Going Under: God’s Call to Baptism
Romans 6:1-4
April 27th, 2008
SHOW VIDEO
As we’ve been announcing that we are going to have a baptismal service in a few weeks, I’ve had several people ask me questions about what that means, how we do it, who should be baptized and things like that. I wanted to just make it very clear by watching that video, that we don’t do it like that! There will be no cannonballs into the baptismal tank!
We have been blessed in our growth with all sorts of people from all sorts of different backgrounds. And baptism is one of those things, within the church, that is done differently by different groups, and means different things to different people. Over the years, baptism has been one of the most controversial topics in the church. Denominations have split over what it means and how it is to be done. What the church believed about baptism was one of the driving forces behind Martin Luther’s ideas that brought about the Reformation in the 1500’s. Even as far back as the first century of the Christian church’s history, we have evidence that baptism and the way it was done, was the cause of disagreement and conflict. With all of the confusion, disputes, disagreements, and misunderstanding, I think that it is easy to miss the beauty, meaning, and symbolism of this simple act that Christ taught and preached was to take place in the life of every believer.
So, this morning, I want to try to clear some things up. I don’t want you to miss what baptism means, and my goal is to give you an understanding of what we do here, why we do it, and what the Bible has to say about it.
For Some – refresher, that’s alright! For others, I hope it will answer some of the questions that you have.
I. What Baptism is Not.
Before we go too far here, I want to point out one very important thing. You need to know one thing that baptism is not. Baptism is not necessary for Salvation. This is one thing that can confuse some people, particularly those coming out of the Catholic faith as well as some other mainline denominations today. There are many people that hold that faith and baptism are necessary for salvation. In “The Fundamentals of catholic Dogma” by Ludwig Ott, he writes this: “Baptism by water is necessary for all men without exception for salvation.” So there are many coming out of the Catholic Church that hold to this belief that salvation is not complete until baptism has taken place and also that if an unbeliever is baptized, that is still enough to earn them salvation. The problem with this is that it clearly goes against what the Bible teaches about salvation. The Bible teaches that salvation is a work of God, that there is nothing that we can do to earn it or secure it ourselves. It comes through Faith in the resurrected Lord. Period.
Ephesians 2:8-9 explains it very clearly: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Salvation that included the condition of baptism would be a salvation of works and would change the gospel. So, we preach that baptism is necessary for full obedience to God (which we’ll look at in a moment) but not necessary for Salvation nor is a guarantee of salvation. So, that’s what it’s not.
Let me tell you what it is:
II. What Baptism Is.
The Bible teaches that Christians should be baptized, most of us know that much. But many of us cannot answer the question of what baptism is other than to say that it’s something that we are supposed to do. Well, If you boil it right down, Baptism is about two things.
1) Public Declaration of Allegiance
Baptism is our public declaration that we belong to God and that we are no longer who we once were.
When I got married, I stood before a group of people and declared that I loved Erin. I made a public declaration of allegiance to her. I promised to love and cherish and honor her until the day I die. I was committing to a new way of life together. The marriage ceremony is a declaration of Allegiance to one man or woman. It’s the same with baptism, it is a ceremony in which we declare our allegiance to One. We are standing before friends and family and vowing to follow God, to love Him, and to keep His commands. It is a commitment to a new way of life.
I can remember when I got baptized. I was around 11. As I stood in front of the church, my testimony was not eloquent or anything special. But I can remember saying that I wanted to be baptized because I wanted everyone to know that I was a part of God’s family. Baptism is a private thing, to a degree, it is between you and God and it is a very significant celebration in your life. But, it is also a very public thing. It is your initiation into the Body of Christ, the Church, and because of that, we celebrate it together as a Church family. Baptism is our public declaration of Allegiance to Christ, but there is another aspect to it. There is also very clear symbolism within the act of being baptized.
2) Symbol of a Spiritual Reality
Baptism is one of the two ordinances that the church is called to do together. An ordinance is a symbolic celebration that has deep spiritual meaning and is ordained by Christ to be a part of the life of the Church. The other ordinance is Communion. We celebrate communion, together, to remind us and to refocus us on the sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross. The bread and the cup are powerful symbols of the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for us. We take communion together because Christ asked it of His followers so that we would never forget what was done for us. Baptism is similar in that it is a simple act that is filled with beautiful symbolism that God uses to hammer home spiritual reality in our lives.
Baptism is the outer act that symbolizes the inner reality, the regeneration, that God has done in our hearts. The Symbolism is two-fold.
First, it symbolizes:
i. Union with Christ
Again, I’ll use an illustration in marriage. When I got married, not only did I make that public vow but I also put on a wedding ring. That ring is a symbol of my union with my wife. If it’s gone, it does not change the fact that you are married, it doesn’t mean that you love your spouse any less but you wear it willingly as an outer sign of what has taken place on the inside, you’re in love! I want the whole world to know that I made a promise to love and cherish and stand with Erin. The ring represents that my heart is taken. Like a wedding ring, baptism is that outer symbol of our union with Christ, it shows that our heart is taken and it is the sign of our promise that from this day forward, we will stand with Christ.
