The Renewal Of Baptism Series

The Renewal of Baptism

Jeffery Anselmi / General

The Power of the Gospel / Baptism / Matthew 3:13–17

The baptism of Jesus declares that Jesus’s full authority to save is rooted in his full union with humanity.

INTRODUCTION

• Do you remember the sense of excitement and awe you felt when you first gave your life to Jesus?

• I remember the feelings I had when I came up out of baptistry after confessing the desire to make Jesus the Lord of my life.

• What tends to happen to us over time? We lose the joy and excitement for Jesus.

• Our Faith, and things like gathering together with other disciples of Jesus no longer excites us or moves us to action.

• Sometimes we tend to forget how great our God is, and we tend to forget how wonderful Jesus is.

• It is easy over time to lose our sense of awe when we think about Jesus. We forget about the great things He did for us as well as how wonderful the blessings we enjoy to the day because of what Jesus did for us!

• We are missing out when we lose our enthusiasm for Jesus and the Gospel.

• Today we are beginning a new series entitled, The Power of the Gospel!

• By healing, forgiving, raising a child from the dead, walking on water, and exorcising a demon, Jesus declares himself the Son of God.

• He prepares us to witness with fresh eyes His greatest power on Easter morning: His power over life and death for all time and all people.

• Our own power to believe and thrive in faith grows as we tap into the power he repeatedly demonstrates.

• Today we will begin this series by looking at an event that was confusing, and almost a contradiction to those who followed Jesus.

• Even the early church had some issues explaining this event later in the early history of the church.

• If you simply take a surface glance at the event we will cover today, you will miss why this event was somewhat confusing, even to one of the participants of the event.

• Examining the event we will examine today, will answer some theological questions some struggle with yet today.

• This event takes place sometime in 26 AD, Jesus will travel 60-70 miles on foot to do what is going to happen.

• John the Baptist, or John the Baptizer was in the middle of his ministry offering a baptism of repentance as part of his preaching.

• God revealed to John that he was paving the way for the coming Messiah.

• John drew large crowds, much to the chagrin of the Jewish religious leaders.

• John was passionate and unrelenting as he preached in the wilderness to all who would come.

• Let’s turn to Matthew 3:13-17, we will begin in verse 13.

Matthew 3:13 CSB

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

SERMON

I. The living example of why we need to be baptized.

• Matthew 3:1 begins by telling us about the ministry of John the Baptist and the first few verses of the chapter gives us some insights concerning John.

• He wore clothing made of camel’s hair, held together with a leather belt. John had a scrumptious diet of locusts and wild honey (I guess if you pour enough honey on something it makes most anything edible).

• People went out from Jerusalem and all of Judaea confessing their sins and were being baptized in the Jordan River by John.

• John, while attacking the Pharisees and Sadducees who were on hand to watch what was happening told them that he was there to baptized with water for repentance.

• At this point, baptism as part of the salvation process that would be commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission, and preached and practiced by the early church was not yet enacted.

• It was a typical day for John, preaching, baptizing, and dealing with the jealous religious leaders.

• John was doing what God called him to do.

• Look at verses 3-4

Matthew 3:3–4 CSB

3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!

4 Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

• Part of John’s preaching was to get people to understand their need for God and their need for repentance.

• The word REPENT basically means TO TURN AWAY from something and to turn to something else or to return.