Sermon Brief
Date Written: August 2, 2010
Date Preached: August 8, 2010
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Special Baptism Service
Sermon Title: Baptized IN Christ
Sermon Text: Colossians 2:11-14 [ESV]
Introduction:
Salvation, for the believer is an extremely wonderful time. This is because when we discover our sin and sinful nature… when we come to realize how awful our sin is in the sight of God, and how hopelessly lost we are… it is a terrible feeling!
However, the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that no matter how “bad” you think you are… no matter how wrong you have lived your life… God has promised that He can and will save you, if you will place your faith and trust in Him!
Today we celebrate the salvation decisions of five of our newest members… and we do so in a special and solemn way… Today will always be a day of remembrance for these new believers, as today they made their faith public by pledging their allegiance to Christ in the public ceremony we know as baptism.
Baptism in one of the 2 ordinances that Jesus gave to the church, the other being the symbolic remembrance of what He did on the Cross of Calvary that we celebrate in the taking of the Lord’s Supper…or communion!
However in looking at baptism from a scriptural point of view, we must understand that baptism is NOT an act we do to COMPLETE our salvation, but it is something we do out of an act of obedience after we come to know Christ as Savior! Baptism is public display that reveals to the world what has taken place in the heart of the believer!
Today in our passage of Scripture we read where Paul is speaking to the church in Colossae. This was a church that was NOT started by Paul, but by Epaphraditus… a convert under Paul’s ministry, and the church was experiencing some growing pains… there were many false teachers teaching things that were leading these young believers into false beliefs about Christianity.
Paul’s desire here was to clear the air and clarify the teachings of Christ and the truth about the Gospel, so let’s look at Col 2:11-14 [read verses here]
11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.
When we read this passage we can see Paul clearly outlining 3 very specific points that I want us to take a look at this morning…
1. A Comparison Revealed – v11-12:
The human brain is basically a supercomputer that analyzes all the information that is put before it and then it reveals what that information means… so often as believers we use the art of comparison to understand a specific point or process.
Paul understood the use of comparison and in our passage this morning Paul uses a very distinct comparison that reveals to the reader… what being saved means!
Let’s look at v.11
11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
What happens to the believer when they place their faith and trust in Christ and God forgives their sins and saves them? Paul tells us it is like the physical act of circumcision.
Now as unpleasant as the subject circumcision is for us to talk about, it was and still is a very common procedure for MOST males of our society today AND it was something practiced by the Jewish nation as well.
Circumcision was established by God in His covenant with Abraham and was to be a sign for all Jewish men that they identified with the covenant that God established with the Jewish nation!
Now we need to understand that circumcision is a very INVASIVE and PAINFUL procedure, but it was used to establish an identity within a larger body of people. The act of circumcision removed unwanted flesh and forever changes the male it is performed on…
Salvation by its very nature, brings about a change. To be saved, means that your situation has changed, but Paul goes further here… Here the Holy Spirit leads Paul to reveal that not only has our eternal position changed… but Paul tells us that WE have also changed!
By the act of salvation we have been ETERNALLY changed by God! Like circumcision, we will NEVER be the same again, we have been marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit and set aside to identify with the body of Christ!
Paul uses another vivid illustration at this point to further cement the idea of what change has been made… let’s look at v.12
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Paul uses the metaphor of being buried like Christ… meaning you have died to your old way of life… meaning that that way of life has been buried! And then you are raised with Christ through the powerful working of God in salvation!
You die to your old way of life and you are raised to walk in a new way of life all thru the power of God! This is a radical change in your life! God marks you and sets you aside for His plans and purpose in this life, and Jesus said, once we are IN His hand… there is NOTHING that can take us out of His hand!
If you have truly had a salvation experience, God has promised that it is a permanent relationship that will never be revoked! However, what we have to remember is that salvation represents a radical change in our lives… radical and permanent. If you profess Jesus Christ as Savior and have not been radically changed and transformed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit… then your ‘profession of faith’ is not real!
I cannot tell you IF you are saved… your eternal standing with God is only determined BY God, and your willingness to accept Jesus as Savior… but when that happens it is going to change your life dramatically… you cannot be saved and remain UNCHANGED!
Just like circumcision t the Jewish man CHANGED his appearance and who he identified with… Baptism represents what salvation does in the heart of the new believer… the old is cut away, and you are set aside as a radically changed person!
But that comparison is not all I see in this passage… I can also see what I would call a very important Contrast is represented in these verses as well!
2. A Contrast Represented – v13:
Contrast represented – were dead, now alive, were buried in sin, now raised to live a new life
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
In the book of Romans God reveals to us that we are ALL sinners… that we have ALL failed and fallen before a holy and a just God. Here in this verse, Paul shares with these new believers that they had ALL come FROM darkness… they had all come from sin…
Paul contrasts where these believers HAD been and where they are NOW! They were ALL dead in their sin… they were all uncircumcised of heart… needed the invasive and sometimes painful salvation that comes into the heart of the believer to cut away the deadness of sin and instill within the heart of the believer… the newness of life!
