Why Is Baptism So Important?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Why Is Baptism So Important?
Matthew 28:19-20
As you may have realized by now, I love to begin a message with a story ...
The story is told of a pastor who had just starting serving a new congregation. For eight Sundays in a row he preached about baptism. Finally, the chairman of the elders approached him and said, “Preacher, we get the point about baptism and so I’d like to pick your text for next Sunday’s sermon. Please preach on Genesis 1:1.”
The elder thought that there was no way the pastor could preach on baptism from the very first verse in the Bible. The next Sunday, the pastor got up in the pulpit and read Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He then added, “The earth is two-thirds water. Today’s subject is water baptism.”
The Title for our message today is: Why Is Baptism So Important?
Our Scripture is taken from Matthew 28:19-20
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Let me begin by saying that of all the issues that divide Christians, and it shouldn’t be, is the debate over baptism. For centuries, godly men and women have come down on different sides of this question. Entire denominations have sprung up as a result of disagreements over the mode, meaning, and purpose of baptism.
The widespread response to such controversy and confusion has been predictable: many believers refuse to enter the discussion. Clearly, the Bible does speak about baptism and those of us who believe the Bible must search the Scriptures until we find satisfactory answers.
There is no virtue in ambiguity when the Bible speaks with clarity.
{photo of people being baptized}
John MacArthur observes: “We have a largely unbaptized church which may include some of you…it’s amazing how many people who proclaim Christ and confess Christ have never been baptized…there’s been a sort of indifference to this very, very important matter…May I be so bold as to suggest that a failure to be obedient in the matter of baptism…is at the root of some of the immense problems in people’s lives and in the church in general because it allows the church to fill up with people who are unfaithful to the simplest commands of the Lord and of His Word and that’s serious.”
Listen, here at Kingdom Keys Bible Fellowship: “We believe that Christ instituted two ordinances for believers to observe until He returns: Believer’s Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” Those professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior will be encouraged to give testimony of their faith and commitment through baptism by immersion.”
Jesus has given two ordinances to the church – baptism and communion.
We baptized a few weeks ago and celebrated their first communion with them and today we are celebrating communion with those here in person and with those on line.
One of the best ways to study a biblical theme is by simply doing a Scriptural survey. While my preaching preference is to study a book of the Bible verse-by-verse, or to focus on one primary passage, there is great merit in pulling together the various verses that have to do with a topic and then drawing some conclusions from them. If you have your Bibles with you, we’re going to “let our fingers do the walking” this morning.
Baptism in the Gospels
Let’s begin by looking at Mark 1:4
4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Ceremonial purification and washing with water was common among the Jews. Drop down to verses 7-8:
7 And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.
8 “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
We see here that John the Baptist was calling people to repentance from the way they had been living. God used John to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, who would baptize believers with the Holy Spirit when they put their faith and trust in Him for salvation.
In Mark 1:9, we discover that baptism is important because Jesus Himself was baptized:
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
The Unger’s Bible Dictionary points out that the Levitical law required all priests to be consecrated when they were around 30 years of age (Numbers 4:3) through a twofold process of washing and then anointing (Exodus 29:4-7).
(Numbers 4:3)
(Exodus 29:4-7)
When Jesus was “washed,” or baptized in the Jordan, the heavens were opened and He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. We see this in Mark 1:10
10 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him;
One commentator suggests that Jesus walked about 60 miles just so John could baptize Him in the Jordan River. We also learn that the disciples were baptized and in John 4:2, they in turn baptized others. Guy Glass points out that “Jesus identified with us and now Christ asks us to identify with Him.”
Turn now to Matthew 28:19-20 where we see that baptism is to be a distinctive mark of discipleship:
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Simply put, as believers, we believe in baptism, and we practice it, because Christ commanded it.
Matthew records these words as explicit instructions of Jesus before He ascended to heaven. This passage is called the Great Commission because it is the foundation for our evangelism and missionary outreach. If going is a part of the Great Commission and if making disciples is a part of the Great Commission and if teaching is a part of the Great Commission, then so is baptizing.
I like what John Piper writes:
“Making disciples is the main verb…the defining participles are ‘baptizing them’ and ‘teaching them.’ So…making disciples of all nations includes baptizing them.”
Friends, baptism and involvement in missions are clear commands of Jesus Christ. They go together, don’t they? We obey him when we baptize and we disobey him when we don’t. Now, let’s see how this command to be baptized is fleshed out in the Book of Acts. I see 10 accounts of active obedience to this ordinance in Acts alone.
Baptism in the Book of Acts
Acts 2:38 and 41
38 Peter said to them, “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.
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
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.
13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.
36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
The rest I am going to give you to read on your own:
Acts 9:18
Acts 10:47-48
Acts 16:14-15
Acts 16:31-33
Acts 18:8
Acts 19:4-5
Acts 22:16
A Declaration of Dependence
One overriding truth as it relates to these verses is that baptism always takes place after belief.
And, if the meaning of baptism could be boiled down to one word, that word would be identification.
In his pamphlet called, “Water Baptism,” M.R. DeHaan puts it this way:
“In the early days of the church…baptism was a declaration that the believer was definitely identifying himself with that group of people who were called Christians and were despised and hated. To be a Christian meant something.
