For Sept 13

Sermon Notes: Remembering Your Baptism

Intro: Last Sunday we celebrated Communion ,and this morning we celebrated a baptism, the two sacraments we, as Protestants, recognize. The word Sacrament comes from the Latin ‘sacramentum’, meaning a sacred event, or a sacred moment. Early Christians adopted the word to describe their life-changing commitment and initiation into the faith through special worship events, like communion and baptism. Early Protestant Church leaders, such as Martin Luther, further defined a sacrament as a visible, physical ritual or sign that points to an invisible spiritual reality, and acts as a channel for God's divine grace. But it had to have a visible sign of God’s grace, and be established by Jesus. Baptism and Communion met that criteria, by Jesus telling His disciples to baptize all nations and people in His Name, and in Communion, to eat the bread and drink the wine set aside in remembrance of Him. While other churches also consider marriage, reconciliation through priestly Confession, last rites, and Confirmation as sacraments, we don’t consider them as meeting the criteria, although still spiritually meaningful.

 

I.  What is Baptism

A. But there are misunderstandings of what those sacraments really mean. This morning, I hope to clarify some of the understandings about baptism. The validity of infant baptism is debated among Protestant churches. Waltz church has long considered it valid. We baptize infants, not as a symbol of our faith, but as God’s prevenient, or coming before the child’s acceptance, of Jesus. We believe infant baptism is Jesus’ accepting the child into His Church by His grace, hoping as the child grows and becomes accountable for its own sins, it will continue in Jesus’ favor, confirming the faith vows the parents made in behalf of that child. Parents further vow to raise their child in the Church, expecting Jesus to be faithful to His promises. But that hope fades if the parents fail to keep their vows, seemingly unconcerned about the consequences of their unfaithfulness and broken vows. Without faithfulness to those vows, infant baptism becomes a mere ritual, and that child’s not accepting Jesus may reflect back on the parental unfaithfulness to their vows to raise their child in His Church.

B. As for the consequences, Jesus said that for anyone who causes harm to such a child, such as by parental spiritual neglect, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied to their neck and drowned in the sea. So, my point is that there are always consequences for our actions, especially with regards to children. Infant baptism, with vows made to Jesus, should not be taken without sincere intent to be faithful to those vows. Thankfully, Jesus is always faithful to His covenantal vows, even if we aren’t.

C. Adult baptism is more straightforward, offered to anyone mature enough to seek their own salvation through Christ. Adults making suchpersonal decision tend to take their commitment seriously, although many only see baptism as a guarantee of salvation, rather than a commitment to a way of living, and may not follow through with their baptismal vows, or fail to live up to their commitment. Again, failure to sincerely live up to those vows can have dangerous spiritual consequences.

D. Baptism, whether for an infant or an adult, for ourselves or support of others, is a sacrament instituted by Jesus, that we all participate in, by also taking sacred vows, as His Church, with eternal consequences. Since those vows are serious, we should take the time to review them. We may not remember our actual baptismal event, especially if we were baptized as an infant, but we can remember those vows by renewing them. We can’t be baptized again, any more than we can remarry our spouse, but we can renew those vows, publicly or privately.

D. The significant element to remember in adult baptism is that we confess Jesus as our Savior publicly. In Matthew 10:32, Jesus states, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”  And later in Matt 12:30, He says, “Whoever is not with me is against me. So baptism is initially a public confession of “what I believe” to others, including a pledge of loyalty to Jesus. It’s not even a sign of our own faithfulness, but a realization of God’s faithfulness.

E. Our participation is recognizing what God has done, and is doing in the person being baptized so we can treat the person as one of God’s beloved for them to actualize that in their daily living. When Jesus was baptized, God’s voice was heard reassuring Jesus and those near, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”. In His great Love, God doesn’t merely accept us in baptism, but assures us He is “well pleased” with us!

When we are baptized, God is telling us, “You are my child, born of the flesh at first, and now born again with my Spirit.” We bear the seal of the Holy Spirit, and in John 3:3, as we were reminded in our Call to Worship, unless we are born of water and the Spirit, receiving the seal of the Spirit that we are His Child, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God - His righteous rule in our lives, promised throughout Scripture, and revealed in Jesus’ ministry. Entrance into God’s kingdom requires new life given by God. His promised cleansing and renewal, foretold by the prophets, are fulfilled through the work of the Holy Spirit, who gives sinners new hearts and faith in Christ. No person can receive, or enter His kingdom merely through ancestry, law-keeping, or religious standing. It’s a gift of the Spirit, by grace, not by merit.

 

II. Romans 8:1-11

A. Once we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, the Savior who died for us, as Paul writes in our Epistle Lesson to the Roman church, we are baptized into his death, buried with Him through baptism into death, as He takes our sin with Him to eternal death, so that we might then rise with Him from the dead. We must die to ourselves, with Him, so that we may rise with Him, in new life, forgiven, in resurrection. New life in this life as well as in the next.  

