Why Baptism?

Thank you very much, Lizzie and Glenn, for that beautiful music. I hesitate to be that informal, but I thought if I said Mr. and Mrs. Creech, it'd sound a little odd. They are that, but not each other's Mr. and Mrs. And all that's aside from the fact that it was very beautiful and inspiring, and I appreciate that. I always like it, especially when you have the live instrumental. I know there's nothing wrong with CD accompaniment, especially for me, because the stereo is the only instrument I ever really learned to play. And I'm not even very good at that. But so having the live music just adds a little something. So, welcome, brethren. I'm glad to see you here this morning, and for past the days of Unleavened Bread, it hardly seems possible.

And we look ahead to some exciting things, but we can't help realize it was just yesterday, so some of the things I want to speak on today, some of the themes will sound very familiar because they overlap. But I should mention that the subject for this was inspired before we were getting very near to the Holy Days, and I decided I wanted to speak on the subject and started preparing it.

So I'll tell you the reason why was last winter, I believe it was President's Day weekend, Sue and I had the privilege of being invited to go up to southern Minnesota, where we attended Young Adults Weekend. Actually, there was a youth weekend that goes on there regularly, and then they added a special program for young adults, similar to the one we did here just a few weeks ago. But this one focused more on the educational aspects than service. So we had about 50 young adults come, both some married and unmarried, and we had a number of seminars, and we had group activities. Connor and I enjoyed the evening after the Sabbath was over, we got to go snow tubing, which was a lot of fun and exciting, and horseback rides and such. But along with all those activities, the seminars, we had a two-hour session that involved having all of the young adults break into groups. We had several round tables in our meeting area, and they sat anywhere from four to six people at a table. And Mr. Shaw had prepared this, had a number of questions that might come up to us as members of the church. Our overall theme was defending the faith, our understanding what we believe and why, and being able to hold onto it and know that we know. And so we went through a number of questions, saying, how would you answer someone if they ask you this? We divided the group up, actually, and switched back and forth, but we asked half the group for each question to answer as though the person asking was somewhat hostile.

They don't really believe, so how do you address that? But the other half, we'd say, assume that they're really interested and they really want to know. And it's interesting you would answer a little bit differently in both cases. But one question came up that sort of surprised me. Some of the answers, none of them were incorrect. By the way, I should mention, we were all pleased that for the most part we had very good answers with a lot of thorough explanation and turning to the Bible to explain these various things. And as they were working on it, we'd usually pose the question and say, okay, you've got ten minutes. Put your heads together and look things up. And those of us in the ministry would circulate around and sit down in a table. And if we thought they needed some or if they asked us for a little guidance, we might give them a nudge here or there. But for the most part, they didn't. But I'm leading up to one particular question that surprised me because not that the answers were incorrect, they absolutely were not, but they were fairly brief. And I'm going to have to be able to read my notes here in a moment. But that question was, why should I be baptized? Why should I be baptized? And as I said, remember, some of the people asking supposedly were hostile, others were wanting a real explanation. But most of the groups answered very briefly and cited one scripture. That scripture, most of us have memorized as Acts 2 and verse 38.

I'm not going to turn there because it seems like I've repeated it a lot of times lately. I've got it written out in my notes. But it's on that famous Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first poured out en masse on the church. And Peter gave a very powerful sermon explaining that Jesus, who had been crucified and then resurrected, was indeed the Messiah, the one that they'd been looking for. And many were convicted. It says they were cut to the hearts. And they asked, what must we do or what should we do? And so here's the answer that many gave for why should I be baptized. Peter said, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, that has quite a bit of finality to it. There's no vagueness. It's a simple, direct instruction that seems to apply to anybody and everybody who can understand. So you could say, well, that's clearly what it says.

But as I said, I was surprised that there wasn't more behind it because if you just stop there, it kind of reminded me of when I was younger, when my mom would ask me to do something and I would say, why? And she'd say, because I said so, that's why. I always hated when she'd say that. Of course, now I've learned. I've been on the other side of it a number of times, so I understand a little bit better.

But there were times when, if she wasn't already too angry for me to speak again, I might ask the question, but why did you say so? And there, I might be genuinely looking for a little bit of instruction. And so I reasoned if what Peter said in Acts 2.38, repent and be baptized, is the, I said so, we might ask God, but why did you say so? Why that particular action? What is there to it? And I thought it'd be worth addressing in a sermon like this, because, as I said, we all ought to understand. And for most of us, this is review. Most of us have been through it. You've counseled with the minister, you've studied, and you were baptized. Many of us, perhaps so long ago, that it's like, oh yeah, I forgot about those things. Some of us, we've got several youth here that might be looking forward to it and really thinking about it.

