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.

This week, we're spending some time with an Irish prayer from St. Patrick

called St. Patrick's Breastplate or the Deers 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

threiness, through confession of the oneness of the creator of creation. I arise 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 his descent for the

judgment of doom. 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, 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 Fyther. 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 Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to

John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me?

But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then he consented.

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