MK040 Sermons
Baptism (Audio)
well for those of you that don't know up don't know uh... me i grew up in a little small town on in the uh... state of maryland and attend him in town with the town of odentine it's kind of a blink on the map uh... it's most well-known because it's near for me which is when you're where n_s_a_ isn't so uh... odenton is positioned about halfway between baltimore in washington and and grown as a little kid uh... my dad was a sports fan and so i quickly became a sports fan and and as a kid one of the teams it was my favorite teams was the uh... baltimore royals and so orange and black were my favorite colors and i cheered for this team as a kid not only the orange and black that i cheer for them but he cheered for another team and that was the blue and white that was the baltimore cults and as a kid i followed these teams i cheered for the teams i went to their games i collected their baseball cards i cut out clippings when they did well and created some notebook with them all and i was a fan unfortunately all of that change on march twenty ninth nineteen eighty four when the owner of the baltimore cults robert or say packed up the team into may farvans in the middle of the night and move them to indianapolis and my family and everybody who lived in baltimore it's from that point on hated robert or say and nobody could take themselves rooting for the cults at that time so i lost my team had to find a team and so most of my family just that i were not rooting for anybody you know we hate them all you know when i wasn't that i wasn't able to do that so i just want a little first for their south about thirty minutes and decided to become a red skin span and uh... that actually worked pretty convenient as they were in the middle of a three super bowl stretcher during the eighties so i quickly became a fan of the washington redskins and followed them and so the teams i cheered for in the teams i supported the kid in my high school years and going to cause they all did well they're always in the world series and always in the super ball and and play in really well until they hit this dead spot about them late middle to late nineties when the Orioles from nineteen ninety-seven in two thousand twelve were literally the worst team in baseball worst record horrible horrible redskins kind of went through a dirt at that time and and uh... didn't get in the playoffs very often didn't succeed very often they were not very good as well but i continued to cheer for my team go to games follow how the team was doing until even in the last couple years they've been able to turn their uh... franchises around and actually do pretty well when i moved to this area discovered a term that i didn't know before that i was called bandwagon jumpers and i had never knew about bandwagon jumpers until i moved to this area but i found out that there's a lot of people who are fans of local sports teams and and some are willing to wear their jerseys and let everybody know about them but others they kind of high they don't let anybody know that they're really cheering for that team until the team is doing well and they come out of the closet and they cheer for that team and then when the team starts to dive and and take it that they start the tank and do well well they just jump off the bandwagon or if you live in philly they just jump off the ben franklin bridge you know and uh... disappear in the woodwork and you never hear from again until their team comes back to life well today we're going to talk about being identifying who you're a fan of decide what team you're on we're talking about going public with your faith and what that means and what that looks like if you haven't been here with us at ccc we've been this month we've been in this series entitled next steps and we're talking about the next steps that god wants you to take in your faith and god wants you to take in your journey and some of the next steps that we talked about over these last several weeks the first next step we talked about was following jesus and said what does it look like to follow jesus what is that step of faith look like and then we talked about the step of faith of being in relationships and not just having friends but what does it look like to have healthy meaningful relationships where you feel safe in the other people in relationship with you feel safe we then talked about two weeks ago about this whole idea of serving and not that everybody should have to do something to the fact that if you call ccc your church home that god has actually brought you here and not only has god brought you but god says you are the part of this body and you have a part that you fit that you play and we had over 50 people say hey i want to play a part somewhere can someone talk to me and help me figure that out and and as a staff we've divided these up so if you haven't heard from us yet after we got dug out we're in the process and we'll be reaching out to you and and connecting with you help you find your place but that what we've talked about over this series is god doesn't ask you to start way over here and then take a flying leap to get way over here that's not what god asked you to do he doesn't ask you to do that he just says i want you to take the next step that's what he says and what you do and then what's the next step that he wants you to take and when you take that step he says now i have another step for you to take and so this morning we're going to talk about another step and that's the step of baptism of going public with your faith if you have a bible with you this morning if you would turn to axe chapter two axe chapter two if you have a bible or a wireless device and if you don't have a bible our guys have some of those and they'll make those available to you they're bringing those up now and the page number is going to be on the screen for you to follow along axe chapter two is where we're going to start this morning let me tell you a little bit about the book of axe the book of axe is not a tool that's in your shed that's not what the book of axe is um the book of axe is really the activities of the disciples of jesus or sometimes known as the apostles the activities of the apostles you see when jesus died on the cross and he rose from the dead and he went back up to heaven to be with god the father um the disciples didn't just come to that end of their their experience to say