Commitment To The Church - [Matthew 16]

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Well, I have a question for you this morning. How committed are you to the church? What would be your commitment level to the
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Church of Jesus Christ? I Could ask it this way. How committed are you to this local church?
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Bethlehem Bible Church They had a rated on a scale of 1 to 10 10 being most committed.
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How committed are you? It's hard these days to show commitment, especially in a consumer oriented society
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We have kind of the shopping mentality. I like that mall. I don't like that mall. I Like this mall.
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I don't like what this church has I like what that church has this church has better programs for this age group or better songs for that age group.
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I Want what I prefer what suits me the retailers come along the marketers come along And sometimes the church buys into that Add to that the
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Marlboro men mentality of rugged individualism I am my own captain of my own ship and we can even have pious terms like I have a personal relationship with Jesus That's fine.
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We have a personal relationship with Jesus, but we have a corporate relationship with Jesus as well add a little laziness when people are preoccupied with pleasure and Entertainment and minimal effort and to quote the the little bit in the movie
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For minimal effort man said that'll do That'll do even
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Martin Luther King jr. Knew that instead of being a thing oriented society We must become a person oriented society.
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How much more for the church? I Pulled up on the Google it search on the Internet commitment.
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I thought what would I find? I found consignment to a mental institution.
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I thought that was interesting consignment to a penal institution Some albums called commitment songs called commitments commitments of computer science terminology
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But mainly it said when you're looking at the definition of commitment It's a charge or a trust or a pledge to do something be a part of something
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To have an obligation to respond to what someone has done for you with emotional
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Impelment One man said you better stand for something all your or you'll fall for anything and today what we want to do is to look
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At commitment to the church. We'll get into Matthew 5 soon enough But kind of for the year in charge for the beginning of the year.
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I want to know just how committed you are To Bethlehem Bible Church, and if you're a visitor and you're a
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Christian you can answer the question. How committed am I? to the local church to Christ Jesus Now here's what
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I could do I could give you a bunch of lists to show Litmus tests like how committed you are or I could do it this way and this is how
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I'll do it this morning Let me show you Christ's commitment to the church and then you'll want to respond with commitment
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Instead of a bunch of do lists be more committed try harder How about let me show you Christ's commitment and you'll say based on what
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Jesus has done for me based on his sacrificial Faithful love for me.
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I want to respond in kind And if I ask you this question, how committed is
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Jesus to the church? What would you answer a scale of one to ten? How faithful was he to that commitment?
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and If Jesus is faithful to the church to be committed to him or her those people in the church
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Should we be? Was Jesus fickle when it comes to the commitment to a church was he forgetful was he apathetic?
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Let's turn to Matthew chapter 16 if you would and I want this morning to look at Christ's commitment to the church and how that should motivate us
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To be more committed to Bethlehem Bible Church to be more committed to the church I believe the way
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God has set it up in Scripture is not to just give us a do -it -to -do list He tells us what he's done for us and then we respond with more motivation with more sincerity with more than just some kind of duty
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Obligation When you realize what God has done you respond with? real motivation is
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Jesus committed to the church Was he committed to the church and the whole time as we watch
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Christ dealing with the church? I want you to think if he's that committed Should I be committed as well?
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You'll see very soon that he is not Committed to build any other relationship or organism our structure in the world.
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Did you know that? He has his eyes focused on the church, and that's what Matthew 16 will show us
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He has blinders on if you will so he only sees the church She is his highest goal and commitment
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And we will see from this passage that Jesus is committed to the church number one.
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He's so committed. He's going to build it I'm going to show you several ways Jesus is committed to the church and the first one is he's committed enough to build the church
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And I can't believe I have a job or the privilege or the responsibility to just talk about how great
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Jesus is Say what's a sermon about today? How great Jesus is here's his fame and I want to just talk about that fame
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Here's how great he is. I just want to say Jesus Christ is a great God. He's a God who with faithful Sacrificial love he commits himself to the church in my mind when
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I think of how God loves me if I'm not careful I think about modern terminology of love with warmth and feelings and goo and on Emotions and all that so I think to myself whenever I hear the love of God.
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I always say to myself the faithful Sacrificial love of God, and you'll see that here in the middle of some people some committed and some not is
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Jesus committed to the church. Yes number one. He's committed enough to build it Matthew 16 13
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Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi He was asking his disciples.
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Who do people say that the Son of Man is? How many people have been to Caesarea Philippi Several the rest of you should you should go should show your commitment to the scriptures to go to the scriptural places
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No, that's not part of the sermon it's a lovely area Caesarea Philippi and Herod the
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Great was a builder and so he would build these different places and then
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Philip came along and kind of spruced it up a little bit and decked it out more and so Jesus is walking and if you notice The text he was asking this is a test.
