Introduction

Yesterday, Lara and I celebrated our 17^th wedding anniversary.  Seventeen years ago, Lara and I gathered together a group of our friends and family at a church.  My brother is also a minister and he led my wife and I through a series of pretty serious vows.  Before my family, before my friends, before a minister and before God himself, I promised to:

• Follow God’s design for a family by taking Lara to be my one and only wife
• I swore to take care of her when she is sick and when she’s well.
• I swore that I would forsake all other women and commit only to her until the day that one of us dies.

After I had made those very serious vows to Lara, I gave her a symbol of that covenant I had made with her.  I gave her a ring.  She gave me a ring as well.

In the old days, it was common to say, “with this ring, I thee wed,” and then slip that ring onto the finger of your new spouse.  Did the ring cause the marriage to happen?  That’s not what anybody means by that phrase.  They mean that the ring is a symbol.  It is part of a new reality of marriage.  Could I be married without a ring?  Sure.  The ring is a symbol but not absolutely essential for marriage.  The central and essential part of a wedding ceremony are the vows, not the ring. But… the symbol is a really good one and a wedding ring is really helpful for remembering the covenant you made with your spouse.

The moment I solemnly made those serious vows to Lara, I was married.  I was united to Lara for a lifetime.  I’m no longer living as a bachelor.  I’ve ended that life in order to begin a new life together with Lara.  The ring is a symbol of the reality of those vows and it’s part of the reality of the new shared life I have together with my wife.  There are some similarities between what happens at a wedding ceremony and what happens at a believer’s baptism.

There was a moment in time when I made a solemn vow to the Lord.  I told the Lord that I was done living on my own.  I was finished serving myself, by flesh and the slave master called sin.  I was ready to put that all aside and trade it for a new life.

• I committed to a new life that united me with Jesus.  I promised to forsake all other gods (and all other idols) and follow Christ alone
• I promised to persevere in my relationship with the Lord in both times of blessing and times of trial.
• I promised to take Jesus as Lord.  That means that I would follow His commands the best I could through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit

The ring does not cause the marriage, but it’s a good symbol.  The baptism does not cause the salvation, but it’s also a good symbol.  BUT more importantly… baptism is one of the first things that Jesus commands his disciples to do.  Jesus says in Matthew 28:19,“¹⁹ 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…”

Jesus gave us His command to baptize all believers – Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus modeled that command by getting baptized himself, even though he was totally without sin.  Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 3.

“Baptizo”  is the Greek word that means “to baptize.”  It is usually used to describe something that is immersed into or plunged into something else.  (Like when the target is hit on a dunk tank and the person is plunged into the tank).  You can immerse yourself in a lot of different things.  You can immerse yourself in a book or in a culture or in a train of thought.

John the Baptist came as a forerunner to the Messiah.  Before Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist was calling people to repent from their sins and to be immersed (“Baptizo”) into a new relationship with God.  Getting wet didn’t cause repentance.  The repentance was internal – it was a heart-change.   Once repentance occurred, the outward symbol of this new relationship with God was baptism by immersion.  Baptism symbolized a burial to an old life of sin and resurrection to a new life of trusting God.

In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist says, “¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

John’s talking about the Messiah.  The Messiah would be calling people to repentance… and… He’d be coming soon…  Those who refused to repent, would be subject to God’s wrath.  John the Baptist recognized the man he was referring to was Jesus Christ.  (Jesus was the promised Messiah), Jesus was the one who would baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit.  So when Jesus came to get baptized by John, John the Baptist was a little confused.  Look at verse 13…

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

John the Baptist understood the he needed to be baptized into Christ, not the other way around.  His baptism was a precursor to the ministry of the Messiah (not a replacement or a substitute for it).  So why did Jesus come to get baptized?  Jesus showed that baptism is an act of faith.  For all believers, baptism is an act of faith.  Faith is fully trusting in God’s promises.  Jesus was depending on those promises too.  Jesus was himself a fulfillment of God’s promises.  God’s promises regarding the long-awaited Messiah were about ready to be revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.  Look at verse 15…

¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. In the next 2 verses, we see God’s power put on display.  Look at verse 16… ¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

There is a lot going on in this passage, but here is what you and I need to know for today:  Jesus himself models the command that all believers should be baptized.  In doing so, He gives us an example of how to put our trust in a powerful God.  Jesus’ baptism is a model for us to follow.

