One Lord, One Baptism

Well, I know that you've probably already taken your Bible and turned to Ephesians, but if you haven't, go to Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to touch on those verses here in just a moment, but Ephesians chapter 4, we'll look at verses 4 through 6 again. We will start off with these verses, primarily verse 3, and then we're going to look at various other passages all through the message. Now this morning we're here for quite a few reasons, and obviously the reason, or the reason, surround the observance of baptism. I think you know by now we're here to celebrate, we're here to worship as we observe baptism.

And in doing so, we will seek together to do certain things within this worship service. I will mention too that I believe will kind of set the tone for the message that I want you to share, and will set the tone for the entire service. So first of all, I want you to see we are here to celebrate. We are here to celebrate. We are celebrating the fact that one of our own has experienced a new birth. Now automatically I think about John chapter 3.

Now in our study in the Gospel of John, we went through chapter 3 and we saw how the Lord Jesus related to Nicodemus as he was inquiring about eternal life, he was seeking to know who Christ was, and Jesus laid out for this very religious man what the new birth was like. The fact that he needed to be born again, born from above, born of the spirit of God. And we are here celebrating the fact that God has birthed one into the kingdom. It's not a decision that they've made. It's not a commitment that they've made. They've been born into the kingdom by the spirit of God. Second, we're also here to worship. We are here to worship our great God.

They call salvation for mankind, but begins and ends with God. It is God who is the author of salvation. I don't understand it. I can't explain it, but somehow, someway, forever ago, if I can look down the tunnel of time to eternity past, God determined before anything was ever created that he was sinned to son Jesus to provide salvation for lost humanity. And in that, just in that, we should worship. He did not leave us to our own in our sin. He has provided salvation for us. And we worship God in that. Now I want to direct your attention back to our verse that we read earlier, this Ephesians passage starting in verse 4. What is Paul saying?

He's writing to that church there at Ephesus. He says there is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. What is he speaking of? There is a oneness there. We are in Christ and we are in one another. In verse 5 he says, "And there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, in all who is an all, who is over all and through all and in all." Here Paul is listing many different things, but he is focusing on the unity within the true Christian faith.

Just as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one, those of us who are born again Christians, we are one with Him, one with each other, and baptism is a part of that faith. Now we're going to go ahead and put the title of the message on the screen for you this morning. The title of the message comes out of those verses and that is "One Lord and One Baptism." The title of the message is "One Lord and One Baptism." We're going to explore four different questions, four different questions. Why do we baptize? How do we baptize? When do we baptize? And then what is baptism? It's very easy questions for you to write down.

I invite you to write them down. Our habit here at Nola Baptist Church is to take notes. It's a good habit. It's a good discipline. It enables you to remember what the Lord wants us to teach. It gives you information from the message that you can go back and study on your own, pray over, and let the Lord just implant these truths into your mind. So you see these four questions. Let's look at our first question and that is number one, "Why do we baptize?" First question, "Why do we baptize?" Now if we ask this question, those around us in our culture, we will most likely get a lot of different answers.

If we ask people if they are Christians, many of them will respond saying, "Yes, I've been baptized." Many times we were talking to people in the community about church and spiritual things. People will automatically mention when they were baptized communicating that they had some sort of spiritual or maybe mystical experience. Now if I ask you that question, "Why do we baptize solely from the Scriptures?" The answer is very simplistic and very narrow. I think today, as much as any day, the question of why do we baptize, it needs to be answered from the Scriptures, which are supremely authoritative.

So when asking this question, "Why do we baptize?" Notice first, it was commanded by Jesus. It was commanded by Jesus. Now we studied this passage last week in our Sunday morning message. This is the Great Commission passage, Matthew 28, verse 19 and 20. Jesus said to the disciples there, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit," verse 20, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." The act of baptism and the Lord's Supper are two ceremonies or ordinances which the Lord commanded the church to perform and to participate in.

