The Kingship of Christ and his Baptism

[0:00] Morning everyone. Lovely to be here with you in, can you see that far? 2020. 2020. Man, I thought it would be the future.

[0:13] So we're in 2020 and typically you're going to get the sermon of, hey, let's do our New Year's resolutions. I'm going to try and stay away from that. But, I mean, if you're anything like me, New Year's resolutions last all of until the first Sunday, which we've already reached.

[0:29] But what about this? Why don't we look back over our year and ask this question, what goals did you have over the last year?

[0:39] You remember 2019, at the start of 2019? Did you achieve them? What about this? How much has your life changed over the past year?

[0:50] Now that could be you changing your life. How much have you changed yourself? Or maybe your circumstances have changed. Maybe for the better, maybe for the most. Maybe it went up and down and you've ended sort of in the same place.

[1:03] What about South Africa? How has South Africa changed? Is it better? Is it worse? Did we have load shedding last night? Okay, just a question.

[1:15] What about your Christian walk? How did your Christian walk change over 2019? Are you better prepared to serve Jesus at the beginning of 2020?

[1:25] Are you better equipped to serve him? I should think so, being at a place like St. Mark's with a teacher like Nick. But don't take these things for granted. How urgent is change in your life?

[1:37] Thought about that? Just making a goal of change in your life. You know, we've got a list of priorities. And typically, to change is not one of the high things, right? It's not up there with the things that we want to do.

[1:49] Change is always difficult. Well, what I want to do is continue our series in Luke. I thought I'd just continue along as we've been doing. But I want to look at something quite specific.

[2:02] We're still looking at Jesus and what he's come to do. And as we've seen, one of the main things to get about him is that he is a king. That he was a fulfillment of ancient prophecies and promises made to Abraham, but also to David.

[2:17] And so over the next few weeks, we'll do a little mini-series continuing in Luke, following this thread or storyline of the kingship of Jesus. Okay, are you with me?

[2:28] Now, I know we've dealt with it a lot in the run-up to Christmas, which is obviously right and proper. But it's such a key doctrinal element. It's the key thing to get about Jesus.

[2:40] One of the key things to get about him is that he is a king. And it's funny how it's so important to get that, and yet it's not really taught a lot, if I'm honest.

[2:51] In my Christian time, in my time in church over the last 20, 30, 40, 30 years, 30 odd years, we all know that if I look back at what I've been taught, yes, we know that Jesus is king.

[3:08] But I don't think it gets taught a lot. Does that make sense? Like, we know it, but the implications and what it means and who he is doesn't actually get taught a lot. And so it's such a key thing. I don't want us to let go of that.

[3:19] We've done a lot of it over Christmastime, but I want to continue that so that you can see when you read the Gospels, it's not just, oh, the birth narratives or this little bit. It's Christmastime. It actually colors the whole of Jesus' existence, who he is and what he's come to do.

[3:33] Are you guys with me on that? So the kingship of Jesus in Luke. Just to remind us that this kingship idea was all the way with us in those first few stories that we did before Christmastime.

[3:47] So just open your Bibles to Luke chapter 1. Okay, Luke chapter 1 and verse 30. I'm not going to explain too much. I'm just going to highlight a few of the verses before we get to our bit of Jesus' baptism.

[4:02] Okay, and I'm going to look at how his kingship and his baptism work together. I hope you can see that in a short while. So Luke chapter 1 and verse 30, that's when Gabriel comes to Mary and he says to her, Mary was afraid and the angel said to her, don't be afraid, Mary.

[4:20] You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus. You know that Jesus means God saves. Yeshua. The Old Testament, Joshua.

[4:31] If you were a Jew or Hebrew Israelite, you would say Yeshua. Jesus would be Yeshua. We say Joshua. It means God saves.

[4:44] Yahweh saves. Nevertheless, you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

[5:00] His kingdom will have no end. Mary doesn't know how this can happen as she's a virgin and then Gabriel reassures her that it will be through the power of the Holy Spirit. So just a few verses down, verse 35.

