The Way of Jesus 3.0

All right.

Well it is very good to be here with you this morning and we are continuing in

our series Uncovering The Way of Jesus.

So if you haven't tuned in yet, you can jump onto the podcast.

Listen to our last

couple of messages.

last week we tackled,

the way of Jesus versus the way of consumerism.

And that was a good time, wasn't it?

It's great to have our consumeristic natures exposed and challenged, isn't it?

Oh, that was, that was overwhelming.

And so this morning, as it is a baptism Sunday, um.

Luke and I are

going to be discussing, the way of Jesus in

light of, well, the way of baptism, but understanding baptism as allegiance.

And so we're gonna explain more of what that means this morning,

and it's just, it's so good.

I think you will all find this incredibly helpful, and I will say off the get

go, if you are here this morning and you say that you are a follower of

Jesus and you have not been baptized, all right, there is something for

you to think about in that space.

And so just allow a willing, a posture of willingness, as

you tune into this morning.

Um.

About what the Lord might be asking of you in this place without any coercion

or emotional manipulation or anything.

but just, yeah, just maybe lean in with a posture of willingness.

And so, before we dive into our scripture for this morning, and we start to have our

wonderful discussion, we actually have already

done.

Baptism this week that I just wanted to share with you guys.

So Monday night some of us went down to JI Beach and 'cause there was a couple who.

Really, really, really wanted to be baptized.

They're relatively new to this life in Jesus.

And they were heading off to Italy 'cause well who isn't?

and and they really wanted to be baptized before they left.

They were living on Tuesday.

So Monday night, some of us, their house, church that they're

a part of, thank you Erica.

we went down and and it was just beautiful.

So we got a couple of photos here.

So this is Kira and Ricky, and it was the most stunningly,

spectacular evening sunset.

It was just beautiful.

So that's us standing there, getting ready to pray for them.

And the next photo there, that's them in the water.

And, even after this moment, we had dolphins jumping out of the water.

It was just like, it was all just a bit special.

And then we went back and had dinner afterwards and it was such a

joyful celebration and, and such a privilege, to be part of.

And so hopefully we'll actually get them to share, a bit more of their story when

they're back because their journey to

Jesus.

Um.

It's quite, yeah, quite stunning.

Quite profound.

and I do just wanna

take a moment too, to honor Erica here, because Erica is their next door neighbor

and she has been largely the conduit

for the Lord to move, in this couple's life.

And she's been a faithful neighbor, bearing witness to the truth of Jesus

for a number of years to this couple.

And, um.

And her, I

remember months ago, Erica coming and talking

to me, and this is really to also, to just tooke the flavors of what Adam was

talking about earlier as well, and, and just this desperation in Erica to see

someone come to Christ, like she was just so desperate and hungry for it.

Like to the point of, you know, like.

Tears in her prayers.

And it was not long after that that Kira and Ricky actually came to

Christ, as, you know, as, Erica is just pouring

out this prayer of lament, this desperation to see

people come to know Jesus.

And so I do wanna honor

you for that.

It is, your integrity and

that space, your commitment to that space is truly beautiful.

And so, yeah.

All right.

Let us read our scripture for today.

This is Luke three versus 1 2 22.

All right.

You can read it along with me.

In the 15th year of the Reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor

of Judea, Herod Tetra of Galilee, his brother Philip Tetra of Eria and Raus

and SIUs Te Tetra of Abilene during the high priesthood of an and Caiaphas.

The word came to John Son of Zacharia.

There is a lot of names in those first two verses, the voice of of

God, the word of God came to John son of Zacharia in the wilderness.

He went into all the country around the Jordan preaching a baptism of

repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet, A voice

of one calling in the wilderness.

Prepare the way for the Lord.

Make straight paths for him.

Every valley shall be filled in every mountain and hill made low.

The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth, and

all people will see God's salvation.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him.

You brooded a vipers.

How to win friends and influence people by John the Baptist.

You brew of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming WR produce

fruit in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves,

we have Abraham as our father.

If I tell you that outta these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham.

The acts is already at the root of the trees and every tree that

does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

What should we do?

Then the crowd asked, John answered, anyone who has two shirts should share

with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.

Even tax collectors came to be baptized, even tax collectors teacher,

they asked, what should we do?

Don't collect any more than you are required to.

He told them.

The fact they had to be told, this is a little disturbing, isn't it?

We don't know what to do.

I'll stop extorting people.

How about we start there?

Then some soldiers asked him, and what should we do?

He replied, don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely.

Be content with your pay.

The people were waiting expectantly and we're all wondering in their hearts

if John might possibly be the messiah.

John answered them all.

I baptized you with water, but one who is more powerful than I will come the straps

of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit of fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather

the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable

fire and with many other words.

John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

But when John rebuked Herod the Tet truck, because of his marriage

to Herods his brother's wife and all the other evil things he had

done, Herod added this to them all.

He locked John up in prison when all the people were BA were being baptized.

Jesus was baptized to.

And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended

on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven.

