Have you been baptised? As a baptist maybe? Or Pentecostal or other believer baptising church? Baptised into the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not denomination teachings. Not a legalistic system. Not a framework. If you were baptised like I was, you were baptised into the teachings of the Lord who is Jesus Christ. It is like you have come into the restaurant of Jesus’ own food. He is chef. He picks the meals and cooks them. His reputation is the reputation of the restaurant: His establishment with his name above the door. Well come in. Sit down. Here is a menu. In baptism you have sat down and ordered from his menu. Now let me show you the food you have ordered. Here it is. You have the main meat. You have veg. You have rice.
The meat you have is the tough teaching that he is coming soon. Not imminent necessarily. Soon. First there is tough-to-eat, hard-to-stomach real meat, that before he comes there will be grief, there will be immense suffering and in it there will be his prayers and prayers of all his saints, for your protection. But through these trials many of us will endure some very tough times. Perhaps the luckiest ones will be those who do not live long enough to see the dire things: Things maybe decades away. Even so, we nonetheless have to prepare the next generation to endure it: Not easy. We will get our glory from how we cope with it.
Next the veg and rice. These are easier to eat. Not as meaty and strength-providing, but a welcome supplement to the meat. Here we have the revelations of the character of the Father and the relationship of the Son, and all kinds of other wonders of knowing the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is interacting with us here and now. We are not left parentless like orphans. We have a Comforter. This is milk-food. You can learn what God is like from the miracles He gives us as we believe. It can start early after baptism. Even before you eat meat. You can start on the rice and vegetables. In all of this we owe it to Jesus to hold fast to his teachings, and to what the Holy Spirit gives in his name, and what those sent by Jesus provide for us.
We signed up to this baptism and we must continue in this to the end. Then we stay in fellowship with Father and Son, and with each-other. Thanks be to God. In Lord Jesus Christ’s name.
