Baptize the Believers

We started last week looking at the characteristics of the newly-formed church in Acts as both a reminder and a health check for ourselves. What was the church committed to? What did it look like and follow suit today? Last week, we saw the importance of every member preaching the gospel. Today, we begin exploring what to do when a person responds to that gospel, the good news of Jesus life, death, and resurrection.

Look with me at Acts 2:41 “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

It’s hard to read through the Acts of the Apostles and miss the importance that the early church and early believers placed on baptism. And when we do see it…often, I might add…we still miss what a radical step of obedience baptism was. This morning, let’s turn our attention to this simple yet radical step of obedience that marked the New Testament church.

The first thing that seems pretty clear from this verse is…

An Immediate Baptism

It’s interesting…in the Book of Acts, conversions are sometimes accompanied by the gift of tongues. Whenever the gospel advances into a new stage of that “Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and uttermost parts” plan, there is the gift of tongues. This validates the expansion and success of the gospel through tangible evidence of the Spirit’s presence. But, the Spirit doesn’t always show up through tongues. Do you know what does happen at every stage of the advancement of the gospel in Acts? New converts were baptized. It was part of their commitment to Jesus — you got saved, you got wet! Real quick, let me rattle through a couple of these:

Acts 2:41 “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Acts 8:12–13 “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.”

Acts 8:36–38 “And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.”

Acts 9:18 “And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;”

Acts 10:44–48 “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.”

Acts 16:15 “And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.”

Acts 16:33 “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.”

Acts 19:4–5 “And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

And, what we see is the apparent belief that baptism should not be delayed. So, baptism was administered soon after a person surrendered their life to Jesus. They didn’t wait for all of the instruction to be fleshed out — you believed, you were baptized.

Still, what about the numerous churches that take a wait-and-see approach to baptism today, delaying it in order to allow a time of intense teaching and catechism and instruction? I get the desire to judge the genuineness of a person’s profession instead of giving them some type of false assurance by “dunking them right away.” It is both a logical and practical practice. But again, what does Scripture teach? Dr. Black suggests two reasons we should baptism quickly:

It is the practice of the NT church to baptize then teach. That seems clear from our survey of passages in Acts. But the second point carries even greater weight…

Jesus gave us the order in making disciples — baptize then teach.

So, the early church was just practicing what Jesus had instructed them. Perhaps the clearest example of this happens with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.

The reason they baptized quickly is because they believed in…

A Significant Baptism

Paul, a huge missionary force and theological giant, one of the ones baptized quickly after his profession Jesus as Lord, said this about baptism in Romans:

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Now, let’s be clear. It’s not that actual act of baptism that does this, as if baptism is a righteous deed we must do to be saved. Scripture is clear on that…it’s grace alone by faith alone, not by works so that no one can boast. But, baptism is the physical symbol of our spiritual identity with Christ. When we enter the water, we are professing to be united with the death of Jesus, His life surrendered in place of our life. And, when we exit the water, the latter part of verse 4 comes into view — we are raised to “walk in newness of life.”

Our association with Jesus through baptism serves as a type of proof of purchase, if you will, and it marks us out as people who are under the Spirit’s work. If the Spirit baptizes us into one body (see 1 Corinthians 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”), then water baptism becomes the outward sign of the Spirit’s work and our identification with the body of Christ. In this regard, the Spirit baptism and water baptism actually work together. Trying to separate the two would’ve been a non-issue in the early church, and honestly, the idea of an unbaptized believer would’ve been a bit of an oxymoron to the early church.

Further, baptism seems to be the best confession of our belief in the fundamental truths of the gospel. Listen to what Paul said of the gospel in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

Did you catch that? Jesus died and was buried. When we are submerged below the water, we are confessing our belief in the death of Jesus. Then, Jesus was raised on the third day. If being submerged in the water confesses our belief in Jesus’ death, then emerging from the water confesses our belief in His resurrection.

Clearly, baptism is more than just an act of obedience that we get around to one day. There is great significance in this symbol.

A Distinct Baptism

What I mean by this is that baptism, as practiced by the first-century church, was indeed a Christian baptism that was different from the baptism practiced by Jews. The distinction was evident in at least two ways:

Christian baptism was never self-administered. There is even in this a picture of the beauty of grace. We are merely recipients of the gift of salvation, but we never accomplish it on our own!