So, I think it's something we should be able to discuss. Now, let's consider why God has us undergo baptism. What does it mean? Why did most of us do it? What should we think about it? You know, when I counsel somebody for baptism, I tend to focus first on a couple of major things that Scripture shows us are related to, and are actually, I believe, prerequisite for baptism. That is faith and repentance. Then I go on to explore the ceremony itself. And, of course, we always discuss certain matters like counting the cost and what it means if you turn back away from it. You know, what an important, permanent commitment this is. So, these are basic things that I'm sure every minister covers in various ways. When I first went into the pastoral ministry, you know, I got advice from a number of men because I hadn't really done baptismal counseling before. So, several gave me written outlines that I picked and chose from and borrowed to help put together what I do. There's something in the Bible that seems a bit paradoxical to me sometimes. If you want to turn to Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6, the first couple of verses describe what we sometimes call the elementary principles of Christianity. And the reason we call it that is because that's exactly what it says. And baptism is one of those elementary principles. It's a foundational concept to Christianity. Here in Hebrews 6, beginning in verse 1, the author who we believe was probably the Apostle Paul wrote, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God. You see, both of those come before baptism. Of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Notice, I'll come back a little bit later and address why baptisms isn't plural. But the part that seems a little bit paradoxical to me is that, okay, it's foundational. It's basic. Why then is it nowhere in the Old Testament? We believe the Bible is unified. It's not that the Old Testament was this old law that this mean old God imposed, and then when the God of love, Jesus Christ, came along, he nailed it to the cross and got rid of. No, we don't believe that. We know the Bible is unified. There is one God, and the principles are throughout. You know, if we go to the beginning, the book of the law, we see a lot of interesting things. I've been teaching the Pentateuch class this year, and there's discussion of how to worship God, how to love God and love your neighbor, how to govern a nation, how for families to teach their children, how to be holy as God is holy. Many prophecies about the Messiah. But the Old Testament only has, you know, especially the book of the law, has one reference to baptism, and that's really made retroactively. We find it described in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

I'll turn there to 1 Corinthians 10, beginning in the first verse.

The Apostle Paul looks back to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and makes a comparison with them crossing through the Red Sea with baptism, which was by then very familiar to the brethren. In chapter 10, verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. So he's saying they were surrounded by water, and thus all were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and drank of the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Once again, emphasizing the unity, the God of the Old Testament was Jesus Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. And these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. So Paul is referring to God bringing Israel through the Red Sea out of Egypt and into the wilderness, where he would very soon after give them his law. He doesn't say so explicitly, but we can see that baptism here represents a dramatic change. The Israelites left Egypt behind. What a drastic change in their lifestyle. And that represents much of what baptism does represent. They left behind Egypt, they left behind slavery, and began a life quite literally guided by God. They had a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night leading them on the way. And they had a physical leader who talked to God, perhaps on a daily basis. And of course, I'm amused because when God did talk to them in person from Mount Sinai, one of the first things they did is they went to Moses and said, Please don't have God talk to us anymore. Well, you go talk to him and come back and tell us what he said. And God told Moses, Yeah, that's right. You stand by me and I'll send you to tell them. And through the ages, I'll send prophets, of course, ultimately leading up to the prophet, Jesus Christ. But if we see Egypt as a symbol of a sinful lifestyle, which we do discuss that during the days of Unleavened Bread when we leave behind our sin as the Israelites left behind Egypt, upon baptism, a person formally leaves behind a life of sin or of slavery to sin and begins being guided by God, living a life devoted to God's way. Let's turn to Romans 6, if you will. Romans 6 will begin in verse 16.

