- Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on March 10, 2024.
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Audio Transcript
Mary and I figured out how to solve the problem of time change. Did any of y’ all miss your hour? Extra hour sleep? Well, this is what you do. You go to Eastern time zone and you lose an hour, and then you come back and gain an hour, and then you lose it again.
So that way you break out even. That’s what we did this past week.
We are In Luke chapter 3, verses 21 through 22 today, looking at New Testament baptism. The text today is only two verses long. That doesn’t mean the sermon is going to be any shorter, though, so don’t anticipate it. Okay? Luke 3, 21, 22.
When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. And as he was praying, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.
May we pray? Heavenly Father, as we once again come to your word. We come with gratitude in our heart that you’ve given us everything that we need to know how to have a life of faith following after you, and then not just how to enter that state, Father, of a right relationship, but to continue in it for the rest of our life and then into eternity. Let us look at your Word, anticipating that you will show us new things today and show us in our hearts where we need to be obedient to that in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Today we’re looking at New Testament baptism. We’re going to be looking at the command. We’re going to be looking at the example, the definition, the symbolism, the practice and the commitment. We’re going to be looking at baptism. We’re also going to be looking at sprinkling because we want to see how it’s two different distinct things that are pictured in the life of believer.
But command, example, definition, symbolism, practice and commitment. If you will, take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 20, where we find the command from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Matthew 28:19, we read, Go, therefore 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 everything. I have commanded you and remember I am with you always to the end of the age. There’s a very definite order here of what they’re supposed to do.
It’s four things. The first verb is they’re supposed to go. It means we don’t just stay in our homes and hide the gospel under our bed. We don’t just stay in our church and hide the gospel under a bushel basket. We’re supposed to be going out into all the world.
That means into our family, to our workplaces, to our communities, to our state, to our nation and to all parts of the world. And that’s why we have local missions, we have worldwide missions. We have missions going to other parts of our state because we recognize as a church we’re supposed to carry the gospel. Go is the first thing. Then we’re supposed to, as we’re going, make disciples.
That means when we share the gospel to them and we invite them to faith in Jesus Christ, they become followers of him. And we’re not supposed to do that once again just here, but to do it. Of all nations, go make disciples. Then after we make people into disciples, not before, we are supposed to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But it doesn’t just end there.
After their baptism, we are to continue to teach them to observe everything. I have commanded you. And remember, Jesus said, I am with you always to the end of the age. Go, make, baptize and teach. That’s the order that we find here in scripture.
Now let’s go to our example. Our example goes to Jesus Christ. We’ve already read from Luke, but we want to read from the other synoptic gospels about the baptism of Christ. In Mark 1, 9, 11, it says, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased. John’s baptisms happened where there was plenty of water there at the Jordan river. And those that were baptized according to the verses went down into the water and came up out of the water.
They weren’t standing by the water, just using it. And this is the type of baptism that our Lord and Savior himself underwent. Let’s go now to Matthew, chapter three, verses 13 and 15. I feel like my mic is not on. Is everybody hearing me?
Okay, keep talking, but am I going to be on the live stream? It’s coming across livestream. Okay, thank you. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me.
Jesus answered him, allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness and Then John allowed him to be baptized. So we have a partial answer to the question here is why did Jesus need to be baptized? That was what John was saying. You are the perfect Lamb of God, there’s no sin in your life. John was offering a baptism that represented repentance in people’s life.
But Jesus, being sinless, had nothing to repent of. Jesus answered him, allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness. There’s been several reasons given why Jesus was baptized, and maybe all of them are true. It doesn’t specify all these things, but this is what theologians have come up over the years. The first thing is that it affirmed that John’s baptism was of God, that it affirmed that he was the coming forerunner that would announce Jesus Christ, and that what John had been doing was proper and correct, so that people then would know that his message was proper and correct.
It also set an example for us that as a man, Jesus went through the same temptations and trials and life experiences that we do. So in asking us to be baptized, he also was baptized himself. It provided a public demonstration of the Trinity’s announcement. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The Father spoke from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove.
It was the acknowledgment that his ministry on earth was beginning full fledged at that time. It also gave John the opportunity to publicly announce that this is the Lamb of God that I have been speaking to you about. We also have to consider that John was actually a priest. Remember, his dad was a priest and he was offering up sacrifices in the temple when the angel came and told him that he was going to have a son. John was a priest and it was the duty of the priest to always examine the lambs that were to be brought for a sacrifice.