[5:11] The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, which means therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

[5:22] You've got Gabriel telling her that she's going to have a son, but he's going to be son of the Most High, also son of God, and also that he's going to inherit the throne of his father David. So clearly, the first announcement to Mary and therefore to the world is that Jesus is going to be a king.

[5:39] We all know that. We've done that over the last few weeks. This, of course, sets the tone for everything that follows in Jesus' life. The reason he was born, okay, the reason he was born is to be king of Israel in the line of David to inherit his throne and establish his kingdom forever.

[5:55] Are you with me on that? We've all done that over the last few weeks. You'll remember in Zechariah, the Benedictus, chapter 1, verse 68, the same idea gets carried forward.

[6:08] So, when Zechariah is John the Baptist's father and his son is born and then he gives the praise to God and he says this, chapter 1, verse 68, Again, the child that is coming is spoken of in Davidic, kingly terms.

[6:46] Everything that the child is going to do, not John the Baptist, but Jesus, will be done because he's born in the line of David and will inherit and establish his throne and rule as king over God's kingdom. We've covered all this, but it's important to see that, yes, these are the markers that are set out for the book of Luke right at the start.

[7:02] Meaning, for the rest of Luke, we should expect this idea of kingship and Jesus as a king to kind of peek through, but not just to peek through as if, oh, he's a king.

[7:14] It colors the whole of the book of Luke, the whole of the gospel. Are you with me? So, we should expect the kingship theme to come out again and again and again. Remember when the angel said to the shepherds in chapter 2, verse 11, the angel says, Don't be afraid, I'll bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

[7:38] Today, in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. Again, the angels make another point to the shepherds. You remember Simeon in chapter 2, verse 26, he was kept alive by the Holy Spirit.

[7:58] It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So, all these references, direct references, tell us that Luke, and therefore God, wants us to see Jesus as the Christ, the king of God's kingdom, as a king, an heir of David, son of David.

[8:16] And, in fact, the son of God. And everything that Jesus will accomplish will be precisely because he's the king, the son of David, and also the son of God. Now, just a word on that word Christ again.

[8:30] It's not Jesus' surname. It's so easy for us to know, to think of it as his surname. But it's not. It's a title. The English word Christ is really a transliteration of the Greek word Christos, which in turn is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which in turn means the anointed one.

[8:50] Okay, now we're going to cover, I've told you about how that works in the Old Testament. And today we're going to see, I'm going to show you from the Old Testament how they actually make kings. And I'm going to do that just after we've read the baptism account. Now, the story of Jesus' baptism continues this theme of kingship.

[9:05] And, in fact, it's a vital episode in the life of Jesus that establishes his kingly bona fides, if you will. It actually shows up until this point, up until Jesus' baptism, there's very few people that are acknowledging him as king.

[9:17] His mom, his dad, Zechariah, John the Baptist, a few shepherds. With Jesus' baptism, it's kind of a public announcement that Jesus is the king.

[9:28] And I'd like us to see how that works. Jesus' baptism is something of a quandary, an anomaly, if you will, for many commentators and for many Christians.

[9:40] John baptized people for the forgiveness of sins and to prepare them to receive the kingdom of God. Now, did Jesus have to be baptized for the same reasons? Did he have to have his sins forgiven? Well, of course, the answer is no.

[9:50] No, he's the spotless lamb of God, after all. John himself says he's not worthy to untie the sandals. By the way, that's slave language. He's not just being deferring.

[10:02] He's actually saying, I'm not good enough to be Jesus' sandal slave. It was a term that they used, a sandal slave, someone who untied their shoes. So Jesus didn't have to get baptized in order to have his sins forgiven.

[10:15] Maybe he was baptized to identify with his people. Or maybe to prepare him for his sacrifice on the cross. At least these are more plausible explanations. And there is, of course, an element of truth to him being identified with the sinners that he's going to save.

[10:30] And that gets explained to the rest of the New Testament. Probably the best place on that is Hebrews. But here in the gospel, something else is going on. Jesus' baptism was his anointing ceremony as the king of God's kingdom.

[10:46] The number of indicators that this ceremony has nothing to do with washing away sin or identification with sinners. But everything to do with telling us that Jesus is a king.

