Life Walk: Lesson 33 — Baptism
3 “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.’
4 Nicodemus said unto Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?
5 Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”
1 Peter 1:22-23
“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” [John 1]
Matthew 28:18-20
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
Acts 2:38-39
“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and 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. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.’”
The Example Set by Jesus Christ
Matthew 3:11
“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
In the Old Testament, God used both water and fire to remove all sin. [Genesis 6, and Genesis 19] In the New Testament, God uses the washing of the Water of the Word to cleanse [John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26] and the Fire of the indwelling Holy Spirit to purify [Jeremiah 20:9; Acts 2:1-4].
Matthew 3:13-15
“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’ But Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he permitted Him.”
John 1:32-33
“John testified saying, ‘I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained on Him. I did not recognize Him, but He Who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He upon Whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One Who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’”
Luke 3:21-22
“Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My Beloved Son; in You I am well-pleased.’”
Matthew 3:16-17
“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of heaven said, ‘This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased.’”
Matthew 17:5
“…This is My Beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
Scripture Readings: Mark 9:7, Mark 12:6, and 2Peter 1:17 — Ample confirmation that Jesus is God’s Beloved Son, and is to be respected in all He says and does, in representing His Father in Heaven.
It was on that same Mountain, that the fallen angels made a covenant to defy God, and take to themselves human wives, and have children with them. Consequently, some of the humans listened to them, were instructed in evil ways by them. [1Enoch 6-8] But I’ll share more about that later in the Lesson.
The Commission
Mark 16:15-16
“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.’”
Matthew 28:18-20
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
In Acts 26, Jesus Himself appears to Saul, [later called, Paul the Apostle] who was on his way to Damascus to imprison and kill the Christians there, recorded in verses 1-13. Jesus says, in verses 14-18
15 “… ‘I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 resting you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’”
Baptism — Inside and Out
Luke 17:20-21
“Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the Kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘’There it is!’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is in your midst [or: within you].’”
Notice that the result of baptism in water and fire — the total immersion into water on the earth, and infilling with the Holy Spirit, of the Kingdom of God, from Heaven — is that in Christ, we are filled with His Kingdom’s culture, His language, and all His activity, on earth as it is in heaven, just as He is sent by His Father. [Colossians 2-3; Ephesians 2-3]
The true mystery worth telling human beings was “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.” [Colossians 1:27]
John 8:28 “So Jesus said, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My Own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”
John 8:42 “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My Own initiative, but He sent Me.’”
John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My Own initiative but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
The Cup — the Kingdom of God Within
Luke 14:25-33
25 “Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 ‘If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
Precedents:
Genesis 12:1-3
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
And here, in: 1 Kings 19:19-21
“So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, ‘Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.’ And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?’ So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.”
And again: Luke 5:1-11
1”Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.
3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’
5 Simon answered and said, ‘Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.’
6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, ‘Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!’
9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.’
11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.”
John 6:35
“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Exodus 16:4 ~ Manna; 2 Kings 4:41-43 ~ Loaves of Bread; John 6 ~ Loaves and Fishes
Matthew 19:29
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”
Notice that in each case, God not only blesses His followers, but also those they leave behind, for their sake.
The Reward
Mark 10:38-40
“But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those whom it has been prepared.’” [See: Matthew 25:31-40; The Judgment]
Revelation 2:17
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’
Hungry for God’s Truth — Thirsty for His Righteousness
John 6:54-56
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
1Corinthians 11:25
“In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My Blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”
According to The Book of Enoch, it was the practice among the giants to eat the flesh and drink the blood of human beings, among other detestable sins against all of God’s creation. [1Enoch chapters 1-16 for a record of those events]
These Watchers, as they were originally named, were suppose to watch over God’s people as Shepherds and judges: to instruct, protect, and intercede for humans. [Ezekiel 34; contrast 1Peter 5].
Instead, because they rebelled against God, and were therefore cast out of heaven, they taught humans to sin, just as they had done against God, beginning with the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, who lied to Eve about her own God-given intelligence, exposing her “nakedness” — [symbolically: death in the physical body, and being apart from the Lord.] For God says to her, “Who told you that you were naked?” [Genesis 3:11; 2 Corinthians 5]
Genesis chapter 6, The Ancient Book of Jasher 4-6, The Book of Jubilees 5, The Book of the Cave of Treasures, 2nd Thousand Years, and The Kebra Nagast 100, all corroborate the account of the fall of the Watchers, and the humans they had been assigned to teach the ways of God, originally.
