What is a disciple of Christ? There are many books on the subject these days, and frankly a lot of technical confusion. That wasn’t the case in the first century. They were very clear about it and had Jesus’ words fresh in their minds. We need not be confused either, and we don’t need books, programs and people’s opinions of what a disciple is.
There is a lot about the qualities and fruit of a disciple throughout the New Testament, but let’s start today by looking at the basics in the greatest authoritative statement ever made from Jesus himself in Matthew 28. It’s the Great Commission and everything else flows from that. What does Jesus say? He said first of all that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Think about that for a minute. Do we believe that, and if so do we live as though it’s true? Think about who’s speaking here. It’s a dead guy, that’s why some in the crowd doubted. They had watched him die and be put in a tomb only a few days earlier, and now here he is talking to them.
So after the resurrected son of God rises from the dead and says all authority has been given to Him, do you think you’d listen to what he has to say next? They’re hanging on every word and here it comes. “Go therefore (because I have all authority) and make disciples of all nations”. So we stop there and say Ok but what does that mean? They probably would have a better understanding than us because they were part of that culture and knew the subtleties of the language and the religious procedures of the time.
But to make it clear Jesus tells us exactly what he means by that. “Baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (that represents the conversion part), teaching them to observe or keep all that I have commanded you (that represents the ongoing sanctification part). And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” So we’re not alone in this.
So if we use that to define what a disciple is, we can conclude that at the bare minimum they are baptized, and committed to doing all that Jesus commanded. If we broaden that we can conclude that they have made Jesus their Lord and Master.
Now that word disciple literally means pupil or learner, and in that context it refers to those who were pupils of the rabbis in Jewish culture. A rabbi’s disciples would go everywhere with the Rabbi, not only learning what the rabbi knew, but also learning to emulate the rabbi.
Notice in Jesus words that he does not say to teach them my commands, but to do what I command. So I could teach you what Jesus commands are, but that’s not what making a disciple is, it is teaching people to do what He commands.
Now one has to wonder why he would put baptizing them before teaching them. I know of several churches that require baptism candidates to go through several classes before they can be baptized. Now I understand that you need to know what you’re doing when you get baptized, but I can get that spending 15 minutes with a person. Nowhere can you find biblical grounds for going through classes before baptism.
Now we might also ask, why doesn’t Jesus say anything about salvation or accepting Jesus into their hearts or anything like that? Could he be saying that the first step in becoming a disciple is to be baptized? Well, if you look at the rest of the New Testament and you look at when people come to believe, what is the first thing they always do? That’s right they’re baptized. As far as we can tell there is no such thing in the New Testament as an unbaptized follower of Jesus. There are those like Simon the magician who are baptized and not true followers of Christ. But there are no followers who are not baptized. So it seems they took the commission of Christ seriously.
Now there’s been an issue in the church about whether baptism is necessary for salvation, and of course there’s the issue of the mode of baptism. Is it sprinkling or pouring or immersion? Should we baptize infants or is it just for people capable of making the commitment to Christ. I’m not going to get into all that but it does seem that the preferred method in the New Testament was to baptize believers by immersion.
The English word baptize comes from the Greek word baptizo which means to immerse. It is related to the word Bapto which means to dip. There’s an interesting example from the 2nd century that’s helpful here, and it’s about making pickles. It says the vegetable should be first dipped (bapto) into boiling water, and then baptized (baptizo) in the vinegar solution.
The first is a temporary dipping but still a full immersion, the second produces a permanent change. This relates to our union and identification with Christ. In Mark 16:16 one of the last things Jesus says before ascending to heaven is that “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”. He is saying at the very least that mere intellectual assent is not enough. There must be a union with Him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle. Maybe we should have put some of that dill in the baptismal.
Peter also equated being saved with baptism a couple of times. First at Pentecost when all these people were cut to the heart and believed that Jesus was the Messiah. They asked Peter what should we do now that we know and believe the truth? Peter simply said “repent and be baptized everyone of you for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. Everyone of the 3000 or so people got baptized that day. What an assembly line that must have been.
Then in 1 Peter 3 he’s talking about the flood and how Noah’s family was saved through water, and he says, “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.”
Frankly folks that is a poor English translation of the Greek. More accurately it should literally read that baptism is an answer or response to God that you are commending moral goodness (righteousness), and shunning moral badness. Isn’t that really what repentance is, turning from the worldly ideas of right and wrong, and turning to what God says is right and wrong. In that way yes, baptism does save you if it is you actually repenting through the act of dying to self and living to Christ in baptism. The not the procedure of baptism but what it represents that saves.