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This is an ongoing examination. This was not a one -time thing They were walking and as rabbis would walk so to the disciples would follow and he kept asking them
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This was the examination. This is the apostolic SAT test. This is the
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GMAT for the Apostles Can you imagine Jesus quizzing you and it's interesting because this was a place now called
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Caesarea Philippi Different than Caesarea on the ocean Caesarea Philippi used to be a place where they worship the false.
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God Pan Pan like Peter Pan except this isn't
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Peter Pan. This is Peter at Pan Right, that's Matthew 16. This is Peter at this place called
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Pan Here's this place where there's all kinds of pagan worship and there's the mountain over there
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You could probably see Mount Hermon. It takes a couple days to get there from Jerusalem and you walk into this pagan
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Infested area and there's going to be an apostolic test beautiful place big cave and Jesus asked the disciples
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Who do people say that the Son of Man is this is a very Transition moment.
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It's a transition moment in ministry The first chapter is going to be closed Jesus doing miracles and teaching the chapter is going to be closed here
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And then it's off to the cross and at this transition Jesus is not concerned about the
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Pharisees response the scribes response the hypocritical Sadducees response
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He wants to know Do the disciples know who
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I am who do men say that the Son of Man is
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Son of Man, this is Daniel chapter 7 the ancient of days the Son of Man a term talking about the
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Messiah Who am I? You've seen what I've done. You've heard my message.
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Who am I? verse 14 and they said Some say
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John the Baptist and others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah are one of the prophets
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John the Baptist Elijah Jeremiah all end time preachers.
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These are the kind of preachers that would stand on the street corners and say Judgment is soon repent and believe
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And certainly Jesus talk like that Maybe John the
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Baptist maybe Elijah, maybe Jeremiah or one of the prophets John the
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Baptist alive or dead He's dead by now but the
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Pharisees and other people believed in kind of a Transmigration of souls. I even learned a new word this week the
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Pharisee doctrine of meta met him psychosis There's a soul in John the
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Baptist his head is cut off and now it goes into Jesus Who am I your
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John the Baptist soul? Reincarnated that sounds just like here the
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Tetrarch Matthew 14 This is John the Baptist who has risen from the dead and that is why miraculous powers are at work in Jesus You can chop off John the
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Baptist head, but his soul will go elsewhere Interesting, isn't it?
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Who is Jesus and I can ask you the question, who do you say that he is and He said to him
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Matthew 16 15 But who do you say that I am?
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I'm not concerned about what others say I'm concerned about what you men say and it's emphatic in the original but you kind of spotlighting you
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I'm not concerned about these others. I'm concerned about you Simon Peter answered
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And here comes the real Apostles Creed You want to know what the Apostles Creed is?
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This is the Apostles Creed You are the Christ the
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Son of the Living God That is absolutely amazing to me.
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Here's what Peter could have said. We're just tax gatherers We're just simple fishermen
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We could never say who you are. We could never know anything could be true. It's all a matter of subjective
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Spirituality and if it if you're good for us, then you're you're good and if you're not good for others, then we're not too sure and everybody has their own religion and Instead, what does
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Peter do? He echoes heaven. This is my beloved son in whom I am. What well pleased and I love the original language.
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Just listen to the Greek Peter answered
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You are the Christ the Son the Living God All with definite articles all meaning you're the only son you're the only
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God you're the only Messiah you're the anointed one Kind of sounds like John 6 when
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Peter said Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life You are the
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Holy One of God Peter said you're the Christ. You're the Messiah. I know you haven't set up your military kingdom yet, but you're the
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Messiah You're the anointed one and not just that you're the eternal son of the Father You are equal with the
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Father in essence in nature and kind and you are not a dead God made out of human hands
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Why does the text say living God there? We just think well, he's living in he's a source of life and he's the source of of goodness
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And he's the source of a abundant life. Yes But this is the society made up of dead wooden gods made with hands and made with hammers and made with malice made out of silver made out of gold
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It's like Jeremiah 10 Idol is wood beaten silver work of a craftsman, but the
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Lord is the true God He is the living God and ever lasting
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King. How could Peter come up with that?
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Verse 17 and Jesus said to him. Here's a personal beatitude there's the
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Peter at the pond area here comes the apostolic SAT Peter responds with the apostolic confession and Jesus says what verse 17
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Blessed are you? Simon bar Jonah Simon son of Jonah Simon you're just a man and could never figure this out on your own
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Because flesh and blood do you notice the text did not reveal this to you? This is not something that you can come up with on your own and eat enough peyote at night and have a dream about it or eat too much hot jalapenos and and and begin to think or put yourself in some kind of sweat tent and say
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Okay. Now I know Jesus is Messiah Because everything about his person in terms of way
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He looked would not speak of that everything about the Old Testament that they thought of although they were forgetful they're thinking about some charger and a horse and a military warrior
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Who revealed this? to Peter but my father who is in Interesting.
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It wasn't necessarily Jesus's teachings nor his miracles nor anything else This is direct revelation from the father to flesh and blood
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Peter And now is when it gets even better verse 18. I Also say to you we've just got a revelation from God the father
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To Peter Jesus is the Messiah here comes revelation number two Revealing the mind of God from the father to Peter now revealing revealing the mind of God from the son to Peter Here's revelation two.
