When I was baptized as an adult, I came into church that Sunday not expecting anything but being at church on Sunday. And the pastor started to talk to me about it. I'm gonna share a little bit more about that in a little bit. Pastor started talking to me about it and talking to the congregation. And then he invited people up, and I'm just going, oh, no, is that me? Every part of me was being stirred up inside. The part that is like, I think I need to do this. And the part that's saying, don't do this. It was all part of what was happening in my heart. God got ahold of me. The Holy Spirit was at work. And I finally just decided, I'm gonna go up there and do this. Didn't have the clothes that I thought I should have had to wear none of it. But I decided to do it today. That might be you.
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This is a moment. This is a day that we're just gonna say, holy Spirit, what's up? What do you want us to do? What's happening here? And could this be your story? I want to teach about it today because we need to know what's going on here.
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If the Holy Spirit is churning on your heart like he was with me, respond to it and jump into the water. Okay?
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When you look at scripture, baptism and belief, when people believed they were baptized, they believed they were baptized. You saw that throughout scripture and you especially see it in the book of Acts.
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Each one of them, it wasn't a whole lot of preparation. They just said, this is what we're gonna do. This is what was happening throughout. Even the first baptism service.
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To be saved is to say, yes, Jesus, I am a sinner, saved by grace. I recognize that I needed you, and I'm saying yes to you. That's to be saved. That's the work Jesus done for us. So baptism is then our statement of what Jesus has done for us.
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What is this about getting into the water and going under the water? What's that about? Well, let's talk about that. What's it about? Well, the first thing it's about is obedience. Because Jesus says, this is a command, not a request. It's not a suggestion. If you feel like going under the water, it's a command, man. You believe, get baptized.
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He knows that we will major in the minors in our life. He knows that each day there'll be a lot of things that we'll make a stance on and that we'll be passionate about and we'll be frustrated with, and that will consume our thoughts and our minds. And that would be a lot of what you'd call the minors compared to the one major. And Jesus wants that one major to be him and his love and grace for us.
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When I got into that water, it was, I knew, I'm a sinner saved by grace. I am a doubter that's saved by his love. I am someone that will always screw up and saved by his mercy. And Jesus is going, that is your major. You are separated from God. Your sin is the thing that you were gonna die in, separated from God's purpose, perfect goodness. But something had to happen. And I'm going to go step in between that, and I'm going to die that death. I'm going to be the one that's going to take on the sin of the world, including your sin. And I'm going to die the death that you should have died. But instead, I'm going to conquer death. That's not going to have the last word. And I'm going to rise from the grave. And because of that, you also. Death doesn't work. And that's the beauty of the gospel. That's what Jesus wants as our major in our life.
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He wants us to remember that in baptism. He wants us to say, I want you to both remember it, and I want you to experience it.
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When you go under the water, in any water, can you breathe? Well, if you got gills, you can, but I don't think any of us have that. And so you can't breathe underwater. And so you hold your breath. And if you're out under there for a long time, what happens? Eventually you get desperate for that surface. You get desperate for that breath. When you die on the cross, do you know what you die of? Suffocation. That your body can't hold it up. And so you're starting to slouch over and you actually suffocate. Jesus died trying to get a breath, and he went to the grave. But you can picture when he comes out on that third day and the stone is rolled away, and you could picture him coming out and taking that deep breath, that ruah, that breath of God, that breath of life that Jesus takes. And he's going, this is what I offer for you.
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When you go down into that water, when you go down in. That's my death. That's that desperation for that breath. You come out of that water and you breathe. You breathe that life that Jesus breathed when he came out of the tomb.
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It's a cleansing water. When you in first John, it says when you confess Your sins. He is faithful and just. He'll forgive your sins. Sins. And purify you of all unrighteousness. He will make you right with God again. That's the cleansing work of God. That's the cleansing work of the spirit.
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It's a public expression of all that's going on on the inside. I want to let people know, not to brag, not to be prideful. But there's something that's gone on inside. And it's not just, oh, I made a commitment to Jesus, so now I'm going to get baptized. It's, I'm a new creation.
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We celebrate the new creation. We celebrate the changed Life. That Romans 6 passage. Listen to how Eugene Peterson paraphrases it. That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we're lowered into the water, it's like the burial of Jesus. When we're raised up out of the water, it's like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace, sovereign country. This is the new life. It's the difference between living a victorious life or a defeated life.
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We sometimes live so much in the rules of the church and sometimes you sit there and go, you know, I don't know if I should. I already did it once. Do you honestly think that Jesus, when he sees you face to face in heaven, do you honestly think Jesus is gonna say, hey, well done, good and faithful servant, you did awesome things? Except I got one thing that I got a real issue with. Why'd you get baptized twice? Do you honestly think that that's what Jesus would say? Come on. He celebrates that.
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If you made a commitment to Jesus and you got baptized in high school, but yet this is years and years later and life, it's taken its toll and lots of hard stuff that you've gone through and you need to recommit, you need to just go, I want to re up again. It's okay for you to do that.
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Don't let embarrassment be the thing. And the last one is this. I don't want to be a hypocrite. I'm a sinner. And I know that I will still sin. And so I got to clean things up first before I ever get into the water. Man, I've heard that so many times. You guys, Jesus is not telling us to clean up before we get to the cleansing water of God. He's not telling us to do that.
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Jesus is saying to us, let me do my job. You get into the water. Let me begin that journey of that transformation that happens in your life and the cleansing work of God. Let me do the work of cleaning. You are working with me in the journey.
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For some reason he said it as he came out of the water. I don't know, you guys. I feel like that's part of the mystery about as well, that God maybe reserves a moment. And when you get out of that water, he looks at you and he says, you are my dearly loved son or daughter and you bring me great joy. Maybe that's why it's so memorable.
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Don't let that be your story. Don't let your story be. Well, I was just too embarrassed or I justified it from some other time that I did it and I don't remember. Don't let it be your story, because I just never am going to be cleaned up enough. Don't let it be your story that you never got in the water. Get in. You know that God's blessing you in the midst of that. Get in. Let him do his work as you are obedient to him. Let this be your story.
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Whether it's today or some other time, but this is part of your story. It is. Step into it with courage. Step into it.
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