Would you ever make a decision that would cause you to have to leave your home and lose the love, honor, and respect of your parents?

Would you ever make a decision that would cause you to have to walk away from your job?

Would you ever make a decision that that would cause you to have to go to the people that have wronged you and tell them that you forgive them even though you knew that they were going to make fun of you and shame you for being weak?

Would you ever make a decision that would cause you to have to give freely of your time, and energy, and money in order to support an important cause?

Would you ever make a decision that would cause you to have to stand strong in what you believed to be true rather than change your mind to be accepted by the people around you?

Would you ever make a decision that would cause you to have to  spend time in jail or prison?

Would you ever make a decision that would cause you to have to face the death penalty?

Asian Access (or A2), a Christian missions agency in South Asia, listed a series of questions that some church planters have been asking new believers who are considering baptism. (Due to safety concerns, Asian Access does not mention the country’s name.) 

The country is predominantly Hindu, but over the past few decades Christianity has grown in popularity—especially among poor and tribal peoples. The following seven questions serve as a reality check for what new followers of Jesus might experience if they decide to “go public” with their decision to follow Christ:

1. Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father?

2. Are you willing to lose your job?

3. Are you willing to go to the village and those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them?

4. Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?

5. Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?

6. Are you willing to go to prison?

7. Are you willing to die for Jesus?

The seven questions serve as a sobering reminder for all Christians from every continent of what it might cost us to follow Jesus.¹

In this morning’s Biblical text from Matthew’s biography of Jesus, we are going to hear about the importance of faith and baptism for Jesus’ disciples during the 1st Century A.D. and for you and me today.

Matthew 28:16–20 tells us this:

[16] Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. [17] And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. [18] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

Let’s put these words of Jesus into their context.

Jesus is speaking this words to his disciples after his resurrection and prior to his ascension back to Heaven.

As Jesus was traveling and revealing himself as alive and well after he was publicly crucified and buried, he asked his disciples to go to Galilee and wait for him.

And, so they did.

(I don’t know about you, but if someone came back to life, after I saw him killed and buried, I would do whatever he said!)

In this morning’s text, we have Jesus, once again, fulfilling a promise to those that have faith in him and follow him.  Jesus rose from the dead, to defeat the power of sin and death, and meets his friends where he said he would meet them.

And, in his final words to them, he leaves them with a command.  

To follow this command doesn’t leave them oppressed and enslaved to rules and judgment, instead to follow this command leads them to rest, peace, and hope, as they share the rest, peace, and hope that comes from being loved by the Creator and Redeemer of the universe. 

In this command, known by the Christian Church as The Great Commission, Jesus asks his disciples to go out into their homes, their work places, their birthday parties with friends and family, their schools, and the surrounding counties and countries always sharing the good news that God brought to them, which is recorded in a succinct statement in words that are the most famous of all Bible words.

Those words are also words of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, and are found in the disciple John’s biography of Jesus.

John 3.16-17 says this:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (ESV)

And, the command of Jesus in this morning’s text from Matthew’s biography of Jesus, adds that when people find themselves rejoicing and believing in God’s gifts of the forgiveness of sin, a record of perfection, or, righteousness, when measured up against God’s standards for life and love, reconciliation with God the Father, or, in other words, an eternally fixed relationship with God, and eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven where there will be no more pain, tears, sorrow, or suffering, all through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples are to baptize them and continue teaching them them from the riches of God’s Word, the Bible.

Now, here is the question that we end up asking:

“Why do we need to be baptized?”

Well, baptism is a means of grace.

What that means is that baptism is commanded by Jesus as a way that we are guaranteed to come into direct contact with God’s grace and mercy as he does what he promises to do—wash us clean from the sin that keeps us separated from him and bring us into new life where we are forgiven and eternally connected to our Creator becoming a recipient of his protection and provision from that day forward.

Baptism brings us into the family of God.  

Being in the family of God is a big deal for you and me because it is a place where we once did not belong because of the sin that is attached to us and overflows from us since the moment of conception.

But, God being gracious and merciful, desiring to have you as a son or daughter forever and ever, poured out his great love on you in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, your connection back to God was priority #1.

So, to sum this all up Biblically, you are in need of baptism for two reasons.

The first reason is that all are born into sin.

In his letter to the Christians gathering in Rome during the 1st Century A.D., the apostle Paul lays it out on the line when he says,

[23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3.23, ESV)

You may be sitting here this morning thinking, “I am not that bad.  Most of the time I am a descent person.”

Well, that is not a true picture of your humanity.

According to God’s estimation, you are included in the “all” of this statement.

Blase Pascal, the 17th Century mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and theologian, wrote this about the human condition:

“What sort of freak then is man?  How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical,, how prodigious!  Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe.  Who will unravel such a tangle?…Man transcends man…Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself.”²

Regardless of how hard you try to do what is right and be a good person, you still fall very, very, very, short of God’s perfect standards for life and love.

And, that leads to the second reason you need to have faith that leads to cleansing and new life of baptism.

In that same letter to the Christians gathered in the city of Rome, the apostle Paul goes on to say that because of sin you are guilty of turning your back on God and are deserving of the punishment that is condemnation, judgment, and death (which is the eternal separation from God your Father in Heaven).

