“Why We Do What We Do”
Baptism in Jesus Name!
By
Bishop M.L. Maughmer, Jr.
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.
Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”.
Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”.
OPENING:- Today I want to travel back in time a little bit. For some the journey may be a little long but let’s go back to Junior High School English Class on today. I want to talk about nouns, verbs, and possibly adjectives on today. So it will be beneficial for you to grab a pen, pencil, some paper and get ready to get into the Word of God.
We are called the Apostolic Glorious Church; however, that is not just a name that Bishop Pace gave this church because it sounds nice, but it is a name that describes what we are and how we operate as a body of believers.
Church:- A basic understanding of the word is it is a term used to render the Greek ekklesia (ecclesia) which means "an assembly", or the called out ones. Through the years it has taken on many different variations and meanings; nevertheless, it is now simply means the Lord's house and signifies a place of worship.
Glorious:- To be delightful, wonderful, completely enjoyable, full of glory, entitled to great renown, splendid, and beautiful in character, actions, attitude.
Apostolic:- Conforming to the teaching of the Apostles doctrine.
WE BELIEVE:- the Bible is the inspired Word of God; that there is one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he shed His blood for the remission of sins and the regeneration of penitent sinners. We believe and teach the Doctrine of Justification. We believe the shed blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the justified believer from all sins. We believe in the baptism in Jesus name in total submersion in water and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance.. We believe in divine healing of both soul and body. We believe in the Death, Burial, and the Resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ. We believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ and the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church.
Therefore being called the Apostolic Glorious Church we are a body of believers that believe the Bible is the Inspired Word of God and that Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh that sacrificed himself on Calvary’s cross and became our propitiation and in Him we live, and move, and have our being. We come together in unity and worship Him in the beauty of holiness. We strive to be full of glory, beautiful in our attitudes, actions, and character and we conform to the teaching of the Apostles.
That is who we are. Now I want to talk about - Why we do what we do - Baptism in Jesus Name!
THE QUESTION:- Should we be baptized in Jesus' name according to Acts 2:38, or in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit according to Matthew 28:19?"
Some will say I would rather do what Jesus said instead of what Peter said, but by the time this sermon is over you will understand what Jesus said and what Peter revealed and Why We Do What We Do.
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.
Dividing:- is to separate into parts or sections, to group according to kind, to classify or assign. REMEMBER THAT!!!!!!
The Greek word used is Orthotomeo. It was primarily a civil engineering term that means to cut straight and rightly; to cut a straight path through the word, giving it the proper interpretation. It was used, for example, as a road building term. The idea of the word was "to cut straight," or "to guide on a straight path." The idea was to cut a roadway in such a manner that people who would travel over that road would arrive at their destination directly, without deviation. Orthotomeo was also used as a mining term. It meant to drill a straight mine shaft so that the miners could get quickly and safely to the "mother lode. What is intended is not the arbitrary dissection of Scripture, but reading, teaching, and preaching Scripture accurately, without being turned aside by false teaching or man-made agendas.
Rightly:- simply means to do it correctly.
The Word of Truth:- is what we are dividing rightly.
You need to understand Why We Do What We Do! So let’s rightly divide the Word of Truth.
To do so we must go back to English class or at least Saturday morning cartoons. Noun is a person place or thing – man woman, boy, girl, dog, house. A Verb is an action word like walk, run, spoke. There are 6 types of verbs intransitive, transitive, infinitives, to-be verbs, and two-place transitive (Vg-verb give) and two-place transitive (Vc –verb consider). I am not going to try to explain each one but for this sermon I am going to talk about the Intransitive verb. Intransitive Verb is one that does not have a direct object – example the boy ran faster. The lady cried. That is descriptive but they do not have a direct object, which boy and what lady.
There are Prepositional Phrases like adjectives and adverbs, prepositional phrases add meaning to the nouns and verbs in our sentences. Example:- The clothes were in a pile. Kathy was in the wrong. In a pile and in the wrong are prepositional phrase it gives meaning to the clothes and Kathy.
OK WITH THAT BRIEF REFRESHER COURSE IN ENGLISH LET”S GET INTO THIS SERMON.
FOCUS SCRIPTURE:- Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”.
Let’s rightly divide the word of truth and use what we did in Junior High English class called Sentence Diagramming.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, this is a directive, which is an official or authoritative instruction. We have been directed/commanded to go.