A priest had to declare that the Lamb was perfect without blemish. And so it’s possible that this is what’s going on, going on here. John is a priest and a prophet and he has examined Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and is declaring that he is perfect and ready for the sacrifice that he is going to give. Let’s now look at the definition of the word and we’re going to be comparing two words today. One means to sprinkle and the other one means to dip.
The word baptizo, which is used in the text here. It means to dip. It means to immerse something, to submerge something for a religious purpose. It means to be overwhelmed, to be saturated. It’s translated or transliterated baptized.
This is what happens to a ship when it sinks in the water. This is what you do with a dirty, greasy pot. You don’t sprinkle a little water on it. You have to submerge it and wash it. We’re also going to be looking at rantizo, which that is a word.
It’s a Greek word that means to sprinkle. Instead of placing something under the water, it just means to sprinkle water on them. And what we want to see is the two ways of applying water have different meanings in Scripture. Whereas we’re going to see that the word to baptize or immerse, it means to be regenerated, to have a new life, but to sprinkle, the other Greek word, it’s talking about the atonement. And when we’re talking about the atonement, we’re talking about the blood of the bulls and the goats and the lambs and the birds.
In the Old Testament, that that blood was sprinkled on people and on things. But most importantly, on the day of atonement at the Passover, the priest went in once a year and sprinkled the blood of the lamb there upon the mercy seat in the holy of holies. And that blood, blood covered the sins of the Israelites. It paid the price and the penalty of it. So we want to see in the following verses that rantizo to sprinkle in the Old Testament imagery was a picture for the need for a blood sacrifice to be placed over someone.
But in the New Testament, we’re going to see that it also applies to what Jesus did did for us, because once for all he died, that we could once for all have atonement of our sins. And we’re going to see in the passages in Hebrews that he actually went into the heavenly tabernacle to present his blood to the Father. Whereas, in contrast, we’re going to see that baptizo is something that happens to people over and over as they become new believers. Now, in the Old Testament, they also baptized people. They had mikvahs.
They were baths that people would actually walk down into, or they could submerge in water. And it was for all types of ceremonial cleansings. When they had become dirty by being around someone that had leprosy, or they were around somebody that had died and had touched their body, they had to go through these washings over and over again as an outward symbol of being cleansed. But we also believe there were practical things, because if you’re around someone that’s died, it would just make sense to do what? Wash your hands, to take a bath.
So God was doing practical things for the Israelites and also spiritual things. Let’s go now to Hebrews, and we’re going to spend quite a bit of time here looking at the symbolism, not first about baptism, submerging people, but rantizo sprinkling on them. And we find in Hebrews 9, 11 through, through 14 that Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. Jesus Christ was unusual. He will be the king one day.
He was our savior. He was also a prophet proclaiming God’s word. But he also held the third office, a priest. Now, in the Old Testament, if you were a king and you thought that you should be a priest and you offered a sacrifice in the temple, this happened once, and that king was struck with leprosy. No one was to be prophet, priest and king, but Jesus Christ was able to be all three.
So here Jesus comes as a high priest in the New Testament, and He comes in the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with hands. Jesus didn’t take his blood into the temple in Jerusalem. He took it to the more perfect tabernacle that was in heaven. He entered there, the most holy place. And he did it once for all time.
Whereas the priests in the Old Testament, daily they were going in and offering sacrifices. Once a year, year after year, they went into the holy of holies. But when Jesus came because of his perfect sacrifice of himself, he only had to do it once for all time. And it wasn’t by the blood of goats and calves, but it was by his own blood that he shed on the cross that he obtained not temporary salvation, not long lasting salvation, but eternal salvation. And here the word is redemption, that his blood paid the price for the penalty of our sin and rescued us out of the slavery.
Let’s go on. Verse 13. If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkling those who are defiled sanctify for the purification of the flesh. It’s talking about in the Old Testament that they were having this external cleansing by sprinkling blood that had been mixed with water and ashes on people, it was just to cleanse their outward flesh. But something greater is going to happen here in verse 14.
It’s much more, not the blood of animals, but the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God that now he cleanses our consciences from dead works, so that we can serve the living God Flesh. In the Old Testament consciences. In the New Testament, the flesh was external. It was a temporary cleansing. But Jesus Christ, once for all, cleanses our consciences.
In other words, he takes away the guilt. He takes away the shame that we feel and have because of sin. Going on now to Hebrews 9, 19, 22 and we see here the old covenant and the new covenant. The new covenant that we celebrate when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, that Jesus blood is now the new covenant, that it is given to us. But in the Old Testament, it wasn’t the blood of Jesus, it was the blood of animals.
