A Moment Preserved by God and His People

Matthew 3:1–17 ESV

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 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; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Scripture Reading: Matthew 3:1-17; 28:16-20

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Days 26-27, Questions and Answers 69, 70, 73, 74

Sermon Title: A Moment Preserved by God and His People

           We are going to begin tonight with what I believe to be the first mention and record of baptism in Scripture. It is a passage that introduces us to a man named John, who the gospel authors commonly distinguish from others with that common name by calling him the Baptist or the Baptizer. You may notice in your order of service that the close of the book of Matthew is included in our reading, and we will hear those verses a bit into the message. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having grown up in the church like many of us probably have, I spent most of my early and teenage years accepting the doctrines and practices that are held in traditional Christian Reformed churches. But during my senior year in college, I began to wonder, where did baptism come from? It seems like it is just one of those things that has always been around. But we do not find mention of it until we get to the New Testament, at which point it seems like it was a normal practice. 

The gospels give a similar account; all of a sudden there was John in the wilderness by the Jordan River. He was kind of odd in that he wore clothes made out of camel hair, and had a diet made up of bugs and honey. He preached that people need to confess their sins and repent because the kingdom is near.  If we can be honest, John the Baptist seems a bit sketchy; if there was such a man hanging around the Missouri River today, I do not know that we would so readily go to him or send our kids to him. Yet we are told people came out from the cities and surrounding villages, heard his message, and responded by being baptized. The Spirit worked in peoples’ hearts and lives to hear this person who was preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry.   

Where did his practice come from, though? To baptize someone literally means to wash, cleanse, or purify them, usually with a ceremonial purpose. Scholars believe that the Jews began this practice during the intertestamental period, the several hundred years in between the Old and New Testament, with proselytes. If you were not Jewish by birth but wanted to convert to the faith, you had to be baptized. You had to be washed clean of your past and into a new identity. 

When John entered the picture then, the ritual he offered was not completely abnormal; however, his baptism was different. He was not offering a sign of one’s entry into the Jewish community, rather he offered a sign that as water washes away dirt from the outside of our bodies, so with confession of sin God will cleanse believers of sin and its consequences. John made clear that while the baptismal event only happened once, the repentance and fruit of repentance needed to continue. If I can echo Gene’s message last week, being of a certain lineage did not and does not determine salvation as some of these Pharisees and Sadducees held.

If you are following along with the outlines, we are entering the section of “What is baptism about?” and the first point is baptism signifies how God washes our souls’ dirtiness caused by sin and its effects. He did so by Christ’s sacrifice. When Jesus was baptized, he received a washing that began as a symbolic act of the purification from someone’s past identity. Through the ministry of John the Baptist, God introduced that the way water cleanses dirt is similar to how he cleanses all who believe and repent. Jesus did not need any sin of his own cleansed, but he went as a human with the fullness of our fallen condition, and he received the sign of cleansing for all who genuinely confess their sins. 

           Question 69 pointed out that baptism “reminds and assures” us of Christ’s one sacrifice being for us. We have heard how Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are not just things to know like other facts or observations, but faith is needed. To be a believer, we need to know and to trust in the one who has redeemed us, which is only possible through the Holy Spirit working in us. God throughout all of time has been able and willing to cleanse the sins of humanity, but that is only possible by Christ’s sacrifice. What cleans the souls of believers is the blood of Christ, who lived and gave up his life for us on the cross. That is a powerful image to bear in mind whether we bring children or new believers for baptism—God washes away their sins as well as their original sin, the corruption they bring into this world when we trust in him.    

           God does this work. The physical actions that pastors do and that our churches use in services are not the primary things having an effect. We do not believe that the Bible teaches that being physically baptized guarantees one’s salvation, because we need to have the gift of saving grace by faith. We also do not believe that salvation can only be received if one has been baptized. Baptism is a great sign and seal for the church, but our baptism is not the thing that makes the difference; it is God’s gracious election. God gives it as a tangible and visible help.   

The second major thing we learn about baptism is that it reminds us of how God washes the Spirit into us to get rid of the old and nurture the new, which should grow our love for God in response to his love. John the Baptist told the crowds listening to him that Jesus would bring about a fuller baptism, a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, a washing with the Spirit. We said together, “The Holy Spirit has renewed and sanctified us to be members of Christ, so that more and more we become dead to sin and live holy and blameless lives.” The effect of Christ’s sacrifice washing all of our sins away, getting rid of the soul’s impurity is not for us to see how dirty we could make it again; rather, the Holy Spirit makes us new and seeks to develop holiness in our lives as members of Christ. The Spirit is at work to decrease death and increase life. 

Pastor Craig Barnes offers some wisdom related to this. “In baptism, God takes the risk—the whole church hears the sacred ‘I love you.’ Now we hold our breath and wait for the baptized to say, ‘I love you too.’” That is helpful in describing the work of the Holy Spirit. In our celebrations of baptism, we have a visual, a tangible, and a spoken sign of God putting forth his promises to love and save, and he preserves the promises which the congregation hears in that moment. The “I love you” that Barnes is referring to is not a mushy, gushy type of romantic love. It is not a love that ebbs and flows. But in baptism the Holy Spirit is offering the love of a faithful partner, a partner who is willing to do anything for the one he loves. 

