In This Edition:
Step Into The Water: A Sermon on
BaptismJesusWhat’s New On The West Side?
Top Picks: Five Readings on the Central Truths of the Christian Faith
Step Into The Water: A Sermon on Jesus
“Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”(Acts 8:35-36 NIV)
WHY BE BAPTIZED?
Baptism was God’s brilliant idea. The two key rituals for Christian experience are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Think about it: bread and water. The two things that can be found anywhere there is life. Without them, you die. Two things that are reproducible in any culture. And both represent body and blood. The essence of who we are and what we bring. The essence of what happened for us on the cross.
Why do we practice baptism here? Why should you be baptized? There a number of good, biblical reasons.
Baptism imitates the example of our Lord. I am with him in his death, and in his resurrection. I know this, because I was with him in his baptism. Jesus was baptized, and he told his followers to baptize.
Baptism symbolizes our answer to the greatest commandment. We announce our total, life-long commitment as we give our whole selves—everything we are (heart, mind, body, and strength) to Jesus Christ and God the Father, as we are plunged beneath the waters. None of self, and all of Thee, O Lord.
Baptism demonstrates the gospel, as all the central truths of the Christian faith are told and retold in every baptism. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, and we are baptized confessing his name. We believe there is one God—Father, Son, and Spirit—and we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. We believe in one faith—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ—and we display that faith visibly as we die to ourselves, are buried in baptism, and arise to walk a new life. We believe in one church, the community of faith, and we know that in baptism, a person is added to the one body that exists all over the world and in the heavens—past, present, and future. We believe that in our one baptism we cry out for forgiveness, knowing we are weak and sinful and in need of a savior. And the Bible promises that one of the gifts we receive in baptism is forgiveness of our sins. We believe in one Spirit, and another gift that comes to us is the gift of that one Spirit to indwell us, empower us, seal us, sanctifying us, and lead us as we journey on the other side of the river. And We believe in one hope—the hope of resurrection, visibly dramatized as we come up out of the water; one hope of new creation, when God will make all things right. And we believe every person who comes up out of the water is a new creation; behold, all things become new!
Baptism is a uniting event. Jesus’ prayer in the garden was that all of his people would present unity to the world. Baptism is no respecter of persons. Jew and Gentile. Male and Female. Slave and Free. Believers differ on so many things. We are unlike in so many ways. But we can all remember our baptism and know that God has placed us in the same family. We have this shared experience, just as we are called to share all that we have and all that we are. The New Testament does not know of an unbaptized Christian.
Baptism is God’s appointed time and place to mark our crossing over and to remind us that we are not who we used to be but are called to be different. God does not force his grace on anyone. So he could have appointed any time and any place. But because it is a uniting event, because it is rich with symbolism, because it can be done anywhere by anyone, because it dramatizes the death and resurrection of Jesus, because it connects us with our Old Testament ancestry and looks forward to the new creation at the end of all things, God has appointed this time and this place (as the Hebrew writer puts it) for us to come near to the throne of grace, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience as our bodies are washed with pure water.
BUT THE STORY IS JESUS
Baptism is important, isn’t it? It’s not just important…its necessary. It’s commanded by our Lord, ubiquitous in the New Testament, and has been affirmed and reaffirmed by leaders throughout Church history. If you have never been baptized, I urge you to be baptized today.
But I confess to you I don’t see “baptism” as the title of a sermon very often in the New Testament.
In fact, outside of the peculiar story in Acts 19 of the fellas who only knew about the baptism of John, nobody in the NT was baptized in response to a sermon on baptism! Instead, they were baptized in response to a sermon on Jesus. That’s not a small detail. It’s not something to leave on the side, look at and say “that’s interesting,” then walk away from. That’s significant.
In Acts 8, the Queen’s treasurer had a question about the prophecy of Isaiah. Who is Isaiah talking about? That’s the question. And the text says that Philip—ever the missional evangelist—chose to meet the man where he was and began at that same scripture to preach to him…Jesus. Baptism clearly is connected to preaching Jesus. But the sermon topic was Jesus. And in response to Jesus, the treasurer asked to be baptized.
