In this sermon titled 'The End of Pentecost,' Peter Allison explores the narrative from Acts 19, focusing on Paul's encounter with the disciples in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. The sermon examines the significance of the Ephesian Pentecost as a pivotal moment in the expansion of Christ's kingdom beyond Jerusalem and into the Gentile world. It discusses the theological implications of baptism as an identification with Christ and the role of the Holy Spirit in empowering believers. Allison contrasts John's baptism with Christian baptism, emphasizing the comprehensive nature of the latter in uniting believers with Christ's death and resurrection. The sermon also underscores the historical context of Acts as a record of the apostles' mission to spread the Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Allison encourages believers to understand their baptism as a call to live under the controlling influence of Christ, advancing His kingdom and forsaking worldly identities.

Please turn in your scriptures to Acts chapter 19. I'll begin reading at verse 1. This picks up the narrative of Paul's third missionary journey. Missionary journey. And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul having passed through the upper regions came to Ephesus, and finding some disciples he said to them did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed so they said to him we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.

And He said to them, Into what then were you baptized? So they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after Him, that is on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them.

And they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all." May God revive us according to His Word. Gracious Father, Your Word is truth. Sanctify us by it this morning. Open our hearts that we may receive this truth and equip us by your Holy Spirit to obey and to walk in the light of this truth.

May we be impacted by what we hear this morning. May not simply go in one ear and out the other. But may You bring change to us. Living change. For we are living stones.

And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips to be the instrument, the messenger of Your message. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, I might have to acknowledge this morning that in some ways, I've never worked so hard on a message and felt so unprepared to deliver it. Because you see some passages of Scripture are hard to understand as Peter speaks of them, Apostle Peter, and leading to many different opinions about their interpretation. And this is, I think, one of those passages.

It's hard to find two commentators that are in agreement. And I'm speaking about people within the broad framework of the Scriptures that we walk in. This passage in some ways reminds me of one of those lateral thinking exercises. You've all seen those. For example, if you're not familiar with them, this would be an example.

A man walks up to a woman behind a counter and handed her a book. She looked at it and said, well, that will be $4. He paid her and walked out without the book. And she saw him leave but didn't think anything of it. Why?

Well as these puzzles are usually played, People ask questions of the reader who knows the full story. And so no one is distracted the rest of the sermon. One explanation is that the man was returning an overdue library book. Well this passage is in some ways similar in that it's brief. It doesn't supply a lot of details, but it raises a number of questions on its first reading.

Now, The first one that comes to mind is what is the purpose of this narrative? Why is it here? Why did the Holy Spirit direct Luke to put this little account here in the book of Acts. This account, as I said, picks up the narrative of Paul's third missionary journey, which began in verse 23 of the previous chapter, with him departing from Antioch and visiting the churches that he planted on that first missionary journey there in in Phrygia and Galatia and and that was probably nearly ten years ago So he's coming back to churches that he had first visited at least 10 years ago. And then this narrative resumes after this passage we looked at last week.

This resumes with Paul arriving in Ephesus after Apollos has already left for Corinth. And on running across some disciples after Paul gets there to Ephesus, he asks them if they've received the Holy Spirit. When they believed and on learning that they don't even know if there is a Holy Spirit, Paul wonders then into what were you baptized? To which they reply they were baptized into John's baptism. So Paul baptizes them in Jesus' name, and they receive the Holy Spirit.

But this is far more than just another conversion story in the course of Paul's missionary journeys. But that raises the question, another question is who were these disciples that he just runs into? Disciple means learner or follower. And so who were these disciples following or learning from? Were they Jews or Gentiles?

How did they learn about John's baptism all the way there in Ephesus? And how could they not know whether there even was a Holy Spirit or not if they knew about John's baptism. Were these disciples in fact believers or unbelievers when Paul met them? I mean, these are all questions that arise. But I think another question that arises is, what does it mean to be baptized into something?

Paul asked them, into what were you baptized? How would you answer that? Paul asked you that, into what were you baptized? And then when they were baptized into John's baptism, We begin to wonder, is John's baptism the same as Christian baptism today? If not, what's the difference?

