In a few minutes we’re going to move together towards the lake and share together in baptism.  Before we do that it would be good if we could take a few minutes to think together about the significance of what were going to be witnessing - and to think a bit about what all that may mean for us.

Long ago in a congregation far far away there’s was a family that I’d had the privilege of knowing.  The wife - we’ll call her Jane - not her real name.  I’m trying to protect some privacy here.  Jane was in her late 40’s.  She lived in the Washington D.C. area and had the kind of position that lent itself to power - to influence.  In the DC area - in the machine back there - she was clearly on her way up.

Jane’s husband was a highly placed - top tier executive - a vice president - in a large multi-billion-billion dollar - very well known multinational corporation.  We all buy their gas regularly - pun intended.  His job took him regularly all over the globe.  He was making - as they say - good money.  He was on his way up. 

Together they had a daughter who was just becoming a teenager.  In many ways they were living the American dream.  It wasn’t just that this couple was on the way up.  They had arrived and they were still going up.

Then one spring the doctors discovered a tumor in Jane’s brain.  A tumor they said was inoperable.

When I first starting visiting Jane, she had moved back to her parents home in the Bay Area.  Her husband had transferred to the San Francisco office of the company.  And as I visited Jane over a period of months I watched as she went from being a highly intelligent woman - to having limited ability to sit and talk and move about - to becoming bedridden disorientated and finally comatose.

One day I received a phone call from the family.  They were at the hospital.  “Could you come.  Our daughter has died.”

I can’t even begin to imagine what the parents went through.  Over a period of months I had listened to them - prayed with them - tried to be there for them.  But, I have no idea what its like to loose a 49 year old daughter to cancer.

As I sat with them in the hospital room.  Jane’s body on the bed.  The husband.  The parents.  Her brother and his family.  The daughter.  I tried to listen and be supportive.  As I sat with them in the hospital room - among my thoughts and feelings I kept thinking to myself - here is this family who had everything.  By the standards of our world they were a success.  They had money.  They had power - influence - respect.  And yet, they could do nothing to save Jane.  Nothing that could bring her back to life.

Jesus once told a story about a farmer who had bumper crop.  Do you remember this?  The farmer had harvested so much he had no idea what to do with it all.  He must have anticipated getting top dollar for the crop.  Because he started thinking about how to expand his business - tearing down his old barns and building newer larger ones - places to store his grain and things.

The farmer said to himself, “Self, you’ve done well!  You’ve got it made and now you can retire.  Take it easy and have the time of your life!”

Just then God showed up and said, “Fool!  Tonight you die.  And your barnful of goods - who gets it?”  How significant is all that stuff you’ve accumulated - how valuable is it to you when you’re dead?

Jesus said, “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  (Luke 12:16-21, The Message, NASB)

On another occasion Jesus asked the question, “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?  Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Mark 8:36,37 NLT)

Last Friday we attended the interment of a man I’ve known for almost 50 years.  He knew me as a child.  Later he was a colleague in ministry - like a mentor as I was entering ministry.  He had served God through some very tough times - and yet he had remained faithful.

The pastor who led the service - also a friend - in January his son was killed in a motorcycle accident.  A very quick and unexpected death.

We don’t know how much time we have here - how long or how short.

Most of us aren’t thinking about building larger barns.  For a lot of people in Merced just having a barn would be a step up.  But thinking about what Jesus said and about Jane and her family - there are some attitudes and some issues that we all deal with.  It doesn’t matter where we’re living - in a barn or a mansion - it doesn’t matter what our portfolio is - there are issues that are basic to all our lives.

We need to be honest about our lives.  When we’re kids we think that this goes on forever.  But as we get older we come face-to-face with the reality that it doesn’t.  Right? 

Someone said, “How you face death is at least as important as how you face life.”

As we get older we start looking at our lives a whole lot differently.  We begin to process our lives - to process the purpose and meaning and value of our lives.  We question:  What purpose is there?  What value is there to my life?

Nothing this world offers - status - stuff - nothing this world offers can fully make sense of the issues we deal with.

Let me put this another way - more positive.  In 1 John 5:11-13, the Apostle John writes, “God us given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son - Jesus.  He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Notice three truths about life.

First - notice:  The life we long for is found only in Jesus Christ.  “Life is in His Son” - Jesus.  Let’s say that together, “Life is in His Son.”    

