Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway Chapel!

Scripture…Psalm 100:1-4

Prayer

Have you ever been invited to a roofing company Christmas party?

Anybody?

If you haven’t, you’re missing out.

It’s a blast.

I used to work in sales and one of my clients was Tekline Roofing…if you’ve watched a ton of cable TV you’ve seen their ads that say “Trust Tekline” with such Seattle sports stars like Mitch Haniger, Chris Carson, and Walter Jones…they’re very corny and I was to blame for some of those.

When you’re in sales, or any marketplace job, it’s hard to know sometimes where you stand with clients.

The nature of the relationship is what…money.

I ask them and they put money from their wallet into mine.

It’s a weird friendship.

I may think we’re friends but we’re also business partners so it’s this weird blurred line.

One year, the owner of Tekline, my friend Scott, invited me to the Tekline Roofing Christmas party.

It was a blast.

There was a massive BBQ, a lot of Corona’s because the party was essentially four dozen hispanic guys and then skinny white Chris…Scott did a huge raffle for his employees, gave out something like 5 TV’s, Seahawks gear, gift cards, told everyone how thankful he was for their work and their presence in the company…and I got to be a part of it.

I wasn’t an employee, but I felt like I belonged and I was able to receive and be blessed by that time with them.

While I imagine most of you have not gone to a roofing company Christmas party, have you experienced something similar?

Maybe you felt like you belonged in your spouse’s family when someone important in the family gave you a big hug and told you they loved you.

Maybe you participated in the love of a friend group when you were in school when you got invited to a birthday party, or you got asked to skate night, and you were able to identify with that group and enjoy them because of what happened.

Maybe you felt like you belonged at your job because you got invited to lunch by someone further up the organizational and social ladder.

Maybe you felt like you belonged in your neighborhood when a neighbor exchanged phone numbers with you and your kids started playing together.

Maybe at church you began identifying with that community and not another local church because you got invited to dinner, or to some event, and you began to participate in the love of that community.

Or maybe there are areas in your life where those things haven’t happened and you feel the void.

In any of those major relational spheres…work, marriage, friends, church, if there hasn’t been some relational moment, or sign, you feel like you don’t identify or belong to that group and you don’t want to participate in those relationships.

In any group, there are certain practices, signs, rituals, ceremonies, that mark out that we identify with and participate in the relational glue of that community.

As Christians, what is it for us?

As the church, we have two special practices often called sacraments or ordinances to use fancy Christianese: baptism and communion.

And we’re in a sermon series called, “Why Church?”

And basically I want God to give us a renewed joy for the basics of church life as we clarify why we do the things we do.

So why baptism and why communion?

Before we jump in I want to identify an issue with this question: we’re dealing with mysteries.

Baptism and communion are sacraments and sacraments comes from a word that means ‘mysteries.’

People across Christianity disagree with these mysteries of baptism and communion, why?

Because they’re mysterious!

John Calvin said, “I would rather adore the mystery than explain it.”

So our hope this morning in asking, “Why Baptism and Communion?” is more than explanation it is adoration.

Pray

Romans is a letter written by Paul, one of many people who saw Jesus risen from the grave.

It’s a Christian manifesto on the good news of Jesus.

We talked about it a few weeks ago when we did a sermon on “What is the gospel?”

All of Romans is the gospel, and certainly specific texts within it.

What’s the occasion of Romans?

There’s differing opinions but he’s writing to a Roman church that is divided.

It was both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Paul, a Jew who has met the risen Jesus, is arguing throughout Romans that because Jesus rose from the grave and has made a way for all people to belong to the family of God, the Mosaic law, food laws, circumcision…they don’t matter anymore.

It’d be like someone getting up in congress and saying the Constitution is irrelevant.

Then he makes this scandalous claim in Rom 5:20

You can hear his Jewish opponents screaming...”You’ve given people a license to sin!!”

And if you’re paying attention, you’ll note that they’re not talking about baptism…but Paul uses baptism as

Two assumptions Paul seems to be making:

Paul assumes we know a lot about baptism.

Rayce has pointed out that I frequently use illustrations in sermons from the TV show The Office.

It’s true.

I assume that many of you know what I’m talking about, and maybe that’s a bad assumption.

Last week I used an illustration about Daniel Tiger the kids TV show because I assumed at least 5 of you knew what I was talking about and you didn’t so here I am bringing it up again and it’s a bad idea.

Paul uses baptism as an illustration to make a point because he assumes we know a lot.

We do and we don’t.

Paul doesn’t say, “Dear Reader, let me remind you that baptism is full immersion by a believing adult and let me give you a diagram of what that looks like.”

When we say baptism and communion are sacraments - the word itself means mystery.

John Calvin said regarding the sacraments, “I would rather adore the mystery than explain it.”

While the Bible may not be perfectly clear on the practice of baptism, it is perfectly clear on the importance of baptism and its place in the people of God.

People who love Jesus and love their Bibles practice baptism differently, but we can agree based on this text and others that Paul assumes we know a lot.

Paul is assuming the church is baptized.

He’s writing to the church.

Not just people who attend, but the church.

And he says, “Dear Church, remember when you were baptized?”

In Paul’s mind, if you’re a part of the church, you’ve been baptized.

They go hand in hand.

Why?

Because they follow Jesus and Jesus asked all his followers to be baptized.

We read that passage last week in Matthew 28:18.

Mark Dever, a pastor in Washington DC said, “The first command of Jesus is to get wet, it only gets harder after that.”

For a Jew like Paul, baptism was connected to the Exodus story.

God’s chosen family, the people of Abraham, were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years.

They worked non-stop making bricks under evil Pharoah.

But God sends Moses, and he leads the people out of Egypt through what?

A body of water, the Red Sea.

As the people go through the water on dry land, Pharoah and his army are defeated.

Israel is free.

They don’t have to make bricks anymore because they’re not in Egypt anymore.

Now they’re in a new land where God is their King and he gives them good commands and guides them towards wisdom and life.

In the same way, baptism is the practice of identifying with the new Exodus.

Jesus, the new Moses, died on the cross, entering the chaotic water of death itself, but God gave him new life.

Jesus himself viewed his death and resurrection as baptism.

For Jesus, baptism pointed to his death and resurrection.

Jesus went under, and then came up.

Again, Jesus loving people and Bible loving people disagree on the exact practices of baptism, but at Gateway we see the Bible teaching full immersion by a believer is the intended form.

If you were baptized in a different way, did you sin? No. No! Did you do something wrong?

No.

And we also ask that members of Gateway Chapel respond to trusting Jesus by being baptized as believers by going under the water.

We’ve got a tank here!

Or we’ve got lakes.

Why baptism?

It identifies us with the people of God.

Following Jesus is a team sport.

The jersey Paul sees connecting the people of God is baptism.

We all have a need to belong.

Baptism lets us know we belong in the people of God.

If you notice, we have people in different life stages at Gateway.