And if they are, then why are they rebaptized? If this is the same baptism? And of course, there's the whole question then about the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Is this something that's normative today? Is this something that believers need to attain to, the second blessing of the Holy Spirit as it were.

Now these are not all the questions that could be raised, but I think these are some of the key questions that should be dealt with in this passage. And so I'd like to look at this passage through these questions, through these framework questions. Questions I think would naturally arise as someone carefully reads this passage. What then is the significance of this narrative? Why are these seven verses here in the Bible?

And to answer this I think we really need to really zoom way out from this little meeting with of Paul in Ephesus with these disciples. Zoom way out And look at the whole book of Acts from a high overall level. Now it's been a number of months since we started our journey through the book of Acts and began this study. But in the very beginning of the book you'll remember that Jesus told the Apostles in Acts 1-8 that they would be his witnesses to Jerusalem and unto Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Three things Jerusalem witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And so the Book of Acts then is this historical narrative of the apostles carrying out this mission. But let's put Acts into perspective of all of history. Remember Israel was promised the land of Canaan, which they conquered and dwelt in for 1, 500 years, or a little bit longer. But the church is promised the whole earth, and by the power of the Holy Spirit is conquering the world. This is just like what God revealed to Daniel through Nebuchadnezzar's statue.

That big statue of a man, I think it was 60 cubits high, made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and then feet of iron and clay. And what God revealed to Daniel through that statute is that the greatest empire of the world, of the ancient world, the Roman Empire, this is the kingdom that conquered the other kingdom that had conquered all the other kingdoms of the world the Greek Empire that this ancient empire this Roman this Roman Empire would would conquer the Greek Empire, which had conquered the world. Alexander the Great had conquered the known world. The Roman Empire conquered the Greek Empire. But that Rome itself, the Roman Empire, would itself be conquered by another greater kingdom.

That stone that's cut without hands that comes down and destroys that whole statue creating dust out of it. And so that's what happened. Rome ceased to be a world power. It even ceased to be a nation. But not before it acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And so that kingdom has passed away, but Christ's kingdom remains to this day and will endure forever because there is no end to the increase of Christ's government. And so the historical record given in Acts is the beginning of this expansion of Christ's kingdom to the ends of the earth, as promised to Daniel. And so the first ten chapters of Acts record the beginning of this conquest with the Gospel going to Jerusalem. And then it goes to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the Gentiles. And in each of these phases, there is a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, first, there is the Jerusalem Pentecost in Acts 2. And that begins with the outpouring of the Spirit on the 120 people that are in the upper room, the apostles and these others with them. And the Holy Spirit came, There was the sound, and there was the tongues of fire that sat on their heads, and they all began speaking in tongues. And that was followed by the preaching of the Word by Peter and 3, 000 people coming under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, followed by their water baptism. So that's Jerusalem.

Then the Gospel goes to Samaria, the second phase. And in Acts 6, there's another outpouring of the Spirit. But there were no tongues of fire. In fact, the Holy Spirit didn't come immediately on their conversion under Philip's preaching. It happened a little later after Peter and John, on whom, remember, the original tongues had fell on the day of Pentecost.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Samaria happened after Peter and John came to Samaria, after they had already been saved a little while. And then when Peter and John laid their hands on these disciples, Then the Holy Spirit was poured out on them as well. These Samaritans. These Samaritans came, when God took away the northern tribes, those Samaritans, the Assyrians brought in other people and populated them in the land. And then the lions were coming and killing them.

And they recognized, well, the gods of that land are angry with them. You need to go back and get some Israelite priests that know, and they can teach them how to worship the God of that land and and so they added the worship of the Lord to the worship of their idols and they've been a syncretized and compromised apostate existence ever since and that's why they're it led to this great division between the Jews and the Samaritans that Jesus broke down. So The gospel has now gone to them. And hands have been laid on them, and the Holy Spirit has been poured out on them as well. And then in Acts 10, when Peter went to Cornelius' house, which was a Gentile home, the Holy Spirit fell on them while Peter was preaching to them.

