Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. Have you ever looked back in time and considered
how certain defining moments have shaped your life in future? Today, John Metter, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, looks at the importance of defining moments and how we
can recognize what God is saying through them. Well, I'm so glad to be with you this morning
with the scriptures today. Isn't it great to have a copy of God's Word in your hand
or on your phone or on your tablet? The whole of the Bible, all 66 books. What a blessing.
If you have your Bibles, take them and turn to Matthew chapter 28 today, beginning in
verse 19. Let's stand together as we talk about what I call defining declarations. You
know, we're in our defining moments series and we've been each week this summer talking
about different moments in our lives that are different from the average experience.
We all experience a thousand things, but only a few things are defining moments, moments
that change the course of our lives. Sometimes defining moments change the course of the
past part of our lives. We're able to shut the door on things in the past. Sometimes
that changes for the present, but almost every defining moment changes your future. So these
are big moments, moments that actually affect our lives. And we've talked about a number
of those, but today this one is called defining declaration. It has to do with baptism. It
has to do with being baptized after you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Let's
look at these two verses in chapter 28 of Matthew verse 19. Jesus says in the great
commission, the very final commandment, so to speak, before his ascension, he says, go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations. And by the way, as you read this with me,
keep in mind the phrase make disciples is the only verb. It's the only command in all
of this passage. The rest is something that follows from making disciples. So it says,
go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
father and the son and the Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you. And
lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Father, in Jesus' name, speak
to us about this subject today so that every person in the room could know where they stand
with this defining declaration moment of baptism that you've given us as the church, the charge
to go and make disciples. But as we do it, baptize and teach and help people know everything
that you've taught us. So Father, today I pray it will be personal. I pray it will be
instrumental in our lives today in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.
Baptism is a defining moment in a person's life. In fact, it's so defining sometimes
we record it in the margins of our Bible. We know the dates of it. Sometimes we have
pictures of it. When someone is baptized, at least in the churches I've been involved
with, there is a baptism certificate that's signed and you receive that after you are
baptized. So it's a defining moment. It's a big deal. We make a big deal about baptism.
And I want to answer the question today, why do we make such a big deal about baptism?
And more importantly, I want you to walk away from this day understanding the why of baptism.
Why do we do that? Why did Jesus say that we're to make disciples and as we do that,
to be sure we baptize them and then teach them to observe everything that he commanded
us. But let me take a little poll this morning. How many of you remember your baptism experience?
Would you raise your hand if you remember your baptism experience? That's a lot of us
in the room remember our baptism experience. And that's an important thing to remember.
And we're going to talk about that today for just a few moments. And if there is an absent
understanding of baptism in your life or if you've never been baptized after you've come
to faith in Jesus, then we want to talk to you about what that really means and looking
at the scripture helps us to do that. By the way, baptize, the word baptize is actually
a transliteration from the Greek language. The Greek word baptizo is just exactly transliterated
into English and it literally means to immerse. It's most often used with the word into following
it to connect the act of baptism with a purpose or a person. For example, in the book of Galatians,
Paul talks about the fact that we are baptized into Christ. It's not just about getting
wet. It's not a religious observance. It's not something that we just commemorate because
we want to have walked through that act in our lives in church somewhere, but it really
is a significant, meaningful, defining moment in our life. And I call it a defining declaration.
Now I remember my own baptism when I was seven years old. I came to Christ at about
six years of age. I remember being ready to be baptized and I was all excited about it.
We were in a small town in Oklahoma. There was no swimming pool in our town and I saw
that baptistry as a chance to get in the water, in the cold water. I also thought it was a
pretty cool moment because my father was the pastor of the church and I wanted to be baptized
with him. I felt very comfortable with the whole thing. But I also remember in the preparation
for that having my mom and dad explain to me very carefully what baptism was and the
fact that I was only being baptized because I had placed my faith and trust in Christ
as Lord and Savior. That it was not a relevant act at all apart from our salvation experience.
So I really understood that well, but I was still looking forward to having fun in that
baptistry, right? But I remember when my father baptized me, he did what we all as pastors
do. We raised our hand before we baptized and we said, I baptize you in the name of
the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And when my dad did that, that baptism experience
took on a whole different level of meaning for me. All of a sudden I realized it wasn't
about the water and it wasn't about my dad. All of a sudden I realized this is about me
following Jesus. You know, you can know that at seven years of age. You can know that it's
about you following Jesus Christ. And that baptism experience to me was a meaningful
moment, a moment that I look back at. And I recently visited the church in Oklahoma
in that small town and actually looked at that baptistry again as a way of just remembering
all that had taken place during that time. But you know, I've always had this question
I think you may too. Why is it that such a strange and unusual experience of allowing
someone to lower you backwards into the water and then bringing you back up, why is it that
we do that that way? I mean, that seems like a weird thing to invent, doesn't it? I mean,
what's really behind that? And why when someone is baptized do they come up with smiles on
their face, sometimes with hands raised? Why is it such an accelerating experience? It's
not about the temperature of the water. It's not about how clean the water is. Other people
have been in there before you were. It's not about any of those physical aspects of it.
