["O Come All Ye Faithful"]
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Also, we won't be having a midweek service down here that week.
So there won't be a Thursday night service.
Just keep that in mind.
Hopefully, I understand that everybody can make it up there.
But I'm going to have to be up there all week.
I will be up there all week for this.
Well, not all week, Wednesday through Saturday.
I'll be back Sunday, of course.
But I'm going to be up there with the van helping out.
We're going to have a lot of people, a lot of people planning on coming from around the country and around the world.
Last time we did this, it was a great turnout.
It's a very exciting time to get fired up about missions, hear about the things that are being done that have been done.
That's what I love about all of these people that are speaking, all these pastors and other brethren,
is that they're not talking about we want to go do this.
They're coming and telling us here's what we did.
It's what they've already accomplished and the potential that these certain parts of the world have if we decide to go back.
So a lot going on there.
But take it all in.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
And then don't forget, we'll be having the birthday donuts next week on Sunday at 10 a.m.
That'll do it for announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the preaching this morning.
So the 166, I will praise him.
I will praise him.
I will praise he this time This time we'll pass you off at the plate.
As the day goes around, let's turn our Bibles to Mark 1.
That's Mark Chapter 1.
As always, we'll read the entire chapter.
Please follow along silently as Brother Fabian reads to us from Mark Chapter 1.
Mark Chapter 1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God that has written the prophets.
Behold, I send my messenger. Before that phase, we shall prepare the way before thee.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his past straight.
John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,
and there went out unto him in all the land of Judea and the day of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized up into the river of Jordan professing their sins.
And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of the skin about his loins,
and he did eat locusts of wild honey, and preached, saying,
There comeeth one mightier than I, after me the latch of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
I indeed had baptized thee with water, but he shall baptize thee with the Holy Ghost.
And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth with Galilee,
and was baptized of John and Jordan, and straightway coming up out of the water.
He saw the heavens open, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And we of the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness, and he was there in the wilderness,
forty days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto him.
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew's brother casting a net into the sea,
where there were fishers. And Jesus said unto him, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
And when he had gone a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother,
who were in the ship, and many of their nets. And straightway he called them,
and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Saturday he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
And there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone.
What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the holy one of God.
And Jesus rebuked them, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
And they were all amazed so much that they questioned among themselves, saying, What theme is this? What new doctrine is this?
For what authority commanded he even on the unclean spirits, and they do obey him?
And immediately his fangs spread abroad throughout all the region of round about gallery.
And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon, and Andrew, and James, and John.
For Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and they tout him of her.
And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up.
And immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
And at evening, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.
And all the city was gathered together at the door, and he healed many that were sick or died of diseases,
and cast out many devils, and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
And in the morning, rising up in a great while, before the day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.
And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men secretly.
And he said unto him, Let us go to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for therefore came I forth.
And he preached in the synagogue throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.
And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will, be thou clean.
And as soon as he spoke, and immediately the lepers departed from him, and he was cleansed, and he straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away.
And saith unto him, See, thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priests, and offer for thy cleanse thee those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
And he went out, and began to publish him much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places, and they came to him from every corner.
Lord Heavenly Father, just thank you for today, Lord God, for another opportunity to be in your house. It is an honor, Lord.
Just thank you for all you do for us, Lord Jesus Father, and just thank you for your son, who shed his blood for us, and help us to remember these things, Lord God.
And ask him to just bless us today, and feel deep in your spirit about how much you preach boldly to us, Lord God, and just give us a heart and ears of understanding, my Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
So if you remember two Sundays ago, we started going through the book of Mark, and that's something that we typically do on Thursday nights.
However, on Thursday nights, we usually try to go chapter by chapter. Of course, we're looking at every verse. We're not skipping over anything, but typically the practice is on a Bible study on Thursday nights for me to just kind of go through a whole chapter in one shot.
But I did want to kind of get more into the practice of maybe slowing down a little bit, and looking at certain books in the Bible, and maybe just taking their time a little more slowly on Sundays to just slow down and kind of take in.
Because there's a lot in, and one verse can be packed with so much. So that's kind of what I started doing two Sundays ago, of course.
I'll be taking breaks from this series from time to time, but I do want to get back into it this morning. If you remember last time, we looked at the first eight verses or so, and we're just going to kind of jump in here into the book of Mark.
We're going to look at verses 9 through 11. And really what I want to talk to you about this morning is Jesus' baptism. Jesus' baptism.
So we're going to look at the baptism of Jesus this morning. It says in Mark chapter 1, verse 9,
And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth, a galley, and was baptized of John in Jordan. So this is a great event that's covered in all four of the gospels.
John really doesn't have a lot of detail on it, but the details that it do have are interesting.
Now the first thing we're going to look at again is the fact in verse 9 there that Jesus came and was baptized of John in Jordan. If you go to Matthew chapter number 3, we'll look at the parallel passage there.
Of course, keep something there in Mark. Chapter number 1 will be coming back and forth this morning.
But if you look at Matthew chapter number 3, it says in verse 13,
But John forbade him, saying, I'm not going to do this. He's trying to resist the Lord in doing this.
And you say, well, where does that come from, John? Who do you think you are to resist the Lord's baptism, to go against the will of God?
But really when we understand where it's coming from, that John the Baptist is a very meek man, very humble man, feels very unworthy.
This is much like when Christ came to Peter and Peter said to him, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
This is probably coming from that same place. That's how John is just feeling very unworthy to do this.
And of course he is. And the Lord knows that. He knows that he is truly unworthy.
Nominus is willing to be the one to baptize Christ as a great privilege and honor.
But he said in verse 14, John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee.
And comest thou to me, saying, I need you to baptize me. I should be the one that's submitting unto you.
And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he suffered him. He's saying, go ahead and do this, John. This is what's right. This is what needs to happen.
We need to fulfill this. But it's interesting how this dialogue kind of takes place here.
John, he says, comest thou to me? And Jesus says, oh, John, don't feel so bad about yourself.
He doesn't say, you know, don't have such a low opinion of yourself. Don't think that you're unworthy.
Jesus says, suffer it to be so. He's saying, yeah, I know that is the case. You do have need to be baptized of me.
You are not worthy to stoop down and even unloose my sandhills to the latchet of my shoe.
You know, he's saying you're not worthy to do this. This really isn't something that, you know,
is something that is, you know, your right to do. But it's certainly a privilege that you have.