And when Peter saw that, he had them baptized. And now that the Holy Spirit would fall on Gentiles, they understood Samaritans because they had some connection to the Jews. But when the Holy Spirit fell on Gentiles, you remember the Jews are very astonished. And Peter even had to defend himself when he got back to Jerusalem from the people who were saying, Peter, what are you doing going to the Gentiles? So Peter explained to them how the Holy Spirit fell on these Gentiles.

And the church in Jerusalem recognized, okay, God is sending His Spirit to them as well. But while this Pentecost event, like event at Cornelius' house, occurred in conjunction with the gospel going to the Gentiles is still in the land of Israel. Ethnically, it happened to Gentiles who dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth. But geographically, Caesarea, where Cornelius was, is still a city in the land of Israel. So besides these times, these three times, Jerusalem, Samaria, and Caesarea, there are only two other times in Acts where there is a special baptism of the Holy Spirit.

One is Paul's conversion, which I think parallels the Jerusalem Pentecost of the twelve apostles. Remember, they had already replaced Judas by this time. But the other is recorded in this passage here, in Acts 19. And so many people have called this the Ephesian Pentecost. It occurs far outside the land of Israel, and it occurs under Paul's ministry instead of Peter's.

Remember, the others always occurred under Peter's ministry in the land of Israel. Peter preached at Jerusalem. Peter and John went down and laid hands on the Samaritans. Peter was the one that went to Cornelius. But this is outside the land of Israel, and it's under Paul's ministry.

Remember, speaking of his apostleship, Paul calls himself in 1 Corinthians 15-8, one born out of due time. One born out of due time. He had a conversion that was later. And he had this outpouring of the Spirit that was later than what all the other apostles had. And so he says it's one born out of due time.

He had a separate filling of the Holy Spirit in Acts 9 at His conversion with the laying on of hands. And so this is not then, we can call it the Ephesian Pentecost, but it's not another Pentecost. It is simply the final reverberation of the main event that happened in Jerusalem. It's the final aftershock, if you will. This is the last church planting that's recorded in the book of Acts.

And so most of chapters 19 and 20 deal with Paul's ministry right here in Ephesus. And after that, there are no more church plantings in Acts. The rest of the book is concerned with Paul's legal defense against the Jews and his four years of Roman captivity. So this is, in a sense, at Ephesus, a microcosm of what's happened in the rest of Acts and in all the other churches. And This is one of the most extended passages in Acts about one church.

Most of these two chapters are concerned with what's going on in Ephesus. Now, I should say I've used the word Pentecost. I've brought it into this passage and related it to these other events. We should take a moment to just remember what this is. Pentecost is, remember, it's a unique event in redemptive history.

It's never repeated. It's not something that we should be trying to replicate any more than you try and rebuild the foundation once you've built a house. You can repaint it, you can remodel it, but you don't go back in and try and recreate the foundation. Pentecost is this unique event where Christ baptizes His people with the Holy Spirit and continues to baptize each new convert that comes into the church with the Holy Spirit. This gift of the Spirit is Christ's crowning achievement.

This gift of the Holy Spirit is Christ's crowning achievement of Christ's work. It was His coming in exaltation to the church in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ said He would never leave His people, but then He ascended into heaven. But He came back in the power of the Holy Spirit so that He is with us. And this Pentecost marks the beginning of His mediatorial reign, which will continue until all His enemies are subdued beneath His feet.

Now there is another aspect of it that happens in A.D. 70, but I think you can say that legally he has, this is the beginning of his title as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And this is a reign that we share in. We are said to reign with Him. Through this baptism of the Holy Spirit, we have been buried with Christ, we've been raised with Christ, we've been ascended into heaven, And as we said in our confession, we've been seated in the heavenlies with Him.

You see, by being baptized, or by baptizing us with the Holy Spirit, we are also united as one body and given this superabundance of grace and power to serve Christ through the advancement of His Kingdom. And so this is why The baptism of the Spirit is not identical to regeneration, which is also a work of the Holy Spirit. But you see, all the saints in the Old Testament were regenerated. That was a work of the Holy Spirit. But this is different.

