061913: Water Baptism

Water Baptism

I.                   Introduction

a.       Illus: Hiking (I hate it), hiking up the coast, reaching the top, but not continuing to the goal, then went back to the beginning.

b.      We talked about Jesus being the only way to God last week, and this was summed up with the idea of salvation, but often times we think this is the pinnacle of our Christian Journey.  But that decision to make Jesus your God and ask him for forgiveness is really only the beginning.

II.                Body

a.       Read Matthew 28:18-20 – “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.”

                                                              i.      We are all on a journey of our faith and here we see the beginnings of a road map.

1.      Become a Disciple, Be Baptized, Learn/Obey, Tell Others

                                                            ii.      Become a Disciple

1.      We choose to be a follower of Jesus.  This includes the making of him as your God and asking for forgiveness, but also committing to following Him the rest of your life.

                                                          iii.      Be Baptized

1.      We will talk about this in a second

                                                          iv.      Learn/Obey

1.      We then learn what it means to be a Christian, how to be more like God wants us to be, how to follow the destiny God has for us, how to have a successful life

                                                            v.      Tell Others

1.      The final part of this journey is restarting the whole process by recruiting others to follow Christ on this journey.

b.      But let us move back to baptism

                                                              i.      What is it?  Baptism is a picture and a commitment.

                                                            ii.      What is the picture? 

1.      Read Romans 6:3-4 – “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.”

2.      It is a picture of what has already happened when we get saved

a.       We die to our old master (sin), we get forgiveness through Jesus, and then come into a new life of serving our new master (God)

                                                          iii.      What is the commitment?

1.      You are committing to following Jesus the rest of your life, rather than doing things your own way. 

2.      It isn’t a commitment to take lightly, as some of you have already seen.  Life happens and temptations arise, but with this commitment you are saying you are going to stick with it, despite those temptations.

c.       So why do it?

                                                              i.      It is the next step

                                                            ii.      It is what God wants

1.      Read Matthew 3:13-15 – “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.”

III.             Application

a.       So are you interested in being baptized?