Luke 3:21-23a – Jesus: Prophet, Priest, and King

Introduction

Today we are going to see from Luke 3:21-22 that Jesus is the Christ who was promised, who perfectly pleased God in all that he did, and so the Father poured out the Spirit upon him to enable him to do his ministry of reconciliation to God.

Background

To help us understand the promises of God that are the backdrop to the Father’s words to Jesus, let me lay some biblical groundwork. But, before I do, let me give you the briefest summary I can. Ready? God created the world, humanity ruined it and lost the ability to be with God because his justice can’t allow rebellion and evil to be with him. So, God promised humanity that he would solve this problem by sending one perfect man to fix it who would be prophet, priest, and king.

Now, let me slow down in case you are unfamiliar with the story of the Bible. I’m going to start at the beginning of all time. God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them through Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. The crown of this creation was humanity, who he put in a beautiful garden, and then pronounced it all very good.

The first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, were commissioned to lovingly rule over this creation, to take the order God patterned in the garden and push it out to the rest of the world. They were told to multiply through childbearing and, as a family, live with God and one another in loving relationship.

But there was something else God did. He entered into a binding agreement, a covenant of works, with Adam which required him to trust God by obeying one simple command. He could eat everything that was for food except from one particular tree. It was a test. If he passed, he and all his posterity would live in blessing forever; if he failed, he would die. Would he trust and obey God in all things? Or would he rebel and do what he wanted, facing death?

It wasn't long before Adam and his wife decided to forsake God's command and decide for themselves what was right and wrong. This rebellion plunged the whole human race into death.

God, in his mercy, chose not to destroy them but instead promised that through one of their offspring’s sacrifice, their crimes against him would be paid for, and they would be saved by looking forward to this salvation program in faith. This program had physical pictures and acts, like killing a lamb without blemish, that pointed to this one offspring’s sacrifice that would come in the future. 

Thousands of years went by and then God spoke to Abram, one of their offspring, who wasn’t even looking for God. God made him a promise that through his offspring, the whole world would be blessed.

Eventually, after his offspring was rescued from captivity in Egypt and God’s covenant with them through Moses was reconfirmed, God gave the Israelites a land and made a man named David king. God promised David that one day, one of his descendants would reign as forever king and fulfill all the previous promises.

Later in history, God told many prophets that the promise to Eve, Abraham, Israel, and David would be fulfilled by a king who would come and die for sin and then pour out the Holy Spirit upon all who trusted in him.

A later prophet declared that one day, a final prophet would come just before this king, and he would tell of the coming judgment and salvation that this king would offer. The name of this prophet would be John the Baptist.

John proclaimed the word of the Lord that the Messiah, the Christ of God, the promised one, had finally arrived, and all must repent and be baptized, preparing themselves for his coming. He prophesied that Jesus would either bring judgment or salvation and he would fulfill the promise that this Messiah would pour out God himself, the Holy Spirit, upon his people from all nations. He would truly be the savior of the world.

After everyone was baptized by John, Jesus asked John to baptize him. John refused because he knew that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to pay for sin, the lamb of God, that had come to take away the sins of the world and didn’t need to repent.

Jesus insisted that it must happen. But why? There are three possible reasons: first, priests at 30 when going to serve in the Tabernacle would be consecrated with water. According to the Father, Jesus is the priest (one who represents man to God and vice versa) of all priests, and so perhaps this baptism represented his being consecrated as THE High Priest of God. Second, Jesus was identifying with the people of Israel, repenting on their behalf, being baptized for them, and through this, they were baptized into him. Third, which seems like Luke's theme here, Jesus is the king who would reign forever, and would, after his resurrection, gift his people with the Holy Spirit, in fulfillment of God’s promises to his people.

Exposition

This is where our story begins, Jesus is about to be baptized showing us our first point that Jesus is a man of prayer and communion with his Father

Before we look at verse 21, let me read Matthew’s account to help us understand the ordering of events. “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” You see, immediately after Jesus came up from the water, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended and remained upon him.

Now, look at verse 21. It says that all the people were baptized, and then Jesus had been baptized. Don’t miss this, that Jesus was praying while being baptized. This means that he was praying to the Father as he was under the water and coming out of the water, and even probably before that. In other words, after Jesus explained to John that he must be baptized by John, he probably started praying and didn’t stop until after the heavens opened at a minimum.

But why does this matter? I think Luke is trying to show us that Jesus is the true second Adam, the man of God who communes with God in prayer, and because of who he is and his perfect life, God listens to him.