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I Say to you Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it and here comes the commitment to build the church
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The father has just said one thing to you
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Peter and I'm gonna say something now now first Whenever I hear this verse quoted everyone says gates of hell, don't they?
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Whenever you hear it, they always say gates of hell. The text is actually gates of Hades now
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What is Jesus trying to say here? Is he trying to say? Peter you're the first Pope.
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I think if you study the text you're gonna find that Peter never called himself a Pope Peter called himself a fellow elder.
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There's nothing in the text that says here that Peter's a Pope But that's not the point at all.
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Anyway The point is what Jesus says he says I'm gonna build my church on Peter on Peter's confession
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But I don't even want to talk about that for a moment What does it say here? I'm gonna build my church.
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So here's the Church of Christ, but there's another building against the church There's the
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Church of Christ that Jesus builds and there's another building that has a gate on it.
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That's in opposition So you've got a church building and you've got a
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Death building. It's got a gate. What do gates do? Why would he say gate?
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you've got the Church of Christ and the house of death and Jesus says this house of death will not overpower the church that he's building.
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Why would he say that? Why do you have gates?
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What do gates do well gates could protect? but in this case
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These gates of death keep people from escaping these gates of death are prison gates
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These gates of death do not allow people to go outside of that house. So what's
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Jesus saying? I'm building my church and you know what happened no matter what in this world with the corrupt world with the evil system with false
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Teaching with satanic influences and the ultimate enemy. What's the ultimate enemy in life?
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Death death is not going to overpower me from building my church because the gates that keep in the dead people cannot
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What? Keep them in any longer When you see the word
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Hades or Sheol in the Old Testament are new it means death Doesn't mean hell it means death
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Jesus says your biggest enemy death is no longer master because what he's going to say to them in 21 and following I'm going to be raised from the dead
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Let's turn to Acts chapter 2 for a moment. You all know that Jesus Survived death and so too will the church
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Prevail and survive because Jesus breaks through these protective gates that keep in death and keep us in prison
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He's have victory over the grave Acts chapter 2 verse 24 and 31 Verses that I know, you know
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But I want you to know that there is no longer any strength that death can claim over us
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For that matter fear of death Acts chapter 2 verse 24 It was what impossible for Jesus to be held in death's what?
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power Raised from the dead. How about verse 31 was Jesus?
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Abandoned to this house called death and stuck in its gates Rotting away inside this like all corpses do the text says in verse 31.
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He was not what? Abandoned to Hades he was in fact Raised up Jesus says
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I'm going to die soon but I want you to know I will build my church and this thing called death that keeps people in with its gates and Keeps them locked up like prisoners in a jail is no longer powerful
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The world may become decadent But as many as the father gives to me, they're going to come now if you go back to Matthew chapter 16
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I want to show you just how committed Jesus is with a statement. It's emphatic. It shows a promise
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He says I will build my church Do you notice the text does not say Peter and I will build it
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It doesn't say Buddha and I will build it it doesn't say Moses and I will build it
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It doesn't say Elijah and I will build it. It doesn't say John the Baptist and I will build it
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It doesn't say the great builder Herod himself and I will build it It doesn't say Mary and I will build it.
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It says the church of of The government will build it. No, there's no such thing.
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The Church of Rome will build it It says, He says, I will build this church. And what's
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He call the church? My church.
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That sounded like my in the back. That was right. It's my church. The intimacy and the closeness.
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As Jesus calls the Father, Father, and we're allowed to call Him Abba, this is the same kind of intimacy where Jesus says, this is my church.
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Probably have a little nickname for your wife, don't you? If you love her and ever some, you know, you call her honey or something.
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I don't really want to know what you call her. You can keep that between the two of you. But as a groom talks to a bride and a head talks to the body, as it were, here is this church that Jesus is going to build.
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It's organic. It's not a thing. It says, I'm going to build this church.
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Hell is not going to stop it. That's true, but that's not what the text is saying.
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Death isn't going to stop it. Why? Because death couldn't stop Jesus. Yes. Death is no longer a master over him.
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Romans 6, 9. Romans 8, 2. The Lord has conquered sin and death on our behalf.
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How about this one? Hebrews 2, 14. Since then the children share in flesh and blood. Jesus himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
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I could say to you like we say on Resurrection Sunday, on Easter Sunday, death is swallowed up in victory.
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Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is law, but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing, including death, can stop the church.
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Jesus says, I'm that committed. It's going to take my death, yes, to build this church, but nothing can stop me from building this church.
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It's unstoppable. Thy kingdom will come. Jesus is committed to the church, number one, to build it, number two, to pray for it.
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Why don't we turn to Hebrews chapter 7? Jesus is committed to the local church so much so that he prays for the church and he prays for people in particular.
