Connecting with God’s Story… through Baptism
By Remy Diederich
Copyright 2005…all rights reserved
On Sunday, June 26th, we’re going to be holding our fourth baptism at Wakanda Pool. So far, we’ve baptized about 70 people here at Cedarbrook. I love baptisms. They are one of highlights of the year for me. They are just a great celebration of faith and dedication and new beginnings.
For those of you that might not know what a baptism is…it’s when someone symbolizes their total commitment to following Jesus by being immersed in water. And here at Cedarbrook - we wait until people are old enough to make a conscious choice to follow Jesus before we baptize them. In other words, we don’t perform infant baptisms.
But I wonder what comes to your mind when I say the word “baptism”? I’d imagine that there are a number of us here who don’t understand it.It just seems like an odd andeven irrelevant ritual that churches practice. And because of its confusing nature many people see baptism as purely optional to their faith or they dismiss it all together as meaningless.
But if it’s confusing to believers just imagine how confusing it must be to people outside of the church. I came across a clip on baptism from an HBO TV show called, Curb Your Enthusiasm.
It stars Larry David. He co-wrote the Seinfeld shows. Before I show it, you need a little background.
David is Jewish and in this clip he and his wife have been invited to a Christian wedding. But before the wedding there’s a baptism. You see, the bride consented to marry her fiancé onlyif
he’d convert from Judaism to Christianity. Now, David has never been to a baptism so he has no idea what to expect when he gets there. Let’s watch…
The Baptism, 21:35 – 23:06. Larry finds the riverbank where the baptism is being held. He’s horrified to see a man trying to “drown” his Jewish friend. He screams for it to stop. The pastor lets go of the man, who drifts away and starts to drown. Meanwhile, the crowd of twenty people all jump in the water trying to save him. It’s a huge fiasco. Larry realizes his mistake and is greatly embarrassed.
When you look at baptism from an outsider’s perspective, it does look pretty crazy. Even scary. But baptism is rich in meaning. And so I don’t want any one to give up on it. Let’s see if we can restore the meaning that God intended for it.
As I studied this week I realized that God gave us baptism to help us connect with his story. God’s story, as we read it in the Bible, is a story of new life. From the first lines of Genesis to the last lines in Revelation, God brings new life and hope– over and over - out ofchaos and destruction.And when new life is birthed in the Bible, it’s almost always associated with water.
So this morning, I want to show us how baptism connects us with God’s story. There is something very primal, something very foundational that God is saying to us in baptism. But we often miss the point because we don’t understand the big picture.So let’s look at six ways that baptism connects us to God’s story.
1.Baptism connects you with Creation.
There is no more powerful story in the Bible than the account of creation.God creates the world by simply speaking it into existence. The first four sentences in the Bible say…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.Genesis 1:1-4
Now, you may not see what this has to do with baptism at first, but there are three elements present at creation that are also present at baptism:Water. The Spirit. And a separation between light and darkness. The presence of these three elements in baptism is designed by God to trigger [1]our memory of the creation story and connect us to it.God uses baptism to remind every new believer what he did in creation.And then He wants them to apply what they remember from that story to them personally.God is saying…
“Just like my spirit hovered over the water before I created the earth.
My spirit is now hovering over you in baptism before I make you a new creation.”
You probably haven’t heard a sermon on hope based on Genesis one, but there’s no greater hope than to learn that God can create something out of nothing! That’s what God is trying to communicate to the new convert who stands in the water of baptism. So many of us come to Jesus with regrets. We are so aware of our weaknesses and faults and failures that we are afraid that even God can’t help us. We need some kind of signto assure us that God can truly transform us. That’s why God wants to connect us to the creation story.God is saying,
“Hey, remember creation. If I created the world out of nothing in six days…
I can certainly make a new creation out of you in the next few years!”
