- The speaker discusses the significance of baptism and why it is worth celebrating.
- Baptism fulfills the objectives of the church's ministry and the prayers of parents, families, and ministry leaders.
- Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize in his final words before ascending to heaven.
- Baptism is a sign of the new covenant and signifies being engrafted into Christ, regeneration of the heart, remission of sins, and surrendering to God.
- The speaker mentions specific individuals who are being baptized and emphasizes their inclusion in the "book of Acts" and the communion of saints.
- The audience is encouraged to be grateful for the new heart, destiny, purpose, and access to the mind of Christ that baptism brings.

- Believers in Christ have access to the wisdom and understanding of God through the Holy Spirit.
- Gratitude should be cultivated as a discipline and practiced regularly.
- Communion is a way to express gratefulness for Jesus' sacrifice and enhance our identity as Christians.
- Bearing fruit and displaying the characteristics of Christ is evidence of a person's transformation in Christ.
- It is important to prioritize the things that are important to God and serve His purposes.
- We should strive to be good examples and influencers for Christ, even if it means facing opposition.
- Trials and testing of faith lead to steadfastness and completeness in Christ.
- Being active, grateful, and an example will bring glory to God.

So, my message this morning is baptism, a reason for celebration worth contemplating.

A reason for celebration worth contemplating.

I don't know about you, but it makes me very happy and excited whenever we are having baptisms.

I wondered about the use of the word celebration to describe baptism because it is a very sacred event.

But as we were sharing this morning of breaking of bread, Dave Brereton read the story of the prodigal son.

And when the son came back, the father was quick to meet him halfway.

So we have all the right to be celebrating today since it fulfills 1 of the main objectives of our church's ministry.

Baptism is a result of all the activities and programs we run, all the meetings we have, all the thoughtful actions of each member of our assembly.

It also involves the larger Christian community, like camp ministries, some of them are present here today, and that we'll hear about in the testimonies.

It fulfills what parents, families, ministry leaders pray for to see 1 day happen in the lives of the people they they care about and they've invested in for many years.

Most of all it fulfills what Jesus commanded his disciples to do in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20 where Jesus says to his disciples in his final words before his ascension, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." It is significant that Jesus prefaced his mandate by telling his disciples, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

In all of his teaching until this, the time of his crucifixion, Jesus never commanded baptism, but he did so here.

Having risen from the grave, he had the authority because of his finished work to create a new sign for a new covenant and he did just that by commanding baptism.

It was given to those who were under the law, the Jewish people.

The law was temporary and was limited in its ability to save people from their sins and to live in the right relationship with God.

The New Covenant would fulfill the prophecy that is in Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34 that God would write his law into the people's hearts and would remember their sin no more.

That is why we describe baptism as an outward sign of an inward change.

Because when 1 truly repents of their sin and places their faith in Christ, they receive a new heart that will ultimately affect the course of their lives.

This is the biggest reason we have to celebrate this morning.

These 5 individuals, at some point, have had this experience.

They have entered the covenant of grace and want to testify to that by being obedient to Christ's command to be baptized in front of you whom they consider their home church.

Since baptism is a sign of a new and better covenant, it signifies all the blessings that come with that covenant.

Consider these 4 things that baptism signifies.

First thing is being engrafted into Christ.

To be engrafted in Christ means to be spiritually connected and united with him.

It refers to the concept of believers being joined to Jesus Christ like a branch being grafted into a tree.

This metaphor is derived from agricultural practices where the branch of 1 plant is inserted in the trunk or stem of another so that they grow together as 1.

Paul uses that metaphor in Romans 11.25 to describe the fact that what was once dead, a wild olive branch, has been made alive by the root it has been infused in.

So that was what was disconnected is now reconnected to the host which is Jesus Christ.

Being engrafted in Christ implies that now believers can have a deep and intimate relationship with him, sharing in his life, his nature, and his identity.

It signifies a union where the believers receive the benefits and blessings of salvation, including forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ enter into a spiritual union with him, so that we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

Because of this, we experience what the Apostles Creed calls the communion of saints.

This means we have a mystical union with every Christian who has ever lived or will ever live in this world because we all belong to 1 body.

We are adopted into a spiritual family, has been as is exemplified in this gathering.

Since April, we've been teaching in the Book of Acts, and last week, we spoke of the last people who got baptized in Acts 19.

The timing of these baptisms this morning couldn't have been better.

