The King Identifies With You

A quiet riverbank turns into a moment that changes everything. We open Matthew 3 and watch Jesus step into John’s baptism—not to repent, but to fulfill all righteousness and identify with sinners. The choice is deliberate and full of love: the sinless King stands where the guilty stand, beginning a journey that leads from the Jordan to Calvary and the empty tomb.

From there, heaven refuses to stay closed. The skies open, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father’s voice declares, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Together we explore why this is more than a symbolic scene: it is the public anointing of the Messiah, the unveiling of the Trinity in perfect unity, and the foundation for understanding salvation as the work of Father, Son, and Spirit. We talk about what it means to trust the One heaven has approved and how the Spirit’s empowerment shapes every step Jesus takes.

Most of all, we draw out the personal implications. If Jesus entered the water for us, we can stop trying to earn what grace freely gives. The Father’s delight comes before performance, offering a secure identity that steadies us through doubt, temptation, and trial. We share practical ways to live from acceptance, not for it—walking by the Spirit’s power, resting in the Father’s love, and following the Son who stood in our place. If you’ve ever felt unworthy, distant, or exhausted by striving, this conversation invites you to stand on solid ground.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene In Matthew 3
• 2:28 Why Would Jesus Be Baptized
• 6:15 Identification Not Repentance
• 10:40 Walking Sixty Miles On Purpose
• 15:20 John Tries To Stop Jesus
• 19:50 Fulfilling All Righteousness Explained
• 24:30 From River To Cross: The Pattern

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Foundations of Truth with Pastor Timothy Mann from Providence Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. Psalm 119-105 reminds us: your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Let's join Pastor Tim now as he lets God's word illuminate our lives and guide us into his truth today. This message is from the King and His Kingdom series.

