There's something in the WATER
BAPTISM SUNDAY • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Baptism sunday today: RSVP through the app. Come back and celebrate at the 11.30 with us.
Turn with me in your bibles to Genesis 7…. we are going to be making a round trip of sorts… I want to encourage you to pick up and read your bible every day and dont be araid to move about. I often start with proverb that corresponds with the day of the month and then i make a bee line for the gospels and then depending on where God has me residing i will continue there. But whichever way you cut it - the bible cuts you - if you open it, if you read it, Its going to help you.
Genesis 7:11–24 (ESV)
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
“Something in the Water”
Pray
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
I remember it like it was yesterday. 4th of April, 2002, In a blow up kiddy pool in my gym shorts. I stepped into the waters of that little pool & with my connect group leader on one side, and My young adult pastor on the other side - I (Matthew James McCloghry) was baptized in WATER. I was lowered down & quickly brought up. I didnt know very much about this new found faith I had, in Jesus Christ, But I knew TWO Things: I Needed to get BAPTIZED.. and I KNEW Something had taken place when I DID.
SOMETHING WAS IN THAT WATER…..…
Now you may have a similar story - Most people do - For some reason we share a common thread which is that we remember what it was like. We remember the circumstances, We remember the sensation of the immersion, We remember perhaps the prayer that was offered up when we did it. But MOST PEOPLE, like myself will usually testify to this one thing: SOMETHING CHANGED WHEN I GOT BAPTIZED In the Name of the Father Son & Holy Ghost.
Something happened in Those waters…..…
I don’t fully know but what I do KNOW is that there was something in those waters.
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(Today here at Colonial CHurch, is one of the 4 times per year that we water baptize people. We do it after the services, we gather around, we watch intently as these people walk from one side to the other and we go wild as they come up from those waters - because we KNOW HOW SIGNIFICANT IT REALLY IS.
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I want to take a few minutes today (ive never done this on a baptism sunday) but I want to teach our church on water baptism. The power of the symbolism of it, the meaning of it….. the significance of IT.
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God has an order to the way he does things: we see this in the book of acts - The holy spirit comes in power - People are speaking other languages praising God… signs and miracles are happening & peter preaches a PHENOMENAL MESSAGE: Like a gamehanger message.
So much so they are impacted to the deepest part of who we are
They got a revelation of who JESUS actually WAS:
Acts 2:37 “Now when they heard this, they were acutely distressed and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “What should we do, brothers?””
Now look at what PETER says in response to the earnest question
He puts it in ORDER:
Acts 2:38 “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Now why is this important - Why make a big FUSS over baptism?
1.WATER BAPTISM IS THE SEAL OF THE NEW COVENANT
1.WATER BAPTISM IS THE SEAL OF THE NEW COVENANT
Its part of your IDENTIFICATION KIT as a JESUS Follower - This is vitally important —-
—all covenants have SIGNS and SEALS But there are many covenants we see in the bible: something that is pledged and there are signs and seals that come with it
(Abraham, Noah, Moses, David and so on… and now we have a “better covenant” because of the blood of Jesus… a covenant in his BLOOD
I read from genesis: What was the covenant SIGN? the rainbow.
Marriage is a covenant: A wedding ring is the Sign, But the seal is something even greater than that its if you like internal - Sexual Intercourse is the SEAL.
The SIGN or the SYMBOL is my wedding ring. I wear it and I dont take it off. It stays on there. Its a BROAD signpost to me and to the rest of the world: I am in a covenant relationship with Jill Marie McCloghry - I am in a marriage covenant.
the SEAL of Marriage is not my wedding RING its the full commitment to only give FULLY OF MYSELF to Jill and She to me. and yes im talking about SEX. That is the SEAL of our marriage. Thats what, if you like, SEALS our marriage relationship. Because it’s at the most deeply profund intimate level there is. Imagine tho if that was excluded. It would empty, it would feel symbolic and externally focused. But a covenant isn’t like that. Its a deeper thing
When we believe - THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES AND BAPTIZES us into the BODY of CHRIST.
1 Corinthians 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.”
Water baptism is a seal of the covenant.
communion is the SIGN. or the ongoing symbol - which we regularly do
Water baptism we do once.
But its the seal - Its a spiritual SEAL that you are IN the COVENANT Now. You have crossed a mark.
2.WATER BAPTISM DOESN’T MAKE YOU A BELIEVER, IT SHOWS YOU ALREADY BELIEVE
2.WATER BAPTISM DOESN’T MAKE YOU A BELIEVER, IT SHOWS YOU ALREADY BELIEVE
So this is some theology here - WATER BAPTISM…… DOESN’T SAVE YOU, IT “SHOWS” THAT YOU ARE SAVED
Now - a QUESTION…. …Can I be saved if I haven’t been water baptized?
