GRACE LEAFLETS No. 6

Why should I be baptized ?

This booklet is really intended to help people who have recently become Christians or who have been Christians for some time but feel they have somehow missed out on some important steps.

BEGINNING IT ALL

It's really a story about God and you.... but really more about God. Even before time started, He knew about you and loved you and chose you as one of His family (1). Why did you need to know this? Well, it should make you feel very sure of two things -if God has loved you that long, He'll not give up now, and moreover you can be sure, that with long-term planning like that, He will without a doubt have a real purpose for your life.

SO HOW DO I COME INTO THE PICTURE?

When you became a Christian some important things happened to you. First, though, let's look at two things that it was really was not about!

• It was not just a matter of changing your opinion about things. It wasn't like voting for a different political party, taking the Times instead of the Sun, or even supporting West Ham instead of Spurs!
• Neither was it just a matter of changing your lifestyle. It wasn't a matter of stopping swearing, smoking or kicking the dog! Nor was it a matter of stating to go to Church, praying or reading the Bible. It wasn't 'getting religion' -like catching measles!

Actually what did happen was that God, who had loved you for so long, did something in you. You may even have been dead set against getting too involved with God, but because He loved you He spoke to you and brought you to Jesus. What's more He gave you a new life -His life! God did it all. It was not because you deserved it, but because He loved you. We call that "grace".

HOWEVER DID THAT HAPPEN?

Read carefully this passage from the Bible:
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied; "Repent and be baptised; everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off -for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.“ Those who accepted his message were baptised and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Acts chapter 2 verses 37- 41

The people in this story first heard the message. Somehow that happened to you. Maybe you heard someone talking about Jesus, or read a book, or a friend spoke to you or you even came across something in the Bible that became important to you. You knew that what you had heard made sense; in fact, you knew God was speaking to you, even if you didn't want to admit it!

WE NEED TO NOTICE CAREFULLY WHAT THEY HEARD

It was about JESUS. They heard from Peter how the friends of Jesus had discovered:

•  that He was none other than the Son of God by the miracles that He did         •  that they had seen Him crucified unjustly (3) as Jews and Romans worked together against Him.         •  that He had been raised from the dead (4) and had made a personal appearance to them. This was obviously something so exciting to them that they could not stop talking about it!

They knew without a doubt now that Jesus was both alive and Lord of everything (5).
This is where we really start becoming part of God's picture. Becoming a Christian starts for us in knowing who Jesus is. When we find out that Jesus is Lord over everything, then it makes sense to let Him be Lord of our own lives.

DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT
The trouble with facing up to making Jesus Lord of our lives is that it always involves recognising that we had got it wrong before; our lives were not at all like God wanted them to be. We become aware of our failure to forgive other people, our self-centredness, and all sorts of things we now know have to change. Even more importantly, we come to realise the pointlessness of having no God to live for.

The people in our story called out, "What shall we do?" They were told to:

REPENT
This sounds a very religious word. It can remind us of one of those characters with their placards, "Repent; the end of the world is near". One enthusiastic farmer once put up such a poster in a field of his, right on a particularly dangerous bend on a busy main road!
BUT WHAT DOES REPENT MEAN?

Repent is a very important word which basically means, "change your mind". Of course, when we really change our minds we change our actions and whole outlook too.

Suppose you joined the Ml in the Midlands to drive to London, and, horror of horrors, the next road sign you passed told you it was now seventy-five miles to Leeds. You would know you were heading in the wrong direction and needed to do something about it. You would actually need to 'repent'. Pulling onto the hard shoulder and bursting into tears would not help much! Neither would blaming the Department of Transport for poor road signs! The only thing to do would be to turn round at the next exit and go back in the opposite and right direction. That is what we do when we repent.

Repentance is a change in the way we think and look at things. It affects every part of us, not just our outward behaviour. It sounds difficult, but when we are willing to be changed, God brings the changes about. There is a Bible story about someone who repented.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a "sinner"." But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord "Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything I will pay back four times the amount". Jesus said to him "Today salvation has come to this house, because of this man, too, is the son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Luke 19: 1 -10


Are there any ways in which you are like the man in this story?

IT'S ALL VERY WELL LIVING LIFE DIFFERENTLY. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WRONG THINGS I'VE ALREADY DONE?

We have already mentioned that the people in our original Bible story heard about the death of Jesus. When he died He made it possible for all our wrongdoing (the Bible calls them sin and this is the word we will use from now on) to be forgiven.

God tells us very clearly that we are really at war with Him. He calls us "rebels" and "enemies" (6). Right from the beginning human beings acted as if they knew better than God. But God made us, and therefore knows what is best for us, and so He gave us standards to live by. He has told us how to treat other people, our families even our own bodies. More important still He created us to love, worship and serve Him. We decided we didn't need God and that we knew best and so evil sorrow and sickness became part of our lives.