SPEAKER_01: 0:24

The King and His Kingdom. We're in chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. I'm going to be reading this morning from verse 13 down to verse 17. Follow along with me as I read God's Word. Picking up in verse 13, I am reading from the New King James Version of the Bible. The Bible says, 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. And 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. We'll end there, it finishes chapter three, and this is God's word. I don't know about you, but it's been my experience that there are moments in life that just catch you off guard. I mean that kind of stop you in your tracks because something about those moments feels different. You know what I'm talking about? I'm almost sacred, right? You don't always know why, but you sense its weight of the moment. Something is happening that changes everything from this moment forward. Well, Matthew 3 really presents a moment like that, but infinitely greater even than anything we've experienced. For the first two chapters of Matthew's gospel, the focus has been on Jesus' identity. Who is this king? Talking about the king and his kingdom. Who is this king? He is the son of David, he is the son of Abraham, Emmanuel, God with us, and wise men worship him. Herod fears him. Scripture points to him. Heaven protects him. And then when we reach chapter 3, the emphasis shifts from who Jesus is to what Jesus came to accomplish. John the Baptist has been preparing the way. He's standing in the wilderness and he is calling people to repentance. And crowds are gathering, and sinners are confessing, and people are stepping into the waters of the Jordan River to be baptized by this prophet named John, acknowledging their need for cleansing and forgiveness and for change in their lives. And then verse 13 that we just read arrives. Almost quietly. Matthew simply reports, verse 13, then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. I think this is a moment that should make you stop and stare. And just look at it. The sinless king enters a sinner's baptism. The righteous one stands where the guilty stand. The one who does not need the sign of cleansing voluntarily goes into the waters meant for those who do. I think if you had been standing along the riverbank that day, you might have whispered to somebody else standing beside you, Why is he here? Why would he step into a ritual that symbolizes repentance? John wondered the same thing. In fact, he tried to stop Jesus. He said, I need to be baptized by you. I mean, John knew his own sin, his own need. And he knew that Jesus did not need to repent of anything. And yet Jesus here insists, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. That moment right here really reveals something stunning, I think, about the heart of Jesus. And that's that he does not stand apart from sinners, he stands with them. He doesn't avoid the mess, he enters it. He identifies with us. Not because he affirms our sin, no, he doesn't do that. Not because he validates our sin, and certainly not because he shares our sin, but he identifies with us because he came to carry the weight and the burden of our sin. The king has arrived. And he has identified with us. And so how do we respond? How do we respond? Well, there's some things here in this, there's some truths, I think, some action steps, if you want to call it that, some responses that would be appropriate here in this passage. First of all, I think we should, and this is we see it in verses 13 through 15, we actually should follow the Savior, this king, who has stepped into our place. Follow the Savior who stepped into our place. Matthew writes, then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. Now, those words sound pretty simple. They're really just straightforward, but they're absolutely loaded with purpose. You need to think about the region of Galilee. If you have an old school Bible, paper Bible like I do, uh right here, you probably have that wonderful resource in the back called the maps. You can look at, you can look at the Holy Land in Jesus' day, and you can see where Galilee is. You can see where the Jordan would have been. And so what you need to know when it says here that Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him, that means that Jesus walks almost 60 miles from Nazareth to the Jordan River. Has anybody in here lately on purpose walked six miles at one time? Much less six. Now, he didn't probably walk it all at once. Maybe he did. But that's a long ways. 60 miles. And Matthew tells us his purpose clearly. Jesus walked these 60 miles from Nazareth and Galilee all the way to the Jordan, where John was. And Matthew says he came, quote, to be baptized by him. That was his purpose. And so before we even grasp the meaning, I think we should really kind of feel the surprise, the shock. Because John's baptism was more than just a routine, ceremonial, religious act. In fact, John was calling people to repent, confessing their sins and stepping into the water, acknowledging their guilt and their desperate need for mercy. And so the Jordan River during this time period with John's ministry had become a symbol of honesty and humility and confession and desperation and hope. Jesus had no sin to confess. He had no guilt to acknowledge. He had nothing to repent for. There was no defilement in his heart. And so why should he step into a river that was all about the sins of others? And John, he feels that tension immediately himself. And Matthew writes, John tried to prevent him. What's interesting in the Greek language, we don't see it straightforward in the English. In the Greek language, the word Matthew uses really shows repeated action. John didn't just try to prevent him once. He had an ongoing conversation with him, at least for a little bit. More than one time, he asked him, Don't do this. John kept trying to stop him. He said it more than once. I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? In other words, the way I would have said it is, Lord, this is backwards. You shouldn't be here. I should not be doing this. Now, John, he had called the religious leaders a brood of vipers, and he didn't blush. He didn't blink. He did it without hesitation. He called those religious leaders a brood of vipers, and here he cannot bring himself to baptize Jesus. He doesn't want to do it. Earlier, in other details of this account, recorded in the Apostle John's Gospel, he says, John the Baptist says, He who comes after me is preferred before me because he was before me. John knew who he was in the presence of. He knew that he was in the presence of one infinitely greater than himself. And Jesus responds with calm authority, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. That's the heart of the passage. That's the key to this whole thing. Why did Jesus get baptized? Well, the answer is not repentance, it is righteousness. Jesus enters the water to fulfill God's plan of redemption, God's righteous plan of redemption. He stands where sinners stand to begin the work of saving them. His baptism isn't an example of repentance, it's an act of identification. Consider it this way. If repentance is the acknowledgement that we are unclean, that I have sin that I need to turn away from, right? If repentance is that, I'm acknowledging I have sin that I have to turn away from. And then if baptism is the symbolic act of cleansing that uncleanness, having believed, then Jesus enters the water, not because he's unclean, but because we are. He identifies with sinners in our need so that he can meet our need through his perfect righteousness, through his perfect obedience. And