The Beauty of Baptism
The Beauty of Baptism
05 Aug 07
Acts 2:22-42; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Romans 6:1-9; Colossians 2:9-12
Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell were both ministers in the Presbyterian Church in Europe.
Thomas sailed over to America in 1807.
Two years later his son, Alexander, followed with the rest of the family.
During their time of separation, Father and son had each been doing some serious study of the scripture, and when they finally came back together after that two year separation, here in America, they discovered that they had made the same conclusions.
They settled in the area of Washington Pennsylvania.
Together they made a strong plea for the Unity of Believers based on nothing more than the Bible.
They were eventually ostracized from every other denomination, and so they made the plea for individual congregations to return to the New Testament pattern for the church.
Eventually, Alexander Campbell fell in love and married, and his wife gave birth to a little girl.
Alexander and Margaret were faced with a tough decision to make.
Should the baby girl be sprinkled, as was the custom they had grown up with in the Presbyterian Church?
Alexander launched himself into an intense study of what the Bible had to say about Baptism, and he became convinced that baptism was by immersion into water.
And this was to be done by those who believed in Jesus and wanted to accept him as Lord and Savior.
Baptism was for the forgiveness of sins.
And so he and his wife decided not to baptize their infant child.
In fact, Alexander began to question his own baptism as an infant, and he decided to be baptized again himself.
His father had come to the same conclusion, And so, on a farm near Bethany, VA, in the year 1812, Alexander, his wife, Father, and sister were baptized in Baffalo Creek.
The Campbells, along with a few others, started what became known as the Restoration Movement of which we are a part here a NTCC.
It’s a call to go back to the Bible, and to bring the Church back to that model we see in the book of Acts.
And ever since that day in 1812, when Alexander Campbell was baptized, we have stood strong in the belief that Baptism is for the believer, for the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the HS.
And others have ridiculed us, and spoken down to us for this belief.
And a wall of division has sprung up between us and other denominations.
It’s a wall of water.
Baptism has become this ugly belief that divides.
And friends, this should not be.
Baptism is an essential.
We must have unity as a church body on that fact.
But we must also show love to others who may not agree with us.
We will stand on the fact that Baptism is essential, but we will act and speak in love to those who disagree.
And I think one of the things that will help us stand firm in our belief, and yet still speak in love to others of a different opinion, is for us to stop focusing so much on the requirement of baptism, and start focusing on the beauty of baptism.
And so this morning that is what we’re going to look at.
The Beauty of Baptism.
What we must believe
And baptism is a beautiful thing.
I appreciate Jimmy Tickel so much.
Were having a conversation on the phone some time ago and talking about how baptism had become this divisive thing.
And I was focusing so much on the necessity that I had lost sight of the beauty of Baptism.
And he reminded me that yes Baptism is commanded, and we obey, but which is better, to show someone a fact and tell them they must obey, or to point out to them how beautiful it is and inspire them to obey.
But before we get into the beauty of baptism, let’s begin by answering a question that so many people have, and many here this morning may have.
And that’s the question of, “what do I need to know and understand, to be baptized?”
This is a common question in people’s minds.
You may not word it that way, but maybe you were baptized when you were younger, say 12, and now you’re older and you understand more about Jesus and baptism, and you wonder if you should be re-baptized.
Let me first say, as Dale has many times, that it is not wrong to be baptized a second time.
If you have prayed about it and you don’t feel comfortable with your baptism, then we do not have a problem here baptizing you again.
I myself was baptized a second time.
But what do we need to believe and understand in order for God to accept our baptism?
Can an infant be baptized?
Can an athiest be baptized just in case?
Is your baptism accepted if you were a younger and didn’t know it all?
Turn with me to Acts 2:22.
Acts 2:22
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—
23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
34 “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” ’
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Friends, this was the first time the Gospel message had ever been preached to unbelievers.
And the Gospel message is that Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified for our sins, was buried in the tomb for three days, and then rose from the dead.
That’s the Gospel message we just heard.
And what was the response of the people?
Acts 2:37
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
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.
39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
What did these people need to believe in order to be baptized?
