The Doctrine of Baptism

Good morning and welcome to Living Faith Church. I am so excited to be able to worship Jesus Christ with you on this amazing Sunday. If we have never met before, my name is Aaron. My wife Stella and I are honored to be able to serve on the Pastoral team at LFC. Today we are continuing our series called We Are Pillars. If you have not been with us during any of these messages, you can listen to each week online. We have been in this series where we are taking an in depth look at our statements of faith. The apostle Paul told Timothy

1 Timothy 3:15 (NASB95)

15 but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

I was reminded earlier this week, as I gathered with our pastors and talked about this idea, how thankless being a pillar can be. 7 days a week people fill this building, and walk through the coffee shop, and lean on the pillar that is in that main area, we walk buy it and never say thank you, never compliment it’s decorative woodwork. It has stood there since our remodel in 2012 and has faithfully done it’s work without any recognition. And many times, this is true for us was well. Being a pillar is not always a highly praised position. But a pillar makes way. Makes way for people to enter into safety, makes way for people to gather together, makes way for people to fellowship outside of the harsh elements of nature. And for a moment let me just praise you, and thank you. Because our church is full of amazing men and women acting as pillars in this house, and you are faithful. C’mon, can we cheer some people on today?

Our statement of faith can be found online at winacity.com, and there you will find a statement that reads:

(We Believe) In water baptism by immersion and all who repent should be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

As we get started today, I thought it might be fun to enjoy just a little bit of humor. Keep your eyes on this screen.

Today, we are going to look at the idea of water baptism, what it is and why we do it. And if you have never been water baptized, today is a perfect day to register. Next week, November 10th is baptism Sunday. So we are going to talk about baptism today, and at the end of this service you can sign up for water baptism in the coffee shop.

Biblical Christianity is not ritualistic or sacramental.

Sacramentalism is the belief that special grace is bestowed on participants who engage in certain prescribed rituals. It is usually held by sacramental churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox) that the grace is inherited by a participator, whether there is an active faith or not. All one must do is participate for saving grace. Although obedience to water baptism is prescribed in the New Testament, there is no grace attached to such obedience. Living Faith Church fully and only believes in Salvation By Grace Through Faith.

Ephesians 2:8 (NASB95)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

So, where did water baptism begin? We find the origins of water baptism all the way back in the book of Genesis. Let’s look at two early baptism accounts. These may not be what you think of when you think of water baptism, but they do represent, and hold incredible significance for us today.

The Origins of Water Baptism

In The Flood

Between Genesis chapter six and Genesis chapter nine we find that as a result of the sinful state of planet earth a destructive flood was sent, yet Noah and his family were saved. This account tells us that Noah was instructed by God to build an ark, and while the world was judged through the flood, Noah and his family were saved by the ark. The waters of the flood did not cleanse Noah of sins, but rather, the fact that he was saved, and came out of the waters was a testimony to his righteous life.

1 Peter 3:20–21 (NASB95)

20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

In The Exodus

Again in the book of Exodus we find waters of destruction. Not a flood that consumed the earth, because God promised He would not do that again. Rather, we find an different story. In Exodus 14 we find that Israel is fleeing Egyptian slavery. God has put His power on display through Moses and Aaron to reveal His authority to Pharoah. Water has turned to blood, flies and frogs have covered Egypt. Finally Pharoah has allowed to let Israel go, but once again Pharaoh’s mind changes. And upon Israel arriving at the Red Sea, we find the Egyptian army on their tail, ready to bring them back to work in the Egyptian labor camps.

But God parts the waters and Israel is able to walk across the Red Sea on dry land. But upon their crossing, at just the right time, God closes the waters of the Red Sea drowning the Egyptian army. Paul, in 1 Corinthians ties this into water baptism with these words.

1 Corinthians 10:1–2 (NASB95)

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;

2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

So again, Israel is not cleansed by the waters of the Red Sea, but rather their coming through revealed their righteousness in the eyes of God.

Proselyte Baptism

Now, we will see that over time the principle of baptism took on a meaning that it was never intended to have. And in many circles, this meaning has stuck, causing much confusion and wrong doctrine. That doctrine would say that the practice of water baptism literally cleanses a person from their sins, and joins them spiritually to a denomination. This is not a new thing, it’s not even an old thing, I would say this is an ancient practice. During the time of Christ it was called Proselyte Baptism.

The word proselyte simple means convert. During the times of Christ a proselyte would be a non-Jewish person, or a Gentile, becoming a Jew by joining themselves to the faith. There was process through which a non-Jew could become a Jewish proselyte, and that process involved three things. A sacrifice, circumcision, and baptism. For the sake of time I’m only going to speak of baptism. In proselyte baptism, the person was stripped of all of their clothes, completely naked. They then went into the water, and dipped themselves being sure to fully immerse their entire body in the water. They were very careful that not one bit of their flesh remained dry. The reason for the practice was that, this form of baptism was believed to produce a cleansing of sins. How many of you are glad we do not practice this today?