They cohabited with humans and animals, corrupting God’s creation, bearing giants, and inter-species creatures; and when their appetite became insatiable, they devoured one another, and yet were not filled.
The same corruption was at work in the Pentapolis, in the days of Abraham and Lot, whom the angels rescued from the destruction by fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God destroyed the five cities due to the same sins as the pre-flood millennia.
The Apostle Peter warns humans, once again, to be holy on account of a coming destruction by fire, so that we may be found in Christ. [2Peter 2-3]
The Apostle Paul addresses these same sins to his congregants, as does the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21, which keep humans out of the Kingdom of God, out of the Family of God Almighty.
Satan’s plans, and that of his demons, the evil spirits, have not changed, for from the time they rebelled against God, they sought to devour mankind, and thwart God’s purposes and plans. [1Peter 5:8; 1Enoch 6-16]
1Enoch 15:8-12 [From: All the Books of Enoch]
8 “And now, the giants who were born from body and flesh will be called evil spirits on the Earth, and on the Earth will be their dwelling. 9 And evil spirits came out from their flesh, because from above they were created, from the Holy Watchers was their origin and first foundation. Evil spirits they will be on Earth and ‘Spirits of the Evil Ones’ they will be called. 10 And the dwelling of the Spirits of Heaven is Heaven, but the dwelling of the spirits of the Earth, who were born on the Earth, is Earth.
11 “And the spirits of the giants do wrong, are corrupt, attack, fight, break on the earth, and cause sorrow. And they eat no food, do not thirst, and are not observed. 12 And these spirits will rise against the sons of men, and against the women, because they came out of them during the days of slaughter and destruction.”
The R.H. Charles translation of this same passage, in verse 11, reads:
“And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses.” [The Book of Enoch, R.H.Charles,1912; Page 36-37]
1Enoch 16:1-4
1 “From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgement — thus shall they destroy until the day of the consummation, the great judgement in which the age shall be consummated, over the Watchers and the godless, yea, shall be wholly consummated. 2 And now as to the Fathers who have sent thee to intercede for them, who had been aforetime in Heaven, say to them: 3 ‘You have been in Heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the women, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth.’ 4 Say to them therefore, ‘You have no peace.’”
For what the evil Watchers, the fallen angels, taught, see: 1Enoch 6-8; what the Angels’ prayed to God, on behalf of humans: 1Enoch 9; God’s instructions to the Angels, for the destruction of the giants and their children: 1Enoch 10-11]
John 10:10 NLT
“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy; I came so they may have life, a great full life.”
From the Beginning
Scripture Reading: John 8:37-59
John 8:44
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
1 John 2:22
“Who is a liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist — denying the Father and the Son.”
1 John 4:20
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or a sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, Whom they have not seen.”
Scripture Reading: Galatians 5
Revelation 21:8
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolators and all liars — they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Revelation 12:4
“And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”
Paul makes clear that in a spiritual sense, we are capable of doing/experiencing the same things, when he writes, in 2 Corinthians 11:20,
“For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.”
And in Galatians 5:15, “But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”
And Peter says, in 1Peter 5:8
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Righteous Communion with the Holy Spirit of God
God’s original intent is fulfilled, in its correct context, in the Eucharist, for Jesus came as a human being, and laid down His life in sacrifice for us, so that our sins might be forgiven, and that our thirst for the Righteousness of Jesus, the Son of David the giant-slayer, might be satisfied by the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who defeats all the powers of darkness, and transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into God Almighty’s Kingdom of Light.
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5
The spirit of a person, forgiven and declared righteous, and saved — once they die — is the very same day at home with the Lord. [Luke 23:43] Unlike the sinner, described in 1Enoch, their spirit is not confined to Earth, nor the torments of hell, but are immediately ushered into Paradise.
The Psalmist writes about God our Father, in Psalm 145:16, ‘You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing” in stark contrast to what the fallen angels did by insatiably devouring every living thing, and destroying the earth God created for our enjoyment.
We not only partake of Jesus’ Body and His Life, for the Life is in the Blood, but we are also filled with His way of doing things, as we abide in Christ Who saved us, cleansed us by the washing of His Word, and filled us with His Righteousness.
Christ clothed us with Himself, a Garment Who continually praises His Father’s good works [Isaiah 61:9-11; Luke 1:46-55], covering us with the shadow of His hand, [Isaiah 49:2] and protecting us from every scheme of the evil one, as the Psalmist says. [Psalm 90-91]
We are God’s Own weapons against the enemy of our souls, for we overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. [Revelation 12:11]
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 59:16-18; Ephesians 6:10-17 — God’s Own Armor
