BAPTISM - THE WHAT AND WHY?

 Why should we get baptised?

When we enter the waters of baptism, we’re proclaiming the gospel message. Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and lives again. By joining in baptism, we’re identifying ourselves with Him. Romans 6:4 says we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. We’re now dead to the power of sin. Being raised up out of the water expresses our new life in CHRIST and our union with Him.

What is Baptism? And why is it important?

If the meaning of baptism could be boiled down to one word, that word would be identification. Baptism speaks primarily of a personal, public identification with Jesus Christ.

In Romans 6:3-4 the Apostle Paul puts the matter this way:

Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? 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.

Notice the strength of the expressions—"baptized into Christ" and "baptized into his death" and "buried with him in baptism." Someone may suggest that the primary reference here is to Spirit baptism. That's true, but at the very least, water baptism is in the background of this passage.

How important is your baptism? It is your personal identification with the greatest act of human history—the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn't save you—salvation comes by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Your guilt before God is removed the moment you trust in Christ. But baptism is your personal testimony to, and the inward assurance of, your passage from the old life to the new life...

Baptism - and what does it symbolize?

1. It means we have turned from the old life of sin to a new life in Jesus Christ.

2. It means we are publicly identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

3. It means we are openly joining the ranks of those who believe in Christ.

When you are baptized, you are in fact visually preaching the gospel. As you stand in the water waiting to be baptized, A, you symbolize Jesus dying on the cross. As you are lowered into the water, B, you symbolize Jesus buried in the tomb. As you are raised from the water, C, you symbolize Jesus rising from the dead.

And since you personally are being baptized, you are also saying, "I died with Jesus Christ, I was buried with him and now I am raised with Christ to brand-new life."

So, what is baptism in one sentence?

In short, in your baptism you are preaching a sermon without using any words at all. And your sermon in your baptism will be more effective with your friends than any sermon the pastor preaches on Sunday morning—more effective because it comes directly from you.

How did we get the word Baptism?

The Greek word translated “baptize” is the verb baptizo. According to most contemporary lexicons, the primary meaning is “to dip, plunge, immerse.” The secondary meaning is to “bring under the influence.” Dr. Merrill Tenney notes that “after making allowances for certain occasional exceptions, such as passages where washing is implied, the etymological meaning indicates that baptism was originally by immersion. (Basic Christian Doctrine, p. 257)

Let's see a few references from the Bible

• Baptism requires water. (Matthew 3:11)
• Baptism required plenty of water. (John 3:30)
• Baptism requires going down into the water. (Acts 8:30)
• Baptism requires coming up out of the water. (Matthew 3:16, Acts 8:39)

Furthermore, the figures of speech used by the Apostle Paul accord well with immersion. Baptism is called a “burial” in Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12. Baptism is “into his death” and involves being “raised to walk in newness of life.” It is difficult to see how sprinkling or pouring could convey these meanings.

Finally, the testimony of church history is that immersion was indeed the mode of baptism practiced in the early church.

Why should I be baptized?

Our Savior commands us to follow His example in all things, including baptism: Matthew 28:19 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." At the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus chose to be baptized. John the Baptist was calling the Jewish people to confess their sins and demonstrate repentance through immersion in the Jordan River. Sinless Jesus joined the crowd at the river and asked John to baptize Him. The Lord chose to affiliate Himself with sinful man. When we follow His example in the waters of baptism, we're publicly confessing our faith in the Savior and identifying ourselves with Him.

Conclusion

Baptism allows us to demonstrate our connection with Jesus and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We're all members of one body under the authority of the same Lord. But it's important to remember that Ephesians 2:8-9 says faith in Jesus Christ is the only requirement for salvation, not baptism. But, to fulfill His command, we're to be baptized following our decision to accept Him into our lives.

Source:  https://www.christianity.com/jesus/following-jesus/baptism/what-does-baptism-mean.html

Events on Holy Saturday, just before Easter and after Good Friday

A wonderful sermon on Holy Saturday by dear sister Sashmita Samuel. She works as a lecturer in a BPharm college after completing her M.Pharm. She is quiet in the church, but when she gave the sermon on Saturday, it was profound and fulfilling.

Let me quickly give a brief account of what the sermon was all about.

As mentioned earlier, we had this 40 day lent season, where we used to gather everyday at the church in the evening and meditate on the word of God. We focused on meditating 1 and 2 Chronicles and we covered the entire first Chronicles book. Praise God for such initiatives. As we approached Easter, we started the holy week services. Right from Monday - Easter Sunday, we had 7 days of service.

• Monday - Jesus cursing the Fig tree because of its lack of fruit but false display of fullness
• Tuesday - Jesus casting off the business men and the money lenders from the temple and stating the Temple to be the house of Worship.
• Wednesday - Judas agreeing with the leaders and elders of the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver coins.
• Thursday - The last supper and the holy communion - also called as Maundy Thursday.
• Friday - Good Friday - the day Jesus was crucified.
• Saturday - Holy Saturday. We will read more about this day in the blog post.
• Sunday - The resurrection day, when Jesus defeated death and was resurrected.

In this week long meditations, everyday we all went to the Church and enjoyed the presence of the Lord. Good Friday we had a half-day service at the church. And on Saturday, which is called the Holy Saturday, we heard this message from the dear sister.

What is Holy Saturday? What happened on that day?
Let us fist look at three points:

1. There is a wide gap between our faith and its fulfillment. Jesus was crucified on that cross and was buried, and the apostles did not know what was going to happen.

2. The events that happened on this day acts as a bridge between what we believe and what we shall see one day at His appearing

3. This Saturday is also a day of waiting - waiting upon God and waiting upon the possibilities of a new beginning.

Let us go further into the topic and dwell on the happenings on Holy Saturday.

