Christian Baptism

Transcript

GRM 961
6/4/2006
Christian Baptism
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

Our study with you on the subject of baptism. In our previous study we looked at what the Bible said about the baptism of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus Christ. We noted that there are a variety of kinds of baptism in the New Testament. John the Baptist’s baptism was one major baptism, that was unique to his ministry as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the one who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah. Those baptized by John the Baptist, I mention that because that is different than John who wrote the gospel of John, who was the Apostle. Remember John will be beheaded in the gospels, so he’s not part of the later ministry. People who were baptized by John the Baptist were identifying with his message. They were saying, I’m repenting of my sin and I am placing my faith in the promises of God and His Messiah, who is soon to appear on the scene.

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, but His baptism was unique. It wasn’t the same as John’s baptism because Jesus wasn’t indicating He was repenting of His sin, He wasn’t portraying He was being cleansed from sin. But He was identifying with John’s message, He was identifying with the believing remnant in Israel. His baptism also served as His inauguration into His Messianic office. In other words, He began to function as the Messiah of Israel, offering them the kingdom, demonstrating that He was their Messiah from the point of His baptism on. That’s when the Holy Spirit anointed Him in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Some of those things we looked at.

I want to look with you at the matter of Christian baptism this evening. We observed the Lord’s table, communion, and usually in evangelical churches they have what they call two ordinances, the Lord’s table and baptism. We don’t believe that these are sacraments in the sense that they communicate grace. Rather the communion service is symbolic, it is a memorial, a reminder of the death of Christ. We would understand that Christian baptism does not communicate grace, it is not a sacrament. Nor is it an ingredient in our salvation. Rather baptism will be a public identification of a person with Jesus Christ. We’ll have more to say about that. There are three areas that we’re going to look at—the importance of baptism, the significance of baptism and the mode of baptism. I think all these are addressed in scripture and there need not be as much confusion as sometimes there is around these areas.

The importance of baptism. We’ll start in Matthew 28. This is the first instruction on what we would call Christian baptism. This is following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, these are instructions given by Him to His disciples and He will soon ascend to heaven. In Matthew 28 in what is called the Great Commission, verse 18, Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority is has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age. As you are aware, there is one command here. It’s the command to make disciples, strong firm command given. And then there are three participles. Usually our participles end in “ing” in English, and you have that in baptizing and teaching. The other participle here we have translated as the simple verb, go therefore. But it is also a participle. It could be translated having gone, or as you’ve gone. Or if you wanted to carry it over, as you are going, make disciples, baptizing and teaching. Make disciples, and disciples in the book of Acts will be called Christians. Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. So common term for us is Christians. The word disciple sort of passes out of the New Testament vocabulary as we move out of the book of Acts. But the disciples are to be made through the proclamation of the gospel, these disciples are to be baptized and they are to be taught. Not some of which Christ has commanded, but everything. That’s why we make our way through the details of the Word of God, because Christ said I want you to teach the disciples everything that I have commanded you. What we’re focusing on here is the command to do the baptizing. Now how this was carried out by His disciples who are receiving this instruction is in the book of Acts. Because you move immediately from this passage in Matthew to the opening chapter of the book of Acts and you have that account of the church’s history unfolding.

So come over to the book of Acts. And the instruction of Christ, that you are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, identifying a person with the triune God. When we studied John’s baptism we noted in Acts 19 when Paul confronted some disciples of John and said, into what were you baptized? Into John’s baptism, we are identified with John and his message. And then they were rebaptized in the name of Christ, to be identified with Him and the work that He had done. Now as we come to the book of Acts we see how the disciples carried out the command that Christ had given them and it is a clear pattern so that it is common in the commentators to have them make reference. An unbaptized Christian was a nonentity in the New Testament, it was not a consideration. For a person to refuse baptism would be to indicated that they truly hadn’t become disciples of Christ, they hadn’t placed their faith in Him. That is a natural and close follow-on to a profession of faith in Christ. Acts 2 we have the first account of Christian baptism, because we don’t have the establishing of the church until Acts 2. And in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost Peter gets up and preaches the gospel.