You are my son, whom I love with you.

I am well pleased.

This is the word of the Lord.

Yes.

Thanks be indeed.

All right, so this morning, what is the goal of our message this morning in light

of the series that we're in and light of this scripture that we just read?

And so let me frame it for you this way.

So the goal of this message today, this conversation that Luke and I are

about to end to into, is to help us to recover a fuller understanding of

Christian baptism, not merely as a symbolic act, but as a transformative

moment of covenant and calling.

So baptism is a public declaration of allegiance to King Jesus,

a renouncing of all competing loyalties, and a pledge of lifelong

faithfulness to the way of his kingdom.

It signifies not only our identification with Jesus death, burial, and

resurrection, but our entrance into his eternal life way, a life shaped

by trust, obedience, and participation in the good news of God's reign.

So what we wanna do this morning is really ground an understanding

of what baptism is in its first century context because baptism has

changed quite a bit.

now how we would commonly

experience

baptism to actually, not just how it was

practiced, but what it actually meant.

But when you underground it in its first century context, it's.

Incredibly profound and incredibly helpful for us today.

And so that's really what we wanna do today.

Would you agree?

Yes.

Alright, Luke, over to you now my friend.

I can go.

Luke hasn't been well

this week.

No.

And so, yeah, if he sounds

a little under the weather, he still in recovery mode.

Is that true?

A little bit, yeah.

Yeah, A little bit.

Yep.

all right.

So do you just want to Luke, help clarify some terms

for us before we proceed?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So we

thought we'd just, define some terms,

some words we're gonna use, we're gonna throw

around this morning.

in our conversation

just to help everyone be on the same page, but what we mean when we say these words.

So the first word is obviously baptism.

And what do we mean when we say

baptism?

Well, baptism, simply means to immerse,

to be immerse.

And so immersion.

Could you put that slide up?

Sabr?

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Yeah, there you go.

so it comes from a

Greek word that that means to be immersed, to be put under, um.

So baptism

is a sacred ritual, and a Christian rite

of initiation that symbolizes repentance, cleansing, and new life in Christ.

So as a sacrament, I'm gonna explain what that word means in a second.

It is a visible and also dramatic.

So there's a drama at play here as well.

Sign of an inward reality, publicly declaring allegiance to Jesus as

Lord and participating in the story.

So it's, it's actually joining in with his story of his, his life,

his death, and his resurrection.

Yeah.

Well.

Baptism is not a, is not the, is not the coming to faith

or the coming to salvation.

I, I would, I would want us to maybe not minimize it either.

I, I would want to be a little bit stronger than maybe what you've heard.

It is a part of the work of the grace of salvation.

That's how old would put it, that in part of that work, it's

the outflowing of our salvation.

Yeah.

And so it's a part of that, it's a part of that working out our salvation with God.

Yeah.

In obedience.

Does that make sense?

So sometimes you hear in

particularly evangelicals, just throw around,

oh, perhaps.

No, it's not, you know, it's not, it doesn't matter.

You know, you're still saved.

I'd, I'd go, no.

I think we need to elevate it a bit higher than that in our practice.

Mm. Does that make sense?

Do you think, Luke?

It's

like, it would be like,

yeah.

You know, like a couple who were getting married and who didn't

have any kind of ceremony.

Like something would be wrong there, wouldn't it?

It's like, oh yeah, but you've made this commitment, but there's been no

vows exchanged, no public declaration.

That's right.

Of promise and covenant.

You go, oh, well how can you really be married if you haven't had that?

Moment, and I think

totally

in this effort to protect salvation by grace alone, we've taken baptism

and we've kind of downplayed it because we don't wanna communicate

a workspace righteousness, but.

If having a wedding ceremony is so important, how much more so having

some kind of public declaration of vows and oaths to the King of

Kings and the Lord of Lords, and to walking in the ways of his kingdom.

Amen.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it's continuing the story of Christ in our obedience,

in our practice of baptism.

So I would say if we're at a wedding, I would be encouraging us all to have

a vision that the commitments that are made upon that day by that couple,

the man to the wife, the wife to the, to the husband, is actually a shared

commitment within the community.

That we are committed to seeing this covenant outworked.

Yeah.

And so in baptism, it is a shared commitment because we are not, we

are not individuals saved into God.

No.

We are a people saved into God's community.

Amen.

Yeah.

I know that's pedantic, but I

think it's important.

so.

I think what baptism

is, is it's a, it's a remembering.

So there's three things I want to bring.

It's a remembering of the person of Christ.

It's also the realizing, so it's actually doing something with our bodies to realize

his, his life, death, and resurrection.

Right.

And it's also a rehearsing.

Of, of the life, death, and resurrection.

So remembering, realizing, and rehearsing, I think is the power that

the gospel of Jesus Christ is made alive when we practice baptism together.

believers express their

repentance and fidelity or faithfulness to Jesus when practicing baptism.

And in the early church baptism was a voluntary act of obedience,

symbolizing a person's commitment to life under Christ's reign as king.