In Romans 5.12, the apostle Paul says,

[12] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— (Romans 5.12, ESV)

But, Biblically, we know that God does not desire this end for you.  

God wants the exact opposite for you.

So, God does so much for you in baptism.

Let’s hear what God does for you in baptism.

Through faith and baptism, God provides you with the new birth/new life and regeneration you need know Him and His commands for life and love.

John 3.5 and Titus 3.5 tells us this respectively when we hear:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…

Through faith and baptism, God provides you with the forgiveness of sins that you can have a clean record of all rights and no wrongs before the throne of God.

Acts 2.38 and Acts 22.16 tells us this when they say,

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Through faith and baptism, God provides you with the sanctification you need to be acceptable to God the Father.  

Sanctification is a just a big fancy word that means “made holy,” or “set apart.”  That means God does the work for you that you cannot do and makes you holy and sets you apart for his Heavenly home.

Ephesians 5.25-26 tells us this truth about God’s grace towards us when it says,

that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  (Ephesians 5.25-26, ESV)

Through faith and baptism God also bestows upon you the benefits of Jesus Christ’s death, clothes you in righteousness, or, in other words, perfection, and unites you with Jesus’ burial and resurrection.

Romans 6.3, Galatians 3.27, and Colossians 2.12 tell us these good things when we hear,

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6.3, ESV)

And,

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3.27, ESV)

And,

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2.12, ESV)

Finally, if all of that good stuff that God does for you in faith and baptism isn’t enough, God also provides you with salvation and makes you a part of His family in Heaven and on earth—the part of the family that is called the Church in which Jesus is it’s head.

1 Peter 3.21 and 1 Corinthians 12.13 tell us these truths when we are told:

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

In 2019, Christianity Today shared this story:

It was one of the worst days of 23-year-old Brenton Winn’s life. But it paved the way for one of the best. He was angry at God after he relapsed from an addiction to methamphetamines. Winn knew nothing about Central Baptist Church of Conway, Arkansas, when he broke in that evening. High on drugs, Winn went on a rampage and destroyed $100,000 of church property.

Six months later Winn was baptized at Central Baptist. He said, “As I’m starting to understand how God works, I’ve realized I didn’t pick the church that night. God picked me. If it had been any other church, I think I’d be sitting in prison right now.”

Winn’s journey from a jail cell in February to a baptismal pool in September began when Central Baptist senior pastor, Don Chandler, talked to the prosecutor. Chandler knew the godly response to Winn would be to offer forgiveness rather than judgment.

Chandler said, “You can’t preach grace for 50 years without practicing it, especially in front of your whole church …This was a young man who had made some mistakes. He was on drugs and alcohol when he did what he did. But he was redeemable.”

Chandler told the prosecutor that the church would like to see Winn get help with Renewal Ranch, a faith-based residential recovery ministry. 

The judge, who at the time had been a board member of Renewal Ranch, gave Winn the option. He could either go to jail, potentially for 20 years, or he could voluntarily choose to go to Renewal Ranch. Winn chose Renewal Ranch.

Winn eventually found himself believing in Christ as his Savior after one of the Bible studies at Renewal Ranch. Winn and other ranch residents now attend church at Central Baptist on Wednesday evenings. 

Winn chose to be baptized at the church on one of those Wednesday nights.

Winn said. “I gave my heart to Christ. I used to think it was a coincidence [that I chose to break into the church], but now I call it confirmation that God is real, and he answers prayers. I needed a relationship with Jesus Christ.”³

In an issue of Leadership magazine from a few years ago, one of the articles contained this statement:

“In baptism we are initiated, crowned, chosen, embraced, washed, adopted, gifted, reborn, killed, and thereby sent forth and redeemed. We are identified as one of God’s own, then assigned our place and our job within the kingdom of God.”⁴

In his newest book, author Os Guiness, says this:

“Forgiveness is linked inseparably to freedom, and…together they open up a future that can be different from the past.”⁵

Through faith and baptism you are forgiven and set free.  You are set free from your insanity and anxiety that is always at work in the background of your thinking, and sometimes in the foreground of your thinking and speaking, that makes you feel like you need to work as hard as you can to be the best person that you can so that at some point, you will feel good enough to be accepted by God in the end.

When Jesus died on the cross, he looked at you and said, “It is finished!” In those words, he was letting you know that he has done everything needed to make you loved and accepted by God.  Nothing is left to do for you.  Jesus has done it all for you.

Through faith and baptism, in Jesus’ name, you are strengthen by God and free to live and love as God first lived and loved you—with grace and mercy that leads to rest, peace, and hope.

So, I do what is appropriate and I leave you only with the command of Jesus today:

Go, [this week], and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Pastor Fred Scragg

June 4, 2023

FootNotes

¹“South Asian Nation Struggles to Shape Itself,” Mission Network News (1-17-12)

²Blase Pascal, Pensees, 215.

³Tobin Perry, “He Got High and Broke Into a Church. Months Later, He Was Baptized There, Christianity Today online (10-11-19)

 ⁴Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 4.

⁵Os Guinness, The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and The Future of Freedom (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2021), 54.