86. Beginner Bible Course: Jesus is baptized by John

EPISODE 86.    The simple Bible overview of…THE BAPTISM OF JESUS BY JOHN

Jesus is now...

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00:00:04

Grown up and all four gospel writers described the first event in Jesus' public mission. Let me give you a little background. When the prophet Malakai put down his pen in around 400 BC, God stopped talking through his profits and for the next 400 years, he remained silent. During that time, the remnant of Jews back in Judea pretty much got picked on and kicked around first by the Medes and Persians. Then by the Greeks, then by the Romans, those powers were the cats and they were the mouse. Then out of nowhere, at the end of the period of the rule of Herod the great some very odd news keeps flowing out of the Jerusalem Bethlehem area reports of angelic being showing up with announcements, a stunning astrological event, a new star appearing and disappearing visitors from the far East astrologers coming to seek a new King of the Jews, Herod the great ordering the killing of babies around Bethlehem.

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00:01:05

The news spread throughout Israel and people were talking. And then John shows up the gospel writer, Luke pins down. When he shows up, he cites the Caesar, the governor in charge, the Tetra marks or rulers of each quarter of Israel. And he also mentions the ruling high priest. Thanks to Luke. We know the time period it's between 27 and 29 a D John, not the disciple, but Jesus boy, cousin is out in the wilderness near the dead sea. I mean the boonies of Israel, he's hanging out around the Jordan river. This guy starts to preach like a prophet and what's his sermon repent for the kingdom is here.

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00:01:50

I asked my students to define what is the word repent mean? They give me a good English definition and normally is feeling bad or sorry about something. But when John preached repent, it meant something quite different. Repent means to do a one 80 in what you think and do it's like those Hollywood chase scenes where the car being chased, slams on the brakes, leave skid marks on the highway and comes right back at you. The other direction, the listeners to John sermon are being told, change your minds, attitudes and actions do a one 80 and you're thinking attitude and actions and do it. Now. The kingdom is here at the end of his sermons.

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00:02:31

John wades into the Jordan river and invites people to come in. He says, if y'all are committed to repent, come in here and let me dunk you under the water. He baptized them. The biblical word baptize means to dip the group. The essence who also lived in the area and who believed they needed to stay separate from society would baptize each other to symbolize purification, kind of symbolic of washing stuff of them and coming up clean and Jewish people would baptize Gentile converts that likely symbolized dying to their old Gentile pagan dog lives and coming up out of the water as a different person.

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00:03:14

One of God's people now, but John down in the water is inviting everyone as seen Jew to come on in, come on in and be baptized to demonstrate you're prepared for the coming King. John sermon on the shore, do a one 80 about how your sins can be forgiven. Then come into the water and be dunked to show you're prepared for the one who's coming to do that. Now the news is leaking out all over Israel. There's a guy down at the Jordan preaching the kingdom God's kingdom is at hand. And of course the people are thinking a kingdom at hand means wait for it. The Kings at hand, John, the baptizer feeds into this frenzy.

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00:03:59

John sites, Isaiah's prophecy fill up the valleys, knocked down the Hills, straighten the path the King is coming. That's what they do in important dignitary like Cesar was visiting. They'd make a wide flat road for him to walk on. No ruts, no bumps, make it nice and straight. This is for our King John sermons and dunking. We're not the only thing about him that got people's attention. John's appearance also made headlines in Israel. He was not to drink any alcohol. That very likely meant he was a Nazarite. One of the other things Nazarites never did was cut their hair.

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00:04:39

John, the baptizer has hair. That's been growing for 30 years. Not only that it's his clothes. He wore clothes made of camel hair and to cap it off around his waist, he wore a mantle, a leather belt, long dreadlocks, a very unusual rustic coat and a leather belt around his waist. He was quite a sight. It didn't take long for people to put two and two together. Someone preaching and prophesying out in the wilderness with long hair and a leather belt. Hmm. This sounds like that Elijah guy in the old Testament, the preaching, the dunking and this wild guy in the wilderness drew quite the crowd.

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00:05:25

And as those crowds and excitement built some of the religious elite among the Sadducees and some of the hoity-toity rule, keeping Pharisees wander on down to the Judean wilderness from Jerusalem to check this out for themselves. Remember the Sadducees didn't believe in profits, only the law of Moses and those Pharisees with all their rules. How are they going to respond to a prophet that says, do a one 80 change your thoughts, attitudes, and actions away from trying to save your own sins by good behavior. Those Sadducees and Pharisees probably wish they would've stayed home. John, the baptizer turns on them with a vengeance. Hey, you brood of Vipers.

