Baptism
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The New International Version Chapter 5
Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”z
I want to be straight up with you tonight
These angels also give a message to the apostles to go back into the temple where they were speaking and tell others about this new life.
I want to see you become followers of Jesus
Question - What was this new life that the angels talked about?What is this new life? PAUSE
I long to see a generation of youth who have made the decision to live radical lifestyles for Jesus.
This new life involved a transformation
This new life is the resurrection power of Jesus that lives on this inside of us when we accept the message about Christ
This new life involves a lifestyle transformation
This new life is more than just praying a prayer and accepting Jesus it involves Jesus transforming your lifestyle.
Jesus wants to literally change the way we live and the day in and day out things that we do so it reflects his lifestyle
Jesus wants us to live a new life of following him
And this new life is a life that is foreverWhat is this new life is a loaded question?
Does this new life interest you at all?
Like, are you at all interested in learning about the new life Jesus has for you? Or are you ok just to live life the way you want?
The New International Version Chapter 5
But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.
With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.
No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.
Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported,
“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.
Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.”
At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.
“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.
God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
You have heard me talk a lot this morning about lifestyle.
Back to the text - so they begin to teach about this new life
What would it look like if we all made the decision that we were going to live our lifestyle differently and live a life of following Jesus?
What kind of impact could that have?
God wants to start a movement of Christ -followers.
There are some really practical steps we can take to follow Jesus.
Some of you have already made those steps this weekend.
Some of you have accepted Jesus into your life and have made the decision that you want to follow him.
Some of you have made the decision to be called out of a friendship, relationship, habit or something that has been holding you back.
Some of you have said you want Jesus to do work in your heart and change you or to give you gifts and abilities.
Our faith in Jesus needs to be public.
The Bible says
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So we have to proclaim with our mouth. That is a very public exercise.
There is a tension when we go public with our faith.
When you put it out there that you are something there is this tension that you need to be authentic.
One of the things I love about you guys is you can really tell if someone is being authentic or not and you hate when people are not being real, genuine, authentic people.
It’s like if someone says they are something and they aren’t.
Like if someone says they are a doctor and someone comes to them and their sick and they don’t have a clue what they are doing.
Or if someone says they are a professional hockey player but can’t skate or shoot the puck. There is just something that doesn’t line up quite right.
The challenge with being public with our faith is that how we live our life has to line up with who we say we are. If we say we are Christian well our lives should reflect that right?
You have heard it say it’s easy to talk the talk but can you walk the walk?
Fallen Condition Focus
In the age of social media it is so easy to give an appearance you are something. Like how many times did we re-take that picture so we could make it our profile picture. And in our walk with Jesus we can try and make it appear that we are following Jesus with our lifestyle but if people were to take a real serious look at our lifestyle behind the scenes we would see that we aren’t being authentic.
Being public about our faith in Jesus is not so we can get so many likes and comments on instagram. We don’t go public about our faith because being a Christian is cool.
We go public about our faith because God calls us to be authentic about our faith.
One of the practical steps we take about going public in our faith is baptism.
Jesus commanded his disciples to do something.
Back to the text - so they begin to teach about this new life
So basically what I am doing here tonight, they are explaining to these people how to get this new life through Jesus and then how to live it out
Matthew 28:19-20 says Go and make disciples of every
The New International Version Chapter 28
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,f baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,g 20 and teachingh them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with youi always, to the very end of the age.”j
Mark
So Jesus commanded the disciples before he left to go and make disciples and to baptize them and to teach them all Jesus commanded them.
Disciples are people who choose to live their lifestyles after the one teaching them.
Then Jesus gives this command to be baptized.
Then Jesus gives this command to be baptized.
If you want to experience the new life Jesus has for you baptism is one of those steps
One of the commandments Jesus gave was to be baptized
If you want to experience the new life Jesus has for you baptism is one of those steps
Now some of you are planning to get baptized next Friday right?
Does anybody here know what baptism means?
Baptism is loaded with meaning
Baptism means death
Baptism means new life
Baptism means grace
Baptism means going public
Baptism is an outward sign of something God has already done in your heart
You know when we first come to Jesus maybe we pray and ask Jesus to come into our hearts but maybe we haven’t really gone public with our faith
You know there is that process of us wrestling through and start reading the Bible and praying
But we come to the moment in our lifestyle where we are like man, I need to let the world know where I stand with God
We come to that point where we don’t want to just say I am Christian but want to make a public statement to the world that I want to live my lifestyle for Jesus
Do you see the difference?
Being a believer in Jesus is a one time decision - being a follower of Jesus is a decision we make everyday
Usually when someone accepts Jesus we ask people to close their eyes and bow their heads and tend to do it more privately - there is nothing private about baptism
Like when we get baptized we ought to have a profile picture of our baptism or post something on instagram because that is essentially what our act is proclaiming
Baptism means that you are proclaiming to the world that you have decided to follow Jesus not just in word but with your lifestyle
So Baptism is public
Baptism is also death - gulp
Or 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.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Baptism is a symbol to you and to the world that the old life you use to live has been nailed to the cross of Jesus
Baptism symbolizes our death to our old self and our rising again from the dead with Jesus in freedom and power.
“I’ve got the power.”
The reason I am so excited about baptism and sharing with you tonight about this new life is because baptism is a tangible physical act or a step that you take that is physical
Baptism represents a step that you take
Baptism solidifies a decision you have already made
Baptism also represents new life
You rise again from the dead
This is crazy guys, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you
So baptism symbolized that the old life is nailed to the cross but when you come up out of that water you rise like Jesus rose from the dead with resurrection power - does that make sense?
So baptism symbolizes that amazing transformation that has happened in your life or that new life you have in Jesus.
