Who Are You?
A Disciple of Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsToo often this world convinces us that our identity is found in labels... in the many categories of our culture... But that is not true! Our identity is not found in what the world says, or in our worldly accomplishments; It is found in who God says we are!
Notes
Transcript
Turn with me to Luke 3.
Luke chapter 3 holds an interesting story....
The Bible tells us very little about Jesus’s life up to this point in chapter 3…
In fact, it pretty much goes like this:
Jesus was born…
Then he made this profound statement in the Temple at 12 yrs old....
then He returned home and grew in wisdom and stature…
That’s it… The end…
Until this point in Luke chapter 3.
21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened
22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Two verses! Filled with so many questions....
Why did He have to be baptized?
Wasn’t He God?
Why did the Holy Spirit have to come on Him?
What had He been doing for the last 18 years?
???????
Why is this story important?
Three of the four gospels include this story in some form…
Why?
Why was it important for Jesus to be baptized?
Why did He do it?
I. For us!
A. Weirsbe states, “In His baptism, Jesus first identifies Himself with us… Recognizing the sinfulness of human nature...”
“Second, with our need for a savour”
“Third, with His purpose in this world...”
B. Rom 6:13
13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
C. Mt 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
D. What is righteousness?
dikaiosyne — “what is right” or “to be put right with, be in right relationship with.”
Which one sounds correct here — in context?
So… Why would Jesus — The Son of God — need to be “put right with” the Father? Isn’t He God?
For us!!!
Paul tells us in Rom 6:13 — Jesus offered Himself to death so that we could experience life!!!!
Matthew tells us that Jesus confessed that He was doing this to fulfill all righteousness....
In other words, He was doing it to show us the way!
II. Jesus is Praying
A. Luke 3:21-22
21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened
22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
B. I am reminded of 2 times that Jesus prayed.
The Garden of Gethsemane Luke 22:42
42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Prayer for Believers Jn 17:1-23
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—
23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
C. Christ was praying for us… For His Work… for our Faith…
He is sincerely hoping to be able to accomplish the work the Father has sent Him to do.
III. Affirmation / Confirmation
A. Luke 3:22
22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
B. The Father affirmed His mission, and His position.
C. Success in our Christian walks is rooted in relationship
Last week
“tou patros mou dei einai!”
“I MUST be where my Father is!”
D. Jesus is ensuring the relationship for all of us to see!
So, What?
I. What does this mean to us?
A. Our identity is not found in what the world says… or, in our worldly accomplishments, but in who God says we are!
We have been given a savour.
We do not have a savour that we cannot identify with… Scripture tells us that He experienced everything we experience… including baptism!
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.
B. We have been Redeemed… Restored… and Repurposed…
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
C. We must make a choice!
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We MUST make a choice!!!!
Now what?
I. Redemption… Restoration… Purpose… in God’s kingdom come only from a choice!!!!
Well… that’s all fine and dandy pastor, but what does this have to do with baptism?
— EVERYTHING!!!! —
A. Letter jacket ill.
B. My story
C. Who am I?
A REDEEMED sinner…
a RESTORED son!
REPURPOSED into someone God delights in!!!!
D. WHY???
because I let God rewrite my story!
II. God has a name for you.
A. Rev 2:17
17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
B. God has a name for you… He has a purpose for you…
C. Will you let Him write it?
III. It starts with Baptism.
A. Not the dunking… or the sprinkling…
B. Baptism is the outward sign of God’s redemptive work within you.
C. You may have been dunked… You may have been baptized (or christened) as a child… BUT… Have you ever been truly baptized?
It starts right here…
It starts when you give your life to Christ completely!
Not just believing Him to be the savour on the cross… but confessing Him as YOUR Lord and Savour.... As the ONE who holds YOUR life in His hands…
It’s starts with bringing your life to Him… laying it down… and saying it is yours! Do with it what You will… Lord, I give you permission to rewrite my story… ALL OF IT!!!!
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