[Video:] How has Covid-19 impacted you? In the wake of the pandemic, many people are experiencing invisible but very real side effects. For some of us, it’s a post-earthquake syndrome. Our sense of security has been shaken. Our jobs, finances, and safety are less stable than before. Amid the mess, we’re looking for meaning and purpose. For others, it’s the new claustrophobia. Our house seems smaller each day. With our family now together 24/7, we feel pressed between job responsibilities and relationship tensions. At times, sadness, anger, and fear close in around us. We feel trapped. The symptoms we are feeling are just the tip of the iceberg of our much larger need for rescue. We are adrift, cut off from the resources we need to experience meaning, purpose, love, and peace. We hope to hear the sound of a helicopter bringing our rescuer.
Human beings weren’t always in need of this rescue. God created the first man and woman to know Him and to experience His friendship, care, and love. He showed them how to live, so they could make choices that would lead to life in all its fullness. However, Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s direction. They chose to do life their own way, and everyone since then chose life their own way, which is sin. As a result, we live in guilt and separation from God. The gap between us and God is too great. There are just not enough good deeds that we could do to repair the relationship. But out of His infinite and extreme love, God didn’t let it end there. At an astounding cost to Himself, He took the initiative and made a way for us to be rescued.
About 2,000 years ago, God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to show us how to live God’s way, how to find the meaning and purpose that we lost. Jesus took upon Himself the sin and guilt of all mankind as He died a horrific death on the cross. His death paid our penalty, making a way for us to connect to God. Three days later Jesus resurrected, came back to life, proving He is God. If we stop trying to live life our own way and commit to Jesus as Lord of our life, He provides everything we need to experience the truly full life now and eternal life with Him forever. It’s been almost 2,000 years since Jesus’ resurrection. Since then, billions of people claim they have experienced the reality of Jesus rescuing them. They tell of a personal relationship with a loving God, strength and peace amidst turmoil, healing of inner hurt, and power and direction navigating crisis.
If you were in physical peril, just imagine how grateful you would be to be found by a strong and competent rescuer. The Bible describes Jesus as a Rescuer seeking us, coming to us individually, saying, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.” Accepting Jesus’ rescue parallels physical rescue, which involves agreeing you need the rescue, believing the rescuer has the power to save you, and committing to do what your Rescuer says. If you’re ready to open the door to Jesus and accept His rescue, it is necessary to agree you have chosen to do life your own way and ask God for forgiveness. Believe Jesus came to earth and died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. Commit to accept Jesus’ offer of rescue and respond to Him for who He is—Lord, in charge of everything, and Boss for how you live each day.
When you’re ready to accept Jesus’ rescue, you can pray and talk to God, telling Him something like this—Lord Jesus, I believe You are God. Thank You for dying for my sins so that I can be forgiven. I yield control of my life to You. Come into my life and make me into the person You want me to be. Thank You for giving me eternal life.
Matt Sturdevant: Thanks for joining us as we continue our series, All In...Holding Nothing Back, where we’re taking a look at what it means to be all in as followers of Jesus. We started the series a couple of weeks ago and celebrated our 42nd anniversary. That week we took a look at what it means for us to be all in as a church. Then last week I shared some of my own personal, spiritual journey with you. I shared some lessons that God has taught me along the way as I have been walking withJesus. I also told you that if I’m going to lead us as a church to be all in and I’m going to challenge you and invite you to be all in, then I want you to know that I’m all in, as well.
Also last week, I gave you a definition that I’m using for what it means to be all in so that we can know what that means and all be on the same page. Basically, to be all in is a statement of commitment. It means to continually be asking the question, “What do you want me to do?” Then, going ahead and taking the next step that He shows us. Being all in simply means that we surrender all of us to the Lord Jesus, that we hold nothing back from Him, and that we orient our lives around fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives. We do that one day at a time.
Today, we’re going to start a two-week discussion, and we’re going to take a look at the opportunities that we have to be all in. Here’s a reality for each of us. Before I can be all in, I’ve got to be in. This series is about being all in, but I realized that not all of us are yet in. So this week, I want to take a look at what it means to be in so that we can then continue our discussion about being all in. Being in requires two foundational decisions on our part. The first decision is to follow Jesus, and the second is to get baptized. I want to give you a quick word of caution though. Sometimes when we talk about these types of things, if we’ve been walking with Jesus for a while, we lose some of our sight, and we forget the overwhelming sense of gratitude that we once had when we first became a follower of Jesus. That first moment that we felt what it really is to be rescued by the Lord Jesus, having a way made for us to be right with God.