And his sermon starts in Acts 2:14 and he has it filled with Old Testament scriptures, showing the fulfillment of what the prophets prophesied concerning the coming of the Spirit, as a result of the finished work of Christ, which established the new covenant, that we made some comments about earlier. Verse 36 he concludes, therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain, that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. I mean establishing that He was the One that the Old Testament prophets prophesied about. He came to earth and you crucified Him. Ho guilty can you be. And when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart. The Spirit of God took the truth and drove it home to their hearts. And they asked Peter and the other apostles, what shall we do? Peter said, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repent and be baptized. And you receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. And he continued to exhort them, at the end of verse 40, be saved from this perverse generation. So then those who had received his word were baptized. That day there were added about 3000 souls. The church has grown explosively here from those initial disciples who received the Holy Spirit earlier in the chapter to now 3000 souls believe and are baptized. And are, verse 42, being taught by the apostles according to the instructions of Christ. What we want to note here is Peter’s command was repent and be baptized and those who had received his word, verse 41, did respond with repentance and were baptized. So the pattern follows.

Look over in Acts 8. You’ll note there was no time lapse here to see well what if…….we’ll see. We’ll observe your life for the next six months or year and see what you do. Repent and be baptized. That same day 3000 people declared that they were placing their faith in Christ and were making that known by identifying with Christ in water baptism. There was no time for them to decide whether they wanted to go public with their testimony. Remember this would be a shattering event in the life of a Jew, and these are Jews that Peter is preaching to here on the Day of Pentecost, because it would shatter their family relationships, job situations, everything else.

Acts 8:12, Philip is preaching in Samaria. The Samaritans are a mixed breed. So we’re moving now from the pure Jews to the mixed breed Jews. The Samaritans were Jews that were a result of intermarriages coming down from the times of the exile. And the Jews had a disdain for them because they were no longer purebloods, so to speak. But they were a mixed breed of Jew and Gentile, mixed blood. You have the preaching of Philip to the Samaritans and down to verse 12, but when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. The order continues. When they believed the truth concerning Christ, they were being baptized. You hear the gospel, you place your faith in the gospel, you declare publicly that you are now a follower of the Christ by your baptism, and then you continue to be taught. Again, there is no time gap here.

Now that allows for some whose profession won’t be genuine, but just get caught up in the emotion of the moment, like Simon. Verse 13, even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued on with Philip. But Peter is going to come down and tell Simon, you’re still in bondage to your sin. Verse 23, Peter says to him, I see you are still in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity, after pronouncing judgment on him. So there were those who would make a false profession and be baptized, and it would become evident after that fact if they weren’t genuine. So the kind of things that we would grapple with today are no different. But what you have is a clear identification take place. Now if a person doesn’t follow through with consistency as Simon didn’t, then there are grounds to say your profession was empty. You are still a slave of your sin, you need to repent. But the baptism followed immediately on the preaching and the profession of faith.

Later in Acts 8, still Philip preaching, but now to the Ethiopian eunuch. The account, you remember, is the Spirit of God directs Philip to this man who is traveling in his chariot. And as Philip comes up to the chariot he hears the man reading out loud from Isaiah 53. And he’s reading about the suffering and death of Christ, written by Isaiah so long before the events. And verse 30, Philip had asked him, do you understand what you are reading? His response in verse 31, how could I unless someone guides me. Now the passage of scripture he was reading was this, and it was Isaiah 53. The Ethiopian eunuch, verse 34, answered Philip and said, please tell me, who is the prophet writing about? Is Isaiah writing about himself? Is he writing about someone else? This is confusing. Verse 35, Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus to him. We’ve been through the book of Acts together. There is a simplicity and a clarity in the ministry in the book of Acts that the church is never to lose. We are about the preaching of the message of Jesus Christ. Not a lot of gimmicks, not a lot of ideas, not a lot of working of modern methods to try to lure people in. It is the bold preaching of the gospel that the Spirit uses.

