Praise the Lord! This weekend at Greater Bethel AME Athens over two days we baptized four people with two saints joining the church.
In celebration the teaching of the Lord is entitled The Amazing Grace Of Baptism. Key point from the Matthew 3:13-17 text.
John the Baptist was baptizing vast numbers of people at the Jordan, summoning them to repent of their sins.
When he saw Jesus coming, he cried out, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” God’s lamb, of course, the sacrificial lamb, needed to be without spot or blemish or any such thing.
So, it’s not surprising that when Jesus came to John to be baptized, John resisted Him. John was the sinner needing to be baptized, not Jesus.
So, why did Jesus insist on being baptized? That was the question that John himself struggled to answer, and he wasn’t the last to do so.
The answer is God gave us Jesus to be sin for us. Although Jesus personally knew no sin, Jesus was baptized in order that we might become in Him the righteousness of God that is in us.
We are in bondage to sin and by being baptized Jesus gave us access to the freedoms of a life lived without sin.
Three freedoms granted to us by the baptism of Jesus:
1. The Freedom Of God’s Free Will
God in Deuteronomy 30:19-20 gives us the free will choice to choose life or death, blessings, or curses. In choosing a life with God it will bring generational blessings will come to you and your family.
2. The Freedom To Live As Wheat Among The Weeds
Jesus in the Parable of the weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30) reminds us that as Christians we live in a sinful world.
3.The Freedom To Live Joyfully, Praising The Lord In Good Times And Bad
Happiness, and difficulties are a way of life. Our faith in God gives us the opportunity to live with joy and praise in the midst of trials and tribulations. God’s chosen people, the Israelites because of sin were exiled into slavery in Babylon. God sent his prophet Jeremiah with a message of hope that despite being in captivity they were to be happy, to prosper and to praise the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:1-14). Psalms 146 commands everything that has breath should praise the Lord.
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