But Jesus is kind of confirming this, isn't he? He's saying, suffer it to be so. He's saying,
we're just going to have to put up with it. This is just the way it is. And what we see in this is Jesus' humility.
You know, Jesus is showing humility here because truly, you know, Jesus, you know, doesn't need to be baptized of anyone.
You know, we would all gladly submit to Jesus. We would all be like John and say, I need to be baptized of thee.
It comest thou to me? And Jesus is saying, yeah, that's right. That is how it is.
That's the right attitude to have in this situation. But we're going to go ahead and suffer it.
We're going to go ahead and do this. I'm going to go ahead and submit myself to this baptism
and do things the way they ought to be done. This shows us an element of Jesus, that he was a very humble person.
And we have to remember who we're dealing with when we're dealing with Jesus. We're dealing with God in the flesh.
God was manifest in the flesh. That's talking about the birth of Christ. Him being manifest in the flesh.
Right? So we're not just talking about any ordinary prophet. We're not talking about just, you know, some good man.
We're talking about God Almighty in the flesh. John knew this. John understood it.
That's why he's feeling this, you know, this inadequacy saying, comest thou to me? I need to be baptized of thee.
And yet Jesus, despite all that, is saying, suffer it to be so. It shows an element of humility.
And of course, the baptism here marks the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
This is where he's showing himself to the public and is going to begin to go about preaching and doing good
throughout Galilee and all the region. Okay? So this baptism is a very significant event.
And Jesus is kicking off his ministry in this baptism. And what's the first thing that he does?
He has this great public display of humility. And I don't think it was a show, obviously.
It wasn't something, some air he was putting on. It was something that was natural that just came from him.
But it shows us that to be in ministry or to be a minister on any level requires humility.
We have to have humility. And Jesus is somebody who had humility.
If you would, go over to 2 Timothy, chapter number 2. 2 Timothy, chapter number 2.
We'll be in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and we'll be in Timothy.
I'm going to have you turn in a lot this morning. So hopefully you got some coffee either on the way over here
or when you got in first thing. But if you could just perk up a little bit and try to keep up with me this morning,
we'll see if we can't get something out of the scripture. It says there in 2 Timothy, chapter number 2, verse 23,
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing they do gender strife.
So of course Paul writing to his protégé Timothy, giving him instructions on how he ought to conduct himself in the ministry.
And one of the things we see him telling him is to avoid foolish and unlearned questions.
To not engage in these things. And this is, you know, often requires humility. This requires meekness, right?
Because in our flesh often if we, you know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13 that knowledge puffeth up.
You know, as we learn and grow and know the Bible and then we come across somebody who has a foolish or unlearned question,
you know, the temptation is to say, aha, I got you. And to kind of talk down to them or show them how they're wrong
or beat them up verbally, okay? And to make them feel stupid or to just try to make ourselves feel smart like we know something.
But the Bible says that foolish and unlearned questions are to be avoided.
We don't avoid foolish and unlearned questions by engaging with them.
To avoid, you know, how are we supposed to deal with people who have foolish and unlearned questions?
To avoid them. Not to address them. Because the Bible says speak not in the ears of a fool lest he despise the wisdom of thy words.
You know, sometimes there's just no point in talking to some people because they're just foolish.
That's why we don't engage with, you know, some people at the door who just want to be argumentative and we're all soul winning.
Maybe, you know, in our own personal lives we're going to have people that we come into contact with that just want to argue,
that just want to debate, that just want to bring up foolish and unlearned questions.
They don't know the Bible but they sure feel, you know, that it's their duty to tell you what the Bible says even though they've never read it.
You know, we'll run into people, you know, today obviously the Internet is a very big part of our lives.
And you'll see people making comments, making, you know, trolling people in all types of different ways.
And the temptation might be to go in there and try to straighten people out and give them what for.
But the Bible says that we are to be avoiding these foolish and unlearned questions.
And I'm here to tell you that that requires meekness, that requires humility.
To be able to just suffer wrong, just to be able to not revile again as it says of Jesus.
When he was reviled, he reviled not again. Okay?
It says to avoid these things, verse 24, and the servant of the Lord must not strive.
Obviously we strive and contend for the faith, for the things that are right, but there's certain instances where we just don't strive.
When we're dealing with fools, when we're dealing with unlearned people, sometimes we just need to not strive but do what?
But to be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.
You know, that's one of the needs of the ministry.
You know, and we can apply this all in our own lives.
You know, mothers, teachers, maybe other people we're instructing.
Maybe at work we have people that are under our authority. It's kind of our job to supervise them.
We have to understand that there's some people out there that are just unlearned.
They don't know. They're ignorant.
It's not even necessarily that they're bad people.
And sometimes they'll come from a place of ignorance in our lives.
They'll want to engage with us and their ignorance is just very obvious.
But what we have to learn to do is to not strive in those instances but to be gentle.
Right? Gentle and to be apt to teach.
As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Right? I think this kind of applies there.
If we just want to instantly bite people's heads off, you know, they're not going to want to hear what we have to say.
And this is something, of course, being in ministry that I have to often remind myself.
Is that people are coming from all different backgrounds.
People are coming from all different places in life.
They're all at different levels of growth within the Christian life.
And we have to learn to be gentle unto people.
Because if we're gentle, then over time we will be able to teach them.
Apt to teach, yes.
Have the answers. Know what the answer is.
Know what it is that people need to do.
But also understand that people resist the truth.
That sometimes people just need to be given time to grow and learn and to come into certain things.
That's why he says to be apt to teach and to be what? Patient.
You know, to be long suffering. To wait on people. To give people time.
Verse 25, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.
What's the point of teaching?
To look smart? To make ourselves feel good?
To somehow, you know, edify our own selves by the teaching that we do?
No. We teach because we are trying to help those that, what, oppose themselves.
You know, people do things in life. They make decisions.
They live their lives in certain ways where they are their own worst enemy.
People make all kinds of problems for themselves, don't they?
We do things that are contrary to the Bible. We do things we know we ought not to do.
Sometimes we don't even know what the right thing is to do.
And we need someone to teach us. We need somebody to help us.
Even when we don't realize it.
And that's why, you know, people who are going to instruct, who are in it for the right reasons,
they have to have humility. They have to have meekness.
Because they are trying to instruct people that oppose themselves.
If God, peradventure, will give them repentance, the acknowledging of the truth.
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.
So obviously the immediate context of 2 Timothy 2 is referring more to unsaved people
who are just resisting the gospel. But it's a principle that you can apply in your own life.