This is more. Formally, the Spirit worked through various godly saints in hidden ways. He empowered a few people in a limited way, like people like Samson, or like remember the 70 elders that the Spirit came upon, and they prophesied, but it was only a short time. And it was only 70 of them. It wasn't the entire nation.

Now every saint is empowered and flooded with the Holy Spirit. Now every saint is called to participate in His reign and is said to reign with Christ. And we are given this power of the Holy Spirit to advance His Kingdom throughout the earth. That's a great blessing. This is something the Old Testament saints didn't enjoy.

The Old Testament focus, remember, was on Israel. They were the only ones with the Scriptures, the Law, the Covenants, as Paul describes. They were the only people. Moses said, you're the only people on the earth that have been blessed to have this law, this wonderful law of God. But now that's no longer the case.

Now the nations throughout the world are powerfully discipled and taught to obey the law of God. Remember the Great Commission. And see, that was just not the case in the Old Testament. Joel Beeke says that Pentecost was the D-Day of Christ's worldwide assault upon Satan's kingdom. Pentecost was the D-Day of Christ's worldwide assault on Satan's kingdom.

And we are, as his people, have been baptized with the Spirit after Pentecost. Participate. We've been given the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this task. This is our calling as a church to disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything that God has commanded. Now, Pentecost is also sort of the undoing of the curse of Babel that God put on the people and causing them to be scattered.

Pentecostal is speaking in tongues and there is a breaking down of that walls that have been set up by languages. The truth of God's Word is communicated to every people group on the earth. And you see, that just wasn't the case in the Old Testament. And so this is really what we see happen in the Ephesian church is actually in some ways Unique. When Paul is caned and driven out of the city by mobs, previously in Philippi, you remember he was caned.

Thessalonica, there was a mob and he gets out of town quickly. The disciples get him out for his own safety. But this is not what happens in Ephesus. The city itself now is impacted in a big way. Not only are demons cast out, but high level powers and principalities are defeated.

You remember, we'll see in coming weeks this great assembly that burned all their magic books. Fear falls on the inhabitants of Ephesus. That never happened before. Fear falls on them when they learn and they see these great things happening in their city. The impact of people turning to Christ and abandoning their idols is so great that it worries all the manufacturers of idols in those cities, which were basically silversmiths.

And they try to riot. But unlike in other cities, it's not successful in stopping Paul. You see, the Ephesian Pentecost marks the commencement of the church's assault on Ephesus, an assault which overturns that city. So that's the significance of this passage. It's the D-Day of Christ's assault on the powers and principalities of Satan's kingdom.

Now who are these disciples that Paul runs into them? They're the first group that we encounter. We know they're in Ephesus, and we know that Paul runs across them after Apollos has left. But remember when Paul asked them if they have received the Holy Spirit, they replied, well, we don't even know if there is a Holy Spirit. So it's unlikely, I think, that they were disciples of Apollos, because even though he only knew of John's baptism, John the Baptist taught about the Holy Spirit.

He said in the Gospels, several places, like Matthew 3.11, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." So John is teaching a baptism of the Holy Spirit. So they really couldn't be good disciples of Apollo's. Apollo's member taught the way of God accurately. Now he only knew of John's baptism and Aquila and Priscilla taught him more accurately, but we know that he taught the way of God accurately. Now, he only knew of John's baptism, and Aquila and Priscilla taught him more accurately, but we know that he taught the way of God accurately.

The Old Testament spoke of the Holy Spirit in Psalm 51. Don't take your spirit away from me. Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Or Genesis 1, the Spirit hovers over the waters, the deep. So the Spirit is taught in the Old Testament.

John taught the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Even before Aquila and Priscilla would have acquainted Apollos with the way of God more accurately, Apollos would have known and taught about the Holy Spirit. So a disciple, as we said, is simply a learner, somebody who follows. It's usually used of those who are following Christ. But it's not exclusively.

