11“I baptize withd water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.e 12He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”
The Baptism of Jesus
13Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”
15But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.f” So John agreed to baptize him.
16After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were openedg and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
(Matthew 3:11-17)
John the Baptist was called by God to point people towards the Messiah. We have a similar calling as Christians today, pointing people to Jesus.
Why would Jesus, the sinless one, need to get baptised? Jesus wants to bring glory to God. As Christians, our chief purpose is to bring glory to God and enjoy Him forever.
This is not just a New Testament thing. The concept of “passing through water” to glorify God is in the Old Testament too. In Exodus, God’s people had to travel through water. When the Israelites were leaving their time of slavery in Egypt, they had to pass through water through the Red Sea. Years later, Moses died and Joshua took leadership of the Israelites. They had to pass through the river Jordan to get into the Promised Land. As long as we are willing to leave the old behind and fix our eyes on who God is, He will lead us into new chapters in our lives. Fast-forward several hundred years and we find ourselves with John the Baptist, baptising people at the start of the New Testament.
As a Christian, each day we die to our old selves. We are being raised into the glory that Jesus has for us, through what He has already done before us.
When Jesus got baptised, as He was raised from the waters, the Spirit descended like a dove - here we see the Trinity. There are only specific times when all 3 Persons are present at the same time!
So why should we get baptised? The simple answer is because we’re told to.
In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus says we should go, make disciples, and baptise people. We should also follow Jesus’ example - He did it, so we should too. We need to pass through the water and show that we have been buried with Christ in baptism and raised to newness of life. Our faith saves us, but baptism is a symbol to the outside world of the inward transformation, the work of the Spirit of God in our lives.