Toward the end of last year, I was feeling the need to reframe our mission as a church – when we planted in 2015, our mission was organized around living the way of Jesus, and I am really feeling the need for us to get back to the basics of what it means to follow Jesus – so, our restated mission is this: Our mission is to help every man, woman and child ENCOUNTER, EMBRACE and EMBODY the way of Jesus. These words are important because they are very process oriented. The word ENCOUNTER is defined as and an unexpected meeting – how cool is that? Our desire is that through the ministry of Restoration, people would have an unexpected meeting with Jesus – what does that mean? It means that people have a lot of misunderstandings about and misrepresentations of who Jesus is, and we want people to encounter him in an unexpected and transformative way.

 

This morning, I want us to look at Israel’s first ENCOUNTER with Jesus. Their “brush with greatness” was unexpected for a lot of reasons.  Jumping back into chapter 3 - In order to understand this baptism account, we need to back up to understand the context – Earlier in chapter 3, John the Baptist came onto the scene, with a message of repentance – Contrasting this with other gospel accounts, it is clear that throngs of people were coming to him to confess and be baptized – but here is where it got interesting: Matthew 3:7-12 – John uses harsh judgment language – “Flee from the coming wrath”, “The ax is at the root of the trees”, “Trees that aren’t producing fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”, “His winnowing (old school pitch) fork is in his hand”, “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” – If you’re there and hearing it for the first time, who or what are you expecting? A hardcore authoritarian judge of a king to rise up in Jerusalem, or a ruthless military leader to overtake the religious elite and return Israel to a strong nation – this is a war-torn nation living under Roman occupation, and this strong language had to have been unnerving but somewhat hopeful – But their first encounter with Jesus was much different than expected.  Based on what you understand about Jesus, how would you respond if you had an encounter with him? Excitement? Shame? Fear of being found out? Hopeful for healing? What if he's not who you thought he was? Let’s look at the text - Matthew 3:13-17

 

V13 – “The Jesus came from Galilee…” – They were looking south to Jerusalem, and here came Jesus from the Galilean town of Nazareth – remember, Galilee was what many believed to be a cursed land because it was constantly overrun and overtaken by their enemies – And here comes this righteous judge from the most unlikely of places – but even more odd, he was in line for John to baptize him! He didn’t push people out of the way, and join John in the water to baptize the people, or pat John on the back and say, “I’ll take it from here” – Instead, he came from an unexpected place with an unexpected disposition – he aligned with the people who needed confession, repentance and cleansing, not the religious people who had it all together – he practiced Philippians 2:7 – a picture of humility – John preached fire and judgment, but Jesus came in humility and obscurity.

 

When I think about our current church climate, so much harm has been done by the church in misrepresenting Jesus – What are the ways that Christianity is viewed in our culture? Judgmental, exclusive, angry, afraid, combative, close-minded – “If that’s what following Jesus looks like, I want nothing to do with it” – Based just on 2024, if your life was the only Jesus people would ever see, what would their ENCOUNTER be like?

 

V14 – John’s response is similar to Peter’s response in the upper room when Jesus tried to wash his feet – “No, I should be washing your feet” – John felt the same sense of unworthiness – John fully understood that Jesus was Messiah, and he couldn’t imagine allowing this to take place – “You should be baptizing me!”

 

V15 – “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” – What is he talking about? Jesus is identifying with sinners – Jesus was showing in that moment that to accomplish his mission, he needed to identify – so, let’s talk about John’s baptism for a sec – His baptism was a baptism of repentance and promise that something new was coming – So, why did Jesus need to be baptized? He was sinless, so no repentance was needed – He was identifying that he was the fulfillment of all righteousness – He said it in the SOM in Matt. 5:17 -Fulfill the law - of course, fast-forward, and he proved himself by not just identifying with sinners, but 2 Cor 5:21 says Jesus BECAME SIN to “fulfill all righteousness” on our behalf.