John the Baptist had disciples and even unbelievers could have had disciples. And so many have held that these disciples are unbelievers because they haven't heard whether or not there is even a Holy Spirit. But Paul considers them believers because he asks, did you not receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They had believed. And in verse 5, when they were baptized, it doesn't say they believed and were baptized, or that on believing they were baptized, like it does for all the other converts that he baptizes because they had already believed.

Luke doesn't give us any more details, but I think they were disciples that were outside the church. If they were gathering with believers at Ephesus, it's hard to fathom how they could not have heard of the Holy Spirit. I think they were either outside the church or they were part of some group that had seriously gone astray. Remember, John the baptist has been dead for 25 years at this point. He died even before Jesus did.

And so they could very easily have been outside the church for 20 years or more. Or a part of a group that had wandered into various errors. It would seem that these are people who had been introduced to the scriptures and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but they were very deficient in doctrine and in their practice. They believed in Jesus, but they were completely ignorant of the Spirit's role in their believing. And I don't think that's a lot different than Christians today who are very wrong in their belief about how they were saved.

But they are truly saved. They're nevertheless believers. Because it's trust in Christ's work, and not in our own work that saves us. It's not the accuracy of our knowledge of all that the Trinity does in our salvation that saves us. It's trusting in Christ.

So it would be like a believer in an apostate church, like the Roman Catholic Church coming to a true church. I believe there are believers in apostate churches. They should leave, God says get out of them, but Sometimes that takes time. Sometimes they're just disobedient in that regard. Whatever the reason.

I think there are believers in apostate churches. But when they come to a true church, they would need to be rebaptized because those apostate baptisms are not baptisms. And I think this is what Paul does. On hearing that they've received John's baptism, Paul taught them what the baptism of John actually meant, because they didn't understand that, they didn't know that, And how John had taught that people were to believe in the one coming after him, in Christ, who would come after him. And so on hearing this, these disciples were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Now, those who deny the Trinity, like oneness Pentecostals, use this verse to support their view of baptizing only in Jesus' name, because that's what it says. He baptized them in the name of Christ Jesus, or in the name of the Lord Jesus. But we can note two things about that. When Matthew 28 gives detailed instructions to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Notice the name is singular.

It doesn't say baptized in the names of. It says baptized in the name, the singular. There is one name. God's name is always in the singular, never in the plural. Never.

The Scriptures speak of the holy name of God. A number of times, they never speak of the holy names of God because God is one. Christ is called the Eternal Father. Jesus' name itself means Jehovah saves, Jehovah saves. And we have some examples historically, the Dedecai gave instructions on how to baptize.

It gave very detailed instructions. And it says, you say these words, by concerning baptism thus you shall baptize, having first recited all these things, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in living water. But a couple of chapters later in providing instruction on who could take the Lord's Supper, it said only those who have been baptized in the name of the Lord. So clearly they understand, baptizing in the name of the Lord means to baptize in the name, singular, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But this raises a third question, and it will probably be our last for today, I think.

What does it mean to be baptized into something? They were baptized into or in the name of the Lord Jesus. What does that mean? What does that signify? Have you thought of that?

Do you know what it means for you to have been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus? Well, to be baptized is to come under the controlling influence of something. Baptized is a Greek word that was just transliterated into English. So you actually know a Greek word. There are a lot of words like that.

Messiah is one. Christ is one. Messiah comes from Hebrew. Christ out of the Greek. Baptized is a Greek word.

So if we want to know its meaning, we have to look up what it meant in the Greek language because it's not an English word. When that happens, it's often because translators can't find a good word to replace it with, so they just transliterate it. It means to come under the controlling influence. That's what it means in Greek. For example, in Isaiah 21, 4, it says, My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me.

That's what it says if you read it in your English Bible. My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me. The Septuagint uses baptize to translate frightened. Why? Fearfulness baptized me?

Meaning, what's that mean? It means the speaker, this guy saying this, came under the controlling influence of fear. So the Greek scholars translated that with baptize. He was under the controlling influence of that. The Septuagint also uses baptize to translate dipping when Naaman the Syrian with reprisal dipped himself seven times into the Jordan.