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Someone said to me a while ago, every Monday I pray for my pastors. I thought there couldn't be a better Christmas gift than that.
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I've met people in my life who have been older and they have said to me, every day I have prayed for you.
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What kind of gift is that? Just the best gift. And then these dear saints who have said,
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I prayed for you every day have died and I thought, who would take over their place? We need these prayer warriors that keep the arms of our
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Moses -like body up. I'm glad for saints who pray for me, but Jesus prays for us.
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Hebrews 7 .25, therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him.
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Hebrews 7 .25. Why? Speaking of Jesus, since he always lives to make intercession for them, what does
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Jesus do? He lives to make intercession for us. That is his life's pinnacle, as it were, if I could speak that way.
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Verse 26, do priests pray? Do pastors pray? Verse 26, for it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, one who makes intercession, who one who goes in between.
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Holy Jesus is, innocent Jesus is, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.
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And John 17 is the same thing. Jesus is committed to pray for the church. He builds it.
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He prays for it. He dies for it. Let's turn to Philippians chapter two, and then we'll get to the response.
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If Jesus is committed to the church, should we be? Philippians chapter two.
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Jesus doesn't just build the church. He doesn't just pray for the church. He dies for her. Now, I love war movies and now being in Germany for so long and Belgium and Luxembourg and all these places.
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I'm fascinated by World War I. and World War II and how you can train up armies, both allied armies and non -allied armies so men could go in and they could be obedient to the point of death.
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How'd you like to get that command from your sergeant? You know, go take that hill and you know you have to go and you know you're going to die.
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And the men did it anyway because of their training, didn't they? Here's the exact same kind of thing, except on a huge, with a huge proportional difference.
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Philippians 2 .5. It's talking about Christ and what kind of attitude we're supposed to have. Describing Christ, verse six of Philippians 2, who, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant.
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How did he empty himself? He subtracted by addition, as it were. The subtraction was the emptying, but it was done by taking the form of a bondslave and being made in the likeness of men.
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Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming what? Obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Could there be more profounder evidence of someone's love and obedience than going to die?
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But the text doesn't just stop there. What kind of death was it? It was despised death.
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It was a cursed death. It was the death of a shameful one. And you wouldn't even want to talk about it.
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If you were walking down the street and saw someone crucified, you would take your children and say, just like you do if a
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TV commercial comes on, you're like, everybody stop. That's what we do at our house. You're watching the game or something, something sinful like that, you know, at home on a
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Saturday night watching a game. Just kidding. Some commercial comes on and the
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Ebendroth rule is what? You've got to put your ears, your fingers in your ears, and you've got to close your eyes and you've got to make some kind of sound.
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Um, you know, something. So you can't see what's coming out of this cathode ray tube or whatever it is these days.
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Don't look. It's shameful to talk that way. It's shameful to look at something like that.
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And if you were walking down the streets or the cobblestones of Jerusalem and outside the city, you saw some people crucified, they're naked.
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You would say, not just because of the nakedness, but because how horrible it was. You would say, you know what?
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Nakedness isn't the issue. Agony isn't an issue. That person on the cross deserved it.
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And they're full of shame. Don't look at such a person. It's a stumbling block.
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Deuteronomy says, you know what? You put the curse people up there. But when it's obedience to the father, verse 29, excuse me, verse nine, chapter two.
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For this reason, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name, which is above every name.
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All language that shows he's alive now. This is not some postscript. This is not this name we gave him in honor.
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So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is
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Lord. Jesus loved the church. He said, I'll build it. He said, I'll pray for it.
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I'll die for her. I'll be raised from the dead. Teach her.
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There's all kinds of things Jesus did. But I have a question for you. Since Jesus is committed to the church, are you committed?
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How can you show that you're committed to the church? Well, let me give you several responses. This is just very simple.
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For those of you that have been around for any time, you're going to say, oh, I knew this. Well, if you know it, let's do what
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Pastor Dave said at Sunday school. Let's try to live it out. And then we have something to teach others who don't know it.
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Jesus is committed to the church. That's revelation from God. When there's revelation from God, God expects us to respond.
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And in this case, with joyful obedience. How are you committed to the church?
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In order of importance, number one, are you born again?
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You can't be committed to a church if you're not in it. You can't be committed to something if you're not even a part of it.
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It's hard to be committed to a spouse if you're not married, true? That makes sense?
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Of course it does. People say, oh, I'm committed to Jesus. But I'm not really a
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Christian. Did you know the Bible says there's no middle ground? That you're either a saint or you're an ain't.
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You're either in or out. There's no so -called Christians.
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There's no maybe Christians. There's no sometime Christians. There's no Christmas and Easter Christians.
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There's no I'm in trouble and therefore I need the Lord at this particular moment foxhole Christians. There's no insurance
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Christians who want to be out of hell but not wanna live for Christ. There's no Christians that don't follow
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Christ. There's no non -lordship Christians. There's no state of living in carnality Christians.