When we are baptized, we are symbolically identifying ourselves with what Christ accomplished on our behalf. We are united with Christ in three ways as Paul says in Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
1) His Death
Baptism symbolizes death to the old way of life. The Bible tells us that when we come to faith in Christ we are to put to death whatever belongs to our Earthly nature, and here in verse 2 we see that we are to die to sin. When we are lowered into the water it symbolizes the death in our lives to the old way of doing things. It is identifying us with the death that Christ died to free us from sin.
2) His Burial
When we are under the water, it symbolizes being buried. Verse 4 tells us that we are identifying with Christ’s burial, those three days that he spent in the tomb, when we are baptized. We are under the water for only a split second and then comes the third and most beautiful symbol of baptism. When we are lifted up out of the water, verse 4 goes on to tell us, we are identifying with Christ’s:
3) His Resurrection
As we come up out of the waters of baptism, as we break the surface, we are proclaiming that we have changed. We are allowing all to see the symbolism of what God has done on the inside. We are a new creation, we are no longer a slave to sin and shame but are now adopted into the family of God and a child of the King, righteous, holy, and clean because of the work of God in us and the sacrifice of Christ for us. We have new life and are resurrected from the death that sin brought into the life that Christ gives!
Baptism symbolizes our union with Christ, it also is symbolic of our:
ii. Cleansing of Sin
I want to clear up another common misunderstanding. Baptism is not a means to forgiveness; we don’t achieve forgiveness and cleansing through baptism.
There was a little girl who had faithfully attended baptism classes for a few weeks. Her mother, wanting to be sure her daughter understood its significance, asked, "Honey, what does baptism mean?" "Well, it isn’t the water that makes you clean ..." she began. Smiling, Mother thought, Yes, she understands, then the daughter continued, "... it’s the soap!"
She almost had it! It is not the waters of baptism that make us clean, it’s not soap either! We are made clean by the blood of Christ that was shed upon the cross of Calvary and covers those who believe in Him. Forgiveness happens when we ask Christ to come into our lives, it’s already taken place. Baptism is a symbol of this inner reality. The simple act of going into and out of the water is a picture of the internal reality of being cleansed of our sins by the forgiveness that comes through faith in Christ.
Isaiah 1:18 tells us what has taken place on the inside: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
1 Corinthians 6:11 explains it further. It follows a long list of what we looked like as sinners, that old nature and then says: And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Baptism is a beautiful symbol of the cleansing that takes place in our lives, of the washing away of our sins.
III. How is it Done?
There are two primary ways that baptism is done today. One is by sprinkling. The person being baptized is sprinkled with a small amount of water. My kids could both be pastors in a church that baptized like this! Everytime they wash their hands they think it’s hilarious to flick the extra water on me. Ethan will hunt me down in the house, wherever I am just to get me. I get sprinkled often.
The other mode of baptism, and it’s the one that we use here is immersion. This is baptizing by immersing the person completely under water. With sprinkling you get a little wet, with immersion, you go all in! There are two reasons that we baptize by immersion in this church, and in the CMA as a whole.
1) NT Model
This is the model that was used in the New Testament. This is the way that Jesus, Himself, was baptized and I believe that it is how He commands us to follow as well. The Greek word for baptize is Baptitzo which literally means to plunge or to immerse. When you talked about baptism in the days of the disciples, there would have been no doubt as to what was meant. It was the act of immersing the believer in water.
The Bible talks about Christ coming up out of the water when He was baptized, it says that John baptized in the Jordan, not by the Jordan. When Philip led the Ethiopian to Christ in Acts chapter 8, it says they came to some water and the man wanted to be baptized. Verse 38 says Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. If sprinkling had been the mode of baptism, there is no doubt that they would have had some drinking water on hand and they could have used that. But they waited until they came to some water, went down into it and the man was baptized. This is the model throughout the New Testament, always immersion.
There’s a second reason that we baptize by immersion here, it’s the same one we just talked about a moment ago:
2) The Symbolism
To baptize by sprinkling is to lose all of that beautiful symbolism of baptism. Our sins have not been sprinkled here and there to clean them, they have been plunged into the waters of forgiveness and immersion certainly captures that picture much more clearly than any other method.
That doesn’t mean that if you were sprinkled or if there is another way that you were baptized that it doesn’t count. Baptism is about your heart and your desire to identify with Christ and to be publicly counted as one of His family. Because it has nothing to do with salvation and forgiveness of sins and is symbolic in nature, the mode, the method, is not the most essential thing. But, if you want to be true to the Biblical accounts of baptism and if you really want the true symbolism of what is taking place to be seen, immersion is the way to do it.
Alright, just a couple more questions I want to answer.
IV. Who Should Be Baptized?
Scripture is very clear on this point. Baptism is for the believer. Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
Over and over again throughout the book of Acts, the story of the church growing, you see that people respond to the message and then they are baptized. All of the symbolism that we’ve talked about needs to have happened in reality within a person before they are baptized. If it symbolizes cleansing and a new life in Christ, those things need to have taken place.
