As I said last week, we have had a large number (at least for us) of people wanting to be baptized so we have decided to take a week off our Matthew series and just look at baptism. This is actually the first time I’ve ever stepped out of a series like this, but it seems to be where the Spirit is leading so we are going to follow.
Many of you know that I grew up at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando which means I grew up in a church that taught infant baptism. The theological term for this is paedo-baptism coming from the Greek word for child. In my 20’s I began to be more compelled by baptism for believers only. The theological term for this is credo-baptism which comes from the latin word, believe. I was in campus ministry at the time so I had the freedom of avoiding a decision because, honestly, I wasn’t very excited about the idea of deviating from the church I grew up in. But, in 2007 my hand was forced. We had our first child and either he or I had to be baptized. I had to either baptize him as a baby or I needed to recognize that what happened to me as a baby, while it was very special (or so I hear), was not a baptism and the next step of obedience for me would be to be baptized myself. You can guess which I chose.
Then I had to wade through Reformed Theological Seminary where all the professors teach infant baptism. Two things are true of any baptist student who finished RTS as a baptist. First, you are more gracious to their view. Second, you are more sure of your view because it’s been tested. A number of you have experienced this and can give a Maleny style amen. What I realized during my time at RTS was that I’m just more Reformed than they are:) They stopped at baptism and we kept reforming. BTW, don’t say that to your Presbyterian friends. It really makes them angry.
This sermon is going to be more topical in nature than normal, but that’s fine. This morning I want to simply talk about 1) what baptism is and 2) who it is for.
- What baptism is
Baptism is the sign of entry into the community of God’s people. Now, I want to say that there are really bad ways to come up with your view of baptism. You hear baptists say that we don’t baptize babies because we don’t see it in the New Testament. That’s actually a bad way to come to the right conclusion. Then, on the infant baptism side, you hear people say, “They had household baptisms in the New Testament, so surely that includes babies.” That’s a bad way to come to the wrong conclusion. They are bad because they don’t address the main question that needs to be asked. Where we land on baptism must come from one question: How do the Old and New Covenants fit together?
We have to start here because baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of entry. That’s what we read in Colossians 2. We have to know why that sign of entry changed when the New Covenant came to understand how the new sign is used. Now, we will have to do a little more thinking in this part of the sermon than we normally do, but I promise once we see it, it’s pretty simple.
In the Old Covenant, what was the sign of entry into the community of God’s people? Circumcision. And this was of course a sign that was only given to men. Kids if you have any questions about why that is, ask your parents over lunch today. With that in mind, we need to then ask, what is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? Another way to ask this question is what is new in the New Covenant? Let me read some of Jeremiah 31 where Jeremiah tells Israel that a new covenant is coming. [31] “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, [32] not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. [33] For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” - Jer 31:31-33
So there is a new covenant coming that deals with the heart. The problem with the Old Covenant wasn’t the covenant, but the people. Israel was a mixed bag of believers and unbelievers. But Jeremiah says that one day a covenant is coming where all of God’s people will have the law in their hearts. The author of Hebrews in chapter 8 quotes Jeremiah 31 saying g“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land ofEgypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, - Heb 8:8,9
So what was the problem in the Old Covenant? That the people did not continue. They didn’t continue in the covenant. Again, Israel was a mixed bag of believers and unbelievers and that was not good. All the men had the sign of circumcision, but many of them did not have a heart for God. They had the sign, but they did not believe. The better promise in Jeremiah is that God’s covenant people would one day no longer be comprised of both believers and unbelievers. They would be one body sealed by the Spirit.
So, what is new about the New Covenant? The newness of the New Covenant is that God’s covenant people are no longer a mixed bag of believers and unbelievers. In this new covenant, people aren’t compelled by an outward, external law, but an internal one if we are a part of God’s people and the result is that we continue in our faith. Obviously, there are other aspects to the newness of the New Covenant like the inclusion of the gentiles, but according to Jeremiah, Hebrews, and Paul, this is the main aspect of the newness as we gentiles are grafted into the believing remnant of Jews and together we make the church of Spirit filled believers.
And in the New Covenant, the sign of entry, or the sign of having entered, changes from circumcision to baptism. No one disagrees with that. And if we understand that baptism is the new sign, we then ask when is it applied? Well, the question kind of answers itself if we realized what is new about the New Covenant. The sign is applied in both covenants at the point of entry into the community. How did you enter the community in the Old Covenant? Birth. How do you enter the community in the New Covenant? Rebirth. So the sign is applied when we are born again. When you believe.
Jesus says exactly this in John 3, 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is nborn oagain2 he cannot psee the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born qof water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 rThat which is born of the flesh is sflesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.3 - John 3:3-6
A theology of baptism for believers only actually has more continuity with the Old Testament than our friends who baptize babies. We still apply the sign at the point of entry. The point of entry is what changed. It’s not just for those who were born into a specific ethnic group, it’s for those who are born again by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God. A baptist rightly understands the forward movement in redemptive history and applies the sign in a consistent way.
