INTRODUCTION
Baptism. The word conjures up many different thoughts and images when it is mentioned. To some it brings to mind Jesus and His baptism. Some think of the baptism of John the Baptist. Some think of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is spoken of in the scriptures. In the Christian Church, Churches of Christ, when we think of baptism, we think of it as the meeting place, where we put on Christ and we receive the forgiveness of sins and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As we look at the subject of what it takes to become a Christian, what place if any does baptism have? Is baptism an outward sign of an inward grace as taught by many churches today or is baptism an essential step in the salvation process? Are those of us who believe that baptism is essential part of a fringe cult as Hank Hanigraph of the Bible Answer man program has said before?
Can we take little children and baptize them or are there some prerequisites that MUST come before one is baptized?
What is the purpose of baptism? Are there any promises linked to baptism? These are some things that we are going to look at today as we look at the step of baptism.
I am going to add something to the word baptism that will give away what I am going to teach about it today. I am going to call it Christian Baptism. After we look at this I think you will see why I call it Christian Baptism.
In this introduction I want to take a little time to give you some background information that will help you see why baptism can be such a misunderstood divisive subject.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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.
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. We 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.
Today, let’s see if we can clear up some issues with Christian baptism so that we can have a clear understanding of its place, prerequisites, purpose and the promises that come along with Christian baptism.
SERMON
I. THE PLACE OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM IN THE SCRIPTURES
Let us look at the place that the scriptures put Christian baptism. This is an exercise that will force us to really examine what we believe about baptism. I hope that of our thinking does not match up with God’s Word, that we will be humble enough to change our view.
1. Baptism and the Great Commission Matthew 28:18-20 (READ)
In one of the last recorded sayings of Jesus, He told His followers to go and make disciples. Not only did He tell them to make disciples (or followers), but also He told them how to do it. He told them that we do it be baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that He commanded.
Jesus did not tell His disciples to make a disciple by having them say a sinner’s prayer? He told them to immerse them and teach them. This verse is important because if we are going to make disciple of Jesus, we need to do it the way Jesus commanded.
2. Baptism and Pentecost (Acts 2)
Acts 2:38. We talked about this verse last week. Peter gave a straight answer to a straight question. He told them to repent AND be baptized. TO show you how extreme the Calvinistic scholars are willing to go to toss out baptism; many of them will say that Acts 2:38 reads to be baptized BECAUSE your sins are forgiven. The problem is twofold here.
1. The Greek preposition “for” or “eis” in Greek is used 1773 times in the New Testament. 1669 time is MEANS “FOR”, 4 times it MIGHT mean “because”, but at best you have to exercise some poor scholarship to arrive at that point or at worst you have to deliberately have to twist God’s Word.
2. If you say that you are to be immersed BECAUSE your sins are forgiven, then you MUST say that your sins are forgiven before you REPENT because it text says REPENT AND be BAPTIZED.
In verse 41 we see that the ones who were ADDED to the Kingdom were the 3,000 who received the word and were BAPTIZED.
3. Baptism and other Acts conversions.
Look at the conversions in the book of Acts chart. This is the only step that is specifically mentioned in ALL the conversions.
II. THE PREREQUISITES FOR CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
Why is it important to look if there are any prerequisites to Christian baptism? If there are prerequisites, then if we do not follow them, we are just getting people wet.
What are the prerequisites?
1. Faith
2. Repentance
3. Confession
4. Then baptism.
These prerequisites would exclude infants and small children from Christian Baptism. A person can baptize an infant if they want to, but it is not Christian baptism because an infant cannot have the knowledge required to possess faith. Nor do they have the understanding required for confession or repentance.
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. By the way, this false doctrine also led to the Mary worship that we have to this day.
If man has a sinful nature, and Mary was a person, then she is would have passed that sinful nature on to Jesus. See where false teachings lead to.
The prerequisites are important because without them, we do not have Christian Baptism; we just get people wet. This is why we teach that all the steps to salvation are of equal importance.
III. THE PURPOSE OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
Why did God include baptism into His plan for salvation? What is the purpose of baptism?
1. It is an act of obedience.
Jesus commanded us to be baptized in the Great Commission.
It shows that we want to be committed to doing what Jesus wants us to do.
2. It is where God forgives our sins.
Acts 2:38. Repent and be baptized
ACT 22:16 ’Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’ (Paul’s conversion)
1PE 3:21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you -- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience -- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
3. It is where we receive the Holy Spirit. ACTS 2:38
4. It is where we “put on Christ” or clothe ourselves with Him.
GAL 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
When we “put on Christ” we are a new creation! 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
5. It is where we are buried with Christ and raised with Him.
COL 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Romans 6:1-11 READ!
6. It represents our death out our old self and to sin.
7. It is the point that we are added to the church of Jesus.
Acts 2:41
VI. THE PROMISES THE RESULT FROM CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
I have dealt with people before who have said that they were sprinkled as a child and that was good enough, or they may have said the “sinner’s prayer” and that was good enough. My response to them is this, if we do not follow what God commands us to do, then we have no guarantees from God. When we are obedient to Him in the area on baptism, here are a couple of things we can claim as promises from God to us.
1. Our sins will be forgiven. Acts 2:38, Acs 22:16, Romans 6:6 Romans 8:1
2. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who is our promise from God that we belong to Him. (Ephesians 1:13, 4:30 1 Cor 1:22, Romans 8:16, 2 Cor 5:5)
3. We will receive eternal life! READ ROMANS 6:5-11
CONCLUSION
What MUST I do to be saved? This is the question that Peter answered for the crowd at Pentecost. It was simple, repent and be baptized.
We have seen that in order to be saved, the Bile teaches that we must have faith, that we must confess Jesus as Lord, that we must repent of our sins and that we MUST be immersed.
Here is the issue for us today. Are we going to follow what Jesus commanded us to do, what every conversion in the book of Acts shows us or are we going to decide that we are going to make up our own way to heaven?
I cannot force people to submit to Jesus, but let me challenge you with this.
If you love Jesus, do you believe that you should do what He said we should do? WE cannot explain away all of the verses of scripture on salvation.
Brothers and Sister’s, I had so swallow some pride and submit myself to the will of the one whom I claim to love.
I would encourage you today to look at God’s Word for what it says and do it. If you have a question, come talk with me.
I did not preach this part of the series on Christianity 101 to rub anyone wrong or to do anything else but to get us to get a handle of the truth from God’s Word. What I have been preaching on this subject is not Jeff’s doctrine nor the churches, but it is God’s Word.
If you love Jesus, will you come today. Maybe you have started on the road to heaven by at some point by expressing you faith in Jesus, today is the day to be born again. Jesus said in John 3:3 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Romans 6 teaches us that we are born again when we are buried with Christ in Christian baptism!