He preached Jesus to him. Verse 36, as they went along the road they came to some water. The eunuch said, look, water. What prevents me from being baptized? I believe this truth, I want to be identified with Jesus Christ. So verse 38, they ordered the chariot to stop, they went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. We’ll talk about the mode of baptism, but you’ll note they both go down into the water. I take it they’re not talking about a cup or a glass here. But we’ll say more about the mode of baptism later. Verse 37 may not be part of what was originally the text here, you have a note on that. But that doesn’t affect what we’re saying right now. Although verse37, the content of that is referred to as early as the latter part of the 2nd century. So you get that awfully close to Christ. The point here is the Ethiopian eunuch hears the gospel, he believes it, he is baptized.

Chapter 9, the Apostle Paul, confronted by Christ on the Damascus Road, verse 17, the Lord sends Ananias to Paul who has been blinded by his experience on the Damascus Road. Ananias is told in verse 15, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles, kings, and the sons of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake. So Ananias departed, entered the house and after laying his hands on him he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales. He regained his sight, he got up and was baptized. And immediately he’s out preaching, verse 20, declaring that Jesus is the Son of God. But you’ll note the pattern—he hears the message, he believes, he is baptized. Not because baptism is necessary for your salvation, but for those who believe God never intends for anyone to be a secret disciple. And His command is that those who declare that they have become His disciple through faith in His death and resurrection, will be publicly identified with Him in baptism. And then submit themselves to the teaching of the truth that He has given.

In Acts 10 we come to the conversion of the Gentiles. Peter preaches the gospel to them and Peter’s instruction begins in verse 34. He’s at the house of Cornelius and verse 39, after talking about the earthly ministry of Christ that he was privileged to observe he says at the end of verse 39, they put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted Him to become visible, not to everyone, but to certain select witnesses. Verse 42, He ordered us to preach to the people and to solemnly testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Of Him all the prophets bear witness, that through His name, everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. While he is speaking of this, the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We’ll be talking about that at a future time.

And all the Jews, verse 45, the circumcised believers, referring to Jewish believers, who came with Peter were amazed. That means salvation has come to Gentiles. Can you believe it? Gentiles can be saved, can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and so on. Verse 47, Peter says, surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he? So he orders them to be baptized in the names of Jesus Christ. You see how the pattern just follows, follows, follows. We have people today who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ who have never been baptized. Not necessary to be baptized to be saved, but in New Testament times no one would accept the fact that you declare yourself to be a believer in Jesus Christ if you hadn’t stood publicly to be identified with Him in water baptism. Just not even a consideration. Now Peter doesn’t say we don’t want to confuse baptism here, so let’s just not do it now. And you’ll note the reason they can be baptized—they’ve already received the Holy Spirit, they’re saved people. The reason Peter says they can be baptized in public identification with Christ is they have received the Holy Spirit. So baptism can’t be necessary for their salvation, because they are already saved. You can’t have unsaved people receiving the Holy Spirit. Baptism follows salvation, it’s not an essential part of it. But it is a requirement for those who are believers. And it follows immediately upon their conversion.

Jump over to Acts 16. Now we’re on the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, he’s in Philippi. We talked about when he came to Greece and then started at Philippi and worked down to Corinth through some of the major cities of Greece. While in Philippi he preaches and he ends up beaten and thrown in prison. So he and Silas are commiserating about their misery and they’re sitting in the stocks in the inner prison. That’s not so, because Acts 16:25 says, about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. And there’s a great earthquake. Then the Philippian jailer, about to fall on his sword, because he would suffer execution because he assumed with the earthquake the prison doors opened and all the prisoners escaped, he’ll have to pay for it with his life. And Paul cried out with a loud voice, don’t harm yourself. ???? appreciate the grace of the Apostle Paul. This Philippian jailer who had just taken them and said to cast them into the inner prison and lock them in the stocks. If it had been me I would have let him fall on his sword and then given a sermon on see what happens to those who mistreat the servants of the Lord. Paul says, don’t kill yourself, we are all here.

