You're listening to audio from Faith Church, located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindy.com. Now here's the teaching. Buried. Buried in the likeness of his death, raised to newness of life.

Those words, although you might not have been able to hear it clearly, from where you're seated because we we set the mic down before we do the deed. Right? But those are the words that were uttered over the believers as they were plunged down into water today and raised back up. And lord willing, those words are gonna be spoken many more times this morning. I mean, the water's warm.

If you've watched and you were thinking, I should do that someday, I agree. Listen up. Buried in the likeness of his death, raised to newness of life, It's a phrase that comes from Romans chapter six and we're gonna be looking as Nathan read, we're gonna be looking at that text. If you wanna have your Bibles open to Romans chapter six, we're gonna be in the first, 10 or 11 verses of that, looking at a few texts out of there. We are wrapping up Grow Weekend this morning.

That's our annual conference that kicks off our Grow ministry as a church. And in this year, our theme is we believe. We believe. We're gonna be looking at the core truths that Christians throughout millennia have held and believed and taught and passed on. Yesterday, we started with the basics, Jesus Christ, who he is, the God man.

This morning, we're gonna be looking at what he's done. The central singular work of Jesus Christ, the God man, that is so beautifully reenacted and related to us in this ordinance of baptism. We believe. We believe. That's the opening refrain of the Nicene Creed, the universal creed that we read together, all believers, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.

We believe, not I, because the Christian faith and the Christian truths are not individual, which is also to say that the people who were baptized today weren't carrying out another step in their individual journey of personal growth and actualization, okay? The people being baptized today were publicly joining themselves to Christ church, this body of fellow believers who believe as they do, that they have been buried in the likeness of his death and raised to newness of life. And that that newness of life is only possible. It only follows. It only matters because first came his death.

What Paul that's what Paul tells us in verse three of Romans six. He writes, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? That's that's why the ancient creed, which we believe, says things like for us and our salvation, he came down. And for our sake, he was crucified. And then it goes on to say we believe in one baptism for the remission of sins or for the forgiveness of sins.

And some people might ask, how how does that work? Like, how does baptism forgive sins? It's just water. Right? We didn't put anything magical in the water.

It's just water. And the answer is, yeah. You're right. Baptism baptism doesn't forgive sins apart from the fact that he came down and he was crucified. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

This act, apart from that act, would be a meaningless, soggy, wet ritual. It's only in the fact that we use this to symbolize and unite ourselves with the truth on the cross of his death and resurrection that has any meaning at all. Buried in the likeness of his death and raised to newness of life. So if we want newness of life, the order of this operation means our focus must be first on the works of God, the life of Jesus and the death of the Christ. Only then can we walk in newness of life.

Jesus Christ who was God and is God, and yet for our sake, he came down. And as if it wasn't enough for the creator of the universe, God from God, light from light, true God from true God of one being with the father to come take on human limitations and frailty as if that was not humiliating enough. The creed says, for our sake, he was crucified. He suffered, died, and was buried and was buried. Do you find the inclusion of that detail a little curious in the creed?

I did. That he was buried. Not only that he died but he was buried. It By saying he was buried, it punctuates the fact that Jesus was completely consumed by death. And so we too, we we plunge the believer down underwater.

Okay. It overtakes them. It will fill their nostrils if they didn't plug their nose right. It will take their breath away. It will stop their breath.

It will cloud their eyes and there will be no part of them that is left untouched. It completely consumes them. That is how death wrapped Jesus. He was plunged into utter darkness. Not just because that there was a big rock over the entrance to the tomb, but as our Lord and savior bore the full weight of judgment and sin in his body, he felt abandoned by the father, plunged into total darkness.

He lay lifeless, wrapped, smothered in good smelling oils and scented oils, so that the the stench of decay and death wouldn't overtake the people who might have to pass by, as his flesh rots off his bones. But we believe that on the third day, he rose again. Just as these believers are pulled back up out of the water And they breathe again, and the water sheds off their face, and their eyes open so death could not contain Christ. On Friday, he breathed his last until Easter morning when his buried body began to breathe. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life, in Romans six.

You see that death that enveloped Christ, his frail body, and just like the water that overtakes the believer in baptism, seeping in, soaking every part, that death also envelops pretty much all of creation. We we can see it all around us. The divisive biting words, racism, injustice, hatred. It's like a flood of water that overtakes this whole world that we live in. It falls into every crevice.