But there is more to this story than the water and the Spirit. There is the separation between light and darkness. Just like God’s Spirit caused a separation between light and darkness, God wants us to know that there needs to be a separation betweenlight and darkness in us as well. When Peter preached his first sermon on the day of Pentecost,the crowd asked him what they should do. Peter said…
Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ …Acts 2:38
When you are baptized, you are promising God that you will turn away from your old destructive habits. My guess is that some of you here are living with your feet in two worlds. You are trying to please yourself and please God at the same time.It doesn’t work that way.You’ve got to decide who’s going to have first place in your life; yourself or God. Baptism is a declaration that you are living for God and dying to your self.
I read an article on change ( Change or Die, May issue, Fast Company) recently that dealt with five myths of change. I wrote about it in my blog ( ) if you want to learn more about the five myths.One myth is that change happens best when it happens slowly. That is, you make small incremental changes over time until you reach your goal. People try this all the time; with weight, with drinking, etc. But it doesn’t work.
Research shows that when people try to make slow, incremental change, they often end up going back to their old habits. Why? Because they aren’t very far away from where they began in the first place! It’s easy for them to say, “I really haven’t changed that much, I might as well go back to what I was doing before.” But the people who make a clean break from their past have the best chance of truly turning their lives around.
That’s what baptism is all about: making a clean break.Baptism says that you aren’t going to slowly die to your selfishness and bad habits. It says that you are going to end it right here and now. From now on, your baptism stands as a reminder that your self-centered ways are in the past – they died with Jesus and were buried.From now on you’ll ask God to empower you every day to live a new life that honors him.
So, first of all, baptism connects you to the power and the hope of the creation story.Butit connects you to more than that…
2.Baptism connects you with Old Testament believers.
Did you realize that three of the most prominent stories in the Old Testament have to do with people passing through water?The story of Noah & the Flood. The Story of Moses & the Exodus and the Story of Joshua crossing the Jordan. The New Testament writers saw these stories as a kind of baptism.Peter said this about Noah:
Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood and this is a picture of baptism… 1 Peter 3:21
And Paul said this about the exodus:
As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea. 1 Corinthians 10:2
All three stories result in new life through water. And that’s what happens with us when we are baptized. God gives us a new life after we pass through the water.
Baptism connects you with Noah, Moses and Joshua along with all of the people that were a part of these stories. That’s a great group of people to be associated with and we do that through baptism.
3.Baptism connects you with Jesus.
It’s interesting to me that Jesus wouldn’t start his ministry until he was baptized. He didn’t see it as optional. He knew that there was something about passing through the water that made it imperative for him. In fact, listen to the passion in his words… John the Baptist was saying that he didn’t feel right baptizing Jesus and Jesus said…
"It must be done, because we must do everything that is right. " So then John baptized him. Matthew 3:15
Jesus was convinced that his life’s work was incomplete without baptism.
And when Jesus gave his parting words to his disciples, he didn’t tell them what kind of music to play on Sundays, or whether they should meet in a brick building with stain glass windowsor a movie theatre with stadium seating. He told them three things; to make disciples, to baptize them and to teach them to obey everything that he taught.
…go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. Matthew 28:18-20
Because he said this, we have to assume that baptism was very important to Jesus.So, baptism connects you with Jesus and honors the importance he put on it.
4.Baptism connects you with the early church.
When Peter preached the very first sermon on the Day of Pentecost, he set the precedent for baptism in the new church. He said…
Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ..41Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church – about three thousand in all. Acts 2:38-41
Just a side note here…People didn’t wait to be baptized in the early church.They got baptized the minute that they believed that Jesus was the Messiah.And that’s consistent with the idea of a new birth.Water and birth go together.
Thinking in human terms, you can’t separate water from the birthing process without a lot of pain. That’s a non-negotiable to a mother!And that’s how Jews thought about baptism[2].It was inconceivable to them that someone would not get baptized after believing.That’s why it says in the book of Acts that Peter gave orders for new believers to be baptized.
So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:48)
He gave orders…If Peter was here today, I believehe would order new believers to be baptized. He wouldn’t say,
“If you feel like it, that’s great. But if you don’t, don’t worry about it. It’s really not that big of a deal.”
He’d say…
“Look, I am God’s spokesman. That’s what believers do. They get baptized. They pass through water because water connects them with God’s story. Every story of God passes through water. So if you want to follow Jesus, then get in the water!”