It's not about the crowd cheering you on, but it's something intensely personal between
you and God. And that's why that baptism is such an incredibly important thing. You know,
baptism is not a standalone act. It's not something that you just one day decide to
get up and go do. It's connected to and signifies something extraordinary and nothing else compares
to it. So let's look at baptism for just a few moments. First of all, go back to Matthew
chapter three. And in Matthew chapter three, we began to see the scriptures talk about
baptism. And I want to point out first of all, that baptism signifies life change, life
change. The very history of baptism in the New Testament format is that people were coming
to be baptized because their lives needed changing and they wanted to change their lives.
And before Jesus' public ministry began, there was a man named John the Baptist. He was baptizing
in the River Jordan. And in Matthew chapter three, verse one, it says this, now in those
days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. And they were being baptized by him, it says in verse six,
in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. Now I'm going to take a little bit of
a walk today because I want to get down on this level of the stage and remind you that
the act of baptism was not a religious act. It was something done outside in the dirty
Jordan River. I was disappointed the first time I saw the Jordan River. I anticipated
it was like those pictures on the back of the Babishree walls, you know, crystal clear
water with nice beautiful trees in the background. But when I went to the Jordan River, it was
nasty dirty and had varmint swimming around in it while we baptized people in that river.
Well, there was John the Baptist out there in that Jordan River. The Bible says all of
Israel was coming to him, religious leaders. Others, he were not religious leaders. Coming
to meet this man who was preaching repentance and life change. He was pointing to a Messiah
that had yet to be revealed. Jesus was alive. He was present, but he had not revealed himself
as the Messiah yet. So John was pointing to someone that was going to be coming and going
to be revealed. And he was in that river and people were coming to be baptized.
Now the reason I want to create that word picture for you for just a moment is because
almost everything we understand about baptism today is in a church building with air conditioning
and with chlorinated water. It's got this trough kind of thing that people walk into
and the temperature of the water. We try to get it just right so it's not uncomfortable
for you, but the idea behind baptism is none of that and it's all about life change. Why
would all these religious leaders come outside of the temple, outside of Jerusalem to find
John the Baptist? I assure you it wasn't a flippant moment. It wasn't a casual moment.
It was a serious moment where they realized my life needs to change and this man is preaching
in such a way that I need to respond to. So the very first aspect of baptism that we hear
about is that it's this experience. It's not a church experience. It's not a religious
experience. It really is about life change. So when you approach the idea of baptism,
you want to approach it with the idea that I would want to be baptized because my life
is changing. Changing for the better. Changing in the direction of God. But John's role was
twofold. It wasn't just to baptize. He was also there to point to Jesus. John's message
was there was a greater one coming and a greater baptism coming. In fact, if you move on further
into Matthew chapter three, you find in verse 11, John preaching, he says, as for me, I
baptized you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than
I and I'm not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire. That's when Christ comes and when we come to Christ that this real baptism in the
spirit takes place. Jesus literally baptizes us in his Holy Spirit and water baptism symbolizes
that. So baptism has its roots in life change. Baptism also signifies identification. You're
still in Matthew chapter three. Look at verse 13, 14, and 15. Then Jesus arrived from Galilee
at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him, but John tried to prevent him saying,
I have need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answering him said,
I'm permitted at this time for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness
than he. That is John the Baptist permitted Jesus to be baptized, literally baptizing
him. And it says that in Matthew chapter three. So let's go back to the Jordan river. Here's
John the Baptist still in the river and Jesus comes and sees all these religious leaders
and all these others that are coming to be baptized because of the need for life change.
Now Jesus is coming and saying, I want to be baptized. And John the Baptist's response
is predictable. Why? Why do you want me to be baptized? Why do you need to be baptized?
