Luke 2:52.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
Matthew 3:13-17.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
But John would have hindered Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?
But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffereth Him.
And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him;
and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that we are now gathered together in Thy presence, in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We know Thou art here with us.
We ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wilt remove any veils from us, that we may, with unveiled face, behold the beauty of the Lord. We ask Thee, Lord, that Thy Spirit will quicken Thy Word to our hearts, that Thy Word will be the very life and Spirit to us. And to Thee be the praise, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. This is the one and only thing that we must do continuously.
We have been fellowshipping on the life of our Lord Jesus. We see that His birth is altogether different from all the births in this world, because His birth is incarnation: God became man.
In order to be born as a man, how He must empty Himself of all the glory, honour, position, and power. As a matter of fact, He had to empty Himself of all those attributes connected with deity, except His moral attributes, in order to become man. So, what a humbling!
In His incarnation, God reveals His great love for mankind; and in His incarnation, we learn the lesson of love and humility.
We mentioned His bar mitzvah when He was twelve years old. He was made a son of the law. But even His bar mitzvah was very different from all the bar mitzvahs of Jewish boys throughout the centuries.
Why? Because, to the Jewish boys, their bar mitzvah makes them sons of the law. In other words, it makes them responsible to the law. A personal relationship is established between them and the law of God—a legal relationship.
But with our Lord Jesus it was different. When He was made a Son of the law, at the same time He came into a living relationship with God His Father. It was not just a legal relationship, but a filial relationship—not just being made a Son of the law, but being that Son who was to be occupied with His Father’s business.
This morning, we would like to share on His baptism. You will find that even His baptism is different from all baptisms. But before we come to His baptism, we have to consider together His life from age twelve to age thirty.
These eighteen years are all formative years. You know, a child from birth until twelve years old, more or less, grows under the responsibility of his parents. His responsibility is to obey his parents; otherwise, all the responsibility for his growth is upon the shoulders of the parents.
But when a child reaches the age of twelve, and from twelve to thirty, we call these formative years. Why? Because he will continue to grow, but as he grows, you find that the responsibility for his growth begins to shift from the parents to himself.
In other words, you find that he begins to exercise his own will. He becomes more and more independent. He is trying to find himself, his own identity; he is to be on his own. Now, that is not to say that his parents are not watching and guiding, but the main responsibility begins to shift.
These are adolescent years—very important years. As a matter of fact, the future of that person depends mainly upon those formative years.
Now, our Lord Jesus, being a perfect Man, was born as a babe. He grew up as a child, and now He entered into these formative years. These years are very important.
But strangely, as you read the Scriptures, you find that the Scriptures are almost completely silent on these years. There is only one verse that tells us what happened during those eighteen years, and that is found in Luke 2:52.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
Now, that is all. Is it because those years of our Lord Jesus were unimportant that the Scriptures seem to ignore them? Or is it because the history of those eighteen years is so sacred that it cannot be recorded?
Outwardly, what is visible, you find the Lord Jesus continued to grow—advanced in wisdom. Of course, we know that, in God’s providence, our Lord Jesus grew up in those important years in the out-of-the-way hilly country of Nazareth.
There was a proverb at that time: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was such a deserted, out-of-the-way place that nothing good would come out of it. But in God’s providence, He put our Lord Jesus in that deserted place.
He had never been to school—and by school, I mean rabbinical school. He was never trained by men. All His learning of God was from the holy Scriptures. In other words, He was not taught by man.
You remember Paul mentioned Timothy: from his childhood, he knew the sacred writings, the Scriptures that made him wise unto salvation. So you find that our Lord Jesus advanced in wisdom, but the wisdom was not of this world. It was not taught by this world, not even taught by the religious world or by the rabbis.
He was taught by God. He was taught by the sacred writings. It is a wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy, as we find in James 3. That is the wisdom of our Lord Jesus, and He grew in wisdom. People could see that very human wisdom.
But He also advanced in stature. He continued to grow physically. I believe that our Lord Jesus had a well-built body. He was not negligent of His physical body. He did not live a life of luxury, but I do believe that His parents provided Him with sufficient food and all the needs for the body.
So He advanced in stature, and people could see this. He was also in favour with God and man. He was in favour with God because He was a God-pleaser, not a man-pleaser. He tried to please God in His daily life, and it was evident to the people that He was in favour with God and with man.