Okay, so that second word that I want to

mention is sacrament.

now for some of us,

we may not have heard of this word.

For a lot of us, we have really,

it doesn't matter.

but what matters is

the heart in which we practice baptism.

So sacrament comes from a Latin word, and the Christians just borrowed it

similar to the word for, good news or gospel.

They borrowed these common words in Latin that was used throughout the Roman Empire,

which comes from the word sacramentum.

And sacramentum just means to pledge allegiance.

It is an oath unto who?

For the Romans.

Well, it's, it's an oath.

And to the empire and to the emperor.

Yeah.

And

so Sacrament in its, original context was

actually used

firstly in a legal, framework within

the Roman culture.

It then moved into a military context where a soldier, when

they became a soldier, I.

We would, speak or, participate in a sacrament an oath unto the empire

and to the emperor, depending on who was on the throne, would depend how often you

would have to do it.

so some emperors would

go, no, just do it once.

When you start your career as a soldier, the empires would go,

no, I want to hear it every year.

from you as soldiers.

And so the Christians come in and use this word sacramentum to try and convey

the, the, the heavy, the, the, the, not the heaviness, the, the weightiness.

Thank you.

The weightiness of what we're participating in when we're talking

about baptism, that it is a sacramentum.

So,

tutu.

Ian, who was a famed apologist,

lived from one 60 to 2 25 ce.

It was, he was, he, he was very specific in, in identifying this act of baptism as

a Christian sacramentum and contrasting it to the Roman soldiers pledge of

loyalty to the empire and emperor.

So he made the case that just as soldiers upon his or his oath, I was gonna say, or

her?

No, just his, his oath of allegiance

was inducted into Caesar's army.

So a believer was initiated by the sacrament, the oath.

Of baptism into God's kingdom.

So each vowing faithful service to God and to his kingdom.

Yeah.

Now there's a contrast here that some of you might have heard of a word

ordinance, ordinances of the church.

Yeah.

Again, it doesn't really matter if you haven't, but just so there is

a bit of a contrast between what a sacrament is and an ordinance is.

And just for the sake of everyone going on, now I've

learned something new.

I'm just gonna make that, that sort of.

difference that contrast.

And, so there's a, a, an

or an or an ordinance is just simply a, it's a symbolic ritual

that is practiced, because Christ has

demonstrated it in his life that the church practices.

So it remains quite symbolic.

Yeah.

That's what an ordinance is.

So when I speak of an ordinance, think there's some church traditions

that practice feet washing.

That would be an

ordinance, right?

Or, some churches practice

certain uses of oil in anointing their members

for certain reasons.

that would be referred

to as an ordinance.

But a sacrament for the church historically has gone a step further

and has said, whilst it is symbolic, it is also divine action at play.

So this is, these are baptism and, and communion are actually means of grace.

Where as Karl Bath a, a Christian theologian once said, this is

the divine action and human action coming together in unity.

Yeah.

So pretty powerful sort of experiences we can have in these sacraments.

And then we've got right and ritual that we're gonna use, which is a

formal ceremony involving Pacific prearranged actions or words that

carry symbolic meaning, often expressing a

deeper truth, reality, or desired outcome.

It's again, dramatic.

There's a drama.

Play here in nature helps impress the significance of the event on both

the participant and the observer.

Because of this, rituals are typically performed with intention and

seriousness.

And as Adam, sorry, Adam Dale.

You want flesh, as Dale mentioned, about marriage, that

marriage would be a modern ritual that we all partake of, right?

That we go, we watch these people pledge their vows, their

os to each other in community.

We, we spectate, we observe, we're a part of that

ritual.

So it would be, a modern example of

rich rituals that play in our lives.

And then lastly, allegiance.

And I just wanna use the word allegiance really, really simply.

Allegiance just means fidelity.

Which is just faithfulness.

And when we speak about allegiance this morning, I want you to think

about that it is fidelity or faithfulness to Jesus as our cosmic.

When I word use the word cosmic, I mean of all things Lord and King.

Okay?

It is.

It is.

It is a, a life expressed under that leadership.

Yeah, that's what we're talking about when we say allegiance.

Allegiance unto Christ.

Yeah.

Very good.

All right, so with

that groundwork laid, and really do wanna

encourage you to hone in on that word

allegiance, it's really key, for where we're going

today.

And so just to reflect back for a moment on the passage of scripture that

we just read and to just to consider a few things that are going on here.

So I dunno if you noticed like right from the outset.

All those names that were listed.

So if you, if you consider who was listed at the beginning of Luke's

account here of John's ministry beginning to come into play.

Um.

It is an incredibly political

environment in which, John is beginning to

outwork his calling.

So you have these powers of the empire all listed right at the

beginning, and then we go into John's ministry in, within that context.

Um.

Of this baptism of repentance, and I think that's really important to know

because what you've got contrasted here, it's not just this story of how John did

baptism and then how he baptized Jesus.

The context into which this is happening is really key and what it highlights.

