Good morning. Well we have just finished our series on the book of Philippians. I hope that you enjoyed our look at that book and the great truths that Paul brought out for us. But today I am going to begin something new. We are going to look at 4 misconceptions about Christianity. We are going to look at our first one today, next week I hope to be able to share some of the things that we learned on our trip this week, and then the next three Sundays we will look at three additional misconceptions about Christianity.
So, what are some misconceptions that people have about Christianity? We are faced with many questions regarding baptism. Especially from those that have been lifelong followers of Christ and yet were never baptized or have been informed that their baptism was not Biblical in some way. There are many people that will look at Baptism and say that it is good to do, but not something that is necessary. They read sections of scripture that say, have faith and believe and you will be saved. In fact, many look at Romans 10:7-13. In this section it says, “1”
So, if I believe and confess with my tongue that means I am saved right? Wrong! There is more to it than that. There is the command to be baptized. Let’s first look at what Baptism means and represents to us.
There’s so much symbolism to see here. We enter into the water. The water represents cleansing. Ceremonial cleansing was incredibly important in Jewish custom. The complete submersion represents a complete abandoning of their old identity and full acceptance of the new identity.
Today, when we baptize, the water represents cleansing of sin. It is a visual representation that all of our sin, regardless of how vile and filthy it may have been, regardless of how unclean and unworthy we feel. In the eyes of God, that sin has been completely washed away through the blood of Christ and we have been cleansed of all unrighteousness. The submersion that takes place represents death of our old self, our old identity, our old way of life. Just as we lay a dead body in the ground, a person who allows themselves to be submerged in the water of baptism proclaims that sinful, godless person you knew before is dying. He no longer exists. The sinful habits are now dead. The selfish desires, dead as well. The control of Satan over his life is dead also.
And as the person is lifted out of the water what a beautiful picture of the resurrection. Being raised from the dead into new life, with a new name, a new identity, new habits, attitudes, and desires written upon our hearts by God and brought to life within us! When we baptize, we declare that we are baptizing that person in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What we are saying here, is we are baptizing you INTO the name of God. When you enter into a covenant relationship with God, his name becomes your identity. Just as a bride forsakes her maiden name and accepts for herself the name of her husband, we take for ourselves the name of God.
South East Christian Church in Louisville, KY is a congregation of about 15,000 members. It’s so huge they have a very specialized paid staff. For example, they have a staff member in charge of something they call the “wedding department.” One Sunday, a staff member from that department was privileged to be asked to baptize a new convert. On the Sunday he was to baptize his friend, something must have unsettled him – maybe it was the size of the congregation present, or the pressure of the moment.
Whatever it was, that morning, in front of the entire congregation he took the man’s confession and then declared: “I now pronounce you….” And then stopped as he realized what he’d said. Then he smiled as he continued: “I now pronounce you… baptized!”
We know as Christians, that marriage is important to God. It is a sacred union of two people in the presence of God. But while God doesn’t require you to fall in love and get married, if you intend to live with someone of the opposite sex God says - you had better get married.
That man from the “wedding department” almost confused vows from a wedding with the words he normally would have used while baptizing someone. Wedding vows are required of someone who desires to be married. But is baptism required of someone who desires to become a Christian. In other words: Do you have to be baptized?
Well, what did Jesus have to say about this?
Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28:19 to “… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”
What that means is baptism is not an option for God’s people. It is commanded and expected by Jesus for all who would belong to Him.
In Mark 16:16 Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved…”
Baptism was so important that Jesus Himself was baptized by John the Baptist at the beginning of His ministry. John didn’t feel he was qualified to baptize Jesus, but Jesus told John in Matthew 3:15, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness….”
So, Jesus said that you have to be baptized in order to be saved, in fact He followed His own teachings.
Now, What did Peter have to say?
Here in Acts 2, Peter preaches the first sermon in the history of the Church. He preaches such a powerful sermon that day that he convinces the crowd of its sinfulness in crucifying Jesus, and the audience interrupts Peter & asks him in verse 37, “What shall we do?”
