Baptize Them

BAPTIZE THEM

– a sermon on the subject of baptism, presented March 12, 2006 at the

South Plains Church of Christ by pulpit minister Jim Brewer.

You can hear the audio of this exact lesson by clicking here

(Windows Media Player 9 or 10 required).

Scripture reading: Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

Baptism is a very special time.

Why do we go to all the trouble to baptize people? Wouldn’t it be easier just to sprinkle some water on their head, or maybe require them to take some kind of class or something? Why baptism by immersion for people who are old enough to believe?

We do this because of what we just read, the final instructions of Jesus, who said “Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus had instructed his followers to seek the lost, as we have been talking about, to tell them about salvation from sin, and eternal life, provided through faith in Jesus Christ, and when they turned to Jesus Christ in faith, baptize them.

In the same way, John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan River.

The Greek word for that is baptizo. It means literally “to dip in water” or “to immerse”, and if we translated it instead of transliterating it, that’s what it would say, “immerse them in water”. To do so in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is to do so by the authority of all three persons of the Godhead.

That sounds simple enough, but surprisingly, baptism has become a source of contention among Christian people. We disagree about the mode of baptism: “Does it have to be by complete immersion, or can we just sprinkle some water on the head? Would that be sufficient?” We disagree about the one being baptized: Someone will say it is OK to baptize infants, others say no, it has to be someone who’s old enough to make a personal decision about faith in Christ. We disagree about the purpose of baptism: Some say baptism saves you, others say baptism is a symbol that we’re already saved and it’s all about being added to the church.

The subject of baptism has been such a point of controversy in Christendom that some want to avoid it altogether and say let’s just not even talk about it, don’t even deal with it, because it is divisive.

We want this church to be as biblical and as obedient as possible. It is our desire here to teach the whole counsel of God in the same balance as it was delivered by the Holy Spirit in the Bible. So we try to put aside our preconceived ideas, lay aside our sectarian defenses, and let’s just examine what the Bible says about baptism.

We may disagree about some details of it, but I believe we can come to a common understanding of the Lord’s intent about baptism. If you’ll open your Bibles with me, we’re going to trace how the disciples fulfilled the commission of Jesus through the book of Acts, so please turn there. Let’s look at five conversions that are found there. This may be old hat to some of you, maybe it’s a reminder to others of you, maybe it’s brand new to some of you.

In Acts chapter 2, you’ll find the beginning of the church. It’s about a week after Jesus had given this Great Commission to his disciples to go make disciples of all nations. Peter stands in the crowd on the street of Jerusalem, on the major Jewish feast day of Pentecost, and he shows them in the Old Testament scriptures that Jesus is in fact the Messiah, and that he died on a cross, and that three days later God raised him from the dead. The people asked the question in chapter 2 verse 37, “What shall we do?” If you’ll notice, Peter does not say, “Well, repeat this Sinner’s Prayer” or “Receive Jesus in your heart” or “Raise your hand” or “Sign a card”. He doesn’t say any of those things. What is says in chapter 2 verse 38 is “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.” Notice in that verse that there are two commands and there are two promises. The first command is: If you believe in Christ, then repent of sin. Change your mind about Jesus. Change your life and the direction of your life to follow Jesus. The second command is to be baptized into Christ, demonstrating that you are surrendering yourself, identifying yourself completely with Jesus as Lord and as Savior. The first promise is that you will receive the forgiveness of your sins. Everything you’ve done wrong, every sin you’ve ever committed will be washed completely away. The second promise is that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is, you’ll be empowered by the Spirit of God to be able to live this life of following Christ. The people’s response in chapter 2 verse 41 is that those who accepted his message were, in fact, baptized. It is so important that all of them were baptized that same day. Three thousand of them on that Day of Pentecost were baptized.