[10:56] And I'd like to make that point and I hope you come with me on that little journey. Notice that before Jesus' baptism, you've got John the Baptist arriving on the scene.

[11:08] And he also begins his public ministry. Let's just start at chapter 3, verse 1. Because that gives us the background of what happens at Jesus' baptism in verse 21.

[11:19] So just notice chapter 3, verse 1. By the way, that starting bit there helps us identify as to when.

[11:52] Quite accurately when John the Baptist was preaching. So in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar is pretty much the year 29 or 30 AD. Because we know from just normal classical history that Tiberius Caesar came into power 15 years BC.

[12:14] No, no, sorry. Came to power 15 AD. And he was in his 15th year. So it was 29 or 30 when John the Baptist started preaching. Quite accurate, actually, all these historical indicators.

[12:26] Okay, then you've got John's message, which we've kind of looked at over the Advent series. Remember when we did the Benedictus and John the Baptist was one who was going to prepare God's people.

[12:38] And then he comes preaching exactly this from Isaiah chapter 40. Now, interesting, Isaiah 40 starts with comfort, comfort my people.

[12:58] You know, it's a famous passage. And the rest, the whole of Isaiah, no. From Isaiah chapter 40 till the end of Isaiah chapter 66 is really one big block of prophecy looking at when God is going to come and save his people.

[13:11] So if you're reading Isaiah, you kind of divide it from Isaiah chapter 1 to 39. And then from 40 onwards to the end of Isaiah. So you expect John to be coming to have a kind of a message of comfort.

[13:24] And look what he says in verse 7. John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, You brood of vipers, who want you to flee from the coming wrath? Don't worry, I'm not preaching that as my New Year's sermon.

[13:40] But just notice that people coming to him, John is not happy with. One wonders why. Maybe he could see through their wanting to come and get baptized. Nevertheless, he preaches as well, telling people that God's time is at hand.

[14:00] Verse 8. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Do not begin to say, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that these stones, that out of these stones, God himself can raise children for Abraham.

[14:11] The axe is already at the root of the trees. And every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. And the people say, what should we do?

[14:23] And he tells them what to do. There's tax collectors, there's soldiers, there's average people. And he's telling them all to turn from certain sins in their life and do good things. Which is part of repentance, by the way.

[14:37] Repentance is not just changing your mind, although that is underlying the word repentance. It literally means to change your mind. But you've got to change your behavior as well. So John, and by the way, everyone is coming to John.

[14:49] John is famous. He rises up just like that. He doesn't have a long preaching ministry. Some people think it was only a matter of months before he baptized Jesus. I've got a feeling it was slightly longer than that.

[15:02] But he just shot to fame. And everyone in the whole of Jerusalem and Judea would come and see him. He was really famous. And regardless of this kind of preaching, the people wanted to come and have their sins washed away.

[15:14] They must have recognized that he was a prophet from God. But the people still have this question. Remember Simeon? He's going to stick around until he sees the Christ.

[15:25] Mary, you're going to have the child. The Christ child is going to be born. So what are the people wondering about? Have a look at verse 15. The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.

[15:43] Now you see the question everyone is asking John. Could he be the one? Could he be the Messiah? Meaning, of course, the king. Is John the Christ? Now notice that John might possibly be the Christ.

[15:55] Now remember what I said that the word Christ is a title. He has proof that it's a title. It's not just are you Christ? Are you Jesus? No, no, no. That's not the question. Are you the Christ? Are you?

[16:06] So probably one of the best ways for us to get our head around what Jesus Christ means. I do this myself. When I read the word Christ in the New Testament, I literally say the king.

[16:16] I often read in my mind Jesus the king. When I read Jesus Christ, I read Jesus the king. So here it is. Are you going to be the Christ? That little there is important.

[16:27] Are you with me? It establishes that the word Christ is a title. Now how could they ask us of John? As far as we know, John hadn't done any miracles at this point.

[16:39] He hadn't healed anyone or raised anyone from the dead. All he had been doing was preaching from Isaiah 40. And huge amounts of people responded. So how is it that they thought he is the Christ based on his preaching?

