The Study Watchtower, "Article 11", Week of May 8 to 14, 2023, How to prepare for baptism?, Answers.

The Study Watchtower, «Article 11», 8-14-May-2023, How to prepare for baptism?, Answers.

“What prevents me from being baptized?” (ACTS 8:36).

1, 2. If you are not yet ready to be baptized, why should you not be discouraged? (See cover photos.)

If the elders have told us that we are not yet ready to be baptized or if we ourselves do not feel ready, we should not be discouraged, rather, we should see it as an opportunity to continue progressing spiritually until we reach the goal of baptism.

ILLUSTRATION

In the image we can see how people from all over the world and of different ages have progressed in a spiritual sense until they reached the goal of being baptized. Their faces reflect the joy they feel at having taken this important step of serving Jehovah forever.

People of different ages and backgrounds getting baptized. Throughout the world, young and old are making spiritual progress and are baptized. (See paragraphs 1 and 2).

“WHAT PREVENTS ME FROM BEING BAPTIZED?”

3. What did an Ethiopian official say to Philip, and what question arises? (Acts 8:36, 38).

The official told Felipe to see that there was water there and then asked him: what was preventing him from being baptized? Which shows us that the official wanted to be baptized, however, a question arises. Was this man ready to take such an important step?

With this last question, we see that it is very important to have the desire to be baptized, but you also have to be prepared, you have to meet certain requirements, which is what we are going to see now.

4. How did the Ethiopian show that he wanted to continue learning?

The Ethiopian showed that he wanted to continue learning from Jehovah, because in Acts 8:27,28 he says that when Philip met him "He came from Jerusalem, the place where Jehovah was worshipped, and he was also in his chariot reading a scroll from the Prophet Isaiah ». So, this shows us that the Ethiopian was not content with learning the basics, rather he wanted to learn the deep truths of the scriptures.

Yes, what we can also learn is that in the story it is said that Jehovah directed Felipe to where this Ethiopian was and as has already been commented, evidently he wanted to know more about Jehovah and his heart was willing, that is why Jehovah made Felipe arrive until the.

In Acts 8:28 it says that he was back he was sitting in his car reading aloud Prophet Isaiah, he was a person who wanted to know a lot because he could have thought well I have already been worshiping Jehovah I am learning I am back I am tired and without However, no, he was reading the book of Isaiah, which is a very deep book, that denotes that he was a studious person and a person who was interested in the scriptures. 

ILLUSTRATION

And this is reflected very well in the image that we see in the Watchtower, there you can see the gesture of this Eunuch who is interested in what he is reading, he is not reading to read but he was interested, he really wanted to go deeper and for that reason he did that writing study.

Philip the evangelizer explains the Scriptures to the Ethiopian official. The Ethiopian official wanted to continue learning about Jehovah. (See paragraph 4).

5. What did the Ethiopian do with what he learned?

The Ethiopian official was not content to learn the truth, rather he felt compelled to act. Despite the serious responsibilities he had, such as being in charge of all the treasures of the queen of Ethiopia, he was willing to spend his time and resources to travel to the temple in Jerusalem to worship Jehovah. So in the Ethiopian he strove to act and live the truth.

At that time it took approximately 50 days to go and another 50 days to return, meaning that the effort he made to know Jehovah was enormous.

And what is being discussed tells us the interest he had because he was not unemployed, he had a job and an important job because he says he was a civil servant and was at the service of this queen, so he made his adjustments to get the time and there with this showed the effort he was making to learn about Jehovah. 

6, 7. What did the Ethiopian do to increase his love for Jehovah?

What he did was continue to gain knowledge and understanding of very important Truths, such as the truth that Jesus was the Messiah. Surely, the Ethiopian was very moved to learn everything that Jehovah and Jesus had done for him, his love for them grew so much that he made the important decision to be baptized and become a follower of Jesus.

He asked Philip in Acts 8:34 please tell me who the prophet is talking about and when he learned what Jesus had done for him his love deepened.

We do know that he was analyzing chapter 53 of Isaiah where he speaks of Jesus as he was despised, it was of little importance, without a doubt that touched his heart as he gave his life and he was driven to take the steps and appreciate to be baptized.

