Why Would They Do That? Baptism Sunday

We take a break from our Encountering Jesus Series to look at what Baptism is as we celebration Mo, Mabel and Makenna's Baptisms on this particular Sunday.  Mike answers the questions of: Why baptism?   Why not infant Baptism?  & Why the big dunking show and getting them soaking wet in front of people?  Listen in on what makes baptism so special to us at Meadows Church.

Meadows Church is a church in the community, for the community, located in Langley, BC.  We want you to know that you're welcome here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca. Well, we've heard McKenna's story, and in a little bit, we're gonna hear first from Mabel. She's gonna do her story live, and then we're gonna hear Mo and his story, uh, which is uh videoed as well, and then we'll go outside for baptisms. Uh I I love to hear faith stories. I love to hear what Jesus is doing in people's hearts and minds, and I just think it's so contagious, and so I hope that encourages you and uh blesses you. Wanted to first talk about baptism for a sec. Just what is it? I was thinking back to Ray Lynn's baptism about a year and a half ago, and we had friends from the community that don't normally go here, but they came and it really blessed our heart. There are some of you that don't go to church but have come to bless Mabel and Mo today, and that's amazing. It really blesses our hearts that that you do that, that you're here. This family, we love them. And as Ray Lynn was going under the water and under the water, but I heard it loud and clear. The question, why would anybody do that? It was so perfect, it made me laugh. It was awesome. What comes out of the mouth of babes? So I thought that it would be good to answer the question: why do we get the dunk tank out at church? What is that all about? And so some of you might be here and you you really, really don't know what that is, and you know it's just some weird Christian bathing ritual with all of your closest friends present. You know, uh, hey friend, pass the soap. That would be awkward. So know that that's not what it's all about. We'll talk about it in a second. I anybody have an above-ground pool that's going on. This, I I decided go big or go home. We found this on sale, we put it up, it's been at our house for a couple years. The first couple of weeks it's up though. The temperature is really, really frigid. And I am a bit of a water sissy. Any water sissies that can just own it? Yeah, yeah, thank you. Thank you, my people. The girls, not so much. The girls are like jumping in, it's like 72 degrees. I'm like, what is going on? Me on the other hand, and I think Grayson too. We'll kind of just like dip our toes in, you know, a little bit of that. Maybe get down the ladder one one row. We'll hang out there for a bit. And uh Kim mocks me often, often about this. That's my wife over there. And then then I'll finally get to like that waist deep level and I'll take my breath away, and then I'll get end up getting mad at Ray Lynn and getting mad at McKenna because they're splashing me, and I'm just not ready yet. And then what seems like an eternity for my girls who want me to throw them around, I finally get in. And and I'm under the water, and it's like I'm comfortable and I'm having fun, but man, it was painful to watch.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

I'm glad that there are other water sissies that can join me in doing that. And maybe we'll have to go to the beach together at some point, or you can come over to my pool.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

