Awesome. Hey, just want to double down on what we were just talking about with like stories being designed to be multiplied. Like the reason why we share, yes, we want to celebrate in the moment, but we want to see him multiplied. And do you guys remember it was probably a month ago now Dylan came up and shared his story?
Josh made about 30 comments about his muscles. That guy, that Dylan. Dylan shared his story about how he used to be deep in serious drug addiction and how God led him through that to the point that the day that he was actually sharing was the day he received his licensure as a drug and alcohol counselor through Teen Challenge. And this is the redemptive work of God in his life.
And this past, what was it? Saturday? Saturday. I was going to the grocery store, got a chance to meet this guy who was going through some pretty serious drug addiction.
And we got this conversation and in that conversation I was having with him, I said, let me tell you a story about a friend of mine. And I verbatim just told him the story that I heard. It's like the story literally being multiplied and told again to this guy as I'm explaining to him, you don't have to stay where you are. I want you to look through just beyond the haze of where you're at to a day where you're actually totally free from this and where you're actually able to help people.
And I use Dylan's story as the like the catalyst for this whole conversation. And so I ended up driving this guy somewhere that he needed to be. And as he's getting out of the car, he introduced himself to me as D. And as we're getting out, he's like, it's Ben, right?
I'm like, yeah, he goes, yeah, Dylan, thanks. And the guy's name is Dylan. So Dylan's story is being multiplied. It was wild.
And I was just like, yeah, I just want to, these stories are worth celebrating, but remember them, right? Like keep them in you because you never know when the Lord might want to reference that. And you guys, you're like, there's a testimony. It might even be your testimony, but there's a story that you can multiply.
Yeah? All right, before I jump in, I just want to say one thing. Do we have that DNA slide? We have DNA coming up and I want to make sure that we're highlighting that because it's kind of a bigger deal.
We always want people to feel like they know why we do what we do. And so every season we have an opportunity to walk people through. Hey, here's who we are. Here's what we're about.
This is something that if you're wanting to serve on any teams, we just have you go through this class. And so I don't want you to wish that you would know sooner. And so that's coming up, not this Wednesday, but next. Wanted to make sure we got that out there.
Take a picture. Get that QR code. It's online under our class page as well. Okay?
Great. Want to see you there? Well, we had a heck of a week last week. Mark Holstensgard brought the word on the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And he walked, I mean, Mark is, I've called Mr. His face. He's like a Bible robot. It's like he has the ability to, you know, there you are.
It's just like by the end you're like, absolutely 100%. I agree. It was it was such a great message. It was just so biblical, so foundational and so frankly, just like impossible to disagree with him.
I was like, this is just this is amazing. And through that, we had folks that got baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time out front, people getting their prayer language for the first time were celebrating that. It's amazing. Mark walks through the difference between like the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It's awesome. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, please, please go back and do that tonight. I get to talk about the other baptism, the, in some ways, the precursor to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's baptism in water, right?
Water baptism. It's something that we're going to be doing next week, right? So we want to make sure that as we go into this, we actually have context and full understanding or as full as we can have, so that our celebration actually gets increased next week. And that if you're in the room and you might be going, that's not for me.
Maybe by the end of tonight, you, you have a wonder going, maybe that's for me. And so I actually want to start in the same place that Mark had us last week in Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 36, I'm just going to read this out. It's in verse 25.
The Lord says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your idols, I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I'll remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.
And I believe that this passage, it's kind of foreshadowing. It's for sure foreshadowing like Mark talked about, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but even that language of sprinkling with clean water, I think that there's an invitation for us to both experience and understand water baptism and a baptism in the Holy Spirit. And so tonight is we look at water baptism. I just had this curiosity in my heart as I started looking at it.
Because a lot of us know the story of Jesus' cousin John, who gets the nickname, the baptizer. John the Baptist. I was like, was there a context for this? Did the Jewish people have a grid for this?
Or was this the first time that someone came and said, let's go dunk you underwater? Was there a context for it? I started looking into it. I just wanted to share it because I think it helps us grow some appreciation for it.