this is the pattern of his entire ministry. He identifies with us so that he may save us. At the cross where Jesus died, and we just observed the table. At the cross where Jesus died, he is once again standing where sinners stand. Remember, there were two convicted criminals on either side of him. It's meant for sinners who are criminals, those who deserve the death penalty. That's all of us, by the way. And Jesus stands where sinners stands at the cross. And he, at the cross, he will not confess our sins, he will carry them. He will not join us in our guilt. Instead, he will take guilt upon himself. And so this baptism that we're reading about in Matthew chapter 3 this morning is the first step toward Calvary's hill. It's the opening act, if you will, of the mission that will end at the cross and the empty tomb. Now, in the Old Testament, a priest had to be ceremonially washed before starting his ministry. We saw that in the book of Exodus. Jesus is the great high priest. And his baptism does indeed signify the beginning of his public ministry, but this is not about that in and of itself. This is much more than a ritual. This is marking the start of his journey into our brokenness so that he can bring us into his righteousness. And so when Jesus says it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness, he means that he has come to complete every part of the salvation work that God requires. His baptism shows that he has come to live the life that we failed to live, to die the death that we deserve, and to rise again from the dead to give us the life that we could never earn. This passage here really challenges our pride. A lot of people I've known over the years, and maybe you were this way at one point, maybe you still are this way this morning, but many people want to improve themselves before coming to God. Right? I mean, their aim is I'm gonna clean up my act, I'm gonna fix my habits, I'm gonna break my addiction, I'm gonna, then after that, after I'm all cleaned up, then I'll approach God. Jesus' baptism actually shows us the opposite. He came to stand in the water because you could never cleanse yourself enough. He came to identify with sinners because sinners cannot save themselves. So if this is your situation, let me just say it plainly, stop trying to earn God's love. Stop trying to earn God's love. He stepped into the river, into the water, before you ever moved toward him. And so let his humility that you see here draw your heart. You're not beyond his reach. I promise you that. You're not beyond his reach, you are not too stained for his grace. If he stepped into a river that was all about the sins of others, if he did that, then he can step into your pain, he can step into your confusion, the confusion of your life, and he can change you. Some people are hesitant to follow Jesus because they feel unworthy. John felt unworthy as well. John the Baptist did. But Jesus said, Permit it to be so now. In other words, John, this is why I came. This is what I do. I stand in the place of those who know they're unworthy. I mean, let that sink in. When you feel like you have failed too many times, remember Jesus standing in the river. When shame whispers that God has given up on you, just remember how Jesus walked 60 miles to identify with sinners. The king identifies with you. And so the question is: will you follow the one who stepped into your place? Will you respond that way? And secondly, I think the other response we see here is we need to trust the one whom the father has approved. Trust the one whom the father has approved. Verse 16, we see it. After Jesus enters the water in obedience to the Father's plan, Matthew describes something awe-inspiring here happening. Verse 16 says, When he had been baptized, he came up immediately out of 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. Now, heaven itself here is responding to the Son's obedience. And I in no way think that what happens here is subtle. And it's certainly not just symbolic. It is a public revelation. The veil between heaven and earth is lifted in this moment so that humanity can see who Jesus truly is. And there's three, I don't know if you noticed it, but there's three supernatural signs that appear here in one verse. The first one is the heavens open. The heavens open, the Bible says. Throughout Scripture, you can do a good study of this on your own. Throughout Scripture, whenever God opens the heavens, it really signifies revelation and it signifies some divine action on God's part. Every time the heavens open in the Bible, that's what goes down. We just don't have time to go through them all this morning. When that happens, God is speaking, God is revealing, God is affirming his plan. And so here, when when the heavens open, God is inviting you and me to see something beyond your ordinary sight. And here at Jesus' baptism, the heavens open to identify the King's identity and the king's mission. God wants the world to see Jesus clearly. And that's still God's desire today. He is revealing him. And he is calling you not just to believe in Jesus, but to trust him. You do know there's a difference, right? There's a difference. He's calling you to follow him. He's calling you to stake your life on him. So the heavens open. That's the first supernatural sign. Look at the second one in this verse. The Spirit descends. The Holy Spirit descends like a dove. This dove symbolizes peace and purity and gentle strength. The dove always symbolizes that. And this moment, it represents a new creation. You go back to the flood account. In Genesis, in fact, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters at creation, bringing order out of chaos. And here this the Spirit descends upon Jesus at the start of his own new creation ministry. Now you need to know this is not where Jesus becomes the Son of God. He's always been the eternal son. But this is the moment that the Father publicly anoints him for his saving mission. The Spirit comes upon him to empower his work as a man. Because remember, he's just as much man as if he had never been God. While he's just as much God as if he had never been man. But the spirit comes upon him to empower his work as a man. And so every miracle that Jesus performs, every sermon he preaches, every step he takes toward the cross, and ultimately the empty tomb, they're all carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so the descent here of the Spirit is heaven's declaration that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the King. He is the Spirit-anointed Savior who will heal the sick, who will raise the dead, who will proclaim the gospel, and ultimately will conquer sin and death. This is crucial for your faith. It's crucial for my faith. Because Jesus doesn't save you as a some kind of distant authority. He saves you as a spirit-empowered redeemer who walked the same path you walk, yet without sin. And so when you actually trust Jesus, you're trusting in the one heaven has empowered to save. Did you notice that? Reveals the Trinity in perfect unity. The Son stands in the water, the Spirit descends, and next the Father will speak. That's pretty awesome, isn't it? All three persons are present, all three persons are active, all three persons are unified. Salvation is a Trinitarian work. All of the Godhead. The Father plans it, the Son accomplishes it, and the Spirit applies it. I want you to understand this morning, you do not trust in some vague spiritual force. When I ever hear somebody says, Well, the universe has done this, I want to say that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. The universe. For crying out loud. The universe