Good morning to you. It's good to be back with you this Sunday. As you can see, though I was gone, I haven't left my cold behind anywhere. I've kept it right with me the whole trip. This last week in the class I was taking, I was privileged to room with a long-term missionary from Brazil. He was just on the verge of going back to Brazil, where his wife is already gone.
And it was interesting this week as he was saying goodbye to his daughter, who's in college in the Chicago area, to watch that process. It's not easy to say goodbye to family. And as he agonized over that experience of saying goodbye to her and those last words that they would share together, I was reminded of the fact that last words are important words. If you knew that you were going to die five minutes from now, what would you say to those who are closest to you?
Last words are important words. Each of the Gospels tells the story of Jesus' life and ministry from the unique perspective of the four authors. As each author concludes his record of Jesus' life, he is led by the Holy Spirit to carefully select some of the last words of Jesus to us. Last words are important words. They convey the heart of Jesus Christ to us, his followers, just before he returned to heaven. Over these next weeks, we're going to look at the conclusion of each one of the Gospels.
Today we begin with Matthew, chapter 28. If you were here last Sunday, you're familiar with the text, because Dr. Vauder preached on this text. Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18, Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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 commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. For my brief purpose this morning, I'm going to focus on just one of the issues that Jesus brought up as he spoke these last words to his disciples. That is the issue of baptism.
Now, if baptism were a peripheral and insignificant as some people think that it is, it would surely seem strange for Jesus to talk about it in these last words. In fact, baptism is clearly a significant issue, since Jesus includes it here in this text. The central imperative, of course, is to make disciples. That is the command of Jesus. But the very first step in making disciples is that of baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now, that's not my opinion.
That is the stated pronouncement of Jesus himself. That in the process of making disciples, the very first step is that of baptizing. Now, he is talking about water baptism in this text, not spiritual baptism, which we'll learn about later in the New Testament. He is, of course, talking about immersion, because that's what the word means, to dip into. He is talking about an act that his converts are to go through to signify their separation from the past life and their identification with him.
So today, I want us to talk heart to heart about baptism. This is the subject that is close to the heart of Jesus, obviously, because in his last words to us before he went to heaven, he talks about baptism. And it's an issue that we need to talk heart to heart about because there are considerable numbers in our church who have never obeyed Jesus in this respect. Baptism is on Jesus' heart. It is his command as he concludes his work on earth.
He makes it clear in this context that he requires his disciples to be baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, let's think for a moment about the purpose of what Jesus is here commanding. We know from the New Testament that baptism does not save the soul. It does not wash away sins. It does not make one more of a child of God because one has been baptized.
Baptism really has one purpose, and that purpose is a public declaration of belonging to Jesus Christ as his disciple. The very act of immersion places one below water and then brings one out of water and thus pictures death and resurrection. It symbolizes our union with Jesus in his death and his resurrection. It signifies the end of our old life and the beginning of our new life in Christ.
And being done publicly as it was, it served as an open announcement, as a witness that this one being baptized was now a Christ follower. That whatever he or she was in the past, now there is a new beginning. There is a new identity based upon a new union with Jesus Christ. And so one by baptism enters into a declaration of discipleship, of being a Christ follower. That is its purpose. It is a public announcement. But I'd like to think too about its priority.
While baptism is not a primary doctrine, it is a priority doctrine. No, it is not a fundamental of the faith, but it does deal with the fellowship of the saints in the faith. What I'm saying by that is that baptism is not counted among those doctrines that one must believe in order to be saved. However, baptism must be obeyed if one is to enjoy the fellowship of the saints that God wants for his people. It is a matter of fellowship.
Water baptism outwardly identifies a convert with Christ and with his body. There is a vertical and a horizontal dimension to baptism. The vertical dimension is that one by baptism says, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I am unashamed, unafraid for anyone to know that. And then it says, I am also one who partakes in the fellowship of the saints. I embrace the body of Jesus Christ as belonging to the church. While baptism does not bring salvation, baptism does signify genuine discipleship.
Can one be a disciple of Jesus without being baptized? The answer is no, at least not an obedient disciple, because Jesus here commands baptism as the first step of discipleship. Now there are exceptions, of course, in those circumstances, which are beyond a disciple's control, such as the thief on the cross, who obviously could not be baptized. Beyond those exceptions that are beyond our individual control, baptism is an essential if one is to be an obedient disciple.
