“You are my Son, whom I love”

Luke 3:21-37

Key Verse 3:22b

 “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Good morning! Summer Bible conference is next week and I am very excited about it. I will tell you later why I am so excited about it. The title for today’s passage is “You are my Son, whom I love”. The key verse is verse 22b. May we read the key verse together? “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Let’s pray.

From the last Sunday message, we learned that God used John the Baptist to prepare people through repentance. What is the preparation for, though? It is to prepare through repentance for people to meet and accept Jesus. It is the preparation through repentance to accept Jesus in their hearts. So God used John the Baptist to prepare people, general crowd. In today’s message we see another preparation. We see Jesus’ preparation. What did Jesus prepare for? Jesus prepared for his new life as the Messiah. And Jesus also needed preparation. Now what kind of preparation did Jesus do in today’s passage? I see two kinds of preparations Jesus did to start his new life as the Messiah. Two. Missionary Miriam, can you try what can be the two things? Two preparation Jesus did in today’s passage. Can anyone try? It is very simple. Missionary Augustine Kim? (He said) “Jesus was baptized and Jesus prayed.” That is the right answer. He got a perfect score today from the beginning. Jesus was baptized and Jesus prayed. These are two things which Jesus prepared for his new life as the Messiah.

The first thing, Jesus was baptized. “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.” It was a very simple sentence. “Jesus was baptized too.” You know John’s baptism is the baptism of repentance of sin. But Jesus was without sins. But Jesus was baptized too. Why was he baptized too even though he did not have any sin? Matthew gospel gave us a clue that Jesus was baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. 

Look at Matthew 3:13-15

^13 “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.”

This is Jesus’ answer when John the Baptist asked him, “to fulfill all righteousness.” For example, Jesus did not need eat the Passover lamb because he was without sin. But obviously Jesus must have kept the Passover feast and must have eaten the Passover meal. Jesus must have kept all kinds of offerings such as guilt offerings, sin offerings, and fellowship offerings although he did not need to. By doing all these things Jesus was fulfilling all righteousness. By living as a righteous man, doing all righteous things, he wanted to live as a righteous man, and he wanted to give his righteousness to us completely. And he wants to take on him all of our unrighteousness. Jesus was baptized as his preparation for his new life as the Messiah. He started his new life as the Messiah, and ultimately his life as the Messiah was to give his righteousness to us and take away our unrighteousness from us. So Jesus was baptized too. There is nothing special in Jesus. He just came and was baptized too. Only John the Baptist could recognized Jesus as a special person.

The second thing Jesus prepared for himself was praying. “As he was praying, heaven was opened.” Matthew gospel and Mark gospel talked about Jesus’ baptism. But there is no mention about Jesus’ praying. But Luke’s says “As he was praying heaven was opened.” And the Holy Spirit and the Father were engaged. So “As he was praying” showsJesus prepared himself through prayer. 

When we pray we ask God’s help. But Jesus is God. Why does he need to pray? Why does he need God’s help? Can anyone try? Jesus is God. Why does he need to pray? (Heather said) “He is still man. So he is tempted and he needed to pray.” And that was the answer I was looking for. Mysteriously two people got a hundred scores from the beginning today for their answers. Maybe my answer was too easy today. (Someone said) “It is not.” Is it not? Then they are great people. Heather and Augustine. Jesus became a man completely like us except one thing that he did not sin. Since he became like us he was limited in many ways. So he needed God’s help. So he prayed for God’s help. When he started his new life as the Messiah, the challenges and the mission as the Messiah was overwhelming. There was only one thing different between him and us. So he was praying.

As he was praying for God’s help to finish his mission as the Messiah, heaven was opened and there was help from God and the Holy Spirit. 

Hebrews chapter 5 shows how much Jesus prayed in his life. Let’s read Hebrew 5:7 ^“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” 

This verse shows Jesus offered up prayer and petitions with fervent cries and tears. He prayed a lot. He had to depend on God so much. Since he was limited so much there is only one thing he can do to discharge all his obligation as the Messiah. That is to depend on God. 

Even our life as a lay person, even unbelievers’ life here on earth, is very challenging. I still remember when I was a middle school student in Korea. A husband was carrying a cart full of charcoal and his wife pushing it to deliver to someone’s house to get paid. And I looked at their life and it was very hard. When I grew up and went to colleges and began to see people working in big companies like Samsung and LG, and their lives were hard too. They work so much; 10 hours a day and 60 hours a week. Life in general is very challenging. If you are student you need to study hard for your school. To get good grades and go to good school is not easy. To get a good job is not easy. To work at job is not easy. If you married you have to maintain your family finances, take care of children, you have to find baby sitters for your children. You have to take care of your husbands and wives. And sometimes there are millions of life problems and many of these challenges are out of our control. We are not able to control them.

