the creed-Baptism

It's interesting how some of the best and biggest opportunities in your life will come at a time and in a way you didn't expect. You ever notice that?

1. Simple steps, very simple steps.

a. When David killed Goliath, the only reason he was even there that day was because his dad sent him to run an errand, and it was just by obeying his father that he ended up there to kill Goliath.

i. He went on to become the greatest king Israel would ever know.

ii. He was the hero of the nation when he went to bed that night, but he didn't know that when he woke up that morning.

b. Moses, who delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery.

i. The whole thing started when he was working in his father-in-law's sheep shop.

ii. A bush caught on fire, he turned aside to look, God spoke to him, called him, and he obeyed.

iii.                He took a step.

iv.                 He went on to become a deliverer and a leader of millions.

c.One of my favorites is in the New Testament, how Peter and his boys were fishing and caught nothing all night.

i. Jesus showed up, told them to do it a different way, and when they did, they had such a large catch they couldn't even haul in the nets.

ii. Then Jesus said, "I want you to leave your nets and follow Me."

iii.                When they got up to go fishing that day, they had no idea they were about to be drafted into the service of Jesus and would end up writing parts of the Bible.

iv.                 Unexpected and very simple.

d. Some of the greatest moments, experiences, and seasons of your life will come when you least expect it, through a simple step.

i. Take TK for instance she can tell you this about the day I asked her to marry me.

1. The greatest thing that ever happened to her in her life, and she had no idea it was coming.

2. I asked her father’s permission…and boom she’s stuck(blessed) with me forever!

2. Jesus has been doing some great things in His ministry, and a lot of people are following Him.

a. He's feeding thousands, He's healing blind and sick people, teaching great stuff, and He has a lot of followers.

b. Then in Mark 8:31, He shifts the focus of His teaching and starts talking about what He really came to do and what it really means to follow Him.

i. He lays down the challenge, Follow Me.

Mark 8:31 “Then Jesus”…(after all these great things He had done) began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later He would rise from the dead.”

c.That's not what they wanted to hear.

i. They wanted to hear that He was going to kick out the Romans who had been oppressing them, and lead in a great military conquest.

ii. But Jesus, for the first time, is letting them know that it's not going to be all about free food for the multitudes, it's not all going to be just about needs getting met physically; it's going to be about Him giving His life in order that the world might be saved through Him.

Mark 8:32 As “He talked about this openly” (plainly) with His disciples, Peter took Him aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things.”

d. To rebuke someone means to correct strongly.

e. Peter starts giving Jesus his opinion and his advice.

i. Any of you ever argued with God about something in your life before?

ii. You know, just mentally or through your actions?

iii.                Go ahead raise your hand.

iv.                 Now, if you have ever won that argument? Keep your hand up. That's what I thought.

Verse 33 “Jesus turned around and looked at His disciples, then reprimanded Peter. "Get away from me, Satan!" He said. "You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's."

f. God's way; man’s way.

g. You have to do it God's way, not man's way.

Verse 34-38, key verse: 34 Then, calling the crowd to join His disciples, He said, "If any of you wants to be My Follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of Me and My message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He returns in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

3. Over and over again in Scripture Jesus calls people to follow Him.

a. He calls prostitutes and tax collectors, wicked, unclean, irreligious people to follow Him.

b. He calls religious people who thought they had their act together to drop their pose and follow Him.

c.He calls us all to follow Him over and over and over.

d. It's one of the most frequent commands in Scripture. "Follow Me."

i. This is probably the most famous incident of that command.

e. It's a powerful image to think about following Jesus.

i. It's profound and it's simple.

ii. That's really what it's all about: following Christ.

iii.                But I'm concerned that for so many of us who know a lot about the Bible, "follow Me" no longer means to us what it meant when Jesus said it.

f. They might read what He says; they might not.

g. I'm fearful that a lot of people when they say, "I'm a follower of Jesus," they're following Jesus the same way their following Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashain, or their favorite sports team.

i. Which is to say, Okay, I've clicked the button.

1. Jesus, I'll listen to what You have to say, but I'm going to pick and choose what parts I want to pay attention to.

a. So if it works for me, I'll do it.

b. Or if I feel like it, I'll do it.

4. Jesus is not to be clicked on and followed.

a. He's to be worshipped, He's to be obeyed, He's to be revered, He's to be respected, He's to be honored, and He is not one among many; He's the one and only God!

b. To follow Him means no other options, no other gods.

i. I'm doing what You say, I'm going where You lead, I'm denying myself, taking up my cross, and I'm following You and only You!

ii. What in the world do we mean by "I'm a Christian, I follow Jesus"?

5. The first step Jesus calls us to take if we are really following Him, is to be baptized, and baptism is so much more than clicking on a button or doing a ceremony.

a. When the early church would be baptized, a lot of them would be killed because of their faith in Christ.

i.  Their belief transformed their actions and their actions transformed others.

b. Just like we've emptied a lot of the meaning out of following Jesus, for so many of us (and this was certainly true of my own life for a long time), we've emptied the meaning of baptism and made it a whole lot less important to us than it is to Jesus.

i. I guess you could say, we've watered it down.

ii. There are a lot of people who have decided to follow Jesus, but here's the question…How can you claim to be a follower of Christ if you're not willing to take the first step He has called you to take through baptism?

a. Baptism is simple, yet it's so deep.

c.So Jesus says, "After you place your faith in Christ, I want you to let the world know you belong to Me by being baptized."

i. We take a very literal view of baptism.

ii. We take them down into the water because the original word for baptize means to dunk, dip, or submerge.

