Celebrating Believer's Baptism

I was thinking about the many lines that we were just singing in that last song. Honestly, as I was sitting there worshiping, I was writing several down and it was just too many, but one that really tops them all is, "Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more." Isn't that good, folks? Those of us who have been redeemed, we have come to faith in Christ. We know that our sins were and are many, but His mercy definitely is more. It was very worshipful for me. I appreciate that song. It's one of my favorites that we do. Now, if you would take your Bible, turn back to Matthew, Chapter 28.

We're going to be there here in a minute and the message will be in verses 16 to 20. And I did say earlier in our scripture reading, we'll be in Romans 6, 4 later on in Colossians 2, 12, right there together. My style of preaching is not that I call you to turn here, there, and everywhere in the Bible. But there are times I feel like we really need to put our eyes on certain scriptures. Now this morning we're gathered together to do quite a few things. We're gathered together to worship. I think that's obvious. We're gathered together to study and to receive God's Word. We're gathered to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we're also gathered together with family and friends, which is a wonderful thing. But I believe that we all know that we're here to celebrate, to enjoy, and to participate in believers' baptism. And I want to take a little time to give us some particular teaching and instruction around baptism. But before we really get started in the message, I want to make sure that we see that baptism is a very serious ordinance given by our Lord Jesus Christ to us, to the church. And our beliefs and practice concerning baptism, those things are a very, very serious thing. Baptism, really it's better said believers' baptism.

Now all through the message I might say believers' baptism or baptism. I'm speaking about the same thing. But believers' baptism is a very serious doctrine first of all because it is commanded. Now before I move on, can we just get something in our mind if something is clearly commanded in the scripture? Isn't that serious? And on top of that it is serious because of its spiritual meaning, its spiritual purpose, and its significance. And the command, the purposes, and the significance of believers' baptism, all those things are clearly seen and explained in the scriptures. These things really are clear.

But it is man and mankind that has made these things unclear. And the method of believers' baptism is clearly seen and explained in the scriptures as well. These things are clear. But again, it is man that has made these things unclear. And what I will share with you this morning about believers' baptism, it will not come from me, it will not come from another man or a particular church tradition, but I'm going to share with you what comes from the scripture. Now I want to give you three words before we progress. The word sufficiency, the word authority, and the word responsibility. We believe in the sufficiency of the scripture.

The scripture and the scripture alone are sufficient to teach us what we need to know about baptism and what we learn there has authority. Why? Because it is God's word. And then the responsibility that we have to obey what we see in the scripture. Now some of you here this morning may have come from a different church tradition and practice concerning baptism. I did when I came to faith in Christ. And if you see and understand baptism differently, I just simply urge you to go to the scripture and the scripture alone.

Again, the sufficiency of the scripture, the authority of the scripture, and our responsibility as believers in Christ and a church to just do what the scriptures say here. Now I want to start off by asking and answering a question. Real simple. Why do we baptize? Why do we baptize? And then when we progress in answering that question, we're going to see who we baptize as well. And right off I want us to see that we are commanded to baptize and the commandment to baptize is found in what is commonly called the Great Commission. Now the Great Commission is found in Matthew 28 and in Mark's Gospel, Mark 16.

But let's go back to our Great Commission passages, verses 16 to 20. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. Now let me pause. What had taken place is this. Jesus had been crucified, buried, he had been raised. He is preparing his disciples for their mission as apostles and New Testament church fathers before he ascends back to heaven. And when they saw him, verse 17, they worshiped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and he said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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 that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age." Now of course we know what was happening here in these verses. I briefly alluded to that. Jesus was preparing his disciples for their role and their job as apostles and New Testament church fathers and he gave them several clear commands to prepare them for this work. Again we know this as the Great Commission. Your Bible probably has a heading there that says Great Commission.

But we need to see that there are several commands here and we need to see how these commands are given and how they are ordered. Actually there is really one main command in the verses and then three commands that are under that one main command. Now this may surprise some of you. The major command here in the verses is not go. It's not. Yes, the major command is not go. The major command comes from the main verb in the verses and the main verb is make disciples. Make disciples. Now if you notice evangelism is not in the verse. Think about it. Evangelism is not commanded here in the verse.