Is is the incredibly subversive nature of what John was doing,

of what John's message was and what he was asking people to do.

This pledge of allegiance he was calling people into in the face of the Empire.

It was incredibly subversive and it's something that we miss in our culture.

Because we still have enough Judeo-Christian values in our

culture, our act of baptism doesn't have the same level.

Yeah, in an obvious sense, in a deeply spiritual sense, it does, but in

that obvious sense, as it would've for the early church, because in

this moment what these people were doing was saying, Jesus is king.

Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.

Mm. And it was potentially profoundly costly, like these people to,

they were counting the cost.

They could well end up dead after going through these baptismal

waters for their defiance to the emperor and the empire, and this.

You go, okay, well that was them.

How does that, what does that mean for us today?

Oh.

Because at its core, the empire is still reigning and ruling.

Yeah.

The powers and the principalities that

are still at work, our call to allegiance

to Jesus is actually no different

to the early church.

but we ha have enough

Judeo-Christian values that it doesn't, it's not as striking in the natural.

In the spiritual, it's still this question of allegiance.

Who will you serve?

Who

is your true Lord?

the empire or king

Jesus.

Alright.

Have you got any reflections from that passage, Luke?

Yeah.

I think the, the beautiful nature of this patch passage is it reminds us

that our faithfulness to Christ is found in tangible interpersonal situations.

Day to day, like the way that, that John responds to 'em in what they

must do, he doesn't, he doesn't speak of high lofty spiritual speak.

Like he, he brings it and he goes, this is what you can go do now.

This is how you are to live as citizens of Christ in this world.

This is what it means to be subversive in the world, you

know, is to, is to be honest.

is, is to to hold your

word.

If you commit to someone,

follow through on it.

whatever you are paid,

be content with it.

Do you know what I mean?

So there's, you know, we talk about commun consumerism last, last week.

That's a great example.

I just, I love, I love the way of Jesus.

Jesus is, is so, so, so not wanting us to

get away with escaping the realities that we face each and every day in our lives.

He's, he's not wanting us to sort of wiggle out and go, well, that's too hard.

We'll just, we'll just wait until everything's new again.

He's going, no, I want you to.

Come with me on the project of making things new now in your life, in your

workplace, in your relationships, in your community, with your neighbors.

Like, I want you to come and spread that seed of newness now.

And, and so the cost of following Jesus is actually really, it's

actually quite hard because we can't, we can't weasel out of it.

He like gets us, he gets us in the corner and he goes, you can't get away.

With not practicing this, you know, he says that to me.

He says, Luke, Luke, um.

You know, and so these excuses or these, these abilities, I find

the human heart so interesting.

I don't know about you.

I can, I can explain away the reasons why I do things right and I can minimize them.

And here's the spirit of God going, I'm not gonna get a, I'm not gonna get

you, let you get away with that Luke.

And that's what he's opening us up to, is that there are moments

when you will use your fears and anxieties to manipulate others.

Okay, so the call of Jesus is to go, why is to open yourself

up and going, Lord, how?

How do I follow you in this?

How do I, how do I see your newness of life come in and through me and to others?

And so I love all that to say is I love John and I love Jesus in

that their, their sense of going, this is how you live life out now.

And it's there, it's clear, it's in the pages of scriptures.

Look at the beatitudes.

Like they, there's instructions there that are welcoming us in to newness of life

that are subverting these evil powers.

So good.

Yeah.

And it shows what salvation truly is.

That it's not this ticket to heaven idea, it's this walking

in a new way.

And, one of the powerful

images that's reflected in this account here is that of the Exodus

story, the passing through the water.

And so the Exodus story, you got the people of God, they cry out and God sends

the deliverer Moses, and he delivers them out of slavery to Egypt, and he delivers

them through the waters, and then he gives them a way to live that they would be

a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Right?

And so this imagery, again, like when they crossed the.

God's people cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

They go through the waters, and then there is a way that they

are to live in the world, that they would fulfill their calling.

And here we have this imagery again now, so God's people

again crying out in oppression.

To this time, to Roman rule and occupation, not Egypt and not Babylon.

Now we've got Rome, the oppressive force, and again, we have these

waters and we have this call.

All right, come through the waters.

Repent.

Turn away from your faithless ways that have landed you in this

oppression in the first place.

Remember, 'cause we're talking about the first Century church here.

Why were they oppressed?

Well read the Old Testament prophets because they had

failed to be faithful to God.

And so they had gone into exile and now the voice of the people under

oppression is crying out to God.

And God is making a way, and he's making that way.

Now through the ministry of John the Baptist, that was not, was

that not the calling of John the Baptist that was declared over him?

Um.

At the time, you know, his mom was pregnant with him, that he will

be the one that is gonna turn the hearts of the people back to God

with his message of repentance.

And so here we have these waters again.

Come through the waters.

Now.

Live in faithfulness, now live in allegiance now to king Jesus.

Okay, the covenant has changed, right?

So we have the old covenant, but now it's a calling to a

new covenant under a new king.

And this king is Jesus and he has a way.

