WEBVTT 00:00:02.570 --> 00:00:06.509 Howdy You know there are certain words in the 00:00:06.509 --> 00:00:10.330 church that carry weight before we even expand 00:00:10.330 --> 00:00:14.689 upon them Baptism is one of those words and a 00:00:14.689 --> 00:00:19.050 few times every year We got to talk about it 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:21.730 For some people it immediately brings up questions 00:00:21.730 --> 00:00:24.940 and for others it brings up disagreements And 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:27.719 for others it brings up memories of pressure 00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:30.320 or feeling like they had to defend something 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:33.820 that mattered to them. So before we go any further, 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:37.700 I want to be clear about today's posture. This 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:41.740 is not a sermon designed to rush you in your 00:00:41.740 --> 00:00:44.719 path or in your journey with Christ, not to corner 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:48.240 you, not to force your decisions. It's not a 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:51.380 sermon to reopen old debates and draw battle 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:55.689 lines and it's meant Rather to slow us down to 00:00:55.689 --> 00:00:58.869 take a breath and Remember where baptism comes 00:00:58.869 --> 00:01:02.109 from and why the church spoke about it the way 00:01:02.109 --> 00:01:05.829 it did for so very long If you feel a little 00:01:05.829 --> 00:01:09.909 uneasy already That doesn't mean something is 00:01:09.909 --> 00:01:13.269 wrong though Sometimes it simply means that we're 00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:17.390 approaching something that really matters See 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:20.310 years ago when I would teach sixth grade math 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.349 there were moments that I could see the trouble 00:01:23.349 --> 00:01:27.030 coming Before the lesson even started and I made 00:01:27.030 --> 00:01:30.450 sure I put the box of tissues over on the counter 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:33.890 Algebra was one of those moments and when I say 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:36.650 algebra I don't mean that in eighth or ninth 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:39.349 grade you might have taken algebra I mean that 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:43.450 in sixth grade curriculum is the beginning of 00:01:43.450 --> 00:01:47.909 algebra see the numbers Numbers were fine, okay? 00:01:47.989 --> 00:01:49.870 The numbers that students were comfortable with 00:01:49.870 --> 00:01:51.890 were fine, but all of a sudden, there were a 00:01:51.890 --> 00:01:54.209 bunch of letters mixed in there. It's like, did 00:01:54.209 --> 00:01:57.670 they just have a typo? And everything felt unstable. 00:01:57.930 --> 00:02:01.230 And before we ever wrote an equation on the board, 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:04.450 I always knew there was this one, one young girl, 00:02:05.549 --> 00:02:09.550 ooh, the tears were going to be flowing for sure. 00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:13.460 It was rough. So, oh, was that with you? Oh, 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:15.300 that must have been you in my class. Wow, you're 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:18.879 so young. There you go. I love it. But before 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:21.199 we ever did so, I would sit down in front of 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.979 them, and I would say, you're not going to like 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:28.060 this. I'm warning you now. You're going to feel 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:30.879 frustrated. You're probably going to get annoyed 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:32.979 with me. And they'd be like, we're always annoyed 00:02:32.979 --> 00:02:36.319 at you. And yes, that's wonderful. But that's 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:40.060 okay. If we want to get where we're going though, 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:43.009 We have to walk through this together. And it 00:02:43.009 --> 00:02:47.710 was hard. But they at least knew that I was being 00:02:47.710 --> 00:02:50.889 honest. I wasn't asking them to pretend that 00:02:50.889 --> 00:02:53.509 it was easy. I was asking them to trust that 00:02:53.509 --> 00:02:56.430 the discomfort was part of the learning, not 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:59.789 a sign of failure. And that's what today is like. 