Sermon from Sunday, September 29, 2024
Speaker: Rev. Michael Cloud
Scripture: Romans 6:3-11
Sermon Transcript
Okay, so as much as I love a good sermon series, especially one that walks us through books of the Bible, like we were doing in James, I’ve also learned that, you know, us following the curriculum or us, you know, trying to fit all the questions in before time runs out isn’t as important as being sensitive to those moments where God is whispering something else. So we’ve got three people who are going to be baptized this morning, and another who is going to remember her baptism and reaffirm her faith. And, you know, secret, out of the bag, I’m going to ask you to come be baptized at the end. If you have never been baptized and all of you to come and reaffirm your faith.
But we’ll get there. And so, in a decision that used to bother me, I a personality, so much, she doesn’t anymore. God’s been doing a work on me, and we’re not going to do chapter five of. James put a nice, neat little bow on our sermon series. Now, if you get home today, and you just need that in your soul. Doug did preach on that at 9:00, and you can go on our YouTube channel and pick that up. But we are going to say, okay, God, clearly, you’re doing something here and you’re moving here. And so, we’re going to talk about baptism instead. And we’re just going to have a good old-fashioned revival. If you’ll have it church.
All right. So I’m going to make some connections for us to James where I see them. What? We’ve been in James so far, but, you know, we’ll get that done. And so the final paper, that I had to write in my systematic theology class in seminary, well, I had an interesting prompt. It had a prompt of how my mind has changed. And my first thought was, oh, like this, systematic theology was one of my nerdy obsessions before I got into seminary. And so I came into this class ready to go. I love having deep, nuanced conversations about the faith, and I learned some stuff. Sure, I don’t know everything. Never did. But this was just the intro class.
And so, you know, fundamental basics of the faith. So I had that right. And so my mind hadn’t changed on the fundamentals left me a little nervous how I was going to write this paper, substantial part of your grade. And then the professor helped us do what they were training us to do. Think deeper. How my mind has changed didn’t necessarily have to be so narrowly understood to mean that I walked in with one view and walked out with another. It could also mean that through the course of the class, the beliefs I had were now stronger than when I walked in. So think about a weightlifter with me, right? If they are training properly, what’s the net result? Bigger muscles. They have changed. They got bigger, they got stronger. And in this case, change wasn’t a bad thing.
It was the end goal of all their passion and hard work. And so the bigger idea here is that sometimes change means letting go of what was wrong and picking up what is right, and sometimes change means continuing to pursue, cultivate and strengthen that which is good. I don’t want to walk that nuanced line with you this morning as we celebrate the sacrament of baptism, because some of you remember a distinct moment in your life when you made a change. You went from not knowing Christ to following him as Lord and Savior, but others of you. You aren’t so sure about that moment. Not as a hard black and white reality. Because you grew up in the church, you always believed in Christ. There was no distinct moment while I didn’t believe, but now I do. But that doesn’t mean that God has not been at work changing your life, growing you in maturity and stature of the faith. We want to, be sure to honor and celebrate those moments as well. And, you know, while we’re in the weeds of nuanced theology, it’s really a bit of both for all of us. So if you’ve been around this church for a while, you may have heard us talk about the sacraments, communion and baptism as an outward sign of an inward reality, outward sign of an inward reality.
But the sacraments are more than just a sign or a symbol in partaking and participating in the sacraments. We are responding to what Christ has done and what God is continuing to do in our lives. The sacraments are a tangible sign of a transcendent power that helps us grab hold of the two types of change that we all go through in Christ. So that first type of change, that’s when we do the 180 and we stop running from God and we turn towards Christ. That’s all of us. Even if we were baptized as an infant, grew up in the church, and never walked away. Right. Romans three reminds us, the curse that infects all humanity, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that there are none who are righteous, not even one. But thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that God has never given up on you. And God has been pursuing you and calling you back to himself since Genesis three. This is one of the reasons that we baptize infants. The active agent that makes God’s saving grace effective is not that we have come, but that when we come, we encounter the risen Christ far beyond me as the pastor or you as the participant.