If that is us, if we’ve been walking with Jesus for a while, sometimes there can be a temptation when we talk about these foundational aspects of walking with Jesus to just say, “I got this,” and to sort of check out. Maybe check out mentally, emotionally, or even spiritually. If we do that and say, “Well, I’ve been a follower of Jesus for a long time, and I’ve been baptized a long time ago…” If we do that and check out and don’t pay attention to what God has for us, we might actually miss something—some- thing He wants us to see. So if you’ve been walking with Jesus for a while, my prayer for you is that the Lord would refresh your perspective, that He would give you a new sense of energy and fuel for the journey ahead from this point. I also pray that as we talk about the things today and you have his renewed perspective, that that would fuel your desire to share Christ with others so that they too can experience the life that you have.
If you’ve just more recently started walking with Jesus, I want to remind you of the decision that you’ve made and then give you a key next step to take if you’ve not yet taken that step. Then if you’re not yet currently a follower of Jesus, I want to help you fully understand what it means to follow Jesus and then what step you need to take to walk forward and grow with Jesus over time. You see, it's only after I RSVP to God’s invitation that I’m in. I want to focus for just a few minutes on the “why” and the “how” as we become followers of Jesus.
You see, the God of the universe created us. You and I… He created us so that He could have a relationship with us and share His love with us. When He created this world and all of the people and all of the things in this world that He created, He created a perfect world. We were perfect, but then we, His creation, we humans are the ones who messed up the perfection that He created. We messed it up because we rebelled against God. We did what He said not to do, and that’s sin. Actually Adam, when he rebelled against God, acted as the head of all of mankind. The moment that he rebelled and sinned against God, sin entered into this world. We have now a fallen world. Our world fell into a state of sin because of the rebellion against God.
Today we live in a broken world. We have a broken world with broken people who are in broken relationships. You and I experience broken relationships with one another. But most importantly because of sin, we have a broken relationship with our Creator, with God. It’s impossible for us to be connected back to God by anything that we have done. There’s nothing that you and I can do on our own. We’re just not good enough or smart enough, but God took it upon Himself to rescue us, to make a way for you and I to be reconnected to Him. The way that He provided is actually through a person. That person is Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s Son, who came and who lived the perfect life that we’re unable to live and to die the death on the cross that you and I deserved so that we can be reconnected to our Heavenly Father, to our Creator, to God.
You see, Jesus died in our place to redeem us and connect us back to God. A little while ago, sometime last year, I came across a gospel presentation called “RSVP.” I really like this presentation because it connects those two foundational decisions that we must make. In order to RSVP to God’s invitation to become a follower of Jesus, we need to first realize the need. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I need to really, truly realize that I’m separated from God and that there is nothing that I can do to reconnect or repair that broken relationship on my own. I need Him, so we realize the need.
Then next, we say, “I’m sorry,” which is to repent. Acts 3:19 says, “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” Repent means “to turn.” It means that we turn from the direction that we had been going (our own direction). In fact, we sort of act like our own gods knowing what’s best for us and making our own decisions. So, we turn from the direction we had been going. We repent, and we turn to go God’s way. Then, we verbalize our faith. Romans 10:9 says, “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
We verbalize our faith by praying a simple prayer like you saw in the Rescue Mission video. You say something like, “Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins and that You rose again. I trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Please guide my life and help me to do Your will. It’s in Your name that I pray. Amen.” That’s just the simple prayer that’s required to verbalize our faith. So, the R and the S and the V are really about foundational decision number one, which is to become a follower of Christ.
The last letter of RSVP, the P, is related to the second decision. The P stands for plunge the past. I want to be clear. Baptism is not a requirement for salvation. It is not a requirement to be made right with God. That happens as we pray and ask Jesus to be our Lord, to be our Boss, and we ask for His forgiveness. That is the moment that we become a follower of Jesus. Baptism is the first next step that we take once we have become a follower of Jesus. It’s a step that all followers of Christ should take soon after they become a follower of Jesus. Simply stated, baptism is the outward expression of the inward change that occurs when we become a follower of Jesus.
