My family has been blessed with the opportunity to visit Disney World and I use the word “blessed” lightly because it’s a lot of FUN, but it’s also a lot of WORK (plus with all those people there’s all those germs and it’s sweaty and I got meningitis the first time we went), so blessed is a relative term. Well, everyone goes to Disney to do what? See characters? Yes. See the castle? Yes. And that’s great, I have a daughter, so the first few times we spent most of our time chasing down the princesses which was fun, but I had to keep on reminding them that I was married man so they’d have to be looking for Prince Charming elsewhere. Now, when it comes to me, I want to get on the rides, the attractions. I want to get on Space Mountain and Expedition Everest and Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and all the other big rides, but sometimes there’s a bit of a wait. I’m not talking about a 10-15 minute wait at the register at Wal-Mart, I’m talking about an hour or more wait, in line, to get on the ride. Now, right next the regular line, there’s this other line for something called a FastPass. If you got one of these you can skip the BIG line and get in a much SMALLER line. It’s very tempting to just walk into this line, especially when it’s hot outside and you got sweat running down your back and your armpits and, well, other places—patience can run a bit thin at this point.
Let’s just say, hypothetically you walked into the “wrong” lane and you were able to walk right to the front of the line. You’re pumped. You’re excited. You just passed about 300 hot, sweaty, angry Disney guests who are staring you down like you got something hanging from your nose. You get to the top, you can see the ride, and them BAM! one of the Disney employees asks, “Can I see your FastPass.” Yup. THAT just happened. You’re in the wrong lane. You THOUGHT you could get in this lane, you THOUGHT you could ahead of everyone, you THOUGHT you had everything you needed, did everything you were supposed to, but no, you skipped a step—you never actually GOT a FastPass.
Baptism is identifying yourself as a follower of Christ. If you want people to know you belong in the FastPass lane you get a FastPass. If you want people to know you follow Jesus you get BAPTIZED.
In the book of Acts, you’ll find 10 accounts or stories of individuals, families, and large groups of people who BELIEVED and were BAPTIZED. They BELIEVED and were BAPTIZED. Baptism is the FIRST next step for EVERY believer. It’s not just for me, or you, or the person sitting next to you. It’s for everyone who calls themselves of follower of Christ. And that’s just it, to be a FOLLOWER of Christ kinda insinuates you’re actually FOLLOWING Jesus—Jesus himself was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
It’s symbolic of leaving the old life behind (buried under the water as Jesus was buried in a tomb… don’t worry you’re not held there for 3 days) and being raised to your NEW life in Christ (as Christ was raised from the grave). It’s not about the person doing it. It’s not about the people watching it. It’s about you doing what God SAID to do—we call that obedience.
Imagine your favorite football team, we’ll use the Seahawks because they’re the obvious choice, and Russell Wilson walks on field wearing just his pads. Today, he decided to leave his jersey in the locker room. What? I don’t think so. You need to sport the team colors, the team name, the team logo. You better get back in the locker room and get yourself dressed for the game. Right?
My question today is: are YOU dressed for the game? Are YOU wearing your jersey?
No comments:
Post a Comment