Whatever area you have sort of a ministry, so to speak.
This is one of the elements that we see in Jesus' baptism.
When he came to John, John said, hey, I need to be baptized of you.
And Jesus said, you know, you're right, John. You're coming from the right place.
You have humility, but so do I. Let's suffer it to be so.
If you would, go back to, we'll go to Luke chapter number 3.
Luke chapter number 3. So we see in Jesus' baptism his humility.
And his, you know, this, again, the baptism is what's starting his earthly ministry.
What's one of the first attributes we see in Jesus as a minister is his humility, is his meekness.
This is something you see throughout Paul's ministry as well.
I won't take the time to turn us to all his passages,
but Paul said that he beseeched the Corinthians by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
You know, Christ on earth was a very meek and gentle person.
He wasn't, you know, we often want to think about Jesus coming back to this earth
and pouring out his wrath and taking vengeance on the wicked.
And, amen, that's all going to happen.
But that's, we don't want to have a one-sided view of who God is.
And sometimes, you know, we criticize people of having one-sided view that Jesus is nothing but love.
But let's not run to the other extreme and think, well, he's nothing but wrath.
He's both.
He has all of these dimensions in his personality.
And one of those things, one of those dimensions is that he is meek and gentle.
You know, Paul told the Thessalonians that he was gentle as a nurse, cherishes her children.
That's how he treated his church, that it was people that needed to be brought up and nurtured in the admonition of the Lord,
people that had to be fed the milk of the word of God before they could be given the strong meat.
And that takes patience.
It takes patience to wait for a child to be able to feed themselves because it takes years, right, Mom?
It takes a long time for that kid to figure out how to pick up fork and spoon and shovel that food in their mouth.
And even once they know how to do it, sometimes they they insist on using the hands.
All right.
Or they just stick the face right in the bowl.
Right.
And obviously, you know, that required that's a very literal thing that that we have to go through with our children.
You know, spiritually, that's how some people are, too.
Spiritually, some people it's like it's been years and we're just waiting for you to get this right.
We're just waiting for you to figure these things out.
We've been meek.
We've been gentle.
We've been patient.
We've taught the word of God.
We've set the bowl in front of you.
We've poured the glass of milk and we're saying it's time to drink.
And obviously, people again, you know, this is why you have to have meekness and humility.
People are coming in at all different levels.
And some people, you know what?
They have to have the bottle put in their mouth.
Because they're helpless.
They have to be brought up.
But obviously, you know, they need to be weaned from that and given strong meat.
At some point, though, we should be able to belly up, so to speak, to the world.
And start to feed ourselves and not always be relying on other people to do it for us.
But obviously, you know, that requires time to mature spiritually.
Okay?
We don't want to be like that babe at the table, you know, who knows how to use fork and spoon.
Who has been taught, who has had someone gently and meekly and patiently instruct them in how to use utensils.
And then just insist on shoving your fingers in the air.
Okay?
We need to grow up out of these things.
That's why ministers must be gentle as a nurse.
That's why they must have patience.
Even Jesus, you'll see it in his own ministry, how often he had to be very meek.
You know, he would say that he, you know, he sighed.
You know, he was heavy in his spirit.
He would, you know, he would almost complain about the carnality of some of the people that were surrounding him.
You know, how long should he be?
Look at Luke chapter number three says in verse, it says in verse 21, now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized and praying the heaven was opened.
So at this baptism, all the people were baptized.
And it says after that happened, then Jesus came to be baptized.
So he went last.
Again, it's another great picture of his humility.
That he didn't show up first and say, okay, let me show you how it's done.
Well, you know, it's all about me anyway.
I'll go first.
And a part of that obvious, too, was just the logistics of getting everybody there first and then having him there for them to see it.
But it's also a principle to that Jesus, you know, he went last.
He, he waited for others.
He waited for others.
But it's also a principle to that Jesus, you know, he went last.
He, he waited for others.
He waited for other people to go first and that all the other people were baptized before him.
Now, it's interesting in Luke three because you have this one little detail that you don't see in the other parallel passages.
It says that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was open because you'll notice in the other passages that cover this,
it'll say that he was baptized and then, you know, immediately the heavens were open and the spirit of the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily shape like a dove.
OK, but here in Luke, you get this little detail that he was praying as well.
So Jesus is being baptized before this great crowd.
Right.
All the people were baptized and it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized.
So they are baptized first.
There's this great crowd there.
We know that that John cried out and said, you know, this is he of whom I spake.
Right.
Directing their attention to Jesus when he showed up for this baptism.
So this wasn't, you know, just a few people.
All Israel had come out to his baptism and Jesus is being baptized in front of all of these people.
But notice it says that he's praying.
OK.
The prayer is not recorded.
Now, the reason why I don't think it was recorded is because it wasn't something that was said out loud.
They say, well, then how does Luke know that happened?
How does he know he's praying?
Did he tell him, hey, hey, Luke, I was praying when I got baptized?
No, it's because we believe that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
OK, that that Luke was given this detail.
You know, I believe, you know, by God, by the Holy Spirit, it's something that he was led to write in the word of God.
Jesus was also being baptized and praying.
So what's going on here?
Jesus being baptized before a crowd, but he's praying.
Who's he praying to?
Obviously, he's praying to God, the father, his father.
He's praying to God in heaven.
And not only does the ministry require meekness, the other thing we have to understand is that the ministry requires the right motives.
Ministry requires the right motives.
If you would go over to First Thessalonians, chapter number two, First Thessalonians, chapter number two.
We don't want to get into ministry with the wrong motives.
OK.
Also, people need to make sure they're getting baptized for the right reason.
That's another thing you could preach from this.
You know, Jesus isn't showing up to be baptized in front of all these people just so he could receive, you know, the praise of men or something.
He's praying. He's being baptized and he's praying to God because this is something that he's experiencing between him and his father.
He's being baptized, you know, out of obedience.
OK, and that's why we get baptized.
You know, we don't we don't get baptized for salvation.
Obviously, we know that we don't get baptized just so that, you know, we can look good in a baptismal gown because no one does, obviously.
Right. We get baptized because the Bible commands us to get baptized.
That after salvation, we should be baptized.
That's what the Bible says. You say, well, I got baptized when I was a baby.
Well, the Bible doesn't teach, you know, infant baptism.
You won't see it in the scripture. And baptism is something that follows salvation.
