Opening Prayer:
Creator of all, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in study. Open our minds and hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit, unite us in faith, hope, and love. Help us to be faithful to the gospel and to walk humbly with you. Grant us your peace as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Matthew 3:13-17 The voice of God, and the appearance of God’s Spirit as a dove, constitute what is called a “theophany” – a revelation of God to human beings. Sometimes God does give us these insights into his nature. Have you ever experienced a theophany?
John the Baptist has appeared, calling people to repentance, to turning back to God’s ways, to the way of life to which Israel committed itself at Sinai. He tells of the nearness of God’s kingdom, the time of complete fulfillment of God’s promises to humans. A new era, in which God rules, is almost here! John seeks to dissuade Jesus from seeking baptism but (in words that we do not fully understand) Jesus insists for the present, being baptized by you is to perfectly fulfill the Father’s will. In being baptized, Jesus joins the community now walking in God’s ways. His baptism shows his continuity with God’s will seen in the Old Testament: • the coming of the “Spirit of God” (v. 16), an Old Testament term, shows he is the Messiah; • the words spoken by the heavenly “voice” (v. 17) are much like Isaiah 42:1: Jesus is the agent of God who will suffer for others – not the kind of Messiah people expected. “Beloved” is not sentiment; rather it indicates God’s will. The “voice” (v. 17) says three things: • Jesus really is God’s “Son”; • he is chosen for ministry to God’s people, and • God approves his coming for baptism and his joining with his people in preparing for the coming crisis.
Acts 10:34-43 How does your baptism impact your faith journey?
Peter is visiting Cornelius, an officer of the occupying Roman army and already a believer in God. Peter breaks Jewish law by visiting a Gentile. The Greek here is rough, full of grammatical errors, unlike the rest of Acts, so we may well have Peter’s unedited words. He tells the assembled company that God does not favor Jews over others: anyone, whatever his nationality, who reveres God and lives in unison with him “is acceptable to him” (v. 35). In vv. 36-38, Peter summarizes Jesus’ earthly ministry; he applies prophecies found in Isaiah 52:7 and 61:1 to Christ. (Psalm 107:20 says “… he sent out his word …”) Christ is Kyrios, “Lord of all” (v. 36). In baptism, the Father “anointed” (v. 38) Jesus “with the Holy Spirit” and with the “power” of God (but he was already integral with God’s very being.) The good news (“message”, v. 37) spread throughout Palestine (“Judea”); he “went about” (v. 38) “doing good” and combating evil, doing deeds so powerful that it is clear that he was God’s agent: he is a model for all to follow. 2 He suffered death as one guilty of a capital offence, per Deuteronomy 21:23: he hung on a “tree” (v. 39) and was cursed. (By Jesus’ time, the “tree”, a pole, had acquired a cross-arm.) But, although cursed, the Father “raised him” (v. 40) and “allowed him to appear” to those chosen by God – to be “witnesses” (v. 41). In Luke 24:41-43, Jesus eats broiled fish with them, so he was clearly humanly alive again, i.e. physically brought back from death, resurrected. Jesus, the Kyrios, is the one appointed by God to set up the Kingdom and to judge both those who are alive, and those who have died, at Judgment Day (v. 42). Then v. 43: he fulfills many Old Testament prophecies: he is the one through whom sins are forgiven. Forgiveness is now available to “everyone who believes”, not just to Jews.