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:02.889 Some of what we're talking about may stretch 00:03:02.889 --> 00:03:05.110 the way that we've thought about baptism a little 00:03:05.110 --> 00:03:08.030 bit. It may challenge your assumptions and it 00:03:08.030 --> 00:03:11.270 may raise questions. And that doesn't mean that 00:03:11.270 --> 00:03:14.430 we're doing anything wrong or that anything up 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:17.389 to this point has been wrong, but rather it means 00:03:17.389 --> 00:03:20.370 that we're being honest enough to learn together. 00:03:21.050 --> 00:03:24.870 So let me say very clearly what today is not. 00:03:26.050 --> 00:03:28.689 I am not up here trying to convince anyone to 00:03:28.689 --> 00:03:31.069 change their mind about when a baptism should 00:03:31.069 --> 00:03:34.900 occur. infant, adult, faith, whatever it may 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:38.360 be. This is not about trying to rank one person's 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:40.860 practice above or below another. It's not about 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:44.639 questioning whether your baptism counted. We're 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.060 not asking anyone to undo what God has done in 00:03:47.060 --> 00:03:49.560 their life. But rather, what we're going to do 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:53.099 is explain why baptism began where it did, what 00:03:53.099 --> 00:03:55.360 it meant in its original context, how Scripture 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:58.340 speaks about it, and why the church treated it 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:01.960 so solidly. rather than as something subjective 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:05.840 or only symbolic. If we understand what baptism 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:08.280 is, the debates, they kind of lose some of their 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:11.000 steam because the gift of what it is becomes 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.099 clearer and easier to accept. But it asks the 00:04:15.099 --> 00:04:20.660 question, what really is a sacrament? At its 00:04:20.660 --> 00:04:23.879 heart, a sacrament is simple. It's God attaching 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:28.720 his promise to something ordinary. Water. Bread. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:35.199 wine, words spoken out loud. A sacrament is not 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:38.360 magic. It is not a spell. It is not a totem. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:41.839 The early church never taught that the object 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:46.360 itself has power on its own. But a sacrament 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:50.060 is also not just symbolism of its own, where 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:53.439 the meaning depends entirely on how much we understand 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:59.170 or how much we feel at the moment. A helpful 00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:02.310 way might be to try to use an example. Now, you 00:05:02.310 --> 00:05:05.829 see me up here, and I've got this gold chunk 00:05:05.829 --> 00:05:09.490 on my right hand. Want to guess what this is? 00:05:10.670 --> 00:05:14.029 Absolutely. It's my Aggie ring. Now, the thing 00:05:14.029 --> 00:05:17.689 is, is that I wear this thing, and it's just 00:05:17.689 --> 00:05:19.470 kind of a chunk of gold, and you're kind of like, 00:05:19.490 --> 00:05:22.529 man, it's getting a little bit gaudy over there 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:24.790 with a giant piece of gold on your hand, pastor. 00:05:25.089 --> 00:05:28.810 Well, maybe so. But the thing is, is that this 00:05:28.810 --> 00:05:33.290 ring is an emblem of something bigger. Not only 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:37.449 time -connected being at a college, but also 00:05:37.449 --> 00:05:42.029 being a part of the values, the emphases, what 00:05:42.029 --> 00:05:44.810 it was that we cared about, what it was we respected. 00:05:45.550 --> 00:05:48.149 And so when I wear this, it's not just, well, 00:05:48.209 --> 00:05:51.930 does it go well with my outfit? I mean, it goes 00:05:51.930 --> 00:05:56.319 close enough. But it's about who I am in a way 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:59.180 that I can feel and that I can touch and I can 00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:03.019 hold But how many of you do the same thing with 00:06:03.019 --> 00:06:07.259 your wedding ring? How often is it that the ring 00:06:07.259 --> 00:06:10.879 it's not the marriage itself is but it's also 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.009 not just jewelry You don't wake up necessarily 00:06:14.009 --> 00:06:16.329 every day and say, you know, I don't know if 00:06:16.329 --> 00:06:19.089 this matches my outfit today. I think maybe I'm 00:06:19.089 --> 00:06:21.810 going to pick a different one today, or maybe 00:06:21.810 --> 00:06:24.310 I'm just not going to wear it. I don't know. 