Washed by the Water
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
As many of you are aware part of the vision the Lord has given me for this church includes performing water baptisms. Through faithful giving we have been able to acquire most of what we need to conduct these baptisms anywhere the Lord leads us to do so. As a matter of fact our first public baptism event will be this Tuesday at 6:00 pm during our Church in the Square outreach event. If there is anyone who would like to be baptized please just let us know or show up and we will make sure you get baptized.
As I was praying for the event and this week’s service it occurred to me that while I have been baptized twice before in my life I don’t ever recall a direct teaching on water baptism other than in my courses to become an ordained minister.
So today I want to a few moment to explain what baptism is and some common questions that people have but are usually not asking.
What is Baptism?
What is Baptism?
Baptism is a sacrament or religious ceremony ordained by Christ which we are to practice until He returns at the end of days.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
The word baptism comes from the Greek verb baptizo which means to immerse or submerge.
Different denominations have their interpretations of whether a person must be fully immersed in water or rather if sprinkling of water on the forehead is sufficient.
It is as part of the Church of God and my own personal conviction that baptism should be full immersion.
This is the method in which Jesus was baptized and He is our example in all things. Amen
Another way to describe baptism is that it is an outward expression of our faith. Said differently we are expressing outwardly what Christ has done for us inwardly.
You see we have found the greatest treasure in Jesus and we should be excited and eager to tell everyone about the treasure we have found in Him.
Is Being Baptized Required for Salvation
Is Being Baptized Required for Salvation
Another common question people will have is whether baptism is required for a person to be saved. The short answer is no it is not.
The Bible teaches us it is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ alone which saves us.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
One example of this is when the thief on the cross next to Jesus recieved salvation even though he had no possible way to be baptized. It was by his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and repentance of his sin that he received salvation.
39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
On our own we could never earn salvation even by performing a sacrament. Rather it is by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and by God’s gift of grace by which we are saved.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
While we should live holy and blameless lives because the Lord instructs us to but that is not to be confused with earning our way into heaven because that is impossible to do. It is only by our faith in Jesus Christ which is God’s gift of grace that we are saved.
Another example of this can be found in:
30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
So if we do not need to be baptized to be saved then why do we do it?
Why Do We Need to Be Baptized?
Why Do We Need to Be Baptized?
The first and most important reason to be baptized is something I mentioned a moment ago which is that Jesus tells us to be baptized.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
So what would you call it if the Lord specifically asks you to do something and you knowingly and willfully do not do it? That would be rebellion or sin would it not?
So while you will not loose your salvation for not being baptized it is something which the Lord has specifically instructed us to do and that’s what He expects from us.
Another reason we are baptized is because Jesus was baptized are as Christians we are to follow the example of Christ.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
You see how powerful this moment is. God the Father is declaring that He is proud of His beloved Son and God the Holy Spirit comes to join Jesus on earth.
As it pleased God the Father in that moment it also pleases Him to see us make our public commitment to a new life in Christ.
When we put our faith in Jesus we are saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
So upon salvation we have God’s seal of the Holy Spirit.
However, it takes action on our part to learn how to fully operate in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is done primarily by praying and meditating on God’s word and applying it to our lives. Doing so will not only increase your faith beyond just believing but equip you for the work the Lord has for you to do.
Baptism is one of the actions all believers should take to fully operate in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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.
Another reason to get baptized is that it creates community into our walk. You see friends the Lord never intended for us to experience our Christian walk alone. We can see this clearly in
25 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.
Life has its challenges and when try to handle everything on our own it can often become overwhelming leaving us weak or stealing our joy. If we are not careful we can start focusing on our situations more than the goodness of God. However, when we come together as a community of brothers and sisters and encourage one another and worship together and serve one another there is something very powerful that happens in our lives. It is because we are operating in the Lord’s ways and His ways work best.
Think about it like this. God made a perfect garden in Eden, then He came as a man to suffer and die and rise again and also is coming back again to defeat the devil and the evil armies of the earth just so that we can be His family and spend time with Him.
Hear me today God does not desire for His people to be alone. Yes we know that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us which truly is an immeasurable gift. But He also desires for us to spend time with one another as the family of Christ.