Believe and be baptized, repent and be baptized. Baptism is always there and if you think it’s optional, let’s hear what the authoritative Bible says, never mind what modern church says. Acts 10:48, the Holy Spirit has just fallen on a bunch of Gentiles, and Peter “commanded them to be water baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Ok that’s head strong Peter, Paul actually had to rebuke him about following too many Jewish rules. What does Paul have to say about baptism, he’s the one who says we are saved by faith alone.
Well Paul himself obeyed the command of God through Ananias after his sight was restored when he was converted to Christ, and the very first thing he did was be baptized, even before he took food after not eating for several days. He doesn’t actually command anyone to be baptized, that was not his priority, but he did suggest in Galatians 3 that as many of you have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ and are therefore heirs according to the promise. He never said you don’t have to be baptized.
Of course just being baptized doesn’t save us. Nothing we do saves us other than identifying with our risen Lord Jesus. But clearly baptism is the primary way we display this identification according to Scripture. Deitrich Bonhoffer coined a term cheap grace which he says is “the grace we bestow upon ourselves… the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship…”
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift that must be asked for… It is costly because it costs a person their life, and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life.” He said of baptism according to Paul’s letters, that in baptism a person becomes Christ’s own possession. Jesus said in Luke 14 that anyone who does not take up their cross and follow him, cannot be his disciples.
Have we cheapened grace by saying you just need to say a private prayer accepting Jesus forgiveness without also emphasizing the cost that Jesus talked about. It’s a lot easier and more convenient to say a quick prayer than to be baptized, and this along with other things seems to have created a lot of convenience Christians. But people will say, “Well we want them to accept Jesus not be turned away”. But that’s exactly what Jesus did, because he didn’t want a bunch of half hearted people following him. He even asked his twelve do you want to leave too?.
So clearly, Jesus and Peter commanded baptism and that’s good enough for me. So if we have made Jesus Lord, we get baptized, period. We certainly know that repentance and making Jesus Lord are requirements for salvation, Paul was clear about this and if repentance is represented by baptism and it is the first command for a disciple, how can anyone say it’s optional.
I’m going to be very bold about this from my experience. It seems to me that anyone who intentionally is avoiding being baptized when they say they believe the Gospel, must have their salvation questioned. Not because they haven’t been baptized, but because they have clearly not confessed Jesus as Lord yet.
Now back to the question why does Jesus put baptism before learning to obey all his commandments? Is that just a fluke? Not likely. Maybe we can ask the question like this. What is the likelihood that I will obey all Jesus commandments if I haven’t obeyed the simplest one to be baptized?
You see our current church culture tends to make it sound like Jesus is waiting for our acceptance. The truth is he doesn’t need our acceptance, we need him for every breath we breathe. He has all authority in heaven and on earth and that includes my friends, every minute that every human being lives through all eternity. Accepting Jesus is not a luxury option like air conditioning in your car, it is an absolute necessity for eternal life and to live under the power of the Spirit.
There’s another even better question, can I obey all that Jesus commands without the Holy Spirit? And what is the connection between baptism and the Holy Spirit? We already heard Peter say that we should repent and be baptized and then in Acts 2:38 he continues, then you will receive the Holy Spirit. But we also heard that the Gentiles he was preaching to already received the Holy Spirit and were then commanded to be baptized. There was another group in Acts 19 who had been baptized by John, but Paul baptized them again in the name of Jesus and then laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Personally I believe that baptism is a sealing by the Holy Spirit that may even be related to what we see in Revelation on the hands and foreheads, and perhaps you could say that it is an unleashing of the Holy Spirit as we identify with Christ’s death and resurrection. The Bible says Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. So when we are baptized into Jesus we are cleansed by fire and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Of course this would make it easier to follow the commands of Jesus. Until we die to self and rise to live in Him, in the Spirit, the bible says it is very difficult to do what he has commanded.
I spoke last time about our desire to please God. I was wondering about Jesus baptism. Why did Jesus have to be baptized? He said that it was to fulfill all righteousness. In other words it was acceptable to God. Then when Jesus came out of the water, the Spirit of God came to rest on Him and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Remember he hadn’t even done any ministry yet. Why was all that necessary? Wasn’t Jesus already approved of, wasn’t he already Spirit filled? His biological dad was the Holy Spirit. I can only think it’s because it was an example for the people. Is it possible that baptism is our act of identification with His Son that makes us pleasing to the Father as a child of God?