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:29.370 It just looks a little gaudy today. No. It has 00:06:29.370 --> 00:06:33.089 weight to it. It has a promise bound to it. I 00:06:33.089 --> 00:06:35.029 just did a wedding yesterday, and we do this 00:06:35.029 --> 00:06:38.810 whole thing that speaks about the ring being 00:06:38.810 --> 00:06:42.779 the promise. We don't stare at it and hope that 00:06:42.779 --> 00:06:45.839 it's gonna glow during the hard times But we 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.240 also don't discard it and get a new one Every 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.920 time we feel like the marriage may be strained 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:56.519 We return to what is embodied from the beginning 00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:01.459 when the question is asked of the ending See 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:05.000 sacraments work like that God binds his word 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.040 his promises to physical things because we are 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:13.660 physical people. We need physical things to have 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:17.040 to hold, to touch, to see. He gives us something 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.339 we can return to when the feelings waver and 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:23.860 when the certainty fades. What often surprises 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:27.279 people is that sacraments were actually not controversial 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:30.800 for most of Christian history. Not really. The 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.279 major debates in the early church were not about 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.139 whether baptism did something sacramentally. 00:07:36.459 --> 00:07:39.839 but about how people should live after receiving 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.139 it. The fear was not that baptism was empty, 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:48.439 but rather that baptism was so serious that maybe 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:50.839 it should be postponed until someone was truly 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:55.199 ready for the new life that came because of it. 00:07:56.339 --> 00:07:59.860 Only much later did concern about misusing it 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:04.100 to avoid the need for true faith turn into suspicion 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:07.100 about whether God was actually acting in it. 00:08:07.699 --> 00:08:10.160 And when that happened, baptism was generally 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:13.920 reduced to a symbol of faith rather than a gift 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:17.579 of God's grace. And understanding the timeline 00:08:17.579 --> 00:08:19.720 helps us realize that the discomfort that many 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:24.160 people feel today is not ancient. It's actually 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:27.360 relatively recent over the last few centuries. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:30.339 To understand it even better though we should 00:08:30.339 --> 00:08:33.299 remember that baptism did not begin as a Christian 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:39.059 invention It grew out of Jewish life It wasn't 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:41.620 that John the Baptist one day says hey I'm gonna 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:43.440 go to the Jordan River and just start pouring 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:48.000 people water on people in Judaism water was already 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.740 a language that God's people understood ritual 00:08:51.740 --> 00:08:55.940 washings they marked a transition if You were 00:08:55.940 --> 00:08:58.659 outside of the community for any reason They 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:01.679 restored people to community life when they were 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.539 on the outside looking in. They prepared people 00:09:04.539 --> 00:09:07.500 when they were about to enter a holy space, not 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:10.720 because your hands were dirty, but because we 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:14.440 need to be prepared for what is holy. And when 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:18.580 the Gentiles converted to Judaism, being washed 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:22.240 in water became part of it. It marked a change 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:25.139 of identity. It was a crossing from one way of 00:09:25.139 --> 00:09:27.759 life into another. And when families converted, 00:09:28.169 --> 00:09:32.129 The children were included. Covenant life was 00:09:32.129 --> 00:09:38.490 not individual. Belonging came before explanation. 