What We Learned From Phil Robertson

"For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

~Acts 1:5

Our trip to Louisiana to be married and baptized by Phil Robertson (see here ) was most definitely an act of God, as I wrote about previously.  But God had a bigger reason than just to unite us in Holy matrimony and meet a "celebrity".  He sent us home with a message.  And I clearly remember the man that officiated the wedding with Phil telling us, "I'm going to draw you some diagrams of what we talked about.  I want to send you back home with something to share."

Far too often, God has a message for us to share, and we don't do it.  The reasons vary...we don't have the time, we don't want to be made fun of, we don't want to seem weird, we've been told to accept others' views...or we just don't want to.  I don't know about you, but I'm not falling into that category of people who refuse to spread a message from God.  (After all, my  name means 'angel' or 'messenger', ha, ha.) Seriously, though, we are ALL called to say things at different times, it's just that most people don't.  But I'm going to try and order my discombobulated thoughts into something that you  may be able to actually follow, to pass on what we learned.

I wish I had a recording of some sort to look back on from the day of our wedding and baptism.  There is a video of the baptism, but that's not what I'm talking about.  Beforehand, we sat in Phil's living room with he and the man I mentioned above, and we got some good stuff preached at us.  Granted, it wasn't new, but we began to see things in a bit of a different light.  If you've ever watched Phil preach on t.v., then you know what kind of preaching he does.  He's a straight-forward kind of guy and just simply tells the Truth, whether people like it or not.  It was rather refreshing.

They asked us a very simple question.  "What is the Gospel?"  (Although we didn't have time to answer, ha, ha...)  Ponder that for a minute, though, won't you?  What do YOU say the Gospel is?  Well, simply put, it is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  (I can't draw you the diagrams we got.  It was a much longer lesson, ha, ha.)  But what a simple answer!  And this was their first point to drive home.  Jesus died on the cross, He was buried, and rose again, all for US!

Now...what is baptism?  I truly, 100% think your answer depends on where you were raised.  Really.  You see, I'm from the north and got this sermon in the south.  Things were said differently.  I asked this same question on Facebook and got varied answers.  I will say that my whole life, I was told the same thing by everyone:  "Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward faith" or something along those lines.  That's it.  I don't disagree, per se, but ... that's it?  That's certainly not it.  I also have an issue with the way I saw baptisms handled my whole life. By that I mean, there are churches everywhere that say, "If you want to join our church, you need to be baptized."  And how about, "If you want to be married here, you need to be baptized."  Now, I'm all for people being baptized!  But, very few have it actually explained to them.  So basically, they are going through these meaningless motions just to get married/join a church/etc. and never bear fruit from it!  I don't agree with this at all, and hold the pastors accountable for this lack of information.  (I'm sure I'm raising someone's hackles here.  I'm not saying every pastor does this.  I am referring to my real life experiences.)  So you get two people who were baptized before their marriage and they go on with their lives, never thinking another thing of it.  They did it because they had to.  I got baptized to join a church years ago.  At the church.  By sprinkling, which I also don't necessarily agree with.  (Matthew 3:16)  I was baptized and I walked away.  I was now a "member" of the church.  And nothing was ever mentioned again about the significance of what I had done.

So back to the question, what is the Gospel?  Well, it's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, right?  Then what is baptism?  It is the death and burial of your sins.  You come up out of the water fresh as a daisy.  But then what?  Is that the end?  Heck no!  Here is where I really started to get into it.  After Phil baptized us in the river at his house, our lives changed forever.  This is what SHOULD happen after baptism.  But where I'm from, I've never actually, personally seen it.  Strange, isn't it?  Phil suggested I read Acts again.  So I did, not expecting anything different than I ever read before.  I started my own Bible study (which, if you want to know, includes 3 Bibles, one "getting to know your Bible" book, a couple notebooks, and anything else I might need.)

So here are some gems that I picked out once we came home from LA.  These really jumped out at me.

"But ye shall receive power, after that the holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."  ~Acts 1:8

"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication..." ~Acts 1:14  (This one jumped out at me simply because the disciples were acting in a like-minded way.  They put aside all their differences and had a common goal.  One of my footnotes says "True unity is an act of grace."  Meaning...the Holy Spirit was doing this amazing thing, not them.

"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."  ~ Acts 2:4  (Again, they are communicating to SPREAD THE GOSPEL, via the Holy Spirit.) 

Then Peter preaches for a little while.  (Pull out your Bible and read it for yourself--you'll love it.)  His preaching "pricks their hearts" and they ask, what do they do?  (Right?  What do we do, modern teachers of today?  TELL US!)  And Peter replies with, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."  ~Acts 2:38-39

And then, what happened?

"Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."  ~Acts 2:41

Wow!  Three thousand?!  But I especially like the next part, because THIS is what no one tells you.  Read on:

   

"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." ~Acts 2:42-47

The people's minds and hearts were changed! They came up out of the water different.  They didn't care about their possessions anymore; they shared freely with all.  They were like-minded, they prayed, they ate and worshiped together, unified by the Holy Spirit.  Wow again!  How many people/churches do you know that do this today?!  Oh, I know they're out there...but I don't know any.  (I wish I did!)

Peter and John go on to heal people, and preach this Truth, even though it costs them.  (Keep reading the story, friends.)  They are met with some hard times, but they say that they will never stop telling this Truth.  (My own words.)  I am going to end here for now, but I encourage you to do your own study on Acts.  Like me, I'm sure you've read it over and over.  But you all know that God always opens your heart at just the right time, to reveal new things in every book.

Baptism is not just an "outward expression of an inward faith".  It is FAR more than that, and you need not take it lightly.  Just like Jesus, we are burying those sins.  When we come up out of the water, we are NEW!  However, if you're new, you need to ACT new!  Your baptism should show, every day, to everyone.  You should share that good news with everyone you can, just like Peter and John.  We're called to do that.  Pastors all over are dropping the ball on this subject.  It's ridiculous to say that you HAVE to be baptized to do such and such; and not to teach about the fruits of what this should produce.  Everyone who comes up out of that water should be a new person.  The old, broken person is gone.  But the new, holy person needs to let that Holy Spirit live!!!  We are baptized with the Holy Spirit.  We should be seeing miracles and wonders! We should see healing and all be "of one accord."  ....are you seeing this around you?  We must be doing something very wrong.

As I said, I read Acts many times.  I was "baptized" when I was younger.  But at some point God said, "You're just not getting it."  So He sent me all the way across the country to have two men show me the Truth.  And then He said, "Take it home with you, and share it."  So I am.  And I will talk more to anyone who wants to talk; just contact me via the contact form.  This is just the beginning, folks!  Wherever you are, whatever you've done, you can start over, in the name of Jesus and become a new person.  You want to be in the Book of Life.  Start today.