wow that was a pretty wild three years i don't think i'll ever forget that for the rest of my life okay i guess i go back to fishing that's not what happened that's not what happened there was some pretty radical things that happened in these guys lives and uh the book of axe is about their activities as they were following jesus and so what we're going to look at this morning is we're going to look at the first message the first teaching that came that was given to the jewish community right after jesus left this earth so if you're there in your bibles on axe chapter two let's start in verse 22 and listen to the words from peter as he's talking to the crowd along with the other disciples he says this fellow israelites listen to this jesus of Nazareth was a man credited by god to you by miracles wonders and signs which god did among you through him as you yourselves know this man was handed over to you by god's deliver plan and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross but god raised him up from the dead freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him for the very first time the jewish community was hearing something they were hearing that jesus death on the cross was actually part of god's super natural plan it wasn't just a mistake wasn't just an accident wasn't just an injustice but god actually had mapped this thing out for this to take place and they're also hearing that it was god who raised him from the dead you see there have been a rumor that had been spread that the disciples had just taken jesus body and hid it so they could spread around this rumor but peter says no no no no he says it was god who raised jesus christ from the dead he goes on to say in verse 36 therefore let all israel be assured of this god made this jesus whom you crucified both lord and messiah and he points out two important truths that in this first sermon the first is that you were the ones that killed jesus the you is describing the jewish people in that day and that's kind of stunning for them to hear that because these were good jews i mean these jews that actually come to the city of jursalim following the old testament law to do exactly what jews were supposed to do and jesus said if your fault that this happened or peter said that you killed him it's part of god's plan but you are the ones who killed him and then he goes on to say as well god was the one who raised him from the dead peter did not want them to just push this off on the religious leaders on the religious community he wanted them to recognize that they had ownership in this they had a part in this this was on them that this happened that this took place i don't know about you but i don't think about that very often i don't very often pause and think about the reality that jesus dying on the cross i had a part in that it's because of my sin that he went to that cross on a monthly basis when we pause to remember jesus death called communion we do that so we don't forget that i had a part that you had a part in jesus dying on the cross. Mel gifts him when he produced the movie The Passion of the Christ wanted to know what that experience was like he wanted to know what was the experience like to be have this sense of personal responsibility that he was the one who nailed jesus to the cross and so instead of having a stunt double when they were producing this movie dried the steak through the hands of jesus gibson said i want to be the one to hold that nail as it's driven into his hand and so he was the one who put his hand out there not a stunt double and said i want to know what that experience is like and peter says to the jewish community he says it was you it was you it was you who nailed jesus to the cross the reality is is it was my sin and it was your sin that sent jesus to the cross so how did the people respond hearing that look in verse 37 when they heard this they were cut to the heart and they said peter they said to peter in the other apostles brothers what do we do it was as if it hit him right between the eyes and like oh my goodness i can't believe it was us we did do it this is on our heads what do we do now what do we do now peter replied repent be baptized in the name of jesus for the forgiveness of your sins you'll receive the gift of the spirit this is promises for you and your children for all who are far off for all whom the lord your god will call with many words he warned them and pleaded with them save yourselves from this corrupt generation those who accepted this message were baptized about three thousand were added to that to their number that day what happened they responded to the gospel that day they responded to the gospel they believed that jesus died on the cross in their place for their sins he took their place when we talk about the death of jesus christ in the cross we talk about a substitutionary atonement he substituted himself on the cross for my sins it's believing he died in my place is believing i can't earn my salvation that i need jesus to have done it for me it's believing that his death is the only way for me to have a relationship with the god of the heavens for me to have a relationship with my creator and then as he calls them there he says to repent he says you need to stop going this way and you need to say i'm not going to follow my way of life my plans the way i want to live my life i'm going to turn and i am going to follow jesus that's what he calls them to do and so the first question for you today before we ever get to the subject of baptism and what that is all about what's related to that is have you received this message of jesus have you accepted this message of jesus not do you know about jesus most of the world knows about jesus not do you believe that he died on the cross for the sins of mankind that's why the whole world comes to church on easter because everybody believes that that's true but do you believe that you needed him to do that for you that there's no other way for you to have a relationship with god apart from you accepting what he did for you and that you received his gift of salvation have you said i believe that jesus is the forgiver of my sins and i want to turn my life over and make him the leader of my life and that's what peter asked that day and several thousand people believed but notice what happens right after that in verse 41 says those who accepted his message were baptized the first question is