children have a story.  And all of these stories together make up who you are.  You can tell a lot about a person if you know their story.  You can tell a lot about yourself if you know your own story.  Sometimes we put our stories on the back shelf and forget about them.  However, we need to dust them off a little and look at them.

Today I would like you to look at your own God story.  If you notice in today’s Scripture, we see that heaven opened up and God spoke to Jesus and those around Him.  This is one of the three times we actually hear the voice of God speaking to Jesus.  And this happens to us also.  As I mentioned I would guess that everyone here today has had such a God moment.  Each one of you has had a time when heaven has opened up and God has spoken to you, showed you the way or given you a vision.

I learned a lot about these moments when I was at a meeting several years ago in Aberdeen, SD.  I learned that these are very important times for us and that they shape our faith.  But the sad part is that we don’t share these with each other.  We think that these times are too sacred to be talked about.  Some of us might think that no one will believe it if we do talk about them.  One of the most moving times of my life was that week when I was in a huge room full of pastors and spouses sharing their most intimate God moments.  I knew as soon as it was over that I would want to come and share these stories and ways with others.

I have had at least four moments where God has shown me something directly and that is not counting the times I haven’t heard Him.  This is a one of those moments and I have shared it with only few people.  About 25 years ago I was driving to work at the Post Office when I had this tremendous urge to pull the car over.  I didn’t know what to do because I couldn’t stop on this busy street.  The urge kept with me until I decided to pull off on a side street and park.  As soon as I parked there came a voice as clear as any of you people talking saying, “John, I love you.”  I was in shock.  I just sat there for several moments before I could continue.  This was a moment when heaven opened up and God spoke to me.

Now I don’t tell you this story so that you think that I am someone special.  I’m not.  I’m not any more special than any other person here today.  But I tell you this because we all have moments like this.  Even if you don’t know Jesus, you will have experienced something like this at some point in your life.  God loves you and He tells you so in many different ways.  I would like to hear your God moments.  I would never repeat them but I would like you to tell me or Pastor Andrew.  God empowers us as we tell our stories about Him.  There was something special when that room full of pastors told their stories.  There can be something special here also.  There can be something special everywhere when we start talking about God and Jesus in our personal stories.

The world we live in doesn’t understand the love and hope we get from Jesus Christ.  They really don’t understand anything that isn’t concrete or that they aren’t able to prove.  And we have to understand this as we try to minister to them.  But we also need to know that God loves us and all people.  In this passage today, God opened up heaven so He could show His love for Jesus.  And God loves you just as much.  He has and will open heaven so that He may talk to you.

Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, told this story of his most memorable moment in his ministry.  He was young at the time and he felt this urge to go and visit the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.  As he was seated in his office the president asked, “What can I do for you.”  Bill responded, “I have come to talk to you about your relationship with Jesus Christ.”  Bill remembers that he really expected to be thrown out.  Instead the man broke into tears.  A little later he told Bill how he had accepted Christ when he was 8 years old.  Then he had become an ambitious businessman and didn’t have time for God.  It had been 30 years since he had set foot in a church.  He told Bill, “God sent you.  He sent you to help me.  I will be in church on Sunday.”  This was a God moment.  This was a sacred time.  I have heard many stories like this.  Many of us here today know what this is all about.  But there may be someone who doesn’t know Jesus and all the wonderful love and grace He has for you.  If you don’t, just take a minute and sincerely ask Jesus to forgive you sins and enter into your life as Lord and Savior.  You will never regret this.

As we leave today, I would like you to keep in mind just how much God loves you.  We have talked before about Him sending His Son and all the miracles that He does in your lives.  He also loves you so much that He talks to you.  Think about those moments, those God moments this week as you go about your business.  And then share them with someone.  And if you are the listener of one of these moments, don’t say anything; just let the person tell the story.  Let this love that God has for you empower you, both of you.  I praise the Lord that out of the billions of people in the world, He would talk to me and you.  Thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.