As it turns out, Jesus is the subject in every major passage we use to emphasize baptism. The crowd in Acts 2 heard a sermon…about Jesus. Jesus—the same one they had gathered around just 50 days prior and nailed to a tree. Jesus, who was unjustly treated as a common criminal—the same on has been raised from the dead, ascended to the highest heavens, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, and has been made both Lord and Christ. Jesus. That was the subject. Cut to the heart—aware of their own sinfulness and fearful that they had put to death the Son of God, cried out “what shall we do?” Another way of saying that, “How will we ever escape if we killed the resurrected guy who is Lord of the universe??” And Peter tells them to do some things. Repent? Yes. Be Baptized? Yes. But the really significant thing is still to come. You see, John the Baptist had already told them to repent and be baptized. Not only that, he had told them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Look at Mark 1:4 or Luke 3:3. It’s right there in black and white. That wasn’t a new thing, and it wasn’t really news. The news is tucked in the middle of those phrases, between “be baptized” and “for the forgiveness of sins.” You see, once you had to seek absolution through the Temple. But now, you can seek it in the name of Jesus Christ. We see it in Acts 16, when the jailer sees all the empty cells, and knows his own life will probably be cut short for dereliction of duty. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved” could easily be translated, “how can I get out of this mess that will surely end my career and probably my life?” And the answer is Jesus. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, you and your whole house.” Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the question, and Jesus is the answer. He believed on the Lord. So, naturally, baptism followed.
We see it in Paul’s own conversion story. Three days he sat there in the blinding darkness. Three days Paul lived with himself, reflecting on just how far his own thinking had gone wrong. Reflecting on the fact that they stoned a disciple of Christ, he held the coats! When the Lord Jesus called up servants to share his message, he went out seeking letters for permission to round them up and send them to jail. But Jesus—the same Jesus—had mercy on him. Met him on the road to Damascus. Called him by name and called him to mission. So Ananias, sent by God, said “Brother Saul, why are you waiting? “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins.” If we stop there, thinking we found the key that we need to tell our neighbors—the key that makes us different, and that if used to unlock the doors of the kingdom, can make them Christians too—we miss the point of the whole passage. “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins.” But nothing can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not the blood of bulls and goats; not my own righteous deeds. Not my best efforts. Not my hardest trials. Nothing. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And that’s why Ananias said, “Why are you waiting? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” How he called upon the name of the Lord is important; but the fact that the answer to the question of salvation is not the procedure; it’s the person. You need saving? Then you need Jesus.
Romans 6 has the same story. Galatians 3 has the same story. Baptism is mentioned several times, but never as the central aspect, or the centerpiece of the conversation. It’s Jesus Christ. How can we who are dead to sin, live any longer in it? Don’t you know, we were buried with Him in baptism like unto death. And if we have been planted together with him in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. We are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of us as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. He is the subject and the main focus of these passages. But if baptism is part of the plan of God—if it is included in the prescribed response—if the practice is in the New Testament and is laid out for us, and is expected of us, then what’s the difference in how we think of it? Hear me now: all the difference in the world.
I once read of a preacher who had spent all of his life sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world. He gave his time, his money, his energy; he chose to forgo a worldly occupation that would have earned him 10 times what he made in ministry, but believed it was his mission his calling and his thrill to share the life-giving story of Jesus as his primary vocation. And there, on his deathbed, confessed to his son that he was worried about the judgment. Nervous about the throne room. Just not sure he had done enough. His son, also a preacher, looked at his father with tears pouring down his eyes; he said, “you’re right, Daddy; you haven’t done enough. But Jesus did enough. And that’s why you are going to be with him tonight.”
The gospel is not that God provided a system by which I am able to save myself. The gospel is about Jesus Christ. The one who saw you in your sinfulness. He saw you. He loved you. He chose you. And He came for you. He lived for you. He died for you. He was raised for you. He now empowers you. He has prepared a place for you. And He will one day return for you. The gospel. It’s a story that can only be told in parable. It’s like a woman who has one expensive coin. It’s all she talks about. It’s what she’s known for. And then she loses it. So she turns over every cushion. She sweeps out the cellar. She pulls up the original hardwood floors. She turns that place over inside and out. She digs up old Yeller just to see if maybe he took it down with him. And after all of her searching…she finds it! That feeling—if you could put it in a bottle—that feeling that will lead to the greatest celebration in her entire town; that feeling, that sense of relief and peace, that thrill, that sense of overwhelming joy—that, my friends, that is what the kingdom of God is like. That is what the gospel is all about. And its yours…because of Jesus Christ. That is why Paul said to the Corinthians he was so glad he only baptized a handful of them. Because he didn’t come to baptize, but to preach the gospel! It’s why he determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And when you get that story….when you come face to face with that unimaginable truth—that the greatest wickedness ever perpetrated in the history of the world was done at my hands, but I am absolved by the very one I put on the cross because he can’t help but love me, want me, and claim me for his very own…it breaks open my world! And there is nothing…nothing…nothing I wouldn’t do for him. No where I wouldn’t go to find him. And to those….to those…the word is given: “He’ll meet you at the water.”