[16:54] Well, every Jew knew that the whole section of Isaiah, which I've said from Isaiah 40 onward, is about the great age of redemption, the great age of salvation, the great age of renewal, when God himself would come and visit his people and restore their fortunes and bring about the covenant blessings that were promised, the ones that we've been looking at from Genesis 12, from Abraham.

[17:13] They also knew that this visitation of God would coincide with people turning their hearts back to God in repentance and also with the coming of the Messiah.

[17:25] Now, the Messiah is all over Isaiah, the Son of God. He's got various titles in Isaiah and you might just miss it. We're not going to run through them now because I've got other Old Testament passages I want us to look at.

[17:39] But if you're taking notes, you saw it in Isaiah 42. He's called the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42. He's also called the branch of David or the stump of Jesse. That's David's father.

[17:50] That's from Isaiah 11. Son of David from Isaiah 9. And then Isaiah 16 as well. So if you want to see where the references to Jesus or to the Christ are, you won't see the word Christ in Isaiah as such, but you'll see these Davidic kingly terms applied to the person that's going to come.

[18:08] Are you with me? Isaiah 42, Isaiah 11, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 16. If I go in chronological, 9, 11, 16, and 42, although it's obviously in other places as well in Isaiah.

[18:22] John's answer is basically, no, I'm not the Christ. As powerful and as amazing as you think I am, I'm nothing compared to the power and strength that the Christ will bring when he comes.

[18:34] Now notice what he says. Verse 15. Everyone wondered in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. Verse 16. John answered them all, These are warnings of imminent judgment.

[19:14] He's standing with his winnowing fork in hand. Someone is standing with an axe at the tree. No one stands around with an axe in their hands ready to strike and then takes a cup of coffee or has a sandwich break.

[19:26] You know, when someone goes to chop a tree and you see them with an axe, you don't think to yourself, oh, okay, the tree will come down in another time. He doesn't stand at the tree with an axe and then walk away. He stands at the tree with an axe and then goes, Quah!

[19:36] Quah! You've got minutes, seconds. Quah! And then it's gone. Okay, there's an urgency here to John. But notice what he says about the Christ. Yes, he's going to bring the Holy Spirit, which of course means salvation.

[19:47] But he's also going to bring fire. Hmm. It's an interesting thing to think about Jesus there. Although this element, I think we've seen it already in our study in Genesis.

[20:00] But you will know this anyway. That when God brings salvation because of the sin of the world, he's also got to bring judgment. Interestingly, it's on his people that he brings judgment. That's why John says, Don't think that you've got Abraham as your father and that's enough.

[20:15] That's not enough. God can call these stones to life. And he doesn't need you, the Jews that he's speaking to. So that's his own people, let alone the people on the outside. Okay.

[20:27] Now, the Christ will baptize with the Spirit. And in order to do that, in order for the Christ to give you the Spirit, he's got to get the Spirit. Are you with me? Which is one of the main focuses of Luke's version of the baptism of Jesus.

[20:40] All the Gospels have the baptism of Jesus. Luke's is quite short. I think it's Matthew that's the longest. And John has a lot to say about it as well, the Gospel of John. But even Jesus receiving the Spirit has implications for his kingship.

[20:55] So, let's look at his baptism and see what we can find. I'm just going to read from verse 21. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.

[21:07] And as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love with you. I am well pleased. Right. What's going on here?

[21:19] Is God telling the world that Jesus is divine? You are my son. Many Christians will say so. Well, what we should do is let the Bible, and obviously the Old Testament, tell us what's going on here.

[21:30] Do you remember what I said about the word Messiah? It means anoint. How did they make kings in the Old Testament? You all know it.

[21:41] Or do you? They take a flask of oil, and they pour it over their heads. By the way, that's not just the Jews that did that. All the kings of the ancient world did that, from Greece all the way over to Baghdad, Babylon, modern-day Iran and Iraq.

[21:57] I'm not sure if the Romans did it or the Egyptians, but I know the Greeks did it as well as everyone all over the ancient Near East. By pouring oil on their heads, oh, so they get oil poured over them.