I believe that Jesus was praying for the Father to empower him with the Holy Spirit so that he could do the work he had to do. As we saw earlier, Jesus was always about his Father’s work. Now, at the dawn of his ministry, around 30 years old, he was more than likely asking the Father for the Holy Spirit to empower him for his work. If this is the case, we see that God listened to him, by immediately opening heaven and sending the Holy Spirit to rest upon him to enable him to complete his mission of seeking and saving the lost.

It might be easy to be skeptical like we are in our own lives about prayer, that Jesus’ prayer and the descent of the Holy Spirit were just a coincidence. But Luke doesn’t want us to do this. He is drawing out something that is not found in Matthew and Mark. Jesus was praying at the time of his baptism. And while he was praying, the heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him.

What is the conclusion I draw from this? Jesus was a man of prayer, and he wants us to be people of prayer. Whenever we are doing the work that God gives us to do, we should pray to our Father, through Jesus, for God to give us the Holy Spirit to empower us for our work.

And now our second point that Jesus is The Promised One.

Next, look at the end of verse 21 and then 22. Here, we see that the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove. And according to Matthew, the Spirit rested upon him. In other words, the Spirit descended upon Jesus and stayed with him. And it appears that about the same time, the Father spoke from heaven to Jesus and said that Jesus was his beloved Son with whom he was well-pleased. Now, you might be thinking, didn’t Matthew quote the Father in a different way? My guess here is that Mark and Luke are focusing on the Father’s pronouncement to Jesus, what Jesus actually heard, while Matthew is simply focusing on the significance of the Father’s pronouncement to Jesus.

Now, you might have a few questions. First, what was significant about the Holy Spirit coming in bodily form like a dove? Second, who saw the Spirit descend? Third, why does it matter?

First, the dove was a bird that was ceremonially clean and was usable for sacrifice by those who were too poor to afford a larger animal, possibly foreshadowing his being a sacrifice. Also, the dove was an emblem of purity which shows us that the Father was declaring Jesus to be pure.

Later, in Acts, we will see that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us as Christians, he comes as tongues of fire and rests, not a dove that rests. You see, Jesus is perfectly clean, the perfect home or perfect landing zone for the Holy Spirit. Yet, we are not pure, and thus, we are in need of the fire of purification to make us a fit landing zone for the Spirit.

And, while we are alive, the Spirit stays with us and does his continual work of purifying us. The Holy Spirit has been given to us by Jesus to empower us for mission as well as purify us, so we conform more and more to the image of Christ.

Second, it is clear that Jesus saw the Spirit descend upon him, but we might also conclude that John and others saw this as well. The question is whether they understood it. To this, I respond, we just don’t know.

Third, it matters because Jesus is in the presence of God the Father, being commissioned for his ministry as prophet, priest, and king. He was baptized in water at around the age of 30, like a priest being set apart for service in the Tabernacle. He was also anointed with the Holy Spirit as those who were commissioned as prophets and anointed as the unique Messianic Son of God proclaimed in Psalm 2:7. There Jesus is declared to be the unique king by God himself. Thus, at this baptism, Jesus can be seen as prophet, priest, and king. But also, the suffering servant who would be the sacrifice to atone for sin so that God’s people might be with him.

This suffering servant can be seen in the second half of God’s voice to Jesus. Here, it seems like the Father has in mind Isaiah 42:1-4 which speaks of the servant of God being one in whom the Father’s soul delights who has the Spirit of God put on him. This servant theme carries throughout Isaiah 40-55, culminating in the famous Isaiah 53 passage, which speaks of the servant’s being punished for our sin.

Now, what do we make of this? Luke interprets this passage for us through the apostle Peter in Acts 10:24-48 when Peter goes to preach the message to Cornelius the Gentile he preached that Jesus, who is Lord of all people, was baptized by John and at that time anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about preaching the good news, doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by Satan. He could do this because God was with him, empowering him by the Spirit. He was eventually put to death on the cross and then raised on the third day. Before he ascended to heaven, he commanded that his disciples preach that he would come to judge all people and that if anyone believed in him, they would receive forgiveness through his name. After Peter preached this, the Holy Spirit fell on everyone who heard this message. The believers who came with Peter were amazed because the Holy Spirit was given to non-Jews. We can conclude that…Jesus is the fulfillment of God's covenant with his people that he would bless the nations through an offspring, which is Jesus.

Let me show you how I got here. You see, at the baptism of Jesus, he was anointed by God the Father for the work that he was commissioned to do. Jesus was the fulfillment of all the covenantal promises that God had made to his people.