For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, which was a plant that he would use to sprinkle this mixture. And he sprinkled it on the scroll itself, and he sprinkled it on the people. So after Moses gave them the law, he cleansed it by sprinkling blood and water on it. He did the same for all the people. And then Moses said, this is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.
And in the same way, Moses sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. But when we come to the New Testament, Jesus tells us that his blood becomes the once and all sprinkling that is necessary to cover our sins. And why is this necessary? Well, according to God’s justice and according to his goodness and his holiness, sin cannot go unpunished. And the only way for it to be forgiven, to be paid for, is for there to be shedding the blood.
And that’s what we read in Hebrews 9. According to the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. If Jesus Christ had not died on the cross for us, there would be no forgiveness for our sins today. We wouldn’t be able to do enough.
We wouldn’t be able to pay enough, we wouldn’t be able to sing enough to do enough of anything. It required that a perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, die for us so that we could be forgiven. Let’s go to Hebrews 10, 19, 22 and let’s see what change does this bring about in our relationship with the Lord. And we have to think that in the Old Testament, the high priest, only once a year went into the holy of holies, approached God as close as possible, and he had to make sure that there was absolutely no unconfessed sin, sin in his life. Because if he went in before the holy of holies, before the Ark of the Covenant, he would have fallen over dead.
And if your kids were at Awanas this past Wednesday night, they were discussing the fact that, well, what happened to the priest if he fell over dead in that holy of holies? Nobody could go in after the body. And after so many days, the temple would have started to smell. So they talked about how they would tie a rope around their leg and they would put bells on their garment. And if the bells quit ringing, they knew that the person wasn’t moving and it was probably time to, what, pull them out.
Now, the person, the priest could have had all their sins forgiven and had a heart attack, a stroke, anything like that. But the thing is, that priest was probably pretty nervous going into the God’s presence. Wouldn’t have you stopped to think, oh, wow, did I say something I shouldn’t have said this morning, or did I run a red light? Maybe I need to confess that you would have made sure everything was right because there was this awesome fear in their life of approaching God. But because Jesus Christ, the better sacrifice, the better priest, went to the better temple to forgive us by atoning us, sprinkling the altar with his blood.
It says now that we have boldness to enter the sanctuary, we can walk right into God’s presence. He is our Father. And we do this through the blood of Jesus. Verse 21. We have now a great high priest, not just an ordinary one, but the greatest over the house of God.
And therefore we can draw near with true hearts and with full assurance of our faith. We walk into God’s presence, knowing he is going to accept us, knowing that he wants us to come there to speak with Him. And it’s because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies have been washed in pure water. So we have the two ideas of the washing and the sprinkling. Here the sprinkling is about putting the blood that covers our sin.
But the washing is what represents what changes in our life. Let’s go on to Hebrews chapter 12. Now, instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Again, we’re talking about through Christ. We’re approaching God in the Holy Tabernacle, not just in the tabernacle or the temple of the Old Testament.
And there we find myriads of angels. It’s a festive gathering. It’s the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in Heaven, those that have all come to faith before, before us. And we find there a judge who is God of all. And we find the spirits of righteous people that have been made perfect.
And we find there also Jesus, who is the mediator now of not the old covenant where the blood had to be presented over and over, but to the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood of Jesus Christ, which says better things than the blood of Abel. The last mention that we find of sprinkling in the New Testament, and I’m covering every mention of sprinkling here today, is in first Peter. Peter was talking to the Jews that had been dispersed, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those chosen, living as exiles, dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Those that are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. Every believer benefits from the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus that our sins have been atoned for and covered.
So we see that sprinkling talks about the atonement, the covering of sin. Let’s see what the symbolism now is for the word baptizo or to be baptized. And what we want to see in the passages now is that it’s about the death, the burial, the resurrection and newness of life. Because what we’re going to see as we go to Romans chapter 6, verses 3 through 5, that Scripture says spiritually, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, we actually died with him. And when he was buried in the tomb, we were actually buried with him.
And when he was rose from the dead, we rose with him to have a new and a different life. And that’s what baptism, being submerged in the water is supposed to picture. Romans, chapter six, three, five. We read this. Are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death?
That’s the death. Therefore we were baptized, buried with him by baptism into death. So there’s the burial in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. Jesus was raised from the dead. He was resurrected.
The same thing happens to us so that we can now have newness of life. So when we talk about how we come to the Lord, there has to be a right response. But then it doesn’t just stop. We don’t just get saved. But there’s this new creation we’re to continue to walk in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as our master.
