(I was honored to preach the sermon at the Quinceanera - pronounced “kin-sin-yarra” - of one of our Hispanic members. I wanted to do this right, so I studied a lot about this event means. I discovered that a Quinceanera is a celebration of the 15th birthday (Quinceanera literally means “15th year). In this celebration, this young lady transformed from a child into being a woman. I found that there are various traditions that are part of this festivity. Amongst these traditions is “the changing of the shoes” – changing from from flat shoes to high heels; the giving of the “last doll” as her last toy of her childhood; and (in this ceremony) her parents giving a ring to their daughter to symbolize her pledge to serve God.
These are all public declarations that this young girl had decided to be an adult. By taking part in this ceremony she was publicly declaring that she intended to become a mature young lady. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says (I modified it a bit) “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a woman, I gave up childish ways.”
Unlike an ordinary party to celebrate her 15th birthday this Quinceanera is MORE than just an event… it’s a declaration of intent. (PAUSE) You see, you can’t stop your physical body from growing older. This young lady was going to be 15 whether or not she wanted to or not. But by taking part in this ceremony she is saying I HAVE DECIDED I want to be an adult; I want to grow up; I want to do something important with my life. I don’t want to be child forever.
Over the years, I’ve known people who have NEVER made that decision. They have never decided to grow up. They party… they drink… they play games all the time. They EXIST, but they don’t really do anything with their lives. In England there’s a cemetery where there’s a gravestone. On that stone you can read the name of the man buried there, when he was born and when he died. Beneath those remarks is this statement: “Not worth remembering.” His life didn’t amount to anything! He just existed!
This young lady doesn’t want to just exist. She wants to live a life filled with God.
Now she has already started out with an advantage in life. She’s a Christian. And because she’s a Christian, she is worth remembering. How do I know that? Because God says she is worth remembering. Ephesians 2:10 “SHE “is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared ahead of time for her to do.”
What that means is this: God has a purpose for her life. She has a reason to exist. And God thinks she is valuable! God believes she is worth remembering. And God so strongly believes that she has value that He has designed good works just for her to do. She is part of God’s plan for this world.
But she has to DECIDE that that’s what she wants to do with her life. We can’t coast along in life when it comes to God. We have to WANT to be used by God, in order to be used by God.
Part of what this young lady wanted me to talk about today is transformation. Romans 12 says: “I appeal to you brothers (sisters), by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be CONFORMED to this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewal of your mind, that you might test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Notice it said: DON’T BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD. Don’t be like the world around you!
ILLUS: Back when I was a teenager nobody seemed to invite me their parties. I didn’t think about it much at the time. I just figured they didn’t like me! But a few years ago, one of them confessed that the main reason I wasn’t invited was because they knew I went to Church. They figured I wouldn’t get drunk with them and I wouldn’t do other things that they did. Because they knew I was a Christian. They rightly assumed I wouldn’t conform to the things they did. I wouldn’t FIT IN to the party scene, because I’d been transformed by Jesus.
Don’t be CONFORMED to this world but be TRANSFORMED by the renewal of your mind. To be transformed means you CHANGE YOURSELF. You’ve decided to live HIS way… not the way of this world. You were once one thing, now you’re something else. You have changed/transformed into a servant of God.
For this 15th birthday celebration this young lady wanted me to talk about the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly as an illustration. I did a lot of study on butterflies this past couple of weeks, and I discovered some very interesting things.
Someone once said “The caterpillar is perhaps the most confused creature on the planet, because, stamped onto its soul is the desire to fly.” (Ajai Prakash in a sermon on sermoncentral.com) Caterpillars are EARTHBOUND insects. They live in the DIRT. And their whole life is dedicated to satisfying their own desires. They EAT, and they EAT, and they EAT some more. It’s all about them!!!
But deep inside is this desire to be something more. One teacher had her students observe caterpillars every day in class. And what they’d see these worms do was crawl to the top of the aquarium and stand upside down. Why would they do that? (Why would they stand upside down?) They did that because, deep inside of them, was the desire to be more than they were. Deep inside was the desire to leave the bondage of crawling in dirt and become free … free to fly.
Before people become Christians they tend to get bored a lot. Life seems dull and empty. It’s like a bondage to boredom. And even Non-Christians sense there’s got to be more to life… but they’re not quite sure what it is.