00:09:39.529 --> 00:09:43.129 You were a part before you even understood it 00:09:43.129 --> 00:09:46.610 fully. And this background matters because it 00:09:46.610 --> 00:09:49.350 shows baptism was already understood as something 00:09:49.350 --> 00:09:53.509 that God used to place people into His promises. 00:09:54.029 --> 00:09:57.129 Not merely something people did to make a statement. 00:09:57.580 --> 00:10:01.679 But even more than this, John the Baptist is 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:05.059 so disruptive because he's not just baptizing 00:10:05.059 --> 00:10:08.940 Gentiles. That's what is so strange about him 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:12.639 is that he's baptizing Jews, the people who already 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.019 believe that they belong because they were part 00:10:15.019 --> 00:10:17.940 of the bloodline, because they were circumcised 00:10:17.940 --> 00:10:21.620 into it. John says to them in Matthew 3 .9, do 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:24.799 not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.039 as our father. In other words, ancestry, whoever 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:31.019 your parents were, that's not just some guarantee. 00:10:31.779 --> 00:10:34.379 The covenant identity is not something to be 00:10:34.379 --> 00:10:39.379 taken for granted. John takes a boundary crossing 00:10:39.379 --> 00:10:44.480 act and applies it to all of Israel itself. No 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.000 wonder many of them were offended. Baptism... 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:50.649 It was not to be reduced to just the personal 00:10:50.649 --> 00:10:53.470 testimony that served only for people who didn't 00:10:53.470 --> 00:10:56.529 get circumcised at an early age. It was a call 00:10:56.529 --> 00:11:00.250 to repentance that placed everyone under God's 00:11:00.250 --> 00:11:06.690 judgment and promise. But then Jesus steps into 00:11:06.690 --> 00:11:11.870 the water. And Jesus does not need repentance. 00:11:12.350 --> 00:11:16.110 It was no wonder John was so confused. He was 00:11:16.110 --> 00:11:19.049 trying to put people in the water who knew that 00:11:19.049 --> 00:11:21.269 they needed to repent and change, and now the 00:11:21.269 --> 00:11:23.230 one that he's supposed to point toward wants 00:11:23.230 --> 00:11:25.870 him to be back. How does this make any sense? 00:11:26.529 --> 00:11:30.409 He does not need cleansing, but he enters anyway, 00:11:31.870 --> 00:11:34.889 identifying himself with the sinners that we 00:11:34.889 --> 00:11:39.509 are and receiving the Spirit publicly. And from 00:11:39.509 --> 00:11:44.539 this moment on, Baptism is no longer about repentance 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:49.879 as John proclaimed it. It is about uniting with 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:54.100 Christ. The New Testament speaks about baptism 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:56.679 bringing salvation with striking confidence. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:00.860 Yes, New Testament speaks about baptism bringing 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:04.419 salvation. Lutherans and Catholics and all the 00:12:04.419 --> 00:12:08.379 others did not make it up. In 1 Peter 3, 21, 00:12:08.750 --> 00:12:11.370 Peter says, baptism which corresponds to this 00:12:11.370 --> 00:12:15.289 now saves you. Not as a removal of dirt from 00:12:15.289 --> 00:12:18.690 the body, but as an appeal to God for our conscience 00:12:18.690 --> 00:12:22.090 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. True, 00:12:22.190 --> 00:12:25.269 Peter immediately guards against the misunderstanding 00:12:25.269 --> 00:12:30.409 of it. But this is not magic, water. But he does 00:12:30.409 --> 00:12:34.529 not retreat from saying, to a world and a new 00:12:34.529 --> 00:12:37.049 church that needs to understand it, baptized 00:12:37.049 --> 00:12:41.830 saves because it connects us to Christ's resurrection. 