That may sound really blunt but that was how they saw baptism.It was a non-negotiable.So, baptism connects you with Peter and everyone else in the early church.
5. Baptism connects you with the apostle Paul.
Paul, like all the other New Testament believers, headed for the water as soon as he came to Christ. After Paul heard the message of Jesus Christ, the Bible says…
Instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Acts 9:18
So, baptism connects you with the apostle Paul.
6.Baptism connects you with the present church.
Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ's body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
Paul didn’t say that some of them had been baptized.Paul said that they had all been baptized – no exceptions.I think there is something very powerful about a shared experience. I was noticing that last week as we celebrated communion. Probably 80- 90 % of us took communion together. I just love that. I love how we corporately remember Jesus’ death and how he died to restore us to God. It’s not a few of us participating while the others observe. It’s everybody sharing in the same experience at the same time.
But we don’t treat baptism in the same way. Isn’t that interesting? Why is that? Many of us see it as optional. It’s totally negotiable to us.And I think that’s sad. I think we are missing out on a special blessing by being so independent.
But think about it. Imagine 50 people getting baptized at once on June 26.Wouldn’t that be something? Imagine the memory that we’d create as a church. We’d be witnesses to each other’s faith commitment.And that’s a big part of a baptism service, the witnessing of it. Sometimes people only attend a baptism if they are the one being baptized or they know the person being baptized. But we are called to witness our fellow believer’s declaration of faith. It’s like a wedding. You don’t attend a wedding for free cake and punch or to merely be a good friend. The primary reason you attend a wedding is to bear witness to their commitment. We are to stand and remind them of their commitment on days when their commitment wears thin. Witnessing a baptism is the same. Let’s watch the video of our baptism last June.
Baptism Video: The video shows about 30 people being baptized from last summer. Lots of smiles and joy!
So baptism connects you to creation, to the Old Testament believers, to Jesus, to the early church, to the apostle Paul and finally to your fellow believers here at Cedarbrook.That’s quite the line up. It connects you to every part of God’s story from creation to the present. Do you want to make that connection?
There are a number of us here today who need to make adecision to follow Jesus. You know it’s the right thing to do but you just haven’t done it yet.You’ve been putting it off – looking for the right moment.Why not let this baptism be that moment? Let it be what seals the deal between you and God and declares your faith.
Others of you made the decision to follow Christ years ago but you never got around to being baptized. You’ve had all kinds of excuses why you didn’t need to do it – one of them being that it just never seemed that important. But I hope you see how important it is now. I hope you see how baptism connects you with God’s story and God’s people. I hope you want to be a part of that.Baptism is a powerful gift – it’s a chance for you to connect with God’s story in a very dramatic way. I hope you won’t pass it up.
Prayer: Father, please help us to see the big picture of your story and give us a heart that wants to connect to it. Thank you for the wonder of baptism – that you have given us a tangible way to make this connection to your story. Now give us the courage to make this step of faith. Amen.
Note: If you would like to be baptized, please contact .
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[1] The Bible is much richer if you can think like the Jews who first wrote it. The writers intentionally used key words, or “trigger” words to help people see the big picture of God’s story. They would use a word or image from another famous story – for example, the Exodus or the Burning Bush – that would help people understand what was going on. When Paul talked about faith in Romans or Galatians, he would often refer to Abraham. That name alone immediately brought clarity to the Jews who were reading his letter. They understood Abraham, so it helped them understand Paul’s point. In regard to baptism, the image of water is packed full of meaning for Jews living in a desert region. When God instituted baptism, they immediately connected to God’s story. But the Gentile mind often misses the point and merely thinks about getting wet or cold!
[2]A common question about baptism is, “Can I be a Christian and not be baptized?” or “Can I go to heaven if I’m not baptized?” We need to see that these questions are entirely from a Gentile mindset (non-Jew). A first century Jew would never ask that question. It’s like asking someone today, “Can I be married if I don’t have a wedding ring?” Well, of course you could, but no one does that. A ring is a non-negotiable item in our culture.