It just happened that it was the last baptisms last week that we see in the Book of Acts.

And so this morning, the chapters keep being written.

The chapters of redemptive history continue, and they include Ella Morton, they include Megan McCarrick.

They include Rina Luccarelli, they include Vince Charavella, and they include Marc-Anthony Lettieri.

You are now in the same book as all the greats, the Roman centurion, Lydia, Paul, Silas, Timothy.

The second thing that baptism signifies is regeneration of the heart.

Regeneration of the heart refers to the spiritual transformation that occurs in a person when they become a believer in Christ.

It is a process by which God restores and renews the human heart, causing a change in desires, affections, and attitudes.

In the Bible, regeneration is described as being born again or being made new in Christ.

It is a supernatural work of God's grace accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When a person is regenerated, their heart which was previously hardened or dead in sin is made alive and receptive to God's truth.

The transformation involves a radical change at the core of one's being.

The old sinful nature is replaced with a new nature that desires to love and obey God.

Regeneration causes 1 to turn away from sin and replace it with a desire to pursue righteousness.

The process of regeneration coincides with faith in Jesus Christ and the reception of salvation.

It is a necessary and foundational step in the Christian journey as it initiates a personal relationship with God and empowers believers to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

The third significance of the confession identifies as remission of sins.

In other words, it is a sign of 1 of the consequences of our faith in Christ, which is justification.

When God justifies us, he declares us just by the remission of sins.

In other words, God took the penalty for our sins.

Take the example of hockey, and when a goalie draws a penalty, someone else sits in the penalty box for something that he is responsible for.

When Christ went to the cross, He paid the price for what we were responsible for.

Jesus took our sins upon himself and satisfied the demands of God's justice through his atoning work.

So On the 1 hand, Jesus' death on the cross satisfied the justice of the Father.

On the other hand, like the Old Testament scapegoat to which the sins of people were ceremonially transferred and the scapegoat was sent into the darkness outside the camp, Jesus became our scapegoat who removed our sins as far as the east is from the west, the Bible says.

When baptism is administered, the promise of God to remit our sins once and for all is signified.

We no longer live for ourselves but live for God.

Having been raised with him, with Christ and our mystical union with him, we are raised in new life with new hearts that are able to choose God's ways.

Rather than working solely to satisfy our own desires, we choose to align ourselves as instruments of God and play a significant role in restoring a harmonious connection between the Creator and all beings that are created in his image.

For those of you who are being baptized this morning, and those of you in the audience as well, I wanna leave you with 3 things to contemplate in response to all what I shared so far.

In addition to receiving a new heart, a new destiny, and a new purpose, you have also been given access to the mind of Christ.

Paul is emphasizing that as believers in Christ, we have been given access to the wisdom and understanding of God through the Holy Spirit.

The wisdom will help you to make decisions, discern truth, and navigate through the complexities of life.

When you consider this entire package of benefits, there is much to be thankful for, isn't there?

As Christians, we are in fact commanded to cultivate a heart of gratitude in response to this.

It's not a suggestion, by the way, it's a directive.

That means it should be viewed as a discipline.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18, it says, "'Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, "'give thanks in all circumstances, "'for this is the will of God in Christ for you.

The Lord himself wanted us to practice a form of gratefulness by instituting the Lord's Supper.

Communion is the other ordinance we practice in our church.

If you believe in Christ, it is an opportunity to express your gratefulness for Jesus' sacrifice and the salvation it offers.

By doing so, it helps to sustain and enhance your identity as persons in Christ.

Participating regularly not only makes you obedient to what the Lord commanded, but provides more opportunity for repentance, contemplation, and thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is not something we celebrate once a year, here in October, in the U.S., in November.

It's not something we give thanks for whenever something good happens.

It is something that we should consider every moment, every day, and especially when we meet at the Lord's table.

The second thing to contemplate is be active.

Since we talked about being engrafted into Christ before and as branches that are fused into his root, it makes sense that we should therefore bear fruit and display characteristics and virtues of Christ in our lives.

1 of the clearest pieces of evidence of a person's transformation in Christ is if they are bearing fruit.

If you are not bearing fruit, then consider if you have truly experienced genuine repentance, or if you might be quenching the Holy Spirit.

That's what James talks about when he says, "'Faith apart from works is dead.' "'Be therefore active in your faith "'by prioritizing the things that are important to God.