You see he came under the controlling influence of the water and was healed. And of course that water signified Jesus, Jehovah the Healer. And in 1 Corinthians 10-2, Paul says that the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. But think about this a minute. Did the Israelites get wet at all in the sea when they crossed the Gulf of Aquaba?

Exodus is very clear that they walked across the sea on dry ground. Not wet ground. God dried that ground out and they walked across on dry ground. So what does Paul mean by saying that they were baptized into Moses? Well, the last verse of the account of their crossing of the sea in Exodus 14 says this, Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed Jehovah and His servant Moses.

Thus they had seen this great wonder. They'd seen this sea, which is a thousand feet deep at the place they crossed it. They saw it form a dry land bridge right through the middle of the sea. They walked across it without getting wet, and they saw the Egyptian army drowned. And the Bible says they saw that, they believed the Lord, and they believed His servant Moses.

You see, what that's saying is that in believing them, these people came under the controlling influence of Jehovah and His servant Moses. They were now disciples, if you will, of Moses and of the Lord. Paul says that they were baptized into Moses. You see, baptism doesn't mean wash, although washing or dipping in water is a baptism. Because it brings the object being washed or dipped under the controlling influence of the water.

And so it's easy to see how that misconception arises. But that word is also used about dying, where an object is dipped in dye. It's said to be baptized. The object comes under the controlling influence of the dye and its color is permanently changed. In fact, in Latin, the translation of baptize is drown.

You're coming under the controlling influence of the water in a permanent way. You see, to be baptized is to take the identity. To be baptized into Jesus Christ is to take the identity that we are baptized into. We've been baptized into the name of Christ Jesus. We are identified with Him.

He is our identity. Our primary identity is no longer just a man or a woman or an engineer or a firefighter or a mathematician or a mother. Our fundamental identity is now in Christ. We're identified with Him. When a woman marries, she takes on the identity of her husband.

My wife is now known as Mrs. Peter Allison. And if I die before her, she will be known as Mrs. Alice Allison. But while she is married, she takes on this identity of her husband.

And see, we as the bride of Christ Take on his identity His name becomes attached to us. We receive his name Jesus name means Savior Jehovah saves Mary was told to name her son Jesus because He would save His people from their sin. Our name is false and full of sin, but God is full of grace and truth. We have His name. When we're born, we are children of wrath.

When we're baptized by the Spirit, and that's what our water baptism signifies, we become children of the Heavenly Father. We are adopted into His family. We are given a new name. We are given a new heart. A new song is upon our lips.

We are made new creatures in Christ. Behold, everything is new. These old things have passed away. We have a new identity in Christ. See, like Pentecost, Christ is present with us in the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's what Pentecost taught. The presence of Christ in this new powerful way of the Holy Spirit. Christ in us. The hope of glory. We have Christ's power, the power of the Holy Spirit now to overcome indwelling sin.

We have power to live in victory over sin. We have power to overcome the world, power to overcome the flesh, power to overcome even the devil. And that's illustrated later on here in this Ephesian church. That's what Paul means when he says in Colossians 3.3, "'For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. See, water baptism signifies this union with Christ that is effected by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Because we are united to Christ in His death, we have died to sin. That means we can't give our bodies or our abilities to things that are contrary to Christ. That means when we sin, we are denying the reality, the significance of our baptism. And that's especially true of all sexual immorality. All of it.

We're denying the significance of our baptism. But also being in Christ as His children, we have an advocate when we sin, who forgives us our sins. Our baptism means that we are followers of Christ, And Christ calls us to forsake all else. That's great significance. Just like when the Scriptures speak of a wife marrying, she forsakes her father's house and cleaves to a husband and wife, cleaved together.

When a Chinese or Japanese or other Oriental who believe in ancestor, who worship their ancestors, whose religion is ancestor worship, When they become baptized, you see they are renouncing their identity in those ancestors. And they are saying, my identity is in Christ. And you can see why this then becomes a very, very significant cultural thing. Because they are very clearly saying my identity is now in Christ. I am not identified by these ancestors.