Traditionally, we Baptists have called these ordinances because they were ordained by Christ. We see that Christ exemplified baptism in Matthew chapter 3 when John the Baptist baptized Jesus at the onset of his earthly ministry. He commanded this here in the Great Commission just before he formed the church through the giving of the Holy Spirit after his ascension. And it is important to know who is receiving this command in the Great Commission. These were the apostles who later became the church fathers. And the New Testament church was built on Christ but through their lives and through their ministries.

So first we see that baptism, it was commanded by Jesus. And then second, baptism, it was commanded by the apostles. It was commanded by the apostles. Later on in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verse 37 through 38. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Verse 38, "And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" Here we see that this same command was given by those church fathers to individuals who had received Christ in true saving faith.

Specifically, we have Peter preaching here at this Dale Pentecost event and he has given instruction to those first post-ascension converts. This command by Peter was a direct response to Christ's command giving to them earlier in Matthew 28, verse 19. So what do we see? This was commanded by the apostles. And then third, we see that it was exemplified by the early church. In Acts chapter 8, verse 12 through 13, Philip preached and he baptized both men and women who believed. Later on in chapter 8, verse 36 through 38, Philip baptized the Ethiopian unit. Paul himself was baptized after his conversion in chapter 9, verse 18.

Peter baptized Psalm in chapter 10, verse 46 through 48. Paul baptized Lydia in her entire household in chapter 16, verse 14 through 15. And in the book of Romans, which many Bible commentators call Paul's systematic theology, Paul clearly communicates what happens spiritually to those who truly believe in Christ. And I quote Romans 6, verse 3 through 4, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Verse 4, "We were buried therefore with him in baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life." So this was exemplified by the church, the early church.

So here we see that baptism is a command from Jesus to the apostles to the works of the first church, that New Testament church. Some of you might not see it so concrete. Some of you might not see this so etched in stone. But we must see that this is a black and white commandment given by Christ who has supreme authority over the church. I trust that you understand the answer to this question from the simple and narrow teachings of the Scriptures. We baptize because we are commanded. Let's move on to our second question. Question number two, how do we baptize?

Now those of you who were born and raised in the Baptist church, maybe you were born and raised in a Baptist culture, you might not realize that there is a very large debate over the mode of baptism and it has been raging throughout the centuries. In the church universal, there have been those who stand for what Bible commentators call pedobaptism, which is the baptism of babies. And then there are credobaptisms, which describes those who baptize after they have believed. Our Roman Catholic friends, our Methodist friends, our Presbyterian friends, they believe in pedobaptism or baptizing babies.

Now theologically, all three practices for different reasons. But we Baptists, we are what's called credobaptists. Credo meaning I believe, referring to a statement of belief, which speaks to a statement of belief, a time of belief and baptism after that statement of belief. Now two things I want us to look at in exploring this question, how do we baptize? First of all, we Baptists baptize by immersion. We Baptists baptize by immersion. Now in studying the original language within the scriptures, there are three words in the New Testament used to communicate the proper mode of baptism.

Specifically there are two verbs, that's an action word and there is one noun used. In every case, the verbs used in speaking of baptism, they mean to immerse, to plunge, or to dip. Now using this word in a very common way in life, if they were to take cloth into dye, that cloth, that cloth would be submerged or baptized, that's an action word, a verb, into the dye. Now when the noun form is used in the New Testament, it always refers to a person who is making confession under Christ and they are being immersed fully into water.

So this is used all throughout the Acts of the Apostles to refer to those professing a belief in Christ being submerged or plunged or dipped into water for baptism. Now in some of my study this week, I ran across some comments by the Bible commentator John MacArthur and I like what he said. This might help clarify it for you. He was speaking of the original language and the different words that were used. There are two different verbs that speak of this baptism and then there is one noun. He was making the case that all of these words could have been accurately translated as immersed.