00:12:43.450 --> 00:12:46.429 And Paul speaks similarly. In Romans 6, 3 -4 00:12:46.429 --> 00:12:48.769 he says, Do you not know that all of us who have 00:12:48.769 --> 00:12:51.649 been baptized into Christ were baptized into 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:55.590 His death? We were buried therefore with Him 00:12:55.590 --> 00:12:59.450 by baptism and death in order that just as Christ 00:12:59.450 --> 00:13:02.399 was raised from the dead, By the glory of the 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:06.220 Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:10.759 And in Colossians 2, 11 -12, Paul shows baptism 00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:14.860 to be the new circumcision, saying, in Christ 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:18.539 also you were circumcised with a circumcision 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:23.220 made without hands, by putting off the body of 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:27.019 the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having 00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:31.360 been buried with Him in baptism. in which you 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:35.720 were also raised with Him through faith in the 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:37.740 powerful working of God who raised them from 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.460 the dead. Circumcision was given to infants not 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:43.559 because they understood it, but because God promised 00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:48.019 to call people to be His own through it. Which 00:13:48.019 --> 00:13:50.419 is why infant baptism was ever even a thing in 00:13:50.419 --> 00:13:54.860 the first place. It wasn't an abuse. Paul does 00:13:54.860 --> 00:13:58.940 not minimize baptism. He places it firmly inside 00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:05.059 God's covenantal way of working. But couldn't 00:14:05.059 --> 00:14:09.659 someone be baptized as an infant and then reject 00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:15.899 it later? Yes. But the same was always true of 00:14:15.899 --> 00:14:19.500 circumcision too. Even as Paul wrote in Romans 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:23.179 2, what is the value of circumcision? What if 00:14:23.179 --> 00:14:26.799 some who were circumcised were unfaithful? Does 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:30.679 their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:37.669 of God by no means? God is still working. in 00:14:37.669 --> 00:14:40.029 someone's life from the beginning of their baptismal 00:14:40.029 --> 00:14:42.230 life through the Spirit and through the community, 00:14:42.470 --> 00:14:45.289 which is one of the main reasons why the church 00:14:45.289 --> 00:14:48.970 is not recommended to baptize infants when their 00:14:48.970 --> 00:14:51.690 families will not raise them to know Christ. 00:14:52.009 --> 00:14:54.809 If you think you can take a baby and add a little 00:14:54.809 --> 00:14:57.830 water and baptize them real quick and be okay, 00:14:58.570 --> 00:15:03.350 no. No. That is not how it is meant to work. 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:08.299 no matter how sneaky you think you may be. Even 00:15:08.299 --> 00:15:11.460 beyond the apostles, though, sacramentally is 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:15.019 also how they taught the early church to understand 00:15:15.019 --> 00:15:18.340 baptism. Ignatius of Antioch, connected to the 00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:20.740 apostles, spoke of baptism as participation in 00:15:20.740 --> 00:15:23.659 Christ. Justin Martyr described it as new birth. 00:15:24.100 --> 00:15:27.500 Irenaeus spoke explicitly of Christ saving infants, 00:15:27.799 --> 00:15:31.139 children, and adults alike through it. Even Tertullian, 00:15:31.259 --> 00:15:35.149 who did urge delaying baptism, and is so often 00:15:35.149 --> 00:15:38.269 used to argue for baptism being only after faith. 00:15:38.950 --> 00:15:42.850 He still saw baptism as a sacrament. He urged 00:15:42.850 --> 00:15:45.370 delaying baptism because he believed it was so 00:15:45.370 --> 00:15:49.549 powerful and binding. His concern was not that 00:15:49.549 --> 00:15:51.970 baptism had no authority, but rather the opposite. 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:55.409 He had the fear that people would treat lightly 00:15:55.409 --> 00:16:00.750 the grace received through it. Augustine later 00:16:00.750 --> 00:16:03.690 insisted that baptism's effectiveness rests on 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:07.570 God's faithfulness, not our human readiness. 