This week our sermon series The Gospel of Luke, Part I: The Arrival of the King rediscovers the the glory and grace of the Trinity revealed through the baptism of Jesus. Tyler Briggs highlights not only the beauty and blessing of the believer’s baptism itself, but the spiritual blessings offered through the  believer’s union with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection.

Tyler’s Main Points

• Jesus’ baptism is His identification as the Son of God who came to save sinners. A disciple’s baptism is a sinner’s identification with their Savior Jesus.

• Jesus’ baptism identified Him with the sinners He came to save.

• A disciple’s baptism publicly identifies his/her submission to Jesus by faith.

• Jesus’ baptism identified how He would save sinners through His death, burial, and resurrection.

• Jesus’ baptism is where the Father identified Jesus as His beloved Son.

Key Takeaways

• The baptism of Jesus demonstrates His public identification of personhood and license from the Father of what He will accomplish.

• In baptism, we publicly render our life to Jesus as Lord.

• As Jesus was baptized to identify with you, resolve to be baptized to identify with Him.

• The believer’s baptism is a blessing to the disciple and is a means of grace and nourishment to the soul. Baptism is not only a blessing to the church, but a witness to unbelievers.

• As Jesus died for sin, His disciples are to die to sin.

• We are to resolve to walk in newness of life. We are to continually crucify the flesh and the attitudes/actions that defined our old nature and yield to the Spirit as we walk by faith.

• Through faith we are united into the glorious fellowship of the triune God. All believers in Christ are chosen, beloved, redeemed, adopted, provided for, and eternally secure.

• We are to resolve to rest in the fact that in Christ you are beloved of the Father.

• Our baptism is a symbolic representation of that which is spiritually true.

Discussion Questions/Application

Personal application:

• Have you been baptized as a believer? If not, what is keeping you from this next step? If so, how will you resolve today anew to humbly submit to Jesus as Lord?

• Which areas of your life are more self-centered than Christ-centered? Confess these struggles to God and others and pray for the Spirit’s help to live more like Christ.

Discuss with your community group:

• What attitudes, affections, and actions in your life reflect more of your former life rather than the newness of life found in Christ?

• Do you see yourself as loved by the Father? How can you encourage one another with the Father’s love this week amidst temptation and hardship?

Passages Referenced 

Luke 3:21-23; Matthew 3:13-115; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Matthew 28:19-20; Romans 6:3-7; Romans 8:11; Galatians 2:20.

Worship Set List

Great Things, Undivided Heart, 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord), In Christ Alone, Build My Life