Meeting Jesus - Spontaneous Baptism
I have been baptized twice in my life.
I was born into a Catholic family, and I was baptized as a baby. Almost 19 years later, after I surrendered my life to Jesus and committed my life to him, I was baptized as a follower of Jesus.
In Luke 3 we read about the Baptism of Jesus. When Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened up, the holy spirit descended on Him like a dove, and God spoke from Heaven.
Luke 3:21-22 (NLT2)
21 One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
Imagine you were there witnessing this event:
Jesus came out from the water.
The sky ripped open.
The Holy Spirit descended.
God spoke “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
JESUS’ BAPTISM IS AN EXAMPLE FOR BELIEVERS.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT2)
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
From the time Jesus left the earth, he taught that all believers, all followers of Jesus, all disciples, should be baptized. Baptism is not a requirement for forgiveness of sins. While dying on the cross, Jesus turned to the thief and said, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
Years later, in Acts 16: 30 the apostle Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten, and singing hymns in a prison. Seeing their joy, the jailer asked, what must I do to be saved, and they replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” After they believed and surrendered, they were baptized.
Baptism is an outward expression of the inner change that occurs when a person surrenders their life to Jesus. About three months after I had surrendered my life to Jesus and was forgiven for my sins, as a hymn of invitation was being sung, I walked down the center aisle, took the Pastor’s hand, and told him I had surrendered my life to Jesus and I wanted to be baptized. A few weeks later, I was in a line of other teenagers on a Sunday morning, waiting to be baptized.
Two friends were in front of me. Mikey and Kim. Mikey had surrendered his life to Jesus about a week before I did, and Kim was the Pastor’s daughter, and my wife’s twin sister. Kim came out of the water and climbed out of the baptistry. Mikey went down the steps to be baptized and while he was going under the water, Kim whispered into my ear, “I peed in the water.” Seriously.
The Pastor brings Mikey up out of the water, and Mikey climbs the step up. I go down, turn and face Mikey, and his nose is bleeding and had run down the white baptismal robe and red blood is everywhere. That was the last thing I saw before the Pastor dunked me under the water. As soon as I went under the water, I burst out laughing. I was being baptized in pee, blood, and water…and I thought it was funny.
Maybe your baptism story is much more reverent than mine. But that’s my story. No booming voice from heaven, just pee.
Let’s read about a man, who after he surrendered his life to Jesus, spontaneously got baptized from Acts 8:26-39.
Acts 8:26-36 (NLT2)
26 As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. 29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.” 30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. 32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 33 He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. 36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.
As we see in this example of Phillip and the Ethiopian:
FOLLOWING JESUS SOMETIMES REQUIRES SPONTANEITY.
We love self-control. We love having plans. We love having clear expectations. Even in our worship services – we intentionally go into every weekend service with a plan.
We have the songs timed. We have the message timed.
We have the announcements timed so that we can get out in exactly one hour because we have multiple worship services and we want your friends to know what to expect if you invite them to church. Plans are good. Self-control is good.
But as we see in the example of Phillip – following Jesus sometimes requires spontaneity. If Jesus is the Lord of our lives, we should live more spontaneously. We should be listening to the internal prompting of the Holy Spirit and we should live being led by the Spirit. That means we live doing things that are unexpected.
Be careful that you do not confuse the internal prompting of your own sinful desires with the internal prompting of the Holy Spirit. If you lose your temper, that is not in response to an internal promoting of the Holy Spirit. That is in response to your sinful nature. While it is spontaneous and unexpected, it is not because you were being led by the Spirit.
It is clear to me, that Phillips' first step of obedience resulted in more communication from the Holy Spirit. As Phillip is walking along the road as the Lord had instructed him to do, the Holy Spirit spoke to him again, and Phillip responded in obedience to him, again.
Following Jesus sometimes requires SPONTANEITY. Don’t be afraid to live on the edge of your faith and confidently step into the unknown where the Holy Spirit is prompting you to go. The continual NEXT STEPS of obedience by Phillip led to a LIFE-CHANGING conversation with the Ethiopian. If you are already a follower of Jesus, and you have not yet been baptized, your next step is to let your world know you are a follower of Jesus by being baptized.
But first, it is crucial to understand this:
BAPTISM FOLLOWS SURRENDER TO JESUS
Phillip caught up with the Ethiopian and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading.” The passage of Scripture that Phillip explained was Isaiah 53. It is the explanation of the death of Jesus 400 years before it happened.
In case you do not know Isaiah 53 – these are some of the things it say about Jesus.
It was our weakness Jesus carried
It was our sorrows that weighed Jesus down
Jesus was pierced for our rebellion
Jesus was crushed for our sins
Jesus was beaten so we could be whole
Jesus was whipped so we could be healed
And Isaiah wrote about you and I as well. About us he said,
“All of us like sheep have strayed away, we have left God’s path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
The Spirit of God led Phillip spontaneously to the desert,
to spontaneously catch up with a chariot,
and to spontaneously have a life-changing conversation about how that Ethiopian could become a follower of Jesus and receive Christ as his savior.
And now – I want to invite you to spontaneously become a follower of Jesus.
Right now – if you believe but have not yet received Jesus – God has sent me to tell you today how to receive Jesus.
Take a look at this Prayer of Surrender:
God, today I admit to you that I am a sinner and deserve death. I believe that Jesus paid the penalty for my sins through his death on the cross. I believe you have forgiven my sins. Jesus, I surrender my life to you and commit to following you. Amen.
That’s what happened in the conversation with Phillip and the Ethiopian! After Phillip explained how a person could become a follower of Jesus – he told him that HIS NEXT STEP was to be baptized to let everybody know he was now a follower of Jesus and changed from the inside out.
So then they saw some water and he said, in v.36 "“Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”
The Ethiopian received Jesus as his Savior and was immediately baptized. That is what you can do today.