The Baptism of the Servant | Mark 1:9-11 | J. Allen Mashburn

This passage records the first appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Word of God since He was seen in the Temple at the age of twelve. All we know of the next eighteen years of His life are summed up by Luke like this: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man,” Luke 2:52. Those silent years of the life of Jesus were years of mental, physical and spiritual preparation for His work as Messiah and Savior.

We are told in verse 8 that Jesus came “in those days”. Why did Jesus choose this time to make His identity and mission known to men? He came now because the time was right. John the Baptist had blazed the trail as the forerunner of the Lord. 

 

John the Baptist’s crowds were large and his ministry was at its very apex. Jesus came at this time because John had completed his work and the time for him to decrease had come. Jesus came because it was God’s appointed time for Him to be revealed.

The next phrase says, “Jesus came”. When Jesus Christ made His public appearance there on the banks of the Jordan River, it was a moment that changed the world forever. Ever since Adam sinned in Eden, mankind had been looking for a Redeemer Who would come and reconcile men to God. Since the dawn of time, fallen humanity had waited for the appearance of a perfect man who would challenge sin and Satan to deliver the human soul from the bondage of evil. Every man who had ever lived up to that day was just another fallen soul. 

 

Humanity had never been able to produce one who could deliver it from its lost condition. Many thousands of suns had risen and set on a world held fast in the grip of crushing iniquity. But, the day Jesus came, everything changed! When Jesus shows up, nothing remains as it was. (Ill. Just take a few minutes to ask Zacchaeus; the Gaderene Demoniac; the woman with the issue of blood; the three Hebrew boys; Daniel; Saul of Tarsus; Simon Peter; and any of the lives He impacted in the Word of God.)

Today we want to look at these verses and consider the events surrounding the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some great blessings in these verses if we will just take the time to glean them. There are some questions that will be answered for us as well.