One thing I've been kind of... I'm not surprised it comes naturally, but I think during Passover season, we sort of spend a lot of time in Romans chapter 6, which is quite appropriate. Romans 6, beginning in verse 16, Paul writes, Do you know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You are that one's slaves, whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked that though you were slaves to sin, like the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. As I said, although Paul doesn't mention it here specifically, he seems to be describing what happened to the ancient Israelites upon leaving Egypt. While he's also describing what happens to Christians upon baptism. Again, he doesn't mention either of those specifically here, but the analogy was pretty clear in 1 Corinthians 10. And putting these together, I think we can close the circle by remembering that the exodus from Egypt followed immediately after that first Passover. That first Passover with all the symbolism of slaying the lamb and putting the blood on the lintel on the doorpost and staying in the house and realizing that death was the result for everyone that wasn't covered by that blood, of course, symbolically speaking. We can pretty easily remember what we just covered about the symbolism of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. And probably not hard to think, yeah, that's represented in baptism as well to a large degree. But in ancient Israel, they didn't have baptism to say, this is what you do to partake in the Passover. Let's turn to Exodus 12 to remind ourselves of what they did have. Because I think it's not a... well, I guess not a coincidence. I'm not sure why God does certain things, but He didn't give them baptism as a symbol of the relationship to Him. He gave them something else and did relate it to keeping the Passover. In Exodus 12, in verse 43, So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it. But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. We can drop down to verse 48 and see a bit more on that, not necessarily just for slaves or servants. It says, When a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Eternal, let all his males be circumcised, then let him come near and keep it. And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it. So baptism wasn't required in the Old Testament, but circumcision for the men was. Of course, looking to the modern times, since Christ's sacrifice, you don't have to read very far into Paul's writings to realize that circumcision is not a spiritual requirement for us today.

Many of us see it as a good health measure, but not a spiritual requirement. And Paul explained in Colossians—I do want to turn and read Colossians 2. Colossians 2, beginning in verse 11. Paul explains that a different ritual, a different token of the covenant, has taken the place of circumcision. I should have told you to warm up your fingers to turn to several Scriptures today. Colossians 2, verse 11. Paul is talking here, you could say, symbolically of circumcision. He says, in him—that is, in Christ—you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Okay, so we have not a physical circumcision now, but a circumcision of Christ that he says was made without hands. And notice there's a comma at the end of that. That's a continual sentence. So we could say, the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. Now, maybe I've gone a long way, but I thought it worth making that point. If we ever have the question, why baptism in the New Testament and not baptism in the Old, we don't see baptism in ancient Israel because God made circumcision the token or symbol of his covenant with Israel, starting with Abraham. Now, baptism is the token. It's the symbol of God's covenant with Christians. So I wonder, sometimes—I guess, I'm not sure if men see it differently than women, but when I look to the Old Testament and think about how important circumcision was, it seemed like it was pretty important. Well, God views baptism as every bit as important. Or, if you look at the other way, maybe it doesn't strike you that way, if you understand how important baptism is today, that's how important circumcision was in ancient Israel. It's important. It marks a dividing line between being fully part of the body of Christ and what we could say being associated with it.

I'm not sure that's the exact right term, but I'll come back and mention that a little bit later. And I want to make the point that whereas circumcision was only for men, we understand what Paul wrote in Galatians 3 and verse 28. I won't turn there, but that's where he said, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither male nor female. You are all one in Jesus Christ. So whereas in ancient Israel, there was a distinction. Only the men needed to be circumcised, but in the body of Christ, in modern Christianity, men and women are baptized, which is good. And that doesn't hurt. You don't need a recovery time. And thus, for both men and women, those who are baptized come to the Passover and participate in the bread and the wine. What I wanted to mention about that dividing line, I want to make the point that this is not saying that our young people who are not baptized have no status. The Bible clearly shows that they are called. They have a calling, a special opportunity. Peter spoke on that, Paul wrote on that. So our children are not excluded. They are part of the church, but not as fully a part as they will be when they're baptized. One of the things I would say is understanding the importance of that calling, as a young person matures into adulthood, they would realize that the way to respond to that calling, maybe a way to accept the invitation, would be to be baptized. Of course, that's something, as we'll discuss, is for those who fully understand what they're doing and are mature enough to make a permanent commitment. So I think what I've said so far provides maybe a little more understanding of baptism, but perhaps still hasn't added a lot to answering the question of why that particular action.

