Baptism/Membership - week 1
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The Gospel
The Gospel
The core of Christianity.
It is what separates us from other religions in the world.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-5
The Gospel in 5 questions:
Who Is God?
Who Am I?
What Should God Do With Me?
What Has God Done For Me?
What Should I Do?
Who Is God?
Who Is God?
The Creator
Genesis 1:1, 26-27, 31
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them… And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
God is the reason why we are here.
He got everything started in the beginning with a very good creation.
In fact, He was directly involved in your coming to be.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
God is our Creator, but it is important to remember that He is…
Holy
Holiness is arguably the one attribute which God would have His people remember Him by more than any other.
Holiness means not only that He is separate from all that is unclean and evil but also that He is positively pure and thus distinct from all others.
In the visions of Himself which God granted men in the Scriptures, the thing that stood out most prominent was the divine holiness.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
The threefold repetition emphasizes the word holy and suggests supreme or complete holiness.
The holiness of God is an important theme in Isaiah.
Almost thirty times, the Prophet Isaiah speaks of YHWH as “the Holy One.”
In the end, the holiness of God is what sets Him apart to be worshipped by all nations.
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.
Gospel Importance:
The absolute, innate holiness of God means that sinners have to be separated from Him.
Righteous
While holiness relates to God’s separateness; righteousness relates to His justice.
Righteousness has to do with law and morality
In the righteousness of God, we have His love of holiness.
It is the attribute that leads God always to do right
I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.
No matter what happens to us or in our lives, God is always right in what He does.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
Gospel Importance:
Since God can only ever do what is right, if there is ever a disagreement in our minds about God’s rightness on a matter, we must remember that we are wrong.
Just
In the justice of God, we have His hatred of sin.
Because God is holy and righteous, He cannot abide sin in His presence, and He will always render the proper verdict.
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?
For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
Gospel Importance:
Since God is holy and righteous, we know that His justice can’t be bought with a bribe and that He is not impartial
Who Am I?
Who Am I?
You are an image bearer of God, created with a purpose
You are an image bearer of God, created with a purpose
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
You are an image bearer of God, created with the capacity to obey.
You are an image bearer of God, created with the capacity to obey.
Often, this is referred to as “free will”… the ability to make a choice that is right or wrong.
Adam and Eve are the only humans in history who had a truly free will, as they did not possess a sin nature that would influence their decisions.
Yet, through their disobedience, humanity has inherited a sin nature
You are an image bearer of God, but you are now a sinner from birth
You are an image bearer of God, but you are now a sinner from birth
Romans 5:12, 18
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… one trespass led to condemnation for all men
We are born with a sinful nature that we inherited from Adam.
Every one of us was affected by Adam’s sin; there are no exceptions.
We are all sinners, and we all share the same condemnation, because we are all children of Adam.
Isaiah understood this reality about himself, as he stood in the presence of the holiness of God.
And I said: “Woe is me For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
The Apostle Paul makes this clear in his letter to the Ephesians:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
What Should God Do With Me?
What Should God Do With Me?
All People Will Stand Before God In Judgment
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Read Revelation 20:11-15 (cf. Revelation 22:12-13)
As Sinners, We Will Be Found Guilty And Condemned
And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
In a direct statement the Lord said that only God is good and no human is.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
He stated that His chosen disciples were evil, even though He recognized that they could do good things.
Sin alienates people from God, and all are sinners.
Sheep and Goats, Matthew 25:31-46
What Has God Done For Sinners?
What Has God Done For Sinners?
Read Isaiah 6:6-7
Isaiah recognized who God is and who he is
He figured out that A+B = not good for him
Yet, after his admission of his guilt, God provided an atonement.
That is the very good news for us today.
God is holy, righteous, and just
Man is rebellious, disobedient, and guilty
God is love and loves His creation
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
In fact, the entire purpose of the Gospel of John is to bring his readers to that understanding.
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
What Exactly Did Jesus Do?
He Humbled Himself
Read Philippians 2:5-10
Jesus is divine
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Colossians 1:15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Hebrews 1:3
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Yet, He emptied Himself in order to become a man
He Had A Ministry Of Compassion
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
He Was Zealous For God
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
He Made Atonement For Sin
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Read Isaiah 53
He Is Seated At The Right Hand Of The Father
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
Now He Is Calling All People Everywhere To Repent
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
What Should You Do?
What Should You Do?
Repent!
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.
Genuine repentance brings about a change in the life of the believer because of the work that God does in them.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Genuine repentance in the life of the believer will produce a genuine change in their life.
It starts with…
Believe In Jesus
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Live In Obedience
The right response to repentance is to act according to faith.
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Thus, God has a reasonable expectation for obedience from the believer.
This is established throughout Scripture!
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Call Of The Believer & Baptism
Call Of The Believer & Baptism
Baptism is an act of faith symbolizing the believer's union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
It is a public act of identifying with the Christian community and serves as a public declaration of one’s faith.
When a person is baptized, it ought to encourage them to live out their faith boldly.
It also invites those who may not have been baptized to consider this significant step in their spiritual journey.
JESUS’ DISCIPLES ARE COMMISSIONED TO BAPTIZE NEW DISCIPLES
JESUS’ DISCIPLES ARE COMMISSIONED TO BAPTIZE NEW DISCIPLES
Read Matthew 28:19-20
True disciples of Jesus actively seek to make more disciples.
Disciple = any person adhering to the beliefs of a particular teacher
We make disciples by telling others about who Jesus is, what He has done, and why we should follow Him
New followers of Jesus seek to be baptized because it is a command, and a disciple seeks to live in obedience.
This is the first step in a lifelong journey of faith
BAPTISM IS PART AN ACTIVE CALL TO CONVERSION
BAPTISM IS PART AN ACTIVE CALL TO CONVERSION
Read Acts 2:38-41
When the Apostles were making disciples of Christ, they did not give a call to “simple belief.”
“Just believe in Jesus.”
Rather, they gave a call to complete life change, which started at one’s baptism.
This public act unites the individual with the body of Christ, forming a new identity rooted in faith.
With it’s public setting, it brings about the scrutinizing eye of others (both believers and non-believers)
BAPTISM IS A SYMBOL OF OUR CHANGE THROUGH CHRIST
BAPTISM IS A SYMBOL OF OUR CHANGE THROUGH CHRIST
Read Romans 6:3-4
Baptism is directly related to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
We become like Him by being “buried” in the water and being “resurrected” to newness of life
This is a picture of leaving the old life behind and embracing a new existence marked by righteousness.
Ephesians 4:20–24
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Colossians 2:6–7
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
CONCLUSION:
Baptism is not a mere ritual; it is a vital expression of faith that signifies transformation, community, and the believer's commitment to follow Christ.
The act of baptism reflects the gospel's transformative power and serves as a foreshadowing of the new life believers receive through faith in Him.