have you accepted the message of jesus and the second question is have you been baptized and we're going to see in just a few moments as we look at a number of passage in the scripture baptism always follows salvation when a person takes the step and said yes i following jesus i've given my life to him they're willing to go public with their faith and say he's my savior and he's my lord and i'm going to let everybody know that i heard someone make this statement and it was a pretty bold statement they said this they said an unbaptized christ follower is a walking contradiction let that settle in an unbaptized christ follower is a walking contradict you said no no no i'm a follower jesus i'm a follower jesus then what is keeping you from taking that next step of going public with your faith so i'm not really right i thought i then maybe you need to take a step back and say have i received the message jesus have i received that message and if i'm not willing to take that step why not why not so what is baptism what is baptism there's a couple things that are going to come up on the screen to explain that the first is it's going public it's letting other people know letting family letting friends lend the people that i'm related to know that i'm a follower of jesus number two it's a command of jesus jesus said in matthew twenty eight verse 19 he says go and make disciples and i want you to baptize them you see baptism was a part of the culture of that day individuals in that day would decide who they're going to believe in who they're going to listen to who they're going to follow and they would follow different rabbis and the teachings of different right the interpretations of the old testament different rabbis and when you would choose to follow a rabbi a rabbi would take you in front of a group of people and he would take you down to body water and he would baptize you and that's what john was doing he was baptizing individuals who were followers of his before jesus showed up on the scene and the number three it's an obedient proof of genuine belief in jesus it's obedient proof of genuine belief in jesus now the way that we baptize here at ccc is by immersion and so the second question is why do we immerse why do we immerse well the first reason is that's literally what the word means that's literally what the word baptize means when the bible was translated it was written originally as they heard it from the individuals that the events that took place it was written in the the greek language called queen a greek which is common greek the greek for everyday everyday people and so when they translate the bible from greek to english and they go along and they're taking each word and they're finding a comparable word okay that's what that one means this okay that's what that one means the word baptize they never translated that word you're like what do you mean they didn't translate that word they didn't you open up a greek new testament and you find that word it says baptizo english translation it's baptize they never translated that word you say why didn't they translated that word the reason they didn't is because of the controversy surrounding this and i'll talk about that in just a few moments so the word baptize literally means to immerse it was taken from two different cultural things in that day the one was when they would take a fabric and if they wanted to make a fabric black they didn't have black fabric they had to create a dye that often came from from things within a tree or other things uh tree bark or things that they would create with that color and they would immerse a piece of fabric in that color to change the color of the fabric and the only way you could change the color completely immerse it was also a term that was used when a ship would hit a reef and the ship would have its whole cracked and go down and it would completely be submerged they wouldn't say this ship sank they say the ship baptized that's what they would say it happened so in the culture of that day that word means to immerse another reason that we do that is all the examples in the new testament were immersion all examples of individuals being baptized were immersion in mark chapter one verse nine and ten talking about jesus is that that time jesus came from Nazareth and galley was baptized by john just as jesus was coming up out of the water and john 323 when it talks about jesus being baptized it said they could do it there because there was plenty of water and we're going to see more passages where there was water that was used for them to go down into that another reason for it is it was the practice of the early church it's practice of the early church in acts chapter eight verse 36 and 37 is a story about a man named philip and philip was walking from one place to the next that's how they got from one place the next most people did in those days and he came across the man who was an Ethiopian he worked for the king of Ethiopia it was likely his treasure he was the minister of finance is what we would call him today and as he ran in the minister of finance he saw that he was reading a scroll not a book but a scroll and as he's reading this scroll is about the prophet Isaiah who was talking about this messiah this deliver that would come and he couldn't make any sense out of it and philip said let me explain to you who this is talking about it's talking about jesus and peter and philip excuse me explained it and the man believed and as the man believed they continued on their journey and he said in this passage he said they came to some water and he said here's some water what's standing in the way of being baptized and they both went down into the water and philip baptized him and there's overwhelming evidence that this took place over and over and over and over again so you may be wondering well how did other modes of baptism or other ways of being baptized how did that come about well part of that you have to do a little bit of study in church history some of that came about and the third century in the third century Constantine was the emperor Constantine declared that everyone had to be a christian everyone had to be a christian and everyone who had to be a christian had to be baptized but that meant a change in the way that you lived Constantine wanted to go to heaven but he didn't want to change the way that he lived and so being the emperor he could make the