ILLUS: A few years ago, I read an article by an atheist about Christians: “Over the years, I’ve come to think I’m missing out. My friends and relatives who rely on God - the real believers, not just the churchgoers - have an enthusiasm about life. When they walk along a stream, they don’t just see water falling over rocks; the sight fills them with delight. They see a realm of hope beyond this world. I just see a babbling brook. I don’t get the message.” (Dana Tierney, Reader’s Digest May 2004)
This atheist sensed the emptiness of being a caterpillar. She lived her life satisfying her own desires, but sensed there had to be something more. Deep inside she felt the desire … to fly.
Someone noted that the “caterpillar is physically limited to and bound by the earth. It cannot lift itself into the air no matter how hard it tries.” It has to change… or it will always crawl on its belly.
But how does it change? (this is where it gets interesting) If you were to open the cocoon of a caterpillar about ½ way thru the process (of changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly), what do you think you would find? If you cut open the cocoon all you’d find is a puddle of liquid. That’s it!!!! In order to become a butterfly, the caterpillar has to completely fall apart. It has to decompose. It literally dies. And there is nothing left of it…. but a puddle of liquid. (Ajai Prakash)
What does that mean to us? Well, it means that there can be no resurrection unless you die first. There can be no transformation into being a child of God, unless you are willing to surrender everything to Him.
And that’s what baptism is all about. Romans 6 says: “We DIED to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into 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. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has DIED has been freed from sin.”
Did you notice how many times it talked about us dying and death and crucifying our old man? We DIED to our past (the old man of sin was crucified) and then we were buried in a watery grave. And we rose again (from water) to walk a transformed/new life.
Now everything we’re doing today is a PUBLIC DECLARATION by this young lady. She’s telling you that she intends to transform into a woman. But nothing has really changed about her physically. She just wants you to know that she’s decided to live a tranformed/butterfly existence. She not just turning 15. She has consciously decided … that she WILL BE an adult.
So this Quinceanera is a public declaration of this girl’s decision. But baptism is NOT a public declaration. It goes much deeper than that.
When people were baptized in book of Acts there was often NO audience. In Philippi, Paul and Silas arrested, beaten and put in jail. While they were there a great earthquake shook the entire prison, their chains fell off and the doors flew open. The jailer ran in to their cell and was about to take his own life (thinking his prisoners had escaped) and was surprised to find Paul and Silas their encouraging them saying none of the prisoners escaped. Then the jailer took them to his home and they taught the jailer and his family all about Jesus… and the family was baptized into Christ at midnight. MIDNIGHT? Why didn’t they just wait until morning and call all the church to gether to witness their “public declaration” of faith? Why? Because it wasn’t a public declaration. It was a private commitment to Jesus.
On the road out in the desert and Ethiopian treasurer was riding in his chariot back home from Jerusalem. An angel instructed an evangelist named Philip to come along side the Ethiopian’s chariot and tell him about Christ. While Philip was riding with the Ethiopian, the Ethiopian said “Here’s water. What prohibits me from being baptized?” Did Philip say “Oh no, we need to ride back into Jerusalem and gather the church to witness your “public declaration of faith”? No… right out there in the middle of nowhere Philip took the man down into the water and buried the man with Christ.
So, baptism is NOT a public declaration. We don’t need an audience to be baptize because the only audience IS GOD! Baptism is important because it’s literally a contract we sign with God. It’s like buying a home. When I bought my house I went into a bank office and sat down at the table across from the owners. On the table between us was a contract with two sets of lines at the bottom. One set was for me to sign, saying that I accepted ownership of the home, and the other set was for the owner to sign saying that he agreed to give me the house for an agreed amount. In baptism (with our faith and repentance) we sign the contract saying we want the salvation God has offered us. And in return, God signs the contract by placing His Spirit inside of us, to guide and mark us as belonging to Him.
ONE LAST THING. When a butterfly emerges from cocoon, it flies. It never returns to the caterpillar stage. Once you’ve experienced god’s presence, why would you want to go back to how things used to be? What once was bound to earth… can now proudly ‘fly into the heavens.’ And that’s what Quinceanera is all about: refusing to live a dull life lived in the dirt of this world when you can fly with God.