When a Muslim is baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they are renouncing that Muslim God, false God. They are renouncing the religion of their family. You see, that's a very significant statement because they're saying my identity is now in Christ, and it's not in any of these other things. To be identified with Christ is to forsake this world and everything else. And it's just like the vow in marriage, to forsake all others.

We commit ourselves to our spouse. To be baptized, the significance of our baptism, to be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, is that we forsake all other gods, we forsake all other things that would take away, or are contrary to his word and his law. And our identity now is as his servants. And our mission is the evangelization and the advancement of the world, of Christ's Kingdom, the evangelization of the world. To be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus means we can never be unequally yoked with someone who is not.

And of course, the first thing that comes to mind is marriage. Brothers and sisters, you should never marry somebody outside the Lord. And that means you should never even play with marriage, or play with preparation for marriage, and that's what we call dating or courtship, with somebody who is not identified in Christ is to deny the significance of your baptism. And many people can see and understand that That should translate into being unequally yoked in any area of life with an unbeliever. That doesn't mean we don't associate with them.

That doesn't mean they aren't colleagues with our work and we don't have lunch with them and all these things. It means we are not unequally yoked with them because our identity is in Christ. He's our Master. We're His disciples. We're His followers.

You see, because we are united to Christ, we are to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth. Our purpose in life now no longer is to increase the things of this earth. It's no longer to increase power and wealth or influence. And you see, that's what the world does. And where you see institutions that have been captured by the world, that is what the people in them do.

And our legislature is one example of an institution that's been captured by the world. And the people there, they exist to increase their power. Whatever increases their power is good. Whatever increases their wealth, whatever increases their influence, that's their goal. But see, for us who are In Christ, our identity is in Him.

And our purpose is the advancement of His Kingdom. The Lord does give us these things. He gives us wealth. He gives us power and influence. But He gives them to us to use as a trust for the advancement of His Kingdom, for the glorification of His name.

That's why Paul writes in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. We're not here to live for ourselves. Our identity is now in Christ. But Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." That's what it means to be baptized.

In the name of the Lord Jesus. Lord, may we, as we witness this baptism this morning, may we be renewed in our thinking and in our minds and be reminded of the significance of our baptism. And it's a time to ask ourself, is our identity in Christ? Or is it in something else? Is our identity in Christ alone?

Or is it in the things of this world? Is it in the money that we have or our office as fathers or mothers? As good as those things are? Or even as a preacher? Is my identity in being a preacher or is it being in Christ?

It has to be in Christ. It has to be in Christ. It has to be in Christ. Is our mind set above? Because we've been ascended with Christ.

That's what our baptism says. Or is our mind set on things of the earth? What occupies our thinking throughout the day? Is it how we're going to increase our wealth? How we're going to eat the next meal?

Or is our thinking occupied with how we're serving Christ? How we're following Him? How we're taking up our cross every day? Taking up our cross is not just bearing, it's not at all bearing afflictions as they come. It's actively choosing to do something that's difficult for the sake of Christ's Kingdom.

That's what our baptism means. Brothers and sisters, may we each day remember the significance of being baptized, having been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you that you have put your name upon us, that you own us, and that you call us your children and that you give to us all the privileges of your children. But also, Lord, You have given us the power of Your Holy Spirit so that there is no battle that is too difficult in your name. There is no enemy that cannot be overpowered with the power of your Spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And so Father, where we wrestle with sins that so easily beset us, we ask that we might be able to take hold of this power that is ours in Christ to defeat these sins. And where we have been at ease in Zion, Lord, may we make use of this power that you give to us in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that we would be zealous for your kingdom. Lord, we long to see the nation's disciples. We long to see your churches filled with those who have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, into your name. We ask that you would give us a zeal for this.

We are yet in a war you have taught us. May we arm ourselves every day with the armor of God and not the arm of flesh. Lord, we cannot engage in this battle with the arm of flesh. It is powerless. We thank you that you