Let’s go to Titus, chapter three, verses four through five. He saved us not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy. What that says is, you can’t give enough money to become a Christian. You can’t do enough good things to become a Christian. You can’t attend church enough to become a Christian.
It’s not by any works that we do, and we even know that. It’s not by the work of baptism. Baptism just demonstrates what has happened to us, but we’re saved by God’s mercy. And this happens through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. So in the other text it talked about the sprinkling of blood covers our sin.
But the picture that baptism immersion offers is that we’re completely washed, that we’re made clean. And that word regeneration means similar to what John said in John, chapter three, you must be born again. There’s a new birth. Matthew uses it in chapter 19. It’s the only 12 that it’s mentioned in Scripture that we have this regeneration that the Holy Spirit brings about in our life.
And that’s part of what baptism represents, is this washing and coming up to new life, that we live differently and that we walk with the Lord. Let’s go to Acts, chapter two, verses 37 through 38. And here we have the first recorded sermon after Pentecost. The church has finally been acknowledged. The Holy Spirit came down upon them.
Flames of fire. They spoke in tongues. And after this, Peter gave the first Christian sermon. And this is what he said, or at least part of it. When they heard this talking about the Gospel, that Jesus Christ died on the cross, he rose from the dead, that we can have eternal life if we place our faith in him.
They were pierced to the heart. They understood what Peter was saying, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do? And Peter replied, repent and be baptized. Now, last week we talked about how repentance and faith go hand in hand. Repentance is turning from this direction to this direction.
It’s turning from our direction to God’s direction. It’s turning from trusting in our faith, in ourselves, to placing faith in God. But it’s also turning away, repenting of our sin, to live the way that God wants us to live. In other words, come to faith in Christ. And then you need to be baptized.
Not some of you, but each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. For the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The first sermon included the fact that people not only needed to come to faith, but if they were going to be obedient, they needed to also be baptized. We don’t believe that baptism saves us, but we do need to understand that it is important. It’s a command in Scripture that God is asking us and telling us that we need to be obedient in.
We’re going to look some more at the practice in the early church. And what I want you to look for as we’re just reading through these passages about baptism, the order. The order is very important. What we’re going to see over and over is that people hear the gospel, people believe the gospel, and then they’re baptized. We don’t find any place that people are baptized and then they later come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Baptism always comes afterward. We’re going to find that the timing was very important to the early church. And they did it almost immediately. They didn’t wait till the water was warm. They didn’t wait till it was convenient for their family and friends to come.
They didn’t wait till they got their hair cut or whatever it was. They realized that it was so important to be obedient in baptism that they did it immediately. And it’s also going to tell us who is baptized. And the key is that everyone that’s baptized is always someone who has believed. It’s going to mention that men and women were baptized.
We’re not going to see that it says children are baptized. We’re not going to say that it says that infants are baptized. We’ll see where it says that households came to faith and were baptized. Maybe there were children there, maybe there were infants. But we can also say there possibly were not.
If we looked at all the families here today, is it more likely you’re going to have an infant in your house or not have an infant? More likely not to. Now, it doesn’t mean that children can’t be baptized. We have to go back to. The key is that those who what believed, those that come to an age where they understand their need for salvation, whatever age that is, those are the ones that place their faith in Jesus Christ and then are baptized.
We also want to see the continuation of the symbolism and the method of how they’re baptizing. So let me say those again. Just look for the order which is hear, believe and be baptized. The timing that it was immediate. Who are the people that are baptized?
What is the symbolism and what is the method that we find them using? Let’s go to Acts, chapter 2, verse 41. Those who accepted his message, they heard, they believed. What does it say happened then? They were baptized.
And they didn’t wait till next week. They didn’t wait till spring. It says that that day 3,000 people were added to them, because that day there were that many that believed and were baptized. The immediate importance of it come to Acts, chapter 8, verse 12. The first message went out to the Jews, but now Philip is preaching to the Samaritans.
And it says that when they believed, so they heard Philip. They believed him because he proclaimed the good news, which is the gospel about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. When they believed, it says both men and women were baptized. They didn’t wait because they understood the importance of obeying the command of the lord. Acts, chapter 8, 34, 39.
We have a traveler. He’s an Ethiopian eunuch, and he’s been to Jerusalem, and he’s purchased what would have been a very expensive scroll of Isaiah where they were all handwritten. It wasn’t just put on a copy machine. It wasn’t even through a printing press. Somebody had to write the whole thing out.