It doesn't accompany it. It doesn't isn't part of it, but it's something that comes after salvation.
And what it is, is it's obedience to the word of God. It's showing God that you're willing to take the next step in the Christian life.
That's how we follow the Lord in obedience. And obviously it is a public profession of our faith.
It is showing others, hey, I'm identifying as a Christian. I'm identifying with a death, burial, resurrection of Christ.
That's where my faith is lying. An infant can't do that.
You know, a small child without understanding can't do that.
You know, you never see, you know, the Catholic priest or, you know, all the other, you know, baby sprinklers asking the baby,
have you accepted Christ as your savior? Right. Because it's just going to go gah, good gah, you know, or whatever they say.
It's going to spit up, you know, and then they just turn it and dunk it.
I mean, you know, the Greek Orthodox, at least they're dunking. Right.
They got that part down and they're, man, they're serious about their dunking.
Anyone ever saw that clip where the guy's like putting the baby through? It's like practically giving that kid whiplash.
I don't know how parents just turn these people, their children over to these people, but they do.
And of course, you know, in a Catholic church and others, they're going to sprinkle, they're going to get the little ladle out.
They're going to, you know, rinse it off, pull it out of the bowl soup, rinse it off and just pour that on the kid's head.
Right. But that's not found in scripture. You know, baptism is always by immersion.
Baptism is something that comes after salvation. Obviously, Jesus isn't.
It's not because he got saved. Jesus doesn't need to get saved. Right.
But he is being baptized, I believe, in obedience.
OK. This is something that he had to do. That's why he said, suffer it to be so now for thus it fulfills all righteousness.
Right. This is something he had to do.
So, but why is he doing it? Because he's being obedient.
Why should you get baptized? Because that's what the Bible says you should do. Period.
You know, and people have a lot of reasons why they think they want to squirm out of this and say, well, you know, I just I'm shy.
I don't want to get baptized in front of people. Tough. Get over it.
I don't know what else to tell you. You know, consider the fact that Jesus, you know,
I'm sure it was a little embarrassing for him when he was crucified, when he was bleeding and naked and mocked, hanging from the cross.
I'm pretty sure that was a pretty you know, the Bible says it was in his humiliation. Right.
That's something I was very humiliating publicly for him. And yet he went through that for you and I.
And all he asks is, you know, believe on me. And then you know what? I'd appreciate it if you get baptized and show people that you put your trust.
Do that publicly. Maybe suffer a little humiliation, maybe suffer a little getting out of your comfort zone and get baptized in obedience.
And make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Doing it because you love God.
Look, if we really love the Lord, if we love God, if we really appreciate what he had done for us.
There would be nothing he could ask that we wouldn't do. He'd say, hey, do this.
Yes, Lord. You know, if we he said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
Obviously, you don't have to love God to go to heaven. You don't. For God so loved the world.
You know, he loved us. You know, that's the love of God that he loved us.
We're not going to heaven because how much we love God. We're going to heaven because God loved us.
But, you know, if we want to please God in our lives, if we love that, you know, we would obey him.
And, you know, you please people who you love, don't you?
You know why? You know why some Christians are just never going to be obedient to the Lord?
Because they don't love them. They don't. They don't really appreciate what he's done for them.
I mean, on some level they do. Obviously, they're saying, you know, I'm glad I'm going to heaven.
But, you know, there's different levels of love, isn't there? We love people to different degrees, don't we?
Look, I love everybody in this room. I do. But who do you think I love the most?
That's right, brother Andrew. How did you know? Right? I think we all know who it is. It's my wife.
You guys are like, who? Deacon, who? Who could it be? It's obvious, right?
You know, I'm going to do things. I'm going to be more apt to do things to please my wife because I love her more than I am any of you.
Sorry. You know, and every other person probably feels the same way about their spouse or whoever it is that they're,
you know, more endeared to in this life, whoever they have or more invested in and have that relation,
that closer relationship with. It's just natural. You know, there's nothing. It's not a mean thing or anything like that.
The point is this is that, you know, the more we love God, the more we appreciate what he's done for us,
the more willing we'd be to just be obedient to whatever he asks of us.
That's another great lesson out of the baptism of Jesus is that he had the right motives.
His motive was obedience out of love of the father. And, you know, some people,
they want to get baptized for the wrong reasons. And this sounds crazy.
OK, one ways I see this often is that they have to be baptized by a particular person.
They just they'll I mean, they'll cross they'll compass land and sea to get baptized by a certain pastor.
It's got to be this preacher. It's like, well, you know, then why? Why are you getting baptized for that person?
You know, then they'll show up at church and be like, you know, can Pastor Anderson baptize me?
No, he's busy, but, you know, we got another guy who can baptize you. Oh, well, who are you getting baptized for?
Pastor Anderson, Brother Corbin, you're getting baptized for the wrong reasons.
It doesn't matter who baptized you. You know, if it's an ordained minister, that's all you need.
Who cares what their last name is, because you're being baptized in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Ghost.
You're being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. It's for him. Jesus is sitting there getting baptized with John.
But what's he doing? He's praying, I believe, privately, inwardly to God, because that's who he's doing it for.
It doesn't really matter who baptizes us. Make sure we have the right motives.
Make sure you have motive at all. You know, look, if you if you've been saved and you haven't been baptized,
you need to get baptized, you know, and I'll dust off the tank and I'll baptize you this morning.
We'll fill it up right now. I'm dead serious.
If you ever need to get baptized, just let me know. I'll take care of that quick.
And we'll put you in a six week class explaining you baptism, because I can explain that in about six minutes.
Look at First Thessalonians chapter number two, verse six. He said, Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you,
nor yet of others that we might have been birthed in as other apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you. There it is. I was quoting earlier, even as a nurse cherished her children.
So he's saying, look, we were gentle, right? That's the first point we talked about.
But notice also here saying we we did not seek glory of men, nor of men sought we glory.
If we're going to be in ministry, we have to make sure that we are meek.
If we're going to be in ministry, we have to make sure we have the right motives. We don't want to do it for vain glory.
Go to First Corinthians chapter number one. First Corinthians chapter number one.
You know, and people sometimes they get caught up in this carnal thing, as I was just saying a moment ago.
Well, it's got to be a certain preacher or a certain person who baptizes me. It can't be anybody else.
It can't be the pastor of my local church where I've been going, you know, since I got saved after I got right and got in church.