Why? Because during those formative years He developed His character—a godly character—and people could not help but notice it.
Now, these are visible things. But what is not visible is not recorded. As a matter of fact, it is the invisible that makes the visible. The secret is in the invisible, not in what is visible.
Evidently, during those formative years, outwardly He was trained to be a carpenter. He was called the son of the carpenter, and later on He was also called the carpenter—probably after His earthly father passed away, He became the carpenter.
We can imagine that when He learned carpentry, He learned it with all His heart. Most likely, He was the master carpenter. Everything He did was perfect.
But aside from His labour, what did He do with His life? We probably think that after He finished a day of work, He would climb the hills, and there He would have communion with His Heavenly Father.
As a matter of fact, later on in His public ministry, you can see that what He ministered, He learned during those hidden years. He learned to see the loving care of the Father in the birds. He learned to see the beauty of God in the lilies.
He was in constant communion with His Father. He learned to know the will of His Father, and He learned to deny Himself, even His holy Self, during those hidden years. He learned the discipline of the Heavenly Father in His life—unknown to man, but known to God.
In other words, during those hidden years He was unknown to man because He was hidden in Nazareth. The world did not know Him or notice Him, and yet He was known by the Heavenly Father. These hidden years were the years that built Him up to be what He was to be and what He would be in His later years of service.
I remember—if you will excuse me for saying it again—dear Watchman Nee told us that all our principal spiritual lessons are learned before we are thirty. In other words, after we are thirty, we have no more new lessons to learn. The lessons we learn are simply deepened, but there are no new lessons. All the new lessons must be learned before thirty. These are formative years.
Now, brothers and sisters, when we look at ourselves physically speaking, from twelve to thirty, these are formative years. What we will become afterward really depends upon these years.
Outwardly, you are visible. You are all growing. You begin to exert your independence. You try to absorb all the knowledge that you can. You are with people, but inwardly you are alone.
Nobody really knows you. Probably you have such a feeling—not even your parents know you anymore. There is a secret part of your life during that period.
If that secret life of yours during that formative period is a proper relationship with God—if, aside from the outward growth, all the activities, and all the things going on around you, you have a hidden life with God—then that is very important.
Outwardly, you may be attending the meetings. Outwardly, you may be active, even in so-called Christian activities. But people can only see what is outside, just as our Lord Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Nobody can really see what is going on within you.
Sometimes you wonder if you know yourself. You are lonely. You are all by yourself. These are important years—dangerous years.
If you have a real, living relationship with God, you will find that during those hidden years a godly character will gradually be built up. That will set your course for the future.
But if you do not have a living relationship with God, you will find that you will be influenced and moulded by the world. You will become a victim of your circumstances, and that will also determine your future.
So these formative years are very, very important to any person.
Now apply this spiritually. When we are born again, we are babes in Christ. We go through a period of babyhood. We have to be fed with milk. Other brothers and sisters have to take care of us.
If they do not do as we wish, we cry, we shout, we kick. We are vain. When you are babes, you are allowed to do these things; they are tolerated.
But you cannot continue to be a baby in Christ. You have to grow. As you begin to grow, you find that you have to take your spiritual responsibility. You cannot depend upon your brothers and sisters all the time.
It is true that brothers and sisters who are more advanced than you are still keep an eye on you and try to help you. But gradually, you find that you have to be responsible for your own spiritual life.
During that period, probably you will be active outwardly too. But what is important is this: Do you have a hidden life with the Lord?
If you try to be a Christian just to be active and outwardly visible, without a hidden life with the Lord, sooner or later you will be found out. You will not be able to stand. When circumstances change, you change.
But if, during that period of spiritual adolescence, you cultivate a secret life with the Lord—a life with the Lord that is hidden from men—people do not see it, but you know it, then, brothers and sisters, you will grow into spiritual maturity.
So these formative years are very, very important years. They make you what you will be later.
Here we find that from age twelve to thirty, the life of our Lord Jesus was completely hidden, as it were, from the world, but known to the Heavenly Father. There our Lord learned all the lessons that He had to learn before He stepped out into public ministry.
When our Lord Jesus was in public ministry, He used many illustrations, and these illustrations were lessons that He learned during those hidden years.