And so it's not just this, oh, come get baptized and then go

off and live however you want.

It's a pledge of allegiance, right?

Yeah.

America is massive on their pledge of allegiance, isn't it?

And I do wonder if maybe that's why the church there is a little bit messed up.

Yeah, and go with me on this.

And Christian nationalism is so rife in America because hand they, the citizens

of America put their hand on their heart all the time and make this pledge

of allegiance to the empire, right?

While simultaneously trying to make a pledge of allegiance to Jesus.

And sometimes those things are in stark.

Contrast and conflict to often,

often they are.

And, so this is a new way

that is being opened up here.

All right.

That was, that was a big

preach.

All right.

keep going.

Let us, let us go on to the

next part, shall we?

unless there was something

you specific you really wanted to add there, Luke.

'cause time just goes so darn fast when Yeah.

No, no, no.

Up here.

Let's,

let's do it.

Let's do it.

Alright.

So just quickly, let's have a look at repentance and forgiveness.

Can I have this next slide?

Because this is a massive theme in what we see happening here.

and, um.

John's ministry

was a ministry of repentance, wasn't it?

And I talked about repentance a couple of weeks ago when my intro,

intro, this series, repentance when it

comes to walking the way of Jesus, the way of repentance goes hand in hand with this.

So he went into all the country around the Jordan preaching baptism of

repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

So John

the Baptist calls.

call to baptism was

grounded in repentance and the promise of forgiveness.

This wasn't just about inner remorse, but a concrete reorientation of life

in preparation for the coming king.

Okay, this repentance is turning.

I mean, we've said this over and over again.

Repentance is not.

Just feeling bad about something you've done.

Okay.

It's a changing of heart.

It's a changing of mind.

You know, what was John's ministry was that he would turn the

hearts of the people back to God.

And so what we see unfolding, if we

had this next slide.

up there, Sabrina,

this one.

So what is happening through John's ministry and his baptism of

repentance here with repentance?

So turning from sin and turning to God with a sincere heart.

And then what happens?

Forgiveness, God's response to repentance.

The removal of sin and the restoration of relationship because

this is what our sin does, right?

It doesn't just harm us and those around us, it damages, separates.

Us in our relationship with God.

So we repent and we turn back to God and then God gives his forgiveness.

And so it is a restoration of relationship.

And then there's immersion in water.

So is ritual expression of repentance and a visible reception of forgiveness

and a sign of dying to sin and being raised to new life in Christ.

So there is so much going on here.

And I do just wanna say though.

You know, you've got John's baptism here, this baptism, repentance, but then we see

Jesus getting baptized in this moment.

Yeah, we might be going, well, why does Jesus didn't need to repent.

So what on earth was Jesus doing here going into the waters, right?

Because Jesus was modeling what would become baptism in Jesus' name.

Yeah, which was different to John's.

Now repentance is still there, forgiveness is still there, but there is

something else happening in this moment.

And what do you see descend upon Jesus in the moment?

I. So this is, we've, we've got, there are promised Holy Spirit happening

in this moment, descending on Jesus.

So Jesus is identifying with our brokenness in that moment, and,

but he's also demonstrating the new baptism that is to come and that, uh.

Actually happens.

So in Acts 2 38, in Peter's first message, he says, repent and let every one of you

be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remissions of sin, and you'll

receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So that is now the fuller picture of baptism that we participate in now.

So I like, I like this way of framing it.

So John's baptism was a preparatory act, urging readiness for God's coming kingdom.

But.

The baptism that Peter talks about in acts after the day of Pentecost.

This is a part participatory act enabling people to enter into the

kingdom through Jesus spirit and water baptism are connected and

inseparable in this new pattern.

So, look.

All right.

Let's

now talk about baptism as a sacrament of allegiance.

Let's dive into a bit more to this word, allegiance.

Yeah, we've got this next slide there.

Sabr, Sabrina.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So as you can see, baptism in the early church was not merely symbolic.

So even, even at the very, very start of this practice,

the early church acknowledged that something's going on here.

Something significant is going on here.

It's a changing of allegiance.

It's a public declaration of loyalty to Jesus' King, often at personal costs.

What are those personal costs?

They could be social, they could be financial, they could be physical.

I. Costs that, that the early church

were putting up and going, we're gonna still pledge our allegiance to Christ.

It was a right that marked a decisive break from former allegiances,

whether to self sin or empire, and a whole embrace of the kingdom of God.

Um.

And there's a guy by the name of

Pliny, the younger, and, he sounds

like a fun guy, doesn't he?

And he

was, he was writing, he was a, he was a Roman lawyer and

also, author, and so he was

writing about the early church and reporting back to the empire,

the, the, the Caesar at that time.

And he spoke about the church being, being this weird group

of people that seem harmless.

That would gather on a Sunday probably before Dawn.

That's pretty gross.

Before Dawn.

Ugh, we got, we got a good, don't we?

10:00 AM services.

That's all right.

Before Dawn.

And what would they do?