Evangelism or conversion to Christ is implied or it is understood from the language. Really the basic meaning of the language here speaks to one savingly believing in Christ Jesus for salvation and then becoming that learning and following disciple. And that is what a disciple is. A disciple is a follower of Christ and a learner from Christ. So here the basic meaning of the language speaks of one believing savingly in Christ Jesus for their salvation and then becoming a disciple of Christ meaning they are following Christ and learning Christ. Why? Because they have been converted to Christ.

Now I want to take a step back and really see what we have here. Jesus had been given all authority, right? All sovereign authority by God the Father which means that He had complete control of everything. Look at verse 18. What does it say? All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me and out of that authority Jesus gave His disciples this supreme command, what? Make disciples. Make disciples. Jesus said to His disciples you be the instruments to bring men and women to saving faith in Christ who then become followers and learners of Christ.

But notice how all of this fits together within the main command here to make disciples Jesus calls them to do certain other things. First He called them to go. Now the construction of the language literally reads as you are going, as you are going or having gone. It is not a strong command but it is more of an assumption in the original language. Simply Jesus was saying to them as you are going out into all of the world in this work which I am assigning to you make disciples. While you are going into the nations like I have called you to do make disciples. Now think about this in our context and in our world.

We are called to go into the nations. We are called to go to the feed store, to go to Wal-Mart, to go across the street to our neighbor, to go to ball games, to go wherever we are going doing what? Making disciples, making disciples. Now with that it is implied that we evangelize, we share the gospel, we press people in the gospel expecting and hoping that they come to faith. Then second He called them to baptize those newly born disciples. Now this word baptized literally means to immerse into water. And this would not have been a strange thing for the Jews in that day to understand because they understood baptism by immersion.

Let me give you an example, let me explain. In the religion of Judaism they practiced baptism by immersion as a part of converting Gentiles non-Jews into Judaism. And also this word baptized was used in many different ways in their culture. It simply meant to dip in the water or to immerse in water. So simply Jesus was saying to His disciples, "As you are going into the world, into this work which I have called you to, make disciples and baptize them.

Make disciples and baptize them." And here in our context, in our day, we are about making disciples, evangelizing lost sinners, praying that Christ would bring them to faith by the power and the work of the Spirit and then we baptize them. And then third He called them to teach. These new disciples everything He had taught them. Jesus did not stop with just make disciples and He did not stop with just baptizing disciples. Here He clearly commanded them to teach those newly made disciples all the things He had taught them for the past three years.

Simply Jesus was saying to His disciples, "As you are going into the world, in this work that I have commissioned you to, make disciples, baptize them and then engage in the work of teaching them all the things that I have been teaching you. Make disciples, baptize the disciples and teach them and think about it in our context." That's what we do regularly when we gather together. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, we are about teaching disciples what it means to be a disciple. So as Jesus was commissioning His disciples for their work as apostles and New Testament church fathers, He gave them certain clear commands.

He said, "As you are going all over the world, just as I have commanded you, make disciples." He said, "As you are going all over the world, just as I have commanded you, you are to be instruments to bring men and women to saving faith who then become followers." And He said, "When you make those disciples, you baptize them and teach them all the things that I have taught you." Look folks, this is very, very clear. And we must understand that the Great Commission was not only for those apostles, this commission, this calling was and is extended to all of the churches, all believers. That is for us.

And the lesson for us this morning, and I'm highlighting one particular part, the Great Commission tells us that we are commanded to baptize. Remember those three words, sufficiency, authority, and responsibility? These scriptures are sufficient to tell us what baptism means. These scriptures are authoritative. So if the scriptures tell us we should evangelize and baptize, well, we are responsible to obey that. One more thing to think about, how can we fulfill and obey the Great Commission if we do not do all that it says? So the question, why do we baptize? It's simple. We are commanded to. And the other question, who do we baptize?

That simple, that same, those who have been evangelized, who have become disciples. Now next I want to shift a little. I want us to look at what baptism is. This is going to be a little different, a little less practical, a little more spiritual, maybe a little deeper. But I want us to look at both physical baptism and spiritual baptism, spiritual baptism and physical baptism. So first spiritual baptism are the baptism that takes place at one's conversion to Christ.

