Why Baptism?

Introduction

In 1974, the February edition of the ‘Reader’s Digest’ had this picture of a little 5 year old boy who would experience something tremendous and exciting.

You see, for all of us, this thing that we have is something that we take for granted, it’s something that we can’t live without but something that we never notice. It can annoy us and it can be a pleasant experience. But, for this 5 year old boy up until 1974, this thing that we all take for granted was something that he never would exist until Harold’s doctor fitted him with a hearing aid and turned the switch on.

That’s right, this little boy was born deaf and his name is Harold Whittles. For the very first time in his life Harold would hear sound, he would hear the ambience of the office, maybe the sound of the fan or traffic outside. But, the most important sound that he will hear for the very first time is his mother and his father.

To have that connection go from 80% to 100% would be a new experience with his relationship with his parents. Not sure about his siblings if he had any, but regardless a pleasure none the less. That little device, the hearing aid, would be the device that will open him up to a new sense and a new world.

However, this device can be a good thing and it can also be a curse. You see, hearing can be great, listening to the waves crash on the shore or the sound of wind through the trees or even the sound of the birds chirping can all be great. Listening to music and people you love talking to you is wonderful experience and again it is all something that we take for granted.

But the other side of the coin is that hearing can be a curse because not only are there beautiful things on this earth there is also the bad. Violence and pain, people gossiping and people lying. You can kind of envy Harold Whittles, you see for him he can shut that all off by a flick of a switch, but for all of us we have to hear all these things.

But we can experience something new like Harold Whittles, like Harold Whittles, each day can be a first new experience, but that is only if we’re more than happy to experience the good and the bad that comes with it. But trust me, the outcome and result would truly be something beautiful and wonderful.

Do you want to know why? Because it is through baptism, and that is baptism of the Holy Spirit, is an experience that I would love to daily have.

Baptism, why?

Now of course, today we’re here to witness [these individuals] who are publicly declaring their love and fellowship in Jesus. This is your day where you are giving yourself away to Jesus, where you are putting away the old person and to live a new life in Him.

But the real question is, why this way of immersion? Why not just make a solemn vow before everyone, receive a certificate of attendance and be done with it. “Job’s done, you’re now accepted into the Seventh-day Adventist church!”

It would be an awesome experience, saves on bringing a bag of wet clothes home.

But there is a symbolism here for us the explore on the concept of rebirth and renewal, it not only for the individual to be blessed but also the community is blessed as well as. What was lost is now found and [you] become involved with a greater community where Christ is the centre of that community and we all partake and work together in the mission of His church.

But first, a bit of history on the concept of baptism and its term.

What does Baptism mean?

The word Baptism, comes from the Greek word βάπτισμα (baptisma), which means, washing, dipping or immersion. It means that an object (Whatever that might be) is cleansed with water, or purified with water as it is washed, or dipped or even immersed in water to make it clean and pure.

You see for the Jews, part of their culture and tradition centred on the concept of cleanliness through the washing of water. There are two types of washing, there is the נטילת ידיים‎ (netilat yadayim) this was the common washing of hands done before eating bread and other various customs related to the washing of hands.

There is a fun fact however in that, where there was no water available in the vicinity, they do the motions of the hands to make it seem like they’ve washed their hands.

Tvilah

There is another washing that deals with full body immersion and that is the ‘tvilah’.

This full body immersion required living water, that is by natural stream or by using a ‘mikveh’, that was a specially constructed ritual bath that was connected directly to a natural source of water.

The purpose for Tvilah, like everything else regarding water relates to cleansing and purification.

Tvilah’s were used for the following:

At the end of a woman’s menstruation or other bleeding.

For men after having their discharge.

Contact with an animal carcass or human corpse.

For the High Priest after Yom Kippur when they send off the scapegoat and those that handled the goat are required to take the tvilah.

And the list goes on.

But there is something that is interesting that I read about the tvilah and that is when a Gentile (being a non-Jew) decides to convert to Judaism.

This Gentile would have to immerse themselves in order to be accepted into the Judaic community.

Now you might be saying, “wait a minute! That’s baptism! The Jews have copied a Christian ordinance of baptism!”

Well, hold your horses, because before John the Baptist started baptising, people the Jews had been baptising proselytes (converts to Judaism) after the Babylonian captivity. So, around 586-539 BC.

But, the Jews were baptising Gentiles into the Jewish community, a seemingly closed community (nothing against our Jewish friends), but this is where John the Baptists and the Christian church differs when it comes to baptism.

