Anchor My Faith

A Voice from Heaven

Scripture: Matthew 3:16-17; Luke 3:21-22

In the previous lesson, John was preparing to baptize Jesus. In this lesson Jesus is baptized, a dove shows up, and the Father speaks.

“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”’ (Matthew 3:16 – 17). We have arrived at the time when Jesus was actually baptized. This brings us to an interesting phrase in the verse: “immediately he went up from the water.” What is meant by that phrase? We could begin by saying that Jesus came out from the river onto dry land, but what happened while he was in the water? When he was baptized this verse does not clearly say that Jesus was immersed. Maybe water was poured on him or maybe he was sprinkled with water. Had the text said he was immersed there would be no discussion now as to the acceptable mode of baptism; is it immersion, or pouring, or sprinkling; all of which are practiced today. It seems reasonable that Jesus was immersed, but the door is left open for other methods of baptism that might be needed in certain situations. I believe that whenever possible the mode should be immersion as it better represents dying too self and rising to newness of life in Christ.

A good reason to believe that Jesus was immersed relates to the next phrase: “the heavens were opened to him.” It is reasonable that as Jesus broke the surface of the water from being immersed that the heavens were opened. To understanding the meaning of the “the heavens were opened” we need to look at Luke 3:21: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.” What I visualize here is that as Jesus rose up from being summered, he spoke a word of prayer to his Father. That caused some kind of sensation for John to report that the heavens open up to him like we see in Acts 7:56 (ESV) when Stephen was being stoned: “And [Stephen] said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”’ It appears that Stephen was permitted to see far into the heavens beyond what the natural vision would allow. Here with Jesus, this sensation of the heavens opening released two things: The coming of the dove and the voice from heaven.

This dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, that descended upon him as described in Luke 3:22: “and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove.” The placing of the Spirit upon him is seen in Isaiah 42:1 (ESV): “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” At this time the Spirit anoints Jesus as Israel’s King and Messiah and commissions his as God’s righteous servant. To authenticate this anointing, the Father speaks from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

We will need one more lesson to finish this verse and cover the next.

Prayer

Father, what I am seeing as I study the four gospels as one, is a much more complete story of the life of Jesus. This is a story I wish I could have seen 60 years ago. Looking at the details of a single story paints a beautiful picture, not four incomplete pictures. I pray that I have enough life and health left in me to finish this project to the glory of God through the changed lives of my readers.