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HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN...
1. You Have To Believe What The Bible Says About Man’s Condition And God’s Answer - a. We are sinners “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 NIV)
b. We deserve to die “…the payment for sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23 NIV)
c. God has made a way to restore His relationship with us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."(John 3:16 NIV)
d. Jesus, God’s son died for the payment of our sin “Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God.” (2 Corinthians. 5:21 NCV)
e. We must receive Him into our life. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12 NIV)
Now most of you probably already believe this, or you wouldn’t take the time to be here tonight. However, some here may have honest doubts, that’s okay also. God wants you to search Him out and see if He is not who He said He is.
2. You have to repent of your sinful conduct.
After believing, the next step is to repent, or change your mind, about the way you look at things. There are lots of ideas floating around about what “repent” means, and some would say that it means “to be sorry”, but that is only the beginning…
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation”(2 Cor 7:10)
Now I said, “repent”, but it would be more descriptive to say, “begin repenting”, because repentance is not something that happens all at once—it happens over a period of time as we better understand things we do that are offensive to God. Jesus does not always look at things in the same way that people do, and as you learn more about Jesus after you become a Christian, you will most likely continue to change your mind. Consider these verses:
"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." (Acts 3:19 NIV)
"I (Jesus) tell you...unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Luke. 13:3 NIV)
3. You Have To Confess (Verbally State) That Jesus Is The Son Of God And Lord Of All.
There needs to be a verbal acknowledgment of your belief in Jesus and of your need for him to be in your life. The Apostle Peter made what is known as the good confession:
"Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."(Mat 16:16 NIV) "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9,10 NIV)
Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matt. 10:32 NIV)
It is for these reasons that we ask you, when you become a member of the Christian Church of Lemon Grove, to state briefly and in your own words who Jesus is. Let me be clear on this point -- confession is not standing up in front of everyone and telling them all about your sins, instead, it is telling them what you believe about Jesus.
1. You have to be baptized (immersed) into Christ.
The word baptize simply means to “dip”. At the Last Supper Jesus said the one who dipped his hand in the bowl with Him would be his betrayer. In the Greek language the New Testament was first written in, “Embapto” or to “dip into” has the same root as “Baptizo” or “to baptize.” To be baptized, in the sense that it is used in Acts, means to be lowered into the water by someone and with their help to be raised up out of it again. Baptism is a participation in Christ's death, burial and resurrection.
"Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Romans 6:3-4 NIV)
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:27)
Forgiveness is associated with baptism as well as the receiving of the Holy Spirit. In one of his first public messages, Peter said
"'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" (Acts 2:38 NIV)
Also Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul) was told the same thing before becoming a Christian:
“Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his (Jesus) name.” (Acts 22:16)
The family of God is made up of baptized believers. In the many conversions in the book of Acts when people accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and repented of their sins, they were baptized immediately. When looking for guidance on what God desires, isn’t it best to look at His word, the teaching of the Apostles, and follow that instruction rather than any other?
Because there are differences of opinion on baptism, I also need to point out that the Bible talks about baptism for people who are old enough to believe and repent, rather than for infants. For instance, look at:
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved...”(Mark 16:16) “Repent and be baptized...:(Acts 2:38)
We have also seen that baptism is a burial, not a sprinkling with water, for as Paul says:
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death...”(Romans 6:4)
“...Having been buried with Him (Christ) in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God,”(Colossians 2:12)
I would like to add two footnotes from history. First, the earliest known instance where sprinkling was used as a substitute for immersion was in the third century. Novation was a very sick man and when he wanted to be baptized into Christ, some in the church were afraid that if they immersed him, it would kill him. So instead, they got buckets of water and splashed him from head to foot, getting him at least as wet as if he had been immersed. Some time later he recovered, and asked to serve as a deacon, and the church split over the issue of whether or not he had been truly baptized by the splashing he had received when he was so sick.
For several centuries thereafter, sprinkling was sometimes used as an emergency procedure when for some reason, such as illness, immersion was not possible. It was not until the end of the 6th century that sprinkling was allowed as an alternative to immersion, and not until the 11th century that the Roman church adopted sprinkling as the usual manner of baptism, because it was more convenient. In the 13th century, the Roman Catholic Church even abolished baptism by immersion (for lay members of the church, anyway), because sprinkling was more “convenient”.
Second, when the translators of the King James Version of the Bible were at work, they were afraid to translate the Greek word baptizo from the original Greek language of the New Testament into immerse. They were aware that that was its meaning, because the English church had followed the Roman church’s practice of sprinkling instead. So, they transliterated it, by converting the Greek word into a made-up English word that sounded like the original Greek, and in this way avoided the political difficulty that simple translation would have created.
I understand that this particular topic can sometimes be a very sensitive one. Some here tonight may have heard about or experienced something different at some time in your past. If you have any questions about what baptism means, or how it is done, we will be glad to discuss it with you later.
These are the four things that need to be done in obedience to Christ in order to be in Christ. If you have not already done them, you can do them tonight. In fact, we encourage you to. Consider the example in Acts 16 of the jailer who, in the middle of the night, when he heard the word of the Lord from Paul and Silas,
“...immediately he and all his family were baptized.” (Acts 16:33)
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