Hope Church LV Sermons
Baptism 4.11.10
May the 23rd of 1992, it'll be 18 years ago, next month, next to coming to know Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, the most significant event in my life took place. I want you to turn your eyes towards the screen and watch this short clip. I have the ring please. Dance when you take this beautiful wedding ring which is a symbol of your love for Christmas and place it on her wedding finger please. And when you repeat after me please, with this ring I become your husband. All that I am and ever hope to be, I commit to you in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And Christi, would you take this wedding ring please which is a symbol of your love for life and place it on his wedding finger and repeat please these words, with this ring I become your wife. All that I am or ever hope to be, I commit to you in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Vance Pitt. Thank God for LASIC surgery, amen? What a beautiful thing. And I would encourage you always be careful handing over your wedding album to a video team. That is a dangerous thing to do. But a wedding, a wedding is a celebrated beginning of a marriage relationship between a man and a woman and a significant part of the marriage relationship or the wedding ceremony in our culture and really it's shared by many cultures around the world is what you just witnessed there. It's the exchanging of wedding rings. You saw that on the video. Christian I exchanged wedding rings. Now the wedding ring does not make you married, right? Matter of fact, I just took mine off, put it right there. That doesn't mean I'm single now, right? I'm still married. This doesn't make me married. And a single person could take this wedding ring and they could put it on and it doesn't make them married, right? This ring is just a what? It's a symbol. It's a symbol. It's a picture if you will. And once I have a marriage relationship in my life, then this ring is a symbol that that relationship exists. And as I wear this wedding ring, it is a public testimony that I have a relationship with my wife Christy and I want the world to know about it. It's what a wedding ring is. It's a symbol. It's a testimony. It tells the world about a relationship. It says I'm not ashamed of it. That hope we teach that being a Jesus follower is all about what? Relationships. Being a Jesus follower is all about relationships. If you were to ask the average person in church, what does a follower of Jesus look like? What you get is a list of do's and don'ts. They begin to tell you, well, a follower of Jesus does this, this, this and this. And depending on what culture you grew up in in America, the list of don'ts is kind of a moving target, right? I mean, there's some things we do in Las Vegas where I grew up on the don't list and out here they're not on the don't list, right? So depending on where you grew up, that's kind of a shifting target. But what we begin to understand is we as pastors, when we started this church had the opportunity to examine the New Testament, following Jesus is so much more than a list of do's and don'ts. Following Jesus is all about relationships. It begins in an intimate personal relationship with God, right? That's the starting point. Listen, what God has invited you into is not a set of rules and regulations. Christianity at its core is a relationship. John 17 3 says this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent, knowing God. That's what Christianity is all about. It's about intimacy with God, having a personal relationship with God and everything else in my life flows out of my relationship with God. But secondly, it's about a relationship with one another. You see, because I have a relationship with God, guess what? Now I have a relationship with you. We're now brothers and sisters in Christ. We're a part of the same family. We have the same Father. God is our Father. We are His children. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. So following Jesus is about living my relationship with God out and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. But as you study the New Testament, there's actually a third realm of relationships. It's also about my relationship with the world. My neighbors and the nations. You see, ultimately my relationship with God is to be lived out in fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. And then God desires to use my life, my relationships with my co-workers and the nations to share His love and His gospel with them. So following Jesus is really all about relationships. And it's really the life of Christ in us. As you study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you can take every story in the gospel and drop it into one of three file folders. It was either about Jesus and His relationship to the Father. It was about Jesus and His relationship to His disciples. Or it was about Jesus and His relationship to the unbelieving world. Every story in the gospel drops into one of those three file folders. And what is Christianity? It's not me living for Jesus. It's Jesus living His life in and through me. And if He lived His life on earth and fellowship with the Father and in relationship with His disciples and in relationship with the unbelieving world, guess how He's going to live His life through me? Same way. So being a