Baptism

Today we are going to continue our The Basics series.

How is everyone doing with these topics we’ve been getting in to? So far we’ve looked at the / / Bible, Prayer and Communion.

I keep saying it. I’m going to keep saying it. The Bible is GOOD for you!!!

The same with Prayer & Communion.

I’ve been in a few conversations the last week where people who were going through some pretty serious stuff in their lives had to come to a point where they admitted to themselves that they had simply just stopped the methods. They had stopped the “program” so-to-speak.

I’m not going to call Christianity a program, but there is a formula. Isn’t there?

This is what we’ve been talking about. Again, I can’t help but mention that salvation is through belief in Jesus Christ alone. Absolutely, 100%, without fail. Jesus Christ is our savior through faith, NOT works. We don’t get saved and then stay saved because we’re good Christians. We get saved and stay saved because we believe in Jesus Christ. So the Bible, prayer, communion, all these things we are talking about may not be necessary for our salvation, but that would be what we call having “fire insurance”. I’ve got my fire insurance card in my back pocket, I’m saved, so I’m not going to hell…I get to go to heaven. But there is just so much more that God wants for us.

And if you’re going to get the most out of it, you need to apply the tools of the trade.

If you remember yesterday’s Daily Bible Reading from Matthew 25. The Parable of the Three Servants, or some bibles call it the Parable of the Loaned Money, or the Parable of the Talents. Jesus tells this story of a man who has to leave the country on a long trip, obviously there were no Corona Virus travel bans in Jesus day. So this man has 3 servants, and he gives them money to work with while he’s gone. 5 bags of silver to the first one, 2 to the second and 1 to the third.

He goes away and this is what Matthew 25:16-18 says the servants did with the money, / / “The servant who had received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.”

So, the master returns and says, “ok, how’d it go?” and the first servant says, “Took your 5, got you 5 more.”

“Well done,” says the master, “I can trust you with some more responsibility for sure..”

Second says, “You gave me 2 and I went to work and was able to get 2 more.”

“Also, well done. I can give you more responsibility as well...”

The third says, “Listen, You gave me 1, but I was insecure, I didn’t want to lose it. So, I figured, at least if I give him back what he gave me, I won’t have lost it on you. Here’s the one.”

Listen to how the master responds in Matthew 25:26-27, / / “‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

“Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.’”

We can look at that a few different ways, but do you see this really is the reality of how things work? Generally speaking, those who take the challenge, do well with what they have been given succeed. Those who don’t, usually end up going in the other direction.

Listen, I’ve been a part of enough diet and exercise programs that I’ve heard it said more times than I can count:

/ / You will only get OUT of this what you are willing to put IN to this!

It’s true, isn’t it?

Relationships, Jobs, Weight Loss Programs, School, Church, Christianity.....what we receive will be directly linked to our efforts and our investment. Again, not saved by works, but we grow through our efforts. I can’t expect Kelley and I to get closer if I don’t give her my attention and if we don’t work at our relationship.

So, The Basics: Bible, Prayer, Communion. And today we’re going to look at another / / Basic of the Christian Faith: Baptism.

Baptism is one of the two sacraments instituted by Jesus and pretty much recognized by every Christian denomination, even if they do it differently.

Sacraments, I used that word last week, and this week. That is it. A / / Sacrament is, by definition, A ritual action undertaken by the Christian Church that is understood to be a visible sign of invisible divine grace.

Over the course of Christian history there’s been two general understanding of how the sacraments work. Either that the sign, or the ritual action actually bestows, or contains the grace itself. Meaning, I take communion and in taking communion I am receiving that grace of God. OR that the sign depicts, or represents, or symbolizes the grace we have already received. Meaning, I take communion, as Jesus said, in remembrance of Him, and so communion becomes an opportunity to remember that we have already received that grace, and so we thank God, and we celebrate the life and the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Whichever it is, the truth is the same. These sacraments, these ritual actions, are ABOUT what Jesus Christ did for us, and invite us into a greater understanding and a greater experience of it.

You may have heard that there are more than 2 of these sacraments. Some churches recognize several.

How many have been to a confirmation, or confession. Some consider marriage, Holy orders, or being ordained into the service of Christ and of course we’ve at least seen this in many TV shows, the Last Rites...

However, biblically speaking, Jesus told the disciples to do 2 things that the church generally considers sacraments.

/ / Communion, as we talked about last week. He said, as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.

Baptism, in the Great Commission, his final instructions to the disciples before he ascended into heaven.

Let’s read from Matthew 28:18-20, / / Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands i have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So, we’ve seen this over the last few weeks a word that keeps coming up, being a disciple. A follower of Jesus, one who is dedicated to learning and following. But then he says this as well, and hasn’t said this anywhere else, “baptizing them”. This is a specific instruction.

Jesus, in all of his teachings and in all of his ministry hasn’t been talking about baptism. Although the book of John does tell us that Jesus and his disciples were baptizing people. John 3:22 says, / / Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people.