In the book of 1 Peter, chapter three we find that Peter references the Noahs flood. We read this earlier, but lets read again:

1 Peter 3:21 (NIV)

21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Signs of the Covenant

So, even though throughout the Bible, water is used as a symbol of cleansing:

Isaiah 1:16 (NASB95)

16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil,

Ezekiel 36:25 (NASB95)

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Psalm 51:2 (NASB95)

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.

The act of water baptism was never intended to be a practice that produced a cleansing work, but rather a symbol that pointed back to a cleansing work that had already taken place. It is a symbol, a testimony, a sign of a covenant between God and man.

What Is Baptism? (Chapter Four: The Meaning of Baptism)

One historic Protestant and Reformed doctrinal statement, the Westminster Confession of Faith, defines baptism this way: “Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his engrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life: which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world”

Let me try and break this down a bit.

Baptism Symbolizes Our Engrafting into Christ

Romans 6:3 (NASB95)

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Galatians 3:27 (NASB95)

27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

To be grafted into something is to be brought into union with and draw life from a root source. Paul, in Romans 11 uses this language to communicate the relationship we have with God.

Water baptism symbolizes our new nature in Jesus. Each time we read the word Baptized, or Baptism in the Bible it almost always is followed by

With Him (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12)

Into Christ (Rom 6:3; Gal 3:27)

One Spirit, One Body (1 Cor 12:13)

We are never baptized into a church, but rather we are baptized into Christ, hence the trinitarian formula of baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This baptism symbolizes a covenant between God and Man, through the cross, whereby we are grafted into Christ.

Romans 11:17 (NASB95)

17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,

Paul uses an agricultural word here. The Greek word enkentrizō [ en-ken-TRI-zo ] is only used four times in the whole Bible, all four times in Romans 11 when speaking of God grafting us into His family. So we know, this is a very special word used to reflect a very special work of God. The word enkentrizō also can be translated pierced. And Christ was pierced for us, and blood and water flowed from His side while on the cross. Isaiah 53:5 says “He was pierced for our transgressions”. And this piercing allowed His blood, His life source, to flow into us that we might become alive “In Him”.

Now listen up! If I am grafted into Christ, and you are grafted into Christ, this means that we all, as branches on the same tree are family. And families celebrate new life together. If any one of my kids did not want me to be a part of their birthday celebration, I would be concerned.

When I was 9 years old I entered into my first ever cross country race. I was living in Olympia at the time and I entered into the Lakefair 10k race. I trained for months knowing that I was competing against hundreds of athletes. Each athlete was placed into an age bracket, and there was 1st, 2nd, and third place winners for each age bracket. Over the next several months I would wake up early to run, 3 mile, then four miles, 6 and 7 miles. My hope was that If 7 miles was easy, the 6.2 miles would be nothing on race day. Race Day came, I was nervous, I was excited, I was hopeful. There were hundreds of us on the starting line, but only a handful would be on stage receiving our award. As I was running, I could imagine in my minds eye what winning would feel like. I had been watching the movie Chariots of Fire, a dramatic story of the famous runner Eric Liddell. I was imagining crossing that finish line with my chest out, leaned forward. What would that feel like? I had never run a race before.

As I pressed into that last quarter mile, my legs like jello felt as if they could not move any faster, but sure enough, there was a little more- I speed up the pace, on the slight downhill descent into the finish line with cheers, and lots of people to encourage me to give it me all! I could not wait to get on that platform and hear my name called for Gold! As you can imagine, with hundreds of contestants it took quite a while for the judges to collect all the data; this was not in the digital age! Soon enough names were being called. First, Second and Third for senior citizens, for the 40’s, for 20’s and then it came… the 9-11. But to my shame, I didn’t place in first, I din’t even place in second! I felt as if I had run so well, how could I have done so bad! A few days later, our home phone rang, and to my surprise it was the lakefair office. Apparently some dude in his late 30’s had registered himself for the age bracket of 9-11. After recalculating all their totals with this in mind, sure enough, I had actually placed 1st in the run. I was able to go down town and collect my trophy. As excited as I was to have actually placed first in the race, collecting a gold trophy from a city office held no comparison to the public recognition on race day! Because all those hundreds of people that I ran that race with still know me as the second place guy! But I’m not that guy anymore, I’be been given a new identity as a first place winner.

And this is exactly why we practice public water baptism on Sunday mornings in front of the whole church. Because we believe that everyone should know of this new relationship and identity that we now have through Jesus Christ!