They would sing him, but then they would pledge oaths to each other.

They'd pledge commitments to each other.

And those commitments he reported were commitments to be people

that did not practice dishonesty, did not commit adultery, and were

good citizens to their neighbors.

That's what the pledge, the pledges were to each other.

And so the church in the early church practiced continued practice putting their

eyes towards this new allegiance as king.

One of the other os they took was that they would not practice worship worshiping

other gods like the Roman gods, because in the early church you'd have the church,

you know, new Christians going, yep.

Worship Jesus Christ, and also I go to the temple and give my offerings just in case.

And so the early church began to realize, no, we need to cut our

allegiances from that and dedicate our complete allegiances to Jesus Christ.

So what does that mean?

You know, let's think about that today.

Like think about that.

Join me in that contemplation of going, okay, what does that mean for us today?

Like, how can we, how can we be expressing our allegiances?

Practicing things like the early church did to realign our

hearts and our minds, to center ourselves

again every single week, centering ourselves on this new allegiance

we have in Jesus Christ.

Yeah.

And what are, what are some of the allegiances that still remain in our

lives that we're still hanging onto that aren't a part of Christ and his

kingdom that are, that are, that are from the flesh, the world or the devil?

Where, where are they and actually going on that, that,

that continued journey together.

Like the early

church practiced weekly, they also ate together as well.

on a Sunday, which

is kind of cool.

But Pliny said it was pretty, it was pretty harmless and average

kind of entertainment and food.

So they were pretty boring considering in comparison to the Romans, apparently.

So where's where, where are our allegiances?

You know, do you need to ask that question?

Which your allegiance in business or work is it?

Is it profit?

Over integrity.

You know, is there an allegiance there that, that, you know, you are, you're

a part of a system that is just pushing to destroy people for money, you know,

asking that and going, can I participate in this or do I need to make a stand?

This is a

tough, tough question.

is there questions

around your allegiance in how you speak about your marriage in public with

others, you know, get the boys together.

Have a little chat about the marriage.

Ha ha.

Women, you know, and you women, you do it as well.

Oh,

never, never.

Oh, men

never complain about my husband.

Never.

You know, but is there a sense that, you know, that, that we are pledging

our allegiance to live in a way that glorifies God in our marriages?

Is our, is our allegiance in how we're, you know, in question

about how we're raising our kids.

You know, and what we're allow, we're, we're allowing the kids to be involved

in from the powers and the systems of the world, but we're making a stand

and we're going, no, we're gonna parent you in the ways of Christ.

'cause my allegiance is to king Jesus, not to your friends or to society.

Yeah.

And so these, these are the questions that we need to be asking.

I just wanna, I was just reflecting as you were talking

and I just wanna encourage Luke

for a moment because, I. You know, being

friends with Luke and Beck, we've had the privilege of watching them

actually, how they run their business.

So yes, we see Luke in the pasta context here, but you know, Luke has

a coughing, roasting business and.

The way Luke has run his business, testifies to his allegiance to King Jesus.

Yeah.

So he has always run his business with this submission to the

ways of the kingdom, while still honoring the ways of our culture.

He's.

Clearly his ultimate allegiance in the way he runs his business is to King Jesus.

The way he manages his finances, the degree of integrity

he doesn't give in to the

systems of this world.

but there is a clear

devotion and allegiance

to Jesus in that I. you know, I was thinking

about this.

How do we demonstrate that?

Amen.

Today and, well, a story that came to mind for me this morning,

who's seen Hacksaw Ridge?

I mean, it's an intense experience, right?

But I think that's, it's just such a profound picture of what

I'm talking about now, if you don't know what I'm talking about.

So, Hacksaw

Ridge, true story, about a guy by the

name of Desmond Doss, and he was a devout Seventh Day Adventist.

And so this is World War ii, and he wanted to go serve his country, right?

But.

Because his allegiance was to Jesus and to therefore non-violence

and to not murdering people.

He wouldn't take up arms.

So he wanted to go and help, but he wouldn't take up a gun and

he wasn't gonna shoot anyone.

It's the most man that's seen in that movie where he is lowering injured

people over the edge of this cliff.

And just one more Lord, just gimme one more.

And he never fired a gun and he saved.

Minim bare minim 75 people's lives.

And he was present on this war field, but he was present there with

ultimate allegiance to Jesus and brought testimony to the way of Jesus

in the most costly way imaginable.

So encouraging and so inspiring.

I mean, one, that's another one that's obvious, one that's sticks out is like,

you know, the Eric Liddell story, right?

So here's this incredibly gifted man athletically, but

his allegiance was to Jesus.

So, no, I'm not gonna run on this day.

I'm gonna forfeit the thing that I am most known for, that

I will, will give me glory.

I'm gonna lay that down because my allegiance to Jesus trumps that, and

I don't run on the Sabbath because that would not be honoring to God.

So his allegiance was clear and he stood up in front of the whole world

and declared that to, I'm sure a great degree of scorn, but then went on.

To win the 400 meters, didn't he?