The idea that the sign of initiation is for ‘those who believe and their children’ doesn’t exist in any covenant era. A better and more continuous way to understand and mark God’s people is this: The church is the children of Abraham, defined in the Old Covenant as those who are of physical descents from Abraham (Genesis 17:9) and in the New Covenant as those who share Abraham’s faith (Galatians 3:7).
The faith of an Israelite child’s parents was not the decisive factor in that child receiving circumcision – it was his association with the nation of Israel. In other words, the lines of covenant were not drawn around individual believing family units throughout the Old Testament, but around the national family of Abraham. It was not the “children of believers” who had the right to the sacrament of initiation, but the “children of Abraham.”
I started by asking what is new in the New Covenant. I’ll ask the same question in a different way: What exactly did Christ accomplish? He secured a people of faith, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and marked upon entry, just as Jeremiah prophesied he would. So, to bring unbelieving babies in and give them the mark of entry is to not appreciate the fullness of what Christ accomplished and to recreate the main problem in the Old Covenant. It also fails to see the fulfillment of the Old Covenant and forward movement of redemptive history.
Now, let me address two oppositions that my Presbyterian friends would bring up. First, what about Acts 2:39 where Peter says, “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off…”? First, we need to ask what the promise is. It’s not baptism, it’s the Holy Spirit. Second, who is the promise for? Anyone who receives the Spirit. This is why the verse ends by saying, “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” Third, how is the promise received? Peter says that it is received by repentance. Something an infant cannot do. Fourth, we need to be consistent in the way we apply this promise to both children and those who are far off. No good Presbyterian is baptizing those who are far off if they do not believe, so why are they doing that to children? Again, going back to Romans 9, Pauls writes, “This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but qthe children of the promise are counted as offspring.” (Rom. 9:8)
Again, giving unbelieving children the mark of the New Covenant is perpetuating the fundamental problem in the Old Covenant by giving unbelievers the sign of entry into the community of faith. Now, I’m not saying we treat our children as outcasts. It is a huge blessing to be born into a family where one or both parents are filled with the Holy Spirit. The promise is for them..once they believe. Then they are given the sign of baptism and made members of the church.
Second opposition, what about the household baptisms? There are five instances of household baptisms in the New Testament and all except Lydia’s conversion make it clear that the entire household converted. They believed. We don’t have any reason to believe Lydia’s household is any different, but Luke just doesn’t go into as much detail as with the other four.
I know it can feel like all these other traditions all agree on infant-baptism and we are in the minority. The problem is that Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and Episcopalians all get to their conclusions on baptism in very different ways. They agree on how, but they all disagree on why. So, the infant-baptist world is not monolithic by a long shot. And, the Presbyterian understanding of infant baptism simply did not exist until the 1500’s.
Ok, that I admit was some heavy lifting, but I hope it is clear. Baptism is the sign of entry into the community of God’s people. Now, who is it for?
- Who is it for?
It is for all those who are united with Christ through faith in Him. In the same way that Jesus was engulfed into the tomb when he died, so we who believe in him are to be engulfed by a tomb of water. The word Greek baptizo actually means to be immersed. One of the most common uses of the word outside the New Testament is in pickling recipes where you submerge what you want to be pickled in the pickle juice. Every baptism that is described in the New Testament, starting with Jesus, is done by being immersed in a body of water. This is why John the Baptist got his name. He immersed people in water. When we are baptized, it is a public symbol of our union with Christ. That we have died to our old self and that we have been raised to walk in newness of life with Him. We are a new creation and one day we too will resurrect from the grave as Jesus did.
So, baptism is for all those who profess faith in Jesus. Baptism doesn’t save anyone. The criminal on the cross was never baptized and Jesus said he would be with him in paradise. But, baptism is still a command. And not just a command, but a blessing. A blessing for those being baptized and a blessing for all of us who get to witness it. Every time we get to witness baptisms we are reminded of when that grace came into our lives. It is an opportunity for us to improve on our baptisms which means it is a type of fuel for us to grow deeper in our walks with Jesus. And for the unbelievers in the room, it is an opportunity to hear and see Jesus’ gospel invitation to them. And this is why we do baptisms in church as a spiritual family. Because this is for everyone. We don’t hide the blessing in a private bathtub service, we share it with our church family.
Now, I do want to say that the New Testament has no category for re-baptism. That’s a word that should be stricken from our lexicon. If you have been baptized as a believer in a gospel believing church and then you had a season of straying from Jesus and you’ve come back. Brother or sister, you are a baptized believer.
So, is baptism the next step for you? If you understand and believe the gospel and you have not been baptized, then yes. Peter commands in Acts 2, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you...” He doesn’t say, “Repent and consider baptism.” He doesn’t say, “Repent and pray about baptism.” He doesn’t say, “Repent and be baptized, some of you.”