Peter’s reply comes in verse 38 when he says, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
In other words, baptism must be preceded by repentance… and the result of baptism and repentance is forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Later, in I Peter 3:21, the Apostle compared baptism to the waters of Noah’s flood when he said, “…and this water (the flood) symbolizes baptism that now saves you also— not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
According to Peter, baptism is part of the salvation act. It is a “pledge” or “appeal” to God and its power for salvation is based on the resurrection – not in the water.
Next we are going to look at What Paul has to tell us about baptism?
Paul expanded on Peter’s words when he wrote Romans 6. In Romans 6:3-4 Paul taught us, “… don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life”
When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we die to our old way of life, we are buried in a grave of water and we rise up to a new life. Just as Peter taught in I Peter chapter 3, Paul is telling us here in Romans, that the power of baptism comes from the resurrection of Jesus.
When Paul related his own salvation experience, he told a crowd in Jerusalem that a Christian named Ananias was sent from God with these instructions in Acts 22:16, “… Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name”
According to Paul - when he was baptized - in that act: he called upon the name of Jesus and his sins were washed away through baptism.
So, Paul said that baptism was something that was required of us to do.
Now, let us review - when we are baptized:
First, We obey our Lord
Second, We call on the name of Jesus
Third, We put on Christ
Fourth, We die to our past, are buried and are risen up to a new life
Fifth, Our sins are washed away
Sixth, We receive forgiveness of sins
and Seventh, We receive salvation
These are not the words of commentaries, great preachers, or of Sunday School teachers. These are the words of Jesus and apostles inspired by the Spirit of God. And these descriptions are the only valid explanations of what baptism means and what God meant for baptism to accomplish.
When reviewing all that baptism can mean to us, the question shouldn’t be “do I have to get baptized?” The question should be “You mean, I get to be baptized?” – I get all of this?
Nascar driver Jeff Gordon was baptized in October of 1994. He had just won his first 2 Winston Cup races, which were great thrills; but following his baptism, he said, “This is the happiest day of my life.”
So, Why did God use baptism for these purposes?
I believe that it was because God is a genius. God uses the simplest objects to teach great truths. When Jesus gave His Sermon on Mount he talked about bread, flowers, and birds. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, what did He use? Grape juice and unleavened bread. You don’t get more common than juice and bread. And so, when God wanted us to understand the cleansing of our sins by Jesus, He used water.
God has used this kind of imagery before. In Leviticus 14:2-7 it tells us, “2”
What a beautiful picture of what happens to us in Christian Baptism. In baptism we come into contact with the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice, AND we rise from baptism to be pronounced clean and free.
It is time that we must be clear here though – baptism is not a magical act. If you don’t believe in Jesus… If you’re unwilling to change your life… If you’re unwilling to put God in charge of your life - you won’t be getting baptized – you will just be getting wet.
And baptism is NOT a work. A “work” is something you do to buy or earn your salvation. You don’t “do” baptism… baptism is done to you. You don’t “buy” your salvation with baptism.
One good way to think of baptism is to consider it a “signing of a contract” between you and God. If you were to buy a house, you would be required to sit down with the sellers of the home and approve a contract. To show your approval, you would be required to sign your name at the bottom of the paper. Your signature wouldn’t buy the house, the money you probably borrowed from the bank did that, but you couldn’t purchase the house until your name was on the dotted line.
So also, your baptism doesn’t “buy” your salvation. Christ’s blood does that. But your signature on God’s contract is required.
So, when is someone ready to be baptized? When are you old enough? When will you know enough? Do you have to go through special classes?
As early as the 2nd century, church leaders required people to go through several classes before they could be baptized. They were also required to take off all of their clothes – but we don’t require that now either.
But that’s not what happened in Scripture. There were no special classes, no long list of things to know and memorize. Look again at Acts 2:37. The crowd cries out: “What shall we do?”
Did Peter tell them they needed classes? No… they already knew everything they needed to know. They knew that Jesus was the Son of God and had died for their sins. They knew they were sinners in need of cleansing. AND because they knew these things, Paul replied in verse 38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The Bible does say we basically do five things in order to be saved. Let’s close this morning by looking at these 5 things.