is a created entity by the creator. This isn't Star Wars. It's not the force be with you. This is the Almighty God of heaven and earth, the Godhead who reveals himself in Father, Son, and Spirit. You don't trust in a vague spiritual force. You trust in the God who reveals himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. You trust in the Son who obeys, the Spirit who empowers, and the Father who delights. So what happens here in Matthew chapter 3 is not human approval. This is heaven itself declaring that Jesus is the one. No other voice carries this authority. And this morning, because heaven affirms Jesus, you can trust him fully. You can trust him fully. So when you doubt your salvation, trust the one empowered by the Spirit to safeguard your salvation. When you feel weak, and you will. When you feel weak, trust the one who experienced every moment of his earthly life through the Spirit's strength. When you're tempted to follow your feelings or your flesh or the culture, remember that heaven has already spoken about who Jesus is. And when life feels confusing, trust the one at the heart of God's plan. Many people, many people listen to the voices of culture, to the voices of friends' opinions, or even to the doubt inside their own hearts. But the Christian, listen, the Christian lives by the voice of heaven. You live by the voice of heaven. And if heaven has revealed who Jesus is, then you don't need to keep searching for truth. You don't have to base your life on speculation. You don't have to base your life on feelings or any kind of cultural trends. No, you can stand firm on the identity of Christ and you can trust him. That's how you respond to this king who identifies with us. You follow him, you trust him. But we can also do this. Because the king identifies with us, we can also, verse 17, we can live by the power of the Spirit and the love of the Father. We can live by the power of the Spirit and the love of the Father. Verse 17 here brings us to one of the most beautiful moments in all of Scripture. Verse 17, Matthew writes and says, And suddenly a voice from heaven came saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So heaven opens, the Spirit descends, and now the Father speaks. What he says reveals the heart of God in a way that nothing else does. By the way, this is the first time in the New Testament that we hear God's audible voice. And what's interesting is he does not speak judgment or warnings, although he had every right to. He doesn't do that. Instead, he expresses love and identity and And delight. This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. His focus is not on all the sinners around Jesus. His focus is on Jesus. His focus is on his son. And these words are not whispered. They're spoken so the world will know who Jesus is and how the father feels about him. What happens here? Well, the father declares his love. The very first title that the Father gives Jesus is what? He says, He's my beloved son. My beloved son. The Father here wants the world to recognize the relationship that he shares with his son. That's one of perfect love. This is infinite, eternal, overflowing love. So before Jesus ever performs a miracle, before he ever preaches his first sermon, before he ever calls a single disciple, the Father publicly declares his love. And the Son is loved, not because of his actions, but because of his connection with the Father. His identity doesn't come from his achievements, it stems from love and the relationship he has with the Father. In a world today where identity is fragile and confused, and approval must be earned through performance, I think this is a radical truth that is needed. Jesus begins his ministry not by trying to gain the Father's love, but by resting in the love he already has. This is the foundation, this is a foundational reality of all Christian life. When you have union with Christ through saving faith in him, what the Father says about Jesus, he now says about you. He now says about you. When you repent and you trust in Christ, the Father does not see you, praise God, through the lens of your failures, through the lens of your weaknesses. He doesn't see you through the lens of your past sins. No, he sees you through the perfect righteousness of his son. Look, God doesn't just put up with you, you are deeply loved. He also declares his pleasure. The following phrase here is equally beautiful. The Father says, In whom I am well pleased. The word pleased means delighted. It means joyful. It means fully satisfied. So God the Father takes joy in his son. He delights in him. He's pleased with everything about him. And this joy isn't based on achievement. Jesus hasn't even yet started his public ministry. He hasn't preached the Sermon on the Mount, which we'll get to. He hasn't healed the sick. He hasn't fed the 5,000. He hasn't walked on the water. He hasn't cast out demons. He hasn't gone to the cross. And still, the Father is entirely pleased with him. I think this teaches us something important. And it's this that God's love and pleasure are not something we earn. They're freely given. They are based on, his love and pleasure are based on relationship, not performance. Based on relationship, not performance. They're part of the eternal fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so when you belong to Christ, the Father's pleasure is also upon you. Not because you've done enough. Not because you're flawless, because you're sure not. Not because you're flawless. But because you're in his son. You live the Christian life. You live your Christian life not by working for acceptance, but from acceptance. You obey God not to earn his love, but because you already have it. And I want you to, you gotta rewire your thinking. This truth should shape the way you live. That means you can confidently live. You can live confidently because the Father loves you. You can face trials confidently because your identity is secure. You can resist temptation because the Spirit who empowered Jesus now empowers you. You can repent quickly because the Father isn't waiting to condemn, he's waiting to restore. And you can serve. You can serve God confidently, with joy, because you're not trying to earn God's approval, but you are living from it. The baptism of Jesus teaches us how to live the Christian life. Jesus lived every moment with the strength of the Spirit and with the confidence of the Father's love. And if you belong to Christ this morning, if you really do belong to Christ, the same Spirit lives in you and the same love rests on you. And so if this is your problem, if this is your hang up, stop living your life trying to prove yourself. Don't live your life trying to prove yourself. Oh, I know what the world says. The world says your identity comes from success, your identity comes from wealth, your identity comes from achievement or beauty or popularity or performance or your identity comes from whatever you feel, whatever you think it is. No. The Father says your identity, if you're safe, your identity is in Christ. If you have repented and genuinely believed on Jesus. The world says you must earn approval. The father says you already have it. The world says you have to secure your future. The father says your life is hidden with Christ and God. So live by the power of the Spirit. Rest in the love of the Father. Walk in the footsteps of the Son who stood in the river for you.

SPEAKER_00: 27:55

Thanks for listening to Foundations of Truth with Pastor Timothy Mann from Providence Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Until next time, keep building your life on God's eternal truth. The Bible.