The second story is found in Acts chapter 8. It’s the story of an Ethiopian’s conversion. It’s the first one in the Scriptures that was not Jewish in nationality. This man was from the southernmost part of Africa. A convert to Judaism, he had come to Jerusalem to worship, to see the temple he’d heard about all this time. Apparently while there, he had heard that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, and that he’d died, and that three days later he was raised again from the dead. And now as he sat in his chariot while returning home, this puzzled proselyte was reading from the Isaiah the prophet’s prediction that the Messiah would be like a sheep led to slaughter. A Christian, by the design of God, named Philip, was brought along to him and joined him in the chariot. Acts 8:35 says that Philip began with that very passage of Scripture from Isaiah 53, and told him the good news about Jesus. Verse 36 says that as they traveled along, they came to some water. The eunuch says “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” So, when Philip was telling about Jesus to this man, it included instruction, apparently, about baptism. When the Ethiopian said “I want to give my life to Jesus,” it included his desire to be baptized. Then in verse 38, the Ethiopian eunuch gave orders to stop the chariot, then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly called Philip away. So he was immersed into water immediately when he responded to Jesus Christ. Now that’s not all that complicated.

The third story is in Acts chapter 10. It’s the story of a Roman’s conversion. This is the story of the first Gentile, Greek really, to become a Christian – a man by the name of Cornelius. He was a Roman soldier, apparently not a convert to Judaism. In other words, he had not been circumcised, but he was a believer in God. He was fervently praying, and God told Peter to go tell the good news of Jesus to this Gentile, this Roman soldier. Peter did so, rather reluctantly. While explaining the gospel to him, if Cornelius had said “That’s it! I want to accept Jesus as Savior,” Peter wouldn’t have known what to have done. Peter would have thought in his mind, “Well, what do I do? Well, first you need to become a convert to Judaism, and then you become a follower of Christ.” Look at chapter 10 verse 44: “And the Holy Spirit came upon all who heard the message.” The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. Evidently these Gentiles, Cornelius and the people with him, suddenly began to speak in languages they had never known before, they had never studied before, as a miraculous sign of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps there were tongues of fire above their heads. According to chapter 11 verse 26, Peter records that “it came upon them just as it came upon us,” back in chapter 2. So, people would have said, perhaps, “Well, that’s all they need to do. Obviously God accepts them, that’s all that’s necessary. Let’s just rejoice with them.” But look at chapter 10 verse 47, Peter says, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?” If there was ever a person who didn’t need to be baptized, it was Cornelius. He was devout, he believed in Jesus, he did all kinds of good deeds, and the Holy Spirit had come upon him. But Peter answered, basically, “Cornelius, this demonstrates that God accepts you, so the first thing that you need to do is to be baptized into Christ.”

The fourth story is found in Acts chapter 16. It’s the story of a Philippian’s conversion. This man was a jailer in the jail in Philippi that Paul was in. Paul had been imprisoned because he was telling the good news of Jesus. At midnight, an earthquake came, and it shook the foundation of the prison such that all that were confined were set free. The Philippian jailer drew his sword and was about to commit suicide because he had lost all of his prisoners, and his life was worthless at that point. But Paul shouted out, in chapter 16 verse 28, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here!” The jailer called for the lights, rushed in, and he fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He brought them out and he asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Now this man knew almost nothing about Jesus. Maybe he had heard them talking and such in the prison, but he knew almost nothing about Jesus. So Paul says to him in verse 31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your whole household. They spoke the word of the Lord to them, and at that hour of the night, the jailer took them, washed their wounds, and then immediately he and all of his household were baptized.” What a life-changing night that was! Some time between midnight and dawn, he came to understand that Jesus Christ had died for him, and had come back from the dead that he might have eternal life, and he could have that by trusting in Jesus. Some time that night, he was baptized.

