Baptism

[00:00:02] Speaker A: All right, so today we are talking about baptism. And so I wanted to start by asking, you know, so I guess you can raise your hand for this part. Who has actually been baptized? I don't know that I know everybody. Okay. So a lot. Cool, Cool. Does anybody want to tell, like, what was it like for you? Is there anything that you remember specifically? Connor? Yeah. You remember it being cold? Okay. Like, the water was cold. Okay. Was that a heater? Okay, cool. Okay. Yeah, the heater was out. The heat. Okay. Is it all about the water temperature? Yeah. All of you, go. Just go down the line. Okay. So you were nervous because people were staring at you. Okay. Yeah. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Well, I didn't know my feet came off the ground. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I yelled a little bit. Yeah. I don't know if feet always come off the ground, but I suppose I guess it happened. Oh, I got baptized. [00:01:13] Speaker B: I had a panic attack. That was really scary. [00:01:15] Speaker A: You were nervous. Okay, so there's nervousness. Some cold water. I got baptized with my mom same time. Okay. That's awesome. I didn't know that. Any. Any other impression. Okay. Because the church I got baptized at, our church had, like, two times as many people as this one. So there was a lot of people. And so that's embarrassing because there are more people. Huh? They all knew me. Everyone in that church, like, knew our family. Well, that's good, isn't it? Yeah. There's a little bit of a disconnect here, I think, because I'm like, cool. There's more people. They knew you. That's good. Yeah. I think we're too easy on, especially kids being baptized. When I was. When I was baptized, about 13 years old, we had to give a full testimony. Yeah, I had to give a lot more than what people had to give to. Yeah. Yeah. [00:02:22] Speaker B: I did it at a different church, but it felt good when people start clapping because I was in the Lord now. [00:02:28] Speaker A: So it was encouraging. Good. Yeah, those are all good. Those are all good. Yeah. You know, I do think you guys may not like this. I've suggested every person read from the pulpit before they go up there, their testimony in full so that people actually know it. So if I ever get my way, good luck, everybody. But, hey, that's the point. If you really are coming to join the church, then the church needs to know you. So I think that's actually a really good thing to do anyway. Okay. Thank you for those. Nope. Nobody said this. Did you guys. Were you guys wearing a robe or a T shirt? I was wearing a robe. Robe. Who was? Robe. Who Are robe people? Yeah, yeah. I'm team robe. Team robe. Someone goes in there. I mean, you know, I'm not saying, like, Jesus wasn't wearing, like a robe like that or whatever, but whenever I see people in there with like a graphic tee, I'm like, this does not feel like what it. What it was. It. Of course it does not matter, just to be clear. But yeah, yeah, there were robes here even when I first joined. I think. Well, I know they exist, but they were used. I think I saw a couple people baptized in them. Saw Ryan get in the pool and the robe, like, puff up, you know, that's probably why they got rid of. Yeah, I actually saw a picture of a guy baptizing at another church in town and he was in the water and in his full suit. Like, his tie was in the water. Like, the bottom of his tie was in the water. I'm like, that is. No offense. That's ridiculous. It is fancier than the robe, but it's. I mean, he's got like a leather belt on and. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We're talking about baptism. We're not really going to focus on robes or shirts. I was just curious about that. But we're going to start with our review. So what's theology, Connor? What's theology? That's right. That's right. Study God how to be more like him. What doctrine are we covering? The main one. Yeah, the church. Okay. And so we've done several now. Let's just remember what they were. What have we done? Church authority. Yeah, Church authority. We called that church government. Fancy word polity. But it's church authority. Yes. Final earthly authority. Yeah, yeah. That was what we talked about. Like, is it in the congregation or some other group? That's right. Yeah. Any others? Yes. Purity and unity. Church offices, Church discipline. Okay, I think there's one more. Yeah, yeah. The nature and the marks of church. What a church is nature. You know, marks, purity, unity, discipline, offices, government. Now we're doing baptism. So the definition of baptism or the summary statement for this lesson is that. Is this. It is one of two sacraments or ordinances of the church. One of two sacraments or ordinances. So. Oh, I think. Is ordinance the word you're filling in? O R D I N A N C E S. Ordinances of the church. Let me just start the statement over. One of two ordinances of the church. Baptism is the initiatory rite or celebration of entering into the new covenant people of God. So it's when I say, right, it's not R, I G, H T. It's like a ritual. It's an initiation ritual or a celebration when someone is entering into the church. The new covenant, people of God. Now, I've kind of changed the format a little bit today so that I don't just, like, wait until the last two seconds for all of the application and stuff. So hopefully it'll be a little bit easier to follow and get everything today. So point number one is also, you know, what we would call a major affirmation. But point number one is that baptism was instituted by Christ for the church. Baptism was instituted by Christ for the church. To see this, we're going to start by going to Matthew 28:19, Matthew 28. This is the last couple of verses, Matthew. So if you find yourself in Mark, you just go right before that. And could somebody read or quote if you want, Matthew 28, 19, 20, last two verses. Yeah, you can do it. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Okay, that's good. That's good. So we see some important things here. Namely, Jesus is commanding to baptize. And that is an aspect of making disciples. But who is Jesus saying this to? Yeah, the disciples. That's right. So it's, I think specifically the believers. I believe there are probably even other believers there. But it was at least his 11 disciples at the time, and he is telling them to baptize. So he puts this in the hands of not just anybody and everybody, but his direct and committed followers. And so we could connect this to the church. We see the church is where Christ's committed and actual followers reside. And so we see the first taint here, that baptism was instituted by Christ for the church specifically to practice. He says this to all of them together. They should be baptizing in their churches. Now, how should we baptize? What do we get from this? How should we. Levi? Yeah. So in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's right. Did I see another hand over here? Okay. No. Yeah. Well, I think that's an important way to recall the God that is saving the Father, Son and Spirit. But importantly, because of the audience and Jesus, authority, which is mentioned in verse 18 right before, for the ones we read, he says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me because of this by his authority, he's now granting this authority to baptize to his disciples. So this is a church thing. And so error number one. So this would be error to avoid number one. We should not baptize outside of the local church. We should not baptize outside of the church. Now, my question is this, and you can feel free to answer however you want. Do you agree or do you disagree? And why, if you feel so Bold at 9:00am [00:10:33] Speaker B: yeah, I agree with it. Because if you're baptized outside of the local church, then the church can't affirm your salvation. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Right. And I think that's an important aspect of baptism, is the affirmation from the church. That's why I was even thinking, you know, it's good that there are a lot of people that knew you because they can affirm that you are truly a believer. And even though that's what makes us so nervous and afraid to get up in front, it's actually the whole point. All these people are affirming you. When we do it separately, then the people maybe don't know us. Or there's not a church gathered around to affirm and grant you assurance. That's right. Does anybody else have another answer? Okay. All right. Yeah. Jesus gave this command to the church, and it is in churches that we see this occur in the New Testament. So it occurs in the New Testament. It's always happening amongst the church. Now, the only clear example of an exception, there is one exception. Some people argue for more, but there's only one that's clear is in Acts 8. We're not going to read it. You can write that down and read it later if you want. But the reason that this was an exception is that there was no church in Ethiopia. Yet for this believer who is Ethiopian and traveling back to Ethiopia, there's no church there for him to be baptized into. That's the only exception that we see in the New Testament. And so I'm going to argue that baptism initiates a believer into the church. And if it is initiating us into the church, then it makes no sense for us to do it outside of the church. It brings someone from outside in. Someone's outside of the people of God. Baptism brings them in. So if baptism happens outside the church, then it kind of distorts that picture. If it's supposed to show you going from outside to in. But you get baptized outside the church, you don't see that imagery. It distorts, makes us ask the question, to whom is this baptized? Person being united to. Are they being united to Kanakuk Camp or Falls Creek, or are they being united to the church? We want to be united to the church through Christ. And so I think that's something we should avoid. Here's application number one, then. We should therefore baptize in the church only. And we should baptize, as we said, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's what we get from this first passage. And there are other places we could go, but just for the sake of time, we won't jump around a lot. But that's point number one, that baptism was instituted by Christ for the church. So main point number two, then is that baptism is for believers, not just people who believe anything and for people who believe in Jesus Christ. So historically, there's a big debate here. I don't know if you guys know this, but there has been for a long time. It's probably one of the oldest debates in the church is whether to baptize infants and children or if we should only baptize believers in Jesus Christ. It is a very big dividing point, and it can even get more complicated from there. Now, you'll probably hear it said at some point in your life if you stay committed to the Lord and even the Baptist theology you guys are being raised with. You might hear it said by a Presbyterian, for example, or a Roman Catholic one day that the church has always baptized infants, always. So you Baptists are just trying to erase 1500 years of history and pretend that it doesn't exist. Sometimes people say Yahweh is not in the Bible. And you know that's true too. But it's not entirely true that it has existed for 1500 years and that Baptists are just trying to erase that. Baptists believe in history, too. It's true now that infant baptism