INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• It is that time of the year again. There is a food product that is being sold during this time of the year that is absolutely ADDICTIVE!
• I see that the Girl Scouts are selling cookies again. I remember what my oldest was used to sell them, I would buy a dozen boxes of my favorite ones, THIN MINTS!
• I love Thin Mints, BUT I do not buy them any longer because they contribute to an expanding waistline.
• Well, over the past few weeks we have been looking at the ingredients of Salvation and in the spirit of examining ingredients, I decided to investigate WHY thin mints are so addictive.
• After I would finish a box of them, I would go after another, then when they were all gone, I would get the shakes and would want to start selling stuff to get more thin mints.
• Well, here is what I found!
• SLIDE #2
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• CRACK COCAINE?? By the way that is NOT true.
• Today we are going to examine the ingredient of baptism. This is the one ingredient in which many today churches will say you do not need. For this reason as we do this examination I do not want anyone to think this is the ONLY ingredient or the MOST important ingredient. All ingredients are equally important.
• Let us begin by looking at Acts 2:37-38. Peter has preached his sermon at Pentecost and his message reached the heart of many and this Jewish audience is asking what they need to do.
• SLIDE #3
• Acts 2:37–38 (ESV)37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And 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.
• SO let us begin by answering the question…
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
I. What is baptism?
• When Peter told the crowd that part of what they needed to do was to be baptized. What does that mean?
• Is there a prescribed way to do it? What does it all mean?
• The English word BAPTISM is actually a transliteration of the Greek word BAPTIZO.
• The word means to IMMERSE or to DIP.
• It does not mean to SPRINKLE, it can in some instances mean to POUR.
• The word denotes a total immersion into water.
• Baptism is part of what we are called to do when we want to be a part of God’s family.
• We will dig a little deeper on a bit and see what it all means in a spiritual context.
• Jesus told His disciples to baptize those who want to be disciples.
• SLIDE #5
• Matthew 28:18–19 (ESV) 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
• In the book of Acts, we have eight recorded instances of people who wanted to become Christians; in every instance they were baptized.
• Their baptism was by immersion. That is what the word means.
• SLIDE #6
• Acts 8:38 (ESV) And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
• SLIDE #7
• There was much water needed for baptism also. We see this in John.
• John 3:23 (ESV) John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized
• WHY DO WE NOT BAPTIZE INFANTS OR VERY YOUNG CHILDREN?
• The whole thing with infant baptism came about because people were afraid that small children would die and go to hell without being baptized.
• This false thinking was spread because people bought into John Calvin and Augustine’s doctrine of original sin.
• They basically taught that we have a sinful nature that we are born with so therefore if an infant dies, they go to hell.
• Little children and infants do not need to be immersed because they are not of age to understand what it means to repent. Therefore they are not accountable before God.
• When you look at the prerequisites for baptism, faith, repentance, confession, THEN baptism, that pretty well closes the door on infants and small children.
• When they get to an age where they understand they are sinning against God, then they need to make the decision for themselves to be baptized into Christ.
• Until then, they are innocent before God and they will go to heaven if they were to die as an infant or young child.
• SLIDE #8
II. What is the history of the ingredient of baptism?
• In my research here is a brief history concerning baptism.
• Jesus was baptized by John. In Matthew 3:13-ff
• Before that John offered a baptism of repentance to help prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.
• Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize those who wanted to become disciples. Matthew 28:18-20
• We can see that the baptisms done in the New Testament were done by immersion.
• As a point of interest in our churches we baptize by immersion because that is the way the early church did it for over 700 years.
• The word that we have transliterated “baptize” literally means to dip or plunge. It was not until 753 AD when Pope Stephen II said it was all right out of necessity did the church in general practice the sprinkling.
• It was not until 1311 at the council of Ravenna that sprinkling was an accepted practice by church. The church felt that the Pope and the councils had the right to change what they knew was not biblical, but instead traditional.
• Later the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin and others because of their misunderstanding of grace and works pushed the significance of baptism to the point to where it is today for most people, something that is not necessary.
• They have replaced God’s plan of salvation with saying a sinner’s prayer that is found NOWHERE in the Bible.
• Another thing that happened that further muddied the waters per se was when the King James Bible was first translated.
• As I have read it, the translators KNEW that the word “baptizo” meant to “immerse”, but they decided not to translate the word because King James had been sprinkled and they were afraid to offend him so they transliterated the word into the word baptize.
• So today there is a lot of confusion over this issue but Jesus, then the early church for somewhere around 700 years had no confusion about what it was about, how it was to be done and why it was done.
• Let us now look at…
• SLIDE #9
III. What does the ingredient of baptism add to the recipe?
• When we add baptism to God’s recipe of salvation, what does it add?
• There are a lot of benefits that we receive from God.
• The first benefit that is mentioned in Acts 2:38 is…
• SLIDE #10
A. Baptism adds the forgiveness of sins.
• When you start searching the New Testament concerning the forgiveness of sins, you see that it is mentioned with baptism. Our Acts 2:38 passage tells us this. REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED FOR the forgiveness of your sins.
• In Paul’s conversion in Acts 22:16 we see it again.
• SLIDE #11
• Acts 22:16 (ESV) And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
• 1 Peter 3:21 uses a bit stronger language.
• SLIDE #12
• 1 Peter 3:21 (ESV) 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,
• Next we see…
• SLIDE #13
B. Baptism adds the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit.
• Once again Acts 2:38 tells us we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• This is the gift that consists of the Holy Spirit, not a gift FROM the Holy Spirit.
• SLIDE #14
• Ephesians 1:13 (ESV) 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
• Once again when you look in the New Testament you see that you receive the gift OF the Holy Spirit after repentance and baptism.
• SLIDE #15
C. Baptism adds our death, burial and resurrection with Jesus.
• Romans 6 speaks a lot of this issue. The symbolic aspect of Baptism is that we are buried with Christ in baptism and as such we will be raised with Him!
• SLIDE #16
• Colossians 2:12 (ESV) having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
• SLIDE #17
• Romans 6:3–5 (ESV) 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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. 5 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.
• Next we see…
• SLIDE #18
D. Baptism adds our new wardrobe.
• When we are baptized into Christ, we clothe ourselves with Christ!
• SLIDE #19
• Galatians 3:27 (ESV) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
• When we do this we become a new creation!
• SLIDE #20
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• We will examine this passage further next week.
• The final addition we will examine is …
• SLIDE #21
E. Baptism adds us to the body of Christ.
• When we go back to our Acts passage, I want to show you verse 41
• SLIDE #22
• Acts 2:41 (ESV) So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
• You see that those who received the word were baptized THEN they were added to the body or the church. The church began on this day.
• We cannot be a part of God’s kingdom without the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
• SLIDE #23
• Romans 8:9 (ESV) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
CONCLUSION
• These souls were not added with a sinners prayer, they were added when they were added when they had faith and that faith led them to confession of Jesus.
• Then they repented and were baptized into Christ.
• Next week we will conclude our study with a look about NEW LIVE!
• Are you ready to enter into God’s family?
