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I believe most believers want to experience in their mind and heart what they profess to believe. I also know that many believers struggle to experience what they say they believe.
This sermon will explore the meaning of baptism as expressed in New Testament Scriptures that speak about conversion and baptism, and consider whether this understanding agrees with the view we have inherited in our Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition. Our tradition says baptism is reserved for people who have believed and repented; baptism is testimonial (not regenerational); that in baptism the person experiences the death and resurrection of Christ; that in baptism the person commits to live life in harmony with other believers.
The Scriptures we will examine are John 3:5-6, Titus 3:5, Ephesians 5:25-26, Galatians 3:26-29, Romans 6:3-4, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:38-41, Colossians 2:11-13
These Scriptures clearly teach that in conversion and baptism the Holy Spirit cleanses and regenerates the heart, and the person who is baptized or immersed into Christ experiences a death and resurrection in their person that mirrors the death and resurrection of Christ. This is a work the Holy Spirit accomplishes in the heart of the “surrendered to Jesus” heart. Scripture also clearly teaches that this death and resurrection of Christ results in the “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,” or is the basis of deliverance from the practices of sin. This deliverance from the practices of sin is the result of a lifelong process of repentance and growth.
One reason people do not experience what they say they believe is that they cannot experience what they do not live. This is the challenge we face: to live out what we say baptism means.