Let me give you a qualified YES.
The thief on the cross didn’t have the time to repent, hop down from the cross 0 attend essentials at the Local Church and attend for a while, maybe join a connect group and attend a grill and chill - no.
Jesus said - Today. You will be with me in PARADISE
remember the order:
Believe (repent) and be Baptized.
Its one thing to repent at the final moment of your life (people get saved in hospital beds, in disaster situations that happens all the time.
But let me ask you a question: What if you could, but you wont?
Write this down: “Water baptism is a threshold act of obedience to God”
Write this down: “Water baptism is a threshold act of obedience to God”
I have never met any Christian who gas gone onto to do something significant for God and live the overcoming Christian LIFE without first believing and then getting water BAPTIZED.
GOD BLESSES OBEDIENCE - If you wont do this. He keeps you at a level of an infant in the kingdom. This is so important to get.
WHEN I GOT BAPTIZED.. after i Got saved. I said to the WORLD AND THE DEVIL - IM DONE WITH YOU. I have a new life now. Im walking with JESUS NOW> He is my everything!
WHEN I GOT BAPTIZED.. after i Got saved. I said to the WORLD AND THE DEVIL - IM DONE WITH YOU. I have a new life now. Im walking with JESUS NOW> He is my everything!
The early church had a strong thing for WATER BAPTISM. And I believe it’s the same for us today. It doesn’t mean you believe it proves to everyone else and especially to GOD that you already do BELIEVE.
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
The Early church would've doubted your salvation (your saved status) if you hadn’t been baptized. They would have questioned it. They would’ve pushed for the decision.
The Churches JOB isn’t just to make converts (that’s Really GODS JOB)… it’s the churches Job to make disciples. REAL FOLLOWERS of the MASTER.
If you have a master- you do what they say?
If you really believe in JESUS. You will do what HE SAYS.
**biju thampy told me about Christians in INDIA> there is so much persecution. If you get baptized it goes on your identification documents. It actually shows that you have been baptized in CHRISTIANITY - and what comes with that? Potential loss of income, being ostracized by your own family. Friends. Job Opportunities disappear. What baptism does is it creates a threshold….…LINE for us to go over. and to go IN to a new life with CHRIST and CHRIST ALONE
(WB is the NC seal…. WB isn’t about belief its about obedience…
3.WATER BAPTISM EMPOWERS US TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
3.WATER BAPTISM EMPOWERS US TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
You see there is something in the waters.
There is a supernatural force at work in the waters of BAPTISM. Its the WORK of God the holy spirit
What happens when we are lowered in?
Your old life is buried
And in those waters…..…the FLESH DIES oFF
Dead things Fall away…..…
God comes and cuts the HEART in a way where the old SINFUL, FLESH that once coverered the heart is removed and all that remains is CLEAN and SENSITIVE to be able to live FOR HIM ALONE.
This is why baptism is the covenant seal. Just like the covenant of Abraham, the cutting away (or if you like the circumcision of the heart) they were cut to the heart.
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
What happens when we come up?
We are RAISED UP out of the waters
You now are baptized into a new life of Faith & the bible says you now have put on CHRIST
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
When you come up you are different
There has been a clearing
A spiritual FOG lifts
a cleansing has taken over
You are CLEAN & SENSITIVE
and You have a NEWFOUND SENSITIVITY TO HIM
Thats why it’s full immersion. Your fully taken over. You are overcome with the waters of BAPTISM you are DOWN IN THOSE WATERS AND JESUS BRINGS YOU UP> and you are RAISED TO A NEW LIFE WITH HIM.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
CLOSING: Peter said its like what happened to NOAH:
CLOSING: Peter said its like what happened to NOAH:
(You know when someone is trying to explain something to you and they use the example of the story of what happened to someone or something else. Peter does this hear and its very helpful)
SO what happened to NOAH? (lets make a return trip)
It says the waters prevailed. Over the earth. The mountains were covered.
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
You ever had things in your life that you felt like would never be overcome, would never be removed, would never be blotted out.
They are the high mountains of yoru life.
the Bible says the waters prevailed
So much so that you will witness them being removed from your life. Supernaturally.
a struggle with SIN -
a battle with wickedness
A fight with shame
with GUILT
a struggle to hear God and be sensitive to HIS voice and command - That you’ll now have
Why?
Because the WATERs PREVAILED
There is something in the water - those supernatuiral waters of FAITH have gone above your head.
ANd then it says (and I love this part) everything was OVERCOME… and ONLY NOAH was LEFT
When you come up from the waters of baptism. It’s just you that’s standing there.
YOUVE BEEN BROUGHT THROUGH…. JUST LIKE NOAH
…But who brought you through those waters? Who does this work?
Its JESUS.