Moreover, we became separated from God with no way of finding Him by ourselves. Jesus took the blame and guilt of our sin so as to free us from the punishment we deserved (7). In so doing He also brought us back into the intended relationship with God (8). That's why when we make Jesus Lord and come to God in repentance He forgives us (9) and takes us into His family. Of course, we then begin to find the evidence of the change that God has made in our lives. We actually begin to want to live a life that will please Him.

LET'S HAVE A QUICK CHECKUP NOW!

These questions are not to catch you out, but to help you think about what God has already done for you.

Why not write the answers down somewhere? What difference does it make to you to know that God loved you and chose you before He made the world? What was it that made you a Christian and a child of God?

How did you first realise that God was speaking to you?

What did you do about it?

Why in it so important that we recognise Jesus as Lord of our lives?

If Jesus is your Lord, He will go on making changes in your life. Are there any changes He wants to make now?

How do we know our sins can be forgiven? What did Jesus do to make it possible?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Read carefully this passage from the Bible.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptised, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and all who are far off -for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them,' and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptised and about three thousand and were added to their number that day. Acts chapter 2 verses 37 –41.

You will see that those people who heard Peter's message, and who recognised Jesus as Lord and repented, then went on to take one further step,

THEY WERE BAPTISED IN WATER

To many people ducking new Christians in water seems an odd thing to do.

The first thing we need to recognise about it is that, just as when we became
Christians, the important thing was that GOD DID SOMETHING IN US.

It follows that when we are baptised in water the important thing is

• not what the person being baptised is doing
• nor the baptisers are doing
• nor what the people watching are doing
• but it is what God is doing.

Moreover, if it seems a strange thing to do we need to remember it is not about pleasing us but obeying GOD.

"BAPTISE" IS NOT REALLY A RELIGIOUS WORD.

It's a Greek word dressed up in English letters. The Greek word meant:

• To dip something in water so as to wash it (like doing the washing-up).
• To dip as piece of cloth in dye so as to change its colour.
• To scuttle a ship!

Obviously it has to do with being completely under water. Baptism in the New Testament always involved getting completely soaked!

JESUS WAS BAPTISED

Let's read the story of what happened when Jesus was baptised. It's in Matthew Chapter 3 verses 13-17.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. But John tried to deter him saying, "I need to be baptised by you and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptised he went up out of the water. At that moment Heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew Chapter 3 verses 13- 17.

Not even John wanted to baptise Jesus. As far as John was concerned baptism was about repentance (11), and since Jesus was perfect He had no need to repent- He had always lived by God's standards. If you think about it you will see that for Jesus baptism meant two things.

• He left the past behind. From now on He no longer worked as the carpenter in Nazareth. He was now going to serve God.
• The Holy Spirit came on Jesus to give Him the power for His new life.

In Baptism we are:

• Cut off from our past and given a new future.
• Given new life and power to live for God.

WHO DOES IT? GOD!

God deals with our past, but also takes care of our future. Water in the Bible is often a picture of judgement, as in the story of Jonah and the great fish. In baptism we are saying that Jesus has dealt with our sin and so guilt, condemnation and judgement, neither now nor in the future, have any claim on us.

ANOTHER BIBLE PICTURE OF BAPTISM

We read this in 1 Corinthians 10 verses 1 & 2:

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

You may like to read the full account of this in Exodus chapter 14. It's one of the most exciting stories in the Bible!

Who got the Israelites across the Red Sea? GOD!

Who works in us when we are baptised? GOD!

Just as getting the Israelites across the Red Sea was part of God's plan in getting them out of Egypt, so baptism is part of God's plan in getting us started in living for Him.

But what has this got to do with Baptism?

The Israelites coming through the Red Sea was like a baptism in these ways:

• It really joined them to Moses.
• It rid them of the Egyptians.
• It led them in to a new life of freedom.

Baptism makes sure that:

We are really joined to Jesus, because we share in his death and resurrection. We are set free from the power of all the sinful habits that once controlled us. We are brought into a new life. For Christians this is because Jesus rose from the dead and in baptism God gives us new life.

THE HAPPIEST FUNERAL EVER

That's what baptism is! In Romans Chapter 6, verses 1-4 we read:

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised 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.

Our old nature was sinful and dragged us down. But when Jesus died for us it counted as the death of our old self, God makes this work for us when we are baptised in water, That's why we it's like a funeral, God does something in us so that we can leave the past, our hurt memories, our sin, our failure and our bad habits behind in the water. God washes us clean from them and sets us free. We just leave them behind in the water!

Here is a true illustration of that. One lady was a chain smoker. Even after she became a Christian, she could not be free of the craving for her cigarettes and continued her habit. One day she was baptised in water and afterwards discovered that she didn't need or even want another cigarette!

Who made the difference again? GOD AGAIN!
Some defeated Christians are like they are because they were never baptised in water. Others are like it because they were baptised but didn't have faith that God would do anything. For them it was only a ceremony or testimony to others. Unfortunately, they only got wet!

