Baptized - A New Identity Series

Read Luke 3:21-22 , Romans 6:1-11, Galatians 3:27

• Last week started a three week series entitled ‘Baptized’, where we are studying God’s word to gain a deeper understanding of the

reality of Baptism in the Bible

• Last week we spent most of our time outlining the three different baptisms mentioned in scripture

• And how important it is to know a) the type of baptism, b) who or what you are being baptized into, and c) who is doing the

baptizing

• We acknowledged last week that the first type of Baptism is when we give our hearts to Christ,

• And that in this type of baptism we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ or the Family of God

• We also said that this type of baptism must occur first before the other two types can occur or be affective.

• The second type of baptism we mentioned was the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which we will talk about in more detail next week.

• This type of baptism can be the second or third baptism experience once you have accepted Christ

• But we mentioned that in the Bible it was typically the third type of baptism mentioned as normally taking place in the life of the

believer.

• In this type of baptism Jesus is the one doing the baptizing, and He baptizes us into or covers us with the Holy Spirit.

• And the third type of baptism we mentioned, which we will focus on today is water baptism.

• And we said that in water baptism we are baptized by a minister of Christ into a watery grave,

• But we also said that water baptism is often misinterpreted as just a symbolic event in the Christian life.

• But as I will talk about today, it is so much more than just symbolic, as in water baptism we are actually taking on or being baptized

into the identity of Christ.

• If you remember that from last week, and you praise God for the revelation of baptism say AMEN.

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• I guess before I go any further it’s important to mention that I feel like it is more important for me to help you to gain a fuller

understanding of water baptism today,

• Then it is for me to shout at you, and give you a message that is exciting and maybe funny

• How many of you know I am a bit of a goofball by nature??? And I like to have fun when I preach, How many of you know that’s

ok???

• But I want to teach a little bit today, because I feel like this subject is so crucial.

• Especially given the fact that today we are going to actually be performing several water baptisms directly following the service…

• That being said, I really struggled a bit with what scriptures I was going to use, as there is so much in the Bible about water

baptism that I’d love to share,

• However, I wanted to really spend most of our time today focusing on the importance of water baptism to the Christian life

• I need you to understand that water baptism should be a life changing experience for the believer.

• When I was a child after I accepted Christ, I was baptized in water, and even though we were really not told a lot about baptism

then…

• We were simply told that it was a symbolic public confession of our faith in Christ,

• When I came out of the water I felt something very obvious, and even though I didn’t understand it fully then

• I told my mother and the others that were there that I felt different.

• I have since received the revelation and reality of water baptism, and now understand what or who that ‘something different’ was.

• So let’s get right into the meat of our study this morning, as I don’t want to take too long, but I want those being baptized or those

contemplating being baptized today to have a clear understanding of what is going to occur.

• As I mentioned last week, and again a few minutes ago, you cannot get baptized in water into the identity of Christ if you are not

first saved.

• You can be dunked in the water, but if Christ does not already live in you, you won’t get anything from it other than getting wet.

• So the first thing I will ask when we go get into the water today are the following questions:

• 1) Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?

• 2) Do you believe that Jesus lived a perfect life, died, was buried, was resurrected, and ascended into Heaven?