Jesus follower is all about relationships then why do we celebrate this thing called baptism? This weekend and actually several times a year, about every six weeks, we participate and celebrate in something called baptism. We always do it after Easter, but we do it several times throughout the year, nine or ten different times throughout the course of a year. If following Jesus and about rituals and ceremonies, why? Why do we ask people to follow in baptism? Because baptism is the wedding ring. You see, I don't get baptized to begin a relationship with God. I don't get baptized to have a relationship with God. I'm baptized as a symbol and as a testimony of a relationship that exists in my life and I want the whole world to know about it. Let me give you a definition of baptism. I want to put it up on the screen. Baptism is a public celebration testifying that I am a Jesus follower. Say that out loud with me. A public celebration testifying that I am a Jesus follower. That's what baptism is. I want to show it to you in the Scripture. Turn over to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 in your Bible. We're gonna look at two verses verse 41 and then down at verse 47. Acts chapter 2 verse 41, listen what it says. It's on the screen if you don't have a Bible with you this morning. It says, "So then those who had received his word were baptized and that day there were added about three thousand souls." Isn't that awesome to think about? Three thousand people came to Christ in one day. I get pretty excited about that. How about you? I get pretty excited about that. How about you? We got to get y'all some pancakes man. Look at that in verse 47. "Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Let me break down this thing of baptism for you with three statements and we try to explain what baptism is at least once a year so that we all have a clear understanding as we celebrate it what it is. It's putting on that wedding ring. First of all baptism publicly declares my relationship with Jesus. Baptism is a public testimony. It's a public declaration that I know Jesus Christ and I want the world to know it. Did you hear what the Bible said in verse 41? It says, "Those who had received his word were baptized." Now that's very important. The tense of that phrase is very important. It's past tense, right? They had received his word. The word received there is a word that could be translated to embrace, to fully embrace. The Bible says here that the people that were baptized were not people that were trying to earn a relationship with God. No, the people here that were baptized were people that had already fully embraced Christ in their life. They'd come to that place where they realized they were sinners and they they trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation and it was because they had already embraced the gospel that they were now being baptized to give a testimony of the new relationship that existed in their life. It's the wedding ring. It's putting on that wedding ring. It's giving that declaration and that testimony that I know Jesus Christ. You know what's going to happen for some people this weekend? We had about 10 people that were baptized last night. You know what's going to happen in this service when we go outside and eat together? We're going to have a time of baptism and let me tell you what's going to happen. There are going to be some people in this service that today you're going to put your wedding ring on. You're going to give a public testimony that I have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I'm not ashamed of it. Let me say two other things about this particular aspect of baptism. The New Testament only acknowledges a baptism of believers. There's a lot of people that come in our church from different denominational backgrounds and different denominations practice some different things about baptism but here's what I want to understand at Hope. At Hope we follow strictly the New Testament as our only rule of faith in practice not the traditions of our church. It's what does the New Testament say? If we understand something the New Testament says and it means we got to change our traditions and guess what? We got to change our traditions because this is the rule of authority. This is the rule of faith in practice and from Matthew to the end of the New Testament the only baptism that is practiced is a baptism after salvation, a baptism after someone comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I know some churches in the nominations practice infant baptism. We don't do that at Hope and I'm not trying to make a statement about the rightness or the wrongness of that. All I'm saying is it's not you read a Matthew to revelation you will not find infant baptism in the New Testament. It's a tradition of some churches but it's not what the Scripture teaches. The Scripture teaches those who had already embraced Jesus Christ are now following in baptism giving a testimony about a relationship that exists. I can't give the testimony until the relationship exists right? Listen baptism doesn't save you. It doesn't save you. You can get baptized enough until you're as wrinkled as a california raisin but it won't save you. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ baptism is a cheap bath. That's all it is. And depending on how many people got baptized for you did it's not even that good of a bath right? The only baptism in the New Testament is baptism after salvation. Let me give you a second statement. The New Testament knows nothing of believers not being baptized. You see in the church in America we've done such a good job of teaching people baptism doesn't save you. We've almost made people convinced that baptism is just not important at all. You can come to know Christ and that baptism thing is really not that big a deal. You know how big a deal it is? Do this when you get home today. If you're married go up to your spouse and say hey babe here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna keep this relationship between us. I'm gonna take my wedding ring off and I'm gonna put it in a drawer because I really don't want anybody else to know. I don't know how that conversation is gonna go over in your house but I got a good idea how it's gonna go over in mine. And it's not gonna go over well right? In the New Testament everywhere you read the Bible says they came to know Christ immediately they followed him baptism. They wanted the world to know it. They wanted to give a testimony about this new relationship in their life and yet in our culture we'll have people say yeah I've given my life to Christ. Well I'm just gonna think about that baptism thing. I don't know about that. Men right here in Acts chapter two we read that they immediately were baptized. In Acts chapter eight we read about the Ethiopian unit who immediately followed in baptism. In Acts chapter 10 Cornelius gave his life to Christ and immediately followed in baptism. In Acts chapter 16 both Lydia and the Philippian jailer both as soon as they came to Christ immediately followed in baptism. If you've come to know Jesus Christ it's time to put your wedding ring on and say I have a relationship with Jesus and I am not ashamed of it. Number two baptism publicly identifies me with the family of Jesus. I said a moment ago that baptism proclaims I have a relationship with Jesus but remembering a Jesus follower although it begins in a relationship with God it's about more than that it's about our relationship with one another and baptism also identifies me with the family of Jesus. Look back at verse 41 it says so then those who had received his word were baptized and that day there were added about three thousand souls. That begs the question added to what? I don't believe that phrase is talking about being added to the spiritual family of God because that happened the moment they trusted Jesus Christ. Listen the moment I trusted Jesus Christ as a 17-year-old freshman at the University of North Alabama in my bedroom on my knees beside my bed I became a brother and sister in Christ to every believer in every corner of the globe. I had brothers and sisters in Christ and Zambia and China and Argentina and Venezuela all over the world. I'm immediately born again into the family of God. Well then what does this mean after they were baptized they were added to something. Well the word added means literally joined together with. Let me tell you what happened when they were baptized it identified them with that local community that local expression of the body of Christ that we've come to call the church. They were identified publicly with that new community of believers there in their city. They were added to that local fellowship. You see up until this point there were about 120 Christians in Jerusalem. You're talking about some church growth man they were from 120 to 3,120 in one day. Let me give you a couple of statements that were being being made on this day. First of all the community of believers were saying this about those new Christians they were saying hey they they're us. There was a public embracing today when we celebrate baptism with these people that are going to follow in baptism. Let me tell you what we're doing as a church family. We're saying they're us. They're not on an island they're not by themselves they're not just followers of Jesus out there in the world somewhere they're us. We're family together with them and those new Christians let me tell you what they were saying we're them. This is my spiritual family and listen although we've lost some of this significance unfortunately to our own detriment in our culture and in other cultures around the world what I'm describing means a big deal. You go to Southeast Asia you go to a Muslim country. I've been in Muslim countries where we've celebrated baptism. Somebody comes to Christ out of Islam and that baptism takes place. Listen you know what they say in some of those countries. They don't care what you do in the privacy of your own home. Let me tell you when it gets real. Let me tell you when all hell breaks loose in those countries when those believers begin to follow in baptism. You know why? Because they're making a public statement identifying with a group of Christians saying we belong to Jesus and this is our family and that's when the persecution that's when it all begins to become real. Why? Because it's making a statement man I'm identifying with the family of God. Number three baptism publicly introduces Jesus to those who don't know him. Baptism publicly introduces Jesus to those who don't know him. Look down at verse 47 again. The Bible says praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. You