rules and he said i'm going to live the way i want to i'm going to do everything i want to but on my death bed which is what he did i'm going to make sure i get a little water sprinkled on me and i will declare that that qualifies as baptism there was also a theology that began to surface during that time in which parents were being taught that their kids their children when they were born that that if they didn't if they were not baptized they would not go to heaven if they didn't when they died and so parents is a way to protect their children as a way to guarantee that their children would go to heaven they would baptize these children so that they would spend forever with god and those were declared church doctrine for many denominations in the thirteenth century but there's no evidence of them in the bible the last reason that we baptized by immersion is it's going to come up here on the screen is is it best depicts dying and rising with christ roman's chapter six paul writes this he says we can have that on the screen do you know that all of us who are baptized into christ jesus were baptized into his death talks about being baptized into his death remember we talked about baptism is an identification it's a connection to something else in the next verse we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as jesus was raised from the dead to the glory of the father we too may live a new life paul talks about this and he takes the picture of when jesus died and was placed in a tomb and then that stone was rolled away and he came and he rose again to new life and he takes that picture and he says there is this mystical union that happens when you have placed your faith in jesus and you take this step of going back of being baptized where when you go down in that water it's a picture symbolic picture of your old way of life that you are dying to and you come up out of that water and that old way of life is being washed away and you are born into a new relationship with jesus it is being baptized make a person save no baptism is what happens and then salvation it's not baptism that says it's a picture of what happens inside it's an external picture of an internal commitment it's an external picture of an internal commitment just like because i have a wedding ring on i i can anybody can wear a ring but what does that ring symbolizes symbolize an external commitment external picture of an internal commitment that i have made to my wife and so baptism is much the same you know one of the things i tell our photographers when they're taking pictures of baptism i said catch the picture of the person right as they come out of the water it's the most remarkable thing because when they come up out of the water their face explodes into the most amazing smile as if something has been has supernaturally changed in their lives why is that i can't fully describe it there's something supernatural there's something mystical about this connection with my savior who did this for me and in a very symbolic way i am doing this to identify with him it's a powerful picture it's a powerful image it's a powerful experience to identify with jesus through baptism you say but john what what about what about those individuals and i kind of fit in that category you know i was baptized as a baby i was baptized as an infant by my parents and maybe that's been your experience and the truth is if you think about that that was a very meaningful experience for your parents likely you don't remember it likely and if you think about what was the intent what was the desire that your parents had at that moment in time likely their desire was that you would one day choose jesus that you would one day spend to have a relationship with jesus that you would one day spend eternity with jesus but there's no evidence in the bible that that baptism makes that happen it just simply is a reflection of their hearts desire and so if you've been baptized as an infant and you have taken the step of accepting and receiving jesus i would encourage you to be baptized again you say well john i was baptized before after i received jesus but i was baptized in a different way i was not placed under the water does that mean my baptism doesn't count i have no idea i have no idea we'll check in with god on that when we get to heaven but what we've chosen to do here at ccc is we have encouraged individuals who've experienced that to consider taking the step of being baptized by immersion as a way of identifying with jesus and one of our elders explained it to me he said it's a little bit like this it's a little bit like a couple who stands before an altar and and stands before a pastor and they and they go through their vows and in their vows they say you know i will love honor and cherish you know in sickness and in hell for richer for poor till death do us part they they don't have any idea what that means they really don't they say it but they don't know they don't know your fiance gets sick you just leave them at home and you go home you don't have to be there with them through all that nastiness you know um you take your money and you leave and they got to figure out how to handle things with their own money you know when you make that commitment when you make that pledge when you make that value you're you're in it and you're there and in 20 25 years 30 35 years you again say you know we want to renew our vows you know and you stand before one another with some family and friends and you say you know i pledge to you in sickness and health you know what that's like and you might even be standing with someone that's facing a terminal illness for richer for poor you might know what it's like to go through bankruptcy you might know what it's like to not know where to your next two nickels are going to come together or how that bill's going to get paid does that invalidate the vows that you made before absolutely not does it deepen your understanding and your commitment and your under and your pledge to one another it most certainly does and so to be baptized again doesn't invalidate your first experience doesn't minimize it or erase it it simply gives you an opportunity to take a step and go public and say i want my family and my friends and the people that i worship with to know that i am a follower of Jesus they say what if i got baptized when i was a kid and it was the thing to do and and and i knew i was supposed