Good Job Son 6/1/2015

Good Morning,

I really had a full weekend and it will be a full week of work. The last thing I did yesterday was to burn a chicken dinner on the grill. Luckily there was a pot of soup in the refrigerator to bail me out. It was just one of those days. My coffee is Door County Highlander Grog.

It seems as if the subject of Baptism is a hot topic for some these days. I preached on the subject a couple weeks ago/ I have fond memories of Baptizing a teen or two at a water park in the Wisconsin Dells as they made a statement of commitment to Jesus.  Let's take a look at the baptism of Jesus. I have added commentary in blue.

Matthew 3:13-17

John Baptizes Jesus

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

At first it seems that Jesus coming to be baptized has no purpose at all. John’s baptism was the baptism of repentance. And Jesus himself was sinless. Jesus did not need to repent. There are good reasons why it was just for John to baptize Jesus at the beginning of His public ministry. Jesus was about to set out on His great mission, and it was fitting that He be recognized publicly by His forerunner. John was the “voice crying in the wilderness” prophesied by Isaiah 40:3, calling people to repentance in preparation for their Messiah. By baptizing Jesus, John was declaring to all that here was the One they had been waiting for and wanting, the Son of God, the One he had predicted would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire”. I find this also to be an awesome act of humility and obedience.
 ¹⁴ And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
¹⁵ But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

Jesus’ baptism also showed that He identified with sinners. His baptism symbolized the sinners’ baptism into the righteousness of Christ, dying with Him and rising free from sin and able to walk in the newness of life.
2 Corinthians 5:17New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  ¹⁶ When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He^[c] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ¹⁷ And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”



Perhaps most importantly, the event of the public baptism recorded for those there and for all of us to come the perfect embodiment of the Trinity revealed in glory from heaven. The testimony directly from heaven of the Father’s pleasure with the Son and the descending of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. Now of note. It is not the baptism that saves the sinner. Jesus came to seek and save the sinner. The Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of His sin of rejecting Jesus (The need of a Savior) and draws the believer to the Father through the Son.  John 14:6New King James Version (NKJV)
⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

A loved one of mine has committed to follow the Lord in Believers Baptism this coming Sunday. I am truly proud of his decision. I am thrilled for the whole family. What holds other Christians back from being obedient? I wonder?

Have a great day.

Marty