So far I've got, because God said so, and also now that it's a token of covenanting with God. It's taken the place of circumcision. But still, you could say, why? Why get dunked underwater? Well, I think actually most of us know. You've heard it many times, and we read part of it there in Colossians 2 and verse 12. It says right at the start of that verse, buried with him in baptism. I would be willing to bet all of us have heard many times that baptism symbolizes burial. We sometimes call it a watery grave. That goes a long way towards understanding why we don't call sprinkling baptizing or pouring some water. You don't do that with a corpse. You dig a six-foot hole in the ground. What? I don't want to mean to sound irreverent at that. We bury very thoroughly, and baptism represents that. The Greek word baptizo means immersed, completely under. There in Colossians 2, 12, it mentions, when we go under the water of baptism, we're symbolizing being buried with Christ. Let's go back to Romans 6 again to see Paul explain that in more detail. Again, I know I'm reviewing things we've studied and heard during this Holy Day season, but I thought rather than move on to something different, I wanted to cover it one more time from this perspective. Romans 6, beginning in verse 3. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism unto 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. So we could say baptism is tied very closely to the central principle of Christianity. At least, I like to call it the central principle. It's summarized in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. I'm not going to turn there, but that's where Paul wrote very clearly, Jesus Christ died for our sins.

I think of that as central because if he didn't die for our sins, then all of us have to die for our own sins, and that leaves us with a short story. But he did die for our sins. That's what gives us the hope, the hope of being in God's kingdom, of living with him forever. Earlier in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, Paul made the point that all people have sinned. We all do sin. And as Paul says at the end of chapter 6, the wages of sin, the results of sin is death.

So to bring it back around, why do we need to be baptized? For the simple matter that we all have sinned. And the penalty of sin is death. And we want to acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Of course, the fact of us sinning, and the penalty of sin being death, that happens whether or not we undergo baptism. But baptism is a symbolic act to show that we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony that shows that. But God knows that we have short memories. I suspect that's why, in addition to that once-in-a-lifetime special ceremony, he also gave us a once-a-year ceremony, where we come to the Passover and we again acknowledge Christ's sacrifice.

We commemorate it. We realize its seriousness. And that without it, we're dead. I wrote in my notes, the words, accept Christ as our Savior, sounds very... I'm not sure if I wanted to say the word Protestanty to me. I don't think that's a word, but, you know, spending most of my life growing up in the church, we don't always say terms like that.

Accept Christ, you know, do you know the Lord? But that's exactly what it means. Just the way circumcision was the symbol of accepting and participating in God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants, baptism is a symbol of Christian's acceptance of Christ's willingness to pay the price for our sins. And when we make that acceptance, we're acknowledging that Christ has a claim on us. If you'll turn over to 1 Corinthians 6, from Romans 6 to 1 Corinthians 6, that's one book away.

In 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19, I say, He has a claim on us, meaning, you know, He owns us now. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you and which you have from God? And you are not your own. You're no longer your own master, for you are bought with a price.

And because of that, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You know, I've been bought with a price, and I belong to Jesus Christ. And that's the case for all of us if we've accepted His sacrifice, and it's something we should want. He's a far better master of my life than I am of my own life. And I think most of us acknowledge that, and we want that.

There's a similar statement over in 1 Peter chapter 1. I'm not sure if I should summarize. I've got a new Bible on order. This one's falling apart in the general epistles for some reason. It's taken the worst of it.

1 Peter 1 and verse 18 says, Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received from the tradition of your fathers. So it wasn't silver or gold or any physical thing that bought us, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Interestingly, again, it ties back to Passover. Passover was always a symbol of Christ's sacrifice. And before that sacrifice happened, circumcision was the symbol of participating in the Passover ceremony.

But as I said, now baptism is the requirement. So when we're baptized, we're acknowledging and accepting Christ's sacrifice. And we're saying, I'm willing to let Jesus Christ take charge of my life from now on. I'm willing to say, He's my Savior, He's bought and paid for me. That's why when we do a baptism now, our common practice in the United Church of God, and I believe it goes back as far as we can remember, is before going under the water, the minister asked the person two questions.

First, have you repented of your sins? I always say, if the answer isn't yes, then let's get out of the water and go talk some more. And the second question is, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Meaning, not just as Savior in general, but me personally.

He died for my sins. And I've heard many people say this, and from the way I understand God from the Bible, I believe it's true. If nobody else lived and had sinned, I think Jesus Christ would have died for me alone. That's how great His love is. And it's certainly not because I'm worthy. He would have died for you. And you and you and you, every one of us. But because He's our Creator in Redeemer, He lived without sin, He could die for all of us at once. And it's a great thing.