And a few verses later it says in John 4:1-2, / / Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them - his disciples did).

This is Jesus being classic Jesus here. Teaching people, healing them, and they of course want to follow him, become disciples, or students of His teaching. You may notice that Jesus is sometimes called Rabbi. This was a tradition that young jewish people would want to follow a particular rabbi. And so we see here that Jesus was increasing in popularity, which John always knew was the point. He continually preached, there is one greater than me coming. So this wasn’t a shock to John the Baptist, even though his disciples were confused. They actually asked him at one point in John 3:26, / / “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.”

So, there’s talk in the scriptures about the fact that people were being baptized, but not necessarily about why, or even what it is.

/ / What is baptism?

Well, we said earlier that some believe the sacraments produce the grace, while others believe the sacraments are an outward representation of the inward working of grace.

Ok, let’s make that really simple.

John the Baptist was baptizing in what he called the baptism of repentance. In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist says, / / “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God.”

Notice that John doesn’t say, “I baptize those who want to be forgiven of their sins through the waters of baptism.”

John’s baptism did not produce repentance when the person was baptized. In fact, John actually refuses to baptize some who came to him. Matthew 3:7-8, / / But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

John here is saying, Repent, turn from the way you are doing things, turn back to God and His teaching, and then show that you truly are following God by coming to get baptized.

This is something you are going to see in the bible over and over and over again. / / Symbolism.

God loves symbolism and uses it all throughout the bible. As we’ve been reading the book of Genesis, how many times have we seen, “And so-and-so built an alter and called it such-and-such, which means, God did this-and-that.” right? An alter, or a pile of stones, or a monument. For what purpose? To remind us of what He had done.

We talked about Passover last week. To this day, some 3000 years later, Jewish people STILL celebrate passover. The remembrance of God releasing the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.

God uses symbolism to help us remember all that He’s done and all that He’s promised. / / Communion is no different. Taking the bread and wine, symbolizing the body and blood of Jesus, reminds us of what Christ did for us through his sacrifice. The Forgiveness of Sins // Eternal Life // Spiritual Transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit… This is what God has done for us through this new covenant.

/ / Where did Baptism come from?

So, we most commonly know about New Testament Baptism, and I wondered this for years, where did it come from? Seems baptism isn’t really talked about until John is on the scene baptizing people. But why?

The origin of Baptism is from the religious life of Jewish culture. Throughout the Old Testament at specific times, God instructs the Israelites to wash with water. There were certain things that God instructed his people to go immerse themselves in water to ensure they were made clean, because there were some things that would make them unclean. Touching a corpse, eating or picking up a dead animal, contagious skin infections and others…

Part of the religious life was that if you touched a corpse, you were considered ceremonially unclean, which means you couldn’t go to the temple, you couldn’t offer sacrifice to God, which meant, you couldn’t be forgiven of sin etc.. SO, in order to fix that, there was a process of cleansing, and sometimes that involved immersion of water.

The word Baptism comes from the greek word / / baptizo, which means to immerse. The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament was mikveh, or an immersion.

There was also a period of time where Gentiles, or people who are not born into a Jewish family, would want to enter into the Jewish Community and the Jewish Faith. They went through what was called a proselyte baptism, which was to remove any hint of ceremonial uncleanness from their past life, and be clean as their new journey of Judaism began. To enter Israel and the temple, they had to go through that process.

So, although there is no consistent practice of baptism like we see it in the new testament, we do see that the act of immersing into water was used for both cleansing, and an act of repentance before God for sins.

Well, John was preaching a baptism of repentance and cleansing, wasn’t he? Matthew 3:1-2, His message was, / / “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

/ / Why did Jesus Get Baptized?

Did you know Jesus was baptized? He was. By John the Baptist.

If John was baptizing for repentance, or a way for people to show that they were truly repentant, then why did Jesus get baptized? Wasn’t he sinless..perfect?

Matthew 3:13-17 says, / / Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by YOU,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”

But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” so John agreed to baptize him.

After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

/ / It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires. Jesus is saying God requires it. Or as the ESV translates it, Jesus says, / / “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

OK, ready to follow me for a minute? I want to make a connection here this morning. Paul in his letter to the Romans quotes Genesis 15:6 and says, / / And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. And he also says in Hebrews 11:8, / / It was by faith that Abraham OBEYED...

So, listen to this. / / Abraham OBEYS God by FAITH, and his FAITH is counted to him as RIGHTEOUSNESS.

OK, so now Jesus. Jesus OBEDIENT to the Father, goes to John and is baptized into the baptism of repentance, which is by faith, you are choosing to believe that going into the waters of baptism has power, and by that obedience, what does Jesus do, he Fulfills ALL Righteousness.

Romans 5:18-19, 21 says, / / Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous....So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus knew the road he had to walk, but was willing to walk it in FULL obedience to his Father.