Now in a clear but profound way, the New Testament teaches us that all true believers in Christ have been spiritually baptized or spiritually immersed into Christ in this great spiritual work takes place at the moment that a believer is born again by work of the Spirit, no matter their age. We see this clearly taught in Romans 6.3. Paul says, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" Now let's make sure we see what Paul is saying here. Paul was not speaking of a physical water baptism here. This language is figurative. It's metaphorical.

We have seen Paul use this kind of metaphorical language before, way back in our study of Ephesians 4, specifically verse 14. We saw where Paul used all sorts of metaphors. He said, "Immature believers were tossed here and there by the waves of bad doctrine. They are carried here and there by the winds of bad doctrine." Paul was using water, waves, and wind metaphorically. But in Romans 6.3, Paul was and is saying that all of us who have savingly believed in Christ Jesus have been spiritually immersed or spiritually baptized into the person of Christ Jesus and His death.

He says that all of us who have been born again and converted to Christ, we are spiritually buried with Christ in His death, and notice what happens from this spiritual baptism, two things. As a result of this spiritual baptism, all believers are united with Christ, united with Christ. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the oldest pass away, and behold the new has come." Paul is saying that those who are spiritually baptized into Christ are united with Christ.

They are in Christ, and as a result of this spiritual baptism, all believers are also placed into the body of Christ, which is His church. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12.13, "For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all who were made to drink of one spirit." Now Paul is saying that those who are spiritually baptized into Christ are baptized into His spiritual body, and that is the church. So we see that there is such a thing as a spiritual baptism. And this baptism takes place at the moment one savingly believes in Christ, all who are born again at the moment of their conversion to Christ.

They are spiritually baptized into Christ, and even into the death of Christ, Romans 6.3. And as a result, those spirit baptized believers are united with Christ in His life, in His death, and resurrection, 2 Corinthians 5.17. And as a result of this spiritual baptism, they are spiritually placed into the spiritual body of Christ, His church, 1 Corinthians 12.13. Now notice how this applies in two ways. First some of you have never heard that there is such a thing as a spiritual baptism. Some of you have never heard this. And if that is you, you need to study Romans 6.3.

You need to study 1 Corinthians 12.13, 2 Corinthians 5.17, and other verses. Now those of you who are members of Grace Life Church, Brooke Aben, you have heard this kind of teaching. It's in our church statement of faith, or confession of faith, and you need to understand these things. There is such a thing as a spiritual baptism. And I am fully convinced that if we do not understand what spiritual baptism is as it is seen here in the scripture, we really don't understand baptism at all. But the second thing, this is not Charismatic theology. Now I'm not throwing stones at our Charismatic friends. No, what I'm trying to show you is this.

This is not Charismatic theology. This is Bible theology. If it's found in the Bible, it's Bible theology. So we shouldn't as Baptists be afraid of these things. But then second, physical baptism. Or the baptism that takes place at one's biblical profession of faith. Now speaking of spiritual baptism, I said that the New Testament teaches in a deep or a profound way that all who have savingly believed in Christ have been spiritually baptized. Well with physical baptism, the New Testament teaches in a clear and obvious way that the proper symbol of the internal work of conversion to Christ is physical baptism.

The New Testament teaches that the correct symbol of the internal work of conversion is believers baptism, which is baptism by immersion in water. And at this point we need to see what physical water baptism is. First physical water baptism is the believers public profession that they have come to saving faith in Christ. Physical water baptism is truly and biblically the believers public testimony and declaration that they've been converted to Christ. I like how John MacArthur expresses this. It's real, real simple, but I latched a halt of it.

He says that water baptism is the outward post-conversion demonstration of an inward reality that has already occurred at conversion. Real simple but true. And we clearly see this all through the book of Acts. Coming from Acts 2, we see that when sinners profess conversion to Christ, their public profession of the inner reality of having been converted to Christ was a public baptism by immersion in water. Let me give you a few examples. In Acts chapter 2, in what is seen as the birth of the church there at the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit was poured out on those thousands who were there, Peter preached Christ.

