Be Baptised
Baptismal Service at Bateau Bay Baptist Church 8 February 2009
Scripture: ACTS 8:26-40
Speaker: Reverend the Honourable Dr. Gordon Moyes AC MLC
A tall man, in his thirties, walked into the Cheltenham Church of Christ during my ministry there before we came to Wesley Mission Sydney thirty years ago.
He had not been before. He was lonely and seeking and I suggested we have lunch together Tuesday. He agreed and I drove to his work. Jack grew up and married in Sydney. His business failed and he was left with personal debts. His marriage broke down and he was divorced. He came to Melbourne to start anew. But Melbourne was unfriendly, and his Shore Grammar School Old Boy network did not work in Melbourne. He could not get the credit he needed. He felt unaccepted.
Friendless and alone he was drawn by the church bells to wonder what others found in religion. He walked up the steps of the white church on the highway and greeted me. We met for lunch Tuesday, and he said, “I want to take you to a restaurant and we will eat there.”
As we went he pulled down from the dashboard a New Testament, put it on the seat beside me and said, “I was reading that yesterday. Couldn’t understand much about it.” I asked, “Where did you start?” He said, “Page one. I got caught up in a whole lot of “begats this” and “begats that.”” I said, “You were not reading in the right place.”
As we pulled up at the restaurant I opened the New Testament: “Here are some verses that might say something worthwhile.” I read verses which spoke about people being alienated from God and from people, and for whom life meant nothing. Then a few verses that talked about despair and being lost, and a few verses about death. Suddenly, the Bible seemed to come alive to him.
He said, “That’s me. That’s how I feel!” Over lunch we shared a few more verses. He told me how he wanted to start all over again.
I said, “The Bible is a book of hope and it tells you how to start again and how you can be a new person.” Over coffee we discussed each verse of hope and new beginning, of new birth and new life. They touched him where he was hurting. They scratched him where he was itching. The Bible was more real to him than it had ever been before. Then I said, “Do you believe that Jesus is God’s Son and your Saviour?” He said, “Yes, I do.” Then he said to me, “I feel as if an enormous weight has gone from my shoulders.” I said, “Jack, when you said ‘I do’ an enormous weight did go from your shoulders.”
We talked about the meaning of commitment to Christ, about baptism, about studying for membership of the church, about giving, and about serving others. Then I said to him, “Jack, what gift do you think God has given you, to use in His kingdom?” He said, “This sounds strange having just become a Christian, but I think I could have the gift of telling others about the faith.” I replied, “I think you have the gift of teaching others to teach people about the faith. I think you are going to testify and witness to others, but that you will also train others to testify and witness. How about we start tonight?”
That night we went to a lovely couple and Jack witnessed to Tom, another businessman. Tom and Hilda made commitments to Jesus Christ. The following Tuesday night Jack and I went out again, and Jack witnessed to another couple using the verses of Scripture simply. There is no better person to witness to others than the new Christian, still with the joy of salvation in his own heart, knowing what Jesus has done for him personally. The second couple committed themselves to Christ and desired to be baptised and become members of the church.
Before he himself had been baptised he had led four other adults to faith in Jesus Christ! For sixteen weeks I taught Jack, then we each taught one other, then the four of us taught two others. Then the eight of us took one each and soon we had taught sixteen. At the same time I recruited sixteen who felt they could not witness but who said they would pray for us, to come to the church and pray while we were visiting. Then we would return to them and reveal the results of their prayer.
Within two years we had baptised two hundred adult believers. Jack became a Sunday School teacher, then a Deacon, and eventually an Elder. He was in charge of training people in witnessing to their faith. He met a Christian girl from the Baptist Church and I married them. He established a new business.
All this, because we shared with him the good news about Jesus. As I sat with him in his car and talked about the meaning of faith, starting with a few verses of Scripture, I came close to doing what Philip did in Acts 8:26 40.
The Lord told Philip to go to the Gaza Road.(v26-28) There, an official of Ethiopia was on his way back home in his carriage. As he travelled he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.” In this Scripture, Acts 8, you will find the elements of salvation for any one of us. There are five of them.
1.A SEEKING PERSON
It does not matter whether it is a black Ethiopian or a white Australian like Jack. One lived 2000 years ago and the other is alive today. But they are alike: both are seekers. One was going down Gaza Road, the other Nepean Highway. Both were seeking God.
Both had a great emptiness inside. Sometimes it takes a period of emptiness to bring you to God. Perhaps unemployment, alcoholism, drug taking. Perhaps grief and pain. Only then did you realise what it is like to be away from God and with no one to whom you could turn for comfort and courage. But you do not have to wait until calamity strikes.
