****NOTE Please read the scripture from the Bible first for this is God's word****

Matthew Chapter 28 Verse 18 - 20

These 3 verses were the verses that foretold what the deciples were to do when Jesus went home to be with God the Father. But that wonderful thing is that Jesus wasn't only speaking to the deciples, he was speaking to us too! Jesus said to go out and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. What did Jesus mean by that? We will cover the answer to that, along with what we ought to learn from the desciples and what we ought to "go out and teach all nations".

Before we talk about baptism as stated in Matthew 28:19 we will look at salvation. What is salvation?

If we take a look at why Jesus died on the cross for us we say, he died for our sins. But do you really believe that? Look in your bibles at Romans 5:17. This shows that one man brought sin upon man kind, and one man Jesus Christ took it away. If you notice it says " the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus ". Lets talk about this gift for a moment. Turn to Romans 6:23, it shows that the penalty of sin is death, or separation from God which the book of Revalations describes as a lake of fire (hell). But it goes on to say that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So to answer our question, yes Jesus died for our sins, and God has given us the gift of salvation. The question is do you accept the gift, do you accept Christ as your personal savior for forgiveness of sins? If we look at Ephesians 2:8 - 9 it says "Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. " You see we are saved by faith and faith alone, not of our works or rituals or special cerimonies. This means if you don't accept Jesus, and just try to be good, you will fail, you must believe! If we believe, we will have our sin forgiven, and will endure the gift of God which eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then you might ask, well if it isn't of good works than do I not need to be good. The book of Romans answers that for us "Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Rom 6:2a God forbid. " When you accept Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit will abide with in you and will be your for lack of a better term "conscience" telling you what is right what is wrong. Now lets look at Baptism.

Baptizing is drived from the Greek work Baptizo which means to dip, immerse, or submerge in water. But the question is how, why and when do we baptize. Some people say that we should baptize infants, and others believe as adults. Lets look at the bible to see what it says about how we should baptize.

Lets look at Acts Chapter 8 verse 35 - 39. I want you to pay close attention to a couple of things. Notice the order of events and what they say. Philip preached to the eunuch (U-Nic) the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then they came upon a body of water and the eunuch asked Philip to baptize him, and Philip said, If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart I will baptise you. And the eunuch said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Then they went down to the water and Philip baptized him. Then when they came up out of the water, Philip was taken by the Holy Spirit and the eunic rejoyced.

You see baptizm is NOT a means of salvation. It is merely a public testimony that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of all your sins past, present, and future sins and a public testimony that you believe and had accepted Jesus as your personal saviour. This can be considered a burning of the bridge to the old way of life, and the start of a new life under the reign of Jesus Christ. This is not necessary for you to do in order to have forgiveness of sins and salvation of eternal life. You must believe before you are baptized. Also notice they went down to the water and baptized in the body of water, they didn't use a pitcher of water and dump it on his head, nor did they use a wand to sprikle him, notice it said "they were come up out of the water".

The deciples were instructed to go out to all nations baptizing and teaching Jesus's commandments in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Notice He says, all nations. Some of us are called to Ministry to go out and plant chuches and minister to other nations or maybe just other cities and states here in the U.S., and some of us are not called out the mission field, but there are two facts that are for sure. We need to be ready and willing to do what God calls us to do, even if it pulls us out of our comfort zone. The other fact is that we face a mission field everyday, at home, at work, at social events, at family gatherings or even "unscheduled events" or as we call them divine appointments. Think of it like this, you don't go to the gas station, you go out to teach the word of God and while you are there you will get some gas. You don't go to the grocery store, you go out to share the gospel with somebody, and while you are there you get some groceries. You don't go get the mail, you go because there is a potential soul that needs guidance and while you are there you can pick up the mail. You don't go visit your sister, you go out to share God's word and while you are there you visit with your sister.

Jesus also said "lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. " How inspiring and comforting those words are. But you must also think, this wasn't just a command to the desciples, after all the desciples have gone home to be with God and the end of the world isn't upon us. This was a commandment unto all of us, we must go out and teach Jesus's commandments to "all nations". But we will always have the comfort that no matter what we face, tribulation, danger, fear, He is with us until the end.

posted by Ben at 5:18 PM
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