Mark 1:12-13
Luke 4:1-13
When Jesus began His public ministry, He was around 30 years old. Jesus began His ministry by going to see John the Baptist in order to be baptized.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching, He cried out, "Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." Initially, John didn't want to baptize Jesus, but Jesus insisted.
As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended on Jesus and the voice of the Father came from Heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
If you ever run across someone who denies the doctrine of the Trinity, this scene at Jesus' baptism is one of the best places in Scripture that clearly sets out trinitarian doctrine. In Jesus' baptism, we clearly see the expression of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A lot of people wonder why Jesus went to be baptized in the first place. If Jesus didn't have original or actual sin, what purpose did baptism serve in His case?
I believe that Jesus was baptized in order to demonstrate that baptism is the first step of obedience in the life of the believer. In other words, I think Jesus was teaching by example.
When a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, the public act of baptism identifies the one baptized as a follower of Christ. It shows publicly that someone has renounced sin and turned their life over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Since Jesus instructed His followers to be baptized, baptism is the first step of obedience in the new Christians walk with the Lord.
In Jesus' case, His baptism showed publicly that He was the anointed one sent from God. It was the initiation of His public ministry blessed by the word of the Father and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
After Jesus' baptism, Mark's Gospel tell us that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert where he was with the wild animals. He fasted 40 days and 40 nights and was tempted by Satan.
I've often wondered what the significance of the statement, "He was with the wild animals" is. Some commentators take it to mean that Jesus was in a hostile environment. However, I think there's something deeper going on here.
I believe that when Jesus was with the wild animals, He was demonstrating that His reign would bring about the peace on earth described by the prophets which tells us that the Messiah's reign would bring peace between members of the animal kingdom and peace between man and animals. Jesus was demonstrating in the wilderness the peace that the coming of His Kingdom would bring to all of the created order.
The apostle Paul states in Romans that all of creation is groaning in travail as it awaits the day of redemption. Some day, and I hope it is soon, Jesus will return and restore all things to the original created order when man and beast dwelled together in harmony with one another.
At the end of Jesus' 40 days and nights of fasting, Satan came to Jesus in order to tempt Him. This brings up another theological debate. Was it possible for Jesus to sin? If it wasn't, why was He tempted?
I do not believe that it was possible for Jesus to sin. The Bible says that He was tempted in every way like we are, yet He didn't sin. I believe that Jesus was tempted in order that as our High Priest He might be able to identify with us in our temptations. Hebrews 4:14-16 states, "Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through the highest heaven, we must hold firm to our profession of faith. For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin. Let us, then, have no fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help."
Next week, we will look in depth at the ways Satan tempted Jesus, and how Jesus answered these temptations.
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