Passage:
Talking Points
These points are intended to help you as you prepare your own talk rather than to be used as a script.
- The people come to John wondering if he might be the promised messiah, but he tells them that the one that they are looking for is on his way. Just a few verses later we meet the one that John is talking about – Jesus.
- Jesus comes to John to be baptised and his baptism is followed by a sign of God’s approval, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove descends onto Jesus and a voice from heaven declares “You are my dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy”.
- The incredible thing about this affirmation is that it comes right at the beginning of Jesus ministry. You might think that God’s seal of approval would come later in Jesus’ ministry, perhaps after his amazing teaching at the Sermon on the Mount or after a particularly impressive miracle but instead it is right at the start, before Jesus has done anything to earn it.
- The bible talks about us being adopted as God’s children (Ephesians 1:5). That means we are invited to have the same sort of relationship with God the Father as Jesus. Us joining the family, becoming Christians is marked by baptism too. And God says to us, before we do anything to earn it, “you are my dearly loved daughter or son and you bring me great joy”. Sometimes we struggle to believe that we deserve God’s love. Well we really don’t deserve it. Yet we bring him joy! We feel that if we can do or say the right things then we might go some way to earning it but as adopted children of God we can find truth for us in these words of love and acceptance before we’ve done anything to earn it.
- Key Point: God loves you and you bring him great joy before you’ve done anything to deserve it.
This talk was followed by the activity: You Bring Me Great Joy