Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we started a discipleship series. Everyone say Discipleship. Discipleship. Well done. Who's a disciple here? There's only a few of you are sure about that. Okay, we started a stipul ship series and this is gonna be a 12 week series. And you know, a house, everyone think of a house this morning. If a house is going to be built, well, if a house is going to last, if a house is going to fulfill the purpose for which it was built, there has to be some right foundations. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. And the same is with our Christian lives. As believers. If we are going to live well, if our relationship with God is going to be strong, if we are going to last through the years, through the storms, through the trials, through the good, through the bad, then our personal foundations have got to be in place.
Speaker 1 00:01:13 And I think sometimes when we become Christians, I think sometimes we don't take time to put personal foundations in place. We kind of say yes to Christ. We jump into being part of a community and we don't focus on laying the foundations right in our lives in order to strengthen us and sustain us through the years. Like people get excited when people come to faith in Jesus Christ. I do. But having been a pastor and a church leader for over 20 years, I always say I wanna see them in 12 months. I wanna see them in two years. And not that I'm not celebrating, absolutely I am celebrating people coming to life in Jesus Christ. But it's important isn't it, that when we grow people, that when we disciple people as a church, that we put those foundations in place. Amen. So we can build our lives well so that we can be the best disciple who wants to be the best disciple that they can be in Jesus Christ till we see him face to face the best ever.
Speaker 1 00:02:25 So that we can become more and more like Christ in our daily lives. That's the goal that we become fruitful, that we last. And can I just say as we, as we start this series as well, it's always about who we are becoming over what we do for Jesus. What we do for Jesus is important. You know, he's planned good things for us. He's prepared good things and works for us to do. But it's most important, first of all about who we are becoming as people in Christ. It is allowing God, the Holy Spirit to do his work in us. Are we allowing God the Holy Spirit to do his work in our lives?
Speaker 1 00:03:21 Are we allowing him to change us? Because church, and I know this by experience, the old nature keeps cropping up. The old man or the old woman wants to keep raising its ugly head in my life, maybe not in your life <laugh>, but in my life, certainly that old nature seems to want to come up often and I need God so desperately by his spirit to keep changing me, to keep doing his work in me. If you want the theological term for that, it's the process of sanctification. God doing his process, his work in our lives. And can I just say that if the work isn't done in our lives, if we start this discipleship journey and the work we have not allowed the Holy Spirit to do his work in our lives, let me tell you, it is not long before we shipwreck our faith. It's not long before the storms start coming and we can't stand because our foundations are very shaky. We're not going to last. And let me tell you, when that happens, when we don't allow the Holy Spirit to do his work in us, it becomes disastrous as the people of God for the body of Christ. Because suddenly relationships start breaking down. Suddenly disunity starts to mingle itself amongst the body of Christ. We will stay baby Christians for 30 years. We will stay in that place.
Speaker 1 00:05:09 Yeah, the Psalm is said, do you remember we looked at a couple of weeks ago and we started this psalm is said, search me. Oh God, what a great prayer to pray. Search me. But I think some of us in the church, when people upset us, say, Lord, you need to search them. You need to search her. And God's saying, what about us? What about that lovely humble prayer of David that says, actually Lord, search me. Start with me. Start with me. And so we started this series before Easter, looking at four pillars. And this is where the Bible test is coming in. Are you ready? Okay, so turn with me to Roman six. We're gonna get into our third pillar this morning. And the third pillar is baptism. Okay? And uh, my title for this morning is Down Under and Raised Down Under and Raised.
Speaker 1 00:06:13 Can I just simply clarify, and this is all part of our discipleship journey and I, I have, I had a bit of a talk with the Lord about this. We really felt God tell us to start these discipleship series talks. And um, I remember saying to the Lord, I said, Lord, talking about water, baptism doesn't sound very inspirational. Like we all know what it means. And I felt the Holy Spirit just say what we're gonna talk about this morning is gonna reveal so much more of Jesus. This is not just like some talk about baptism this morning. It's gonna reveal more of Jesus in our lives. Who wants more of Jesus to be revealed this morning in our lives or men. So as we go through this, I want you to think, say Lord or ask the question, Lord, will you reveal more of who you are to me today?
Speaker 1 00:07:02 I wanna leave this place more in love with you, with more, not just with more understanding, but more of your presence, more of your passion in my life. Okay, so let's just clarify a few things about baptism this morning. Baptism, first of all in scripture is for those who have already repented, okay? It is for those who have declared their faith in Jesus Christ. Let's make that clear this morning. If we are gonna do things as scripture tells us to, it's those who have already repented and it's those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. And this is really important this morning because when people come to faith in Jesus Christ, they're not putting their faith in a church program. They're not putting their faith in us as a congregation. They're not putting their faith in the person that brought them along to church.
Speaker 1 00:07:55 It's really important that people put their faith in Jesus Christ. Over 20 years I have seen hundreds of people baptized and it is such an exciting thing to see people go down into the waters of baptism. But some of those testaments, as you are listening to them, you know, kind of talking about their story, a few that I've heard over the years have gone a little bit like this. Well, I just wanna thank the coffee team for the great welcome and I wanna thank my neighbor for bringing me here. I found so many friends in this church and I wanna thank just everybody really for being so kind and lovely. And then they all go down into the waters of baptism.
