Hope Has a NameSample

Day 2:  Baptism

You already know that the only way to Heaven is to believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins.  Hold tight to this truth.  God loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you.  The love He has for you is the strongest love you will ever know.  Jesus set the first example of baptism over 2,000 years ago.  John the Baptist was baptizing everyone who wanted to.  Then Jesus approached John and asked John to baptize Him.  John hesitated, but Jesus said that all believers should be baptized.  Although John was baptizing with water, Jesus declared that people would soon be baptized by the Holy Spirit.  Baptism reminds all believers of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  When we go under the water and come back up, we are reminded of our new life in Christ.  The old is gone, and the new has come!

Main Passages: 

Romans 6:3-7

Romans 3:23

Additional Passages: 

Ephesians 2:8-9

Matthew 28:19

Colossians 2:12

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

John 3:3

John 3:7

Questions:

1.  We learned that it is by grace through faith alone that you are saved.  The act of being baptized doesn’t save you.  Baptism is an outward symbol of what is in your heart.  It may seem intimidating to get baptized in front of people like we are shown in the Bible.  Do you have reservations about being baptized in front of a group of people?  Why or why not?

2.  “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” JOHN 3:16 (NLT).  God gave His one and only Son so that we could be saved.  When you think of the cost, the sacrifice, the gift, how does it make you feel about the call to be baptized?  Do you feel excited to honor God, or do you feel obligated?  Explain.

3.  Read John 3:3 and John 3:7.  In your words, why do we need to be “born again”?  How did God provide for our Salvation?

4.  Jesus died, was buried, and rose again.  This part of Jesus’s life is symbolically represented every time someone gets baptized.  As a believer, baptism gives us the opportunity to follow in Jesus’s example to honor His Father by being baptized.  This is another way Jesus’s humanness connects our hearts to His.  Describe how this idea impacts your views on being baptized.

5.  We choose to be baptized to show the world that we are part of God’s Family.  In the Additional Passages Section above, there are  verses that help show the truth about baptism.  Look up those verses, choose two that speak to you specifically, and then write them down. 

Journal

Write out what you think God is trying to teach you this week.