Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Baptism: What's The Big Deal?

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed the awesome power of water. Try as we may through levees and sandbags, we’ve tried to hold it back but all it takes is just a small breach and pretty soon, the waters come rushing through and we see the destructive power of water. We’ve seen it in the Birdland area here in the Des Moines area. We have watched as the streets of Cedar Rapids have turned into the canals of Cedar Rapids. And now that the water is subsided, we’re really starting to see the destructive force that water had behind it. As we see the muck and the grime, as we see homes and businesses condemned because no longer are they safe to be inside, we see the debris that litters the land, there is no doubt about it, there is destructive power behind water.

But at the same time that we watch the destruction from the water, what was the number one concern on everyone’s minds? We wanted to make sure that the water kept flowing, through our pipes, that is. We’d watch the nightly news in anticipation to have some reassurances to make sure the water treatment plant is still safe, the new levees are holding. That meant the water would still be flowing through our pipes.

Isn’t it ironic that the very water that was causing so much havoc is the very water we need? The very water that was destroying things is the very water we need for life itself because we can’t survive without water. When we look to the waters of baptism, we see the same thing. The waters of baptism destroyed the old sinful self and the waters of baptism bring forth a new life, a new life in Christ.

So this week as we start a series of messages looking at this great gift God has given to us in baptism, let’s focus on the awesome power of the water and the word of baptism. As it destroys our old sinful self but then rises up a new self, a new life in Christ.

But before we get too much into that, let’s start with the basics, shall we? Let’s just answer the first basic question, that is, what is baptism? In a sense, we’re going to go back to confirmation class just for a few moments. So let’s lay down the rules. There will be no gum chewing please, no passing notes and your sermon summaries will be due next week before service. Otherwise, I will have to knock off five points. Everyone ready? Fine. Here we go. The first point is this: Baptism is a sacrament. First question for you all then, this is interactive by the way, is what book of the bible do we find the word sacrament? You don’t have to give me the chapter and verse. For some of you, it’s been too many years. I can understand. But just what book of the bible do we find the word sacrament? Anyone? I’ll give you a 50/50 chance, Old Testament, New Testament? Which is it? Sacrament. Old someone says. Anyone vote for New? New back there. Trick question. It’s not in there. I love doing that to the 8th Graders, too. The actual word sacrament is nowhere to be found in scripture. God’s word talks about sacred things, it talks about holy things but the actual word sacrament is nowhere to be found in scripture.

That means the word sacrament is something we have come up with to describe God’s activity, to describe the things God has given to us. Therefore, we have to have a definition of what a sacrament is. And we as Lutherans have a definition of what a sacrament is and it has to have three criteria. Now this one is not a trick question. Anyone remember, there are three criteria if something is going to be called a sacrament, it has to have these three things. Anything? Give me one thing. Go ahead, Lori. Okay, it has to be commanded by God. Great. Alright, that’s one. Number two. Instituted by God. Anyone? Anyone? Brown noser, go ahead, Lori. Offers forgiveness of sins. We have one last one. Someone from this side. Instituted by God. I feel like I’m in 8th Grade class. This is great. Commanded by God and it offers forgiveness of sins. Water, bread, wine, visible elements. That’s what makes it a sacrament. So if it’s going to be a sacrament according to our definition of that, it has to be commanded by God, offer forgiveness of sins and it has to have physical elements.

Therefore, in our church, we have two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Those who have a Roman Catholic background, you had seven, over achievers that you are. No, it’s because you have a different definition. The definition is that it, first of all, has physical elements. Baptism, we have water. It has to be commanded by God. Matthew 28, God says, “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” And so offer forgiveness, Acts 2 right around Verse 38 where Peter says, “Come and be baptized every one of you in the name of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Therefore, baptism is a sacrament.

Alright, what’s the big deal? So it’s a sacrament? Sacrament is an awesome gift from God. Think about it for a moment. We take it for granted the sacraments God has given us, the baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But think about God’s grace to us, that He comes to us in a tangible way. God doesn’t just come to us in His Word. In His Word, we can understand it intellectually. In His Word, He can even touch us emotionally. In His Word, certainly He touches us spiritually. But God comes to us as a whole being so He also comes to us in a very real and physical way. He gives us things that we can see, that we can touch, that we can smell, that we can taste. He comes to our whole person. In the sacrament, we literally have the visible gospel. We get to watch the waters of baptism be poured over our children and grandchildren and we know that links with the word of God that He is present and something is happening there. We see the visible gospel. When we come to the sacrament of holy communion, we get to take the bread and the wine and we know that in, with and under that is the body and blood of Jesus. It’s real. It’s tangible.
Think about our God and how gracious He is. He doesn’t just come to us with words but He comes to us with something tangible. And so we have the tangible water of baptism linked with the word of the Triune God in whose name we’re baptized.