Jesus modeled baptism for us.  – Matthew 3:13-17

But unlike Jesus, we are all sinners and we need to be raised to new spiritual life.  Let’s consider our position before we were saved:

Before we were saved, our sin drove us to spiritual death.  Spiritual death is a vivid and gruesome illustration.  I’m going to use the illustration because God’s Word uses it extensively to describe our life before we were raised with Christ.  We may have been alive in the flesh, but spiritually, we were rotting in the tomb.  The aroma of Christ did not rise from our spiritual bodies, but the fragrance of death permeated our soul.  Is a dead man able to raise himself?   No!  In our spiritual death, we were unable to raise ourselves.

• Our eyes couldn’t see Christ – because spiritually dead eyes can’t see.
• Our ears couldn’t hear Him – because spiritually dead ears can’t hear.
• Our heart couldn’t love Him – because a spiritually dead hearts have no emotion.

Spiritual death is far worse than physical death.  Why? Because those who are spiritually dead are responsible for the entire weight of their sin.

• Those who are spiritually dead are totally guilty before a righteous God and totally powerless to change their situation.
• Those who are spiritually dead are captives to sin and totally unable (in themselves) to perform any good work that is pleasing to God.
• A spiritually dead person needs to be raised and given a new risen life or they will continue in their state of spiritual death.

Jesus is the only answer.  Jesus is the only source of spiritual life.  We can only live the risen life through Him.  Jesus compares Himself to a vine and us to the branches.  In John 15:5, Jesus says that a person who is separated from Him as the life-giving vine, is able to do nothing.  Nothing for good – nothing of spiritual significance comes outside of Christ.  Before Jesus came into our lives, we were incapable of any word, deed, or attitude that would win God’s approval.  Our sin totally separated us from Him.  We needed to be raised!  We needed the life giving blood of Christ.  We needed new life!

RISEN IN CHRIST: Then one glorious day, the Holy Spirit visited those of us who believe and made us ALIVE!  Our dead eyes were opened and at once we saw Christ.  He brought about conviction that led us to repentance.  (Romans 2:4b) And then, not content with just seeing for sight itself, our eyes looked upon our previous state and began to understand the value of our new life.  There is tremendous joy when we look upon our new resurrected life.  Believers are spiritually alive and no longer spiritually dead.

How do we have this new life?  Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus, who is “seated at the right hand of God (Col 3:1)” raised us to new life through His almighty power and by his incredible love for a sinner like you and a sinner like me.

So now the follower of Christ:

• Knows Jesus and the power of His resurrection!  (Phil 3:10)
• No longer fears God’s wrath, but can live boldly in the Spirit of power and Spirit of love and the Spirit of self-control (2 Tim 1:7).
• Is no longer dead, but is “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.” (Col 1:11)

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” In Christ, a person dies to their old self and rises again as a new creation.

They are no longer alive to sin, but now are raised with Christ.

Water baptism is a graphic picture of what has occurred in our life through salvation in Jesus Christ – Romans 6:1-4

There is a strong connection between baptism and being united with Christ in his death and resurrection.  Romans 6:3-4 says:

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.

Baptism is a powerful proclamation of what Christ has done in the heart of the believer.  When a believer is baptized in water, he is saying publically that he has died to the things of this world and has been brought to life in the things of Christ.  He is publicly proclaiming that his old, earthly life has been put to death and he has been raised to a new life in Christ.

Christ calls us to come and die to our old life.

• When we trust in Jesus, we leave behind our old life in sin.
• Instead, we totally put our trust in Christ!

This transformation is symbolized in Baptism.   Baptism represents a complete break with a person’s former life.  In verse 21 of 1 Peter 3, Peter touches on the symbolism of Baptism.  Let turn their briefly.  Go to 1 Peter chapter 3…

In the waters of baptism:

• …a person is proclaiming to the world that they are dead to their former life.
• They are dead to being self-sufficient.
• They are no longer living for themselves.
• They have been given a new life.
• They are raised and made alive – not because of anything they did, but because they responded to God’s call and allowed Jesus to rule and reign in their hearts.

1 Peter 3 Verse 21 says, ²¹ Baptism, which corresponds to this

[referring to Noah’s faith and obedience when he built the ark], now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…

I had a man call me several months ago and ask me if Canyon believed in baptismal regeneration (that is being saved through baptism).  I told him that we believe that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.  He then opened up to 1 Peter 3:21 and asked me to explain my position when the text says, “Baptism… now saves you.”  I explained that you need to read the whole verse.