The Philippian jailer is overwhelmed, sirs, what must I do to be saved. Verse 31, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds and immediately he was baptized with all his household. And he brought them into the house, set food before them, rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. And the reason his household is saved is because they, too, believed. He believed in God with his whole household. You’ll note the pattern here, we’re not even through the night. The Philippian jailer has heard the gospel, believed it and been baptized. And I mean you have to step right up to the plate. I’ve trusted Christ but I don’t know that I want my family to know right now, I don’t know that I want to tell anybody yet. Well maybe you’re not ready to repent and place your faith in Christ, because there are no other options. If you truly trust Him, you’re required to step up and be identified with Him.

Acts 18, here we are at Corinth. Paul is preaching to the Corinthians. Verse 8, Crispus, the leader of the synagogue believed in the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corithians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. We’ll say more about that in a little bit. Acts 19, Paul is at Ephesus. We looked at this passage when we studied the baptism of John. And here he meets some of John the Baptist’s followers who evidently had come under John’s ministry but had left the area, were now in Ephesus. They didn’t know about the finished work of Christ on the cross. So when he asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit yet? They said we haven’t heard whether the Holy Spirit has yet been given. They knew about the Holy Spirit because John said the Messiah, when He comes, would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Into what were you baptized, verse 3. John’s baptism. Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him. So you were identified in baptism with John and his message and his work. Now you are identified with Jesus Christ and his message and his work. So when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Immediate. And they are now followers of Christ. So the pattern is consistent. The gospel is preached, people believe and are saved, believers are baptized in water. That’s the simple pattern.

The significance of baptism. I think the scripture is abundantly clear, so clear there is no room for error, that baptism is not part of our salvation. In our next study we’ll look at some of the problem passages that seem to connect baptism and salvation. But I think the scripture is clear. We’ve looked at some of the passages that would indicate that. Go to I Corinthians 1, we’ve already studied this portion of I Corinthians in our study of this book. We read about Crispus who was baptized along with many other Corinthians in Acts 18. Well here in I Corinthians 1 as Paul recounts what has happened in his ministry there at Corinth, verse 14, Paul says, I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius. So that no one of you would say you were baptized in my name. Now I also did baptize the house of Stephanos. Beyond that I don’t know if I baptized any other. In other words, those many who were being baptized in Corinth, Paul wasn’t the one doing the baptism. He’s preaching the gospel and many of those associated with him were involved in baptizing them.

Now note what he says. Verse 17, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And what I want you to note here is Paul says basically that baptism is not part of the gospel. Now it’s the gospel that is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believe, Paul wrote in Romans 1. He’ll lay out the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ in I Corinthians 15. That is the gospel. Paul himself didn’t practice generally doing the baptisms. But he preached the gospel which is the power of God for salvation. So baptism is not part of God’s saving work. It is to be a result of God’s saving work.

Go back to Acts 11. Remember we just read in Acts 10 that Peter went to the house of Cornelius, preached the gospel, they believed and received the Holy Spirit and were baptized. The Jews are amazed. Well what happens down in Jerusalem where the leader are of the new church, and they’re Jewish leaders, word gets out that Peter has been preaching to Gentiles. Now remember Peter had his own problems with going to preach to Gentiles. The Lord had to prepare him in the first part of Acts 10 to go and do that. So when the Jewish leaders, who are believers and leading the church in Jerusalem, hear that Peter went and preached to Gentiles, he’s called on the carpet for that. It seems so foreign to us because we say, well you give the gospel to everyone. But the Jews coming out of Judaism were still fixed that salvation only takes place in the context of Israel. And a Gentile, to be saved, must first be converted to Judaism. So they call Peter to give an account.

