Sermon
A Biblical Lesson On Water Baptism
October 13, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles as well as our notes today and our subject today is water baptism. We begin use the story of Christ's baptism found in Matthew 3:13. "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"
But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed Him.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Now as Jesus concludes His ministry and He's preparing to go back to heaven, it says, "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.
When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen."

Now Mark picks up the same record, but he adds to in: "And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will follow those who believe. In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover."
So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen."

Now the first place in the New Testament where we are introduced to the concept of water baptism by immersion is found in Matthew 3. It begins: "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness; prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight."
Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins."

Now I'm sure, the question, if you were just beginning to read your Bible, you'd ask the question, I would ask it and it would be this: where to John get the idea about baptizing with water?

In our notes -- Ritual cleansing in water was practiced from immemorial antiquity and those early beliefs have never died; they did not die in Israel, nor in the Church and they still persist today. In other words, if we went back into the ancient past most religions had events or ceremonies that involved water and the washing and the cleansing for a purpose. And the reason why they did that is because the ancients believe that water was imbued with the vital energy of the deities to which they were regarded as consecrated.

Now we come to the Old Testament and in the book of Leviticus, we have the description of the rites of the Day of Atonement in which direction was given to the ceremony of the High Priest in making the sacrifice for the nation of Israel. Aaron must not come, he's the high priest, at any time into the Most Holy Sanctuary, lest he die if he had not bathed his body in water. When you read through that ancient text and it describes all of the various ceremonies in the Old Testament, frequently there was the bathing. I think on one occasion the priest bathes seven times one day. Why? Because water was symbolic of cleansing in preparation for acceptance before God in the act of worship.

But there was also another ancient rite which the Jewish nation performed that must have been in the back of John's mind as he baptized in the river Jordan. It was known as the proselyte baptism. A Gentile, or a non-Jew, who did not observe the Levitical regulations concerning purity, was unclean as a matter of course, and so could not be admitted into Jewish communions without the tebilah, a ritual bath of purification.

Now that was an interesting bath. Anybody outside of the Jewish race who wanted to join Judaism and become an active member in the Jewish community had to go through this baptism. It was in secret. And the reason why it was in secret is because it was done naked. Now here's the reasoning. The Jewish people believed that those sin drenched Gentiles, pagans, needed to make sure that the waters of baptism washed every spot on their body, and thus they did not allow any clothing. It was done in secret.

Now there were certain words that were said at this proselyte baptism that Paul pulls into the New Testament. Look at Romans 6:1-10: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, but just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God."

Now the concept of dying and rising in baptism appears in the ancient verbage when that proselyte baptism took place. It was the words of the rabbi who said, "One who separates himself from circumcision is like one who separates himself from the grave. Spiritually, heathenism equaled existence in a tomb, and hence conversion meant a passage from death on to life." That's why Paul pulls those ancient words from that baptism and says, when we are baptism with Christ it's like dying with Him, going beneath the waters of baptism, coming out of the waters of baptism rising again with Him. The symbolism of death and resurrection.

If we were to visit a cathedral in Geraldton West Australia, the folks who built that cathedral wanted very much for the emphasis to be made on the baptismal. So in that massive cathedral the water baptismal is right in the center of the sanctuary so that everyone around can see this participant going into the waters and coming out. But there's something very unique about that baptismal. It is in the shape of a coffin.

The idea is this: when we are buried with Him we die to self and all of sin and that our past life; it's buried forever. We die to rise again to serve Him as a disciple. That is a striking truth, isn't it? So the waters of baptism Paul pulls from that proselyte baptism and he says when we go under the water we die with Christ, and when we come out, we rise to serve Him in newness of life -- a marvelous symbol.

Now back to our notes -- The baptism of John had two focal points; it inaugurated the new life of the converted, so assuring the baptized of forgiveness of sins, it anticipated the messianic baptism with the Spirit and fire, so giving assurance of a place in the Messiah's kingdom. John had two things in mind: be baptized for forgiveness, but this is a baptism that announces the coming of the Messiah, and in His kingdom He will baptize you with the Spirit. So it was prefiguring the baptism of the Spirit in John's baptism.

Now there is a question that has often been asked, and it has to do with the reason, why did Jesus came to be baptized by John. The answer Jesus gives is: "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." So from the earliest times thinkers were puzzled by the fact that Jesus submitted to baptism. But there were reasons, and good reasons, why He did it.