Baptism corresponds to trusting and obeying Christ’s command, but it is not a means of conveying grace in itself.  Earlier in chapter 3, Peter gives Noah as an example of someone who trusted and obeyed God.  Salvation has nothing to do with the removal of dirt or getting wet.  Salvation happens when a person fully trusts in Jesus and no longer trusts in themselves.   Baptism symbolizes an immersion into the person of Jesus Christ.

A former missionary to the Philippines attended Dr. John Piper’s church in the late 90’s.  She said that in the Philippines, where there is a good bit of nominal Catholicism (where people pretend they are Catholic) and syncretistic Catholicism.  Syncretistic Catholicism is a practice where Catholic beliefs are merged with another religious system.  Born-again converts to Biblical Christianity were tolerated and sometimes not even really noticed by their family – until they came to be baptized. They fully understand that getting baptized as a born-again believer means that they are putting all other belief systems behind them.  They are dead to the old religion and alive to following Jesus as Lord.  In the Philippines, the Biblical predictions of hostility and separation came to pass after someone was baptized.

The open ritual of new-found faith makes it clear where a person stands and what he is doing. In other words, in many cultures today the situation is a lot like the situation with John the Baptist. He came preaching a baptism of repentance and those who thought they were alright with God because of their religiosity and good works were often enraged when they find out those things aren’t good enough.

It is true, though, that baptism and salvation are very closely connected to one another in the New Testament.  People who were saved in the early church, were baptized.

• For example, Peter in preaching in Acts 2:40a-41 finishes his sermon and says, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” ⁴¹ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
• On another occasion, Phillip was preaching.  Acts 8:12 says, “when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”

The Apostles and the New Testament church followed the pattern of believers baptism – Acts 2:40-41, Acts 8:12

The early church did not understand the concept of an unbaptized believer (nor did they understand baptizing someone who was not a believer.)  Whereas it is clear that baptism does not save people, baptism does tell people that you are saved – that you’ve made a break from your old sinful life and are now a follower of Jesus.

Baptism is a powerful proclamation of what Christ has done in the heart of the believer.  The early church understood this concept well and they incorporated it into their baptism ceremony.  The person being baptized in the early church would literally put off their old outer robe before he went down into the water and when the person emerged from the water, they were given a new white robe.  It symbolized that the individual had died to – have put off – one kind of life and put on another kind of life.  They had been “raised with Christ.”  They were living the risen life.  Colossians 3:1-4 says,

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

For that reason, we believe as a church that only those who are able to profess belief in Jesus Christ are able to be baptized.  We don’t baptize babies here because obviously a baby is not able to profess a belief in Jesus.

• Baptism does not extend salvation to a baby
• Baptism does not include a baby in the fellowship of the redeemed because only believers can be a part of that fellowship

But that also does not mean that we don’t train up children and care for them spiritually.  In the coming weeks, we will also have a child dedication service.  Child dedication also does not extend salvation to children either.  The purpose of child dedication is for mature believers in the church.  During child dedication we (mature believers) commit that as a church we will support young parents by creating an environment (both at church and at home) where children can hear about Jesus, learn about Jesus and have the opportunity to accept Jesus as their own personal Savior.

Life Application

Some of you have not yet followed the Lord’s command when it comes to believer’s baptism.  You’ve accepted Jesus as Lord, but you have not yet been baptized.  Now is the time to follow the Lord’s command and be baptized!  Next weekend, I will teaching a baptism class and we will be gearing up for our first baptism on December 7^th.

At our first baptism service, we will be hearing a brief testimony from each person who has given their life to Jesus as Lord and Savior.  It will be a time of celebration as we recall how Christ continues to call people to salvation.

Then we will head over to the pool for our first baptism celebration.  Come talk to me after the service if you would like to be a part of that celebration.

Teaching Outline

Jesus gave us His command to baptize all believers

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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

Jesus modeled baptism for us. 

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:13-17

Water baptism is a graphic picture of what has occurred in our life through salvation in Jesus Christ

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.” – Romans 6:1-4

The Apostles and the New Testament church followed the pattern of believers baptism – Acts 2:40-41, Acts 8:12

^“And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” – Acts 2:40-41

^“But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” – Acts 8:12

Application

Now is the time to follow the Lord’s command and be baptized!