Matthew 3: Jesus' Baptism Reveals the Triune God

Introduction

On Sunday, May 10, 2026, the senior pastor of Full Gospel Tokyo Church preached on Matthew 3:13-17 under the title "The Triune God." The passage tells of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, the first event of his public ministry.

The preacher begins with the disciples. For three and a half years they lived with Jesus, saw his miracles, and heard the word of the kingdom of God every day. Yet they did not understand the cross. Even after meeting the risen Lord and witnessing his ascension, they had no assurance in their faith. Everything changed ten days later, when the Holy Spirit came upon them in the upper room: they went out with bold faith and became witnesses of Jesus Christ. Hence his conviction: "The key word of our life is the Holy Spirit. The success of our life and the answers of our life are all found in the Holy Spirit."

From there, he shows why Jesus, who had no need of repentance, wanted to be baptized, what John the Baptist's attitude teaches about humility and obedience, and then what happens when Jesus comes up out of the water: the heavens open, the Spirit descends, the Father speaks. The triune God reveals himself in a single moment.

Outline of the Message

1. Thirty Years Old: The Hour of Public Ministry

• Jesus' public ministry begins. He leaves behind thirty years of hidden life to boldly proclaim the kingdom of God. He is then about thirty years old (Luke 3:23).
• In Israel, a person was recognized as a full adult at thirty. The Levites in charge of the tabernacle officially entered their service only at that age (Numbers 4:3).
• Joseph, after thirteen years of slavery and suffering, became at thirty the foremost man in Egypt after the king. Not a mere employee, nor a minor official: he went from misfortune to the summit in an instant.
• David, the most beloved king of Israel, was noticed from the age of seventeen, but it was at thirty that he officially took the throne (2 Samuel 5:4).
• Jesus too completes his thirty years and begins his public ministry. The first event of that ministry is his baptism in the Jordan.

2. Why Did Jesus Want to Be Baptized?

• John gave a baptism of repentance: a baptism for sinners to repent and return to God.
• Yet Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, is fully God and fully man. For thirty years he never sinned. As God, he had no need to repent. As the sinless Son of Man, neither did he. So at root, he had no need to be baptized.
• The preacher dwells on the Greek word metanoia: "Repentance is not having regrets, it is being changed." Moving from your past to something new.
• Jesus received baptism to be the model of it, as an essential act of faith for humanity to be changed: dying with Jesus Christ, being buried with him, and rising with him. This is the true meaning of the baptism he showed us.
• The preacher makes clear that baptism is not an absolute condition for salvation. But Jesus received it willingly to make this change known and to set an example for us. He encourages those preparing for the baptism planned for July at the church to train well for it.
• Before going into the water, you might have been Jewish or Gentile, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese, from a good family or poor, highly educated or uneducated, man or woman, of any age. Once you have died with Jesus Christ, everyone alike becomes "a man of Jesus." Those who come up out of the water are no longer defined by nationality or diplomas: they are people born again.

3. The Humility of John the Baptist

• At that time, John's popularity was immense, "greater than that of any idol," says the preacher. People came from all over the country to the Jordan to receive his baptism of repentance. Many took him for a prophet, even for the Messiah.
• Humanly speaking, he was at the peak. After baptizing hundreds of thousands of people, he could have become proud, or at least told himself: "With all I have accomplished, I can surely baptize Jesus." He did not. He remained humble.
• "Pride is the most formidable enemy of the Christian." Arrogance precedes ruin, and pride precedes a fall (Proverbs 16:18).
• The preacher takes history as an example: no nation that has invaded another has lasted. It may have prospered for a time by making other peoples suffer, but never for long. Invading is in itself an act of pride, the illusion of being able to take God's place. Every culture, every civilization that wants to become like God ends up falling.
• The same goes for companies. Founded in humility, small or large, they set out on the road to ruin as soon as they fall into pride and seek only their own profit, and they collapse at astonishing speed.
• "Humility is a very great power." Jesus said: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). Having a humble heart is the path to blessing.
• "Just as water always flows from the heights to the low places, God's blessing always flows toward what is low."