That you do find it in the Old Testament too. There's these symbols in the Old Testament that foreshadow the new. And I always love seeing the cohesion that the Lord builds through it. And so Aaron, when he's becoming the priest, Moses' brother Aaron, he's becoming the priest.
And to initiate him into that, God says, I want you to sprinkle water on him. And there's this process that you see throughout the mosaic law, the mosaic covenant, of this sprinkling of water that's for not just getting the dirt off your hands. It's for like, it's symbolic. It's ceremonial.
And there's a cleansing that's happening that's symbolized through water. You'll see this. I'm seeing some friends from a wedding that I officiated on Friday. And we talked about the wedding of Kana where Jesus turns water into wine.
And there's these six ceremonial jars that are filled with water. Why? They're there for that same process. Because the Jewish people started like, when I enter a home for a meal, I wash.
Not just so that I can get the dirt off my hands. But again, there's a symbolism in water that's cleansing me. That there's something in there that's actually washing me. And it was always temporary.
But there was a symbol of external washing that means that I'm clean. And then I was like, well, what about like dunking? Like actually being submerged in water? Sure enough.
The word is tevila. It's a practice in Judaism of being submerged in water and brought out. And this was for purification where if you like touched a dead body in Jewish culture, that's a big deal and you need to be clean. And so there's this process called tevila where they would dunk you in this thing called a mikvah, which is like living water.
So it needs to be like a fresh spring or moving water. So there's this practice that we see in Judaism of being dunked underwater in living water and coming up clean. Again, it's foreshadowing. It's pointing to this.
Coming out of the Babylonian exile, the Jews started doing this as a part of conversion. Where if you were a Gentile and you wanted to step into the Jewish faith, along with circumcision, you would get baptized. Tevila in a mikvah where you'd go underwater and brought back up. And it's the symbol of like conversion.
And so there are definitely customs that pointed to this. But when John comes on the scene, it's different. Right, John makes it the cornerstone of what he does to the point that his nickname becomes, I'm following John, which one? The one who baptizes people.
John the Baptist. The one that I mean, so this became a core central part of John's ministry. Let's turn to Luke 3. And we'll learn about that.
Luke 3. Matthew, Mark, Luke, 1, 2, 3. Before going into this more, I just want to say like the point of tonight is that we appreciate what's actually happening when we get baptized. Right, so we're bouncing all over and there's different, there's teaching that's happening.
But again, the goal is to actually help us understand what's really going on and have joy hit our hearts. And so even as we're reading some of this stuff, let your minds start to put pieces together unto worshiping God and go, whoa, thank you so much. Luke 3, verse 3. And he, John, went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Pause. John saying right away, the point of why we're doing this is actually the forgiveness of sins. So that's close, that's similar, but it's slightly different language. Then down in verse 7.
Then he said to the multitudes that came out, specifically in other books of the Bible, we're talking about this, he's specifically talking about the Pharisees that are coming out and going, whoa, I actually want to be baptized too. John says, you brood of vipers who warns you to flee from the wrath to come. Like a bull guy, really approachable. But what he's saying here, animals have this innate ability to understand like weather.
So like, do you guys know that if it's going to rain cows lay down? Right, it's like they're able to sense the atmospheric change and they go, whoo, and they lay down. Likewise, when there's a big earthquake coming, snakes will actually come out of the ground because they're able to feel the vibration and they don't want to get crushed so they come out of the ground. So he's saying you brood of vipers, again, or strong language, who warns you to flee the wrath to come, going, you know something's coming.
Right? Therefore, bear fruit's worthy of repentance and don't begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father as if that will save them. I say to you, God's able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Don't depend on your lineage.
You know something's coming. You know something's changing. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
So the people asked him saying, what are we supposed to do? And he answered and said to them, he who has tutunics, let him give him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise. And the tax collector's name said, how about us?
And he said, collect no more than what's appointed. And the soldiers came and said, how about us? And he said, don't intimidate anyone or accuse them falsely and be content with your wages. When he's pointing to, he's going, there's a baptism for the remission of sins unto a changed life.
Stop doing what you're doing, right? Be forgiven of your sins and then change the way you act. And so he's highlighting things like generosity, honesty, kindness, contentedness. What does John always say when he baptizes people?