They took issue with him, in verse 2. Verse 3, they were saying, you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them. That means you’re unclean. But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence. And he unfolds what God did to him and how the Spirit told him to go without misgivings, verse 12. And then verse 15, he’s preaching and the Holy Spirit fell on them just as He did on us at the beginning in Acts 2. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if God gave to them the same gifts that He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus, who was I that I should stand in God’s way? Therefore their conclusion, verse 18, God has granted to Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. So they were saved by faith. They repented of their sin, they received the Spirit. Baptism is not the issue here.

Come to Romans 3. This is often a passage that we go to, to establish and it finally settles the issue. We may have some passages that standing by themselves seem confusing, but there can be no confusion in Romans 3-4. He’s been unfolding, beginning in Romans 3:21, God’s plan of providing righteousness for sinners, second major division of the book of Romans. First major division demonstrates that we are all under condemnation as sinners. Then from Romans 3:21 to 5:21 he unfolds God’s provision of righteousness in Christ. Romans 3:22, it’s the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, so that we’re, verse 24, justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ. Verse 28, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only. Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes of Gentiles also, since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, is one. Major statement here in verse 30, since God is one. Some of you may have some variations on that in the edition of the New American Standard Bible you’re using. But the basic statement you should be able to sort out would be that God is one. In other words, there can’t be a different God for the Jews and a different God for the Gentiles. There’s only one God. So He’s the God of the Jews and the Gentiles. Because remember the issue is, do you have to keep the law to be saved. Well, is God going to save some people by faith and some people by faith plus keeping the law. Well there’s only one God, there can only be one way of salvation.

Now we have to find out how God saves someone. And then you have the example of Abraham in chapter 4. What then shall we say about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh. What has he found? What happened to Abraham? How did Abraham get saved? Now we’re before the law was given, 500 years before the Mosaic law was given you have Abraham. How was he saved? Well you look at Abraham. If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about before God. But what does the scripture say? Verse 3, Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness. So how did Abraham get saved? He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That’s Genesis 15:6. Remember that—Genesis 15. And then you’re reminded, verse 5, it was by faith not by works. The one, verse 5, who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. So the point here is he believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness. It comes to him through faith, only faith.

Now some quotes from David also, but we can skip to verse 9. Is this blessing of salvation, David writes about how blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? All right, we read and he requotes Genesis 15:6, faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Let’s ask ourselves a question, how then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? All right now, review Genesis in your Bible, we’re in Genesis 15. When did Abraham get circumcised? Not until Genesis 17, some 20 years later. He’s declared righteous by faith in Genesis 15, 20 years later he gets circumcised. So the answer to the question, was he circumcised or uncircumcised when righteousness was credited to his account. Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised. The whole point of the argument, then, is circumcision can’t be a requirement for salvation. That was the big issue for the Jews. They believed you had to be circumcised to be saved. That was the issue at the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15, remember. They said you need to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Judaizers did, but you also have to circumcise them and tell them to keep the law. Abraham There is only one God, there can only be one way of salvation. How was Abraham saved? By faith plus circumcision? No, by faith, because he believed and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. Won’t be until 20 years later that he’s circumcised, and that was just the seal, a sign of the relationship he had with God, covenant relationship. So circumcision can’t be necessary for salvation.

Verse 16, for this reason it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace. Now he goes on Abraham a father of many nations, and we enter into provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant, because in him all nations of the earth will be blessed. Let’s ask ourselves, all right Abraham was not circumcised when he was declared righteous by faith. So circumcision can’t be necessary for salvation. We have to ask ourselves a question, was Abraham baptized before or after Genesis 15? Neither. As far as we know Abraham was never baptized. Baptism wasn’t an issue then, circumcision was. So how can baptism be necessary for salvation? You have to have two gods, the God who saved Abraham by faith, credited him with righteousness because he believed, and then the God who today saves people by faith plus their baptism. You have to have two gods, because there are two ways of salvation. That was the argument on circumcision. You have two different gods, the God who requires faith plus circumcision and the God who requires only faith. No.