became the standard for a long time. Not 1500 years. About 1,500 years is a long time. There's actually a guy named Tertullian who lived in the second century, and he complained about a new practice that had arisen, which is baptizing children and babies. And he spoke against it. And he was a very prominent church leader speaking against a new thing that had started to happen. So after about 100 to 150 years, after Christ ascended to heaven, infants were being baptized. But even then it was debated. It didn't happen everywhere. There were many people that spoke against it besides the guy named it wasn't until the 5th century, which would be the 400s, that it became the official practice of the church. So it's not true that it's always happened. I think that's important for us to know at least a little bit about history. But still, you know, even then in the 5th century, it was disputed by some. So since it was a historical view, just one that went away pretty early and was dominated, why did early Christians. So before this change, and why did Baptists after the Reformation see it as an ordinance for believers only? Does anybody know why Baptists see baptism has only four believers? [00:16:19] Speaker B: Yes, because, like, the infant can't actually believe anything. [00:16:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, a lot of them would say, yeah, that's true. They can't believe, but they should still be baptized. Lutherans would say that the infant believes through. Through the parent. But other than that, people would say, yeah, they don't believe. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I agree with what you're saying. I'm trying to think of what they might say. They might say, well, you know, you make that choice later on and that's when you're confirmed. I mean, one answer. Oh, yeah. [00:17:02] Speaker B: I would say that what they would probably believe is like, I would say that. That the baby has. The baby wrote, the baby might believe later on, but it might not. And it's not up to them to choose what you believe. So, like what she says, it's kind of their choice to believe what they want to believe the baby, because they might grow up to believe what they believe and it's completely different than what they were chosen to believe. [00:17:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a pretty similar answer. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah, but like, if we're baptized with repention of our sin and like our sin nature, then the baby can't really sit and it can't repent either. [00:17:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, kids can certainly sit a lot earlier than you might think, as well as they're born into sin. But yeah, they can't repent. And that's certainly true. And even texts that are loved about repent and be baptized. We'll read this in a second. If it's repent and be baptized. It is strange to think of an infant doing that. Let's go to a passage in Acts 2. So go to Acts 2. This will help us. And we're going to look at the Bible and see how it's not supported here. But some people will say, yes, but the Bible shows that there is a connection between Israel and the church, and there certainly is. In Israel, they circumcised their babies and baptism replaces circumcision. So we should baptize our Babies. The only problem with that is there is a connection. But the connection isn't between babies, is between people who are born of Israel and people who are born again of Christ. So if you're born as a Jew in the Old Testament, you're circumcised. If you're born again as a believer, you are baptized. That's the connection. But let's look at this passage and see what the Bible says explicitly. So Acts 2, 38, and this is kind of at the tail end of Peter's sermon at Pentecost when the church was initiated. And they ask a question. And Peter says, verse 38. Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So we'll stop there for a second. So here baptism, we see, repent to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Now, people question this. This is maybe a little confusing when we line it up with the rest of Scripture. We can see here that baptism is used to refer to the whole process of salvation. That is something we do often. Let me think of an example. You know, I might refer to. The White House. I think I've used this example before. The White House says such and such. Well, the White House. It's not the White House that's speaking. The White House is referring to the president and the entirety of the executive branch. So it's a word that's referring to something larger, but it's not, you know, but is included. So here baptism is used to refer to the salvation process. So what he's saying at the beginning of this passage in verse 38 is, repent, have faith, and then be baptized. And if you've done this, then it is also true that you will have your sins forgiven. It's kind of a paraphrase. I think that's how we can understand that verse. Repent, have faith, and then be baptized. And if you've done this, it's also true that you will have your sins forgiven. And even though that verse might make baptism sound like it's sick. The rest of the passage helps. In verse 41, it clarifies. So look at verse 41 says to those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. Some people might say, look, baptism saves you. Or it says, hey, look, you be baptized you. And what does it say? It is the promise is for you and for your children. You know, we see that people say that means baptize your children. But verse 41 tells us clearly it's those who receive received the Word that were baptized, nobody else. Those who received or believed in the Word were baptized. And then it says they were added that