“The Great Commission” By Bob Heirtzler April 7th,
2013 If Parrish had asked me my testimony
about when I got baptized, I would’ve said, “I remember back in 1978. It was a late night, and I got into some
serious trouble with my family, and the authorities. I said, ‘God, if you’re real, I need to
know. It’s got to be more than just
living, getting married, having kids, and dying.’ Right after that, everything seemed to just
fall apart on me. I got kicked out of
the house in my junior year of high school.
I got my G.E.D., joined the Navy, and the next thing I knew, I was in an
open-bay room full of a whole bunch of other people (about 88 of them). I didn’t know anybody in that room at
all. Most of them were from this area of
the country; I was from Connecticut. The
issue that I had that got me kicked out of the house was that I had trouble with
alcohol. I drank way too much, started
at a young, young age—too young; younger than I care to share. I remember I stayed dry for eight weeks, in
boot camp. ‘I can do this! I’ve got the power!’ When I got out of boot camp, I couldn’t. I was out on the strip, and I got invited, by
one of the guys running one of the stores, to go up to the Center. I went up to the Center. It was right in the middle of a worship time,
so I went in there. What I felt in there
was real. I had ever seen this before. What was in there was just a powerful
presence of God. I dismissed it, and
went back to the club. I kept trying to
get drunk, and I couldn’t do it. I kept
drinking and drinking, and I just stayed sober.
I heard the message over and over in my head, the message of salvation
that the preacher had been preaching. If
you’ve heard a rumor about somebody that did that, it was me. I remember God spoke to me clearly, and said,
‘I’m answering the prayer that you prayed back in December.’ This was about one in the morning, I was at
the Servicemen’s Center at seven in the morning; it wasn’t open yet, but I
couldn’t wait for it to open. I was
waiting all day long for it to open, not knowing that I could just walk up there
and asked to be baptized. The preacher
was preaching, and I waited for him to stop so that I could go up in the altar
call. When they had the altar call, I
ran to the front—boom!—I was there. I
got baptized in Jesus’ name the next day.
We were using another church’s baptismal tank while we were building
ours here. There was a layer of ice on
that thing. They were breaking ice up,
and I volunteered to go first. There
were five of us there to get baptized, and I was so afraid that Jesus was going
to come back, and leave me behind; I was scared to death. I wanted to get baptized right away. I got the baptism Bible study a week
later. I just knew, you know?” I thought I would share that. It’s had its ups and downs and bumps, but the
one thing that’s remained consistent is Jesus.
He changed my life. The only
consistent thing in my life is Jesus. In last week’s message, Parrish said, “What’s
the Big Deal?” You know, I shared with a
lot of people about, “The Big Deal” this week.
I opened three doors to share baptism with people at work this
week. If people are praying, pray that
it brings forth fruit. What’s the big
deal? Jesus died on the cross, he shed His blood for us, He put everything
away; He was establishing something that was about to happen, the Great
Commission was about to happen. He was
putting things in place; He knew what had to happen before He actually walked
down among us. He had this all figured
out, years ago, before He came. The Big
Deal was that all of us can enter into Heaven.
It wasn’t for the Jews, it was for all of us. He came unto His own, and His own rejected
Him, so he turned to the Gentiles, which is us.
Of course, any Jews that get baptized in Jesus’ name will make it in,
too. It’s for all of us; that’s the big
deal. 1. Why Water? 2. Why Jesus Name? 3. Is This Essential? The Great Commission!!
Matthew 28:18-20
…Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them… He also shared in Mark: Mark 16:15-16 …He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved… Another account of it is in Luke: Luke 24:46-49 …remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations… He gave us a commission to go out and
teach and baptize people. How do we
baptize people? Let’s first go to Mark
Chapter 1; I learned something about this yesterday. It’s about Jesus’ baptism. Mark 1:1-5 …John did baptize… preach the baptism of
repentance for the remission of sins… He was already doing this! He was baptizing people in the river already
for this! And another account of this: Matthew 3:13-17 …Suffer it to be so now: for thus it
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness… Here’s Jesus, He hasn’t done
anything wrong, there’s no sin in His life at all, and yet He wants John to
baptize Him. This is our example, that
we can’t say, “But Jesus didn’t get baptized, why should I?” Jesus did it for an example that we would get
baptized. Jesus came straightway out of
the water, but He had to be in the water to come out of the water. I know there are certain churches that teach
that sprinkling is baptism. Is it
really? If I walked up to this brother
here (I’m not going to dump the water on you) and did this to him (flicking a
few water droplets), is that baptism?
What does baptism mean, Red? (Chris “Red” Ulrich stands and reads
the definition of the Greek
word translated as baptism in the New Testament) Immersion, submersion, (I’m just going to
read a little bit more) of calamities and afflictions with which one is quite
overwhelmed. So, to be baptized, you must be
overwhelmed with a liquid, right? What I
did to him was just sprinkling. Why
total immersion? Basically, we’re
talking about water there, right? 1.
Why Water? Water has always
been used for cleansing, throughout the entire Old Testament. I have four examples. All of these account that happen because of
water …….gave a fresh start 2 Kings 5:10-14 …Wash, and be clean… Exodus 14:21-31 And Moses stretched out his hand over
the sea…
The gentleman in the back with the
grey beard—I’m sorry, the white beard—would you come up, please? (pointing to someone else) I need you to
count for me, okay? (back to the bearded
gentleman) Are you a grandfather? Are
you a father? Do you have nephews and
nieces? that makes you an uncle. You
have parents, so that makes you a son.
Do you have any cousins? That’s
five titles, so far. Are you the owner
of a company? That’s six. Are you a veteran? Do you have a spirit about you? How many is that now? seven. My question is, “How many people are standing
up here?” one. Is his name father,
uncle, or veteran? What is his name?
Howard. That’s what it took for me to
understand that Jesus was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; it took a
similar demonstration for me. I’m going
to pick on one more person. George,
would the young lady sitting next to you stand, please? (Bianca stood up) Are you a student in high
school? Are you a senior? What’s your title when you’re on your sniper
team? shooter? Do you have any
cousins? Do you have a sister? Are you a daughter? Right there are six titles that she is, but
how many are standing right there? one.
Her name is? Bianca. We
understand that Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that’s referenced
in: How Did Ananias Baptize? Mark 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved...
Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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