Well, someone asked, can one then be saved without being baptized? And of course the answer is yes. But I think one can also say this, that one who is truly saved will want to be baptized, because he desires to do everything that Jesus asks of him. He wants to do whatever pleases the Lord, and here Jesus says, make disciples baptizing them. And though it's a participle, it has the effect of a command in this context.
I agree with the words of Dr. John MacArthur, who writes, the person who is unwilling to be baptized is at best a disobedient believer. And if he persists in his unwillingness, there is a reason to doubt the genuineness of his faith. If he is unwilling to comply with that simple act of obedience in the presence of fellow believers, he will hardly be willing to stand for Christ before the unbelieving world.
Baptism has no part in the work of salvation, but it is a God-ordained and God-commanded accompaniment of salvation. Baptism is the first item on the agenda after being made a follower of Jesus Christ. After one has trusted Christ as Savior, and his life has been reoriented from following self and sin to following Christ, the first thing on the agenda is water baptism. Now there are common excuses that are offered for delaying baptism.
Especially in this culture, in the upper Midwest, there is the statement often made, I was baptized as a baby. I was baptized as a baby. Well, that may be okay if as a baby one made an intelligent, definite commitment to follow Christ. But if one was a normal baby, and if it was the parents who arranged the ritual, it wasn't an act of the baby's faith. It may say something about the parent's commitment, but it says nothing about the commitment of the baby.
There is no such thing as infant baptism in the New Testament. Others say, I'm too frightened of getting up in front of others. And yet that's precisely why Jesus commanded it. He intended for it to be public. We mustn't allow fear to control our lives, especially when it comes to our faith in Christ. Someone else says, but my family would be offended if I were to be baptized. Well, the question we have to ask in response to that is, whose disciple are you?
Jesus warned that in some instances, obedience to his lordship would bring separation to human relationships. He said that obedience to him would be like a sword in some relationships. I would be much more concerned about offending Jesus Christ than family. Someone else says, well, I was sprinkled as an adult. Isn't that good enough? Well, certainly some aspects of the situation are met by that. One is an adult who has believed in Christ is the assumption.
And it's important that it be one who has placed his faith in Christ who is baptized, yes. But we believe that one ought to be immersed and not sprinkled. Now, it is true that one may be sprinkled and the intent of baptism be followed by that. But how much better to follow the substance of what Jesus said and not merely the intent? This is certainly what the early church practiced. Sprinkling was not even known in the first several hundred years of the church.
We here at Grace Church believe that biblical baptism is immersion. Well, somebody says that's just your interpretation. But in fact, it's much more than just my interpretation. In the first place, it's the clear meaning of the word. It's the only form that was known in the early church. As you trace the history of the church through the book of Acts, you see multitudes and individuals who believed in Christ and then were baptized or immersed in water.
It begins on the day of Pentecost with at least 3,000 people who believed in Christ and then were baptized. And then you trace it through personal encounters as well as public ministry through the rest of the book of Acts. And inevitably, where there is faith, there was obedience to baptism. And sometimes I hear the statement, but I've waited so long now that it's embarrassing to be baptized. Well, the fact is it's better late than never.
Some of Jesus' earliest followers were also afraid at first. I think of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They were two procrastinators, but eventually publicly identified themselves with Jesus. It's better late than never. Sometimes we think that if we just put something off, it doesn't really matter anymore. The fact is that Jesus commands baptism of all of his disciples. And delayed obedience is in fact sin. But continued delay is compounded sin.
For if one knows to do right and does not do it to him, it is sin, says James. So if baptism is an issue in your life today between your heart and the heart of Jesus Christ, then it's time today to choose whom you will obey. It's time to understand that this is not an option. It is a command of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's the first thing that must be on your agenda if you've not already passed through baptism.
Today it is time for you to choose to say that I will honor Jesus Christ and follow him. I will follow him as his disciple, and as he has commanded me to, I will be baptized. I bring this message not only because I think it's an important one for our church, but I bring it today because we have baptism scheduled for next Sunday night. Already we have probably a dozen and a half people who will be baptized, but there is room for you to be a part of that.