When we live as children of God, sons and daughters of God, we have more challenges. We have persecutions; we have trouble and hardships in the course of witnessing for Jesus. So life is very challenging. So what should we do?

When Jesus thinks about his own life his water baptism is nothing. His ultimate baptism is the baptism of death, the death on the cross which was waiting for him. It was not easy for any innocent man to be crucified on the cross. And he was going ahead of it. He was approaching it. And he was human being exactly like you and me. Think about it! If you will be crucified 3 years later how would you feel? 

So Jesus needed to depend on God. So he asked God’s help. So he prayed. “As he was praying, heaven was opened.” God responded and the Holy Spirit responded. 

In our life Jesus said the same thing if I remember correctly. Let’s read John 14:12-14 responsibly. 

^“12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Here Jesus says “If we have faith in him and pray for him we can do even greater things than Jesus did. We can even do greater things than Jesus did if we have faith in him and pray.” And he will do whatever we ask in his name through prayer.

So there is no other way for us to discharge all of our obligations as a person and children of God, sons and daughters of God. The only way for us to do everything is to pray as Jesus did it.  Jesus started public life with praying ‘As he was praying’ heaven was opened’. His last thing he did on the cross was prayer, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” From the beginning to the end of his life as the Messiah he started his life as a prayer and ended his life with prayer. And he cried out offered petitions and prayers with fervent zeal. 

I have many challenges. I didn’t know this kind of absoulate necessity of depending on God and praying that much. But these days I do because I see many challenges are coming on, but I am limited so much. And I think about ‘how can I survive?” “How can I discharge all my obligations and duties and be successful?” There is only one way. To have faith and depend on God through prayer. 

When King of Jehoshaphat saw the vast army invaded his country and when he realized that he did not have such a vast army what did he do? He prayed to God. He asked his people to fast and he offered his prayer to God. “Lord, I see the vast army. I don’t have such a vast army. And I don’t know what to do.” Do you experience many times in your life saying “I don’t know what to do.” He said, “I don’t know what to do. But my eyes are upon you.” He fixed his eyes upon God and he fasted and prayed asking God’s help. And God took care of them.

So I made a decision to depend on God through prayer; to believe in God and to depend on God absolutely. That is the only way for me to survive spiritually and even physically. 

“Now as he was praying heaven was opened.” And the Holy Spirit and God responded. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove. The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus. The Holy Spirit prepared Jesus for a special task. Jesus had a perfect communication with the Holy Spirit. But when Jesus was asking God’s help through prayer the Holy Spirit anointed him with special power to discharge his mission as the Messiah.

Luke 4:18-19 says ¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus at this specific time to quip him and empower him to do the mission as the Messiah which is to proclaim good news to the poor. The Holy Spirit can anoint us and empower us to do special mission from God. If you look at old testament, for example, king Saul was empowered when Philistines invaded his land through the Spirit. When the Spirit was upon him he was empowered and he went out and defeated the Philistines. 

So God anoints us with the Holy Spirit to do special mission from God as well. Let’s read Acts 1:8 altogether. 

^“8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus’ disciples and his people to become witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the earth. When the Holy Spirit comes us he wants to empower us and to discharge a special mission from God. 

And the Holy Spirit works together with Jesus’ disciples. 

There is another help from God the Father. God said to Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” This baptism of Jesus is, figuratively speaking, inauguration ceremony of Jesus. If we see inauguration ceremony of president of America, there are millions of witnesses and there is a chief justice from the supreme court and there is the bible. And the president makes an oath based on the Bible. Now in this Jesus’ spiritual inauguration, if you see his baptism as inauguration as the Messiah, how many witnesses were there? “Sarah? Can you try?” “How many witness were there in Jesus’ inauguration?” William? “God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus and John the Baptist.” So 4. According to John chapter 1, John the Baptist witnessed the coming down of the Holy Spirit. So he was there. What about all other people who came to be baptized? We don’t know. We don’t know whether they could see the Spirit. John the Baptist saw the Spirit and he told people, “I saw the Spirit coming down upon him and I am telling you he is the one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 

So in this spiritual Inauguration 4 people were present. All trinity God. Although they are one God, all trinity God was present at the same time with John the Baptist. John the Baptist represented all human being. What did Jesus do? Jesus prayed. Jesus did not say anything. Who said? Father God said.

