Baptism Pt 1
By Chap Bettis

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old Private Bill Goodwin puts down his gun, takes off his combat jacket and steps into the warm waters of Iraq's Tigris River. "I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ," proclaims his unit's Protestant chaplain, Xuan Tran, submerging the soldier completely for Sunday's baptism rite. Goodwin emerges smiling and posing for a photo to send to his family in Oklahoma before reflecting on what he has done. "I have been away for five and a half months and have though a lot about this. I could die here. I realized it was necessary to get baptized," he said.

For many of the 132,000 American soldiers occupying Iraq, religion is an important solace as they face loneliness, hardship and the possibility of losing their lives. Chaplain Tran, a Southern Baptist minister, performs regular baptisms of U.S. troops in the waters of the Tigris at a U.S. base in a former palace of Saddam Hussein at his hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

The reporter continues writing - Many such rituals reflect the widespread evangelical belief that a Christian must be "born again" through adult baptism. "For some, it is the first time, for others it is a re-dedication of their lives. They face many risks here, and want to make sure they have a right relationship with God," Tran said, before taking Sunday's communion service on the base.”

What exactly are these guys doing? Are they, as this reporter said, saved through baptism. This afternoon we have a baptism planned. What exactly are we doing? What exactly is baptism? What is it not? Who is it for? Who is it not for? How should it be administered?

In the realm of Christendom, there is vast disagreement over the issue of baptism. Since we are doing a series on the basics and since we are having a baptism this afternoon and since I have not ever done a teaching on baptism, this seemed an appropriate time.

Matthew 3:1-6, John 3:22-26, Matthew 28:18-20

What is baptism?

First it is a command of Jesus Christ

· Jesus began his ministry by submitting to the baptism of John.

· Jesus and disciples practiced it on their followers.

· Jesus commanded his followers to go into all the world and baptize.

· So closely tied with conversion/evangelism that in the Great Commission, Jesus just uses the word baptize.

· If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, Jesus commands you to be baptized.

Second, it is the initiation rite commanded by Jesus.

· It is one of the initial steps of obedience after a person says they are following Jesus Christ.

· It turns a private dedication to the Lord Jesus into a public one.

· In the New Testament, baptism follows closely on the heels of the profession of the believers.

o Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

o Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

o Acts 8:36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?

o Acts 9:18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

o Acts 10:47 Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

o Acts 16:29-34 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Men what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and the whole family was filled with joy, because they had come to believe in God.

· It is a demonstration of devotion.

· One of two practices that Jesus commanded his followers to do. Baptism is a one time initiation rite. Communion is a repeated.

· As an initiation rite, it requires humility and boldness. Boldness to identify with Jesus. Humility to participate in a ceremony .

· What would you think of a bride and groom who married in secret and never told anyone they were married.

Third it is a sacred symbol.

· But baptism is sacred, holy. Fraternities have initiation rites that require humility and boldness. But Jesus’ command is sacred because of what it symbolizes.

· The most obvious human symbol is of washing. We use water to wash dirt away. It is a ceremonial washing away of our sin. It symbolizes that Jesus’ blood has washed away our sins.

o John 3:25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing.

o Acts 22:16

o The Godward aspect of cleansing comes from the blood. The manward symbol of that cleansing is water.

· But there is another symbol. That is our union with Christ. We are united with him in his death, in his burial and in his resurrection.

o Romans 6:3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

o Col 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

o 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has gone, the new has come.

o "That plunge beneath the running waters was like a death; the moment's pause while they swept overhead, was like a burial; the standing erect once more in air and sunlight was a species of resurrection."(Sanday and Headlam, "A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans," in The International Commentary.)

o Remove your shoes, bow your head, and bend your knees: this is a holy event. Baptism is not to be taken lightly.

o You are saying, I am so united to Christ, that the old me is dead and buried. The old Rebekah, Lori, Jonathan, Jordan, Jacob, Ben is gone. A new creature has been raised to life.

o There are two section in my physical life. Before Christ and after Christ. There may be many chapter but there are only two sections, BC and AC.

· Just as Moses led the people of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea that began their new life as a nation but judged the Egyptians, so Jesus Christ leads you through the waters of that will symbolize your new life while also symbolizing the judgment to come.

Before we go to who should be baptized and how to be baptized, let me correct two wrong views of baptism.

Baptism is not a trivial event.

· It is a command of Jesus Christ.

· Everyone in the NT who professed to follow Christ was baptized immediately.

· You cannot say to yourself, I am saved so I don’t need to be baptized.

· Likewise, you cannot let fear stop you. Who will you fear more, speaking in front of men. Or fearing God. You cannot let your walk before the Lord be controlled by fear.

But if we can err on the side of Baptism being a trivial event, we can err on the side of Baptism being a saving event.

Every church that names the name of Jesus says man comes into this world with a sin problem. The solution to that sin problem is to be reborn. The question is how are you reborn. Really, the teachings of all the churches fall into two categories. One category says that rebirth happens by faith. The other category says, you are reborn through baptism. Many different types of churches teach a form of the doctrine that baptism is necessary for salvation. This doctrine is called Baptismal Regeneration.

The Catholic church teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation because the act of baptism itself causes regeneration. Baptism is the means the church bestows saving grace upon people.

· Ludwig Ott says this. Baptism is that Sacrament in which man being washed with water is spiritually reborn. Baptism by water… is necessary for all men without exception for salvation. Faith…need not be present.

· Why? Essential to understanding this view is that the sacraments work apart from the faith of the person believing.

o The Sacraments operate by the power of the completed sacramental rite.

· So in essence, baptism confers regeneration upon a baby. The power is in the rite itself not the faith of the person.