These were very expensive. But he came there with a desire to learn about the Lord. And he’s reading this scroll of Isaiah, and he’s. He’s in his chariot, riding along. When he’s reading, it must be like autopilot, you know, like the Teslas have now.
Okay. He was able to read while he was in his chariot, and he doesn’t understand what it’s talking about. And all of a sudden, Philip is. Is there. And this is what happens.
The funic. The funic. The eunuch said to Philip, who’s walking or riding alongside of them or running, he said, I ask you, who is the prince prophet saying this about himself or someone else? And Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus again, the gospel beginning with that scripture. And as they were traveling down the road, they came to some water.
And the eunuch said, look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized? They’re going down the interstate. They pull over in a restaurant, rest up, and there’s some water. And he doesn’t say, I need to wait to be baptized when it’s convenient or when I get home.
He realized he needed to be baptized at that moment. So it says in verse 38, he ordered the chariot to stop. And both Philip and the eunuch, they went down into the water, and he baptized him. And then they came up out of the water. And miraculously the Spirit of the Lord carried the Philip away.
And the eunuch did not see him any longer, but went on his way, rejoicing. Acts chapter 10. We won’t read the verses, but we heard that Peter preached to the Jews and then Philip preached to the Samaritans. And now Peter’s going even further out, like Jesus said, he’s preaching to the Gentiles. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
In Acts chapter 16, we find that Paul presents the Gospel message to Lydia, and it tells us that she immediately responds and is baptized. And then we come to Acts 16, verse 30 through 33, where Paul and Silas were delivered from jail that night. And he, meaning the jailer, escorted them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, first believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. The emphasis is there.
They didn’t have to be baptized to be saved. They only had to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. You and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. And he took them not the next day, but that same hour, in the middle of the night and washed their wounds.
And then right away, he and all his family who had believed were baptized. Acts chapter 18. 8. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, he believed in the Lord along with his whole household. Again, he believed first, and then many of the Corinthians believed.
And when they had heard, believed and were baptized. Again, the emphasis of order. They heard, they accepted the gospel, they were baptized. Then we come to church history, first century 50 to 70 A.D. we believe that Jesus Christ died around 33 A.D. so just within 20 years after that, in the Didachi, a historical document, it says only those who have been baptized in the Lord’s name may partake of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is another word for the Lord’s Supper, for the bread and the cup that we partake of that represent the body and blood of Christ.
The early Christians realized that unless we’re obedient to the Lord in baptism, we’re not supposed to even come to the table of the Lord to partake of the bread and the wine. Then in the second century, Hermas, so that we describe baptism this way, we descend into the water dead, and we come out again alive again. It’s the picture that they saw, that it represents the death and the resurrection. At that point, they received A white robe, just to symbolize what the spirit had done for them. It isn’t until the third century that we start to see that infant baptism is even common.
So in the first century and the second century, it wasn’t common to baptize infants. It was something new that came into the church. And then in the 4th century, this man, Uptatus, he writes of sinners being plunged into the baptismal waters. They were baptized, they were immersed. That’s part of the practice of the early church.
So we come to the end of the message today, and it calls for a commitment. Have you, first of all, heard the gospel and understand it? Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, turning from living for yourself to live for the Lord? And if you’ve done that, if you profess Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, following what scripture says, you need to be baptized. The eunuch represented it, understood it as he was traveling down the interstate.
He needed to be baptized right then. And so my challenge is to you that you need to examine yourself. If you’ve not been baptized, we encourage you to do that. We’ve been doing it in the creek. We’ve got a trough that we’re going to use next Sunday so that the water’s not going to be quite as cold as down there, and you’re not going to have the muck between your toes, and you’re going to come out as.
It’s all so convenient that there shouldn’t be any reason for someone to say, well, I haven’t baptized yet, but it’s too difficult. But if you need to do that next week, please talk to me or talk to Hunter, because we want to explain everything to you and have you prepared for that occasion. May we bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that the blood of Jesus Christ was shed and sprinkled before you, that our sins might be covered. And, Father, we thank you that the Holy Spirit washes us from all our sins so that we might stand in front of you and come boldly into your presence with any need and every need.
With our request, with our problems, Father, with our feelings, we thank you that the veil was torn, the that we have access to you. And we ask, Father, that if there are any among us today that have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, that they will hear that message today and that they will talk to someone, Father, who expressed their desire to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And secondly, if there are any among us that have not been obedient in baptism, that they will follow through with that today, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.