And I hope before the service is over you will bow your head and will give the Lord this step of obedience in your life if you've not done it. And that you will signify that after the service by coming up and signing a pad that I'm going to place right over here. And we will be able to be in touch with you this week to take care of the necessities before next Sunday night when you can be baptized. Jesus has given us as a church two ordinances. One of them is baptism.
The other is the Lord's Supper. They both speak to us of his sacrifice, of his death on our behalf. As we come to the Lord's table today, then let there be no issue including baptism that is unresolved in our lives. That if we have not obeyed our Lord in this matter, we will before we partake of these elements saying that we are his disciples, conclude in our heart that we will follow through the very next opportunity we have in baptism. Let's pray together. I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, we say. The world behind me, the cross before me. My friend, if that is the case with you, then I want to urge you today to make your life one of obedience to the Lordship of Christ. And if this first matter on the agenda for disciples has not been resolved, then today say to the Lord, I will obey you. Right now is an opportunity for you to do that in your heart. To say to Jesus Christ, your Lord, I give you myself, afresh this morning. I will be obedient in baptism.
And if you are not one who has followed Jesus, if in your heart of hearts you have never before trusted him as your Lord and Savior, will you do that this morning? Will you invite him to come in as an act of faith? It is not baptism which saves. It is faith which saves as we believe in the promise of God. It is that faith that secures for you a relationship with God through Christ. Will you open your heart now to receive him?
And as a part of that, say, Lord, I am willing also to be obedient to you in everything you ask in my life. Father, may we today make that decision to choose, to choose to obey, and to put behind the past and walk into a new future, an obedient relationship with your son Jesus. Amen. When you go into a shell, when you have your son, my life should not be hard at all. So never bow your head to the heart. Never bow your head to the heart.
Reaching out to him, so still I still see, and meet me with the son of your life. But it's time to choose, overcome this. It's time to take a step and follow you. I finally see to be set free from each evil eye of me. To give in less would compromise the rest. My life would never be complete. So never follow me into the light. Never follow me into the light. Reaching out to him, so still I still see, and meet me with the son of your life. But it's time to choose, no matter what I lose.
It's time to take a step and follow you. I'm going to take your hand and hold out until I die. Because I know this night will take forever. And only if you're standing close to me, will I find the strength to fight the enemy. So never follow me into the light. Never follow me into the light. Reaching out to him, so still I still see, and meet me with the son of your life. But it's time to choose, no matter what I lose. It's time to take a step and follow you.
I'm going to take a step and follow you. It's time to take a step and follow you. It is. It is. We want to follow him. May God give us grace, all of us, to know what that means in our lives. We come to the Lord's table today, and if you are part of God's family, having trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, and if you're living with him as the Lord of your life, we invite you to partake at this table with us.
The servers are coming now, but we want to have a word of prayer before we serve the elements, because we are coming as a family today to the Lord's table, God's family. And often we have a circle of prayer.
There's not really room up here today to form that, so we're going to do it a little differently in form, but the intent is still the same, and that is, that if today there is some burden on your heart for yourself, your family, for a friend of yours, and you want to join with others in public acknowledgement of your prayer and your concern before God, I want to invite you to stand right where you are.
It will quite be the same with our holding hands together as we do sometimes, but God knows our hearts. If you would like to stand with me in prayer regarding those burdens and needs that you feel within, you want to pray about those things. Just stand where you are. We're going to pray together as a family, and God knows what every heart's need is. It's represented by those standing. And if you remain seated, then just pray for those near you.
Focus your praying on them, asking God to work according to His will in that person's life. Father, you know the heartaches, the burdens, the disappointments, the questions that are represented by those of us standing. You have perfect and complete knowledge of those situations that are upon our minds at this moment. We discharge them to you. We lay them out before you. We cast our burdens upon you. And we claim from you that sustaining grace that we need.
Father, there may be some of us who need to respond to others with forgiveness. There may be some of us who are struggling with issues of relationship, where there's been a lack of trust or where trust has been broken. There may be some who are struggling in their marriages or for children or for coworkers. We ask that you minister by your grace and answer the prayers of these or children according to your will. In Jesus' name, Amen. Be seated, please.
The Lord Jesus met with His disciples on the night before He was crucified, and with them He broke bread, giving thanks for it. Representing His body, He shared the bread with them. Let's pray together in gratitude for the bread that we're about to receive. Father, we thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, for the perfect body that you gave Him in His incarnation, for the perfect humanity that He is.