He didn't have to do it over and over again. I think it's important for us to realize that for this to matter, the baptism has to be complete. And what I mean is baptism doesn't consist only of being put under the water. And by complete, I don't mean that you have to be completely immersed, although we do. And we always have a witness.

Make sure they went all the way under. As a matter of fact, some of the funniest stories you ever hear from ministers are about trying to make sure someone's completely under. You've heard a number of them. I don't think I've shared. I don't have that many, because I'm new. But I had one sort of... I had the opportunity to baptize a prospective member who was in prison. And a lot of cooperation. There was a chaplain there, and he arranged the tank for me. He brought me in. I didn't have to go through the normal security, which is good, because that's always scary.

You empty your pockets, go through the metal detector, you go behind that razor wire. This time he took me around sort of a side entrance. But he had the tank there, and I'd never seen one like this. It wasn't a horse tank. I guess it was made... It sort of had a deep part where the legs go down, and then it's more shallow, so that they don't have to go down so deep. And he had it filled up in advance, but he didn't realize the guy being baptized was pretty big and burly.

So there wasn't much room, and I didn't have somebody there who understood everything to help. So I put him down, and I saw his shoulder sticking up. So I leaned over and pushed him all the way down. And later I apologized, and I wasn't trying to drown you, I just had to get you all the way under.

I've got sidetracked there, but I'm making the point that that's a complete immersion, but we could say that we do that. That symbolizes putting to death the old man. We could put to death our old man without Christ's sacrifice. What I mean is, we could die for our own sin and be buried, but we would stay buried. That would be the end of life. No resurrection. What I want to stress is that just as important as going under the water completely is the fact that we come up out of the water.

That's part of the symbolism, as well as part of the fact that we don't stay dead, or we don't die from drowning. You come up out of the water, as I want to go back to Romans 6. I should have mentioned keeping a finger there, but I didn't keep mine there either. Romans 6, beginning in verse 5.

I'll give you a moment to get there.

In Romans 6, verse 5, it says, If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, which is what happens when we go into the water, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

We've discussed that. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. This means the penalty for sin is paid upon death. What matters to us is Christ was willing, and he was able to step in, in place of each of us, to pay that penalty, and now we have an opportunity to go on from there. And that was an important theme yesterday.

Where do we go from here? It's important when you go into the water, where do you go from there? Fortunately, you have somebody help you get back out of the water. Moving on to verse 8 here. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. Coming up out of the water of baptism represents starting a new life.

So in one sense, it somewhat represents the resurrection. Christ came out of the grave by literally being resurrected. And that way, I tend to suppose, perhaps the experience, our experience after baptism, is meant to be sort of what life will be like for those who are destined for the second resurrection. And that time, during the millennium, God's Spirit will be freely available, and they'll have their sins covered with Christ's sacrifice, only they'll have the added benefit of Satan being put away and no longer trying to deceive and trip them up.

We have that obstacle now, but we also have a greater reward waiting if we overcome that. To relate this to the symbolism of the Passover, Passover indicates, well, I guess the fact that after there's Passover immediately begins the days of Unleavened Bread, showing that after the sacrifice, we need to do something more. Because having our sins forgiven is the start of a process. After that, we go on to making a new life. And we put the 11 out of our homes and out of our lives as we put sin out of our way of being.

And as I say, after baptism, it's not all done, and, you know, that's no more to it. There's an ongoing effort, changing your life and letting Christ live in us just as we've just spent seven days of eating that Unleavened Bread in place of what we had before.

And as I said, there's where we have that advantage that those who will be in the second resurrection don't. We get to accept Christ's sacrifice now and begin living a new way of life now. That's what Paul meant when he wrote in Galatians 2, 20. I'll turn there quickly. I say, well, I guess I had it ingrained in me.

This is one scripture I had to memorize in college. We were testing on it very often. What's funny is I cite it all the time, and I usually say it incorrectly. That's why I'm turning there. Paul wrote, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Here's where we add a crucial element that's not symbolic. It's represented by a symbolic action. But when Paul said, Christ lives in me, that's not symbolic. He means Christ literally lives in us. A few pages over in Ephesians 3 and verse 17, he says something else that relates that. It also sounds kind of Protestant-y.

Ephesians 3 and verse 17 says that, Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. Christ dwell in your hearts. The reason we explain that is he's dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3, 16, Paul wrote, Don't you know that you're the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? I didn't turn there, but let's turn to John 14 to remind ourselves of, well, actually, we read this during the Passover ceremony, we usually do.