You find, in His public life, He said, “My time is not yet come.” When did He learn the timing of the Lord? During those formative years.
When He was twelve years old, He had already purposed to be occupied with His Father’s business. He stayed behind in the temple to learn more of the law of God, and yet He had to return home and be obedient to His parents because God’s time had not come.
He had to spend eighteen long years waiting for God’s time. We may feel that the Lord has called us, and we want to plunge right away into so-called ministry because we are called. We cannot wait; our flesh is impatient.
But our Lord learned the timing of the Lord during those formative years. The Lord said, “I can do nothing of Myself.” When did He learn such lessons? Not after He started His work, but during those days of preparation. He learned that He could do nothing except what the Father did.
He said, “I can say nothing.” When did He learn such lessons? Surely not when He began to talk. It was during those years that He learned not to say anything except what He heard the Father say; then He spoke it.
So, brothers and sisters, whether in His life or in His ministry, you find that all these preparations were being made during the time of those hidden years. Hidden years are important years.
I do want to impress upon our young brothers and sisters: you are in those formative years. These are very important years. Remember, cultivate a hidden life with the Lord. That is the key.
Without it, your life, no matter how successful in the eyes of the world, will be a failure. With it, your life is a success in the eyes of God.
After our Lord spent eighteen hidden years, when He reached the age of thirty, He stepped out into public ministry.
Humanly speaking, we may think that Joseph, His earthly father, died early. Being the eldest son, from the human standpoint, He had to take up the responsibility for the family. He could not enter into the ministry to which God had called Him before He was thirty. He had to take care of the family until the other boys and girls grew up. Then He was freed from His family duty.
On the other hand, in the Old Testament, when a priest came to the age of thirty, he became a full-fledged priest. So probably that is another reason why, when the Lord was thirty, He entered His public ministry.
In Chinese, we have a proverb: when you are thirty, you are established. In other words, before you are thirty, you are not settled yet; you are not established yet. Because you are not established, you cannot really enter into your life ministry.
So when you are thirty, then you are established. When the Lord was thirty years old, the time came for Him to appear, to manifest Himself before the public. He began His public manifestation by being baptized.
John the Baptist was six months older than our Lord Jesus. When John the Baptist was thirty years old, he began the ministry to which God had called him. He became the forerunner of Christ.
He came out of the wilderness, a voice out of the wilderness, crying, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That voice electrified the whole nation. People flocked to the wilderness to hear him, and many received his baptism—the baptism of repentance.
In the economy of God, in the administration of God, God ordained at this particular time that the nation of Israel should repent.
Outwardly, the children of Israel had returned. The remnant had returned from Babylonian captivity. They had rebuilt the city, rebuilt the temple, and restored the priesthood. Everything seemed to be going on as usual for hundreds of years.
They were considered a religious people. As a matter of fact, the world looked at Judaism as one of the purest religions in the world. Therefore, a number of Gentiles became proselytes, or half-proselytes, because they admired the purity of the Jewish religion.
The Jews, of course, took great pride in their religion: in the beautiful temple they had, in the elaborate priestly ceremonies and rituals they had, and in the Word of God that was with them. They considered themselves a religious people.
But in God’s eyes, they were as sinful as the rest of the world. Therefore, before the Messiah came, He sent John as a forerunner to turn the people back to God.
They were to repent—not just of their evil deeds, but of their self-righteousness; not merely because of sins they had committed, but because of the omissions, the things they had not done.
Not just to repent for what was wrong, but to repent for what was missing. Not just to repent for sins, but to repent because the kingdom of heaven was coming. In other words, they could not play with religion anymore. It was going to be real.
They had to repent for the kingdom’s sake, because when the kingdom comes, it is real.
Even Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel—that elderly, intelligent, moral man, a model to the Jews—thought that he was almost there. So he came to the Lord at night. He was humble enough to come and ask, “What shall I do? Is there anything more that I must do, that I can enter into the kingdom of God?”
The Lord said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born from above, he cannot even see, much less enter into, the kingdom of God.” You are unqualified.
No one was fit in the whole nation of Israel for the kingdom of God. They had to repent of their religion, their self-righteousness, and everything. To do that, they had to receive the baptism of John.