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There's either a Christian or there's not a Christian and the Christian is in the local church, in the universal church and the non -Christian is not.
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I don't know why Christianity does this, but there's a thing going around Christianity now that here's what we call unbelievers.
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We don't call them what Jesus called them. We don't call them what Paul called them. We of course wanna be nice to them and everything and they could even be our family members.
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But whatever you do, don't call a non -Christian a pre -Christian.
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Why do we call them pre -Christians? We don't know if God's going to save them or not. We should call them opportunities.
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We should call them we love you. We should call them all kinds of things but don't call them pre -Christians. Why is this the most important?
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It's the most important because people can think they're committed to Jesus when they're baptized, but they're not believers.
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When they're catechized, but they're not believers. When they're confirmed, but they're not believers. Before I got saved in 1989,
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I had been to Galeana, Mexico on a missions trip preaching to people how they need to have their sins forgiven by believing in Christ Jesus.
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You can do all that and still not be a Christian. You say, well, that's what I like to do.
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This is kind of like my MO because if I do it this way, I can still sin and my conscience doesn't kill me.
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Because who likes to be in the middle of the sin and have your conscience go like this? Have a bunch of Bible verses flood into your mind.
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It kind of spoils the pleasures of sin, doesn't it? It's hard to sleep at night. But there's a king in this universe and his name is
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God the Father. And he has rules and obligations for the kingdom. And in this kingdom, he says, you don't come in by having some water put on your head.
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You don't come in by preaching the gospel. You don't come in by confirmation, catechism or anything else.
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You come in by one way. Here's my son, he's the prince. He actually has all my kingly authority and I call him the king of kings.
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And you should look to him and say, he's wonderful. He's attractive. He's a sacrificial lover of souls and he's been raised from the dead.
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He has power over death. And he's the only one I can hope that will save me. God, save me. That's what the king says.
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Some people say, well, you know what? I'm a Christian and I'm committed to Jesus and committed to the church. Even though I'm not a
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Christian, they said I'm committed because my parents told me I was. My pastor told me I was. My priest told me
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I was. I can remember walking into my church. It was a high liturgical church. And the pastor would say, after communion, he'd hand me communion.
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And I remember the day that I was out till probably five in the morning, getting drunk when I was younger.
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And my mom says, you know what? You're supposed to be in at one o 'clock. You were in at five o 'clock. And I can still smell the alcohol in your breath.
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Here's your punishment, church. All right, so I go and she's like, here's the extra punishment.
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This is nothing to be said for these families right here. You're sitting in the front row. I'm thinking,
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I can't even hardly talk because I've got some kind of MD 2020 breath or something stupid. I'm just walking around and mom says, all right, it happens to be communion
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Sunday. Thought I'm in. I went up, hands out like this because you wouldn't want to drop the host or anything.
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This is Christ's body shed for you. Then come to find out, here comes the wine.
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That's all I needed, right? Like, all right. You know, flashing back thinking, oh yeah.
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Remember on that camping trip to Colorado when we went with the church and then the pastor went into town to buy some groceries and we stole this communion wine and drank it?
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All these things flashing in my mind. So he hands it to me and he says, the blood of Christ shed for you.
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And I remember taking that little cup, kneeling down at the front and I drink that thing down. And of course, wine makes you warm and I could feel forgiveness flow through my body.
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The pastor then said, looked at all of us, by the authority vested in me, I now pronounce your sins forgiven.
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Go in peace, serve the Lord. And there was a jump to my step.
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I was so happy because I was forgiven of those transgressions of disobedience to my parents, stealing the wine, all these other things.
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You can feel committed to the church, but you can hear from Jesus in Matthew 7. Depart from me,
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I never knew you. Of course, he with his mind, all knowing mind, knows who you are, but he doesn't know you in an intimate way.
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And the only intimate way to get to the king who sets on the throne, through his son.
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Belief on his son. And belief is manifested many ways in the Bible. A trust, a following, a forsaking of sin and running to God with confession, saying you are
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Lord, I'm not Lord. Following what
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Peter said. He says, you are the one that has the words of eternal life. Friends, if you're not born again, if you're not a believer, you're not in the church, you're not committed to the church and therefore you're not committed to Jesus.
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And if you're not committed to Jesus, he's not committed to you. Number two, what's the second step of the ladder of commitment?
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And as I say commitment to the church, I should have just thrown this out and I should have said commitment to Jesus because Jesus and the church are inseparable as the head is to the body, as the groom is to the bride.
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Are you committed to Jesus Christ? And it will show itself by being committed to the church.
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Where is Jesus today? Does he have a body today? Of course he has a body, but where is that body?
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In heaven. How can you show commitment to Jesus who's in heaven? Well, Matthew 25 and other passages talk about how we show commitment to the church, other
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Christians. And when I say church, I don't mean this building, I mean this building. According to 1
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Corinthians 3, the building of the saints, people. Jesus was so committed, he built the church.