You know, it can't be that guy. I know I need to travel across the country and get baptized by somebody else because, you know, my pastor is not good enough.
You know, as somebody who's pastors a church, you know, I would be hurt by that, to be perfectly honest.
I wouldn't say that you're wrong for doing it because, again, it doesn't matter who baptizes you, but I would take that personally.
You know, if you were a member of this church and need to be baptized and say, well, you know, Deacon, I know I get baptized, but, you know, I'm going to go get I'm going to go to some other church in some other part of the country because this particular guy has to baptize me.
You're not good enough. That's basically what you're saying, right? And again, I get it. Like, it doesn't matter. Go get baptized by whoever you're going to get baptized with.
But I'm just telling you, I'm human, just like anybody else. I would be a little offended by that.
And I can imagine there's other pastors in this country who have, you know, people come into their church, start growing. They're listening to their preaching.
They're there, you know, under the sound of their voice. He's praying about them. He's thinking about them. You know, he's writing messages. He's counseling with them. They're talking to him.
I mean, he's he's like Paul. He's, as he said, he's cherishing them as children. He's nursing them and bringing them up and helping them grow.
And then they get to the place where they want to be obedient, to be baptized. I say, OK, I'll be back next week. I'm going to get baptized.
I'd be I'd be offended. I'd be hurt.
It doesn't matter who baptizes us. First Corinthians chapter number one, verse 11. In fact, if you think it does, you're carnal.
It shows what a babe you are. It says in verse 11, It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them that are house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
Now this I say that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul and I have a Paul and I have Cephas, that's Peter, and I have Christ.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
What he's saying is like, you know, you're carnal in this. This is this is a carnal mentality.
Just sit there and say, you know, I'm of this preacher and I'm I'm of that pastor. You know, this guy baptized me and this is, you know, and I get it.
People have preferences. And when it comes to preaching, people can have their favorite preacher. That's fine.
You know, I have preferences, too. But, you know, we shouldn't be dividing lines and saying, well, I side with this guy or, you know, this is this is my guy over here.
Only so and so can baptize me. Verse 14, I thank God I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized my own name.
He said, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you because you're so carnal because you're sitting there and say, well, Paul baptized me. Who's Paul? Paul wasn't crucified for you.
He said in verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Obviously, Paul did baptize. But he's saying that's not my main reason I'm here.
I'm not here to, you know, tell Cephas, well, I baptized so many. Tell Paul, well, I baptized more than you.
He said, I came to preach the gospel and it doesn't matter who, you know, how many people I did or didn't baptize because it's not about us.
That's not the motives. To lift up and receive glory of men. Okay?
So what are we learning this morning from Mark? We're learning about Jesus' baptism, one that the ministry requires meekness, that Jesus had humility.
It requires the proper motives. If you would go back to Mark chapter number one, verse number 10.
It says in Mark chapter one, verse 10, and straight way coming up out of the water, right? So he's baptized of John and Jordan, end of verse nine,
and straight way coming up out of the water. So again, this is how quickly I can teach baptism is by immersion. Prove it from the Bible.
Well, to come up out of the water, one must first go down into the water. Next point. Okay? And yet you see so many people just choke on baptism.
So many people get it wrong. You know, every single instance is immersion. Okay? And I didn't have to go back to the Greek and explain that,
what the word baptism means in Greek because I don't know. Just be perfectly honest. I don't know Greek. I'm not going to pretend to know what Greek.
I'm not going to look it up in a lexicon or concordance and get up here. Well, in the Greek. Because I don't need to because I got a King James Bible.
You know, there's nothing in here that I can't get that's hidden. I guess I should say it this way. There's nothing in the Greek that's not in here.
Everything I need is in here. God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness in the word of God. I mean, just look at the context.
He went down into the water. He came up out of the water. You know, that's why John, it says in John 3, was baptizing an anod near to Salem because there was much water there.
When you're baptizing thousands of people, you know, you need a lot of water. It was by sprinkling, all he'd eat is a 55 gallon drum. You know, you could just line everybody up and just
baptize a bunch of, you know, alright, next, you know, that line would get out of the way, this next, get them, you know, he'd just get his little hiss up or whatever.
Get the toilet brush, you know, and just, just, bam, it'd be easy. But when you're dunking people one by one, you know, you don't want to keep filling that tank up,
you know, get you, get you some, get you some much water, right? That's what John did. Another example would be in Acts 8, we won't go there, where the Ethiopian eunuch was wanting to be baptized, right?
And Philip took him down into the water. He said, see, here's much water. What doth tend to be baptized? If thou believeth, thou mayest, right? I believe that Jesus Christ is the sin of God.
And then they stopped and went down into the water, okay? He didn't say, wait here in the chariot, I'll run down to the river and get a cup of water and come back and sprinkle you, right?
They both had to go down to the water. You know, another picture of baptism of immersion is Moses with the children of Israel in the wilderness when they're crossing the Red Sea.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 that they were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized onto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. So they're surrounded by the cloud above and by the waters on each side.
It's a picture of baptism. And when did it happen? It happened after they were brought out of Israel, after the blood had been applied to the doorposts, right? After the death angel had passed over them.
Then they came out of bondage. It's a picture of the Christian getting saved, being delivered from the bondage of sin, and then being baptized as they follow the man of God in obedience.
Now, in Mark chapter 1 verse 10, there's another detail here that I want to spend a little bit of time on this morning. It says,
In a straight way coming up out of the water, baptism by immersion, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
So I believe he's talking about John is seeing this. John is seeing this take place. I don't know that everybody saw this, but it does say that he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
Now, some people get a little confused or have different opinions about what it means when the Spirit descended upon him like a dove.
Now, I've always believed, since I first read this, I took that literally, that the Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove, that it was like a literal dove that lit upon him.
Was it like a dove that you and I would see, or was it just, as it says in Luke, had the bodily shape of a dove? I don't know. But whatever it is that he saw, I believe that it was a dove.
Now, some people, and I can see where they're coming from, will make the argument like, no, it says like a dove because of the manner in which the Holy Spirit lit upon him.
Meaning, you know, because a dove descends lightly. It's not like some big stork or something. Have you ever seen these big birds land on a branch and it's just like, like it's forceful.
These big birds, they've got to land in a lake, and it's like a plane coming in, right? I mean, imagine having one of those light upon you. There's nothing light about it.
Okay, it would be a very, you know, perhaps traumatic experience. I don't know. It would be a lot of commotion there, right?
