Mat 3 Truly a New Start in Life.
length: 80:44 - taught on Dec, 10 2023
Class Outline:
Sunday December 10, 2023
All things are new in Christ. People, universe. Something the world had never seen before.
"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen one in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the nations.
After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
"He will not cry out or raise His voice,
Nor make His voice heard in the street.
3 "A bruised reed He will not break
And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;
He will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 "He will not be disheartened or crushed
Until He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."
5 Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it,
6 "I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness,
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations,
7 To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
[end servant song here.]
Creation (vs. 5) becomes something new.
Something went wrong with the original.
"I am the Lord, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images.
9 "Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things;
Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
Sing His praise from the end of the earth!
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it.
You islands, and those who dwell on them.
He leads the prisoners out of the dungeon, a dungeon they themselves created out of their own sin, but He does not lead them back to Eden. He brings them to somewhere new, a new kingdom that has new laws and even a new song.
John has been sent ahead of Jesus Christ to be a herald in the wilderness proclaiming that the OT, literal, earthly kingdom of heaven was.
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3 For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,
"THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,
MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!'"
John was actually proclaiming the words of Isaiah:
He said, "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."
"Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God.
2 "Speak kindly to Jerusalem;
And call out to her, that her warfare has ended,
That her iniquity has been removed,
That she has received of the Lord's hand
Double for all her sins."
3 A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
4 "Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
6 A voice says, "Call out."
Then he answered, "What shall I call out?"
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.
Again we see the implied creation and then a making new. In this case it is a major overhaul of the landscape - mountains ploughed to level and valleys lifted up - made smooth.
Tthere is a slight difference between this prophetic passage and Isa 42 where Messiah makes all things new.
A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
This is something the listeners are to do - clear the way, make a smooth highway in the desert.
How did we ruin the original creation? Sin.
John’s baptism is for Israel’s readiness for her King.
A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
Then comes something only God can do.
"Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Clear the way and makes smooth is Israel readying her heart to accept the Messiah.
“And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom, …
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;”
What happened to the old dominion?
the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking;
[Do not for a second think that in your flesh you are any different from this man].
The church’s baptism:
The same as John’s?
The church’s water baptism is not identical (in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
John’s baptism is new, but not new enough.
The church’s baptism of the Spirit is an entirely new world.
The Servant of the Lord came into the world from humble places, but not from humble origins (Isa 42) (heaven, Son of God, Son of David). Something went wrong with the original creation. God set about making things new.
"Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Mountains - rulers, proud, no love of God.
Valley - poor in spirit, oppressed.
This is not a socialist thing. The oppressed and poor are us all.
We know how God accomplishes this “landscaping” of mankind (judgment and salvation).
The Son of Man will die on the cross for the sins of the world.
God makes a person brand new by baptizing him with Himself.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
"As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body
Baptism is a word that means to immerse, and came to mean identification. We have been immersed into Christ and identified with Him (in the family) forever. “If anyone is in Christ he is new…”
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Application: New way of life. The door to it has been opened by the Lord through His death and resurrection. He opened up new life to a people who would not receive the kingdom yet. He opened up new ways of living life, eternal life in a mortal body and a world waiting for judgment and end. Only God could have written such a script.
And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
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