GOD MAN KING | Week 2 | Sermon · Rewind

GOD MAN KING | Week 2 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Apr 15, 2024

Big Idea

Quoting the message: If you call Jesus Lord, follow Him as Lord, end quote. — and baptism is the first step of that trust.

Jesus was baptized not because He needed to repent, but as a humble act of commitment and identification with God's plan and with us, showing us how to trust and follow. Our baptism mirrors that same humility, commitment, and identification — it's not something we do to earn God's love, but the first step we take after His love has already found us.

Key points

1
1John the Baptist came preaching repentance to prepare the way for the Lord
Pastor Bill explains that after four hundred years of prophetic silence, John the Baptist appears as the last Old Testament prophet, fulfilling Isaiah 40 by crying out in the wilderness. His baptism targeted people who already knew God by name but weren't living like He was Lord, calling them to turn around.
2
2Jesus submitted to baptism to fulfill the Father's plan, not because He needed to repent
Working through Matthew 3, Pastor Bill shows John's hesitation to baptize Jesus and Jesus' reply that all righteousness must be fulfilled. Jesus, though God, humbled Himself as a man and did it simply because the Father asked, modeling obedience even without full explanation, like a child trusting a parent's 'because I said so.'
3
3Jesus' baptism was a humble act of commitment and identification
Pastor Bill unpacks three threads: humility (He lowered Himself to follow the Father's plan), commitment (this was the inauguration of His three-and-a-half-year mission toward the cross), and identification (He declared publicly who He was — the God-man-king John had been pointing to).
4
4Our baptism carries the same three marks, but in reverse direction
Using the joke about the drunk man and the frustrated pastor in the river, he clarifies baptism isn't us chasing after Jesus to prove ourselves — it's the first act we take after Jesus has already found us. It still requires humility (dropping the pride of feeling either too unworthy or too self-sufficient to do it), commitment (trusting His mission for our lives, not just His salvation), and identification (publicly declaring whose we are and putting to death the old self).
5
5Feed the new identity in Christ and let the old self starve
Pastor Bill connects this to Romans 7 and 8, noting Paul's own struggle between what he wants to do and what he does, resolved by the Holy Spirit's power. He teaches that who you really are, once you know Jesus, is the person who wants to follow Him — so growth means feeding that new identity and starving the old one.
6
6The closer you get to God, the more He reveals how far you are from Him — and that should drive you to grace, not away from it
Drawing from an Oswald Chambers devotional and reading Psalm 139:1-6, Pastor Bill describes realizing in his own prayer time how deeply God knows him and how far his heart can wander unnoticed. He ties this to the Exodus pattern — God rescues, then leads through the water, then gives the commandments — showing grace always comes before obedience, never in order to earn it.

Application

Pastor Bill frames it as: if you call Jesus Lord, do you actually live like He's Lord?

Get baptized if you haven't
If you've trusted Jesus but haven't been baptized, stop dragging your feet out of pride or fear — this is the first step of trust He asks of every believer.
Drop the pride behind your excuses
Whether you feel too unworthy or feel you don't need it, examine whether you're really trusting your own view of yourself more than God's grace.
Confront what fear or pride is stopping you from trusting God right now
Even if you've already been baptized, identify the current area where you're holding back from following Jesus as Lord and bring it to Him.
Feed your new identity instead of your old one
Choose day to day to let the person who wants to follow Jesus grow, and let the old selfish self starve, trusting the Holy Spirit's power rather than sheer willpower.
Let God's grace, not your performance, be the anchor
When God reveals depths of sin you didn't know were there, let that drive you toward His grace and love rather than away from Him in shame.

Take it into your week

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Related passage

Before Jesus ever stepped into the Jordan River, someone was already at work preparing the way. John the Baptist shows up in the wilderness — not exactly a comfortable setting — calling people to repent. That word can feel heavy, even threatening. But at its heart, repentance is simply turning around. You were going one direction; now you go God's way instead. John's whole role was to get hearts ready for something — Someone — they had been waiting for far longer than they realized. He was the last voice in a long line of Old Testament prophets pointing forward. And the crowds came. People left their routines and walked out to the wilderness because something in them recognized they needed a course correction. That willingness to show up, to hear hard truth, to say 'I've been going the wrong way' — that is where the story of faith almost always begins. It is not a dramatic moment of arrival; it is the honest acknowledgment that you need what only God can give. Pastor Bill reminded us that this turning is not a one-time event. It is a posture, a direction, a daily choice to move toward God rather than away from Him. If you are reading this, you are already in that posture. That matters.

For reflection

Where in your life right now do you sense God inviting you to turn around — not in shame, but in hope?

Pray

Pray for an honest, willing heart to recognize where you need to turn toward God today.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think about a moment when someone made a public declaration that changed how they were seen — a wedding vow, a swearing-in, a public apology. This message looks at what Jesus' baptism was actually about, and what it means that He asks us to follow Him in it.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 3, John is calling people to repent before the Messiah arrives — to turn around and go God's way. What does that kind of turning actually look like, and why do you think John frames it as preparation rather than arrival?
Related passage
2
When Jesus comes to be baptized in Matthew 3, John tries to stop Him, saying Jesus should be the one baptizing him. What do you think Jesus is signaling about Himself — and about His mission — by insisting on going through with it anyway?
Related passage
3
Pastor Bill described our baptism as mirroring Jesus' in three ways: a humble declaration, a commitment, and a public identification with His death and resurrection. Which of those three do you think people in general find most challenging to embrace, and why?
4
Psalm 139 says God has examined our hearts and knows everything about us — yet He still goes before us and follows us. How does that kind of knowing, without rejection, change the way we might think about what it means to trust God with a next step?
5
Pastor Bill pointed to pride — trusting yourself more than God — as the root of dragging your feet on any step of trust, including baptism. Where do you see that tension show up in how people generally think about following Jesus?
6
Pastor Bill pressed this question: if someone calls Jesus Lord but isn't living like He is Lord, what does that gap usually look like in everyday life — and how might the identity declared in baptism speak into it?

Pray together

Grace to trust God with the next step we've been holding back — and gratitude that He already knows us fully and loves us anyway

Sign in to save this message.

Topics

Baptism Commitment to Christ Identity in Christ Repentance Trust and Obedience

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →