The New Testament - 4
Notes
Transcript
Key Verse
Key Verse
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Introduction
Introduction
So far in this series we have talked about
The prophecies and patterns of the NT from the OT
We have talked about the Kingdom of God
And how you must repent to get ready for the Kingdom
and then how you must be born of the water and the Spirit to Enter the Kingdom.
Last week we discussed the Gospel
How it is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ
According to 1 Corinthians chapter 15
And then we ended by showing that hearing the gospel was not enough
The Bible also commands us to obey the Gospel
And to obey the Gospel we must do what Jesus did
He died, we repent
He was buried, we are buried with him in baptism
He was resurrected, we are resurrected by receiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is FOR Salvation
Baptism is FOR Salvation
Now, I want to talk about what Baptism is and what Baptism is not.
Because there is a lot of teaching about baptism which is incorrect.
And when I say it is incorrect
I don’t just mean it is not the way we do it
I mean it is not the way the Bible says to do it.
First of all, let me reiterate that baptism is essential for salvation.
We already established this in lesson two of this series
but I want to make sure if anyone is just joining us in this series
and perhaps missed lesson 2
or just started listening to our podcast this week
that we show at least one verse indicating that baptism is essential for salvation.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Now, many people will skip over the first half of this sentence
and jump to the second half of the sentence
and see that those who do not believe will be condemened
And then they might ask…
Pastor, how come it doesn’t say, those who do not get baptized will be condemned.
Well, that’s simple
First of all, I’m more concerned with how to be saved
than how to be condemned
Jesus tells us how to be saved in at the beginning of the verse
and he said, believe AND be baptized to be saved
Then in the second half he tells us how to be condemned
and the bar is pretty low
Just don’t believe and you will be condemned.
So, let’s maybe not worry about how to be condemned
Let’s make sure we do what Jesus said to do to be saved
and that is to believe and be baptized.
Amen.
Secondly, no one who fails to believe will be baptized anyways.
And if they get into a baptismal tank or river
and a preacher dunks them
and they don’t believe in jesus
Then they didn’t get baptized anyways
They just got wet for no reason
Because if you don’t believe
Then you can’t repent
because repentance is changing your mind
and belief is required to repent
And without repentance
Baptism is just getting wet.
Thirdly, we have Jesus saying this:
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
So, if you do not believe, you are condemned already.
So, you don’t need to refuse baptism
You don’t need to refuse to repent
You don’t need to do anything more than not believe in Jesus
and You are condemned already.
So, when Jesus says to believe and be baptized to be saved
I’m going to trust his words there
and not the words of men who came later and said
you do not need to be baptized to be saved.
So the first thing baptism is FOR is it is for salvation.
The second thing baptism is FOR is…
Baptism is FOR the Forgiveness of Sins
Baptism is FOR the Forgiveness of Sins
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In this verse, Peter explicitly says tho be baptized,
not some, but all of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ,
FOR the forgiveness of your sins.
Now, a couple of Baptists started arguing in the mid 20th Century
that the word “FOR” in this verse could mean “because of”.
This is certainly true in English.
I could say something like:
“I’m here for my doctor’s appointment.”
And the word “for” in that sentence means “because of”
I could rewrite it as:
I’m here because of my doctor’s appointment.
So, this man by the name of Archibald Robertson said
Acts 2:38 is not saying to be baptized to be forgiven
It is saying to be baptized because you are already forgiven.
And so, Robertson wants Acts 2:38 to say:
“…be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ BECAUSE OF the forgiveness of your sins…”
Robertson wrote a paper or two on this topic
And he was refuted by every single expert on the subject.
Because the word “for” in English CAN mean “because of”
but the word being translated from Greek to the English word “For”, cannot mean “because of”
It is a small Greek word that primarily means “into”
but can also mean “for the purpose of”
But it cannot meant “because of”.
There is another Greek word that would have been used if Peter meant to say that we should be baptized because we are already forgiven.
I have much more proof of this, but for the sake of time
Let’s just read another verse in Acts that says the same thing but with out the word “for”
16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
Baptism is NOT a Public Display
Baptism is NOT a Public Display
of Faith.
There are many today that claim that baptism is simply a public display of your faith
this is because they are preaching a watered down Gospel message
that says that you simply need to believe to be saved
and if you want to be baptized you can
but it isn’t required
And so when they do get baptized
it isn’t taught that it is part of salvation
or that it washes away our sins
or that it allows us to enter the body of Christ
It is taught to simply be a public display of your inward faith that already saved you.
What’s interesting is that we never see the Bible says this
In fact, we see many baptism happen in the middle of the desert,
in the middle of the night
in a man’s house
or anywhere they could find water
and as quickly as they could find it.
Because baptism was not treated as an add on or optional in the bible
It was treated as a must have
Let’s look at this story in Acts 8:26
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.
Notice where they are:
On the road away from town
In a desert place.
Somewhere between Jerusalem and Gaza.
If you read on, you’ll find that Phillip meets a man in a chariot on the road
and the man is reading from the OT
and the man asks Phillip who the prophet was referring to
and then in verse 35…
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
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?”
See HERE is water!
he didn’t say, well, let’s wait until we get to town first
Because you know what,
baptism is a public display of your faith
and you can just wait a couple days
invite your friends and family
and we will let everyone watch you be baptized
no, that’s not how it went down
He said, look I know we are in the middle of the desert
but I see some water right there
what prevents me from being baptized
and the answer is … nothing
If you’ve repented and believe in Jesus
and you have water
then NOTHING prevents you from being baptized
There is no requirement to have the family come watch
and that is fine if they do
but that’s not what baptism is about
it isn’t a public display
it is FOR salvation
and it should be urgent
not scheduled for time with everyone can come watch it
The only reason we have churches thinking baptism can be delayed
is because those churches are not teaching that baptism is FOR salvation.