[22:15] But it's not just any oil. There's something special about this oil that gets anointed. And it's not just any person that can pour this oil. It's got to be a special person that pours this oil. And it's not just any person that can be anointed.

[22:27] It's got to be someone who's appointed by God to be anointed. There's a whole lot of stuff that must happen before you can become the real king of the Jews. All right. I don't know if you've ever read the accounts in the Old Testament of how the Jews became king, and I'd like us to read that together so that I know that you know that these things have happened.

[22:45] Now, I'm pretty sure you've read David's account of becoming a king. Yeah? Does anyone know of Saul's account of how he became a king? Kind of, but there's some important things there.

[22:55] So, I want us to go back to the Old Testament together. So, 1 Samuel chapter 10 will give us the details. So, just turn over from where we are to 1 Samuel 10.

[23:07] We're going to spend some time now in the Old Testament just reminding ourselves of how they made kings in the Old Testament. There's some very important things there for us to get.

[23:18] Okay? If you see 1 Samuel chapter 9, you'll see the heading in most NIV Bibles is Samuel anoints Saul. So, that's where the whole thing starts.

[23:30] You remember the people asked for a king, and that actually wasn't according to God's design. Least of all, Samuel didn't like that. But, of course, he was the leader at the time. He was both... He was kind of like... They say that he's one of the last judges.

[23:41] Essentially, he was also the main prophet of the time. A very important prophet in the Old Testament because he transitions between judges to kings. Sort of like John is a very important prophet in the New Testament.

[23:55] He transitions from the Old Testament prophets to, hey, this is the Christ who has arrived. But let's look at the ceremony itself. You remember, as Samuel is looking, God tells him who to go look for, and they find the clan of Benjamin.

[24:11] And then Saul says, no, but what have you got to do with us? We're just Benjamin. We're the smallest clan in Israel. And, in fact, there's some very horrible background to the tribe of Benjamin. If you read the last story, I think, in Judges.

[24:26] It's a horrific story. And then Saul's clan is the least of the clans in Benjamin. Nevertheless, he's been chosen. Let's see how he gets made king.

[24:37] So, we're in 1 Samuel 10 from verse 1. Then Samuel took a flask of oil. By the way, that flask would be a horn, like the old Vikings used to have, like a horn.

[24:51] It was made of a horn. That's where the horn of our strength, those psalms and from the Benedictus comes from, that idea of oil, and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him.

[25:04] Okay? Obviously on the cheeks or whatever. Saying, has not the Lord anointed your leader over his inheritance? When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb at Zelzor on the border of Benjamin.

[25:17] They will say to you, the donkeys you set out to look for have been found. Oh, yes. Saul was looking for his father's donkeys and trekked all over Israel to find them. And that's how he bumped into Samuel.

[25:30] And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He's asking, what shall I do about my son? Nevertheless, then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor.

[25:42] Three men going up to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, another skin of wine. They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. So he's telling him what's going to happen just as he's starting to be the king.

[25:56] These are the signs that he knows that he's the king, that he didn't pour the oil on the wrong person. After that, you will go to Gibeah of God. It's a city where there is a Philistine outpost.

[26:07] That's the enemies. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying.

[26:18] The spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into a different person.

[26:30] Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. So that's how they made kings of Israel. Now let's take out a few headlines to see if we can, if Jesus' baptism covers the same thing, if Jesus' baptism fits into this mold of how they made a king.

[26:50] But you can see some similarities already, notably the Holy Spirit being poured out, but there's a few others. So first thing, not just any prophet is sent to the king to make someone a king, but the main prophet, Samuel.

[27:04] Not these other prophets from Gibeah. There's like schools of prophets, and there's probably a prophet in every city. But we know that there's main prophets. So it's Samuel who gets told by God who to find. Now it's the same in the modern world.

[27:16] Not just any bishop will preside over the coronation of the king or queen of England, but the archbishop. When we inaugurate our president, you don't just get any judge from the local magistrate. It's the chief justice who does it, right?

[27:27] To legitimize that this is the one that is going to rule our country. I can't decide who's going to be our king. No one will listen to me. You've got to get the top guy in the land to say that this guy is the king so that everyone follows him.