Go ye therefore – Commandment/directive
Teach – verb action word
All nations – object of the action
baptizing them - this is an action. We have been told to perform an action to all nations where we are commanded to go to.
in the – subordinating conjunctions – words that introduce adverb clauses.
name this is a Intransitive Verb there is no direct object - Intransitive verb – indicates a complete action without being accompanied by a direct object.. We must figure out the name that we have been directed to baptize in. THE NAME IS THE AUTHORITY that the action is being performed in.
____name______
of the Father, Now, here we have a prepositional phrase modifying the word name. At this point we do not know what the name of the person is, but we do know by this prepositional phrase, that whoever this person is, they are the Father.
Now our goal is to find out the name so let’s diagram this out.
and is a conjunction a word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause. Remember School House Rock on Saturday Mornings - Conjunction Junction what’s your function hooking up words phrases and clauses.
of the Son, Another prepositional phrase modifying the word name but we still don’t know the name we do know by this prepositional phrase that whoever this person is they are the son.
O.K. we have a directive to go to all nations and to perform an action baptize them in the name, we don’t know the name as of yet, but we know, that this person is both a Father and a Son, but we still don’t have a name.
of the Holy Ghost. Yet another prepositional phrase modifying the word name but we still don’t know the name we do know by this prepositional phrase that whoever this person is they are the Holy Ghost.
UNDERSTAND:- Father and Son and Holy Ghost aren’t names they are descriptive titles only they tell something about the name but they have not revealed the name! Remember name is an Intransitive verb because it has no direct object.
WATCH THIS:- All we know here is that whoever this person is, they are a Father, a Son, and they are the Holy Ghost! But we still don’t know what the name is. So Matthew 28:19 gives us a command to perform an action to nations, it tells us to do this action in the name of a person who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; however, without knowing the name of the person there is no power and authority and the subordinating conjunction “in the” is left there linking the actions to nothing.
Acts 2 is the birth of the church, the events that happen in Acts 2 happen on a particular day - The Day of Pentecost which is 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Acts 2:1 says “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place”.
PENTECOST:- Pentecost is significant in both the Old and New Testaments. “Pentecost” is actually the Greek name for a festival known in the Old Testament as the Feast of Weeks Leviticus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:9. The Greek word means “fifty” and refers to the fifty days that have elapsed since the wave offering of Passover. The Feast of Weeks celebrated the end of the grain harvest. Most interesting, however, is its use in Joel and Acts. Looking back to Joel’s prophecy Joel 2:8–32 and forward to the promise of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s last words on earth before His ascension into heaven Acts 1:8, Pentecost signals the beginning of the church age
From verses 1-13 explains what took place, when it took place, those that were there.
From verse 14 – 36 Peter preaches the Gospel to nations of people, literally fulfilling the command/directive of Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…”. If you count the different nationalities that were present you see how it is fulfilled.
In verses 22 – 36 Peter reveals the name “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know”.
In verse 37 “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do”.conviction happens to the people of many different nationalities and conviction produces repentance - 2 Corinthians 7:10 says “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death”.
The people asked:- men and brethren - what shall we do – what action needs to be done.
THE DIRECTIVE:- Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”.
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name - this is the action.
Repent and be Baptized – Action (Verbs)
Every one of you – directive to all nations
in the name – Intransitive verb – indicates a complete action without being accompanied by a direct object.
of – Preposition used to indicate connection between the Intransitive verb and the direct object.
Jesus Christ – Noun, the direct object and AUTHORITY (the missing link of Matthew 28:19).
for the remission of sins – REASON for Baptism - because of what Jesus Christ has done.
And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost – the benefit of following the directive in the authority of the name Jesus Christ because of what He has done for me and you on Calvary’s Cross.
WHAT JESUS DID FOR US:- 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”.
When we come to Acts 4:12 we see again the name that is full of power and authority “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”.
So the next time someone questions you about Why We Do What We Do simply tell them because Matthew 28:19 is the directive/command that gives descriptive titles of the authority but does not give the name of the authority and Acts 2:38 states the authoritative name of the descriptive titles and that name is Jesus. There is no other name, no other authority, no other power than the Name of JESUS.
Bishop M.L. Maughmer, Jr.