And then we, but we even look at that and go, whoa, wow, that was amazing.

But then was what, what he did with his life after that was actually truly amazing

when he went and became a missionary in World War II and died just before the

end of the war as a prisoner of war.

But his faithfulness to Jesus.

His commitment to his alle, that was his ultimate allegiance.

Nobody ever

doubted it in him.

And and that is what baptism

says.

Amen.

That is what we are saying when we get baptized.

Jesus, my allegiance is to you above all else.

Do you see how powerful this word allegiance is?

Do you see how it transforms this moment of baptism from something that

is the now Symbolic gestures are great.

But when you consider the power of these oaths and these declarations,

these and we we're making in that moment, it just puts such a greater

degree of weightiness on it.

All right, so final point.

Embodying a new way in the world, living baptized.

Come bring up this final slide, Sabrina.

Okay.

What have we got here?

Baptism initiated.

believers into a countercultural

community defined by the ethic and hope of Jesus's kingdom.

It was a rite of passage into a more excellent way, one marked by

humility, justice, and faithfulness.

So living in a new reality.

So how does, and this is quite a specific question, I think it ties back to

what AD was saying, at the beginning of

our gathering this morning.

How does.

The perspective on baptism, this perspective that we've talked

about this morning, perhaps change or expand how we understand and

practice the great commission.

Okay, so what is the great commission?

Let's just with the next slide there.

So, Jesus, these final words before he ascends.

All authority in heaven on Earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey

everything I have commanded you.

Do you see the connection here?

Allegiance is obedience, right?

And we so often we, we hear this great commission and we leave

out the obedience part, don't we?

The teaching people to obey, and this is what John was calling people to.

It's what Jesus calls people to.

It's a new way of life, which is an obedience to the way of Christ.

It's a way of allegiance.

You can't live a life that is allegient to Jesus and is a

disobedient to his way, right?

No matter how loud you might sing on a Sunday in worship, if you walk out

those doors and you are unloving to your neighbor and you walk without

conviction in the ways of consumerism, selfishness, self-righteousness,

self-indulgence, all of that.

Well, clearly your allegiance is not to Jesus.

It has to be outworked in obedient submission to him.

And so when we are considering the great commission and the call to go into all

the world, what are we actually doing?

What are we actually doing?

It's not just about getting people to say an incantation, a prayer, right?

Which is sometimes what we water salvation down to.

If we just get them to pray this prayer, well then they're in and then we're good.

No, it's teaching them to obey everything that Jesus taught.

And so it's not about just getting people over a lion with a prayer of salvation.

It's a lifelong dedication and commitment to obedience of the way

of Jesus and teaching that obedience to the way of Jesus as the good way,

the way that leads to life for the sake of that person, for the sake

of the world, for the glory of God.

Do you have any other thoughts on that one?

Oh, you've ta you've taken all of them.

Oh, it's good.

No, no, no.

You are good,

greedy, and salt.

You're really good at this.

You have good thoughts too.

Oh look.

Yeah.

I've had one.

I was marrying Beck.

Marrying Beck.

Oh gosh.

I think, I think I'd just want to, I'd want to just double down on what

Dale has just articulated there with the great commission that whilst there

is, there is a sense of going out and

seeing people converted.

the, the Great Commission

is instructing us to make disciples.

Which is a life of slow, intimate

Yep.

Long journeying with others.

It's not, it's not a, it's not a going out and finding someone and

going, Hey, you should follow Jesus.

And them saying, okay, I will, and great job, job done.

Great.

Commission finished.

Mm. That's not, that's not the call.

The call is to live under his authority as a community calling

us to make disciples of each other.

and so whilst we do,

we got God in his goodness and in his

care for all people, desires no one to be

lost or perished.

He's calling us to join in

with that winsome, life of speaking and

living and seeing others come into faith.

I think to just stop there with the Great Commission is to not see the

full picture of what God in Christ Jesus is, is commanding us to.

Yep,

yep,

yep.

And

it is that picture, on Earth as it is in

heaven.

Yep.

As we are taught to pray.

And how does that happen?

I. Happens as we live in the way of Jesus and as we seek to live, spirit

empowered lives, then that is the glorious good news of all of this is

that we do not struggle and strive on our own, but we are empowered by the

very spirit of God to live this way.

And so I guess as a offer of invitation and reflection as we draw this to

a close is how is your allegiance.

To Jesus.

You know, as you consider the prayer of David, you know when he says, test me and

know me Lord, know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me.

If you were to pray that, invite that examining of his spirit in your life.

See if there is any unfaithfulness in me to your ways.

Lord, show me.

And then what do you do with that?

This is what we talked about this morning, is repentance, right?

We bring our repentance and he is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us of all

unrighteousness as we confess our sins.

You know, what is the core message of John's gospel, I think

could be summed up this way.

You know, straighten up by fessing up.

That's what he was saying to the people, right?

Straighten up by fessing up.

'cause he was called to make straight ways for the coming of the Lord.

And how do you make straight ways you fess up.