But, so they say, well, it's like a dove and it was very gentle. It was a very light thing. It was very, you know, it's like as a dove, kind of just gently coming down and lighting upon him.
And I can see that, but the thing is, is that in every instance it says like a dove. So every author that records this in the gospel is saying it's like a dove, it's like a dove.
Where they could have said something, you know, it descended, you know, like a bird or like a sparrow or like some other bird, but they all chose the word dove, didn't they?
They all use that exact word when describing this. And obviously the Holy Spirit is involved in this as well, even those that weren't there to witness it, perhaps, are describing it as a dove.
Okay. Go to Matthew chapter number three, verse 16, Matthew chapter number three. It says in Matthew chapter three, verse 16,
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
So my next question would be, if it's the Spirit of God that's lighting upon him, the Holy Spirit, okay, obviously then the Holy Spirit has to have some kind of a shape.
Okay. And if you say, well, it's not a dove, then what shape was it? Was it the shape of a man? So is he lighting upon him like a dove in the shape of a man?
Like, how do we envision that now? Because, you know, and I don't want to be taken wrong, but I've heard people mock this. I've had people laugh in my face about actually believing that it's a literal dove, which I don't understand.
I don't think how that, it's like, is it really that far-fetched? I mean, we believe God created all the creatures, you know, in one day.
It's like, but then this is just, that, well, that's way out there, you know. Obviously, none of it's way out there. It's God that we're talking about.
There's nothing too hard for him. Okay. But if we're going to sit there and say, oh, no, no, silly, it's not a literal dove. He just descended like a dove.
And then what shape was he in? Was it the shape of a man? I mean, the Holy Spirit is a person. So then I guess it's the Holy Spirit came and descended upon Jesus and just, like, put a foot on his shoulder?
And I'm not, I know it sounds funny, but I mean, I'm trying to understand. If he lit upon him as a dove, like in the manner in which a dove would light upon a tree very gently, so then a full, like, what shape was he?
Was the Holy Spirit a man then? Was he standing upon Jesus' head? Because it lit upon him. I'm just trying to understand. You know, to me, it seems like the latter is a little bit, I'm getting a few laughs right now just by suggesting that.
I'm not trying to be funny, right? But I mean, what's more far-fetched? What seems more awkward? Or a little dove landing on you? I think it's the latter. I believe it's a literal dove that lit upon him.
And it wasn't just that it was doing it gently. It's in all three gospels, or four rather, it's being described as a dove. And I got to get you to a certain passage here. You're in Luke. You're in Matthew. Go to Luke chapter three. Luke chapter three. What's interesting is that in John, that's like the only details of Jesus' baptism in verse 32.
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it bowed upon him. It doesn't include a lot of the other details, but it makes that specific point. It does point that one detail in John. John doesn't go into it anywhere near as much as the other gospels. But it does take the time to point out that it was like a dove.
Matthew's calling it a dove. Mark's calling it a dove. Luke's calling it a dove. John's calling it a dove, but it's not a dove. It's just like a dove. Then what is it like then? What is the Holy Spirit? How does he appear? What did he look like when he saw this? I believe he looked like a dove. He just took upon that shape.
All four accounts specify dove. Look at Luke 3.22. The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove. What was the bodily shape like? A dove. That's what I believe. And people can make the argument it was a bodily shape, but the manner in which it descended was that like a dove. Okay.
I could see that perhaps that's the right interpretation, but that's just not, you know, when I first read this, that was the impression I got. And a lot of other people have the impression, right?
And you say, well, that's a Catholic doctrine. That's what Catholics believe. Well, are we going to just throw out everything Catholics believe because they're Catholics? Because Catholics got some other things right too, don't they?
How about the Trinity? How about the deity of Christ? How about the virgin birth? Well, Catholics believe that. Let's throw that out too. It's like the reason why even unsafe people get some of these things right is because they're easy to understand.
They're just right there on the surface of the scripture. They say, well, I don't know, the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, taking on, as it says in Luke, the bodily shape like a dove.
That seems kind of sacrilegious to, you know, bring God down a level of an animal, right? But yet the Bible, we don't even, you're probably already thinking about it. Revelation 5.
The Bible refers to Jesus Christ as a lamb, where John actually sees a lamb. Revelation 5, 6, I'll just read to you.
And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne, and this is in heaven, and of the four beasts in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, not the lamb, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb.
So this is obviously a picture of Jesus Christ, but how did John see it as a literal lamb with seven heads, not seven heads, seven eyes and seven horns?
Right? So the Bible, you know, this isn't beyond the Lord to, you know, represent himself in the form of an animal. Okay? And there's other instances of that.
You know, obviously I don't believe that that's, you know, the Holy Spirit is always a dove. Like when we get to heaven, so there's going to be a dove there. Okay?
This is obviously a miracle. And, you know, there's, you say, why? Why does he do it like this? Why not just have the Holy Spirit just show up alongside him?
Why the controversy? You know, why the question? Why a dove? Well, several reasons. One, I believe, is because it's a symbol of peace.
You know, the devil is a symbol of peace. That's kind of universally accepted. Right? If you would go to James chapter number three, James chapter number three.
Remember when Noah is in the ark, when the waters of the flood are upon the earth, and after a certain length of time, he decides to go and see if the waters had abated,
if the waters had receded from the earth to where they could, you know, find dry land. And it says in verse eight of Genesis eight,
and he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from the face off the ground.
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to the ark, but the waters, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth.
So he sends out the dove. There's no, you know, God's wrath is still on the earth. Right? Because that's what the waters represent.
I know we like to tell the kids in Sunday school what a cute story it was, but it's God killing everybody and everything else that wasn't on the ark.
You know, it's basically a bloodbath. Pun intended. So he's sending out the dove to see if there's anywhere to find rest, to have peace, to, you know, get out of God's wrath.
And it says that she didn't find it. So he returned to the ark. Then he put forth as Anna took her and pulled her into the ark.
And he stayed yet other seven days and again sent forth the dove out of the ark. So a week later, he tries again.
And the dove came in to him in the evening and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. Now, isn't an olive branch a symbol of peace as well?
I mean, that's a thing that we say to people. I'm going to extend, you know, I tried to extend an olive branch. You know, I tried to make peace with this individual.
Maybe you got beef with somebody and you squashed it. You know, that's how we would say it today.
But, you know, there's another saying of, you know, extending an olive branch to somebody, you know, because it's a symbol of peace.