1 of the best things that can be said about us is what the Bible says about David in Acts 13, 36.

It says, while he was alive, He served the purposes of God in his generation.

That verse has spoken to me many times in my life.

I have to think about that, and if that was written on my tombstone, would it accurately describe what I've done in my life?

Sometimes I like to take a walk in cemeteries.

If anybody took that verse and wrote it on their tombstone, That would be pretty cool.

But I really pray and hope that at the end of the, when we reach the end of our days, that we can say that about ourselves, or that others, more importantly, could say that about us.

We all have a brief window to do the things, to do what is important, and it's easy to get distracted with the useless things.

It is incumbent on us to surrender those desires with the things that serves God's purposes.

In 1 Corinthians 4.16, Paul urges the Corinthians to be imitators of him.

He's not saying that out of vain conceit, but rather as a way to point to Christ as the 1 responsible for the work that was done in him.

He says, look at the choices I have made as 1 appointed by God to be a light to the Gentiles.

He exhorts them to follow that example amongst those they are serving and ministering to.

Recently we went to a conference for leaders and the speaker Alexander Strzok reminded us of the importance of being a good example because people are watching.

He said if you get anything from this conference, he's talking to leaders here, he says people are watching you.

He quoted a statistic that every person has influence in 75,000 people in an average lifetime.

I dug deeper into this and started to look at other statistics out there and some sociologists would say that the most introverted person would have influence on 10,000 people.

Brothers and sisters, we are influencers.

Another word the Bible uses to describe us is ambassadors for Christ.

That means we have a serious role to play with an added opportunity to influence.

But being an influencer for God will not lead to get the kind of likes you get on social media.

In fact, you will probably get many dislikes for espousing and living out your beliefs, but that's part of the price to pay for the privilege of being in Christ and enjoying fullness of life in him.

James 1, 2 says it this way, it's right at the beginning of his letter, he says this.

Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete in everything.

There's a price to pay, but at the end of the day, you are going to be satisfied, perfect, and made, considered complete.

So I encourage you once again this morning to be an example, to be an example, be active, and to be grateful.

And in so doing, you will certainly bring glory to God.

Father, as we reflected this morning on the meaning of baptism, may it inspire us to reexamine our hearts and respond accordingly.

Help us choose our priorities wisely in a way that would align with your purposes.

We give you thanks now for all those who will be taking the step of baptism.

Thank you for how you have worked in each of their lives to bring them to this point.

Bless them, O Lord, for their obedience, and allow us to further contemplate your glory through their testimony.


Speaker 0: So, my message this morning is baptism, a reason for celebration worth contemplating. A reason for celebration worth contemplating. I don't know about you, but it makes me very happy and excited whenever we are having baptisms. I wondered about the use of the word celebration to describe baptism because it is a very sacred event. But as we were sharing this morning of breaking of bread, Dave Brereton read the story of the prodigal son.

And when the son came back, the father was quick to meet him halfway. And what did he do after? He celebrated. They celebrated the return of their son. So we have all the right to be celebrating today since it fulfills 1 of the main objectives of our church's ministry.

Baptism is a result of all the activities and programs we run, all the meetings we have, all the thoughtful actions of each member of our assembly. It also involves the larger Christian community, like camp ministries, some of them are present here today, and that we'll hear about in the testimonies. It fulfills what parents, families, ministry leaders pray for to see 1 day happen in the lives of the people they they care about and they've invested in for many years. Most of all it fulfills what Jesus commanded his disciples to do in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20 where Jesus says to his disciples in his final words before his ascension, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." It is significant that Jesus prefaced his mandate by telling his disciples, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

In all of his teaching until this, the time of his crucifixion, Jesus never commanded baptism, but he did so here. Having risen from the grave, he had the authority because of his finished work to create a new sign for a new covenant and he did just that by commanding baptism. The old sign was circumcision. It was given to those who were under the law, the Jewish people. The law was temporary and was limited in its ability to save people from their sins and to live in the right relationship with God.

The New Covenant would fulfill the prophecy that is in Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34 that God would write his law into the people's hearts and would remember their sin no more. That is why we describe baptism as an outward sign of an inward change. Because when 1 truly repents of their sin and places their faith in Christ, they receive a new heart that will ultimately affect the course of their lives. This is the biggest reason we have to celebrate this morning. These 5 individuals, at some point, have had this experience.

