The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Baptism
Acts 8:26 – 39;16:6 – 34
This morning you are worshiping in a Baptist church
-most us here today are Baptists
-as the name sort of implies,
baptism is important to us
--so if most of us here are
Baptists, why in the world do we need
to
hear a sermon about baptism?
--plus, it’s not like we’re
the only Christians who baptize—Roman
Catholics do, Methodists
do, so do Presbyterians
In fact, in
connection
with a church to be baptized
-two years ago, USA Today writer Cathy Lynn Grossman,
reported
about the growing popularity of baptism-style
ceremonies where
God is never even mentioned
--Ema
Drouillard of
who
want to initiate their children into a world of all faiths
---she conducted
such a service for a baby named Greer
---Greer’s mother,
Kirsten, told USA Today, “We just
wanted
a larger
spirit to guide our daughter, but we didn't want
to get specific. I wanted all her bases covered.”
So while we might assume that everybody has baptism all figured
out, evidently there are a few
who are just a wee bit confused
-I’ll try to keep things
relatively simple this morning by sharing what
I believe the Bible teaches...and what most of us Baptists
believe
---I won’t try to explain
what everybody else believes because
we just don’t have
the patience for a sermon of that length
---I also realize there
may be some who will disagree with my
answers to the who,
what, when, where, why, and how
questions
----that’s okay...most of our
differences aren’t nearly as
critical or divisive as we often make them out
to be
----when it’s all
said and done, we still gotta’ love each
other, so we
might as well all just chill out...and
perhaps
we’ll learn something in the process
Question numero uno: who?
who is baptized?
-I’m convinced the Bible teaches
only believers in Jesus are baptized
--the story Tim read earlier is
one example of someone who had
some knowledge about God,
but it wasn’t until he came to an
understanding of Jesus and
then faith in Him, was he baptized
--Acts 16 tells of two more such believers
---verses 13 – 15 recount the faith and baptism of
---verses 16 – 34 are the dramatic story of a jailer who comes to
faith in Jesus
----Paul and Silas
had been put in prison on some trumped
up charges
when God does the miraculous
----Read
Acts 16:25 – 34
---some would argue that
the jailer’s household must have
included young
children...but I’d respond by pointing to the
the fact that v. 32 says they spoke the word of the Lord to
him and to all the others in his
house (meaning, they were
able
to comprehend the message)...and, more importantly, v.
34 says: he had come to believe in God—he and
his whole
family (again, indicating
that all were capable of believing)
The second question: what? what is baptism?
-it may seem a little
pretentious on my part, but it will help if we have
a very brief lesson in Greek
translation
--to translate a word roughly means to convert a Greek word or
phrase into its English
equivalent
---for example:
--transliterating a word is changing each Greek letter to its
corresponding English
letter and making a new English word
---angelos
transliterated is angel; translated, it’s messenger
-guess what happens with the
Greek word spelled “beta alpha pi tau
iota
sigma mu alpha”...or baptisma?
--right!!
it’s transliterated, which gives us the word “baptism”
--but translated, baptisma means to
dip, immerse, plunge, drench
---that translation is
not from a bunch of Baptists...it’s from the
most esteemed
Greek scholars on the planet who just
happen to be
German Lutherans and Roman Catholics
----I’m not
going to take the time to explain the history
behind the
Church’s transition from immersion to
sprinkling...but
suffice it to say that if you’re looking
for the
original meaning of baptism, there is universal
agreement the word itself involves going under water
-so when I baptize someone, we
step into water that’s about 3 ½”
deep, and I gently lay that
person back into the water and then
bring them right back up
--we practice baptism
that way because we believe it fulfills the
meaning of the word,
because we believe it was the way
New Testament
believers were baptized, and because
it
symbolizes the
death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as
well as that Christian’s
death to sin and their new life
-that’s
what Romans
6:3 – 4 is describing [Read]
Okay, so there’s the who and
the what, now let’s turn to the when
-from every biblical example we
have (including the three we’ve
read this morning), baptism takes
place as soon as practical after
a person comes to faith in
Christ
--because baptism is such a
significant event in a person’s life, I
allow
the individual to select a date to enable as many family
and friends as
possible to be present
-let me say, too, that I know of
several people who, for a variety of
reasons, weren’t baptized for
quite some time after they became
Christians—in some cases, the
longer they waited, the more
difficult it became because
they were embarrassed for putting it off
--trust me, if that describes your
situation, no one will think less of
you or criticize you—in
fact, we’ll all rejoice with your decision
The where? question seems
pretty simple
-the New Testament practice was
to baptize in a river (Jesus was
baptized in the
found (like the Ethiopian guy
in Acts 8)
--today, most Christians
are baptized inside a church building
---the advantages of
doing it this way include making it part of
worship and
helping to preserve the solemnity of the
occasion (not to
mention year-round warm water)
--sometimes the baptism
will be outdoors in a river, lake, or pool
---the greatest
advantage of these locations is that it can be
a much more
public testimony of their faith
---imagine the powerful
witness of a 14-year-old being
baptized at the
city pool on a hot, Saturday afternoon
Of these six questions, the fifth is, by far, the most important: why?
-let’s begin by answering the critical
question: why not?
--you are not baptized in order to become a Christian or somehow
to complete your
salvation...this is so crucial for you to grasp
because it’s often
misunderstood—even by some Baptists!
---Read Ephesians 2:4 – 9
---Read Romans 10:9 – 10
---in Acts 16, the jailer asks, “What must I
do to be saved?”
----do you
remember what Paul and Silas answered?