Bottom line is if it was the right thing for Jesus to do, it’s the right thing for us to do. It was only after he was baptized that Jesus went out to begin his ministry after first going into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days and nights. Maybe our baptism is the beginning of our tangible ministry as well under the power of the Holy Spirit.
One more thing I think we need to cover here is the idea of repentance as a disciple. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Jesus had nothing to repent of so obviously he was modelling the new baptism.
There’s a story in Acts chapter 8 about Simon the magician who obviously practiced magic. It says even Simon believed the good news about Jesus and was baptized. He was amazed by all the miracles and he sees that when they lay their hands on these people, the Holy Spirit falls on them, and it doesn’t say he received the Holy Spirit. But he does say, please give me this power so I can make the Spirit fall on people too, I’ll even pay you. Peter immediately says “may your silver perish with you, you have neither part nor fellowship in this matter, because your heart is not right before God, repent of your wickedness and pray that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you”. “Hey I was just asking”. Simon is devastated by these words and he pleads that they will pray for him that these nasty things Peter said would not happen to him.
Now let me have your attention. Let’s say a young woman brings a boy to church because her parents will not allow her to date a Non-Christian. There’s an altar call and she nudges this guy saying “here it is go up”. So he does and he looks back at her thinking great I’ll finally get to date this girl, so he gets on his knees and prays the prayer with the pastor. He gets back to her and says, “Ok can we go out now”? Well, no you need to get baptized next week at the Baptism service.
He goes Ok then can we go out? He goes and gets dunked in the water the next week, and now her parents say, OK you can date him. Would that work for you moms and dads? Is this guy a Christian just because he said he believes and got baptized? Is he really saved knowing what his motives were?
Back to Simon. He sees all this cool stuff Phillip and the Apostles are doing and sees that you have to believe this message and be baptized so he does, because he wants to be part of the cool stuff going on, he wants the power. Peter detects that he’s in it for the wrong reasons and does he repent? No, he asks Peter to pray that the bad stuff that is coming because of his greedy heart won’t happen to him. Is Simon a saved disciple of Christ?
“Well, we really can’t know what’s in a person’s heart, only God knows”. Really? If I am a baptized believer and I continue to cheat on my wife, go get drunk every weekend, work at a job where I am consistently dishonest to make more money. Would you say you don’t know the state of my heart? Folks regardless of what we say and do to become “Christians”, if the heart isn’t right can we have assurance of our salvation. The truth may be only myself and God know my heart completely, but if we intentionally continue in disobedience and sin, Scripture makes it pretty clear we have no part in the Kingdom.
Well, was Simon saved? I don’t think so and let me give you a little bonus, no extra charge. In the Apocryphal book the Acts of Peter, which is not inspired scripture but seems to have a lot of accurate substantiated historical information, this story is completed, because we hear nothing more of Simon the sorcerer in the Bible.
Simon, after what we just heard is trying to prove himself to be a god, remember he’s already a magician (satanic magic) so he levitates way up into the air. The apostle Peter prays to God to stop his flying, and he immediately falls to the ground breaking his legs "in three parts". The previously non-hostile crowd then stones him. Now gravely injured, he had some people carry him on a bed to a doctor and it says he died "while being sorely cut by two physicians (surgery)".
My goal today is not to question anyone’s salvation. But it is to get you to take a good look at yourself, and ask yourself, have I really repented (turned from my self and the world to have control over my life, and turned to Jesus as Lord). The only way a church can make disciples is if the church is a bunch of disciples, and today the church in general seems quite weak, and I think it’s partly because we are not living like the disciples Jesus intended us to be.
For these two guys that were baptized today. They took this very seriously and know what it means. They want to follow Jesus and want to be obedient to the commands of the Bible. Part of our job now as fellow disciples, is to keep them accountable to the commitment they made today in a loving but truthful way. If someone makes a public profession of faith in Christ as Lord of their life, the Bible gives the church ample permission to hold them accountable because they have now identified with Christ and if any of us don’t honour him with our lives as his representatives, we are dishonoring His name and that is what the Bible calls blaspheming.
If you are here today and you call yourself a believer, you consider yourself a disciple of Christ, it is time to ask ourselves, have I truly repented and made Jesus Lord and Master, and does that show in my life? Am I all in. And if you consider yourself a disciple of Christ, and member of His church, have you been baptized? If not I encourage you to do some serious thinking and searching of Scriptures and figure out what you’re going to tell Jesus when he asks you why you chose not be baptized. If the church doesn’t hold us accountable, one day Jesus will.
What a celebration today to see two people give their lives to Christ, it’s like a wedding ceremony and both these guys are now wearing Jesus’ ring forever. Praise the Lord.