Romans 3:30, there is only one God, there can only be one way of salvation. If we find out how God saved one person, we’ll find out how He has to save all people. We found Abraham. It couldn’t be any clearer. How people can say well you have to be baptized to be saved. That is more nonsense and foolishness than the Jews saying you have to be circumcised to be saved. Because at least Abraham did get circumcised 20 years after God credited him with righteousness through faith, but he never did get baptized. How can baptism be a necessary part of receiving righteousness from God? Salvation, righteousness. So Romans 5 says, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All right, so that’s the negative side, that’s what baptism does not do. It is not part of your salvation. It does not take care of original sin by baptizing infants, it is not a necessary part of your adult salvation. You are saved completely and fully through faith in Christ. What is it then? Baptism is a public identification with Jesus Christ. Go to Romans 6, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Jesus was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, might walk in newness of life. If we’ve become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we’ll be in the likeness of His resurrection. A passage we keep coming back to. True salvation transforms your life. Not only identifies you with Christ in His death, it identifies you with His resurrection life. You are a new creature. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away, new things have come. Foolishness, that people claim that they have believed in Christ, they’re followers of Christ, but their life hasn’t changed. So foreign to scripture that it defies understanding.

I take it in Romans 1 we’re talking about the baptism of the Spirit, we’ll talk about that at a future time when we talk about the baptism of the Spirit. But water baptism portrays what has happened to us spiritually. We have been identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Baptism is picturing that identification with Christ. So all baptism is, is a public identification. Like the disciples of John were baptized to identify them with John and his message. Now we have been baptized in the name of Christ, to be identified with Christ, His work, His message. It declares to the world we are followers of Jesus Christ. That’s why it’s so important, to the Jews on the Day of Pentecost Peter preached, repent and be baptized. Every Jew there was driven to consider, am I serious about this because it will cost me my family, it will divide my family. It may cost me my job, I’ll be ostracized from Israel. That had gone one during the earthly ministry of Christ. Jewish leaders then determined that anyone who became a follower of Christ was to be put out of the temple, ostracized from Israel. I mean this was a serious matter, right at the beginning. It still is a testimony. ????? some of you are from different backgrounds, Lutheran background. You declare that you believe in Christ. That’s fine, but get rebaptized and that can have a great impact on your family. In past years I’ve had parents of college students call, crying on the phone, couldn’t understand why their son or daughter was going to be baptized. They’ve been baptized as Lutherans. Yes, but they weren’t believers then. But it’s an upsetting thing and it goes through for Roman Catholicism. I was baptized as a baby as a Methodist. So what? The identification with Christ still stands. We say, well I can give my testimony anyway. Yes, we can give our testimony in a variety of ways, but you must do it the way that Christ commanded. Certain things we don’t have liberty in. True, Paul gave his verbal testimony in a variety of places, but he didn’t have the right to forego baptism. Wasn’t necessary for salvation, but it was a requirement. Somebody claims to be a believer, when were you baptized in identification with that? Oh I never was. Well then I assume you’re not a believer. That’s the way the New Testament goes, they don’t know anything of unbaptized believers. But we have all our reasons, all our excuses. They just don’t count when we come to the scripture.

