What We Believe - Baptism
Secular:
Have you ever noticed how completely overwhelmed the flower shop is on Mother’s Day… or how panicked they appear on Valentine’s Day!!
I have however come to understand that there is barely any activity on Father’s Day…
But why is it that we send flowers?
· I know some of the reasons… remembering important day like mother’s day or valentine’s day or an anniversary
· I know the occasional fellow who has sent flowers as a desperate I am sorry after getting into some – “up to his eyeballs” kind of trouble
· But really what value are there in flowers…
o They have been cut… they are dead or dying
o They don’t make any throaty power tool sounds…
o You can not eat them…
o … what?
· Why flowers… they demonstrate our love… they say in a tangible way… I Love You…
· There are Two Ordinances… or sacraments that we observe in our church…
o One is Baptism
o The other is The Lord’s Table
· We don’t do them out of a sense of… “what can I get”… but out of obedience and love
· Just like the flowers… they demonstrate our love… they say in a tangible way… I Love You…
Biblical: Section J - Ordinances
We believe that there are only two ordinances for the church regularly observed in the New Testament in the following order:
- Baptism which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ's command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
- The Lord's Supper which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolize the Lord's body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He come.
Personal:
Christmas is coming… 32 days actually…
And one of the activities that we partake in… while focusing on the birth of our Saviour… we like to give gifts…
If you are good at it… you can give amazing gifts (and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg)
If you are bad at it you probably use your wallet as a shotgun… just aim at a store and pull the trigger and hope some of your dollars hit their target.
But a well thought out gift is one that we through diligent research …or find out by reading your wife’s Christmas list…
It is giving someone something we can offer and they wish to receive…
Bridge:
In scripture Jesus tells us point blank… no guessing or reading between the lines… he wants us to believe in him and to be baptised…
We don’t have to guess…
We don’t get to make up additional rules…
· wait this long
· recite this many versus
We don’t get to change the gift…
We are called to respond to Christ in love and obedience… a great gift… to the one who gave us the Gift of Eternity…
Body:
Why –
How many of you go to a restaurant or little shop that came as a recommendation? Maybe it is your favourite place to eat in Squamish or in the city… maybe it is a cool little clothing store or a great place to buy sound equipment… or hockey gear…
If no one told you… about these places how would you know…
Jesus commands us in Scripture to let the world know… not about an eatery… for tomorrow you will be hungry again…
But share the message that transformed our lives… our hearts… our minds… our soul….
NAU Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
- We have talked about the fact we are an army…
- These are our marching orders…
- This is a divine command…
- In a world that is feisty on authority… this is the part where we learn humility… and submission and obedience…
- Go is the command….
- Go… make disciples
- Go and baptize
- Go and teach
- Go…
- maqhteu,w: to cause someone to become a disciple or follower of - 'to make disciples, to cause people to become followers.'
- Share your faith
- Challenge their beliefs
- Encourage understanding
- Introduce them to Jesus Christ… to their need for a Saviour…
- Make followers… people who understand their place before the throne of the Lord God Almighty
- So they believe… they follow Jesus… they believe the Gospel…
- In obedience and love what is the next step…?
- On the day you first believed… when your heart was no longer true to the word but true to Christ… when you gave your life to your Saviour… it is like a wedding vow…
- But wedding vows have little to do with putting on a façade…
- Our Wedding vows are more about surrender…
- About leaving our mothers and fathers… and binding to our spouse…
- In discipleship we leave the things of the world and cleave to Christ… bind ourseleves…
- But faithfulness to this relationship is demonstrated in many ways…
- Two of them are love and obedience…
- And they are linked… those who trust in Christ… Love him and those who love him are obedient…
- In obedience we follow Christ mandate and baptized… those who have chosen to follow him.
- The public side of a martial relationship is initiated in the wedding ceremony… public declaration that they are no longer up for grabs… having lovingly committed to one another…
- Though intensely personal in some ways… our faith is to be broadcast our relationship demonstrated… we are to follow in baptism…
- But following as disciples and obedience in baptism isn’t where it ends either…
- Seed sprouted and planted… and now the watering…
- Teaching them to obey all I have commanded….
- Do not leave those who trust in my out to dry… love them, grow them… impress the word of God on their hearts… that they may know the fullness of their inheritance…
- Anything else is a failure on our part to recognize the magnitude of the gift given in Scripture… and an unwillingness to help those most susceptible to the wolves of the world…
- Give them … Ephesians 6:17 THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The Great Commission is about following, obeying and teaching… the instructions are simple… and that is the reason we need not ask why… but how
How –
In examining scriptures surrounding the event of baptism you hear terms like cistern or much water or river or even the nature of the word baptism itself…and despite the fact that water of some sort, as an essential component of human life, would have to be available… we see evidence that NT baptism were performed in places where much water was available….
NAU Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Why is the how immersion…
1. It looks most like the NT model… like I had said… cistern, river… much water… combined with the word baptism lead us to believe the candidate was immersed…
2. additionally… and a very important part of Baptist theology is the fact that… the meaning is inherent in the mode… that means we perform baptism by immersion because how it is performed (the mode) communicates (give meaning) something important.
· Baptism by immersion is a visible demonstration of love and obedience… to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ…
· Just as Christ died and our sins died on the cross… so we demonstrate our death to our sin as we are immersed in the waters of baptism…
· Just as Christ was buried and our sin has been buried in Christ… so we demonstrate the burying of our sin as we are momentarily submerged in a watery grave…
· Just as Christ was freed from death and raised to life… so we demonstrate that new life when we rise from the water so we too might walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ!!
· Baptism isn’t about scary testimonies… it isn’t about being ready… it is about believing and obeying…
Passion / obedience
· We have a plan…
o Disciple
§ Come alongside and introduce people to Jesus Christ…
§ Change their path…
· From walking away
· To walking with Christ…
· You are to hold up a dead end sign… to show them where the world will lead them …
· And give them the truth of Christ… hope for eternity
o Baptize
§ And then we obey…
§ Following Christ in Love!!
· Dying to Sin
· Burying the Old Self
· Rising to New Life in Christ
o Teach
§ And then sharing that everyday in every way in a world that so desperately seeks answers…
§ In the name of God love, lead them, teach them…
§ You want to start your Christmas list….
§ Give everyone you know the love of Christ…
§ No matter how much you spend on Christmas…
§ Give that which is Priceless… saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