You are the son of God. Many of you remembered John's first statement whenever he saw Jesus
for the first time. Here's what he said, behold the lamb of God that comes to take away the
sin of the world. That was John's first statement about Jesus publicly. So clearly John the
Baptist knows Jesus doesn't need to have life change. Jesus doesn't need to have his
sins washed away. He's the son of God and God the son. He is a perfect God man. But
Jesus baptism was not an act for repentance, but an act of obedience and an example to
follow. That's why we have the record of Jesus baptism here. He was both identifying with
the father and identifying with those who would later follow him. And if Jesus was willing
to be baptized, why would we not be willing to be baptized? Sometimes I talk to people
and they're a little reluctant about being baptized. I don't know. I might be a little
embarrassed to be out there in front of all those people. I don't know about getting wet
and coming back. I think it's weird that you drop people in backwards and bring them back
up. All kinds of things that people say. My response is listen, if Jesus the son of God
and God the son was willing to be baptized in order to obey his father, why would you
not be willing to be baptized to obey your heavenly father? Now there's something interesting
that happened when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. And it's recorded in Matthew
3 verse 16. It says this, after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and
behold the heavens were opened and he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and
lighting upon him and behold a voice out of the heavens saying, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Now that's pretty impressive, isn't it? I can tell you that
did not happen when I was baptized at seven years of age or at any other time in my life,
not like that. Nor would it happen to you or would it have happened to you. But what's
going on here is Jesus' obedience and the crowd that had gathered to observe that were
given this amazing affirmation from God the father about the life of Jesus. I mean this
is a huge movement because Jesus was identifying with us who would later follow him and he
was identifying with his father who had called him to do this work of redemption and this
work of bringing people to faith. In fact his statement was let's do it to fulfill
all righteousness. Do you know that Jesus lived a perfect life and fulfilled the law
on your behalf? Do you know that Jesus was perfectly righteous and never did a wrong
thing? In fact he said I always do all things that please the father on your behalf. In
addition to that Jesus died and shed his blood to pay for sin, not his. He did that for your
sin on your behalf. So here's Jesus being baptized in the river by John the Baptist
and it signifies identification backwards towards us. And now when we are baptized after
following Jesus as Lord and Savior we are identifying ourselves with Christ. Whenever
I baptize someone they are not there to declare anything about themselves, they are there
to declare something about what Jesus has done. Jesus is my Lord and Savior and I'm
not ashamed of that, it's the declaration. And that's why when we baptize we say buried
with Christ in baptism into death, raised with him in newness of life. We're not really
saying so much about ourselves, we're identifying with Jesus. You know I've got some favorite
baptism experiences over the years as you might imagine. I've been in ministry nearly
forty years and over those forty years I've had all kinds of incredible and fun and crazy
stories. I've got some of the funniest stories of baptism I will never tell. But I remember
one great day, I was pastoring in Tennessee, preached on baptism and a Presbyterian lady
walked down the aisle at the end, she was about eighty-six years of age, she had been
attending our church for years. She had come to Christ as a young girl but was sprinkled
as a child and I never had a baptism experience that we call believers baptism. That is you
are baptized because you placed your faith and trust in Jesus and you are a believer
in Jesus Christ therefore you identify with him by faith. She had never had that experience
and I preached on baptism that day and she came down and talked to one of our castles
and she said I've been walking with Jesus for dozens and dozens and decades and decades
of years and I've never been fully baptized. I've never been immersed and I want to do
that and I want to do it now. I want to do it today. So here's an eighty-six year old
lady saying this is going to happen today one way or another. Is your baptistry full?
Is it not? And so of course we made arrangements and she was baptized in an evening service
that day and it was an incredible experience for her and I wish you could have seen her
face as she came up out of that water knowing that that was something she needed to do for
years and years and years. Knowing she wanted to identify with the Christ that loved her
and saved her but this was her first opportunity to do it and so what an incredible amazing
moment and really it moved many other people to make that same decision. I remember a young
woman years ago here at this church who was a follower of Islam. Was brought up Muslim.
