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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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This week we're spending some time with an Irish prayer from St Patrick, called St Patrick's Breastplate or the Deer's Cry. So let me read from the beginning of it here I rise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity through belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness of the creator of creation. I rise today through the strength of Christ with his baptism, through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension, through the strength of Today. We're going to key in on this line I arise today through the strength of Christ with his baptism. So let's go to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 3. In this chapter we see John the Baptist, who's the cousin of Jesus of Nazareth, baptizing people in the Jordan River. So since this is before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, john isn't baptizing people as a public declaration of their faith in Christ, but instead this was a symbolic baptism of repentance for sin, and it was about preparing people for the coming King. So let's go to the text here, matthew 3, starting in verse 11. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am unworthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and father. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And now the baptism of Jesus, verse 13. Then he consented, and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And Luke, in his gospel, he gives another detail. He says that while he was being baptized, that Jesus was also praying at that time.

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So the baptism of Jesus is incredibly significant for a myriad of reasons, but let's just look at a few here. The first one is this was a public identification with sinners, so Jesus himself was without sin. You know, the writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 4, verse 15,. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So yet, by being baptized, even though he himself was sinless, jesus was displaying that, while being God, that he was still and indeed a man, he could identify with human experiences like the rest of us.

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Second reason is Jesus was modeling what he would later command. So Matthew 28, 18 through 20 says this. And Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and, behold, I am with you, always to the end of the age. So, guys, at the beginning of Jesus's public ministry, he. So, guys, at the beginning of Jesus's public ministry, he was baptized, and at the end of his public ministry he commanded his followers to baptize one another.

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And the third reason is this Jesus's baptism was a revelation of the Trinity. So non-Trinitarians and Christian skeptics alike have kind of poo-pooed the idea of the Trinity of God the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit, because the word Trinity doesn't appear in the Bible. But in Matthew 3, we see the first and clearest picture of the existence of the triune God. God the Father is present because he speaks from heaven and says this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. God the Son is present, as Jesus himself is the one being baptized, and God the Holy Spirit is present, as the text says, spirit of God descended like a dove and coming to rest on Jesus. So again, the baptism of Jesus is a really big deal, and it's no wonder why St Patrick included it in his prayer.

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We'll close out today by reading the end of St Patrick's breastplate. Let it fill you with strength. Christ with me, christ before me, christ behind me, christ in me, christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ in me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ on my right, christ on my left. Christ when I lie down. Christ when I sit down. Christ when I arise. Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me. Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me. Christ in every eye that sees me. Christ in every ear that hears me. Amen.

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