Sat Sep 19

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words baptized and Jesus.

Reading

Luke 3:21–22—Jesus Was Also Baptized

Optional Reading

Matthew 3:13–17

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Jesus was baptized.
As He prayed, the Holy Spirit came on Him in a dove’s form.
And God announced from heaven His pleasure in His Son.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

Why was Jesus baptized?
Why are we to be baptized?
Who should be baptized?

Catechism

(1 Q&A each week related to the preaching text)

WSC #94

What is baptism?

Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

Matt. 28:19; Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27

Notes

(See below for all authors.)

Why was Jesus baptized? Matthew’s gospel accounts tell us that it was “to fulfil all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). Jesus, in insisting on being baptized by John is identifying with John’s message—repent and be baptized. Jesus, of course, had no sin in Himself. But he became sin (2 Cor 5:21) for all those the Father had given Him (John 6:37). In His baptism Jesus takes on His role as Messiah, whereby He takes on Himself the sin and punishment of His people (Is 53:5-6).

As Jesus was baptized, He was praying. Ryle states that a baptism without prayer, it may be confidently asserted, is a baptism on which we have no right to expect God’s blessing. Luke speaks often of Jesus praying (Lu 5:15-16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28, 10:21, 11:1, 22:32, 22:40, 23:46, 24:30). It’s clear this was a regular part of Jesus’s life and ministry. And it is to be regular in the life of Jesus’s disciples.

As Jesus was praying, the heavens opened and the three-in-one God was there. The Holy Spirit came down from heaven in the physical form of a dove. And the voice of God the Father spoke from heaven declaring His pleasure in His much-loved Son.

Just a short account in Luke, but certainly a Wow! moment.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 2a, 119v

Prayer

Ask God to help you make right use of your baptism.
Pray for the reading and preaching of God’s word tomorrow.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.

Notes this week are drawn in part from writings by John Calvin, William Hendriksen, Kent Hughes, J. C. Ryle, Sinclair Ferguson, the Theological Dictionary of the Old and New Testaments (TDOT, TDNT) and notes from the CSB Study Bible, and the Reformation Study Bible (RSB).