Repent for the kingdom is near. Repent meaning that the Greek word metanoia means to turn. It means to change the way that you think. So if I'm doing it this way and then I go, oh, I don't want to do it that way anymore.
Repentance is a turning and a changing of your mind unto something else. So there's a repentance that's involved. Why? Because the kingdom is near, right?
It's that it's strong language, but it's that that brood of vipers going, let's get out of the ground. Something's coming. I need to change. Something's coming.
And so it's this preparation. John's the forerunner. And even this version of baptism, it's a picture of what's ahead. It's the part, but not the whole.
And then Jesus comes. And so John's saying, baptize for the forgiveness of your sins. And you need to repent because the kingdom's near. And then Jesus walks into the water and says, all right, baptize me.
And John has the same question that you would have going, but you don't need this. John knows what it's about. And he pulls Jesus aside and says, no, you should baptize me. I have sinned.
I'm still needing to repent. You're perfect. You don't need this. Why are you wanting to do this?
And Jesus has a smile on his face. I can just imagine him. But I'm reading the New King James, and he says, permit it now to be so. But in common language, he's going, let it slide.
Trust me. This is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus is going, no, no, no. Don't come here.
There's a plan. Trust me. And so by faith, John puts Jesus under the water. And when he comes out, if you've been with us in our identity series, you've heard this a bunch.
But when Jesus comes out of the water, heaven is opened up and the voice of the Father comes down. Holy Spirit descends on him, and God says, this is my son. I love him, and I like him. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
I love him, and I like him. He's my son. And in doing so, Jesus as a forerunner himself shows us the other part of baptism. When you're raised up out of that water, it's not just the forgiveness of sins and change the way that you're doing things.
You actually get to come out of the water into the favor and the smile of God, into the new identity that he's speaking over you, into the empowerment that comes to his love. Jesus is actually himself modeling this. Again, he didn't need to be baptized. But in his kindness, he's modeling this, showing us what happens when we come out of the water.
How good is that? So Jesus doesn't need baptism, right? He's about it. He likes baptism.
And how do I know this? Because Jesus, in the Great Commission, right? So Matthew 28, very popular, is authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. So he's asserting his authority, and then he's about to give his commands to everyone that's there.
Here's the mission. You ready? Go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And he doesn't, that's it.
That's his commission. Of all the things Jesus could have said, he's going disciple people and baptize them. Again, this wasn't something that was very normal in that day. Jesus is reinstating this going, if you want to follow me and do what I say, here's how this works.
Here's the mission that you all get to go on. You get to spread the good news by discipling people and baptizing them. And then people take him at his word, right? And so, if I'm the apostle Peter, and Jesus is standing up and says, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me, make disciples baptize them, and then he levitates up into heaven.
I'm going to remember those two things. Disciples, baptize, disciple, baptize, disciple, baptize. It's a big deal. It's a really big deal.
And so a couple of weeks later, they're all in the upper room because Jesus said, wait, there's more. You're going to get baptized in fire, and they wait there. We talked about that last week. Pentecost happens.
They get baptized in the Holy Spirit. They start praying in tongues, and everyone outside says what's going on. Peter steps out. And before 3,000 people, he tells the story of Jesus.
He tells the story of the good news of Jesus, who Jesus was, what he did, what we did to him, and the need for a changed life. And they say, so, so what do we have to do? I'm just like, I'm just like them. We're pent and be baptized.
And he tells them to be baptized. And that day, it says 3,000 were added to their number, and it's through baptism. So it's not just a belief. There's an action that's actually tied to it where they get baptized in the early church, hunkered down in this and didn't stray off it.
So if you read the book of Acts, you'll see continually that the act of someone being submerged in water and brought back up was a core principle that was inseparable from conversion into following the way of Jesus. Okay? So Saul, who later becomes Paul, sees Jesus goes blind, knocked off his horse. And in Ayes, this guy goes and receives him into the family and says, Brother Saul.
He affirms what God himself told Paul that he was going to be his witness, that he was going to be his representative. And Ayes affirms this. Paul agrees. Literal scales fall off of his eyes, and he believes.
