Baptize Disciples

Bottom line

It’s not just about salvation, it is about baptism and discipleship.

Opening Line

On Thursday, the social media team put up a post, asking you about my preaching. Specifically, they asked you what is something Pastor Matt always talks about in his preaching. What are my soap boxes?

Introduction

Here’s what you came up with...

The OneChurch app and how we all need to get it

Prayer

Getting into God’s word and reading it daily

Reaching our community

Equipping us to do His work

Community

Discipleship / Getting more disciples

Serving and its benefits

His family

Main Point

I thought someone would bring up how I’ve been talking about end times and how we need to be more urgent. That’s been something that is on my heart. Or how you need to prioritize church in your life. I’ve been on that soap box quite a bit.

My point is that lots of pastors have their passion project. Every one of us has something that we place great value on, and it comes out in our preaching. But what I’ve been challenged with lately is making sure that what I’m passionate about and preach about lines up with what the Bible says that God is passionate about.

Through my Church Renewal mentoring, pastor Ray pointed out that 27% of the Bible is devoted to end times teaching. That is a signficant. Compared to only 1% of the New Testament is devoted to teaching on marriage. Yet, how many people would say they have heard way more preaching on marriage then end times?

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I’m not saying marriage isn’t important, and I still believe we need to talk about it and reaffirm the biblical standard of marriage being for man and woman alone. I’m not changing that. But shouldn’t we spend more time on the things the Bible spends lots of time on?

Why it matters

I say all that to set up the message on Baptism. I think I have successfully preached on Baptism once a year, and each time I do it I get more excited about it. Baptism, for some, has been reduced to a practice the church does every now and then, but its really not that important. But this morning I want to suggest to you that it is really important. It doesn’t come up a lot in scripture, but sometimes significance comes from who is talking about the topic. My goal this morning is to show you that if you have not been baptized, you really should be, and the reasons to get baptized FAR outweigh any excuse you may have to not be baptized.

Scripture

The first two weeks of the series you were challenged to go out into the world as disciples with the goal of making disciples. By way of review, there are two key points that define what a disciple is. A disciple tries to become more like their teacher or leader, and a disciple submits to the teaching and direction of their leader.

So as a disciple of Jesus, submitting to his direction, the first reason we baptize new disciples

1) Jesus himself was baptized

Luke 3:21–22 NLT

One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

Remember, a disciple not only submits to the teachings of their leader, but tries to become more like them. So if Jesus himself got baptized, then it follows that his disciples should follow his example and get baptized themselves.

I want to add a little weight to this point. If you have ever wondered why we four different gospel accounts, it is because the four authors had different reasons for writing their version. Mark, which is not only the shortest, but also the first of the four to be written, is probably Peter’s account of Jesus life written by Mark. Matthew is a Jew, writing to Jews, with the goal of showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Luke was a Greek doctor who had a wealthy sponsor support him as he researched the story of Jesus. Then John, who wrote his account much later, is very different in that he highlights the divinity of Jesus, where the other three focused on his humanity.

Yet, despite their different approaches and audiences, they all have something in common. They all share the story of Jesus’ baptism. It is one of very few stories that all four accounts tell. This means that it is significant enough detail in Jesus’ life that none of them wanted to miss it.

It also lends that as disciples who make disciples, it is hard to tell someone else to do something you haven’t done yourself. For this reason, I would encourage anyone who has been a part of the church for a while and hasn’t been baptized, you should seriously consider being baptized so that you can lead by example. The idea of telling people to do something without actually doing it yourself is one of the biggest criticisms Jesus had about the Pharisees.

2) Jesus taught his disciples to baptize

John 3:22–23 NLT

Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people. At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism.

John 4:1–2 NLT

Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did).

Notice the connection here in the way Jesus did ministry. Making disciples and baptizing them are closely connected, almost as though one doesn’t happen without the other

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When you cosider this passage in John 4 with the accounts we will look at through the book of Acts, you realize that the disciples didn’t just make up the practice of baptizing, and it wasn’t just something Jesus threw out at the last minute as a good idea. This was something that Jesus taught them to do and probably practiced regularly. The apostles modeled the early church and ministry after the example and teachings of Jesus. So if it was an important part of Jesus’ ministry on earth, it should probably continue to be an important of the way we do ministry today.

3) Jesus told us to

Matthew 28:19–20 NLT

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

In all fairness, we could stop right there. Jesus is not only the one you are trying to be like, but he is your Lord, he is your Savior, and he is the head of the church. So if Jesus says that we should be baptizing people, then we should be baptizing people.

4) Regular Practice for the Early Church

Acts 2:38-41 - 3,000 believed and we baptized

Acts 8:26-39 - Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch

Acts 9:17-18 - Saul is baptized

Acts 10:44-48 - Cornelius and his whole family are baptized

Acts 16:25-34 - The Philippian jailer believes and his house is baptized

Acts 18:8 - Crispus and other Corinthians believe and are baptized

Acts 19:1-7 - Believers in Ephesus are rebaptized in Jesus’ name

For the apostles and the early church, it wasn’t treated as optional, and it certainly wasn’t something that they waited around to do. There was belief, followed by baptism.

