Luke 3:15-22: The Baptism of Jesus

Many people have claimed to be or have been thought to the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. For example, ‘Krishna Venta (1911–1958), born Francis Herman Pencovic in San Francisco, founded the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love) Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California in the late 1940s. In 1948 he stated that he was Christ, the new messiah and claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to Earth from the extinct planet Neophrates. He died on 10 December 1958 after being suicide bombed by two disgruntled former followers who accused Venta of mishandling cult funds and having been intimate with their wives.’ ‘Arnold Potter (1804–1872), Schismatic Latter Day Saint leader; he claimed the spirit of Jesus Christ entered into his body and he became “Potter Christ” Son of the living God. He died in an attempt to “ascend into heaven” by jumping off a cliff. His body was later retrieved and buried by his followers.’

How do you know who the true Saviour is? This is the import of the text we are looking at today as we examine the baptism of Jesus. There are several things that testify to who Jesus is, revealing that He is God the Son and our Saviour. The angels testify to who Jesus is, Luke 1:35, ‘the Son of God.’ The demons testify that He is the Holy One of God, Mark 1:24. The Scriptures bear witness to Christ, John 5:39. The miracles of Christ bear witness to His identity John 5:36, and John the Baptist bears witness to who Jesus is, John 5:33. The greatest witness however is the witness of God and we see this in the portion before us as we see a visible representation of the Spirit and hear the voice of the Father testifying to the identity of Jesus. As we look at this portion we want to look at it under to two headings firstly, we want to look at John the Baptist and His witness to Christ; second we will look at Jesus being baptised and how this witnesses to Christ.