Key Bible Passage(s):

Ps.130; Matthew 18:15-17; I Peter 3:19-22

Please note: We re-visit the question of Forgiveness a number of times in DTP, including as part of the Lord’s Prayer next term; in our second year, when we are looking at corporate confession and absolution; in the Sermon on the Mount Study Day, and in the last term when we are considering Jesus’ teaching on those who persecute and mistreat the Church. With that in mind, this session will simply introduce the link between forgiveness and baptism. If anyone doing DTP is ready to be baptised, and if you plan to administer baptism in a DTP session rather than a Sunday service, this could be a great way to use the session.

We will also revisit the question of baptism more fully in our second year of DTP.

Alternatively, this shorter session could include a Bring and Share meal.

Tier 1:

Baptism brings together a number of the ideas we’ve been considering in recent weeks: our being united with Jesus in His death and resurrection, and His return to ‘judge the living and the dead’; and it speaks to our entrance into the Church. All of this forms the backdrop to our experience of forgiveness. We experience forgiveness because our sin has been counted against Christ and dealt with in His death and resurrection.

Tier 2:

Baptism particularly links us to Jesus’ experiencing of judgment in our place (Lk.12:50). In a profound sense, in Baptism we have already been carried through that judgment in Him. A great image that helps us see what this means is the ancient acocunt of Noah. Peter tells us this is all about baptism (I Peter 3:19-22).

Tier 3:

Jesus also undergoes a water-baptism (Lk.3:21-22) - another link to the story of Noah. And after Jesus - the second and greater Noah - comes through the water of baptism, a Dove comes to Him (Lk.3:22 / Gen.8:9). The imagery here is pointing us toward the idea of New Creation, and is why we see baptism as initiating us into the New Creation reality that is the life of the Church.

For this purpose, Christ instituted baptism, thereby to clothe you with His righteousness. It is tantamount to His saying, ‘My righteousness shall be your righteousness. My innocence, your innocence. Your sins are indeed great, by I bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life’.

Martin Luther

Group Discussion Questions:

Are you baptised? Why / why not? What would you say to someone who said they wanted to be baptised?

Do you think you can be a Christian without being baptised?

Read: I Peter 3:19-22.  How does the water of the flood symbolise baptism? What does it teach us about the future of this creation? And what does it teach us about what baptism means, and how it works?

How do you make sense of the fact that not everyone on the Ark is actually a Christian?

What would it be like to know that God had pledged to give you ‘a clear conscience toward [Him]’?

Why does Peter finish this section by celebrating Jesus coronation? How does knowing that all angels, authorities and powers are in submission to Him affect our thinking about our baptism?

Homework:

Continue to memorise the Apostles’ Creed

Over this half-term we will be working to memorise Matthew 5:11-16. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-10 whilst you do this.

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the next 3 years)

To Be a Christian, Q&A 105-113 and 126-130