So what he is saying is, in speaking of baptism, we can accurately say that we are immersing people. We will be immersed today and that will be accurate to the original language and that's why we Baptists baptize by immersion because of what the Scripture says. Second, I want you to see the context. We baptize in the church. We baptize in the church. For this we look at the context of the baptisms found in the Scriptures. In every instance, baptism was performed by the church fathers or church leaders within the church. In every instance, those being baptized were being baptized into Christ and into the church.

That is why we see baptism as one being baptized, if I can use that Romans 6-3 language, into Christ and into the body of believers, into specifically a local church. We would use language like this into being a member of that local church. So we baptize in the church. So here we see how we should baptize. Baptism is done by immersion in water within the church and into the church. It is more than an argument for or against baptizing by immersion.

It is being baptized by immersion into Christ, into the church universal and the local church and those performing the baptism and those witnessing the baptism can and do affirm the validity of the conversion of the one being baptized. So we see how we baptize. Then our third question I want us to see, when do we baptize? When do we baptize? Now this is up for debate in many churches more than you know. Of course, those who differ in their mode of baptism would answer this question much different than the firm credo-baptist position, but the question is very important and it must be answered.

First, baptism is performed after a clear time of conversion can be communicated. Baptism is performed after a clear time of conversion can be communicated. We see that in that great event that took place on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, verses 37 through 38. Peter is preaching the gospel to that great crowd and when those in the crowd crowd out under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, Peter commands them to repent and then be baptized. In all of the examples found in Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, baptism is performed after a clear experience of repentance and conversion is communicated.

So according to the scriptural examples and teachings, baptism is performed after conversion to Christ. Second I want us to see, baptism is performed after a clear time of conversion is seen by those who are listening. Not only is this experience of repentance and conversion communicated by those experiencing it, those hearing, those witnessing, this takes place and they affirm that what is taking place is valid. Those witnessing this believe it as much as those experiencing this. We see this in Acts 2, chapter 2, verse 37 through 38 as well. Peter and those other apostles attested to the validity of the crowd's conversion.

All throughout the Acts of the Apostles, those witnessing those being converted, attested to the validity to their conversion, thus attesting to the validity of the baptism. So that helps us answer the question, when do we baptize? So here we see that the timing of baptism is very, very important. The scriptures only teach and exemplify baptism after one repents, believes and make that conversion known publicly. This is an argument against infant baptism. An infant cannot repent of their sins. An infant cannot believe on Christ for the hope of salvation. So why should they be baptized?

Only to propagate a church tradition or to perpetuate what we would call a false doctrine. At best, one could say that an infant baptism is symbolic of something that might happen in the future, and at worst, we would say that it is part of a bad doctrine. So what we see is biblical baptism is baptism by immersion, and it is performed after one professes a conversion in Christ, and it is affirmed by the one baptizing and the ones witnessing that baptism. So when do you baptize? Let's move on to our last question, our fourth question, what is baptism? What is baptism? Now we've learned that baptism is obedience. It's a command.

We have learned that baptism is being immersed, dipped, baptized by immersion. We have learned that baptism is being immersed after true conversion, but when we really get down to it, what is baptism? Two observations I want to make here. First, I want us to see that baptism is our identification with Christ's death, His burial, and His resurrection. Paul helps us here in his theological teaching in Romans, Romans 6 verses 3 through 4. Notice how Paul explains it.

Paul says, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" Then verse 4, "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." So here we see that we are permanently identified with Christ's death, Christ's resurrection. So baptism is an identification with Christ and the totality of who Christ is. Then also, baptism is a physical symbol of what is taking place spiritually in our own lives.

Baptism is a physical symbol of what is taking place spiritually in our lives. Paul teaches us in his letter to the Colossians church. Colossians 2 verse 12. What does he say? 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. And so here we see that the water is a symbol of our grave. After conversion, we go down into the water. It is a symbol of the old man, the lost man, the enemy against God going down into that water grave as a lost man. And we are buried with Christ symbolically. We are buried with Christ spiritually.