And we thank you that as perfect man, He accepted the guilt of our sins on our behalf and went to the cross and died there bearing your wrath, satisfying your justice. We come to you as those who are trusting Him with grateful hearts that Jesus made this sacrifice on our behalf. Amen. This morning, one of the newer folks in our church is going to come. Michael Mary has been with us now about six months or so. Michael, would you join me here, please?
Michael has a rather unique testimony to share out of some experience that he's been in the last couple of years. Would you like to use this microphone? Sure. Okay. As you said, my name is Michael Mary. I live in St. Paul here with my parents right now. That's going to change within the next eight months. But I ask to give this testimony, and the purpose of it is to use what's happened to me over the last three years, particularly, to illustrate to you who God is.
God is a God of grace and love, and He's proven that to me in my life by bringing good out of some very bad and unpleasant experiences. I grew up in a church-going family. I always felt good after going, but my religious practices didn't really help me in my day-to-day life or help me through my problems. God was a far-off God. He lived in a big stone church, but my heart was empty.
Every Sunday I went to visit God, but then I was on my own for the rest of the week, and I was never very sure where I stood with God. I hoped God would be kind enough to let me into heaven, but I never knew for certain. My sister was in her early teens. She accepted the Lord into her life. All of a sudden, she knew she was going to heaven. What makes her so special, I thought at the time? How come she's so privileged?
She gets to know she's going to heaven, and I have to lay awake at night and wonder. How come when I get angry at her, she responds in love? The truth is she had experienced salvation by accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. During my college years, in pretty much the same way as I had lived the rest of my life, I knew there was a God, but God was far off and distant, and I didn't know how to get close to him.
I got into heavy drinking, but alcohol only brought temporary happiness and a hangover the next morning. I was involved in a couple of different churches, but I never felt spiritually satisfied with my life. At that point, I decided to attend graduate school, and I ended up going to the University of California at Davis.
Davis was and is a beautiful town, which I often miss, particularly during this season fit only for polar bears and Minnesotans, which I think are sometimes synonyms in this state. The first day I set foot in Davis, California, I set foot in what was to be my church home for the next three years. It was there that I began walking with the Lord, but it was also there I experienced the pain of spiritual abuse.
The God that I served while in that church was a God that controlled me through shame, fear, and manipulation, brought to bear in my life through the leaders of the church. I was told that I was a less of a man because I didn't know how to fix cars, as one example. I was told that I did not want to become like my father, even though they had only met him once.
My whole family, both sides of it, is here today, and Dad, I want to tell you in particular that I love you and respect you, and I always will. I'll send a car repair to Dad and others like him who can fix cars. The church controlled almost everything I did. They told me who I could date, how I could show affection to them, when I should get up, how I was to spend my money.
I had to submit in writing a daily account of every penny I spent and took in to my discipler, the pastor's tool in controlling my life. I could get out of it with a letter to the pastor, which would go into my file and brand me a rebel before God. Going in for counsel was a frightening event, to say the least. We went into this conference room with a long rectangular table. The pastor always sat at the head of the table, and there were two or three elders there as well.
We stated your problem or concern in three sentences, maybe five or less, and then you heard the word of the Lord. Emotions had no place in that room, and neither did simple listening on their part. Sure, you could choose to go against their advice, but we were told from the prophet not to come for counsel unless we would do their will. The church held up standards they knew we couldn't perform to the level of, and then rebuked us for not keeping them.
Public rebuke and humiliation was a weapon the head pastor used at his whim. Once at a Wednesday evening service, I was kind of dozing off because I had worked until very late the previous night. Suddenly the word came, stand up, brother. I stood immediately only to hear, I rebuke the sleep in you in the name of Jesus Christ. I stood for a few minutes until I was told to sit down. Ashamed and very alone, tears wanting to flow, but being held back out of fear of another rebuke.
Even now I can feel that burning shame and fear. The abuse that had the most devastating effects was that distorted view of God. He was a God who was waiting for us to sin. He would zap me with the colossal lightning bolt from heaven if I sinned. A punishment custom designed for me. I remember when my bike got stolen. Boy, I thought I was in real bad trouble. The truth is it was just the natural consequence of me leaving my bike unlocked. Then in March of 93, the Lord decided I had had enough.