Christian baptism was not repeated. Judaism has a whole host of purification rites that deal with ritual washings, so they took place frequently. Christian baptisms did not. In fact, the distinction seems to at least be implied by the writer of Hebrews when he says we should leave behind elementary doctrine, which includes the “instruction about washings (baptisms)” in Heb.6:2.

Scripturally, believers are baptized once and no more.

A Public Baptism

Notice in our passage of Scripture today that “those who received his word were baptized…about 3,000 souls.” Seriously, you expect me to believe that had a 3,000-member baptismal service? Yep. Actually, archeologists have discovered many baptismal pools around the temple mount. And, if you were baptized there, it would have been a rather public event. And, it would’ve caused quite the commotion, that many people being baptized. Yet, they did it, likely in front of friends and relatives, certainly in view of all, unashamed of a new-found association with Jesus.

Which, brings to the forefront a question I’ve wrestled with for some time, but even more so this past year. I had the opportunity to baptize a few different people in the bay last year, and I thought to myself, this is a profession made in public. I think it does beg the question: do we miss a golden opportunity to witness to the public when we move our baptisms inside? It doesn’t invalidate any baptism, for sure. But, maybe we miss out?

This next point…it may be one of the ones that causes the most pause among some of us…

An Egalitarian Baptism

What do we mean by that? Anybody who is born again can and should receive it. But, Dr. Black pushes it a step further and says any who has been born again can administer it. So, one piece at a time.

When we say anyone who has surrendered their lives to Jesus can and should receive baptism, that’s exactly what we mean. We’ve already noted the pattern and the teaching from Christ Himself, we’ve already noted the importance of being baptized. It seems the only thing left here is the question from the Ethiopian (Acts 8:36 “And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?””) The truth is, nothing. It’s for the Republican and the Democrat, the liberal and the conservative, the whites, the hispanics, the middle-easterners, the home-schooled and the public-schooled and everyone in between. All of us need to pass through baptism’s waters as followers of Jesus.

But, who can baptize? Must it be administered by an ordained or set-apart minister of the gospel? Honestly, there is lacking evidence form Acts or the New Testament as a whole that the act of baptism rested solely on the apostles or other ordained leaders. Further, the emphasis of the New Testament pastors is to equip others to do the work of the ministry as much as they themselves do the work. Ephesians 4:11–12 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”

Really, as ministers, we’re sort of like a NASCAR pit crew — we pump you up with gas and tires so you can drive the race. And, we’d be pretty hard-pressed to make a completely compelling argument solely from the pages of Scripture that only “ministers” should baptize. We would probably do well to remember:

“Christian ‘ministers’ are no more priests, and no less, than any other member of Christ’s body.”

Finally, let us look at a few verses that may help us in this matter:

Acts 10:48 “And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.” It seems that Peter commanded them to be baptized, but likely was not the one who baptized them.

1 Corinthians 1:14–17 “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Acts 9:18 “And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;” Who baptized and who was being baptized? Paul was baptized by Ananias, an ordinary disciple.

One reminder I would offer here is that we are looking at all of this through the lens of the local church, and baptism should be connected to the local church. I think this falls in line with the “follow-up” from last week’s sermon. Remember, just as the church — we, as individual members of it — are not called to make converts and we’re not made to just dunk people. It’s part of the process of making disciples, and it seems clear through the New Testament that God’s plan for making disciples is engagement and involvement in a local gathering of believers.

Finally…

A Courageous Baptism

Scripturally speaking, baptism seemed to be the “clinched commitment” of a new Jesus-follower. Sadly, we’ve replaced it with raised hands and walked aisle, something that really would’ve been looked at with suspicious eyes in the Book of Acts. Baptism was a simple and definite way of saying, “I have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back.”

To make such a bold stand, to draw a line in the sand and say, “I’m not turning back from Jesus, no matter what,” took real courage. But then we remember, He doesn’t give us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7 “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”)

I remember a former pastor of mine, whenever he’d baptize someone, he’d always run his hands in the water and scoop up a handful before pouring it out and saying, “This is only water. What prevents you from being baptized?”

I’d like to put it in Scriptural terms…

If you’re a believer, you need to be baptized.

Baptism is quite significant.

He has given you a spirit of power.

So, what prevents you from being baptized?