It says, and then immediately he was baptized. Immediately, it's like, this is what you do now. When you follow Jesus, the next step is you get baptized. Paul, all throughout his ministry, you'll see this pattern where when someone receives the good news of Jesus, he goes, awesome, let's baptize him.
To the point that the story of Paul and Silas were there singing in the prison, and chains fall off and doors open, and they're freed, and there's this Philippian jailer, the guy who was in charge of keeping them all chained and behind bars. Now they're unchained and out of the bars, and this guy goes, I've screwed up, and he starts to tailspin, and he's about to kill himself. Right? The Bible says that he's suicidal, he's about to fall on his own sword, going, this is the end.
Let's just turn there. Acts 16. Acts 16. Verse 28.
Acts 16 and 28, but Paul called out with a loud voice saying, do yourself no harm. We're all still here. And then he called for a light, this jailer, ran in and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they responded, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your whole household.
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house. The jailer took them that same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and immediately he and all his family were baptized. And so the answer, and how do I get saved, it's still belief. It's still absolutely belief.
And we'll talk about this more later. I'm not saying that if you aren't baptized immediately, your salvation isn't real. That's not what I'm saying. But in this, we're seeing the importance of it.
We're in the middle of the night. It's important enough that, okay, I preach the gospel to this family. They all received. The logical next step in Paul's mind is, let's baptize them.
And they're linked together. It's tied together. Yeah? So it's always tied to repentance, right?
To that change of mind, that belief system. It's always tied to it, similar to communion, right? Just because you eat bread and drink wine doesn't mean that you're participating in communion. Otherwise the French would be in continual communion with God.
Just bread and wine constantly. But, but God says, do this in remembrance of me. And so it's the remembrance, but there's a symbol. There's a way that the Lord says, here's how you do this.
There's a physical way that I want you to participate in that remembrance. With baptism, we're seeing it's the same thing. We're saying, yes, you believed. Amazing.
You repented and you turned and you accepted all of the good news. But there's a physical, tangible expression that I want you to do. And again, when I look at the words of Jesus, I don't see this being optional. I see this being a command.
Go into all of the world and then baptize them. And again, Solomon's protocol where Peter's preaching, what do we do? Repent and be baptized. Like there's a command to it where it's going, no, this is important.
Again, Jesus, before he ascends to the Father, can say anything in that moment. He could have designed any system, any structure, he could have given any orders. And a couple thousand years later, we'd say, yeah, that was perfect. That was right.
We would never question it. But Jesus, with the authority and the ability to pick anything, picks baptism. Why? Like, why?
Of all the things, why did he do that? So let's look at, well, first of all, I talked earlier, I started by talking about how God loves cohesion, how he does these foreshadowing things, how he, there's pictures in the past that on the other side of it, you look back and go, oh, that was the same thing. Like, he was doing the same thing. It's the same pattern.
It blows your mind and builds your love for God by seeing these patterns. And so, like, first Peter, Peter talks about Noah and the flood. He's saying, like, you know how these eight people that were saved out of the waters? This is like baptism, which corresponds to this that now saves you.
Right? He's pointing to the flood and he's saying, that's a picture. There was this wicked world and the water came and then someone came out of the water and they were saved. It's kind of like that.
Or like, the Israelites crossing through the Red Sea. On one side were slaves and were in fear. But I go through the water and I come up out of the water and then suddenly I look back and all of those things that haunted me that kept me slave. They're underwater.
Now, they're gone. You can look back at these pictures in the Old Testament and go, oh, that's so similar. Like, that's a picture. It's a foreshadow.
It's pointing to. Or how about, how about Naaman? There's a story where there's a Syrian ruler named Naaman who has leprosy and he wants to be made clean and he comes all the way to Israel because he's hurt that there's power there. And the prophet of life just says, if you want to be clean, I'll tell you what you do.
You go to the Jordan River and you dunk yourself under water seven times. The very same river that John would later baptize people in. It's a foreshadowing. It's a picture of going, this, there's something about it.
There's something about going underwater and coming up. And so I believe that part of this is Jesus being in full agreement with the Father and going, you've been telling this story for a couple thousand years unto this. And so I believe that's part of it. But I also believe that there's something so significant about that picture.
