After all the people were baptized Jesus was baptized and when praying the heavens opened.
Jesus was baptized after all the people had been baptized. Here we have an emphasis and an order. Jesus is the last one to be baptized.
Now we know that this is not literal, in respect of the cessation of water baptisms after Jesus, and we can safely assume that their were individuals under the reach of Johns ministry who were not baptized, through hardness of heart to the call inspired by love to repent.
Therefore, the statement is spiritual it is partially literal in that most people would have been already baptized. But it is primarily a spiritual statement concerning the truth that Jesus did not need to be baptized but was baptized in identification with those requiring it, and that once he was baptized as the representative head of the human race it opened the way for God the Father to reveal that repentance is necessitated so that the goodness and kindness of God in Christ Jesus might be made fully known – the fellowship & relationship always intended for man. This is why the ministry of the new covenant is always a ministry of no condemnation, God has magnified this when Jesus himself was baptized in water.
After Jesus is baptized, the gospel of Luke clearly states that Jesus was ‘praying’, and that then the heavens opened.
This is a most helpful statement. Lukes gospel is the one scholars define as being written for man, as it focuses on Jesus’s humanity. It is also written for a gentile audience and hence it is fitting that the book of Acts is also penned by the same author, as the blessing of the ministry of reconciliation is for those near and afar from the covenant promises.
We can conclude, that if the first thing Jesus did after water baptism is pray, that his prayer was answered!!! Heaven is then opened and the Father speaks! This is written so that we may have an entrance into this life.
Baptism is a baptism in prayer – it is for relationship with God, Jesus knew all his prayers would be answered (John Ch 17) Prayer is the purpose for which heaven is opened: the throne room, to walk and talk with God and to have your prayers answered – baptism in water must come first so that are prayers are not for wrong things, are conscious being restored – but also the heavens are opened when Jesus was praying as he had been baptized not for his own sake but on behalf of others and that is the guiding principle for answered prayer – the motivation is not for yourself but for others benefit.
The Christian life is a baptized life – baptized into prayer, ‘Father without you and an open heaven, I can do nothing’.
Luke 3 v22. Some manuscripts say ‘beloved Son, Today I have begotten you’.
What was Jesus praying after his baptism? He already knew God was his Father, at 12. Yet the Father spoke to him – perhaps on behalf of all who get baptized that this is the relationship they are in/baptized into. But he was able to face a new sustained temptation in the wilderness, where his commitment and loyalty would be tested – hence he needed to hear this at this juncture – this victory is also a precursor to the Cross – where Jesus did not have his Father speaking to him from an Open Heaven – Oh the garden of Gethsemane the agony of real separation the real baptism, on behalf of all those separated (sinners) from relationship with God! None of the others had been baptized like this (all having been baptized) he went absolutely first in the baptism of the Cross – the heavens were opened on the day of Pentecost as they were gathered together in ‘prayer’ in one accord – upon a level playing field.
Pentecost is a baptism of prayer!
These notes have been merged together, combining fresher thoughts and initial ones jotted down over a busy period at summer conference and with family staying. However, I believe what Jesus prayed after his baptism was a prayer that opened heaven, it was a prayer that revealed to those present a ministry of ‘No condemnation’ after (repentance) coming to ourselves, as the prodigal did in Luke Ch15, discovering the mantle of Christ’s covering garment, reserved by the Father: ‘For this my Son was dead’. I believe his prayer was along the lines of Pauls: Ephesians Ch 1 v16-23.
There is a definite order in the narrative of scripture here.
The gospels combined do refer frequently to the fact that Jesus was a man of prayer, and a man of answered prayer. We know that it was after a period of prolonged prayer that he appointed the twelve apostles, and we know that it was after prayer that Lazarus was raised again to life.
Yet, we know very little about his daily prayer life and its content. This ought to be a great liberator to the believer as it shows that prayer is not to be a religious bondage of replication. The structure of the ‘Lords prayer’, encapsulates all the ingredients we require to pray aright. No prayer is either marginalized or minimized as being inconsequential to ‘Our Father in an open heaven’. The wisdom of God has given us the detail concerning the prayer life of Jesus, deemed necessary.
Yet, there is one portion of scripture that gives us great insight, and the only prolonged insight into the prayer life of Jesus. It is in Johns gospel Ch 17.
This prayer is 100% succinct with when his public ministry began, and it starts with his Father in heaven. Now, this must be noted. This prayer could have been prayed after his baptism, but it is prior to the baptism of the cross that the revelation is given into his prayer life.
Therefore, prior to Calvary we have a reversal of Order. At his baptism, afterwards he prays. But before the baptism of the Cross he prays.
This reversal of order is also pivoted upon other people. All the people had been baptized, then Jesus. But prior to Calvary, Jesus is not the last but he is the first to enter such a death, the first to go through it having not been deserving of it. No other man could have gone through the obedience of the death of the Cross securing eternal life for others, other than a man who was given entirely to his fathers business: For this my Son was dead and is alive again.
Jesus prayed at Calvary, but his Father did not appear to answer him from an open heaven. This is central to the pivot of the cross.
When was Jesus’s prayer of the baptism of the cross answered. Once he was ascended, it was poured forth on the day of Pentecost, grace multiplied to the nations (a running river of life – not a Dead Sea).
On that day they were in prayer and together and essentially of one accord, upon a level playing field. The conditions revealed by his prayer life on earth ‘succincted’ with the sound that is in heaven: Unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a three cord strand, broken for a moment that others might be grafted in.
The Church of Jesus Christ, was born out of his prayers. Pentecost is the gift of love revealed at Calvary. It is the ‘Let us’ of Gods heart towards mankind.
The promise of Jesus to his disciples is that they would know the Father, and that they would know their prayers answered in accordance to the life of the Son of God.
His prayer at Calvary is answered, by the embrace and entreating of the Father: ‘Son, you are ever with me, and that is mine is yours’.
1 John Ch 3 v1.
Notes:
After all the people were baptized Jesus was baptized and when praying the heavens opened. This is akin to the fact that Saul would be baptized in the Holy Spirit as he was in prayer! Stephen saw into an open heaven & Paul received an answer to his final prayer, which was according to the order given: forgiving men their trespasses.
Lukes other book, Acts, follows the life of Peter and then Paul. It is the demonstration of the Father outworking the life of his Son, through the Spirit.
Time has prohibited putting pen to more of the blessing of the last week, having been freed from the demands of work for the week, it was a tremendous blessing to be with the saints and under the rich ministry of the word of God.
eternalrays 