Her family was Muslim. She had never read the Bible until introduced to it. And as she
read the Bible she realized that the Bible spoke of a God of love and the Koran did not
and so she began to dig into that and realized that the God of the Bible is one that pursued
us with his love and that the culmination of that is to trust him, believe him and put
your faith in him and that's exactly what she did. And when it came time for her to
be baptized she was obviously concerned for all of her friends and all of her family members
who might disown her, who might be angry because she was converting from Islam to being a follower
of Jesus Christ but when she made that commitment and then was baptized it was really amazing
how the family actually respected her decision and it wasn't quite the traumatic experience
she thought it might be but rather an incredible experience of really knowing who she worked
up and why she worshiped Jesus Christ. Of course there are countless numbers of young
men and young women who have gone to camp or to a vacation Bible school or to a kids
craze and you watch them make those decisions of faith and watch them follow the Lord in
baptism it's such a special treat to watch that unfold. Some of you have kids that have
been baptized and you know the reality of that in their lives as well. But I remember
one service a number of years ago. We were having a not ashamed day. For those of you
that have never seen that we baptized those that have made decisions to follow Christ
but we also give others an opportunity to follow them as they follow Christ and we had
a guy stand up and follow me down to the front and then we later baptized him and I later
got his story. Here was a guy that had just gotten out of prison two weeks before and he
came to this service that particular Sunday didn't know what was going on watched it happen
then decided because he had decided to follow Jesus he needed to fully identify with Jesus
and with the body of Christ. And then this guy walked forward I don't think I've ever
seen a more heavily tattooed guy in my whole life. Man he was eager he was ready to go
you could not have kept that guy from being baptized on that particular Sunday he was
going to do it. What an incredible thing to watch his life begin to unfold as he fully
identified with Jesus. Here was his statement his statement was I've identified myself with
the crime in this world and with all sorts of evil people my whole life it's time for
me to identify with Jesus Christ once and for all and he did and he has. Man what an
incredible thing. Baptism is not a religious observance please clap please do it be committed
to it be committed to it. I don't know it's worth more than three little claps when somebody
comes to faith in Jesus right. Some of the most interesting baptism experiences I've
ever seen are in India where people could literally be killed in response to their baptisms
because the culture does not want them to be. This last week I read the account of a
guy named Josh Tease who is an evangelist and who is often in India and he wrote something
that was very familiar to me because I've seen it several times I'm going to read it
to you. He said it was a rural village and it seemed the entire village was on high alert
the local church had planned a special church service to celebrate recent conversions of
several villagers. These former Hindus had been reached by the love of local Christians
in their heart subsequently were open to the gospel of Christ. Now was the moment for their
public declaration of faith it was their moment of declaration. The new Christians were ecstatic
but the Brahmin priests were not. They stood like statues upon the steps of the local Hindu
temple as we walked by on our way to the baptistry. The baptism is at a well. They were angry
and they were not afraid to show it. The pastor spoke passionately about baptism and the importance
of this public statement and although his message was helpful this man says it was not
the most powerful sermon that day the baptism was the most powerful sermon. I watched as
the people of Jesus closed in prayer stood to their feet and marched to the well. There
they were on one side of the concrete trough with the Brahmin priest village leadership
if you will. They were flanked on the left and right with scores of large men all with
arms crossed all grimacing and angry. Surrounding these were their women and what seemed like
hundreds of children not one person was smiling in this group. On the other side in contrast
a smaller group of Christians the tension was high and the moment was real. I was told
later that the men and women who chose baptism would undergo public ridicule, loss of business,
family betrayal, no longer be able to shop at the local market, sell their crops or attend
family functions. To publicly identify with Jesus Christ was tantamount to the rejection
of your entire former life. So they step into the water. The pastor asks for final confirmation
of their faith in Jesus and they verbally acknowledge the faith in Jesus and at this
point one particular man was dunked into the water completely emerged symbolizing the death
and burial and resurrection of Christ. When he came out of the water he didn't just come
out of the water he leapt out of the water. His hands were raised on the air there was
a smile broad on his face and words of praise pouring from his lips. He was so much more
aware of the eyes of God than he was the eyes of all the others in that audience. And the
last thing the pastor did before the new Christian exited the waters was to wipe off the red
bendy religious mark that was on his forehead and in its place put the mark of the cross
and that man walked out of the baptistry with a cross on his forehead and a new direction
in life because of his faith in Jesus Christ. What a story. We can't fathom that kind of
response. We're used to the applause, the smiles, people pat us on the back, good job,
good decision. But my point today is to say identifying with Christ cost us if not in
the room then outside the room. And so it's a very serious thing that we do when we say
we step up to be baptized because we put our faith in Jesus Christ. But one of the greatest
pictures of baptism in the New Testament is in Acts chapter 8 and it shows us that baptism
signifies faith. It's the story of the Ethiopian eunuch being witnessed to by a man named Philip
and it's in Acts chapter 8 verse 35. And what I want you to see in this account, this very
brief account is how the practice of baptism had become very clear and widely known. Everybody
knew John the Baptist was doing a baptism under repentance and everybody knew the identification
of the father for Jesus and the identification that Jesus had with the father in his baptism.
But what became very clear as time went on was the whole idea of baptism signifying faith.