4. The Obedience of John the Baptist

• John first tries to stop Jesus: "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?" (Matthew 3:14). He had always confessed that he was not worthy to untie the strap of the sandal of the one coming after him (John 1:27), that he was only sent to prepare his way and that he must decrease (John 3:30).
• Jesus answers: "Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). The preacher paraphrases: by receiving this baptism, Jesus makes it the clear symbol of our death, our burial, and our resurrection with him. He becomes the model for humanity.
• And John obeys. To insist further would have been, at bottom, pride. "When Jesus has commanded, we no longer have to judge." Even if it seems unreasonable humanly, God's Word and his commandments are not to be submitted to our judgment.
• How could sinners criticize or reinterpret the one who is righteous? If a blind man leads someone who sees, telling him to go this way or that, both fall (see Matthew 15:14). All the more, someone who is in darkness cannot give orders to someone who is in the light.
• "To obey is to receive God's Word as it is. Not: I do it because I am convinced. But: I obey because it is God's Word."
• When Peter notices that the cursed fig tree has withered, Jesus answers: "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). The preacher understands the Greek expression as an invitation to receive God's judgment as it is, to have God's mind rather than your own. In this faith, whoever says to a mountain to be thrown into the sea without doubting will see it come to pass (Mark 11:23).
• "Before an absolute sovereign, anyone who claims his own sovereignty is simply driven out. Before the absolute sovereign, all we have to do is obey."
• He applies this to pastors. Why do so many pastors fall in the midst of a revival? They were not like that at the start. But when the church grows, healings multiply, and believers flock in, the illusion sets in: they begin to lead the church by their own judgment rather than God's. "At that point, you can no longer call him a pastor." The danger is rare in a small church, but real in a large one.

5. The Heavens Opened

• "Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him" (Matthew 3:16). For the preacher, this is the most important part of the whole event, and one of the deep reasons Jesus was baptized.
• Since the fall of Adam and Eve, and during the four thousand years before Jesus came, the door of heaven stayed closed to humanity. When Adam, full of longing, would have wanted to return to Eden, cherubim stood east of the garden with a flaming sword that turned every way (Genesis 3:24). The door was shut.
• As long as heaven was closed, you could pray, praise, and study the Word without being able to enter into communion with God. "Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear. But your iniquities have separated you and your God" (Isaiah 59:1-2).
• For the first time, heaven opens through Jesus. What begins at the baptism is completed three years later at the cross: the door is then fully open.
• Because heaven is open, God listens to our prayers. We can come before the Father and cry "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15). The Lord joyfully receives our worship, and our thanksgiving and praise rise up to him.
• It is the door of the forgiveness of sins, the door through which we receive the Holy Spirit, the door of healing, the door of freedom from poverty and from the curse, the door of blessing. We were insignificant beings, in despair before death. From now on, whoever believes in Jesus Christ receives eternal life.
• Jesus made himself the door: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6). "I am the door. If anyone enters in through me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture" (John 10:9).
• You still have to knock: "Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you" (Matthew 7:7). Only the one who comes before Jesus Christ and knocks enters through this open door.

6. The Spirit Descends Like a Dove

• Second event: the Spirit of God descends on Jesus like a dove. The dove represents purity. The purity of the Holy Spirit joins that of Jesus.
• Even if we were sinners, the moment we repent, we can receive the Holy Spirit, and this Spirit changes the way we think. Baptism is being changed: outwardly, the Japanese or the Korean becomes a citizen of heaven; inwardly, their thoughts become pure.
• With pure thoughts, the one who used to speak harshly begins to speak gently. Instead of wounding, he comforts and encourages. Thoughts and words change, and actions follow. "That is what receiving the Holy Spirit means."
• "The Holy Spirit is not only speaking in tongues. It is being transformed by him." If the opening of heaven is the answer of our life, then the Holy Spirit is the answer of our life: the solution to our problems and the fulfillment of our hopes.
• "Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and mighty things, which you don't know" (Jeremiah 33:3). Why can we cry out like this? Because the Spirit lives in us and makes us cry out.
• "Crying out alone is only a monologue." But when the Spirit lives in us and cries out, it is a fervent groaning (Romans 8:26), a prayer that surely reaches God. This is how we experience miracles, and the one who performs them is the Holy Spirit.