Baptism of John

In Luke 3:3 reveals to us the purpose of John’s baptism.

Luke 3:3 NKJV

3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,

Well, that’s interesting, where did the Jews go at the time of John, in order for their sins to be forgiven? For believers in the True God to be justified before Him?

They went to the Sanctuary, and that Sanctuary was in Jerusalem, yet John was travelling around Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. I would have thought that those coming to the Sanctuary would already have a heart of repentance for the remission of their sin along with their sin offering to be sacrificed before God and made right with Him?

So, was it wrong for John to baptise a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins? Well, who can forgive sin but God

Matthew 3:2-3 gives us an explanation to the mission of John and why God sent him to baptise.

Matthew 3:2–3 NKJV

2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ”

John was preparing the way of the Lord and making His paths straight, John was preparing the hearts of the people for their Messiah, when those that are baptised have a desire to repent of their wrong doing then their hearts should be ready to receive Jesus and only in Him can their sins be remitted.

Part of what being a Seventh-day Adventist is that we are to prepare a people for the soon return of Jesus Christ, much like what John did, in fact very much like what John did as we are a movement who is called to “prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight”.

There is a special work and mission as Adventists that we take part in, it’s a beautiful work to reach out to friends and family to prepare and meet with our beloved and compassionate Saviour.

Christian Baptism

Contrast John’s baptism with Christianity, the differences is well John pretty much explains it, in Matthew 3:11

Matthew 3:11 NKJV

11 I indeed baptize you with water unto 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.

Peter even declares to the multitudes at Pentecost the concept of repentance and the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38 NKJV

38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It is through Jesus we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I mean, the Holy Spirit is working in everyone’s lives to help them know Jesus. But it is through baptism that you’ve publicly committed yourself to allow the Holy Spirit to transform your lives.

For the Holy Spirit to work in you, “who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." Php 2:13.

Something in us needs to give way and give up and that is ourselves, we need to surrender and give our lives to Jesus.

We’re exchanging our life for a better life that Jesus is preparing for us, and there are many references to this newness of life that God is preparing for you.

Luke 9:23 NKJV

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Romans 6:3–4 NKJV

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I hope these verses doesn’t make you have second thoughts on your choices. I can guarantee you that this journey that you are about to take is only a chapter for an exciting a blessed relationship with your Creator.

What I’ve shared, is something that we must be experience daily and not just a once off, it doesn’t mean that you need to prepare a tub of water to baptise again, but daily be baptised by the Holy Spirit to crucify the old person so that you can walk in the newness of life.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Baptism is a beautiful event, like a marriage but this is a marriage between you and God. You’re making a commitment to have Him as your loving and personal Saviour. You’re giving your life to be in an eternal union with the one who died for you.

You are not alone in this happy marriage, here before you are those that have given their lives to Jesus and just like the Gentiles that needed to be baptised into the Judaism community. Today you will be baptised into not only Waitara Seventh-day Adventist church community, in which we welcome you with open arms, but the greater Seventh-day Adventist church, but not only that, all of Christendom and most importantly the heavenly kingdom where Jesus is our King.

And just like Harold Whittle, you too will experience new and exciting things in your journey, it’ll be tough at first, but as long as you stay on the narrow way keeping your eyes on Jesus and surrendering yourself to His leading. With each trial and tribulation you will be surprised to see how God will see you through.

The Faith I Live By May—Conversion and the New Life

Those who have taken part in the solemn rite of baptism have pledged themselves to seek for those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; pledged themselves to labor earnestly for the salvation of sinners. God asks those who take His name, How are you using the powers that have been redeemed by the death of My Son? Are you doing all in your power to rise to a greater height in spiritual understanding? Are you adjusting your interest and actions in harmony with the momentous claims of eternity?

Baptism is a most solemn renunciation of the world. Self is by profession dead to a life of sin. The waters cover the candidate, and in the presence of the whole heavenly universe the mutual pledge is made. In the name of the Father, and Son, and the Holy Spirit, man is laid in his watery grave, buried with Christ in baptism, and raised from the water to live the new life of loyalty to God. The three great powers in heaven are witnesses; they are invisible but present.

Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, and do you desire to live your life in a saving relationship with Him?

Do you accept the teachings of the Bible as expressed in the Statement of Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and do you pledge by God’s grace to live your life in harmony with these teachings?

Do you desire to be baptized as a public expression of your belief in Jesus Christ, to be accepted into the fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and to support the Church and its mission as a faithful steward by your personal influence, tithes and offerings, and a life of service?