When Should A Person Get Baptized?
When Should A Person Get Baptized?
A person should get baptized as soon as possible after salvation. The Bible has many examples of people getting saved and then baptized soon afterwards. However, if you are saved but have not been baptized it is never too late to do so and is a very important moment in a believers life.
36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
There are many more examples in the Bible of people being saved and immediately baptized but the point remains if you have not been baptized it is never too late to do so.
And the other critical point is that Baptism comes after salvation because the baptism is reflecting your love for and faith in Christ which already exists. Again remember it’s an outward experience of what the Lord is doing on the inside of you.
What Types of Baptisms in the Bible?
What Types of Baptisms in the Bible?
Some people may not be aware of this but there are a few different types of baptisms in the Bible.
Starting with the Old Testament we can see foreshadowing of baptism early on.
One example in the book of Genesis is that of Noah whose family had to travel in an arch through the waters which were cleansing the sin from the earth. There is no doubt that the world after the flood was very different than Noah’s world before the flood. Our lives after we encounter Christ should be very different than our lives before we receiving His grace.
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.
Another example of a type of baptism in the Old Testament is that of Moses when the Lord used him to lead the Israelites across the Red Sea.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,
25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”
27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
We can see how the mighty power of the Lord parted the mighty waters of the Red Sea so that His people could walk on dry ground. The Israelites were leaving slavery in Egypt and while God had to pour out His judgement on Pharoah and the pursing armies, He did an amazing miracle by guiding Moses and the other people through the waters. The Israelites lives would never be the same again as they passed through the waters they went from slaves to a sinful man to a free people of a loving God.
1 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground.
2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses.
This event was a cutting away sign for Israel demonstrating baptism by faith.
In the New Testament we can see John the Baptist conducting baptism for repentance
3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Though He is the sinless spotless Lamb of God we can see Jesus was baptized by John at the Jordan River in
9 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River.
We can also see the Christian water baptism which the early church and us today conduct which is symbolic of the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ. We bury our old lives in the water and when we raise back up we have a new identity to ourselves and other people as a Christian.
4 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.
As I stated before baptism is an outward expression of what the Lord has done on the inside of us. While this can be a sermon onto itself let me just remind you today that as a Christian we are ambassador’s of Jesus to the world around us. This means that people will judge the Lord based on how we act and how we live our lives. This is one of the reasons why we need to be aware of how we speak, where we go, how we conduct business, how we spend our money, how we dress, how we parent, how we treat our spouses and the list goes on and on. Listen to me I am not talking about legalism but what I am saying is that when you are saved the Lord does a work in you and through baptism you are demonstrating to the Lord, yourself, the church and others your new identity in Christ not just in heart but in how you live. Understand that if the people of God don’t act like the people of God it can do serious damage to our credibility and turn people away from being saved. On the other hand when we meditate on the word of God and walk in His ways people will see that we are not perfect but we truly do love God and love people and that will make being a Christian more attractive to them. Amen!
The last type of baptism I want to speak about today is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist foretells of how Jesus will baptize people with the Holy Spirit in
16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Then Jesus Himself also tells His Disciples that they needed to be baptized with the Holy Spirit to do the work He was giving them to do.
4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before.
5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then on the day of Pentecost while the church was assembled in one place the baptism of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Let me just tell you that the power of Pentecost is real and active and available to every believer who seeks it! Put your faith in the Lord, trust Him and believe and when the time is right you too can be baptized with the Holy Spirit and do things you could never do on your own. God is greater amen!
Closing
In Closing, I realize today’s message was more of a teaching style than usually but I just needed to make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of what we are doing and while it is so important in regards to baptisms.
It is something the Lord has laid on my heart for months and through my prayers and His provision we are now in a position to not only baptize our own church members who would like to but also anyone who would desire to do so.
While baptism is exciting and a milestone moment for this church plant it is more than that. Baptism is a sacred, holy and consecrated event unto the Lord. He has directed us as believers to do this work to draw people closer to Himself and it is an honor for us to serve others in this way.
Prayer