[27:40] You with me? So first thing is you need not just any prophet, but the main prophet. Secondly, God is the one who points the king out to the prophet. The prophet doesn't choose the king, least of all the people.

[27:52] God chooses who's going to be his king. Are you with me on that? Thirdly, the prophet takes a flask, a horn, and pours it over the head of the king. There's oil. This signifies that God has chosen this person and set him apart as one who is specially anointed by God.

[28:07] We expect things to follow from that. Fourthly, the anointing of the oil not only symbolizes but also enacts the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on that person's life.

[28:17] Now this is a special gift given to the king so that he will rule well. So that he will be a good and effective king. In other words, the people will listen to him. It empowers him to do his mission or work as a king, presumably to help him rule with righteousness according to God's laws, to uphold the covenant of Abraham and Moses, to act with wisdom, but also, you'll notice, to have supernatural strength and authority to defeat the enemies of the people of God's kingdom.

[28:44] I'm going to highlight that in a few minutes. Fifthly, this whole ceremony ends with the promise that God is now with the king in a special way and that because he is the king and because he has the Holy Spirit, whatever he does, he will succeed at.

[28:58] For Saul, it included the gift of prophecy and success. Isn't that cool? Now, that's what you want your king to have. If he can know the mind of his enemy because God is telling him what his enemy is going to do, there's no way your enemy can defeat you.

[29:09] You've got a king that's going to win all his battles. Whatever you do, you will be successful at. You want a king who's going to defeat your enemies and you want a king that is also going to uplift your economy and bring justice so that bad people don't get to rule and he needs the Holy Spirit to help him do that.

[29:25] And then, sixthly, last of all, there's the next gift, gift of actually defeating your enemies.

[29:35] That's what the Holy Spirit is there to help you do for prophecy and to be successful but especially to be successful in defeating your enemies. So, just have a look at the heading. We won't read it but just notice the heading of chapter 11, the very next thing that Saul does.

[29:52] Saul rescues the city of Gibeah. He went and defeated the Ammonites. So, the Ammonites get all uppity. The Ammonites border Israel. If you're looking at a map of Israel, it's on the east side of the Jordan and they attack Gibeah and want to put the eyes out of the people in there and then Saul says, no, no, they're mine.

[30:13] Let's go and defeat them. So, the very next story after Saul is made king is I'm going to go defeat my enemies. Are you with me? Can you see that those things are happening to Saul? Let's quickly look at how David is made king.

[30:27] There's a few things that happen there that are kind of the same and then we'll end our time back in the New Testament. So, turn a few pages to 1 Samuel chapter 16 and we need to pick the story up about how David is made king.

[30:49] All the same elements are there with David. So, let's just read through it and see if we can find it. 1 Samuel chapter 16 from verse 16. Sorry.

[31:02] Am I right? 1 Samuel 16. No, it's not from verse 16. It's from earlier. Let's read from verse 7. But the Lord said to Samuel, okay, so Samuel has been sent to anoint David.

[31:17] He's tired of King Saul and he's got to look for a new king. And Samuel is looking at all of Jesse's sons. He's got seven sons and he sees the first one.

[31:28] He says, oh, this must be the anointing before the Lord. He's a big, strong guy. From verse 7, the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.

[31:40] Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him cross in front of Samuel. Abinadab's one of his sons.

[31:50] Samuel says, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Jesse made Shama pass by but Samuel said, nor has the Lord chosen this one. Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel but Samuel said, no, the Lord has not chosen any of these.

[32:02] Then he asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? Well, they're still the youngest. Jesse answered, but he's busy tending the sheep. Same for him. We will not sit down until he arrives.

[32:15] So he sent and had him brought in with his, brought in. He was ruddy with a fine appearance and handsome features. The Lord said, rise and anoint him. He is the one.

[32:27] So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers and from that day on the spirit of the Lord came upon David in power and Samuel then went off to Ramah.

[32:39] Can you see that most of those things are still present there with the anointing of David? What about this? So he gets the Holy Spirit. The prophet is there. He pours the oil on him.

