The Significance of Baptism

Sermon Series:

The Significance of Baptism

Summary:

 

In a heartfelt sermon, Jeremy celebrates baptism Sunday, emphasizing its importance as a public proclamation of faith in Jesus. He explains that baptism is more than just a ritual; it's a sacrament that signifies acceptance of God's grace and incorporation into the body of Christ. Drawing on scripture and the Nazarene Manual, he highlights that baptism is a means of grace, calling believers to reflect on their spiritual journeys. Jeremy encourages the congregation to embrace stewardship, using their gifts to point others toward God. He underscores the communal aspect of faith, reminding everyone that baptism connects them not only to God but to each other. As the service progresses toward the baptisms, he invites the community to celebrate the transformative power of grace in their lives.
 

Transcript:

 

Today is the day that we get to gather here together as a family of believers, as people that get to proclaim the good news of Jesus. And even more so it's baptism Sunday, which I just think is so cool and so exciting. And it is a way that we get to celebrate people who are new to the faith, making a public proclamation that they follow Jesus and they're a part of our family and we get to welcome them and cheer for them and journey with them into being world changers wherever they find themselves at. Now just a quick show of hands who's been baptized before? Raise your hand just real quick. Okay. Put your hand down. It's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. That's really cool. I'm very excited. I hope I have enough cups. Actually, I have little cups to pour in later, so that's good.


That means that here today the people who have been baptized get to celebrate and witness those who are about to be baptized. And then you get to understand that you have a legacy and an impact to nurture people and to care for people who are new to the faith, but then also to work towards bringing other people to the faith as well. And so let's start off with what is baptism? What is this thing that we do with this tub behind us where we push people underwater and bring them back up and say, congratulations, you're wet. Now what does that mean? Well, we could start with scripture, which is always good. It's always good. We should always start with scripture. But I figured since we are in a church setting and we have this really big book called a Manual that explains all of our positions on everything, I would start there for the Nazarene understanding of baptism.


So if you'll indulge me, I know that we're all not maybe from that tradition, but this is how we can understand and give us a firm or a foundation to what we believe. So this is from Article 12 of the Nazarene Manual. In case you're curious, you can pull it up online, but this is what it states that we believe that Christian baptism commanded by our Lord is a sacrament signifying acceptance of the benefits of the atonement and incorporation into the body of Christ. Baptism is a means of grace, proclaiming faith in Jesus Christ as savior. It is to be administered to believers indicating their full purpose of obedience and holiness and righteousness as participants in the new covenant. Young children in the morally innocent may be baptized upon requests of parents or guardians. Their church shall give assurance of Christian training. Baptism may be administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion in Nazarene Manuel.


So there you go. That is baptism. So I hope you understood all of that and I can just move on and we just dunk people, right? I don't think so because there's a lot of words in there that mean a lot of different things to different parts of our Christian family, but I think the first thing we're going to notice is that baptism, this act right here is not the actual saving act and it's important to notice that and to state that because we have to understand that the person who saves us and brings us through life and regenerates us and makes us clean is Jesus. Jesus is the person who gives us new life that believe through him, the Holy Spirit cleanses us and makes us new. But it's more than just water, right? We are not just saying, okay, that's great, but so why do we do this?


Baptism is more than just water. It's first, it's a sacrament. A sacrament is a visible sign of God's grace across time and place as well as confessional lines. Two main sacraments are practiced in our pretty much all throughout all of Christianity, no matter what denomination you are. And there's always two baptism and the Lord's supper also called the Eucharist or holy communion. We practice the Lord's supper every Sunday here in baptism. We do every fifth Sunday, so about four times a year plus extra, any special extra ones. But these are instituted by Christ. Jesus did both of these. Jesus said he presided over the Lord's supper and he was baptized himself and told us to go to the edges of the world teaching and baptizing all people in the name of himself or of God. But these are understood sacraments to be present, Christ present with us in life, death, salvation, everything we do.


And it is a means of grace. A means of grace is it's the way that God imparts his grace upon God's people. Because when you signify through Jesus that when you believe in Jesus, you are saying, I accept this gift of grace, that I don't deserve this gift of grace that you have given to me so freely. And that by your belief in Jesus and accepting that and through them public display of baptism, you're showing the world the grace of God in your own life. So if you've been baptized, you have been a witness to the grace of God, which is a miracle in of itself. Being dead to yourself and then being made new and having new life is a miracle. It is something that is amazing. It is something that we, if you're a Christian, have all experienced, I've been reflecting on this a lot that it's really great that we get baptized and we celebrate that and it's really good.