Why baptism? Because baptism symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection. That repentance had to be so thorough that the whole being had to go to death. There was nothing good to remain, nothing good to hold on to. Everything had to be repented of—your good as well as your bad.
Your whole being had to go into death and be buried out of sight, and then come out in newness of life. It is as drastic as that. That is the baptism of John.
Many Pharisees came wanting to be baptized. Why? Not because they had really repented; they wanted to show their righteousness. John the Baptist said, “You have to repent. You have to show the works of repentance; otherwise, this will not help you.”
But many publicans and many sinners really repented and received the baptism of John. The Pharisees and scribes rejected his baptism. They thought they were too good for that.
Now here came the Lord Jesus. He came to John the Baptist to be baptized. When John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus, something happened.
He said, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” Even though humanly they were cousins, they did not see each other often. John the Baptist grew up in the wilderness, and our Lord was far away in Galilee, in the hilly country of Nazareth.
I do not know whether they had ever met. If they had met, probably it was just casually. They did not really know each other well, though they had heard of each other.
But somehow, when Jesus came to John the Baptist, John was conscious that here was a perfect Man who did not need to repent. Therefore, He should not be baptized.
On the contrary, standing before that Man, John immediately realized that he himself needed to be baptized. Brothers and sisters, he who baptized people needed to be baptized. When he stood before that Man, he realized that he needed to repent and be baptized.
The very presence of the Lord, that holy character, immediately touched John the Baptist. Why? Because John the Baptist was a person filled with the Holy Spirit, so he responded to God.
Yet the Lord Jesus said, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
Now, brothers and sisters, what is the meaning of “to fulfil all righteousness”? To put it simply, it means to be right with God.
At different times, God has what we call in the Scriptures “present truth.” You find that in 2 Peter 1. The truth of God is eternal, but at a certain period, a certain truth is especially required or demanded by God of all people.
At that present time, the truth that God required of the people was repentance—the baptism of repentance. That was required by God of every Israelite. If you accepted that, you became righteous; you were reckoned righteous before God. If you did not accept that, then you were unrighteous and condemned before God.
So John came in the righteousness of God to perform the baptism of repentance. Here, you find that our Lord Jesus came and said, “I have to be baptized in order to fulfil all righteousness.”
He Himself had no need to repent. He Himself was sinless. He is the only One who knew no sin. He did not need to be baptized on His own account, and yet He came to be baptized. Why? In order to fulfil all righteousness.
When He came to be baptized, He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. In other words, He came to be baptized not because of Himself. He came to be baptized because He offered Himself as a substitute for the sin of the world—not only for the nation of Israel, but for the whole world.
He took all the sins of the world upon Himself, and there He repented for us and was baptized as if He were dead. Brothers and sisters, this is fulfilling all righteousness, because this is the right thing in the sight of God: for John to do it to Him, and for Him to be baptized by John.
Because of this, John baptized Him. As soon as He was baptized and came out of the water, He was praying. The heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit came down as a dove, descending upon Him and abiding in Him. A voice came out of heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Brothers and sisters, if you read the Gospel according to John, you find John saying, “I knew Him not.” There was One among them greater than John, but John did not know Him until he was told that when he saw the Holy Spirit descending upon a person and abiding upon Him, that was the Son of God.
Then he testified, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.”
When our Lord Jesus was baptized, He committed Himself to this work of redemption as the Lamb of God. So the Holy Spirit came down as a dove.
Why as a dove? You remember that, when a person sinned in the Old Testament, he needed to offer a sacrifice to die in his stead, to atone for his sin. If he was very poor and could not afford a bullock or even a lamb, then he could offer a turtledove or a young pigeon.
In other words, a dove is the sacrifice of the poor. There you find the Holy Spirit coming upon the Lord as a dove. Why? Because, through the eternal Spirit, He had offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for the sin of the world.
The heaven opened. The heaven that was closed to mankind was opened. God was so pleased and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
So, brothers and sisters, this is the baptism of our Lord Jesus. His baptism commenced His ministry, and His crucifixion concluded His ministry.
Even from the foundation of the world, He was the Lamb slain. But only when He was baptized did He offer Himself as a Man to God; and on the cross, He died as the Lamb of God.