What can we say about the groom who looks deep into his lovers eyes at the moment when he is supposed to give his personally written vows. And he says to her “I drove a long way to be here, and I spent a lot of money on this suit, so you owe me a marriage”? The ceremony is important. I, for one, continue to believe that before the preacher says “man and wife,” they aren’t man and wife. But after the preacher says “man and wife,” they really are man and wife. The ceremony is important. It’s defining. But it’s still simply the appointed place and time. It’s the crucial and important ceremony. But it’s not the marriage. And we aren’t clapping and crying and singing and cheering because we think it’s a grand ceremony. We are throwing the party to celebrate a lifetime commit of “I Do’s” and the personification of love as one says to the other “come what may…I do. For you, I do. I will always do. Rest assured, I will never NOT do.” That’s what we are celebrating.
Baptism is not the good news of Jesus. It’s our response to the good news of Jesus. It’s not the gospel story. It is our response to the gospel story. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Jesus saves you. Jesus saves you. As Everett Ferguson once put it, the blood of Christ applied by grace is how we are saved; baptism is simply the time and place he has chosen. And in this event, at this time, and in this place, we announce to the world we wish to cross over. We want the free gift. We simply say yes to Jesus.
Baptism is necessary; required; essential. It is obedient faith. It is imitating Christ. It is retelling the gospel. It is obeying the greatest commandment. It is our crossing over, exodus moment. And the religious leaders rejected the council of God by not being baptized. They wanted to stay in the shadows. They didn’t want to go public.
It’s time to commit. It’s time to unite with Christ. It’s time to accept the cross as your way of life.
And if you will permit me, I’d love to do the honors. The four most powerful words a minister can impart are “I now pronounce you.” I get to do it in weddings. And I get to do it in baptisms. Make the good confession. Let His story become your story. Obey his call. Unite will all believers all over the world. And together, we will pronounce you “saved, rescued, redeemed, forever-declared child of God.”
A sermon preached at the West Side Church of Christ titled “Step Into The Water.” This lesson also appears on the Life on the West Side podcast (Season 2, Episode 7). Available on all podcast platforms.
What’s New On The West Side?
New Minister on Staff
West Side has an incredible volunteer army, with scores (and possibly hundreds) of individuals personally involved in ministries here. We also have a paid ministry staff that just improved with a wonderfully new addition. Beginning October 1, Mark Gregory will be joining our team to serve as our minister of technology. Mark brings tremendous skills to the table. I am excited about what the future holds for West Side, and I encourage you to stay tuned for ways God will bless Mark’s efforts to use technology here to the glory of God.
Sunday Morning Sermon Series: A Good & Beautiful God
A few weeks ago, we began a morning series exploring the goodness of God. A helpful resource during this series is James Bryan Smith’s book The Good and Beautiful God. This Sunday, we will explore the radically generous way God lavishes grace upon his people, and his desire to forgive, rescue, and serve all people. We will be focusing on the book of Jonah and the parable of the laborers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-15. You can watch the sermons live at 9 AM (CST) streamed on facebook or YouTube, or visit my website later to watch the sermon, get the discussion guide, read a transcript, or listen to it as a podcast.
Sunday Evening Sermon Series
On Sunday nights, we are exploring the presence, power, and production of the Holy Spirit in the lives of His people. The series is entitled “This Present Strength.” These lessons are streamed Sundays at 5 PM on facebook or YouTube, or you can visit my website later to watch the sermon, read a transcript, or listen to it as a podcast.
Top Picks: Readings on the Center of Our Faith
The Bible is a big book. When someone asks “what do Christians believe?,” we usually want to give an answer shorter than reading Genesis 1-Revelation 22 out loud to them. This is why most church websites include a “we believe” section, and most church traditions have a list of distinctives.
But there are some things that any Christian—of any stripe—would say “well, of course that’s true.” It’s what C. S. Lewis called “Mere” Christianity. It’s what lies at the center of the Christian faith. These are the “big rocks” (so to speak) that ought to be laid down first to serve as a spiritual anchor. You can find these 7 big rocks in Ephesians 4:1-6, in the outline of any sermon in the book of Acts, or in the outline laid down in the Apostle’s Creed. They also form the table of contents for most books presenting “what Christians believe.”
Here are some readings for those raised like I was that might be beneficial for thinking through the essentials of Christian teaching.
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Things That Matter: A Guide to Christian Faith (Center for Christian Studies)
Keith Stanglin’s series of articles on the Restoration Movement, Unity, and the Rule of Faith in Christian Studies (video of one presentation here). For copies of these excellent articles fill out the contact form here.
“Reading Scripture Baptismally,” by Scott Adair (in the book Scripture First)
Everett Ferguson, The Rule of Faith: A Guide.
Honorable Mention: The God We Proclaim: Sermons on the Apostle’s Creed
Subscribe to Life on the West Side
My name is Nathan Guy, and I serve as the preaching minister for the West Side Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas. I am happily married to Katie and am the proud father of little Grace. You can find more resources on my website over at nathanguy.com. Follow me: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