Christ was explaining to the apostles that, although he was going to be gone, they would have that comforter, the paraclete. And it wasn't a separate being that would come. In John 14 and verse 23, Jesus answered and said, If anyone loves me, he'll keep my word, my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

As I said, we understand the Holy Spirit's not a separate person in some trinity. It's the power. It's the essence and the presence of God. That makes this make sense. If we look back to verse 17 of John 14, John 14 verse 17, he says, The Spirit of truth, which the world can't receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it, I'm substituting the pronoun as it should be, but you know it, for it dwells with you, it will be in you. Before baptism, the Spirit will be with you. And that's where I said, our young people have a calling.

They're guided by God's Spirit. It's at work in their lives. But upon baptism, it's in you. It makes a difference. I've heard a good analogy that I don't want to develop here, but analogy, sort of the difference of working with a hot air balloon.

That if you've ever seen one of those balloon rallies where they roll them out and have a fan-blowing air, and when the balloon's on the ground, they have a little whisper jet going, psss, psss, psss. It keeps the air hot enough that the balloon doesn't flop over, but it doesn't go anywhere. I think that's sort of the way it is before baptism.

When you've got the Holy Spirit, it's working with you. And the analogy I heard, it's like it's whispering to you. It's guiding you. That whisper jet keeps the air warm, but then after baptism is when they turn on the full jet, instead of going psss, it goes, psss, psss, psss. And you hear that heat and the light, and the balloon lifts up off the ground and flies into the air.

I like that analogy. Of course, I like hot air balloons. They're cool. But that idea of being filled with the power and presence of God, and it makes our life take off. We begin to change. That's something. And that's God's presence in us. Jesus Christ in us. As I said, we symbolically participate in His death, but He, not symbolically, but in reality, participates in our life if we allow Him. And that's what makes all the difference.

The Holy Spirit in Christians is real, and most of us have had that experience long enough to know the difference it makes. The apostles received the Holy Spirit in a dramatic, visible miracle on that Pentecost after Christ's death and resurrection. The fire came down, and of course at the next Holy Day we'll discuss that somewhat.

And that's when Peter gave that sermon, and he said at the end, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you'll receive the Holy Spirit. You'll turn over to Acts. I want to turn to Acts 8, because in that statement, He left out a step that we always do because we see it described here.

Peter left out an important point in that moment in what he said, although I think they did this. In Acts 8 and verse 5, this is a later example, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. So Philip went and preached, if you skip to verse 12, they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and both men and women were baptized.

And Simon himself, let's talk about Simon the magician, he believed, or at least he claimed to believe, and he was baptized, and continue with Philip, it was amazing the miracles and signs that were done. We'll immediately see, though, that the baptism alone didn't bring the presence of God through the Holy Spirit into them. Verse 14, it says, When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

When they came down, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet it had fallen on none of them, they'd only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, but then they laid hands on them and they received the Spirit. And Simon was not a good person, but he was perceptive. It says that he saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given. And it goes on to show he tried to buy that power, and they condemned him for that. So the Holy Spirit is given not automatically upon baptism, but when a minister lays hands on and prays that God will give the Spirit.

I find it interesting also, the Scripture doesn't specifically say why it's done that way. We see it obviously is, and this isn't the only example. My personal speculation is that I think God does it through the laying on of an elder's hands because he wants to show that he's working through a structure. God doesn't want us to be disparate Christians here and there, or each on our own, but he does work through the organization of a church that has some structure and authority.

But that's, as I said, I can't turn to a Scripture that says that in so many words, so you can count that to speculation, but I don't think it's just idle, ridiculous speculation.

We do know, of course, that elders in the church don't control members' salvation. We don't have power of ourselves to give the Spirit. We have to pray and ask God to do that.

And I think this is leading the question then, though. How does a person who's not yet baptized go about doing it? It's reasonable. If a person reads the Acts 2.38, the I said so, and then goes on to understand the explanation of why God said so, which I've covered fairly briefly, they might ask the same thing that we see here in Acts 8 and verse 36. I'm skipping into the story, but Phillips explaining who the Messiah was to this eunuch who was reading the Old Testament.

He was reading the book of Isaiah, a prophecy of the Messiah. And so, Philip went and joined him and taught him. And here in verse 36, as they came and went down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, well, see, here's water. What hinders me from being baptized? There might be a number of people in the audience here who aren't baptized that might say, oh, yeah, I need to do this.