That which was dead … their eternal souls… is now made alive in Christ Jesus! Jesus takes our sin sick soul that is dead to God… that is dead to repentance… that is dead to any form of pleasing God… and Paul tells us that in contrast to the death that only we can bring… Jesus brings us the LIFE we cannot obtain!
Jesus said in John 14:6 [read verse on screen]… I am the LIFE… Jesus also said in John 6:48-51 [ESV]
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Only Jesus can bring eternal life to our soul… we were ALL dead, but now thru Christ we are alive! Now when I read this passage I rejoice in that transformation… I rejoice in that radical change of station to my eternal standing! In my joy I can see that the act of baptism is a direct reflection of that wonderful transformation!
The act of baptism is contrasting our OLD life with our NEW life… we go under the water giving up our OLD life and we come out of the baptismal waters seeking to live a new life in Christ that is radically changed from before!
The comparison is there… we can also see a direct contrast being laid our before us, but finally this morning, I want us to look at some conclusions that Paul draws from this compare and contrast exercise he has been offering…
3. Some Conclusions are Recognized – v.14
14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.
The conclusion Paul reaches is that the sin that has separated us from God… the sin that has polluted our lives for ALL of our life… the sin that condemns us to an eternity separated from our Creator and the sin that resigns us to an eternity in what Scripture calls a lake of fire… That sin is taken away by the grace of God.
Paul says our debt of sin is canceled… It is NOT pushed forward as the sin of the nation of Israel’s was… In early Jewish times, the people of Israel would sacrifice a lamb each year for each family to push their sin further and further out… each year they would have to come back and re-sacrifice to once again cleanse their families!
In this verse Paul tells us that the debt we owe for our sin was LEGALLY canceled by Jesus… In the economy of God’s justice system, Jesus did what was necessary to cancel the sin debt against us and remove all the legal ramifications it carried with it! How did Jesus do this… Paul says He took what had separated us from God… OUR SIN, and He nailed it to the Cross!
Can you see why Paul preached the Cross as vital and the central focus for our salvation! Without the Cross of Calvary… we could never know forgiveness… the debt we owed would still be hanging over our heads… we would still be facing the “legal” and eternal consequences associated with that debt of sin… but Jesus took it away with what He accomplished on the cross of Calvary!
Conclusion:
So what does salvation mean for us today? First we know that salvation is an act of God to separate us from our sin, and set us apart to identify with a larger group… to identify with the body of Christ! Salvation is the removal of the old… removal of the useless… removal of that which held us in bondage… Salvation removes the old and sets us apart!
2nd we have learned that salvation also brought life to a lifeless soul… dead in the trespass of our sin! Trespass is a word for an illegal activity in our legal system today to be a trespasser is to be a law breaker! Spiritually speaking we are ALL trespassers and law breakers of God’s law and that translates to ALL of us being a sinner…
What Jesus has done for us is to take us from darkness to the light of the world… He has taken us from death to everlasting life… Salvation brings about such a radical change in our lives; we can say that we have been BORN AGAIN to a new life!
Finally, 3rd we have learned that salvation is when God takes the initiative action to remove from our soul the legal penalty that we are bound to…and He has canceled that debt and the penalty of that debt! Because of Jesus we have been changed from an enemy of God to an heir to His throne!
This is JUST what baptism reveals for the believer? Baptism tells the world we have changed…and that we have been changed BY God!
The Greek word Baptidzo is used in the Bible to refer to baptism, it means to dip or to immerse into water. It describes the full immersion of a believer into the ceremonial waters!
And although this full immersion reflects a cleansing of our soul, it also carries a deeper meaning! In 200 BC Greek poet Nicander, recorded a recipe for making pickles and this recipe helps us understand the context of what is meant by baptism!
He said that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable first must be 'dipped' into boiling water! It is immersed in a cleansing hot bath to kill germs… then it has to be 'baptized' in a vinegar solution.
What is the difference you may ask, but both acts speak to the full immersion of the vegetable, but there IS a huge difference! The first immersion or ‘dipping’ is for to clean! And although the symbolism of a cleansing is good, it doesn’t carry the full meaning of baptism with it…
The more full meaning of the act of baptism is revealed in word we use for FULL immersion! The purpose of baptism is not to ceremonially cleanse you, but it is to fundamentally CHANGE you from who and what you were before Christ!
Thus when using this recipe the vegetable that is placed/immersed into the vinegar CEASES to be whatever vegetable its not merely cleaned, but there has been a permanent change to that vegetable! It has now become a pickle!
When Paul references baptism in our passage today, he is NOT referencing so much to the physical act of ceremonial cleansing, although important…
But what is more often refers to is the FUNDEMENTAL change that has occurred in our lives… it references the new union and identification we have now with Christ!
Today have you come to a decision about your life? Do you know you were radically changed when you get saved? You see things the way Jesus does OR has your heart been radically changed by God’s presence in your life?
Today I call on all of you here this morning to surrender to Christ! Know that He wants you to come to Him… His desire is to see you repent! He wants to bestow forgiveness, grace and the majesty of God upon you, and for you to receive His salvation!
As Steven comes, I urge you to step out today as we begin to sing our hymn of invitation. Step out today and come know God’s forgiveness in your life… come surrender to Him today!
