The invitations have been sent…
The table has been set…
The location has been chosen…
The Groom is waiting…
Is His bride prepared?
Pastors
have a priceless mantel.
They are tasked with preparing His bride, the church, for the beauty and sanctity of marriage.
His bride must be washed into Him.
Washed. Cleansed. Reborn into Him.
Our sins have separated us from our Savior.
Jesus taught Nicodemus that one must be "born again"
to enter the kingdom of God.
By Water and Spirit.
Baptism is fundamental, non-negotiable. Jesus was baptized.
The Great Commission Mathew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen
His disciples immediately began baptizing in Jesus name. The only name to salvation.
Why?
Did the disciples misinterpret his commands?
Did they intentionally disobey their beloved & newly risen saviors commands?
Maybe we are right, and the disciples were wrong, or…….
Relationship…The disciples were divinely chosen by Jesus.
Obedient unto death.
Divinely chosen by Jesus because He knew when we got it wrong….
His disciples would get it right.
The name of Jesus must be invoked into the rebirth during baptism.
Once baptized into John’s baptism, now into the name of Jesus.
Religion or relationship…
His disciples knew him better then anyone.
They were His students.
They baptized in Jesus name.
This is not my formula.
The baptism in Jesus name is the apostles formula.
They followed His command.
Shepherdship…The New Testament Disciples.
When you stand before God in accountability, will your sheep have the son’s name?
I implore you.. If you must speak, consider the acceptance of Jesus
“in the name of the father, son and holy ghost, I baptize you in Jesus name”
or
“in the name of the father, His son Jesus and the holy ghost”
We cannot omit the name of Jesus.
No other name has caused more controversy, carried more weight, or changed the world more significantly.
A shepherd will stand before God for hundreds or thousands of souls.
When the bride is married, she takes on her husbands name.
Her soul is now engrafted into Him. The two souls are now one.
The name of Jesus is the unity & the oneness of the eternal marriage.
Her new name isn’t “the name”. “the bride” is not a name.
We are the bride of Jesus.
Will your sheep stand before Him with Jesus name?
His Holiness
When you stand before the one true Holy God, and account for your sheep, will they be accepted by Him into the identity of Jesus name?
If I were to tell your wife to write:
the name of her husband, the father of her children and her best friend,
she would write YOUR NAME. one name.
She would not write “name of the husband, the children’s father and best friend.”
The apostles understood that.
Does Baptism “save” us?
The Bible and every command in it are essential for salvation!
If they weren’t essential the Bible would have 1 sentence. “Believe and you are saved.”
As humans, AKA His creation, we do not have the power to disregard or diminish any thing Jesus/the Bible commands us to do. Pastors are held to an even greater standard, Luke 12:48. There are some who say that baptism does not save us, and they are 100% correct! Baptism, alone, is not an all inclusive act that allows us entry into heaven.
Lets look at three directives from the Bible. Be baptized, do not commit adultery and forgive your enemies. If a faithful athiest who has forgiven his enemies dies will he go to heaven? What about a faithful married homosexual couple, who has never cheated on their spouse, can they go to heaven? Can a serial killer who is faithful to his wife and was baptized go to heaven? What about a polygamist who is married to many wives? No, no, no and no. It is highly unlikely that any of those examples will merit heaven.
The examples are endless.
We must be baptized, married and have a heart for forgiveness that properly reflects the word of God.
We must seek to follow all of the commandments in the Bible.
We must take every commandment and requirement of the Bible seriously. Perversion and/or cherry picking of the gospel is an age old trick of Satan. Do not let Satan convince you to question God and determine that anything the Bible asks of us is unnecessary.
Genesis 3:1-5:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “
Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
God’s Will + God’s Way