For thirty years Jesus had waited in Nazareth, faithfully performing the simple duties of the home and of the carpenter's shop. He was awaiting that day for His public ministry to begin. And as He waited He waited for the hour to strike for the moment to come, for the summons to sound, and when John came forward baptizing down in the Jordan, this was the signal to Christ: it's now time to commence My ministry.

Now why should that be so?. Well there was one very simple and very vital reason. It is the fact that never in all history before had any Jew submitted to being baptized. The Jew knew and used baptism, but only for proselytes who came into Judaism from some other religion. It was natural that the sin-stained, polluted proselyte should be baptized, but no Jew had ever conceived that he, a member of the chosen people, a son of Abraham, assured of God's salvation, could ever need baptism. Baptism was for sinners, and no Jew ever conceived himself as a sinner shut out from God. He was the chosen race.

Now was the first time in their national history the Jews realized their own sin and their own clamant need of God. Never before had there been such a unique national movement of penitence and of a search for God. This was the very moment for which Jesus had been waiting. Men were conscious of their sin and conscious of their need of God as never before. This was His opportunity, and in His baptism He identified Himself with the men He had come to save, in the hour of their new consciousness of their sin, and of their search for God.

Jesus leaves heaven, takes upon Himself the form of a servant, a human being, He's going to go to that cross and die for the sins of the human race, and He commences His ministry by identifying with us as sinful man. And He leaves the command, go and baptize. So it's a beautiful act of identification.

Michael Green writes in his book, here is Jesus who had done no sin identifying Himself with sinful men and women in the waters of baptism as a picture of what He had come to do and what would be worked out in blood and tears on that terrible cross a few years later. It was His act of identifying with us. So He chose to be baptized.

Back to our notes -- The voice which Jesus heard at the baptism is of supreme importance. "This is my beloved Son," comes out of Psalm 2. Every Jew accepted that Psalm as a description of the Messiah. "With whom I am well pleased" comes out of Isaiah 42:1, which is a description of the Suffering Servant, which concludes in Isaiah 53.

In the baptism there came to Jesus two certainties-the certainty that He was indeed the Chosen One of God, and the certainty that the way in front of Him was the way of the Cross. In that moment He knew that He was chosen to be King, but He also knew that His throne must be a Cross.

Now there's another question we must ask and answer. If then baptism was introduced by John, and Jesus went to John's baptism and requested to be baptized, what was the significance assigned to it? Well, baptism is an overt, public act that expresses inward decision and intent; since it is performed in the open, and not in secret, it becomes by its nature a confession of a faith and allegiance embraced. If baptism in the name of Jesus is a baptism with respect to Jesus, and so distinguished from all other baptism by its relation to Him, then to submit to it becomes a confession of trust in Him.

Baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, was in the earliest time a baptism for the sake of the Lord Jesus and therefore in submission to Him as Lord and King. When we come to the waters of baptism, we go beneath the waters, we're saying we're dying to self and we're rising to serve Jesus Christ as King and Master over our lives.

When Peter had completed his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, it says: "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Whatever the relation between baptism and the gift of the Spirit elsewhere in the book of Acts, there appears to be no doubt as to the intention of this verse. The penitent believer baptized in the name of Jesus Christ may expect to receive at once the Holy Spirit, even as he is assured of immediate forgiveness of sins. Now let's stop here.

Some of us come from religious traditions and we were told that salvation was one event in our spiritual life, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit is another event. But when you read that verse, what does it say? When we repent, that is, we turn from our sins, we turn our life over to Jesus Christ there is remission of sins and there is the gift of the Holy Spirit. So when we come to the waters of baptism genuinely repenting, turning to Christ, marvelous things take place in that moment. The past is totally buried, forgiven, cleansed forever and into our life is imparted the wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit of God. Do you see why it is such an important event in our life as a Christian?

Baptism was extremely important to the New Testament believer. You notice when Peter finished his sermon and says: then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were saved. They believed, repented, and immediately they were baptized.

We go to Acts 8. We have the story of the early Christians being scattered abroad because of Paul's attack on the Church. Philip went down to Samaria and preached. They listened, and there was great joy in that city. Verse 12, and when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Confession of sins -- immediate baptism. That's interesting.

Acts 8:29 through 40, we have the account of Philip being led by the Spirit to talk with the Ethiopian who was in his chariot. He's just left Jerusalem and he's going back home to Ethiopia. And he's reading from his Old Testament text on the book of Isaiah. He doesn't understand.

