The Gospel is a Door, not a Fence

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Tradition

Tradition

Traditions are often an attempt to either protect us from something that can harm us or keep us in the place where we are most likely to do well. Not all traditions are so characterized, and some are nothing more than outmoded responses to situations that no longer exist. Nevertheless, this old saying remains true: “Never tear down a fence until you find out why it was built.”

Keywords: Church; Tradition

“The seven last words” of a dying church are: “We never did it that way before!”

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Tradition

Tradition

Traditions are often an attempt to either protect us from something that can harm us or keep us in the place where we are most likely to do well. Not all traditions are so characterized, and some are nothing more than outmoded responses to situations that no longer exist. Nevertheless, this old saying remains true: “Never tear down a fence until you find out why it was built.”

Keywords: Church; Tradition

“The seven last words” of a dying church are: “We never did it that way before!”

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Mark 7:1–2 ESV

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

Mark 7:1–2 ESV

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

Before we go to far, think about something. What was going on, that these people were willing to travel the distance from Jerusalem to the area around Gennesaret - that is in Galilee - looking for dirt? 70 miles by foot, or if they were wealthy, perhaps by horse. Do you have people in your life who go out of their way to get dirt on you? Are you a dirt hunter? How far do you go to get dirt on somebody?

Mark 7:3–4 ESV

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)

First of all, this is a sidebar comment, but it is an interesting sidebar. How many of you have heard at some point, “If you have not been baptized by full immersion, or you weren’t able to articulate the meaning of Christ’s death at the time you were baptized, you weren’t really baptized?” Get you pen and paper ready, because this one’s for you!

1) βαπτίζω fut. βαπτίσω; 1 aor. ἐβάπτισα. Mid.: ἐβαπτισάμην. Pass.: impf. ἐβαπτιζόμην; fut. βαπτισθήσομαι; 1 aor. ἐβαπτίσθην; pf. ptc. βεβαπτισμένος. [1] wash ceremonially for purpose of purification, wash, purify. [2] to use water in a rite for purpose of renewing or establishing a relationship with God, plunge, dip, wash, baptize. [3] to cause someone to have an extraordinary experience akin to an initiatory water-rite, to plunge, baptize.[1]

[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 164.

Notice, nothing in this definition includes the word “immersion.” Not only that, nothing in the history of baptism limits it to immersion, in fact, quite the contrary. What the definition limits is that βαπτίζω basically means “to wash.” Everything in vv 3-4 refers to something being washed, from the little bitty cup to the big old sofa. Now, you might immerse a cup, or you might immerse a pot, but would you immerse a couch?

Come on somebody- Think, it ain’t illegal yet! We have people who don’t know the history, trying to tell you that you are illegitimate, and you run right along agreeing with them? Dr. Luther said, “That the baptism of infants is pleasing to Christ is sufficiently proved from his own work. God has sanctified many who have been thus baptized and has given them the Holy Spirit. Even today there still are many whose teaching and life attest that they have the Holy Spirit. Similarly by God’s grace we have been given the power to interpret the Scriptures and to know Christ, which is impossible without the Holy Spirit. [50] But if God did not accept the baptism of infants, he would not have given any of them the Holy Spirit—or any part of him. In short, all this time down to the present day there would have been no person on earth who could have been a Christian.” (LC: Baptism Paragraph 49-50).

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 462.

Let’s talk about dirt. somebody’s questioning the legitimacy of your birth.

John 3:5 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Did Jesus say anything about your age in that statement? Did He say anything about full immmersion? Let me pull up something else Jesus said:

Mark 16:16 ESV

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Anything there about age or immersion?

How about the apostles, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

What happens when you are baptized? according to those dirt hunters, nothing happens, because you have to either already have the faith or the water baptism isn’t really the real baptism - it’s the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues - that’s the real baptism!

So how is it that people can fake the real baptism, just like they can fake dancing in the Spirit, or fake prophesying, or fake falling out, but you can’t fake being buried with Christ. You can’t fake believing that your sins are forgiven because Christ promised you so. Listen to what the Apostle Peter said in line with what the Apostle Paul said:

1 Peter 3:13–22 ESV

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. 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, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 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. 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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Well, I know that’s a lot of God’s Word, but faith comes through hearing, and hearing from the Word of Christ, right? You want me to feed you crumbs, or do you want a full course meal? What does Peter say about baptism here? He says that it saves you - just like the flood saved Noah and his family!

Naw Pastor, you wrong - it was the BOAT that saved Noah - that’s what some of you are thinking right now. That’s because you’ve got the wrong villain in your target. You won’t admit it, but when you look at the account of the Flood, you have God as the villain!!

Go ahead, admit it and quit it! Confess it so that I can declare that you are forgiven, but the truth is, we don’t see that the flood came to cleanse the world of iniquity. The flood was God’s tool to deliver Noah and his family from the filthy iniquity that rebellious humans had brought into the world, which Noah and his family had to suffer.

Baptism now saves you! That is the hope that you have, that you have to be ready to give an answer for. Baptism now saves you - that’s what gave you a good conscious. Baptism now saves you - not your good deeds, not your good intentions. And when you confess that good confession, people are going to slander you, they are going to revile your good behavior, because they don’t want to believe that water can do such things. But they don’t understand that it isn’t just any old water.

SC IV:1-2

What is baptism? Answer:

Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead it is water enclosed in God’s command and connected with God’s Word.

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 359.

We know what we are preaching, and we know Whom we have believed. We know that He is able to keep what we have committed against that day. We have “the washing of water with the Word” that brought to us faith, the Holy Spirit, and the forgiveness of sins. We have a baptism that does something, not on the outside, but on the inside!

I don’t want to hear about any human tradition that isn’t even as old as the Reformation, much less as old as the Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t tell us about a baptism that does nothing, Paul didn’t teach about a baptism that does nothing, and Peter did not declare a baptism that does nothing. Nor are you baptized with a baptism by the Lord, that does nothing.

That’s why “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Baptism is as much the Gospel as is the preached Word because it delivers the same message. It tells you what Christ has done for you, rather than what you must do for God. IT is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

tell your neighbor: That’s power - for me!

tell your neighbor: That’s power - for you!

You don’t have to beg for it, borrow it, or steal it. Just receive it from God’s hands and remember that you have it from God’s hands. I’m just here to help remind you.

Hebrews 10:19–25 ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Instead of wasting that resurrection life that Jesus gave you, all that love of God that has been poured out into your hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to you, put it to god use loving your neighbor as your self and loving one another as Christ commanded you. Let the haters hate outside the Church, we’ve got enough to do loving one another for Jesus sake.

The devil knows how to dig up dirt, but he doesn’t know how to clean up anything! Let the dead bury the dead!

We’ve got a message to declare and love to share, and we are not ashamed of being confessional, evangelical, or liturgical.

So let the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.