The power conveyed to us in the act of baptism relies solely on what Christ does, not what we do and say. Yes, I know your argument. I’ve heard it before. Infants don’t understand what’s going on. They can’t articulate the faith. Oh, I see you can’t receive God’s saving grace unless you can understand it. Yes. So then, should I give each one of you a quick little test? Take away your salvation. If you can’t articulate an answer fully and completely. See how silly that sounds? Salvation revolves around the grace, mercy, and love of God, embodied in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Not the vicar or emotionalism in which we received it. But what I find to be a deeper struggle for us today, beyond the argument of who’s ready to receive God’s grace, is the idea that Paul opens with here in verse three, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
Now if you sit and think about that, you may begin to ask yourself why we would need to have to want to identify with the death of Christ. I thought we were Easter people. If Christ died for my sins, if Christ died on the cross. So I wouldn’t have to. Why would I need to talk about the death of Christ for my identity? Why not just identify and live into the resurrection? Well, because the Christian life cannot be lived without a dying to self. And my fear is that if our life in Christ is not understood through the cross, then we will be a people who fail to grasp the power of the resurrection. John 1224 Jesus said, very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Did you hear it? For new life to grow and to multiply, the old life must die. You say? Well, what’s the old life? What was that life that was given over to our sinful desires? It’s what we saw last week in James four. You want something? You don’t have it. So you murder.
You want something and you cannot obtain it. So you engage in disputes and conflicts. Well, we sin because we’re insecure. We sin because we’re afraid. We sin because of a desire of self-preservation. But when we start to see that the way we have always lived is not the way that God would have us live. We bring our lives to the cross and we turn them over to Jesus. When we finally understand that even if our lives may be good, our ways are not God’s ways. We lay our lives down in service to the Lord God Almighty. We begin to understand that no matter how small or insignificant my sin may seem. Our sin is separating us from God, and we began to surrender our desires in exchange for the delight of the Lord.
Baptism is about our identity and both the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because you can’t have one without the other. If we want to learn how to live with Christ in His resurrection, we must learn how to identify with Christ in His death. Truth is, is the Christian life very much has death as part of the story? We cannot forget that. Ignore that or write that off as an insignificant part of the journey. Verse six says that we know that our old self was crucified with him. Why? So that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might be no longer enslaved to sin. Amen. And it’s because of Christ on the cross that we are able to rise victorious from the sting of death and be washed clean of the stains of sin. And as I look upon the cross, where Christ hung to be crucified in my place, I am met with a blessed assurance that not only are my sins forgiven, but that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Because if we have been united with him in his death, then we will certainly be united with him in his resurrection.
Am I preaching yet, or do I need to start over? Say Amen if you’re already okay. We got about a third of you. We will keep going. And so now, as people of the resurrection, this brings us to the second type of change that we see Christ work in our lives. And that is getting stronger. Okay, so follow me here. Right. This, this is why we don’t need to re baptize anyone. And I understand this is, possibly a new concept for some of you, but that is okay. We will walk the journey together. Okay, so the first change you made, that was a repentance upon realizing that you were a sinner in need of salvation and that Jesus is the only way that that power needs nothing else to come alongside it or make it better. Because its foundation is in what Christ did for us on the cross. And if it is based on the saving work of Christ, on the cross, and it needs nothing to come alongside it after the fact, either Christ died once and for all or he didn’t. Either. Christ was the final sacrifice sufficient for all time, or he wasn’t.
And if the death of Christ is found lacking in either way to any degree, then Christ died for nothing. The death and resurrection of Christ was a sufficient payment for your sins, and it needs nothing else to be added to it to be effective. Nor does it ever run out or lose its power. Nowhere in the Bible does God offer us many new lives. This isn’t Buddhism or Hinduism. We aren’t reborn again and again until we reach a final state of Nirvana. You are reborn into a newness of life in Christ, and this being born again by the water and the spirit is as effective as if you were born from your mother’s womb. Anybody here born of this mother womb and have it not be effective. Raise your hand. Gotcha. And just like growing up in our original life. Right? The life we live, growing up in our spiritual lives. This is a life in Christ. We’re still trying to figure out. It was effective. It was done and needs nothing else. But, yeah, we’re still growing in the likeness of Christ. There are times when we will stumble and fall.
There are times when we will sin. There are times that we will walk away from that which is good and right. And all of those times require repentance as well. And all of that repentance is met with the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God. But it all happens in this new life. We don’t need another one. Right? It it’s part of the Philippians two life in Christ where Paul says, now work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Therefore, Romans 613 and 14 do not let sin exercise dominion over your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. No longer present yourselves as members to sin and instruments of wickedness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. Present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. And the kicker is this this isn’t just a radical New Testament idea. This is God’s commission on our lives from the very beginning. Watch this.