What's hindering me from being baptized? Philip gave an interesting answer. He said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And it goes on to, you know, they commanded the chariot to stand still. Both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him. Now, I'll say here that although we can draw some distinctions, and I'll mention some a little bit later, generally we can't equate the word belief with faith.

If you believe something, that's equated to faith. Because I want to turn to another story in Acts, or in chapter 16. Acts 16. Pardon me. I know I didn't bring coffee up here with me. I'm getting into a little bit of the fast-talking mode. I'm warming up for classes starting next week. I'm also looking at the clock, whereas I thought I was going to end the sermon early. I want to make sure I end it. Period. Acts 16, verse 24. Here's the story, of course. Paul and Silas were traveling preaching the gospel, and some people didn't like it.

They ended up being persecuted and, as we'll see, thrown in prison. In verse 24, having received such a charge, he, that is a prison warden, put them into the inner prison, fastened their feet in the stocks.

But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening. Didn't have much else to do then. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were loose. And the keeper of the prison, awakening from sleep, seeing the prison doors open, supposed the prisoners had fled, so he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. Which, surprise, well, somewhat surprising to me, because it's so different from our culture. This did fit with Roman culture at the time. An officer who had failed in his duty, or perceived that he had, would often commit suicide.

And Paul said with a loud voice, Do yourself no harm, we're all here. This moved the prison warden powerfully. They didn't run away. They're there. I suspect, although we can't prove it, I suspect perhaps he'd heard some of Paul's teaching. Paul had been in town preaching. Maybe this prison keeper had heard what he was teaching. That he wasn't just totally ignorant. But now he said, that God he's been describing must be real. There's real power here. So if this is the true God, what do I have to do?

It's similar to those people that asked Peter that question. So he goes in, in verse 29, he called for a light. He ran in and fell down before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, SIRS, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. So regardless of what he'd heard before, we don't know how much talking they did. But they spoke to the word to him, then he was baptized. He took him that same hour, washed their stripes. Immediately he and all his family were baptized. By immediately, it doesn't mean as soon as they walked out of the prison. But it was in relatively short order. And this gives me some saying.

We could see Paul, neither Paul nor Philip, when he talked to the eunuch about being baptized, said, Well, you've got to finish a 52 lesson correspondence course, or read the mystery of the ages and the incredible human potential. And I say that somewhat in jest, because I don't want to give the impression that we shouldn't read and study, because absolutely we should. In both cases, they were dealing with people that were studying God's word. It's clear that teaching and understanding is involved. It's not something to be taken lightly or done ignorantly. God wants faith, but he never wants blind or ignorant faith.

As a matter of fact, I'll mention a couple of scriptures. Well, I'll mention Ephesians 2 and verse 8 tells us that faith is a gift of God. But we can see that as an initial faith, but there's a way to build our faith. Because Romans 10 and verse 17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is necessary before baptism, and we can get faith by the Word of God. So, I'm not saying, as I said, you have to finish so many lessons in Bible correspondence course, but you do need to know the Word of God. We need to understand God's plan.

Where do we fit in it? What does God require of me? Who is He? These are things that come from knowing the Word of God. That's one reason I know in my personal counseling for baptism, I always like to go through the Holy Days. Say, this is God's plan for mankind, and I make the case of saying, and where do you see yourself in it? For each one of these days, in each bit of meaning, where do you see yourself in that picture?

We, hopefully each of us, sees ourselves in the picture when we think about God's plan. And, as a matter of fact, hopefully all of us have been doing it, most of us have been doing it long enough that we're not, we do it automatically. When I think of the millennium, I say, I want to be there. I want to be one of those teachers and leaders. I don't know if I'm going to...

They talk about being ruler over so many cities. And then David said, I'd be happy to be a doorkeeper. That's sort of where I am. If they have garbage trucks, I used to drive one on campus at Big Sandy, and that was one of my favorite jobs. If I could be a garbage truck driver in the kingdom of God, I'll do that. But I just want to be there. I see myself in God's plan. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked, and I don't have time for that.

But I am making the point. There is baptism council comes into play. You do need to know God's word. A prospective member needs to consider, what do you know? What do you want your relationship to be? Are you ready to make that commitment? And you need to answer that question yourself. Don't wait for a minister to give you a test and say, yes, you're committed or you're not. He often will be sort of a guide and a coach between you and God, but he wants you to understand, what does God's word say?

