THE MAIN IDEA
Jesus was baptized to lead us into the way of eternal life. 

JESUS CAME TO BE WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD
Matthew is the only Gospel that  explicitly and specifically tells us that Jesus came from His home in Galilee where He lived to  the Jordan where John was doing his ministry. Matthew is also the only Gospel that tells us  exactly the reason why Jesus came from His home in Galilee to the Jordan: to be baptized by  John. John was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But Jesus had no  sins to be forgiven (2 Corinthians 5:21). The point is that Jesus didn’t just leave His home in  Galilee to be with His people. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, left His heavenly home to be with  us. Jesus came to us, because we would have absolutely no chance to be with God if it were up to  us to go to Him, and that because of sin. 

JESUS CAME TO OBEY THE WILL OF GOD
Jesus is the sinless Son of God. So then,  why did Jesus need to undergo a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Jesus tells  John to allow it in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” We can think about that in a number of  ways. First, if Jesus, the sinless Son of God submitted to a baptism of repentance for the  forgiveness of sins (what we call believers’ baptism), how much more so do we as sinners need  to submit to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Of course, it’s not just about  baptism, either. Baptism doesn’t save us. It is just a symbol, although it is an important symbol— one that had been divinely sanctioned and ordained by Jesus Himself. Baptism in the Bible is an  outward symbol of a person’s repentance and the spiritual cleansing that comes from the  forgiveness of their sins. Second, by submitting to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of  sins, Jesus was also symbolically representing all the people of God. Basically, Jesus was setting  an example for His people of what it takes to enter into the righteousness of God—not simply in  terms of being baptized, and not simply in terms of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but in terms of His humility and especially His obedience. For us to enter into the righteousness of God requires humility and obedience. 

JESUS CAME TO FULFILL THE PLAN OF GOD
Basically, Jesus’s baptism was God’s commissioning and initiation of Jesus’s public ministry, a public ministry that no one really  understood, but its meaning became crystal clear on Good Friday and especially Resurrection  Sunday. It is important to see that Resurrection Sunday does not mark the end of Jesus’s ministry  here on earth. If anything, Resurrection Sunday is a powerful, annual reminder that God’s great  plan of salvation for the world in Christ Jesus continues on through His church. And so, what is  it that we are called to do as the body of Christ? We could talk about many things, but seeking  and saving the lost is the basic, fundamental, bottom-line purpose of every church (Luke 19:10).  In Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren lays out five biblical purposes for the church and for every  person: worship, fellowship, discipleship, service, and evangelism/missions. Of those five  purposes, the only one that will no longer be necessary after Jesus comes back is evangelism and  missions—that is, seeking and saving the lost. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and so that  is what we should be doing too. And in that way, we fulfill the plan of God to fill the earth with  His glory in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving  communities and families, the church. 

DISCUSSION QUESTION
How should we measure a person’s humility and obedience to God’s will,  anyway?