Going Public With Your Faith by Remy Diederich www.cedarbrookchurch.net
One thing that is really fun about speaking here at Cedarbrook is that I’m speaking to people with such a diverse background. For instance, we have people here who have been following Jesus for 30 years and know the Bible inside and out. And sitting right next to them is someone who’s not so sure God even exists but they are willing to come here and check out the possibility. And then there’s everyone in between. I love that diversity. And I hope you realize that it’s okay to be wherever you are in the process.
Then we also have people from all kinds of religious backgrounds. Let me just take a little poll here. How many people were raised Catholic? Lutheran? Baptist? Pentecostal? How about another religion all together?
Speaking of Catholics and Lutherans, I have a story for you. Forty years ago, when I was a kid growing up in the Catholic church, there was a rule that you couldn’t eat meat on Friday.
Now that dates me. Some of you remember that. It was so widely held to that schools always served fishsticks on Fridays. The funny thing about that rule that we came up with every excuse in the book to justify why eating meat on THIS Friday was okay.
Well, there was this man by the name of Ole who had just quit farming. He moved to a town where he discovered he was the only Lutheran. Everyone else was Catholic. That was okay, but the neighbors had a problem with his barbecuing beef every Friday because of the no meat rule, but the tempting aroma was getting the best of them. They were pretty upset so they got together and confronted Ole.
"Ole," they said, "since you are the only Lutheran in this whole town and there's not a Lutheran church for many miles, we think you should join our church and become a Catholic." Ole thought about it for a minute and decided they were right. Ole talked to the priest, and they arranged it.
The big day came, and the priest had Ole kneel. He put his hand on Ole's head and said, "Ole, you were born a Lutheran, you were raised a Lutheran, and now," he said as he sprinkled some holy water over Ole's head, " you are a Catholic!"
Both Ole and the neighbors were happy. It was a real win-win situation for everyone. But the following Friday evening, the aroma of grilled beef still drifted over from Ole's yard. The neighbors went to talk to him about this, and as they approached the fence they heard Ole saying something strangely familiar to the steak: "You were born a beef, you were raised a beef, and now" he said as he sprinkled a little seasoning over the meat, "you are a fish!"
Well, my point is, since our backgrounds are so diverse… when I talk about different aspects of the faith I think it’s important that I make an effort to define my terms. What I mean is that I can’t assume that we all believe the same thing or see things from the same perspective.
For example, if I asked ten people here to define what it means to be a Christian, or how to become a Christian, I bet I’d get at least four different answers.
Gordon Smith is bible scholar who studied both the Bible and church history to discover what the components were of becoming a Christian. He came up with seven components that he thinks are crucial. These are the seven…
1. Believe in Jesus as God and Savior of the world.
2. Acknowledge personal sin and a having desire to change.
3. Trust God for personal forgiveness. That Jesus died for you.
4. Commit to follow Jesus and live a new life.
5. Be Baptized
6. Receive God’s Spirit.
7. Join the life of the church.
He said each one of these is key- To leave one out is to haven an incomplete faith.
Over the past few months I’ve spoken about four or five of these seven components. But this morning I want to talk specifically about baptism. Now, I wouldn’t normally take two weeks to talk about baptism. I’ll probably never do it again. But since we are a new church, and there are so many differing views on baptism, I want to take time to explain it as best I can. And I’m also hoping that after hearing me teach on it that many of you will sign up to be baptized on June 22nd.
In just a minute, I’m going to show us what the Bible has to say about baptism. But first, let me tell you the three main thoughts about baptism.
One is that Baptism confers faith… in other words, some people teach that simply being baptized will qualify you for heaven -that if you’ve been sprinkled or dipped or whatever, you’ve got your ticket. And that’s why infants need to be baptized as quickly as possible in case they die. Now, this view is very wrong and has no basis in the Bible. I can’t tell you how many people have come to me in fear that a family member is in hell today simply because they didn’t get baptized.
The second one is Baptism preceeds faith. Here, baptism is the church’s way of extending God’s grace to people even as an infant. This view doesn’t believe that baptism qualifies a person for heaven, but rather baptism starts people in the process of moving toward God in hopes that they will eventually choose to follow Jesus.
Now, I personally don’t think this is modeled in the Bible. I think it came about as a result of church tradition and culture. But, I don’t think it’s wrong or bad at all. And I know for some people it’s very meaningful. I’ll say more about this a little later.
The third view is that Baptism follows faith. This is my personal view. Baptism immediately follows a person’s conversion to Jesus as a way of marking and symbolizing their new life in Christ. Infants AREN’T baptized but rather dedicated to God in prayer.
So, with this overview in mind, let’s see what the Bible says about baptism in the early church.
First, the Bible tells us that Jesus was baptized.
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John didn't want to baptize him. "I am the one who needs to be baptized by you," he said, "so why are you coming to me?" But Jesus said, "It must be done, because we must do everything that is right. " So then John baptized him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him." Mt. 3:13-15
If Jesus went out of his way to be baptized, I have to believe it was important. He said it HAD to be done. It was the RIGHT thing to do. You know, I can be pretty simplistic - which means that when I see that something is good enough for Jesus…then it’s good enough for me. If Jesus thought it was right to be baptized, it’s hard for me to argue with that.