Baptism has a hopeful expectation that one day there will be a response from the one who has been baptized. If that individual believes and commits themselves to that love, they do so knowing that their love is never going to match God’s commitment, but hopefully it grows with maturity, grows through grasping just how great the love is, and is a love that trusts and is increasingly faithful.   

One word that we do not find in our catechism that I think is extremely important to grasping the Spirit’s work is “resurrection.” It is easy to focus on the Good Friday part when we hear “sacrifice,” and not allow Easter to come. The Catechism’s authors likely assumed that their language would capture both Jesus’ dying and rising, but I want to be completely clear that resurrection is certainly present in baptism. 

Christ’s death is what takes our sin away, but it is in his overcoming the grave that he offers us the hope of new life and eternal life where we will one day join him with all who have ever believed. Those that practice baptism by immersion, putting the person being baptized below water and then lifting them out may have a better grasp or at least visual of baptism being a sign of how we are both buried and alive again with Christ. We do not need to get rid of our fonts and go down to the river for all our baptisms, but part of what drives that form of baptism is the significance of what is symbolized.  

           I want to transition now to our confession regarding infant baptism, and to do so in light of Jesus’ commission for his disciples and followers which contains his institution of this sacrament. I invite you either to turn with me in your Bibles or to listen to these five short verses in Matthew 28. 

Most traditions that do not practice infant baptism tend to argue that while the New Testament speaks of households being baptized, nowhere does it specifically mention infants are to be baptized. They pick up on John the Baptist’s pattern of confession and Jesus’ commission to become a disciple before being baptized, and contend that one must have a certain understanding and knowledge that they are saved before they can be baptized. For people in those traditions, baptism is the action that a person does or the route they use when they are ready to give themselves to God. So why do we practice infant baptism?  

The first important thing to see is that baptism, especially of infants, shows us that God’s covenant and promises are for all of his people without age restrictions. Answer 74 offers a great starting point, “Infants as well as adults are included in God’s covenant and people, and they, no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit who produces faith.” Children and adults are in God’s covenant. 

The basis for this goes all the way back to God’s covenant promises with Abraham in Genesis 17. When God instructed Abraham to circumcise himself and his descendants, it was understood from that point that the everlasting covenant that God was making was indeed for all of his people. Even though only males had the visible sign, the covenant included both men and women, his sons and daughters in the families of Isaac, Jacob. This covenant mark was to be performed on the eighth day after birth. As the new sign of being in covenant, which the New Testament seems to teach clearly concerning baptism as the new form of circumcision, it makes sense and seems appropriate that infants of believing parents should receive the sacrament because it marks them as children of God’s covenant family.  

Another aspect of God’s covenant exemplified in the practice of infant baptism is the belief that God claims us first. One of the things we should often see in Scripture is that when God offers a promise, he is the primary actor and fulfiller of the covenant relationship. Even though a baby who is being baptized has no idea what is going on or why someone is sprinkling water on their forehead, they have this sign that the God who created them promises to forgive their sins and provide his Spirit who produces and nurtures faith, just as it is with adults. The little boy or girl does not know he or she needs his or her sins forgiven, or that they even have sin needing forgiveness, but in the moment, God offers to be their Redeemer. 

           In receiving the mark of baptism, even our infants become members of the church, joining the body of believers, who have the opportunity and the duty to help one another. They get to join together with brothers and sisters who are growing in what it means to be redeemed by Christ. There is a bit in our practice of baptism that it is an initiation as well as something that distinguishes these children from the children of non-believers. Our goal is not to be elitists in a way that looks down on families and individuals who are not baptized or that our children are more worthy of faith than the children of other parents. All have fallen short of the glory of God, and his election is unconditional even to family lineages. 

But that distinguishing is such that when we think back to the Great Commission, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching them to obey or observe all that Christ commanded, we see that seeds of faith have been planted and need to be nourished. God’s people join parents in the task of preserving what is signified; they join as friends, as future Sunday School and Catechism teachers, as school teachers and mentors, and those in a congregation give their word on behalf of others that might have the opportunity to influence that son or daughter of God. The task of the community is joining God to preserve his claim on this child’s life; preserving the truth that God has and is wonderful working to create, sustain, and redeem each of us.

We have covered five rich aspects of baptism that the Catechism offers us from Scripture: Baptism signifies how God washes our souls’ dirtiness caused by sin and the effects of sin. It also reminds us of how God washes the Spirit into us to get rid of the old and nurture the new. When it comes to especially infants, it shows us that God’s covenant and promises are for all of his people, without age restrictions. It reveals the wonder that God claims us first. Finally it is a mark of one joining into the body of believers, who have the duty and the opportunity to help one another.  

When we have the big picture, we hopefully see how everything ties together in what God offers to do and what he in fact does. Baptism is so much more than showing off our babies so that we can “Ooh” and “Aah” and laugh as we see their reaction to the water touching their forehead. It is a precious moment, but it is too rich to simply gloss over. It is my hope and prayer that we can commit to treasuring the gift that God has given to us, and we would as maturing believers seek to disciple both young and old members of the body of Christ. Amen.