It’s been several months since we’ve had a baptism here at Hope because we had several weeks of not being able to meet in person, and we just haven’t had a baptism yet. So, I wanted you to get an idea and a picture and actually see what baptism looks like before we talk about it a little bit more. So, take a look at this quick video. (Video rolls…”The experience is symbolic but it carries a lot of meaning to it…” Music begins to play.) So with the rest of our time today, I want to take a look at baptism. Let’s take a closer look starting with “What’s the meaning of baptism?”
Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” What you saw in the video, as you saw a number of people be baptized, is that baptism illustrates Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism is actually a brief, dramatic presentation that illustrates and symbolizes the physical death, burial, and resurrection that Jesus did. It’s also a reminder that Jesus went all in for us when He died on the cross. As we get baptized, we freely enter into the water, just like Christ freely went to the cross.
Jesus’ burial is represented in baptism as the person goes under the water. Jesus fully died for our sins, so we are fully immersed to represent that. Then, baptism represents Christ’s resurrection as we see the person coming up out of the water to represent the resurrection and then the newness of life that they now experience as a follower of Jesus. So, baptism is a brief, dramatic illustration that represents Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism also identifies me with Christ.
It’s a public identification. It’s a way to outwardly show the world the inward change that’s already occurred. It’s a way to show the world that we are not ashamed to identify as a follower of Jesus. Now, I want you to check out the progression here. First, a person makes a commitment to be a follower of Jesus. That’s the first step. That’s step number one, and it’s done privately. It’s done in a private prayer between the individual and the Lord, their Savior. It’s an internal decision and an internal commitment. The very next step, the next step of obedience after you decide to follow Jesus, is a decision to be baptized.
I want you to check out this progression that we see in the Bible. In the New Testament book of Acts, let’s look at Acts 2:41. “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.” Did you see that progression that was there? They believed. They were baptized, and then they joined the church. They believed, were baptized, and then joined the church. It’s really important to note here because you don’t have to be perfect to be baptized. You don’t have to have been a Christian for a certain number of years. You don’t have to have memorized a certain number of or certain verses specifically. You don’t have to have gotten rid of all the sin in your life and gotten your life totally straightened out. You don’t have to do any of that. Baptism is the first step that you take after you decide to become a follower of Jesus. You say, “Yes, Jesus, my life is a mess. I need Your help. Please come into my life, fill me, help me.” After you take that very first step, the very next step before you’ve gotten anything else figured out is to take a step of obedience and to take a step of following what Jesus said to do and be baptized.
So, let’s take a look at the method of baptism. The method of baptism that we use is baptism by immersion after following Jesus. Again, first you believe, then you become a follower of Jesus. Then after that, you‘re baptized. So, why do we baptize by immersion? I want to give you four quick reasons why we baptize by immersion. Number one, the Greek word that we see as “baptize,” we see it translated into English as the word “baptize.” But, really the word literally means “to dip; to plunge or to immerse.” Number two is that was the way Jesus was baptized. Let’s look at Matthew 3:16-17. It says, “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.’”
Jesus was baptized that way, so if Jesus was baptized that way, it’s good enough for me. But number three, immersion is really the only form of baptism that we find in the New Testament. I’ve listed several other references for you there in your handout. You can check those out on your own. Then, the fourth quick reason is that immersion best symbolizes what we talked about a minute ago. Immersion represents and symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection that Christ Himself did. Let’s take a look at Romans 6:3-4. It says, “Do you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So, our method of baptism is immersion after one becomes a follower of Jesus.
Why do we get baptized? When would I personally decide to get baptized? Why would I personally decide to get baptized? What’s my motive in doing that? Well, here are a couple of motives. Number one is to confess Jesus personally. Romans 10:9 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Again, baptism is the public confession. It’s a way to publicly show the world around us that we are a follower of Jesus that we’ve made that internal commitment. And now, it’s a way to publicly confess that Jesus is our Lord. Also, our motive for baptism is to obey Jesus fully. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Baptism, as we’ve said already, is the first step of obedience after we’ve become a follower of Jesus.
