I told myself to post these notes over the weekend…but it didn’t happen.. =( As such, today you are treated with my sermon notes from Easter (yeah, I’m a week behind). Note that the sermon itself ended up vastly different as Jesus changed everything about ten or fifteen minutes into the sermon. 😕
“Jesus’ Baptism” Sermon
Happy Easter!! Jesus is risen!! Amen and Amen
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. -1 Peter 1:3-4a
We have freedom because the cross leads to the resurrection!
Public Reading: Luke 3:15-22
1. John the Baptist
o Who is he?
* Luke 3:15 it tells us that the people were waiting for the Messiah and wondered if John was he….
* The Gospel of John gives us a little more details about this line of thought (John 1:19-28)
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.