Joseph Fehlen – Water Baptism – October 31st, 2010

Joseph Fehlen – Solving Disputes – October 31st, 2010

Joseph Fehlen – It Seems Good – October 24th, 2010

Baptism is a thing that seems to bring up a lot of questions in people’s lives. What is it? Do I need to do it? One thing Matthew 28:19-20 talks about is how we as Disciples of Christ are to go into the entire world baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Great, so what does that mean? 

When we look at the Book of Acts we find several story of such activity happening in the early church. (Acts 2:41, 8:12, 8:38, 9:18, 10:48, 16:15, 16:33 18:8 & 19:3-5) These give us instances of baptism but still don’t give us the why or what happens in baptisms.

The greatest story of a baptism happened in Luke 3:21-22 and Matthew 3:13-17 when Jesus was baptized by his cousin John.  This gives us a great model of baptism and as we look at others scriptures that give us a clear understanding of what happens.

The word used for baptism in the Bible was a very common one that meant to immerse, plunge under, and submerge. It is what we do to cucumbers to make them pickles, we baptize them in the brine.

That is the simple answer to how we baptize people, we immerse their whole body in water. But what is spiritually happening when you get baptized in front of your friends, family and other onlookers?

 #1. You are making a public stand for Christ.
 Galatians 3:26-27 “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes”

Just like putting on the jersey of your favorite team you are clothing yourself with Christ when you publically declare that you are a follower of His.  Public is important. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the most public gathering around. People went there for their drinking water, to wash their clothes, to cool off on a hot day, and to go fishing. Everybody gathered there.  

Matthew 10:32, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven but whoever disowns me before men I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

We are ultimately making a public statement that are…  

#2. Being baptized into Christ’s Death
Romans 6:3-4;6-7 “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  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.”

Our old self is dead. 

Your old nature dies in the water grave of baptism. It is the burying of one’s pasts.  Whenever your old sinful life comes back and reminds you of what you did you can say, “you’re dead!” You were buried with Christ in baptism and it is really weird to listen to dead things.  That old sin that used to grip you has no more power over you.

And glory to God through baptism you are…. 
#3. Raised into new life.

You are going to be raised out of the watery grave into new life. You are different now as the Holy Spirit of God is active in your life. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead raises you from the death of sin.

Romans 6:4 “Just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the father, we too may live a new life, a totally new life in Christ.”

We have a new life now to live out the commandments that Jesus spoke of while here on the earth. This new life is now empower through the experience of baptism.

One note of warning.  The Greek word for baptism was also used for the process of dyeing garments. I once thought I could dye a polyester shirt even though I was told repeatedly that only cotton could be dyed. I thought I could take a garment that wasn’t able to accept the color of dye and force it into the fabric. It didn’t work and everyone laughed. 

Just like in my experience we need to prepare ourselves for the water of baptism and it has nothing to do with our clothes. We need to prepare our own spirit to except the water of baptism into the fabric of our life. We can prepare ourselves for baptism by:

1)     Expecting the free gift of Christ salvation and choosing to be a follower of Him. If we don’t do this we are just getting wet in front of a crowd.

2)     Spending time in his Word and read the stories of Baptisms so you are not surprised when a truly spiritual moment happens.

3)     Be prepared to share your own story of your past and how you want this moment to declare publically that you are a follower of Christ and how you wish to die to your former self and be raised to a new life in Christ.

Baptism has symbolic meanings but at it’s core it is a deeply spiritual event and encounter that every follower of Christ is asked to partake in.

Joseph Fehlen – Failures Don’t Make A Failure – October 10th, 2010