Ordinarily I read a Scripture before each sermon because anything the Bible says is more important than what I have to say. But today I'm not going to do that. The text will still be there in the body of the sermon, but I'm not reading first because I don't want to spoil the surprise.
Halloween has become a major unofficial holiday in America. Researchers at Hallmark Cards report that 65 percent of Americans decorate their homes and offices for this annual event. Halloween IS 2nd only to Christmas in retail spending at about $5 billion, AND it is the third biggest party day of the year in the U.S. (The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 10/29/09)
Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy a year for Halloween. That’s about 3 times as much candy as is bought on Easter & Valentine’s Day - combined. Thus, Halloween is a season of candy and fun and dressing up…
But it’s also a season that’s identified with death.
According to one source, the ancient Celts believed that around October 31st the veil separating the living from the dead was at its thinnest, and because of that, evil spirits and souls of the dead could pass through the barrier and enter the world of the living. Departed family members (they thought) could revisit their earthly homes. And these spirits and dead souls tormented the living. Crops destroyed, babies stolen, and farm animals killed. (Ken Klaus)
Halloween has some very disturbing aspects to it, which was the reason we never allowed our kids to go “trick or treating”, but I sincerely doubt there are many people these days who - like the Celts of 100s of years ago - fear that this season was when the “veil” was thin and dead souls could come visit us. However, in spite of that, Halloween is still a time that focuses on death. Death literally shows up in the decorations you’ll see in many people’s yards. (We showed 3 pictures of various homes with yard decorations filled with skeletons and ghosts).
So Halloween is a time that focuses on death. But there’s another holiday around this time that’s even more about death – it’s called “The Day of the Dead.” The “Day of the Dead” is a celebration (mostly down in Mexico - but moving up north to our community) where people decorate graves, put out food for the dead… and even pray to the dead. “The Day Of The Dead” is quite literally ALL about death.
ILLUS: According to one observer: During the Day of the Dead. Some people—even churchgoers—pray to dead relatives (which is condemned in Scripture) and leave food offerings, fearing what will happen if they don’t. (Heidi Carlsonhttps://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/october-web-only/day-of-dead-christians-participate-dia-de-los-muertos.html)
ILLUS: On October 31, All Hallows Eve, the children make a children’s altar to invite the angelitos (spirits of dead children) to come back for a visit (also condemned by God). (https://www.courageouschristianfather.com/day-of-the-dead-dia-de-muertos/)
In addition, there is the Saint of Death (Santa Muerte) and she is one of the most prominent figures in this celebration. Many believe she is a patroness saint… and that she has great powers. She is said to be dangerous if the solicitors of her favors do not follow through with their vows, which are usually the making of a permanent shrine to her in their homes or at least wearing her image on their necklaces. (https://answersingenesis.org/holidays/dia-de-los-muertos/)
For obvious reasons, most serious Hispanic Christians oppose the Day of the Dead and won’t have anything to do with it.
My point in this sermon though, is not to dwell on the negative aspects of Halloween and the Day of Dead as much as it is to help you understand that this season seems to focus on death a lot. Skeletons and ghosts and spirits of the dead are literally all over the place.
(PAUSE) Years ago, I heard about a preacher in a nearby city who decided not to baptize a young girl on a particular Sunday, because that particular Sunday was October 31st - Halloween. He was concerned because this is a season where there are ghosts and goblins and the walking dead. It’s a season of death. And he didn’t want her confusing her baptism with this season of death. Now I can understand where he was coming from. Halloween IS a day that focuses on death. But I think that preacher got a couple things wrong.
Aside from the fact that he didn’t have to baptize this girl on Sunday (he could have done it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.) … but aside from that, the first thing he got wrong was that baptism is ALL ABOUT death. Romans 6:3-4 says: “... 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.”
In order to become a Christian… you have to die. You have to die to the past. You have to die to your old way of life. That’s why Romans 6:2 says “…We DIED to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” And Romans 6:6 says “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.”
And this theme is repeated in Colossians 3:3 which says “For you DIED, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” And in 2 Timothy 2:11 “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we DIED with him, we will also live with him.”
One preacher put it this way: “Did you know that – because of the resurrection of the Jesus – there are dead men walking all over the earth. They’re not zombies, they’re not the undead, they are not men on death row; they are born again believers in Jesus Christ.” (Phil Hammons, sermoncentral.com)
Ephesians 2:1-5 says God made us alive, who were “dead in trespasses and sins”.
Someone once summed it up this way: We used to be alive to sin but dead to Christ but now we are alive in Christ but dead to sin!” (Phil Hammons)
So (if you’re a Christian) you’re dead.
You’re dead to sin… dead to your past. And what do you do with dead people? (You bury them). Baptism was God’s way of driving that truth home: Baptism was meant to remind us that our past is now gone. The old man of sin is dead. Our sinful past doesn’t exist anymore… it’s ALL been buried. That’s why baptism is all about being buried in a watery grave and rising up to walk in newness of life.
ILLUS: Let’s say I died this afternoon. They’d take my body on down to the funeral parlor and prepare it for burial, and then, at the funeral you all come and cry… and cry… and cry (you’ll miss me when I’m gone). And when the ceremony is all done, they’ll take my casket - with my body in it - down to the cemetery and bury it.
