John's baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3)

The following is the thrust of the morning sermon from this past Sunday (11 August 2013), which you can listen to here.

Jesus submitted to John’s baptism of repentance and judgment in obedience to God’s will.  Through John’s baptism God the Father commissions Jesus for his Messianic mission to save sinners.  The Father does so by anointing Jesus with the Holy Spirit from heaven and declaring him to be the Son of God.  The mission of Jesus symbolised in his baptism is to identify with sinners so that he can save them.  For as the story goes, Jesus endured the judgment and curse of God for sin symbolised in the waters of John’s baptism.  Jesus was judged for us and for our sin.  He became sin for us.  And in exchange he made us sons and daughters of God.  This is what our baptism signifies and seals to us.  In John’s baptism, Jesus is revealed to be God’s beloved Son, but also His suffering servant, who has taken away our sins to make us part of the family of God.