He said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Okay. Pastor Abraham Kim came to my installation service. And if pastor Abraham came to us and said to me, “You have to work hard. You have to do your best to present yourself as a workman approved by God. You have to preach the word in season and out of season. That is your mission. You need to work hard and I will support you all by means.” And it makes sense to me. I would say, “Sure”. But when he comes to me and say, “Missionary John, I am your friend. I love you and I am happy with you.” “What is this?” I will ask. “I know you are my friend and I know you love me. Okay. You are happy with me. So what?” If God comes to Jesus and said, “My Son, the challenge ahead of you is tremendous. But be strong and courageous. I will help you out.” It makes sense. But he did not say that. He just said, “You are my Son whom I love. With you I am well pleased.” That’s it. 

And didn’t Jesus already know he is the Son of God? When he was 12 years old he said to his parents, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” He already knew he was the Son of God. Why did God say, “You are my Son whom I love. With you I am well pleased” which Jesus already knew? I will ask questions for wives. If your husbands do not say, “I love you” once a day will you be happy or not? Is the general custom that a husband has to say to his wife, “I love you” once a day? Is it? William? Yes, no? (laughter). He said, “It is required.” He said, “requirement”. “Absolutely necessary.” Don’t they already love each other because they are already husband and wife? Of course they do. Why is it required for a husband to say to his wife, “I love you” once a day if not 3 times a day? Confirmation. Confirmation. “I love you” is confirmation. You have to hear it. 

You know we are so weak. Let’s say, my heart is heavy for example. So my face is long. If some of our church members pass by me and we look at each other. Then he may think I am mad at him. Very true though! He thinks I am mad at him because my face is long. Although my face is long because of my problem he cannot see it. So he thinks “John Kwon doesn’t like me.” But even though I have a long face if I say to him, “Hi, I love you” he doesn’t have problem to believe my love even though my face is long. Confirmation. Love and trust. This confirmation of love and trust is the best help the Father God can gave to Jesus. As much as I know that is the only time the Father said to Jesus. “You are my Son whom I love” although he might said to his disciples, “This is my Son whom I love.” The only time Jesus doubted the love of the Father was on the cross when all the sin was poured into him. He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It was just one moment.

Jesus took the confirmation of love and trust from his Father and it was the best help from his Father. Jesus had it all through his life of mission. And Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. It was about the time of any high priest to start his public office. 

And we have a long list of Jesus’ genealogy.  Difficult names. Do you know what the genealogy of Luke’s gospel try to say? Jesus’ genealogy in Luke’s gospel try to say, “Jesus is son of whom?” Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the son of Joseph. Jesus is the son of whom? There is one more person. (Someone in the audience say ‘Adam’) Adam? Okay. 50% scores. Can anyone try? Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is the son of Joseph and Jesus is the son of whom? (Someone said, “David”) Okay 70% scores. Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is the son of Joseph and Jesus is the son of (Someone said, “Abraham”) Son of whom? (someone in the audience say “Mary”) “Mary”! It is so easy question. It’s not difficult. He is the son of Mary, isn’t he? 

So Luke’s gospel goes back all the way to Adam but it is the genealogy of Mary. Until king David from Abraham it is the same with the genealogy of Matthew’s gospel. But in Matthew gospel, from David it goes to Solomon. But Luke’s gospel goes to Nathan after David. Solomon and Nathan are sons of David. Through the Nathan’s line Mary came out. And it was the fulfillment of God’s promise in Genesis 3:15. Genesis 3:15 reads, “ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

This is the promise of the Messiah, coming from the offspring of the woman, seed of the woman. And Jesus was the Eve’s son, woman’s offspring, and it was the fulfillment of the word of God. 

And Luke’s gospel genealogy traces all the way back to Adam, and Adam was called ‘son of God’. So in today’s passage we have two sons of God. “Adam” and “who”? Jesus. That is why Jesus is called the last Adam. Jesus is called the last Adam because all the mistake of the first Adam, disobedience and sin of Adam, was completely wiped out by the last Adam, Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus is called as “Last Adam”. Someone may say, “second Adam.” But last Adam. That’s it. He wiped out all the disobedience and sin of the first person Adam which was handed down to Adam’s descendants. 

So in today’s passage, Jesus prepared himself as people prepared themselves to accept Jesus. And Jesus’ preparation was to be baptized and to pray. Jesus prepared himself through baptism in order to give ‘all righteousness’ to us and take away all of our ‘unrighteousness on him’. Jesus prepared himself through prayer. As he was praying heaven was opened. The anointing of the Holy Spirit came down on him and Father spoke to him, confirming his love and trust. We can also do the great work of God although we have many challenges and problems by believing in him and by depending on him through prayer.

One word: As he was praying

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