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, he preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may. He answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him -- immediately.

Some of us come, again, from traditions where water baptism was not very heavily talked about. Very infrequently did I ever hear a message as little boy on water baptism. It wasn't important in our church, and I was raised in a very evangelical Christian church, but it was not an issue. Some of us here we come from a Baptist tradition where baptism is very, very important to Baptist people. It has great spiritual significance. If you come from Church of Christ, it has great significance. If you have a tradition in Catholicism, infant baptism is very, very important so it's done eight days after the child is born.

But many of us have never, I don't think, realized the import and the importance of water baptism. I didn't until a few years into my ministry. But when you begin to read the book of Acts, passage after passage after passage, confession is immediately followed by water baptism -- always. That really came home to me many years ago. It was my joy to go about the state and help people, congregations, plan their churches and build their buildings. And I was invited down to a lovely congregation down here in East Palo Alto. It was a wonderful black congregation.

I had a wonderful time. They had taken a house kicked out all the walls, and jammed into that little house about 50 or 60 people just singing and shouting, and we had a great time. And the pastor was so delighted that God had provided this little house for his congregation. He was praying and dreaming and eventually we got the building built. But while I was there he said, Pastor, come out to the garage with me. When I got to the garage, in the middle of the garage, is this bathtub. He said, Pastor, this is our baptismal. And he said when somebody gets saved in that house, we march them right to the garage, clothes and all they go in the baptistery, and when they leave they go home wet.

Can you imagine, ladies, sending your husband to church in his nice new suit and his Stetson hat and he comes home and he's standing at the door soaking wet. Where have you been? Did you fall in the Bay? No. I've been to church and now I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I stood there in that garage and said, boy, this preacher's far ahead of me. He knows what the Bible says and he's being obedient, but he was just following the Scriptures. Look at the next verse, the next illustration.

Paul gets converted on the road to Damascus. Ananias sees a vision and is told to go pray for him, and as a result, Ananias goes. And so Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized." Immediately. It's this interesting?

Well let's go to the next one -- Acts chapter 16. Paul goes down to preach at Philippi and he meets Lydia the seller of purple. The Lord opens her heart to hear the things he speaks. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." So she persuaded us. She goes down to pray, meets Paul, Paul preaches to her, she gives her life to Christ, and before that lady and her household went home they were baptized.

In the same chapter, Paul and Silas were thrown into prison. At midnight they began to sing and there was an earthquake. And the jailer thought he was going to lose all of his prisoners, he didn't. He realized his prisoners had not fled. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in the house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all of his family were baptized. Isn't it interesting that when you start reading the Scripture every time there's a conversion, there's an immediate baptism. So baptism followed immediately upon the confession of faith in the Lord Jesus.

Consider with me the mode of baptism. The practice of baptism in the New Testament was carried out in one way; the person being baptized was immersed and put completely under the water and then brought back up again. Baptism by immersion is therefore the 'mode' of baptism or the way in which baptism was carried out in the early church. The Greek word BAPTIZO means "to plunge, dip, immerse" something in water. The symbolism of union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection seems to require baptism by immersion.

Paul tells us in Colossians, "You were buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." Now I know that some of us come from traditions where different modes of baptism was used. Some of us had water poured on us; some of us had water sprinkled on us; and I am frequently asked, Pastor, is my baptism valid?

And I have learned not to answer that question. Because I have learned through time that modes change and certain churches have different ways of doing it, and they have their reasons. Baptism really is an act of the heart, isn't it? It's saying, I, Lord Jesus, want to be Your follower. And the mode really isn't the major issue even though it's the only way it was used in the New Testament.

I had a lovely lady and she came to me one day and she said, Pastor, I almost drowned when I was a little girl and I have a terrible fear of water. I love Jesus. I knew her; she was one of our Sunday school teachers. She said could you baptize me in a different way than putting me in the water?

And I thought to myself, I know her heart, so we sat her down in front of the baptistery and I just took water out of the baptistery and sprinkled it on her. And I believe she was just as baptized as I was when I went in the Feather River as a little boy. I think we make too much of an issue over mode. But if asked the question, what is the closest to the New Testament pattern; what is the New Testament pattern? It's immersion. That's why we have a beautiful baptistery here.