to get baptized and my parents told me i should get baptized so yeah sure why not my friends were getting about i didn't really think about it didn't mean anything to me i just did it i just did it what should i do i don't think you have to get baptized again but i encourage you to sit with this and wrestle with it and if there's something inside of your spirit that says you know i want to go public i want to personally identify with Jesus i want my family and friends to know that i am a follower of his and i want to declare that today and i want to this be my decision that i am announcing today i'd encourage you to consider it it's one of the reasons that when someone comes to us and says you know i want my whole family to be baptized oh let's kind of just kind of pause right there we have conversations with each individual who's part of the family because this is a personal decision to go public with your faith one last question for you to consider and that's this that's who should be baptized who should be baptized the truth is not everyone not everyone only those individuals who've taken the step of receiving Jesus as their Lord and as their Savior because baptism always follows your decision to choose Jesus and if you would take your Bible and you would go home and you would read through the book of Acts you would find this over and over and over and over again in Acts 2 they believed and they were baptized in Acts chapter 8 they believed and they heard the good news and they were baptized Simon himself believed and was baptized in Acts chapter 10 Cornelius believed and he was baptized in Acts chapter 16 the Philippian jailer heard and believed in his family and they were baptized in Acts chapter 18 they heard and believed and they were baptized what do you need to believe that Jesus died for your sins in your place so that you could have a relationship with God forever I say but John I'm kind of a private person I don't really like to you know I don't want people to know what's going on with me and there's a part of this that's very true your faith your decision to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord that is a private decision that is a personal decision between you and your creator God himself but even though your decision is private your faith was never meant to be private your faith was meant to be public your decision is private but your faith was never meant to be public you say but John I do a lot of good things you know I read my Bible on a regular basis and I listen to Christian radio and I read Christian novels and and all those things are good and meaningful important things but they're not things God commanded you to do he did command you if you placed your faith in Jesus to be baptized so the question for you to ask yourself today is have I placed my faith in Jesus and am I willing to be baptized and if not why not if not why not in the front pocket of your chair there there's a card that looks like this I want to ask everybody to pull out that card if you're on the front row that should be on your seats so if everybody pull out the card that looks like this and one of the things that we want to do this morning is we want to eliminate all the excuses the only the closest thing we could have had to that has had a tank right here in the morning this morning but we don't so um but we want to challenge you this morning I want to challenge you this morning that if you have placed your faith in Jesus and you can check that first box and you've never been baptized that you would consider checking that second box today today put your name and contact information down there if you have not been baptized why not why not an unbaptized Christ follower is a walking contradiction of what following Jesus is all about and say John if we you're not going to baptize people today then what are we going to do this we're going to do it in in a month end of February say well I'm I'm going to be out of town I'm you know I'm going to be in the Bahamas you know I well then we'll schedule you for the next one you know when we do it this summer but I want to challenge you today to say I'm willing to take this step I'm willing to go public I'm not willing to keep my faith a private thing any longer and I'm not going to make any more excuses about why I'm not willing to let everybody know that I am a follower of Jesus have you received the message of Jesus have you been baptized if not why not if you got questions and you want to talk to us about it you can put a note on there we'd love to talk to you and discuss this a little bit more with you but we hope and challenge you to take this step we're looking forward to the end of February I've have an entire service where we have people to say I'm ready to take that step I'm ready to go public and for you to hear story after story of people who say it's time it's time I no longer want my life to be a contradiction because I'm a follower of Jesus and I want to let people know today Put your bow your heads with me as we close and as we do so maybe this morning you've taken that step and you've been baptized and but if you haven't I hope you're wrestling with if not why not and you're willing to be honest about it God is a patient God and He's brought you here this morning to hear this message and for you to be challenged by it God you were willing to send your one and only son to this earth and you were willing to have him give up his life so that we could have life in a relationship with you not only in this life but for eternity God you invite us to declare our allegiance to you declare our willingness to follow you our support of you Father I pray for those who are wrestling through that decision right now that they might be able to come to a place of saying I'm willing to go public with my faith and let everyone know that I'm a follower of Jesus give them the courage to do so you pray in your name amen as the band comes forward to lead us in this song that we're going to close with if you're wrestling with this decision this morning our prayer for you is that you're willing to say you know God I'm going to surrender on this one I'm going to turn this one over and I'm going to follow you I'm saying Lord I want to be someone whose life and words match and today I'm willing to surrender I'm just going to have everybody remain seated for the first part of this song and then later I will invite you to stand