HAVE YOU EVER BEEEN TO A “RESURRECTION”?

Many people have been to a funeral, not so many to a resurrection. You will see why experiencing resurrection is important if you read Romans 6 verses 1-4 again. If you look it up in a Bible and read on a bit, you'll find out even more.

Baptism isn't just God's way of writing off our past and setting us free from it; it's also His way of giving us the resurrection life of Jesus. It really is a new beginning. It's where we start living for God. It is the beginning of a life long commitment to live God's way.

DON'T FORGET - GOD DOES IT - HE LINKS US TO THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF JESUS WHEN WE ARE BAPTISED.

DO YOU NEED TO BE BAPTISED?

Well, put it like this: do you need your past to lose its power over you? Do you have bad habits you'd like to drown? Do you have sins you'd like to get victory over? Are you fed up being frustrated by your own weakness? Would you like a life like the life of Jesus?

GOD DOES ALL THESE THINGS WHEN YOU ARE BAPTISED IN FAITH.

Some people have been through a ceremony of baptism but it hasn’t changed them. This is because they were not in faith for God to do anything; maybe because they didn't know what God wanted to do, or maybe because they were too young and couldn't really trust God for themselves.

GOD WANTS TO DO THINGS IN YOU AND HE COULD HAVE CHOSEN ANY NUMBER OF WAYS TO DO THEM BUT HE HAS CHOSEN TO DO THEM THROUGH WATER BAPTISM.
Look again at Acts, Chapter 2 verse 38. It's for "everyone of you".

YOU'VE REPENTED NOW BE BAPTISED!

LET'S HAVE A CHECKUP WITH A FEW MORE QUESTIONS! Have you repented and made Jesus Lord? If so, have you been baptised in water? When you are baptised, what can you expect God to do about your past?

Can you list some things you would definitely like to see let behind in the water and drowned?
When you are baptised in water, what changes can you expect to see God make in your life?

A FEW GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT BEING BAPTISED IN WATER.

When should I be baptised in water? If you become a Christian, it's the next thing to do. Ask to be baptised as soon as possible. What if was "baptised" earlier in life before I knew Jesus for myself?

We have seen that baptism in the New Testament is only for those who have repented and have responded to God for themselves. If you were not like that when you were "baptised", it was not really what the Bible means by Christian baptism. You should ask to be baptised.
Supposing I've been baptised already with another sort of belief?

We find some people have been baptised as Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or into some other sect. You should quite definitely be baptised. Such sects often deny Jesus is truly God and they do not believe that He is our one and only way of salvation. Therefore you need to be baptised because Jesus said we are baptised "in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit" (12). By baptism we are linked into all the persons of the true God. Some sects deny that the Trinity even exists, and so their baptisms joins you to something else, and God does not work in this kind of baptism.

What if I can't be baptized yet?

Sometimes, say, their parents forbid young people to be baptised, and the Bible is quite clear; if you are in that position you should honour and obey your parents (13). If you want to be baptised, God won't leave you at a disadvantage for obeying Him by obeying your parents. God chose to deal with your past and bring you into a new life in baptism, but it is part of the work of God in your life, and He is not bound by His usual way of doing things. You can enjoy the blessings of baptism -and one day you will be able to be baptised. For now the important thing is to know that God has saved and forgiven you through Jesus. Jesus is your Lord, and you may know the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life -it's all part of one package!
SO NOW I AM BAPTISED, IS THAT ALL?

OF COURSE NOT! But it's a start. God goes on working in us in all sorts of ways until we see Jesus face to face. Then and only then we will be like Him (14).

In our story of Peter preaching in Acts 2, the next thing mentioned was the "gift of the Holy Spirit". That's another promise for you. We can't tackle everything in a booklet like this. Why not ask a leader in your church or one of your Christian friends about being "baptised in the Holy Spirit".

We need all the equipment God gives if we are to be able to be "witnesses for Jesus". Let's get all we can. Baptism in Acts 2 is also linked with joining the Church. God adds us to the Church, and this means commitment to a local Church where we enjoy relationship with fellow Christians and are cared for, and learn to serve God under God - given leadership. Don't miss out on Church!

BIBLE REFERENCES.

(1) Ephesians 1 v 4 (2) Acts 2 v 22 (3) Acts 2 v23 (4) Acts 2 v24 (5) Acts 2 v 36. See also Philippians 2 v 9-11 (6) Romans 5 v10 (7) Romans 3 v 25

(8) 2 Corinthians 5 v18- 21 (9) 1 John 1 v9; Acts 2 v38 (10)John 1 v12 (11)Luke 3 v7 -8; Acts 2 v38 (12)Matthew 28 v19 (13) Exodus 20 v 12; Ephesians 6 v 1 (14) 1 John 3v 2

© Grace Church Goodmayes 2003

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