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00:06:06

What are you doing here? You better repent. Don't think you're going to ride into heaven on Abraham's coat tails. The King is coming and unless you do a one 80 boy, is that not going to work out well for you? That must've surprise the average Joe in the crowd because they start asking John, what shall we do to prepare ourselves for the coming King? John says to them, if you have two coats, share one, do the same with your food to the tax collectors. He said, stop gouging people to the soldiers in the crowd. He said, stop abusing your power John's message of preparation. Same as Mike as message. What is the Lord?

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00:06:46

The coming King require of you. Act justly, love mercy. Walk humbly before your guide. Unlike these Sadducees and Pharisees, he might've added as they listened to this passionate preacher and baptizer people start wondering out loud. Could he be the actual stopper? The Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, John corrects that misunderstanding immediately. People. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not even worthy to on tie his sandals. I baptize you down in this river, dunking you as a testimony. You're prepared for the coming King. When that King comes, he'll dunk you in fire like fire.

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00:07:27

He'll purify you from your sins. Day after day, the crowds continue to flock to the Jordan and John continues to preach and baptize. Then it happened one day, his boy, cousin, Jesus walks up to John at the Jordan. I can see Jesus, smile and wink. I'm ready for the coming King cousin. John dunk me now John knew Jesus was more than just any old common garden variety cousin. If you've listened to episodes, 83 and 84 on the birth of John and Jesus, you know that. So it shouldn't surprise us. John said, I can't do that cousin. You should be baptizing me again.

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00:08:09

I see Jesus smile. Say John, trust me. This is the right thing to do. So John does picture that for a moment. The Jordan river, with a backdrop of the wilderness, a crowd on the shore and these two beloved boy cousins in the water, the gospel writers then tell us, as Jesus was lifted out of the water by John trip and wet, he began to pray, maybe opened his eyes and lifted his hands toward the sky. At that moment, Jesus saw the heavens open and the Holy spirit of God to send it on Jesus in something like the form of a dove and remained on him.

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00:08:49

And then this after 400 years of silence, God speaks from over Jesus. And here's what he says. You are my beloved son in whom I am. Well-pleased. That's remarkable. Even in the old Testament before the period of silence after Malakai, God speaking out loud from heaven is very rare. Occasionally in a small whisper, mostly by the words of his profits. But now here at the baptism of Jesus, God, the father speaks to his son. You are my beloved son and you please me. Well, file that away was Jesus.

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00:09:31

The son of God, exhibit one, the voice of God, the father after Jesus left, John kept baptizing people later, maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks likely sent by the Sadducees in charge of the temple. A group of priests came to him with a question who are you? If this was multiple choice, they would have given him four possibilities. A the Messiah be Elijah, who is prophesied to come see a brand new prophet or D of false prophet. John repeats what he had said earlier. I'm just the voice of a guy crying in the wilderness.

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00:10:11

Get ready for the King. The gospel writer, John tells us the next day, Jesus pays his cousin a second visit at the Jordan as Jesus arrives. John turns to that group of priests and says, Hey, there he is answer a, the Messiah, the one you're talking about. And then John States this behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that's quite a statement to those listening priests. The meaning of that statement was unmistakable each morning and each evening in the temple, those same priests sacrificed the lamb for the sin of Israel. They knew about the prophecies of Isaiah about the suffering servant.

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00:10:55

Who'd be like a lamb led to slaughter to bear the iniquities of many. And they probably knew John was saying, your daily job at the temple is soon going to get a whole lot easier. And then we get a little insight from John on how he knew this about his cousin. Jesus, John tells those priests that God had told him there would be a sign of who that lamb of God was. It would be one. John saw the spirit of God descend and remain on. John had witnessed that days or weeks earlier at the baptism of Jesus. John now knows Jesus is the one, the son of God, the suffering servant, the lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world.

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00:11:38

The savior was Jesus. The savior, John, the preacher, the baptizer says yes, exhibit two is the kingdom of heaven. Really at hand John claims that is, is Jesus that promised King. John says he is, if so Jesus, the King has to deal with another kingdom. The kingdom of this world run by Caesar and Herod and Satan does King. Jesus have what it takes to take on those Kings. And in particular, the King of this world will discover the answer to that in our next wordpicture.