They needed to believe the Gospel.
That they crucified Jesus. They killed him.
That he was buried for three days.
And that on the third day he rose from the dead.
When they believed these things, they were told to repent of their sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus so that they could be forgiven for their sins.
And they obeyed and received the HS.
It’s the same message Paul said he preached to people.
1 Corinthians 15:3
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Friends, I tell you this morning that all a person needs to know in order for their baptism to be acceptable to God, is that Gospel message.
You don’t have to understand everything.
You don’t have to know all the answers.
All you have to know and believe is that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that he was buried, and that he rose on the third day and appeared to others.
If a ten year old child knows and believes these things, then he may be baptized.
Will he understand more about God as he grows older?
He better.
But that’s all he needs to know for baptism.
The beauty of Baptism
Now we’re going to look at the beauty of baptism.
Turn with me to the sixth chapter of Romans.
Paul is writing here about the fact that we are saved by grace, and this does not give us license to sin all the more.
In Rom 6:1 he asks the question, should we as Christians continue in sin so that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,
As we look at the beautiful picture of baptism, we see three things.
1st
In baptism, we die with Jesus.
Jesus went to that cross 2,000 years ago for my sin and for your sin.
And he died taking the punishment we deserve.
And in baptism we are dying to self and sin.
The old self, the one who lived in sin and was his own god, is choosing to die, just as Jesus chose the cross.
Jesus gave up his human body when he chose to die for us.
And in baptism we choose to give up sin.
We choose to give God control over us.
Jesus is not only to be our Savior, but he is to be our Lord, or master.
And so in Baptism we die with Jesus.
2nd
The second thing we see in this picture of baptism is that we are buried with Jesus.
When we go under the waters of baptism, we have died to self, and are buried with Jesus.
He was in the tomb three days.
Now, unless someone is really sinful, we try not to hold people under the water that long.
But Jesus was in the tomb three days, and when we go under the water, we are buried with him.
The old self is dead and buried.
It is no more.
Rom 6:4
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.
3rd
This is the third thing we see in this picture of baptism.
We die with Jesus, we are buried with Jesus, and we are raised with Jesus.
In baptism e are raised with Jesus.
For we know that on the third day he conquered death.
He rose from the grave, victorious.
And when we come up out of the waters of baptism, the old self is dead.
It’s been buried, and the new self is raised up out of the water with Jesus.
What a beautiful thing to see.
Jesus rose from the tomb with a new body.
His new body would last forever, and he could ascend into heaven to be in the presence of the Father.
And our new body, coming up out of the water, is spiritual.
We know this physical body will grow old and die, but our souls will live on.
We won’t face the second death, where the soul goes to hell for eternity.
That’s where we were headed before we were baptized, before we were buried and raised with Jesus.
And when we are raised up out of that water, eternal life starts.
Right now, as a baptized believer in Jesus, I am enjoying eternal life.
This body will die, but the soul lives on just as Jesus lives on.
It’s his life that gives me life.
Romans 6:5
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Friends, that’s the beauty of baptism.
In baptism we die with Jesus
We’re buried with Jesus
And we’re raised up from the grave with Jesus
And there’s no better place to be than with Jesus.
And we must do as Paul said.
If we’ve died with him in baptism, then we have to live with him.
We must consider ourselves dead to sin, and alive to God.
This means we’ve got to walk with Jesus every day.
We must say no to temptations and sin.
The good news is that we aren’t alone in the struggle against sin.
As we saw in Acts 2, when we are baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, we receive the Holy Spirit, God living in us, to help us battle sin.
Let us all commit ourselves to walking with Jesus this week, faithful to him.
The Holy Spirit will help us if we ask.
There are some here who have never been baptized.
You don’t have the Holy Spirit inside of you to help you battle sin.
You’re lost.
This morning you’ve been shown the command of scripture to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you’ve been shown the beauty of baptism.
All you need to believe to make that choice is that Jesus died for your sins, that he was buried, and that on the third day he rose from the tomb.
If you believe that, then you’re ready to be baptized.
You’re ready to die with Jesus, to be buried with him, and to rise upwith him as a new creation.