· Those who are invited to participate as godparents in a Catholic infant baptism need to consider what that church would teach is happening at that moment and how.

But it is not only the Catholic church that teaches this, some liturgical Protestant churches would hold to this teaching, especially those that baptize infants. They would believe that the christening of the infant actually works some regenerative power in the infant.

While certain churches believe in baptismal regeneration for infants (and the few adults that are baptized) other would believe in baptismal regeneration for adults. Some (not all) churches of Christ also teach that baptism in their church waters is necessary for salvation.

· The Boston Church of Christ teaches As with the first Christians, when a person repents and is baptized their sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit begins to work in their life.

· Some churches of Christ teach that the waters of baptism actually take on a magical quality.

· I don’t have time to properly show the problems with this view.

· But suffice it to say that what is being confused is the necessity of baptism vs. the importance of baptism.

o In an attempt to recover the importance of baptism some have pushed it beyond important to necessary for salvation.

o The problem with handling this Scripture is that they are basing a major doctrine on less clear passages while ignoring the clear ones.

· Paul faced a similar problem with the Galatians churches. After Paul left, some Jewish teachers came in and said trusting Christ is great as long as it is joined with circumcision, the initiation rite into Judaism.

· In other words, salvation is by faith in Christ plus circumcision.

· The Protestant Reformation was not fought over faith in Christ for salvation. It is the alone part. Faith alone.

o Abraham was justified by faith alone. (Romans 4)

o For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.

o The thief on the cross was saved by his faith alone, not by baptism.

o Justification is by faith alone. The minute you add anything to that, including baptism, you have taken away the alone part of faith alone.

o However, let us come back full circle and say with Martin Luther we are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone. Faith will always demonstrate itself – particularly in baptism.

Who is baptism for?

· Every single clear account of baptism shows an adult believer is declaring his allegiance to follow Jesus Christ.

· Every single account of baptism shows that it is after they have believed.

o Acts 2:41 Those who accepted hi message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

o Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of Goad and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

o Acts 8:36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?

o Acts 9:18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

o Acts 10:47 Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

o Acts 16:29-34 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Men what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and the whole family was filled with joy, because they had come to believe in God.

· There is no account of infants being baptized.

o Infant baptism did not arise until around 240 AD as the ordinance of the church moved from remembrance to bestowing grace apart from the faith of the recipient.

o [Augustine taught that there should be infant baptism and infant communion. At least he was consistent. If they can have baptism then they should have communion.

o As a side bar, the reason we ask children who truly believe to wait until they are baptized before communion is because the two go together. In fact, I would feel more comfortable asking an adult who has not been baptized to wait to take communion. In other words, I know I am being inconsistent. To be pressed to consistency I would move toward the adult who is not baptized.

o Protestant believing churches today who hold to infant baptism, do not hold to baptismal regeneration. But they do believe, that like circumcision it is a sign of the promise of the child’s belief.

o I hold that this is just part of the incomplete reformation of the church that began in the 1500s. It was not until the Anabaptists that this issue was rightly reconsidered.]

How should baptism occur?

· As a church we are inflexible on the preceding points.

o Baptism is clearly a symbol, it does not save in and of itself.

o Since it is a symbol, it is only appropriate for those who profess repentance and faith to be baptized. Therefore infants are not to be baptized.

· So baptism is for believing persons. How is baptism to occur?

· There are some who would hold that baptism is best understood to be sprinkling. Since, they say, items in the OT were ceremonially cleansed through the sprinkling of blood, so the ceremonial cleansing is best represented by sprinkling.

· To this we would answer.

o The word baptize is a Greek word transliterated that means to immerse or dip. Greek dictionaries bear this out. When the translators of the English got to this word in the first old English Bible around 1200s, rather than translate the word and be killed they transliterated it. That is they created a new English word.

· There is a perfectly good Greek word that means to sprinkle. That word is used in Hebrews.

o Immersion is the method that best symbolizes what the Bible says it represents.

· Ceremonial cleansing

· Death, burial and resurrection.

o Every NT reference seems to denote plenty of water was needed.

o The didichae, an early church manual, has these words. Immerse in running water “In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” If no running water is available, immerse in ordinary water. This should be cold if possible…” If not possible the water could be sprinkled or poured.

· Our church has held that immersion is the best mode of baptism. However, if that is not possible for some reason, for example a medical reason, we would be willing to baptize another way.

· This view also explains why we have accepted that baptisms of some of you who have been sprinkled or poured as a believer. We require you to be baptized as a believer. We would accept any baptism that occurred at that point, although we would also urge you to consider immersion for the reasons outlined above.

Giles Pellerin, at 87 years old, had attended 750 consecutive USC football games. He had not missed a game – home or away – in 69 years. One year, after an emergency appendectomy, to told nurses he was going for a walk and instead went to the stadium? Why? He said, “That’s just part of being a fan.”

Dan Cloutier will go and root for his beloved Texas Rangers among 30,000 Red Sox fans. It doesn’t matter who others are for, Dan publicly identifies with the Rangers. That’s part of being a fan.

Have you publicly identified with Jesus? Have you been baptized? If not, why not?

· Perhaps you never understood the issue, you never understood the importance.

· That should be passed.

· Perhaps you don’t want to. Why not? Isn’t it strange that Jesus put aside his glory, came down to earth, was crucified on a cross for your sins, and you will not identify with him?

· Jesus said, If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my heavenly father. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do the things that I says to do.

Will you obey Jesus and be baptized as a believer. Those who love me will obey my commands.

If you have any questions, comments or observations, please call Chapman Bettis at 401 727-2367 or John Riley at 401-453-5550 or email at johnr@cornerstoneri.com