And a voice came from heaven: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”A voice came out of the sky, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.and a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.
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… he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens. You are my beloved son. In you I am well pleased. immediately the spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild beasts and the angels were ministering to him Opening words are designed to command attention. Every once in a while, I have a chance to work with young preachers, and I always talk to them about the importance of introductions. People's time is important. Don't waste it. Get right into it. I can still hear the words of my mother. I could wrap up all of her counsel in four words. Get it said, son. I remember the story of a pastor who was talking on the phone the previous week with a fellow pastor, and this other pastor on the other end of the line was so discouraged. …
… Immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the spirit like a dove descending upon him, and a voice came out of the heavens, You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased. Chapter 3, verse 13. And he went up on the mountain and summoned those whom he himself wanted, and they came to him, and he appointed twelve so that they would be with him and that he could send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons. Chapter 8, verse 27. Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way, he questioned his disciples, saying to them, who do people say that I am? They told him, saying, John the Baptist, and others say, Elijah, but others, one of the prophets. And he continued by questioning them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said to him you are the Christ and one more chapter 10 verse 45 10 45 for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many Can you remember what you did a week ago last Tuesday? …
And interestingly, it was the last thing Jesus heard the Father audibly speak as he came up out of the water in water baptism, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. What God says over your life is the target of the enemy. Don't be shocked when the promise over your life is what receives the greatest opposition. God wants to reveal the strength of his word, number one, but number two, he wants to reveal himself as the rewarder. When you are faced with an option, do I believe this word or do I believe an alternate reality? The reward comes for those who stick to his word. So the second temptation, the one that Jesus faced was if you're the son of God, This identity as sons and daughters of God is absolutely essential because you think different, you pray different, your expectations, your dreams are different. People who are raised in a household with unlimited resources naturally think different than those who live with lack. …
… verse 21. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my son whom I love with you. I am well pleased. I love this story. Jesus goes down crosses himself they get him all the way in the water because it don't count unless you go all the way in the water he comes up out the water and a dove appears on his shoulder and the skies the may gray rolls away okay we're gonna have fun today or not and a voice comes down from heaven this is one of the only times in scripture that the Trinity are all there at the same time. The Father is there. The Holy Spirit is there. And the Son of God is there. And God shouts down, the Father shouts down from heaven to his Son. This is my Son with whom I love in whom I'm well pleased. …
Or remember, at Jesus' baptism, Jesus has been baptized, the heavens break open, and a voice descends. It's the Father speaking to Jesus, and he says, you are my beloved son. In you, I am well pleased. Of course, today is Palm Sunday. So perhaps even more fiddling then, it's appropriate to think maybe of the other end of Jesus' public ministry. Think of John 17. with Jesus. They're in a small upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. In fact, flip there, if you will, for just a moment, John 17. In a matter of hours, of course, Jesus will be hanging on the cross. He'll be crying out. To whom? Father, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Father, why have you forsaken me? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. For the moment there in that room with his disciples, his closest friends and followers gather around Jesus, he's praying. We call it his high priestly prayer, John 17. It's a prayer that Jesus started this way. …
… And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. And then a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now, I want you just to notice how Mark writes this. He says, he saw the heavens parting. Now, the other gospel writers use different words. They just say the heavens were open. Mark says the heavens parted, and it's a very strong word. It literally means the heavens were torn apart, torn open, rent, like you take a garment and rip it. The heavens were torn open. Do you remember in the book of Isaiah, the prophet looks up to heaven and says, oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. This is God answering Isaiah's prayer. The Son of God has come down. The heavens are torn open. And the Spirit comes down in a form of a dove while the Father says, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. …
… His beloved is a clue. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Okay, so he's not just his son. He's his beloved son. You know, beloved son. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. He's like Joseph to Jacob. He's his beloved son. He's his favorite son. They sent somebody that he had deep emotional attachment to. They sent him. He also sent him to them last saying, they will respect my son. They're not that bad. They will respect my son. Verse 7, but those vine dressers said among themselves, oh, goody, this is the heir. Come let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. Which shows you what their intention was in the first place. There are a lot of people who grin in your face and smile and act like they're with you, but all the while they're plotting. They don't want to be like you, they want to be you. They want to be you. They want to be you. …
And at that moment, not only is the Spirit thus affirming His deity, but a voice comes out of the heavens, You are My beloved Son in You. I am well pleased. Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. The Spirit then takes over His life and His ministry. And from here on, everything He did, He did by the power of the Holy Spirit. Verse 14 says, Immediately He began to preach the gospel of God. Jesus came preaching the gospel. John says He is the Son of God. That is the testimony of the Father. That is the testimony of the Spirit. That is the testimony of the prophets, including the greatest prophet, John the Baptist. We find further testimony in chapter 1, verse 24, from an unclean spirit, a demon. What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth, the demon says? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And the Baptist knows who He is, the Father knows who He is, the Spirit knows who He is, and the demons know who He is as well. …
… And while he was speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him." And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. Not only do they see the transformation of Jesus, but now they look and hear Moses and Elijah having a private conversation with Jesus. The Bible doesn't tell us what they were talking about. But remember, the Scriptures say that the Law and the Prophets all speak of the coming of the Messiah, and He fulfills the Law and the Prophets. And now here comes the law and the prophet, the leader of the school of prophets, Elijah, the mediator of the law, Moses, and they're talking privately with Jesus. Let me guess. They were discussing what was awaiting Him in Jerusalem. The law and the prophets were saying, set your face like a flint. Fulfill your vocation. This is the work of the Messiah. …