The Real King

The Real King

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was visiting school children earlier this week at a Primary School
in Acton in London. As he approached Emmanuel Osei, a four-year-old student, Emmanuel asked the
Prince, "When is Prince Harry coming?"

"But I'm Prince Harry," the prince replied.

"When is the real Prince Harry coming?" the boy said back.

"I'm the real Harry. I've just had my hair cut for the occasion," Harry reportedly said in response.

Eventually, Emmanuel was convinced that Harry was indeed the prince.

Why didn't he recognize Prince Harry immediately? Apparently he didn't look the part.

"They think a prince should have a crown," Diane Redmond, a learning mentor at the school, told
People magazine.

The Prince himself has been on record as saying, "Every time I get to meet kids and they have been
told a real-life prince is coming, [there is] disappointment on their faces when they see me without
a crown or a cape." *

Most did not recognize the real King of kings either. A prophet predicted His rejection by men.
Around 700 years before the King came to this earth, Isaiah prophesied, "For He grew up before Him
like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look
at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we
esteemed Him not" (Isaiah 53:2-3 ESV). Isaiah uses the past tense (called prophetic perfect tense)
to describe the situation because it was so certain to happen. And that is exactly what happened
(see John 1:10-11).

Why did most reject Him? Jesus did not look the part. He looked like an ordinary man. His reign
was not the kind that they expected. In fact, Isaiah described Him as "a Suffering Servant."

But this Man who didn't look like a king would accomplish what no one else could. Jesus, the King
of kings, gave Himself for us so that we can have the forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift
of eternal life. Observe Isaiah's prophecy:

Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows,
yet we esteemed Him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.
-- Isaiah 53:4-5

Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. By His "wounds" we can
be "healed."

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts
16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Him before men (Romans
10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). He will
continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to submit to His reign by walking in the light of
His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

He looked like an ordinary man. But this Man was God in the flesh. Jesus was and is the real King
of kings.

Won't YOU submit to His reign so that you can be saved and live with Him forever?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from "Prince Harry reportedly asked by boy, 4, when the 'real Prince Harry'
would arrive" by Madeline Farber, Fox News, published 3/21/19, www.foxnews.com.

Baptism Comes Before Salvation

There are five passages in the New Testament which mention both baptism and salvation in the same verse (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:4; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21). In all of these passages, water baptism precedes the remission of sins. Do you know of a passage where the order is reversed?

Mark 16:16 contains two conditions for salvation: faith and baptism. It also contains the conditions for damnation: a lack of faith. If you want to know what you must do to be lost, it will tell you -- all that is necessary is a lack of faith. If you want to know what to do to be saved from your past sins -- it commands you to believe and be baptized.

In Acts 2:38 Peter told a group of believers to "repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Our Baptist friends often focus on the word "for" in this passage and insist it means "because of," even though it is never translated that way in any reputable translation of the Bible. We have to remind them that if baptism is "because of" the remission of sins, then so is repentance. Baptism and repentance are joined by the little word "and." Whatever one is "for" the other is "for."

After we are buried with Christ in baptism, we are raised to walk in a newness of life (Romans 6:1-4). This new life comes after baptism in water. Many preachers want to "bury" the "new man," since they claim the newness of life comes before our "burial."

Three days after the Lord appeared to Saul of Tarsus, Ananias told Saul to "arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins" (Acts 22:16). Many preachers today claim Saul was saved three days before Ananias met him. Ananias must not have known it, for he told Saul how to "wash away" his sins. If Saul had been saved on the road as some preachers claim, he must have been the most miserable saved man in the Bible. Saul was blind and spent three days praying and fasting until Ananias arrived.

1 Peter 3:21 states "baptism doth also now save us." However, baptism is not the only condition for the salvation of the alien sinner. Other requirements must be met, like faith, repentance and love. There is nothing "alone" that will save a sinner, not even faith (James 2:24).

- by David Padfield

 

Respect both the Bible as God's word, and those who proclaim it

 

Luke 10:16  Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

 

Matthew 10:37-42

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

 

Mark 9:37

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me."