So, he gets baptized, and Matthew says that the heavens are opened up above him and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus and a voice out of heaven says, / / “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” or the ESV says, “with you I am well pleased.”

Now, you have to understand this. Jesus has not started his ministry. Jesus has not done any miracles, or none that are recorded in the bible anyways. Jesus has not saved the world yet. He’s not died on the cross. He’s simply been the Son of God, and what does the Father say? YOU are my Son and I am pleased with you, you bring me great joy. AND in that moment he receives the Holy Spirit, the power of God to do miracles, signs and wonders… Romans 8:11 says, / / The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you...

See, this is the beauty of God’s love. You don’t have to do anything for him to love you. He takes pleasure in you because you are who you are, his loved son, his loved daughter.

This is the marking point of Jesus’ ministry. The beginning of the end, really. God the Father has just identified him as being the Son of God. He is the Messiah. IF anyone there had doubts, they shouldn’t now. If this is the beginning of the road of Jesus’ ministry, what is the end? The Cross. Paul says in Philippians 2:8, / / …he [Jesus] humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

/ / The obedience of Jesus Christ makes me and you righteous!

/ / Why do WE get baptized?

Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28, Make disciples, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We just saw in the baptism of Jesus that 3 very IMPORTANT things happened.

/ / Obedience that brings Righteousness

Validation from the Father

Promise of the Holy Spirit

So, I said that one of the things baptism was historically was to make it known that you identified with a particular teaching or were a follower of that teacher. So, when we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, what are we doing? We are essentially saying, “I want to SHOW that I am committed, and dedicated to following the teaching and the life of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.”

As I said, Baptism is a symbol. The work is already done. Jesus has completed the work, and you are saved, not by works, but by belief in the work of Jesus. / / Baptism then is an outward expression of an inward decision to follow God.

/ / What does Baptism do?

/ / Baptism is the willful embrace of the death of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25, / / If any of you wants to be my follower you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Paul says in Romans 6:3-4a, / / …have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.

/ / Baptism is the outward expression, or identification, of our faith in Jesus Christ to raise us from that grave.

Paul continues in Romans 6:4, And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

vs 8, / / And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.

Baptism is our declaration that we are ALIVE in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11, / / So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

/ / Baptism identifies us with the Unity of Believers.

Paul says in Romans 3 that we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard.

Redemption through Jesus Christ is the great leveling field. We are all born into a world where our very nature is sinful. Yet, only through the redemption found in Jesus are we made right with God. You, me, everyone else. none of us are different. So Baptism is an outward expression of #weareinthistogether

/ / Baptism is an invitation for the Holy Spirit

In the book of Acts over and over again, when people got saved, or chose to follow Jesus the apostles would baptize them right away, and the bible says they would receive the Holy Spirit.

I want to read you this story from Acts 19:1-6, / / Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.

“No, “ they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

“Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked.

And they replied, “the baptism of John.”

Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. but John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.”

As son as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.

I love that question, / / “Then what baptism did you experience?”

The ESV says, “Into what then were you baptized?”

Baptism, yes, it’s an expression on our part of what we are identifying with. We CHOOSE to follow Jesus. This is my outward declaration of my inward decision to follow God. BUT, it is also an experience.

/ / What are we baptized INTO?

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are no longer a slave to sin, but alive in Christ.

We are joined with the body of Christ, the unity of all who believe.

And we are saying Yes, to the gift of the Holy Spirit to fill our lives.

Maybe you were baptized as a child. That is very common in some churches. Here we choose to dedicate our children to God, we pray for them, bless them and commit to walk with them on their journey in life in the best way we can. But we choose to leave baptism to them, as their choice.

The early church had a priority of faith and repentance PRIOR to baptism. A baby can’t do that, can they? And I believe Baptism is a choice we make when we have faith, and we confess we need Jesus to save us, THEN we are able to make that declaration that we are a follower, a believer, that we identify with the death and life of Jesus Christ.

So, if you are in one of these three categories:

/ / You have never been baptized.

You were baptized as an infant without your decision.

You were baptized, but you want to make that declaration again.

I want to make an invitation to you. If you have faith in Jesus and have repented, meaning you’ve identified that you have fallen short of God’s standard, and asked Jesus to make a way for you where you couldn’t make away yourself. Or you know you are ready in your life to make that decision. / / On February 21st after church we are going to go back to our house and anyone who wants to be baptized, we’re going to baptize you. And then we’re going to have lunch together.

Yes, it’s going to be in our pool. Yes, it’s going to be cold. But listen, I watched a video yesterday where Orthodox Christians in Russia on January 19th celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, so they go down to the river, they break through the ice, and the priest blesses the water and they all jump in one at a time…in the middle of winter in Russia, in a river surrounded by ice. So, no excuses!

This is an important part of our Christian faith. And I believe that it is an experience that can transform your life. We all have markers in our lives, don’t we? Moments where something happens that we know was a catalyst moment, a shifting moment for us. I believe February 21st can be one of those moments for you. Honestly.