The Spirit of the Lord descended from heaven in bodily form, like a dove, and rested upon Jesus. This language is intentionally used to draw us to see this as the fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1-10. In this passage, it speaks of a shoot coming forth from the stump of Jesse, meaning from the lineage of David, that the Spirit would rest upon who would "…judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked." Doesn't this sound like the judgment and salvation that John the Baptist spoke of that the Messiah, Jesus, would bring? This passage, however, goes on to speak of the peace that this one filled with the Spirit would bring. He would bring peace between animal and animal, animals and people, and peace all throughout the earth since the earth would one day be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. On the day when he comes, this root of Jesse will be a signal for the people, and the nations will look for him, and the place where he reigns will be glorious.

This prophecy from Isaiah was actually based upon the covenant God made with David in 2 Samuel 7, where God said, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. …And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever." You see, David, was Jesse's son. Jesse was of the tribe of Judah. God would raise up a son from the line of David who would fulfill the covenant made to David.

This is in line with the prophecy that Jacob spoke to Judah in Gen 49:8-12, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." Even in this prophesy, we see that there will be a king in the line of Judah who will rule over his enemies.

This, in reality, was simply the promise of the covenant that God made with Abraham and his offspring, which was Christ, in Genesis 12, which says, “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Here Abraham is promised to be the fountainhead of blessing to all the families of the earth. This blessing would culminate in the offspring of Abraham, which is Jesus, who would ultimately bless all the nations of the earth.

And finally, this promise to Abraham was really the fulfillment of the promise to Eve that God would "…put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." This promise signified that one day, a child would come from Eve's descendants who would defeat Satan and bring victory, making a new humanity that would live in obedience to God.

You see, in Luke 3:21-22 we see Jesus as the promised offspring of Abraham, through David, the son who would reign, through the prophets who predicted a coming anointed one of God who would come to bring deliverance to God's people, who now would include all the nations of the earth. This Son of God would be the suffering servant who was prophet, priest, and king. He would bring blessing, salvation, to the whole world.

And this isn’t something that was just made up by man, connecting obscure prophesies from dusty scrolls. No, God the Father sends his Holy Spirit to rest upon Jesus so as to anoint Jesus for the ministry of reconciliation, and he declares Jesus to be his “beloved Son,” echoing Psalm 2:7, drawing out that Christ is the promised eternal king in the line of David, and that he is the suffering servant who would redeem his people from their sins from Isaiah 42:1-4.

This suffering servant would be filled with the Spirit and would make himself an offering for sin so that he might redeem the lost children of Abraham, whether Jews or Gentiles. Jesus truly is the Savior of the world.

Application

Now what can we do with this passage? First, we recognize that if we have trusted in Christ we have the Holy Spirit. The Scripture tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Not only have we been given the Holy Spirit to give us faith and embrace Christ as he is offered in the gospel, but also so that we can walk by the Spirit, putting to death the flesh, be led by the Spirit, being freed from the condemning curse of the law, living by the Spirit, producing fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and keeping in step with the Spirit by living in harmony with one another.

Please understand that the Spirit of Christ is not a thing. He is a person who lives in you and will guide and direct your life as you seek to live in the reality of his presence. As a person, he can be grieved by ignoring him and disobeying God’s standards. This causes us to back away from God like Adam and Eve in the garden. But, you should know that the way to live in the fullness of your communion and fellowship with God is to pray to the Father for the Spirit to fill you and lead you throughout all your life. As we ask, he will fill us with the Spirit, who will draw us more deeply into the abundant and joyful life of Christ, though not always comfortable.

Second, we see that Jesus received the Spirit as in bodily form like a dove, and from other parts of Scripture, that we receive the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire. Jesus was the perfect man, the second Adam. He didn’t need to be refined or purified. Rather, he was the offering for sin that took away our sin so that the Spirit could come and make his home with us and refine us to be conformed to the image of Christ. If you have been redeemed by Christ, you will have the Spirit of Christ living inside of you and he will be about the work of refining you and making you more and more of a fit vessel for the Spirit. But this work of the Spirit is not without your work. Paul says, “…my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” The Spirit will work in you, but it is not without you working. This working will happen as you seek God’s Spirit in prayer.

Third, we see that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Prophet, Priest, and King who lived and died to make a people who would live with him. The Father spoke to Jesus and told him that he was the chosen one, the heir of the Davidic promises, and the perfect second Adam who was the one to fulfill all the promises of God. This should give us great confidence in our faith.

God’s promises made 1000s of years before Christ did not fall to the ground. God brought his promised redemption through Jesus, his perfect Son. The eternal God, Father, Son, and Spirit would not slack in his promises to Adam and Eve. All of God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ. You can trust him no matter what is happening in your life right now.

As you and I sit in this room almost 2,000 years after Jesus lived and died. We have been blessed in the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ, for we are part of the nations who would be blessed because of the redemption purchased by Christ.