This is what Jesus says in John 10:10:  “I came that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  God’s life is the kind of life that we can’t wait to get out of bed to experience - full of joy - delight - vitality - purpose - meaning - that satisfies the deepest longings of our hearts.  Its the great adventure of life lived in the greatest way.  Its the kind of life that excites us to come and  experience life in Jesus together - to share God stories and from our one things - to worship together - to serve together - that makes us miss each other when we’re away from each other.

Second notice:  We have a choice.  Let’s say that together, “We have a choice.”

God offers life in Jesus to each one of us.  Some people have the life - because they’ve put their trust in Jesus as their Savior - given their lives to Him.  Some people do not have the life - because they’re trusting themselves - they’re living life on their own.  To make no choice is a choice.  A choice to trust ourselves.  But if we want life - as God desires to give us life - we need to choose what God offers us in Jesus.

Third - notice:  If we have life in Jesus there’s no question about where we will spend eternity.  That issue is settled.  For the Christian the end - death - is not a hopeless uncertainty.  In Jesus we will spend eternity with God.  Let’s try that, “We spend eternity with God.”

This morning - in contrast to life without purpose and death - this morning we’re going to celebrate life - lived now - and the settling of the question of our eternal destiny.  We’re going to celebrate life in Jesus with baptism.

In the last days of Jesus’ ministry on earth, He gave His disciples a commandment - He said, “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...” (Matthew 28:19,20a)

Jesus said, “Go make disciples.”  Which means telling others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ - the forgiving of our sins - the salvation and life He offers us - inviting others to join us in following Jesus Christ and helping them to live life with Jesus.

We’re not born disciples.  To be a disciple means first that we become a believer.  That means acknowledging that our sin separates us from God.  That we have no hope of ever living life with God.  But that God has bridged that gap of separation - that God has made it possible in Jesus - by His death on the cross - God has made it possible for us to have life with Him.  And so we believe.  We take God at His word - accept what God has done for us in Jesus - and trust Him with our lives.

Believers become disciples - followers of Jesus - believers who have made the choice - the commitment - to turn from following our own path through life - believers who choose to follow God’s path for our lives - to learn from Him how to do life - to live in obedience to Him.

Baptism - Jesus said - is the next step.  Become a disciple.  Then be baptized.  Baptism symbolically shows the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.  This is why we call it “believer’s baptism.”  Because a believer in Jesus Christ - trusting Him as their Savior - in obedience to the Jesus’ command - testifies of that relationship through baptism.  Baptism identifies us with Jesus - His death and resurrection - identifies with life because of Jesus.

In Acts 8, we read that Philip was told by an angel to go to the desert road leading south out of Jerusalem.  Remember this?  On that road he met an Ethiopian - the Queen’s treasurer - a very important man - a mover and shaker in the kingdom - an Ethiopian who had come to Jerusalem to worship and now was on his way home.

As he was traveling this Ethiopian was reading from the prophet Isaiah - a passage which describes the death of Jesus.  Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”  The Ethiopian answers that he needs someone to explain who Isaiah was writing about.  So Philip explains about Jesus and the Gospel.

This Ethiopian was religious.  He worshipped God.  He read and studied the Scriptures.  But he was still following his own path in life.  He was a sinner under the judgment of God for his sins.  He needed the Savior. 

Many people today are like that Ethiopian.  Religious - but not knowing Jesus as their Savior.  Important people - up and coming - wealthy by the standards of the world.  But on that day - on this desert road - leading out of Jerusalem - this Ethiopian made a decision to trust Jesus as his Savior.

As they traveled on the road together - Philip and the Ethiopian passed some water.  The Ethiopian said to Philip, “Look! Water!  What prevents me from being baptized?”  He orders the chariot to stop.  They both go into the water and Philip baptizes the Ethiopian. (Acts 8:26ff)

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:  “....all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death.  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  (Romans 6:3,4)

When those who are going to be baptized are placed under the water - symbolically they will be identifying with the death of Jesus Christ.  Just as Jesus took all of our sins on the cross - died for them and was buried - they’ve died.  They’ve turned from following their own path in life.  Their old life - sinful and separated from God - is dead and buried with Jesus. 

Then trusting Jesus - seeking to be His obedient disciples - they’re brought out of the water - out from the grave - into new life.  Just as Jesus was raised from death.

This is what we’re going to be sharing - celebrating - together.  Not a religious thing for people who go to church.  But a testimony.  A testimony of those who  have given their lives to Jesus.  That they have chosen to become disciples of Jesus Christ.  That they now live with the certainty of the life which is only found in Jesus Christ.

Which brings all of us to a question.  We need to be honest about our lives - honest before God.  This morning what choice have you made?  Are you following yourself through life?  Or are you following Jesus?

_________________________

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.