#272 W.I.J.D. Series# 7, Baptizing

#272 W.I.J.D. Series# 7, Baptizing
By: Pastor Karl Thomas

 Matthew 3:13-17
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 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. 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.”      

Matthew 28:19-20 “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…”
Baptism is not a ritual to be performed but a dynamic that must be a present day and continuous reality.         

Romans 6:2-3, 7 (NLT)  “Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? … For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.”      

“Baptize”:– to immerse, bathe, submerge, pickle, overwhelm, to produce a permanent change.
Not just getting wet. An identification and union with Christ that results in a genuine change.
1 Corinthians 6:17 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Story
William P. Barker (Church Historion) tells of a machinist at Ford Motor Company in Detroit who became a Christian. He responded to the invitation and was baptized. As the Holy Spirit began renewing this man he became convicted of his need to make restitution for some parts and tools he had stolen from the company prior to becoming a Christian. So the next morning he brought all the tools and parts back to his employer. He explained how he had just been baptized and asked for his foreman’s forgiveness.
This was such an amazing turn of events that Mr. Ford, who was visiting a plant in Europe at the time, was cabled with the details of the matter and asked his response. Mr. Ford immediately returned a cable with his decision: “Dam up the Detroit River, and baptize the entire city.”       

Acts 2:38  “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”     

1 Peter 3:21 (MSG)  “The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus’ resurrection before God with a clear conscience.”      

Five Imperatives Of Water Baptism
1. A Call To Follow Jesus
Matthew 3:13-17 “Permit it to be so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

2 A Promise To Receive The Holy Spirit
Acts 2:38 “…and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The way to the fullness of the Holy Spirit is opened up to the believer.

3 A Call To Identify With Jesus Christ
Romans 6:3-7 “old man was crucified with Him,… he who has died has been freed from sin.”
Joshua 3:14-17 “…all the way to Adam…”

4 A Circumcision To Be Performed
Colossians 2:11-15 (NLT) Jesus Himself cutting away the bent of self righteousness.
“When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.[a] 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed[b] the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” 

Genesis 17:11, 21, The supernatural purpose of God is released.
“You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you. … But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.”
Genesis 21:1-2
The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. 2 She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would.

5 A Freedom To Be Appropriated
1Corinthians 10:1-2
“Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,…” 

Exodus 14:23-31   Free from bondage Free from accusation Free from oppression
Jesus caused an exodus and brought you into FREEDOM.
And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off[a] their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. 29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.
Every enemy of your soul is defeated … has no more power over you!!!          

Paul Harvey said, “To my surprise, I found myself going forward. The preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I descended into the depths & rose again I knew something life changing had happened – a cleansing inside out. No longer did there seem to be two uncertain contradictory Paul Harvey’s, just one immensely happy one. I felt the fulfilling surge of the Holy Spirit in my life.”  “The change this simple act made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally yielding to Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. Also, perhaps because baptism is such a public act & because one’s dignity gets as drenched as one’s body, I discovered a new unself-consciousness in talking about my beliefs.” 

Acts 2:38  “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

272 W.I.J.D. Series# 7, Baptizing, PowerPoint Slides

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