AHAVA - אהבה

1. AHAVA - אהבה

3. 3 kinds of Love • Philos:

4. Immersion • Baptism: • From Greek : βαπτίζω - baptizō • To immerse • Mikvah מִקְוֶה • Meaning Collection • Mikvah Mayim • a noun that we use as a verb • a mikvah is where it takes place • Mayim Chaim • Tevilah: the real word • ritual cleansing • after childbirth or when ceremonial unclean • No one would baptize you unless you were a convert • was non repeatable

5. 2 extraordinary events • First:Jews are being baptized • Confessing sins as if they were pagans • Therefore, Yochanan said to the crowds who came out to be immersed by him, "You snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming punishment? If you have really turned from your sins, produce fruit that will prove it! And don't start saying to yourselves, `Avraham is our father'! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones! Luke 3:7-8 • Created quite a stir • The People: What should we do? • The Pharisees: Who are you?

6. 2 extraordinary events • Second:Yeshua is baptised • Why would Yeshua need to be immersed? • Matthew 3:13-15 • He modeled it for us. • He identifies with us in baptism • Roman 6:3-4 Don't you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death? Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life. • Colossians 2:12 you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with him, you were also raised up along with him by God's faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead.

7. A lesson for us. • A Jew didn't need to be immersed; Yeshua didn't need to be immersed. • Imagine I stood here and said repent all of you and be immersed • What is the best way to learn a language? • If you’re having trouble in your walk with God…… • There is a finality to a funeral. • And yet there isn’t

8. The crowds asked Yochanan, "So then, what should we do?" He answered, "Whoever has two coats should share with somebody who has none, and whoever has food should do the same." Tax-collectors also came to be immersed; and they asked him, "Rabbi, what should we do?" "Collect no more than the government assesses," he told them. Some soldiers asked him, "What about us? What should we do?" To them he said, "Don't intimidate anyone, don't accuse people falsely, and be satisfied with your pay." • Luke 3:10-14

9. When the Judeans sent cohanim and L'vi'im from Yerushalayim to ask him, "Who are you?" he was very straightforward and stated clearly, "I am not the Messiah." "Then who are you?" they asked him. "Are you Eliyahu?" "No, I am not," he said. "Are you `the prophet,' the one we're expecting?" "No," he replied. So they said to him, "Who are you? -- so that we can give an answer to the people who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?" He answered in the words of Yesha`yahu the prophet, "I am The voice of someone crying out: `In the desert make the way of ADONAI straight!'" Some of those who had been sent were P'rushim. They asked him, "If you are neither the Messiah nor Eliyahu nor `the prophet,' then why are you immersing people?" • John 1:19-25