This is why we will only baptize those who have made a profession of faith and are showing some evidence of a changed life. We believe that this is what Scripture teaches. That’s also why we don’t baptize infants. We will dedicate infants, but we don’t baptize children until they are old enough to have made a profession of faith and to understand, on a basic level, what baptism means. It need to be their choice. How old is old enough? That depends on the child. Baptism is to be a very meaningful event in our lives and there are some kids who can understand at a young age what it represents and there are others who need a little more time. I talked with a child in Ohio that wanted to be baptized and all he could talk about was getting to wear his swimsuit to church! He wasn’t ready to be baptized! The cannonball kid, that was probably a questionable case as well!
What about being re-baptized? Some were baptized as infants and in those cases, I always encourage them to be baptized as adults when its their choice and it will mean something to them. Others were baptized because it was expected of them and as they’ve lived life and strayed away from God, He has drawn them back and has radically transformed their lives and there is a desire to be baptized again. I would encourage baptism for this group as well to symbolize anew their commitment and the new life that Christ has given them and the changes that He’s made in them. There is no rule that says you cannot be baptized again if you feel that the Lord is leading you to. However, you also do not need to run and be re-baptized every time you sin and God forgives you. It’s a personal decision and it’s one that I believe God will make very clear to you when the time comes.
So, the answer to the question of who should be baptized is every believer who can understand and decide to follow God’s call to plunge in and be baptized into His family. It is not for some believers, it is for all believers. Baptism was closely linked to conversion in the Scriptures. It was often an immediate thing upon believing the message of the gospel. Today, we’ve kind of lost the urgency and importance of baptism in the church. We let too many excuses get in the way. But baptism has a place in the life of every believer who is fully committed to following and obeying God. Which brings us to our last question, we see in Scripture that baptism is for every believer, but we still want to know:
V. Why Should We Be Baptized.
The answer is two-fold:
A. The Bible commands it.
I was talking to Catherine about baptism last week. I asked her what it was and she talked about getting into the big “tub” in the church. I asked her why she thought we were supposed to do it and her answer was, “cause God tells us to!” That’s a great answer and it’s the right answer.
Despite the controversy, baptism is actually one of the most straightforward commands that you will find in Scripture. As the disciples began to preach and the early church began to grow, we see in Acts chapter two what their message was. Peter had just wrapped up a sermon in which he had proclaimed Jesus Christ as the risen Messiah. The Spirit was moving and the people believed and asked what they needed to do. His response was this. Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “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. And they did!
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
In the New Testament, if you read through the book of Acts especially, you will see the command again and again not just to believe, not just accept what Christ has done for you, but to take the next step and to be obedient by being baptized. Why Baptism, because God says so.
B. Example of Christ
Before Jesus began his public ministry, He set the example for all of us to follow and he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. It is one of the most moving pictures in all of Scripture. Jesus humbling Himself before God, and John in awe of what was happening. As He came up out of the water, we see the Trinity, the three persons of God all at once. Jesus, the Son, is standing in the water and the heavens open and God, the Father, proclaims that He is pleased and the Spirit of God descended upon Christ in the form of a dove. Christ was baptized as an example to us and as he spoke with John about baptism, he said this in Matthew 3:15: 15 “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires. ” He affirmed God’s command to be baptized as He set the example for us. And as Ephesians 4:15 tells us, the goal of the believer is to look more and more like Christ, to follow His example and that includes baptism.
The biggest fear that I hear is that we’re scared of giving our testimony or we’re scared of everyone staring at us. We think somehow that people are going to laugh or make fun of us when the reality is that these are the very people who will rejoice with you and encourage you. God may use your words, your story, to touch someone else’s life but we’ve fallen for Satan’s lie that we could never get up and speak in public. God commands it, Jesus modeled it, we need to get over it! Put our fear aside, put the lies aside, and obey.
I heard a pastor tell this story. He said: “Our three-year-old daughter, Rena, sat with us during a baptismal service on a Sunday night, which was a new experience for her. As she watched, she exclaimed in surprise, ‘Why did he push that guy in the water? Why, Dad, why?’ My wife tried to explain briefly and quietly, but Rena just wouldn’t be satisfied. Later that night we tried to provide an answer that a child’s mind could comprehend. We talked about sin and told Rena that when people decide to live for Jesus and ‘do good’ they want everyone to know. We then explained that water symbolizes Jesus’ washing people from sin; when they come out ‘clean,’ they are going to try to be ‘good.’ A moment later, we realized we’d have to work on our explanation a bit. Rena had immediately responded, ‘Why didn’t the Pastor just spank him?’”
Spanking might get some of our attention! We certainly deserve much worse for our sins but in His love, God provided a sacrifice so that we wouldn’t ever have to face the punishment we deserved. He sent His Son to die, to be buried, and to live again and the way that we celebrate that, the outward sign that we are united with Christ in what He accomplished for us is baptism.
