These Are My Children

Psalm 29 / Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Isaiah 43:1–3 ESV

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

Noah and Baptism

1 Peter 3:18–22 ESV

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

How were they brought safely through?

The Ark = Type of Christ

How are we brought safely through?

John 10:28-30 “28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.””

Baptism is like the flood in that the water brings a dividing line; only those rescued by an act of God are saved.

Moses and Baptism

1 Corinthians 10:1–5 ESV

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Passed through the sea

God distinguished between the Israelites and the Egyptians

Exodus 14:28 “28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.”

Ate and Drank the same

Manna and Sweet Water

Exodus 16 - Manna

Exodus 17 - Water from the Rock

God was not pleased

with SOME

Heb 3:8-9 “8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.”

So too, all who are rightly baptized find their daily bread in Christ. Also, there will be some numbered with the faithful who are not.

Sons and Daughters

Holy Spirit and Fire

Pentecost - (Acts 2)

Fire = cleansing and judgment

Winnowing Fork

Gather the wheat (grain)

Matt 13:30 “30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ””

Burn the Chaff (husks)

Mal 4:1 “1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

The Father is Pleased

Jesus is God’s Son

Pleased in Christ

Pleased with all who are IN Christ

2cor 5:21 “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Church Family, In Luke 3 God the Father spoke audibly from Heaven declaring the sonship of Jesus and The Father’s pleasure in Him. So too today in every right baptism God declares that we are His children, and His great pleasure in us as we are united to Christ in faith.