To me, friends, that is a picture of what faith and baptism is all about. We dip our toes in. You might dip your toes in to see what things are all about. Maybe you've seen what what God is doing in people's lives, or maybe you've gone to a baptism, maybe this is one of your first encounters. Maybe it's an experience in your life that has actually led to a moment where you go, hmm, maybe Jesus is real. Maybe I should look into that. Maybe you take a friend out that you know who's a Christian for a coffee and you pick their brain and you go, dude, why Jesus? Or, like most stories that we're gonna hear in a bit, he just mouths down on scripture. He just opens the Bible and he goes in and he's like, prove to me. I'm gonna read it and I wanna see if it's real. And you get more comfortable with it. And then maybe you come to church, you know, and you're you're getting down that ladder into the water. You have good conversations with people, you learn about God, and then you have these key experiences. And for me, I wasn't a Christian going up. And so youth group was that first encounter with a youth pastor that loved me. My dad had rejected me. I didn't have a lot of love at home besides my mom, and so this this youth pastor loved me and met me. Invited me to youth group, and I met some friends, and I went on missions trip, and I figured out that I wasn't this big like I thought I was. Actually, God has a ton of gifts and abilities in me to use for his kingdom. And and that just opened my eyes, and I became a Christian through that experience. It's that final realization when you dive into the water that the Bible is telling the truth, that he is real, that he loves you, and then if you're willing to, that just to accept that amazing, joy-filled, and purposeful plan for your life. And ah, you're in the water fully, and you're enjoying yourself and you're in community. That's when we embrace the God's God's love story. We call it the gospel. And the long and short of it is that we have things, I have things in my past that are really awesome, but I also have some things that I'm not really proud of or that make me cringe. And I and I can't believe I hurt so-and-so. And I and I can't believe I said that to that person or did that thing, or man, I that was embarrassing that I just did that for myself. And we we have those things. Our past faults, our embarrassments, and the weight of that is goes on our hearts and our minds. Well, it has been my experience. And the Bible says that Jesus came to take our burdens. Like we have the ability to forever put aside our past. And in the midst of it, it's not like we're like, okay, I'm good with God. You know, whatever with that person. No, we gotta go and make things right too. But even when we make things right, do you ever like just hold on to stuff in your heart and you're like, man, I can't let go? Well, we have a God that whispers, let go. I got this. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. You see, that God is the God that flung the planets into the sky. He is all powerful, he's omniscient, and yet he voluntarily gave up all his God powers, uh, Philippians 2. And what did he become? The Christmas story. He became a baby. Fragile. It's an unreal sacrifice that Jesus did for us. That Christmas story. But you see, Jesus grew up and he looked at the heavy burden in our lives and the way it separates us from God, the way it causes so much stuff to happen with relationships with other people. You know what I'm talking about? That thing God calls sin. And Jesus said, No, I don't want them to carry that. I want to actually take that from you. You see, Jesus wanted to restore us to how God sees you. This is how God sees you. It's my life verse. It's Ephesians 2.10. Did you know that God sees you as his masterpiece? That he created you in Christ Jesus to do amazing things that he prepared in advance for you to do. It is an incredible purpose that he has given us. And because he was God, he could pay for our sins by dying on the cross. The craziest thing about it all is that we don't worship a God that's dead. You see, on the third day, Satan could not keep him in the ground, and he rose from the dead, and he opened the key to heaven and eternal life and life to the full here on earth by doing that. That's the Easter story. And if we believe that that's true, we we choose to live a life full of love and joy and peace in God, and then we receive the incredible gift. He heals and he restores and he breaks the shackles of addiction and he shoulders our burden. Ah, we're in that water. Well, that commitment, that affirmation that he is real, that he died on the cross, rose from the dead, has an amazing plan for our lives. McKenna and Mabel and Mo, they have already accepted this. They are not getting down the ladder at this point to use the metaphor. They aren't dipping their toes in, they are fully in. And so when we're talking about baptism, uh we're not talking about some sort of mystical water that we can bottle and sell on eBay. God would hate that. That's not what it is. You see, baptism, it is a public declaration of what's already happened in your heart. So they are, what I just talked about, the gospel that I just talked about, that God's love story for us, they've embraced that. They want to live that life, and and they want to declare it to their friends and family today. And so that's what baptism is. There's one other part to it. It's that Jesus commands us to actually be baptized. That's I think that's is that the original Moses, like Charles Heston, right? Is that his name?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Moses in the Ten Commandments. Anyways, he commands us to do this. So get this. Peter is preaching to like thousands and thousands in Jerusalem. And they are hanging on his every word. They've just crucified Jesus. And he's telling them, You did that. But you know what? He loves you and he wants you to come and he does all the things. And at the end, they're like, What do we do? We want this. And Peter's response is repent and be baptized, every one of you. You see the repent part. That's this recognize that the creator of the universe loves us and embracing that story that I just told you. To turn from our ways that are all about us and making it about essentially about other people. That's what God's story for us is. To bless other people with the giftings we have. And then we are called to be baptized. It is a commandment for every Christian to declare their faith in that way. And if you've not considered baptism, maybe McKenna, Mabel, and Mo, today's story will actually nudge you for another baptism. And we would love to have that at Meadows, and I'd love to have a conversation with you. I got two more things because I get two questions asked all the time in coffee shops and all that. And the first one is, why do we wait until people are youth or adults to baptize? I mean, why don't we believe in infant baptism? I mean, I I love my my reformed, my Catholic, my Anglican, my Eastern Orthodox friends. Yet we believe, as Mennonite brethren, that's our denomination and our church, that you should be at an age where you can actually publicly declare. That's what baptism is. We publicly declare our faith. And you can't do that as a baby. Instead, what we do in that moment when there are babies is we do something called child dedication. And that is the parents committing to say, I'm gonna raise this child in the ways of the Lord. And so that is what that is. This is the actual person's declaration that they are Christian and that they are following God. Well, I got one more question that's at Mike. Why did you drag, by the way, there's a horse trough outside if you haven't seen it, and I is I heated the water and then we filled it up. You're like, Mike, why did you drag that horse trough here? Why did you fill it with water? When you could have just grabbed a little water and sprinkled it. Right? Some Christians believe in doing this, and they look at the passage of scripture. Jesus was baptized. And when he came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, it says in the Bible. And they use this to say we sprinkle like the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus. That is those denominations that do sprinkling of water. And that's okay. We can all have fun and live together, and it's great. But us as MBs, this is what we believe. This is why we spent so much time going and getting the tank and filling it up and all that, is that we believe the beauty of the image of the metaphor out of Romans 6. Romans 6 says this all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into a death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Do you see the beauty of that metaphor? There's a death to self saying, uh, I'm making a mess of the world. I want to live for you, Jesus. And so that's the representation of baptism that we cling to. And so this is the answer to the question: why would anybody do that? And I love that we can be together, that we can discuss things like this, that we can have faith discussions. And we do this on a regular basis. If this is curious that we do this and you'd love to join us next week, uh, we'll be here. It was Father's Day. I'm ordering lots of dad's root beer, and we're gonna give them out to all the fathers. I'll probably grab some dad's cookies too, because why not, right? And we'll celebrate dad's and we'll continue going through our series called Encountering Jesus. Love for you to be a part of that as we see the sights and as we smell the smells of the story where Jesus walked the earth. We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with the pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to meadowschurch.ca