How Significant Was Your Baptism?

I am glad that most churches conduct baptism during their Sunday services and not at some small service during the week but I  am usually disappointed when I see them because they are so hurried.  Sometimes they ask the person who is being baptized a few yes or no questions.  Why is it that something as significant as baptism is rushed through quickly? 

Similarly, for some churches, it is the same thing with communion.  It seems to get rushed through in order to get it over with.  We strip these important acts of faith as if they are insignificant. When I pastored a number of churches we offered the person being baptized the opportunity to share their heart and how they came to this major decision in their lives.  It is important for them to share and it is important for the church body to hear the details of  their conversion.

Everyone was watching and listening when John the Baptist did baptism. They were challenged to repent from how they were previously living and change course in their beliefs and lifestyle.  John shared that forgiveness depends on the person’s honesty and the faithfulness of their conversion.

Mark 1:4 

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

When Jesus submitted to being baptized he did so in order to fulfill righteousness, not to confess sin.  The modern church seems to just want the baptism tradition, not baptisms true meaning.  Have you ever wondered what Jesus was talking about when he told John why he wanted or needed to be baptized?

Matthew 3:14-15 

But John tried to prevent Him, saying, I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? But Jesus answering said to him, Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted Him.

There was a time when Jesus asked whether John baptized people as directed by God or directed by man. The purpose for asking the question was to get people to look for God’s involvement in our traditions so that they are not just man made. In my mind, we have turned baptism into a rushed, mostly man made directive instead of a God led exercise.  Wouldn’t a heart felt confession of a person coming to Christ be the best sermon?

Mark 11:30 

Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.

 The apostle Paul explained what “SHOULD BE” happening when someone is baptized.  Paul said it should be an act in which we identify with the death of Christ so we can identify with his resurrection. I think we want the resurrected life of Jesus without the death part but they are inseparable positions of the heart and soul.

Romans 6:4 

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

There was a group of Christians, just after the reformation started in the 1500s, that felt that if a person was truly born again they need to be “REBAPTIZED” regardless of whether they were baptized as a baby or an adult.  To them, true conversion was different than just being a religious person. These people were called “Anabaptist” and they believed in delaying baptism until the candidate confesses his or her true intention of following Christ. The Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonites are direct descendants of this movement.

The Anabaptist were perceived as a threat to the social and political order by Catholics and Protestants alike. The Diet of Speyer in 1529, for example, subjected the Anabaptist to the penalty of death with the concurrence of Catholics and Lutherans. Martin Luther & John Calvin both hated the anti Baptist and at times joined the Catholic Church to murder whole communities of Anabaptists. With people like Luther and Calvin joining the Catholic Church to kill people who believed is in being rebaptized, you have to ask yourself how significant was the reformation since they would kill people because they deviated from their religious doctrine. 

Here is a question we all need to ask ourselves about our own personal baptism and those at our church. Would we be willing to give up our lives for what we believe or if threatened would we walk away from such a public act of faith? The early church was faced with this fundamental question regarding how much their faith is worth. Many went to their death in the Roman coliseum where wild animals ripped them apart. What about people who confessed their faith publicly throughout the centuries that stood their ground in spite of brutal opposition, like dying in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia or the Culture Revolution in China where literally millions died for their faith. It’s all about how we start our conversion experience, like our baptism.

The way we celebrate our major traditions, whether it’s a marriage or a baptism, really defines to us and to those who witness these events the importance, or insignificance, of what we are doing.

Let me close with a story about my own moment when the Lord challenged me to be rebaptized in my early life as a believer. I had been a Christian for about 5 years and I was working with a missionary ministry called “Youth With A Mission” or YWAM for short.  I was leading a team in Arizona along the Colorado River where we were baptizing people who had given their lives to Christ during our ministry outreach there. I had just finished leading the baptism of many people in the river and there was great celebration. I was thrilled to witness and be a part of the leadership team that God used to make this happen when the still small voice of the Holy Spirit said to me, “You Need To Be Baptized” and I was shocked. I questioned what I heard and I heard the same thing again. I then complained to the Lord that if I submit to being baptized myself that I will diminish my standing as the main ministry leader and people will question why I was baptizing people in the first place. The Lord spoke again and said to me, “When you were baptized previously you didn’t really surrender, you just went through the ritual.” I was humbled and quickly called some of my leaders to me and told them what the Lord said and asked them to re-baptize me. 

Friends, this was one of the most significant experiences in my Christian life, not because of the act but because of my willingness to be obedient to the Holy Spirit regardless of the logic of what he asked me to do or not. God is not looking for us to become religious but to become obedient children in the hand of our Heavenly Father.

What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about?  Maybe being re-baptized or walking forward in some church service or maybe something else that requires humility and obedience? Take the step to become a “FOOL FOR CHRIST” and you will discover the intimacy with your Heavenly Father that you long for.

Questions:

1) Reflect on your own baptism and ask yourself if it was a genuine and heartfelt decision or just an emotional one? Like John the Baptist said, did you bring forth fruit to the baptism that reflected on your heart transformation. (Mt 3:8) 

2) Do you think we trivialize what we should capitalize in our church traditions? We are “ALL” called to be salt and light in our generation and that includes in the church, and not just in the world (Mt 5:14)

May we evaluate where we are weak in our church traditions and bring back their significance lest we become just religious.

Pastor Dale