Baptism Symbolizes Our Forgiveness of Sins

In Acts 2:38 we find some language that has caused a bit of confusion when talking about water baptism. Acts 2:38 says

Acts 2:38 (NASB95)

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.

This language is similar to John the Baptist in Matthew 3:11

Matthew 3:11 (NASB95)

11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

But we must look at the whole of John the Baptist ministry to understand this meaning. Because if what he meant was that his baptism produced repentance, then he would have baptized many more than he did. John the Baptist actually refused to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees because they had not yet repented.

Matthew 3:7–8 NASB95

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;

So when John the Baptist uses this phrase “I baptize you with water for repentance,” The word “for” is the Greek word eis.

Swansons Dictionary of Bible Languages says “It is a word that points to something” A word that marks a purpose, a word used to mark a result.

In William Menzies book “Basic Bible Doctrines” he has this to say:

“ ‘For repentance’ means ‘because of repentance’, or ‘as a testimony of repentance.’ So also (Acts 2:38) ‘for the forgiveness of sins’ means ‘because of the forgiveness of sins, or ‘as a testimony to the fact that sins have been forgiven.’

Unless a person has already been born again and has received the gift of new life with Christ, water baptism means nothing! But for one who has truly been born again in Christ, water baptism becomes a powerful testimony of their new covenant relationship with Christ; a pledge that they will continue to live a new life in the power of the Risen Jesus!

Baptism Symbolizes Our New Life

In our previous illustration of the flood, Genesis 6 says that God saw the sinfulness of mankind. But look at the language God uses here.

Genesis 6:7 (NASB95)

7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Literally; “I will wipe clean mankind”. This is the same word used by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 43:25

Isaiah 43:25 (NASB95)

25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.

Isaiah 25:8 (NASB95)

8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.

Water Baptism does symbolize a cleansing work, but it is not the water that cleanses you, it is Christ blood that cleanses you. Upon salvation, each of us have encountered a spiritual blood transfusion, where the blood of Christ that washes away all sins, now flows through our veins. This is why we are called Kings and Priests (Revelation 1:6) - because we a literally blood relatives with Christ the first and most authoritative King and Priest above all the earth.

With this new blood life, comes new desires, new emotions, a whole new heart!

Romans 6:4 (NASB95)

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Water baptism is a like a birthday party celebrating that new life, celebrating a new heart granted by our Lord!

The Baptism Command

Now, Jesus was very clear about water baptism in his Great Commission.

Matthew 28:19–20 NASB95

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.”

Water baptism is not required for salvation. However, if you were to ask me “is water baptism necessary for a Christian” I would say absolutely YES. Because, Jesus, with not uncertainty commanded that those who are cleansed by His blood, who bear His name, who are followers of the Ways of Christ, make this public declaration of their covenant relationship with Him through water baptism. We cannot pick and choose what parts of Jesus commands we want to follow. Take it all, or leave it all. These are the options.

I want to challenge each and everyone of you who have recently commited your life to Christ, or recommitted your life to Christ to follow this new life with a celebration of Baptism. November 10, we will be celebrating baptisms in our 11 AM service. To sign up, and make this new covenant relationship public, simply walk out to the coffee area and sign the clipboard so we can reach out to you and reserve your spot.

Now, maybe you are here today and you have been following Jesus for a while, and you have already been baptized in water. I’m teaching this message to the whole church. Which means, that next Sunday- you will have a fresh perspective regarding what we are all celebrating. This should be the most celebrated service of the month as we celebrate these public declarations of new life with Jesus.

Maybe you are here today and have never made Jesus your personal Savior. What I want you to know is this, it’s not too late. One of my favorite passages regarding living for Jesus is this:

Romans 6:23 NASB95

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Your sins demand a death penalty. Living without Jesus means you are working for the wrong team. But Jesus died on the cross, paying the price of that penalty for you. He did that over 2000 years ago. Ephesians 1:4 says that Jesus chose you to be His before the world was even formed. Which means that when He was dying for you on that cross, He thought of you.

Ephesians 1:4 NASB95

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love

I want to give you an opportunity today to change the path you are walking on, to choose Jesus, to break up with shame, guilt, depression and fear and choose a new life with Jesus. In just a moment I am going to pray a prayer, and you can pray it with me. But before I do that, with every eye closed- If you want to pray that prayer with me, and you want choose Jesus raise your hand so I know who I am praying for.

“Heavenly Father, I trust You to save me through Your Son, Jesus.  Forgive me for all of my sins.  Make me brand new.  Because You died for me, I want to live for You.  Fill me with Your Spirit, so I could follow You.  Jesus, You’re now my Lord and the Savior of my life.  Take my life.  It is Yours.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.”