Baptism - What's Trending in Scripture? (Redux)

This blog was originally posted on March 9, 2012. Remember way back in 2012? Powdered wigs, hand churning butter, the world was supposed to end according to a Mayan calendar... Good times. To prep you for Sunday, give this blog post another read!

This Sunday, we will be discussing baptism. This subject sees a wide spectrum of beliefs, everything from “baptizing babies brings them into the covenant family” to “unless you are baptized you are going to hell“.

As always, we are just going to the Bible for answers. With all due respect to theologians and “church fathers”, their creeds and beliefs are not absolute authority - only the Word of God is.

As a preview, an appetizer, food for thought… get your Bible and check out these passages in Acts. The church came into being in Acts 2, and the book records accounts of people being baptized throughout the rest of its chapters. See if you notice any patterns or recurring themes…

Acts 2:37-41 - The promised Holy Spirit came down and Peter preaches at Pentecost! Those who believed were baptized, the text seems to indicate it was immediate (v41). 

Acts 8:12 - Philip preached, the men and women believed, and they were immediately baptized. 

Acts 8:26-39 - Philip shares the Good News of Jesus Christ with an Ethiopian Eunuch, and upon belief, he is immediately baptized (v36).

Acts 9:1-19 - Saul, persecuting the church, encounters Jesus Christ and is blinded for 3 days. God sent Ananias to Saul, who then was filled with Holy Spirit. He regained sight and was baptized immediately (v18).

Acts 10:44-48 - Peter learns (v34) God shows no partiality - Gentiles included! Cornelius and company listen to Peter preach (v44). They believe and the Holy Spirit came upon them. Then they were, you guessed it, baptized immediately (v47-48).

Acts 16:11-15 - Paul was preaching at a ladies fellowship (v13), they received the Word and were baptized immediately (v14-15). Then in verses 25-34, Paul and Silas are in prison and having a worship service! An earthquake brought a jailhouse rock. When the jailer is about to commit suicide, Paul stops him, preaches the Word to him, and he is baptized immediately (v32-33).

Acts 18:-1-8 - Paul is in Corinth, and facing rejection at the synagogue from the Jews. He shook his garments and walked next door and preached to some Corinthians who believed and were baptized immediately (v8).

Did you see the pattern?

The Word preached, person believes, person receives Christ, person immediately responds by being baptized.

Have you been baptized?

We are working on a baptism plan that might possibly have it at the school where we meet - AND on a Sunday! If you have more questions about this HUGE step of obedience in baptism, join us Sunday @ 10AM @ Ingomar!

Pastor Jeff

-I would totally wear a powdered wig if they came back in style. 

Five Ways We Can Pray for Our Pastor

The flaming arrows of the evil one are flying through the air right now, aimed at our pastor.  The enemy can be effective in his deception to destroy the credibility of the Word of God by destroying the deliverer of the message.   The Apostle Paul was acutely aware of his need for prayer when he asked the Ephesian believers to pray for him. 

"Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” - Ephesians 6:19-20

When he spoke to the church at Colossae, Paul exhorted them to devote themselves to prayer, keeping alert in it...  praying that God would open doors for evangelism (Colossians 4:3).  And in First Thessalonians he simply says, “Brethren, pray for us” (5:25).  

If Paul needed the prayers of his fellow workers in the faith, then certain our pastor needs them.   This is an urgent call for all of us to get on our knees and humbly pray for Pastor Jeff.   There are numerous things to pray for when we intercede for our pastor, but here are five specific items to get started: 

1).  Undistracted study time.  Pastor Jeff needs to have full concentration while he's studying scripture and preparing his sermons.  There are a million other important things that can pull him away from his studies.  So it is essential that we pray for him to get adequate quiet time to get his thoughts in order.  We should pray against the enemy using subtle distraction tactics to destroy the effectiveness of sermon preparation. 

2).  Clarity of the Word of God.    We need to pray that his studies are fruitful so that the meaning of scripture is crystal clear to him.  If his job is to clarify what the Word of God says, it is impossible for him to make it clear to us if it is not first clear to him.  There is nothing that the deceiver would like more than to confuse people by muddy preaching. 

3).  Quality family time.  Pastor Jeff’s first mission field is not the crowd of people that assemble on Sunday morning for church.  It is his family.  They need shepherded by him.  And not only that, but his wife needs her husband and his kids need their dad.  A pastor who does not spend time with his wife and children has failed. 

