Good morning.  Today I want us to take a look at a topic that gets a lot of controversy from different beliefs.  This morning I am going to briefly talk about how baptism is a symbol that identifies us with Jesus Christ.  You see, baptism is like a wedding ring: both a wedding ring and baptism symbolize transactions.  A wedding ring symbolizes marriage, just as baptism symbolizes salvation.  However, wearing a wedding ring does not make you married any more than being baptized makes you saved.  It is however an outward response to an inward feeling.

A small 6 year child can wear her mother’s wedding ring, but we know that she’s too young to be married.  And in the same way, a person can be baptized without having accepted Jesus Christ into his or her heart.  Unfortunately people are baptized without having accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior all too often.

The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”  You see, salvation is a free gift that God grants to those of us who simply have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  We are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ.

And baptism is a symbol of our faith in Jesus Christ.  The purpose of baptism is that it identifies us openly and publicly with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus.

To extend this parallel of a wedding ring, if a person, especially a woman, does not wear a wedding ring you can almost always assume that the person is not married.  So it was in New Testament times.  If a person was not baptized, you could probably assume that he or she was not a believer.  Like a wedding ring, it is such an effective symbol that it should never be taken for granted.  This morning we are going to examine this symbol and try to understand exactly what it symbolizes or what it represents.  And I believe that when we come to an understanding of the symbolism behind baptism that we will gain a fuller picture and a greater understanding of how we are to live our lives for Jesus Christ.

Before we get started though, allow me to begin our time with a word of prayer.  Let’s Pray!

Bob Beasley, who is a pastor in Ontario, Canada told the following true story: “Our three-year-old daughter, Rena, sat with us during the baptismal service last Sunday night, which was a new experience for her.  She exclaimed in surprise, “Why did he push that guy in the water?  Why, Daddy, why?”  My wife tried to explain briefly and quietly, but Rena just wouldn’t be satisfied.  Later that night we tried to provide an answer that a child’s mind could comprehend.  We talked about sin and told Rena that when people decide to live for Jesus and “do good” they want everyone to know it.  We then explained that water symbolizes Jesus’ washing people from sin; when they come out clean, they are going to try to be good.  A moment later, we realized we’d have to work on our explanation a bit.  Rena had immediately responded, “Why didn’t the Pastor just spank him instead?””
Well, kids will ask some interesting questions.  Why is the sky blue?  Why are there clouds?  Why can’t I go outside?  Why do I have to be nice?  Sometimes kids will continue to ask why and we just want to jerk our hair out because it drives us crazy!

But adults also ask “why” questions.  Such as, why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?  Why do noses run and feet smell?  Or why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?

Well here at Fly Branch Church Of Christ we believe the Bible is God’s Word.  The Bible contains God’s message for mankind to come to know Him.  It is relevant to our lives today.  Everything we need to know concerning God and His plan for salvation and life is contained in the Scripture.

We view the Bible as our foundation and therefore everything we believe must be based on the foundation of God’s Word.  As the minister, I want Fly Branch to be A. S. A. P.  Does anyone know what that means?

Normally, it means As Soon As Possible.  But in this case, A.S.A.P means, As Scriptural As Possible!

With that introduction we move into today’s “Why” topic.  Why baptism?  There tends to be a lot of confusion with the subject of baptism.  Today I want us to answer 3 questions about baptism.  The first one is this:
1. What is Baptism?

Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told His disciples in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Now obviously baptism is part of the plan and will of God.  But what is it?

To answer that question we must start with the word “baptism” itself.  Baptism is what we call a transliterated word.  Meaning that it was brought from the Greek language over to English.  Baptism comes from the Greek word “baptizo” which means to dip, plunge, or immerse.

If we were to watch the Titanic, while at the same time speaking Greek, we would say that the Titanic was “baptizoed.”  In all seriousness this word baptizo was used to describe ships that had sunk in the sea.  This word baptizo was also used to describe a piece of cloth being dipped into coloring dye.

It is interesting that in the Greek language there are other words that mean “sprinkle” or “pour.”  But the writers of the Bible never use these words.  They always use the word baptizo.  Therefore, baptism is a complete immersion of the body in water.

Over the years, “baptize” has come to mean other things than what was originally taught.  In 1311 A.D., nearly 1300 years after the beginning of Christ’s Church, there were some Catholic Church leaders at the Council of Ravenna, Italy, who declared that sprinkling and pouring were of equal standing with immersion.

After that, many Protestant churches, such as the Lutheran, Episcopal, and Presbyterian Churches, simply adopted the Catholic practice of sprinkling without checking further into the Scriptures.

But from a study of scripture, we see that the Greek word for baptize is “baptizo” and in the Bible this word always means to immerse, to dip into, or to plunge into.  That is why here at Fly Branch Church Of Christ we believe and practice that baptism is the immersion of ones body completely into the water.

When Philip baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch the text says in Acts 8:36-39 that, “1”

Why would both the Ethiopian and Philip have to go into the water if he was simply going to sprinkle or pour some water on him?  It doesn’t make sense.  And that is why we believe that baptism is the complete immersion of someone into water.

But now we must ask the next question:

2. What is the Purpose of Baptism?
I realize that there are many disagreements among Christians on this question.  Remember, we want to be A.S.A.P., As Scriptural As Possible!  So let’s try to cut through all the confusion and disagreements and see for ourselves what the Bible has to say about the purpose behind baptism.

One of my favorite verses that speaks of baptism is Galatians 3:27.  In that passage, Paul writes, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  Isn’t that an awesome description?  It is in baptism that we are connected to Christ.

Paul knows something about baptism.  We learn from Acts chapter 9 that he was formerly called Saul.  He was doing his best to eliminate the church.  He was actually out there killing Christians.  But on the road to Damascus the Lord appeared to him in a bright light.  Paul was struck blind, and he went into Damascus to wait for 3 days.  During this time he prayed and he fasted.

But in Acts chapter 22 we learn more about what happened in the 3 days time that passed between seeing the Lord on the Damascus road and when a Christian named Ananias visits him.  Ananias speaks to Saul and tells him that God is going to use him in a powerful way.  Then in Acts 22:16 it says, “And now what are you waiting for?  Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on His name.”

After spending 3 days fasting and praying, Ananias tells Saul to get up and be baptized so that his sins will be washed away.  It is in baptism that our sins are washed away.

Listen to these verses from the Bible.  Acts 2:38 says that, “Peter replied, “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.”

I Peter 3:21 says, “And this water 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.”

And in Romans 6:1-7 it say, “2”

Baptism is when we connect with Jesus; it is when we have our sins washed away.  That is the why of baptism.  When we are baptized into Christ we are baptized into His death, we are burying the old self and we are being raised new again.

In studying the New Testament we see that every time someone had an “ah ha” moment where they realized they were sinners, but that Christ could save them, they followed that moment with baptism.  Baptism is the point in time that we can point to where we make the public decision to be saved and given eternal life.

Those of us here today who are married went through some sort of marriage ceremony.  There were a lot of things that preceded that ceremony, getting to know each other; falling in love with each other; and making a statement of our intent to get married called the engagement.

But what is it that you point to as the defining moment of your relationship?  What is it that you celebrate each year?  It is the wedding ceremony.  You look at the time when you exchanged your vows, you exchanged rings, and you marched down the aisle.  The preacher signed the license.  You might not have felt like things had changed, but trust me, things had changed!  The two had become one.

And God has given us the command of baptism as the time we celebrate the uniting of our lives with Him.  Now, there had better be a lot going on before you get into the baptistery.  Like getting to know who Jesus is.  Making a commitment to follow only Him.  And there certainly must be a lot that follows baptism as well.  But it is the point in time we can point to where we know we are saved.  We have made the official decision to be baptized and enter into a relationship with God.

Max Lucado said, “Baptism separates the tire kickers from the car buyers.”  It is the official decision to buy into what you are learning and feeling about God.

Now let me ask the last question we want to deal with today:

3. Who should be Baptized?

It can be confusing to sort through all the different beliefs concerning who should and shouldn’t be baptized.  But it becomes a lot clearer when you begin with the words of Jesus.  Jesus said in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

Faith always precedes baptism.  If someone has faith in Jesus, they are a candidate for baptism.  If they do not have faith, they are not a candidate for baptism.

This disqualifies your cat, Fluffy.  It disqualifies your dead aunt, Margaret.  Animals and dead people cannot have the faith required for baptism.  But we have now reached the point where it gets even more controversial.  This is a tough one to hear but from this teaching of Jesus it also means that infants and babies are disqualified for baptism.

