Grosey's Messages

After Jesus's resurrection, he commanded the church, saying:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …

Then, a few weeks after that command, the apostles rose up on the day of Pentecost, preached the first sermon to a standing-room-only crowd of Jews, and they do the same thing John the Baptist and Jesus did. They say:

Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself (Acts 2:38–39). 

Baptism symbolized, for John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter on that first day of Pentecost, a conversion — a turning from self-reliance or reliance on the law, to Jesus and reliance on him. It represents a turning around from the old life and going off in a new direction, behind Jesus Christ. The way Paul put that in the rich theology that he had developed was:

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Do you see the turning around that symbolized there? It's leaving the old and heading off into the new with Jesus, aligning ourselves with him. It symbolizes death to the old way and life to the new way.

Therefore,  what we celebrate this morning is the work of God in the hearts of Paul and Michael. 

In our Profession of faith a few minutes ago we likewise celebrated the work of God in the hearts of Edna, Janelle and Melissa, and Julianne. Isn't it wonderful what God is doing in people's lives ! 

In a minute I will ask again

"Do you confess Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior?" they will say, "Yes," what we're celebrating is that they have taken this mighty Lord and made him their own. They have received him, as John 1:12 says.

When I raise my hand over them and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, what we celebrate is that the whole Godhead has been engaged in their conversion, and they are now related to every member of the Trinity in a new way. And when I take them and put them under the water, what we all celebrate together is the death of Jesus and his burial for our sins, that we need not, having identified with him, ever die again spiritually. And when I lift them up out of the water, what we celebrate is that Jesus arose, and they are going to participate in that resurrection. And when they walk out of that baptismal pool back they are stepping up out of oldness and following Jesus in a new way of life. That's what we understand by baptism, and it is something to celebrate.

My prayer is that every person here will, with the kids, rekindle your love to God and all that he's done for you that has been symbolized in baptism, and that you'll reawaken those baptismal vows that you made.