Acts 2:36-41 THE BLESSINGS OF BAPTISM
There are certain things in life that are important to you, even though you don’t know exactly how those things work. Your car is a good example. It’s important to you, but do you know how your car works? If your dashboard lights up, indicating that there is trouble, and your car stalls – something is wrong with the electronics – would you know how to fix it your car? Our cars are important to us, but we really don’t know everything about how they work.
The same thing is true about your computer. Suddenly the screen turns blue, and the word “error” appears flashing on the screen. Would you know how to fix it? There are some things in life we depend on – cars, computers – we depend on them, even though we don’t know everything about how they work.
Baptism falls under this category. According to the Bible, it’s very important, as the well-known passage says: “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. But whoever does not believe shall be condemned.” Baptism is so important that it is included as something that is necessary, along with faith, to be saved. In other words, there are two kinds of people – those who are baptized, and those who need to be baptized. I hope everyone here this morning has been baptized. If not, I pray that God would move you to make plans today to get baptized. It is literally a matter of eternal life and death.
But how does it work? What exactly happens at a baptism? If you were baptized 30 or 40 years ago, what difference does that make today? Today we are going to think about these things as we ponder three questions about the Sacrament of Baptism.
First of all, why do I need baptism? Why should I care if I’m not baptized, or if my child isn’t baptized? The answer can be summed up with one passage from the book of Psalms (51:5) where it says, “Surely I was a sinner at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” The Bible says that you are sinful from the time you are born – even back to the time you were conceived, you were sinful.
That’s hard for us to accept, but it is true. No matter how alive or how adorable a baby looks, that baby is sinful, and spiritually dead in the eyes of God. That little child inherits sin from his parents, and as God looks at that baby, he sees nothing spiritual going on – nothing but a little bundle of sin. The same thing is true for adults. No matter how upstanding, no matter how good a member of society someone is, that adult is still sinful in the eyes of God. And unless that sin is dealt with, unless something is done, a person with sin is lost, in this world, and eternally lost in the world to come.
Baptism can take care of the problem, which leads us to our second question – what invisible blessings do I receive at baptism? Look in 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.” Do you see what God gives to a person when he or she is baptized? The forgiveness of sins. That’s exactly what every person needs – every baby, every adult – everyone needs the forgiveness of sins. All of that person’s sins are literally washed away – forgiven by God in heaven.
Our children’s sermon for this morning illustrates that. The water I had in that glass looked like plain water. Even after I dropped in that medicine, the water still looked like plain water. But it wasn’t – there was medicine in that water. Baptism looks like plain, ordinary water. But in that water, you find something very special, a wonderful medicine, and that is the forgiveness of sins. It is medicine for your soul, medicine you and your children need in order to be saved.
Besides that, there’s something else you receive in baptism, another “invisible blessing.” Look at the last part of verse 38 – “and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the one who creates faith in a person’s heart. Before baptism, the Holy Spirit isn’t there. But after baptism, the Holy Spirit is there. Just think about that – when you see someone baptized, there is someone there that you can’t see, someone besides the parents and the baby and the sponsors and the pastor – someone else is there. According to the Bible, God the Holy Spirit is there, changing the heart of the person being baptized.
Look at who God intends baptism for – verse 39: “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” God wants adults, children, everyone to experience these blessings that come from baptism. If you haven’t been baptized, or if you know someone who isn’t, then speak with them today, because they are missing out on the good things that God wants them to have.
What about you who are baptized – this leads to our third question about baptism today - are you living your baptism, or are you in the process of throwing your baptism away? John the Baptist talked about throwing baptism away in our Gospel lesson. Look at Luke chapter 3, where John said to the crowd, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” John was talking to people who were thinking to themselves, “OK, I’ve been baptized, I’m good,” but they were living worldly, unbelieving lives. They weren’t producing fruits of faith. They were throwing their baptisms away.
What about you? Those of you who are baptized already, are you throwing your baptism away? God gave you his forgiveness, and his Holy Spirit when you were baptized. Are you throwing those things away by leading worldly, unspiritual lives? Are you producing fruits of faith on a daily basis, or is that something rare? Is the Word of God a priority in your life, or it something you do only if there are no sporting events to attend? What kind of lifestyle are you leading?
It is a tragic thing when a baby is baptized, and that baby grows up in a worldly home, becomes a worldly person, leads a worldly life. That baby had faith, but grew up and threw it away. What a tragedy it is, that there are so many people, baptized people, who lose their salvation because they don’t care about God or his Word after they were baptized.
What about you? We all have a tendency to be worldly. To brush off the hearing and studying of God’s Word as something unimportant. We all have a tendency to be too busy for spiritual things, to say, “I don’t have time for that,” when there’s an opportunity to worship or to study the Bible. We like to make ourselves feel pious by saying that we are nice and family-oriented, but the reality is, we are worldly, so worldly that there are probably some of us right now, that are in the process of throwing their baptisms away.
This morning, we ask God to forgive us for our worldly tendencies. We ask God to forgive us for all the times we have pushed his forgiveness, and his Holy Spirit, out of our lives. And this morning, we rejoice, because God does forgive us.
Years ago, God forgave you when you were baptized. He gave you his Holy Spirit. He promised that he would be faithful to you. He promised that he would be merciful and loving to you, every day of your life. If you have strayed away from him, you need not to despair. Because God still forgives you today, just as he did at your baptism. Today, he gives you his Holy Spirit, just as he did at your baptism.
Baptism, really, is like a boat. There is forgiveness and love of God on that boat, and God puts you on that boat when you are baptized. Perhaps during your life, you stray away, you jump off that boat. But God’s love and forgiveness are always there – that boat never sinks. And when you finally repent, and turn back to God, you can swim back to that boat, and God will reach out his hand and lift you back into his presence. From the moment you have been baptized, God has never stopped loving you and caring for you. And when you turn back to him, you find out that he’s been waiting for you all along.
It is my prayer that each one of you who has been baptized would live a life that reflects real faith in Christ who has taken all your sins away. Without him, baptism wouldn’t even be possible. And it is my prayer that every day, you would ponder the fact that you have been baptized, which means that you have been forgiven, that you are God’s child, and that your name is written in the Book of Life. Amen.
