John had been baptizing in the Jordan River. One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee
and asked John to baptize him.  John protested  because he felt that Jesus was the
the one who should be baptizing him.  But Jesus told him that they needed to do this
to fulfill all righteousness.  So John baptized him in the river.

Immediately after he was baptized, as he was praying , the heavens were opened and
a dove came down and rested on Jesus.  It was the Spirit of God in the form of a bird
that had come down to show who Jesus was.  Jesus saw it and John also saw the dove.

Suddenly there was a voice from heaven saying, "You are  my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased".  The dove and the voice of God were a sign to John
that Jesus was the Messiah that had been promised.

After this, John was again assembled with a group of people, and Jesus approached
the group.  John told them what had happened.  He said , "Behold! The Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world!"  He told them that he had seen the Spirit of God
coming down on Jesus in the form of a dove.  He said this had been a sign to him
because God had revealed to him that the person on whom he saw a dove descending
would be the Son of God. This is how John would know for sure.

 Now John and Jesus were relatives and had grown up together.  John's mother,
Elizabeth, had known from the beginning, even before Jesus was born, that her
kinswoman Mary was going to be the mother of the  Son of God.  Jesus was God
in human form who had come to earth.  It seems that John was not aware of
Jesus' true identity until this event at Jesus' baptism.

But John had a mission to prepare the people for the coming of Christ, and he was
fulfilling his mission.  Now the Christ was revealed.

Some people came to John and told him that now the crowds were  going to Jesus
instead of John.  They thought he would be upset, but his didn't bother John at all.
 He said that he had told them that he himself was not the Christ.  It was as if
Christ were the bridegroom and John was just the best man, or friend of the
bridegroom.  He was rejoicing that  people were turning to Christ.  John said that
Jesus must become greater and he, John, must become less important.
 

                                         Memory verse

Suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, "This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.
                                                     Matthew 3:17 (NKJV)
  Listen to this story about the Baptism of Jesus at:  http://gardenofpraise.com/bibl37s.htm