The fifth story is in Acts chapter 22. It’s the story of an adversary’s conversion. It’s actually the story of Saul of Tarsus, who was actually Paul in the earlier story. Paul is recounting this. This is a man that was full of hatred towards Jesus. He hated the followers of Jesus, so he was persecuting Christians, first of all in Jerusalem, and now he talks about the fact that he’s going to Damascus to arrest Christians there. Just outside the city of Damascus, Paul (Saul) is struck down by a bright light, and he calls out in chapter 22 verse 8: “Who are you?” Saul is humbled by his error, and he says, “What do you want me to do?” in verse 10. “What do you want me to do?” Jesus answered, “Get up, and go into Damascus. There you’ll be told all that has been assigned to you.” “My companions,” he said, “led me by hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see me.” Then in verse 13, “Ananias stood beside me and said, ‘Saul, receive your sight,’ and at that very moment, I was able to see him. The he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you to be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. Now, what are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sin, calling on His name.” Now here’s the story: Saul saw Jesus. Saul believed in Jesus. Saul repented of his sins against Jesus. And then he was told to be baptized to wash away his sins. Later in life, Paul would write to the church in Rome, as recorded in Romans 6:3, “Don’t you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism in order that we might be raised, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Someone has said that the baptistery is in fact a tomb, where the old person dies, and it’s a womb, where a new life comes forth.

Consider these four conclusions from this study:

1. Number 1, baptism is in fact a reliable test of faith. Someone might say, “Now wait a minute, Ephesians 2:8 says ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not of yourself, it is the free gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.’” We are not saved by any good works we do. That’s right. We’re not saved by being a good person – we are saved by our faith, trusting in Christ and not in ourselves. Some may say, “So why are you saying this about baptism?” Because baptism provides that test to see – Are we putting our faith and trust in Christ or not? Many times when you go back into the Gospels, Jesus heals somebody, and when he did, he required from them a test of faith. To the lepers who came to him for healing, he said “Go show yourselves to the priest, then you’ll be healed.” To the blind man, he said, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam and you will be made well.” To the man with the withered hand, he said, “Stretch out your hand,” and it was made well. They had done those things before. It wasn’t something they had never done before, but when they did them out of faith, out of obedience to Christ, they were made well. When we come to Christ, requesting that he heal us from our sins, he instructs us (Mark 16:16), “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” The German theologian Bonhoeffer during World War II said, “He who believes obeys, and whoever obeys believes.” This simple act of immersion in water is a reasonable test. Now if God had made it some kind of intelligence test, if God had said, “OK, I’m going to decide who’s going to be saved or not by giving an I.Q. test.” Well, that’s going to leave all you guys out. It would leave a lot of us out, wouldn’t it? Anybody who’s unlearned would be excluded. If God said, “Well, here’s how we’re going to do it, it’s going to be on a cash payment, it’s going to cost so much.” That would omit the poor. If God had said, “It’s going to be by a physical stunt. We’re going to see if you can perform this physical act.” Then those of us who are uncoordinated would be barred from heaven. But He requested a simple act of baptism that only excludes the prideful and the faithless. But, you might say, “That leaves the impression that you’re saved by works.” No, baptism is less of a work than anything I’ve ever heard. It’s less work than filling out a card. It’s less work than raising your hand. It’s less work than saying a prayer – because baptism cannot be performed by the individual alone – baptism is something that somebody else does for you. You submit to being baptized. Somebody else immerses you, and in fact, they don’t do anything except assist you in that. God is the one who does all the work. It is Jesus Christ who acts in your baptism, to wash away your sins. It has nothing to do with your act. We can’t improve on it. God set it forth in His Word, and we can’t improve on it. John said in 1 John 5:3, “This is love for God: to obey His commands.” Go make disciples, baptizing them.

