Matthew 3

THE COOLEST THING JUST HAPPENED TO ME.

Last night I was thinking about John the Baptist. He seems like such an interesting character, but Matthew only gives us a few facts. I resisted the urge to look ahead in the other three gospels to see what else is said about him, because I just want to take it as it comes. I had heard that he was the bridge between the Old Testament and the New, but I don't know why (so take that with a grain of salt). We are told what he wore, what he ate, and what he was doing, but no background.

Try to picture it; This wild man is out in nowhere-ville, mobs of people are traveling a long way to get to him, even scribes and pharisees decide to make the journey to see what all the hubbub is about, and this is all before anyone had ever even heard of Jesus?
What started it? Were people getting geared up for the grand event of history without even realizing what was happening in the world?
At this point in the story we don't know that Jesus and John were cousins, but even knowing that, I can't imagine the two of them sitting around beforehand and plotting this out or even discussing it.

Anyway, I have the kind of job where I sit a computer all day long, sometimes having virtually no human interaction for weeks at a time. This makes it very easy for me to sit and listen to music or audio messages/bible studies all day long. So this morning I was in the mood for a bible study, and I was browsing the website of one of my favorite churches out in California, and a title called "Studying Scripture" by Chuck Smith jr. jumped out at me.

"Studying Scripture", huh?

What could be a more perfect topic, since I have just begun this year-long bible study, right?

So I selected it, and guess what he starts talking about?
JOHN THE BAPTIST !
I was stunned.... God is the coolest. :)

Chuck's message painted a clearer picture for me, I hadn't realized that the Jordan was the river the Jews had to cross to get to the promised land. Doesn't it seem fitting that the Jordan is used here to mark mankind's access to God through the promised one? The change that marks our own crossing, when we leave behind a life of wandering? awesome. I hope I get to meet John someday.

By the way, if you hear this and want more, it was the first of a ten-part series that continues on the 2003 list. Look at the very bottom of this list for the remaining eight messages. I'm not recommending it since I haven't heard the rest of them, just lettin' you know it's there.

p.s. after I finished that study an even more awesome "coincidence" happened to me, but since it concerns a eunuch from Ethiopia it is slightly off the topic.
Ask me about it sometime...!

-=-=-

Heaven was Opened, and The Spirit Descended

All my life I have wondered what Jesus was like as a child. Was he playing with his powers? Healing broken bird wings for practice? Disappearing into crowds when playing tag with his siblings? I'm half-joking of course, but in a way you have to wonder if moving into maturity means making mistakes, and I can't imagine Jesus ever making mistakes, even as a child. Maybe its just the Catholic CCD catechism that shapes my mental picture of him as a child, but I can't seem to shake this off.
When your earliest memory is strangers coming to worship you, and decisions about your upbringing are being made by dreams and angelic appearances, doesn't that make your childhood quite a bit different than everyone else's?

But the moment I read this verse it seemed that I suddenly had a better understanding of the truth.

Matthew 3:16
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

If heaven was opened to him, it says to me that previously it was closed to him, just like it is closed to us until we ask for our own personal baptism. (The reason I say "heaven" instead of "the heavens" is that the same Greek word #3772 is used 268 more times in the New Testament as "heaven".)

Until this happened and the spirit descended on him, he had no more power than the ordinary man. He may have had a sinless life and amazed people with his teaching before this, but I believe the power comes through us, but not of us. I think he had to sit down and learn the scriptures just like anyone else, he wasn't born knowing everything about everything. The reason we may think differently is because by the time we really see his actions in the scriptures, he already has been baptized by the spirit, and its easy to think he was always so powerful.

This is just my personal understanding based on my limited experience with the spirit, namely my own baptism (not either of the times I was baptized by water, I'm talking about the moment I truly accepted Christ and recieved a new heart) so I'm sure many would argue.

When I read the "heaven was opened to him, and the spirit descended" it says to me that this was the dividing line in the life of Jesus. The evidence for my statement is everything that happened afterwards. After this event his life immediately and drastically changed, and the remainder of the gospels record the amazing things he accomplished.

Ask God to forgive you your sins, ask for a new heart, ask the spirit to come and abide with you, and thank him for it. It will change your life.