-----“Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
---the thief on the
cross who believed in Christ was never
baptized...nor does the most familiar verse in the Bible,
John 3:16, ever mention baptism as a requirement
-instead, you are baptized
because you are a Christian, not
in order
to become a Christian
--baptism is an act of
obedience...Jesus Himself was baptized
and He commands his followers to do so,
as well
--baptism is a public
declaration that you are now claiming to be
a Jesus follower
---the best analogy
I’ve ever heard compares baptism to a
wedding ring
----wearing
this ring does not make me married
-----being baptized doesn’t make me a Christian
----instead,
I wear this ring because I am married,
just
like I was
baptized because I am a Christian
----there’s
nothing magical in the ring itself...it’s a band
of
tungsten...pretty—sure—but that’s it
-----what makes it special is that it is a gift from
Carla and because it represents our
marriage commitment
----there’s
nothing magical in the water...it’s straight
from
the tap thanks to CMU
-----what makes it special is that it is a gift from
Jesus and because it represents His life-
changing, eternity-altering
salvation
--baptism is a means of
identifying yourself in the death, burial,
and resurrection of
Christ (that’s what we read in Romans 6)
Finally, how? how does the process work?
-as we’ve already established,
the only requirement is to be a
believer, a follower of Jesus
Christ
--the Bible says in Romans
10 that if you confess Jesus as Lord
and believe in our hearts God raised
Him from the dead, you
will be
saved
---in fact, I recite
that same verse when I’m in the water
baptizing
someone...I will then ask, “Do you believe this?”
-if you are a believer, you
simply need to let me know of your desire
to
be baptized...I’ll talk with you about it, pray with you, and we’ll
arrange for a time for it to
happen
--it’s an unforgettable
moment for all of us
I been blessed to be part of countless memorable baptisms
-I remember my own baptism on a
hot, summer night in 1974
-I remember the first time I was
the baptizer...it was during seminary
when I had the privilege of baptizing
a young lady from our
student ministry named Dana
-I remember baptizing Josh and,
several years later, Hannah
-I remember when I baptized
Brett in
the side of baptistery
-I remember baptizing Brett’s
sister, Lindsey, and their brother,
Jeremy about a year later...and
when their grandfather left the
church building he said,
“Well, you’re gettin’ better at it.”
-I remember baptizing several of
you
I remember baptizing Nadine a couple of years ago
-she made an appointment with
me, came to my study, and we
talked about what it means to
be a church member, but more
importantly
about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ
--we talked about our sin
and our need for a Savior
--we talked about Christ’s
death...and about His resurrection
--we talked about God’s
amazing grace
-then we talked to God about it
in prayer...and Nadine expressed
her faith in Christ alone and
her desire to surrender her old life for
the new life He offers
--it was a miraculous
moment for several reasons—not the least
of which is that,
frankly, a person her age rarely makes
such a
life-changing decision
--that day, an 85-year-old
woman became a child—a child of God
I expected that to be the end of our conversation, but Nadine had
other ideas
-she asked, “When do I get
baptized?”
-I looked at her, then her
walker, and again at her frail, unstable
body, and I replied, “Well,
let’s wait a while. Baptism is
important, but we don’t believe it is
necessary for salvation.”
--I honestly figured she’d forget or die
before I had to deal with it
-“No,” she politely insisted,
“I’d like to do it as soon as we can.”
--so I’m thinking how our
baptistery is up a long flight of stairs...
and that she’d have to
change clothes (twice!)...and then she’d
have to navigate the
steps into and out of the water
--and I begin imagining
what it’s going to be like when she falls
and breaks her
hip...or when I drop her and we both go under
the water
I hinted that perhaps we should “pray about it” (it’s what we pastors
say when they really don’t want
to do something, but we still want to
sound spiritual about it)
-she persisted
-I compromised
--I said, “Let me talk to
the deacons at their next meeting.
Perhaps they can come
up with a solution.”
--I fully expected them to
say, “Let’s pray about it.”
---instead they said,
“We’ll make it happen.”
----further proof
that deacons only exist to make pastors’
lives
miserable!!
The inevitable morning arrive a few weeks later
-Nadine sat in a plastic lawn
chair
--two deacons then carried
her upstairs in that chair
--in the changing room, two
ladies helped her change clothes
-then, when it was time, those
same deacons carried her down the
steps and into the water
As she sat in the chair, I said, “This is Nadine. She comes this
morning upon her profession of
faith in Jesus Christ and her desire
to be baptized.”
-I then asked her family and
friends to stand
-all over the sanctuary,
people stood to show their prayerful
support (and perhaps in
morbid curiosity to get a better view of
what was about to happen)
I turned back to Nadine and
asked, “Nadine, the Bible tells us in
Romans 10 that if we confess
Jesus is Lord and we believe in our
hearts
God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.
Do you
believe this?” Nadine nodded her head and replied, “Yes, I
do.”
I continued, “Nadine, because of your faith in Jesus Christ, and your
desire to follow His example and
His command...I baptize you, my
sister in Christ, in the name of
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.”
With the help of the deacons, I carefully laid the chair back into the
water, and then brought her back
up
-it truly was a holy moment
I know—Nadine didn’t become a Christian that day—that had already
happened several weeks
before—but Nadine had set this incredible
example for what it means to
obey God even when it’s more than
uncomfortable
-Nadine passed away two years
ago this month
--the day before her
funeral, her nephew told me that she was
actually
afraid of being baptized. I told him
that while that may
have been true, I was terrified.
Not long ago, someone mentioned Nadine’s baptism...how she had
spoken volumes about her
commitment to Christ...about her desire
to be obedient...and about her
stubbornness to do what was right
I’m just thinking that there might be several of you who are ready
-ready to become a Christian
-ready to be baptized