The picture of, I look one way when I'm up here. I go under. And when I come up, I look different. I'm dripping.
Nobody has any questions. Was that guy just underwater? There's a physical change. It's reminding you, it's reminding everyone around you, something happened.
This isn't just my imagination. This isn't just something that I'm lightly doing. Something happened. And you can see it and I can see it.
We talked about how there was these different customs in Judaism. If someone wanted to convert, circumcision was kind of the main way that the Jewish people were set apart, right? It was the institution that God gave saying, do this. People will know for darn sure that you're in Israelite.
Right? It's like, you know, because circumcision was this thing that the Lord presented to them saying, this is kind of how people know. Let's, you don't have to turn there. But Colossians 2, Paul's talking about this.
He says, in him, in Jesus, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. Praise God. A circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism. In which you also were now raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raises Jesus from the dead.
He's equating baptism, circumcision going, there's this process by which you were actually accepted. You were brought in. There was something physical and tangible that happened that signified the death of one way and the initiation into a brand new way. Okay?
Another one. This is probably my favorite passage that kind of talks about this. I want to just kind of anchor here. Turn to Romans 6.
Romans 6. Romans is like Paul's dissertation on the gospel. He's laying out all of the kind of the logical argument of going like, here's how we know. Here's what this means.
He's unpacking things. He's getting a little intellectual on it. But he's explaining all of these things in the book of Romans. In Romans 6, we'll start in verse 3, okay?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried, therefore, with Him, by baptism into death. In order that, just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
We know that our old self was crucified in Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Paul's now saying, you know how I've said that I've been crucified with Christ? It's like baptism. He's pointing it.
He's saying baptism. That's the picture that we have of actually connecting with the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And so if we're saying that we want to be found in Him and we want to partner with Him in His suffering, Paul's directly correlating baptism to that. Saying, do you remember how you were all baptized?
This is a symbol. This is a picture of a death to your old man into the resurrection of something new. He's pointing to, it keeps on going. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives He lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. It's the gospel. He's presenting the good news of the gospel and He's doing it through the picture of baptism. He's saying, you go underwater.
And that's like burial. In that moment, as you go under, you're relating in the smallest of ways and in a powerful way with the death of Jesus. You're going just like He took every single sin on Himself and actually put it to death in His body and was buried. I'm included in that.
I was with you in that moment. You saved me in that moment. I'm relating with the suffering of Jesus and I'm saying all of my sin. I'm remembering as I go down, He was buried with my sin and you're underwater.
And then you come up. And just like Jesus foreshadowed, the pleasure of God and the invitation of the Lord to be His beloved son or daughter in whom He's well pleased, you come up into resurrection life. In the same way that we celebrate the risen Jesus who's never going to die, who doesn't have any temptation to sin because He's actually crucified sin in His body. We're relating with that.
We're going, Me too! We come out of the water to identify with the resurrection. It's a foreshadowing of our resurrected bodies, but in that moment we're actually saying, I'm different. Look, I'm splashing water.
My hair's well. I'm different. I came out different. Everyone around us goes, they're different.
There's a power in baptism because it unites us. We've been talking about alignment this whole year, right? There's an alignment that happens where it's going. I'm aligning myself with Him by going under and coming up.
I'm aligning even my own internal process. Yes, I've repented. I've believed. But I'm bringing my body into alignment.
We're going under and we're coming up. It's so powerful, you guys. Baptism is such a gift because we need things like that. We need examples.
We need pictures. We need memories to anchor something. And God in His kindness for thousands of years is foreshadowing because He knows how important baptism is going to be for the believer. So a lot of people ask, well, yeah, but is it necessary?
Okay, we're just going to turn here too. We're all over the Bible. Acts 8. Go to Acts 8 because I think this is just so good.
It's so good. Acts 8. This is the story of Philip meeting an Ethiopian. Acts 8, start verse 26.
This is so good. This story is bananas. Like it's one of the wilder stories in the book of Acts. I love it.
So Acts 8 verse 26. Now, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. That's what my version says.
It's clarifies. We're in a desert here. So he rose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a unit of great authority under Candace, the queen of the...
Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of a treasury had come to Jerusalem was returning in his chariot. And the spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake his chariot. What? Philip says, okay.
And he ran to him, caught up to the chariot, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and yelled out, do you understand what you're reading? This story is so great. There's a man who's like super speeding next to a chariot, hearing what the guy's like reading, and then yells to him, do you understand what you're reading? All based off obedience of an angel showing up.
This is the best. And the Ethiopian said, how can I unless someone guides me? It reminds me of Danny's story earlier, just like, open door, right? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
And then Philip starts to explain the scriptures about Jesus. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shear is silent, he opened not his mouth, and his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation?
So he's been reading this in the book of Isaiah. There's curiosity in his heart around this. And they read that. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this?
Philip opened his mouth and began at this scripture preaching Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, see, here's some water. What's hindering me from being baptized?
There's something in this explanation of how Philip is presenting the gospel that as the chariot's going by, the eunuch goes, hold up. We're in the desert, but there's some water. What's keeping me from being baptized right now? So back to our question of, is it necessary?
Man, I want our hearts to see this the way that this guy saw it. We're going, what's preventing me from being baptized? And so just to put you at ease, if there's some angst going, well, I hadn't been baptized, but I love God. And I was baptized as a baby.
Does that count? Like there's some of those questions. I just want to say this quick to clear the air a little bit. I don't believe that baptism in any way is a prerequisite for salvation in the sense that if you accepted Jesus and weren't baptized and died, I think you go to heaven.
Okay? There's examples in the Bible of, like for example, John 20. Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's their conversion born again moment.
They weren't baptized, but they're saved in that moment. There's even a story in Acts 10 where Peter's preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. The Gentiles believe, and all of a sudden they're baptized in the Holy Spirit. They start praying in tongues.
And the other apostle like, whoa, Gentiles can get saved too? Okay, go. And then they went and they baptized them in water then. So still asserting like, no, you should be baptized for sure.
Even if you've been baptized in the Spirit. But you haven't been baptized in water. This is important because he told us it was important. When you follow the way of Jesus, you get baptized.
That's how this works. And so is it necessary for salvation? No, in the same way that there's grace for your sins. And if you sinned the second before you got hit by a bus, there's grace.
You're like, you were saved. Does that mean? Well, now I can get away with whatever I want? Well, I mean, baptism isn't really that important.
Is it? Because it's not really like essential for salvation. In the words of Paul, by no means. Stop doing that.
There's a command in the Bible to be baptized. It's a part of following God. Jesus had two things before he ascends. You should make disciples.
You should then baptize them. And so all of us, this side of those apostles, somehow we were brought into the kingdom. And the call is that we be discipled and that we be baptized. Baptism is so powerful.
Being able to make that decision where you're going, no, no, no, I understand what's happening. This is why I'm not trying to make a theological argument. That's what we don't do infant baptism here. We're huge fans of being able to stand up there and know exactly what you're doing and being united with him in depth and being brought up into new life.
My son heard about this concept and we talked about it for a little bit last week. He's like, well, I want to be baptized. And so we filled up the bathtub and Miss Abby came over because she wanted to celebrate too. And he was like, I know what's going on.
And so we baptized in the bathtub. That's awesome. I'm not saying that you have to be at a certain age. I'm saying you have to understand what's going on because it's a part of your following of Jesus.
Jesus calls us to do it. My mom, she got saved later in life. She was 39 when she got saved. And she used to be tormented, not just in like everyone who doesn't know Jesus is living with.
It's like, no, she had demonic activity. And it was kind of this constant battle. And she was terrified of the nights because at night was when things were really loud. And she would hear these voices and accusations.
And she didn't even know what it meant. But she would kind of walk around the house and sing some like Bible song that she learned back in the day because she didn't know what else to do. But it was kind of this constant noise. And her sister, my aunt, followed Jesus and had been faithful for like 10 years to represent Jesus to her.
And to ask her questions about her life and to present the gospel to her. And my mom was resistant for 10 years. And then finally, the day comes where she goes, no, I think I need God. I think I need to be saved from something.