KEEP LEARNING

8. According to John 17:3, what should you do?

We must continue to know and learn from Jehovah, the only true God for all eternity. Let us remember that Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that humanity will never fully understand the works that the true god has done, the reason is because Jehovah is superior in wisdom, therefore, the process of learning from Jehovah will never end. the more we know him, the closer we will get to him.

And the word of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 11 makes us see how this learning process has no end and speaks of the fact that we have eternity in our hearts and that even so we will never fully understand everything that Jehovah is doing and will do in the future, therefore, that learning process that, as has been well commented, brings us closer to Jehovah will be forever. 

9. What do we have to do after learning the basic teachings of the Bible?

As the apostle Paul advises us in Hebrew 6:1, what we must do is move towards maturity, that is, we must go beyond the basic teachings and learn the deep truths of the word of God.

The apostle Paul in Hebrews 6:1 said that since he has left me behind the basic teachings about the Christ let's move towards maturity, he encourages us to go beyond the basic teachings and learn the deep truths of the word of God.

And since he mentions the questions, we have to have a strong desire to know those deeper truths and be willing to continue growing spiritually and learning more about Jehovah and his purposes.

10. Why is studying a challenge for some?

For some of us studying this is a challenge because we don't have a natural penchant for books. But Jehovah our perfect teacher can help us develop a desire to study his word.

11. Why is Jehovah the “Great Teacher”?

Jehovah is "The Great Instructor," because he teaches us with patience, kindness, and understanding, and he always pays attention to the good things we have as students. Furthermore, he never asks us for more than we can do. Jehovah wants his intelligent creatures to be well informed and educated, so with his help we can enjoy reading and learning about him more and more.

We have to keep in mind that Jehovah can make any of his servants something good that he did not expect it to be and even though we do not like to study it is difficult for us if we ask him in prayer he can give us the desire and also gives us a lot of help and many tools to be able to get that desire to study and get to know him more.

And Joshua 1:8 is reminding us a lot of what we have to do, we set that goal that has been discussed as they say to read the book of Jehovah the Bible day and night and that says that if we do it like this it will make it go well for us on our way and on top of that it will give us wisdom.

12. Why should we study the life and ministry of Jesus?

We must study the life and Ministry of Jesus because he is our perfect example to follow. We live in a difficult time, where we have many sufferings, so it is important that we strive every day to study the life of Jesus and set goals to imitate him, only then can we remain faithful as he did.

The previous paragraph talked about that perhaps setting goals that we can achieve will help us to study better because we are going to see the results and this paragraph 12 confirms it here because in the end you say study the life of Jesus and set goals to imitate him every day , then we do not need to study three chapters a day and try to imitate all those three chapters that we spent a little bit with and from there we get a quality of Jesus that we can imitate, we will then be making great progress with it.

13. What should you continue to ask of Jehovah, and why?

We must continue to ask Jehovah to give us more faith. If we have a strong faith based on accurate knowledge and love for our God, we can continue to progress spiritually.

ACT ON WHAT YOU LEARN

14. How did Peter emphasize the importance of acting on what we learn? (See also image).

Pedro to recharge the importance of acting according to what we learn, used the example of Noah. He explained that Jehovah warned Noah that he would send a flood to destroy all the bad people. But, in addition, he told them what Noah and his family had to do to save themselves. As seen in the image they did not sit idly by, while they built the ark, they acted in accordance with what Jehovah had told them. It is interesting that Peter compares what Noah did with baptism, he said:

Baptism, which is what this corresponds to, is now saving you too. So, what the person does to prepare for baptism is similar to what their family did over the years to build the ark. Yes indeed the expression while the ark was being built was a unique request that Jehovah had made to something that no one could imagine could serve to save his life, in the same way baptism is not a natural thing of the human being but it is a request that Jehovah through his son asked what the Apostle Peter shows that it is essential to achieve salvation.

ILLUSTRATION

Noah and his family are very busy building the ark and preparing food. Before the Flood, Noah and his family were faithful and acted on what they had learned. (See paragraph 14).

15. What does true repentance entail?

True repentance involves making changes. This means that we will stop doing things that Jehovah does not like, such as leading an immoral life, smoking, swearing, or using foul language. In fact, if we need help to overcome any bad habit we can ask the elders for advice, the brother who gives us Bible classes or in the case of young people they can ask their parents for help.

