Following Jesus through Baptism



“Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ."
-Acts 10:47-48

This past weekend, and this weekend coming up my Pastor, Steven Furtick of Elevation Church here in Charlotte has been preaching our series "Follow." He gave all of our campuses an opportunity to be baptized spontaneously. 1,426 people responded to this opportunity. 1,426 ran to Jesus, deciding to obey and follow their savior in believers baptism.

Do you know why the verse above happened? Because of Acts 10:9 "The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon..." Because Peter prayed. Do you know why 1,426 received Christ and were baptized? Because Elevation church and their leaders prayed asking God move and intervene in lives, to change lives. We pray in audacious faith believing that God is going to move.

Pastor Steven will be teaching what it means to follow Jesus, and one of the ways we do that is through baptism. We read in Matthew 3:13-17 that:

"Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”
But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

Baptism did not originate with Christianity. Actually, Jews used it in the conversion of Gentiles to Judaism. However, Christians adopted the practice of baptism because of what we just read in Matthew above, and because He commanded it. It is used to publicly profess faith in Jesus, and what He has done for them through His death on the cross.

Some of the points pastor Steven made is that in our time we have watered down baptism (pun intended, haha.) We have made it a denominational tradition rather than a Biblical command. We've made it our parents' decision instead of our decision, and it's become optional. Jesus expects our obedience, not our opinions, and the right time to do the right thing is right now.

I can't wait to see what God is going to do in this upcoming weekend. I'm so thankful to be apart of this move of God, and how He has His hand on Elevation Church. I hope to see you out there, if you need to be baptized now is the time to do it.

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