could literally translate it based on the tense of this verse and the Lord was continuously adding to their number day by day. People were coming to Christ and following in baptism and being identified with this local community of believers. The gospel began to spread like wildfire in Jerusalem. Historians and scholars tell us that within six months of this event that we just read about over 100,000 people in Jerusalem had come to faith in Jesus Christ. Can you imagine what it would be like if in Las Vegas in the next six months 100,000 people came to Christ? It's what happened in Jerusalem. You know one of the problems we get today we don't even expect God to do those things anymore. We don't even ask for God to do those kinds of things. We forget hey the same God of Acts chapter 2 is still the God sitting on the throne today. How did the gospel begin to spread so fast in Jerusalem? Well obviously word of mouth those 3,000 people begin to tell everybody that they knew right but at the same time they were also very afraid to begin to speak about it because at that time there was great persecution as a matter of fact only a few more chapters later and you'll read that they begin to murder the Christians for their faith in Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 8 Stephen is killed he stoned to death because of his faith in Jesus so it wasn't just word to me. How did the gospel how did his testimony spread so quickly? Let me tell you I believe it happened. I can't prove it but mathematically I believe there's a strong possibility this is what took place. Have you ever thought about just the simple math of what we just read? 3,000 people baptized in one day. How do you think they did that? You think they just all lined up and Simon Peter wound up tearing his rotator cuff. Baptizing all those people is that? They'd have been there for two weeks baptizing all those people right? 3,000? How did it happen? Well what most scholars and historians believe happened is that that group of 3,000 began to break up into smaller groups of 50 and 100 people and throughout the city of Jerusalem there were a number of waiting pools and they believe what happened is that these people began to break up with out of that original 120 disciples they'd break up in 50s and hundreds and each of them would go with some of those disciples and they would scatter all over Jerusalem to these pools and at these pools they were baptizing 50 and 100 people and all so all over the city of Jerusalem this was happening and it was happening when people were doing their business they were going to shops and going to work and all this was going on and it was attracting crowds people would come and say what's going on here and they were hearing testimonies of men and women who were saying man I heard about the Messiah I've heard about Jesus he was dead and now he's alive and I've given my life to him and one by one others begin to come to faith in Jesus Christ you know baptism is a beautiful picture of the gospel the Bible says in Romans chapter 6 that in baptism is the picture that we were buried with Christ remember we said last weekend his death is our death but then we've also been what raised to walk in newness of life what's the newness of life his life living in and through me baptism is a picture of the gospel my I was dead with Christ but I've been raised and given new life in the person of Jesus Christ him living in and through me baptism is a beautiful declaration of the gospel to people who don't know him you know what happens almost it happened last night almost every time we celebrate baptism not every time but almost every time we see people come you know what happens you'll invite a friend or a family who wouldn't come to church with you any other time but because you're getting baptized they'll come right and they come and they hear the gospel last night we had four people that that came to know Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior who just came because of a regular service they didn't come because it was Easter they didn't come because it's Christmas Eve and in baptism the picture of baptism we explained the gospel and they came to know Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior you see baptism publicly declares my relationship with Jesus baptism publicly identifies me with the family of Jesus and finally baptism publicly introduces Jesus to those who don't know him now you see what I mean when I say baptism is a celebration that I'm a Jesus following all the relationships are there it testifies about my relationship with God it identifies me with my relationship with my brothers and sisters in Christ and it shares the gospel with people that do not know Christ the world around me baptism is a significant event it's a significant event so I have a question really two of them for you this morning the first one is this are you a follower of Jesus Christ I'm not asking today if you've been to church hey I'm not even asking yet have you been baptized I'm asking are you a follower of Jesus Christ I'm not asking if your grandmother was a Christian I'm saying are you a follower of Jesus do you have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ do you know him if you don't know him listen today the scripture says today is the day of salvation today is the day for you to come to know Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior and then the second question I want to ask you is this if you are a follower of Jesus have you ever put your wedding ring on have you ever come to that place where you acknowledged publicly I am a Jesus follower have you taken seriously this next step of following Jesus in baptism doesn't save you but it's a public testimony it's putting on the wedding ring it's saying to the world I'm a follower of Jesus and I'm not ashamed of it I'm going to ask you to bow your head right now for just a moment and I want you to just really go before the Lord in a spirit of prayer and I want you to think about what's been said today from God's word and I want to come back to those two questions first of all are you a follower of Jesus listen if you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior and you realize today hey I'm ready pastor I'm ready to give my life to Jesus I want to experience a life-changing relationship with God I don't want religion anymore I don't want do's and don't I want to know God then I'm going to invite you to just pray with me there in your seat just crying out to God this simple prayer of salvation asking him to come into your life if you're ready to give your life to Jesus right there you just pray with me in your heart say Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner Lord Jesus I know that you died on the cross for my sin I know that you rose again from the dead Jesus right now I ask you to come into my life to forgive me of my sin and to be my personal lord and savior I surrender my life to you it's in the name of Jesus I pray now with nobody looking around if you just prayed that prayer with me for the very first time and you just ask Jesus Christ to come into your life I want to pray for you would you just slip your hand up and then put it back down you just pray with me thank you god bless you thank you thank you god bless you thank you sir god bless you man thank you man god bless you welcome to the family of god and just a moment I'm going to pray for you before I do I want to ask that second question for all of us now have you ever put your wedding ring on have you been baptized since becoming a follower of Jesus Christ I'm not asking were you baptized you I'm saying since you've come to know Jesus have you put your wedding ring on there are really two groups of people that need to respond to what I'm about to ask you to do first of all some of you are here and you've come to Christ today or in the last few weeks maybe last week at Easter and this is the first opportunity for baptism since you've come to Christ hey today be a great day for you to respond and say I'm going to get baptized today you say that's right I didn't come prepared to be baptized I didn't bring any clothes that's okay we went to the storm we bought some for you we've got some here and just a moment we're going to stand and sing and we're going to if you're ready today to be baptized if you've come to Christ in the last few weeks and you're ready then you go out through out the back there are people at the back doors waiting to receive you out in the lobby and you just tell them you've given your life to Jesus and they'll ask you a couple of questions and you tell them you're ready to be baptized and they'll show you exactly what to do to go get ready and be baptized and in our barbecue in just a few minutes we're going to baptize but there's a second group of people here today that need to respond not just those that have come to Christ in the last few weeks hey there may be some of you you came to Christ a few years ago and you've never followed Jesus in baptism did you know my testimony is I came to Christ at 17 but it wasn't until five years later that I was baptized you know why because I said well I was baptized when I was eight but hey it's not the wedding ring until the relationship exists have you ever since coming to know Jesus followed him in baptism if you haven't here's what I'm asking you to do if God's speaking to you right now and I just want to ask you with with nobody looking around how many of you would say pastor man God's convicted me this morning I know that since I've become a follower of Jesus I've never been baptized how many of you be honest with nobody looking around but you'll just put your hand up say man God spoke to me I know that's me let me see it just put it up put it back down thank you thank you God bless you thank you a lot of hands here hey here's what we're inviting you to do okay I'm not gonna make you do it can't do that and I gonna call you out but I hope you understand from scripture this a big deal it's a big deal when we stand to sing you just go straight back there to the back we have people that are going to meet with you get you ready and then when we come out to celebrate the barbecue we're gonna baptize all right if God's spoken you respond Lord speak to hearts today may we celebrate baptism Lord we bless you God thank you for these this morning that have indicated a brand new relationship with Jesus would you speak to them today God help them get connected help us to get them connected into a small group of believers where they can grow in this new relationship with Jesus God thank you for the gospel Lord we love you holy spirit of God be at work in our lives it's in the name of Jesus we pray