 

John 5:21-24

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

John 12:44-50

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

 

John 13:20   Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me."

 

John 16:12-15

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare

it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

 

John 17:20-21

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be

one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that

you have sent me.

 

Matthew 24:35    Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

 

1 Corinthians 14:37

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a

command of the Lord.

 

1 John 2:19-27

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

 

Galatians 4:13-14

You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

 

2 Peter 1:20-21

no prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophets themselves. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

 

1 Thessalonians 2:13

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:8   Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

 

3 John 1:9-10

Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. 9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

 

Titus 2:15    Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

 

Jude 1:3-4

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write

appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

1 Peter 1:22-25

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

 

1.  Jesus taught while on earth only what His Father God commanded him to teach.

2.  Perhaps it would be good for today’s teachers and preachers to do the same, and for such to be respected.

3.  When he went back to heaven, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into all truth.

4.  By the end of the first century, all needed spiritual truth had been revealed through the apostles to the church.

5.  There would be nothing left to reveal.

6.  Jesus also made clear that this complete revelation would never be lost or corrupted – that it would last forever.

7.  To heed the apostles’ word in the New Testament is to receive Jesus which is to receive God and eternal life.

8.  To prove or confirm that this word, written and spoken by the apostles, was actually from God, the apostles at

     times performed miraculous signs and wonders. Such miraculous confirmation does not need repeating today.

9.  Any post-1^st-century prophet or prophetic writing claiming to be from God is therefore to be rejected as false.

10.   We must welcome and encourage all today’s teachers who proclaim only God’s true and sufficient word. Human wisdom and word skill may help here and there, yet are still no substitute for the faithful sharing of God’s word – spoken and written.

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” — these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

 

Let us seek to emulate Paul’s inspired attitude:

 

“My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

 

“What God has prepared for those who love him” (and who in their right mind wouldn’t want that?) can only be known by consulting the inspired word of the New Testament. Fortune-tellers, sorcerers and psychics are totally unreliable alternatives. The Bible has all the answers all the time: all God’s plans, all the stories, all the arguments, all the exhortations, all the visions, all the promises, all the warnings, all the mercy, all the forgiveness, all the truth and all the love ,,, of God.

 

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:10-17

 

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

 

·       All Scripture is breathed out by God.

·       All Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness.

·       That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

 

If you want to be the complete person, allow God to do it through His word. Respect the word of God. Obey the word of God every day, just as Jesus did. The idea that the Holy Spirit will do it all for you is a myth.

 

And, as you do it, give praise and glory to the One who reigns for ever and ever.

 

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” John 12:44-50

 

As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:27-28

 

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10

 

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. Revelation 11:

15-17                      

        Ah yes indeed! God’s kingdom – His reign – is truly present in those who do His will daily.

 

David Carr

 

Through singing our faith can and should be made stronger

 

"........I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also" (1 Corinthians 14:15

Singing with the spirit and the understanding has the power to fill our heart with excitement and anticipation that will lift our spirit and plant our feet on higher ground. When we sing, we need to sing like we really believe what we are singing. Sing in a way that it not only lifts us up but it also reaches out and touches the heart of others as well. As heart and mind are drawn together by our voice we will feel in our heart the truth of the words we sing.

Through singing our faith can and should be made stronger. Maybe I'm being old fashioned but when  I hear the national anthem being sung properly and I see Old Glory waving, it fills my heart with a feeling of gratitude, confidence and excitement. I am convinced that when we sing these grand old songs of praise to God. faith, love, care, guidance and help from the God we serve, our hearts should overflow with gratitude, confidence and yes, excitement. If we truly sing with the spirit and the understanding, it will bring comfort and joy that will put a gleam in our eyes and a smile on our face.

