The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke
Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptised by John. And when he came up out of the water, the sky opened and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove.
And he heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him.”
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At the time that Jesus went to be baptised, he was about to make a major decision, and take a major change in the direction of his life. It would be a change, not only in the way he would go, but in who he was, and how he would do the task set out for him.
And it was a decision that would affect the lives of millions of people who would come after him.
That’s pretty heavy, isn’t it?
It’s a heavy responsibility to place on the shoulders of one young man.
Who would want to take it on?
Well, if you had the assurance of help from the God who created the universe, and who had given you the task in the first place, and if you knew that He would always be there for you to touch and draw strength from, then you might go along with it.
What’s really surprising about the affirmation that God gave Jesus when he came up out of the River Jordan, is that Jesus hadn’t done anything yet ,
He hadn’t done anything yet, and he needn’t have done anything yet. The support of his Father in Heaven was his, even without his asking.
As Peter is quoted in the Acts of the Apostles: God gave the Holy Spirit to Jesus of Nazareth. He was with Jesus as he went around doing good and healing everyone who was under the power of the devil.
He was with him.
And the prophet Isaiah has God saying, “Here is my servant. I have made him strong. He is my chosen one; I am pleased with him. I have given him my spirit and he will bring justice to the nations.”
And just in case there is any doubt where the strength to do God’s will comes from, Isaiah quotes God again, “I am the Lord God. I created the heavens like an open tent above. I am the source of life. I selected and sent you to bring light and my promise of hope to the nations.”
That’s who Jesus had standing by him – the Lord of the Universe.
Wouldn’t it be great if whenever you had something challenging to do, you could have someone strong, and competent by your side?
Someone who would build you up when you needed it; someone who would guide you in what to say, and how to make decisions, and be there to comfort you if things didn’t go quite right.
Who could fail with such help?
Who could fail to make the right decision – with such guidance?
Who could be faint-hearted knowing that God was standing there with them at every turn, as He was with Jesus?
Well, we are promised that. Through our baptism.
The trouble is that it happens usually when we are too young to know about it, or we have forgotten about it, or we have just never availed ourselves of it. Or something!
When Jesus was baptised, God’s voice was heard saying, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him.”
When we were baptised, God was pleased with us too. And we hadn’t even done anything yet to please him.
The voice that might have been heard at our baptism, might have said, “ Let’s hope that now that baby’s been baptised, it’ll be quiet.”
The fact is that when you and I were baptised, we were promised the same support from our Father in heaven that Jesus had been given.
We were promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us, to help us live life right.
But we forget, don’t we?
We forget that He has promised to be there to help with our problems.
He is there, even if we don’t know it, and He loves us even when we don’t care, and He recognizes us, even when we don’t really know who we are, ourselves.
He is right there, just waiting to be needed.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, in southern California, a few years back, the pastor of a large local church told this true story of something that happened to his own family.
His wife and her sister had been Christmas shopping and were speeding along the freeway on their way home. It was a cold blustery night, dark and rainy. His wife and her sister were busily chatting in the front seat of the car. The pastor’s three year-old daughter was in the backseat by herself.
Suddenly the two adults were aware of a strange, unnatural and horrifying set of sounds as they heard they heard the back door of the car open – the whistle of the wind, and a sickening muffled sound. Quickly they turned and saw that the child had fallen out of the car and was tumbling along the freeway.
Panic!
The mother slammed on the brakes and pulled the car to a wrenching stop, jumped out and ran full speed, back toward the child. When they arrived at the motionless body, they noticed something strange. All the traffic was stopped, lined up like in a parking lot just behind her body. The child had not been hit by a car. In fact, the car that would have hit her was stopped just a few feet short of her prone form.
Wonder number one.
A truck driver had jumped down from his cab and was bending over the girl when they arrived at the scene. He said, “She’s still alive. Let’s get her to a hospital quickly. There’s one nearby. He picked up the child and they all got into his truck and sped to the nearby hospital. The child was unconscious, but still breathing.
Wonder number two.
When they arrived at the hospital, they rushed into the emergency room and the doctors immediately began to check her vital signs. The room was hushed. Finally the doctor spoke. “Well, other than the fact that she is unconscious, and scraped, she appears to be in good shape. I don’t see any broken bones. Her blood pressure is good. Her heart is fine. So far so good.”
There was no apparent gross damage. She was only bruised and skinned from her vicious tumble along the freeway.
Wonder number three.
The mother bent over her child. Her eyes were full of tears and her heart was filled with gratitude for such a miracle. Suddenly, without warning, the child’s eyes opened. She looked at her mother and said, “ Mommy, you know, I wasn’t afraid.” Startled, the mother said, “Oh, what do you mean?”
”Well,” she said, “ While I was lying on the road waiting for you to get back to me – I wasn’t afraid, because I looked up, and right there I saw Jesus holding back the traffic with his arms outstretched.”
Wonder after wonder, and every wonder true.
God was actually, actively, working to save that child.
Now I don’t recommend that you dispense with seat belts, nor that you don’t bother to watch your children when they are in the car. But this story does give us food for thought doesn’t it?
At our baptism we are offered to God, and He takes us for His own. He promises to be with us through the ups and downs of life, and the choices that we have to make.
He promises that as His children we will be forgiven our sins, cared for, and guided along right pathways.
Not because we have done something to warrant that.
Just because!.
Having God as an integral part of our lives is something that we often overlook.
We live our lives, do our time, as it were, and maybe never give him a thought.
Sometimes, though, being independent, and strong willed, and having gone our own way, we find ourselves lost, and scared, and alone.
That’s when we notice that He isn’t there – or so we think.
Some years ago, I bought some Bible software on a disk. For a certain sum of money you got so many features. There were many more features on the disk, but they were not available until you made a long distance call to the publisher, agreed to pay a fee, and then were given a key to unlock the other features you wanted to use.
They had always been there. But you couldn’t access them without the key.
That’s kind of the same – but not quite, the same with God.
He is always there. That’s the same, but what isn’t the same is that all you need do is make that long distance call – it’s called prayer – and accept Him.
And there is no fee!.
.Acceptance is key.
He accepted us the day we were baptised in His Name.
We accept Him when we call upon His name. A