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He prayed for the church. He died for the church. He was raised from the church. And we show response would be number one, believe, response number two, and in this order and only this order, be baptized.
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Are you baptized? Are you baptized? If so, I'm so happy because most of us here have been born again.
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We rejoice that God would place us into the church, that he would pick us for a bride like we saw last week, that he would choose us as a love gift.
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Some of you are baptized. I've had the privilege of baptizing many of you. How many people have I got to actually baptize in this congregation?
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What a thrill. I may have forgotten, but you haven't forgotten. I said to somebody a while ago, well, when are you gonna get baptized?
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And they said, pastor, you baptized us? Oh yeah. No. Did you know the first step of obedience after believing is baptism?
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Did you know it's not Mozambique mission strip? Did you know it's not being good?
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Did you know it's not communion? Did you know it's not having a ministry? Did you know it's not even attending a church service?
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In my notes, I say, no manipulation. I don't wanna manipulate you, but I wanna tell you what the
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Bible says. If you're not baptized, you're not committed to the church. Does that mean you're not a
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Christian? No, I didn't say that. But baptism shows a commitment to the local church.
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Did you know baptism was tied to the great commission? Let's go there for a minute, Matthew 28. Baptism and commitment to Jesus can be shown in the great commission.
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Baptism is tied to the great commission. We're gonna talk about baptism a little bit. And I think we're gonna have a baptismal service next
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Sunday is my prediction. Could be wrong. We're gonna talk about a little bit this week and next.
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What is baptism? Why should we do it? But it shows commitment to Jesus and his church because it's tied into the great commission.
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Matthew 28, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. What? Baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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Would you say that's a pretty fundamental statement by Jesus Christ? Would you say it's pretty basic? Would you say it's pretty important?
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He could have left it out. He could have left the statement out. He could have left baptism out. Did you know when you thought about things in the
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Bible days, that belief so was followed by baptism, so closely followed by baptism, it was almost seen as one organic whole.
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So much so that Peter would say, you need to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
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Because when you were believing, you were baptized. The Bible never knew someone of, well,
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I know all the facts, but I'm just too nervous to get up in front of the group. And therefore I can't, you know, I'm not a good speaker or anything like that.
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They didn't know anything like that. It was tied to the great commission. How do you make disciples? Going, yes.
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Teaching, yes. But by baptizing. According to this verse, you're not technically a follower if you don't follow the first thing
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Jesus said. Jesus didn't say, the first thing I want you to do is go tell all your work friends about me. That'd be great on company time.
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No, on your own personal time. By the way, go to those special potluck dinners at the church because boy, they can cook up a storm over there.
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No, it's repent and what? Be baptized. Of course, baptism doesn't save because baptism is something we do and we know salvation is a work from God.
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But these days, we've so far removed baptism from belief to make it some kind of second step of obedience or maybe when we get around to it.
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I mean, you show the Ethiopian eunuch some water after teaching him, what does he do? What prevents me from being baptized?
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My old pastor said, we know what New Testament baptism is. It's a person repenting, believing, embracing
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Christ. Spiritually, they therefore are united with Christ and that is symbolized as they go down into the water and rise.
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I have a question for you. What does the word baptism mean? Baptism means what?
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To sprinkle. No, there's a word in the Bible for sprinkle. That's not the word.
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It means to what? Take a fire hose out and spray everybody down. Do you know what church did that?
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2 ,000 people, crazy church were having a baptismal service and the pastor got up on the stage and got a big fire hose and turned that thing on.
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It was a mass 2 ,000 person baptism. How could
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I make that up? You're laughing, you think I made it up. Well, there was a problem too when the
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Bibles were first being written in English. The people that translated the Bible from Greek to English believed in what?
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They believed in infant baptism. They believed about sprinkling. So if you take a word baptism that John Calvin, a baby sprinkler, even said means to dunk.
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It's like a ship that sinks underwater. If you take a word that means to dunk, when you sprinkle, you've got a problem.
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So here's what you do to remain honest and faithful. You say to yourself, I won't translate it, dunk or immerse.
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I'll transliterate it from baptism in the Greek to baptism in English. So when you read it, there's just a new word.
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There's no such thing as an English word that means baptism until the translator said, well, you know, we just better call it the
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Greek word because if we call it the English word, dunk, you're gonna have a bunch of dunkers. You know what
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I was gonna say after that, but I'm not gonna say it. And here's the picture. Two words that summarize
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Christianity. In Christ, yes? That's Ephesians.
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What's Ephesians about? In Christ. God the Father, God the
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Son, and God the Spirit take the sinner, wash him off, cleanse her, and then he places him or her into the church.
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And then that person says, I will show with my body and with water what you have done to me spiritually without water.
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You have baptized me into the body of Christ without water by your own hands.
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And now I'm going to be baptized in water with someone else's hands to show what happened in my heart.
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Yes? That's exactly right. I'm going to show you that I believed in what
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Jesus did for me and I got all his righteousness. He got all my sins. Jesus was raised from the dead and they're going to put me down into the water like it's a dead grave.