Our Catholic friends would take issue with this, but here at Fly Branch, we want to base what we believe on the foundation of Scripture.  There are absolutely no Scriptural examples of infant baptisms.  Infant baptism was not something that came from the Bible; it came from church leaders more then 1300 years after the Bible was written.

Think about it.  The person being baptized must believe before their baptism.  Infants cannot exercise faith.

The person must be convicted of their sin before they’re baptized as it talks about in Acts 2:37-38.  Infants can’t be convicted of sin.  The person must be repentant as in Acts 2:38.  And babies cannot repent.

The practice of infant baptism is not found anywhere in the New Testament.  And that is why you won’t see an infant baptism here at Fly Branch Church Of Christ.

So this brings up the age-old question: If infants can’t be baptized, then how young is too young?  How old does a child have to be before they’re baptized?

The Bible doesn’t give a specific age requirement, so we have to use Biblical principles to answer the question.  The answer is that it depends on the child.  If the child meets the Biblical criteria for baptism, then they can be baptized.

So what are the Biblical criteria?  Well, I believe very simply that the Bible says before baptism God is looking for 3 confessions.  In other words, if you are thinking about baptism, the Bible teaches Christian baptism has 3 pre-requisites.

First of all, you must confess that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

Secondly, you must confess that you believe Jesus is the Savior.  Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to Father except through Me.”

And thirdly, you must surrender to the Savior.  This is the essence of repentance.  Repentance is turning from sin and selfishness to God.  Repentance is doing a complete 180° turn.

I do want to make clear that I’m not teaching baptism is all you have to do to be saved.  It isn’t the magic ritual that provides instant salvation.

The Russian comedian Yackov Smirnoff said he was amazed when he came to America.  “What a country!” he said.  He visited a grocery store and saw instant food - “just add water.”  Powdered milk - “just add water.”  Powdered orange juice - “Just add water.”  Then he saw Baby powder!  “Wow, what a country.”

Well, there are some who think, “Wow, take a pagan, dunk him and instantly you have a Christian.”  That’s not true at all.  Immersion in water is meaningless if it is not preceded by faith, repentance and confession.

There may be several reasons why a person will not be baptized.  One could simply be that they don’t know they need to be baptized.  Maybe they have never heard about it.  But that isn’t true for anyone in this audience today.

Maybe someone isn’t baptized because they don’t believe.  If you don’t believe, that will prevent you from being baptized.

But another barrier to baptism is pride.  I think pride keeps more people out of God’s Kingdom than anything else.  But that’s why I love baptism.  Baptism is the great equalizer.  It doesn’t matter how good or how bad you have been.  It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, red, yellow, black, or white.  It doesn’t matter if you usually wear expensive jewelry or have a $100 hairdo.  When we step into that water we are all alike.  Sinners being saved by grace.

We take off the fancy clothes and replace them with a robe or a T-shirt.  We take off that jewelry and that $100 hairdo is in deep trouble.  Baptism is a humbling equalizer because the ground is level at the foot of the cross and we are all equal when we rise up as well.

Maybe some of you are thinking about family members who have not been baptized.  Some could be living, some could have passed away.  Please listen to me closely.  We are not preaching anyone into Heaven or Hell.  God knows each person’s heart.  And God is gracious and He is the One who saves us.  However when we learn what is the right way we must be faithful to that right way.

Imagine they came on the radio and the TV and said that there is a tornado headed straight for Vanceburg.  The announcer said to immediately take cover in your basement.  Would you say, “Well a tornado hit my parents house years ago and they didn’t have a basement.  They survived.  I think I’ll take my chances.”  Would you say, “No that’s not fair, some people don’t have a basement so I won’t go to mine.”

I don’t know about you all, but if I hear that kind of a warning, I am going to go straight for cover and if I get time and there is room I’ll think about taking Nellie with me as well.

We must do what we know is right and allow a merciful God to take care of the rest.  You see, all God asks us to do is be faithful with the best information that we have at the time.

Maybe some of you are struggling with baptism.  Go home and do this on your own.  Clean the slate of your mind and just read the Bible.  Clear away a couple of hours, look up the Scriptures about baptism and write your conclusions about what the Bible says about being baptized or immersed into Christ.  It’s all you need.

If you have not been baptized or immersed into Christ, can I ask you why not?  The answer that came to your mind is very revealing if you will just open up and listen to it.

Listen, I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that God is always right!  And God will keep every one of His promises.  I trust Him when He says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved!”

Let’s Pray!