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I think my favorite of these stories in the book of Acts is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian. Here is Pastor Matt’s version. Philip is led by the Holy Spirit to go for a walk on the road and comes across this Ethiopian eunuch reading one of the prophets. Philip overhears what he is reading and asks if the man understands what he is reading. The eunuch says how can he unless someone explains it to him. So Philip jumps up, explains that the prophet Isaiah is talking about Jesus and shares the Good News about Jesus.

The story says that the carriage came up to some water. Doesn’t say what lake or river or any other indicator; just some water and the eunuch says, “Look, water. Why can’t I be baptized?” So Philip baptizes him.

Why would the eunuch be filled with such urgency in that moment if baptism wasn’t a big deal? Clearly there is a connection between belief and baptism.

So Jesus sets the stage for the importance of baptism. Acts demonstrates how the early church treated baptism with urgency and as directly correlated with belief in Christ. Then Paul unpacks the significance further.

Romans 6:3–4 NLT

Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT

Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

Galatians 3:27 NLT

And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.

Notice that Paul doesn’t say that you are united with Christ when you believe or when you make a confession of faith. He says you are united with Christ when you are baptized. In fact, when you read these three passages, it begins to feel like Paul just assumes that everyone he is writing to has been baptized; it would have been weird if they weren’t, especially if they called themselves a believer.

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Now I want to make something perfectly clear. I do not believe, and I am in no way saying that baptism is a pre-requisite to salvation or eternity. Jesus isn’t going to open the lamb’s Book of Life to check for your name and see as asterisk. Mmmm you were so close but you forget to get baptized. Darn.

The reason I say that is because of the crucifixion scene. Jesus is dying on the cross with the two thieves, and one tells him to remember him when he enters glory. Jesus reponds by saying that he will join him in paradise. The man wasn’t baptized, he hadn’t attended a bible study; he simply believed.

However, I would suggest to you this morning that this is the exception to the common the practice, not the norm. The overwhelming teaching of the New Testament is that if you believe Christ, you seal it with baptism ASAP.

Here is the final passage:

Hebrews 6:1–3 NLT

So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

The author of Hebrews lists baptism as an elemental teaching. It wasn’t something that the church needed to review, and it shouldn’t be today, not for those who have been in church for a while. This is basic Christianity, straight from the Commission of Christ. Go, make disciples, and baptize them.

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Transition to Application

So who’s ready to get baptized?

Main To Do

This morning I want to suggest that baptism is just a piece of a bigger process that Jesus is trying to give us. So often in church, the emphasis is made on how many people made a decision to follow Jesus? How many conversions did the church have this year?

But Jesus didn’t just tell us to go make converts. He said go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them. There’s more to the story, and baptism represents the importance of following up.

So this is where the Dream Team comes in. As important as hospitality is to make new people feel comfortable, we also need to be intentional about following up after the fact to make sure people don’t just stop at one visit, one event, or one prayer to follow Jesus. We need to follow up to make sure people continue to take steps, continue to grow, continue on the process Jesus gave us.

It is also why we are going to make a big push to do a Set Free Weekend. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, a Set Free Weekend is where you learn what it means to be free in Christ and experience the victory that salvation brings. It is one thing to say that you are free from your past and can victory over sin and addiction; it is another to experience it. As important as I believe the Hearing God Seminar is, I firmly believe that Set Free is equally if not more important. And it fits well with the idea of a next step of salvation. You have declared that Jesus is Lord, now lets get you baptized and seal it!

Why it matters

The thing about follow up is that its not just about new believers or guests, and it doesn’t fall on a few people. You are not simply a group of people who happen to show up here at the same time every week; you are brothers and sisters in Christ and that should mean something. It means if you haven’t seen someone in a while, you should probably check in with them. If someone asks for prayer, make sure to ask them how that things you’re praying for is going. Follow up is an intentionality that no one falls through the cracks, no one gets left behind, no one is forgotten; or even gets a chance to feel forgotten.

Closing Line

Go, make disciples, and baptize them into the faith, into the church, into Christ.

Discussion Questions

What stood out from the message?

In what ways do you see the significance of baptism reflected in your personal faith journey?

What steps can you take to encourage someone who hasn’t been baptized to consider it?

How can our church improve in making disciples, especially after someone decides to follow Jesus?

In what practical ways can you follow up with new believers to ensure they feel supported in their faith?

What does it mean to you personally to be a disciple of Jesus, especially in the context of baptism?

If you could encourage one of your friends to get baptized, what reasons would you share with them?

What are some ways you can stay connected with friends who are new to the faith?