Luke 3:21-23 - "While He Prayed, The Heaven Was Opened"

I started my chat today thinking we would finish Luke 3, but as you will see I won’t get past verse 22. Several things have caught my attention in verses 21-22 that I would like to highlight today.   When Jesus came to be baptized by His cousin John in the Jordan River, no doubt there was a great crowd of hundreds of people from all over Israel there listening to John preach his message of repentance. I imagine that John would then give an invitation and for the people who came under conviction and wanted to be baptized to get into orderly line. As a very long line of people formed, it appears that Jesus has been there in the back of the crowd, and He gets into the back of the line.   I assume this because verse 21 says, “When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized…”. Jesus waited all day at the back of the line! He didn’t show up and force His way through the crowd telling everyone that He was the Messiah and to stand back while He makes His first public appearance. Remember Luke is presenting Jesus to us at the perfect “Son of Man” who identifies with us sinners.   Paul would later write in Philippians 2:5-8, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”   Our first picture of Jesus and the beginning of His ministry is one of humility and obedience. Jesus humbly takes His place with sinful men and submits in obedience to a baptism of repentance. The great lesson for us to learn from this is that if we are to have a ministry like Jesus that pleases our Father in heaven, we must humble ourselves and be willing to get in the back of the line where we are not noticed and present ourselves as servants. And we also should be obedient to the Lord and His Word. We have often said over the years that baptism is the first act of obedience in believer’s life!   Next verse 21 says, “and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.”  Again, only Luke tells us that at this point that Jesus prayed as He comes up out of the waters of baptism. Do you want to open the windows of heaven pouring out the Father’s blessings on your life and ministry? I see three necessary things here. Humility, obedience and prayer. Prayer is an indication of a heart that is totally dependent upon God’s grace for everything I need in my life to love and serve Him in a way that impacts the world of broken people all around me!   It was then that the Holy Spirit visibly appeared and came upon Jesus and the Father spoke from heaven and said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Here you have the evidence of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Scripture teaches that now my body is the temple of God: “…For you are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16). That Christ dwells in me: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). And my body is also the temple of the Holy Spirit: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). How awesome it that? Is there evidence of the Trinity dwelling in you as a believer!   The Father has a ministry for you today! Will you humble yourself, live in obedience to His Word, and begin every day of ministry with prayer receiving instructions from your Father? It is then that you will experience the fulness of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, guiding and directing your life. And you will quietly hear the voice of the Father saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”!   God bless!