Any time when we begin to approach the subject of baptism we need to issue a disclaimer: “Baptism does not stand alone as the means to salvation.” Many people over the years have distorted the relationship between baptism and grace. We must always keep in mind what baptism is not: a work by which one earns his salvation, a meaningless sign that can be dispensed with nor is it strictly related to church membership and meaningless to one being in Christ. As we work through this study we will see many purposes for baptism; however we can safely say it is at least a twofold sign. First it is a sign of what God is doing for us. As we are immersed in the water so God immerses or surrounds us with His Holy Spirit. Secondly it is a sign of what we are doing. Basically, in baptism we are doing nothing except yielding ourselves to the water and the one who is doing the baptizing. There is no work involved in baptism at all. The candidate is a passive recipient just as they are the recipient of the grace of God that saves them. Our understanding of baptism can be greatly enhanced by study the many Scriptures on the subject. With their help we can see the complex meaning of this simple act. Paul in Ephesians 4:5 reminds us that there is “one baptism”. Today we are going to take an in-depth look at the subject of baptism and the two gifts from God that follow: the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I. A view of Baptism from Scripture and history.
A. Early Christians were baptized into Jesus Christ.
1. The fact that is beyond date was the Jesus commissioned His disciples to make disciples throughout the world and the discipleship process involved baptism and teaching.
2. Baptism was obviously the turning point in the new believer’s life.
3. Before baptism they were seen as belonging to the world; after baptism to Christ.
4. Pat Summerall, the well known sports announcer, overcame alcoholism and became a follower of Christ in his late sixties. He said this about water baptism: "I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and a more positive feeling about life than ever before."
B. Immersion has been assumed to be the correct mode of baptism since it was the only form of baptism in the beginning.
1. The verb baptizo means in pre-Christian as well as Christian Greek means to dip, plunge, drench, drown or overwhelm. Never does it mean to pour or sprinkle.
2. Paul used the verb baptizo in its usual sense in referring to Moses being immersed in the cloud and sea. (1 Corinthians 10:2)
3. A person does not need to be a Biblical scholar to understand what is being demonstrated when a believer is immersed. (Romans 6:3-6)
4. No substitute can communicate as much about what’s happening to a person as does immersion.
5. Immersion remained the mode of baptism for more than 1200 years even in the Roman Catholic Church.
6. In 1311 the council of Ravenna made sprinkling legal in the Roman church but left the choice between immersion and sprinkling to the one performing the baptism.
7. In every reform movement of the church immersion was recommended to be the correct mode of baptism.
8. Martin Luther said, “Baptism is a Greek word and may be translated immerse. I would have those who are to be baptized to be altogether dipped.”
9. When the King James Bible was written in the early 1600’s the translators came across a dilemma when faced with the Greek word baptizo. To translate the word exactly would mean to condemn the accepted practice of sprinkling. So they transliterated the word and gave us our word baptism.
C. The form of burial makes sense for a person of accountable age, for he has lived long enough to know what sin is and to desire to be released from sin’s grip.
1. They have disappointed God and want to be released from a guilty conscience.
2. Baptism is a cleansing act to which a believer submits.
3. Baptism is for the person who desires to submit to the will of God and want new life in God.
4. Baptism is not really the issue for those who truly desire to completely commit their lives to Christ.
5. The real issue is: “Do you want to truly give your heart to Jesus?” If you do then you will want to obey what He commands and become what He desires you to be.
II. Man’s immediate need: The forgiveness of sin.
A. Having the strong Jewish community the people realized that they were just as guilty of killing the Messiah as those who had actually did the act.
1. Peter helps them realize that they were not alone in this plight as he offers the generous gift of God’s forgiveness to everyone. (Romans 3:23)
2. God’s purpose in Christ was to save mankind not condemn them. (John 3:16)
3. Northing short of Christ’s blood being shed could effectively erase man’s sin and guilt.
4. Through Christ, God offers the required forgiveness.
B. So deep is the human longing for forgiveness, that it is no wonder the cross has become the most popular symbol of the Christian faith.
1. It represents what God has done for us.
2. As the two bars of the cross meet, so it represents the meeting point of man’s need and God’s love, man’s guilt and God’s forgiveness.
3. The cross is a constant reminder of God is doing for us through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
4. Later Paul would summarize the generous offer proclaimed by Peter. (Romans 5:6-8)
C. The concept of such forgiveness was a very new concept to the Jews.
1. The God of the Jews primarily offered forgiveness to those who had changed his ways, made restitution for what he had done wrong, offered the required sacrifice and lived his wife in a transformed way.
2. Forgiveness through Christ is more than just having sin forgave it is also receiving the victory over sin.
3. There power of sin has truly been conquered through the blood of Christ.
4. To know that God will erase our past records and free us from all our yesterdays is incentive enough to gladly accept follow Peter’s instruction.
III. More incredible than Peter’s offer of forgiveness is his promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
A. This is the power that promises the victory over sin.
1. Christ had foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit to His original disciples because of the mission they were called to carry out.
2. Now Peter shows God’s incredible generosity in the fact now the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised to all who accept Jesus Christ.
3. Through forgiveness one enters the church pure, as one declared innocent by God.
4. "The gift" is the Spirit himself given to minister the saving benefits of Christ’s redemption to the believer
5. Through the power of the Holy Spirit he now has the power to remain innocent, to accomplish the will of God and to grow to be more like Jesus.
B. Sin no longer has a grip on the Christian, he strong enough through the Holy Spirit to win the victory over the temptations and influences that used to control his life.
1. This is awesome news: because we want to improve but we don’t; we struggle to avoid temptation but we sin.
2. We are too weak to tame these forces but the Holy Spirit is strong enough.
3. We tend to think of God as being high and we being low, He is holy and we are not.
4. In Jesus God came a little closer to us but in the Holy Spirit He lives in us.
5. The Spirit is not limited by the flesh to one time and place, but can be present to us today as He was in the first century.
C. The Holy Spirit, then, is God intimately and powerfully working in and through the Christian.
1. He is the paraklete, a Greek word which is often translated comforter. It can also mean mediator, intercessor, helper and advocate.
2. The Holy Spirit has another job; it speaks to God on behalf of the believer. (Romans 8:26)
3. So the Christian has the assistance of the Holy Spirit both before man and God.
4. The test of the presence of the Holy Spirit is not in the display of miraculous feats but in the fruits of the Spirit being displayed in the life of the believer. (Galatians 5:22-23)
5. When we received the Spirit we also received the spirit of sonship. (Romans 8:15-17)
A congregation had been hoping to erect a building when they learned an existing building was being foreclosed. The group decided to remodel that building for its church. After a year of remodeling work, a new baptistery was installed.
But the county building inspector wouldn’t okay it. "I can’t," he said, "unless it has a separate septic tank."
The trustees couldn’t understand why a septic tank would be needed for a baptistery. The building inspector explained, "It’s to avoid pollution in the ground."
One trustee finally said with a grin, "I guess it would pollute, with all those sins washed away!"