There is no part of our lives that are left untouched, such that we can't even watch TV alone or walk on a crowded street and not see, maybe even smell that death is here. And even if we were to shut it out and turn off the TV and lock the door and hide ourselves in a room, You guys know the unfortunate reality. Right? That death is still in there with you because it is in us, in the depths of the secret places of our hearts, the thoughts that we dare not confess to people. We know if we're honest, right, that your life is marred by the mistakes you've made, words that you wish you could unspeak, a past that you hope nobody discovers, thoughts that invade your mind so defiled and corrupt, you're embarrassed of them even as you think them.

Guys, that is that is death enveloping this creation, even burying this creation, if you will, entombing it, consuming it all. And and that is why we must not confuse baptism with betterment, a growth step, some form of self actualization unlocking the good within. In baptism, we do not wash away the ugly parts, so that the good inside can shine through. Church, there is no good inside. That is why we put to death the sinner.

We are putting to death the sinner to rise again out of the grave, to walk in newness of life. Not better, not improved, not refined, reborn. Reborn, buried in the likeness of his death, then raised to newness of life. Paul writes, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too might walk in newness of life. Listen to how that creed describes baptism.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Listen, believers as far back as the first centuries knew that they would face times in their life when they would wonder, yeah but did it work? I mean, did that did that one take? Right? Because sometimes sometimes the things that death shows back up, right?

The the areas of our lives we thought were okay, we thought we had dealt with it, they come back and the stench of decay hits us like opening up a Tupperware container you found in the back of the fridge. Woah, right? You You want to get that as far away from you as possible. And when you when you smell that stench of decay and it's you realize it's still stuck to you, it's easy to wonder, did it work or do I have to wash again? Do I need to start over?

Am I back at the beginning? Should I get baptized again to start over and maybe somehow do it better this time? And the church fathers, as they passed down this creed for us to recite together as a body, they had searched the scriptures and they found the truth that they wanted us to continue to say, no. We believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We must, even as we walk in newness of life, keep our focus not on our walking but on what Christ has done.

Listen to Paul again verses ten and eleven, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all. And the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Each time you sin, and you will, Christ doesn't need to die again. And so you do not need to be baptized again and again.

He died once. If you have been baptized into his death, you have united yourself with that death that he died to sin. Paul says, once for all. So consider. Other translations say reckon, reckon yourselves, consider yourselves.

It is a manner of thinking and perceiving that you have died to sin because Christ died to sin and you are alive because Christ lives to God. Now, there's always been that lingering question, you know, do we just keep on going then? Are are we to continue? That's what Paul says in verse one. Are we to just continue in sin so that grace can abound?

Paul says, by no means. How can we, who died to sin, still live in it? No. No. Because when you consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, it doesn't mean that you will never sin.

It means that when you uncover, when you recognize that there is still death in your life, when you smell that Tupperware and put it over here, you can say, thank God, I buried that with Christ. It no longer enslaves you. It no longer rules you. And in the father's eyes, it no longer defines you. You are Christ's.

That is why we read a creed like this together. It is what we believe, which is to say it is how we consider and reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. And so I do wanna invite you, if you agreed with the words, if you believe, if you are considering yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ, but you have never experienced physically that watery, messy burial with him and being pulled up out of the water, why not experience that this morning? Now, I know you might say, well, because I didn't bring a change of clothes. Hey, hey, we are way ahead of you.

We came prepared even if you didn't. We have a change of clothes for you because we know this sounds like really, really inconvenient to decide to reenact death and burial, without considering it in advance because it's a it's a soggy, messy, wet ritual, it is a hairdo ruining ritual. It will you will look goofy the rest of this morning as you eat with us and that is just fine. You might have wanted to plan a little more ahead, you know, if you were going to reenact a watery death today. But I just want to tell you, if you indeed have trusted Christ and you've placed your confidence in his death and resurrection, that is all the preparation that you really need.

So I would encourage you to walk out of here without hearing those words uttered over you. Buried in the likeness of his death, raised to newness of life. If that's a step you'd like to take today in a moment, I'm gonna pray, we're gonna sing a song and, there are elders in the back of the room. They would love to talk with you, just to even consider whether that is something that you wanna do. So you can just quietly make your way to the back.

They'd like to speak with you, consider this with you, pray with you and, Lord willing, we'll get you baptized as well. That means that you're professing your faith publicly and experiencing physically what's true spiritually, you've been united to him in death and in resurrection. Let's pray. Father in heaven, god, we are we are grateful for this ordinance you handed us, taught us to do to remind us that we have buried our sinful past, our sinful bodies, this body of destruction and death with Christ and that we can walk with him in newness of life. Lord, we stand in awe and and the only response is worship for a plan that you devised at your expense for our good.

Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.