4).  Victory in the fight against discouragement.  Being in full time ministry has it's share of amazing blessings.  But it is also brutal.  Ministry is often a rollercoaster of highs and lows.  Ministry involves people; and while some people are a great encouragement, many will disappoint.   One of the devil's most effective methods in his toolbox of destruction is to use discouragement to ruin someone's ministry.  A massively great encouragement to a pastor is seeing the effects of the Word of God in the people he teaches.  Let’s pray that our church would not only hear what we’re being taught, but also to put into practice all of the principles we learn from God’s servant as he explains the Bible to us.  

5).  Vigilance against pride.  The tendency toward pride is part of the sinful human condition.  It comes naturally to people. Gaining a certain amount of knowledge can very easily vault someone into an attitude of superiority.  Pastors who study well are continually gaining knowledge of the scriptures and if they are not in a constant state of vigilance, they can be puffed up with pride.  This is a sin.  And so we should pray for humility. 

If we want our church to be constantly expanding its influence in the culture, we cannot let the adversary destroy the life-saving message of the gospel by the barrage of attacks on our pastor.   God's answers to these prayers will extinguish the flames on every destructive arrow the enemy can sling. 

Blessings,

Mark

Jesus said, "Let the Evildoer Still Do Evil." (Wait, JESUS said that?!)

It’s hard to watch the news as a Christian sometimes.

Another 10 Commandment Monument removed. Atheist victory.

Another law passed to impose the will of LGBT. Gender is what you make it. Bathrooms are multiple choice.

Another ISIS attack. Video posted on YouTube.

Another debate over abortion. And while children are slaughtered in utero, our hearts mourn a gorilla.

We live in a day of rampant immorality, and often Christians can be guilty of going into wrong mindsets:

Despair: “The world is going worse and worse. What are we going to do?! What can turn this ship around?!” Yes, the world is going to get a lot worse before it gets perfectly better – as advertised (John 16:33).

Hatred: Just as we saw (in our 6/5 message) Stephen show grace to the people who were murdering him (Acts 7:60), we, too, must ask God to fill our hearts with love, even for those who hate us. Jesus commanded this (Matthew 5:44)! Yet, too often, our response is hatred. “Can’t wait until God casts those people straight into hell.” Even God Himself doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23) but desires all men (people) to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).

Indifference: “Well, nothing we can do about it. I’ll just mind my own business. Doesn’t really affect me.“ Yes, it does. Because you have the answer. Can you turn a blind eye? If the Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed you, why do you think it lacks the power to change them? You are an ambassador of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) – God has chosen you to share the love and Gospel of Jesus with the world. You are like a doctor walking around with the cure to an illness that afflicts everyone who has not taken that cure! Can you really keep it to yourself while people die from the illness?

Wrong solutions: “We just need to elect the right politicians. The wrong politicians in office will mean certain doom for the church.” While you should vote, and yes, let’s acknowledge that some seem more detrimental to the mission on the surface... but God is not limited by who is in office. In Acts 8:1-8, we saw God actually used persecution to advance the church! We must look to God's Word - not to Washington DC - for answers.

Jesus has a Word. Actually, it’s how the Bible ends. You would think as God completes His book that He worked on for more than 1500 years, He would speak some impactful words to close the Canon. And He does.

Revelation 22:10-13 – And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

“Let the evildoer still do evil”? What is that all about? Is Jesus telling sinners to sin?

He is. Jesus is saying, “Keep it up. Sin. Go ahead. You want to sin, then sin.”

But the warning follows. “I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me.” So go ahead and sin if that’s what you want more than Me. But know this: I am coming back to “repay each one for what he has done.” The day is coming when every hard hearted act of rebellion will be righteously and permanently judged by the Lord. So you can indulge yourself in the passing pleasures of sin now. Go for it! Live it up! Do whatever you want! But know that it is not going to pay off in the long run. 

And there’s a promise in there for us, too. Let “the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” Just as sinners will persistently stay the course, so must we. We must be just as persistent in love, in grace, in evangelism, in standing on the Word, in reaching out to a lost and dying world. And the promise of “recompense according to deeds” is also, gloriously, graciously, given to us.

So choose in what you are going to persist. Because the Lord is taking note. And He is coming to settle accounts.

Pastor Jeff

-for the time is near

Welcome to Our New Home for the Summer

For the third year in a row we will temporarily be relocating to Ingomar Middle School. This will continue throughout the summer months as renovations are done to Marshall Middle School (our typical weekly home). Please remember to plan ahead and join us in Ingomar next week 6/5, just a quick 10 minutes away.
Check out the map and timelapse video below to prepare for the move!