Week 4: The Big Rocks - Baptism

Acts 16:22-34

Four defining decisions:

1. He decided to admit the real condition of his life.

"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30

2. He decided to ask the most important question any of us can ask: What must I do to be saved?

"They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" -Acts 16:31

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
-Romans 10:9

3. He decided to repent and strike out in a new direction.
When a person believes in their heart and becomes a follower of Jesus, they start depending on God to make some changes in their life.

4. He decided to honor and obey the Lord by being baptized.
"immediately he and all his household were baptized." Acts 16:33
Simple questions you might have about baptism:

Why be baptized?
I could give a number of reasons right out of scripture, but really the one reason that should compel everyone to be baptized is that your leader and the forgiver of your sins commanded you to do it.

Everyone of the conversion stories in the book of Acts involved - someone admitting their life isn't working, putting their trust in Jesus instead of themselves, walking in a new direction, every one of them ends with the visible expression of baptism.

When am I ready to be baptized?

There's a pattern that we see over and over again in the bible. Here's an example from Acts 8:13, "Simon himself believed and was baptized."

Notice what he did first. He believed. And then he was baptized. The biblical sequence is to believe, and then be baptized.

How should I be baptized?

Baptize means to dip or immerse

Baptism is a drama in which you get to play Jesus in a reenactment of the core issues of our faith: his death, burial and resurrection and you can see that clearly in immersion. That was the pattern in the New Testament: going down into the water, coming up out of the water. So that's what I would encourage you to do.