Maybe it's because of my age, maybe I'm being a little sentimental but I love to sing. "I'll soon be at home over there" and I love the refrain from another of those grand old songs that says, "For the end of my journey I see, Many dear to my heart over there are watching and waiting for me" and what about that marvelous song that tells us of "A land where we'll never grow old". I love to sing. "Life here is grand with friends I love so dear, comfort I get from God's own word, Yet when I face the chilling hand of death, where could I go but to the Lord".  My friends, heaven, that grand, beautiful, spectacular home of the soul is the promise of a better day for all who obey and faithfully serve the Lord. Whatever the song you sing, make sure you sing in the spirit and in the understanding and sing that song like you really believe what you are singing.

"If  the skies above you are gray, You are feeling so blue. If your cares and burdens seem great the whole day thru, There's a silver lining that shines In the heavenly land, Look by faith and see it my friend, Trust in His promises grand.

Sing and be happy, Press on to the goal. Trust Him who leads you, He will keep your soul; Let all be faithful, Look to Him and pray, Lift your voice and praise him in song, Sing and be happy today" (Emory S. Peck).

Charles Hicks

 

Baptism is both an outward sign and an inward grace

Obedience in water baptism symbolizes what it effects: The immersion in water brings about the death and burial with Christ of the old man of sin, and the coming out of the water brings about the rising with Christ as a justified, forgiven, new person in the Spirit. Romans 4:25; 6:3-7,16-18; Titus 3:1-8. The immersion in the water and the rising from the water, is, at one and the same time both a picture of salvation and new birth, and also the reality of salvation and new birth – born of water and the Spirit. John 3:3-5. To teach that baptism is only a symbol of the death to sin and resurrection to new life that occurs by faith, before baptism, is absolutely false.

Jesus sacrifice cleanses the conscience in effecting redemption. Hebrews 9:11-14

Our conscience is cleansed when our bodies are washed in water. Hebrews 10:19-23

Baptism saves because in it we call upon the Lord, thus requesting a good conscience through Jesus’ resurrection. 1 Peter 3:20-22; Acts 22:16

 

In the waters of baptism, the sinner by faith is contracting a new relationship with God through Christ:

·       Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins? Yes.

·       Are you submitting to Jesus as your Lord? Yes.

·       Are you asking the Lord to take your sins away and purify your conscience? Yes.

·       Are you repenting of your past? Yes.

·       Are you uniting with Jesus’ death and resurrection? Yes.

·       Are you obeying the form of teaching to which you have been committed? Yes.

·Are you being born again of water and the Spirit? Yes.

 

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:11-14

1.  In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. How?

2.  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

3.  You, who were dead … God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by …

4.  cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands … nailing it to the cross

 

Christ forgives us and takes our debt of sin away, nailing it to His cross, when in faith we are baptized into Christ.

This all-encompassing Scripture in Colossians cannot be overturned. The cross of Christ saves sinners … in baptism!

 

free bible study

In Our Hands

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.” - Matthew 15:34

It is very tempting to view opportunities to serve from the perspective of what we do not have. After all, if I do not have much I cannot do much. The problem is that disciples count things one way and Jesus counts them another. When faced with feeding thousands the disciples do a census of available food and come up with seven loaves and a few small fish. Looking at thousands of hungry faces, that’s not much.

Disciples throughout the centuries, including contemporary times,  have looked at the little amount in their hands and felt helpless to do much to help anyone else. Even though we are the richest nation in the world with the greatest amount of wealth the church has ever known, many times we shrug our shoulders and say to ourselves we don’t have much to give… whether it is time or money or support.

Kittie L. Suffield was born in New York in 1884. A talented pianist and soprano, she became a Christian at age 19. During a trip Kittie was on a train that became stuck in a heavy snowstorm. One of the passengers headed out into the snow to find help. Fred Suffield was awakened by the man pounding on his farmhouse door. Fred guided the passengers to his house for safety. Later, Kittie wrote Fred a thank you letter for his kindness and this began a correspondence between them that resulted in marriage.

Fred was converted under the ministry of the father of George Beverly Shea, a Wesleyan pastor. After their marriage they traveled as evangelists. Kittie wrote many songs, but the song that was the theme of her life was a song, the chorus of which rings a familiar tone: “Little is much when God is in it! Labor not for wealth or fame. There’s a crown - and you can win it, If you go in Jesus’ name.” Kittie died in 1972.