So it's just kind of universally accepted that, you know, a dove is a symbol of peace.
OK. So that's, you know, a great example of that. Psalm 55, I said, oh, had that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest.
Right. You know, think about doves as very peaceful, restful creatures. That's what they represent. Rest, peace.
So I believe there's a reason why it was the Holy Spirit in bodily shape, like a dove, descended upon Jesus as baptism, because it's a symbol of peace.
And when Jesus is the prince of peace, his ministry is a ministry of peace. He's coming in meekness. He's coming in humility.
And he's coming with the right motives. And his motive is to is to bring peace, to bring salvation to the earth.
The Bible says in James 3 where you are, verse 17, but the wisdom that is from above, the wisdom that is from above.
Right. Where is this dove coming from? From the heavens. Right.
John says that the heavens were opened and then he saw the spirit of God descending in bodily shape like a dove.
I believe it's, you know, those two details are intertwined. Heavens are being opened and the dove is coming from above.
Right. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then what? Peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. OK.
The wisdom that is from above is the Holy Spirit, the wisdom that God gives. This is the way in which it comes.
These are the things. This is how we receive it. This is the nature of wisdom that comes from God.
Peaceable, gentle, easy. These are the, you know, the trademarks, the highlights of Jesus' ministry.
Jesus' ministry here on earth was of peace. He was gentle. Right. He was easy to be entreated.
He was full of mercy and good fruits. He went about doing good. He was healing many people.
He was without partiality. He didn't show favor to one group of people over the other. He didn't say,
oh, you know, I'm only going to preach to the Jews. Right. No, he brought in the Samaritans.
He preached to, you know, the Gentiles. There was no partiality. There was obviously with Christ no hypocrisy.
OK, because he's not he has no sin. So why the dove? Well, it's a symbol of peace.
And that peace is emblematic of Jesus' ministry. OK. Where are you at in James? You're James three.
We'll go to Luke, chapter two. We're going to be reading this in here in a couple of months.
The Bible says in Isaiah 11, there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse.
A branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit Lord shall rest upon in the spirit of wisdom and understanding.
The spirit of counsel and might. The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Look at Luke, chapter two, verse 13. This is, of course, the angels proclaiming the birth of Christ.
Right. To the shepherds. And suddenly there was an angel with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth. What peace, goodwill toward men.
What is the peace on earth and good will toward men? Why are they saying that?
Because that's what Jesus' ministry was. That's why I believe, you know, this was a literal dove,
not just because God didn't have anything better to do or just he's like, well, that's his favorite animal or something.
Because it's it's it symbolizes Jesus' ministry. It's a symbol of peace.
You know, Jesus' ministry or baptism teaches us a lot about what humility, meekness.
And, you know, obviously it's it's it's kicking off his earthly ministry, which was a ministry of peace, gentleness, of loving other people.
That's what we're here to do. We're here to be loving towards other people, to love the lost,
to love one another, to do good unto all men. As we have opportunity, especially, they have the household of faith.
OK. Where did I have you go, Luke? Yeah, you're still there. Go to Luke, Chapter nine.
Well, you know what? Just just go back to Mark, Chapter one. Mark, Chapter one.
I'll wrap it up, but I'll just remind us of Luke, Chapter nine. Right.
Look, Jesus' ministry was a ministry of peace. OK, it was a ministry where God he's bringing goodwill toward men.
And he's trying to redeem man unto God. He's been given the Ministry of Reconciliation, which has now also been given unto us in his absence.
That's what we're learning this morning about his baptism. It's more than just the fact that baptism is by immersion.
You know, that's, you know, that's right on the surface. Oh, man, I want to roll this morning.
OK, the fact that it's by immersion is right on the surface. OK, that's easy.
But there's these deeper elements. There's these deeper meanings. There's this symbology there that we also have to get.
The fact that a dove is descending upon him, the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove, you know, as I believe, you know, is, you know,
it's emblematic of Christ's ministry. It's because his ministry is a ministry of peace.
He's coming to not to destroy men's lives, as he said in Luke nine. Remember when he said that?
When the Samaritans would not receive him because he had set his face toward Jerusalem.
And then the apostle said, hey, should we, like Elijah, call down from fire from heaven and destroy the Samaritans?
Because, you know, even back then, they were just all about destroying people that weren't of their tribe back then.
Right. I don't know why that sounds so familiar.
Or they just want to call down fire from the sky and destroy people because they're not the right, you know, ethnicity.
Hmm. I don't know. Maybe there's a modern day application I can make to that.
I don't know. If you think of something, let me know. Right. It's kind of outside the context of this sermon right now.
But, you know, even back then, that's the attitude that people had. People that were following Jesus.
Hey, should we just burn these people up with fire? Should we just destroy these Samaritans, Lord?
And he's like, yeah, do it. Nuke them.
No, he said the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
You know, that's what Jesus' ministry was about. It was about peace, about reconciling mankind under God, all men.
It was without partiality. That's why I believe, you know, this is a literal dove.
That the Holy it's literally the Holy Spirit in that shape taking upon him that form because it represents the peace.
Of Jesus' ministry. Not only that, but, you know, something had to be done to represent the anointing of Jesus.
Right. Think about the Old Testament. Whenever you see kings being they were often being anointed.
Think about when Samuel went and, you know, chose David as the next king of Israel to follow Saul.
Right. Even Saul himself. These people were both anointed. Right. They had literal oil put upon them.
Right. Publicly, in front of other people, the prophet Samuel came to these people, a man of God, and publicly anointed them.
So that people would know, okay, this is the king. It wasn't that there was necessarily something magical about the oil,
but it was symbolic of the fact that, you know, this is the guy who's chosen to be the king of Israel next.
And what does also the oil represent in the Bible? It represents the Holy Spirit.
Right. So instead of having John, you know, pour oil upon him, he's baptizing him.
And then God is also anointing him by having the Holy Spirit descend upon him.
It's kind of an anointing of the Holy Spirit, once again, to show people that this is who he's chosen.
Because what happens next? They hear the voice from heaven and says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Right. So that dove, that Holy Spirit, whatever shape he did or didn't take, whatever you decide about that,
the fact remains is that it was also an anointing of Jesus by, I believe, God the Father,
because it's descending out of the heavens, it's coming upon him, and then you're hearing the voice.
So there's kind of like no denying it. So this isn't Jesus just taking upon himself.
People couldn't accuse him of saying, oh, you know, you're self-appointed.
