Audio recording Sermon manuscript: The second reading that we heard tonight, from Matthew’s Gospel, is very valuable because it answers a very basic question: “What does it mean to be a Christian?” First and foremost is the confession of faith. Jesus asked the disciples who people were saying that he was. They gave the answers that they were hearing. These were very flattering answers. They thought Jesus was one of the mighty prophets from of old, or that faithful-unto-death-greatest-man-born-of-women contemporary, John the Baptizer. Then Jesus asked the disciples what they thought. Was their answer any different than the crowds? Yes, it was. No matter how flattering other answers might be, they are nothing compared to Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ.” There is only one Christ. Peter is identifying this man, named Jesus, from the town of Nazareth, as that Christ. He is saying that Jesus is the rightful son and heir and king, descended from King David. He is saying that Jesus is the one through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed, as God had promised Abraham. So this man is the culmination of Israel’s history and the central figure in all existence. In a way, it is an outlandish claim. But this has been the claim that all Christians make. If anyone does not believe that the man Jesus was and is the Christ, then that person simply isn’t a Christian. There is no more basic Christian Creed than to say, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ.”  If someone were to ask what you believe, you could answer them, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ.” Notice what Jesus adds to this. Notice what the implications are for the person who makes this confession. He says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Jesus gives to Christians the authority to retain the sins of the unrepentant as long as they do not repent, and to forgive the sins of those who repent. The salvation that Jesus has accomplished by his atoning sacrifice is distributed authoritatively when his disciples deal with people in God’s name. Here, again, we have something that is wonderfully simple. What is a Christian? Someone who believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. What is the Christian Church? It is the defeat of hell by the forgiveness of sins that Christians are authorized by Christ to give to one another. However, those who do not repent are excluded until such time as they do repent and believe in Christ. Thus the Christian Church which is solely made up of believing and confessing Christians is a great light to this condemned and dying world. Corruption and decay are all around us. Death ruthlessly takes its prey. The devil carries away cartloads upon cartloads of souls who remain in bondage to him by believing his lies. Christians know the truth: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. In him is redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So at the beginning I asked, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” First and foremost is the confession of faith. Jesus is the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. But what does baptism have to do with this? We’re supposed to be considering the significance of baptism tonight. Baptism is not just plain water. It is not a disconnected ceremony or a technicality. It is intimately tied up with faith and confession. Whoever is baptized is baptized into Jesus, into his death. Baptism is the renunciation of the devil, and all his works, and all his ways, and the reception of a new birth as a child of God, with Jesus as our brother. Baptism is the thing that is to be done first thing with anyone who comes to believe that Jesus is the Christ, as the example of the jailer in Philippi shows in Acts chapter 16. When he believed in Christ, he and his whole household were baptized at once. Within baptism itsel