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And then they're gonna pull me up out of the water like I'm rising in what? Newness of life.
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And that's the first thing Jesus says to do. The very first thing. He doesn't say have sprinkling.
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He doesn't say have fire hosing. He doesn't say anything. He says with a command, be baptized.
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How about this statement? You think I'm hard? F .F. Bruce, the idea of an unbaptized believer does not seem to be entertained in the
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New Testament. How about Charles Ryrie? The early church never conceived of a believer remaining unbaptized.
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At the core, baptism means this. I am identifying with Christ.
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That's what it means. Christ has identified with me. He stooped so low to come and die for me with faithful sacrificial love.
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And in response to that, to show that spiritual truth that's invisible with visible water and tangible people,
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I'm going to be dunked into old life, which means dead. It's like I'm going into the grave. And then
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I'm gonna be raised up to show that I am identified with Christ. It is like a wife and a husband.
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I get to marry many people. And well, I don't marry them. I officiate. That's like when the kids, when they were really little, they'd say,
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Daddy, you have a wedding Saturday? Yes. Well, what do you mean you're gonna marry someone and you're married to Mama?
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Well, I'm going to officiate. When I officiate a wedding, it's great to go through the whole thing.
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I mean, I can put myself in the groom's spot. Kim's foster father, Glennon Colwell, who was a pretty strict, he is a pretty strict conservative
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Baptist preacher, and he gave me all these commands that the husband was supposed to do for the wife. And then he said, those are pretty big shoes to live up to, don't you think?
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And by then it was broadcast news sweat coming out of my head. I mean, I was so nervous.
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And after all of that, I had to read my vows. And then I had to say those two words that would last forever in a good way.
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I do. And what would you ever think of a husband who has given all those commands in a
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Christian worship service and given all those things? I've never yet seen it in my life. People maybe run out of the church before they're married and escape and trying to find a life of bliss according to 1
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Corinthians 7. But they've done that, but they've never stood there and heard it in front of their spouse -to -be and said, won't do it.
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No. Nine. Nyet. Nada.
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Nunca. Whatever words you want. What would you think? Well, you know where I'm going.
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You know exactly where I'm going. If you call yourself a Christian and you have not been able to stand in the waters of baptism which says
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I do, you're in sin. You're showing you're not committed.
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You say, well, you know, it's kind of harsh. Friends, I didn't write the
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Bible. The text is always believe and be baptized, believe and be baptized, believe and be baptized.
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And we've got a huge problem in the local church and that is people think that they can keep their Lutheran, Catholic, Mormon baptism when they were a kid.
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Friends, here's the challenge. Does the Bible ever say, A, infants should be baptized? Never.
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Does the Bible say, B, you should ever be baptized before you believe? Can you imagine?
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It's like, let's use the analogy again. You're up here for the wedding. There stand the husband and he's never met the spouse before.
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He's six months old and you got to kind of prop him up a little bit. I remember when we first took Gracie's picture for the passports years ago and she couldn't sit there on the chair for the passports.
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So the passport picture kind of has my hand or Kim's hand up there kind of like, here's
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Gracie and she's like this. And then four years later, you're in front of the security guards at the airport and they're like,
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I don't see the resemblance. But anyway, what is all that? That's nothing. It's me just preaching and going out.
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Can you imagine? Six month old baby. I do. There's no husband.
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They don't know anything. It's who's making them do it. It's the parents.
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Friends, the only baptism in the Bible is a believer's baptism. So then Acts 2, those who had received his word were baptized.
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Acts 8, but when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom and in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized.
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Acts 16, they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house and immediately he was baptized.
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So you see, well, it's the whole household. Every time you see the household words used in the text, there were belief and there were baptism in the household.
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Even R .C. Sproul said the household argument is weak. Jesus said, let the children alone and do not hinder them from coming to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
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And then he got some water and he sprinkled it on their head. You can't use that verse for baptism.
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He didn't do it. For me, it was this that I had to work through and then we've got to wrap this up.
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The last two weeks I've preached, people have said to me, my sermons aren't as long as they should be. So this is for you two people. The rest of you indulge me.
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You can't leave early because the Patriots already won. I was torn between having them win or having that idol that has clay feet fall before us.
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I don't even know what I'm saying. If you take a baby and you sprinkle some water on their head,
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A, that's not the right mode of baptism. B, it's not scriptural because it doesn't say to be sprinkled first and then believe.
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It says, believe and be baptized. Somebody says, well, you know, it doesn't tell me in the
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Bible I shouldn't do that. Well, listen to what one man said. It is clear enough for him who has eyes to see it, but it is not expressed in so many words.
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Do not baptize infants. May one of them baptize them? To that I answer.
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If so, I may baptize my dog or my donkey or I may circumcise girls. I may make idols out of St.