1. It was used to talk about a battleship that completely went under.

d. Why?

Romans 6:1 "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin."

i. Baptism represents that Jesus Christ was in the grave for three days.

ii. He died for our sins so we're buried with Him.

iii.                Then we bring them up out of the water, as the water drips from their head, they celebrate, we cheer, we celebrate that we are raised to new life in Christ and our sins are washed away.

e. In Romania they ask the question “How long are you going to follow Christ?” their answer, “To the death.”

f. In China they break through ice to baptize new converts in the night to keep from being killed and we're nervous about a heated baptistry in front of our peers and family in complete freedom?

i. What's important to God must be important to us.

1. We have to get past the ways of the religions of men, embrace God's ways, because if I think one thing about a certain subject, and God says another thing, I'm wrong and He's right, because He's the leader; I'm the follower.

6. So we water down the idea of baptism.

a. A lot of times we make it about a denomination or church tradition rather than a biblical command.

i. It's not about joining a church.

ii. Some people are like, I don't know if I want to be baptized here at CWC.

iii.                I don't know if I want to be a member yet.

1. Well you know what?

2. We're not sure if we want you yet either.

3. You're not being joined with or baptized into a church but being joined with Him.

b. Another thing we do, we make it about our parents' decision rather than our own initiative.

i. I was baptized as a child in a Pentecostal church.

ii. My peers were doing it, my parents said something about my peers being baptized and they had such a love for God so I decided to do it.

iii.                Baptized, but when I gave my life to Christ at age 19, I started studying the Bible and realized I needed to be baptized as an adult because this has to be my decision.

1. My faith can't be a family heirloom or a peer-pressured event.

7. In baptism you're saying, "This is my faith. I'm owning this." We call it "believer's baptism," because 27 times in the book of Acts someone was baptized, and every single time first they believed, then they were baptized.

Ephesians 2:8 “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.”

a. There was a thief on the cross who worshipped and put his faith in Jesus in his dying moment.

b. He didn't have time to get down, change clothes, and be baptized, but Jesus said to him, "Today, you'll be with me in paradise."

c.Why? We're saved by grace through faith.

d. No work can save you, not giving, not serving, not being baptized.

i. Baptism isn't about salvation; it's about identification, saying, "I belong to You, Jesus.

ii. My sins are washed away and I'm going to take this next step You told me to take, whether I've been a Christian for two days, or whether I've been a Christian for 22 years.

e. We have to do it God's way, not man's way.

i. Man makes it optional.

ii. "It's a good thing to do. It's a good spiritual experience."

f. But to be a follower of Jesus (hear me) is to fully obey His clear instructions empowered by His grace.

i. A lot of us make the mistake of waiting until we're worthy to be baptized.

ii. Well I'd like to be baptized but I want to get my life together first because I have this thing, I have this issue.

iii.                If you could forgive sin, you wouldn't need Jesus, and that's what the waters of baptism are all about, saying, "I trust in You, Lord. I want You to change my life. Here's my declaration."

1. I’m so fired up that our 707Kidz are learning about baptism this morning!

8. I hope that those of you who have already been baptized and you know this already, aren't sitting there bored.

a. I hope you're praying for somebody who is here who needs to get baptized, that they could have the courage to do it.

b. Or at least be agreeing with me for this city that needs Christ.

i. Well don't I need to like go through training or something?

Acts 2:41 “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day-about 3,000 in all.”

ii. That day!

iii.                All right, you want to accept the message?

1. Be baptized!

9. Sunday morning September 28^th morning worship there will be water, there will be a celebration waiting for you, your family, and there's a church that wants to support you, so what's to stop you?

a. Well I want to pray about it. 

i. You don't pray about things God has clearly told you; you obey them.

b. I just want to take some time.

c.Or I think I know a better way.

i. Okay Peter, with your arguing spirit, the right time to do the right thing is right now.

ii. Baptism is for people who say, "I'm not perfect and I can never be perfect, but I want to follow Christ.”

1. No excuses.

2. Are you in or not?

3. Decide today.

4. Some of you are sitting on the fence.

a. Are you with Jesus or not?

b. Are you ashamed of Him?

c.Do you want to just follow Him when He's giving out free food and neat stuff?

d. Or are you going to say, "I'm with You, Jesus.”

i. From this day forward I'm with You.

ii. I'm going to stand with You.

iii.                I belong to You.

d. Lord, may the decision be made, may the die be cast, may the line be drawn right now, that people are putting their full faith in You.

i. This is it, your opportunity.

ii. You know God is calling you, and if you feel that in your heart, let me assure you, that is the Holy Spirit of God calling you.

iii.                It's not emotional manipulation, it's the presence of God drawing you, calling you, and requesting you follow Him.