Sermon
A Biblical Lesson On Water Baptism
September 7, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

We decided in our staff discussions the other day that it might be wise, as we start this new fall season and we have so many new families coming into the church, it might be wise for us to take at least the first month before getting back into the gospel of John to speak concerning some of the basic doctrines of our Christian faith. And so for the next four Sundays we're going to do that. I always realize that on mission Sunday my time is very limited and the notes are very, very detailed. Our subject today is a biblical lesson on water baptism. The passages that we have cited in our notes, and I pray that you all have them and I pray that you'll take them home and find time to study them because there's a lot of detailed information I think you'll find extremely interesting on the subject of baptism.

It says, 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. So 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."

"Then the eleven disciples," this is a Matthew passage at the end of Matthew, he says, "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped 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. "

And then again at the end of Mark, "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 I'm going to, because of time, just kind of set the notes aside and just go over what's in my mind -- some of the basic truths. What we find when we begin reading the Gospels, quite early in the first chapter we find John out there along the Jordan baptizing people. Now the question is this, where did John get the idea of water baptism? And when you go back you'll find that the study of the ancient religion always water was included in some act of the worship, because water was believed to have a cleansing power and it prepared the receiver of the water as one prepared to worship.

When you get into the Old Testament, Aaron could not go into the sacred place of the sanctuary until he had bathed his entire body with water. So it was included in the Old Testament rituals. But as John stands there day after day along the Jordan and people are coming to him, what else could happen in the back of his mind that would have prompted him to baptize all these people?

There was one that was a very familiar in Judaism. It was called the proselyte baptism. When people came in from heathenism and from pagan worship and they wanted to become part of the faith of the Jewish people of Judaism, they went through a sacred washing, a baptism, and it was called the proselyte. A proselyte is one who is converted from one religion to another. So a proselyte would be for the Jewish people one who came out of heathenism, paganism and decided they want to follow the Jewish faith, and so they went through this baptism.

Now it was very, very unique. It was a private baptism. And it was done -- the participant was stripped totally naked -- he was put in the water naked. Now the reason for that, their thinking was they didn't want any covering of clothes to cover them with the possibility that water may not have its full washing effect. So the proselyte baptism included a private baptism without clothes.

Now it's interesting when John is baptizing, that could have been in his mind, and the idea of dying and rising also was included in the liturgy of that proselyte baptism. The concept of dying...so when we say a person is baptized, we put them, we immerse them under the water which is symbolic of death, and we bring them out of the water which is symbolic of resurrection. So it has a beautiful symbolism, but that ancient idea comes down from the rabbis because the rabbis say that to be a pagan or to be in heathenism is like living in a tomb or death. And to come out of your paganism or heathenism into the light of Judaism was like coming out of death unto life. And so as a result, John included in that idea and Paul you'll find many times in his writings the idea of death and rising to serve Christ. It's symbolic in the waters of baptism.

Now there's another thing about water baptism. I was raised in a church where it wasn't stressed. I mean, you almost got the feeling that it was optional. You could do it if you wanted to, and if you didn't want to, but Jesus made a very clear. It was a command. And thus, it is part of our Christian faith. When we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and we trust in Him as Lord and Savior, baptism is an outward mark of membership in the body of Christ. And what's interesting is when you go through the book is Acts, and I think there are eleven different situations where baptism takes place, as soon as there was a conversion immediately there followed the act of baptism. There was no delay of time.

Now that's interesting. You remember even the Philippian jailer in Acts 16? I mean, he's converted, his whole household, and at midnight he's baptized. They didn't wait. When we went to Eastern Europe the idea of the church there was you can give your life to Christ but we're going to watch over you for six months to see if you can prove whether you're a Christian or not, and if you really prove out then we'll baptize you. So the first sermon I preached on water baptism in one of those verses I inserted, 'we must wait six months to prove that you're a Christian then you can be baptized,' and they saw the absurdity of it and realized they had been teaching something that was unbiblical.

I say that, ladies and gentlemen, that one of the commands of Christ is the invitation to be marked as a member of His body and of His church, and that outward sign of marking takes place in the act of water baptism.

