KINGDOM LIVING: Be Baptized

Day: Day 8
Date: January 16, 2023
Title: KINGDOM LIVING: Be Baptized

Today we continue to look at Peter’s life-changing sermon that produced 3,000 souls saved in one day.

We have examined the importance of repentance from Acts 2:38, and now we will look at the next thing the people were told to do when they cried out out from conviction.

Be Baptized

Acts 2:38 NASU

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.”

They believed in the Father and the Holy Ghost that spoke through the prophets, but everything was changed now. There needed to be an outward action of an inward acknowledgment.

Jesus was the MESSIAH the prophets had spoken of.  He was the Christ and they had to embrace and lay aside the old thinking that held them blinded from the present truth.

I want to tell you how important it is that every person that receives Jesus as Lord and Savior, also makes this public allegiance to Him.

This is not a “dip in the water” in front of others.

This is an announcement that JESUS IS YOUR KING, and you are swearing that you are going to take Him to be the final decision-maker on the activities of your life.

It is an announcement that the way you used to live, is just that, the way you USED to live!

There is a new way you are committed to living. Kingdom living means you are living FOR the King and His Kingdom!

When you are being baptized, you must be fully aware that Heaven is watching.  You are announcing before the Father, and before the Son, and the Holy Spirit that you are leaving the old man behind.

That’s when Jesus said, “Behold I make all things new.”  You are committed to what He has provided for you – a brand new life with Kingdom living!

Every person that hears the truth and repents (turns around) also needs to announce Jesus and submit to His grace and government.

When you stand for Him, He will stand for you.

You are making an open, solemn covenant with Heaven that you will engage as His disciple, and live by the Word of God.

Your submitting to baptism is an outward expression of how you will continue to submit to His Lordship of your life.

You are recognizing your inability to be free of your sins yourself, and acknowledging that He took your sins on the cross so you could be free of them.

You are announcing:

• Though once you were a helpless sinner, now you are fully accepted as a son or daughter.
• The baptism of acceptance as you pass from one kingdom to another.
• The Law of Moses could never cover your sins, only the blood of Jesus.

Because of the blood, there is cleansing.

Let’s consider this Kingdom Reality:

Colossians 1:13-14 NASU

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Only through Jesus do we experience full redemption.

Colossians 1:15-16 NASU

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Jesus was there at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  They created all things in divine order.  Everything made was created through Him and FOR HIM. We are created FOR HIM.  And, we get to partner with Him.  How glorious!

Colossians 1:17 NASU

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

He will have the final say.

Colossians 1:18 NASU

He is also Head of the Body, the Church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

We recognize that He is the Head of us personally, as well as the Head of the Church. He deserves first place in every section of our heart and life.

Colossians 1:19 NASU

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.

The Father is totally invested in Him, in US.

Colossians 1:20 NASU

And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in Heaven.

We are reconciled completely to the Father and we are at peace with Heaven and earth coming together in us and through us.

I know that even as I write this, it may not seem like new information, because many have experienced salvation years ago.   What is going to be new in 2023, is how much we must be aware of the importance of our salvation.  We are going to see in a new way how important salvation is for others, and the Lord of the Harvest is going to release a new breath upon those who will spread the good news to others.

We used to be one way.

Colossians 1:21 NASU

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.

But now we are another way.

Colossians 1:22 NASU

Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

That is how we can live without fear. That is how we can live without shame.  That is why we can proclaim His goodness and His greatness and stay amazed at what He has provided!

This excitement will break through hard hearts and bring the remedy to their lives.  We are going to have to be ready for many divine appointments.

The disciples of that day needed to be baptized into the redemption of Christ to make a bold statement to heaven, to hell and to themselves.  Everything in the past is the past, and the new man has emerged empowered!

ACTIVATION:

If you have not been water baptized, sign up at Liberty. If you have been baptized and didn’t understand it fully, you can get baptized again.  And if you have done that, ask another person this week if they ever got water baptized and if they did, discuss it with them.  If they didn’t let them know that we are planning an event at Liberty to do just that, and we will help them to understand it.

What a glorious privilege we have to be a part of such a supernatural event!

PRAYER:

Please pray with me:

Jesus,

I never want to forget who You are and what You enabled me to be.  You have given Your all so I could experience all You have ordained for me since before the foundation of the world.

I am so grateful for Your sacrifice and I am determined to follow You in obeying You with my decisions concerning my spirit, soul, and body.

Thank You for forgiving me and making me Your very own.

I will keep my allegiance to You, my King, all the days of my life.

Amen!