But I want you to be able to reflect always that the new life you have been given is not something that you ever could have done on your own ever. That new life that has been given to you is done by the creator of the universe. The creator of the universe has given you new life because you have said, I give my life to you. And so if you've been baptized, you have publicly confessed that and displayed that for the whole world to see. And then also through your act of baptism, you are giving other people the opportunity to understand that grace and be able to reflect on their own baptism or to understand, hey, that person had this life and now they have a new life, if that's possible for them, it's possible For me, it is a means of grace because God can interact in the lives of people who witness it and the people who get to experience it altogether.


So it is more than just water, it is more, but it is not the cleansing act itself. Ezekiel, the passage we read earlier, Maria read earlier is from the Old Testament. So this cleansing, the cleansing of people, the purifying of person, of the soul is not just something that Jesus something we see all the way through the Old Testament, all the cleansing rituals that you can read and all the Old Testament, but Ezekiel specifically is calling the nation of Israel to new life. He's calling 'em to something new, to be recreated, and he says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and he'll be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities, from all your idols. I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you.


I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh and I'll put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. The order of that is important. I will give you something new. What is immovable and rock hard. I'll replace it with something that is malleable, that is capable of love. And because of that, you'll follow my laws and my decrees. We baptized because God loves us, because God wants us to have hearts of flesh or hearts that are capable of caring and hearts that are capable of loving. Instead of saying, you have to be perfect to come up to this space to get baptized, you'll be made perfect because you are obedient in coming up to be baptized. The order is important. So what does it mean practically first?


I mean it's not very practical because it's miraculous, but you're set free from sin. You're set free from death. That is the first benefit if you will, of baptism and following Jesus. And that doesn't mean that hooray, I'm set for you from death. Life is no longer scary and life is super easy right now. We know that's not true. I'm sure everybody in here who raised their hand can think back to a time in their life where it's been difficult, where it has been hard to follow Jesus or even to see Jesus or to understand. I mean, Ezekiel didn't write. People needed to be renewed because they all had super confidence and all could recognize the presence of God. They couldn't and they had fallen away. So I'm going to renew you. Jesus came because we couldn't do it ourselves. So you're set free from sin and death and we can find hope and peace and joy in the midst of chaos because of that.


That doesn't mean chaos will stop, but it means that we can be peaceful in the midst of it. And very practically, you're entering into a new relationship with the world around you. Your own life has been changed. Your relationship with God has changed somewhere along the way to be baptized because you've said, yes, I'm going to follow God. That's a new relationship. Now, the world around you is going to be different. You should live differently because God has given you a heart of flesh and you should be able to, or you should strive to follow his commandments and laws and decrees more closely. You should begin to believe that God so loved you and this is important. You should believe that God so loved you, that God sent Jesus to make you clean, that God sent Jesus for you as your savior. That's really great.


I hope that you understand that and feel that and can internalize that and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit working in you to believe that. Then you should understand that Jesus is not just for you, Jesus, and the saving grace is not just for you. Jesus is a personal savior, but Jesus is the savior for the world. So if Jesus can save you and Jesus can offer you free grace and a blessing of new life and offer you forgiveness for your sins, then Jesus certainly can offer that to the person that you dislike the most in this world, Jesus is great for us, but Jesus is important and necessary for the world. It's not a personal matter because once you receive grace, you're not supposed to be like, thank you, I got it, I'm out of here. I got the good stuff. I'll see you later.


That grace is supposed to change you to interact into the world in better ways. So new you and new relationships is one of the practical benefits for this. Though you're free in Christ, you are no longer to be free in the way that you once were before knowing Jesus. Yesterday I got to speak a revival and play guitar revival and down the road here and the topic was stewardship. So I've been thinking about this for a month or so, and then Jonathan asked me to talk today and what is stewardship? What is it? What is it? And here's where I landed and I get to hear a little bit of the stuff I had from yesterday, but being a good steward is using what we have in our lives to point people towards God. What you have been given is a gift from God. Everything you have is a gift from God.


Your gifts, your abilities, your time, your money, everything is not yours. You're a good steward for the person who is the ultimate creator and owner of all things in the universe, God. So being a good steward is using what you have to point people towards God. And that might even mean using the bad parts of your life to talk about freedom and overcoming and redemption to point other people towards God. And I want to highlight this. Even I'm talking about this, that's probably impossible to do all of the time by yourself. It is impossible, I think to always be, to always be on, to always be like, yes, this is good. And that is why it is so important for us to be in community so that when you're feeling down and you're feeling beat up or you're feeling like Moses who can't hold his arms up over the battle anymore, you have people and the community around you that can do that for you.