What a legacy to leave behind! A reminder that when we think we have too little to offer and we back away from the Lord’s service, we are forgetting something. That little in our hand is not little at all, for God is in it. David Sellers wrote, “We are not meant to be passive recipients of God’s grace, but to be active channels of his love. We do not come to Christ merely to be fed, but to feed others. That is a condition of our discipleship.” Let us pray to see what God sees in our hands.

John Dobbs

Forsythe Church of Christ, Monroe, LA

[The above bulletin article was emailed via Dan Williams, Vice-President Church Relations, Harding University, and Teresa Castleman. It’s a very helpful ministry, soliciting and sending such articles, and also sermons, every day.]

 

A Good Bible Study for the Glory of God

1.    It was commanded    Isaiah 42:12

                               Psalm 29:1-2

 

2.    Jesus did it             John 11:1-4,38-44

                                          Matthew 9:1-9

                                          Matthew 15:21-38, especially noting verses 29-31

 

3.    Others would         2 Corinthians 9:12-14

 

4.    Some did not         John 12:9-43

                                          John 5:41-44

 

5.    Are you?                Matthew 5:13-16

      John 15:4-8

 

"Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might, be to our God forever and ever Amen." Revelation 7:12

 

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

 

“Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water … And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not

bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” Numbers 20:8,11-12

 

"And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ."

 

In the conversion of the Gentile, Cornelius (a Roman centurion), and his household, the apostle Peter doesn’t say to them, “I’m going to baptize you all now.” No, he “commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” See Acts 10:48.

 

Just before Peter had preached his sermon to them, Cornelius had said: “We are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.” Acts 10:33. To hear what the Lord commanded. A great attitude. Why would Peter command Cornelius to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and why would Cornelius be expecting to hear commands from the Lord ?

 

1.    Jesus had commanded the apostles to preach the gospel and baptize believers. Mark 16:15-16. Lords command!! That’s what they do. Peter had received his assignment from Jesus to preach the gospel to all nations, and baptize, and Peter must carry out precisely what Jesus wanted done. Anything less would be dereliction of duty.

2.    Cornelius was a soldier who would give commands and receive commands. He understood what a command meant. It was meant to be obeyed! Compare the other centurion’s appreciation of the Lordship and authority of Jesus in Matthew 8:5-10, and Jesus’ appreciation of this faith.

3.    Baptism is not an optional practice; it is commanded “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

4.    Just as the teacher is right to command the baptism of the believer because Jesus so commanded him, the command to be baptized in Jesus’ name is to be obeyed wholeheartedly by the disciple.

Do you remember Colonel Nathan Jessup (in the movie, A Few Good Men), when stressing the importance of obeying orders, saying: “We follow orders or people die!”

Since baptism is essential to receiving salvation and eternal life (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:18-22), it must be taught, commanded and obeyed – or souls will die in their sins. Faith without the obedience of baptism won’t save. Later in the Book of Acts we read of Ananias urging Paul:

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ Acts 22:16

Both words ‘rise’ and ‘be baptized’ are imperatives, implying a command. Since baptism is essential to salvation, why dilly dally around or procrastinate? Do it and do it now! Every example of baptism in the book of Acts shows that it was done as soon as possible after the person hearing the gospel had believed. See Acts 2:37-41; 8:12,35-39; 9:17-18; 16:13-15,30-34; 18:8.

Romans 6:16-18, speaking of baptism, says “you obeyed from the heart the form of teaching to which you were committed, and being freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.” See Luke 6:46; John 14:15; Hebrews 5:8-9. Obedience in baptism results in freedom from sin. This means that baptism saves sinners from their sin.

Questions:

Why do so many denominational groups not insist on baptism as essential to being saved, as Jesus so commanded?

Have you been baptized as a believer in the gospel? Were you baptized to have your sins washed away, or for some other purpose? If for another purpose, your baptism was invalid.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the

age.” Matthew 28:18-20.        Let us be sure to do all that Jesus commanded.

 

David Hunter