The mode of baptism. And we’ll conclude on this. I don’t think there is much room for difference here, either. Part of the problem comes, we never translated the Greek words for baptism. Baptidzo or baptisma. Now you can tell we just transliterated it over, baptisma, drop the “a” off the end, baptism. We didn’t translate the word, we transliterated it, it’s a Greek word. We just used the Greek word without translating it. You go to Greek lexicons, I have two that I went to. The word means to dip, to plunge, to immerse. The word was used in secular Greek of dyeing a garment in a pot. In other words, you immersed the garment in a pot of dye. It was used of a boat that was wrecked and submerged in the water. So you would read that in secular Greek, the boat was baptized. We would say, well you wouldn’t use a religious word like that, would you? Well it wasn’t a religious word. It meant to submerge something, to immerse it. So if you translated the word like we translate other Greek words, you would read, and they were immersed, or they were submerged, or they were dipped. So you could translate the Great Commission, going therefore make disciples, immersing them in the name of the Father, Son. Submerging them in the name of the Father, Son. Dipping them in the name of the Father and the Son.

There are other Greek words for sprinkling and pouring that you could use. I don’t want to make the battleground the mode of baptism. We ought to understand that there are different Greek words. One of the earliest writings, the earliest baptismal manual we have comes from the period of time from 100-160 A.D. Immersion is assumed in that manual. It does allow for pouring where there is not enough water to do an immersion. But there they use a different word for the pouring. So they clearly understood the difference in the Greek words.

It seems the meaning of the word indicates the mode we follow, that’s what baptism is. And secondly the picture, we are being identified with Christ, according to Romans 6, in His death, burial and resurrection to new life. And that is what is being pictured. I’m not going to die on this particular hill, but I don’t think it’s confusing, as we just look and see, what does the word baptism mean. And what is being pictured.

All right, let me just summarize what we have said about Christian baptism. 1) It was commanded by Christ and practiced by the early church in the book of Acts. 2) It follows faith in Christ and should be observed soon after faith. How are we going to know if their testimony is genuine? We’ll find out, we may have some Simons who make a profession and get baptized and they will be revealed to be ungenuine. You understand when they take that public stand they will be held accountable by believers for that stand. No fudging around here. 3) It is not part of salvation, this is the necessary ingredient in our salvation. It is a result of our salvation. 4) It publicly identifies a person as a follower of Christ. 5) It should be by immersion. 6) It pictures new life in Christ, it should be followed by transformed living. It is picturing in a physical, symbolic way what has happened to us spiritually. We’ve died with Christ, we’ve been buried with Christ, we’ve been raised with Christ to newness of life. Certainly if we have died with Him, we will be raised with Him. Nobody is identified with Christ and left in the grave. So everybody who has truly been identified with Christ through faith in His finished work has received new life, has the Spirit of God dwelling in them and now they are not the same person they used to be. That’s why so many people, even in evangelical churches, are struggling with so many things. They’re trying to live a life they don’t have. You have to receive new life in Christ, to live new life. They’re going to keep trying to work on it, they’re going to keep working at it, they’re going to keep………. Well, you have to have new life to live the new life. And nothing is so wretched as trying to live the new life when you just have the old life, trying to live as a new man when you are nothing but an old man, trying to live as one who has been set free in Christ when you are still a slave of sin. So what is being represented in our water baptism is a tremendous truth. And what an honor to stand and be identified with Jesus Christ without shame. I have committed my life to Him, I have place my faith in Him. He is my Lord, He is my Savior. My life belongs to Him, I want the world to know I am a follower of Christ. I live for Him and for me to live is Christ, and if it comes to that, to die is gain because of what He has done for me.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your great love for us. Thank you for all the provision you have made for us for every area of life, for our salvation, the forgiveness of our sins. How awesome to consider that you, the holy and righteous God, should credit us with your righteousness when we place our faith in your Son, Jesus Christ. All we must do, all we ever can do is believe in what He has done and that unleashes your power for our salvation and brings your righteousness to our life. And then we are privileged in a physical, public way to declare before the world that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, we are His followers, we have committed our lives to Him. We want all the world to know, we want all the world to identify us with Him. Lord, may we never be ashamed of Him, never be ashamed of the gospel which has brought us salvation. May we boldly declare it, may we unashamedly identify ourselves with Him. Thank you for that honor. In Christ’s name, amen.