Who wouldn’t want to start their new life off on the right foot by fully obeying and doing with Jesus said to do? If you’re a follower of Jesus and you’ve not yet been baptized, I’d submit to you that, according to the Scriptures, you’re not fully obeying what Jesus has said. Now, there may be a variety of reasons why you’re not fully obeying. Number one is going through the world situation that we’re going through right now and the fact that it’s been several months since we’ve had a baptism, you may have become a follower of Jesus since the last baptism that we had. You just simply haven’t had an opportunity to be baptized. That’s an easy one to fix, but sometimes we don’t get baptized because we don't have a clear understanding of what baptism is and why we should do it. This isn’t a message that we do every single Sunday at church, so that’s why we’re talking about it today.
This is actually part of my own story. I shared last week that I became a follower of Jesus when I was five years old. But what I didn’t share was it wasn't until I was 20 years old that I got baptized. Now, we don’t have time to fully talk about that right now, but I’m going to share more about that in this week’s, Sunday’s Extra Edition of our Hope Church podcast. The third motive, though and why we should get baptized, is to share our faith with others. When you get baptized, it’s a great opportunity to invite your friends, family, and neighbors and co-workers and people in your life to come witness and watch you make this public confession that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. Then you have an opportunity to tell them why you did that. On Monday morning when someone asks, “Hey, what’d you do this weekend?” You can smile really big and say, “I got baptized!” Then you can share with them the meaning of what that is and why you did that and why you are a follower of Jesus.
So before I can be all in, I’ve got to be in. Being in requires that I make two foundational decisions, a decision to follow Jesus and a decision to get baptized. If you’ve never decided to follow Jesus, trust Jesus to make Him your Lord and Savior, I want to invite you today to RSVP to God’s invitation. If you’re already a follower of Jesus but you’ve never been baptized, I want to invite you to join us on Sunday, August 30th, as we are going to have a baptism here at Hope Church. I want to invite you to join us for in-person worship and then be a part of the baptism celebration that we’re going to have after our church service.
Next week, we’ll be wrapping up our series, All In...Holding Nothing Back. We’re going to take a look at three opportunities that we have to go all in and express the fact that we’re all in, opportunities that we have to go all in after we’ve decided to be in. Now, I told you when we started this commitment that I was going to be challenging you to make a commitment to go all in. I’m going to challenge you to personally go all in as we as a church go all in. So, you’re going to have an opportunity next week to make the all-in commitment. We really do live in some strange and challenging days right now with all that’s going on in the world around us.
A portion of our church has been meeting here since the beginning of June, but a great number of those who are a part of Hope Church are joining us for online services. Next Sunday is going to be the grand re-opening of our kids’ and our student ministries for nursery through 12th grade. I know that many families have been waiting for the reopening of our kids’ ministry and see that as the opportunity to come back to worship in person. I also know that many in our church have real health concerns for themselves or family members or people that they’re taking care of. Or perhaps due to the nature of their work, they have a greater exposure risk than the rest of us. Because of all that, you’ve decided that you're going to continue to be a part of our online campus for the foreseeable future.
As your pastor, I’ve said from the beginning that I don’t want anybody to violate their conscience and that you need to make the right decision for you and your family. I want you to know that we’re not keeping any sort of “naughty or nice” list of people who are not attending in-person worship services. I fully support your decision as you evaluate what’s best for you and your family to continue to remain a part of our online campus because of your concerns due to the Covid pandemic. I also suspect, though, that there may be some who have begun to travel a bit this summer and been going to restaurants and eating out more and maybe engaging in more in-person shopping experiences. You’re not as concerned with Covid as you once were earlier this spring, but rather, being a part of online worship is, frankly, just easier. It’s comfortable, and I get that.
But if that’s you, if it’s just easier to do online worship and you're not really concerned about Covid anymore, I want to invite you to join us next Sunday for our in-person worship service on August 23rd, as we wrap up theis All In series and we have an opportunity to make the all-in commitment together. We’re going to have our kids’ and student programming available, as we have our grand reopening next week on the 23rd. There’s going to be an opportunity to sign our all-in commitment, and we’re also, to sweeten the deal, planning to have some doughnuts. So, I want to invite you to join us in person next week, August 23rd, as we wrap up All In...Holding Nothing Back. Would you join me in prayer?
Father, thank You that while we were still sinners and rebels against You that You loved us so much that You provided a way for us to be reconnected to You even at the great cost of Your own Son. Lord Jesus, thank You that You went all in for us. You held nothing back so that we could have life and we could experience real joy now in this world and for eternity with You. Father, please show us what our next steps are, and give us the courage to take those steps. I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
