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Go Therefore - Part 4
Erlo Stegen

Erlo Hartwig Stegen (1935 - 2023). South African missionary and revivalist of German descent, born on Mbalane farm near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to Hermannsburg missionary descendants. Raised Lutheran, he left school after grade 10 to farm but felt called to ministry in 1952, evangelizing rural Zulus under apartheid. After 12 years of preaching with few lasting conversions, he experienced a transformative revival in 1966 at Maphumulo, marked by repentance and reported miracles. In 1970, he founded KwaSizabantu Mission (“place where people are helped”) in Kranskop, which grew into a self-sustaining hub with farms, a water bottling plant, and schools, serving thousands. Stegen authored Revival Among the Zulus and preached globally, establishing churches in Europe by 1980. Married with four daughters, he mentored Zulu leaders and collaborated with theologian Kurt Koch. His bold preaching drew 3 million visitors to KwaSizabantu over decades.
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This sermon emphasizes the profound significance of baptizing believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not just in water but into the very character and nature of God. It highlights the importance of teaching and guiding individuals to obey all that Jesus has commanded, stressing that true transformation occurs when one is baptized into God Himself, enabling them to live according to His will and character.
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He says, go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now this is not referring to the water baptism. It's a pity when people read the Bible, the scriptures and they twist it. That you just baptize anybody and say, well now they've been baptized in this power. In the Greek it says, go to all the nations. And then it says, you go then and baptize them, not just in, but into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That as it were God himself were this pool that you baptize the person into, into God himself. Not baptismal water, that's one thing. Here it says don't baptize, he didn't say baptize into the water. He says baptize them into the name and into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This has a deep meaning. For then he says, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. For if you baptize someone and put someone into the Father and into God, then he will keep what he has commanded him. This isn't a small thing. You can't say just because you've baptized people, you've fulfilled this commission. You've baptized them, but they stand up, they smoke, they drink, they use drugs, they kill each other, they slander, they sin, they're promiscuous. If you are baptized into God the Father, the very nature, the very character of God, then they become like him. You teach them, instruct them to keep what he has commanded you. That becomes possible because you've been baptized into God himself. You become part of his nature and his character, and he dwells in you, making it possible that you can keep all these things. He says, Behold, if you keep all those things, do what I've told you, behold, I will be with you even to the end of the age. Or in other words, that he will be with us right to the end, till he comes to fetch us again. If you were baptized into the character of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then you become like him, and whatever Jesus has told you to do, you'll do it. But if you haven't been baptized right into him, into his name, the name is symbolic of his character. If you haven't been baptized into the character of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then you become like him, and whatever Jesus has told you to do, you'll do it. And you can tell your child, Don't steal, but it will steal, or tell your child, Don't have anything to do with boys, don't mess around with boys, don't steal, but it will steal. Don't mess around with them, don't have relationships, but the child will do it. But that changes when that child is baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because then he will keep, and the child will keep it. So the Lord Jesus has commanded us to do it. Now let me ask you, how many people have you taught to keep all that which Jesus has instructed and commanded us? But you can't do it in your own strength, you can only do it in the strength that you get through him to whom all authority and power has been given. Only the Lord Jesus can make it possible.
Go Therefore - Part 4
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Erlo Hartwig Stegen (1935 - 2023). South African missionary and revivalist of German descent, born on Mbalane farm near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to Hermannsburg missionary descendants. Raised Lutheran, he left school after grade 10 to farm but felt called to ministry in 1952, evangelizing rural Zulus under apartheid. After 12 years of preaching with few lasting conversions, he experienced a transformative revival in 1966 at Maphumulo, marked by repentance and reported miracles. In 1970, he founded KwaSizabantu Mission (“place where people are helped”) in Kranskop, which grew into a self-sustaining hub with farms, a water bottling plant, and schools, serving thousands. Stegen authored Revival Among the Zulus and preached globally, establishing churches in Europe by 1980. Married with four daughters, he mentored Zulu leaders and collaborated with theologian Kurt Koch. His bold preaching drew 3 million visitors to KwaSizabantu over decades.