He preached Christ crucified. And when those who heard the gospel were pierced by the Holy Spirit in their conscience and in their heart, they asked Peter what they must do. And in response, Peter called them to repent and to be baptized. And here the scripture points out that those who were baptized clearly did several things. First, they heard the word concerning the gospel. Second, they were convicted or convinced by the Holy Spirit of God. And that work of the Spirit enabled them to third, receive the word concerning the gospel. And then fourth, they repented of their sin and they believed in Christ Jesus.

And as a result of that profession, they were baptized. Later on in Acts chapter 8, we see the account of when Philip preached the gospel in Samaria. Now this Philip was not one of the apostles. He was one of those men who were the forerunners of the deacons in Acts chapter 6. And he was called an evangelist later on in Acts 21 verse 18. But this Philip was a New Testament evangelist and a missionary. And he traveled to Samaria after the persecution scattered the Church of Jerusalem. Of course, this persecution came from Saul and it seemed clearly in Acts chapter 8.

And after Philip went into the city of Samaria, Philip preached Christ and the text says that multitudes were listening to Philip's message. And in verse 12, we see that many believed the gospel from Philip, both men and women who believed and they were baptized. And it seems that there was a great number of people who believed on that day and they were baptized. And here the scripture tells us that those who were baptized there, they did a series of particular things. First they heard the gospel from Philip. Second, they were convicted or convinced by the Holy Spirit of God, which enabled them to third receive the word concerning the gospel.

Fourth, they repented of their sins. They believed in Christ and as a result, they were baptized as a public profession of that saving belief. You notice this is a repeat of what we saw in Acts 2. One more. We see the same thing happen later on in Acts 10. God did a unique work in Peter's life to call him to the house of a Gentile and that was the home of Cornelius the Centurion.

Acts 10 tells us that Cornelius was a devout man who feared God and through a unique vision from God, Peter was called to go to the home of Cornelius and after he arrived at the home, Peter preached that God does not show partiality to men because Cornelius was a Gentile. Let me pause right here. I'm thankful God does not show any partiality to men. God thoroughly convinced us of that here. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, black or white or in between. It doesn't matter where you come from or where you're going. God shows no partiality and we don't either.

From there, Peter preached Christ starting from John's baptism and then moving to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ and after the Holy Spirit fell on those who were listening to the message, those Jewish believers that were with Peter were amazed that God had saved Gentiles who heard the gospel. Just after these things took place, Peter said surely no one can refuse these who have received the Holy Spirit from being baptized and the text says that Peter ordered those Gentiles who had believed to be baptized and here the scripture tells us that those who were baptized did a series of particular things.

Notice, first they heard the gospel, second they were convicted or convinced by the Holy Spirit and that enabled them to third receive the word concerning the gospel, fourth they repented of their sin and they believed on Christ and as a result they were baptized and then included with a number of the believers. See the pattern? Now I've just given you three accounts real quickly from the book of Acts and what do we see? The same thing that we see in the Great Commission, right? In all of these accounts we see baptism was given to those, they heard the gospel, they received Christ for salvation.

That is a clear pattern and you can follow all through the rest of the New Testament and see that pattern. But second, physical water baptism symbolizes several things. This is where it gets a little deeper folks. Physical water baptism is the believers public affirmation of Christ and their identification with Christ, his death, his burial and his resurrection and it is even the believers public declaration that they possess a new life in Christ by the powerful work of God in their conversion. It truly is the believers public profession and declaration that they are in union or together with Christ in all of these things.

Now here's where I want you to turn to Romans 6.4. Romans 6.4. We read verse 3 earlier but listen to verse 4. Paul says we, speaking to the Christians there in the Roman church, speaking of himself, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life. Now here Paul is saying that the believer publicly identifies with Christ's death, Christ's resurrection and he identifies with a new life that can only be found in conversion to Christ. Now let's turn over to Colossians 2.12. It's very similar.

Paul says having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. Now here in Colossians Paul is saying that the believer publicly declares that he or she is identifying with Christ in death and in a new life that can only come through the powerful work of God. And this leads us to the third thing and that is physical water baptism is baptism by immersion. Now right here is when some of you are thinking, "Yeah I knew he was going to get there.

