Greeting: Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm normally a slip slops and shorts guy but I thought that Lawrence might just evict me if I attempted to preach dressed like that, so I even tucked my shirt in for you Lawrence...

I've spoken in front of people a number of times but this is the first time I've ever spoken in front of a church so please bare with me and pray for me as I share.

On that note, let's open in prayer.

Heavenly Father... you know the heart of every person here today and where they are at in their lives. I pray that you will quiet our hearts, that we will leave our stresses, worries and distractions at home and focus fully on You right now and what you have to say to us through Your word.

Help us too Lord, not to simply be hearers of your word but doers also.

Amen

I asked Maurice about two and a half months ago if I could have permission to preach on water baptism and he agreed.

Although I will preaching baptism, after much prayer I thought it very important to cover the start of our walk with Jesus as well.

Before I begin I want to share a bit about myself and why baptism is so important to me.

I was born into a home with non-believing parents and this was the case until I was about thirteen years old. My parents were on the brink of divorce when my mom was born again at a Christian ladies retreat and my dad became a follower of Jesus about six months later. I still remember asking Jesus to become my Lord and saviour at the age of 14 with my dad sitting next to me on my bed.

Because my dad was raised as a Presbyterian we attended a Presby church first in George and then Plumstead Presby just up the road here.

I was never sprinkled as a baby as is the norm in the Presby church so when I was 16 and went through confirmation I was sprinkled, so in my mind and according to the teaching I was given I was then baptised...

It took another 16 years before I got to the point of being fully baptised the way the bible says we should. I had really struggled in my walk as a believer and being baptised was a major turning point I my life. The reason I'm sharing this with you is because I did not start my walk with Jesus the way He would have wanted me too... yes, I did this in ignorance but also due to teaching that didn't fully line up with the bible. If I had received the correct teaching about biblical baptism I would have gladly been baptised in water and this would have given me a far better start in my walk as a Christian.

So my motive in wanting to share with all of you today is to hopefully bring some clarity from scripture and confirm, again, how God wants us to walk in Him.

Right... today we will be reading primarily from the book of Acts. Acts is sandwiched between the gospels which testify and record the life and works of Jesus and the epistles or letters which are a commentary on the gospels.

Acts is literally that... the acts of the apostles. At this point in time Jesus has completed His ministry here on earth, He was crucified, buried, resurrected, glorified and is now seated at the right hand of God.

Acts is the first time the gospel is preached after Jesus has fulfilled His work here on earth and we see how people hear the gospel and what they are commanded to do in response to hearing the same gospel.

I will be going through the book of Acts stopping at various points where baptism is mentioned. I really recommend reading the whole book at one sitting to get the full picture as I'm skipping through the passages for the sake of time.

Please turn with me to the book of Acts 2 vs 37.

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, has been preaching to Jews from around the known world who are in Jerusalem. Some may have witnessed the death of Jesus and others would certainly have heard of His death and resurrection. Peter has just told them that Jesus, whom they crucified is in fact their messiah. Lets read from verse 37...

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will re- ceive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Lets move on to chapter 8 from verse 12 where Philip has been sent to preach the good news to the Samaritans, the same 'half breed' nation Ally taught on last week.

12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Moving down to verse 36 we see Philip as he is teaching the eunuch about Jesus from the book of Isaiah.

36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?"

38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

Lets turn to: Acts 9 vs 17 and 18

Paul at this point had met with Jesus personally on the road to Damascus and is in Simon the tanners house.

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord-Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

A little further down in Acts 10 Peter meets Cornelius, a roman centurion and a gentile. Although Cornelius is a godly man he is hearing the good news about Jesus for the first time.

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles.

46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,

47 "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."

48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Our second last reading from Acts is from chapter 16 from verse 14

14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she in- vited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.

And finally from Acts 16 vs 26 where Paul & Silas are in prison.

26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and eveyone's chains came loose.

27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

28 But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household."

32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.

33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God - he and his whole household.

Based on all the above portions of scripture we see that there is a common pattern of how people started out as disciples of Jesus. This is regardless of whether or not they were Jews, Samaritans or gentiles. Please note that I said pattern and not formula. The four points I mention now are not necessarily in that strict order.

They are BELIEF, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM AND RECEIVING THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. I am going to touch on the first three because time is short.

What is biblical Belief?

I want to give a small analogy to try and give a clear view as to what biblical be- lief actually is.

Years ago Chapmans Peak was closed for a while due to some upgrades that they were doing to stabilize the rock walls. I remember the first time I drove from Noordhoek to Hout Bay once Chapmans was re-opened. I came around the corner just before where the new work had been done and saw the concrete slab had been cantilevered over the road with what seemed like an impossible amount of stone built on top of it. I had to drive underneath this huge cantilever to make my way to the other side so had to make a choice whether I should or not. You see I believed in what I saw in front of me mentally. I could see it with my own eyes... but I had to believe on the fact that it would stay stable and safe when I drove underneath it. It was one thing to believe in the fact that it was there and existed... it was very different putting my faith and trust in the fact that it wouldn't fall on me.

