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ATTENTION:
Conrad and Felix liked Ulrich.
When Ulrich Zwingli led the reformation in Switzerland, his absolute commitment to the authority of scripture attracted Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz to support him.
They went a little further than Zwingli went, however.
When they read about the early church they noted the difference it and their own.
Among other things, they saw the importance of “believer’s baptism.”
The Roman Catholic church practiced infant baptism and these reformers believed the New Testament taught that only those who had come to faith in Christ were to be baptized after conversion.
So, in the Fall of 1524, Conrad and his wife had a decision to make: Would they have the baby baptized, or would they stick to what they believed the scripture taught.
The Grebels refused and bad things started to happen.
Because the church and the state were one in that country, refusing to have an infant baptized amounted to a crime.
On January 17, 1525, the city council arranged a hearing.
After hearing from both sides on the question, the council sided with the status quo.
It warned all parents who had neglected to have their children baptized to do so within a week.
That’s what led to that fateful day, January 21, 1525.
Conrad and his followers held a “believer’s baptism.
They were imprisoned and commanded to stop.
As soon as they got out, however, they continued.
Finally, the Zurich council lost all patience.
On 7 March 1526, it decided that anyone found rebaptizing would be put to death by drowning.
Apparently their thought was, “If the heretics want water, let them have it.”
Within a year, on 5 January 1527, Felix Manz became the first Anabaptist martyr.
The Zurich authorities drowned him in the Limmat River, which flows through the city.
Sounds like a lot of fuss over a small difference doesn’t it?
After all, both sides believed in Christ; both sides held the Bible to be their final authority; both sides thought they had found God’s will in the matter.
Why did they make this such a big deal?
And if you ask that question, you might go even further.
You might also ask, Why does Peace Church make such a big deal about the “mode” of baptism.
After all, if I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior, but I come from a church tradition that baptizes infants, why would you require me to be baptized as a believer before I can join your church.
NEED
See I know that there are some of you who really have that question in your heart.
You may have grown up in a church where your parents took you to be baptized as a baby and you think that’s sufficient.
You know the Lord and you know we require believer’s baptism, but you may not know exactly why its such a big deal.
I want to talk to you about that today.
Others of you may have grown up here or in some other church that does practice believer’s baptism, but, even though you are a Christian, you’ve never been baptized.
You may think something like this: “I’m saved by grace through faith, not by getting wet.
I really don’t need to be baptized as long as I believe.”
Others may think, “I was saved as a child but I was never baptized.
I’ve been in this church for years and everyone considers me a Christian.
It would be absolutely humiliating to have to be baptized now.
Some of us, quite frankly, are being disobedient about this whole baptism thing.
Others haven’t disobeyed, but they have misobeyed.
What I mean is that they have been baptized by immersion, it just happened before they were really saved.
You may have prayed the sinners prayer and been baptized as a youngster, only to later discover that it was really not a genuine commitment.
You have now come to Christ to be His true follower, but you’ve never been baptized as a believer.
You have misobeyed.
BACKGROUND
Whatever your situation, I want you to hear what baptism is this morning.
Now I’m going to talk about baptism in biblical terms.
I want us to understand what the Bible really means when it talks about baptism and the first step to understanding the biblical concept is to understand this: At its heart, “baptism” is not a physical action at all.
In one sense, real baptism has nothing to do with water or with whether that water is in a baptistry or a sprinkling font.
Real baptism is not physical, it is spiritual.
So let’s get some background.
I begin in the beginning of the New Testament.
The scene is the Jordan river.
John the Baptist is preaching his heart out and baptizing those who repent.
In the middle of his “wilderness revival,” the Bible tells us that Jesus comes and tells John to baptize Him.
Now the first question we have to ask is “why?”
Why would Jesus Christ, the Son of God who had never sinned come and request baptism.
Well, I believe that will make sense when you consider another time in the life of Christ when baptism is mentioned.
If you fast forward a few months, you can see another scened in the life of Christ.
He has called His twelve disciples to follow Him and, in Matthew 20, one of the disciples’ moms comes to Christ with an unusual request.
She says, in 20:21: . .
.“Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.”
Quite a bold request and Jesus tells her so.
V. 22 says: But Jesus answered and said,
“You do not know what you ask.
Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
Now let me just stop and ask you: What is Jesus talking about when He says “Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
If you aren’t sure, I think a little trip to the Garden of Gethsemane might be in order.
In the Garden you remember Jesus told His Father, “If it be possible, let this (what?)
pass from me.
That’s right!
This cup.
Look back at v. 22.
He asks these disciples if they are able to drink the cup He’s about to drink and be baptized with Him.
In essence He was asking them if they could die the death on the cross that He was about to die.
When He spoke of baptism, He spoke of the cross by which He was crucified.
Spiritual baptism has to do with the sacrifice of Christ on that cross.
Paul elaborates on this idea in Romans 6:4.
There he says, “Therefore we were buried with Him (watch!) through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Now the word, “baptism” actually means “to immerse” so you could read that verse like this: “Therefore we were buried with Him through immersion into death . . .
That is not speaking of getting wet, there.
It is saying that we have been spiritually immersed into Christ and united with Him in His death and His resurrection so that we can now walk in a new kind of life.
You see, at its heart, baptism is a spiritual action that speaks of what happens when we are born again and we are “immersed” into all the Jesus is.
Why is baptism such a big deal?
Because spiritually speaking it is not a physical activity that happens in a baptistry but a spiritual reality that happens when I come to God by faith and He immerses me in Jesus.
There is a verse of scripture that really explains this clearly.
It’s one with which many of you are familiar: Galatians 2:20.
It really tells you what this spiritual baptism is all about.
Read it with me: “ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
This verse tells you 3 principles that define baptism: First
DIV 1: BAPTISM IS AN “INSIDE” JOB
EXPLANATION
Very simply, baptism isn’t primarily physical, but spiritual.
It happens in your heart.
Three elements jump out at us in the first part of Gal.
2:20.
The first is crucifixion.
Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.”
F. F. Bruce says:
Those who place their faith in Christ are united with him by that faith—united so closely that his experience now becomes theirs: they share hid death to the old order (‘under law’; cf.
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