Now, how they gonna bury my body? (PAUSE) Are they going to open the casket and sprinkle a little dirt on my face? Are they going to toss in a couple shovels of dirt on the casket and call it a day? NO, OF COURSE NOT! They’re going to dig a hole 6 feet deep – and lower my casket into that hole. They they’ll cover that casket with a whole lot of dirt. And that’s where my earthly body will reside until Jesus comes and the trumpet call of God calls me out of that grave.
Romans 6 tells us that when we’re baptized into Christ, we are BURIED with Him. And that’s why Bible Baptism has always involved a lot of water. John 3:23 tells us – “Now John (the Baptist) also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was PLENTY OF WATER…” Why go where there’s “plenty of water” if all you’re going to do is pour some water on people’s heads?
And in Acts 8 we’re told of the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch. It says: “… both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.” (Acts 8:38-39) There’d be no sense going “down into the water” and coming “up out of the water” if all Philip did was sprinkle a little water on the Eunuch. He could have done that with a canteen. Baptism required a lot of water because it represented a physical death and a burial.
But wait… there’s more! If you were to come forward this morning and we baptize you into Christ, we’d lower you into the water as into a grave. But would I leave you there? (PAUSE) No. What would happen if I kept you under the water? (you’d die and then we’d take you to a real grave then they’d arrest me!) No, we don’t leave you under the water… we raise you up as out of a grave.
You might say that we raise you up FROM THE DEAD. And that’s part of the genius of God. He designed your baptism not only to represent your death but also to reassure you that one day you will rise from the dead. That’s what Romans 6:4 means when it says “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.”
So, that preacher was mistaken about baptism and Halloween. Baptism IS all about death… and burial and resurrection. When that little girl came up out of that water she would have been “born again” because she would have died to her past and rose up to live a NEW LIFE (a new life in Christ).
That was how the EARLY church taught it… for example: Justin Martyr (110-165 A.D.) “We have learned from the apostles this reason” for baptism: “in order that we… may obtain in the water the remission of sins” (First Apology, 61).
Tertullian (145-220 A.D.) said, “Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life” (On Baptism iii). Also “The act of baptism… is carnal, in that we are plunged in water, but the effect is spiritual, in that we are freed from sins” (ibid., vii).
Baptism is a BURIAL OF THE DEAD sinner and a RESURRECTION OF THE NEW Christian.
Lastly, that preacher was wrong because Christianity is literally BUILT ON DEATH. In fact, we celebrate that death every Sunday. How do we do that? Communion. We gather here every Sunday at this table and we take a piece of unleavened bread (I picked up a piece of the bread and held it up for all to see). This bread symbolizes the body of Jesus whose body was broken on the cross. Every time we partake of this bread we declare that Jesus died for us (then I ate the bread).
Then we take this cup of juice (I picked up a cup of juice held it up). This juice symbolizes the blood of Christ that poured out of body to cover our sins. And every time we partake of this juice we declare that Jesus gave His own blood to forgive us (then I drank the juice).
A couple weeks ago I saw a yard decoration that caught my attention, and I stopped to take a few pictures of it for today’s sermon. (We showed a picture on the screen of a local yard display where two skeletons were suspended from crosses). I have never seen anything like it. In this guy’s yard you see two skeletons hanging on something. What are those skeletons hanging on? (CROSSES)
Now isn’t that interesting? (PAUSE) Tell me… where did Jesus die? (ON A CROSS). Galatians 3:13 tells us “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us —for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Now, I don’t think this guy (who decorated his yard with skeletons on crosses) had any idea that his display would point us to Jesus. I don’t know where he got the idea for putting skeletons on crosses, but even during Halloween this year, that man’s decorations declared Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus became a curse for us by hanging on a tree.
Halloween (and the Day Of The Dead) focus on death… and so does Christianity. But there’s ONE significant difference. Those “celebrations” focus on the scariness and even horror of death. But Christianity tells us about death… because that’s the only way we’d understand the promise of our resurrection and new life.
CLOSE: A woman told of making an Easter basket for her grandson Tray. It included a DVD that tells the biblical story in a cartoon form. A couple of days later I get a call from his Mom. “Mama Lynn, you have to get over here and talk to Tray! It’s that DVD you got him! He doesn’t understand why Jesus had to die and he’s asking all these questions about death and I don’t know what to tell him!!”
“So I went over to talk with Tray. He’s only 4, so I had to think of a simplistic way to explain this. I told him we love God and live for Him. Then after we die we get to go to heaven and live with him! Then Tray said, ‘But I thought Jesus lives in our hearts.’
Oh dear! She’d been trying to keep it simple, but this was going to be harder to explain. She said “I was GOING to say, “Before we die, He lives in our hearts and AFTER we die we go to live with him in heaven” but I didn’t get to finish my sentence … but He interrupted me and finished it for me. I said, “Well before we die, He lives in our hearts, and AFTER we die...”
Then Tray said, “Then we go to live in God’s heart.” (Lynn Cole Springer on Facebook)
Tray got it right. Christianity focuses on death, but this focus is on the death and resurrection of Christ… and it’s the way that we can understand the new life Jesus offers us.
INVITATION