You own it, right?

You don't try and excuse it, justify it.

If you've been an unfaithful Muppet, right?

You've been angry.

You've been selfish this week, you've harbored bitterness,

resentment, unforgiveness.

You've not loved your neighbor, okay, well, let's not all just

boohoo about it or justify it.

You've got, you've got a clear way through.

You bring it to God and you say, Lord.

This should not be in my life.

Okay?

I know this is not good, and actually I'm kind of given over to this way of living.

My flesh is really getting off on this right now.

I am gonna need your grace and your forgiveness to actually walk

a different way to walk your way.

I. And the true power because you notice the highly public

nature of John's ministry there.

He didn't say, just quietly come away on your own.

And I'll quietly over here just dunk you in some water and we'll quietly

by ourselves just say some prayers so you don't feel uncomfortable and.

So public, what he was doing was so profoundly public.

And so we need to pay attention to that too, because our real deliverance from

our unfaithful ways that harm us and those around us and dishonor God and

prevent his kingdom from coming on earth

as it is in heaven, it's.

It's as we confess those to one another.

Amen.

Yeah.

And none of us has a stone to throw in this.

Right.

We're all just, as you know, faithless as one another.

There isn't, there's no high ground at the foot of the cross.

The ground is level, and so you are safe to bring your confessions to, well, let me

wanna know the three of us, because we're.

We're all just as broken as everybody else, and there's probably not too

many sins that you've committed that we haven't participated.

Participated in in some way, shape, or form.

So we're not gonna judge you all thought you about all thought

about or condemn you, right?

But so we repent so that we can walk his way without the stain of guilt and shame.

And that's what sin does, right?

It stains us and this is the beautiful picture of the water that we go in and

we get cleansed of this stain of guilt and shame because guilt clings, right?

And then we end up serving the guilt instead of just freely.

Serving the Lord and we live these lives trying to justify ourselves, and then

we, we realize we're, we've behaved badly, we've done the wrong thing.

So then we try to kind of, you know, fix the balances by doing

enough good acts to counter the bad.

So maybe then we won't feel guilty.

And God's going, I sent my son so that you would not have the stain

of guilt and shame clinging to you.

Receive my forgiveness.

Now, walk in that cleanness, that baptism demonstrated.

Yeah, so invite you into a deep posture of repentance as you,

as we consider this series.

All right, let's enough of my preach,

preachy, rant there.

Adam, do you wanna

come up and bring this home?

Give these guys a hand, encourage them,

and the music team's gonna come

and join me as well.

do you know those two

stories that they mentioned?

They're Hacksaw

Ridge and Eric Liddell.

great stories, right, but just to be clear, our demonstrations

of allegiance doesn't mean you all need to go up the hill and not take arms.

I dunno.

I'm just checking.

Your demonstration of allegiance is not that you wouldn't run a race on.

I think it's a good Friday.

I thought it was a good Friday.

Not Sunday.

Sa Sabbath.

Okay, all good.

But our demonstration of allegiance to Jesus is through baptism.

Spirit come.

Now spirit lead me in those moments where my allegiance is specific assignments

that I would uptake, like the Eric Liddell, like the Hack Ridge guy.

I don't know his name.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

You with me?

Cool.

I was just thinking

about that just then.

Jesus actually said

me, Matthew 10 32.

Whoever acknowledged me acknowledges Jesus before men.

I will acknowledge you before the father

that died in heaven.

this is the publicness

of this is such an important dynamic.

I love that scripture when we

talk about baptism, you may be thinking

also, oh, I can't be baptized because I'm just not good enough.

I'm not ready to be baptized.

Well, that's the point.

You're never gonna get good enough to be baptized.

That's why you get baptized.

'cause you ain't good enough.

'cause Jesus is.

Amen.

These

are just my musings.

why don't you stand?

We're gonna, we're gonna worship

right now as we bring our service to

a close, how this, moment's gonna happen.

If there is anyone here that wants to be baptized, I want to

encourage you that it's okay.

We, we wanna baptize you today.

We don't want you to

feel rushed in that, two options during

this last song.

If you feel that that is you, I want you to be bold and I want

you to come down to the front.

I'll be

standing right there and, I'd love to, shake your hand and, just talk to you for

a little bit during

this song and then, we're gonna close the

service.

I might ask you, Hey, why are you getting baptized today?

And if you've got enough boldness, I'd love you to share that with everyone.

We're gonna close the service and then if there is anyone who

wants to do that, we'll be outside in about five, 10 minutes and

we'll.

Baptize you.

if you, if you're in

that sort of category right now, the there isn't another option.

You can come back tonight as well and be baptized with the other three

people who are going to be baptized.

So that's

also another option.

so father, we just

wanna

thank you for this, beautiful expression

of allegiance to you to elevate in our lives

who the real king is.

I'm not king Jesus.

You are king.

The forces of this world are not king.

You are king.

And so, Lord, thank you

for your spirit that, we're not alone in

all of this, but may you lead and guide us as we come to you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Yeah.