 

V16 – AFTER being baptized, and AFTER stepping up to the banks, HEAVEN OPENED and the Spirit of God fell on him – Matthew has done a masterful job so far helping his Jewish audience connect to the story – Matthew identified Jesus in chapter 1 as Son of David, Son of Abraham, and a BETTER MOSES in the following chapters – he came up out of Egypt in chapter 2, he passes through the waters of the Jordan River in chapter 3, enters into the wilderness to conquer and overcome the enemy in chapter 4, and will go up on a mountainside to give a new interpretation of the LAW in chapter 5 – it’s fascinating to see how Jesus is tracing the steps of Moses, and redeeming what was broken in the history of Israel.

 

“Heaven Opened” – 400 years of silence, and now God was interacting with his creation -  the Spirit of God fell on him – Gen. 1:2, the Spirit was hovering, and Gen 8, Noah sent out a dove, and it returned with an olive branch, LIFE and a NEW BEGINNING – Jesus was not receiving the Holy Spirit for the first time, as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit – However, he was being anointed for his purpose and mission – from this point on, he would be led by the Spirit, which we saw last week, STRAIGHT INTO THE WILDERNESS.

 

V17 – “This is my much loved SON, with whom I am WELL PLEASED” – Again, in chapter 1 he is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham – but now, he is the Son of GOD – GOD SPEAKS -  Can you insert yourself into the story – you have traveled out into the Judean wilderness because you have heard that there is someone prophesying about Heaven coming near – so, you are in a crowd of people, in line to repent and be baptized, and here comes the MESSIAH, but in the most unexpected way – he was in line IN FRONT OF YOU, maybe you even had small talk with him, and you had a front row seat to watch HEAVEN open, the HOLY SPIRIT fall and GOD proclaim that Jesus was his MUCH LOVED SON – Can you imagine the moment? For Israel, this was an UNEXPECTED MEETING, an ENCOUNTER with the long-awaited MESSIAH in an UNEXPECTED place at an UNEXPECTED time.

 

Illus – This week, was in a meeting with Katy Smith, who volunteers with our kids on Sunday mornings – she is passionate about Jesus and our children’s ministry – but was reminded about our first meeting – in 2015, she was a waitress at Republic Grille, and she waited on me – it was clear she was in a tough spot in life, and I simply asked if I could pray for her – and Jesus showed up at the table - lots of tears that day, but thought I’d probably never see her again – but turns out Katy had an ENCOUNTER, an unexpected meeting with Jesus that day – her life didn’t change immediately, but through a job interview in 2017, two women invited her to Restoration, mentioned my name, she asked if I was a short guy with white hair (offensive), came, and has been involved ever since, married with kids.

 

It is the Holy Spirit that connects the dots for people, revealing who Jesus is, but what if you are the person God wants to use for your co-worker to encounter Jesus? What if you showing patience in line at the grocery store and offering a kind word to the check-out clerk changes the way he thinks about Jesus? What if your neighbor who has been hurt by the church is disarmed by the way you love their kids, or by the way you lead your family?

 

Sometimes, you get to see the rest of the story, and see the complete transformation when Jesus transforms a life – But many times, you are just a brush with greatness, helping people have an unexpected meeting with Jesus.

 

But let me close taking us back to the bank of the Jordan – All of those people who witnessed the inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry: I wonder how many became followers that day? I wonder how many of those same people were in the crowd yelling “Crucify him” just 3 years later? Here is the truth: When Jesus shows up unexpectedly, sometimes he gets missed – and when he doesn’t save or move the way you thought he should, sometimes he gets shunned – We all want a SAVIOR, but we want him fashioned in our image, to meet our expectations – What if Jesus doesn’t come with shock and awe, but in humility and obscurity, not in a forceful yell but in a gentle whisper?

 

Today, two groups of people: Those who NEED an authentic ENCOUNTER with Jesus and those who can BE and authentic ENCOUNTER with Jesus.