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This recording of a baptismal service at Bethel includes the sermon – All Wet For Jesus – originally preached 2013.12.01 by Sam Troyer.
Mathew 3:1-12
The first Baptist that we know of was John. John the Baptist.
John was a prophet, a reformer, a person you would not soon forget. People came from miles around to hear him and to be baptized. People felt compelled to come to him, to hear him and to repent.
What can we learn from John? What are we saying by being baptized?
Baptism is a statement of personal choice. We choose to be baptized.
We believe in believer’s baptism, we would say that we make the choice to be baptized. Not our parents. Not our leaders. It is our decision to be baptized.
John told those who came to hear him that baptism was needed to show their alignment with the church, with Jesus, their commitment to follow Christ.
Baptism is an act of obedience.
Acts 2:37-41
What shall we do? Repent and then be baptized. Repentance followed by baptism.
The Anabaptists were willing to die to be properly baptized. It was the law of the state to not be baptized again. People like Felix Manz, who was tied and thrown into a river because he wanted to follow what He believed about believer’s baptism.
To these people being baptized meant being ostracized, shunned, and possibly killed.
When we are baptized we are identifying with the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14
One thing that we are observing more and more in the world around us is the lack of willingness to commit to anything. Even in the Mennonite church we are seeing this more and more… the lack of willingness to commit to the local body of believers.
How can we speak into the lives of our brothers and sisters if we aren’t committed to the body of Christ?
Mathew 18
There is security in being part of a local body of believers.
Hebrews 13:17
Who are we responsible to? We are responsible to the leaders of the church body that we have joined, that we have become a part of.
John Piper, “can you imagine a Christian attaching himself to a local body and yet not being a part of that body?”
We become a part of that body, we become members of that body.
Christ is our head. We are part of that body.
Baptism is a huge step. We have been blessed to have been here this morning. It is a joyful time. It is a beautiful thing.
Baptism is
- A statement
- An act of obedience
- A witness
- A symbolism of our joining the body of Christ
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