Smithfield Student Ministry Weekly Devotion Session Three - Christ's Commission

Key Verse: Matthew 3:16-17, "¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Chances are, if you're reading this you're a teenager. And if you're a teenager, you're actually in a pretty cool time of your life. While it's hard to see it, now, you are doing things that will shape your future, long after your teenage years over. Many of the decisions you make in the next, few years will affect the path you choose after high school, which, in most cases, affects your career, who you will marry, where you will live...Big decisions right?

The coolest thing is that you will reach a point, years down the road when you can look back and identify the truly important moments in your life. You will be able to point to two or three moments as the ones that really jump-started the process of shaping the person you will have become.

Believe it or not, Jesus had one of these moments. Read Matthew 3:11-17. This passage is Matthew's version of Jesus' baptism. At the beginning, you see John the Baptist talking about the coming Messiah, God's Son who will take away the sins of the world. All of a sudden, Jesus is on the scene. John realizes Jesus is the promised Messiah while John is initially hesitant to baptize Jesus, he agrees and Jesus is baptized.

Go back and read verses 16 and 17 again. This is the reason God desired for Jesus to be baptized. Most people in John's day were baptized as a way of symbolizing their repentance from sin. Jesus was perfect, therefore He did not need to symbolize repentance So why be baptized? Verses 16 and 17 tell us Jesus' baptism was God's way of showing the world that the time of Jesus' ministry had begun.

Notice the two things that happened: the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, anointing Him for God's work. And God validated Jesus' identity and mission by audibly recognizing Jesus as His Son. So, as we look back at Jesus' life and ministry. His baptism was one of those monumentally important moments that shaped His life to come. Looking back, it was the start of His true purpose and mission on this earth.

You will these moments, too. Moments where God uses you. Moments you will look back on and realize how important they were to your overall spiritual development.

The real question is, will you be ready when your moment comes?