Right. Well, no, I, you know, where's your certificate of ordination?
You know, who ordained you? Well, God the Father ordained him at his baptism.
When the heavens opened and he had the Holy Spirit descend upon him, whatever shape you think, however that happened.
And then the voice followed up, said, I approve of, you know, I approve of my son. This is him.
OK. That's what it says in Mark 1 right there, verse 11, where you are.
Right. And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Now, the other thing I'll close with this is that we've learned several things.
Just see, that's why I'm taking time to go through these smaller sections here in these chapters,
because there's just so much in here. Right. What are we learning about in this baptism?
The humility that John has, the humility and the meekness that Christ is displaying,
how that is something that we as ministers must have in our lives.
We must be meek toward all men. We must be willing to instruct and be patient with people,
you know, that we have to have the right motives. People need to be baptized.
You know, Jesus, when he was baptized, was praying. You only see that in one account.
I believe he's doing it inwardly, privately, because it's something that's between him and God.
That's the same way with your baptism. We don't get baptized for man's sake.
We don't need to be baptized with specific individuals. It shouldn't matter. We're being baptized in the name of Jesus.
You know, we're seeing the, you know, the symbology of the Holy Spirit here, what it represents,
what it means in terms of Christ's ministry, the fact that he came with good will towards men,
that it represents peace. But also, so there's a lot there, right?
Every one of those points could be an entire sermon. But lastly is the doctrine of the Trinity.
This is a great example of the Trinity, right? God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Ghost,
because all three are present in the same place at the same time.
Kind of hard to do that if you're one person, right? If it's all one person, it's kind of hard to be three people at the same place at one time.
I have a hard time being one person at two places at one time. How about you?
You know, I haven't figured that one out yet. You know, maybe we need to reconsider our position on cloning.
But not that it's actually a thing, but, you know, that that's that's pictured here because you have what?
Jesus obviously is there. God the Son. You have the Holy Spirit descending upon him.
And then you have the voice from heaven, which is the Father saying, you know, this is thou art my beloved Son.
Right? Meaning that's the Father, obviously, if he's calling him Son.
So the Trinity is present in Jesus's baptism. And again, this is another one of those doctrines that's pretty easy to understand.
Obviously, the concept of the Trinity is deep. The fact that God is one God, but three persons.
Obviously, there's a lot of depth that we can't fully understand how that's possible.
But the fact that it is that is the case is very plain in scripture. It's not hard to understand that.
There's just so many verses and that just point to that clearly. This is one example.
OK. You know, it doesn't say I am my own beloved son and I am pleased with myself.
Right. You know, the spirit of God descended upon himself, you know, and then the voice spoke,
spake from heaven and said, I'm pleased to myself. These are different people addressing one another.
Right. It's the Trinity. We know first John five, seven, what that there are three that bear record in heaven.
The Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. OK. But they're these three are one.
Well, they're all one. Yes. But there are three. There are three that bear record in heaven.
There are three. OK. And look, I don't want to beat this one in the ground,
but it's crazy today because we've even had, you know, even so-called brethren come into our own church
and preach against the Trinity, which is a rank heresy. But we don't have to agree on a lot of things.
Look, you can believe that the Holy Spirit was, you know, it looked like he looked like a dove or didn't.
We can disagree on that. That's fine. You can have opinion and I can have an opinion.
But when it comes to the Trinity, that's not up for debate. That's not something we can have differing opinions about.
Because the Bible is real clear that there are three that bear record in heaven.
And there's many other passages that we could turn to.
And I'm not going to take the time because it really wasn't the thrust of the sermon this morning.
I don't want to open up that whole can of worms without being able to dress all of it.
But there's a lot we can learn from Jesus of baptism.
OK. What I want us to take away this morning, you know, if you're struggling with the Trinity, let's nail that down.
OK. Come talk to me. OK. And I promise I won't run you off or something.
But I doubt anyone's struggling with that because it's pretty easy to understand.
You know, maybe what you're struggling with is baptism.
You know, maybe you need to get baptized, you know, and again, don't get baptized because, you know, you want to get me off your back.
Get baptized because you have the right motives. Get baptized because you love Jesus.
Get baptized because you want to show him that, you know, you appreciate what he's done for you.
OK. Because it is commanded in scripture to be baptized. Men and brethren, what shall we do?
You know, they said believe and be baptized. Right. That's those are the two steps.
Get saved and get baptized. Get church. OK. Examine your motives.
OK. And, you know, if we're ministering to people and we all are, make sure we're doing it in meekness.
Make sure we're doing it in gentleness. Make sure that we understand that we are bringing a message of peace and goodwill toward men.
In this world, because that is what Jesus earthly ministry was like.
You know, the wrath and the judgment. That's to come. OK.
You know, but God is long suffering. God wants more people to be saved.
So let's let him handle, you know, the sharp end of the stick. Let's let him handle the nasty business later.
Let's just do what we're supposed to do. And we've been given the ministry of reconciliation.
We've been given the same ministry that Christ had on this earth. It's a ministry of peace and goodwill.
Let's go ahead and close with a word of prayer. Lord, again, thank you for the word of God.
Thank you for its depth. Thank you for its richness. Lord, thank you for its instruction.
I pray it help us, Lord, to be ministers that are properly motivated that we or that we have a burden for people,
that we have a love for others, Lord, that we would seek to save men's lives, Lord.
And we know that we can't do much physically for people, Lord, but we can certainly pull others out of the fire,
Lord, by preaching them the gospel and telling them of the great sacrifice that you made, the love we're with.
You loved us, Lord. And Lord, we thank you for that love.
Lord, help us to love you in return. Help us to understand that baptism is not an option,
that it's not just some trifle thing that we can or can do that we can elect to do,
Lord, that it's something we're commanded to do and, Lord, it's something that we should do.
We're doing it from the right motives, Lord, out of a out of a love for you.
And, Lord, help us to if we struggle with that again,
Lord, to meditate and think about what it is that you have done for us and us individually as individuals,
specifically us, Lord. It wasn't just a sacrifice you just made and generally.
But, Lord, it was for all mankind. But that includes us on a personal level.
Lord, we pray that you would just bless us as we go now. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we are dismissed.
One last thing I'd like to hear. I'd love to sing these words.
Let me sound like you're listening in my ear.
I'll sing this thing no matter what I do.
Lord, help us to love you in return.
Help us to love you in return.
Oh, how I love Jesus.
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?