“BAPTISM” ACTS 2: 36-41; ROMANS 6: 1-10
ACTS 2: 36-38, 39-41; ROMANS 6: 1-3, 4-10
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ACTS 2.
For the next four Sunday’s we will be studying the Church, the body of Christ. Someone may ask, “what is a church?” A rather lengthy answer is that “A church is a congregation of Christ’s baptized disciples, acknowledging Him as their head, relying on His atoning sacrifice for justification before God, and depending on the Holy Spirit for sanctification, united in the belief of the gospel, agreeing to maintain its ordinances and obey its precepts, meeting together for worship, and cooperating for the extension of Christ’s kingdom in the world.”
I prefer the abridged definition; “a church is a congregation of Christ’s baptized believers all of whom are equal in rank, voluntarily bonded together to carry on the work of the master.”
It is in this kind of church that we believe, and in our belief with reference to the church we Baptist differ from all other Christian people.
All redeemed men and women of all ages, whether on earth or in heaven, belong to the family of God. Every born again believer is in the Kingdom of God. But only baptized believers in the fellowship of a local body, having the New Testament as its law and only law, belonging to a functioning New Testament church, may call themselves Southern Baptists.
In these definitions we have repeatedly used he word “baptized.” So let’s spend the remainder of our time looking at “the ordinance of baptism.”
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 36-38.
On the day of Pentecost, which was 50 days after Passover in May/June, the Apostles, with 120 disciples, were assembled in one place in Jerusalem, waiting as Jesus had commanded. “The Holy Spirit came as a mighty rushing wind and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one set upon each of them. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance.”
When the noise like gusty wind was heard a large crowd assembled, asking, ”whatever could this mean?” It was then Peter standing up with the eleven apostles preached the great sermon of Pentecost and 3,000 responded. In vs. 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one 1of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Each of these is important, and the relationship between and among them is even more important. The main word is “repent.” This was the message of the O.T. prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles. This is the first thing that a convicted sinner must do. The word means, “to turn.” Repentance grows out of conviction and includes godly sorrow, but it is basically turning from sin. Sinners may be convicted and sorry, but they do not repent until they turn from their sin. Those who truly repent by turning from their sin also believe in Christ by turning to God.
Baptist do not believe that baptism is essential to salvation, but we do believe that salvation is essential to baptism. Baptism is never associated with salvation when it stands alone. We have no statement that “he who is not baptized shall be lost.” Baptism is associated with faith and salvation, with repentance and remissions of sins, with prayer and the washing of sins. Baptism is pictorial but not pivotal in salvation. Baptism is not indispensable, as some would make it. A lost person with a saving knowledge of saving truth can be saved in a desert while hanging from a cross. There are two ordinances of the church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which we will study next Sunday.
Today Christians are exposed to a variety of attitudes toward baptism. The secular mind largely ignores baptism as a meaningless religious ritual. Some people trust in their baptism as their ticket to heaven. Some churchgoers and professed believers have never been baptized. Many people are confused by the differences about baptism among Christian denominations.
Christian denominations do have differences about baptism. There are differences about how, who, and why of baptism. The modes of baptism range all the way from sprinkling to immersion. The people to be baptized, range from infants to older adults, and from the uncommitted to believers. The purpose of baptism is defined by some denominations as the forgiveness of sins, but others deny that the waters of baptism wash away sins.
Baptists hold to believers’ baptism by immersion. That is, we believe that immersion was how new believers were baptized according to the New Testament. Only immersion depicts death, burial, and resurrection. Because Baptists believe in a regenerate church membership, we believe that only believers are to be baptized. The purpose of baptism is not to save or contribute to salvation. The purpose is to obey Christ by openly identifying oneself with Christ and His church.
We do not use the word “sacrament” as applied to these ordinances, because that word carries with it the idea of something that is especially sacred in itself, and hence has some saving power in the forgiveness of sins. Neither of the ordinances does this: hence we use the word “ordinances,” which simply means an established rite or ceremony.
Our view of baptism is closely linked with our view of salvation. We believe that the Bible presents salvation as by grace through faith, not by any good works or religious acts that we do.
If someone asked, “What must I do to be saved?” A saved person might say: First you need to be saved by turning from sin and trusting Jesus as your savior. Then you need to be baptized and become an active member of a church. If someone replied “why should I be baptized if it is not necessary for me to be saved?” A Christian might say something like this: “A truly saved person wants to obey Christ as Lord. Baptism is an act of obedience that sets the tone for a life of obedience.
Baptism is the rite or act by which we are admitted to membership in the church, and may be thought of as the initiation into church fellowship. There is the obligation to be baptized. In His farewell address in Matt. 28:19 Jesus commanded, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Thus the new believer is to be baptized as the ever-present act of obedience.