If we remember Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were so downcast, In Matt 27:61, it says "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb." They were sitting opposite the tomb, they did not believe Jesus words where He said how he will rise up on the 3rd day. The disciples also did not believe, so we see them on the same day, they ran to see the empty tomb, but they still did not believe. The ironic part in the entire episode is that the Chief Priests believed what

Jesus said when he was alive. In Matt 27:62-66, "62 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ 64
“Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the
guard they set a seal on the stone."

What a shame, the enemy remembers the exact words of Jesus and they believed
it, but we do not remember, neither do we trust our Saviour's words. We need to be careful as to not to neglect His word, but to be cautious and always remember His words. If we believe, Saturday will be short, else, long.

Let us look at every year's message on this Saturday. Everybody in this place has shared the same message from the book of Ephesians Chatper 4: 8 - 11.  Every year, message, about Eph 4:8-10 (led captivity captive) the same theme
Therefore it says,
         “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH,
         HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES,
         AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”
9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.

Ok, for now we will also see what actually happened on Good Friday. We see that in Matt 27: 52, "and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life." How did this happen and we also read that Johseph of Arimathea came and took the body of Jesus and placed it in his own tomb. The next day the Chief Priests arranged heavy guards to guard the tomb.
If we look closely to what Jesus said on the cross, we realize that in the 2nd word, Jesus told the robber "today you will be with me in Paradise."


On the cross - the 2nd word was 'today you will be with me in paradise' - Luke 23:43 "Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." Now, the question is, where is Paradise and how come Jesus told the robber that he will be with him in Paradise on the same day.
If we search for the meaning of the word "Paradise", it says 'heart of the earth', 'place of silence and rest, and in Hebrew it is called 'Sheol' and in Greek it is called 'Hades'.

Let us go a bit deeper and understand the places:
There are 4 places under us:

1. The lowest place - It is a prison for the damned. It has eternal fire.
We will read more about this in II Peter 2:4 "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; " and also in Matthew 11:23 "...And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades..."

2. The purified place - It is a place where sinners purified of sin remain.

3. The place where people who committed original sin stay - It is a place where the little children who don't know God stay

4. Finally, the bosom of holy fathers - It is place which is mentioned in the Bible in LUKE 16:23 -In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. The place where Abraham and the other patriarchs stay.

These 4 places are very important to understand.
Now a question arises, why Jesus had to go to these places....

1. In the epistle to the Hebrews 2:14,15 - it says " Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Jesus took the form of man and partook the same death, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death...

2. In the parable of the landowner in the book of Matthew 21:33-35 - "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. 34“When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. 35“The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third..." we read Jesus going through the same death, same burial and went to Hades


The next question we should naturally get is, what did Jesus do there?

First, he bound Lucifer, in John 14:30 Jesus says, "I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me,"
John 12:31 - "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out."

Secondly, he preached the gospel. In I Peter 3:19, 20, we read that "in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." In the ASV, it is written "in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,"

Also in I Pet 4:6 - "For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God." Here it says, the gospel has been preached even to those who are dead...

Finally, those who do not obey, they will have to go through the 2nd death as it is written in  Revelation 20: 13, 14
Those who don't obey, then 2nd death - Rev 20: 13,14..."And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Prayer Power

WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN WHEN WE PRAY?



This is one of the nicest e-mails I have seen and is so true:



I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, 'This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.


The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed." How is it that there is no work going on here? ' I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments"

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings? " I asked..

"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord. "

"What blessings should they ever acknowledge God for?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world ' s wealthy. "

"And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity..."

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness .. You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day. "

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... You are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world."


"If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair........"

Ok, what now? How can I start?

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Live like Ezra of the old!

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. - Ezra 7:10

In the book of Ezra we read in Chapter 7 and verse 10 that Ezra prepared his heart to SEEK the law of the Lord, and to DO it and to TEACH in Israel statues and judgments.
Ezra was a well-read person and he was a teacher of the Law. Inspite of being busy and thorough in scriptures, he made up his mind and prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord.
In these last days, we too, should be like Ezra of the old. We need to first
Seek the law of the LORD with all our heart - this means that we need to read the Word, meditate and understand the Word in all its contexts. Many a times, we are carried away by the 'business' of the world and we forget to spend time with Him. We look to the gifts rather than the giver says a proverb. How true it is! We are more focussed on the created things than on the creater himself. Like Ezra, we too should prepare our hearts to seek the Bible, the law, the living words. In the book of Isaiah, it says to seek the Lord while he is near. In the book of Amos, it says: Amos 8: 11, 12
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.This prophecy is going to be fulfilled soon. We are going to face a famine of the Word of God. But before that happens, we need to prepare and equip ourselves with the word of God.
Again, I stress on the fact that we need to prepare our hearts to seek the law of the Lord.


The second thing that Ezra did was to DO the word of God. It means that he did not just seek it and forget it, he made it a point to act according to the word of God. Many a times, we hear the saying 'walk the talk'. That means, we need to walk according to what we say. We need to be what we profess ourselves to be. We need to act according to the word of God. In today's world, we lack this. We are ready to stand and speak about the word of God but we are never willing to act/do what it says us to do.





The third thing that Ezra did was to TEACH the word of God. He did not stop at walking the talk, he taught many others the word which was a rarity at that point of time. We also need to do the same. We need to teach people the word of God.
We tend to look at the other way, we first teach the word of God, then we try doing it and then towards the end we try to seek the word of God. This is not the way. It should be the other way round.
First SEEK the word.
Second ACT according to the word.
Third TEACH the word.
Wishing that you all will follow Ezra's footsteps in Seeking, Doing and Teaching the Word of God.
regards
Harry