Second, the Bible tells us that the apostles commanded us to be baptized. After Peter’s first sermon, Peter has the people on the edge of their seats. They ask him what they must do to be saved, or accepted by God. The Bible says…
Peter replied, "Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church--about three thousand in all. Acts 2:38-41
Peter saw baptism as inseparable from turning to Jesus. I don’t think he would have gone so far as to say that if you didn’t get baptized you wouldn’t go to heaven but for Peter faith and baptism always went together.
Third, The Bible tells us that baptism is the New Testament model for new believers. That is, every convert in the New Testament was baptized. You never read about a person turning to Christ without being baptized. For example, when Philip, who was one of the apostles, went out preaching and people turned to God, it says…
… the people believed Philip's message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.. Acts 8:12
Then, when Philip was done preaching he met up with an official from Ethiopia who was reading the Bible. The man didn’t understand what the Bible was saying so Philip took the opportunity to share the news about Jesus. Baptism must have been a significant part of Phillip’s message because listen to what it says…
As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look! There's some water! Why can't I be baptized?" He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. Acts 8:37,38
So Philip must have closely associated baptism with what it meant to be a believer for this man to get so excited when he saw the water. I don’t see a lot of people getting excited about baptism today but I think that’s because we don’t have the same message that Philip had.
Fourth, the Bible tells us that Jesus commanded us to be baptized, or rather commanded the apostles to baptize. Just before Jesus returned to heaven he told his apostles…
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Matt 28:19
For Jesus, a part of becoming a follower, was being baptized. When he sent his apostles out to preach, he expected them to baptize their converts. Who was baptized? Disciples, people who had decided to follow and obey Jesus’ teaching.
And finally, the Bible tells us that baptism symbolizes an inward spiritual reality. Baptism is a chance to stop and celebrate an invisible spiritual reality. It’s a way of making tangible something that is intangible. And because we can’t touch our faith or show it to others, baptism gives us a place in time to point to and say… “God did something in my life and I’m marking this event by being baptized”
Next week my whole message will deal with what baptism symbolizes.
Now, if baptism is so important, why do some people choose to not get baptized? Well, I thought of six reasons people choose to not be baptized…
First, they’ve already been baptized as an infant. Some people see getting baptized as an adult as being redundant. They already did and they don’t think they need to do it again.
And there are others that feel like if they get baptized as an adult it somehow negates the meaning of their infant baptism. In fact, they might find the idea of adult baptism offensive for this reason. But I don’t think either of these thoughts is true.
Infant baptism and adult baptism have different meanings. They are both done for different reasons. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Infant baptism has more to do with communicating God’s acceptance to an infant and the parent’s commitment to raise them in a godly household. Adult baptism is more closely linked with a personal decision to follow Jesus. I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. It’s a both/and situation. So, if you were baptized as an infant, and you’ve committed your life to following Jesus, I’d encourage you to be baptized as an adult.
The second reason people aren’t baptized is that they fear being embarrassed. Many of us are afraid of doing something in public, especially in regard to religion. It’s really not culturally acceptable in the German/Scandanavian northland to go public with your faith. We’re supposed to keep our faith to ourselves. But I think it’s important to identify yourself with Jesus. Jesus said…
"And I assure you of this: If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I, the Son of Man, will openly acknowledge that person in the presence of God's angels. 9But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before God's angels. Luke 12:8,9
When I got married, Lisa and we sent out 500 invitations, we stood up in front of 300 people and took vows. We exchanged rings. We had a party. We let the world know that we had made a commitment to each other. I think it’s important that we make a similar announcement about our faith in God. When you go public with your commitments, it has a way of making it real. And I think many times people’s faith FEELS real when they get baptized.
Pat Summerall, the well known sports announcer, overcame alcoholism and became a follower of Christ in his late sixties. He said this about water baptism:
"I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and a more positive feeling about life than ever before."
Another reason people don’t get baptized is they are afraid of offending their parents. Many people fear that they will offend their parents and also fear that their parents will reject them over it. I think this is a valid concern.
I faced this. Not with baptism but with marriage. When Lisa and I didn’t get married in the Catholic Church, our parents were hurt. It felt like we were rejecting them. But it was a chance for us to make a public statement about our faith as well as who we were as a couple. We were choosing to do things differently. We wanted to respect our parents, but we still had to do what we felt God was calling us to do, even though it made our parents uncomfortable.
So, if you are afraid of offending your parents, I think you need to communicate to your family that you aren’t replacing your infant baptism, you are adding to it. You aren’t rejecting what it meant to them, but you are trying to make your faith complete. I think if you put it that way, they’ll respect you.
The fourth reason people don’t get baptized is they don’t understand the symbolism. They don’t see the significance of getting dunked in a pool of water. It seems like some ancient religious ritual that doesn’t mean anything today. But the truth is, it has a LOT of meaning. As I said before, I’ll answer this in more detail next week as to what it symbolizes.