Baptism 2024
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Today is a very different service for us. First, we are not in our normal building. Regardless of where we meet, we will be the church. We could not have a building at all and still be the church.
Secondly, we are going to baptize a few people this morning. Before we do that, I want to give you all a teaching, a reminder to some and perhaps new information for others.
One of the questions that people in the Christian faith have asked over the years is - Who should be baptized?
There are a lot of faith traditions that handle baptism one way or another. You may even hear from some of those being baptized today that as a child, they were baptized in keeping with the tradition of the church their family was in.
While tradition is good, at Crossroads, we have determined to allow the Bible to be the source of how we do things. Today, we acknowledge that each person being baptized is doing so in obedience to scripture in believer’s baptism.
All through the book of Acts and then in several other places, we see where someone first places their faith in Jesus and then they are Baptized. If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to Acts 2:38. If you don’t have a Bible of your own and would like one, I have a few here available. You can also use the Bible app on your phone…First a little context...Peter just preached the first sermon recorded after Jesus ascended into Heaven. At the end of the sermon the people ask what they should do. Here is his response:
38 Peter replied, “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.
Repent and be baptized.
In the sermon, Peter told them about Jesus, told them they were sinners and deserved death. It says that they were “cut to the heart”, so they asked Peter what they should do. Peter tells them to Repent, which means to turn away from - specifically to turn away from sin and to turn to God.
After they have repented and accepted the gift of salvation from Jesus, they are to be baptized.
Each of the people being baptized today have all expressed this to us in our conversations leading up to baptism. You will hear them all proclaim today that they have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Let’s look at a another passage before we go on to the next question. Matthew 28...Jesus rose from the dead, hung out with his disciples and then gave them and us this command:
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This is an instruction for the church with a promise at the end.
Followers of Christ are told to go…just an quick side note, sitting in our chairs on Sunday doesn’t count for go...
Followers of Christ are told to go and make disciples.
A disciple is someone who follows another person or way of life and submits their life to the discipline of following that leader or way.
A disciple of Christ follows Jesus and what he taught. A disciple of Christ submits themselves to the discipline of doing what Jesus said to do.
As a church, we are called to make disciples - to teach what Jesus taught, to lead others to Jesus - that they would give their life over to Jesus as a disciple.
When that happens, we are to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
As a follow up to baptism, we as the church, not just the pastor or children’s directors, but as the church, we are to teach these new disciples to obey everything Jesus taught.
Our next question…What is Baptism?
To answer this question, we are going to go to Romans 6 verse 3 and 4:
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Paul is teaching here about Baptism and that when we are baptized, we are identifying ourselves with Him in his death, burial and resurrection.
When the person goes under the water we identify with his death and burial and then when raised out of the water, we identify with Jesus resurrection and we are raised to new life in Christ.
Now, I must clarify that this new life technically starts at the moment Christ is received as Lord and Savior, but baptism gives us a symbolic act where we can look back and see where we have publically identified with Christ in his death burial and resurrection. And in Christ we have NEW LIFE. Not just eternal life when we physically die, but new life here and now.
One of the most exciting things about being a Christ follower is that we don’t have to wait until heaven to live a new life, that new life is offered here and now.
Now for a quick Greek lesson on the meaning of baptism...The word baptism comes from the Greek word Baptizo. When a cloth was to be dyed a different color, it would be baptizoed…just so you know that is not proper Greek, but hang with me.
The white cloth was fully immersed and then completely covered in this new color. When it was pulled from the liquid, the identity of the fabric changed. It was new! We are going to fully immerse those being baptized today and they are already living a new life in Christ.
So baptism is a way for us to publically identify ourselves with Christ in our new life.
Before we can have a new life in Christ, we must first recognize our old life without him. Turn back a few pages to Romans 3:23…I want to walk us all through the same steps that each being baptized has stepped through. On their way to new life in Christ, they had to face a few truths…the first is
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We are all sinners. We have all done wrong and as much as we try, we will likely continue to do wrong. That wrong doing is called sin…sin has a consequence…turn ahead to Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have earned death as a result of our sin. That is what we deserve. I am so grateful though that there is a gift from God that is eternal life in Jesus.
Just like any gift someone might give, we have to receive it. If we don’t receive it, it is not really ours. Romans 10 tells us how to receive it. It is 2 parts.
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
The first part is to declare that Jesus is Lord. A Lord is someone who has the full loyalty and obedience of his subject. To declare Jesus as Lord is to say that you will follow what he says.
The second part is to believe that God raised him from the dead. The key is that in believing Jesus was raised, you are believing that Jesus took your place in death - he paid your sin penalty - and by coming back to life, he conquered that death once and for all.
Here in a moment, you are going to hear four profess these truths and declare that Jesus is Lord over their life. Before we do that, I want to take a moment and allow anyone here to respond similarly.
Invitation.