There is one aspect of baptism seldom referred to but in the New Testament, the outward sign of entrance into the "covenant community" is baptism, thus baptism in the New Testament was the counterpart of circumcision in the Old Testament. And here is a very interesting verse. Listen to Colossians: "In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, and you were buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

Now Paul does something very interesting. The way you came into the family in the Old Testament, the family of believers, the male was circumcised. It was that outward act the brought him into the community of believers. And Paul says that the counterpart in the New Testament is water baptism.

Now think -- if that child in the Old Testament was circumcised on this 8th day after birth, now you can understand why they have come to accept in many biblical traditions, or Christian traditions, infant baptism. Because if they circumcised infants in the Old Testament, what is wrong with baptizing children in the New Testament?

When you study the text it says that Lydia and her household, that means all the kids, were baptized with her. When the jailer gives his life to Christ, it's the jailer's household, all the kids, were baptized. And when you get to 1 Corinthians 1:16, Paul is rehearsing who had baptized and he said, I did baptize the household of Stephanas. So from those particular scriptures, and that concept where if circumcision was for an infant in the Old Testament, then baptism should be for infants in the New Testament.

You say, what's your position? I know it's controversial on both sides. I had an experience last evening where this thing really hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a mother sitting here in our evening service and part way through the service she threw her notes down. And I knew that she was traveling in a journey -- I didn't know where. When it was all over she came up to me and she said, with tears streaming down her face, she said, Pastor, I wish you had preached this 20 years ago and you would have believed it, and had an open heart 20 years ago. I moved here from Nicaragua and I brought my grandchildren to you and asked for you to baptize them because that's all I knew; and you refused to do it. And she said, those children now have grown, they're in their 20s, they've never been baptized. And you didn't baptize them.

I said to her, I'm very, very sorry. And I tell you that folks because sometimes in our religious traditions we get so prejudiced. We've got to be so definitive. It can only be done this way, and as a result we sometimes fail to realize God is a great big God and He'll have it done anyway that pleases the heart of that person, or at least that expresses the heart that person.

So what I'm saying is this -- baptism is something that is done out of obedience. The New Testament form is immersion. Sometimes people say, but Pastor I was baptized as a little baby. And I say, if you feel that that baptism represents your Christian faith, I'm going to leave that to you.

I had a little girl in our school just growing beautifully in her spiritual faith, and she wanted to be baptized, but she had been baptized as an infant as a Catholic child. So she went home and said to mom and dad, I'm going to be baptized. Oh no you're not! We baptized you when you were an infant and that's enough. You're not going to be baptized. So she came back and said, Pastor, my mom and dad said I can't be baptized.

I said, well you go home and say this: Mommy and Daddy I want you to know that when you baptized me when I was a baby I appreciate it. And I knew it was in your heart, you wanted me to grow up to be a Christian. I want you to know that what I'm doing is I'm saying to all the world I'm the fulfillment of your prayer. I want to identify with Jesus. It's not saying anything against which you did, it's saying what you did and what you prayed for has now come to fulfillment and I want to tell the world I'm a Christian. And she was baptized; they were there. I think if we use wisdom God will bless us for it.

Is baptism necessary? To say that baptism or any other action is necessary for salvation is to say that we are not justified by faith. Will a person get to heaven if they're not baptized? I'm sure they will. But baptism is an active obedience to
Christ. Our Lord and Master commanded baptism for all who believe in Him. Baptism means death to the person I once was, self-centered, unforgiven, alienated from the life of God. It means that as the water closed over me in baptism God has closed the account for all my past life.

And just as Christ rose from the chill waters of death on the first Easter morn, so you and I will rise from the waters of baptism to enter on the new life He gives us, a life that is shared with Him, governed by Him, a life that will never end. In the thus, baptism initiates us into the Family of God...it is the adoption certificate! It is the mark of belonging, the badge of membership. God comes to us in His free, unmerited grace. We respond in faith and repentance, and baptism signs and seals to us all the blessings of His covenant of grace: forgiveness, sonship, the Spirit, the new birth, justification, and the promise of life after death. All these covenant blessings are pledged to us in baptism.

Now here's the personal question...have you been baptized? It is not optional -- it's commanded. If one truly is a believer and your following Christ in obedience, the first thing to do is to be baptized. Amen? Isn't that clear? You say, when? You come tell me and we'll have a baptismal service.

Lord Jesus, thank you for making Your word so very clear to us today. Now help us to be obedient disciples, in Jesus' named. Amen. God bless you all. God bless you