00:16:08.049 --> 00:16:10.750 And it's only with Zwingli and the Anabaptists 00:16:10.750 --> 00:16:14.110 in the last few centuries that we begin to see 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:18.549 baptism described as symbolic. You go 1 ,500 00:16:18.549 --> 00:16:22.009 years with everybody being sure what it is and 00:16:22.009 --> 00:16:24.090 then change things up for a few centuries and 00:16:24.090 --> 00:16:28.600 now we have to explain ourselves. Across centuries, 00:16:28.779 --> 00:16:33.480 the message has been consistent. Baptism is God's 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:39.320 act in our lives, received over a lifetime. The 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:42.639 debate was never whether baptism worked to connect 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:45.159 us with Christ's death and resurrection in a 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:48.580 saving way. It's in Scripture. The debate was 00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:51.220 always how to live after grace had been given. 00:16:52.940 --> 00:16:58.320 And this is why I worry so much Whenever I see 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.659 young people go off in directions of churches 00:17:01.659 --> 00:17:03.980 who want to take all the things of the church 00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:07.420 and turn it into just symbols or ideas or something 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:10.500 fun to do because it's a strange new Sunday. 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:14.559 This is why the church does not rebaptize people 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:17.720 every time they fail or doubt their faith or 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:20.299 wonder if they gave their heart to Jesus enough 00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:23.650 beforehand. I told you all about the time when 00:17:23.650 --> 00:17:26.170 I was there at the camp and the boys who decided 00:17:26.170 --> 00:17:28.750 to go around with super soakers that had mayonnaise 00:17:28.750 --> 00:17:31.589 and vinegar and squirted them all over the place 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:34.049 were convinced that apparently they weren't really 00:17:34.049 --> 00:17:36.769 Christian enough and most of them had to go get 00:17:36.769 --> 00:17:43.410 rebaptized. There's so many examples where people 00:17:43.410 --> 00:17:46.829 might question, is this person really a Christian? 00:17:47.569 --> 00:17:50.259 Do they need to be? Brought back to baptism, 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:52.599 the 80 -year -old man who's full of bitterness 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:54.819 because his Christian life did not go the way 00:17:54.819 --> 00:17:57.720 he had hoped it would. The 45 -year -old man 00:17:57.720 --> 00:17:59.940 who cares more for trying to strike it rich in 00:17:59.940 --> 00:18:02.440 the stock market than listening to his wife and 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:06.759 loses his family's savings in a heartbeat. The 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:09.720 76 -year -old man who confesses to an eight -year 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:13.059 affair after writing for decades about the Christian 00:18:13.059 --> 00:18:15.980 life to encourage millions while ignoring his 00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:19.900 own failings. The 30 -year -old man whose online 00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:22.380 addiction causes emotional and physical distance 00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:25.019 from the woman he loves, the college student 00:18:25.019 --> 00:18:27.859 with the addiction to alcohol while ignoring 00:18:27.859 --> 00:18:30.779 all of the warnings he'd had throughout his life, 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.519 the high school student who is Christian on Sundays 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:38.700 but bullies his classmates for years, never realizing 00:18:38.700 --> 00:18:41.440 the ones who didn't recover from their abuse. 00:18:42.089 --> 00:18:45.650 the child who one day connects the dots and realizes 00:18:45.650 --> 00:18:48.390 that disobeying his parents is actually the same 00:18:48.390 --> 00:18:52.849 as sin. What has gone wrong here is not baptism. 00:18:53.869 --> 00:18:56.710 What has gone wrong is sanctification, formation, 00:18:57.190 --> 00:19:00.470 repentance, humility. Re -baptizing a person 00:19:00.470 --> 00:19:03.450 would imply that the grace failed to arrive the 00:19:03.450 --> 00:19:07.529 first time, instead of naming that grace had 00:19:07.529 --> 00:19:11.339 been resisted, forgotten, and ignored. The problem 00:19:11.339 --> 00:19:13.920 is not that grace doesn't work. The problem is 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.819 that grace can be resisted even as we are called 00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:20.619 in community to encourage each other to cling 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:26.019 more tightly to Christ each and every day. Rebaptism 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:33.160 is just an excuse, a shortcut, an attempted reset 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:36.420 button that avoids what we really need to do. 