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Paul and St. Peter. I may bring infants to the Lord's Supper, bless palm branches, vegetables, salt, land and water, sell the mass for an offering.
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For it is nowhere said in express words that we must not do these things, end quote. And the problem is
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I grow up and I think, you know, I've been baptized as a kid, therefore I don't need to do it because who wants the hubbub?
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Who wants me to stand up in front of everyone and say, I love Jesus Christ? But the issue is commitment to the church.
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The issue is Jesus was so committed to the church. If you're not baptized, you're not committed.
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In the old days, they didn't say, you know, if I had to be baptized, I was gonna have to stand up in front of everybody and I'm nervous.
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Here's what they would say. My parents are gonna kick me out of the family. I'm out of the synagogue.
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I can't trade with other Jewish people because the bartering power's over and I might as well go be a leper living on Patmos because I am excommunicated from my entire family, finances, and friends.
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And Jesus said, I love you and have shown you my love at Calvary. Do you love me?
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Answer number one, yes, Lord, I believe. Answer number two that follows belief every single time is, yes,
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Lord, I'll be baptized. Infant baptism did not occur until the second or third century, according to infant
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Baptists. Now, you say, well, this is high pressure.
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Here's what I'd like you to do. I'd like you to go do a study at home if you're not baptized and study and say, if Pastor Mike is right,
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I've got business to do with the Lord. Lord, I don't wanna be baptized. I'm too nervous. I don't know if I can say
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I do or not. I really am a believer in you and I followed you and I think that can happen. You can have disobedient
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Christians who need to be baptized, but Lord, I need help and I need resolve and I need strength.
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And this is going to be the year that if you say something in Scripture, I'm gonna do it right away. I wanna be baptized. I think there's only one way to, one reason to ever, ever wait for baptism.
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I'm not so sure I even like my own answer. And that is if next week you wanna be baptized, but in two weeks from now, your friends and family can come because they need to hear your testimony, then maybe wait two or three weeks.
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Baptism, if I haven't said it before, does not save. Martin Luther was wrong when he said, baptism establishes a new relationship with God.
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How can that be when Jesus says, believe first? Catholic Catechism, page 321 says, by baptism, all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin.
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We're gonna have to decide either the Catholic Catechism's right or the Bible's right, and you'll see there's a difference.
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Are you baptized? Some of you aren't baptized because you're not a
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Christian. Some of you aren't baptized because you think a non -form of baptism called sprinkling before you were a believer counts.
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I say, look at Scripture. You say, well, aren't you friends with R .C.
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Sproul and Presbyterians? Of course I am, I love them. But either they're right or I'm right, but we're both not right.
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Study to show yourselves approved. Jesus said in John 14, 15, if you love me, you will what?
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Keep my commandments. Next week, we're gonna look at something else, and that something else is going to be membership.
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And we're gonna look at the passages where people say, the onus is on you to show me where I have to be a member, and we'll find out next week that those people are mistaken.
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Jesus loved the church. Do you love the church? Do you love the church?
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Well, the only way we could know if you love the church is initially, I believe Jesus is Lord, and secondarily, you say,
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I do. And short of that, if you're not baptized, if someone came up to you and said, are you even a
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Christian? Your first response, which would be to slug them, you should refrain from that, number one.
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But number two, you should say, I can't believe somebody would be so concerned about my soul that they would come alongside and challenge me.
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If you've got a friend in this church who hasn't been baptized, I'd say go to them and help them. Go to them and come alongside of them.
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Because you know what? You can audit sermons. Everyone here can audit the sermon. But it's harder to audit friends who come alongside and say,
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I love you enough to tell you the truth. And I'll sacrifice saving face with you by telling you the truth and teach you what does the
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Bible say about baptism? The one who says, I've come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
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Anybody that wants to be baptized, call one of the pastors today or tomorrow, and we're gonna have a baptismal service next week.
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For pressure, no. For quick obedience, yes. And don't we all love a baptism?
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Just like we love a marriage where the husband and a wife are given the vows to love this person all the days of their life, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, for in sickness and in health, and the person responds with what?
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I do. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for our text today, showing
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Christ's great building of the church. Lord, I know
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I'm excited about obedience and wanting to do the right thing when it comes to baptism. And I would first pray that no one here would be baptized,
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A, before they're a believer, but B, not because I'm haranguing or after, scolding somehow.
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Father, I just want to be enthusiastic when it comes to your text, and Lord, may your spirit take these words and convince these folks, these dear people, that it is always by immersion, it is always after salvation.
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And Lord, I would pray for myself and for others on a personal basis as we have friends of Reformed faith and covenant theologians, and even people here in our own church who don't believe like we do, that we would exercise grace and humility, because if we are right, we are only right because you have shown us these things.
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Just like you showed Peter that Jesus Christ was a son of the living God. Help us as we learn not to be puffed up.
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That is one of our problems at our own church right here, Lord, and we would confess that we know more than what we do, and we want to live in a way that is humble towards others, yet passionate, in Jesus' name.