They have entered the covenant of grace and want to testify to that by being obedient to Christ's command to be baptized in front of you whom they consider their home church. Since baptism is a sign of a new and better covenant, it signifies all the blessings that come with that covenant. Consider these 4 things that baptism signifies. First thing is being engrafted into Christ. To be engrafted in Christ means to be spiritually connected and united with him.

It refers to the concept of believers being joined to Jesus Christ like a branch being grafted into a tree. This metaphor is derived from agricultural practices where the branch of 1 plant is inserted in the trunk or stem of another so that they grow together as 1. Paul uses that metaphor in Romans 11.25 to describe the fact that what was once dead, a wild olive branch, has been made alive by the root it has been infused in. So that was what was disconnected is now reconnected to the host which is Jesus Christ. Being engrafted in Christ implies that now believers can have a deep and intimate relationship with him, sharing in his life, his nature, and his identity.

It signifies a union where the believers receive the benefits and blessings of salvation, including forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ enter into a spiritual union with him, so that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Because of this, we experience what the Apostles Creed calls the communion of saints. This means we have a mystical union with every Christian who has ever lived or will ever live in this world because we all belong to 1 body. We are adopted into a spiritual family, has been as is exemplified in this gathering.

Since April, we've been teaching in the Book of Acts, and last week, we spoke of the last people who got baptized in Acts 19. The timing of these baptisms this morning couldn't have been better. We didn't even plan it this way. It just happened that it was the last baptisms last week that we see in the Book of Acts. And so this morning, the chapters keep being written.

The chapters of redemptive history continue, and they include Ella Morton, they include Megan McCarrick. You're smiling, that's good. They include Rina Luccarelli, they include Vince Charavella, and they include Marc-Anthony Lettieri. You are now in the same book as all the greats, the Roman centurion, Lydia, Paul, Silas, Timothy. That's a great group to be a part of.

The second thing that baptism signifies is regeneration of the heart. Regeneration of the heart refers to the spiritual transformation that occurs in a person when they become a believer in Christ. It is a process by which God restores and renews the human heart, causing a change in desires, affections, and attitudes. In the Bible, regeneration is described as being born again or being made new in Christ. It is a supernatural work of God's grace accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When a person is regenerated, their heart which was previously hardened or dead in sin is made alive and receptive to God's truth. The transformation involves a radical change at the core of one's being. The old sinful nature is replaced with a new nature that desires to love and obey God. Regeneration causes 1 to turn away from sin and replace it with a desire to pursue righteousness. The process of regeneration coincides with faith in Jesus Christ and the reception of salvation.

It is a necessary and foundational step in the Christian journey as it initiates a personal relationship with God and empowers believers to live a life that is pleasing to Him. The third significance of the confession identifies as remission of sins. In other words, it is a sign of 1 of the consequences of our faith in Christ, which is justification. When God justifies us, he declares us just by the remission of sins. In other words, God took the penalty for our sins.

Take the example of hockey, and when a goalie draws a penalty, someone else sits in the penalty box for something that he is responsible for. When Christ went to the cross, He paid the price for what we were responsible for. That's what justification means. Jesus took our sins upon himself and satisfied the demands of God's justice through his atoning work. So On the 1 hand, Jesus' death on the cross satisfied the justice of the Father.

On the other hand, like the Old Testament scapegoat to which the sins of people were ceremonially transferred and the scapegoat was sent into the darkness outside the camp, Jesus became our scapegoat who removed our sins as far as the east is from the west, the Bible says. When baptism is administered, the promise of God to remit our sins once and for all is signified. Finally, baptism points to surrender. We no longer live for ourselves but live for God. Having been raised with him, with Christ and our mystical union with him, we are raised in new life with new hearts that are able to choose God's ways.

Rather than working solely to satisfy our own desires, we choose to align ourselves as instruments of God and play a significant role in restoring a harmonious connection between the Creator and all beings that are created in his image. For those of you who are being baptized this morning, and those of you in the audience as well, I wanna leave you with 3 things to contemplate in response to all what I shared so far. Number 1, be grateful. In addition to receiving a new heart, a new destiny, and a new purpose, you have also been given access to the mind of Christ. It says in 1 Corinthians 2.16.

Paul is emphasizing that as believers in Christ, we have been given access to the wisdom and understanding of God through the Holy Spirit. The wisdom will help you to make decisions, discern truth, and navigate through the complexities of life. When you consider this entire package of benefits, there is much to be thankful for, isn't there? As Christians, we are in fact commanded to cultivate a heart of gratitude in response to this. It's not a suggestion, by the way, it's a directive.