That is we are baptized because we have faith in Jesus Christ and because that faith saves
us we want to tell everyone, declare to everyone in the world we are now followers of Jesus
Christ and as we said my name is John Middard, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and I am
finished with me. I am not ashamed. That's what we say. And I want you to see in Acts
chapter 8 this was a well developed and clearly understood idea 2000 years ago. So Acts chapter
8 the Ethiopian eunuch is in his chariot in the desert reading a scroll of the book of
Isaiah. God the Holy Spirit leads Philip into the wilderness. In fact his command is to
go south on the road to Gaza and if you knew the area you would know it simply means walk
into the desert Philip. So Philip does that and encounters this chariot. He sees the Ethiopian
eunuch reading the scroll and comes up to him and says do you understand what you are
reading? And the man from Ethiopia says how can I know this unless somebody explains it
to me? And beginning in verse 35 we pick up the story then Philip opened his mouth and
beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus. Now I've got that highlighted on my
text and the reason I have is because I want you to notice that when he begins to preach
he doesn't preach about baptism. He doesn't preach about religion. He doesn't preach
about a whole host of other things he could preach about. He doesn't preach about end
times or anything like that. He preaches about Jesus from the book of Isaiah. He preached
Jesus to him. And as they went along the road they came to some water and the eunuch said
look water what prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said if you believe with all your
heart you may. And I've highlighted that one because that's the message that Philip had
for this man and the message of the church is that baptism doesn't mean anything apart
from believing with all of your heart. And so he gives that answer and he answered him
and said I believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. And so he ordered the chariots
to stop and they both went down into the water. Philip as well as the eunuch and he baptized
him. Let's go back to our little river here. This is the river right? Well now it's a pond
out in the desert. And the point is not how pure is the water, how clean is the water
but the point is it's all about personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. You've got
to identify with faith in Christ and that's what Philip is getting ready to do with this
Ethiopian eunuch and baptize him in that water in the middle of the desert because this man
put his faith and trust in Jesus. Now you read that text it's pretty obvious Philip
didn't preach baptism he preached Jesus. It's obvious the eunuch knew that baptism
meant repentance and faith and he was ready to put his faith and trust in Jesus. So Philip
lay down the requirement if you believe with all your heart and they both went down into
the water this big body of water and the reason he had to go down into the water is because
baptism is immersion and it symbolizes buried with Christ in baptism raised to walk and
need to survive. So all that is being enacted in a well understood clear way of responding
to your faith in Christ with a step of obedience and baptism. And you know the New Testament
church has been doing that ever since that day. So when you see troughs on the stage
or when we begin to have a baptist service it's not religious it's about life change
it's about identifying with Jesus it's about signifying your faith in Jesus Christ. As
when we do that the heavens may not seem to open up and you may not hear a voice saying
this is my beloved son whom I'm well pleased but you can know that you're doing an act
of obedience following faith in Jesus Christ that we have practiced for two thousand years.
Here's what I know. I know God blesses the obedience that we follow him with and he'll
bless in a great way when we respond in that way. Let me finish with this one verse. Let's
go back to Acts chapter 8 verse 36. Here's a man in this area who says after this faith
conversation about Jesus out of the book of Isaiah look water what prevents me from being
baptized. Let me just say this today nothing prevents you from being baptized if you have
faith in Jesus Christ. Only you prevent you from being baptized if you have faith in Jesus
Christ. My question to you is twofold today as I close this message. Number one do you
have faith in Jesus Christ? Have you put your trust and your confidence in him? And number
two since that decision of putting faith and trust in Jesus Christ has been made have you
since that time trusted him with believers baptism that is following him in believers
baptism the same way Jesus did it as an act of obedience the same way the Ethiopian eunuch
did it after he said I believe with all my heart have you had that experience and if
not would you be willing to follow the Lord Jesus in believers baptism. You know at the
end of our service as always we have decision stations that are at the back and there are
people there that are ready to answer the question about salvation they're ready to
answer the question about baptism and if you have that question let us help you with that
answer. I'm going to pray in just a moment to dismiss us. I'm going to invite you to
the guest reception center which is just outside the center exit doors and across the hallway
if you're new here I would love to shake your hand and say thank you for being with us today.
Would you stand with me today? Father what an important thing we've talked about today.
So many in the room indicated that this moment this defining moment of their life of baptism
was real to them. They remember that moment. It was significant to them. Father there may
be some in this room today that have never experienced that do not have that but Lord
I pray that you would speak to their hearts bring conviction draw them cause them to want
to follow you in believers baptism. Cause them to want to do what for two thousand years
true believers have done. Father I pray that you will bring them the joy and the affirmation
I pray that you will bring them the confidence and the boldness that comes from making such
a decision. Father I pray that you would bless their lives as a result of that. Father today
I know there are many people in the room from very from many many backgrounds and Lord I
know that many have heard the message recently and some may have not have heard about the
message of faith in Jesus Christ until today. But Lord I pray that you would give them the
courage and the boldness to make the decisions today to follow you. Thank you Father for
all you have done for us. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.