[32:49] He gets the Holy Spirit. He's the new king and it comes on him powerfully to do what? To defeat his enemies. What's the next story in Samuel? What's the next heading in chapter 17? David goes and defeats Goliath.

[33:05] So you've got this pattern that's established in the Old Testament of how kings are made and what the Holy Spirit is for. Okay, should we go back to the New Testament and see how this works out in Jesus' baptism?

[33:16] So back to Luke chapter 3. Okay, so we've got John the Baptist, we've got Jesus, we've got water, we've got the heaven opening, we've got the spirit descending and we've got the word of God himself.

[33:31] God himself speaking. Okay. So you've got John the Baptist, the greatest prophet of the time. Not just any prophet, the greatest prophet of the time.

[33:41] you've got the Holy Spirit, you don't have oil. The only thing missing is oil. But what he did do is pour water on him so that essentially that is a kind of anointing with oil.

[33:57] Now just the mode of baptism, I'm pretty sure most of us think that Jesus went down into the water and then went under and then came back up again. It's likely that that happened. We actually don't know. But when you Google the baptism of Jesus, you're going to see him come out with wet hair.

[34:11] He went down and then he came back up again. Most people think that. I just want to say we don't actually know if that happened. It could also be that they would walk into the water up to their waist level or that the bath was enough for them to kneel there and then John would pour water either with a pitcher or with his hands.

[34:28] It could also be that he poured water onto Jesus. We simply don't know. So people tell you, yes, he definitely went under. We don't know. We went there, we didn't see and he's not told us what happened other than we do have records that people sometimes went under and sometimes kneeled.

[34:43] Does that help you a little bit? It's possible that he kneeled there and then John the Baptist pours the water over his head in a sense anointing him with oil. But he doesn't just get water and not oil.

[34:56] He gets the Holy Spirit directly and then he comes down on a bodily form which has never been seen before in the history of Israel. That's something new. Actually seeing the Holy Spirit come down in the shape of a dove as a dove.

[35:10] Ah, okay, he's got the spirit. And then you've got the heavens opening and the voice of God saying, this is my son. Nothing like this had been seen or heard before in Israel's history in the past.

[35:22] Here is the king, the one, the Messiah that Israel has been waiting for all these years. Or what about the last element, defeating his enemies? Well, what is the first thing Jesus does as part of his public ministry?

[35:36] In Luke, after the story we've got the genealogy. By the way, it shows you that Jesus is the son of David. We don't have time to look at that today. But look at chapter 4.

[35:48] Now, I've mentioned this before and we need to look at it in some detail at some point. What is your heading? My heading says the temptation of Jesus. Is that, yeah, it should read the defeat of Satan.

[35:59] because that's what happened there. Satan came at him with everything he had and Jesus says, no, I'm not into that. Now, there's some other terminology here about Jesus being a son that we need to look at and how that ties in with his kingship.

[36:14] We'll have to leave that for another time. Just want to close. Well, I hope you can see that the elements of the Old Testament of someone becoming king are all there present when John's baptism with Jesus.

[36:26] So that one of the things to get about it is that what Luke is saying is that Jesus is now the publicly appointed king of Israel. You with me on that? Most of those elements are all there except for the oil.

[36:37] But who needs oil when you've got the Holy Spirit actually coming down? You with me? And of course, it's done in a much more, in a greater way than any Old Testament king had.

[36:49] Neither Saul nor David had the voice of God himself. All the heavens opening. It's like this. Yes, that's the one. That's him. You better listen to him and you better do what he says.

[37:03] You with me? That's really what it's saying. I like him. This is my son. I'm pleased with him. Whatever he decides to do, I've decided will happen.

[37:14] So best listen to him if you want to come to me, God. Does that, that kind of thing is going on there? Okay, and then just to close, what are some of the implications of Jesus being the king?

[37:30] Knowing that Jesus is the king of God's kingdom and that he's come into the world. Let's quickly look at our last, at our first questions. How much has your life changed over the last year? How much have you changed?

[37:41] How much have I changed? How has your Christian walk changed? Are you better prepared to serve Jesus or better equipped? Well, the two things in the text that jump out at me from when John is speaking is number one, the urgency.