If you have a seeking heart, you can come to God now. It does not matter what your circumstances are. (Isa 55) 6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
God is like that. No matter your situation, you can turn to Him now. He will know that you are seeking Him. The promise is that you will find Him. For those who seek Him, like Jack and the Ethiopian, God is to be found.
2.A SUFFICIENT WORD The seeking person needs a sufficient word adequate for their needs. The Ethiopian was reading the Book of Isaiah, Jack was reading a passage from Matthew. The important thing is that it must be a word you can understand. The Ethiopian was struggling with an Old Testament prophet. Jack was in the middle of the genealogy of Christ begats, begats, begats! Not only do you need to read the Word of God, you need to understand it.
That is why we call it a sufficient word. We need someone to ask, 30 “Do you understand what you are reading?” It is not enough to read. You have to find the right place to read and understand what it means. We preach the Word of God, because it is sufficient for our needs. When the Ethiopian confessed that he didn’t, Philip used the Scripture and he told him the good news about Jesus.
3.A SHARED WITNESS 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.” We do not realise how powerful our testimony can be. Even that of a new Christian. I have been in dozens of homes where the folk were not Christians and heard someone like Jack tell others what faith in Jesus Christ means. There is nothing more powerful than the Word of testimony spoken by an ordinary person.
Christians should tell the good news about Jesus. We must find those who are seeking and tell them the good news. It is not as though God were far away. He is near. As Paul said (Rom 10) 8 “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
In the United Church of South India, when people are baptised they go down into the water and place their hands upon their heads. They are asked to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and confess Him with faith. As they respond they also say, “Woe to me if I preach not the gospel.” They accept responsibility for sharing the good news about Jesus.
4.A SINCERE FAITH Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the greatest preacher of the 19th century. During 50 years of preaching in London, millions of copies of his sermons were purchased around the world. This great preacher came to faith in a little, wooden Methodist chapel! It was snowing and the preacher from the next village could not get through.
“At last, a very thin man, a shoemaker, a tailor or something, stood up and announced that someone should say a word, so he would. The text was, “Look unto Me and be saved.” He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that doesn’t matter. The preacher began thus: ‘My dear friends. This is a very simple text indeed. It says, “Look.” Now, lookin’ don’t take a great deal of pain. You don’t have to lift a finger just to look. Why, a man needn’t have to go to college to even look. You may be the biggest fool and yet you can still look. Anybody can look. And that is what the text says, “Look unto Me.” Now many o’ you are lookin’ on y’selves, but that’s the wrong place to look. You’ll never find comfort in y’selves. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look to Me.’ I’m sweating great drops of blood for y’. Look unto Me, I’m hangin’ on the cross for y’. Look unto Me, I’m dead and buried. Look unto Me, I rise again. Look unto Me, I ascend to heaven. Look unto Me sitting at the Father’s right hand. Look unto Me, look.’ “Then he looked at me, ‘Young man, you look miserable. You will be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death if you don’t look unto Jesus.’ “I saw at once the way to salvation.”
The greatest preacher of his age started with a look to Jesus. All you need to do is to look unto Jesus. This is what Philip told the Ethiopian he must do. He must look to Jesus in faith. Spurgeon, Jack and the Ethiopian all had a sincere faith.
5.A SURRENDERED WILL Sincere faith is not enough. You can be sincerely wrong! You must be sincere and have a surrendered will. It is not enough to trust. You must obey. The two come together. To a sincere faith, we add a submissive will.
36 “As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him.” His baptism was a sign of his will surrendered to Christ. So was Spurgeon’s. So was Jack’s.
Baptism is a sign of our incorporation into the body of Christ, the seal of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Baptism is for us a sacrament of grace whereby God makes us a brand new person. It is the act of initiation by which we are gathered into the church.
The Ethiopian “went on his way rejoicing.” (39) So did Spurgeon. So did Jack. The climax of coming to Christ and the Kingdom of God is a life of rejoicing. We are called upon to surrender our wills to Christ and be spiritually reborn.
Will you believe in Jesus Christ as your Saviour? Will you obey Him as your Lord? Will you be baptised as one of His people?
For further study, read the book by Dr Gordon Moyes
“A Fresh Look at New Testament Baptism” From Historical and Archaeological Perspectives.
Available online and free at
http://www.gordonmoyes.com/wp-content/uploads//FreshLookatBaptism.pdf