Going Public
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
January 17, 2009
I realized the other day, much to my surprise and regret, that I have never preached a sermon on baptism! Of course we have done many services of baptism here at Wildwind, but I have never spoken on it before. I want to allow those being baptized to do most of the talking tonight, but I did want to take a few minutes to speak to you about baptism.
So today’s message is called Going Public. I couldn’t think of a better title than that for a message about bapism. Baptism is a sign. It is a seal. In baptism, you step forward to receive your watermark – it’s a public act that marks you as someone who belongs to Christ. And not only to Christ, but to Christ’s family. If you want to know who Christ’s family are, just look around you. God’s family includes God as your Father, Jesus as your brother, the Holy Spirit as your friend and advisor, and every other servant of Christ who has ever lived as your brother and your sister. We have three people here tonight who are going public and who are going to share their stories with you about how that journey has happened in their lives. Before we get on with it, I want to share a few things with you about baptism – what it is, what it isn’t, and who ought to do it.
Baptism, like many aspects of Christianity, comes to us from Judaism. The Hebrew term “mikveh” literally means any gathering of waters, but is specifically used in Jewish law for the waters or bath for the ritual immersion. The building of the mikveh was so important in ancient times it was said to take precedence over the construction of a synagogue. Immersion was so important that it occurred before the high Priest conducted the service on the Day of Atonement, before the regular priests participated in the Temple service, before each person entered the Temple complex, before a scribe wrote the name of God, as well as several other occasions.
So without question we practice baptism today because it is a ritual that was adapted from Judaism. We see that Jesus modeled baptism for us because, like a good Jew, Jesus himself was baptized.
Matthew 3:13-15 (MSG)
13 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him.
14 John objected, "I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!"
15 But Jesus insisted. "Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it.
And not only was baptism modeled for us by Christ, but then Christ commanded that we do it as well.
Matthew 28:19 (MSG)
19 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
[Now I’m not sure what was said in Jewish baptism, or if anything was said at all, but I assure you that unlike those we’ll baptize tonight, the Jews were not baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! There we see some adaptation going on!]
And notice verse 19 here where Jesus refers to the idea of “marking” people by baptism. Baptism is a mark. [For those of you who work in offices, you might think of it as a watermark!] It is a sign that you belong to Christ. In some places in scripture, baptism is nearly equated with salvation itself!
Mark 16:15-16 (NIV)
15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved… The Catholic Church teaches that baptism is so essential that someone who comes to faith in Christ but is not baptized actually goes to hell. We believe that baptism is important, but that it’s not the baptism itself that saves a person. Baptism is an expression, or a mark, of the faith that lies beneath. But give that another moment’s thought and you will quickly realize that in a sense salvation and baptism ARE bound up together. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” Is it the baptism that saves you? Of course not. But if you are saved – if you have made a decision to trust Christ as the forgiver of your sins and the leader of your life, why would you not be willing to declare that publicly? What Jesus tells us is that an essential part of this picture is going public – coming forward – stepping out and declaring your faith in Jesus.
Which leads to my next point. Baptism is going on record. When I am explaining Christianity to people I often use a great little booklet called Knowing God Personally. It’s filled with illustrations and Bible verses that help make everything clear. At the end it offers an opportunity for a person to commit their life to Christ, and then there’s a page where there’s a line and the person is asked to sign and date on that line whenever they make that commitment. I’m surprised by the number of people I’ve run into who tell me they turned their life over to Christ but then refuse to sign on the line. My friend, if you come to me tomorrow and tell me you bought a house or a car, but you refused to sign for the loan, guess what? I mean maybe you went over to the house and walked around, or test drove the car. Maybe you admired the number of bathrooms or kicked the tires. Maybe you dreamed of what it would be like to live in that house or drive that car to work. Maybe you spent days talking to the salespeople and arranging financing, but if you get right down to the wire and refuse to sign your name, guess what? Despite your effort and investment and all the things you did, what you did not do is actually buy a house, or a car. What you did was go through the motions. How many of you here have signed a mortgage in your lifetime? See, if you’ve actually signed a mortgage, you know the feeling that comes down on you at that moment – that’s where you say, “Man, I really did this. This is real, and Citibank will remind me of that every month for the next 30 years.” If you truly did something, you will sign for it. If you won’t sign for it, that’s a sure sign that you went through the motions but ultimately didn’t follow through.
In asking us to be baptized, to go public, Jesus is asking us to sign our names on the line. To take the “leap of faith,” turn our lives over to him, and identify ourselves publicly and permanently as belonging to him. In other words, Jesus wants you to “go on record.” He wants you to go into this with enough commitment that you are willing to not only say Jesus is Lord, but would actually allow someone to quote you on that.
Matthew 10:32-33 (NIV)
32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.
33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
That talks about going on record and I think it’s extremely rich and means a LOT of things, but at the very least it means that if you’ve done it, be willing to go on record – to go public.
Next, baptism is a symbol of death and resurrection.
Romans 6:1-4 (MSG)
1 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?
2 I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?
3 Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means.
4 When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus.
Finally tonight, baptism is a sign that you have begun something, not that you have gotten good at it. One of the most frequent issues I deal with surrounding baptism is people saying, “Yes, I’m committed to Christ and this is for life. Yes, I’m willing to go public, but not yet. I really want to stop smoking first – I mean who am I to get up there and be baptized, acting all holy-holy, when everybody knows I smoke?” Or, “Yeah, I’ll be baptized eventually, but I want to learn more about this first – I want to spend a few years learning what it’s all about,” or “I want to deal with some issues in my life.” My friends, baptism is a sign that you have begun something, not that you have gotten good at it. Baptism in the New Testament is done at conversion. It’s best to do it as soon as possible. Why? Because if you wait too long to sign on the line, you might talk yourself out of it! I mean, think about it. Most of us believe having children was the best thing we ever did, but if we’d have studied it from more angles, thought more about the money, wondered and worried about the timing, etc., we’d have never done it! We did something good – even great – and once we decided to do it, we just did it. There’s a thing called analysis paralysis. Sometimes we just need to pull the trigger. And it’s not that we’re not supposed to think deeply about committing to Jesus. We’re supposed to, and we do. 100% of the people I’ve heard baptism-delaying excuses from are people that asked questions and thought very hard about coming to faith in Christ in the first place. But now the decision is made. So now it’s time to go public. If you want the car, sign for it and drive it home. If you don’t want the car, stop test driving it every day on the way home from work. Pull the trigger. Make up your mind. You know once you sign on that line and have invested that kind of money in your car, your mind will begin manufacturing reasons to believe you did the right thing. You’ll want to believe that with all your heart. So if you think you want the car, and your conscience is clear with God and with your spouse, then buy the car. Sign the papers and drive it home. Same with God. If you want God in the driver’s seat of your life, if you have decided to be done with your old life, if you prayed and asked God to forgive your sins and be the new leader of your life, then what are you waiting for? Get in the water. Pull the trigger. Go public. If you want this to last, commit to it like that is your intention. (By the way, I’m talking here about baptism, not about living together, but you could use the exact same arguments about that.)
So I’m going to wrap up here. There’s a ton more I could say about baptism and I realize now that I need to do that. But for now I’ve talked long enough – time to let these three people pull the trigger and go public. C’mon up Will Webster, Chriss Ayers, and Mandy Gilliam, and any friends or family who they would like to be up here with them as they answer their baptism questions tonight. We are here to celebrate with you.