That is why when you are baptized, you're not baptized as an individual. You are baptized into the faith and into the body of believers. So we can be a family together that is part of this journey as well. And so your treasure that you have, what do you have to give to God? Well, if you're being baptized today, your first and greatest treasure you can be a good steward of and you have indicated and will show us soon is your life. You have decided to give your life to Jesus and say, this is yours to do whatever you would like. Thank you for creating me. I am unique and I'm an individual, but you are now the owner of everything I have. But here's a secret. Those who have been baptized already, all of you who raised your hands should also recognize that the greatest gift you have to give to God to be a good steward over is your lives every single day, to be in continual repentance, to be desiring, to be holy as Christ is holy always. So the call is the same. The journey might look a little bit different depending on where you're at and how new you are to the faith or how old you are to the faith, but is always first and foremost what you have that you live with every day that you look in a mirror when you wake up is you looking back at yourself. That is the greatest gift you can be a good steward of for the kingdom of God.


So I was drawn to this story of Hannah and the Bible. She's Samuel's Mother Samuel has two books, and actually part of king's is all like this long scroll, Samuel and Kings, and she's a mother Samuel who is this major prophet in the Old Testament, and she pleads to God, she makes a vow. She wasn't able to have kids and she makes this vow saying, Lord Almighty, if you only look on your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her son and I will give him to the Lord for all the days of my life and no razor will ever be used on his head. So she says, God, if you give me the son, I'm giving him back to you.


So Samuel was born and just like five verses later, there's like this big, I pick amazing miracle that happened. And then five verses later it says, after he was weaned, she took the boy with her young as he was along with 3-year-old bull, some flour and a skin of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli who was a pastor prophet, and she said to him, pardon me, my Lord, as surely as you live, I'm the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. I prayed to this child and the Lord has granted what I ask of him. So now I give him to the Lord for this whole life. He'll be given over to the Lord and he worships the Lord there. So the story's fascinating because she begged, she begged for a boy something that will be her legacy that is well beyond her time. And as soon as she's done weaning him, breastfeeding him, caring for him as the youngest, she gives him back to God.


It's mind blowing to me to have that much faith. Obviously I was not pregnant, I can't carry kids, but I got the journey alongside my wife who was pregnant for two kids and be a part of that and when they were born, my kids amazing. I love them. I could not imagine after three years, maybe two years, to give him away to be like God, I made you this promise. Here he is. But that is the faith and the stewardship that is displayed because that's what Hannah had. She made a promise to God with her life and she said, here is the life that you have given me. We have to be good owners and we have to know. So how do we get to that point? The question, how do we get to the point of knowing how serious we're supposed to be about this stuff?


How do we know God's heart? Well, if you're new to the faith, that's the people who are going to be baptized soon or even younger in the faith, you'll have a lot of questions and you'll need to check in often with people and have accountability. If you're a seasoned veteran, you've been here for a while, you've signed up to volunteer, you've taken Bible classes, you'll be a little bit more clear of what God's heart is and God's intention is, and you'll have to check in for accountability. If you're a mature and wise leader, you've been in the faith for years and years and years and years, or you've done a lot lot of school and understand all the Old Testament stuff and the words and the heart, you'll be much smarter, but you'll also have to check in with other people for accountability. We are here together so we know scripture, we pray, we go through experience, that we do ministry together, and we hold each other accountable to know what the will of God is for our community. It's all about preparing the way for the Lord. That's what stewardship is, using what we have to prepare the way for the Lord. Think of the people in your life who've been baptized. Think about the people in your life who have poured into your life, who have taught you about Jesus, who have prepared the way for you to be followers of Jesus. Also, think about the people that have gotten in your way of what that might be and that maybe even be people inside the church.


Your job as good stewards of your life and your time and your money and your energy is to prepare the way for the Lord. That is what we are called to do, to teach other people about who God is and to tell them about the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. Moses practiced good stewardship in the Old Testament because he cared for and led the people of God, even though they wined all the time. The prophets were good stewards because even though they were beaten and thrown in holes or alone for most of their lives, they were good stewards because they proclaimed the word of the Lord to prepare the people for the Lord. Mothers and fathers like Hannah, who dedicated their children to God were good stewards because they had offered back the life that they had been given to God. John the Baptist was a good steward.