That means it should be viewed as a discipline. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18, it says, "'Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, "'give thanks in all circumstances, "'for this is the will of God in Christ for you. The Lord himself wanted us to practice a form of gratefulness by instituting the Lord's Supper. Communion is the other ordinance we practice in our church. Baptism is the second.

If you believe in Christ, it is an opportunity to express your gratefulness for Jesus' sacrifice and the salvation it offers. By doing so, it helps to sustain and enhance your identity as persons in Christ. Participating regularly not only makes you obedient to what the Lord commanded, but provides more opportunity for repentance, contemplation, and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not something we celebrate once a year, here in October, in the U.S., in November. It's not something we give thanks for whenever something good happens.

Thank you, Lord. It is something that we should consider every moment, every day, and especially when we meet at the Lord's table. The second thing to contemplate is be active. Since we talked about being engrafted into Christ before and as branches that are fused into his root, it makes sense that we should therefore bear fruit and display characteristics and virtues of Christ in our lives. 1 of the clearest pieces of evidence of a person's transformation in Christ is if they are bearing fruit.

If you are not bearing fruit, then consider if you have truly experienced genuine repentance, or if you might be quenching the Holy Spirit. That's what James talks about when he says, "'Faith apart from works is dead.' "'Be therefore active in your faith "'by prioritizing the things that are important to God. 1 of the best things that can be said about us is what the Bible says about David in Acts 13, 36. It says, while he was alive, He served the purposes of God in his generation. That verse has spoken to me many times in my life.

I have to think about that, and if that was written on my tombstone, would it accurately describe what I've done in my life? Sometimes I like to take a walk in cemeteries. My wife thinks I'm weird. But I like it. I'm still looking for that.

If anybody took that verse and wrote it on their tombstone, That would be pretty cool. I've seen some cool ones. 1 that said, I told you I was sick. But I really pray and hope that at the end of the, when we reach the end of our days, that we can say that about ourselves, or that others, more importantly, could say that about us. We all have a brief window to do the things, to do what is important, and it's easy to get distracted with the useless things.

It is incumbent on us to surrender those desires with the things that serves God's purposes. The third thing is be an example. In 1 Corinthians 4.16, Paul urges the Corinthians to be imitators of him. He's not saying that out of vain conceit, but rather as a way to point to Christ as the 1 responsible for the work that was done in him. He says, look at the choices I have made as 1 appointed by God to be a light to the Gentiles.

He exhorts them to follow that example amongst those they are serving and ministering to. Recently we went to a conference for leaders and the speaker Alexander Strzok reminded us of the importance of being a good example because people are watching. People are watching. He said if you get anything from this conference, he's talking to leaders here, he says people are watching you. He quoted a statistic that every person has influence in 75,000 people in an average lifetime.

I dug deeper into this and started to look at other statistics out there and some sociologists would say that the most introverted person would have influence on 10,000 people. Brothers and sisters, we are influencers. We are influencers. You're all cool people. All right, You're all Fonzies.

Another word the Bible uses to describe us is ambassadors for Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ. Think about that. That means we have a serious role to play with an added opportunity to influence. But being an influencer for God will not lead to get the kind of likes you get on social media.

No. In fact, you will probably get many dislikes for espousing and living out your beliefs, but that's part of the price to pay for the privilege of being in Christ and enjoying fullness of life in him. James 1, 2 says it this way, it's right at the beginning of his letter, he says this. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete in everything. All right?

So that's what it leads to. There's a price to pay, but at the end of the day, you are going to be satisfied, perfect, and made, considered complete. So I encourage you once again this morning to be an example, to be an example, be active, and to be grateful. And in so doing, you will certainly bring glory to God. Amen?

Amen. Let's pray. Father, as we reflected this morning on the meaning of baptism, may it inspire us to reexamine our hearts and respond accordingly. Help us choose our priorities wisely in a way that would align with your purposes. We give you thanks now for all those who will be taking the step of baptism.

Thank you for how you have worked in each of their lives to bring them to this point. Bless them, O Lord, for their obedience, and allow us to further contemplate your glory through their testimony. Amen.

See all Rosemount Bible Church Sermons transcripts on Applepodcasts

Rosemount Bible Church