Speaker 1 00:08:41 And I find that really odd. And I think it's so important that when people go into the waters of baptism, while we're thankful for the coffee team and we love you, what great coffee you do, while we're thankful for the warm welcome that people get, it's so important that people put their faith in Jesus Christ because there's no other name that we can be saved. No other name that we can be saved. Third thing is baptism in water is not really optional. It's not really optional. We're following the command of Jesus Christ that says, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And teaching them to obey all that I command. So it's not really optional. The fourth thing, baptism is going into water. So if you are a part of this church, there's two people getting baptized at the moment next month, you are not gonna get a little sprinkling, you're not gonna get that little bit of water splash on you.
Speaker 1 00:09:51 Alright? This is, you're gonna get a full dunk. The Greek word for baptism is to be submerged. Submerged. And we're gonna explain why that is so important in a moment. Alright? Because that's what God requires in the New Testament. We see that lovely pattern when people get baptized in water, when they come to faith in Jesus Christ, they are taken down into the waters and they are fully immersed. We look at Jesus in his baptism. We think of Philip, uh, the eunuch in Acts eight, I think it is. Okay? So what I wanna do this morning, I really want us to capture the reason why Peter, on that day of Pentecost said, repent, have faith in Jesus Christ. Be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, which we'll look at next week. Okay, let's turn to Romans eight. Let's read this together. Sorry, Romans six. It will come upon the screen for us as well. Um, we're gonna read from verse uh three, okay? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. I swear it gets really exciting. Anybody just wants to go woo woo. You can do thank you
Speaker 2 00:11:40 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:11:43 The Ben. Go woo woo
Speaker 1 00:11:47 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For, we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. Amen. Amen. My God bless his word this morning. So let's just go through a few things. I'm not gonna be long this morning.
Speaker 1 00:12:54 Um, there's three key, three key things to baptism, water, baptism. And the first thing is you're going down <laugh>, you're going down. Everyone say down down we are going down. Hello. Can you go <laugh>, I won't do it. You know those No, I'm not gonna do it. I was gonna call Des des. I'm like, you're just right for picking on this morning. But I'm not. No I won't. Okay, but you are going down in baptism. We are going down in the water. Does anybody remember that day? Oh yes. Give me a wave if you've been, yeah, you've had baptism, water, baptism. That's beautiful. Alright, you're going down in the water. So we are baptized into Jesus Christ. Like we said before, there is no other name. We're going down and we're being baptized with Jesus Christ and we're also being baptized into his death. Do you know that every time you go to a baptism, you actually go into a funeral? And it's really important to know this. When we think of water baptism, because we are being buried. We are, we are dying with Christ. This is us identifying with him. It's so powerful. Really. It's so powerful. We are identifying with him. And this is crucial because we cannot be raised church unless we die.
Speaker 1 00:14:25 We can't have fullness in life unless we first died. That just cannot happen. I wanna say that again. I want that to really sink in this morning. We cannot be raised until we first die. And that is the kingdom. Because if we want to find our lives, we need to lose our lives. If we want fullness of life today, we've gotta give up what we want and then we will find fullness in Jesus Christ. So if we want to be raised, if we want to have a resurrection, the first has to be a dying. And let me tell you, the church has got some dying to do to self because the old man still keeps coming up.
Speaker 1 00:15:19 He keeps coming up. And let me tell you, he will crop up in the week ahead. Watch out for him. He will keep cropping up. Can't have a resurrection unless we've died. We've died to self. We've died to the self life, the sin life. You know, I'm so glad this morning that I don't have to go through a physical resurrection to die to my sin. Are you glad this morning that somebody did that for us? Somebody went to the cross and that somebody is Jesus. He paid the price for our sin. But what does it require of us? The we repent will live in that lovely sense of saying, Lord, forgive me, search me. It's every day saying, Lord, naturally speaking things around me are shaking everywhere, but I will choose to have faith in Jesus Christ. It says, Lord, I am going to, I'm a new Christian. I'm gonna go down into the waters of baptism and it says, Lord, I am going to be filled with your spirit. I am going to keep myself filled with your spirit because I can't do this without you.
Speaker 1 00:16:45 We're going down in order to be raised and it truly brings it home to us church. That every time somebody goes into the waters of baptism, we can't help but look at the cross of Calvary when we baptize out there in a couple of weeks. I want us to think about the cross of Calvary. That Jesus was killed, he died of death. Jesus was buried but he was also raised to life. He was also raised to life. The second thing, so we baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death as we go down and then we're under. Do you remember being under now depending on who baptized you. It was my dad. Okay. When I was, yeah, a teenager. And my dad is a good old Pentecostal minister. Some of you have met him when he came the other week. All right? And he kept me down for a very long time because my dad liked to give people a really good dunk. Alright? So he did. He kept me down. I'm under the water going, you know, um, when we dunk you, alright? As Jesus was three days in the in the grave.
