Baptism. Dead and Raised

The Text

Our text for the day:

Colossians 2:9–15 NIV

9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This evening we’ll be talking about baptism.

You know that thing where someone gets dunked in water after a church service.

It’s a theme we see pop up in Scripture around the time of Jesus,

and the topic of baptism is one that has at times divided the church in unfortunate ways.

So this evening I hope one of two questions can be asked:

1. If you are baptized, how can you re appropriate your baptismal identity.

What does it mean that you were baptized?

How can you be regularly reminding yourself of your own baptism and what it means.

Or if you have children who are baptized, how can we help them do the same?

How can we form little children to consider their own baptisms as their spiritual birthday.

2. If you aren’t baptized, as we talk about baptism this evening. Whether you’ve been following Jesus for a long time and haven’t been baptized, or if you are considering following Jesus,

What would it mean to place my faith in Jesus?

Baptism is a marker of being part of the faith community.

So use this time to consider the one who you are being invited to place your faith in.

Let’s consider this first statement:

“For in Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form”

So we are dropping into the middle of a letter here.

A letter written to people 2000 years ago.

The people who received it lived in a world where they had a keen awareness of the oppressive powers that they were up against.

And when the Bible uses the words “powers and authorities” here, it is referring to spiritual powers.

We hear that, and the responses in this room probably range from

“That’s not a thing, we know better”

to

“Yea there’s spiritual powers but I don’t think they effect me and my family”

I think many of us have probably never gone a single day, worried about demonic powers and how they will affect our days.

But some of you have.

And those that haven’t have probably had days where you live in fear of a government. Whether it’s your own or someone elses...

What if it were true that even the human authority structures that we see carrying out evil had a demonic influence behind it.

We do not live in a purely physical world.

Nor do we live in a physical world that is divorced from the spiritual.

We live in a world where the spiritual and physical is woven together by design.

Your own life is an example of this.

Where is your soul?

You can’t place it in your body.

Not because your soul doesn’t belong with your body,

just the opposite.

They are made to go together.

Spirituality is a reality of the universe we live in.

The spiritual is just as real as the physical.

So it is with the knowledge of this spiritual reality that surrounds us that Paul, the man writing this letter by the Spirit of God reminds his recipients:

“He (meaning Christ) is the head over every power and authority”

Why does Paul mention powers and authorities?

Because the the Colossian church was afraid of the powers.

The powers of Satan.

The authority of Satan meted out through destructive and death bringing human structures.

Of evil, demonic influence that could

And that’s objectively scary.

And that’s why Paul starts this section by reminding his beloved Colossian church family that Jesus is God.

But he doesn’t just say that.

He doesn’t say “remember Jesus is God.”

He says with all the clarity of a master theologian:

“For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form”

Jesus is all the way God.

And by the way he has a real body.

Some of the recipients of this letter may have even known Jesus personally during his ministry.

So,

this guy, the one who is the head of every power and authority,

you are HIS.

The simplicity and comfort of this message is found in one of my favorite little hymns:

“This is my Father's world: O let me ne'er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father's world: Why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King: let the heavens ring! God reigns; let earth be glad!”

“It’s in that Christ that you have been brought to fulness.”

What kind of fulness?

Fully human.

If we are his, how are we his?

Through baptism.

But Paul starts talking about circumcision.

Why is that?

Circumcision was the sign of inclusion in the covenant community.

Baptism is now the sign of inclusion in the covenant community.

Paul calls baptism being circumcised by Christ.

You were under the power of the flesh.

You were enslaved by brutal masters.

And now, by spiritually participating in Christ’s physical death, you can have life NOW.

This is the beauty of the gospel.

You can be free from these masters without physically dying.

There’s a reason why when we baptize someone we bring them back up!

Remember we are listening in on a conversation that took place 2000 years ago?

What’s the cultural context that we are missing?

Early Church.

Chatechesis

EXPLAIN

Baptism

Colossians 2:12 NIV

12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

(Apostles’ Creed)

Do you believe in God? I believe in God, the Father almighty,maker of heaven and earth; Do you believe in Jesus? I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,born of the Virgin Mary,suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, dead, and buried.He descended into hell.The third day he rose again from the dead.He ascended into heaven,and sits on the right hand of God the Father almighty.From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy catholic Church,the communion of saints,the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,and the life everlasting.

Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary b. Already Circumcised in Christ (2:11–12)

To believe that God raised Jesus from the dead is to believe in the God who raises the dead.

Symbolism

Moving waters.

// Spirit of God hovering over the chaos waters.

Separates the chaos waters and creates a moral bubble of safety.

// Sin tears a whole in the moral bubble.

The Chaos waters come rushing in.

There is a need for salvation now.

// An ark is provided that carries God’s people to safety.

// The Red Sea is parted so the people of God are safe.

// Jesus is baptized in a river.

// Pool of Bethesda healing.

// Jesus standing on the steps of the temple.

The festival they were celebrating was the feast of tabernacles or the festival of booths where they would commemorate God bringing them out of Egypt.

The Jews had developed a tradition of pulling water from the pool of Siloam and pouring it on the altar.

The waters would have running over Jesus’ feet as he stood up.

Picture in your mind this image,

John 7:37–39 NIV

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Jesus is promising that the same Spirit which separated the chaos waters would be given to each that believed in him.

We see running water at the end of the story as well:

Revelation 22:1–5 NIV

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

So yeah, they’d like to use running water if they can for baptism in the early church.

Every single element of the baptismal process was symbolic.

It was designed to help the new believer fully grasp and understand their new identity.

It was also to help the church.

These symbols and gestures were designed to help the new believer understand and know doctrine. A fancy word for truth.

Doctrine from today’s passage?

Colossians 2:13–15 NIV

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

There is discussion in Christian camps about “what best communicates the gospel.”

Is it the news that our sin was paid for through a substitutionary atonement?

Or is it the news that Jesus is king and has triumphed over sin and death?

The answer is yes.

And this passage encapsulates that.

The Spirit of God through Paul is preaching to us this evening.

He forgave us ALL our sins.

I did some Greek study to find out what the word “all” meant in the Greek. Turns out it just means “all”.

The full quantity of our sins.

“He canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us.”

We are legally guilty before God.

Jesus changes that by his work on the cross.

“He has taken it away.”

Where did he take it?

“Nailing it to the cross.”

This is the gospel.

But Jesus isn’t content with simply taking care of your sin.

Not only are we legally guilty before God.

But we are by default enslaved to the powers.

He defeats your cruel masters for you.

The powers that have control in your life.

Remember the powers?

The ones with scary supernatural backgrounds?

He “disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

It’s both.

Jesus is the substitution of sins’ penalty AND he is the victor over every evil power that enslaves his world.

CS Lewis gets this so right with his imagery of Aslan the Lion, a metaphor for Christ, being sacrificed to save His loved ones.

It’s shameful.

They shave his glorious mane.

They muzzle him so he can’t roar.

Paul is telling us that this is the exact moment that Jesus was disarming and shaming the powers.

He’s stripping them naked and parading them as his conquered enemies.

Your enemies.

Your oppressors.

Defeated by your king in an act that looked like weakness.

And he hasn’t even risen from the dead yet.

How much more glorious is the news that he has liberated you AND is going to preserve your life in him.

We selected this text for this week as part of this basics series we are doing.

Baptism is one of the basics of our faith.

Baptism is more than a one time event.

It’s a new identity.

Driver’s license analogy

Lord’s Supper

The early church never separated baptism from the Lord’s supper.

They saw participation in this meal as being the natural extension of baptism and inclusion in the covenant community.

For this very reason they would serve communion to children and all who had been baptized.

Why?

Because it is a means of grace.

It’s patterned after a Passover meal that would have been shared by all in the covenant community, young and old rich and poor.

They were commemorating God liberating them from their oppressors and giving them a new identity.

This is the New Exodus meal.

Where we commemorate OUR liberation from the powers,

and where Christ meets us spiritually to nourish us.

I want to share a brief story with you.

Ransom.

Come to the table with the simple faith of a child who just wants to sit at the table with their Father.

Your heavenly father has done EVERYTHING necessary for you to sit with him.

So take a seat at His table.

He wants you there.