[37:57] There's a desperate urgency for people to acknowledge Jesus as king. John is desperate for them to know that Jesus has arrived because if you don't recognize him as king, you're going to face the axe or fire. You guys tell me, but I don't really want to face someone with an axe or someone with unquenchable fire.

[38:13] So let's check in. Have you got an urgency to know Jesus better and to have him as your king?

[38:26] Do you think it's urgent that your relationship with Jesus gets better? Do you think it's urgent that your service of him gets more and better? Do you think it's urgent? Not you think it's important, is it urgent?

[38:37] You know that thing about urgency? It's like, it's more of a, it's a feeling, it's a drive, it's something inside me that says, no, I've got to do this. It's not just a, yes, I should do it. Here's my list number 10, number seven, tick, serve Jesus better.

[38:51] It's like, no, I think that's got to be the priority. Is there something in your life that will inner voice or maybe other voices telling you, hey, you need to look at your life and clean things up.

[39:05] Is your relationship with Jesus a high priority and urgent need in your life? And then, of course, just to pick up one of the things that happens when John is preaching to the crowd and he's saying that Christ is about to arrive, you guys need to prepare for him.

[39:23] Have a look at verse 10 and 11. I just want to pick up one thing. There's other things to pick up and I think we'll deal with them in the future. Just have a look at verse 10. What should we do then?

[39:34] The crowd asks. John says, the man with two tunics should share with him who has none and the one who has food should do the same. Then there's tax collectors and soldiers. Interesting. There's an urgency to turn your life to Christ and then what must you do once you've done that?

[39:49] Well, be nice to people. In this case, be generous. Literally, give your tunic, give your clothes to someone or give food to someone. Okay, well, let's think about that for a few minutes.

[40:01] How is your service of King Jesus going? How is your generosity? Just as a thought. Do you give more? Do you share more now at the end of the year than at the start or at the start of your life up until now?

[40:16] Think back over the year. Has your generosity increased towards those in need? It seems like such a small little thing, doesn't it? Jesus has arrived. Turn your life around. Oh, and give something to someone.

[40:27] Give your cloak or food. Literally ask yourself, when did you last literally give clothes to someone or literally give food to someone that didn't need it? I'm going to have to go back months if I think about it.

[40:40] I drive a car every now and then I give lifts. But you know the thing about being generous? We're the same as kids. No, this toy is mine. Hey, I need a phone. But I just got this phone.

[40:54] Hey, I need food. I've got to get somewhere else. Being generous for Jesus is actually quite hard if you think about it. But remember what Jesus the King also said?

[41:05] If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward. Are there better ways we can do this as a church?

[41:17] Maybe, maybe not. I would say that this church is quite generous from what I can tell. Wouldn't it be great if you could look back over 2020 and say, yes, so we start at 2020.

[41:28] Let's go to the end of the year. You look back over your year and you say, yes, Jesus is much more important in my life and in my thinking and in my actions and in my words than at the start of the year.

[41:41] Yes, I'm much more generous now at the end of the year than at the start of the year. There's a change. I'm serving Jesus as my King with more urgency and in a better way.

[41:53] Well, why don't we close and pray for those things together? Dear Lord Jesus, you have been appointed as the King of God's Kingdom. You've been given the Holy Spirit by God Himself.

[42:07] You've been called His Son and you've been appointed as the ruler of the kingdoms of the world. Lord, I don't think we recognize enough the importance and import of that in our lives.

[42:22] Lord, if we diminish you in any way, please forgive us. Help us to turn our hearts to you with urgency. Send your Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can be urgent in serving you, in changing our lives and making sure that we are doing things that please you.

[42:39] Help us, Lord, for example, to be more generous and more caring and more loving whether it means our time or whether it means our goods. Lord, be with us throughout the year so that at the end of the year we can look back and say, yes, we've served you better.

[42:55] We acknowledge you as our king in all areas of our life and we've been more generous and loving and kind towards people. Help us, Lord. It's not easy for us to do these things. Send your spirit and help us to do these things.

[43:07] In Jesus' name, Amen.