2. The second conclusion is this: that baptism provides a needed expression of cleansing. Whenever you are deeply grieved, God has given you tears to cry, sobbing, weeping, whatever form – you are able to release the grief that has come within you. Whenever something strikes you funny, He has given you the ability to laugh, to smile, to giggle. Whenever something makes you happy, He has given you the expression to be able to shout and to celebrate. The same is true spiritually. Once we are impressed by the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins – if there was nothing to be able to express that, we would be left frustrated and depressed. So God provided baptism as a needed expression of our surrendering to Him and our cleansing from our sin. All of us need cleansing from the past, because we’ve all sinned against God and hurt people. We wish we could go back and take it away. We wish we could do things like go back and correct everything we’ve ever done wrong – but you can’t do that – but you can be forgiven. Baptism provides that meaningful symbol of cleansing by the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 3:21: “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience towards God.” I’ve seen numerous responses of people after a baptism, and it usually depends upon their temperament or their age or their background how they respond. Some are just gleeful – “I’m so glad I finally decided to do that!” Others are very overwhelmed with emotion and there’s a tear in their eye when they think about what God has done for them. They’ve been in water before. It’s not about water washing away some physical dirt. It is about the inner cleansing that God has promised – a pledge of a good conscience towards God. By the way, don’t brag about your baptism, as if it were the source of your salvation. Christ is the source of your salvation. If a rich uncle dies and leaves you a million dollars, and you take the check to the bank and endorse it and put it in your account, you don’t leave the bank bragging about your signature, “Boy, I’ve got a powerful signature! It has put a million dollars in the bank!” No, it’s not about what. We don’t need to be talking about what, we need to be talking about who! JESUS! Baptism isn’t the source of salvation – it leads us to Christ, who is the source of our salvation. Galatians 6:14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here’s the third conclusion: Baptism provides an assurance of our salvation. It is not mine, but it is God’s prerogative to determine who is saved and who is not. I’m glad I don’t have that job. That’s His job. But we do have the blessing and the strength to be able to open the Word of God, and according to what God has told us in His Word, baptism is necessary for the assurance of salvation. Mark 16:16: “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.” If someone says, “Well, I trust in Christ for salvation, but I’m not going to be baptized,” then I doubt whether they’ve really made Christ Lord of their life. Luke 6:46 says, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do what I say?” The promise of salvation is to those who would trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, which of course, means that you would obey. “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.” 1 Peter 1:23 says that we are born again by the living and enduring Word of God. You hear the Word of God, you begin to study the Word of God, we believe this Word of God, we take it into our hearts, and life begins to form, and the only natural outcome, it seems, is that it bursts forth from the water a whole life in Jesus Christ.

4. Here’s the fourth conclusion: it provides a common experience for our unity. 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.” God intended for baptism to be a source of unity among believers, but as we’ve talked about in months past, we have an adversary. Satan has taken what God intended to be a source of unity, and turned it into something that is a source of contention - because either our immaturity or because our contentious nature, it’s become a source of argument and division. Don’t let this cause you to become mean-spirited. Don’t take this and use it to beat somebody over the head with, but when baptism in a biblical way with a biblical motive, it is a powerful unifier. What brings us together is not our achievement. What brings us together is our admission of failure. When we come to Jesus Christ, we humbly admit that we are sinful, and we say to him, “I am need of your cleansing, I have messed my life up, I am a sinner.” Every person here who is a Christian and has been immersed into Christ can meet any other person coming out of the baptistery and say to them, “Me, too! I also failed my Lord. I also am a sinner. I’ve blown it. I’ve messed up. I met Christ in baptism as well.” And they immediately experience a harmony in Christ – not because of your achievement, but because of your admission of failure. We’re all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus achieved for us at the cross and in His resurrection what we could never do for ourselves – forgiveness of sin. Paul would write to the Ephesians in 4:4: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”

God gave baptism to be such a significant event for us, a very special thing. The question is simply, “Do you believe?” Then obey. Some say, “Well, is it really worth it to go through the effort and get all wet and all that kind of stuff?” Listen, God has done so much for us, so much for you, that whenever He says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” – for anybody to say “I’m not going to do that!” It’s not too much for Him to ask. It’s simply a matter of loyalty and love and appreciation for all that He has done for you. All I can say to you is what Ananias of old said to Saul: “Why do you wait? Get up and be baptized. Wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Maybe you’ll want to talk further about it. Maybe you’ll want to respond right now. Maybe you’d like to talk about it with me or with one of our elders or to someone else. We’d love to sit down and discuss it further. But if Christ convicts your heart right now, I don’t believe you’re here by accident. We call you to respond to Christ.