Sermon for 4/15/2001
The Divide of the Cross
Romans 6:1-11
Introduction:
Missionaries, who serve in lands with other religions like Buddhism or Hinduism or Muslim, know the importance of baptism. To retain converts there must be a public baptism. Just to pray in private is not enough. Must be a public declaration of Christianity and baptism is it. Before baptism, a person in this culture can live in two worlds, his old religious world and also in the Christian world. A little bit of Christianity and a little bit of his old religion will make him safe. However, to be baptized publicly into Christ, means that this person renounces his old ways, his old religion, sometimes his family, and lives only for Christ. It is an important step for people in these lands. Without it, Christianity will never stick in these lands. Surrendering all to Jesus Christ.
From time to time I hear preachers say that you can be saved right there in your pew. To be baptized is just too difficult a step for some to take. God can do the work of salvation without baptism. After all, we live in a Christian nation and we do not have so much to renounce of our old life. Is that right? Is that correct? This Old World is doomed to destruction. We have a lot to forsake.
WBTU:
A. Before our friend day, we were going over Christ’s words from the cross.
1. First word- forgiveness
2. Second word- Salvation
3. Third word- affection
4. Fourth word- anguish
5. Fifth word- suffering
6. Sixth word- victory
7. Seventh word- contentment.
B. In the beginning, at Creation, God made a place for himself. However, that Creation was ruined.
C. The kingdom of this world is not the kingdom of God.
D. This world does not submit to the authority of God. Man is his own authority.
E. Man lives like Satan. Pride, who needs God. The Prince of this world. People follow his example.
F. In Satan’s hand, the first creation has become the old creation, and God’s primary concern is no longer with that but with a second and new creation. A new creation where His Son has the supremacy.
G. (Col 1:13 NIV) For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves
H. If we are Christians, we are part of the kingdom of the Son.
I. Our citizenship is there and not here.
J. God must make us new creatures in the new creation. That which is of the old creation can never pass over into the new.
K. (John 3:5 NIV) Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.(John 3:6 NIV) Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
L. The Spirit will inherit the new creation; the flesh will inherit the old creation.
M. (2 Cor 5:17 NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone the new has come!
N. How are we made new?
1. The Cross was the means God used to bring to an end the old things by setting aside our old man, and the resurrection was the means He used to impart to us all that was necessary for our life in that new world.
2. The greatest negative in the universe is the Cross, for with it God wiped out everything that was not of Himself;
3. The greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it God brought into being all He will have in the new creation.
4. May be a good man in the old creation, but if we are a part of the old creation, we will inherit destruction.
5. For it is by the Cross that God has made a way of escape for us from that old creation.
6. This brings us to the subject of baptism.
7. Baptism is associated with salvation. Not baptismal regeneration, but baptismal salvation through Jesus Christ and the cross and resurrection.
8. Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38.
Thesis: Let’s continue to look at baptism as identification with Jesus into his death, burial, and resurrection.
For instances:
I. Death.
A. Give scenes time to set up and dwell upon them.
B. Before our salvation, we were involved in Satan’s world-system. To be saved is to make our exit from this world-system into God’s.
C. How do we make our exit? By dying with Christ. Romans 6:6.
D. (Gal 5:24 NIV) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
E. Does this mean that we need to be crucified like Christ? Is this the only way to be saved? This would make no sense.
F. No, when we are baptized, symbolizing Christ’s death, we are dying to the world. (Gal 6:14 NIV) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
G. Romans 6:3
H. We go down into the water and our world, in like, goes down with it. We come up in Christ, but our Old World is drowned.
I. Baptism is more than just getting dunked for Jesus. It is something far greater, relating as it does to both the death and the resurrection of our Lord, and having in view two worlds.
J. Before and after. The divide of the Cross.
II. Burial.
A. Peter describes baptism not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.
B. God has spoken to us. He has spoken to us by the Cross. We answer in baptism that we want to die and pledge ourselves to God and His kingdom.
C. The Cross is not only Christ’s personally. It is an all-inclusive cross, a “corporate” cross, a Cross that includes you and me. God has put us all into His Son, and crucified us in Him.
D. What is my answer to God’s verdict on the old creation? I answer by asking for baptism. Die to the old creation.
E. Romans 6:4-
F. Who qualifies for burial? Only the dead! So if I ask for baptism I proclaim myself dead and fit only for the grave.
G. Repentance is part of salvation. We know that this Old World is not the way to go.
H. God’s question is clear and simple. “Christ has died, and I have included you there. Now, what are you going to say to that?” What is my answer? He has sentenced me to death and the grave; by my request for baptism I agree to these facts.
I. So when will I ask for baptism? When I see that God’s way is perfect and that I deserved to die, and that God needs to crucify my old self.
J. God has done the work of crucifixion so that now we are counted among the dead; but we must accept this and submit to it, by sealing that death with “burial.”
K. There are an Old World and a New World, and between the two there is a tomb.
L. In Romans 6:2, Paul is saying, “You should never have been baptized if you meant to live on in the old realm.”
M. Romans 6:5.
N. For by baptism we acknowledge that God has wrought an intimate union between Christ and ourselves in this matter of death and resurrection.
O. Watchman Nee- One day I was seeking to emphasize to a Christian Brother the intimacy of this union. We happened to be drinking tea together, so I took a lump of sugar and stirred it into my tea. A couple of minutes later I asked, “Can you tell me where the sugar is now, and where’s the tea?” “No,” he said, “you have put them together and the one has become lost in the other; they cannot now be separated.” It was a simple illustration, but it helped him to see the intimacy and the finality of our union with Christ in death.
P. The real meaning behind baptism is that in the Cross we were “baptized” into the actual death of Christ, so that His death became ours. Our death and His became then so closely identified that it is impossible to divide between them.
III. Resurrection.
A. Give time for angel scene and dwell upon it.
B. Romans 6:5.
C. When I rise up from the watery grave, His resurrection enters me, imparting to me a new life. In the death of the Lord the emphasis is solely upon “I in Christ.” With the resurrection, while the same thing is true, there is now a new emphasis upon “Christ in me.”
D. It was a miracle on that Easter morn when Jesus Christ arose from the dead. His heart was ruined, his lungs were strained, his side was pierced, and he was dead and cold.
E. God raised him up:
1. (Acts 2:24 NIV) But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
2. (Acts 2:32 NIV) God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
3. (Acts 3:15 NIV) You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
4. (Acts 5:30 NIV) The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead--whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.
5. (Acts 10:40 NIV) but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
F. Romans 6:4
G. Why mention God? It was clearly a miracle.
H. It is clearly a miracle in us. The miracle of the resurrection is done in us. We are given a new nature. We are forgiven of our sins. We are given the Holy Spirit. We are washed, justified, sanctified. We are made new. On the last day, our bodies will be raised and all will be made new. The old things have all passed away.
I. Praise the Lord! Give time for last scene of bowing before Jesus and letting actors leave.
J. How? We cannot tell how God has done His work in us, but it is done. We can do nothing and need do nothing to bring it about, for by the resurrection God has already done it.
K. God has cut off the old creation by the Cross of His Son in order to bring in a new creation in Christ by resurrection. He has shut the door to that Old Kingdom of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of His dear Son.
Conclusion:
A. Our salvation, our death, our life are all in Christ.
B. Romans 6:5
C. What are you going to do?