God uses baptism to minister his grace to you.
When you make a decision to be baptized you follow the command of Jesus and he uses baptism to minister his grace to you.
To me, baptism solidifies a decision you have made in your heart and when the tough times come, and they will come, you can always look back to that moment and instead of giving up you say, no I have made the decision to follow Jesus.
Baptism is a big deal and not a decision to take lightly.
Potential story here...
As we have this conversation some of you may be saying I’m not ready and I don’t think that is a bad thing. Some of you don’t feel like you are ready for baptism because you aren’t ready to live your lifestyle for Jesus. I agree with you. What would it look like if you make a decision to be baptized but then you life a lifestyle that is totally opposite to what Jesus wants?
Your lifestyle won’t back up what you have said in public and people will recognize that.
God wants us to be authentic.
Baptism should make us gulp in the sense that it is a very serious decision. We are making a public decision to follow Jesus.
Now, that does not mean you are going to be perfect or that you won’t make mistakes. But it does mean that you have given the steering wheel to Jesus and to the best of your ability you are going to follow him.
Here is another tension. The tension is this - I want to be baptized but I am scared that I won’t live up to what I am supposed to.
Let me say first of all that this is a good fear. You probably should have that fear going into the waters because the challenge is real.
But if you have genuinely put your faith in Jesus and want to make every effort to follow him you are probably ready to be baptized.
So that is what I would like to say, if you are all in and committed to following Jesus and going public in your faith and living your lifestyle you need to begin the conversation with your to your youth leader/youth pastor or pastor about baptism.
If you are here and you are not ready to live your lifestyle for Jesus you probably aren’t ready to make that step.
Look, we are all weak, frail, broken human beings and so if you want to be baptized but know your weakness
Look, some of you aren’t ready for baptism.
You’re not ready for baptism if you aren’t willing to go public with your faith
You’re not ready for baptism if you haven’t accepted Jesus Christ into your life
You’re not ready for baptism if you aren’t ready to let Jesus call the shots
You’re not ready for baptism if you aren’t willing to let Jesus rule your lifestyle
You’re probably not ready for baptism if you aren’t willing to post your baptism on instagram, snapchat or facebook.
You aren’t doing it for the likes but your willingness to say I don’t care what people think has to be there.
You’re not ready for baptism if you aren’t ready to let that old lifestyle die and go down into the watery grave.
The bait box - we use a bait box at our church. The bait box is perfect because it is what they keep dead fish in. That bait box represents the grave. Your old, selfish, lifestyle goes to the grave and you are raised up into new life.
And while it is awesome to do it down on the shore or at a lake I like doing it at a church.
Baptism happens in the context of community.
We are not going to do baptisms tonight; you want to know why?
Because baptism should happen in the context of our own faith community and where we are going to be discipled.
Baptism is one of the most exciting things because it is tangible expression of a life that is changed.
So some of you aren’t ready
But some of you are
You are ready for baptism if you are hungry to live out the new life God has for you
You are ready for baptism if you have surrendered your life to Jesus
You are ready for baptism if you are willing to let Jesus take the wheel
You are ready for baptism if you are willing to surrender your old life to Jesus
You are ready for baptism if you want to unashamedly let the whole world know you are following Jesus.
Some of you have already made the decision to be baptized
Some of you aren’t planning on it yet but you should be because you are ready
Some of you need to take the step of faith to be baptized and go public with your faith
And some of you aren’t there yet with you walk with Jesus and God wants to take you deeper and get you to the place where you are.
Now what this does is it sets us up to know clearly where we are.
1. Not yet a Christian - still checking things out
2. A believer in Jesus but not yet ready to go public - still wrestling through some things with God and Jesus
3. Ready to go unashamedly all in and public - ready to be baptized
4. Already baptized want to stay all in and public
This is how I want to set thing up to respond
At the front here I have these little drops of water. On it is a place for your name, your phone number and what youth group or church you are connected to.
If you feel like you are at a place tonight where you are ready to be baptized this is what I want you to do.
I want you to come forward, because this is public right. I want you to take one of these water droplets and I want you to fill out your information. What we are going to do is give this information to your youth pastor/pastor so they can continue this conversation.
And it gets better. This is my dream tonight.
What would it look like if tonight a whole group of you made the decision you were going to go public with your faith over these next few weeks and we were going to have baptisms in churches all over the south shore. What do you think that would do to the churches on the South Shore?
What would it look like if we all got pictures and videos of these baptisms and shared them on our social media platforms?
What if we used the hashtag #southshore18 with these baptisms and then when we click on the hashtag we would see a number of baptisms.
I believe God wants to start a revival and I believe it will start with youth like you making the radical decision to follow Jesus with your lifestyle and go all in,
What could God do through that?
So this is what I want you to do. In a moment I am going to invite you to come forward if you are ready to go public with your faith and want to be baptized.
Fill out this water drop and stay there. I want to invite your youth leader to come and pray with you.
Listen, this likely isn’t going to be one of these moments where everyone comes forward for prayer. I specifically only printed 50 of these because I don’t want this to be the altar call where everyone comes forward. I want you to come forward if you feel like God is leading you to make that next step.
I’m expecting that maybe only a couple people come forward because it is a big decision. But if you are ready to be baptized you likely are at the place where you are ready to come forward in front of your friends.
I’m expecting that maybe only a couple people come forward because it is a big decision. But if you are ready to be baptized you likely are at the place where you are ready to come forward in front of your friends.
So I want to invite Alex and the team to lead us know as we respond.
If you would like to make the public decision to be baptized and follow Jesus I want to invite you to come forward.
Are you ready? Let’s partner with God to see him do some amazing things in our lives.
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