What Do You Need This Year?

Psalm 29 | Acts 19:1-7

We’re in Different Boats

God loves to supply

The ram caught in the thicket (Genesis 22)

Moses, Egyptians’ Supplies, Wear resistant clothing, Water, Food, Guidance

1 Corinthians 1:4–7 “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Experience with The Spirit

These disciples claimed they had John’s Baptism

Matthew 3:7–10 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Paul was demanding the same requirement as John

Conviction and drawing

Salvation and release

Confirmation of and love for the Word

Chastening

Peace in the storm

Some of you here today; your greatest need is to have an experience with the Spirit; namely that you would be saved!

It matters not if you are young and have never made a profession of faith, or maybe even you are like these disciples in our text today: You’ve had some type of baptism; you’ve been a member of a church or Christian organization and claimed the title of believer or Christian, and yet you have no experience with God’s Spirit.

You need to be saved more than I need a liver.

Proper Baptism

Notice the order of things:

Paul finds a small group who profess to be Christian

He inquires to their lived experience and finds them ignorant of the faith.

He then instructs them in the gospel

Only THEN he baptizes them. Why? Because they received and believed the proclaimed truth of Jesus and repented of their sin.

Only THEN when Paul baptized them did they have John’s baptism (meaning aligning with the ministry of John).

Only THEN did they have proper baptism. There is more to say about baptism, but the most important is this: That it isn’t scriptural baptism if it does not FOLLOW a credible profession of faith; experience with the Holy Spirit

The 3 Pictures in Baptism:

The death burial and resurrection of Jesus on display

The baptism of Jesus (by John) wherein God spoke audibly from Heaven and proclaimed Jesus His Son

The profession of faith and pledge of obedience of the one being baptized; that they HAVE been cleansed and WILL attempt to live

Some of you here today might very well need to make known that you’ve been saved, and obediently follow the example of Christ Jesus and be baptized.

To be genuinely saved, yet refuse or neglect baptism is like a man professing in word his love for and desire to spend his life with the love of his life, yet refusing marriage. At some point the man’s intentions should be brought into question.

Participation in a Local Church

How do I get this from today’s text?

It is the general flow of the New Testament; there is no instruction to live a Christian life apart from participation in a local church. It wouldn’t necessarily mean that someone is unsaved, but it is NOT true that one can be just as good a Christian in or out of a church. Bring a Bible and try to prove that. I welcome the challenge.

It is what Jesus Himself (the one that Paul in our text preached to the so-called disciples, and then baptized them in His name) taught and instituted before He was crucified.

If you read the rest of the chapter, Paul spent the next 2 years after this event preparing the people and molding them into what we would (with scripture) later call the CHURCHES in Asia.

Some of you here today might very well be saved, and may even be rightly baptized, yet your belonging and participation in the local church has been absent.

Regardless your particular need, God is providing still today opportunity to have your need met in Him. His arm is not short that He cannot yet save. He has given this, and churches like it, the means and mandate to baptize the saved. He has prepared a church family for you to minister in, who will minister to you as well. What do you need? Find the answer in God’s Word and following His leading today.