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:41.299 The harder work of repair, confession, restitution 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:46.259 and reconciliation. The church has always been 00:19:46.259 --> 00:19:51.019 suspect of things that are meant to be shortcuts. 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:59.059 Whatever piece a person may be facing, baptism 00:19:59.059 --> 00:20:03.059 is not something that we somehow control and 00:20:03.059 --> 00:20:07.920 use to make ourselves better. Baptism is where 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:11.099 God meets us again and again as we dip our fingers 00:20:11.099 --> 00:20:14.380 in the waters to remember what called us out 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:18.119 of the darkness in the first place. This is why 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:22.180 the church has trusted it so long. We see everything 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:26.859 today asks the question, what kind of God would 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:30.799 choose to work this way? What kind of God would 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:35.569 bind His promise to water? Act before we understand. 00:20:35.730 --> 00:20:38.650 Remain faithful even when we struggle to live 00:20:38.650 --> 00:20:43.250 up to what we've received. And then Isaiah says, 00:20:44.109 --> 00:20:48.650 Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in 00:20:48.650 --> 00:20:53.390 whom my soul delights. He will not cry aloud 00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:57.789 or lift up his voice or make it heard in the 00:20:57.789 --> 00:21:01.650 street. a bruised reed He will not break, and 00:21:01.650 --> 00:21:05.589 a fatally burning wick He will not quench. This 00:21:05.589 --> 00:21:08.950 is not a God who waits for us to be strong before 00:21:08.950 --> 00:21:12.029 He is willing to act in our lives. This is not 00:21:12.029 --> 00:21:14.710 a God who demands clarity in our hearts and minds 00:21:14.710 --> 00:21:18.130 before giving grace. This is not a God who crushes 00:21:18.130 --> 00:21:22.369 people for not having it all figured out. This 00:21:22.369 --> 00:21:26.950 is a God who acts gently, persistently, faithfully. 00:21:27.150 --> 00:21:31.589 who brings us to that place of faith. This is 00:21:31.589 --> 00:21:35.509 not a passive God. He will faithfully bring forth 00:21:35.509 --> 00:21:39.069 justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged 00:21:39.069 --> 00:21:41.450 till He has established justice in the earth. 00:21:41.710 --> 00:21:45.869 God does not affirm us in confusion. He leads 00:21:45.869 --> 00:21:49.269 us out of it. He does not leave us where we are 00:21:49.269 --> 00:21:52.970 and hope that we're ready and willing to repent 00:21:52.970 --> 00:21:57.190 and be done. He claims us and then reshapes us. 00:21:57.930 --> 00:22:01.369 This is baptism. God does not wait for us to 00:22:01.369 --> 00:22:05.430 become strong reeds. He binds Himself to us when 00:22:05.430 --> 00:22:08.210 we are bruised. He does not wait for our flame 00:22:08.210 --> 00:22:11.730 to burn steadily. He protects us while we flicker. 00:22:11.930 --> 00:22:15.150 And He does not abandon His work even when we 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:20.509 resist, doubt, or fail. Baptism is not God standing 00:22:20.509 --> 00:22:23.990 at a distance, hoping we get it right. It is 00:22:23.990 --> 00:22:28.089 God coming to us, taking us by the hand, and 00:22:28.089 --> 00:22:32.170 saying, you are mine, and I am not done with 00:22:32.170 --> 00:22:38.029 you yet. People, God is not done with you yet. 00:22:39.509 --> 00:22:42.630 That is why baptism challenges us without destroying 00:22:42.630 --> 00:22:46.470 us. And that is why we confront sin without erasing 00:22:46.470 --> 00:22:51.019 the hope. Because even as the servant who steps 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:53.480 into the Jordan receives a spirit and then walks 00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:55.920 patiently with people who are still learning, 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:04.140 we may be unsettled, but God is still at work. 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:10.900 So today, even if you're a bruised reed, with 00:23:10.900 --> 00:23:15.119 God you will not break. And even if your wick 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.539 is burning dimly, with Christ you will not be 00:23:18.539 --> 00:23:22.440 quenched. So the promise spoken over you in water 00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:26.480 is the promise that he will not let you go because 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:32.160 you are God's beloved child with whom he is well 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:35.079 pleased. Thanks be to God.