Jesus said to His disciples, “You are my friends, if you do the things which I command you.” Personal obedience to Him requires that we shall be baptized when we have accepted Him as our Savior and Lord.
There is an old story of a prince and his officer, to whom he sent a badge, asking that he wear it to show his loyalty and allegiance to him. The officer said he loved the prince, he protested he was loyal to him as his ruler, but he refused to wear the badge.
Such loyalty, which refuses to obey the test, is not the kind of loyalty Christ asks from His followers. Baptism is a badge and a symbol of our loyalty and of our willingness to obey His commands.
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 39-41.
In vs. 39 Peter added that the message of salvation in Christ has a universal scope. The promise of salvation was not only for the Jews at Pentecost but also for all future Jewish generations (your children) as well. Further, salvation in Christ is not only for Jews but for Gentiles too, those who are far off. From every people group and in every era there are those who are among the “far off” God has called and will yet call to repent and to be baptized. Just as Peter said long ago, the promise of the Holy Spirit is still available. Aren’t you grateful God called you to Himself?
Luke did not record all Peter spoke that day, for with many other words he strongly urged them to repent and “be saved from this corrupt generation!” That day many accepted his message and 3,000 people were added to them. The 120 had multiplied 25 times in one day. Jews from many countries had come to the feast of Pentecost and now would go home to tell the good news of Jesus to their countrymen.
Those who received the message were baptized. This believer’s baptism followed their reception of Peter’s words about the Lord Jesus and about their repentance. This is believer’s baptism and reflects a pattern seen through out the New Testament.
Baptist believe that the proper form of baptism is immersion only. No other form or method will meet the requirements of the Scripture; There are a number of reasons for insisting upon this form. The word “baptize” itself is the Greek word baptizo simply transliterated into English. This word means only one thing in Greek; namely, to dip or plunge into water. All the great Greek lexicons are agreed on this. The great Greek scholars likewise agree that there is never any case of the word’s having been used with the meaning of sprinkle or pour.
Another reason for insisting on immersion as the form of baptism is that the only baptisms clearly described in the N.T. were obviously that. The two baptisms that are reported in detail are those of Jesus and of the Ethiopian eunuch. The first of these is found in Matt. 3 and in Mark l. We can see from these two passages that there is no doubt that John the Baptist immersed Jesus in the Jordan River, and that after his baptism He came “up out of the water.”
The case of the eunuch is found in Acts 8. When Philip had led the man to Jesus by explaining to him the Scripture which he was reading as they rode along together in a chariot, they came to some water by the roadside. The eunuch said, “Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, for he went on his way rejoicing.” There can be no doubt whatever as to how this baptism was performed.
The meaning of baptism is wrapped up in the symbolism of burial and resurrection. There are several Scripture passages that teach this. (Rom. 6: 3-5) (Col. 2: 12) So when we remember that the apostle Paul says there is “one Lord, one Faith, one baptism,” we insist upon the form that is so clearly the one set forth in the Scripture. No argument of convenience, or its being “nonessential” can induce us to depart from the doing of what the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to do in this respect.
When one is baptized we see a picture of one who has died to sin, and put the old sinful life away, and risen to a new life in Christ. We see a living picture of the believer’s hope of a resurrection from the grave and a life hereafter. Baptism was given to set forth to the world these great truths, which are the heart of the gospel message.
Baptism is the first of the sacred duties, which Christ lays upon those who believe in Him. It is a sign of passing from all the old into the new life. It is the believer’s confession to all men that he has come into the company of the children of God. He has been born again. On the Day of Pentecost Acts 2:41 says, “They that receive his word were baptized.” When we see one baptized there is a living picture of the burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As to the subjects for Baptism---Nobody should be baptized but those who have first believed in Christ and trusted Him as their own Savior. Baptism is not intended to save from sin, and has no such power. Peter says in 1 Peter 3:21 that baptism is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.” It does not wash away our sins, that is done by the blood of Jesus. Baptism has nothing to do with our salvation, but is for those who have already been saved.
This means that we do not believe in baptizing infants, because they are too young to believe for themselves. We do no believe in proxy baptism, for baptism is an act of obedience by which the believer himself confesses his faith in Christ and bears witness to his own conversion.
We believe that the ordinance should be administered only by authority of the church.
PLEASE TURN TO ROMANS 6.
PLEASE READ ROMANS 6: 1-3.
Romans 6, is closely tied to the end of Ch. 5. In Rom. 5:12-21 Paul showed how Adam brought sin and death into the world, but God’s grace in Jesus reversed that process by bringing salvation from sin and eternal life. Paul wrote in Rom. 5:20 “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
The opponents of grace asked, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” This was a mocking question. They said that if grace abounds where sin abounds, should we not sin more in order to receive more grace? Their question revealed how little they knew of God’s grace. Paul reacted strongly to this distorted view of grace. He wrote in vs. 1, God forbid, absolutely not, by no means. He asked a question of these enemies of grace. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, or who have died to sin, live any longer therein?” They were now new creatures in Christ.