7. The Father's Voice: The Triune God Revealed

• Third event: a voice from the heavens speaks these words: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).
• Heaven opens, the Son Jesus Christ is there, the Spirit descends on him, and the Father's voice is heard. "The triune God revealed himself all at once." The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit appear together before us: this is the meaning of Jesus' baptism.
• The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. The preacher defines a person as the union of knowledge (with wisdom), emotions, and will. Too much emotion, and the personality loses its balance. Only knowledge, and you become a "big head." Only decisions without knowledge, and failures pile up.
• The Father, the Son, and the Spirit each have a perfect personality, "one hundred percent." That is why, though distinct, they are perfectly united.
• Human reason cannot receive the word "Trinity." It is only when the Holy Spirit makes us understand it that we perceive it, stop doubting it, and receive the power of the triune God.
• Three persons, three powers, and yet the same power. Each has his joy, and together they make perfect joy.
• What does the Father say? He does not say: "I am God." He says: "This is my beloved Son." In this way he reveals that his nature is love. It is out of love that he gave us Jesus: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
• The nature of the Spirit is also love, and so is Jesus'. It is out of love that he obeyed to the point of death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).
• The preacher concludes: before you, heaven is always open. Receive the fivefold gospel, let the Holy Spirit bless your soul, and walk in a life that prospers in every way and in good health (3 John 2). Then share this joy, this grace, and this blessing with many others.

Key Takeaways

• Jesus had no sin to confess. He was baptized to be the model of change: dying, being buried, and rising with him.
• John the Baptist's humility reminds us that pride is the Christian's most formidable enemy, and that blessing always flows toward what is low.
• To obey is to receive God's Word as it is, rather than waiting to be convinced.
• Through Jesus, the heaven that had been closed since Eden has opened: forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, healing, and eternal life are available to the one who knocks.
• At Jesus' baptism, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit appear together, and what they reveal first is love.

Personal Application

1. What has really changed in the way you think, speak, and act since you have belonged to Jesus?
2. In which area of your life, your work, your service, or your successes, might pride quietly take root?
3. Is there a word from God you are not yet obeying because you are waiting to be convinced?
4. Are you living like someone before whom heaven is open: do you pray with the assurance that the Father hears you?
5. How can you share, this week, with one specific person, the grace and blessing you have received?

Verses Cited

• Matthew 3:13-17
• Luke 3:23
• Numbers 4:3
• 2 Samuel 5:4
• Proverbs 16:18
• Matthew 11:29
• John 1:27
• John 3:30
• Matthew 15:14
• Mark 11:20-23
• Genesis 3:24
• Isaiah 59:1-2
• Romans 8:15
• John 14:6
• John 10:9
• Matthew 7:7
• Jeremiah 33:3
• Romans 8:26
• John 3:16
• Philippians 2:8
• 3 John 2

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was Jesus baptized if he was without sin?

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and Jesus had never sinned. The preacher recalls that to repent, metanoia in Greek, does not mean to regret but to be changed. Jesus was baptized to become the model of this change: dying with Christ, being buried with him, and rising with him.

What do the opened heavens at Jesus' baptism mean?

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, the door of heaven had been closed to humanity. At Jesus' baptism, the heavens open for the first time, and this opening is completed at the cross. Because heaven is open, God hears our prayers, receives our worship, and gives us forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, healing, and eternal life.

Where do we see the Trinity in Matthew 3:13-17?

At the same moment, the Son comes up out of the water, the Spirit descends on him like a dove, and the Father's voice is heard from heaven. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit appear together: three distinct persons, perfectly united, whose shared nature is love.