And true repentance implies making real changes in our life, for example a person who leads an immoral life or smokes or says bad words has to stop doing these things in order to progress and please Jehovah.

And as these things are often difficult, the paragraph encourages you to continue making an effort and if you need to find ways to seek help, such as talking to the teacher who teaches you or to the elders for advice, this active way of trying to change at all cost because it is what will motivate a person to be baptized.

16. What does having a good spiritual routine include?

It includes performing acts of devotion to God, or so to speak, attending and participating in all the meetings, preaching regularly. As 2 Corinthians 9:7 says. Let each one do what he has decided in his heart, and not reluctantly or by force, we must carry out our spiritual routine of our own free will, in this way, we show that we have faith, that we love Jehovah and that we are happy to give him the best.

2 Corinthians 9:7 | Well, all the steps that one has to take in that progress towards baptism should be done from the heart, not because he feels obliged by anything or anyone. 

STRENGTHEN YOUR LOVE FOR JEHOVAH

17, 18. What quality will help you reach the goal of baptism, and why? (Proverbs 3:3-6).

The most important quality that will help to reach the goal of baptism is love for Jehovah, if we love Jehovah with all our strength we can get ahead despite any difficulty.

It is the love of Jehovah. Proverbs 3:3-6 encourages us to have Loyal love and faithfulness to Jehovah, which means that we must be determined to stick with Jehovah come what may. Therefore, if we love Jehovah with all our strength, we will be able to continue until baptism, despite the difficulties of life, the opposition due to our beliefs.

That is why, as Proverbs chapter 3 said, love for Jehovah is the best thing we have, as it says the most beautiful thing, so as it says, write it on the tablet in our hearts and tie it around our necks, meaning that we have to have it very close because in the end that will to get Jehovah to see us in a different way and love us more. 

19. What can you do to be grateful for what Jehovah does for you? (Galatians 2:20).

What we can do is pray and thank Jehovah for concrete or specific things that he has done for us. We must have the habit of thinking and seeing that, every day, Jehovah shows us his love in many ways. This will make us feel more love for Jehovah and will help us resist any temptation, deal successfully with problems, and continue with our spiritual routine.

Well, every day think about how Jehovah has shown us on that day that he loves us and then pray and thank Jehovah for those specific things, as shown in the photograph of the article because this sister is seen thinking, for example, in this image of the little bird that appears here perhaps the creation then how to see that and thank Jehovah.

ILLUSTRATION

A sister watches a bird smiling from a window. You can thank Jehovah every day. (See paragraph 19).

20. What is involved in making a dedication to Jehovah, and why is this decision so important?

It implies that we have made a vow to Jehovah, we have promised him that we will serve him through thick and thin. So, the dedication is a very serious decision, but at the same time the best one, because we have the opportunity to show Jehovah that we belong to him forever.

Yes, as it appears here in paragraph 20, it says that it implies that now we belong to Jehovah forever, so it is no longer our desires that prevail, but rather the desire to love and serve Jehovah, and it is also a solemn vow It does once in a lifetime to Jehovah and implies that in good times and bad, Jehovah will always be the most important thing for us.

21. Why do we say that baptism is only the beginning?

Because baptism is the beginning of an endless life serving Jehovah. From then on, we must strive to make our love for Jehovah and his son continue to grow more each day.

HOW WILL THE FOLLOWING STEPS HELP YOU PREPARE FOR BAPTISM?

Continue learning about Jehovah.

John 17:3 encourages us to know the only true god, This is a process that will never end. Therefore, the great teacher Jehovah wants us to develop a strong desire for Biblical truths, so we will learn more about him, we will come to love him , to have faith in him, until reaching the goal of baptism.

Act on what you learn.

The Apostle Peter stressed the importance of Christ Followers acting on what we learn. So, one of the things we must do is repent from the heart of our sins and stop doing things that Jehovah does not like. Also, it is important that we have a good spiritual routine, if we do so we are performing acts of devotion to God, which will lead us to the goal of baptism.

Strengthen your love for Jehovah.

If we love Jehovah with all our strength, we will be able to get ahead despite life's difficulties, ridicule, or opposition. In addition, we must have the habit of thinking and seeing that, every day, Jehovah shows us his love in many ways, this will prompt us to feel great love for him, which will lead us to want to dedicate our lives to serving him and symbolize this dedication through baptism.