Now there's another aspect. I've done a lot of research on this matter, and many of us come from a background where a certain mode of baptism is used. We have the baptistery, we immerse, and we feel extremely comfortable with that because it seems to parallel with the teachings of the Scriptures. And we try to remain as close to the Scriptures as we know. But, when you study church history, it's interesting that sprinkling was the most predominant form of baptism. Now that may shock a few of us evangelicals, but church history proves that sprinkling was an accepted mode of water baptism. Now I tell you this folks because sometimes we get very biased and very narrow, and we think the way we do things is the only way. When you have an understanding of history you realize there are different ways of saying the same things, and especially with regards the water baptism. Sprinkling is an often accepted pattern.

So if someone came to me and said, Pastor, I want to be sprinkled, I wouldn't be resistant to that suggestion. Because again, the background, they may feel more comfortable with sprinkling. You say, now pastor, that's getting a little liberal. No. What I'm just trying to say is when you understand that there has been this variety of modes, I think it's a little foolish for us to say there's only one way. To us the most comfortable way is immersion, because that's the way we've done it and that's what we believe the Bible has suggested to us.

Now there's another thing about baptism, some of us come from backgrounds were babies are baptized, and others of us we dedicate babies. In my background it was always baby dedication, not baptism. But this week I was reading through Michael Green's book on baptism. He spends his first 60 pages talking about the overall aspects of baptism, then he spends his last 60 pages proving the validity of infant baptism. So you say, well pastor, then what causes people to...what's their logic in saying that to baptize babies is proper and right?

Well here's where it comes from. In the New Testament baptism is likened unto circumcision. In other words, it says that you're circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart. And so in our liturgical churches there is that belief that what replaced circumcision in the Old Testament, the mark of bringing a child into the covenant family of God was done by the marking a circumcision. So when you get to the New Testament when we want to bring a child, as we bring our children forward, and we want them to be a part or considered a part of God's family, then why not water baptism for the child as they had circumcision in the Old Testament? Why exclude them?

And I had a gentlemen come up to me after the first service and said, Pastor I know what you're getting at. Because there's that difficult situation where we say, but you're baptizing someone, the little child, who doesn't understand. I know that. But surely in circumcision in the Old Testament when the father had the child circumcised, that child didn't understand either. So when you back up from it and say, what's the best way? And because we are a nondenominational church I think I've gotten around both of the problems. Because if you go way back in the ancient Old Testament, the dedication or the setting aside of someone for a very special purpose was to anoint them with oil, because oil has always been symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

So I precede, I go back before, the waters and oft times use oil. And what I find is when you mark a child with the anointing of oil it says a wonderful thing to the families, and it's biblical. But if someone came to me and said, Pastor, would you sprinkle my child? I'd have to understand that in their background -- they were taught to baptize, and we are taught to dedicate.

And again I say this -- I want our church to be understanding of why different people do certain things in different ways so we can be respectful. We don't have to agree, but at least we'll understand why they do what they do. In our church I feel most comfortable with baby dedication and water baptism by immersion.

I have a warning for you today. There is a very active cult who have their headquarters on Southgate and they call themselves the Church of Christ. Their teaching is this: that unless you are baptized in their church you're going to hell. Now I've had a number of folks, in fact three in the last couple of months, come to me who had been a part of that cult. And they've come to me and they said, Pastor we didn't realize that's what they taught until we got into it.

So I'm suggesting that when someone comes to you and they tell you who they are, the first question you ask them, do you believe that you have to be baptized in your church to go to heaven? -- Well I don't know, they haven't said anything about it -- Well go ask them. Go ask the leader. And if they tell you have to, then you know you're being told a lie.

I had one of them come to me recently and say, Pastor you're not going to go to heaven; you're going to go to hell. Why? Because you haven't been baptized in our church -- speaking of their church. Ladies and gentlemen, you can always mark a cult if they say that their church is the only way to heaven you know they're lying -- and run. Just get out of their presence, because they're so convinced that they're right they're exceedingly active. And I say this with kindness, but I say it with firmness, it's a cult and they are teaching a lie.

Baptism is something we do because Christ has done something in our hearts, and we want to follow Christ and be marked as a member of His eternal family with that outward mark of baptism. That's why it's so important to all of us and to Christ. Amen?

Father, I thank you for the joy of the many who sit here and we've been obedient, and if there are those who have not been obedient to water baptism, may they seriously consider following You in obedience. Thank you for this morning's time of worship together, in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you folks.