And so my aunt, Susie and her Bible study go upstairs and my mom gets baptized in a bathtub. And she comes out, I'm not making this up. She comes out soaking wet. And the first thing out of her mouth is, it's so quiet.
Oh my gosh. I don't understand this, you guys. But she prayed the prayer downstairs in the basement. Then they walked upstairs to the bathtub and her coming out of the waters when she went, oh my gosh, it's so quiet.
And that night she had her first solid night sleeping four years. And from that day on she's just been like, she's been committed to Jesus. But I know this story because she has that story. Because the people that loved her were obedient to the Scriptures and they said, you received Jesus, let's go get you dunked.
And they started the water and it wasn't fancy and it wasn't, it was just in a bathtub. But there was an obedience that says, this is what we do. And the transformation was real for my mom. And so, yeah, is it necessary?
No, but you for sure should. And so, if I was to kind of summarize, like, why baptism? Why being dunked underwater and brought back up? There's three things I could summarize.
One is that it's a way to publicly show I'm choosing the way of Jesus. Like in the same way that Paul, who had been a faithful good little Jewish boy, trained by a male ill, circumcised in the eighth day in the whole list that he does, he's like, I was doing things right. But there was a moment where the scales came off my eyes and I got baptized. And there's this symbol of going, I'm different, I'm following his way now.
There's an obedience to the commands of Jesus. And we've been talking about this a little more. We're not as scared as we used to. I was saying, like, we do it because he says so.
It's like, well, he's in charge and he's smarter than me. And of course I'm going to follow him. Like, that doesn't need to be a heavy handed statement. That's how we follow Jesus.
He did it, so I do it. And there's an obedience to it. So that's the first thing that baptism is symbolizing. I'm doing things his way now.
There's how many of you know that it's inconvenient sometimes, right? Like Joshua, the story during COVID, he went to pick up Olive Garden for his family. And he's sitting there in his car waiting for someone in like full PPE to bring him out his Alfredo. He's sitting there waiting and is taking forever.
And there's this guy in the car next to him and Joshua starts a conversation. And over the course of their extremely long wait for Alfredo, Josh ends up leading this guy to the Lord as they're sitting in their cars having this conversation. It's amazing. How many of you know in that moment it's inconvenient to say, and now we get baptized, right?
It's not convenient friends. I'm not saying that it is, but even as I've been preparing for this message, I'm having some conviction hit my heart going, man, if I lead someone to Jesus, that seems to be his way. And I don't get to call the shots. So I actually want to prioritize baptism in that conversion moment because I want him, I want that guy in his car waiting for his pasta to have a memory.
Man, I got dunked that day. Something was different that day. And so there's a step of obedience in the way of Jesus that we align with by partnering in baptism. The second thing that I believe in why baptism as a symbol is so important is that death going under.
When we go under, it's meant to actually give us, even for a snapshot, this thing of being completely buried. And in that moment we're identifying with what Jesus did. We're identifying that there's a part of me that's actually dying, that's staying underwater. And so in that moment, I remember when I was baptized, and I've had times where accusations coming or where I'm struggling with something and I'm frustrated, and it doesn't happen all the time.
But there have been times where I go, nope, 14 years old, camp Lebanon in the lake, I left them all there. That's where it is now. And there's this remembrance of going, no, it was in... I got buried in that moment.
That thing's not coming out. I left it there. It's dead now. And so there's the power of being submerged in that burial.
There's a death to sin. And the third thing is that partnership with the resurrection where we come out and we get to follow Jesus the forerunner into seeing the pleasure of God and actually receiving, going, no, I came out different. I came out dripping with the goodness of God. I came out aware of his smile and his pleasure.
I'm actually resurrected into something. And it's not just changing the way that I live, though that's important. I'm actually resurrected into a whole different identity. I'm now able to do what he called me to do because I'm walking with him.
I'm in union with him. There's been a resurrection. And the life that I live, I now don't leave to myself. It's unto him.
And so there's an empowerment that comes in coming out of the water. Stephen, you can come out with my guy. So next week is Baptism Sunday. Next week, there's going to be a couple big tanks here.
And we have the opportunity to celebrate people getting baptized, people making this decision. And so for some of you, you've been following Jesus for a really long time. I don't think you missed the boat. I think there's a call to be baptized.