And when we come out of that water, we come out of that water grave as a symbol of the new man, a new creation in Christ Jesus. Listen again to the Colossians passage. 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. So here we see that baptism is an identification with Christ's death, His burial, and His resurrection. And it is a symbol of what is taking place in our own lives. And biblically, it is our true profession of faith. So what have we seen? We've explored these questions. Why do we baptize? How do we baptize? When do we baptize?

And what is baptism? Now I want to move away from the body of the message and I want to conclude and I want to make some application for you. First of all, I want to start off with a very personal question. And that question is this. Have you been converted to Christ and then after that conversion been baptized into Christ's death, Christ's resurrection, and you are living a new life in Christ Jesus? Has that happened to you? Now notice I didn't ask you if you've been baptized. If you've been baptized outside of conversion, you've done nothing more than gotten wet than participated in a religious activity.

And it cannot and it will not save you. If anything, it can help damn you because it can make you more religious. But my question for you is this. Have you been converted? Have you gone from a dead man to a new man? Have you gone from being an enemy against God or rebel against the word of God, the captain of your own life, to Christ coming in and intervening and giving you what only God can give you, a new heart exchanging that heart of stone for a heart of flesh? Has that happened to you? Again, don't bank on your baptism. Whether you are nine, nineteen, or ninety-nine, if you have a baptism that is out of order, it is incorrect.

And I want to ask you, have you been converted? If you've not been converted, God has you here for this day to hear biblical conversion and see biblical baptism. And then also I want to move away from the question and I want you to see that some of you have possibly been corrected. You may understand biblical baptism more. You might have had erroneous views concerning baptism corrected. This message could have enabled you to see more clearly than you ever had. But look, the most important thing for you to see is that it is conversion and then baptism and that leads us to how we started the message. We are here to celebrate and to worship.

And in knowing what the scripture says, we can celebrate a conversion and one being baptized and we can worship with what we have learned. You realize that we can worship through proper information from the scripture? And again, some of you might have been corrected even here this morning. So what are we here to do? Celebrate and worship as we obey the command of baptism. We have one coming this morning. Her name is Hannah Henderson. I've used language describing her as one of ours because Hannah has been one of ours for quite some time.

Brother Keith and I had a wonderful privilege to counsel Hannah and talk with Mark and Kim and just hear what God's been doing in her life. But one of the habits that we've developed is we want those who have been converted and those who are being baptized to share their own personal story. So y'all pay attention close and let Hannah tell you her story in her own words. I have grown up in a Christian household with parents that have shown me the meaning of Christianity. I knew about God and I read my Bible and I thought I was okay with God. A few years ago, I started to question where I would go when I die and if I was at peace with God.

I felt like I was an outsider in my family because I wasn't saved. I struggled and prayed for God to show me what to do. On October 25, 2016, I went to a movie called I Am Not Ashamed. It was about a young Christian girl who stood up for her faith at the cost of her life. The Sunday before that, Luke Johnson had been at NOLA and preached a sermon called Marks of Spiritual Identities. God used the movie, the sermon, and years of other sermons to show me I'm a sinner and I can't live without him. Later that night, towards our rest parking lot, I prayed to God and repented of my sins. I know now who the Lord is and what he did for me.

I thank him every day for choosing me to become his child. From Mos 8, 14 and 16 say, "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. I'm studying to learn more and I hope you will continue to pray for me." Amen. Well, Hannah, based on your own personal testimony, based on the testimony of your mom and dad, which we've talked to quite a bit, and based on what we have seen in your life, we affirm what we have seen God do in you.

And based on what we've learned in the Scripture, we're being obedient to the command and we're baptizing you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we're buried with him in baptism and we're raised to live a new life in Christ. And all God's people said, "Amen." Well, I wondered if anybody would clap and I'm sure glad you did. That's a part of celebration and I'm telling you, there are more people that God's going to birth into the kingdom, so you just get used to clapping and celebrating. Now, like I said earlier, we're going to dismiss and we're going to have our fellowship meal. You stay. We've got plenty.

As we always do. We're going to be doing a great job.