Now, His baptism is different from ours, different from all baptisms. All the other baptisms received by the Jewish people at that time were the baptism of John. They received the baptism of John because of their own sins, for their own sake.
But our Lord Jesus received the baptism of John not for His own sake, but for the sake of the nation and for the sake of the whole world.
Our Lord’s baptism is different from our baptism. Brothers and sisters, our baptism is not the baptism of John. Our baptism is believers’ baptism. It is commanded by our Lord in Matthew 28.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you:
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
So, brothers and sisters, the baptism that we receive is believers’ baptism, not the baptism of John. In other words, our baptism is not the baptism of repentance. We first repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, and then we are baptized.
It is different from our Lord. With our Lord, His baptism was redemptive in nature, because when He was baptized, He was baptized unto our death. But our baptism is testimonial in nature. It is a testimony.
It testifies that we have truly repented, that we have believed in the Lord Jesus, that we are no longer our own, and that we belong to the Lord. Because of such faith, we are baptized. We are baptized unto Jesus, declaring that we belong to Him.
We are buried with Him, die with Him, are buried with Him, and are raised with Him in newness of life. This is our testimony. That is the reason believers must be baptized.
Even though our baptism is different from the baptism of our Lord Jesus, there is a basic thought that is the same. What is baptism? Baptism is death, burial, and resurrection.
When you go into the water, you go into death. When you are covered by the water, you are buried out of sight. When you come out of the water, you are raised from the dead in newness of life. That is what baptism typifies.
What goes down to death is your old self. What is buried out of sight is you. What comes out of the water is Christ in you, the hope of glory. No longer I; it is Christ who lives in me. That is the basic thought of baptism.
Our Lord Jesus began His ministry with baptism. In other words, you cannot start to minister unto God without going through death, burial, and resurrection.
Ministry begins with death, burial, and resurrection. Any ministry that has not gone through death, burial, and resurrection is not acceptable.
Even in Old Testament times, you find this is true. When the Levites began to murmur and say, “Are we not holy? Can we not minister to the Lord as Aaron does? Why should Aaron do all these things and we cannot?” the Lord said, “All right, take twelve rods.”
Rods are taken out of a tree. A tree is living, but a rod is dead. So God said, “Take twelve rods, one for each tribe of Israel. Write the name of each tribe upon that rod, and put the rods before the veil, before the ark, overnight in darkness.”
The next day, Aaron’s rod budded, blossomed, and bore fruit. That was the proof that Aaron’s ministry was accepted by God; the rest were rejected.
So you find the principle there: death, burial, and resurrection. These dead rods had to go through darkness, buried out of sight; and that which was resurrected could minister unto the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus began His ministry with baptism. He did not minister to God by His own wisdom, His own strength, His own experience, or His own power. He was willing to go into death, let everything go, and be buried completely out of sight. He ministered in the power of the resurrection of God. That is why His ministry was so effective.
Now, brothers and sisters, the same thing is true with us. After we believe in the Lord Jesus, we need to be baptized. After we are baptized, we need to function in the house of God.
But do you remember the principle of baptism? Do you know that you were dead? If you try to serve God still with your old flesh, if you still want to be displayed instead of being buried out of sight, if you still try to function in your own power and not in the resurrection life of Christ, brothers and sisters, in the sight of God it is a disservice, not a service.
It will only corrupt the church and not build up the church.
We need always to remember that our ministry unto the Lord has to be on the foundation of our baptism. We have to stand on that ground: the ground of death to self, the ground of burial out of sight, and the ground of resurrection in the life and power of the Holy Spirit.
It is on that ground that we can serve the Lord. So, brothers and sisters, this is the baptism of our Lord Jesus. May it teach us a very important lesson in our service to the Lord.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do pray that Thy Spirit will refresh upon our hearts the importance of those formative years of our life.
We pray that Thou wilt enable us, by Thy grace, to realize and cultivate a secret life, a hidden life with Thee, that we may not be just people appearing before men, but that we may be a people who have a life with the Lord in secret.
We pray that we may be transformed and take up Thy character in us. Lord, we do pray that when the time comes for us to really minister unto Thee and unto Thy people, that we may always stand on the ground of baptism.
May we never be in our own power, but always in Christ, by His power. O Lord, we do pray that the life of Thy Son may really inspire us, that we may follow Thy footsteps. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.