And do you have full understanding enough to decide that? And God wants us to talk to him personally to help us reach that decision. I want to make the point, though, that being ready is not just about knowledge and faith. That's where, you know, I said there's a subtle distinction we can make between belief and faith.

You can find faith as a belief strong enough to be your basis for action. Or we could use the term sometimes conviction. Action fits with true faith. Remember James 2, 20. Faith without works is dead. And if you have faith that moves you to action, you know, one of those actions might be baptism. I want to turn back to chapter 3 of the book of Acts, and two days later Peter also in a different sermon mentions something else that goes with this. Well, actually he said it in Acts 2.38. I'll mention it again here in Acts 3.19.

Peter said, "...repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." So the time of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Repent and be converted. Reminds me also of, I want to turn to Matthew 3 and verse 11. I'll give our fingers a rest a bit after this, but when John the Baptist came bringing a baptism of repentance, he made the point of what repentance is.

Matthew 3 and verse 11, talking to the Pharisees, John said, "...I indeed baptize you with water to repentance. He who is coming after me is mightier than I, who sandals I am not worthy to carry. He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." I mentioned earlier in Hebrew 6, it talks about the doctrine of baptisms. We believe when Christ pours out the Holy Spirit on us, I see that as a baptism by the Spirit. Baptism by fire is a common phrase in the English language.

We're undergoing a trial or something, but biblically, it seems to be referring to going into a lake of fire. And only Christ can put someone into that baptism, and I'm not volunteering for that. We don't want that baptism. I want baptism by water to repentance and baptism with the Spirit. But suffice to say, water baptism is a baptism unto repentance. And John the Baptist here makes it very clear that by repentance, he didn't mean just feeling sorry.

Back up to verse 7, he saw Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism. He said, you bunch of snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. Fruits worthy of repentance. That sort of relates to what Peter wrote when he said, repent and be converted. We have a pretty good understanding in God's Church that repent is related to change. The Greek definition, I believe, can be used to mean turn around. Stop going that direction. Start going this direction. Stop living the life of sin. Start leading a life of righteousness.

Even so, it might be worth rereading what Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church in 2 Corinthians 7. I'll give you a hint. This is actually the last scripture we're going to turn to. I know I have a lot, but you've turned to them enough in the last few days that your Bible is falling open automatically. I'll remind you, though, in 1 Corinthians, Paul corrected the Corinthian congregation pretty strongly. They were a great group with a lot of talents and spiritual gifts, but some serious problems. He called them out and let them know that they needed a change. Then, as we heard yesterday, he got a little worried. Was I too strong? But he draws a distinction between feeling sorry and being repentant. 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 8 says, Even if I made you sorry with my letter, I don't regret it, though I did regret it. For I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoiced that you were made sorry, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. Notice there are two distinct things. You were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted. The sorrow of the world produces death. And I suppose we could say, partly, that repentance leads to salvation, in part because it does lead to baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit. And that's vital to conversion. That's vital to becoming like God and being part of His family. And it's not coincidental, I believe, that that's also much of the symbolism of the days of unleavened bread. We have our, symbolically, our sins covered by the Passover sacrifice, but then we go on to conversion. We have an entire week of making the distinction between the leaven of malice and wickedness and the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Boy, if I said that wrong, I'd be in trouble. And there's another one of my personal speculations. I sometimes wonder why a seven-day festival for unleavened bread? We get one for Pentecost, one for Trumpets. I wonder if it's partly God reminding us that changing, developing righteous character is an ongoing process. And unfortunately, it takes more than seven days. It takes our lifetime. We're not going to be finished until we're changed to spirit. But hopefully, every year, we are more changed. Hopefully, even if we slide back, we move forward further. And we keep becoming more and more like God. To come back to that question for the young adults in that seminar I was at, why should I get baptized? Well, we've said the short, simple answer could be because God said to get baptized. But I hope we appreciate the longer answer about why God said to do so. That we have an understanding that baptism represents accepting Christ's sacrifice, of participating in His death so that He'll participate in our lives. That we go under the water to represent putting away our old life. We come back out to represent a new life, a life with God's spirit dwelling in us and changing us, building up the new man while the old man's been put to death. We're starting a lifetime of the conversion process. As I said, just as with Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, we represent that every year. That's why we keep the Spring Holy Days, and that's why we get baptized.