Do you remember what God says to Cain in Genesis four seven after the fall? Genesis three he says, sin is lurking at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it. Well, we all know how well that worked out. No. He ends up taking his brother out into the field and killing him. He couldn’t get past his anger. He couldn’t get past his jealousy or his insecurity. But Cain’s problem wasn’t that Abel was a better person. In fact, Cain’s problem didn’t have anything to do with Abel at all. God does not judge us or rank us in comparison to our brothers and sisters. God looks at us, at our hearts and our motives and our desires. And even as early as Genesis four, though, God tells Cain that he has the ability to choose which desire he would let rule over him.
It’s a power of mastering sin in our lives that God has been at work cultivating since the fall, and it’s a power that God brings to completion in Christ. So make no mistake about it. Church. Sin and temptation are powerful, but you now live with the power of the risen Christ, surging inside of you. But it isn’t a power that is given to us arbitrarily. It is a power that comes with the requirement that we submit to God for the rest of our days. Cain’s problem wasn’t one of power. It was one of submission. Remember how James teaches it, right? Resist the devil and he will flee from you. But notice that there is a precursor to this exhortation in James four seven. What does he say before he says that? He says, submit yourselves to God. First, submit yourself to God. Then resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Even here in Romans six, as Paul lays out the natural conclusion to our identification with Christ and our freedom from sin, our newness of life, what does he say? No longer present ourselves to sin is in tremendous righteous wickedness, but present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. The hard truth is, one that we know all too well is that even after our baptism, we find ourselves falling a bit short in our efforts to live godly lives. That includes even the best of us. But as we identify with Christ in His resurrection, we also are identifying with Christ who beat death and the grave. We no longer live as those bound by guilt and shame, but we walk in the light of God’s forgiveness.
We are no longer shackled by condemnation, but we are set free by the grace of God and the power of Jesus Christ. We are set free to walk out of the pits of hell, and to walk boldly into the throne room of God with confidence. It’s because of the risen Christ that we are able to approach God in our sins and our shortcomings, and not be struck down. It’s because of the power of the risen Christ that we are able to trade the old for the new. So don’t be fooled. Brothers and sisters, we are not here to just believe stuff about God. We are here to be transformed by God, to leave death behind and walk in a newness of life. If we go under the water, we are dying with Christ. And as we rise out of the water, we are raising with Him in His resurrection. Nobody who gets a second chance at life waste it by living the way they did before, the way that killed them. And so let me lovingly and gently tell you, with all earnest and vigor, the time of sitting idly by and doing nothing is over. Christian. Lord, bring a revival and let it begin with me. Stagnation is a sin that our Savior washed away. It is an old life way of being stopped living in it. In Christ we are freed and empowered to live as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, who continue calling all who are far off to draw near to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, what in the world were you and I given new life for? If not, this. Amen. Nobody comes into the waters today. Come on church, you come in. There are two ways we’re going to respond to this move of God. This morning. We’ve never done this this way before. So, pay attention. So, if you’ve never been baptized, read that I said never been baptized. And you’re at that point in your life, where you’ve come to realize that you need Christ for salvation, that I’m going to invite you to come, with our three that are going to come this morning. We have a change of clothes for you over here. So you would change into those clothes, get baptized into those clothes, and then change back into whatever you’re wearing. Right now. Or if you don’t do it the other way, that’s fine with me, too. I’d love to dunk you in your church clothes. We have towels over here for you as well. Cam is going to be over there, helping you, walk through that process. I’ve got, a little note card and a pin here. I’d love to have your name. Not only so we can get you, a certificate of baptism. As, not just a marker, and a remembrance. For you and your home and your family. But more importantly, we would love to walk with you on this faith journey. And so that helps me remember who you are. And who did this this day. We’re Methodist. We like records. And so you’re going to write down your full name, on this card. If you’re coming down with our three this morning.
If you have been baptized, whether it’s an infant or another time in your life before this moment, right here. Well, then, as you witness these people enter this covenant with God that he’s made with his church to empower us. Name of Christ. Take off the old self. Put on the new. I want you to remember that love with which you first set out. As I read these questions and as they go through these answers, these are the same vows that that you took. Remember them. Honor them. Be faithful to them. Reaffirm your commitment that you made at baptism or confirmation. And so remember that covenant promise that came with that, passionate commission to spread Scripture holiness locally and to the ends of the earth. Okay. And so what we’ll do there will baptize these and whoever else comes down. And then Lilian is going to help us out with what that looks like. And I’ll go through one with her, and then I’ll invite the rest of you to come down. As our band plays, that closing song. Okay, so if you’re coming forth for baptism, you three, and then, the rest of you as well. Come on down. The rest of you get your name on your card. Come on, you three.