Speaker 1 00:18:10 We're not gonna keep you down for three days, maybe three seconds. Alright? We won't hold you as long as my father did. Maybe he just did it to me for payback. I dunno. As a teenager or something. But anyway, as we go under, we are dying to self, our lives are being crucified with Christ. Is it hitting home a bit more? Yes. Is it just hitting home a little bit more church of why when Peter stood on that day of Pentecost, why it's important to get these pillars right in our life, our old self is being crucified as we go down into the waters, that's our funeral.
Speaker 1 00:18:53 Remember, we can't be raised until we first die. Maybe some of us this week. We've gotta go and die to some areas of our lives. Remember, this is about who we are becoming. Who we are becoming in Christ Jesus every day. Who we are as individuals. And so we go under, it's our tomb, we're being buried. And then the final thing this morning is that glorious picture of Jesus coming up from the grave, up from the grave heroes. He came out glorious, victorious, wonderful Jesus. Glorious Jesus. And those who are getting baptized will go down dead under buried. <unk>
Speaker 1 00:19:54 And as you are coming out of the glorious waters, you are being raised to new life in Jesus Christ. Wow. What a gospel. What a gospel We have church. Incredible gospel. And the great news is, team, do you wanna come up? We're gonna wrap up here. And the great news is that we have this new life that we can live. Now, we're gonna look a bit more next week about how we do that with the help of the Holy Spirit. We have new life. Now we can live and walk in that new life. We have hope beyond the grave. How many of us have lost loved ones in this life? How many of us have, yeah, maybe lost. I lost a brother when we were really young. We've experienced grief. Alright? But you know the wonderful truth is the when we are in Christ, we are covered. That wonderful song that says from life's first cry to final breath, who commands our destiny? Who commands our destiny? Jesus. And so if we can identify with him in his death, we too will identify with him in his resurrection. But here's the thing, church. It's great news. It's great news.
Speaker 1 00:21:27 But the challenge is, and let me tell you, I don't want to speak doom and gloom, but there are serious times coming upon the face of the earth. They're coming and the Christian Church of Jesus Christ is gonna be at the crossroads. And you, you've gotta make your decision at the moment. It's quite easy, can I say, to be a Christian in this country, in this nation. But there's gonna be a time when it is gonna be jolly hard and you either walk in the power of the cross of Jesus Christ or we will shrink. And if our foundations are not in place, and this is what these 12 weeks are all about, if we are just bothered about doing good works, but not looking after our hearts, not growing or working out our salvation with fear and trembling, we're gonna be shaky. We're gonna fall. We're not going to last. Let me tell you, the prize is worth it.
Speaker 1 00:22:38 The prize, the goal of being found in Jesus Christ is going to be worth it. Can I just read you a quote? It's been on me all week. I read a lot of um, Andrew Murray stuff. I don't know who has heard of Andrew Murray. He, um, in the 1840s as a theologian. Um, and this has been on me all week. I just can't shake it. And I believe it's for the church, not just new to now. I believe it's for the church of Jesus Christ. And it says this, I want you to hear what I'm saying. He says, not only should we think about Jesus himself and speak about him and believe in him cuz you know the enemy believes in Jesus. But we should come to the point that the disciples in the text arrived at and they knew him. Everything Andrew Maurice says, everything is to be found in that. And I believe that it's the church. Over the years we've been good at speaking about Jesus. We've come to services like this and we've been so blessed and encouraged and built up and we've heard about Jesus. We're speaking about Jesus. We even go out believing in Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:24:04 But the challenge is, do we know him? Do we know him? Because speaking about him and believing in him isn't necessarily meaning that we know him.
Speaker 0 00:24:21 It's
Speaker 1 00:24:21 A challenge, isn't it? Search me. Oh God, we just stand with me. Stand with me this morning. Church, if you want to just hold your hands out, I'm just gonna pray a prayer over us this morning before we finish this part. You can either pray with me in your heart, um, but you don't have to. This is between you and the Lord
Speaker 0 00:24:58 Your
Speaker 1 00:24:58 Father. I give you permission this week to come and do the work that you need to do in my heart and life. I give you permission. Holy Spirit, come and challenge me. Come and reveal areas in my heart and life that need urgent attention. Search me. Oh God, come and do a work of scientification in my life. I don't want to be immature in my faith when the storms come at me. I don't want to be on shaky ground because Jesus, you are not shaky. You are the firm foundation. You are the solid rock. And Lord, I want to identify with you not only in your death, but also in your risen life. I receive your new life into my life this morning. And just while every head is bowed, I'm gonna give an opportunity this morning for people to give their lives to Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna make you come out, just simply raise your hand and put it down. You may not understand everything that has been spoken of this morning, but you know, you know, you know God has been tugging on your heart. So if that's you this morning, will you just raise your hand? Raise your hand in this place. Thank you. You can put your hand down. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:27:06 Yeah. So just say this prayer with me. Thank you for putting your hand up. Let's say together, shall we? Out loud. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great gospel message. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you that Jesus, you came, you lived, you died on a cross, died on a cross, and you rose from the grave. Thank you that in you I can find forgiveness of sin, that I can find new life. And today I accept you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for welcoming me into your glorious family. In Jesus name, amen.