Biblical belief is more than academic. In the book of James we read that 'even the demons believe... and shudder'. The demons believed that Jesus was the son of God but they chose not to put their faith in him as their Lord. The same is true for some people. They may well believe that Jesus died to pay for their sins and that he rose from the dead but until they actually put their full faith and trust in Him and look to Him as the source of their life they don't believe in the biblical sense.

True belief is also prompted by the working of the Holy Spirit. He is the one that convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgement. That is why in Peters sermon although many heard only some believed what he said to be the truth. As humans we can hear the truth and know that God is prodding us to make a decision but we can simply squash this down.

REPENTANCE

Repentance is not an emotion, it is a verb. I'm going to repeat this. Repentance is not an emotion, it is a verb, it is an action, something that we have to do. When we are born again we are making the decision that we are no longer going to live our lives the way we used too but are going to turn away from our old life and towards Jesus. Repentance is not a once off event that happens at conversion but a lifestyle. Scripture talks about keeping a 'short account' and this means that repentance is something we live out daily. Until Jesus comes back we are going to fall and sin but our response to this should always be to turn away from that and back towards Jesus. This is very much part of picking up our cross daily and following after Christ.

We are meant to see the fruit of repentance in ourselves and in our fellow believers.

A small example is what happened recently in our home. Wends and I had gone to the shops and came back with enough food to feed our hoard. After dropping my bags on the counter I sauntered off into the lounge and sat down on the couch leaving Wends to do the unpacking of the bags. Wends was oblivious to this and was carrying on merrily doing what she always does.

However, as my bum hit the couch I was pricked with the thought. 'You're perfectly capable of helping your wife pack away the food'. I immediately felt regret that I had just left her to do the packing away, but the act of getting up and going back into the kitchen and helping her was the repentance part. Wends had no idea of any of this but the Lord was teaching me a bit of a lesson.

BAPTISM

Some describe water baptism as a symbol but I feel it is more than that. It is a physical extension of what is happening internally and spiritually as we repent. In repenting we are turning away from our Adamic nature and turning to Christ. As we go under the water we are burying our old nature and our own sinful desires and rising out of the water as a new man who is following after Jesus.

Colossians 2 vs 11 says the following:

11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ,

12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,

Baptism in and of itself does not save you from judgement. I cannot baptise my child and trust that that act will ensure they are going to heaven. This whole idea is actually a spin off from old testament circumcision. Israel used to circumsize their baby boys on the eighth day as required by the law but this eventually became to be seen as a guarantee of salvation in sense.

This has been carried over into Christendom where sprinkling is now done on babies by the institutional churches in order to secure their place in heaven.

The passages we read earlier in Acts clearly show that each and every person has to decide for themselves that they will be baptised. As soon as someone is old enough to decide this for themselves they can be baptised. I don't see any reference to a specific minimum age but the person must make that decision on their own.

The original Greek word for baptism is BAPTIZO which means to dip, immerse or plunge. When John the Baptist was baptising people in the Jordan he was not sprinkling them with water. They literally were completely covered by water.

When we think back to the various verses I read earlier from Acts, you'll notice that this was done gladly and willingly by the hearer of the gospel. Peter commanded that they be baptised in Acts 2 so it was clearly an instruction but the hearers didn't buck against what he was saying either. The eunuch was the one who initiated the baptism as well.

Many years ago I had a conversation with an acquaintance who went to the Baptist church and who had two boys that were basically raised in the Baptist church. When I asked her if her sons had been baptised her response was quite aggressive and she said... 'my sons don't need to be baptised to go to heaven'.

I've often thought back on this conversation and over the last two months have realised where she was coming from. She was in fact very worried about their salvation as they weren't living the lives of believers and my question pricked her fear even further because they also hadn't been baptised.

Do I think you need to be baptised to be born again and go to heaven... no. Salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. However, if we have any kind of resistance to being baptised the way that God wants us too we need to ask the question 'why?'.

We may not fully understand the importance of baptism but it is clearly very important to God. In Acts the jailer even went as far as having his entire household baptised that very night, and the other portions I read from Acts all indicate people being baptised the same day or very soon thereafter. We tend to spilt things up into 'stages' but the early believers in Jesus very much saw belief, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit as a package deal. Baptism was never something done as an afterthought.

I challenge all of my brothers and sisters in Christ who have not been baptised fully in water to examine their hearts and ask Jesus to show them why they haven't done it yet. If, like me you were simply ignorant and didn't know then you'll want to jump at the chance to simply do His will.

If however you are grappling with what I am saying then ask Jesus to reveal to you why you feel the way you do. It may be that in some sense you know you are still not willing to fully submit every part of your life to Him.

One thing I must tell you. Because there was such a long time gap between being born again and being baptised I had a terrible feeling of unworthiness and I wasn't 'holy' enough to be baptised. This was simply Satan trying to throw a spanner in the works and was a complete lie. We are never truly worthy outside of the righteousnous of Jesus anyway, so let that not hold you back if you are feeling this way.

If Jesus is prompting you to be baptised we have a small pool at our home that is freely available. We can even ensure that is warm for you.

Baptism is also a perfect time to invite both saved and unsaved family and friends and trust that they may be drawn by the Holy Spirit by witnessing your baptism.

Also, if you have any questions feel free to chat to the elders after the meeting.

God Bless every one of you...