To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death; it meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by friends. And the one act which was the final declaration of this identification was BAPTISM.
As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated, but when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I BELONG TO THIS DESPISED GROUP, and immediately he was persecuted, hated, and despised.
In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.
Fix Slide
Let me read you a quote from the book “Water Baptism,” on Page 27, it reads “A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and suffering, but once he submitted to public baptism he had burned his bridges behind him…”
On the brighter side of things; When you are baptized you’re declaring that you’ve burned your bridges to bondage. As you stand in the water waiting to be baptized, you symbolize Jesus dying on the cross. As you are lowered into the water, you’re providing a visual demonstration that Jesus was buried in the tomb.
As you shoot out of the water, you’re picturing Jesus rising from the dead. Once again, Piper catches the significance well: “Baptism gets its meaning and its importance from the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died in our place and for our sins, and from his triumph over death in the resurrection that guarantees our new and everlasting life.”
And since you personally are being baptized, you are also saying, “I died with Jesus Christ, I was buried with Him and now I am raised with Christ to brand-new life, and it’s my intent to live my life under His leadership and for His glory from this point on.”
In essence, believer’s baptism is a funeral.
It’s an act of faith in which we testify, both to God and to the watching world, that the person we used to be is dead and buried, and that we’ve been raised to new life as 2 Corinthians 5:17 states:
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Baptism Illustrated
Picture of US Flag
Two illustrations will help us understand the concept of identification. The first is the Pledge of Allegiance. When a person pledges allegiance to the flag, he or she is openly identifying with the United States of America. Likewise, when a person is baptized, he or she is pledging allegiance to Jesus Christ by openly identifying with Him.
Picture of a wedding Ring
The second illustration is the wedding ring. When a man (or woman) gets married, he (or she) almost always begins to wear a wedding ring or a wedding band. The wedding ring does not make someone married because some people choose to not wear a ring and yet they are still legally and truly married.
But, if a person does not wear a wedding ring, you can generally assume that he or she is not married. In a similar way, if a person in New Testament times was not baptized it was assumed that he or she was not a believer.
The ring represents the solemn commitment of a man and a woman to become husband and wife. It is a public testimony to that commitment. A wedding ring identifies a wife with her husband and a husband with his wife. It is a public symbol of a private commitment. Just as the ring declares, “I’m taken. I belong to another,” so in baptism the believer declares, “I’m taken. I’m a believer and I belong to none other than the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.”
Having said all that, baptism is much more than just a symbol of salvation. Piper reminds us that there are two ways of symbolizing something. If we write the word “love” on a blackboard for a group of 2nd graders and tell them that this word represents an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person, that’s one kind of symbolism.
But when I asked Yvette to marry me, giving her a diamond ring as a sign of my love, that was something much different than simply writing out the letters L-O-V-E. When I gave her the ring, I was expressing my love through a symbolic action.
In a similar way, baptism is a sweet symbol of our faith and it’s an expression of love and a commitment to live under the Lord’s leadership for the rest of our life.
Mode of Baptism
Throughout Christian history three primary modes of baptism have been followed: sprinkling, pouring and immersion. The Greek work translated “baptize” is the verb baptizo.
According to contemporary lexicons, the primary meaning is “to dip, plunge, or immerse.”
The secondary meaning is to “bring under the influence.” The root means “to totally overwhelm.” Interestingly, while there were Greek words for sprinkling or pouring that were available to the authors of Scripture, they consistently chose the word baptizo, or immersion, to describe the mode of baptism.
A brief survey of the how of baptism in the New Testament reveals the following fascinating facts:
for slide only
Baptism requires ...
* … water
* … plenty of water
* … going down into the water.
* … coming up out of the water.
* Baptism requires water. John the Baptist said, “I will baptize you with water...” (Matthew 3:11).
* Baptism requires plenty of water. It’s interesting that John baptized at a certain spot in the Jordan River where it was not shallow. Check out John 3:23: “Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.” After the Ethiopian ruler came to faith in Christ, he stopped his chariot, and said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” (Acts 8:36).
* Baptism requires going down into the water. After the chariot stopped, the Bible says that Philip and the man “went down into the water and Philip baptized him” (Acts 8:38).
* Baptism requires coming up out of the water. This man went down into the water, and then came back up out of the water (Acts 8:39). Jesus did the same when He was baptized (Matthew 3:16).
Clearly, immersion is in view here. In addition, the figures of speech used by the Apostle Paul are consistent with immersion. Baptism is called a “burial” in Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12. Baptism is “into his death” and involves being “raised to walk in newness of life.” It is difficult to see how sprinkling or pouring could convey these meanings.
So, what does all this mean? So far as we know, in the New Testament, water baptism was always by immersion. That does not mean that to use some other mode is necessarily sinful or wrong. After all, baptism outwardly declares your inward commitment to Jesus Christ.
The public declaration holds true no matter what mode is used. The important thing is that believers follow the Lord’s command to be baptized. Having said that,
I believe that immersion most closely follows the biblical pattern of baptism and that’s what we practice whenever possible, but as you know it’s not always possible.
I want to close with this quote from John Calvin …
Baptism is the sign of initiation by which we are admitted to the fellowship of the church.
John Calvin
Why Is Baptism So Important? Because Jesus says it is.
{{PRAY}}