Skip to content

Tag: clean

The Command to be Baptized

This morning we are really excited that we can baptize 5 people out in the river in just a few minutes from now! And I am glad that we are doing this in June instead of in late September like we have in the past. Theoretically, it should be a little bit warmer! 

But I’ll admit that this year’s baptism is a unique baptism for me. This will be (by far) the youngest group of baptism candidates that I have ever baptized.

And because of that, I do want to clarify a few things this morning about baptism – what it is and what it is not. You know, having these young kids wanting to be baptized has actually been a good but challenging process for me. It’s caused me to go back and review the Scriptures to make sure that what we’re doing is actually the proper way to obey Christ’s instructions regarding baptism.

And so this morning, before we get into the actual baptism, let’s just take a few moments to look the Scriptures and see what the Bible has to say about it all!

Leave a Comment

The Baptism of Jesus

Last week we began our journey of walking through the life of Christ from birth to resurrection – from Christmas to Easter. Of course, having worked through the Christmas story already back in December, we continued down the timeline last Sunday with the only Biblical story of Jesus’ childhood – an event that happened when Jesus was just 12 years old.

And just in case you missed it last week, let me quickly give you a recap. According to Luke chapter 2, Jesus and his family had travelled to Jerusalem for the passover feast – as they did every year. But this year was a little bit different. This time, when the passover celebration was over, Joseph and Mary started home, but without realizing that Jesus had stayed behind in Jerusalem. They travelled for an entire day before they finally realized that Jesus wasn’t with them, so they turned around returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days of frantic searching, they finally found him in Temple – sitting with the religious teachers – listening and asking questions.

Of course, when they found him, Mary & Joseph understandably had mixed emotions. They were both relieved to have found Jesus but rather upset with him about the emotional toll this had taken on them for the last three days! Jesus had always been a responsible young man – as the Son of God, he had never sinned! So Mary & Joseph’s frustration with Jesus was probably a new experience. I think Luke says it well in Luke 2:48…

48 His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” Luke 2:48

But to this Jesus gave a most amazing reply…

49 “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Luke 2:49

What a response! Even at this young age, Jesus already knew who his true Father was and He had already made it his priority to begin accomplishing his Father’s will.

And that, actually, is a key point in our passage today. Today we are jumping ahead along the timeline to when Jesus is about 30 years old and he is about to begin his public ministry. And even though about 18 years have passed since this incident at the Temple, Jesus continues to make it his priority to carry out his Father will – something that He will do single-mindedly for the rest of his time on earth!

The passage that I want us to look at today is Matthew chapter 3. The event that I want to focus on is the baptism of Jesus (which is really just the last 4 verses of this chapter) —but to understand those four verses, we kinda need to look at the rest of the chapter. So let’s begin at Matthew chapter 3, starting at verse 1.

Leave a Comment