In Eph. 2:1 Paul referred to those without Christ as “dead in trespasses and sins.” Here in Romans he wrote of those who have died to sin. People who are dead in sin do not know God and spiritual realities. When people become Christians, they die to sin. They are dead to the old life of sin. They no longer participate in the life of sin. Notice that Paul was writing in vs. 2 about not living a sinful life. Other passages show that Christians continue to struggle with temptation, sometimes fail, and need to pray for forgiveness for occasional sins. Paul’s point here is that Christians do not live in sin.
Paul knew that the statement “died to sin” needed explanation, so he continued in vs. 3 to explain the concept further. He wrote that those who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Paul’s point is that when a person believes the gospel he or she is joined to Christ. This spiritual joining is so complete that Christ’s death for sin is the believers’ death to sin. And this death is so real and final that Paul can say the believer has “died to sin.”
Being baptized into Christ’s death is what Paul meant in Gal. 2: 10. He did not mean that we go back to Calvary but that the crucified Lord brings Calvary to us. The cross is the door to the Christian life because Christ died for our sins and God saves us from sin’s penalty when we trust Christ. The cross then becomes the way of Christian living. Through the presence of the crucified Lord, He enables us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. It is unthinkable that anyone who claims to follow Him would continue to live in sin.
The fact that Paul referred to all of us who were baptized indicates that he did not consider physical baptism an option. Baptism for the new Christians is not like walking through the salad bar and choosing lettuce but not choosing tomato.
PLEASE READ ROMANS 6: 4-10.
In these vs. 4-10 Paul made he logical connection that the resurrection to life follows death and burial. United to Christ in His death and resurrection at the moment of faith in Him, we died to sin’s dominance and now live free from its tyranny. To put it another way, we have a great enemy----sin. And sin has two devastating effects on us. One is that sin separates people from God and the other is that sin results in physical death.
The gospel’s good news is that we can be freed from the effects of sin: Because on our behalf Christ dealt with sin and its two consequences. He reconciled us to God and will raise us from the grave. Then we, like Him will never die again.
In Vs. 4-5 baptism in water points to Christ’s death and burial, and for the Christian it pictures his or her death to sin. Baptism also pictures our rising to a new way of life. The statement by the glory of the Father refers to God’s glorious power. It was this power that raised Jesus from the dead, and it is this same resurrection power that works in the believers’ life. Paul’s point is that through the salvation experience we were joined to Christ and therefore can know with certainty that we will live in the likeness of His resurrection. Baptism is not only a symbol of death but also of life.
In vs. 6-8 Paul taught that the believer’s spiritual history begins at the cross when our old self was crucified with Him. Believers are no longer enslaved to sin but are freed from sin’s claims. With powerful wording similar to vs., 5, Paul stated a glorious parallel for Christians. If we died with Christ, we will also live with Him.
Dying with Christ and being raised with Him ensure not only that we do not live in sin but also that we live new lives. In vs. 9-10 the clause death no longer rules over Him refers to Christ, but Paul’s purpose is to show that the same is true of believers. The Greek word translated once for all occurs often in the Book of Hebrews and emphasizes the finality of Christ’s sacrifice.
Baptism pictures dying to the lordship of sin; and rising to the lordship of Christ. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh and defeated sin once and for all by His own death and resurrection. Christ liberates believers from sin’s rule and frees them to live for God. People apart from Christ are under the dominion of sin and death, but Christ’s death and resurrection ensures for believers victory over sin and death.
Baptism pictures three deaths and resurrections. Christ’s death and resurrection, a believer’s dying to sin and being raised to new life, and the future resurrection.
Now, what is baptism? Baptism is the immersion in water, by a proper administrator, of a believer in Christ, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Immersion is so exclusively the baptismal act that without it there is no baptism; A believer in Christ is so exclusively the subject of baptism, that without such a subject there is no baptism. In these two statements all Baptist will agree. As to the proper administrator there may be some difference of opinion. A proper administrator is meant a person who has received from a church authority to baptize.
Every Christian believer should obey the ordinance of baptism, if obedience is physically possible. With the thief on the cross it was impossible. God never required impossibilities. On the Day of Pentecost Acts 2:41 says, “They that received his word were baptized.” We might add, “All 3,000 of them.” To God be the glory.
THE THEME OF NEXT SUNDAYS LESSON IS THAT ALL CHRISTIANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER AND TO PARTAKE OF IT ON A REGULAR BASIS. A.V. DAUGHERTY avdaugherty@juno.com