Feeding the Lambs - Ordinances 2
The Baptism of Jesus
'While everyone else was being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. Then as he prayed, the sky opened up, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove. A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.”'
Luke 3:22-22
[21st message of the New Believer Series]
On two previous messages of this series we have discussed about the ordinances of the church.
These are about things that (new and old) believers should do as a follower of Christ.
In the 18th message of this series, we mentioned that believers are to participate in the communion of the bread and the cup as Jesus told His disciples to do in remembrance of Him.
Think of this as like how we would have a meal together to celebrate the birthday of a loved one who have passed away, coming together, breaking bread in remembrance of that day, that person and what that person did.
In the preceding message (the 20th) we spoke of how through the years believers have come up with their own religious traditions and some have made them into religious ordinances.
Dos And Don'ts
As we have already stated Jesus didn't really care about religious rituals nor did He come to establish a religion. And especially not one with hundreds of dos and don'ts which no one would be able to comply with anyway. Jesus have come to do away with that religious hypocrisy.
In fact Jesus died for us precisely because we cannot be perfect and do the perfect will of our heavenly Father. We cannot even abide by the law -- the 10 commandments, which God gave to Moses, how much more can we comply with the additional hundreds of human made rules and regulations we have added on to it through the centuries?
Freedom
Jesus died for our liberty. He fulfilled God's law for us. And Jesus told us about two commandments (which we will discuss in a future message of this series).
Luke 3:22-22
[21st message of the New Believer Series]
On two previous messages of this series we have discussed about the ordinances of the church.
These are about things that (new and old) believers should do as a follower of Christ.
In the 18th message of this series, we mentioned that believers are to participate in the communion of the bread and the cup as Jesus told His disciples to do in remembrance of Him.
Think of this as like how we would have a meal together to celebrate the birthday of a loved one who have passed away, coming together, breaking bread in remembrance of that day, that person and what that person did.
In the preceding message (the 20th) we spoke of how through the years believers have come up with their own religious traditions and some have made them into religious ordinances.
Dos And Don'ts
As we have already stated Jesus didn't really care about religious rituals nor did He come to establish a religion. And especially not one with hundreds of dos and don'ts which no one would be able to comply with anyway. Jesus have come to do away with that religious hypocrisy.
In fact Jesus died for us precisely because we cannot be perfect and do the perfect will of our heavenly Father. We cannot even abide by the law -- the 10 commandments, which God gave to Moses, how much more can we comply with the additional hundreds of human made rules and regulations we have added on to it through the centuries?
Freedom
Jesus died for our liberty. He fulfilled God's law for us. And Jesus told us about two commandments (which we will discuss in a future message of this series).
As believers, we have been saved by putting our faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Nothing else we need to do to earn our salvation, not that we can earn it anyway. And we do not need to add any more burdens on ourselves (Jesus said follow Him for His yoke is easy and His burden is light).
Jesus Knows Our Heart
When Jesus resurrected, He reinstated Peter. Peter wasn't perfect, far from it.
This whole series was born out of Peter's imperfectness. Jesus chose Peter yet he failed Him miserably many times. When Jesus was betrayed and arrested, His followers left Him and Peter denied even knowing Him three times. Yet Jesus empowered Peter to "feed His lambs and His sheep".
Jesus knows all things, He knows what's in our heart. He knows we love Him, even though sometimes we say or do things we shouldn't and we trip and fall flat on our faces. But we stand up, learn from them and continue on as we study Scriptures and learn to follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit.
Peter Preached the Good News
After Jesus have been taken up to heaven, His disciples continued His ministry. Peter empowered by the Holy Spirit preached to a large crowd and responding to a question from the crowd, Peter said (as recorded in the Book of Acts):
“Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”
[In the Message paraphrase]
In the Name of Jesus
Peter was saying that we should repent [change our old way of thinking, turn from our old sinful ways, forget the past, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah].
And be baptized in His Name, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (whoever and wherever we are).
“Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”
[In the Message paraphrase]
In the Name of Jesus
Peter was saying that we should repent [change our old way of thinking, turn from our old sinful ways, forget the past, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah].
And be baptized in His Name, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (whoever and wherever we are).
Baptized With Water
Once we have become a believer of Christ, being baptized is a natural progression.
The act of baptism itself do not save us. Salvation comes from the act of repentance, leaving the past behind and turning to Jesus moving forward.
The Apostle Peter did say "be baptized", and not only be baptized but to be baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ".
Inward Change Being Shown Outwardly
Being baptized is an intentional and deliberate act -- something followers of Christ will decide to do on their own (not because they are being forced to do so, but because the Holy Spirit is nudging them to).
As new believers, we have already been transformed from the inside out, if we don't say it with words on the outside, people wouldn't necessarily know.
Going through baptism is us telling people outwardly that we have been reborn in the inside and are ready to publicly show others that we will bury our old self under a watery grave and as we come up out of the water, be newly born babies -- lambs (the old has gone, the new has come).
Methods
Now through the years, different Christian denominations have transitioned from leader to leader and with it, to different methods of baptism, with different requirements along with different dos and don'ts.
To stay true to the original way of baptism, we have to go back to reading the Scriptures and study how they did it in the time of Jesus.
We have read Luke's account of the baptism of Jesus from the excerpt above.
All of the gospel writers wrote about the baptism of Jesus.
Matthew 3:13–17
Mark 1:9–11
John 1:29–34
[Looks very important just by the fact that all of them recorded it.]
Baptism of Jesus
New Believer
As a new believer, inside you, the Holy Spirit will nudge you to be baptized.
Luke recorded in the Book of Acts an interesting story of how Philip after having explained the gospel of Jesus to a confused but curious Ethiopian eunuch, as they were passing by a stream of water, the eunuch couldn't contain himself and asked Philip why he cannot be baptized there and then.
And he was, Philip baptized him by immersion under water as Jesus and His early disciples did before him.
We can read an account here: Acts 8:26-40
As a new believer, inside you, the Holy Spirit will nudge you to be baptized.
Luke recorded in the Book of Acts an interesting story of how Philip after having explained the gospel of Jesus to a confused but curious Ethiopian eunuch, as they were passing by a stream of water, the eunuch couldn't contain himself and asked Philip why he cannot be baptized there and then.
And he was, Philip baptized him by immersion under water as Jesus and His early disciples did before him.
We can read an account here: Acts 8:26-40
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