When Jesus gave us the Great Commission, he said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The New Testament has no category for belief without baptism unless you are physically unable or die before you can. This is the boldest I will get today. If you are a believer and have not been baptized, you are living contrary to what the New Testament teaches. There are countries today where baptism costs people their lives…and they still do it. There are places in the world where as a part of the baptism liturgy, they are asked, “Are you willing to be baptized today, knowing that it may cost you your life?” And the baptism candidate responds by saying, “Jesus is my Lord, whenever He says, “Do,” I will do it.” So we in the West simply cannot make this some optional add-on.
If you are a parent trying to figure this out with your kids, I’m there with you. We regularly welcome new members who genuinely became a Christian at the age of five. And while we praise God for that, for my kids, I generally wait until after they are ten when I can really see that they have some sort of consistent walk with Jesus and the basic fruit of repentance in their lives. We wait until they can articulate the gospel and their testimony, as basic as it is at that time of life. For what it’s worth, I used to wait until the teenage years, but I now think that, at least for my own kids, that was too long. But, ten is not a hard and fast rule and I lean heavily on the wisdom of the parents.
So, what if you were baptized as a baby? If you were baptized in a gospel believing infant baptizing branch of the church like the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, or Anglican tradition and you understand from the Bible why you were baptized that way and your conscience believes that that is a true Biblical baptism, while that isn’t what we believe or will ever teach or practice, I do want you to know that you are welcome here as a member of OGC. Not a second class member, but a member like anyone else. While I would love for you to be persuaded by what I’m saying this morning, I won’t elevate how you are baptized to a membership issue. But, if this is you, I do want you to search your soul and genuinely ask yourself if you really believe that or is it just easier? Or is God possibly showing you that you have not been baptized and that baptism is your next step?
But, if you were baptized as an infant in the Roman Catholic Church where they teach that infant baptism saves the child through the faith of the parents (and please hear me say this lovingly), we don’t acknowledge that as a legitimate baptism. No understanding of baptism as a work that saves you can coexist with the gospel of justification by faith alone.
You don’t have to be a member of the church to be baptized, but historically these two things have gone hand in hand. It doesn’t mean they have to happen at the same time, and I don’t want to turn this into a sermon on membership, but the Bible is clear that we are baptized ‘into the body of Christ.’ For a Christian to say, “I’m not going to be baptized” is to say, “I’m not going to identify with Christ,” and to say to the church, “I’m not going to identify with you either.” I’ve said this before, but much of the failing of the church in America isn’t that we are asking too much of our people, but that we are asking too little.
Some of you are new to Christianity and baptism is the next step in your walk with Jesus. Some of you have been walking with Jesus for decades and baptism is the next step in your walk with Jesus. On April 27th, the Sunday after Easter, we are going to have baptisms and if you are interested in being baptized, we will show you how in just a bit.
And we have to see baptism as a beautiful invitation and not simply a duty. It is required, but it’s so much more. The last thing I want is for anyone to feel like I put the guilt trip on them today. Let me finish this way. My wife, Angela, and I really got to first be friends when we were on a year long mission trip together on the same team. Our team was made up of 12 people, 8 of whom were single and looking. Two of them had dated before and broken up. So we had a rule that we were not going to date each other that year because things could go sideways and get awkward fast. Well, about three months in, I could tell there was really something happening between Angela and me. We would sit together in language class, we’d laugh together, or go explore parts of the city together. So, I sent her a text one day and asked her to meet me on the main bridge in the middle of town and I basically told her, “I can really tell there is something going on between us, but I want to honor the commitment we’ve made and not date this year.” Then there was this really long pause. Long enough for me to realize I had misread the situation. She then told me nicely, but clearly, “Jim, thanks for leading in this way, but you need to know that if we were allowed to date and you asked me, I would say no.” Later she told me she just looked at me like a little brother. That’s not what I wanted to hear.
I was both embarrassed and a bit heart broken. She had walked with Jesus for years and I was a new Christian and she was wise to respond the way she did. But, man, I wanted to date her. So, I just focused on growing in my Christian walk, not simply so I could date her, but because she showed me how much more there is to the Christian life and a whole category of women that I was not qualified to date:) Fast forward and by the end of the year, she had come around and the last month of the trip, the team leader, David Robbins, who is now the President of Campus Crusade (and Angela’s cousin) said, “Yeah, you two need to date. Go for it.” We went on four dates and I asked her to marry me. I’m not suggesting that, but it worked for us:) Four months later, we got married.
How do you think I felt when I got to put that ring on her finger in front of hundreds of friends and family? Amazing! That ring was a symbol of my love for her. I never complained that we were already in love and question why I needed to do this extra thing. I was thrilled to do it!
In the same way, Jesus is calling all who believe in him to a wedding more rich and more intimate than we could ever imagine. And our baptism is like that ring. It is a way of proclaiming and celebrating our faith and salvation to our spiritual family. We have been saved from our sin, raised to walk in newness of life, lavished with love from our Heavenly Father, and it’s not that we have to proclaim that, but that we get to celebrate that.