He lived in the wilderness and ate locusts and honey and wore camel hair and kind of weird guy, but he literally prepared the wave for the Lord by baptizing the proclaiming that he was suing going to be there. Mary was a good steward because she said yes to being the mother of Jesus. The disciples ended up being good stewards because they pointed everybody to God to the point that most of them were martyred for their faith. Paul was a good steward because he used his knowledge, both of theology and the culture that he came from and the business acumen that he had and this multiple language he spoke to point people to God. Jesus himself was a good steward because everything he did, everything he lived for pointed people to the kingdom of heaven all the way up to the point that he gave his life for the world.


Luke 2242, this is how you know that Jesus was willing to do it all. He says, father, if you are willing take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Jesus has used everything he had to obey God. So what are you going to be a good steward of? You have areas of influence in your life around you, whether that's just your life, you got some skills or talents, you can use those to build up the kingdom of God. People who are very smart can teach and help educate people who are very friendly, can be good stewards and welcome people into the community or go and visit people. People who are in tune with a solid prayer life. They can be great prayers for the world around them. People who are gifted at hospitality can provide food and comforts for those who visit or again for us to go out into the community.


We, Christians are called to be good stewards wherever we find ourselves. And so in this very moment right now, we are being good stewards with our Sunday mornings to be gathered here together for a little bit of time to support one another, to lift each other up. If you have nothing else, to look across the sanctuary and say, oh, I'm so happy that that person is here because it gives me strength and energy and excitement. So you're being good stewards with your time being here in this moment. Those of you who are members in regulars, attenders, thank you for being good stewards of this local church so we can gather every Sunday to worship, and we can even better celebrate days like today because people being led into the faith and to be strengthened in the faith, into being baptized into the faith, to going on to be holy, that doesn't just happen all willy-nilly.


That happens because of a dedicated group of people or even one person say, I'm going to commit my life to the Lord. And they do that seriously. So thank you if you regularly attend here, those of you who are publicly displaying the grace of God through baptism today, thank you for being a witness to the grace of God on your lives and also allowing your experience to be a witness of to those around you of something greater than ourselves. We need to do some baptisms now, which is very cool. I'm so excited about what the baptism is. Dave, can you give me that paper? It's over on the side there. Forgot to thank you.


It's a privilege to be able to preside over baptism. It's a privilege to be able to baptize people because it's bigger than ourselves, right? It's bigger than me. It's bigger than the people that get to witness it. It's about God's movement in the hearts and lives of the people around here. And we witnessed a symbol of this transformation. Paul writes in Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in, the body I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Baptism is for those who traded in the ways of brokenness. They traded in for the ways of Jesus. It is for those who've been awakened to see the ill effects sin has created on creation or that sin has on creation, the freedom from destruction. Jesus offers grace and new life and the way leading to a life of that grace and peace.


Baptism is a sacrament and again, a means of grace. In Romans chapter six, verse three through five, Paul here again writes to the church in Roman says, or don't you know that all of us who were baptized in the Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.


We have these creeds in the church that we say together that are our, they're unifier. They clearly state what we believe, and one of the most popular ones is the Apostles creed. So I'm going to invite everybody, whether you have been baptized or you're about to be baptized, and if you have not been baptized, but you're saying, I believe this stuff, you're invited to say the Apostles creed is a profession of our faith, of who we believe Jesus is, who we believe God is, the Holy Spirit and all the work that happens to that. So the words will be up on the screen and we'll read these words together and then I'll tell you what we're going to do next after that. So I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord who is conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin man, he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.


He had ascended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and as seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there, if he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrections of the body and the life everlasting and amen. Amen. You'll see up here we have some cups on my left, your right, depending on where you're sitting. And then some more cups over here, little plastic Dixie cups, and we did this last time we baptized. They're full of water. And you're invited if you have been baptized to remember you're baptism, but then also to recognize that your lives, those who are mature in the faith or who are already Christians, are pouring directly into the work and the lives of the people who are newly proclaiming their life in Christ.


So you're going to be invited to come up here, take a cup, say a quick prayer if you would like, and then put that water that's in the cup into the larger tub here. Just as a way of saying we care about the next generation. We love the next generation. We're going to pour into them and be good stewards of our lives as the local church to support those who are new in the faith. So while we do that, some musical play, and then after that, we will get onto baptizing and celebrating. So go ahead and whenever you're ready, come on up and grab a cup and dump it.

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