I think there's a call to partner with the things that I just laid out and be baptized and be dunked underwater and brought up again. I don't think that you missed it just because you've been walking with Jesus. Hey, there's that story. Been saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost.
And still, there's an importance that the apostles had where they went down there just for the purpose of baptizing them. And here's the deal. We, like, logistically, if 400 people are like, I want to be baptized, we can't do all that. I have awesome news.
We just have these services to take a moment to put a spotlight on something that could happen in a bathtub. It could happen in a lake. There's nothing special about doing it here outside of the fact that we get to all celebrate together. And we love that.
There's something special about that for sure. But man, there was this one time I baptized a guy and it was November. No, October? Late October.
It was around Halloween. And there wasn't yet ice. But it was close. And he reached out to me and he kind of going back and forth with the Lord.
He reached out and he's like, I think I want to do this and I want to get baptized. He's initiated. I'm like, awesome. Meet you at Lake Johanna.
And we went into Lake Johanna and we're both in our swim shorts. I'm like, and we're just trying to figure out, like, how do we do this? It's really cold. But I just said, listen, here's what we're going to do.
I'm going to pray with you. You get to pray. I get to say I baptized you in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, just like the Word told me to. And then we're both going to sprint into that lake as fast as we can and go fully under you ready?
And we prayed and then grabbed hands like, go! And we just booked it and we're both screaming and whooping and hollering and we come out of this freezing lake. And I have pictures. And I showed him.
There's a before and after picture of before he got baptized and after he got baptized. And I'm telling you, he looks different. It's like something happened in the simplicity of two doofuses running into a freezing cold lake out of a desire to do it Jesus's way. And so do not do not think that if you don't get baptized next week at baptism Sunday, you should wait until next year.
Don't, right? Don't. But if you're in that spot where you're going, man, I've never actually been baptized. Or maybe I was just sprinkled as an infant and I'm going, I want to make this stance.
Everything we just laid out. I actually want to know what I'm doing as I partner with the way of Jesus into the death of Jesus in the resurrection. Jesus, I actually want to do that. This is your opportunity to just register and join us and get baptized next week.
What if I've been baptized before but I didn't really get it and I want to do it again? Great question. I would say that you have an opportunity to actually retroactively go, that's what that meant. You can go, whoa, I didn't get it then, but I get it now.
And if you want to get re-baptized in a bathtub, go for it. Like, I'm not going to say that you can't. But I do believe that whether you were fully aware of it or not, if there was a moment where, as an adult, you said, yes, just like I can look back to my 14-year-old camp Lebanon moment, it's like, I didn't fully get it then. But now I can look at it and go, oh, that's what happened.
And so you have the opportunity to relate in that way. Let's all stand. Jesus, we're so grateful for the gospel, the good news. We're so grateful that we weren't left on our own and we're so grateful that you care enough about us that you're able to do things in a way that caters to our own physical senses.
You've actually designed things and you were foreshadowing for a couple thousand years this beautiful expression of how it could help us understand what's really going on. There's this way that you've let us in Jesus and you've laid it out for our good and we say yes, God, we're so grateful for the opportunity to align ourselves with you and to align ourselves internally with what you've accomplished, that there has been an actual death to our old man. And an actual resurrection. It's not just a symbol or a picture, it actually happened.
I actually was a brand new creation in that moment. I thank you for the gift of baptism that reminds me of that. Holy Spirit, for me and my friends, I just ask shamelessly that you would give us the opportunity to baptize a new believer in the next couple months. God, I ask that this message would stick to the point that as we're living our everyday lives and we're sharing the good news, we find ourselves in the opportunity to go, whoa, I actually have the privilege of getting to baptize this person.
To be there and be present in their exchange of the old for the new. Holy Spirit asked that you would give us grace to do that. And as we leave this building, I ask that there would be fresh wonder in our heart, fresh appreciation, fresh thanksgiving, as we look at you and your way. And Lord, we're still looking forward to celebrating with all of our friends next week.
In Jesus name, amen. Amen. I was excited for baptism Sunday before. I'm even more excited now.
It's going to be so fun.