Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Introduction

A. A Dangerous Subject

1. Church history shows that the time of baptism is often a time of persecution as well

2.

This is still often true on the mission field

B. A Greatly Misunderstood Subject

1.

Some believe we are not to baptize with water at all

2. The Church of Christ believes no salvation without it

3.

Some sprinkle, some pour, some immerse three times

4. Some believe any Christian can baptize another; others believe only certain churchmen can baptize

C. Answering Questions About Baptism

II.

Body

A. Who Should Be Baptized?

1.

There are many errors about this

a.

Some baptize infants to keep them from hell

b.

Some baptize as a first step in coming to God

c.

Some are baptized for others, such as Mormons for the dead

2. The Bible teaches that only the saved should be baptized

a. Acts 2:41: the converts in the New Testament church

b.

Acts 10:47-48: Cornelius and his family

c.

Acts 16:31-33: the jail or and his family

3.

The clincher- Acts 8:36-37: "If thou believest . .

."

B. How Should One Be Baptized?

1.

Many unusual ideas about this

a.

Sprinkling: several denominations

b.

Pouring: also several

c.

Immersion

2. Immersion is proper because of the meaning of the word

a. Baptizo: to wash, dip, submerge

b.

To immerse

3. Immersion because of the significance of the ordinance

a. Communion pictures Christ's death

b.

Baptism pictures His burial and resurrection (Rom.

6:3-4)

4. Martin Luther:

"I could wish that the baptized should be totally immersed, according to the meaning of the word and the signification of the mystery.”

C. Why Should One Be Baptized?

1. Baptism is following Jesus (Matt.

3:13-17)

Jesus walked approximately sixty miles from Galilee to the lower Jordan River to be baptized by John.

This indicates the importance which He attached to this ceremony and it should indicate the significance of baptism for His followers today.

[William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed.

Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1211–1212.]

The Theological Significance of the Baptism

To most Christians the baptism of Jesus Christ is as much an enigma as it proved to John the Baptist.

This is reflected in the almost absurd statement about it.

For example, in urging believers to be baptized in testimony to salvation it is common to hear the expression, “follow the Lord in baptism,” as if our baptism is a carbon copy of His.

It is doubtful if there is a single passage in the New Testament in which a Biblical writer connects the baptism of Christ with Christian baptism.[18]

But, the baptism of Christ does have important theological significance, as the following things indicate.

Christ’s baptism is His identification with Israel (Matt.

3:15).

John’s baptism was founded upon the redemptive work of the Lamb to come, and precisely for this reason it seems to be the exclusive responsibility of those who are the recipients of the work of redemption.

How, then, can He who needed no redemption personally be baptized?

The answer He gave John is our clue.

To fulfill all righteousness bears a close relationship to Paul’s, “born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal.

4:4, italics added).

It refers to the fulfilling of all the righteous requirements of the law, as we have said.

He must be circumcised, although there is no necessity to put away the body of the flesh in His case (cf.

Col. 1:11).

He must be presented in the temple, although He does not need deliverance from the house of bondage in Egypt (cf.

Luke 2:22).

The baptism signified not only the removal of sins; it also pointed to a positive preparation and dedication of heart to the coming King and His kingdom.

He, too, belongs to this people, although He is their King, and must demonstrate His willingness to do the will of God.

The baptism, then, is a phase of his humiliation under the law, just as the circumcision and the presentation.[19]

He acknowledged John’s authority at this stage in the unfolding of the program of divine revelation.

He went, then, to the baptism as a representative person, convinced that this was a divinely imposed duty for every Israelite.[20]

Christ’s baptism was His inauguration into the Messianic office [Service].

We have already set this forth, but it should be emphasized here that this involved not only the work of redemption, but also the accompanying work of judgment (cf.

Matt.

3:11–12).

This our Lord has yet to do.

Christ’s baptism is the illustration of the goal of His ministry [Profession of Faith & Hope].

When Jesus descended into the waters of the Jordan and then emerged from them, it seems most likely that this was intended to be a figure of His death.

When we turn on in the pages of Matthew to verse twenty-two of chapter twenty [Matt.

20:22] and find Him describing His death as a “baptism,” this becomes most likely.

In fact that verse may well be Jesus’ own interpretation of baptism; it has to do with death.

Thus, John’s baptism foreshadows His death, Calvary is His baptism in death, the Great Commission is a charge to preach with a view to uniting men with His death, while Paul in Romans six explains the subject in detail theologically.

John’s baptism, then, mirrors the event of the cross.

It is true, then, that the cross casts its shadow over the ministry of the Messiah from the beginning.

When we remember that the Lord Jesus did not accept Calvary easily, the greatness of His sacrifice becomes more significant.

He hated death; this was one of the powers He came to destroy.

And yet, from the very beginning He struggled with that power because He loved men and His Father’s will more.

Luther said somewhere, “Every Christian is a Crucian!”

But Jesus Christ is the greatest Crucian of them all.

One final note may be worth-while.

It concerns the divine initiative in the work of salvation.

The four words of verse fourteen, “comest thou to me,” are a kind of summary of the divine initiative of the Christian good news.

Will we ever really get over the fact that He laid the foundations and made the first move?

He spoke in His Son when men did not really wish to hear from Him.

And when they were wandering and going astray the Good Shepherd sought and saved them.

It is a well-known fact that the Jewish scholar Claude Montefiore set himself to discover if there was anything really new in the teaching of Jesus, anything which no Jewish prophet or rabbi had said before Him.

At the conclusion of his investigation he singled out one thing as distinctive—the picture of the Good Shepherd going out into the wilderness in search of the lost sheep.

The picture of God as not merely receiving those who turn to Him, but as taking the initiative in seeking the ones who have turned from Him he found new.

Montefiore called this “a new figure” and “one of the new excellencies of the gospel.”