I know how Baptists are." First of all the word baptism means immersion and all of the language used in the New Testament that speaks of baptism speaks clearly of immersion. Simply the language indicates immersion and there is no other word or term used in the New Testament to speak of baptism or for baptism that isn't immersion in water. Now notice how all of this symbolic language we have been seeing tells us that baptism is a baptism of immersion. If physical baptism represents our spiritual baptism of being buried with Christ in baptism just like in a grave then how can water baptism be anything but immersion?

If physical baptism represents our spiritual baptism of being buried with Christ just as Christ was buried in an earthly grave then how can water baptism be anything but immersion? Simply all of the language in the New Testament associated with baptism whether referring to physical baptism or spiritual baptism it points to a baptism by immersion in water there is just no other way to see it. Again, sufficiency, authority, and responsibility. The Scriptures are sufficient to tell us what baptism is and what it means and it is authoritative as God's word and we are responsible to obey it. So we see the physical baptism.

Physical baptism is the believers biblical profession of a conversion to Christ that has happened in the life whether young or old. Saving faith comes first and then physical baptism takes place as a public profession of that conversion to Christ and this physical water baptism represents numerous things we have seen. Baptism says that the professing believer is identifying with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Baptism says that this professing believer is proclaiming that they have a new life in Christ by the powerful working of God in their life.

Simply when one is being baptized the old self is being buried with Christ, buried with Christ in baptism and coming out of that water as a new person in Christ raised to live a new life in Christ. I remember when I was baptized, Highland Baptist Church, Laurel, Mississippi, Pastor Ken Regan, associate pastor baptized me. I remember being instructed in what it meant. See I had come to saving faith recently. God had converted me out of a life of sin and rebellion. God had saved me and led me to a church. Let me explain something. When I walked into the doors of Highland Baptist Church I immediately knew that I was baptized into that body.

And when I went into that baptismal pool I knew what it meant. I knew that I was proclaiming Christ. I knew that the old self was being buried with Christ and I was being raised symbolically out of that water to live a new life in Christ. Is that your testimony? You know we don't spontaneously have testimonies but if I pointed to Keith and got him to stand up he could tell you just how God saved him, how he was baptized, what it meant. He could explain that as a testimony in his life. I could ask Tommy to stand up, he could share. I could ask Evan, he could stand up, he could share.

I could ask Travis Crowell, he could stand up, he could share. I could ask Anthony Bataglia, he could stand up and he could share. You know how I know that? Because I've heard it from them. Is that your testimony today? I pray that it is. Now as I begin to close the message I want to quickly speak to two groups of people. First those of you who are being baptized this morning when you're joining the church we don't just baptize people to float out there. We have a sermon for another day when people were professing Christ in the scripture and being baptized they were identifying with a local body.

So those of you who are being baptized this morning in participating in believers baptism this morning you will be professing publicly in and through the baptismal waters. You will be saying that you have been buried with Christ and you have been raised with Christ to live a new life in Christ and through the powerful working of God in your life that's taking place. Those of you who are being baptized if you have any reservation just put it on hold. Oh but if this message has welled up in your heart because God's done that. See that's what the Holy Spirit of God does folks.

As the message is taught and truth is rolled out the Spirit of God affirms that to you and you say yes pastor amen in your heart and in your mind. If that's you I'm telling you boldly step into the baptismal waters to profess Christ. But the second group the rest of us at the beginning of the message I said something that might seem odd. I said that we are here to celebrate, enjoy and participate in believers baptism. Does that seem odd that I would say celebrate and enjoy? Well we need to see that it is thoroughly biblical that we should celebrate in a big way when we have believers baptism.

In Luke chapter 15 in the parable of the lost sheep we see that God and the angels in heaven are filled with joy and celebration when even one lost sinner repents and puts their trust in Christ. Jesus says in verse 7 I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous person who needs no repentance. And he goes on in verse 10 and says I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And look those of you who are being baptized listen to your pastor. When you came to saving faith in Christ that text tells us there was joy and celebration in heaven.

And so we are going to be like God the Father and the angels in heaven when we baptized this morning we are going to celebrate. So this morning the title of the message was celebrating believers baptism. And after we sing a closing song of worship we always worship and song after the message we will hear testimonies from those who are being baptized and then we will move over to the fellowship hall for baptism.