B. Christian baptism is a recognition of the Holy Spirit within us. It’s not even something we do, but something He, the Holy Spirit, does. He is not One who comes and goes. The wording in the OT is often “the Holy Spirit came upon them”, but didn’t necessarily reside permanently within people. But, after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit now dwells within us. Baptism is through the Spirit who is always with us. What changes in baptism is that when we accept Him, we receive Him. Baptism is the Holy Spirit’s invitation we must accept to allow the Spirit to guide us, to control our lives.

 

III. John 9:1-11;35-35

A. Our Gospel Lesson may help us to better understand this. Jesus encounters a man blind from his birth. His eyes had never functioned as they could have. The belief was that disabilities, like blindness, were the result of sin, as God’s disfavor. Since the man had been born blind, the question arose whose sin had caused his blindness, his or his parents. Jesus answered it was neither, but rather an opportunity for God to be seen working through Jesus in that man. What others saw as God’s disfavor would display God’s mercy and power.The symbolic concept here is that sin was darkness, but Jesus, as the Light of the World had come to overcome that darkness.

B. The man did nothing to assist in Jesus’ miracle healing. Jesus did it all. Using only common elements, mud and saliva, to make a salve He applied to the man’s eyes, He then told him to go the Pool, and wash it off. In other healings, even those with leprosy, Jesus spoke a word, or touched the person, and they were healed. But this miracle seems to parallel the miracle of baptism. Sin, a condition of our natural birth, could only be healed by Jesus. Jesus’ compound of mud and saliva represented the uncleanness of sin that prevented the man’s sight. Then, like baptism, Jesus directed him to wash away the sin with water from a specific pool, which the man did as Jesus instructed him. And when he did, by water and the Spirit, the man’s eyesight was restored.

C. To others, the man looked the same, except something was different. He could see. He’d been healed by Jesus. The man did not understand the theology of what had just happened; he didn’t even understand the reality of who Jesus was. But he did know that he had been healed, given new sight.

D. When the Pharisees saw the healed man, they would not accept that Jesus had healed the man they believed was born blind resulting from sin. It would have meant believing Jesus had power over sin, that Jesus could do miracles no one else could do, which would have meant accepting He was indeed God’s Son as He claimed.

E. Instead, they expelled the man and his parents from the synagogue and the religious community centered around it. Although a harsh punishment at that time, the man still didn’t understand who Jesus was, other than He had healed him. When the man realizes Jesus as the One who had healed him, he confesses his new belief in Jesus and worships Him.

F. So, like the once blind man, in adult baptism, and even confirmation for those baptized as infants, we come to Jesus, accepting His invitation. With water, He washes away our sin, then cleanses us with His Spirit, giving us spiritual healing of our sight to see Him as the Light of the World. Through Paul’s epistle to the Romans, we may begin to understand the theology of what has happened as being baptized into Christ’s death with Him, dying to our old, unseeing selves, and born again, resurrected with Him to new life, new sight. Now able to see the full Kingdom of God. Life, and Life after life.

G. In another example of Jesus healing a blind man, Jesus does a two stage healing. Jesus first touches the man’s eyes, and at first the man sees only figures like sticks walking. But when Jesus touches the man’s eyes a second time, the man sees everything clearly. Without baptism, we may want to see, or believe we are seeing, but are only seeing an incomplete picture. With baptism, Jesus heals our spiritual eyes to see Him more clearly.

H. Concluding then that baptism is a necessary condition for salvation would be for God to decide. Some people accept Jesus as Savior on their deathbed, without being baptized. I believe in our merciful, loving God too much to accept that they would be excluded from the Kingdom of God. However, I would also believe that the wasted years prior to that deathbed confession could have been lived with the joy of “seeing” Jesus at work if they had been baptized. Then again, does baptism guarantee salvation?  Again, that would be God’s right to judge. But, being in God’s favor through baptism, then forgetting that baptism, living in disfavor with God, would lead to wondering about the depth of one’s sincerity of such a baptism.

I. Publicly confessing Jesus before others is inviting others to see us as different. That Jesus confesses us before the Father. That we are for Him, not against Him. But those baptized, but living their lives as if they had not been baptized, telling others they are now different, is to make a mockery of the sacrament of baptism. It risks God’s consequences that might be more tragic than if we had never been baptized.

J. This would be a good time for those of us who have been baptized, or have confirmed our baptism, to take a moment to remember the vows we made. We may not remember the actual event, but since we said earlier we can’t be rebaptized, like we can’t be remarried to our spouse, we can renew, or refresh our vows. You should even have a copy of those vows from our earlier baptism to keep as a means of renewal.  Amen

 

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