First, you have to Believe or have faith - John 3:16; Hebrews 11:6; Romans 10:10 - It all starts with faith. If I don’t believe it then none of the other things we do matter. Our Confession becomes a lie, baptism become a bath, and so on. What do we believe? We believe that Jesus really was the son of God, and that He really did die on the cross for my sins, and that he really did rise again proving that death could not hold Him or those that follow Him.
But note this though, there must be more then just belief. It starts with belief but it doesn’t end there. James 2:19 says that even the demons believe these things. What it means is that I must respond to that belief. How do I do that?
The second thing is that we must Repent - The Greek word repent means to change directions. And what I find is that this belief in my head now moves to my heart and becomes more then just mental agreement. It means that I am convicted of my sin and want to make a change. I’ve been following my own way of doing things and now I’m going to change directions I am going to repent and follow Jesus Christ. When the people asked the Apostle Peter what they must do to be saved he said you must in the familiar passage of Acts 2:38 "repent and be baptized." Acts 17:30 and II Peter 3:9 also emphasize the essentialness of repenting.
So, what we have is a mental understanding or belief that has moved to the heart in a decision to follow God. And God in his wisdom has given us two ways to express this newfound conviction.
The first way, and the third step to being saved is Confession - We are seeing a progression, it has moved from my head (belief) to my heart (repentance) to my mouth in the form of confession. It is not a confession of sin but a confession of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9-10 says that we are to "confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord...for it is with our mouth that we confess and are saved." So obviously confession plays an essential role. Confession gives us accountability as well as that public declaration of whose side we are on. Jesus said in Matthew 10:32 "if you confess me before men then I will confess you before my father."
And so the progression continues. From my head (belief) to my heart (repentance) to my mouth (confession) and then in a beautiful pledge to God it goes to my entire body as I am immersed in the waters of baptism.
The fourth thing we must do is be Baptized - The Greek word baptizo literally means to immerse. Why did God choose immersion? And the answer is that it unites us with Christ in his death and resurrection. He died, was buried, and then rose again. That’s what we see in baptism. It is a plunging beneath, a burial in sorts, and then a rising again. It’s interesting that God chose baptism to represent going from death to life because if you think about it, when you are under the water you are closer to death then at any other time. Your senses are muted, you are devoid of outside essentials needed for life. It is a BEAUTIFUL picture of giving everything to God. It is also just as essential as belief, repentance or confession. Let me give you some scriptures to show this:
-Jesus himself said in Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Again, when the people asked Peter what must we do to be saved he said "Repent and be baptized FOR the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
-Romans 6:4 says, "We were therefore buried with Christ through BAPTISM into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
-In 1 Peter 3:21 we read, "This water symbolizes baptism which now saves you. It is not the removal of dirt from the body, but it is the PLEDGE of a good conscience towards God."
Now, if I didn’t make it too confusing, I think you can see the progression going on, Mental consent (belief) to a heart decision (repentance) to a vocal admission (confession) and then to an all encompassing pledge (baptism). That is how we receive the gift of God, we believe, repent, confess and get baptized. And that is then followed by the fifth requirement.
Obedience - God never calls for us to make the decision and then go our separate way. We are entering into a covenant, a marriage relationship and while He will never ever walk out of that marriage, we are free to do so. We can obey or disobey but we cannot abandon the marriage and then expect to see the benefits of that relationship. In fact in Mark 13:13 it says, "He who stands firm to the end shall be saved.”
In closing, I heard about a preacher telling his audience: “Baptism is the great equalizer. No matter who you are, how successful you are, or who you know... all have to go under the waters alike. There are those who come forward in expensive suits, dangling gold jewelry, and $100 hairdoos. But the suits are exchanged for a humble white robe, the jewelry comes off, and they may as well say goodbye to their $100 hairdoo.”
So, we see that the misconception that it is not necessary to be baptized is just that, a misconception. We find that it is necessary. So, I you have not made that decision in your life, that only leaves you with one question to answer.
Are you ready to humble yourself before God and allow Him to exchange your past for His future, being cleansed in the waters of Christian baptism?
Let’s pray
Invitation
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