Okay, so what’s the big deal with baptism then? Baptism does two things. Baptism destroys the old sinful self and then baptism raises up a new person. Let’s take a look at God’s Word. The gospel of John. Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he gives Him a compliment. Now Nicodemus is part of the Jewish ruling council plus he’s a Pharisee. He’s a high-ranking official. He has some influence. He’s a religious leader so he comes to Jesus and gives Him a very big compliment and he says, “You obviously must be from God because you couldn’t do the things that you do unless you were from God.” How does Jesus then respond to this compliment? He says, “I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” It’s not exactly how you win friends and influence people. In essence, He was telling Nicodemus, “Nic, you can’t even begin to understand these things unless you’re born again.” You see Nicodemus coming at it from where you’re at. You can’t even begin to understand and comprehend the things of God. Nicodemus is coming at Jesus in a very academic way. That’s what Pharisees were. They were very academic. They were very much down to the letter of the law and studying the intricate details of it. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus, “You’re obviously from God so what’s the formula? What is it you’re doing?” I suspect he’s looking for some new tradition, some new ritual, some new custom. “What’s the essence of your teaching?” He wants to understand it intellectually. He wants to understand it with all of his rationale, with all of his logic. If you will, he comes to Jesus looking for religion but Jesus offers him a relationship. He comes looking for just ritual and custom but Jesus says, “That’s not what I’m about.” Jesus says, “I’m about a relationship with my people and that’s a whole different level.” That goes beyond just intellect and reason and understanding. It raises it to another level when Jesus says, “What I’m about is having a relationship with my people.”

But there’s only one way you can have a relationship with God and that is the sin that separates you from God has to be removed. That’s what He says. You have to be born again. You have to be born of water and the spirit. The sin that separates us from God has to be removed. All of us on some level understand that we’re sinful. We know the things we do which are wrong. We understand that we do not live up to the expectations of our God and our Creator and that sin separates us from God.

St. Paul writing to the Church at Rome puts it this way, Chapter 8, he says, “The mind of sinful man is death but the mind controlled by the spirit is life. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law nor can it do so.” It’s hostile to God. In other words, left on our own, in our natural state, we are enemies of God because the sin separates us. We’re on polar opposites of God. We have a holy God and we have sinful people. God cannot be in the presence of sin because God cannot stand sin. So this sin is a barrier between us and God. And what Jesus is pointing out as long as that barrier is there, we will never understand the things of God. Again, St. Paul maybe makes it a little bit clearer. This time, writing to the Church at Corinth, “The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God for they’re foolishness to him. He cannot understand them.” Left to our natural self, we cannot understand the things of God. That means that this barrier of sin has to be destroyed. It has to be removed. And the fact is that you and I can do nothing about that. It’s God who has to come in and remove the barrier. It’s God who has to come in and remove the sin so we can have a relationship with our God. What’s the big deal about baptism? Baptism does that very thing. Baptism removes the sin. Baptism kills and destroys the old sinful self so that a new self can be brought up.

We go back to the book of Romans, this time in Chapter 6. Listen to what He says about baptism, “Or don’t you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried with Him through baptism into death and just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life.” Did you catch all of that? There’s a lot packed into that. Don’t you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. We were, therefore, buried with Him. And just as Christ was raised from the dead, then we also are raised to a new life. What God is telling us in His word is in baptism, we are joined to Jesus. Jesus came and lived among us and He lived a perfect life, something we could not do. And yet He willingly went to the cross and we know that on that cross the sinfulness of mankind was laid upon Him and the punishment for sin was put upon Him. That means that the punishment you and I deserve was on Christ. That means the death you and I deserve, He died upon the cross. In baptism, we’re joined to Christ. It’s just as if you and I were nailed to the cross. It’s just as if you and I had gone into the grave. It’s just as if you and I had come out of that grave. In baptism, it is our link to all that Jesus has done for us. That’s the big deal about baptism. It destroys this sinful self. It destroys this barrier between us and God, so now a new life might arise, a new life in Christ.

Let’s go back to the apostle Paul one more time, this time in his second letter to the Church at Corinth. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come. All this is from God.” In Christ, we are a new creation. This new creation for now through the gift of baptism we receive the Holy Spirit and now Christ lives within us. We have been given a whole new life, a whole new outlook, a whole new aspect. No longer do we want to live for ourselves but we want to live for God and we want to live for Christ. This is the new life that’s been given to us. And did you catch the last part? It says all this is from God. Extremely important. All this is from God. This is God’s gift to us. This is God working upon us. Baptism isn’t just some ritual. It isn’t just some custom. Baptism isn’t something we do in recognition of our faith. It isn’t something we do to demonstrate our commitment to God. All those are fine and good but scripture teaches that baptism is something that God does for us. This is God working His power in our life, forgiving us our sins, destroying the old self and raising us this new self, this new person who wants to live for God. Now does that mean once we have this new life, we never mess up again? We know better than that. We still do. We still live this side of heaven. What makes the difference is the sin we commit can’t stick to us anymore. We’re like Teflon. It slides right off. What I mean is we want to live for Christ and each day we start out wanting to live for our God. We know we’re going to mess up. It might be first thing in the morning. We lose our temper with our spouse or we yell at the kids or maybe we get angry at work. Or any number of things we can do. The difference is we come back to our baptism and we say, “In the waters of baptism, I was linked to Jesus on the cross and my sins have been forgiven. That means I have a fresh start all over again.” This morning, we got a fresh start. We confessed our sins. They are wiped out. God says He won’t even remember them anymore.

In baptism, we’re linked to Jesus. It’s the water and the Word. It’s God’s awesome gift to us and there’s power in that water. There’s the destructive power which destroys the old sinful self and then there’s the life-giving power which raises us up in a new life in Christ. That’s why Jesus said in Mark 16:16, “Believe and be baptized and you shall be saved.” In fact, I have an idea. Class, let’s have a memory work assignment for next week, shall we? I’ll make it easy. Mark 16:16, “Believe and be baptized and you shall be saved.” Amen.