He moved in a wondrous way on my behalf and he brought me out of that church. My life out there fell apart on me. I then informed the church I was going back to St. Paul to live with my parents because I had no financial choice. I momentarily got a prove-of. I drove in my Honda Civic from California to Minnesota. The whole time God was with me in that car, reassuring me through his Holy Spirit that I was not alone. I came to this church shortly after I arrived back here.
During the first couple months I was still filled with insecurity and fear. I still viewed God as condemning me because I wasn't performing the Christian life well enough for him. I used to try and impress my family with how spiritual I had become, even though inside I felt like a spiritual failure. Then God began to liberate me through the sermons here at Grace Church. I began to realize that God loved me on the basis of my identity in Christ, not on the basis of my actions or inactions.
God was not waiting to zap or punish me. He was simply longing for me to live according to the guidelines of his word, engraved if I didn't. At that time I also began to suspect that my church in California had abused me. For me, though, any opposition to that church was opposition to God himself, a message we had heard many times. After three months here I finally worked up the courage to tell the Lord my suspicions.
I walked out on a dock at Como Lake, told the Lord, and then said, Lord, if you're going to zap me for this, do it quick. I shut my eyes and waited, but curiously enough nothing happened. Shortly after that I went in for counseling at Grace Church. I was terrified to go, but it was a completely different experience than what I had known before. I remember not getting my reading done once. I was expecting a stinging rebuke that it never came.
The pastor simply loved me right where I was at, paralyzed at the time by my own insecurity and fear. And then he showed me the way to a life of freedom in Christ. My life has now entirely changed. I'm stable in my career and engaged to be married. But most of all I know that I'm loved because I'm a child of God, not because I can perform day of satisfaction I can't. God does care how we live our lives.
He expects us to obey him, but he loves us regardless and accepts us if we have put our faith in Christ. It was a very painful experience to go through, but God allowed it because he knew that he would bring good out of it. Today I publicly thank God for allowing me to go through that and then bringing me out like he did. I understand the truth of God's grace and love much more fully now by having been through living without that same understanding.
To all of you out there who have been through abuse of any kind, but particularly spiritual abuse, I tell you today there is someone who cares. His name is Jesus. He understands your tears because he cried those same tears himself. He knows what it's like to be abused, rejected, and hurt. He died alone and forsaken on a Roman cross so that we could gain interest in heaven. He paid the price for your and my sins so that we wouldn't have to. The cross was not the end, though.
He rose again and he's here today ready to listen to our prayers. If anyone out there doesn't know this Christ of whom I speak, then I urge you, accept him into your heart today. Your life, both here and in eternity, will never be the same. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe like Michael, you have experienced that kind of abuse in your past. I hope that his testimony today can be one way that God would bring some healing to your life. The healing is there, and it's there because of Jesus' sacrifice.
Let's bow and thanks for his blood shed on our behalf represented by the cup. Father, thank you for your grace revealed so freely in Jesus' sacrifice and the shedding of his blood. We thank you that he was willing to bear all of that punishment in himself and pay the price for us so that we might be freed. Thank you that there is truly freedom in Christ. We freely partake of this cup, but humbly as well and thankfully. Amen.
Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink it in remembrance of me. It is our custom to receive an offering for elders' fund on these Sundays. The way we're doing it since we've begun observing communion each month on Sunday morning is to receive it through the box in the back at the exit. So if you have a gift you'd like to give for those in a financial need, you can drop it in that box and we'll see that it gets into the elders' fund.
Let me remind you of these words from Peter before we go. If you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth, knowing you were redeemed with precious blood as the lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Let's stand together and rejoice this morning as we prepare to go, that our faith rests in God and our hope is fixed upon him.
And one final reminder, if you would like to sign this slip this morning indicating your desire to be baptized next Sunday night, please make your way here to the organ side of the platform where we'll have that sign of sheep. Now let's pray. Father, my prayer is that we will go from here today with our faith and hope resting securely in you and reminding ourselves that our time upon the earth is brief.
May we so conduct ourselves with holy respect of you as our father, that our lives will bring honor and glory to your name. May we be faithful pilgrims this week as we walk through this world, knowing for sure where home is. Amen.