To finish the story of the Ethiopian…
38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
Notice that is says they went “down” into the water
This brings me to my next point
Baptism is NOT just Sprinkling
Baptism is NOT just Sprinkling
The word Baptize comes from the Greek word Baptizo.
It means to be immersed in water.
It does not mean to have water sprinkled on you
or to have water poured over you.
I used to think that churches who baptized by pouring
would pour a gallon of water over the person
but during COVID I got to watch a lot of services
from other denominations
and I watched a Luterthen baptism online
and they had a basin of water
and the priest dipped his hand into the basin of water
and he reached up and touched the forehead
of the person getting baptized
and I thought… how is that called “pouring”
When I hear pouring, I think running water
not getting touched with a damp hand.
but that’s just me.
Where did they get this practice?
Not from the Bible
The history that I’ve traced it down to
is tied to deathbed confessions
which are also unbiblical
It was too difficult to carry people who were nearly dead
down to the river to be baptized
so they started allowing sprinkling and pouring
The Apostles didn’t do this
It was priests in the Catholic church hundreds of years later
They should have never allowed death bed confessions in the first place.
38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
When we look at the baptism of Jesus:
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
Here we see Jesus,
after being baptized
came UP from the water
So, Phillip took the eunuch DOWN into the water to be baptized
And here, Jesus come UP from the water after he was baptized
So, it is clear as crystal in Scripture that baptism is meant to be all the way under the water.
It is a burial
You don’t sprinkle dirt on a dead man to bury him
you put him six feet under the ground.
Baptism is NOT for infants
Baptism is NOT for infants
I don’t have any Scripture to really show you for this
Because it was not even an issue to be discussed during the time the Bible was being written.
All we do have is that Jesus said:
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
How can a newborn baby believe and be baptize?
They can’t
They can be baptized, but they cannot believe and be baptized
So, where did this idea come from?
Once again, we can trace is back to the Catholic church.
They taught newborn babies who died
when to a place called purgatory
and the parents were pressured into paying to get them out of purgatory
and the cost of a baptism was cheaper than the cost of getting someone out of purgatory
So, they started baptizing newborn babies to save money.
Listen, there is no place called purgatory
and there shouldn’t be anyone paying to be baptized anyways.
When a child is old enough to believe, they can be baptized.
If we aren’t sure, I always recommend waiting until the child is at least seeking the Holy Spirit
or close to getting it, or have gotten it before I baptize them.
And I have those discussion with the parents as the questions arise.
How Do We Baptize?
How Do We Baptize?
There’s only one biblical way to be baptized.
Fully immersed in water
As soon as you believe and repent
And In the Name of Jesus Christ
If you were baptized by sprinkling or pouring
I recommend doing it again
If you were not sure you believed or repented
It never hurts to do it again
And certainly if you were not baptized in the name of Jesus
You must do it again
And we have Bible for this one.
1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.
2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 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.”
5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
If we had more time,
We could actually tie these 6 verse
to the last 4 or 5 verses of chapter 18
Because they go together
In short, Apollos was preaching in Ephesus
And he was preaching about Jesus
but he was baptizing people into John’s baptism.
Two other Christians sat Apollos down
and corrected his teaching about baptism
And then it goes right into the story we just read
where Paul comes through an re-baptizes some of them into Jesus’ Name.
The only thing different about their first baptism
and their second baptism
was the name of Jesus.
Why is that name so important?
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Let me repeat that part
There is NO OTHER NAME by which we must be saved
If you want to be saved,
you’ll take on the name of Jesus.
We see this all throughout the NT
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
It isn’t just in the book of Acts
We also saw in Paul’s letters:
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
And there are many many more examples of Baptism in Jesus’ Name
When did this change?
Well from some it never changed
but there were others who changed it around the middle of the 2nd Century
but it did not really take off until the end of the 3rd Century and into the 4th.
Where people started removing the name of Jesus from baptism
and instead they were using the titles, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This idea comes from matt 28:19
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
I could spend hours on this topic
but for the same of time tonight
I want to quickly show you what this verse means
The word “name” here is singular
so we are looking for one single name that belongs to the “Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.”
Of course we know the name is Jesus for many reason.
First of all
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
So, if Matt 28:19 was talking about any other name
besides the name of Jesus
then Acts 4:12 would be a lie
and God doesn’t lie
It says, there is NO OTHER NAME…
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
So, we are looking for a single name
and that name must be Jesus
and the reason why is too long for our study tonight
but suffice it to say
that when we say Jesus
We are talking about all the fullness of God
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
So, when you say Jesus
You are saying Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
because Jesus is God manifested in bodily form
That’s why those dozens of examples we read
about the Apostles baptizing in Jesus’ Name
never said, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
They didn’t need to.
The Lord Jesus Christ is all you need to say
and there is salvation —in no other name.
We have another clue about why we should be baptized in Jesus name
From another Gospel writer
47 and repentance and the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Here Luke is detailing the same moment that was recorded in Matt 28:19
This is the same scene
On the mount of Olives
Where Jesus is giving his last commands
before he goes up to heaven
and here, Luke says that
repentance and the forgiveness of sins
would be preached in Jesus’ name to all nations
starting in Jerusalem
and then in part 2 of Luke’s Book
That’s exactly what happened…
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So, Luke 24:47 says in “his name”, meaning in the name of Jesus.
47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
but Matt 28:19 says, in the name of…
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Why is there a difference?
Because the Apostles knew who Jesus was
He was God in the flesh.
If we had more time,
We would explore some common arguments against
Jesus’ Name baptism
But for now, we will stop here.