day. To what were they added? That's in verse 42. They were added to something. Yeah, they were added to the church. The group of believers that had been meeting there on Pentecost, they were added to the church. So believers are then added to the church through baptism. So that shows again, it is something for the church to practice. Let's go down to another passage to help us understand baptism. Romans 6. Right at the beginning of Romans 6, Paul is addressing a specific objection, but he uses baptism to explain his answer. And so that gives us some clues about baptism. So Romans 6, right at the beginning he says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. So according to this passage, what does baptism signify? What is the picture showing us. Like? [00:23:56] Speaker B: Kind of how Jesus rose from the dead? [00:24:00] Speaker A: Yes. So there's a resurrection depiction. How do we see that in baptism? Being raised out of the water? Yeah, that's right. Are you going to say something else [00:24:09] Speaker B: like showing our believeance, [00:24:12] Speaker A: showing that we believe in his resurrection. Lincoln, did you have something different? Yeah. Is there anything other than resurrection there? Death. That's right, death. How do we see that in baptism? Going down into the water, so down in death, up to life. That's significant. So it's showing our unity to Christ, our death with him and our new life with Him. So if a non believing infant is baptized, it distorts the picture because they do not Believe they have not died to sin and they have not been raised to. To new and eternal life. Not unless they come to believe later on. Huh. [00:25:01] Speaker B: If a baby was, like, baptized and they don't believe it, what does it mean? For nothing. [00:25:06] Speaker A: What is it? What? [00:25:08] Speaker B: Like, if a baby was baptized and they weren't meaning it because they were just a baby and someone was baptizing it, would it mean, like, napkin? [00:25:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not real baptism. Yeah. So the only way this passage would make sense with infant baptism is if you also believe that baptism regenerates or saves the person, which we've already kind of seen that that's not the reality. The reality is that those who receive the word are then baptized. And so this brings us to the second error. To avoid error number two, we should not believe that baptism in itself actually does the saving. Does anybody disagree with this or agree? I would suspect most of us would agree, but why? [00:26:07] Speaker B: Because it's not the baptizing. [00:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Genly. Do you want to answer? [00:26:14] Speaker B: It's like a wedding ring. It doesn't signify. A wedding ring doesn't signify your marriage. It's just something to let other people know that you're married. So it's basically like a wedding ring to God. It signifies that. Sorry. It signifies that you love God. And it's just a public declaration. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mostly agree with the ring. I think it does signify to yourself, too. Like, if you've been baptized, it's not just for other people. You are being incorporated in the church. And I would say if you've been baptized, you can and should look back on your baptism as encouragement. A church has affirmed you in the faith as a reminder that you've died to sin and should live like Christ. So it is helpful for you as well. But I do kind of like the ring analogy. That is helpful. Yes. Also, if you're saved by being baptized, then you'd be saved by works. Yeah, I think that's a fair. Fair way to put it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't think the water is necessarily magical. Some people might say otherwise, but. Yeah, those are good. Those are good. Thank you for your answers. But however, you know, we say it seems obvious, it's not magical. It's just this, you know, it's a sign. I think, you know, it's maybe a little more significant than just a sign, but it is a sign. But it also became the dominant view of the church by the 5th century. It wasn't just like baptizing infants symbolically. It Was that's saving them. That was what the view was. So let's go to a passage I hope we're familiar with, First Peter, chapter three. So make sure you're in first Peter, chapter three. We're going to look at verses 20 through 22 at the end of that chapter. So first Peter three, 20 says, because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah. So we're talking about the flood while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to him. So what Peter is saying here is that baptism corresponds to this. It means baptism represents the ark of Noah. So what was the ark? A big boat during the worldwide flood that saved Noah and his family. So Noah was delivered through the water. That's what Peter is saying. Saying there's a correspondence between the ark and baptism. We're trying to figure out how was this big boat that had animals and eight people on it related to baptism. So here he's explaining that Noah was delivered from death, delivered from death through the water, but he was saved by God alone, not the ark. He is saved by God. That is clear. God tells him, he builds the ark. God shuts the door behind them. He is saved by God, but he is delivered through the water in the ark. So when someone is baptized, they are going through the waters in baptism. Baptism is their ark, but they are saved by God, but they're delivered through that judgment in baptism by God. So baptism does not do the saving. But, yeah, we must avoid or. I'm sorry, do you have a question? So your hand. [00:30:18] Speaker B: I was about to say that it's. It reminded me of, like, the Bible, that baptism is like the Bible. Because it's not baptism. It's not the water that saves you, it's God that saves you. Yeah, but also it's like the Bible. It's not the Bible. It's not the Bible that saves you, it's God that saves you. [00:30:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's true. Yeah. [00:30:41] Speaker B: So that kind of reminds me. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Okay, cool. Interesting. Yeah. Well, anyway, on this point, we want to avoid another error. So as we're saying, baptism doesn't save you. A lot of people around the world, and we can be sympathetic to this, hear you Say it's unimportant. It's something to not do, or to do if you feel like it, or to do as much as you want, rededicate your life or whatever. It's far more significant than that. And so the third error, to avoid error number three, we should not think that baptism is unimportant. We can't fall into that. We can't let that be a true objection to the Baptist view of baptism. It's not unimportant. Jesus did it. Matthew 3. It was commanded by Jesus. Matthew 28. It is an act of obedience that also joins you to the church. And if you're a believer, then the church is where you're going to be for the rest of your life and really the rest of your eternal life with the church universal. So it is absolutely important. It's also important because of its connection to the Lord's Supper, which we're going to cover next week. So I'm not going to cover too much of this argument, but remembering Acts, chapter two, we read that that was after Peter's sermon, just several minutes ago. The people first received the Word, or they believed in the Word. They were then baptized, and then they were added to the church because they were baptized. But then verse 46 says this. So after all those things, verse 46, day by day attending the temple together, they were breaking bread in their homes. This phrase breaking bread sounds like you're just breaking bread, or maybe you think of it as eating. And certainly meals were involved. But the phrase breaking bread, even by the time the Book of Acts was written by Luke, had come to be known as the Lord's Supper. That was kind of the lingo they would use to refer to communion or the Lord's Supper. So what that means is that this is only for those who have believed and been baptized. You have to believe in Christ and be baptized to take the supper. No baptism, no communion. Now, next week I'll give a longer explanation of why I believe that. And I just want now to convince you that baptism is a huge deal. If we can't take the Lord's Supper, can't join the Church if it's where we're going to be the rest of our lives. If Jesus did it, all of his followers did it, even at risk of persecution and death, then it is certainly important for us to do. Third and final point, this one's much shorter, so don't worry, we'll finish on time. Is that baptism is done by immersion. So. So going under the water, immersion, I m M E R S I O N Immersion. Now, this point is simple. The word baptism comes from the Greek word. It's fancy. It's baptizo. Sounds like baptized, isn't it? Baptizo? And that word means immersion in water. It seems pretty simple, right? The word means to immerse something under the water. So baptism is where you do that. Now, the reason this is important is because basically all those infant baptizing groups just pour water over the head of the infant. They don't immerse the entire person. Now, surely there could be exceptions, like, oh, there's no body of water big enough. All we have is this little puddle that's an inch deep. Or, you know, there might be others, but those sorts of exceptions are so rare, especially today, because it's quite easy to find a place where a church could baptize somebody and think of what baptism is supposed to signify. This is why this point is important. Why does it matter if it's pouring water on someone or flicking water on their face or dunking them underwater with their feet raising up and, you know, freaking them out, or water going up their nose? Why is that so important? But think of what it's supposed to signify. Everybody. It's more than just cleansing. Peter says that explicitly. It's not just a removal of dirt from the body. It's not just a cleansing. What else does it show? Do you guys remember from Romans 6, Death and resurrection. Death and resurrection. You lose that when you just sprinkle water on somebody's head. And so, application number two. We should not accept into church membership, even those who have been baptized as infants or baptized improperly, unless there was a legitimate exception. This is an important point because we need to. Because baptism is important. What it depicts is important. So we need to keep it pure. Are there any questions about that? Any final questions? All right, last call. Yeah. Yeah. Application two. We should. I don't remember which ones are the blanks, so. So sometimes I go too fast. We should not accept into membership those who have been baptized as infants or baptized improperly. Is that good? All right, anyone else? Let's pray, then we'll go. Worship. Father, thank you for the Word and for baptism. God, we see that in this a sinner dies to himself into his sin and lives unto you forever. Lord, we thank you for your death and resurrection that makes that possible, that we can be cleansed from sin, given a new life, and added to the church, given assurance and affirmation from the people, and then join with you and with your church in the family meal of the Lord's supper. We pray that we would remember these things this week and even next week as we continue. Lord, bless us as we worship with your church today. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.